Feeding Faith - Personal Prayer

Luke 11:5–13

Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’

“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Hebrews 4:14–16

Jesus the Great High Priest

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

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Jesus encourages us to be bold in prayer

Today we're thinking about prayer. Lots of books have been written about prayer. If you search Amazon online with the title ‘How to pray’, it generates 7,000 hits. And here are the top 4 hits:

1. How to pray in Islam, a step-by-step guide

2. The Power to Pray: prayers and scriptures that work

3. Spiritual Warfare Prayers for Men: Prayers to Conquer Fear, Lead with Courage, and Stand Strong in Faith

4. How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People

No doubt some of these books are helpful but isn’t it remarkable how such an apparently simple process - praying - has generated so much literature? Well today, we turn to the Master himself, Jesus, for our guidance.

We're continuing in our series of how to Feed our Faith - and this week we find ourselves in Luke's Gospel. That chapter begins like this:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1)

It was a bit of a Jewish thing to seek wisdom from the Rabbis. They were esteemed and respected, and individual rabbis would have their disciples who followed them and looked to them for guidance.

And so too with Jesus' disciples. These men wanted to know how best to pray. And so Jesus teaches them the Lord's prayer - we didn't read that part because today we're going to be concentrating on the verses straight after that prayer, as Jesus continues in his teaching.

The Lord's Prayer itself is for another day, another sermon - maybe a series of sermons - all I plan to say about the Prayer itself today is that it's a radical prayer for a Jew because it assumes that God could be spoken to as a Father, with intimacy.

‘Abba, Father’. The Scribes & Pharisees hated that, for in their eyes God was remote and holy. And yet here's Jesus effectively calling him ‘Daddy’. And so John tells us:

For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John: 5:18)

Jesus' teaching about prayer was fresh and radical. So as we follow in the footsteps of those first disciples, we also come before Jesus and ask, 'Lord, teach us to pray'.

I'm assuming we are familiar with the Lord's Prayer. But we're thinking for a few moments about what came next in Luke's narrative. How did Jesus follow up his prayer? What did he want the disciples to grasp that day? And what about us in our turn?

Well, we can sum up what Jesus taught in our Luke reading in one word: Boldness. He was teaching boldness in prayer - that our prayers be bold, genuine, true, wholehearted.

1. Boldness

Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Luke 11:5-8)

Jesus loves a parable. We're enjoying our Lent series on Parables at the moment - if you haven't come to one so far, why not join us - each evening is a standalone discussion on a famous parable. And we're really enjoying what we're learning.

And here's a parable that may or may not be familiar. A visitor arrives late at your house. It's midnight; maybe he got delayed on his journey or perhaps it was just more comfortable travelling when the heat of the day had died down. But he's arrived and Middle Eastern custom dictates that you must offer him a meal - but the cupboard is bare. No matter, Joe up the road is bound to have some bread so I'll go and knock him up and see what he'll let me have.

But it's midnight and Joe's been tucked up in bed for hours. It's a real imposition asking him to disturb his whole household to find some food - our bibles use the word 'boldness' in that request, but the Greek word is nearer to 'shamelessness'. Have you no shame, waking up this man's whole family at an unearthly hour demanding bread for your visitor?

But Joe obliges, not because he's our friend but simply because of the boldness - the brass-necked cheek of the man - disturbing the whole household at such a ridiculous hour.

So, what's the lesson? Well, it's one of those ‘if you… then how much more God’ parables. If this man gives in to the request for bread because of his friend's effrontery, then how much more will God answer our requests. It's about the request being bold, not lukewarm or tentative - the man didn't tap very lightly on his friend’s door and then whisper, 'Oh no he's already in bed I'll creep back down the garden path and close the gate really quietly so as not to wake him'.

No, he hammered on the door and woke the poor man and all his family and the dog and the animals. He was intent on getting an answer to his prayer.

It's about a bold, wholehearted request - a genuine request, from the heart. This is something I really need, even at this late hour, so I will ask loudly until I get an answer. It's about boldness. Secondly:

2. Certainty

Jesus continues:

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? (Luke 11:9-12)

In the light of this story about asking boldly, what will be the result? Simply that God will answer. He will not let us down. He will hear and respond.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

God will answer. He won't necessarily answer in the way we expect; for it's not always best for us that we actually get what we ask for. From time to time we'll simply ask for the wrong thing. But there will be no duplicity. Maybe God won't give us a fish every time we ask for one - but what he won't do is give a snake instead. His gifts, his answers are always good.

The point is that we are not praying into a vacuum - God will answer. And God's answer may be a clear No as much as a clear Yes. Both represent answered prayer - even if the answer is No.

We may trust God to answer in accordance with our good. And of course the Lord's Prayer itself encourages us to ask for our daily bread - our daily need for sustenance. Ask God for it, encourages Jesus. He will not give you a stone when you asked for bread. Just make your prayer wholehearted, bold, and expectant. And he will answer. Although sometimes it's only with hindsight that we understand God's method.

3. Generosity

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13)

It's another ‘if … then how much more’ construct. If you earthly fathers, with all your limitations - yes indeed, your sin - can give good gifts, how much more will God? How much more will God what? … Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

It's fine talking about bread and fish and eggs and so forth, but what needs to underpin all these things? The Holy Spirit of God indwelling our hearts.  

The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift that God offers in response to our prayers - and he promises to give his Spirit freely. For it's through him that we really get to connect to God. It's through him that we get to know God as our personal Lord and Saviour. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.

And it's the Holy Spirit who is the engine of our prayers:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8:26)

It's the Spirit who prompts and leads our prayers. And the more we are aware of his leading, the closer our prayers become to aligning with the will of God.

So, three lessons about prayer: Boldness, Certainty, Generosity. So what do these look like in practice? We need to overcome three pitfalls in prayer:

1. Hesitancy: I wonder if sometimes we are a bit hesitant, a bit tentative with prayer. We're a bit scared to ask in case we don't get what we hoped for. We're like the man going to his friend for bread but only knocking softly then creeping back down the garden path because 'he probably won't hear me'.

Jesus is saying, no, come and ask me... tell me what's on your mind. If it matters to you, then it matters to me.

When I conduct a wedding, we always have a rehearsal the evening before. We walk the service through and then I pray with the couple and their friends before we go. And I always pray that there will be some sunshine for the great day - at least for their photos. Is that a risky prayer? Maybe. But I can't tell you how often that prayer is answered in the affirmative. Let's not be hesitant in prayer. Let's be bold.

2. Vagueness: we often hedge our bets and pray something vague rather than something specific. Perhaps that's easier for God to answer.

When my mum was languishing in the John Radcliffe recently with a fractured pelvis, I prayed hard that she would be transferred to Moreton hospital to rehabilitate before she went home. Instead, she was moved to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre where she got specialist care before she was discharged. With hindsight, it was a better outcome. My very specific prayer was answered with a No. That's the danger with specific prayers.

On the other hand, a friend of mine once prayed for a new motorbike.... and his specific prayer was answered with a Yes. Lucky man. Let's be bold in praying specific prayers.

3. Persistence: Jesus tells parables elsewhere about being persistent in prayer. Persistence in prayer is surely all part of this boldness that Jesus encourages - we're not to be shy in telling God more than once what our concerns are.

I know of people who have prayed every day literally for years that a family member might come to faith - and eventually after decades that prayer is answered. Again, it's about how much something matters to us - if it's important, it's on our minds all the while, and I think God is pleased that we share that with him. Let us not give up or lose heart in prayer - persistence is part of boldness.

So: Boldness, Certainty, Generosity.

Prayer is, at the end of the day, about relationship: it's about sharing our concerns and our joys, our hopes and our fears with the God who loved us and gave himself for us. And Jesus himself encourages us to be bold as we do just that.

Feeding Faith - Personal Bible Study

Psalm 119:9–16

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.

I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.

I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

Praise be to you, O Lord;
teach me your decrees.

With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.

I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.

I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees;
will not neglect your word.

2 Timothy 3:10-17

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Luke 24:27, 32

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

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Delighting in the Word in which we meet Jesus

I imagine that there have probably been individuals over the years who have had a lasting influence on your life. I'm talking about those people who have encouraged you and inspired you – those special people who have played and perhaps continue to play an important part in who you have become as you have grown and matured. And for Christians, they will often be people who have impacted our faith in some way - brought us to faith, spurred on our faith, challenged our faith or stretched our faith.

There have been a small number of such people in my life – most notably two friends who were instrumental in establishing me in the faith way back when I was a young medical student. And when I look back at our friendship, I am struck by how much both of these two young men were motivated by their love of the Bible.

As a young man I had occasionally attended church but I never really got what the Bible was about.  It seemed a dry and slightly spooky book that we studied in RE at school but which had little relevance to my life. But all that changed when I got to know a fellow student called Bill, a quiet and reserved man who gave me a bible in modern language and suggested we might read one of the gospels together. It was a transformational experience and led to me finding a living faith of my own within a few weeks.

My second great influence was Paul – a lively Geordie friend who went everywhere with a copy of the New Testament in his coat pocket.   When we were supposedly studying in the library I would often glance across and see that Paul was in fact reading his bible rather than his lecture notes. His pocket bible was constantly in use, and pretty dog-eared as a result. He was hooked on the scriptures.

What was it that made these two young men value the scriptures so highly? Were they just a bit weird? 

Well, as I explored my own developing faith I began to understand what these two friends saw in the scriptures. As I opened and read them, I found the words came alive. This was a book that moved me, inspired me, taught me, strengthened me. It was more than just words on a page.  Many times, passages that I was reading seemed to speak directly to situations I was facing.

And before long I too found I couldn't get enough of this book. And others have agreed with me. Decades later, working as a Prison Chaplain I met lifers who also could not get enough of the Bible. One man managed to reduce one of our chaplaincy bibles to rags in just a few weeks because he couldn't stop reading it; another told me he had literally sat up in his cell the whole night reading his bible because the words seemed so alive and so relevant to him.

So why is this book so compelling? Simply because it's a book like none other – as we heard in our NT reading from the Letter to Timothy:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.  

All Scripture is God-breathed. You see, the Bible is where we hear the Word of God. It's in these written words that we meet the Living Word – we begin to understand who God is, what is our relationship with him, and what his call is on our lives, both now and for all eternity. These scriptures are the bedrock of our understanding.

Today we're continuing a short series of sermons on Feeding our Faith - what measures can we take to deepen and strengthen our faith. And today's topic is Personal Bible Study. And to explore that, our set passage is actually the psalm we read at the start of our service – Psalm 119. It's the longest psalm in the bible, extending to 176 verses, but today we just have seven to consider as you'll see on your sheet.

