Christmas Message

Christmas Day year C 07 Sermon
If Jesus came to be a revelation of God to us...
then... what do we learn about God...
from that very first Christmas?

What could God have been trying to tell us...by coming to us...as a baby in a manger... instead of a great warrior on his valiant steed...or a king on his throne... or a maybe a wall of dazzling light...an all consuming fire? Why did God chose... a baby in a manger?
And what do we learn about God... from that?

Popular Christian writer, Philip Yancey... made a list... of all the connections that popped into his mind...
when he asked himself that question.

Here’s his list. Humble Approachable Underdog and Courageous – Yancey was surprised at what turned up.

Because these adjectives hardly seem appropriate...
for describing the creator of the universe.Humble Approachable Underdog and Courageous... and I’m sure we could all add a few of our own when we think of that night in Bethlehem..

But today I want to take a closer look at Yancey’s list.
Starting with humble... in the first century the Messiah shows up... right in the middle of the great Roman Empire and the religious cult of Caesar... Jesus is born...not as an all powerful controlling God... commanding armies and political empires and moving his subjects around like pawns on a chess board...

No...the Messiah emerges at the edges of the Empire...
in Palestine ... as a baby... who can’t even speak or eat solid food. There were no bodyguards or bright clothes. No entourage except the animals in the stable.
God’s angel messengers on that night... sought out the lowliest shepherds... to announce Jesus’ birth.

Ok what about Yancey’s next adjective... approachable. That’s certainly not what Jewish people expected.
They imagined awe and fear in the presence of God.
Anyone who experienced an actual encounter with God expected to come away scorched or glowing... or maybe half crippled like Jacob. And they were the lucky ones.

Jewish children learned stories of the sacred mountain in the desert... a mountain that was fatal to anyone who touched it. Mishandle the Ark of the Covenant and well ...you would die. Enter the most holy place in the tabernacle... and you’d never come out alive.

And what happens... God makes a surprise appearance as a baby in a manger...among the God’s chosen people who walled off a separate place for God in the Temple...
and refused out of respect from saying God’s name or even spelling it out. [pause]

What can be less scary than a newborn baby... with his arms and legs wrapped tightly against his body? [pause]

So when we talk about Jesus as approachable...in his birth, God finds a way... to relate to human beings... that doesn’t involve fear.

OK what about Yancey’s idea of ‘underdog’...that’s maybe the most difficult of Yancey’s ideas to swallow.

Yet, in the birth story of Jesus... we learn of an unwed mother... forced to look for shelter... while traveling to meet the heavy demands of a colonial government.

She lives in a country... recovering from violent civil wars and like half the mothers on earth today...
Mary gives birth in the East not the West.

She and the son she bears... become refugees...
in Africa where most of the world’s refugees live today.

In his adult life...Jesus would seek allies...not among the wealthy and powerful...but among fishermen and outcasts .

And what the fourth descriptor of God’s act in Jesus...courageous. Yancey believes it would take great courage to bring a saving message of love and peace... to a planet known for its violence injustice and greed.

Yet in the midst of the realities of this world...in the infant Christ... we see a God of grace...prepared to enter into our human frailty... and more amazing...prepared to pay the cost of loving humanity... whether or not we love God back or heed his message of peace. In the infant Christ we see a God of love... not of power.

With all we know now about the nature of the created universe it’s easy to understand why no one has ever seen God…not even so much as a glimpse. Yet this
one-of-a-kind revelation of God…in the birth of Jesus…
has made God plain as day. It’s not a dream…
nor is it an illusion…it happened.
and in this humble birth – God is revealed.

What the Wise Men saw

Advent 4 year A Sermon Astronomy 2

The virgin will be with child... and will give birth to a son, and they will call him... Immanuel"— which means, "God with us."

700 years before the birth of Jesus... the prophet Isaiah made just such a prediction...again during Mary’s pregnancy...
an angel... repeats Isaiah’s prophesy... to her fiancé Joseph.

Would you be amazed to learn... that such a prediction... such a prophesy... could actually find its counterpart
in modern science... a discovery... that helps us confirm ... the actual date of Jesus birth?

And would you be even more amazed... if I told you... that we can now demonstrate... with mathematical accuracy...just what star the wise men saw...
as they approached Bethlehem... two years later... when Jesus was a toddler?

I was amazed. I already knew… that archaeological records… and the modern science of astronomy…
quite independently of the Gospel accounts…
could predict with certainty … that Jesus would have been born… sometime between 3 and 2 BC. That can easily be calculated backwards… from the eclipse that occurred at the time of Jesus crucifixion.

