Sermon from 10th February 2008

Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches, based on the reading
from Isaiah 6:1-8

In recent weeks we've been using digital projection in our services at St Saviour's. I know that it has been welcomed by many people. But I'm very glad that it isn't on now, or in use at St Paul's! I can just imagine you looking up now for an image of that scene that I've just read from Isaiah 6!

Of course it would be impossible to portray that accurately in pictures; and maybe that's not a bad thing. This was an overwhelming experience, quite literally. And it overwhelmed the person who experienced it, quite literally. Talk about sensory overload, in every way: sight, sound and smell. How could something like that ever be translated onto screen?

On the other hand, maybe it's a very bad thing that such a scene can't be portrayed! One of the most influential current theologians described the last century as the age of the God-shrinkers! J I Packer said that in the 20th Century 'we indulged ourselves in unwarrantably great thoughts about humanity'. At the same time 'we entertained scandalously small thoughts about God'. The nett result, Packer says, is that we have lost sight of just who God is. By definition we have also lost sight of just who we are in relation to God.

The biggest casualty in this God-shrinking trend, Packer says, has been our understanding of the holiness of God. And not just our understanding of it, but of the implications of God's holiness. And, if he is right (as I think he is), that isn't just a bad thing: it's very dangerous. So it may be that this is exactly what we each need. Perhaps we need an overwhelming encounter with God's holiness, such as this one that Isaiah had in the Temple in Jerusalem in 740 BC.

Sadly or otherwise, we can't project this scene for you. What we can do is to invite you to use your imagination instead, to try and picture it for yourself. Don't worry if you can't manage that today: this Lent you'll have no less than four opportunities to encounter the holiness of God. Each Sunday as we prepare for Easter adults will look at God's holiness from a different angle. Being a mission-shaped church, where we worship God as Trinity, we'll look at the holiness of each member of the Trinity. Today we focus on the holiness of God the Father. Next week it'll be the holiness of God's Son, Jesus. Then we'll look at the holiness of God the Holy Spirit. And we'll round this series off by hearing God's demand for us to be holy – just as he is holy – which is the calling of every Christian.

So today we focus on the holiness of God the Father. But this is no mere intellectual exercise. This week, as every week, there's a challenge too. That challenge lies in how we'll respond to what we hear and see, and experience. I trust you picked up that Isaiah didn't wait to hear, see or experience more of God's holiness before he responded to it. This was far too overwhelming an encounter with the holy God to delay his response for any time at all. As we'll see, there really was only one way Isaiah could respond, though that response was in 2 parts. But, before we get to that in detail, it would probably help to set out exactly what we mean by God's holiness.

I've said here before that God's holiness was the subject of great debate at my theological college. But, despite all that talk and study, I was never really convinced by any of the explanations. But when I preached on this passage 6 years ago the penny finally dropped. What clicked then was the idea that God’s holiness is the sum total of his being. It’s rather like light: what we call light is actually a combination of a vast number of colours. In the same way, when all the characteristics of God are merged together, what we see is holiness. The holiness of God is the sum total of him being the maker and redeemer of the world and present in it now. When we put together everything that we have seen and know of God, what we get is holiness. In other words, everything that makes up the very nature of God combines to portray his holiness.

I heard a tape once, that went on for quite a while, listing just some of the biblical names of God. You'll be relieved to know, then, that there are a 'mere' 25 attributes of God in the Bible! You'll be even more relieved to hear I'm not going to play the tape, or list all God's attributes. As they have been identified by learned theologians, they have rather complicated names, and even more complicated explanations. But if the idea of God's 25 attributes doesn't do it for you, how about this? In the Old Testament the adjective 'holy' is used to describe God more times than all the other adjectives put together! The key point, then, is that there is a lot to God's holiness – which makes it more important we grasp just what it is.

So, holiness is a crucial biblical concept. Basically it's a summary of who and what God is. But there is also at least one other meaning to the word holy. The one which might be the meaning that we normally have in mind is that the holiness of God also refers to God’s moral excellence. In other words, God is holy because he is perfect. But it’s not just perfection: God is holy because he’s totally free from all the limitations that we humans experience in our efforts to live moral lives. And, because God is perfect, he is the absolute moral standard against which our lives must be measured.

