Luke 3:1-6: Zap! Suddenly John's grown up.

Time has moved on. At the end of chapter 2, Jesus was 12, but it is "now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius." After this and a careful list of dating evidence (careful, see?) Luke tells us that "A message from God came to John son of Zechariah." That's how my preferred translation, the New Living Translation, puts it. Others say "The word of God came to John." Those are the words that we find so often in the Old Testament prophets: "The word of the Lord came to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel etc"

Back then it seemed a pretty common place occurrence, but after Malachi, the last of the prophets, it stopped happening. All that happened from 400 BC until now happened without God's word coming clearly and specifically to one individual. 400 years of silence.

But now, prophets are back.

John sets to work, tramping the countryside up and down the course of the river Jordan, and calling people to undergo a baptism - to come and be immersed in the river as a sign they want to change their ways and receive forgiveness for their wrongdoings.

This is new. No one has told Jews to do this before, not quite like this. Some religious groups practised ritual washing, like the Essenes from Qumran (who wrote the Dead sea Scrolls). At other times a stylised bath was used to mark a transition to becoming a God-follower (a Gentile who wanted to followed Jewish observances). But ordinary Jews had never been told to do this. They were circumcised, they were sons of Abraham. That was enough.

Why?

Luke answers in terms used by Isaiah - this is a getting ready. This is building the runway - creating a level road amidst the lumps and bumps of a desert land. And on this runway, dressed in his high-vis jacket (made of camel hair) John the Baptist stands, holding those strange, reflective table tennis bats that guide a plane in to land. Because a plane is coming - a massive jumbo jet of God's salvation, and we need to get ready for it, and be prepared to jump on board.

Luke 2:41-52: Jesus gets into trouble

How did Luke find out all the stuff that he recorded? Obviously he heard the teachings of Jesus, which were passed on by all the disciples and the later Christians, but how did he learn all this intimate stuff about Jesus' birth and early years?

We don't know for certain, but experts strongly suspect that he interviewed Mary. Today we hear something that sounds just like something your mother may have said to you "Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere."

Of course these days, children have much less chance to wander off by themselves and get lost. We are all far too aware of the dangers for that. Jesus would have enjoyed more freedom. On a rare trip to Jerusalem, he would have spent days with his extended family and friends, perhaps only seeing his parents in the evening when they broke their journey at some overnight resting place.

Galilean Jews made the long trip to Jerusalem only occasionally. At Passover certainly, once a year, but perhaps no more often than that. So Jesus would have regarded this as a holiday. So would the rest of his family. Their guard would be down, fun would be had, celebrations enjoyed. Perhaps this was Jesus' Bar Mitzvah year - even more special.

Whatever the reason, when they started for home, Jesus stayed behind in the Temple. It wasn't until the evening halt that Mary and Joseph missed him. After an anxious night they turned round and headed back to Jerusalem. Arriving late, they couldn't find him before having to spend another, even more anxious night without him. Every parent's nightmare.

I can remember one holiday on the beach, losing sight of my son. I found him after 5 minutes - hardly a disaster - but the memory stays with me. Imagine 48 hours having gone by, and still no sign of him.

Exhausted, desperate, sick with worry, Jesus' parents stumbled into the Temple. Had they finally decided to pray for help? Or maybe they hoped that someone there would have seen him, or be willing to put up a "Lost Boy" poster.

It took a while to find someone important. Apparently they were all in a meeting and not to be disturbed. Joseph would have waited, but Mary, driven by her mother's imperative, walked straight in.

And there he was.

He was the reason for the meeting. A great theology debate was in session, and a 12 year old boy was calling the shots. Mary scolded the boy, apologised to the elders, and hustled him out. And Jesus gave the original wide-eyed innocent stare: "But why did you need to search? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?"

Luke 2:21-40: Er... careful, that's my baby!

At a christening, everybody wants to hold the baby. At Jesus' circumcision, which was a lot more painful for him than a good old C of E christening, the same was true. Mary and Joseph had no sooner walked into the Temple with their little bundle of joy, than he was being fawned over by two elderly and saintly individuals.

Simeon and Anna gladden my heart. Two faithful people, who never gave up on God's promises, though they both had to wait very nearly a lifetime, were there to see the beginning of the fulfilment of God's word.

God had whispered in Simeon's ear that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah, and God whispered to him again on that fateful day.

