Monday, December 25, 2017
Sermons from St Peter & St Paul, Seal, Kent: The Owl's Christmas - a story for Christmas Day
Sermons from St Peter & St Paul, Seal, Kent: The Owl's Christmas - a story for Christmas Day: To listen to the story click here Audio version I don't read the stories I tell on Christmas day - they are told, without notes ...
Sunday, December 24, 2017
A child is born 24: Birth and rebirth
If you've missed any of these posts and want to read them click on the Advent 17 link (also in the right hand sidebar) and you should get the whole series.
To all who received him, who believed in his
name he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, or
of the will of the flesh or of human will, but of God.
We have heard 23 stories of physical
births in the Bible, but we will finish with an equally important spiritual
birth, the new birth God promises to everyone who is open to receive it.
The famous prologue to John’s
Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God…” functions a bit like a birth
story. It sets the scene for Jesus’ adult ministry, just as the shepherds and
wise men do in Luke and Matthew’s accounts. At the heart of John’s message is the good news that God in Christ comes to dwell with us. In the birth of Christ to Mary, we find new birth too. We are ' given power to become God's ' children. We can learn to live as part of his family, as we were always meant to, at
home with him, sharing in his life.
It isn’t a new idea. Back in the
Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel were told by Moses that
“you were unmindful of the Rock that bore
you, you forgot the God who gave you birth.”
(Deut 32.18) We were always God’s children, right from the
beginning, and God longs for us to remember this, living the life of love and
peace which he intended for us. “Beloved,
let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God.” (1 John 4.7). As we follow Jesus, says the New
Testament, we can rediscover our original sonship and daughtership, draw close
again to God with confidence, and learn to live out the “family likeness.”
That’s what John means when he says that we need to be “born again”.(John 3.16) We are born again in Christ, and he is born again in us.
·
In what way would you like to be “born again”,
have a fresh start, this Christmas?
·
Do you feel that you are part of the family
of God, his beloved daughter or son? If not, what stops you feeling like that,
and what can you do about it? (I am always happy to listen if you want to
talk!)
·
Pray for yourself, that you will find the
“new birth” you need this Christmas.
I hope you've enjoyed this series on Biblical births. Here is a poem I wrote many years ago to accompany the gifts I gave my friends. It seemed an appropriate way to end this series.
I hope you've enjoyed this series on Biblical births. Here is a poem I wrote many years ago to accompany the gifts I gave my friends. It seemed an appropriate way to end this series.
What gift?
A poem written to accompany my inadequate Christmas presents to my friends.
I longed to give you gifts that spoke the tumbling darkness
and the still beyond.
I longed to give you gifts that said
"The best things in the world have happened,
new-made, in the sharing of our dreams."
I longed to give you gifts that said,
"We have brought in the tides together.
With each word offered we have swept the beaches
sculpted sand,
and washed up flotsam,
jetsam,
and the drowning sailors."
But, though I did my best,
the shops, filled with dream-hungry people,
shouted empty platitudes,
and come what may,
a foil-wrapped parcel is a clumsy substitute
for heartbeats and a hand's touch.
So, without the words we still must wait
while this expectant world enwombs its God
and moulds his body in the pulsing darkness
wrapping white bones with the stretched flesh of our cares.
And still we wait,
while he swims through the salt sea
learning length of leg and reach of flailing arm.
And still we wait.
And after all this...what then shall we find?
What gift deliver?
What new child, wet, wriggling, bear in blood and tears,
when shoppers all have wrapped their dreams in sleep,
and God, for you, into my cobweb net of hopes
himself, at last, is born?
Dec 89. Anne Le Bas.
Https://annelebas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/what-gift-brief-apology-to-my-friends.html
Https://annelebas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/what-gift-brief-apology-to-my-friends.html
Saturday, December 23, 2017
A child is born 23: The birth of Jesus
Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and
wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn.