And in those seven verses the author explores the value of studying the scriptures. The psalm is more of a prayer than a piece of instruction – he is reflecting in prayer on the importance of scripture in his life. His own personal bible study. And as he does so, he uses no less than ten different verbs in relation to his understanding of the scriptures. But I want to consider just six of these, under two headings:

1. Taking in - Live, seek, meditate:

2. Giving out - Recount, rejoice, delight

Taking in - Live, seek, meditate

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119: 9-11)

We don't know who our psalmist is, but we can see that he's a young man who wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a real zealot for the faith – there are no half-measures here. His over-riding desire is to keep his way – his life – pure. He desires that sort of innocent purity that can stand before God without guilt or shame. He wants to be good, but in the best sense of the word. He wants to avoid moral taint. How will he do that?  How will he live well? By seeking God with all his heart; which means for him living according to God's will as revealed in the scriptures. 

His choice of Hebrew words behind our passage particularly has in mind the promises of God regarding his plans for his people. His intention is to 'hide the word in his heart' – to become familiar with it, to learn it, for it to be second-nature to him. And there's one particular way he'll achieve that:

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. (v15)

He'll ponder these scriptures, he'll think them through, he'll reflect on them and consider what they mean to him. 

Meditation doesn't always get a good press in Christian circles – we often associate it with Eastern mysticism, Buddhism and the like. But we need to recover the Christian practice of meditating on the scriptures – for the word itself comes from the Latin meaning devout preoccupation, private devotion, prayer. We need to recapture the notion of quietly reflecting on bible passages and allowing God to speak to us through them.

There was a time when children were encouraged to memorize bible passages. That seems old-fashioned now and all too much of an effort when we can simply dial them up on our smart phones. But that level of familiarity with the scriptures can be invaluable when we face challenges – as God prompts those stored passages to the forefront of our minds when we need them most to guide us through whatever besets us.

Understanding the scriptures is a life work for any Christian. I have been studying the scriptures now for just over 47 years but I feel like I am still scratching the surface. And yet some of what I have studied has stuck – I find it easier to apply scriptural principles to things in life, to see the world through the lens of God's will. It's easier to live, to seek, and to meditate on these words now than it was when I started – but still I am a novice.

But there were three other verbs:

Giving out - Recount, rejoice, delight

With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. (vv13-14)

Rejoicing is not perhaps a natural word to associate with the scriptures. Especially when you read some of the harder, bleaker books of the Old Testament. But here is a young man who not only rejoices in what he reads, he wants to recount it – to tell it to those around him.

My friend Paul would love to do just that – he would come up to me in the library and show me a verse in his pocket New Testament and tell me how brilliant it was – some truth about Jesus that had got him excited. That sort of enthusiasm is infectious. And the psalmist also delights in what he reads v16 - I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Perhaps the delight is a kind of inward glow at what he's reading; and the rejoicing and the recounting is a more outward expression. Have you ever felt that kind of delight and rejoicing when you have read the bible? We have a collection of home groups now across the Benefice and I'm glad to say we often do delight and rejoice in what we read – as we discuss and ponder, our passages draw us closer to God and we marvel at his purposes for our lives and our church. And that delight inspires us to study more – v16 - I will not neglect your word. 

There's no doubt the psalmist loves to immerse himself in the scriptures. He's pursuing personal piety – a way of living a pure life, pleasing to God, and living faithfully for him. But what, then, is our overall goal with this sort of personal bible study? Is it simply to learn commands and precepts, rules & regulations?

Our psalmist was clearly a pious young man.   But the kind of piety we see in here is true piety: a love of God not desiccated by study but refreshed, informed and nourished by it. And that works for one reason: because the scriptures reveal the character of God.  

As we said at the start, it's this written word that leads us to the Living Word – God in Jesus Christ.   For the scriptures reveal the salvation story of God – his rescue plan for a wayward human race and a tainted universe. And the culmination of the scriptures is the Lord Jesus Christ - he is the focal point of all that we find in our bibles, both Old Testament and New Testament, even in those puzzling and difficult passages.

And that's why these scriptures are alive to us, why they excite us, delight us, make us want to rejoice and recount what we read. That's why they make us want to live and seek and meditate on the words we read. For it's here that we meet the Lord Jesus; it's here where we our see own frailty and understand our rebellion against the God who gave himself for us. It's here that we find that God so loved the world that he gave his only son to die in our place on a cross for the penalty that should have been ours.

And here's the point: In the scriptures we don't study rules and regulations, but we meet Jesus, the person whom we need more than any other.

But we need to close. We meet Jesus in these precious, life-giving scriptures. So how shall we best approach bible study for ourselves? I want to suggest four simple rules:

1. Get a bible in a language you can readily understand. There are some who insist that the only 'proper' bible is the King James Version; but it was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures in 1611, and consequently it can be a struggle to understand in the Jacobean English of that time. It's beautiful language, but not always the most accessible if you're looking for strength and guidance as you explore your faith and its impact on your life. So if you love KJV, get a modern translation to read alongside.

2. Read little and often. A daily dip into the scriptures may sometimes seem sterile but over time – maybe 47 years or so - things will begin to link up for you!

3. Find help with what to study – there are many bible study guides available online or in print. Or join a home group where you can be encouraged by others as you dig and delve into the scriptures together.

4. And above all, meditate on these words, as our psalmist taught us – pray over them, ask God to help you to understand, and help you to see what they mean in your life.

And you too, I promise, will soon delight in God's words.

Feeding Faith - Listening to Sermons

Romans 10:14–17

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Luke 10:38–42

At the Home of Martha and Mary

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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As a vicar, people sometimes say to me, “I wish I had your faith.” And that’s a really nice sentiment. But behind it sits an assumption that the faith I apparently have is something that one can only wish for — like several houses in Barbados, or a couple of Ferraris in the garage, or whatever it is.

I can imagine somebody saying to their personal trainer, “I wish I was as fit as you are.” What does the personal trainer say back to that? “You can be. That’s why I’m here — to help you be exactly that.” And so also, as a vicar, I feel like saying that to people who say to me, “I wish I had your faith.” You can have a high level of strong faith.

Faith is a lot like a muscle. If you feed it right, if you work it out, it will get stronger. And if you don’t, it won’t. That’s why we’re beginning a new series of five sermons during Lent called Feeding Your Faith. The first subject today is feeding your faith through listening to sermons. It’s funny to preach a sermon about sermons, but that’s what I’m doing this morning.

The principle is this: faith grows where Christ is heard.

This is going to be less of a “how to listen to sermons” and more a “why to do so”. Why is listening to sermons so important for feeding our faith?

First of all, let’s consider our reading from the book of Romans. St Paul says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” We cannot see God in this world, so the primary way we get to know him is through hearing.

Paul is speaking about how saving faith begins, but the same principle applies to how such faith grows. That principle is that faith comes from hearing. Faith grows where Christ is heard.

Notice what Paul says needs to be heard: the message, the word about Christ. This is, of course, the gospel message, which Paul sums up in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Notice that the death and resurrection of Jesus are grounded in the Scriptures, in the word of God. You may notice — I hope — that preachers like me always try to reference in every sermon this gospel message: that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That’s because we are convinced that Paul is right here. A Christian’s faith is powered up by hearing the message about Christ.

I’ve already said that faith is a bit like a muscle. Of course, faith is a gift. It’s not a result of our direct effort; we’re given it by God. But if you really want to bulk up the muscle you already have, you have to eat protein. Protein is what feeds muscles. You can’t build them without it.

In the same way, you can’t build up and strengthen the gift of faith that God has given you without hearing the message about Jesus Christ. And note that this is not a kind of generic message about God in general. If you feed your faith wholly on generic religion, you won’t build that faith muscle. It would be like trying to grow bodily muscles using only carbohydrates. We need to be hearing about Jesus Christ and him crucified. We have to be hearing about the cross. Faith grows where Christ is heard, not just where religion is going on.

I was always told growing up — and you probably heard this as well — “Starve a fever, feed a cold.” Have you heard that old maxim? But when a doctor hears this, they may gently sigh and say, “That sounds good, but actually there’s no solid evidence that you should eat less with a fever or eat more with a cold.” When you’re ill, the real advice is simply: eat if you feel able, stay hydrated, listen to your body.

In the same way, I often hear people saying, “Preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words.” And I gently sigh and say, “That sounds good, but neither Paul nor Jesus would wholly agree with it.” Acts of love are, of course, important. But listening to the word about Jesus is much more important.

Our reading from Luke’s Gospel shows us that. It’s a well-known story. Jesus goes to visit Martha and Mary. We hear that Mary is sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he says. But Martha is distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

So Martha comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.” And how does Jesus reply? “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed — indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.”

The one thing that is needed is relationship with Jesus. And, as Paul said, this comes from hearing about him.

Martha was busy with good things, but Mary was busy with something better: the beloved voice of Jesus. Jesus does not rebuke Martha for her service per se. He’s not saying, “Don’t ever do anything useful.” What he rebukes is anxious distraction. Listening is foundational, and service must flow from it — but not replace it.

So I wonder whether you feel more like a Martha or a Mary. Do you find yourself busy with lots of things? Do you sometimes find it hard to stop and hear the message about Jesus?

I’ve heard a number of people say to me, “I would come to church, but I just don’t have the time.” Well, clearly that’s not you, because you’re sitting here in church. You’ve made the time to come along this morning. But do we have time to be Christians outside of a Sunday? Do we have time to listen to sermons not on a Sunday?

That’s an idea. Graeme expends a decent amount of time uploading the sermons we preach to the website. And I know I myself need to get better at listening to them when someone else preaches.

None of us has to listen to sermons. But as we’ve seen, the Bible is clear: faith grows where Christ is heard. I’m sure we all know that a more confident Christianity is needed now more than ever. Confident faith comes from hearing the message about Jesus Christ.

There are so many good sermons out there these days, so many books of excellent sermons. We don’t need, of course, to be constantly listening to them. But my challenge for all of us this week is to listen to one sermon that isn’t this one. Two if you’re feeling particularly keen.

One caveat: there is a lot of junk out there — like junk food. A lot of sermons might sound insightful. But remember, without the word of the Bible and the message of the gospel of the cross, they just won’t feed your faith. They’ll be carbohydrates, not protein.

Ultimately, faith doesn’t grow because sermons are impressive. Faith grows because Christ is beautiful. When his death and resurrection are held before us again and again, the Spirit quietly strengthens our trust in him.

So this Lent, don’t just do more religious things. Feed your faith. Sit at Jesus’ feet. Listen to his voice. And trust that, as you do, what Jesus promised will be true for you as well: it will not be taken away from you.

John’s Prologue - The Word Revealing God

John 1:16-18

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (AV)

Exodus 33:17-20

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

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And so we’ve come to the final part of John’s prologue from John’s Gospel, which we have been studying for the last few weeks. These last few verses are so full of content that it is quite difficult to speak on them, but I will do my best.

John had made that amazing statement, that amazing claim: In the beginning was the Word, and that the Word was not only with God, but was God from the beginning. I remember being in the British Library some years ago, and there was a special exhibition on it. There was a tiny, tiny piece of manuscript — I think it’s called Papyrus 66 — normally, I believe, in Geneva. Whether this was just a copy of it or not, it was quie small and it contained the very first few verses in Greek of In the beginning was the Word. I think it was second century. I thought it was an amazing thing to see.