That, and more, was what Isaiah encountered. Whether it was in a vision, regardless of whether he was physically present in the Temple that day, Isaiah saw God in all his holiness – and he was totally overwhelmed by it. He was so overwhelmed that even when he wrote about it Isaiah couldn't bring himself to describe God. Yes, Isaiah said he saw God sitting on a throne, high and exalted; yes, he wrote of how the train of his robe filled the temple. But that is the full extent of Isaiah's description of God! More than that he couldn't bring himself to see, or to write.

That's no surprise, because Isaiah knew that no human can see God's holiness, and live. At this point he already feared for his life, and quite understandably. It seems that not even seraphs can look on God's holiness either. Even these angels, these heavenly beings, used 2 of their 6 wings to cover their faces from the majesty of God's holy glory. And they knew just what they were shielding themselves from. As they flew, they called out to each other: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.'

We might be struck by the fact that the seraphs called that so loudly that the very foundations of the Temple shook! Or that it all made the Temple fill with smoke. But anyone who knows Hebrew would then tell us that we are missing the main point. In that language, if you want to emphasise something you write the word twice. In Hebrew a huge rock is a 'rock, rock'. But never before in the Bible was a word repeated 3 times. It never is after, either – except where this scene is repeated in Revelation. God's holiness is such that new super-superlative is needed to describe it: 'holy, holy, holy', the seraphs cried, that loudly, with that effect.

It certainly had quite an impact on Isaiah – as it is meant to have on us, of course. 'Woe is me!' Isaiah cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!'

In our recent series on the Lord's prayer Sophie posed the question about the kind of attitude we approach God with. In passing I should also say that what we've heard today casts a whole new light on what it means for us to pray for God's holy name to be honoured on earth as it is in heaven! But Sophie reminded us that we can't approach God as a casual friend, who might be able to help out with a favour. Well, if we even begin to grasp his holiness, we certainly can't come to God like an assertive customer approaching a shop assistant. We have to come to him on our knees. That's the only way to show our understanding of our complete dependence on God, not least for mercy.

That was precisely Isaiah's response – which must be a model for our own response to God's holiness. Isaiah knew that he was completely without hope in the light of who God is. All he could do – as all we can do – was to cast himself on God's mercy. Not because he deserved it, or was worth it – but because 1 of God's holy attributes is to be merciful. This is a particularly appropriate subject for Lent, of course. On Ash Wednesday I called people to keep a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial. And if we do take God's holiness seriously, that is just what we will do.

We can and must do that in the light of God response to Isaiah's repentance, though. At the bidding of the holy God, 1 of the seraphs touched Isaiah's lips with a burning coal from the altar, and assured him of God's forgiveness. God met Isaiah at the point of his need – his sinful lips – and set him free. The same assurance awaits us when we repent of our sin as Isaiah did – but even more so. Since the days of Isaiah, God's holy Son, Jesus, has come to die for our forgiveness. He didn't do it because we are worth it, or deserve it – but because one of God's holy attributes is to be merciful.

How can we not respond to this amazing gift from a holy God? When we've preached on this passage before we have said that we are to worship God in response to his forgiveness. That's certainly an appropriate response, and one I want to encourage. But today I want to emphasise something else too. I certainly don't want us to rush away from our need to repent. That must be our sole starting point when we encounter God's overwhelming holiness. But, when we have repented and been forgiven, we too need to take the next step of response. Again Isaiah modelled that for us: when he heard God's voice asking who would be his messenger, he offered himself.

What I want to point to is Isaiah's obedient response. So as we build up through Lent towards God's call for us to be holy, I invite you to get yourself ready to obey it. Week by week here we will encounter the holiness of God, Father, Son and Spirit. We will be reminded too of God's forgiveness because of his mercy. So, keep a holy Lent, then, by self-examination repentance, prayer, fasting, and self-denial. But then be ready to grow in holiness beyond it too. Lets pray.

