Shine always and forever
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Shine always and forever 6 February 2011
The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Isaiah 58:1-9
- 1 Corinthians 2:1-12
- Matthew 5:13-20
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
Later on this morning we will rejoice in the baptism of Toby, son of Catherine and Gwyn, and welcome him into the church family. But at this point, I feel I need to confess that long, long ago, when Catherine was a baby, I very nearly dropped her on her head! While I was at high school, I babysat for the Connolly family, and I remember once being left in charge of the three children and we were playing outside on a swing. I recall that Catherine who was just a toddler, rather suddenly decided to get off the swing, and it was only the combined efforts of big sister Vicki and myself grabbing her that saved her from landing on her head!
On another occasion I was babysitting and staying overnight, and I recall having gone to bed, and then being awoken from a deep sleep by Catherine crying. I can remember looking at my watch and seeing it was 2a.m., I let her cry for a while, thinking surely her parents will be home by now and will get up to her…But eventually I cottoned on that they weren't and hadn't, and out of bed I got! Well maybe there's a little poetic licence in those stories…
But Catherine is alive and well today, with two children of her own. I guess we probably all have similar stories in our families, and we can wonder how any of us survive childhood at all, let alone learn to cope and thrive in the big wide world.
Over the next few weeks, in fact right up to the beginning of Lent, our Gospel readings will be taken from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7). There are many who would claim to have no personal Christian faith, but who would say that in the Sermon on the Mount, we have some of the most sublime moral teachings in existence, and that if we want to find values or a moral basis on which to bring up a child, then we could do worse than start with the Sermon on the Mount.
But if we really start to unpack what Jesus says in these three chapters, the things he espouses are profoundly counter-cultural in our 'what's in it for me?, have now, pay later' society. For a start, there are the Beatitudes where we hear that those who are blessed by God are those who are poor, in mourning, meek, merciful, peacemakers, persecuted - that doesn't sound like a recipe for a feel-good future for any of us! And then Jesus is going to make some pretty extravagant demands on us in the areas of forgiveness, reconciliation, sticking to commitments, generosity, love for enemies - now there's a great one for election year!
So often at that point I think we say but hang on a minute, Jesus is just raising the bar too high, he's not living in the real world here, if only he knew what it was like to live in a world like ours, these things wouldn't roll off his tongue so easily…
When Jesus says, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:20), don’t you feel like giving up before you've even started? I know I do, and think perhaps it would be better to go off to the 7s and have some fun!
But that is the danger of just lifting the three chapters of the Sermon of the Mount out of the whole context of Matthew's gospel, and of the four chapters which come before which set out Jesus' coming into our world, this world, his baptism where he is confirmed in his identity as God's Son, and where he is empowered by the Holy Spirit for his ministry.
Jesus is going to fulfil the law given to God's people, Israel, by living it out. The law, the torah was not ever just meant to be dry legal text, it was the ground-rules for a way of life, a lifestyle so the people of God could walk through life in God's presence, and model to the world the values and lifestyle of God's kingdom.
But God's people have always struggled to live out that distinctive lifestyle, just as we do. We all find it so much easier to pay lip-service but not to go the hard yards when our own self-interest is threatened or it costs us, to compromise and go with the flow, or to get hung up on the minutiae and lose any sense of God's big picture.
So God comes to us in Jesus to walk the talk, to model the way. He is not going to ask of us what he is not willing to do himself. So in the rest of Matthew's gospel we hear of Jesus teaching and living out the values of God's kingdom, bringing healing, forgiveness, new hope and life, and calling disciples to follow him and live out this lifestyle in their turn.
But of course we know that way Jesus walked would be costly, would involve opposition, rejection, it would lead him to a cross. But that place of ultimate self-giving love, of laying down his own self-interest, of letting go of the power and control of which we are so fond, of living God's kingdom way till it hurt, living it to the death, will be vindicated by God in Jesus' resurrection to new life, a new beginning, new hope. This is the picture we see in every baptism, and I think particularly in the baptism of a child, who epitomizes for us powerlessness, dependence, trust, openness to receive the love of God and the love of other people.
Toby's parents will bring him in faith today and ask for baptism, for the beginning of a journey that will take him a lifetime to live out, just as it is for all of us who have been baptised. Our baptism, whenever it was, is a once- and-for-all claiming by God which takes us a lifetime to grow into. It launches us forth on the way into the kingdom of heaven, and perhaps we wander a bit on the way, we come and go, our faith waxes and wanes, but it is always a way we can come back to, a journey we can take up again with the people of God.
For most of us it takes a lifetime to hear God say to us what he said to Jesus at his baptism, "you are my child, the beloved, with you I am well pleased" (Mt 5:17), hear God say that to you afresh today.
Hear the words that are said to the newly baptised: "Child of God, blessed in the Spirit, welcome to the family of Christ". Live into that identity as child of God, live into the blessing of God's Spirit with you, live into the family of Christ.
Hear the words spoken as we give a candle to the newly baptised: "Walk in the faith of Christ, crucified and risen, shine with the light of Christ." Unpack the shorthand of that - the Christ we follow was crucified but is risen. The light of Christ has shone on us that we may reflect that light to others.
I heard an interesting word yesterday that has stuck with me - 'overlap'. We as Christians are called to live in the overlap between heaven and earth. Perhaps we can see that very easily in a baby, a sign of hope, of a future, that God wants this world to go on. As Wordsworth put it so beautifully, a baby comes to this earth 'trailing clouds of glory…from God who is our home' .
But perhaps the challenge is for us too to see ourselves as living in the overlap of heaven and earth, of living as signs of God's kingdom coming. After all we are the ones who pray so often 'your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven'. Should we be surprised that we are called to be the answer to our own prayers?
We are to be the city on a hill, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the church in the marketplace, literally as we are here.
But don't panic! We are all in this together - everything Jesus asks of us, he asks us to be together. You (plural) are the salt of the earth, you (plural) are the light of the world. A city is made up of people, it is a community.
And Jesus is with us by his Spirit, Jesus who was willing to be raised up on a cross on a hill for us, that he might draw all people to himself, and be a beacon of hope and new life.
This is the adventure we're called into at baptism, a lifetime of living into God's kingdom, of helping to build heaven on earth in a world crying out for hope and healing and reconciliation. It is a high calling, the calling of our baptism, let’s recommit ourselves to it together: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Mt 5:16). Amen.
