Lord, help us to receive Your Word into our hearts and minds, and inspire our thinking with the power of Your Spirit, so that our lives may reflect Your glory; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revelation and Renewal - two words that sum up the meaning of this, the church's season of Epiphany.
Revelation - the revealing of the glory of Jesus Christ, the making known of His true identity. It started with a star, guiding wise seekers to worship the child with the hidden kingship hanging over Him. It continued, several years later, when the adult Jesus was baptised and God's voice declared Him to be the beloved Son while the divine Spirit hovered over Him in the form of a dove. Today, we hear how, while His mother hangs around Him at a wedding reception, Jesus is prompted to reveal His glory through the first of His signs.
John's Gospel deliberately avoids the word 'miracle' - perhaps because John didn't want his readers to mistake the clue for the treasure. Instead John chose the term 'sign'. A sign is real but it is not an end in itself; rather it points to something beyond itself. And the whole point of the signs that John records is that they are moments when heaven and earth intersect, to reveal who Jesus truly is. John wants us to see that in such events as the transformation of water into wine at a wedding, the life of heaven came down to earth; God was revealed at work in human form.
Our Gospel reading finished, in chapter 2: 11, with the words: "Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him".
The Greek word that John used to say that Jesus 'revealed' or 'manifested' His glory, is the word from which we get the term 'Epiphany'. During these Sundays of the Epiphany season, the Collects and Bible readings encourage us to consider what it might mean to see Jesus for who He really is and to share that insight with others. The transformation of water into wine signifies the effect Jesus had, and still has today, on human lives. The wine at the wedding is the sign of a renewed relationship between God and His people. But such transformation and renewal cannot happen without our co-operation, for God does not bulldoze His way into our lives. God-in-Christ stands at the door and knocks. He waits for us to open the door of our lives to Him and affirm that we are ready to 'do whatever He tells us'.
Christians reveal God's glory when we declare that 'Jesus is Lord'. From the earliest times, the phrase 'Jesus is Lord' is what people said as they came for Christian Baptism. "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord", wrote Paul to the Church in Rome, "and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). That's the Christian Gospel in a nutshell. To believe and declare that Jesus is Lord is to say that Jesus is the One whose servant I have become, Jesus is the master I have promised to obey - over and above any other claim on my loyalty. To declare that Jesus is Lord is to pledge my allegiance to Him above all others, proclaiming His sovereignty over earthly and heavenly powers and spiritual forces.
When the first Christians confessed the faith that Jesus is Lord they were revealing Christ's true identity over against the tyrannical rule of Caesar; they were affirming their belief in the one true Lord who rules, not with imperial might, but with the power of self-giving love.
When you and I stand up and acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in our secular God-denying society, we are continuing this revelation of Christ in our own day and age.
But as Paul says in today's reading from his first letter to the Corinthians (12: 3), 'No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit'. And that's why renewal is needed. For as those of us here last Sunday morning were considering together, when God calls and sends people in the name of Jesus, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit - both to enable us to declare our faith and then to put it into action through varieties of Christian service. Receiving the gift of the Spirit is not a 'one-off' experience;
it is something that we need daily, indeed several times a day.
Just as our bodies cannot survive for very long without food and drink, so we also we need the regular nourishment of the Holy Spirit to fuel our faith and activate our service.
We need regular renewal in the power of God's Spirit.
Not that this is a nice cosy self-indulgent spiritual experience.
Not that it's a luxury for charismatic individuals.
No. Renewal in the Holy Spirit is simply essential if you and I are to fulfil the vocation of every Christian to reveal Christ's glory in this world. In the world of the New Testament, anyone who said 'Jesus is Lord' was effectively saying that ultimately 'Caesar is not and neither are any of the gods in the Roman pantheon!' And in every time and place, those who say 'Jesus is Lord' are thereby brought into potential conflict with the principalities and powers.
Every week and with increasing frequency, there are items in the news about Christian nurses being told never to pray with their patients; registrars ordered to conduct civil partnership ceremonies in spite of conscientious objections; evangelists forbidden to share the Gospel in certain areas; church schools facing government censure, and so on....
Recently, the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali warned that the upcoming Equality Bill and similar legislation will further jeopardize the religious liberty of Christians in this country, forcing people to act against their conscience. Last week, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said that Christians in Britain are too soft and he challenged us to be a 'tougher church', more vocal in defending our beliefs and our nation's Christian heritage.
Without the daily renewing of the Holy Spirit in our lives, you and I cannot, graciously but firmly, stand up for Jesus as Lord.
All around us, false gods, such as those of money, sex and celebrity, clamour for our attention. We will not resist them and instead reveal Christ as Lord of our lives, unless we open ourselves to receive the Spirit's power moment by moment (cf Rom 12:2). Nor does the Bible does come alive to us as God's inspired word, teaching and correcting us, without the fresh in-breathing of God's Spirit (cf 2 Timothy 3:16).
Of course, there are all sorts of ways in which we can daily be renewed in the Holy Spirit. But sometimes we do need to set aside a special time in a special place for a deep re-charging of our spiritual batteries. One place that has particular significance for me in that respect is Lee Abbey. During past months, there've been notices in the Priory about our church weekend away at this Christian Conference, Retreat and Holiday centre on the North Devon coast. Over 70 of us have already booked our places, but there's room for at least 30 more. If you haven't yet signed up, may I encourage you to grab one of those remaining places for yourself as soon as possible. I know I'm biased, not just because, being a Devonian myself, I think that Devon is God's own county! But because Lee Abbey was special to my parents before I was born and I've been going there ever since. And every time I've visited God has brought about some kind of refreshment and renewal in my life. Lee Abbey Devon has been described as a 'thin place' - a place where the curtain between heaven and earth is so gossamer-thin that at times it's hardly there at all; a place where heaven touches earth; where the Lord Jesus is revealed at work in people's lives. And apart from that - the food is good and plentiful, the accommodation comfortable, the facilities great for young and not-so-young, the scenery magnificent, and the company - well, enough said!
So do book up to come with us to Lee Abbey on the first weekend in July. But don't leave it until then to put yourself in places where you can be renewed by God's Spirit and resourced for the task of revealing Christ to a thirsty world. Many opportunities for this are mentioned on this week's Leaflet: for example, stay on after this morning's service and find out more about the programme of events for the Priory's 925th anniversary celebrations; go along to the 'In His Name' meetings; come to the House Groups Coffee Morning here next Saturday; see John about the 'Christianity Explored' course which starts next month.
When you and I make the effort to respond to such opportunities, we give God space to reveal His glory through the ordinary stuff of our daily lives. Remember the Gospel reading - where water, the raw material of creation, was exposed to the transforming power of Christ's new creation. Remember that Jesus did not command that the water-jars - symbols of the old order - should be thrown away or smashed. Rather, they were to be filled up to the brim. This is the way God works. He takes and transforms anything and everything that can become a useful vessel for His purposes. Remember too that the sign was only complete when the contents of those old jars - the water-turned-into-wine - was drawn out and given to others. So God's transforming love at work within us has to be poured out and given away if the glory of Jesus is to be revealed afresh today.
This Sunday's Collect is printed on our Weekly Leaflet. May we pray it together now:
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches
of Your grace, and in the renewal of our lives
make known Your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
Mary Barr
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