Ash Wednesday Sermon 6th Febuary 2008

At this special service, our NSM trainee, Michael Brooks, preaches, based on the readings from John 8:1-11 and Psalm 51:1-18.

May I speak in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The passage that was read from the Gospel of John, about the woman caught in adultery, is fascinating. There are some who take the view that John’s Gospel is so dissimilar from the other three Gospels, to the extent that John’s Gospel becomes a little suspect, will be interested to know the Gospel text that I have just read is missing from the earliest texts of John’s Gospel. In some versions this passage is placed right at the very end of John’s Gospel. In some early versions of the Bible this text is placed in the Gospel of Luke where it occupies a place at the end of the teaching narrative and before the passion narrative. That it should come at the start of the passion narrative is significant as we commence Lent.

But there is perhaps a problem of the authority of this passage. Let us remember that after the death and resurrection of Jesus there simply was no time for the Gospel’s to be written first to provide a guide for the early church. Imagine an early community of faith, eagerly anticipating the Lord’s return, of whom most were illiterate; writing it all down would have been a low priority! Therefore, the Gospels must have been written as the early church developed in its life of faith, worship and witness. None of the Gospel writers, as far as is known, accompanied Jesus and bore eye witness to all that they wrote. The Gospel writers almost certainly compiled their accounts from the written and oral sources of others. I would like to propose that this episode was so important to the early followers of Jesus that they felt it simply had to be included in the Gospels and so it was included.

The narrative is set in the Temple and there are three parties involved namely Jesus, the woman herself and the scribes and the Pharisees who represent Jewish authority. As for the woman herself, we are told very little. We do not know if she was an habitual adulteress or prostitute. She could have been a woman deserved a lot of sympathy. Could it be that she was married against her will at an early age, perhaps at the age of 13 and had been nothing more to her husband than a bearer of children who did domestic chores. And then maybe she had found someone who loved her for who she was? We do not know, and her few words in this passage give us no clues.

It is unusual that John includes the words ‘scribes and Pharisees’; in no other place in John is the word scribe used. Perhaps the word scribe is used to emphasise the formal record of the proceedings. Perhaps the writer is telling us that the woman’s crimes and sentence would be recorded for all time, as an indelible mark.

The Pharisees seem to have a bad press, and most of us are programmed to think ‘enemy’ when the word ‘Pharisee’ appears in the Bible. There are episodes in the Gospels in which some Pharisees actively help Jesus to escape arrest. It is also likely that the Pharisees enjoyed healthy debate and variation of opinion.

Perhaps we now get a better sense of this narrative. Jesus was teaching in the temple and, as it happened, a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus. The temple, which had several courtyards, occupied a huge area. It is possible that the Pharisees could have sentenced the woman according to their law without Jesus knowing what had happened. It seems that the Pharisees were either curious about Jesus or perhaps they felt it wrong to have this particular woman stoned to death and wanted some way out of their dilemma. Perhaps they had sensed a forgiving nature about Jesus and that he might be able to help them. Seemingly they could not obey their laws and satisfy their consciences.

So the Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus for his opinion. She was made to stand before all of them. What are we to make of this imagery? It resonates with how Jesus was brought to stand before Pilate and the Sanhedrin, and perhaps to remind us that one day we will stand, alone, before God.

The Pharisees state that this woman was ‘caught in the very act of committing adultery’. There was thus no doubt that she had committed adultery, and the only question was how to respond. The Pharisees quote the sentence required by the law; that she should be stoned to death. In both Deuteronomy and Leviticus it states that both parties who are caught in adultery should be stoned. If the woman was caught, then so presumably was the man! But the practice of Judaism is not and never was not simply based upon what has become known as the Old Testament. It was also based on a body of literature concerned with contemporary and other interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures. The Bible was not acted upon literally, and somehow the Jewish teachers and writers of the law had seen a way to allow the man not to be stoned but yet the woman’s fate remained the same. These double standards are still with us today. A loose woman is called a slag; a man with similar behaviour is ‘just’ a lad having the fun that he is entitled to… By the way, being stoned to death is a very cruel way of killing someone. I do not recommend that you search for this on the internet but if you do you will find that where the sentence is carried out today the victim is placed in a body bag first, presumably to reduce the trauma to those persons who are doing the stoning.

