Sermon: Helping Point The Way

Date Preached: Sunday 4th December 2011

Bible Reference: Mark Chapter 1, verses 1-18

I wonder how you’d respond to the question ‘Why are we here as a church in Waunarlwydd? What’s the Church in Wales for? What’s our purpose? There are lots of clues in today’s Advent readings about what we’re supposed to be doing. Indeed it’s been the job of Christian people throughout the centuries to point the way to God. It’s what the nation of Israel under Yawheh was commissioned to do; it’s what the prophets of old did – and it’s still the job of modern day apprentices of Jesus - disciples - (that’s you and me & especially during Advent) to help point the way to Christ's coming.

"Prepare" is the great theme of Advent, and it’s nearly everyone's preoccupation at this time.  Everyone’s preparing for Christmas – dusting off the decorations, getting the cards ready, buying the presents, checking Xmas tree lights, making sure the food and drink is all in. (In the Davies household it’s trying to clear the decks in preparation for being deluged – and especially since mum and all her clobber has moved in. "Preparation" is something we all understand. Are you ready for Christmas? It’s the question we get asked countless times.

The picture we’re given as Christians to think about all this is that of a road. We hear in the gospel reading that the path is to be made straight, the valleys are to be filled in, the hills laid low, uneven ground made level and the rough places a plain - so that in the journey of God toward us and we toward God we don’t have to have our eyes fixed on the ground, fearful of stubbing our toes or falling on our faces because of some pothole or other! There’s preparation to do.

And the coming of God - the coming of Christ - to us is the great news - as is the message of preparation – and the act of repentance – getting our lives sorted out is accompanied by an assurance of forgiveness and the joy of knowing we’ve been restored to where we supposed to be – which is why Isaiah is able to us the word ‘comfort’. This is the news that’s been entrusted to prophets throughout the ages (we’ll be thinking about John the Baptist specifically next week) but as I said earlier – it’s the good news we need to share too.

We don't have to be great evangelists, great pastors, or great expounders of the Bible.  We don't even have to be perfect.  We simply have to announce the good news and seek to live by it - and then get out of the way of others on their pathway to God, so we don’t put them off or divert them. It can be done in quite simple ways – like being thankful and letting it show; like getting on and working with each other, cooperating rather than trying to score points off each other. I recorded one of the prayers from our Junior Church members a couple of Christmases ago – I think it might have been Cara: Thank you God for hugs and kisses, Christmas trees, angels, biscuits and ice cream”

Did you notice the words from Isaiah?:  "Comfort, don't condemn, comfort my people. Let them know someone’s coming through whom they can be forgiven. Speak tenderly to them of God's grace and forgiveness, and tell them to make a way in the wilderness for their God."

We were beginning to think last week about how utterly secularized this Advent season has become. Remember the story of the schoolboy whose only understanding of ‘Jesus Christ’ was through hearing people use him as swear words; and that Morriston Butcher’s sign that assumes Christmas will be a “burden”? Sadly that is the reality for many people. And we’re faced with a real challenge to let people in on the good news about Jesus. It’s a scary responsibility  – but there’s nothing new here. Christianity through the centuries has faced the challenge of how to be relevant in the culture and context within which the church is set. So here’s the task:

how are we as Christians to engage with the prevailing ideas around us – like the assumption that all Christmas is about is how best to budget for over-indulging. (I picked up a leaflet once from Nat West which read “For a merry Christmas it makes sense to work out a budget – top tips for Christmas saving”)

and how do we resist ideas where they’re unhelpful and lead people away from focusing on Jesus?

For way too long we’ve been tempted to withdraw from what’s going on into our own self-protective familiar ways of doing church. Yet quite unthinkingly, the church has absorbed secular society’s harmful ideas and practices - despite the fact that Romans 12 verse 2 in the Message explicitly tells us “Don’t” – “don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking”

Peter says the same in his letters. He tries to encourage the new gentile Christians to keep on going - to give their utmost in living distinctively different lives - and not to drift back into their old ways. Here are a few verses from his first letter:

Roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear..don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing...As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life that’s energetic and blazing with holiness.

