Sermons
7th February 2010 - 2nd before Lent
So you’re in church; how holy are you feeling? Not much? A little bit, or maybe even ‘holier than thou’. We use this word a lot in church. Often without stopping to think what it might mean. Holy Bible, Holy Communion, Holy Spirit, and in today’s reading from revelation Holy. Holy. Holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holiness all around and maybe some people don’t come to church because they think all the people who do must be holy people. Little do they know! And yet as Christians we are signed up to the process of trying to sanctify, to make holy the things that we do, and to show by our deeds and by the way we love that we consider other people to be somehow made in the holiest of images, the image of God. And one does meet from time to time people who are recognisably holy, out of whom an inner light and peace radiates to all whom they meet. In my experience only some of those people are religious. So why is it that the rest of us Christians so often don’t feel particularly holy about ourselves?
Today’s three readings offer a way towards answering that question. We have a vision of the paradisal beginning of all things in the reading from Genesis, we have a vision of the splendid consummation of all things in the reading from Revelation, and in between in temporal terms a gospel reading where human beings behave in the way we would expect them to, that is they fall short, they fail to trust God, they lack that inner calm and peace bestowed through holiness.
So in the Garden of Eden, all is well with the world. God and mankind enjoy a relationship of harmony, it doesn’t occur to Adam and Eve that their nakedness might be something shameful, there is no gulf between them and God and Adam even gets God to bring him all the animals so that he can give them their names. This is a vision of holiness, certainly, but it is one where we find it difficult to recognise humanity as we experience it, there is no sin and no shame, all exists in perfect harmony. Traherne...
And in the reading from Revelation we have a vision of the splendour of holiness, flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, the throne in heaven surrounded by a crystal sea and living creatures and elders worshipping the holiness of God. As with Eden, this is a vision that transports our minds, it is a vision which draws us up and beyond what we normally experience but as with Eden it sounds an awfully long way from North End Road.
So we have a vision of the holiness at the start of all things, and a vision of the holiness at the end of all things, and it is tempting to wonder what all the stuff in between is for. Stuff like the vast expanse of time and space, but also stuff like you and me, stuff like wondering whether you will have enough money to last til payday, or whether you should have married that other person instead, or whether you could have behaved a lot better really. What sort of context can we put all our normal worries and concerns in if the vision of holiness that the Bible offers us is as remote as the unfallen Adam and Eve or the exalted worship of heaven?
Well here the gospel can help, because in the gospel reading we see the holiness of God and the fallible nature of mankind co-operating in close proximity. The Holy disciples have a sanctity we might more readily recognise, in fact, one of the most remarkable aspects of the gospel stories is the extent to which the disciples appear to be all too human, all at sea, slow to understand what’s going on, slow to realise who Jesus is, and slow to trust in what he is teaching them. So in today’s gospel Jesus makes the disciples all get into a boat and set off into the Sea of Galilee and he goes to sleep in the boat. When the weather begins to turn dangerous they can’t believe that Jesus is calmly sleeping in the boat; they don’t act all holy and calm and serene, they do exactly what we would do: they panic, they think they are about to perish.
And this little story is a superb little allegory of the life of the church. The little ark of the church is sent out over the unpredictable waters of the world, and Jesus seems to leave them to their own devices - and as soon as things become a bit choppy they start to fear for their lives while Jesus snoozes. So the Holy church, the ark in which the holy disciples are gathered looks like going under.
And Jesus teaches them through his actions in stilling the waters, his power moving across the waters as did his Holy Spirit in creation overcoming the powers of chaos, identifying himself as the divine sanctifying presence by his actions and by his words, and encouraging the faith of the disciples. The central action here is an epiphany, a manifestation of the holiness of God, Jesus does what God does, he rescues from the storm and has dominion over the waters and above all he is with the disciples, and he is with the church today.
Everyday life for Christians isn’t like the Garden of Eden and it isn’t like the worship of Heaven. It is much more like being in that little boat, worrying if you are going to go under because God seems to be asleep. The great visions of holiness in Genesis and Revelation should not though put us off, they tell us that God is holy and that we, normally, are not, they tell us that just as there is a beginning, their will be a consummation.
We need to allow those visions to penetrate deep into our mind without hoping to grasp them fully in this life and when our lives feel lacking in holiness, when they seem to be more to do with saving our skins, keeping things afloat in the short term until the storm is passed, when we like the disciples want to shout at God to wake up, that might not be such a bad thing to do. It isn’t the disciples that Jesus rebukes but the wind and the sea that are frightening them so much. And when he has stilled the waves there is the utterly amazing calm of holiness.
I feel very lucky to have been able to travel to Galilee and to be on a boat in the middle of that same lake on a calm day. When were out in the middle they cut the engines of the boat and everyone sat silently for about ten minutes. It is the flattest most beautiful water you can imagine. There was a peacefulness and stillness which I have never experienced anywhere else. No wonder the disciples were amazed at the holiness that commanded such stillness. It didn’t magically transform them into holy people, it didn’t magically transform me either, but it gave them a glimpse, a moment to stop and wonder a moment to consider that in the midst of the most frightening storms of life, the holiness and stillness of God prevails.
Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almigthy,
who was and is and is to come.
Amen