Friday, 20 December 2013

Sermon December 15, 2013 Advent 3



“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

John poses this question for his disciples to ask Jesus.  Now this may strike you as a bit strange.  John seemed to have no question that Jesus was the Messiah when he baptised him in the Jordan River.  He even states that Jesus should be the one who baptises John.  Immediately after Jesus comes up out of the waters of the Jordan we have what should have been proof positive that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and there is a voice from heaven saying “This is my Son the Beloved” with whom I am well pleased. What more proof could John require?  But now he seems to be having doubts.  

Well we have to consider the circumstances.  Here John is in prison.  He probably realizes that he is not going to survive the current situation.  He will lose his head over a pretty woman literally.  He will end up being beheaded at the demand of Salome – the step daughter of King Herod.  He is having doubts about whether the long foretold Messiah is actually Jesus. 
He is probably wondering if the kingdom is actually going to come while he is still in this world or has he placed his hope and dreams on the wrong person.  After all there were many false Messiahs around in that time.  They were doing miraculous deeds just as Jesus had done.  It is really not surprizing that he might have had some doubts and wanted assurances.

That is what Jesus gives him.  “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”  Jesus tells him that he can discern who Jesus is from the results of his acts.  By his fruits we shall know him.  In effect, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  

John is posing for us the question we need to consider at any time but perhaps even more so at this time of the year.   We are in Advent - a time of preparation for the coming of the Christ child.  We are preparing again for the birth of God in our lives.  How then do we know in what form God is going to be born in us again?  Jesus tells us that we will know God is working in our lives by what is accomplished.  John knew that there could be signs of miracles and wonders but that wasn’t necessarily proof. 
There were many miracle workers in those days who proclaimed that they were the Messiah.    One we know about from the book of Acts is Simon the magician. 
Now a certain man named Simon had previously practised magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great. 10All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, ‘This man is the power of God that is called Great.’ 11And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
The question that we have is how do we determine the true work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in the church and in the world?  There certainly are miracles and wonder galore today.  When I was younger the TV evangelists were popular.  Do any of you remember Katherine Kuhlman?  She was probably the first TV faith healer of note.  There were many faith healers before them.  There has been a long line of them since Katherine – people like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.   We have amazing events which are pictured on You Tube and other places on the internet.  Can we simply look at results?  People seem to be healed at one of these mass events and later it has been shown that it is simply the power of suggestion by the faith healer.  Do we look at the number of people attending a church to determine if they are truly doing the work of the Holy Spirit?  If it is simple numbers of bums in the pews that count – everyone in this Diocese should attend North Park Church in London or a similar church.  

If we look at our own lives, how do we know that we are living as God intends us and doing what God intends us to do?   We are faced with a mindboggling number of choices in our lives.  How do we know what is right for us and if the choices are the right ones?   I believe that we need to exercise one of gifts that God gives to us - one of the gifts that is often neglected these days.  We need to use our gift of discernment.  The early church knew the need for discernment.  They were living in times that were to a surprizing extent similar to ours.  They knew that many miraculous things which occurred in the world were not the result of the Holy Spirit.  The question for them was how to tell the work of the Holy Spirit from things that were not of God.  That is the question that we need to consider today in this season of Advent.  

I am currently reading a book by Morton Kelsey appropriately titled Discernment.  He notes that the New Testament tells us that discernment is “the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those which do not.”  In the book he gives us helpful guidelines in discerning whether things are of the Holy Spirit of not.  

He lists some things to consider if a charismatic leader has gifts that are from the Holy Spirit.
1.   Does he or she use the gifts for personal prestige?
2.   Is the gift used in a way that hurts others
3.   Does person uses deceit or fraud to enhance the gift
4.   Encouraging spiritual experience for the experience itself rather than because it leads to a deeper Christian life
5.   Using the gifts to put yourself in a superior position and lord it over others

The book of Acts reports how Simon misused his gifts by trying to bribe Peter and John:
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19saying, ‘Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’
True discernment is not easy.  The Anglican Church is struggling to discern where the Holy Spirit is moving in the church today.  We face many challenges and questions in our Diocese about how we should be church and what that should look like.  Right here at St. Anne’s we have one example of discernment.  There was discernment by our leaders that there was a renewed call to be church in this place.  It will require continued discernment on the part of all of you here - not just your ordained and lay leaders - to discern how you all are called to be the church.  Each of you have gifts and it is my hope that each of you will work to discern how God is calling you to be part of this community – this part of the Body of Christ.  May God continue to bless you this Advent and in the coming year.  Amen. 

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