When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the
shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing
that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with
haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they
saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who
heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all
these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was
called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
I don’t know about you
but when Christmas is over, that’s it for me and I have to keep reminding
myself that the Christmas season carries on for several more weeks in the
church’s calendar. That conflicts me – and it’s probably an indication of how
much I’m influenced by the secular approach to Christmas which seems to go
forever with decorations still up and now looking rather out of place to me – but it’s a discipline for us all to distance
ourselves from the now rather empty vestiges of the secular Christmas season
and to concentrate more on the spiritual elements. Even so, my heart sank just
a little when I first read today’s passage. “Really? Haven’t we already done
this to death?” It seems now strangely out of synch to be looking at the story
of The Shepherds – again
– when it’s been a week since we
celebrated the birth of Jesus. So why does the lectionary deliberately give us
this passage? What’s new in it for us to consider that we’ve not already
forensically examined and sung about over a week ago?
Well, I think the answer is probably found in v 21 which, at
least in my edition of Luke, is a separate little section; a bit of a link
between the Nativity and the passage about Jesus’ presentation in the Temple,
belonging perhaps more to the latter than the former. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and
he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the
womb.
Circumcision on the eighth day was a standard Jewish ritual
and, easy as it is to overlook, it’s a reminder that Jesus was born and brought
up in an observant Jewish household. Therefore it’s a useful reminder that the
Jesus claimed by Christianity was a Jew, and an observant Jew at that, and the
clues to support that are there to be found throughout the Gospels, sometimes
to the surprise of many.
So, yes he was circumcised, but I suppose you could argue
that this may have been a lip-service ceremony much as baptism has become for
many today. But it didn’t stop there: Luke 2 talks about the twelve year old
Jesus being taken to the Temple in Jerusalem. Why? Because this is about the
age that Jewish boys go through the ritual of Bar Mitzvah, another significant
rite of passage for observant Jews.
The Gospels are largely silent about Jesus’ early life but I
think we can be sure from the other clues in the Gospels that he was brought up
in a religious household: his Jewishness was part of his identity and shaped
his spiritual and moral outlook.
Jesus was Jewish not only in a remote, abstract way, but he
was Jewish in all the very concrete and particular ways of everyday life: He
observed the Law; he went to the festivals; when he healed lepers, he sent them
to the priests in accordance with the rules in the book of Leviticus; he paid
the tax which supported the Temple in Jerusalem; he went to synagogue services
regularly; he even taught people to do what the Pharisees said, although he was
often critical of their interpretation of the law. He didn’t so much criticise
their teaching as their application of religious law, which he thought was too
literal and lacking in compassion. His criticism was that they were inclined in
their worst moments to follow the letter rather than the spirit of the law but
he held The Law of Moses in the highest regard. He taught that the Law of Moses
would never pass away until heaven and earth passed away at the consummation of
all things.
Even though the next generations of Christians gradually
recognized that the Law of Moses was not binding on those who came to God
through Jesus, they also knew that the Law was not bad, nor were those who
obeyed it necessarily misguided.
So both in the life and teachings of Jesus and in the lives and
teachings of the Disciples, the Evangelists and St. Paul, we find compelling
examples of practicing one’s faith not only with good deeds, with moral
behaviour, but at the same time through practicing the customs and expectations
of their community.
How do we apply this today? Well, both Jesus and the apostles
show us that as part of their Jewish experience, regularly taking part in the
full range of Jewish ceremony, practice and ethics was a given, in the same way
for us, part of the Christian life involves regularly taking part in the
services and activities of our community, the church, based itself on the life
and teaching of Jesus.
Now, I don’t want to give the impression that theirs was
always a joyful participation or that sometimes the motivation wasn’t simply
out of a sense obligation, because, after all, they were human, but they stuck
with it, and perhaps for us that’s the learning point as we embark on another
new year.
It may seem silly to suggest that our attendance at church,
our observance of special feast days, a disciplined prayer life, even our
membership of the PCC or various other committees, make some kind of difference
to our spiritual well-being, but there are good reasons for thinking that these
practices are quite important. Not only do we have the example of Jesus and his
immediate followers; we have the evidence of our own lives.
I think it may be a legacy of my days as a teacher, but I’ve
always argued that the habit of working on a particular skill or activity day
in and day out, inevitably makes us better at what we are doing, even if
sometimes it’s a struggle. If that’s true of our navigating the sometimes scary
landscape of computer competence, which many in our congregations never thought
they’d manage because their generation grew up before the computer was even a
gleam in someone’s eye, then the same is true of our getting to grips with the
more scary idea of a regular time of prayer with God.
