Readings: Psalm 85:
1-2, 8-13, Mark 1: 1-8
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our
sustainer. Amen.
In studying the
Old Testament reading for today – parts
of psalm 85 - I was suddenly very aware
of a sense of timelessness – a strong and faithful thread stretching from the
day of the psalmist to us today. It was the pattern of the psalm – of
acknowledging the greatness of God in our lives and our history, the
forgiveness of sin, the word of God given and expanded on, and words of hope
with which to journey on with. A
familiar liturgical approach that we continue to follow in services today. It is also an inspiring sermon, powerful and
evocative, one which deserves our close attention.
For is was just
that – a word spoken in the midst of the daily life of the community and the
regular worship of the people of God.
Not from a mountain top nor in the midst of prophetic fervour but spoken
into the ordinary and the everyday, amidst the ups and downs of life – a word
acknowledging the past but with a sense of urgency for the now and a clear
vision of God’s intentions for the future.
May I read you the words of the psalmist again – they begin with a
reminder of how good God has been to the people in the past, of how their
waywardness has been forgiven and God’s love for them is constant, then we hear
this vision for the hope of the world :
Let
me hear what God the Lord will
speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who
turn to him in their hearts. Surely his salvation is at hand for those who
fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast
love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each
other. Faithfulness will spring
up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.”[1]
The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.”[1]
In this stunning
imagery of hope and promise for the salvation of the world, we have four core
phrases or words:
steadfast love,
righteousness, faithfulness and peace, spoken into and lived through the lives
of all those who believe in and trust in God.
This is what God’s
salvation for the world will look like.
And there is a pointed message in here for those who believe that
salvation is only about a person’s individual experience, or is something that
happens once and on which you can rest.
You know that annoying person who comes up to you and says: ‘have you
been saved?’ The biggest thing wrong with that question, to my mind, is that it
is set firmly in the past tense, a one off experience, a done and dusted
moment. We have so lost the art of the
active tense – we talk reformed not reforming, baptised not continual and
ongoing baptism, ritualised gathering round the table instead of a continuing
experience of the presence of Christ and, particularly at this time of year,
remembering only the historical birth of the Christ child and ignoring the
continuing and renewing life God births into us and into the world.
The thrust of this
sermon of long ago is that salvation is an active and now experience, anchored
in the faithfulness of the past yet reaching into the hope of a future yet to
come.
And there are some
quite helpful threads for us.
The psalmist gets
that salvation is not so much about the individual as the whole people of God
and our relationship with the world we live in.
They get that
salvation of the world is way beyond our limited and individualistic vision but
stretches from the heavens to the deepest earth - across time, through many
differing journeys, and in ways we have no knowledge of - a confident, all encompassing vision of the
kingdom of God.
And finally the
psalmist also gets that salvation is not about the elect escaping hellfire and
brimstone in some distant future, but that it is a promise of now and future
blessing and hope for all people, the active living out of steadfast love,
faithfulness, peace and right living.
Powerful preaching indeed.
And then we move
forward in time to John the Baptist who is another thread in God’s vision of
salvation for the world – he speaks of the coming of that blessing, of
preparing the way for Jesus – he too looks back to the prophecies of Isaiah,
speaks with urgency of the need for redemptive action now and holds out the
promise of what, or who, is to come. He
certainly had no concept of sitting back and waiting for some perfect future time
– and he definitely didn’t hold back on his clear vision of the coming of
salvation, of the coming of the one we had been waiting for. I had a random thought – if that was today
and we were expecting this important person to arrive, we would be filing
detailed security plans, have several options if the weather was uncooperative,
be trying to pin down a time and place for television coverage, the media would
be anticipating what this important person was going to say and why they were
coming and we would be checking the background of this weirdo who credentials
were hazy and didn’t seem to have any financial or online footprint. Sorry – minor detour there.
Prepare ye the
way. Await the coming of Christ. Live into the vision! So how do we as the people of God do
that? As community and individuals, we
honour and remember all who have gone before, where we have come from and the
wisdom gifted to us by the faithful of all time.
We recognise the
vastness God’s mercy and love, and the limits of our understandings, trusting
in God’s definition of welcome and salvation, not ours.
We are clear in
our vision and active in our belief that where steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace
kiss each other, then there is salvation
for the world – we are the hands and feet of Christ – welcoming, loving,
compassionate and kind – especially to the vulnerable and unlovely.
We are a community of God linked through time and place with
all who are now, who have gone before and all yet to come – the threads that
connect us are strong and flexible, and require us to lean on and share with
each other. And for me, and I hope for
you, we embody this Christian living in
the sacrament of holy communion – as we
gather around the table where so many have come, where all are welcome and
where Christ Jesus is the host and, in the mystery of now and yet to come, is with us. This is a place where steadfast love and
faithfulness meet, where righteousness and peace kiss each other – for here we
are in the presence of Christ, in the company of love. Amen
Margaret Garland
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