But then I learned that with modern science…
we can also pin point the exact date of Jesus’ birth. And the star the wise men saw.

And would you believe…
the first bit of evidence in all this…
is provided by Jesus cousin… John the Baptist…
in fact the clue is the moment of John’s conception…

Now you’re probably thinking…you’ve got to be kidding Diane…but my authority for this… is actually a Professor of Physics at Victoria University… award winning New Zealand scientist Jeffrey Tallon.

Here’s how Tallon says all the mystery unravels.

The Gospel of Luke… tells us Jesus’ cousin…
was six months older…so John would’ve been conceived…between 3 and four BC. And guess what… just by using the information in the first chapter of Luke… we can verify… the probable date… of John’s conception…independently of the Gospel account.

How can we do this? Because Luke 1:5 tells us…
‘in the time of Herod... king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah...who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah…and Luke 1:8 says...Once when Zechariah's division was on duty... and he was serving as priest before God in the Temple…an angel of the Lord appeared to him.

When Zechariah saw the angel, he was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Don’t be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son...and you’re to name him John…And he’ll go on before the Lord...in the spirit and power of Elijah...to turn father’s hearts to their children and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous...to make ready a people.... who are prepared for the Lord."[pause]

Today we know… from Jewish records kept at the time… that the Division of Abijah was the eighth Division… and it served in the Temple…
in the year 4 BC…from the 19th to the 26th of May to be exact.

Luke says Zechariah went straight home and Elizabeth conceived. [pause]

Ok… allowing for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy…John would’ve been born around the 7th of March… three BC. Six months later…Jesus would have been born …around the 7th of September
Now remember that date… the 7th of Sept 3 BC.

Next we come back to the intriguing question…
just what exactly … was the star of Bethlehem?

Remember the Babylonian Magi…the wise men…
Well they were astronomers and astrologers.
The behaviour of the stars and the planets…
had enormous significance for them. And if we look at the evidence… through their eyes…through the eyes of astrologers…then this is what we see. [pause]

Jupiter slide
Babylonian astrologists recorded in the year
three BC…that Jupiter appeared to ‘dance’…to jump… back and forth.

Today through the science of modern astronomy…
we can electronically reproduce…
the actual skies at that time.
Computerised images…of the skies in that year…
show us Jupiter and Venus – the two brightest planets…actually went into conjunction twice…once in August 3 BC and again in June 2 BC (if you look at the slide… you can see Venus is the crescent).

This event alone would have been incredibly interesting to ancient astrologers… who were looking for signs and portents… in the night sky… but the amazing thing from an ancient astrologer’s point of view…
is that between these conjunctions of Jupiter and Venus

11 Sept slide 1
precisely on the eleventh of September …three BC…

two quick clicks
Jupiter…known as the King planet…moved into conjunction with
one click
Regulus…the King star…
and this occurred in the constellation of
one click
Leo the Lion…the constellation signifying the nation of Judah!!!


With all this going on…
you can see how wise men from the East… might easily believe…the stars predicted the birth… of a king… in Judah.

11 Sept slide 2
On that same night …
eight clicks
the planet Venus… moved into the constellation of Virgo…along with the sun. To the Magi…the sun in the womb of Virgo (the virgin) may have presented a powerful image… of a virgin birth.

And from this computer generated image of the night sky…as we know it actually was… on that date…
you can just see… the faint outline… of the crescent moon… under the feet of the constellation Virgo…
the virgin.

Now… just listen to this report from the book of Revelation chapter twelve.

Slide words and three clicks
‘A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:
a woman... clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.

Slide words and one click
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth… She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations.” [pause]

Blank slide
Given what we can see in the actual skies of the time…
if the writer of Revelation were describing an astrological event…it wouldn’t be surprising…
now would it?

We know astrology was practised by the Jews and Babylonians alike. We know just how important astrology was to the Jews…from the scrolls found at Qumran…as well the 12 signs of the zodiac…
on the floor of the Temple in Jerusalem…one for each tribe of Israel…

What an amazing image…the constellation of Virgo with the sun in her belly and the moon at her feet.

Mary images slide
And did you know… that some of the earliest drawings of Jesus’ mother Mary…show the crescent moon… below her feet and the sun in her tummy. [pause]

Blank title slide
Ok, back to Jesus birthday… Now cynics who want to discredit the story of Jesus birth... love to claim that Christians just co-opted the 25th of December...from the existing celebrations of the birth of the Roman deity... Sol Invictus,

But remember our earlier calculations… based on Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s birth… and independent Jewish records …remember our calculations… allowed us to place Jesus’ birth… sometime around the 7th of September 3 BC.

