A sermon preached at Kowloon
Union Church on Sunday 3 January 2016
by Paul Cooper. The scripture readings that day were Jeremiah
3:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-14; John 1:1-18
First of all, grace and peace
to you all! If that's a good enough beginning for St Paul, it's good enough for
me. It's great to be back at KUC for both Calli and I, with so many friends and
so many good memories. But I don't just bring my own greetings; like St Paul, I
bring greetings from brothers and sisters in Christ at our own home church;
from St George's Church, Littleport. And should any of you be in the area, not
far from Cambridge, please drop by and we'll make you welcome. We did try and
lock Phyllis up in a Priest's Hole, but we let her out again!
Our Gospel reading this
morning is very well-known, and it's likely that you've already heard it this
Christmas – it's usually read on Christmas Morning. There's a story about the
reading that depends on it being well-known! In the 17th century,
King James the first of England and sixth of Scotland, the king who authorized
the King James version of the Bible, was very hot on witchcraft. He passed laws
against it, and even published a book about how to detect it. And he even
sometimes heard witchcraft cases in person. Anyway, someone came before him
claiming that a witch had afflicted him with an evil spirit so that he fell
down in fits when the beginning of John's gospel – the reading we've just heard
– was read. Well, they had to try it, and indeed, when “In the Beginning was the
Word” was read out loud, the person fell
down in fits. But King James was a clever man! He then read out “Εν αρχῇ ῆν ὁ
λογος”, and nothing happened. But what he'd read was the original Greek version
of St John's Gospel! And he dismissed the case on the excellent grounds that he
was sure the Devil understood Greek.
So, “In the beginning was the
Word” is an extremely well-known passage. But it's also a very complicated
passage, and although some of it is easy to understand there's a lot more in
it. A lot of it hinges on “the Word”. In Greek, the language John wrote in,
“Word” is “Logos”, and it means a lot more than the English word implies.
Theologians sometimes call Jesus “the Logos”, to emphasize that calling Him
“the Word” is not strong enough. You see, “Logos” implies not just a name, but
the understanding that goes with it. My own science, Geology, is named after
the Greek words “gaia” and “logos”, meaning something like “Words about the
Earth”. Many other sciences are named the same way – anything that ends in
“ology”, like zoology, cosmology, metorology and so on. So, “The Word” implies
not merely a name, but also an understanding. And there's another strand – in
many cultures, naming an object gives power over it. That's why in the book of
Genesis, we read of Adam naming all the creatures. So, saying Jesus is the Word
implies both that He is the power of Creation, and also that He totally
understands Creation. “In the beginning was the Word” links up with the
beginning of Genesis “In the beginning, God….” Jesus, the Word of God, is fully
God, fully the agent of Creation. And yet we've just celebrated Christmas Day
with nativity plays, and stories of a baby born in the poorest circumstances,
in a stable alongside the animals. John's Gospel emphasizes that the baby whose
birth we celebrated is also the One who was there at the beginning, and will be
there at the end. Jesus, the baby, the child we heard about last week, the
wandering preacher who said “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son
of Man has no place to lay His head”, the condemned man dying on the Cross, was
also the Word that began everything. Something I saw on Facebook summed it up
very well - “There are many babies who become kings, but only one King who
became a baby!” But it goes beyond that, because Jesus being the Word implies
much more than appears on the surface. You see, “before the beginning” is a
difficult idea, and physicists and cosmologists would say it was meaningless –
that time as well as space began at the “beginning” - we often speak of the
“Big Bang” as the start of the whole Universe. Everything we know about the
Universe says that it came into being at a single instant, a very long time
ago. But before that instant, not only was there no Universe, but there was no
time either. SO God, and especially the Word, the author of Creation, exists
outside time and space. The Word is present equally throughout the whole of
time and space. Perhaps St Paul had an insight into this when he quoted a Greek
poet who said “For in him we live and move and have our being.” The Word, who
was the agent of Creation, is not some distant God, seated on a cloud or a
mountain top, but is the very element that we live in, just as a fish lives in
water. We cannot escape God; God surrounds us. The Psalmist makes that very
plain: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you
are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of
the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me
fast.” Today, we might add that even if we went to the furthest Galaxy, we
would still be in the presence of God.
But this great God, the one
who created, supports and fills the whole Universe, is also the one who came to
live among us, born as a baby in that stable in Bethlehem. And He grew up, and
lived and worked in Nazareth until He was called by God to start the ministry
we read about in the Gospels. Last week we remembered that as a boy, He was
aware that God was His father, and throughout His life, we are told that He had
a constant relationship and dialogue with God – a dialogue only interrupted in
those last moments on the Cross; the moments when in agony He cried “My God, My
God, why have you forsaken me?”, taking our separation from God fully on
Himself that we might be re-united with God.