In verse 6 it states that the Pharisees were trying to test Jesus. This might contradict what I have said earlier about the ‘friendly’ Pharisees, but we do not know if this testing was really the case or something the writer had conjectured. We do not know in what sense the word ‘test’ is used. Certainly Jesus does not accuse the Pharisees of trying to trick him, and the Pharisees could have asked an abstract or hypothetical question. Jesus’ resolution of this dilemma is practical, he asks whoever is without sin to cast the first stone; and it was customary for the witnesses of a crime to start the stoning. When all had gone Jesus then talks to the woman. He asks where her accusers are, which is not a question the woman could have answered unless the accusers had told her. If this had been so then Jesus would have heard the exchange. Jesus also asks ‘Has no-one condemned you?’ which would also have been visibly apparent. Jesus then tells the woman that he does not condemn her but he does condemn the adultery of which she has been accused by telling her not to sin again.

Before discussing the topic of sin and forgiveness in general, I should briefly like to make a comment about adultery. I recall a clinic that I drive past on my way home from work. What would have once been called a Venereal Disease Clinic now has the more upbeat title of a Sexual Health Clinic. If the teaching of Jesus on sexual ethics were practised, and by that I mean chastity before marriage and fidelity within it, such ‘Health’ clinics would not be needed. It would appear that even the NHS is colluding with the media to create a safe and healthy image for adultery.

The ‘Woman caught in adultery’ is such an important text that had to be included in the Bible because of the contrast and the marking of how the old has been superseded by the new. Judaism had placed its hope upon a well-defined set of rules, or law, the keeping of which led to salvation. To deter misconduct, and to prevent the pollution of society by wrong doers, severe punishment was there for those who did not live by these laws. Jesus had understood the hopelessness of this approach. Jesus did not condemn the woman, and we do not even know if she was repentant about what she had done. Jesus did not, however, dismiss the law when he told her not to sin again. So there is forgiveness but no licence to behave just as we wish.

As we now come to this season of Lent, which commences today on this Ash Wednesday, we recall that it is a time of preparation for Easter. Some of you may recall that I preached here last Ash Wednesday, and if I push my luck you may even recall that I spoke about repentance! Later in this service many of us will receive the mark of the Cross on our forehead to symbolise the start of this season of repentance. Jesus calls us to repent. He started his teaching with the phrase ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand’. The Greek word for repent is metanoia and this word means a complete change of heart and mind. At this time of Lent we could perhaps think of where we are now, where we once wanted to be, and where we think God is calling us to be. I would like to think that the woman caught in adultery had become a follower of Jesus and perhaps had been a member of that early group of believers who gathered to form a community that believed in the risen Lord. Jesus had, after all, intervened and prevented her from being stoned. She would have been aware that Jesus had not condemned her, in other words she knew that nothing that she had done would exclude her for all time from a relationship with God. She would have been mindful that she had been told to change her ways. And so it is with us, that we can count ourselves as members of the community that Jesus founded. We are reminded in this story that we are told to consider how this must impact on how we conduct ourselves, and make changes accordingly.

This desire for renewal was apparent in the writer of the Psalm that we read tonight, that was written after David had recognised his adultery with Bathsheba.

He writes:

‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.’

David asks that God will re-create a clean heart within him, and then restore the joy of salvation and the sustenance of a willing spirit. We who are believers in Jesus Christ know that we can be in the presence of God, and experience the joy of salvation, whilst the re-creation of a clean heart is work in progress. Let us praise God for this act of forgiveness through Jesus.

Let us pray that the will of God, and our correct responses to God’s forgiveness, will always and forever prevail in our lives.

Amen

Sermon 3rd February 2008

Today our sermon is given by our Vicar, Cameron Barker, based on the reading from Matthew 6:5-15

However you look at it, this has been quite a week. On the world stage, there now seems to be an end in sight to the troubles in Kenya. The same can't be said for Iraq, Chad, or Sri Lanka, – where violence has escalated again. We have also seen extraordinary mass jail-break scenes from Gaza, as Palestinian desperation at Israeli sanctions has peaked. And US presidential candidates have begun to drop out of the race, as the caucus results come in.