And if what we read in the book of Revelation…
is describing an astrological event…
and Jesus was born four days later…
on the 11th of September… [pause]
according to the modern science of astronomy…
Matthew’s story of the Bethlehem Star…
makes complete sense. Listen

Word slide
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...during the time of King Herod...Magi from the east...came to Jerusalem and asked “where is he who is born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east...
and we’ve come to worship him.”

Word Slide
After they heard what Herod had to say...they went on their way...and the star they’d seen in the east...
went ahead of them until it stopped...
over the place... where the child was.

Word slide
On coming to the house, they saw the child [not the baby] with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him…and presented him with gifts. [pause]

Bethlehem slide
As they left Jerusalem…the star came to rest…
over Bethlehem. Today from the modern science of astronomy… we know that on the 25th of December in 2BC… the planet Jupiter reached the full extent…
of its retrograde motion… where it appears to stop in the sky… [pause]

Visit of the Magi slide
Here you can see a faint image… of where Jupiter actually was… the very night of December twenty five in the year two BC.

And this isn’t just… any view of the night sky. It’s the view looking due south… from Jerusalem…where the Magi met with King Herod…and from Jerusalem… Jupiter… is right over Bethlehem.

And what’s even more amazing…If you look below Jupiter…you can actually see… our Southern Cross… which had popped over the horizon for just a few days.

And the profoundly moving thing for us… sitting here in the Southern Hemisphere… is that today… you can no longer see the Southern Cross… from Jerusalem… because of the movement of our solar system…in our galaxy… the Milky Way. [pause]

But 2000 years ago… you could see the Southern Cross from Jerusalem.

When Professor Tallon first saw it on his computer screen…he was powerfully affected by the image.
Not only because the Southern Cross points to the town of Bethlehem…but because above Bethlehem…
is the figure of a cross…

After I heard him speak on this…Professor Tallon wrote to me… that through his eyes of faith looking back across time…
‘The cross and the cradle appear to be inseparable.
He wrote with enthusiasm… ‘And for all these things to be true…the guiding signs… for the wise men to the Christ… would have been laid down in the motion of the planets and the stars… from the very beginning of creation!!’ [pause]

And you know something else…it’s easily verified in Jewish records…that particular 25th of December… also happened… to be the Hebrew date of 25 Kislev… and the Jewish festival of Hanukkah when gifts are exchanged. And Hanukkah rarely ever falls…
on 25 Kislev… [pause] but it did that year….

Jeff Tallon asked me in his email…doesn't all this strengthen your faith in Jesus… as the long awaited Christ?

I had to tell him it did.

I repeat for you today Professor Tallon’s conviction... that the Gospels, the book of Acts and the Letters of Paul... all possess an astounding chronological consistency... and such impeccable harmony... that they can give us great confidence...in the stories of our faith. Somehow, awesome conclusions seem unavoidable and we’re left in awe... at the events surrounding the birth of this man...so compelling in his authority and his humanity …that in him...faith and physics converge. The one we follow...the Word made flesh...Lord of the cosmos...the hope of all humankind, God become human in time and space.

Peaceable Kingdom

Advent 2 year A 07 Sermon

What do you think stops a lamb... from lying down with a lion?

Seriously

Fear dread panic... terror... survival instinct?

Ok what would stop a lion licking a lamb
like an ice cream and devouring it?

doesn’t see it as food, the lion is full already?

I saw an intriguing example of this...
in the news this week did you see it?

A Bengal tiger... in a zoo in Thailand... feeding piglets... dressed in little tiger coats. Of course, the staff of the zoo, were just doing this...
to amuse their visitors ...but it was how they did it that caught my attention...

The only way they could get both predator and prey ... to accept each other... was to convince them they were family...

once convinced...a powerful predator becomes protector and provider... once convinced ...vulnerable and helpless prey...
come to feel safe and nourished.

Now, if you’re a cynic... you might wonder if this was all some kind of con... maybe the animals are drugged, maybe it’s trick photography...or digital animation...it doesn’t seem realistic..or it only works with sheep of the same species...but it’s not natural... [pause]

And Isaiah knew that...Isaiah knew it’s not natural.

