by CCW | 24 November 2013 14:49
As images go this one is particularly significant. The idea of turning is provocatively before us in the Lesson from Jeremiah, in the gradual psalm, in the Gospel reading from John, and most poignantly in the baptism of Kaitlyn Jacoba Marilyn this morning. The turning is twofold: there is God’s turning to us and there is our turning to God, the turning of our hearts and minds to God. “I will hearken what the Lord God will say:/ for he shall speak peace unto his people and to his saints, and unto them that turn their heart to him,” as the Psalmist puts it.
Today marks a turning point in the Church Year, a time of transition from one year to the next, a time at once of endings and beginnings. It is captured in the way this Sunday is designated, The Sunday Next Before Advent. Times of transition provide the opportunities and the occasions for renewal; they recall us to the radical nature of our spiritual beginnings, to the radical idea of God’s turning to us. “Turn thou us, O Lord, and so shall we be turned” is our prayer. In a way the whole pattern of the Church Year signaled in the readings of Scripture recall us to the idea of Revelation, God makes something known about himself and about us. Because of that we can begin again.
The lesson from the prophet Jeremiah recalls God’s turning to Israel in exile in Egypt and in Babylon, to the idea of God delivering Israel from bondage and captivity. “The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” prompts the idea of a greater marvel in the eyes of the prophet, the idea of God delivering “the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them.” The prophet looks to God to redeem and restore Israel and “they shall dwell in their own land” rather than living as exiles. More than the obvious political overtones that have become such a troubling part of the long twentieth century, there is a profoundly spiritual principle at work here, namely the theme of God’s righteousness as providing the true basis for our dwelling safely as a community. The passage looks to God raising unto David, meaning the house of David, “a righteous Branch,” a King who shall reign and prosper. It is a prophecy about the Messiah, the coming of the anointed one, a prophecy which Christians interpret as fulfilled in Christ and in the inauguration of a new kingdom that is first and foremost spiritual, not political, the idea of dwelling with God in Christ.
The theme of “The Lord our Righteousness” convicts and challenges us. Times of transition confront us about ourselves and call us to account. For all of the progress that, perhaps, we have made in the year past in whatever way we measure progress or regress, there is also the constant recognition that not everything is right with us and our world. There is, perhaps, the even deeper realization that we have turned away from God either through indifference or hostility, the angry atheist syndrome, for instance, so prevalent in our world and day. And yet, what is Jeremiah saying? In turning us to God, he is awakening a desire in us for something more and better than the ‘same old, same old’, the dreary weariness of our daily lives when we have ceased to hope and are buried in the darkness of despair. Turning points signal hope. Nothing is more needed in a despairing world.
The ideas of turning and dwelling, of being with God in Christ, are wonderfully concentrated in the Gospel reading from St. John. In true prophetic fashion, another John, John the Baptist points to Jesus and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God.” This results in two of John’s disciples following Jesus. “Then Jesus turned.” He turns to address them face to face, to engage with them in dialogue, in the to-and-fro of question and answer. A wonderful moment, it seems to me. God’s turning to us in Jesus Christ to speak to us marks the beginnings of our turning and following him, to our being with him in his will and purpose for us. “What do you seek?” Jesus asks. What do you desire? What do you want? It is the first direct question of Jesus to our humanity in John’s Gospel. They respond with what might at first seem to be a rather odd question, “where do you dwell?” This leads in turn to Jesus’ first direct statement, his invitation to them and to us, “Come and see.” It sets in motion the beginnings of the Church, the community of those who are brought to Christ and who follow him.
All because Christ has turned to us. This is the radical message. We cannot turn ourselves to God as if God were simply something of our own devising, as if God were made in our own image. No. God turns to us. God reveals himself to us and redeems us from ourselves. He turns to us so that we can be turned to him in whom we find grace and salvation, hope and glory.
Kaitlyn’s baptism wonderfully illustrates this. Through the sacrament of baptism, she is given “that which by nature she cannot have.” Through the sacrament of baptism, she is “born anew,” born upward into the whole motion of God’s turning to us in his Word and Sacrament. Through the sacrament of baptism, she is born into the death and life of Christ who has turned to us and overcome all that stands between us and God in our turning our backs on him for such is sin, original and actual. Through the sacrament of baptism, she is incorporated into Christ’s death and resurrection for us. It marks a radical new beginning; a beginning with God in God’s turning to us in Jesus Christ. “Let the little children come unto me,” Jesus says, and we are all the little children whom he would have come to him. His turning to us signals the hope of our turning to him and learning from him. “Come and see.” In Kaitlyn’s baptism we are reminded of our own baptisms, of Christ’s turning to us to make us “the children of God,” to make us “members of Christ” in his Church, and to make us “inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.”
Baptism marks the beginning of our spiritual lives with God in Christ, a beginning which signals the idea of continuing in the same, the idea of our dwelling with Christ so as to learn from him and to follow him. Death and resurrection become the dynamic pattern of our lives, dying unto ourselves in order to live for God and for one another. Our lives are not empty and without meaning. We find ourselves in God’s finding us. “We have found the Messiah,” Andrew says to Simon Peter, but only because “Jesus turned” and finds us. Only because God seeks our good. His grace is the medicine of our sickly souls, awakening us to hope and glory. Grace is all about his turning to us so that we may turn to him.
Fr. David Curry
Sunday Next Before Advent, 2013
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2013/11/24/sermon-for-the-sunday-next-before-advent-1030am-service-2/
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