It's been business as usual in the business world, though. Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo, for £22 billion. Meanwhile the big oil companies have announced staggering record profits. And, amidst takeovers, Premiership football clubs have spent £150 million on players in the transfer window.

There has been significant news in the church too. The Pope was among 30 world church leaders taking part in a joint service in Rome. A group of evangelical Bishops has come out in support of attending the Lambeth Conference - despite all the debate and talk of division. And, of course the Herne Hill PCC has met, to make important decisions about the future of our worship, finance, and buildings.

Nor has it stopped there. I was asked to take the funeral of a young man who had committed suicide in prison. On Thursday Peter Kidd, for whom we have been praying, also died. Eustace came out of hospital, and Ivy is about to go in. I could go on – for some time – but I hope you've already got the point. This week, as every week, there have been things happening that impact us – personally, communally, socially and globally. Much, if not all, of it seems beyond us – but yet it involves us. And what we've been learning over the past 4 weeks is that none of these events are beyond us, because they're not beyond God!

So far this year we've been examining the prayer Jesus taught us to pray – and it's been quite an adventure. What seems, on the face of it, to be a short, simple prayer, that most of us know well, has revealed vast hidden depths. It has reminded us that nothing that happens in his world is beyond God. God is deeply interested in it all. More than that, he is involved in it all; and he wants us to be too – because he is our Father. That's the first, and the most important lesson of the Lord's Prayer – that God is our Father. He wants us to come to him as the ideal father that he is – and prayer is how we do that. Prayer is nothing more, and nothing less, than how we communicate with God himself.

Prayer begins with God, and, as we'll see today, it ends with him too. And when it does – when prayer begins and ends with God – we are changed in the process of prayer. No wonder, then, that Martin Luther said that prayer is the primary calling of any Christian. If being a Christian is truly about becoming like God's Son, Jesus, then prayer is the best way for that to happen. In prayer we come to see everything and everyone with God's perspective. That's why the Lord's Prayer begins by focusing on God, to get us thinking about his perspective. And don't forget that Jesus gave us this prayer as a pattern, as well as a prayer in itself. This prayer can and should be an example of how we pray – not least because it teaches us so much as we pray it.

The next thing that it has taught us is that our Father is in heaven. That means he has the power to answer prayer in a way that we can barely begin to imagine. But it needs to be the right kind of prayer: the kind of prayer that starts with God, and has his perspective. So the first thing we're to pray for, according to Jesus' prayer, is for God's holy name to be honoured. As it is in heaven, where God lives and reigns, so we're to pray for it to be on earth. We're to pray for our Father to be recognised as God – and to be honoured as such. What that means is that we're next to pray for God's kingdom to come – again, here on earth as it is in heaven. And, because we are praying for God to rule as king over all the earth, we are then to pray for his will to be done here on earth too – just as it is in heaven.

John began to unpack some of those ideas in week 2 of our series. But there's always so much more that could be said about God's kingdom and his will. I did another Google search this week, this time on the Lord's Prayer. That came up with a 'mere' 455 000 links on this prayer. So as we pray this prayer, we should discover that there is more and more to it – as there is to God. And if that's our starting point, as it is in Jesus' prayer, then we won't go far wrong. So it's not a surprise that the first half of Jesus' prayer focuses entirely on God, on who he is, and what he can, and wants, to do.

It's only then that Jesus taught us to move on to our own needs, in the second part of his prayer. We first have to be reminded, as we have been, of our total dependence on God. That applies just as much to our own needs as it does to impacting the world, much less the universe. And what's so interesting about the second part of this prayer is that it's not about 'me'. All the pronouns when we pray for our needs are plural. This is about us, our – not about 'me', or 'mine'. And of course we mustn't miss the fact that these are prayers for our needs, not our wants. So Jesus teaches us to begin by asking for the very basics – just for bread, just for today.