Mary and Joseph knew what they had to do - every firstborn child, if it was a boy, belonged to God. It's alright - you were allowed to keep him, but you had to "buy him back" first. Every Jewish mother would have thought back to the story of Hannah (1 Samuel 1) and hoped that their son would be as famous as Samuel. All except Mary, that is, who already knew that hers would be famouser still. She and Joseph turned up with the poor people's payment - two birds - to watch their son circumcised and dedicated to the Lord.

But first, God's whispers brought Simeon hurrying up. He reached a hand to delay Mary as the young couple moved through the crowd to find a priest, and with their permission took Jesus into his arms.

I guess tears were in his eyes. How lucky he was to have been given this moment. But as he handed the baby back, the tears started for a different reason. He saw a glimpse of the pain that Mary would have to bear, and warned her that being Messiah's mother would hurt.

Before Mary could do more of her careful pondering, Anna bustled over to excitedly tell anyone who would listen how special this baby was.

How nice it must have been for Mary and Joseph to have been made welcome by two old, wise faces. Going into the huge Temple would have been an intimidating experience, but these two new friends must have put them at their ease.

I love watching elderly people in my church doing the exact same thing when a couple nervously bring their child for baptism. I'm so glad I don't need to remind them to do this important job, and I'm so glad they make the effort. Who knows what each baby will become? How precious each one is to the Lord!
How important it is that we make them all feel at home.

10 Commandments: Do no Covet

This week we started a new series on the 10 commandments. What follows is more or less what I said as I preached the first sermon, preceded by an introduction that attempts to explain why we are studying the 10 Commandments at this time.
We're basing the series on J. John's book, Just 10

Why study the 10 Commandments?

In the Great Commission, Jesus told his disciples to: “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
That's our task.
How are we going to do it?
We sit here in the church, and usually we think about our immediate neighbourhood, our parish, and wish that more of the people who lived in these houses round about would join us here in church. And we try to invite them to things. Sometimes they come, like to the Carol Service, or Searching for Faith. But not many of them keep coming, and we might feel frustrated, or dispirited.

Occasionally we think about people further away – in the wider world, and we do some things, we give some money, we pray for people working overseas, or for the Street Pastors or Future Hope in Hertford, who reach out further than our immediate circle.

But if that's all we ever think of, it's very hard for us to actually ever do much. Because some of us don't even live in this neighbourhood, and some of us who do, don't spend much time here – most of our waking hours we're out at work. And what's the point is saying to a work colleague, “would you like to come to my church?” They might come as a one off, but there's no way they could ever belong to this church, is there? So we're beginning to think differently. You'll have heard me talk this last year or so about our frontline. Because there is somewhere that is neither the parish nor the wider world, where we have our greatest impact on pother people – and that's our frontline. And what we're trying to do is to think how we can be as effective as possible for God on our frontline.

Last August, we had a discussion service in which we thought about all this, and now we're acting on something that came out of that service. One little group said, “What about the 10 commandments?” 

And I'm very glad they did, because I firmly believe that we have our greatest influence with people, not just by what we say, but by who we are, and the way we do things. If we're people who live life God's way, we're going to be a little bit different, a little bit special. Perhaps we'll be a friend in need, or a listening ear, or someone who can be trusted to do the right thing by our colleagues, or friends, our acquaintances. So as we look through the 10 commandments, we will notice how they are not the world's way of doing things. And we'll notice as well, that although they may be hard, they are worth it, because they add up to a better way of living.

We're going to study them in reverse order, so today it's Commandment number 10:

Do not Covet

The National Lottery prize this week reached a new record: £60 million. The website tells me that if you had won, you would be able to say 'Hello' to a fortune to better Adele, who is worth £50M. You would also be able to ace Andy Murray who is worth £48M and drive much further than Rory McIlroy who is worth £38M.


And yet, 90% of those who win a jackpot keep playing. That's the power of covetousness.
According to Oxfam, the richest 1% of the world's population now own as much as the other 99%.
And they keep on getting richer. Very very few ever seem to say, “I think I'm rich enough.”

What's wrong with coveting?

Essentially, we are letting things, not God be the centre of our hearts and our minds and our wills.
When we become Christians we admit that God is our heavenly Father and that he knows what is best for us. By making him our Lord we accept that he is the wisest judge of what is good for us. But coveting takes our lives away from his rule, saying not “He knows best,” but “I know best.”

Coveting leads to other sins.

If we start thinking that we would like things we haven't got, it won't be long before we are tempted to lie or to steal or to be unfaithful in order to get what we want.

