Paul – the only thing that matters is faith worked out as love.

Today our reading from Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians continues directly on from last week, and is a particularly well-loved and popular passage of Scripture.  It speaks about love, and does so beautifully.

Because it is so spiritually powerful, it demands much from us and is a hard reading in many ways because we can struggle to understand the breath-taking beauty of the great love of God revealed here.

But it is also one of the most faith-affirming passages in Scripture and brings as very close to God indeed.

Over the next two Sundays we will be looking at an extended passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  The two week’s readings flow directly and logically; joined by the phrase, “and now I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31).

So next week we will be talking about the most excellent way to achieve what is set out in today’s passage from Paul.

First some context, Paul is writing about the strange and paradoxical nature of Christianity.  We can only come into the Kingdom of God through personal faith in Jesus Christ; yet once we do, we become part of the body of Christ, the Church.

We become one with each other, yet irreducibly and utterly unique. We don’t at all become the same – we faithfully become more and more ourselves. This is the mystery Paul is trying to explain to the Corinthians.

In our gospel reading from John today we have the first of Jesus’ seven miraculous signs recorded by John, the changing of water into wine. 

But it’s about more than that too, this is a story about how involved Jesus is in our everyday lives, not just when we may feel we are close on a Sunday, and how Jesus transforms how we live on a day-to-day basis.

Epiphany is the celebration of the revelation given to us that Jesus Christ is Lord of all the earth – Jews and Gentiles. This is at the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ.

For all the gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and for the early Church, John the Baptist was the start of this ‘good news’ of Jesus, which is of course what the word ‘gospel’ means.

So John the Baptist is the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  He begins by prophesying that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.  The phrase Kingdom of God or Kingdom of heaven is itself an Old Testament phrase used to describe the breaking in of God’s kingly rule into the world.

Today we celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord, which means ‘revelation.’  God revealed to people who were not Jews, whom we call the Wise Men, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God who would reconcile all people to God, Jews and Gentiles. 

This is because God so loved the whole world (not just Jews), that he gave his only son so that all who believe in him could be brought back to their loving Father and not perish, but have eternal life.

So the big revelation of this season of Revelation is that God loves you and me in and through this Jesus, this Son of Man and Son of God, whether Jew or non-Jew.

Today’s passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians is about love and encouragement.  This is that utter love that starts with God’s view of us as holy and beloved.

Worship together is our response to that love and parishes (just like we are doing) grow when they are united in worship of the one who has set us apart and loves us.

The result of this is we are constantly encouraged in our common walk with Jesus.  When we grow stronger as a people of praise and worship, we grow closer and form deeper and richer bonds with each other.

The story of the Shepherds at Christmas has a lot to teach us.  We hear of them only in Luke’s Gospel and only in the second chapter.  They come into the narrative and then are never heard from again.

The shepherds are the first people to hear the Good News.  This is who God decided would be the people who first saw the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Something remarkable is happening here, but it begins like all things with the very unremarkable.

In our watching and waiting this Advent, we have looked at the way in which we go about the waiting, and what happens in us and through us when we truly wait on the Lord, like a vine waits on its tree.

What happens when we wait like this is we demonstrate (or show) the fruits of repentance we have looked at this Advent; hope, peace, and joy, in fact the whole orchard of the fruit of the Spirit.

This week we look at love, which binds all these things together.

Today, the third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudette, or Rose, Sunday.  Gaudette is the Latin word for ‘rejoice,’ and today we look again at that precious little sapphire; joy.

So far, during this period of watching and waiting in Advent, we have spoken about the certainty of our hope in the coming of Jesus and its bringing of peace.  The consequence of these fruits of hope and peace is that hard to find thing.  Joy. 

We continue our waiting for the coming of, the advent, of Jesus.  Remembering with wonder the incarnation of God as a little baby and looking to his coming again in great hope to fulfil and bring to completion all things.

Last week we focused our waiting on hope, and today, via John the Baptist, we look at how we can be filled with peace in this time of waiting.  John is the great prophet who bridges the old and new testaments. 

The message that he gives in the gospel reading today is about Jesus’ first coming, but it also applies to his return, for which we wait.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and the word means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’.  Advent is not a time to rush around preparing for Christmas, it’s really a time of developing a spiritual and mental clarity by slowing down and patiently watching and waiting for Christ to come.

Preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus – born fresh in our hearts through the infant Saviour.  And then in joyful anticipation of his coming in glory like a Bridegroom to his Bride.

Each week we will light an Advent candle, nestling in the Advent wreath.  These candles represent hope, peace, joy, and love. 

Today is the final Sunday in the church year and also in our diverse series on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Two weeks or so ago we spoke about Judgment Day in our look at a passage from Isaiah, so I have taken a different approach today when looking at our reading from Daniel so as not to repeat myself.

One of the great spiritual heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor who failed to obey Hitler and was killed by the Nazis in the last days of WW2 in an act of pure spite that gained nothing for them.

In a letter written from his Nazi prison cell, Bonhoeffer says, ’God [in the person of Christ] is the beyond in the midst of our lives. (Letters and Papers from Prison. April 30, 1944).

We continue our broad theme on how we receive the Kingdom of God and today we look at it from the perspective of the NT letter to the Hebrews.

We can receive this kingdom of Jesus himself because of his one, perfect and sufficient sacrifice.  He is our great high priest forever.

Now, all the NT writers were Messianic Jews, i.e., Jews who believed that Judaism itself has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

The writer to the Hebrews is no exception; except that he is writing to practising orthodox Jews, and he demonstrates the messianic nature of Jesus particularly through Jesus’ role as great High Priest forever.

Coming up to Advent, we have some wonderful readings, two of which we have just heard; the truly wonderful stories of Ruth and Naomi and the gospel account of the widow and her two measly copper coins.

We have been speaking much about the Kingdom of Heaven and the obvious thing that connects these passages is that the Kingdom here is coming through and by way of widows – who along with orphans the Old Testament describes as those most in need and care from the community.

This was so in Jesus’ day as well as Ruth’s, c. 900 or 1,000 years earlier.

Both are stories of how God uses the culture of the times to do his will in our society and teach us how we are supposed to care for each other.

Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day, the day we remember, with thanks and praise and prayer, all those who love now, and have loved God through Christ Jesus.

Now the Church includes all those who have died in Christ, as well us we who are alive.  Those who have died in Christ are the Church Triumphant.  They have already triumphed over death and are alive now in the true realm of God; that other country that we are separated from at this time by the thinnest of veils. 

We who are still in this world are the Church Militant, still fighting the good fight, as the apostle Paul puts it.  Jesus says this body, triumphant and militant, will prevail against the very gates of death itself.

We have spoken a fair bit over the past month about how we receive the Kingdom of God, and our gospel today has to do with how we should come to Jesus, and what we should expect to receive from him, when we receive the Kingdom of God.

First, a bit of context.  Jesus is nearly in Jerusalem for the last time, only 25 kms away in Jericho.  There is a huge crowd following Jesus, all jostling to touch him or his clothes.

As if that crowd wasn’t big enough, the way was packed with people all trying to get to Jerusalem for the Passover.  It is really busy!  The entire band of disciples, are trying to work security around Jesus. 

Today we are going to spend one more week in Jesus’ difficult teachings on receiving the Kingdom of God.  Last week we saw that to receive this Kingdom of love and blessings, we need to put God first, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind; and as in the case of the rich young man, our strength. 

Today we look at what characterises this sort of discipleship.

This morning we begin with sobering news, but I promise we end with wonderful news!

Today’s passage from Mark looks at an important area in our life that can get in the way of receiving the Kingdom of God – money.  However, this passage could also be called the Gospel of our First Love.

The rich young man thought he was good in every way; except his first love was not God.

But when reading this passage we need to be a bit cautious!  The danger is to assume things that Jesus doesn’t at all say.

In vv.13-16, the second part of today’s gospel, Mark completes Jesus’ teaching on children and in the last two week’s gospel readings, Jesus has spoken very stern words to the disciples about their arrogance, and spiritual pride, and what welcoming someone truly means.

Yet here in v.13 of today’s passage, which immediately follows last week’s, they are doing exactly what Jesus told them not to; creating a stumbling block for little children being brought to God.

What part of millstone, neck, and being thrown into the sea didn’t they understand!

This morning’s passage from Mark follows directly on from last week’s gospel (vv.30-37), which ended with Jesus holding up a little child in his arms and telling his disciples that they must welcome one of these little ones, because it is if they are welcoming God the father himself.

Throughout Mark 8 and 9, Jesus has been attempting to turn the disciples’ thoughts away from human thoughts to God’s thoughts.  To transform their thinking.