Sermon 19th May 2013

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Simon Brindley preaches based on the reading from 1 John 2, verses 12-17: 

Do not love the world

I am going to start what I have to say this morning with a beautiful dark blue Ferrari and finish with a lovely old fashioned wooden chest of drawers, the kind in fact you might find in a church vestry: it’s not particularly high but it is rather wide and there are plenty of drawers, some drawers narrow, some quite deep.

Now anyone who knows me well might think that I am not very easily led astray by the kind of material things that some people seem to value most highly. I have never really been one for the next bigger house or the latest car or for going after the biggest pay cheque, for example. A good friend once described our kitchen floor at home, before it was done up recently, as a monument to non-materialism, which I think was one way of saying it really desperately needed attention! I do get round to these things eventually, sorry Jennie!

I have another friend who has taken me over the years for a drive in a number of really very flash cars.  Each time I thought it was definitely worth a try to see what all the fuss was about. The first time I can remember was when he bought a Rolls Royce to send to his brother who lives abroad and he took me for a drive round the streets of West London. It was kind of comfortable inside I suppose but after 5 or 10 minutes I was bored by this rather sedate and lumbering piece of shiny metal, even if people did actually stop to look as we drove by. It really was rather dull!

Apologies at this point to all of you who are car fans!

Then a few years later this same friend bought a Porsche. Not the cheap one, the Boxter I think it is called, but the classic flash Porsche sportscar – might it have been a Porsche 911? - and we went for a drive up a dual carriageway near where he lives and he accelerated way beyond the speed limit in about 4.5 seconds.  But I just felt a bit annoyed as it was noisy and my back hurt. I wasn’t ungrateful, just not really as impressed as I tried to sound. It really was rather uncomfortable!

Pause..

But then a few years ago this same friend bought a Ferrari, a truly beautiful, sleek, wonderful Ferrari as richly, warmly darkest blue as a summer’s Italian sky at night, as comfortable inside as the finest leather sofa, not noisy but alive and as perfectly tuned as any petrol engine was ever made to be, everything truly stylish, everything working in perfect harmony. And at that point I think I understood what it meant to fall in love with a car! If I had been one for cars, I remember thinking, that is surely the car I would want to go for. My friend sold it a year or two later and I still can’t quite work out why and feel sad that I may not get another go in it!

So what does John mean when he says that we are not to love the world or anything that belongs to the world, what people see and want and everything in this world that people are so proud of? You see, I may not really love cars or bigger houses or really large paycheques but I actually I do love bikes and holidays and sport and my job and my collection of historical books and artifacts from the Polar Regions. There are, actually, plenty of things that, if I am honest, I do sometimes see and want and at least begin to feel proud of.

So what are any of us to make of John’s words? We’ll come back to this shortly..

In this letter, as I am sure we have already touched upon on a previous Sunday or Sundays in this series, John – who is also the gospel writer John - is writing to people who are already Christians but he is writing to remind them of the truths of what they believe because there are people around who are trying to lead them astray with different kinds of false teaching, in particular those who wanted to argue that Jesus was not the Messiah and was not actually the Son of God.

And there may also have been those who wanted to argue that our life in this world, with all its dynamics, fears, temptations and pressures, is so far removed or separated from the spiritual realms, the world of God, that actually it does not really matter what you do or think or experience in this world because in some way you will be saved into another or you can escape to another world and it is only there where God’s laws and standards apply.

You might find it helpful to think that one thing people were struggling with was the idea of God actually being present in this world in the person of Jesus Christ and this world, as it is, therefore being in that very real sense God’s holy world where God operates, where God is to be found, where God is to be followed, where God is to be obeyed..

That is one reason why, it seems to me, John has to remind his readers so forcefully to be very careful indeed about what they think and do now and about the way they behave. We’ll come back to that again and what it might mean for us shortly….

But first, before he gets to that, it seems to me that John wants to do two things in this section of his letter that is our passage for today: he wants to leave the readers of his letter in no doubt as to who it is he is talking to and he wants at the same time to remind them and to take them back to the truths of what it is that as Christians they believe….