But there it is anyway... in his vision...and we have to deal with Isaiah’s words and images...and somehow ...
we have to allow God... to speak to us through them...
just as the ancient Hebrew people did

Predator and prey together... Lambs lions wolves calves bears and cows children and cobras for heaven sake...living in safety and harmony...

‘They will neither harm nor destroy...on all my holy mountain, for the earth... will be as full
of the knowledge of the LORD...as the waters cover the sea.’

The powerful and the vulnerable...
living peacefully together... now that’s a real contrast
to the survival of the fittest...isn’t it? [pause]

Isaiah’s vision enchanted me... when I was a little girl ...I remember telling my minister...I wanted that time to come while I was still alive. I imagined myself playing with all the animals... even the scary ones.

And Isaiah’s imagery has captivated artists for centuries ....as in Edward Hicks peaceable kingdom...painted in the early 19th century…

But what on earth was happening... when the prophet Isaiah... had his vision in the first place...
700 years before Jesus was born?

Well...the powerful Assyrian Empire... was about to devour... the weak and vulnerable kingdom of Judah... and its capitol Jerusalem.

The lion with the lamb... was a well-known theme... in the sacred Jewish texts ...
a potent symbol of deliverance... for Judah...
through the royal house of David...son of Jesse.
Did you notice Isaiah’s words

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse
from his roots... a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power…Righteousness will be his belt...
and faithfulness...the sash around his waist.”

Blank slide
“The lion and the lamb...[pause] in the Greek... its lion... in the Hebrew its sometimes wolf...
but we’re not going to quibble are we?

Painting slide
We’re not going to quibble... because clearly this is meant to be a vision... of “Paradise Regained,”
of “the Garden of Eden... Restored,” and even better ...of God’s kingdom come... on earth...

And in 700 BC... with Assyrian armies swirling around ... Isaiah’s vision of a new Eden... would seem unbelievable

and that... is precisely the point.
It’s a vision...a dream...it’s the prophet’s way...
of calling us to trust...only in the future God has in mind ... and not in what we despairingly assume...

is natural... calling us to trust in a future...
that we creatures...simply can’t achieve on our own.
Like lions and lambs...such harmony is unnatural for us without God’s help.

Christian understanding of Isaiah’s vision varies widely... from the literal – as in there will come a day when God will change the nature of wild animals...

to the highly symbolic...as in at the coming of the Messiah ... all fear of insecurity, danger, and evil...
will be removed...not only for individual humans...
but for all the world. And in Roman’s 15...Paul’s reference to Isaiah’s vision...encourages natural enemies...Jew and Gentile... to believe Jesus is tied to this marvelous vision.

Word slide
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement
give you
reveal words
a spirit of unity among yourselves... as you follow Christ Jesus, so
reveal words
with one heart and mouth... you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Reveal words
Accept one another then...just as Christ accepted you,
in order to bring praise to God.

Blank slide
And Paul continues...For I tell you...
Christ has become a servant of the Jews... on behalf
of God's truth...to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs... so the Gentiles... may glorify God for his mercy...as it is written... "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;... And again in Isaiah, "The Root of Jesse will spring up ...one who’ll arise to rule over the nations... and the Gentiles will hope in him...
as well as the Jews.

And Paul uses Isaiah’s ancient vision... to encourage Jesus’ followers... to hope and strive for peace... regardless of how the natural world behaves ...inspiring natural enemies... Jews and Gentiles...slaves and free... to hang in there together to build a better world... [pause]

Blank lion and lamb slide
You know I looked up the word predator on the internet… and here’s what I found…
Slide words
pred·a·tor
1. An organism that lives by preying on other organisms.
2. One that victimizes, plunders, or destroys, especially for one's own gain. [pause]

Blank slide
Where in our world today...do we see predatory behaviour?

Well military aggression is an obvious example...
but what about those who gain economically from the weakness or naiveté of others...

What about those who stand to gain sexually...
from the vulnerability or poverty of others.
What about those who abuse their authority to gain power in the workplace... by intimidating others.

And what about those who get their way all the time at home...by bullying or manipulating...
every one else in the family... with fear. [pause]

When we stand with the prophets... when we declare ourselves to be followers of the Christ... then it seems to mewe must stand against...anything that prevents God’s peaceable kingdom from becoming reality...

And we must stand for... the protection of all who are weak and vulnerable and voiceless...and if that’s us... if we are the ones who are weak and vulnerable and voiceless... we stand up for ourselves in the face of fear surrounded by others who follow the Christ.