So John makes this claim, and then through his Gospel he gives his reason for that claim. In the opening verses he brings God into focus through Jesus. Who is the person of God? Is he out of focus, shadowy, unreal, unapproachable? Is he to some an impersonal force? Or even irrelevant to modern thinking? Has AI overtaken all our spiritual needs? John’s claim is that God revealed himself in flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived among the people. They were witnesses of his life, his words, his passion, his death, and above all his resurrection. And more than everything else, they were witnesses of his abiding word.

John reveals Jesus Christ as a life-giving force which those who come to believe in him can also receive. He said, I am come that they might have life, and have it to the full — not life in merely physical terms or experiences, but as children of God, receiving God’s gift of grace and experiencing his love.

It is a mystery, this revelation that God should reveal himself in human terms. Our problem is so often that we rely on the visual. To see God himself, the Bible warns us, would turn us to dust. Yet we live in a seeing world. We like our screen time. We like instant rolling news, the camera on the spot as events unfold. I think Jesus would have been very newsworthy if cameras had existed. And yet we are given no physical description of him. What we receive is his word.

John describes his glory and the experience of God coming out of the shadows, out of the cloud of the Old Testament, through being in the presence of Christ. God was coming into focus. In verse 16 John writes, From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

The disciples had the privilege of sharing Christ’s physical presence and the sound of his voice as he taught, preached, and sometimes admonished. They fed on his word and later brought it back to memory, guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit. They felt blessed to be in his presence, not realising at the time how everlasting that experience would become. Gradually his nature was revealed, and finally at the resurrection they knew that this mystery was not for them alone. His blessings were not just for them; they had to be shared.

God’s grace is not a once-for-all gift; it is continually renewed. We have all received blessing after blessing. It is an undeserved gift — a gift of kindness and love. So why do we refuse such a gift?

In verse 17 we read, The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Two important words there: given and came. God gave the law through Moses, as we have been studying in Leviticus. It was holy and just and good, but the people were not obedient, and the law became a burden and a death sentence. As Matthew tells us, the teachers of the law tied up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders.

Grace, however, came through Jesus. God’s kindness received those who would otherwise have deserved separation and death. There were no external requirements — no “do this” or “do that”. All that was required was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the living Word from the beginning. Now we should live as God intended.

In verse 18 we read that no one has ever seen God. Even Moses had to hide from his presence. Isaiah saw God’s glory but not his face. When the disciples experienced the transfiguration, they saw his radiant features, but then a cloud enfolded them. It was only a glimpse.

The King James Version speaks of the Son as being in the bosom of the Father. It is an image of closeness and intimacy. Sometimes I sit on our two-seater sofa with one of the children or grandchildren and we snuggle up to look at a book or watch something. We are close — not side by side, but in the bosom of the family. That is the image here: the closest place to the heart. The Son, close to the heart of God, reveals what is in the heart and mind of the Father.

God remains invisible, but he has come into focus. He is no longer unknown or unknowable. From this point John begins to record the will and purpose of God made known through Jesus Christ. His Gospel is more than a portrait of Jesus’ life. Jesus makes claims about himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Real life is not in the quality of the here and now; it is eternal life given to those who believe in him.

So we are in Lent. Some of us give things up — chocolate, whisky, and so on. It may be good for health and well-being, but taking something up may be even more worthwhile. Bishop David Sheppard once said that instead of giving something up, why not take something up? A good start would be to read the rest of John’s Gospel — always familiar, always revealing something new and true — and by reading it we can further put God into focus through Jesus Christ.

A final word from John’s letter: We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make your joy complete.

John’s Prologue - The Word Incarnate

John 1:14-15

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”

Exodus 40:34–38

The Glory of the Lord

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.

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Sometimes one little word can say so much - much more than we think on first sight.   For instance, 'promise', 'possible', 'love', 'simples’. And sometimes we find powerful little words in our scriptures.   One of the challenges of the scriptures is that we are not reading them in the languages in which they were originally written - our OT was written in Hebrew, and our NT mostly in Greek, with a little Aramaic here and there. And in our translations, it's sometimes difficult to render certain original Hebrew or Greek words into English without losing some of the nuance of meaning.

We're continuing our little series from the prologue to John's Gospel, and this evening we find ourselves thinking about just one really important verse from John chapter 1. And in that verse, v14, one of those meaningful little words appears, one of those words that has lost its nuance in translation. We read this:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

It's that little word 'dwelling'. He made his dwelling - he dwelt - among us.

Dwelling

You see, what we miss in English is that the Greek word behind this derives from the word for a tent.   So literally,

The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.

Why does that matter? Well, John chooses his words very carefully.  He is the master of brevity.  And he likes to echo the OT.  He's already echoed the first verse of the book of Genesis in the way he opens his Chapter 1: in the beginning was the Word. And now he echoes the OT again - the Word (God) came to pitch his tent among us.   How does that echo the OT?  

Well, where in our bibles do we find God dwelling in a tent? Only in the Exodus, in the desert, in the midst of the Israelites whom he has called out of slavery in Egypt. Remember that in the OT God met his people - he figuratively dwelt -  in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, the portable temple that travelled with the Israelites as they wandered those 40 years towards the Land he had promised. His presence was symbolised by the pillar of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, moving with then through the desert.

And yet they could never see his face.  They were his people, and he was their God, but he remained remote, distant, a frightening presence characterized by thunder, lightning and smoke. Moses never got to see God; the nearest was when God allowed him to be tucked into a cleft in a rock while he passed by.

The LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand". (Exodus 33:21)

For no-one could see God, no-one could see his glory and live.

But now? John tells us, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This was God in human form, who could be touched, spoken with, laughed with, adored, worshipped. Jesus, who declared to Thomas: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. And in Jesus, the Word made Flesh, v14 tells us:

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.   John 1:14

Moses and all those OT characters would have given their right hand to be able to see God - but in Jesus Christ, God made man - we have been given that immense privilege. God has made himself known in Jesus Christ, personally, first to the people of 1st Century Palestine, and now, through his Spirit, down the ages, to us. Even to you and me.

And what do we discover about him from this same verse?   That he was full of grace and truth.   Two very particular attributes.

Truth

John often refers to Jesus as 'The Truth'.   He is the way, the truth and the life. John records Jesus saying repeatedly, I tell you the truth.  He is full of grace and truth. Jesus is the ultimate truth - in him there is nothing false, nothing conditional, nothing that will shift like the sands.   His word is rock-solid; his judgments are true.

We find it shocking that certain powerful people, even world leaders, bend that word to their own purposes. For them truth is something of their own design, something to be defined as such so long as it suits them. And then revised for convenience. But with Jesus, truth is absolute - for God does not lie. Jesus prayed to the Father for his followers:

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

But truth is a two-edged sword - for the truth can be great news, but it can also be devastating. And for us, as we approach Lent, the truth is not always something we want to hear. Because, in truth, we have fallen below God's standards in our lives and our thoughts. The Apostle Paul wrote that:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

David the Psalmist wrote that:

there is no one who does good, not even one.

The prophet Isaiah wrote that:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way

And that's something we especially recall on Ash Wednesday as we repent of our wrongdoing.

So we have a predicament.  If Jesus, the Word of God, came and dwelt among us bringing only truth, then our predicament would be terrible - for our sin is ever before us. But the good news is he came from the Father, full of grace and truth

Grace

We often forget the meaning of grace in everyday speech. If I say someone is full of grace you're more likely to imagine them as having great poise, delicacy of movement, maybe someone who is charming and polite. But the scriptural meaning is entirely different. In the bible, in God's language, grace is the free, unmerited gift of God's favour.

You can easily remember it if you think of it as an acronym - the letters GRACE meaning 'God's Riches At Christ's Expense'.

You see, God's Truth tells us that we have fallen short of his standards. That there is a gulf between us, caused by our rebellion and sin.   We have a huge and life-threatening problem. But God's Grace deals with our problem - not by pretending that it doesn't exist; not by sweeping it under the carpet; but by dealing with it head-on.

Sinful man and holy God cannot co-exist, any more than light can co-exist with darkness. So God deals with our sin by a great cosmic exchange - our sin is transferred to Jesus, and his holiness is transferred to us. Someone has to pay the price of sin - and God allows his own Son, fully God, to carry our sin on his shoulders on the cross where he died in our place.   Isaiah tells us:

he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

So, three little words that say so much.   Three powerful words to hold close to our hearts this Ash Wednesday: dwelling, truth and grace. For:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John’s Prologue - The Word Encountered

John 1:6-13

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Isaiah 42:5–9

I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the Lord, do all these things.

“You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,

let righteousness grow with it;
I, the Lord, have created it.

“Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.

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God reveals himself and invites us into sonship through grace

One of my greatest weaknesses is for names.   I am hopeless at remembering names.   I can be introduced to someone and literally within seconds I have forgotten what they said was their name. And to be honest, I'm not always so good with faces either.   One of the issues of having worked in different contexts over the years is that I sometimes struggle if I meet people where I don't expect them to be ....  I am thrown because I'm meeting them out of context.   I've been thrown before now by meeting patients in church, or church people in the surgery.  

One of my favourite witticisms of doctors and former doctors like me in such circumstances is to say, with mock embarrassment, 'I'm so sorry, I didn't recognise you with your clothes on’. The one good thing about my time working in prison is that most of my contacts there are serving life sentences, so I am very unlikely to meet them out of context!

And sometimes this name- and face-blindness is genuinely awkward. Last summer I was invited to a Clergy garden party at the Bishop's house in Gloucester.   Clergy are terribly cliquey and they were all huddled together in groups, and we didn't know anyone.   So on those occasions I always seek out someone else who's standing looking awkward because they don't know anyone either.

And there was a couple standing under a tree by themselves, so I went over and got chatting.   After some time I suddenly realised that just six months before I had spent an entire morning with the wife, who is a curate in training, assessing her progress in her job.   I had been to her house, drunk her coffee, met her husband, and spent several hours with her and her boss talking about her work.  And written a report for the Bishop. And I had completely failed to recognise her, just a few months later. It was embarrassing.  But actually, it wasn't as embarrassing as it might have been because she clearly didn't recognise me either!

Today's passage from John's Gospel is also about recognition.

We're continuing in this short Prologue to the Gospel of John — it's a passage that is so familiar because we read it every Christmas in our carol services.   It's a passage that effectively summarises what John will be telling us as his story unfolds - it's a summary, a prologue, an overture to his Gospel.

You'll be familiar with those wonderful Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, which always begin with an overture that's composed of little riffs of all the wonderful melodies and songs we shall hear as the story unfolds, put together into a grand piece that plays just before the curtain rises. And so with John also - he has knit together in this first chapter a series of themes that he will return to as the story unfolds.

And today's section, verses 6-13, is about recognition: recognising who Jesus is.   But I'm going to use a more theological term than Recognition: which is Revelation.   And we'll also consider a second R - Regeneration.   Which conveniently gives me my two headings - Revelation and Regeneration.

1. Revelation

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. John 1:6-7

We learned last week from verses 1-5 that Jesus, the living Word of God, is the author of life itself, and the bringer of spiritual light. 

