How can the Jesus way work?

Matthew ends the Christmas story in this real world which God made and loves, yet which tragically is a fallen world where humankind has freedom to act in the worst of ways as well as doing so much good. Jesus is plunged into our scarey violent world.  It looks like the worst start. Grim in the darkest of ways. Why is life like this? Why does God allow this monster Herod to be so cruel. Why are there Hitlers, Assads, and Herods? We are given no answers. This real world means living with many unknowables, so many unanswered questions.  We're human needing to live with unanswered why questions. We're human! And Jesus is human too. 

This is vital for maturing faith to be built on rock. My faith isn’t going to be solid enough unless my Lord and Saviour lives for real.  For his big claims about love, peace, kindness, forgiveness to work, to have any value he has to demonstrate them. For Jesus to change the world he’s got to be in the world as it is.  He’s not shielded in some religious bubble, enjoying comfort when world in misery, an easy life when the world suffers.  To be Immanuel, God with us, he has to be with us. One of us, so no one can say he hasn’t been where I am, hasn’t faced what I face, hasn’t suffered what I suffer.

This raises two questions for me: 1) How can Jesus’ way of love and peace work in this real world.  Read Matthew 2 and you cannot escape the contrast between a raging powerful Herod in the headlines and this refugee baby with nobody parents in exile, returning to a nobody town. What hope is there for the Christmas promise of peace on earth and goodwill among people? For this heralded Prince of Peace whose Kingdom will know no end? Honestly, what chance does Jesus have of changing this world? 

How’s it going to work?   That's a good question. It goes to the heart of the gospel with its good news that God's justice, mercy and love works in a completely different way from this harsh world. Jesus is Lord of a different kind of kingdom . As Jesus develops his ministry he doesn’t answer all the why questions.  Rather he shows us who God is as a Father who loves human beings so much he has sent his Son to show a completely different way of behaving as children in his family. We see Jesus with the crowds, hear his teaching, see his love, compassion and strength all the way to his world-changing sacrifice of the cross. 

I was intrigued by a book that's just been published by Graham Allcott. He begins by telling how in his twenties he became personal assistant to the chief executive of a major charity. Later a new boss arrived and on her first day in the post laughed about making one of the company directors cry. Three quarters of the senior management team left in 6 months. She was a remorseless bully.  He sees this so often that he calls 'ruthlessness and aggression' king in this world. Yet, he argues for another way. His book is called: Kind: The Quiet power of kindness at work.  He reckons that kindness gets a bad press because it’s often confused with being nice. Many assume nice means telling people what they want to hear. No. Being kind is about telling people what they need to hear.  It’s about building trust in a positive environment, setting clear expectations, being humble, slowing down to listen more deeply, appreciate more, memorize connections and gain more understanding. 

By it's title, I thought it was a Christian book. It isn't. It's a business leadership book but, of course, its message about the quiet power of kindness is the best way to lead in business - after all, it's God's way. Looking at those qualities he lists raises my second question.....

A two Parter.

This morning's worship service was designed in two parts because I wanted the congregation first to focus on the adoration of the Magi and enjoy more of the Christmas story. We read Matt 2:1-12 which introduced us not only to the Magi though paranoid King Herod is also mentioned.  Sadly, we often rush too quickly from revelling in the good news of Christ's coming. So first, joy and thanksgiving.

But in part two I confessed that I was dealing with a text I had managed to avoid on my previous 52 Christmas preaches. After I read the text (Matt 2: 13-23) I asked the congregation why I had omitted it. It was pretty obvious!. Because it is so downright depressing. It smashes up the feelgood Christmas vibe. This is the great time of celebration when churches are full and we want to share good news. And there is so much good news. So, let the Magi get away safely and leave Herod as some threatening pantomime figure. But no, Joseph is warned in a dream (by the way God can really work through dreams today as well) to get up, take child and mother,  right then and there in the night. To escape to Egypt to south of Gaza (we've heard of that) because Herod is looking for Jesus to kill him. How utterly brutal, terrifying. They have become refugees overnight. This is a bleak unbearable picture, full of violence and fear.  No wonder I have managed to avoid preaching it these past year. But the more I reflect on it the more I realize -  Matthew takes us to a necessary deep place. And surprisingly it is good news. How can that be? 

We need Jesus to live in the real world where you and I live.  We need Jesus to be real in this world. Two people have told me in the last few days that they have stopped looking at the news. They cannot bear its sadness, the grief in Gaza, those underground cells in Syria  so many stories of misery. I heard some mothers on radio talking about county lines drugs on their estate where their children, as young as 8 are trapped.' It’s a horrific world' said one mother. And for millions of people today the word horrific sums up their experience of this world. 

And this world of the baby Jesus is horrific. A world of such cruelty and suffering where people are imaginably vicious. Why are there people like Herod in this world. Individuals who can act so cruelly?  Called Herod the Great, he did impressive things, was a great builder who brought economic stability to the nation.  A powerful strongman leader, but whose rage, paranoia and cruelty meant he thought nothing of killing anyone who threatened him. He killed his wife, her mother, two sons, and many others including ordering the death of leaders to time with his death so that there would be mourning. Herod is not some kind of pantomime figure. No way. We don’t know how many toddlers were slaughtered in Bethlehem. It's horrific. And when Herod dies Joseph is encouraged to return but is still frightened because Archaelaus, son of Herod, is dangerous too and they have to live in an out-of-the-way place in Galilee called Nazareth, for safety.  And you see this family living in fear and think, why doesn’t God organize an easier path.  But this is the real world where you and I live and we need Jesus to live in it.