So why not listen up and think which of these speaks most to you this morning?

First he says, “I am writing to you my children, or dear children….”. This is for all of you I think he is saying and it is for all of you who I care for either because you were my children in the faith, the ones I, John, helped grow into faith or the ones who are still perhaps like children in learning your faith..

I am writing to all of you… and why?

Here is the first reminder of the truth of what it is as Christians they believe, “because your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ”. Here is that core of Christianity, sins forgiven, the past made good, the slate wiped clean. John takes the readers back here to that powerful reminder at the start of this letter that “if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins God will forgive us and purify us from all wrong doing”. Christ died for sinners like you and me….Mull it over, struggle with it, wrestle with it, think about it but don’t ignore it and do not say we have not sinned and do not need forgiveness.

He is talking to all of them and he reminds them first of that fundamental truth of what Christians believe. “I am writing to all of you, so listen to what I am going to say if this forgiveness has been part of your Christian experience. But it should be part of your Christian experience!”

Next he says, I am writing to you, fathers. Let’s forgive him the male specific language of the time on this one and accept that he is writing to fathers and mothers. And, I suspect, from the sense of this whole passage, he is at this point wanting to speak to the older generation of his readers.

I am writing to you, older people….and why?

“Because you know him who has existed from the beginning”

There is a sermon surely in those words alone. You could debate whether he is talking here about God the father or God the son but for today I am going to suggest that he is echoing the opening words of his gospel talking about Jesus as the Word, the one who both is God and was with God right from the beginning of all things, the one through whom everything was made and without whom nothing was made.

Here is a fundamental truth. I confess it is one of my favourites because it speaks of a conscious, living, deliberate, personal, warm and powerful Creator at the heart of this universe, not just the cold and powerful laws of physics….And as Christians you know him….mull it over, struggle with it, wrestle with it, think about it…

I am writing to you, my older readers, so listen if God the Creator has been part of your Christian experience. But it should be part of your Christian experience!

Next, he says, I am writing to you young men. Again let’s forgive him the male specific language and suggest he is really talking to the younger men and women he is writing to, to his younger readers.

I am writing to you, younger people…and why?

“Because you have defeated the Evil One”

Again surely a sermon in these words alone but it seems to me John is reminding his readers of this truth. That just as God exists, so evil exists and our existence is caught up, both personally and as societies, in a battle against it. Have you ever felt that desire to defeat the evil you see around you? Have you ever felt that need to battle in yourself against what you know is wrong?

And as Christians you know that evil is less powerful than good, both in your world and in yourselves. Evil is defeated………mull it over, struggle with it, wrestle with it, think about it.

I am writing to you my younger readers. So listen if the battle between good and evil has been part of your Christian experience..but it should be part of your Christian experience!

Then next it is back to writing to everyone, to the children and why, this time?

“Because you know the Father…”

And there is that truth that God himself, as he was for Jesus, is our heavenly father and that can know him as such. Mull it over, wrestle with it, think about it… but knowing God as your loving heavenly Father should be a part of your Christian experience.

Then John starts to repeat himself just to make sure they are not half asleep or not getting the point.

I am writing to you fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning! Don’t forget that one you older people!

Then back finally to the younger readers and before he repeats himself again and tells them again that the evil they experience in the world around them and struggle with in their own lives is not more powerful than the good that can be achieved and that they know in themselves is right; that the Evil One has been defeated, he finds time to squeeze in two more fundamental truths of the Christian good news:

I am writing to you younger people, he says,

“Because you are strong, and because the word of God lives in you”

Here are two final Christian truths, I would suggest. First our faith can make us strong. Faith gives us strength and hope, it does not make us weak and hopeless; the Holy Spirit gives us strength to work for God, to sustain our lives and our families and to help us to overcome evil both in society and in our personal lives.

And secondly, John says, the word of God lives in us. The Word in Christian tradition is sometimes used to describe Jesus himself and sometimes the word as written in the Bible. I would suggest that Christian experience is that both can come alive in us as we grow to know Jesus working in our lives and as we study these scriptures and understand their sustaining and guiding value.

