Sermon 7th September 2014

From now until Advent, adults will ask, and discover answers to, questions on the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, begins this new study - exploring answers to the question, 

WHO IS JESUS?

(The reading is from Matthew 16: verses 13-18)

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in a different village, where he worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty. Then, for 3 years, he was a travelling preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family, or owned a house. He didn’t go to university. He never visited what we would call a big city. He never travelled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that we usually associate with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothes, which was the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

20 centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of human progress. All the armies that have ever marched; all the navies that have ever sailed; all the parliaments that have ever sat; all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of people on this earth as much as that ONE SOLITARY LIFE.

That anonymous piece of prose says it all, so very well. No-one who looks at the world today can deny the impact that Jesus of Nazareth has had on it. Look at our own country. It’s not just that our towns, cities and villages are full of churches built in his honour. It’s also that the whole fabric of our society has been affected by him. Many of our schools and hospitals were started by his church as way of serving him – like the school in our own parish, for example. Much of the law in our country was framed as an attempt to give expression to his teaching. It’s true to say that so much of what we take for granted today only exists because a man named Jesus was born in Bethlehem 2 000 years ago.

But why has he had such an impact? The simple answer is that it’s because of who he is. It’s the nature, the character of the man that has given him such impact on our world.

So who is he? That’s the question we’re looking at today, as adult begin this autumn series: who is Jesus? Between now and the end of November we’ll be examining some of the key fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. We’ll be thinking about what Christians believe; about why we believe it; and about what that means for how we live each day. Or maybe I should say we’ll be re-examining it. We have done this here before, pretty much in this exact form, based on the world-famous Alpha course – though it was all of seven years ago now.

Of course we have kept on teaching, and examining, what Christians believe and why since then too; and we won’t stop doing that! But now seems like a particularly good time to focus on it this very specifically – because of the insert in today’s service sheet. Those who were around earlier this year will have heard me say that all churches in this Diocese have been invited to produce a Mission Action Plan; and here ours is! It’s been a very useful process for us to think quite deliberately about what we are, and have been, doing, across this parish. It’s also helped us to be clear in explaining how, and why, we have got to where we have; and then in defining where we’ll go from here in God’s name too. And that obviously makes this document a vitally important one for this church.

Hopefully it’ll make sense as it stands when you read it – as we very much hope you will do. But if you want to know more of the background work that’s been done over many years to get us here, there’s an annex detailing that. It’s on paper at the back of church, and is also available on our website. And here is a promise of the same happening very soon with the Discovery Report that underpins what will be a major strand of this Mission Action Plan in the years to come. That appears in headline form under the Priority Actions section on the document, and is the one part of it that is going to take significant numbers of us to make real. If we do want, as the Report recommends, to be God’s blessing to this community, then that will take more than just a few of us just chipping in just occasionally. It will need lots of time, energy, effort, and commitment, from lots of people putting their faith into practical action in a whole range of ways. 

The exact detail of that has yet to be worked out; but the work has already begun, with the Milkwood summer programme – and there’s an autumn feast in the offing too. So what the preaching group thought was that as we head off along this road we could do with reminding ourselves of what – or, rather, who – this is all about. So this is where we’ll begin, today; with the issue of who Jesus was and is. That question is absolutely foundational to the rest of this series – and to this process. Our parish Aim, we say ‘is, in God’s strength, to bring Jesus to the centre of our lives and to the heart of our community’. So, who is Jesus? Well he’s many things to many people. Ask anyone you know who they think Jesus is, and they’ll almost certainly have some kind of answer. Their answer may surprise you, so why not ask your friends and family, and hear what they have to say. Some years ago there was song that put many of the usual answers about Jesus’ identity to music. I won’t sing it, but here are the lyrics:

Some say he was an outlaw,

that he roamed across the land

with a band of unschooled ruffians

and a few old fishermen.