Coveting also prevents us being generous. It stops us from loving our neighbour because it makes us put self first. Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Better to be outward-looking than inward-looking.
Better to be generous than to be selfish.
It's hard to imagine how you can have a sharing and caring community of people where coveting is the rule of life. It will corrode a church.

Finally, coveting cheats us of contentment.
Let's not forget that the 10 commandments aren't hoops that God sadistically expects us to jump through – they are actually for our own good.
If we give in to coveting, we will never be satisfied. It's like trying to walk to the horizon, or looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It can never be reached.
Jesus said, “Don't store up treasure on earth, store it in heaven – it'll never get moth-eaten, or go rusty, or be stolen by thieves. And where your treasure is, there will your heart be.”

How do we change? 

The trouble with coveting is that it's everywhere. It's thoroughly approved by society and it's easy to do.
No one can tell when you covet – it's the invisible sin.
You can even do it in church while pretending to listen to a sermon(!)
We need to realise that while there are good desires, there are also bad ones. We need also to realise that the society that we live in shapes our desires and wants to encourage us to covet.
But the source of the problem is not advertising, or the media; it is our own hearts. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.
Perhaps I can suggest that during the next week we evaluate ourselves and try to answer the following questions.

1. What are my main desires?
2. Are they good or bad?
3. To what extent do they control how I live, how I relate to others and how I spend my money?
4. Do I really believe that having these desires granted would give me contentment?
5. What are my priorities?
6. What should they be?

It's a new year. It's a good time to take a look at yourself, and see if God suggests that something needs to change.

We must realign our desires

When a plane drifts off course the pilot will carefully change direction to get the aircraft back on its true course.
We need to do something similar with our lives.
Let’s practice reminding ourselves again and again that our true purpose is to know God through Christ and our only lasting joy is to be found there.
Whenever the temptation to desire something that is not ours to have comes upon us, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus alone gives a real peace of mind.
To those who come to him Jesus makes a wonderful promise. 'So do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well'

If you serve Jesus you can have your cake and eat it.
If you don't serve Jesus you will find that you neither have the cake nor get to eat it.

We must keep our hearts in shape 

But it is not enough to do this only once.
You do not stay fit by running one race; you need to keep your fitness by exercise.
This is true here.


Let me give you some tips.

First, acquire an attitude of gratitude. 

Learn to thank God for what he has given you. The Apostle Paul said, 'I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances'
He was in prison when he said this, but he was able to rejoice in his difficult circumstances.
It is sometimes trite and simplistic to say 'count your blessings'. Nevertheless the idea of listing the ways we have been blessed is one that is very valuable.
Now doing this may be an act of the will; it may be something that we have to force ourselves to do. But as we do it is very likely that our hearts will follow.
We need to practice being grateful.

Second, be a wise steward. 

It is often a temptation to look out for more when we are unable to look after what we have already.
Linked with this should come the healthy realisation that the more we have we been given the greater that we are responsible for.

Third, focus on relationships, not things. 

'Better to be poor and reverence the Lord than to be rich and in trouble.’ ‘Better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meat where there is hate' (Two Proverbs from the Bible).
Relationships have a lasting value.
God desires for us to have good relationship not only with him but also with each other.
The call is to love people and use things; so often we do it the other way about: love things and use people.
If someone looked at your lifestyle, at your time, at your bank statement, what would they show about the value you put on relationships?

Finally, be a giver. 

The best antidote to coveting is a brutal one: it is to be freely generous with what we have already. The best remedy for covetousness is to be someone who gives away generously, whether money or possessions.
Jesus talked a great deal about giving.
The weed of covetousness finds it hard to become rooted in the soil of a generous heart.


We all have a choice.
We can covet - and we will find we have cheated ourselves.
Or, we can let Christ live in us and clean us - and we can be contented; both in this life and in the life to come.

Luke 2:8-20: The Messiah is in our midst

Yesterday, the man who fell to earth died. Today, there's a fanfare to welcome someone who came for very different reasons - not to save his homeworld, but to save his adopted home. David Bowie's character, Thomas Jerome Newton, was told, "you're only welcome if it's beneficial to us." What sort of welcome will the Son of God receive?

It looks like sudden change of strategy. Beginning in obscurity: a baby born far from home, squashed into a corner of a strange house. Now, the heavenly spotlights are turned on, and amazed and frightened shepherds were the first to know about this momentous occurrence.

