As we’ve been reading about Abram, as we’ve been exploring his story we’ve been looking for Gospel echoes. Because we believe that the Gospel runs from Genesis to Revelation, it doesn’t begin with Jesus. And in our passage today, in a throwaway line about Abram’s belief, and in an incredibly strange ritual, we find the strongest echoes yet of the Gospel in which we believe.
What do you make of Jesus? Who is he? What is he? A good teacher, giving wise advice, who helps us think about the bigger things of life? Certainly. A Saviour who dies to set his people free? Absolutely. But here Jesus takes on a different picture for himself. The shepherd. The fact that Jesus takes upon himself the title of shepherd, and indeed in the very next verse after our passage for today, the title of the good shepherd, is a rich picture. We’ll think about some of what he’s saying in a moment, but first it’s worth pausing to note the theological undertones here.
‘The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it’. So begins the film the Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. It starts in total darkness with that voiceover before the title card appears at the end of that sentence and the strings of the orchestra play a melody which will thread through the entire trilogy. It has stuck with me since I first watched it partly because it’s an utterly captivating way to start a film, but also because the first half resonates so deeply with our Christian faith.
The world is changed. Changed by the events we celebrate today.
…And that in many ways is what I want to focus on this morning but looking at the events that fit immediately after Peter’s declaration of who Jesus is, and the events of the transfiguration 6 days later. Because as soon as Peter has recognised Jesus, Jesus starts speaking plainly about his mission. Speaking about how he will be betrayed, killed, and on the third day rise again. And how, if we would follow him, we too are to take up our cross and follow in his steps. There’s this stark warning of the suffering that awaits Jesus, and therefore the struggle and suffering that awaits all believers. And this is then followed with the transfiguration, the revealing of Jesus’ glory. Suffering, then glory.
Every year when I come to preach on Remembrance Sunday, without fail, there is more violence, war and innocent blood shed than the previous year I had preached. So the end must be near right? Jesus is coming back soon, look at all the signs, right?
We’re in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians again, one of Paul’s earliest letters and therefore one of the earliest texts in the New Testament. And having spoken into the suffering of the Thessalonians in chapter 1, assuring them of God’s justice and care for them, Paul now turns to the first of two issues which are troubling the church there; the question of Jesus’ return.
Today as we celebrate St Matthew he poses for us a question; can you be too far gone to be forgiven by God?
We’re, rather fittingly in Matthew’s Gospel today, and here he is, popping up for a few verses. He’s telling us how he came to be a follower of Jesus, how he ended up as one of the twelve.
What does it mean that God is Father? What does it means about him, and what does it mean for us?
We’re at the start of our series on the Nicene Creed. And the first section is remarkably short. ‘We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen’.
We have two rather short readings today, five verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and four verses from John’s Gospel. They’re short but they pack a punch, and speak to us boldly not just about God as Trinity, no doubt why they were chosen for today, but of God’s saving acts for us. Those readings are in some ways a tale of two advocates, two who stand alongside and on behalf of. Two who speak on behalf of another. Jesus earlier in the conversation happening in our reading from John says that he will ask the Father and he will send another advocate, the Spirit of truth.
…life can sometimes feel like that, the only way is down. Things can only get worse. Whether it’s personally, we feel beyond our prime. Or in this country as we worry about the future. Or in the world as violence and wars seem to be on the increase, and the existential threat of global warming. We thought we were going up in the world, but does that just mean the only way is down? No!
Whose voice are we listening to? Who or what is shepherding us? Jesus in today’s passage is following up on the previous, rather famous section, in which he declares himself to be the good shepherd, the good shepherd. And here he reiterates that his sheep hear his voice. And, you know, there are so many voices vying for our attention. From the moment you wake up there are voices vying for our attention.