(more to come...)

A joy-ful Christmas to you

I wish I could be more personal in wishing you a joy-ful Christmas but this is the best I can do on a blog. Actually, I have been so behind in sending out greetings this year - it's dispiriting when every drop of cards through the letter box (I'm in the UK!) has me scrambling to keep up the pace.  But, especially because it is such a season of goodwill and good news, I keep hoping for understanding friends. 

We had a Taize service at our local church on Sunday, with a choir leading us through Taize music. Included in the programme was a meditation by the gifted writer and painter, Eddie Askew. Surprisingly, it challenged covering up the rough edges of the coming of Jesus with any sentimental, sweeter rewriting. He begins:

Some peasant women in Nicaragua were discussing the Nativity scene set up in church. One said, 'Mary wouldn't have been wearing those beautiful blue and white clothes. She'd have been dressed like the poor, like us.' Another said 'And she had rough hands like ours.  

Meditating on Mary and Joseph's rough hands he continues;

As the baby grew, the hand of God was rough in Jesus' life. From wilderness experience to the life of a wandering teacher, it wasn't easy being God's son. He had to face the doubt, the questionings, the growing hatred, and the rejection of the establishment. And finally the cross. And there the soldiers' hands were rough, calloused and callous, and so was the wood. No Softness there. But through the roughness, love was let loose into the world. And because of the roughness, the suffering and the pain in Jesus' life, the poor of Nicaragua can recognize God-with-us and identify with him. If the hand of God had been only gentle he would have been less relevant, easier to ignore.

The Christmas story is glorious. It does fill with joy. But it should also push us more deeply to meditate on the cost and significance of Immanuel, God with us.  May you have a deep Joy-filled Christmas.

An omission

My record keeping is spotty as is my filing. One of my bulging box files of past talks and sermons is marked ADVENT.  Over 52 solid years the material ranges far and wide, including special services and events. Whenever I open it (not difficult as contents fight to escape the flimsy catch) I often pause to remember where and when these events occurred. And, truth be told, sometimes I look back as an old preacher to see if my previous work on a particular text provides fresh inspiration for a new sermon.. 

So it was a shock to open the box and discover that the text I feel drawn to preach on in a couple of weeks' time is missing altogether.  How could I have never preached on Matt. 2:13-23?  But, when I look at it and remember the context of joyful Christmas services with all their evangelistic possibilities I can understand why I omitted it. It's such a dark passage.  Why would you want to spoil the Christmas mood?

One of the sheets of paper that fell out when I opened the file was a talk for a group of sixth formers. It was held in the famous Round Church, Cambridge, (when it was still used for worship). Not dated it must have been in the mid-80's. What hit me was the title that they gave me.  I am one of those preachers who really appreciates being given a title/theme when an organization invites me, especially when they have prayed over it!  The title was: CHRISTMAS IS FOR GROWN UPS TOO.  It's true that so much of Christmas, its build-up, parties, trappings, presents seems particularly aimed at children. Their excitement is contagious. But these sixth formers were asking for something deeper, because the miracle of the incarnation should never be dumbed down. It remains the stupendous foundation of Christian faith.

I realize that Matthew 2:13-23 does go deeper. I must prepare carefully for grown-ups in a couple of weeks' time.

A fold away funfair

On the busy A14 road, north of Cambridge, we found ourselves behind an unusual looking vehicle travelling fairly sedatedly. It was obviously a large piece of fairground equipment that had been inventively folded up between shutters. Brightly painted panels with intricate decorative strips peeped through, and nestling between them rows of coloured lights. Overtaking the vehicle I had hoped I might discover what sort of piece of fairground equipment it was. But packed away so tightly, it held its mystery. 

Disconnected from a generator it looked dead and inert. It took some imagination to visualize how it would appear on a dark Winter night. Bright lights, moving parts, and music creating wonder.  The first time I was taken to a fun fair is etched on my memory. I was six or seven and my father told me I had been suffering from flu, spending several days in bed. On recovering my father took me down to the market square in the centre of the village of Faringdon. Perhaps I had seen a picture of a fun fair but nothing could prepare me for the sheer rush of exciting immersion into this world of music, colour, and movement. My father put me astride a golden horse. As the carousel began to rotate and the horse rose and fell my father, reminiscing as an old man (which I now know all about), told me that I had a seraphic smile on my face, utterly transported into joy.  I can believe it.   

This fold-up piece of magic on the A14 vividly illustrates how this period of Advent is experienced by far too many people in our secular society. Christmas itself with all the trimmings - lights, decorations, tree, music, presents, food is an extravaganza opened up for celebration. For us, currently it is shut away in drab plastic boxes in the garage, to light up and delight in a few days time. Yet, soon it is over and packed away. A passing highlight.  The God truth of Advent and Christmas could not be more different. Of course it is spectacular that God should intervene in history in the flesh of a baby. There's so much to celebrate but it is not to be packed away as a seasonal moment. This is intervention for all time. The baby grows to become Saviour in the real world, our world. 

I am preaching again (it's rare nowadays) immediately after Christmas on so-called Low Sunday. I am drawn to finish the Christmas story in Matthew's gospel (Matthew 2:13-23).  I always believe in sharing good news and these verses are quite startling about what happens next to Jesus. Where's the good news? Well, I'm working on it. I'll let you know!