The story of the birth of Jesus –
the last birth story in the Bible – is also its most familiar. Only Luke
records the actual birth. Matthew simply tells us that “after Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came” (Matthew 2.1). He doesn’t say
how long after – it may have been anything up to two years later – and he says
nothing about the birth itself.
We don’t know how much, if any,
historical fact there is in either Luke or Matthew’s stories (they are quite
different, and cannot easily be mashed together, though this doesn’t stop us
trying to!). Both Luke and Matthew, however, set the birth in Bethlehem, and
make the point that Jesus is born to an ordinary, perhaps quite poor family –
there is no room for them at the inn. Both their stories stress that Jesus is
born against a backdrop of danger. Matthew has Herod try to find and kill
Jesus. Luke tells of them being forced by a census to make a risky journey to a
place where they have nowhere to stay. Both Gospels use the birth stories as
ways to introduce the kind of themes they will dwell on in their stories of the
adult Jesus. This is God’s son. In him, God comes to dwell with us, not
choosing a life of wealth and power, but the vulnerability of a child, born in
a world that is hostile to vulnerability then, just as it is now. Throughout
his life he will identify with the vulnerable and marginalised, and his life
will culminate in the ultimate vulnerability of death on a cross.
·
What is your earliest memory of hearing the
Christmas story? Who told it to you first? Can you remember what you thought
and felt about it?
·
As you read the story, be aware of what in it
feels like good news to you today?
·
Pray for children born in poverty today, for
whom there is “no room at the inn.”
Friday, December 22, 2017
A child is born 22: John the Baptist is born
The angel said: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah,
for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and
you will name him John”
There are only two accounts of
births in the New Testament, of which this is the first. The angel Gabriel
appears to the elderly priest, Zechariah, as he offers incense in the sanctuary
of the Temple. The angel tells him that his equally elderly wife, Elizabeth, will
bear a child who will be the forerunner of the Messiah. Like Samson and Samuel
(Dec 16 & 17), he will be set aside from birth as a ‘nazirite’ (v.15). He
will not drink, and will be filled with the Spirit of God. Zechariah cannot believe this news, and is
rendered speechless by Gabriel until the birth. Elizabeth conceives, however,
just as the angel promised, and joyfully proclaims that “the Lord has …looked favourably on me and [taken] away the disgrace I
have endured among my people.”
When the child is born, much to
his relatives' surprise Elizabeth insists that his name will be John, not
Zechariah, after his father, and Zechariah’s speech is restored when he
confirms this by writing it on a tablet. He sings a song (traditionally known as the Benedictus), which celebrates this child who will
“give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins,”
and “light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
We know, though Zechariah and
Elizabeth do not, that John will end up being executed by King Herod, beheaded
on the whim of his step-daughter, Salome. Zechariah and Elizabeth rejoice at
his birth - he is another of the long-awaited miracle babies of Scripture. He brings them joy now, but the task he has been born for will cost him
everything.
·
We don’t know whether John’s parents were
still alive when he started his ministry in the desert, or when he was killed .
If they were, what do you think they might have felt?
·
Are there any stories in your family of
people who did unusual, brave or risky things?
·
Pray for parents whose children are aid
workers or put themselves in risky positions for the sake of others.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
A child is born 21: Gomer bears children to Hosea
“Go take for yourself a wife of whoredom and
have children of whoredom.”
The prophet Hosea is commanded,
according to the book that bears his name, to marry a woman who is a prostitute,
as a message to the people of Israel. This seems extraordinary to us, but this
sort of prophetic action was quite common in the Old Testament. Gomer bears
Hosea three children whose names all in some way reflect what Hosea believes
God is saying to his people. They are facing destruction at the hands of the
Babylonians. According to the prophecy, their nation has been fatally weakened
because they have made alliances with other nations and worshipped other gods.
The first child, a son, is named Jezreel,
after the place where King Ahab, husband of Jezebel, was defeated and killed.