Because:

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:3-4

And now, we discover that there is a herald who proclaims that light: John the Baptist.

God wanted no-one to be mistaken about the significance of the ministry of Jesus Christ: in the style of the great Old Testament prophets, a new prophet had come,

dressed in clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, eating locusts and wild honey. Mark 1:6

John the Baptist came to proclaim the revelation of God.   To help us recognize Jesus.

God is a god whose nature is to reveal himself.  It is always God who takes the initiative - God whose sends the prophets, God who calls his people out of slavery in Egypt, God who speaks his word, gives his commands, meets with those he has chosen to carry forth his message. God who cried out to Saul on the Road to Damascus.   God who speaks into our hearts, making us aware of our sin and rebellion, drawing us close to him.   God who calls us. It is God who reveals himself.  Revelation is in his nature. And he revealed himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he revealed his arrival through a man named John, who came as a witness to testify concerning that light, baptising in the wilderness, that through him all men might believe.  

But here's the shock:

The true light that gives light to every man (Jesus) was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. John 1:9-11

The world - Jews, Gentiles, men, women, children - simply failed to recognize Jesus.  They just did not understand who this was. Even the Jews, who had been waiting for centuries for their Messiah, failed to see that he was the very one they had been waiting for.   His own did not receive him.   They failed to grasp this astonishing, epoch-making, history transforming revelation from God. They were blinded, even to the message of John the Baptist.  We know from Mark's Gospel that people came in their droves to be baptized by John in the desert - in search of spiritual renewal.   And as he baptized, John's message was clear:

"After me will come one more powerful than I, .... I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:7-8

And yet still for most the penny failed to drop.  They got baptized, they confessed their sins - and still they did not welcome Jesus into their hearts.   As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.   2 Corinthians 4:4

The cares of life, the pressures of money and family and relationships and all the other things that bubble up to be our priorities, have blinded us to the truth of God's revelation: That Jesus Christ is the saviour of the world.

But of course, not everyone is blind. There were those who followed Jesus from the very beginning, despite the dangers.  And although largely to this day the world still does not recognize him, there are countless millions who do follow him, even though at times it feels like we wade upstream against the tide of a society which refuses to accept his call on its life. And if we do follow him, remember, it is purely because God has revealed him to us.   We did not seek him out: he found us. 

2. Regeneration

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John 1:12-13

'Yet' is a great word.   The Greek word here in the scriptures has a kind of assertive force: and yet, in the sense of 'this isn't the end of the story' ... 'there is good news'...

… to all who received him he gave the right to become children of God.

And the word 'right' is forceful too - it's an absolute right.  If God invites you into his family then your place is secure. We have seen recently a member of our own royal family lose his place there; to have his styles and titles removed.   To do that is the constitutional right of The Sovereign - it is a Royal Prerogative.

For Christians, that Royal Prerogative works in reverse - God chooses to give us the right to become part of his Royal Family - to become children of God. And we don't get there by our genetic pedigree, nor by how well we behave, or by working it out for ourselves - not even by our parents deciding.

It is a gift of God.   It is his decision.   He reveals himself - and if we accept him, if we allow him into our hearts, he regenerates our souls.   He gives the immediate and absolute right to be adopted into the family of Christ - co-heirs with him of eternity.   In short, to be born again.

And who is the agent of this rebirth, this regeneration? Of course, it is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our Isaiah passage prophesied that so beautifully:

"I, the LORD, ... will make you (Jesus) to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:6-7

Prisoners don't release themselves.  The blind do not open their eyes and regain sight by themselves.   We don't find our own way out of deep darkness.  But he is our light: he is our vision; he is our freedom.   In him we have royal status, the styles and titles of children of God in Jesus Christ.

As an older man, the Apostle John wrote for us once again in his epistles:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:1-2

So where does that all leave us?   In short, thankful, and wanting to live for him.   Thankful that he enabled us to recognize Jesus as Son of God. That he opened our eyes - that he freed us, that he brought us out of darkness.  That he gave us royal robes of righteousness, that he has invited into all eternity, that we might live for him as sons and daughters of God. We have seen his revelation - and we have experienced his regeneration.

If you sense he is calling you, and you haven't yet opened your heart to him, then what are you waiting for? The hymn-writer Horatius Bonar caught the sentiment beautifully in the hymn:

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world's Light;”
Look unto Me, your morn shall rise, and all your day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him my star, my sun;
and in that Light of life I'll walk till travelling days are done.

John’s Prologue - The Word Eternal

John 1:1-5

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Genesis 1:1–5

The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

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We now begin a short series in the build-up to Lent in which we’ll be looking at this start of John’s Gospel, in which he says some amazing things about Jesus Christ. And no doubt from Christmas time these words are very familiar to us, that in the beginning was the Word. We hear that read out every Christmas. It’s one of the better-known bits of the Bible.And it tells us three things about Jesus Christ that I’d like us to think about this morning. And first, and most obviously, Jesus is the Word.

Now, words are amazing things, aren’t they? Language is an amazing thing. You know, I love language. Language is my big passion in life. But just thinking about what language is for a second is incredible. Just think about it. You’re using parts of your body that are primarily designed to begin the digestion process — you know, your teeth and your lips and your tongue. You’re using them to create sounds that then do amazing things in the people around you.

Words have power, don’t they? They have power to give great joy, but also great pain. And we love reading because in the words of books, we get great pleasure from creating worlds in our minds, from entering into amazing places, or getting new information for us to learn. Words carry meaning in a way that mere pictures cannot.

If I simply saw a picture of my wife, I would think she was beautiful, of course, but I would not know much about her as a person at all. It’s the same with God. He created the universe as a picture of what he’s like. But without his speaking to us, we can’t know much about him.

Our words connect our mind, our thoughts, and our very character to others. And so God’s word connects his mind, his thoughts, and his character to us.Importantly, in John’s Gospel we’re told that God’s communication to us is not first and foremost in language, but in the form of a person.

Think about it like this. When the internet first appeared, it enabled online chatting and therefore online dating. That was a thing. Do you remember Friends Reunited? That was an old website where you could meet old friends from school. And presumably the main thing was to ask them out on a date. But if the relationship stayed in just words, that wouldn’t be enough, would it? The whole point of an online relationship is that you end up meeting the person in question face to face.

Yes, God has spoken to us in language in the Bible, and that’s the equivalent of a love letter, if you like. But he’s actually come to meet us in person through Jesus. That’s not to downplay the importance of the Bible. It’s just to say that the Bible is a means to an end, a means to knowing Jesus — the person, the human being. In Jesus, in his words, in his actions, God communicates to us what he is like. And ultimately, that communication takes the form of Jesus’s death on the cross. The cross is such a powerful word to us. It shows us that there’s something terribly morally wrong with humanity, but that in his love, God has taken the blame for that moral wrong on himself. And he’s done all this by himself.

If we want to know what God is like, we must get to know Jesus. And if we want to know Jesus, we must look first and foremost to the cross.

So Jesus, first of all, is the Word. But John also tells us that Jesus is the instrument. It’s a funny word to use. Why do I use that word?

Well, John tells us about Jesus, the Word, that through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. Now, understanding what John is saying here comes from understanding the word through in this verse. And it’s tough for Bible translators, as we don’t have one easy word in English to sum this up.

Older translations have a more literal version: in him all things were made. And what John is saying is this: by means of Jesus, all things came into being. Jesus is the means, the instrument, if you like, which God used to make the universe. What on earth does that mean?

Well, it links back to what we were saying about Jesus being the Word of God. Think about the game of charades, if you’ve ever played charades. The whole fun of the game is this: it’s very difficult to get people to understand things without using words. We can do our actions with our bodies, can’t we? But we have to use words if we’re going to make anything substantial happen.

And a word is something which comes out of our mind and makes something happen in the world around us. It’s an instrument, if you like, of transferring what’s going on inside us to what’s going on outside us. Of course, right now I’m attempting to do that myself with the words I’m saying to you.

So in the same way, Jesus is the Word who comes out of the mind of God and makes something happen in the world around him.

It’s fascinating that even in the Old Testament, before Jesus was born, when God does something physically in the world, we’re often told that it’s the Word of God which did it. The Word of God came to Moses. It says the Word of God spoke to Samuel. Because God is a spirit and has no body, he must have some means of connecting with the physical universe. And what John is saying in our reading is that Jesus has always been the means by which he does this, even before he was born as a baby that first Christmas.

Think of it like this. I don’t know if you’ve seen the classic science fiction movie Tron. It was cutting edge back in the day. It had amazing special effects back in 1982. You watch it now and you think… but anyway, back then it was very cutting edge, all these glowing people. And in the film, a computer programmer called Kevin Flynn is transported into the digital world, where he teams up with security programs Tron and Yuri to overthrow the evil and tyrannical master control program, which threatens to destroy all Kevin’s programming. The point is this. Tron and Yuri were originally ideas in the mind of Kevin, which he then programmed into the computer using his body, his hands and his eyes. And it’s only when Kevin enters the digital world that they see his agency firsthand.

In the same way, God has always brought about things in the world through Jesus, like creating us. But it’s only when Jesus enters our world as one of us that we see this firsthand. Jesus has always been the means, the instrument, by which God brings things into being.

So Jesus is the Word, he’s also God’s instrument, but he’s lastly life and light. John says this: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

So we’ve seen how Jesus is the communication from God. Jesus causes things to happen from God in the world. So it makes sense to call Jesus life. And life’s an amazing thing, because scientists are at a loss to fully understand how life began. The main problem is to do with DNA.

DNA is, of course, the code language within our cells which enables the creation of new cells. And the thing is that language is made of words which have meaning, and DNA is no exception. The coding within DNA carries meaning which has an effect on the physical world. But think about it — meaning doesn’t come out of non-meaning. Meaning, like all words, has to come out of a mind.

Think about it like this. If you were walking through the forest one day and you found a letter written on the floor, would you think, “Oh, that letter randomly assembled itself on the floor through random physical processes”? Of course you wouldn’t. You’d think that letter was written by someone.

It’s the same when we look at DNA. It’s crazy to think that randomly assembled itself because it has meaning. Life has to start with a mind, and that mind is God’s mind. And he enables it through the Word, Jesus Christ. But words also give light, don’t they?

In our modern times, we take light for granted. We flick a switch and on it comes. But in the ancient world, light was harder to come by much of the time, especially at night. Light turns something which is unclear and potentially dangerous into something clear and easier to make safe.

In the same way, Jesus, in his person, in his teaching, through the cross, turns all human existence from something unclear into something clear.

People talk these days about a crisis of meaning, and research shows that people are deeply craving meaning in their lives — a meaning that was taken away when our culture turned away from its Christian roots. And for us as Christians, it’s a bit like this. Imagine someone in Broadwell who keeps falling over at night on the way to and from friends’ houses and from the pub. They say to you, “Do you know what? I really crave some way of seeing in the darkness so I don’t keep falling over.” What would you say to them? You’d say, use a torch — or having to say, get a torch. And they’d say, “No, sorry, I don’t believe in torches.”

