Sheringham: St Peter

Way back in 1969, and writing in The Soldier’s Armoury, - does anyone remember that? - John Robinson said, “Advent reminds us that Christ is always coming. There is a danger of separating the first and second comings so completely that in between them we have nothing but an absentee Christ.”

We spend a lot of our religious activity time looking back, trying to learn from the Scriptures what we can about the Gospel’s implications, the meaning of the ministry and teaching of Jesus the Christ, and the interpretation of all that in the life of the Early Church, especially through Paul’s letters. And so it is this morning that we have had readings from Luke’s Gospel, from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, as well as a reminder from the prophet Malachi – “the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to His Temple… But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”

Can you?

Can I?

Certainly, many in the crowd along the banks of the River Jordan,straining to hear John-the-Prophet-Baptizer bawling insults at them seemed to think they could - because they were children of Abraham.“Not so fast,” he counters, “You need to bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance!”

Repentance, may we remember, is not primarily about penance – that’s a bait-and-switch doctrine designed to sustain guilt and fear – but about changing the way we think – changing our minds about God-who-is-Love, about ourselves-who-are-the-Beloved, each one of us, and about how life is. Our reassurance comes from the fact that God in Christ has taken all the initiative in rescuing us, restoring us, reconciling us – to Himself, and to one another, and to all Creation. Indeed, as the Psalmist says, “If You, LORD, should keep an account of our sins and treat us accordingly, O Lord, who could stand [before you in judgment and claim innocence, as it were]? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)

Indeed, and Paul’s preferred theme throughout his ministry boils down to this: “Christ in you, and you, and you, and me…the hope of glory.” And, more than that (if that isn’t mind-blowing enough, already!), “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honour God with your body.” (1 Cor. 6:191-20 NLT)

That’s something we might need to think more seriously about – because everything is spiritual, everything matters – Every. Thing. Matters.

Consider this: “I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh -in this body! – I live through the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me.”

This is why every day is Advent! And this was at the heart of Paul’s joy over the followers of Jesus, gathered in the church at Philippi. Not only are they faithful in standing with him in the living and preaching of the Gospel, but also in sharing with him in the everyday grace of God in Christ.

I was surprised, one morning as I was praying for us all here at St Peter’s in Sheringham, when I had an intuitive thought – “Can these bones live?” That was the Lord’s line to Ezekiel, wasn’t it? The response involved Ezekiel calling upon the Holy Spirit to “breathe” life into those bones. It was a rhetorical question about us, too, brothers and sisters, who gather here, week after week to worship, or to eat together, or to chat over coffee and scones, perhaps even to pray for one another, or sit together in Contemplative Prayer, being simply present to the presence of Christ within.

My prayer becomes, then, an echo of Paul’s: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight [of Christ within] to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ – the everyday of Christ – you may be pure and blameless, having produced – [as John insisted] – the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

To conclude, may I share this poem with you, based on Luke 3:2-14, by Drew Jackson, from his collection God Speaks Through Wombs, and titled Waters of Insurrection …

I went out into the desert

where the prophet speaks his word.

He spoke of things I cannot say

that I had ever heard.

His mouth was filled with power.

His eyes burned deep with fire.

But not because he hated,

it was justice he desired.

He wanted public love to roll

like fast and mighty rivers.

The things he said, they touched my core

And gave my soul a shiver.

I stood and listened closely

to hear him talk oppression,

but I could little understand

his talk about confession.

I came to hear him speak about

the sins of evil Rome,

but what he wanted was for me

to think upon my own.

Apparently, from what he says

my sins make me complicit.

He told me that repentance

is my real act of resistance.

He stood knee-deep in water

and reached in my direction.

I grabbed his hand, and I stepped in,

committing insurrection

…Hallelujah!

Toby Perks, trainee LLM

Sheringham: St Peter

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