It was a byword for savage punishment. The second child, a daughter, (one of just two girls whose births are recorded in the Bible) is called Lo-ruhamah, which means “not
pitied”. Then finally there is another son, Lo-ammi, which means “I am not yours”. The people of
Israel have forgotten God’s covenant with them “You will be my people and I
will be your God.”
But all is not lost. After the
destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon God promises he will bring
his people home and repair the relationship they have with him. Hosea 2.22-23
promises a day when God will “sow” his people once again in the land (Jezreel
literally means “God sows”). He will have pity on Lo-ruhamah, (“not-pitied) and
will say to Lo-ammi “you are my people; and Lo-ammi will reply “you are my God.”
Hosea’s prophecies are full of
the forgiveness of God, despite endless provocation. Perhaps Hosea learned this
within his very difficult marriage.
·
What is your reaction to this story? What do
you imagine family life in Hosea’s house was like?
·
Our names matter to us, whether we like them
or not. Do you know why your parents chose your name? Do you think it suits you, and if not, what
would you like to change it to?
·
Pray for families living amid the destruction
of war as Hosea's family did, who feel they are deserted and forgotten by God and
the world.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
A child is born 20: Solomon and the prostitutes’ children
‘ When I rose in the morning to nurse my son,
I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning,
clearly it was not the son I had borne.”
Until very recent times it was
impossible to be certain who a child’s parents were. DNA testing can now tell
us this, but in the past, children mixed up at birth might never be reunited
with their true families.
In this story, King Solomon, who
was famed for his wisdom, is presented with an apparently impossible dilemma.
Two women who are prostitutes share a house. Both have baby sons within days of
each other, but according to the woman who speaks first to Solomon, the other
woman’s child dies when she lays on him. Allegedly, she swapped her dead child
for the living child of the other. But the other woman denies this. There is no
way of proving it one way or the other.
Solomon’s judgement is shocking.
The child should be cut in two and half given to each woman. Instantly one
woman – the story says it is the mother of the living child – insists that the
child be given to the other woman. At least he will then live. This is enough
to convince Solomon that the woman prepared to give him up to save his life is
the one who is his mother. Even if she isn’t (there is the possibility that she
is mistaken herself) the child will be better off than he would be with a woman
who was happy to see him cut in half just so that she could win the argument!
·
What do you think was going on in the head of
the woman who was apparently happy for the child to be cut in two? (v. 26)
· In this case the squabbling mothers are apparently not related. It is more often the case that, children become the battleground
between warring parents who have split up, or become focuses for tensions
between parents and grandparents or in-laws. Have you had any experience of this?
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
A child is born 19: Bathsheba bears children by David
The woman conceived; and she sent and told
David, “I am pregnant”.
David had become king over
Israel, and like many kings, thought that meant he could have anything he
wanted, including, in this case, the wife of another man, Uriah, whom he had
seen bathing when she thought she was unobserved. She became pregnant by David.
This was highly inconvenient since Uriah was one of David’s commanders, and was
away leading David’s troops in battle. David brought Uriah home and tried to
induce him to sleep with Bathsheba, so the child could be passed off as his.
When that failed he had Uriah put in the frontline of the battle, hoping he
would be killed, which he soon was. David then married Bathsheba. We don’t know
what she felt about all this. The only words we have of hers are the fateful
message she sent to David “I am pregnant.”
Nathan, the prophet, came to
David and challenged him with a story about a rich man who stole the one ewe
lamb of a poor neighbour to feed a guest instead of taking one of his own,
large flock (David had many wives and concubines by this stage.) When David
expressed his horror at this story, Nathan told him that “you are the man”, and
denounced his treatment of Uriah (he doesn’t mention his treatment of
Bathsheba!) The punishment for this would be that Bathsheba’s child would die.
Despite David repenting and fasting, the child died a week later.