Peter’s probably recalling how Jesus told stories from real life about the unexpected coming of a King and how people need to be awake and ready for the event.

Today our culture is more visual – and it’s TV programmes and films, and magazine ads that become a powerful medium for hooking people at all sorts of levels - including spiritually.

TV programmes and Films are really good examples of the way messages get communicated – we all watch them and we’re all are affected by them.

Here’s an example of their power: when a cartoonist named Walt Disney created a story about Bambi in 1942, the $5.7 million deer hunting business in the States apparently plummeted to just $1 million when the film was released.

So whether we absorb information from watching the soaps, or are part of something like 6 million viewers who get hooked on the latest ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’; whether we surf the internet, watch TV reruns of movies, or are regular consumers of up-to date videos and DVDs as a way to relax and unwind –let’s admit that it’s from these sources, whether we like it or not – that our ideas and values are being subtly shaped.

How are we supposed to respond as Christians if this culture is so pervasive and powerful?

Well the first point is to recognize as Christians that the different forms of media can be a source of potential harm. In one American study I came across a while back, it stated that an average 10 year-old child will have seen something 10.000 on-screen deaths. If we’re honest, we’ve probably all watched films we wish we hadn’t.  

And we can so easily fill our minds with junk that’s the exact opposite of what we are encouraged to think about in Philippians 4. There’s nothing true, honourable, just or pure about horrific violence, gratuitous sex - or about distortions of reality – which can deceive us into thinking that we can also (even for a moment) live out some Hollywood fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, I love movies - but sometimes when I get home to the vicarage late, after a busy day – and even feeling good about how God might have been graciously at work, and I plonk myself down in front of late night TV, I’m often not thinking too hard about what it is I’m watching; - or what sense I’m making of it; - or how it might be affecting me.

Perhaps particularly as we get into this Advent season, which has traditionally been seen as a Lenten-like fast in preparation for celebrating the coming of the baby-King - we might want to let God’s Holy Spirit tackle some of our lazier tendencies head on.

But does this leave us forever consigned to watching reruns of the Sound of Music or the Waltons? (for those of us old enough to remember!) This isn’t about labelling all media as completely corrupt? There are some that do, but I don’t think it’s terribly helpful. So second we need to realize that TV & films – and maybe particularly the soaps actually mirror society. They’re modern parables if you think about it. Yes - they can be violent; sex-obsessed - into image and fantasy - but they also provide a seriously powerful message about the human need for:

meaning,

for identity and belonging

for loving relationships

and for an alternative to the darkness that’s all around us - and indeed inside us - if we’re honest

If he’d been ministering in 21st century society these are the kinds of things Jesus would probably have referred to, because they play such a prevalent part in people’s thinking  - they’re earthly stories that could have eternal meanings if, (in the words of one writer), “you are prepared to hear God speak in the unlikeliest of places”.

And the third point is that a Christian understanding of what’s coming across in our culture is essential if we want the gospel to have any impact on people – and if we want our church to be relevant to those who maybe haven’t grown up with Christian influences.

Francis Schaeffer once said: “If we don’t listen - we won’t understand”. And I remember an old Peanuts cartoon with Charlie Brown carrying a banner saying ‘Jesus is the answer’ followed by Snoopy (the beagle) carrying his own which reads: “Yeah but what’s the question?”

God calls us as rescued and redeemed people not to hide away and bemoan the fact that no-one comes to church anymore (although they certainly did yesterday!!) but to live in this world as demonstrations of his rescuing power - as ‘agents of his transforming grace’. Being ‘in’ the world and not ‘of’ it is a tension God intends us to face because it’s how we learn to live by faith - how we learn to live in ways that please Jesus and make him known to those around us. Prepare the way of the Lord – make his paths straight.