You think that’s mad.

In the same way, we Christians see people going through life, stumbling, falling over in relationships, trying to find meaning. We say, “Have you thought of light for your path?” And often the response is, “No, thank you, I don’t believe in light.”

So what does that mean for us? Well, if you want to know what God is like, you have to know Jesus — not know about him, but know him personally, as a person. The challenge for each of us this morning is this: do we know Jesus personally? Do we have a personal relationship with him? Can we say we know him like we know our friends and family?

This comes from reading the Bible, from praying, from talking about it with other Christians. That’s why we put such a priority in the benefice on small groups, on our away day. That’s a time when we can talk to each other about what it means to know Jesus personally.

Jesus is the life and the light of the world. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

If we want to get through life as we were designed to, if we want to avoid the stumbling, the falling over, we have to rely on Jesus and allow him to guide us. If we try not to do this, we’ll be like the person coming back from the pub in the dark with no torch. We may be okay for a bit, but sooner or later we’ll fall over and hurt ourselves. Again, it comes from reading the Bible, praying, making faith not just a Sunday morning thing but a whole-life thing.

And if you speak to anybody who has known Jesus, who has walked as a Christian throughout their life, they’ll tell you it’s not always easy — but you don’t stumble and fall in the same way you would if you were not a Christian.

Leviticus on Holiness

Leviticus 19:1-18

Various Laws

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.

When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up. If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure and will not be accepted. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has desecrated what is holy to the Lord; that person must be cut off from his people.

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.

Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not deceive one another.
Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
Do not defraud your neighbour or rob him.
Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.
Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.
Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life. I am the Lord.
Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.

Matthew 22:34–40

The Greatest Commandment

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

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We reflect God's character to the world around us, simply because of Jesus Christ

Today we conclude our series of sermons from the Book of Leviticus. And I'm conscious, as we wind it up, that several people have asked me why on earth we are studying this ancient, quirky and baffling book from the beginning of our old testaments. What relevance does it have to our Christian faith in 2026?

To help answer that question, and as we consider today's passage and how it rounds up everything we've considered over the past 4 weeks, I want to ask you another question: have you read Harry Potter? I'm not talking about the films - I mean the books. Have you read the books?

I confess to having read the whole series - all 7 of them. When the first book was released way back in 1997, my children were at primary school and everyone was talking about it. They were both at a great local school that really encouraged children to enjoy reading, so we bowed to the pressure and queued for Book 1, and then for each subsequent book as they were published every few months.

And at the time I recall it causing a bit of a stir in our church - we had Christian friends who were very suspicious of a book about Wizards and witches, feeling that surely it bordered on the occult or even the Satanic. One friend said we wouldn't let his children anywhere near Harry Potter and that the books should be burned. But it was clear our kids loved book 1 so I decided I must read it also.

And what a book. It was one of the best things I had read in a while. And it seems most people agreed. Over the course of the next couple of decades the series sold well over 600 million copies - and it became the most-sold book series in history, worldwide.

Why are these stories so good? Because primarily they're not about witchcraft and spells: rather, they are about relationships. They are about friendship, love, camaraderie, respect, bravery, heroism, right and wrong. They are about the triumph of good over evil, love over hate, loyalty over treachery. That's why they speak so loudly to our hearts.

And maybe that's the secret of all really good-quality literature – that whatever the context, whatever the backdrop to the story, it's the relationships between its characters that carry the story and keep us engaged.

And indeed, far from Harry Potter being a challenge to the Christian Faith, commentators have written books about how these stories even reflect and resonate with our faith.

And just as Harry Potter is first and foremost a brilliant story about relationships, so is the book of Leviticus.

And that's why it's worth studying - because at its core is a relationship between God and his people. Now Leviticus charts that relationship as it unfolded a long time in the past - 3,500 years ago, while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt; but it has value for us in our day too, because it charts the unchanging character of God and how he relates to his people, both then and now. It's all about relationship. And perhaps no more so than in this final study, from Leviticus Ch 19.

So, as we spend time in this final section, let's think what that means for us.

1. The heart of the relationship

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. Leviticus 19:1-2

Holiness runs through this book of Leviticus. Because that is the character of God: a holy being who binds himself to his people. Notice how he refers to himself: he uses his name, The LORD - in block capitals because it's the way our scriptures choose to present the Holy name of God - Yahweh, I am who I am. God revealed that name to Moses when he asked God for his name. It was the name by which his people were to know him. He revealed his name, and therefore his character, to his people Israel.

But not only do they know God's name, but they hear his reassurance - I, the LORD your God. He's not some random distant deity, but God who uniquely belongs to his people Israel as they wander their way through the desert.

But he has a charge for them: they are to be like him. Why? Because this nation is meant to be a beacon to the world of what God's community, God's kingdom, is like. Thus, they have no human King - for God himself is their King. Their leader is God's prophet Moses; their spiritual mediator is the High Priest Aaron.

And this nation, as they make their way to the land God has promised them, is to stand out from the world as different - distinctive, a people where the God of the Universe dwells in their midst and deals directly with them.

That's why there are so many strange laws in this book - strange to our minds anyway - because God wants there to be no doubt that he is achieving something new and important in this people. They must be distinctive in their lifestyle and behaviour - and at its heart, they must be holy. They must reflect the very character of the God who called them, if they are to exhibit his character to the watching world of their time. So, what does that look like?

2. The expression of that relationship

Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God. "'Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:3-4

The long section that follows, some of which we heard read, effectively restates the 10 commandments and amplifies some more specific instructions. Those two verses I've just quoted are merely the beginning, examples of where God is going with this.

And actually, if we were to read on we would find the commands fall broadly into three categories that we find often in the scriptures. We heard Jesus' own summary of those categories as our Gospel reading: the two most important commandments being to Love God, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

The prophet Micah also summarizes it neatly with one of my favourite verses in the whole of the bible.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

That's a verse that many of our world leaders would do well to emulate. And some of our politicians and leaders here at home, too: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly

And that's another great summary of the Law.

To quote a few examples from today's Leviticus reading, the Israelites are to act justly with their fellows and the aliens among them in their courts and in their trading; they are to be merciful to the poor by leaving the borders of fields unharvested, and not gathering fallen crops, so that the poor can find food to eat; and they are to remain humble before God - not turning to idols, maintaining the proper respect for the Sabbath and sacrifices and offerings, and to revere and respect their parents and elders.

The regulations run on for another three chapters, laying down how this people should live in order to reflect the holiness of God.

But here's the important thing: this is not about earning God's favour. God brought them out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea for them to cross long before any of these regulations had been given through Moses. There was no Law when they left Egypt: simply a people who had been rescued by a God who cared for them.

God told them his name, Yahweh because he loved them and had decided to bind their life as a nation to him. He calls himself 'their God' not because they earned that right of belonging, but because he chose them, way back in the time of Abraham.

So the holiness he requires of them is not the cause of that relationship, but the expression of that relationship.

When I was a young man I wanted to make my parents proud of me. We weren't a wealthy family but they lavished on me love, encouragement, time, and a sense of ambition. I didn't want to make them proud in order that they might love me; I wanted to make them proud because they loved me.

And it was the same for the Israelites: they were to be holy because of their relationship with God. Because he loved them. And to bring all this up to date, it's the same for us as Christians.

3. The Christian in relationship

The Apostle Peter picks up our theme from Leviticus in his first letter:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:13-16

You see, even after 3,500 years, God has not changed. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. And just as the Israelite community was to reflect his character to the world around it, so we too as Christians reflect his character to the world around us.

Not to earn God's love, but because we have God's love.

But our motivation is greater than that of the Israelites. We know they didn't do well; they often messed up and God spent an awful lot of time trying to discipline them to get their relationship with him on the right footing. Because he loved them.

But Peter reminds us how much we have moved on as a people in our relationship with God:

...it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." ... live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 1 Peter 1:16-21

The Israelites biggest stumbling-block in their relationship with God was their sin and rebellion. And God gave them a programme of animal sacrifices to demonstrate the gravity of their sin and to provide a means of cleansing.

But he always had in mind something more effective, something perfect, something enduring, which those old patterns merely prefigured. For he had always planned, since the foundation of the world, a perfect solution to sin: the death and resurrection of God himself, in the flesh of God-made-Man - Jesus Christ. And we know that in our times.

You and I have been redeemed, bought back, pardoned with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, chosen before the creation of the world

In the face of such love, how can we not want to live for him? To live lives that are holy and honouring to him? To love the Lord our God with heart soul mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as our self? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God?

So, will we not examine our lives, study the scriptures, ask his guidance as to how our lives might be better, be holier, be more honouring to him? To yearn to live lives that might bring him glory ... and not so that he might love us, but because he already loves us. And gave his son for us.

That is the calling of every baptised Christian. And it's a noble calling. Are you up for it?

O thou who calmest from above
The fire celestial to impart
Kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart
Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
To work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire
and still stir up the gift in me

Leviticus on Blood and Atonement

Leviticus 16:20-22, 17:10-12

“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites-all their sins-and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

“‘Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.”

Matthew 26:26–28

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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Blood and atonement is our theme today, the next part of our mini-series from Leviticus. And people, and I’ve heard recently, want to question the book’s relevance to a modern-day Christianity. But as we read, the second lesson, the action of Christ at the Last Supper should shed light on those ancient rituals and customs.

Holiness, sacrifice, ritual cleansing, atonement. These are the themes running through these ancient laws. And in them all, often we have the repeated verse: “The Lord God spoke to Moses.” The author, the authority, was God himself.

Leviticus, the instruction book for the sons of Levi, that is the priestly tribe, was not just a record of laws. It was a set of examples for everyday living, of worship, for how to live in a wandering community. It dealt not only with holiness and sacrifice, it dealt with illness, with marital harmony and disharmony, and strife in personal relationships. Everything is accounted for. It is not a channel of life of restriction, but it was one of unity with God, with him at the centre, leading his chosen ones into a promised land.

Today’s Old Testament reading centres on the covering of sin, the ransom required for forgiveness and the removal of guilt. In the previous verses, two goats had been presented. One was sacrificed as a sin offering in the sanctuary of the tabernacle to purify the tabernacle and the priests who performed. The second goat was possibly more fortunate in that its life was spared, but it would bear the sins of the whole community.

In verse 21 we read that Aaron is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness of the Israelites, all their sins. The two hands placed on top of the head of the goat was a symbolic act of transference. It was all the people’s sins. An escort would lead the animal through the camp for all the people to see and witness the animal bearing their sins, and it would be left as far away from the camp as the escort was able to find in the wilderness. Thus, the sins of the people would trouble them no longer. The sin removed from the camp went into the wilderness where it truly belonged.

In ancient times the wilderness and the desert was a place of evil. It was a place where the evil ones dwelt. And it seems in this simple ritual, what is being said is: you can have back your sins. Here are your sins, you evil ones. You can have them back as far from the sanctuary as is possible. A visual reminder to the people of the drama of sin and its consequences.