So, you younger readers, listen to what I am about to say if you have had these experiences, of knowing the strength that faith can bring, of understanding what it means to know Jesus himself - and the words of scripture – sustaining your life….but these should be part of your experience!

And so, if any of this rings true in your own experience, young or old, all of you, listen now to what I am going to say, says John,

“Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world you do not love the Father…read the rest of I John 2 verses 15-17.

And what are we now to make of that, we who can say yes to Christian experience, we who have known forgiveness, we who believe in the Creator, we who can understand the truth of the struggle between good and evil, we who know God as father, we who know the strength that faith provides, we who cherish the word of God?

Are we all to become hermits, to reject all worldly material values, to take no pleasure in any thing? Is that what John is saying? I am sure there have been some over the centuries who would say so.

But the sense I get, both from this letter and elsewhere in the Bible is not that. I think it is rather where we are to put our trust, what we are to build our lives upon, what is to be our foundation, what is to be the correct order of priorities, how if you like we give God his proper place in our lives, what it is we think of as having the highest value.

Is it really the case that a person’s ultimate worth is to be measured by the size of their pay packet, by the car they drive, by their place in the pecking order? Love those things I would suggest, put them top of your agenda, build your life only on those, make them your highest values and you will be disappointed…

Is it really the case in fact that your true worth is defined by whatever things you value most whether that is, as it might be in my case, your bikes or your job or your collection of historical books on polar travel or whatever? Love those things I would suggest, in the sense of making them the foundation stone or the heart of your life, give them your highest values and you will be disappointed…

Don’t build your house on sand says Jesus in the famous parable story, build it on the rock. Don’t worry about what you are going to eat or to wear says Jesus, Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well.

Love your neighbour says the Old Testament, but love your neighbour as much as you love yourself. But above all love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength.

Put no more confidence in mortal men, says the prophet Isaiah in chapter 2 in a dramatic passage describing how everything man-made and that man relies on will be swept away. What are mortal men worth? Look it up if you would like to…

Rather than making things that the world values the heart and foundation of your life, says John in this letter, you are to do the will of God. And that is the challenge each day and in every situation, for those who would be disciples of Jesus Christ, young or old. Where is God leading me and what might He want me to do?

And here we come finally to the picture I have had in my mind this week of this wooden chest of drawers. Let’s imagine it has 5 sections to pull out. Three medium sized ones in the middle, one small narrow one at the bottom and one large one at the top.

But it is the three in the middle that tend to get the most use. Pull them open and they slip in and out easily, well worn….and there you see what we often rely on, what we often dress ourselves in to get through each day, the things the world values..whatever that might be for you.

One problem Christians have faced in my opinion over the last 40 or 50 years has been the growing feeling, in this society at least, that putting God at the centre of your life rather than the things the world values, meant shutting up those three middle drawers and instead opening the narrow door at the bottom of this cupboard. Open that up and you find a musty smell, dull and dusty clothing, damp buildings, incomprehensible language, a feeling of being oppressed and, possibly even worse, of being misused or abused. This is the drawer of narrow religion…

But instead I think there are plenty of signs that in fact doing the will of God enables us to open the top drawer, a bit stiff perhaps from little use, and begin to see what putting God first makes possible…the abundance of life with God at its centre. You might just catch it in this church where I hear people say they love to come. You might catch it on a visit to Brixton prison or when someone in your family is ill and you know you are rich because of the love poured out by your friends and neighbours in the family of the church. You might find it at a wedding where the couple want the wedding service to be the heart of their day not just the bit you have to go through to get to the real party afterwards, and it proves to be a really joyful time of worship.

Or you might find it in your experience of forgiveness or of understanding God as the loving heavenly Creating Father or when you sense that evil will not triumph over good or you feel the strength that God provides or the reassurance when God speaks right into your situation as you read what He provides in this book…

Then you might rightly enjoy some of the other good things that God provides in this world but in their proper place and always asking what is it that God wants me to do.

Amen