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Thought for the
Week 27
January 2008 – Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Being truly alive in Christ
Apologies
to begin with; I got so carried away with Isaiah 9 that the sermon took over
and stems from the verses following the lectionary ones. So please read on to
verse 7, and note in particular verse 6; then this homily will hopefully make
sense! For
unto us a child is born…..etc….You can’t help singing along under your breath
especially if you’ve ever sung in the Messiah, or love Handel’s work of art
in setting Isaiah 9 to music. For those who know it, it is a moving and
powerful piece of music. Especially the crescendo of voices as the names
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God are sung – then coming down to softer
tones, Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Do the words mean anything
more to us than just great poetic words set to some fantastic music by
Handel? They should, especially as Christians, the answer should be yes….because
the child that was promised has come and given us hope for the future, giving
all the chance to have a vibrant and truly alive life in every way. Jesus did
not want us to live a passive and mundane existence, in darkness. Look at the
passage, there is such hope and power. Why not read it again to feel upheld. The
reading from Isaiah is an Old Testament prophecy telling of Christ’s arrival
as a baby and speaking of what was to come. People walking in darkness were
waiting for Christ’s light. The gospel, the good news came and brought with
it light entering every soul who received it. Salvation, joy and deliverance
follows. The Old Testament prophecy and the writings of the New Testament
show us that Jewish prophets and Christian teachers had the same view of the
person and salvation of the Messiah. Christ
did come as prophesied, but the majority of Jews did not accept him. He was
rejected. Just as we can accept or reject him – the Wonderful Counsellor; being
God and man, he is concerned about everything that concerns us. His teaching
was like no other, the mighty God, all-powerful yet also the Prince of Peace,
reconciling us to God. No one else claimed to give this peace, in the heart
and conscience. Indeed, it is prophesied that when Christ’s government, or
his Kingdom is established there will be never-ending peace and happiness.
Peace and happiness for all who follow Christ, but not the fantasy sort of
peace that is divorced from the stresses of life in the real world. Jesus
offers a challenge, a struggle for the things that are worthwhile and
lasting. Peace that has quality – “Shalom”, inner peace in Him. The word
peace in the dictionary describes it negatively as “freedom from war” –
something external. In the Hindu religion, the priests often chant
“Shanti-Shanti-Shanti” – “Peace-Peace-Peace”, meaning the peace from within,
to do with the mind, heart and desires. It still seems negative though, as
Shanti is to control oneself, to need nothing and to meet all that happens
with acceptance. Essentially it is withdrawal from tension, from the world
and the demands of people. Peace – “Shalom” –
in the Bible is a very positive thing. It is the harmony of a caring
community informed at every point by its awareness of God. Shalom grows from
our closeness to God, and suffuses all our relationships and attitudes.
Shalom calls for action! It is no mistake that one of Christ’s names was the
Prince of Peace. Blessed
are the peacemakers, meaning not the ones who relax in peace and never do any
harm, but blessed are those who create peace. Peace and love are always alive
in us, but we are not always alive to peace and love. There needs to be a
relationship with the Prince of Peace, so that self is surrendered, fear and
ego leave and from that beginning a new attitude appears. It is the
relationship with Christ and the vibrancy of feeling alive in every way that
can lay dormant, and our Christian lives suffer and become passive. There
is a story of a talented musician who played the flute. He was asked to play
in a concert, so got down to some serious practice. When he sat down to play
nothing happened. No sound. He tried again. Checked the flute, still nothing.
Can you imagine the shock! Then quietly he began to analyse what he was doing
wrong. The flute was alright – but he had been getting careless. Instead of
sitting or standing straight with his arms just so – he had begun to slump.
His hands were not right and gradually he had twisted the angle at which he
held the flute, so when he blew over the hole in the mouthpiece the angle was
all wrong. The music had gone. So what could he do to correct it?
Easy…correct the stance and things corrected themselves and he played
beautifully again. An
interesting metaphor on Christian living ….we can become stale and words just
become words without meaning and depth. We still go to church, pray, and read
the Bible. We can live without really thinking, and then suddenly become
shocked like the musician…we realise that nothing happens, we become stale.
We blame the flute, the prayer, the faith, but the answer is in our hands. We
need to get back to the discipline of thoughtful discipleship, follow the
Wonderful Counsellor – Mighty God – Everlasting Father – Prince of Peace, and
learn from Him. The Psalmist David knew how to praise, he wrote “at His
tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy, I will sing and make music to
the Lord”. It needs singleness of purpose to be kept clean and polished! Just
like the singing of the Messiah, it needs to be sung properly with vibrancy
and feeling, full of power, our Christian lives need effort and time too. Pray
that God will counsel and help us as we strive to become more like Him, so
that we are truly alive in Him. Amen. Judy Wilson: Anglican Chaplaincy of
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