That may not be a big issue for most of us here – but it is for many millions in God's world. Actually, as Sophie said last week, the less of an issue basic food is to us, the bigger a deal it really is. If we think that we can provide for ourselves, we're far less likely to recognise the truth about who we truly are in relation to God. But the next line of the Lord's prayer addresses that issue very quickly. Our next need is a spiritual, and an eternal, one. It's about forgiveness; and that's not something that we can do for ourselves. It took God himself, in Jesus, to die on the cross, to put us right with God. We need reminding of that fact every time we pray. We need reminding of our need for, and the cost of, forgiveness. So there it is, in the prayer that Jesus taught us – as we need it to be.

That whistle-stop summary brings us - briefly - to the final part of Jesus' prayer. And, if we see daily bread as our present need, forgiveness as dealing with the past, this section of the prayer is for the future, as we go on with God. Needless to say, there's plenty that could be said on this part of the Lord's prayer too. Books have been written on it – which I don't have time even to summarise now. What everyone agrees on, though, is this. If you believe in the God of the Bible, then, by definition, you believe in the existence of the devil. And if you're going on with God then you will attract some rather unwelcome attention.

This is, of course, a huge subject. I'm more than willing to talk about it in greater depth if you'd like to. For now I can only point to the evidence of the Lord's prayer itself. In this part of his prayer Jesus didn't doubt for a minute that we have an enemy who wants to knock us off course. Jesus knew that from his own experience, and he wanted us to know how to deal with it. The same enemy opposes us in our journey with God. Jesus taught us, then, to pray to God about this need too. In this area too we need God to do what we can't do ourselves: to deliver us from the evil one.

That's the flip side of the previous line, about not being led into temptation. There are big theological debates about exactly how that works, and what this line of the prayer means. However you read them, though, I think the key point is that temptation is a very real issue, for all of us. We all know what our own weaknesses are, and how often we give in to them. That makes temptation dangerous, and so we need God's help with it. So that's what Jesus taught us to ask for in the Lord's prayer. He taught us to ask for God's help, for ourselves and others, as we face temptation, testing, and opposition from the devil.

That's a very helpful, and necessary, thing for all Christians to pray for – for God's help in such challenging times. But it's not perhaps a great note to end a prayer on. There's a footnote in the church Bibles about a very early addition to the Lord's prayer. Many scholars think that Jesus would have used something like this doxology anyway, and that it only wasn't recorded because it was taken for granted. The words we end with have been used to end the Lord's prayer for centuries. What they do is turn us back to God – and end the prayer with praise. Just as we begin it by coming to God as our Father, so we end it by reminding ourselves of who he is, and what he alone can do.

'The kingdom, the power and glory are yours, now and for ever', we pray. That sums it all up really, and turns the wheel full circle. We begin by asking for God's holy name to be honoured, and then asking for his kingdom to come. We end knowing that the glory is his, that his kingdom has already begun here, and that he has the power to answer our requests. In-between in this prayer we have learned to cast ourselves on God in total dependence. We've asked him for our needs past, present and future; material, spiritual and moral. We have asked him to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. In doing all that we have had to admit our vulnerability. But this is the one we have come to – the maker and master of the universe. He knows us, knows our needs, knows our weaknesses, and failings. He knows all that – and yet he loves us enough to have died to make us his children, so we can call him 'Father'.

'This, then, is how you should pray,' Jesus said, before he taught his disciples this prayer. Not with many, long, loud, or fancy words but just as you speak. Pray simply: in trust; with faith; like this. He might have added, 'and this is why you should pray too'. He didn't, but my prayer is that over the past 4 weeks you have been inspired to pray, like this. It's fantastic privilege that Christians have. We can come to God himself as our father. We can get to know him, what he's like, and what he wants. We can bring him the needs of the world, the church, and other people. We can bring them all knowing that he hears, and that he can, and will, answer our prayers. He has even taught us how to pray, in this simple, yet powerful way. So why not choose to give even those few minutes to praying that John challenged us to. It may well be the best way that you could ever spend your time – and even more so if you are changed in the process of praying. So now let's pray ...