Shepherds weren't usually the brightest bulbs in the packet. If you were an oldest son, you would inherit the farm. if you were the second, or the third, you might become a shepherd - maybe looking after your older brother's livestock, or earning a pittance looking after somebody else's.

There were certain times of year when shepherding was a 24 hour occupation - lambing time, for instance. In this country, shepherds used to kip down in little huts on wheels, which could be towed to the field where the sheep were. That would have been luxury, probably, for the shepherds in today's story. But while they took it in turns to sleep. and helped out the ewes who had trouble giving birth, and wondered what to do with the weak younger twin lamb that had been rejected by her mother, something happened.

It had never happened before, and has never happened since.

No wise and earnest prophet of old ever had a vision like this. Even Ezekiel, who specialised in the most psychedelic of visions, would have been jealous. The heavenly PA is switched on, angelic music blares out, and an unmistakeable message booms across the lonely fields.

"Today, the Saviour has been born. Yes, the Messiah himself! In David's town, David's greater son is now among us. Go and see for yourselves, he's sleeping in a feeding trough!"

The shepherds run to see, and to tell. Mary sits quietly, reflecting carefully on all that the shepherd's story contained. For me, there is an echo of that word again - carefully. Luke is writing carefully, the magi were told to go and search carefully, Mary thinks carefully. No, the word isn't in the original text, but it has sprung so clearly to mind.

Take care. The Messiah is in our midst.

Luke 2:1-7: The second miracle baby

Luke has begun his story with two miraculous pregnancies, and the second has been flagged as more important than the first. The parent(s) were more enthusiastic, it is more miraculous (no father!) and while one is going to be a prophet when he grows up the other is, well, destined for greater things. What was it that Gabriel said?

"He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!"

Oh yes, that. Just imagine being the mother of that. It's bad enough these days, knowing whether you're going to have a boy or a girl. Imagine if ultrascans could be that sophisticated?
"This one's going to be an engineer."
"Mrs Smith, I'm sorry to have to tell you but your daughter is going to be an alcoholic."

I'm not sure I'd want that pressure before the birth. It's bad enough worrying about the futures after they've been born!

And of course, to add to the pressure,  there's the political turbulence. What sort of world are these boys going to grow up in? One where the Empire can demand you leave home for weeks just because the Emperor wants to count you all.

And for Mary, there would have been another dimension. She was now "obviously pregnant." Why's that a problem? Well, she and Joseph have just got married, and it's perfectly clear to anyone who can do the maths, that the baby was conceived out of wedlock. These days, teenage pregnancy raises frowns and tuts - back then, women could be stoned as adulterers. Maybe that's why Joseph decided to take Mary with him. Apparently only Joseph had to travel to his home town, no stricture was put on Mary, but he felt it was better to take her away from the disapproving gaze of the neighbours. Better for her own safety.

Things aren't going so smoothly for this second miracle baby. And it gets worse when Mary goes into labour. No proper place to stay. Why? We can only guess, and it probably wasn't as bad as having to give birth in a stable. That's a layer of legend that we've added to the Christmas story. Joseph would have sought out family members to stay with, and normally every house would have a guest room, but for some reason that wasn't available for them. Maybe other visitors had got there first. So Mary, Joseph and the baby were bedded down in the main family room, which would have had animals at one end, people at the other. Hence the manger.

Back to the words of Gabriel. Read them again. "very great...David's throne...everlasting kingdom..." And swing the camera lens back to the small, two roomed house, already accommodating an extra family in the guest room, and the extra lodgers having to make use of the animals' space to make their baby comfortable.

What is God playing at?

Luke 1:67-80: Sing, Zechariah, sing!

I love Zecariah's song. His enforced nine months of silence is broken with a beautiful outpouring. I only wish we knew the tune, then I'd be humming it all day.

His song has three verses. In the first verse, he simply bursts forth with praises and delight - thank you God - you are saving us!
In the second, he looks back over all that God has done in Israel's past, and praises him for it, for the sacred covenant that means that little Israel will survive the worst her enemies can throw at her, and remain free to serve God without fear.
Then in the third verse he gets personal, and with a swelling fatherly pride looks down at his son and sees someone who will tell his people how to find this long awaited salvation, someone who will watch the sky and raise a shout: "Look the dawn is coming! The night is over!" Darkness is about to be defeated, and John will lift his voice and call people to stand and face the marvellous light.