And if we have fallen to the temptation... to dominate and control others through fear...then we repent
and make restitution...for the harm we’ve done... even the harm our ancestors have done.

And because all this is so unnatural to us...
and because we haven’t evolved otherwise...

...the first step we need to take... is to pray for God’s help... in changing our attitudes and our actions...
we simply can’t do it alone... [pause]

Painting slide
Like the tiger and the piglet...I pray that we’ll sniff each other out... and that we’ll recognize...
the fragrance of the peace of Christ on one another ...I pray we’ll know each other as family...

Start music now
And so as an act of community…I’d like you to bring your Christmas cards forward now… to hang upon this tree…our tree…along with mine and those of the children...So in this season that celebrates Jesus birth our tree might be a symbol of our life together… as a family… in Christ… May we all be instruments of his peace.

Let us go up

Jesus is the living stone…the rock upon whom the house is built… there is no other foundation for all who gather here and have gathered here…generation after generation.

Friday was the 70th anniversary of the laying of St Ninian’s foundations stone…and on Friday we honoured this place and those whose lives have been poured into her sacred spaces.

Her stone steps have not worn down like those of Westminster Abby and St Giles, but never the less they still resound with the blood sweat and tears of all those who entered these doors not only to care for this place…but to observe… the milestones of what it means to be human… in birth life and death… in light of the reality of God.

I’d say countless thousands will have gathered here for worship…for thanksgiving at God’s providence …and for sorrow and lamentation when the world just doesn’t conform to the promises of God.

We come to this house as well… for confession and repentance… for how we’ve failed to live up to Jesus example… in our relationships with one another and with God. And how we fail to be good stewards of creation…

Yet all the while trusting the promise that God’s spirit goes ahead of us… to work for good…
out of the mess we make.

We come here for guidance and forgiveness
and to hear a fresh word from God… and my prayer is that we leave with fresh resolve… to conform ourselves more closely to Jesus our master…

And you might say this building and its community are a banner and a sign for all to see… that we are not alone in this universe.

But sadly we often admire her architectural beauty…her bricks and mortar and forget…that the Church is actually not a building at all…but it’s people…a community of believers… for whom Jesus is the foundation – his person his teaching his life… over and against all other loyalties. He is the way the truth and the life.

But the story of St Ninian’s isn’t over and the family isn’t complete. And I dream of the day when the promise in Isaiah’s vision is as true for the house of St Ninian’s as it is for the house of Jacob...

when every family of this community streams to this mountain knowing they are welcome here...
when every man woman and child in Hawea will come and say, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of St Ninian’s and He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."

Friday we looked back today I want to honour and pray for all those ministries of welcome and hospitality that are the hope of this community of faith in the future...Those who are extending the warm love of Christ to all those who stream toward this place already...those who dream Isaiah’s dream ..
Ministries like mm [please stand...] those who work for St Nins café Sacred Space AA toward the future of our facilities here...

In this season as we celebrate the birth of the churches one foundation... we remember and yes we do look back at Jesus story and the churches story... but we also look forward to the future of God coming toward us and we look forward with hope. These ministries we have honoured are sacrificial and costly just as those who went before them.

And though we honour an innocent babe this Christmas, we remember just how far Jesus was prepared to go to speak hospitality forgiveness and reconciliation into the world…

how far are we prepared to go… what cross are we prepared to carry…to speak hospitality forgiveness and reconciliation into this community…

It’s a questions echoed in the poem Kneeling in Bethlehem by Ann Weems .
If there is no cross in the manger, There is no Christmas. If the Babe doesn't become the adult,
There is no Bethlehem star. If there is no commitment in us, There are no Wise Men searching.
If we offer no cup of cold water,
There is no gold, no frankincense, no myrrh.
If there is no praising God's name,
There are no angels singing.
If there is no spirit of alleluia,
There are no shepherds watching.
If there is no standing up, no speaking out, no risk,
There is no Herod, no flight into Egypt.

If there is no room in our inn,
Then "Merry Christmas" mocks the Christ Child,
And the Holy Family is just a holiday card,
And God will loathe our feast and festivals.

For if there is no reconciliation,
We cannot call Christ "The Prince of Peace."
If there is no goodwill toward others,
It can all be packed away in boxes for another year.
If there is no forgiveness in us,
There is no cause for celebration.
If we cannot go now even unto Golgotha,
There is no Christmas in us.
If Christmas is not now,
If Christ is not born into the everyday present,
Then what is all the noise about?

Come, O house of St Ninian’s, let us walk in the light of the LORD.