David and Bathsheba mourned, and
in time, they had another son, Solomon, who went on to succeed David to the
throne, and whose wisdom was legendary. It is a sad, sordid story; there were
no winners. Traditionally Psalm 51 is attributed to David, a psalm of lament
and repentance for his actions.
·
Bathsheba’s voice is never heard in the
story. What do you think she thought and felt as it unfolded?
·
The Biblical writers interpreted the death of
Bathsheba’s first child as a punishment on David. What do you think of this?
·
Pray for children conceived in circumstances
where their birth is viewed as shameful by the society around them.
Monday, December 18, 2017
A child is born 18: Ruth gives birth to Obed
So Boaz took Ruth and she became
his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a
son. Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you
this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall
be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law
who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.’
The story of
Ruth, Naomi and Boaz, told in four short chapters in the book that bears Ruth’s
name, is one of the most beautiful in the Bible. Many years before, Naomi and
her husband went from Israel to Moab in a time of famine. Her two sons married
Moabite women, but before any children could be born to them Naomi’s husband
and both her sons died. Naomi, a lone, childless widow, decided to return to
Israel to take her chances there, hoping to throw herself on the mercy of her
extended family. She encouraged her Moabite daughters in law to remain in Moab
and marry again, but Ruth insisted on coming back to Israel with her. “Where you go I will go… your people shall
be my people and your God my God” (1.16)
When they
arrived in Israel, their position was very precarious, but Ruth’s quiet care of
Naomi didn’t go unnoticed. A distant relative, Boaz, saw Ruth and fell in love
with her, and eventually they were married. Their child was counted as the
child of Naomi’s dead son, so that his line continued. In the closing verses of
the book we discover that Ruth and Boaz’ child was named Obed, and “he became the father of Jesse, the father
of David”. Ruth, a Moabite outsider, becomes the grandmother of the
greatest king of Israel. You might also notice from the story that Boaz is a
descendant of Perez, the child of Tamar (see Dec 13). Two women who would have
been regarded as disreputable outsiders, are part of his lineage, a lineage which
eventually leads to Jesus. Matthew mentions both these women in his genealogy.
(Matthew 1.3 and 1.5)
·
How far back can you go back in
your genealogy? What do you think your ancestors would think of your life now?
·
Are there stories of migration in
your family? How do you think that affected those involved?
·
Pray for immigrant and refugee
families, as they make new lives in a foreign land.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
A child is born 17: Hannah gives birth to Samuel
Hannah said; “for this child I prayed and the
Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him.”
Hannah is one of the two wives
of Elkanah, but while Peninah has many children, Hannah is childless. It is a
recipe for rivalry and ill-treatment, as we have already discovered in earlier
stories. Desperate, Hannah prays at the shrine at Shiloh. (Jerusalem has not
become the capital yet, and there is no temple.) Her prayers are so intense
that the old priest, Eli, thinks she is drunk. When he hears her story he is
moved and prays that God will grant her prayer. When her child is born, she
names him Samuel, which may be a play on the Hebrew word “listen”.
It may surprise us that, as soon
as the child is weaned, Hannah brings him to Eli to be brought up at the
shrine. He is another ‘nazirite’ , like Samson (see yesterday), with a special
purpose to fulfil. Samuel’s job will be to listen for and proclaim the word of
God to a people who have forgotten what it sounds like.
·
What do you think of Hannah giving Samuel to
Eli to bring up? Why might she feel she needs to do this? Could you have done
it?
·
Are there times in your life when you have
desperately wanted something? Did you get what you wanted? Did you tell anyone
about your desire, or keep it to yourself? Did you tell God about it?
·
Pray for parents and children separated from one another, whether by choice, ( at boarding school for example) or by circumstances beyond their control, through war, poverty, illness or family breakdown.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
A child is born 16: The birth of Samson
Now be careful not to drink wine or strong
drink, or to eat anything unclean, for you shall conceive and bear a son. No
razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth
. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.