I was reading the commentator Philip Jensen last week, and he saw this visual act in a state of five concentric zones. He had zone one in the middle of the sanctuary, the most holy place, and then five concentric circles leading away from the sanctuary out to the last zone, to the desert region, far beyond.

I was sitting on the tube that day and thinking about these zones, and I looked up and I saw the fare zone map of the underground. And of course, I was coming from St Paul’s, wasn’t I? I was coming from the centre, from the sanctuary, Zone 1. And I sat there and watched these zones go past on my underground journey until we got to Zone 6. And I thought, yes, I am covered by my travel card. I am safe. But woe betide me if I tried to go beyond Zone 6 without the appropriate fare cover; I would be doomed.

Anyway, that was just a side effect, but I was thinking about these zones and how it was true that the zone for the Israelites, the centre of it all, was a sanctuary. And then beyond the Zone 6, as we might say, is where the sin would be left behind.

So, beyond that, and beyond my whimsy shall we say, there is so much shedding of blood through sacrifice it was no surprise that there were prohibitions about the use of the blood itself. In verse 11 we read: the life of a creature is in the blood, and this is repeated again in verse 14.

Now we know the connection between life and blood is obvious. Major loss of blood can lead to loss of life. So, blood must carry the very essence of life. But only by the shedding of this precious element, for the people, God said, could atonement be made. And for no other purpose could it be used, especially for human consumption.

The tribes around in ancient times used blood a lot as food, even though to the Israelites it had to appear as sacred. All meat to them had to be drained of blood. So, sorry everybody, no rare steaks, no black puddings. The blood was special, was precious, because the life of a creature was in the blood.

God allowed the sacrificial goat of a creature to make atonement for the sins of the people. Thus, the atonement was being made by a victim that took the place of a sinner and shed its own blood in the sinner’s place.

Paul reminds us in Romans: “we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The only hope is if there is a ransom offered on our behalf, a life given up so a life could be saved. So, here is where the Old Testament and the New Testament meet, come together, almost collide. We read in our second lesson: “this is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Without the recognition and understanding of the ritual laws of the Old Testament, the idea of the shedding of blood to release us from the burden of sin would seem abhorrent, would seem strange, would seem savage.

The new covenant of which Christ speaks is no less a covenant of blood, but this time the victim is not a nameless goat. The victim this time is someone that we begin to love and trust as we read the Gospels, just as those disciples did who followed him and who wept in despair and disbelief as he was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

But it was meant to be, for “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” So wrote the writer of the Hebrews letter. Just as we are destined to die once and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sin of many. He was sacrificed once, if you remember, and so no longer the endless shedding of blood with animal sacrifice. The people could be freed from that burden.

So, in a curious reversal, almost a contradiction, although we read that the Israelites were forbidden to consume blood, the people of Christ are symbolically commanded to do so. Jesus said: “drink this, all of you; this is my blood.”

The exchange has taken place. For not only had Jesus laid down his life as a ransom for many, but we are to absorb his lifeblood. It is a mystery indeed. We are to be part of him and to remember his death until he returns. The life of the creature is in the blood. It is sacred. Paul warns us that if we partake of this holy supper in an unworthy manner, we are guilty of abusing this sacred rite.

But from the Old and the New Testament passages, we see the wonder of God’s grace. The blood to be shed, to be required, to release us from our sins, is not blood that he extracts from us. It is not a blood vendetta: you’ve done me wrong, so now I reap my revenge. He is the God of grace. He provides the blood sacrifice himself.

Do you remember the story of faithful Abraham and the sacrifice? Isaac, about to be sacrificed, said to his father: “the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham replied: “God himself will provide the lamb, my son.”

God does not require from us what he knows we cannot give, but has graciously provided an alternative sacrifice in our place. God has provided for us; but have we embraced him and his provision, his Son?

Leviticus seems like a book of prohibition, doesn’t it? “Thou shalt not.” But God is a caring God, and he guarded his people against external temptation. So what for us? Some have rejected these ancient texts, but we wish to preserve this scripture, for it is the scripture that Jesus himself knew. He debated with the lawyers as a young child in the temple. He knew the scriptures from his youth, and he upbraided the scribes when they hijacked the scriptures for their own use.

As we have seen, the rituals and laws in Leviticus point directly to Christ. Much Christian history and teaching have found a basis in the writings of Moses. The writing of the Hebrew scribes did not disappear from Christian thought, but changed in the light of the Gospels, in the light of Jesus and his teaching.

Jesus’ preaching and his references are so often from the law and the prophets; so we should not ignore them. They contain allusions to our own faith. Our brief studies have opened up this ancient scripture: the scripture of a God of grace and of forgiveness, his plan for his people in ancient times and his plan for us now, and the plan for his Son, whom God sent for our atonement.

As the beautiful hymn goes:

It’s your blood that cleanses me.
It’s your blood that gives me life.
It’s your blood that took my place
in redeeming sacrifice.
My Jesus, God’s precious sacrifice.

Leviticus on Clean and Unclean

Leviticus 13:1-7, 15:31

Regulations About Infectious Skin Deseases

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. The priest is to examine the sore on his skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious skin disease. When the priest examines him, he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean. If the spot on his skin is white but does not appear to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest is to put the infected person in isolation for seven days. On the seventh day the priest is to examine him, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not spread in the skin, he is to keep him in isolation another seven days. On the seventh day the priest is to examine him again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a rash. The man must wash his clothes, and he will be clean. But if the rash does spread in his skin after he has shown himself to the priest to be pronounced clean, he must appear before the priest again.

“‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’”

Mark 1:40–45

A Man With Leprosy

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

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Clean and unclean

When I was a child, I lived in dread of catching leprosy. Each morning I would wake and look anxiously at my hands to see whether the tell-tale white spots of the disease had appeared. This continued for quite some time. The cause of this fear, I now realise, was our history lessons at school. We were studying the Victorians; the explorers and the missionaries who journeyed to Africa to establish leper colonies. Our teachers gave us rather graphic accounts of this terrible disease, and so, each morning, I trembled lest I should have contracted it. There is, I think, a lesson here: we must be careful what we place in the minds of young children.

In the Bible, however, the word translated as “leprosy” describes a variety of skin conditions. The symptoms mentioned in Scripture are not always consistent with the disease we now identify as leprosy. Indeed, it was not properly diagnosed until relatively recently. The afflicted person in those biblical accounts may have suffered from rashes, boils, or other skin infections. What mattered to the ancients was not medical diagnosis but ritual purity. To them, such symptoms signified uncleanness. The Hebrew word employed conveys the idea of being “stricken”, and, by implication, stricken by God, requiring cleansing.

The book of Leviticus is essentially a manual for the priests — the Levites — whose instructions came from God.

“The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting” (Leviticus 1:1, NIV)

and from Moses the instructions were passed to his brother Aaron and to the priests. There was no hierarchy beyond the priesthood. No kings, governors, or chiefs. God spoke through Moses, and all matters concerning ritual and worship passed through the priests, who guarded the sanctity of God’s dwelling.

At that stage in Israel’s history the people were wandering in the wilderness. The tabernacle — the tent of meeting — was the place where the divine presence rested. From there, ordinances and laws were communicated through the priests. The people were required to be ritually clean if they wished to draw near. Hence the many rituals and sacrifices recorded in Leviticus.

When we read these laws, the tone may appear restrictive or prohibitive. “The Lord said…” and “do not…”. Yet their purpose was that God might dwell amongst His chosen people in an ideal society. These rules reminded them how life ought to be lived. Every detail of their nomadic existence was set forth so that they might understand their relationship to God, and the goal of their journey: the promised land.

For such a task, God provided vivid imagery — almost visual aids — to teach both priests and people. And it was no small burden for the priests, who required a handbook to deal with the various situations that arose. Exodus records many murmurings; therefore the priests needed guidance to maintain order and holiness.

Who, then, was fit to approach God? The priests, certainly. And the people, provided they were not diseased or stricken. But who determined that? Not a physician, for there were no doctors in our sense of the word. Medicine was rudimentary, mixed with folklore, shamanism, and forms of magic. The first call for the stricken was the priest, guardian of God’s sanctuary. His concern was not treatment but cleansing. He certified a person either clean or unclean on the basis of visible symptoms (cf. Leviticus 13–14).

So the concern of these chapters is not cure but the spiritual and ritual welfare of the community. The family of the afflicted would bring the sufferer before the priest. To conceal the symptoms invited punishment; concealed cases, once discovered, might result in the entire family being declared unclean and placed outside the camp — a dreadful sentence of isolation, severed from relationships and routines.

The process of examination was meticulous: seven days of isolation, re-examination, perhaps a further seven days, before the sufferer might be declared clean and restored to the community (Leviticus 13:4–6). Chronic conditions were deemed unclean only whilst open and oozing; once healed, the sufferer could return. But those whose conditions were permanent and untreatable were condemned to live outside the camp, not because of their medical state but because of ritual impurity. They were required to change their appearance, wear rags, and cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” (Leviticus 13:45–46).

Thus they were barred from worship, cut off from the covenant promises. The priests offered neither cure nor hope — their duty was to preserve an ideal society, guarding against anything that threatened the nation’s holiness. Uncleanness and sin were to be expelled.

In this we can discern a parable. A small blemish of sin may grow if not treated, deepening and spreading until conscience is dulled and we are estranged from God’s presence. Yet the sufferer was not morally worse than others; any person might fall ill. The issue was ritual, not moral corruption.

But what has this to do with us? We possess medicine, science, and psychology. We think less of spiritual cleansing and more of medical cure. Yet even in Jesus’s time the link between sickness and sin persisted. When the disciples encountered a blind man, they asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2–3, NIV). Sickness was not a judgement.

By the time of Christ, purification laws had become burdensome, keeping the unclean perpetually from God. How could such people draw near? Jesus went beyond ritual cleansing. He touched the afflicted. He did not condemn but restored. He did not merely cleanse; He cured. A man with leprosy begged him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him (Mark 1:40–42, NIV).

The man was restored not only in body but in family, community, and worship.

“Come near,” Jesus seems to say. “Welcome. Let me make you clean.” The cleansed might then offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving (cf. Leviticus 14:10–20), yet the greater sacrifice is that of Calvary. There Christ bore our impurities and restored us from exile, that we should no longer dwell outside the camp but be brought into God’s presence.

As the hymn declares:

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come. (Charlotte Elliott)

Leviticus on Priests

Leviticus 8:1-17

The Ordination of Aaron and His Sons

The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast, and gather the entire assembly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.” Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

Moses said to the assembly, “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.” Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also tied the ephod to him by its skilfully woven waistband; so it was fastened on him. He placed the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece. Then he placed the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the sacred diadem, on the front of it, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them. He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them. He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him. Then he brought Aaron’s sons forward, put tunics on them, tied sashes around them and put headbands on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

He then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it. Moses also took all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys and their fat, and burned it on the altar. But the bull with its hide and its flesh and its offal he burned up outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.