No-one knew just where he came from,

nor exactly what he’d done,

but they said it must be something bad

that kept him on the run.

Some say he was a poet, that he’d stand upon a hill,

that his words could calm an angry crowd

or make the waves stand still,

that he spoke in many parables

that few could understand

but the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery

that he walked upon the water

that he made a blind man see.

That he conjured wine at weddings,

did tricks with fish and bread,

that he made the lame to walk again,

and raised people from the dead.

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free,

he was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee.

He spoke out against corruption and bowed to no decree,

but they feared his strength and power,

so they nailed him to a tree.

Yes Jesus is many things to many people. But more often than not, Jesus is what people want him to be. They have some cause or concern that they champion. Then they paint a particular picture of Jesus, so that they can recruit him to their cause. But as we’ll see that really won’t do ...

Now to some people of course, Jesus is the stuff of fairy tales. He has no more basis in fact than the tooth-fairy, and faith in him is just a blind leap in the dark. I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. It’s the one about a missionary running an orphanage in the Middle East. She was driving a jeep that ran out of petrol not far from town. She had no jerry-can and all she could find was potty. So she walked to the nearest petrol station, and filled it with fuel. As was pouring it into the tank, a smart 4x4 occupied by wealthy oil sheikhs drew up. They were truly fascinated by seeing the contents of the potty going into the jeep. One opened his window and said, “Excuse me! My friend and I, although we do not share your religion, we greatly admire your faith.”

And to some people believing in Jesus is like that. It’s a blind leap in the dark that has no basis in fact or reason or history: faith and fact are quite separate. To such people, faith is, as a little boy once put it, ‘believing things that you know aren’t true.’ So, some people reject belief in Jesus because to them it’s as irrational as believing that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden. Other people want to hold on to Jesus. But they want to have him on their own terms, to make him into what they want him to be.

But neither of those approaches will do, because they ignore what is critical. What’s critical is that faith in Jesus can – and must – be based on solid, historical fact. We need not doubt Jesus’ existence: there is far more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for the existence of Julius Caesar, for example! Jesus is mentioned by the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, and by the Jewish historian, Josephus. But our primary source of evidence about Jesus is in the pages of the New Testament. And it’s important for us to remember that the New Testament isn’t a collection of fairy tales. No, it’s solid, sober, well-documented history. The gospels were written either by people who knew Jesus themselves, or by those who talked closely to eyewitnesses. So we can rely on the picture of Jesus that the New Testament gives us. And it’s the picture that the New Testament gives us – rather than our own fads and foibles that must decide the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’.

It’s that question which is asked time and time again in the gospels. ‘Who is this man?’ is the question that puzzled Jesus’ disciples and opponents alike. And it’s that question which is at the heart of today’s short Bible passage. In it, Jesus first asked his disciple how other people answered it. And they came out with whole catalogue of views: ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, while others say Jeremiah, or some other prophet.’ His disciples framed their replies in the religious language of their day. But it’s not far from people today who label Jesus as revolutionary, or a pacifist, or their favourite guru.

But Jesus then took the question and made it personal: “What about you? Who do you say I am?” I stopped reading at that point; but there was an answer given. It was Simon Peter, who replied. He’s most notable in the gospels for getting things wrong, but he got this one right: “You are the Messiah (GNB)/Christ (NIV), the Son of the living God.” We know he got it right because of Jesus’ reply: “Good for you Simon son of John! This truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.”

And, interesting as it is to ask what other people think of Jesus, sooner or later each of us must answer this key question for ourselves. So it is as if Jesus turns to each one of us today, and says to us: ‘What about you? Who do you say I am?’

Who do you think Jesus is, then? And, if he is who Peter said he is, then what does that mean for you; and what will he want from you? It’s those critical questions that we all have to answer for ourselves at some point in our lives. And it’s those critical questions which this series can, and will, help us to ponder – and to answer – over these next 3 months. So now let’s pray that we will do just that, then ...