(13.4-5)
The story of the birth of Samson
is another story of a childless couple who eventually have a special baby, but
in this case, there is no manoeuvring or manipulating. Manoah’s wife, who isn’t
named, is visited by an angel and told she will conceive. Her husband doesn’t
seem to believe her, but the when the angel appears to him too his is finally
convinced. If that reminds us of the stories of the births of John the Baptist
and Jesus, that's not surprising.. The writers of their birth stories appear
to have modelled them on stories like these.
Manoah and his wife are told that
their child is to be a “nazirite”, someone set apart for a special purpose. The
first verse of the passage sets the scene; Israel is under attack by the
Philistines, a warlike tribe which threatens their existence. Samson will be
given extraordinary strength to lead the fight against them. You can read the
rest of his story in Judges 14-16.
Eventually Samson would be captured by the Philistines, having given away the secret of his strength to Delilah. He had started to assume that it was his gift to do what he wanted with, rather than the the gift of God, given for the service of his people. Ultimately, though, as a prisoner, "eyeless in Gaza" his strength returns, and he destroys his captors, their temple, and himself. It is a brutal end which may shock us now - maybe it seems too much like the actions of a modern day suicide bomber. At the time it was written though, it would have been seen at the time as an inspiring sign of his devotion to God.
Eventually Samson would be captured by the Philistines, having given away the secret of his strength to Delilah. He had started to assume that it was his gift to do what he wanted with, rather than the the gift of God, given for the service of his people. Ultimately, though, as a prisoner, "eyeless in Gaza" his strength returns, and he destroys his captors, their temple, and himself. It is a brutal end which may shock us now - maybe it seems too much like the actions of a modern day suicide bomber. At the time it was written though, it would have been seen at the time as an inspiring sign of his devotion to God.
The people of the Bible had only
the vaguest idea of how babies were conceived, and they viewed every baby as a
gift of God, a miracle. The conception of children like Samson was simply a bit
more miraculous than most – a sign that they were set aside for some special
purpose.
·
Are there any stories in your family of
“miraculous” births, babies whose conception or birth defied the odds?
·
What do you think the effects of knowing you
are a “miracle” baby might be on the child as it grows up?
·
Some children’s lives seem set on a
particular course from an early stage, for good or ill. They may have a
particular talent and feel duty bound to develop it, or they may have been told
that they “will never amount to anything” and feel that their future can never
hold out any hope. Pray that all children might be free to find God’s purpose
for their lives.
Friday, December 15, 2017
A child is born 15: Jochebed gives birth to Moses
The woman
conceived and bore a son: and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him
three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for
him , and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and
placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
At the beginning of the second chapter of Exodus,
we meet a nameless woman who has a nameless son. He could be any one of the
Hebrew babies whom Pharaoh is trying to get rid of. This is “anywoman”, and
“anybaby”. There is nothing at all unusual about this woman. She feels just as
most mothers would about their children in this situation, a fierce love and
protectiveness. There is nothing unusual about the child either. He is
vulnerable and helpless. We aren’t told until verse 10 that this is Moses, the child who will grow up to lead his people out of slavery and back
to the Promised Land from which their ancestors came. The mother’s name, we
discover in Exodus 6.20, is Jochebed.
But she isn’t the only mother in the story. Pharaoh’s
daughter, who takes pity on the child she finds and takes him under her
protection, acts as a mother to Moses, as do her attendants, who must realise
the truth, but keep it to themselves. Miriam, his big sister, also keeps a
motherly eye on him. There is a whole network of mothering around Moses, which enables
him to survive into adulthood.
·
Imagine you are Moses’ mother, making the
papyrus basket in which you will entrust him to the crocodile infested river
Nile. What might you be thinking and feeling as you weave it?
·
Who nurtured and protected you as a child?
Did you have more than one “mother”, as Moses did?
·
Pray for those who “mother” other people’s
children – other family members, foster parents, friends, neighbours, teachers,
children’s group leaders etc
Thursday, December 14, 2017
December news from Rochester Diocese
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