As an example our own Lois Toulson didn’t become an Olympic
standard diver without a great deal of effort and personal discipline and
sacrifice. I’d argue that same level of discipline and self-denial might well
be involved in our questioning the values of our age and society and seeking
the mind of Christ over a wide range of ethical issues. I know that the “What
would Jesus do?” approach is a mantra that sometimes sounds trite, but it is
valid nevertheless – and I would add to that, “What would Jesus think (about
such and such an issue)?” and “What would Jesus say (in reply to such and such
a statement)?”
Now, not only is churchy behaviour important as practice for
worship; it’s also important as a way of training ourselves in discipleship, to
the new identity we are developing in the lifelong pilgrimage of faith that
we’ve embarked on.
So here we are at the start of a new year when we
traditionally make new resolutions – which very often fall by the wayside. Have
you made any this year? I’ve not because I think I’ve given up on giving things
up: I know I should eat more sensibly and exercise more. I also know I won’t.
But as I was thinking about this it occurred to me that “giving up” is one side
of a coin with “taking on” the other side. Taking on: perhaps this is the ideal
time to follow in the spirit of Jesus’ example and seek to be more disciplined
about our religious life, even when sometimes it feels like a chore.
Now I can’t offer you advice on this because I don’t know any
of you well enough to presume to know what you personally could take on,
concentrate on or do better or more of to more fully engage in the life of
faith either as an individual or as a member of a community, this community. I
can only do that for myself in the same way that only you can do it for
yourselves. Is it a more disciplined prayer life? It might be. Is a more
in-depth study of the scriptures? It might be. Is it being more willing to
share the faith we hold dear with others? Perhaps. Could it be taking that
scary step of making yourself available to be on the reading or intercessions
rota? It might be. Could it be volunteering to be a member of a working party
that takes a deep and searching look at our worship practice? Who knows? The
question each of us needs to be asking ourselves at this time is what do we
feel God is calling us to in this new year which would enrich our own
spirituality and, through that, to enrich the life of the church? This is an
ideal time for a personal spiritual audit and that can feel very threatening
because it implies change – and change is something which we aren’t always good
at. What are the gifts God has given each one of us that we could better deploy
in His service?
But if we believe we have a living faith - as Jesus did, it
is something which needs to grow and develop or we risk the disheartening
prospect of staleness. Has God been laying something on our hearts that we’ve
been holding back on? Have we discussed that with anyone?
Look at the demographic of our three churches. Why aren’t we
growing if what we believe is so important that we would want others to share
it? That’s an uncomfortable question and one that goes to the heart of our
recent diocesan initiative Leading Your Church Into Growth. Another challenging
question is what is it that others see in us, the church, and in Christianity
in general that doesn’t have them flocking through our doors? And as a
supplement to that, what is it that we could be doing better both as
individuals and as a community to bring people in? Once we sense we have the
answers to that, or at least some of the answers, is it then good enough to
weakly say, “Well, we’ve always done it this way. If it ain’t broke don’t fix
it”? Well, in my view it is broken and I don’t mean that in a personal way
about us here because it’s a problem faced by the world wide church – or at
least the church in the West. There is a general spiritual malaise that is
dragging us down and belies our belief that what we have to offer is not just
life-changing, life-affirming, but in a very real sense life-saving. “We’ve
always done it this way. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” is the exact opposite
of the way of Jesus as seen in the Gospels: his whole ministry was about
radical change and challenge to the ways of being religious that characterised the
staleness of the religion of his generation, both individually and corporately
while staying faithful to the faith that underpinned that religion: rites,
festivals, worship, prayer, a love of scripture, discipleship, ethics and so on.
These changes didn’t undermine the faith. Quite the opposite, they enhanced it,
turning something hidebound in tradition to something living and vibrant.
I remember having a conversation with my late mother about
the environment and her reluctance to change to energy-saving light bulbs. A
relatively trivial conversation in itself but her words stuck in my mind: “What
difference can I make?” I think the technical answer to that is synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or
more agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate
effects. We can’t change the world as individuals, but changing the world
starts with small individual acts because none of us knows what little
anonymous incremental steps others are taking which together contribute to real
change - and that brings me back to my earlier question, what is God calling us
to do better, to take on, to begin which would enrich our personal and communal
spiritual lives and which could spread out into this deanery, this diocese and
the wider church?
Think of the change we could unleash if every member of a
Christian congregation made a resolution to take on something related to their
spiritual growth and development in this new year.
Change begins with us.
Amen
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