John 17:6–19

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

John 10: 1-18

The Shepherd and His Flock

“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

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Christians are a holy priesthood under Jesus

A few years ago Alison and I spent a long weekend in Rome.   It's a fabulous place - full of character and history, with ancient artefacts and modern shops, cobbled alleyways and wide piazzas. It's also full of people, with noisy streets and mad drivers. When we visited St Peter's Basilica early in the day, it was so busy that we couldn't get in - the queues snaked back through the square so we gave up and went in search of a coffee.

And as we left, we stumbled across the papal outfitters.  It's a small shop just behind the Basilica in a side-street, with a window full of priestly garments in all sorts of brocades and golds with gorgeous embroidery.   And a few statues of saints thrown in for good measure. And there, at the bottom of the display, a pair of red velvet slippers that the Pope apparently wears beneath his white cassock, perhaps when he has his feet up in front of the TV.

It all made my black & white Church of England robes look a little dull by comparison.   We just don't do that level of decoration, at least at our reformed end of the Anglican spectrum. And I think the priestly robes that we heard about in our Leviticus reading would also make mine look a little dull.

We've just started a new 5-Sunday series from the book of Leviticus, that strange and sometimes confusing OT book that's full of the rules and regulations God set for the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. Last Sunday at HAO we heard about the blood sacrifices to purify the people from their sins; this week we have the ordination of the priests who will manage those temple sacrifices.

You'll remember that Aaron was the brother of Moses, who led the people out of Egypt; and he had four sons, who were to serve as priests alongside him. And the reason the people needed priests, as Oliver explained last week, was that a sinful people, tainted with the sin of Adam, cannot exist alongside a holy God, in the same way that darkness cannot co-exist with light; and blood sacrifices were required to remind the people of the gravity of their sin and to enable them to be cleansed.   And priests were needed to administer those sacrifices.

These priests were literally playing with fire, hence the detailed instructions from God.   This was no religious game - the priests were ministering before a frighteningly holy God - frighteningly holy but also abounding with love and compassion such that he gave the people this complex set of rules for their own preservation. Beginning with the priests.

In this Chapter 8 we see the priests being set aside, and washed and clothed for service in the sanctuary.   So let's look a little closer and see what we can learn about what they had to do - and more importantly, what that means for us now some 3500 years later.

1. Dressed for the part

Leviticus 8:6-9   Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also tied the ephod to him .. He placed the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece. Then he placed the turban on Aaron's head and set the gold plate, the sacred diadem, on the front of it, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Special robes marked the priests out as having special significance, being in a special state - analagous to wearing black for mourning or white for a bride. It marked them out as serving God on behalf of the people. Exodus 28 gives us more detail on these robes. There were layers of clothing:

First, having been ceremonially washed, there was a tunic of fine woven linen, decently covering the body.  Then a sash to keep it in place, made from woven threads of expensive and colourful yarns - blue, purple and scarlet.

Next a robe - made of expensive blue material, probably a bit like a long poncho in design with a hole for the head.  The hem was embroidered with pomegranates and had golden bells stitched to the rim.

Then the Ephod - possibly a bit like a tabard, made of colourful blue, purple and scarlet threads, but this time with gold embroidery also.  Attached to the ephod were onyx stones engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel.

And then the breast piece, a pouch of expensive coloured cloth about 18" square, tied to the ephod with gold rings, containing the urim and thummim.  We're not sure what these were made from but they were articles used to cast lots at God's command.

And finally a linen turban, with a pure gold coronet tied to its front by a blue cord and engraved with the words 'Holy to the Lord'.

It must have been quite a spectacle for this nomadic tribe whose regular garments were probably in simple black or earth colours. Here were sparkling, dramatic, costly robes that must have looked astonishing - beautiful and majestic, perhaps even a bit frightening. And all of this would have conveyed an impression of royalty - priests in royal robes, in royal colours, with a royal diadem on the head.  

But not evoking an earthly sovereign - for the people had no king at this point - their king was God himself.   These priests were attendants of the heavenly King, who was dwelling in the midst of his people in a holy place, the tent or tabernacle that served as their temple while they wandered in the desert.

2. Commissioned for service

Leviticus 8:10-12   Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them. He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them. He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him.

Their ordination began with anointing with oil, just like a king; but continued, if we read on, with sacrifices being offered for Aaron and his sons to purify them of their sin, before they could minister on behalf of the people before the Lord with the daily sacrifices.

And that's the point here - these men, these priests, were representing the people before God, and representing God before the people.   They were his intermediaries - they stood between the people and their God.  There was no way the people could approach God without being consumed because of their sinful hearts; they needed priests to go for them. And the people knew this.  Back in Exodus 20 we read this:

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw Mount Sinai in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."

It was only through the priests and the sacrifices that the people could relate to God; and the role was handed down through their  descendants into the promised land and the stone temple of Solomon that would replace the temporary tabernacle. But this scheme was only ever intended to be temporary, albeit it was to last 1500 years.  For. like much of what we read in the OT, it was foreshadowing something better that was to come. Because eventually those daily sacrifices ceased to be required - and those priests also ceased to be required. How was that to be?

3. A greater Priest

Listen to this passage from Hebrews. It refers to the Lord Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 10:11-14   Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ... by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Jesus came to fulfill all that the OT regulations and rules had pre-figured.   Rather than needing to offer animal sacrifices for sin, he offered himself in his body on the cross - the perfect sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world. Thus he became our great high priest, who removed forever the barrier separating mankind from God. Jesus takes away the need for any intermediaries. For it is Jesus himself - God himself - who now represents us to the Father, and represents God the Father to us. Through him and his completed work we have direct access to the throne room of God.   We don't need priests.

So what am I doing here in my robes? Yes, I am called a priest - but that word does not appear in our New Testaments.  The early church in the Acts of the Apostles was led by elders, not priests. 

I am an elder in the church, not a priest.  You don't need me to intervene between you and God. I am here simply as an elder to help lead and encourage you in your faith. That's why I wear simple robes, not brocades and golds and fancy stoles - because these things are no longer needed.

Because it's through the blood of Jesus, not animals that we stand before our Heavenly Father - that we may boldly approach his eternal throne. But there is more.  

4. Sharing the Priesthood

Listen to these words from the Apostle Peter, written to ordinary Christians in his first epistle:

1 Peter 2:9   you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

A chosen people, a royal priesthood. I've just said we no longer need priests since Jesus became the one perfect mediator between mankind and God.

And yet there is a sense in which you and I are all priests - not in the role of intervening between man and God, and offering sacrifices for sin - but in the role of proclamation - in Peter's words,

that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.

You and I are called to represent God to the world — as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. That's quite a calling.

Are you up for that, Christian? Being his representatives to the world around us, making him known through our lives and our words? For that is our calling.  It's the calling of every Christian.  To be, in our own way, a Priest of God Most High.

And you know we even get to wear robes - but not the glittery robes of Aaron and his sons. For our robes are metaphorical - they are the robes of salvation, the robes of righteousness.  The prophet Isaiah expressed it like this:

my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.   Isaiah 61:10

These robes, the robes that every Christian is given, cover our sin and present us to God as if we were spotless, washed clean in the blood of Jesus. These robes may not be highly coloured, embroidered, brocade garments - they do not sparkle with jewels and gold. And yet they do sparkle - with the joy that Christ brings to our hearts, bubbling over as a witness to the world of the power and love of God. Will you join in that priestly ministry to the lost world around us? For that is our challenge. Even here, even today. To be:

a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Leviticus on Offerings

Leviticus 1:1-9

The Burnt Offering

The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.

“‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

Mark 14:3–9

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

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A Simple Act of Cleaning

I’d like you to imagine standing next to a washbasin with your own child, or with a grandchild, or just with any child. If they turn the tap on and then walk away, what would you say to them? It doesn’t count. That’s not washing your hands. Just dipping them under the water a bit and then walking away doesn’t make them clean.

You’d probably say to them that they have to use the soap, and make sure they use the soap in all the little cracks and corners of their hands. And that’s because soap does a special job of cleaning that water itself doesn’t do.

Now, I didn’t know why we use soap until I actually prepared this sermon and looked it up. Soap, as probably many of you know, actually tears apart the membranes of bacteria. It’s amazing. So they dissolve almost, or at least lose their grip on your hand. Soap disables the bacteria and effectively destroys them. And here we see a principle which will be a central theme as we think about Leviticus together, and that is this: cleaning is controlled destroying.

When it comes to bleach, antibiotics, or surgery, being cleansed from dirt and disease involves controlled destroying. If you washed your hands with soap every five minutes, that soap would start to break down your skin cells. No destroying means no cleansing — but controlled destroying avoids overkill.

From Physical Dirt to Moral Dirt

So the next question is this: if something like soap removes physical dirt, how does moral dirt get cleansed? You can’t break down the cell membranes of evil. But fairy tales and Hollywood have the answer. The bad guy always ends up being destroyed. Lucy and I watched Independence Day last night. What are they celebrating at the end? The alien ship is destroyed in flames. The moral tension between good and evil is resolved by the destruction of evil. That’s why there’s catharsis at the end of any good story.

There’s a reason I’m saying all this: we can’t understand Leviticus without the principle that cleaning is controlled destroying.

For the ancient Israelites, physical dirt, disease, and moral dirt were inseparable. They were all forms of uncleanness. Leviticus answers the question: how can a perfectly clean God live among an unclean people? They assumed something we often struggle with — that God is the ultimate cleansing agent. He is morally pure — holy. And like any powerful cleansing agent, when God comes into direct contact with impurity, destruction necessarily happens.

Leviticus as a Manual, Not a Manifesto

Another hurdle in reading Leviticus is that it’s a manual, not a manifesto. It tells us how cleansing happens, not always why it must happen. God is utterly clean. To approach him involves cleansing — and cleansing is controlled destroying. That brings us to the theme of our reading.

The first part of Leviticus focuses on sacrifice. Sacrifice is how cleansing happens before a holy God. When God’s moral purity meets human moral impurity, destruction results. But in animal sacrifice, God provides a way for that destruction to be redirected onto a substitute. That’s why verse 4 says the worshipper lays their hand on the animal’s head. This is the symbolic transfer of uncleanness. The animal undergoes the destruction that would otherwise fall on the person.

Verse 9 calls the sacrifice “an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” This isn’t because God enjoys the smell of roasted meat. The Hebrew word for anger is related to the word for nostril. Anger makes nostrils flare. The “pleasing aroma” means God’s nostrils are no longer filled with the stench of sin, but with the sign that cleansing destruction has already occurred.

We’re often squeamish about these sacrifices. But so were the Israelites. Animals were their wealth. The gore wasn’t there to shock for shock’s sake — it was a warning. Like graphic images on cigarette packets today, sacrifice forced people to take seriously what it means to approach a holy God. If Leviticus made you uncomfortable, that’s the point. Moral uncleanness is ugly, deadly, and serious.

When Israelites saw the animal destroyed, they were meant to think two things:

1. That should have been me.

2. This is how serious God’s presence is.

That’s why the offering had to be a male without defect — the most valuable animal. It showed how precious God was to them.