So, we have an amazing picture
of God, who is far greater and more wonderful than we are able to understand,
humbling Himself to share our life on earth. In Jesus, God accepted all the
limitations we exist under, and yet remained God. And yet, as John says, “The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth.” Even though Jesus was fully human, fully like each and every one of us,
the glory of God was clearly seen in Him.
Well, thinking of the Glory of
God and the amazing fact that for the love of each one of us, God humbled
Himself to become a man is all very well, but where what does it teach us?
Well, there are many things we can learn, not least that if God could humble
Himself so greatly, then we too must be humble. But as a visitor here, I want
to suggest something else. You see, looking out from this pulpit, I see a great
variety of people. Men and women, people of different races and languages, rich
and poor, young and old. St George's in Littleport does not offer quite so much
variety! But even there, to celebrate Pentecost last year we read the Bible in
many different languages, and managed at least 7 or 8 – Calli contributed
Cantonese! I'm afraid we did cheat a bit – two of the languages were Greek and
Hebrew, read by Bible scholars! I'm sure that this congregation could manage
many more. But the motto of KUC “Where all are one” embodies a very great
truth. You see, we are all part of the body of Christ, every single one of us,
from the children baptised last week to the elders of the congregation. And the
Body of Christ is universal; it is the visible presence of the Word that was
there at the beginning and will be there at the end. You are one with the
Christians in Littleport, just as you are one with everyone who claims Christ
as Lord everywhere in the world. Just as the Word of God exists throughout
space and time, everywhere and at every time, so too the Body of Christ – the
body of the Word – is universal. Our human limitations mean that we don't see
it, but the Church itself recognizes it. We have read the same readings here
that will be used in a few hours time in Littleport, and those same readings
will be used all round the word – the pattern of readings we use is used by
many churches, not just this one. And similarly, we use the same prayers; the
Anglican communion always has one prayer called the Collect that is the same
everywhere. But we all use the Lord's prayer; we all use the ancient Creeds; we
all worship the same God even though history and disagreements about church
organization mean that we often form separate congregations. But we agree on
far more important matters than those we disagree about!
We are all one in Christ, no
matter what the colour of our skin or the language we speak. And we should
never forget that unity. We know that right now other Christians in the Middle
East, in Africa and no doubt other places are suffering for their faith; their
suffering is our suffering, and we should pray for them, and seek, if possible,
to relieve their suffering. Here in Hong Kong, we must always remember our
unity with Christians near and far. Every church and congregation has strengths
and weaknesses, and if we try and go it alone, we find that we cannot do much.
St Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, compares us to a real body, and says “Even so the
body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say,
“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that
reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am
not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop
being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of
hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”
All Christians EVERYWHERE are part of the Body of Christ, and we are ALL
equally necessary to that Body. Just as the Word of God is one, so too the Body
of Christ is one, and it is only human sinfulness that separates one part from
another. Of course, different parts of the body are different; we have different
purposes and different environments. But we all are part of the same whole,
which is working towards the kingdom of God.
So, let us always remember
that we are one in Christ, and seek to work in harmony with other Christians.
Each part of the Body of Christ has its strengths and weaknesses; it is only in
working in harmony that we can achieve the things that God wants us to do. I
have recently been appointed as the Lay Chair of the committee overseeing our
local group of Anglican churches in England; preparing this sermon has been a
good reminder for me that churches need to work together to present the kingdom
of God to those around us. And so too here in Hong Kong; we all need to work
with our fellow Christians, and there are many things where one church's
weakness can be met by another church's strength. Above all, let us remember
that we are all part of the Body of Christ; when people look for Christ, what
they see is us. We ARE the city on a hill, the lamp on a stand, and we cannot
be hidden while our light lights the world. Each one of us must work together
to be the Body of Christ, just as each church and congregation must also see
it's own place in the body of Christ. St George's, Littleport and KUC may be
separated by many thousands of miles, but we are united in the Body of Christ,
just as we are united with churches nearer to us.
I'd like to end with words
from a hymn, “The day thou gavest, Lord is ended”. It's an evening hymn, but
the second and third verses express very well the idea of the universal body of
Christ:
We thank Thee that Thy church,
unsleeping,
While earth rolls onward into
light,
Through all the world her
watch is keeping,
And rests not now by day or
night.
As o’er each continent and
island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never
silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise
away.
AMEN!
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, January 03, 2016