Jesus: The Final Sacrifice

So what does this mean for us? God hasn’t changed. But we no longer rely on animal sacrifice. We rely on Jesus — the unblemished Lamb. Hebrews 10 tells us that animal sacrifices were reminders of sin, not solutions. But Jesus’ sacrifice happened once for all. Only God could bear the destruction required to cleanse human sin — and he did so in Christ.

To come into God’s presence today, we must lay our hands spiritually on Jesus’ head and transfer our sin to him. We only need to do this once — but we must do it. The alternative is facing that cleansing destruction ourselves. Sacrifice also showed how precious God is. That’s why the woman in Mark poured out a year’s wages of perfume on Jesus.

Leviticus challenges us too. Do we give Jesus the leftovers — or the best of our time, energy, and wealth? That’s why prayer and Bible study matter. Not fitting God in after everything else, but giving him our best.

Why Bother Being in God’s Presence?

Why go to all this trouble? Because those who have been there will tell you: for this I was made. God is the source of peace, joy, love, and life. His presence is the original — not the photocopy. So this morning, hear the words of the first disciples who encountered Jesus: Come and see.

God in Relationship, God in Action

Isaiah 63:7-9

Praise and Prayer

I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord,
the deeds for which he is to be praised,
according to all the Lord has done for us—

yes, the many good things he has done
for the house of Israel,
according to his compassion and many kindnesses.

He said, “Surely they are my people,
sons who will not be false to me”;
and so he became their Saviour.

In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.

Luke 2:41-52

The Boy Jesus at the Temple

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they travelled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.

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At the Turning of the Year: God in Relationship, God in Action

So we find ourselves really at the cusp of the new year. The old year is almost complete. The new year is about to begin. I don’t know whether it was kind of chance that they chose that in our lectionary, because we’ve been following Isaiah in the Anglican Church through Advent, looking at different prophecies from Isaiah authorising the arrival of the Messiah. And obviously, this is a very different passage, the theme is different, and yet it’s allocated to us as our lectionary reading for today. And it’s just perfect for this time of year.

It’s a good thing at the cusp of the change of a year to take stock and ask ourselves, well, how was last year? I wonder how it was for you. Did you achieve the things you wanted to achieve? Did you go maybe to interesting places? Did you keep healthy? Or maybe for you it was a difficult year. Maybe you had illness or disappointment or loss or deep sadness. Frankly, sometimes we’re glad to see the back of the old year if it’s been a difficult, a challenging year. We look forward in the hope that things might be a little bit better in the year to come.

Now, when I look back over my year, there have been highs and there have been lows. Not many lows, but there have been a few challenges. But on balance I think I can say these were outweighed by the positives. There’s a challenge for me at the moment, which is why I’m slightly hesitant. Some of you all know what’s going on. But for me the positive thing that keeps me going has been the encouragement of others, particularly seeing God work in the lives of those around me — and we’ve seen that over Christmas particularly.

I love to see friends, Christian friends, with an enthusiasm for their faith and for the gospel in our towns and villages. I do a bit of work with curate training in the Diocese of Gloucester, and I’ve just seen some fabulous new curates coming through — people with a real burn, a real enthusiasm for the gospel and for their ministry as they’re still in training. And month on month, that’s the kind of thing that keeps me going. I’m encouraged, particularly by the enthusiasm of others. And at times, I, for one, really need that encouragement. And I suspect you do too.

And I love that word, enthusiasm. Do you know what it means? I mean, literally, etymologically, it means possessed by God. Entheos in the Greek. Enthusiasm. Possessed by God. And in the days of John and Charles Wesley and the other great evangelicals, of course, it was a criticism. The establishment didn’t like enthusiasm. It was seen as vulgar, uncontrolled, even maybe dangerous. But for me, I think enthusiasm is biblical. I think Isaiah was enthusiastic about his faith. And our reading reminds us how good it is that we share enthusiasm — our enthusiasm for our God — particularly in the stories of what’s been going on in our lives and how God has dealt with us.

Now, Isaiah is a book — it’s 60 odd chapters, it’s a big book. But it reminds us frequently of the judgment of God on an unfaithful Israel. But amongst those judgments there’s also a peppering of prophetic passages — that’s what we’ve been thinking about in St Mary’s through Advent — the prophetic passages which promise the coming of a Messiah, the restoration of the people of Israel back to the promised land, and so forth. And today’s passage is the very beginning of a long and really quite moving prayer that runs all through the rest of chapter 63 and all through chapter 64, where Isaiah takes stock of how things have been between God and his people. They have rebelled and grieved him, as they seem to have had a habit of doing. But in his loving kindness he rebukes them to bring them back to their senses. So if you get a chance to read chapters 63 and 64 at some point at leisure, it’s worth reading it through. It’s a great prayer. But what we’re going to do today is just see what we can glean from the short passage we had — just three verses. And I’ve got three headings. The first is God in relationship, the second is God in action, and the third is people who tell.

God in relationship.

In verse 8

God said, “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me,” and so he became their saviour.

And then it goes on:

In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

One of the things that the Wesleys and others like them were enthusiastic about was the possibility of a personal relationship with God — that faith isn’t just about attending services and going through the motions, but about relating personally to God. Maybe previously, for many people — and certainly for the Wesleys, and perhaps for some of us too — God was just an idea, something distant, something to which we had no particular connection. And then sometimes, often through a moment of crisis, we turn to God and begin to pray. And to our astonishment, we discover that there is someone on the other end of the prayer. And so that prayer becomes the beginning of a relationship which we never really understood was possible. There is a new connection. Verse 8 puts it like this:

“Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me.” And so he became their saviour.

It’s that complete honesty of prayer that makes it valid — as we reach out to God from the very depths of our heart, particularly if we’re struggling in some way. From the depths of our being we cry out to him, and he takes our hand and becomes our rescuer, our saviour.

We know that in Isaiah’s day it was Israel, of course — and only Israel — that had that special covenant relationship with God as his chosen people. But that was only ever meant to be an example to the rest of humanity, a kind of beacon to demonstrate how God and all of mankind could relate to one another. And this is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. And we started our service with those words of Simeon at the temple:

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

You see, God in relationship — not just to Israel, but God in relationship to the entire world, to you and me, as much as to anybody else. And because God is in relationship with us, he is also emotionally connected. And so we read this in verse 9: *“In all their distress, he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy, he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”

I find it just overwhelming that God can feel the distress in our situations. Our distresses are his distresses. Our pain is his pain. Our suffering is his suffering. Of course, our joy is his joy as well. And perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this. For in Jesus, God has known it all. We read this in Isaiah 53 — we haven’t read it today, but you’ll know it well:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

So what is astonishing is that when you or I are struggling — when we’re low, when we’re depressed, when we’re weepy, when we’re frightened, when we’re anxious — God in Jesus knows those emotions too. He understands. In the words of William Blake, my namesake the poet, he is not a God far off, but a brother and a friend.

God in action.

Verse 9 of our passage says:

In all their distress, the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

If you experience someone else’s pain or distress, there is often a natural and quite powerful drive to do something about it. In my previous job as a GP, people would often bring very difficult situations to me in surgery — a newly diagnosed cancer, a family member struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, or a very difficult domestic relationship. And as a doctor, of course, I would feel some of the pain of those situations. But as a professional, I also had to remain a little distant in order to preserve my objectivity. It’s hard to help someone if you’re an emotional wreck alongside them, so we maintain professional boundaries.

Does God have professional boundaries? I don’t think so. Does he remain aloof when we suffer? The scripture tells us no. Verse 9 says again:

The angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them.

That’s a key point: with God, he acts. He doesn’t always act according to our timetables. He doesn’t always act in the ways we expect. But be assured — he acts. And I wonder how often he has picked you or me up and carried us, perhaps at times when we didn’t even feel his presence near to us. “Where were you, God, when I was suffering?” And he says, “That’s when I was carrying you.” He acted in history — in the Exodus, in the Promised Land, in the rescue from Babylon. And you, no doubt, could tell me times when he has acted in your own life. But of course he acts most profoundly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in his letter to Titus: *“When the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us… through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

People who tell.

Our reading began with these words in verse 7:

I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us — yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses.

What is Isaiah’s response to all that he has seen? “I will tell.” He wants to tell. He is enthusiastic to speak of the things of God.

It is good to tell. If you have a great relationship with someone in your life, you don’t keep it secret. It naturally spills over into everyday conversation. I know somebody sitting not far from me who was probably talking about her wedding plans every five minutes — because you want to. You’re excited about it. You want to talk about the person you love, the one who means so much to you. If we have a relationship with a God who is so loving and so compassionate — who feels our pain and carries our weaknesses, who carries us and who saves us — then of course it’s going to spill over. We will want to tell.

Now, we may not all be blessed with the gift of evangelism. We may not be very articulate about it. We may not know where to begin. But gently, respectfully, and tactfully, we will probably want to share that relationship with others. We don’t preach at people. We simply share what we’ve seen and heard. That’s what a witness does in a court. And the most powerful witness for God, of course, is a changed life. A distinctive, Spirit-filled Christian life should be attractive. A new life with a passion and a love for the Lord who created and redeemed us — even enthusiasm for him — should draw others in. Maybe the changes he is making in our lives, as he remakes us and rebuilds us, will draw people to ask about him. Perhaps people will be curious to know why we seem to have such hope and such joy in Jesus Christ, even in the midst of our sufferings.

But of course, the people Isaiah is speaking to in this passage are not non-Jews. He’s speaking to his fellow Israelites — his fellow church people, if you like. It was really important for a people who were losing their way in Isaiah’s time to be reminded of their relationship with God. “Remember what God has done for you,” Isaiah is saying. “Rededicate yourselves to him.” And what a message that is for us as we stand on the cusp of a new year. As we turn into a new year, we too need that encouragement.

In our own day, we receive that kind of encouragement through our home groups in the benefice, through things like Thursday Fellowship here, and through other gatherings. In those places we sometimes exchange stories of how God has been working in our lives. That is a great encouragement to us. We should talk about these things, because it builds us up as we share our experiences of the grace of God in our lives. It brings glory to his name, and it encourages and builds up our brothers and sisters in our congregations.

So there we are — our three headings are done.

And as we bid farewell to the old year and welcome in the new, can I ask you: are you also enthusiastic? Are you God-possessed in your relationship with God in Jesus Christ? Are there things for which we want to thank God, because he carried us through them in this past year? And even if we’re struggling at the moment — if there are things in our lives that are difficult, that are challenging — we may pray that in time we will also be able to look back and see what God achieved through our trials.

And then, in our turn, with Isaiah, we may also tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us. Yes — the many good things he has done for my house, according to his compassion and his many kindnesses.

To Us a Child Is Born

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;

they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,

as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered

the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

Luke 2.1-14

The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

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To us a child is born

Recording and transcript unavailable

The Promise That Stands Forever

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-11, 16

God’s Promise to David

After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”

That night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?’ … Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning 11and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: … Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

Luke 1:67-79

Zechariah’s Song

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.

He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David

(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),

salvation from our enemie
and from the hand of all who hate us—

to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

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The Promise That Stands Forever

Recording and transcript unavailable