Run Away?

Preached at St Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead on 26 February 2023 @ 10:30

Introduction

Have you ever run away from anything? There were plenty of times at school when I literally ran away from things. But these days, the running away tends to take less physical forms.

There are things that we should be running away from, and we’ll look briefly at those later. God, of course, is not one of them.

Jonah, why run away

So, when the word of the Lord came to Jonah, why would he run away? Have you ever had to go to speak to someone that you don’t like, don’t trust, and are generally quite sure that they have your worst interests at heart? How would you feel about doing that, perhaps you would prefer to go in another direction?

How about if the person you were going to see was likely to cause you physical harm? How about going in a different direction now?

And if you think it is likely that they will kill you? What then?

Nineveh

At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Assyria was Israel's great enemy, its competitor for territory in the region. It was not in the ascendency at the time, but was still a dangerous place to go. They had a reputation for cruelty and violence, here’s what Nahum said:

Na 3 ¹ Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!

² The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!

³ Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses —

⁴ all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.

So, to summarise – not a nice place, and they saw Israel as an enemy.

For us, those places are Russia, North Korea, or any of the list of countries who think that Christians should be killed.

Jonah the successful prophet

Jonah is a successful prophet, here’s what we know about him from 2 Kings, where it is recording the acts of Jeroboam II:

2Ki 14:25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

Gath Hepher was in the region known as Galilee in Jesus’ time.

Another prophets

It is highly unlikely he was the only prophet, so when the word of the Lord came to him, maybe his immediate thought was that there are plenty of people God could use, why does it have to be me?

God will achieve His aims

Well, it does have to be Jonah this time, but normally it is not the case that only one person can do it. If God wants something done, and one of His servants decides not to serve, God will find someone who will do what He wants. We should never think that our failures somehow ruin God’s almighty plan for the universe – it just isn’t like that. There are multiple ways to get things done, and there are hundreds of servants willing to do things, sometimes even very dangerous things.

Jonah’s reasons

Now, I’m not intending to paint Jonah as some sort of coward, though that’s the way it’s beginning to look. Jonah’s reasons for running away are alluded to in the last chapter, so in case you’re having a series on Jonah, I’m not going to release any spoilers. - But, you can, of course, read the book for yourself. It won’t take very long.

What happened?

So let’s see how the fleeing Jonah got on, and how he served the Lord on his journey.

Tarshish

Jonah went to the port town of Joppa, and looked for a ship that would take him as far from Nineveh as possible. He found a ship headed for Tarshish, which is thought to be the city of Tartessus in southern Spain, it was a Phoenician mining colony near Gibraltar. That would take him to the western edge of the known world, exactly the opposite direction of Nineveh, in the east.

Jonah at sea - storm

This was likely Jonah’s first time at sea. So, while he might have been concerned when the storm started, he would only have become scared when he saw how the sailors were acting. He wouldn’t see that until the captain woke him, because he was in the bottom of the ship – sound asleep.

Disastrous storm

For the sailors, it was a disastrous storm. They were afraid the ship would break up, so each was praying to his own God. Phoenicia was a poly-theistic society, so each of them would have chosen a different god to serve. Now they needed the help of their god.

Cargo overboard

Throwing the cargo overboard was a last resort, it meant that they would not be paid for the journey. It was something they would only do, if they really thought that their lives were in imminent danger.

Help from Jonah’s God

They need all the help they can get. None of the gods have been able to calm the storm, so Jonah is woken and told to pray to his God. We are not told whether the disobedient servant prayed or not. The storm did not diminish.

Lots

Believing that the storm must be happening because someone had upset their god, intentionally or otherwise, the sailors draw lots to see who it is. And the lot points to Jonah.

Questions

So, immediately there are loads of questions, the sailors need to know who’s threatening their ship, and their lives:

“Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

Answers (the sea!)

Now, it's time for Jonah to be truthful and to witness to his God.

I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven

Nothing contentious there for the sailors, there were plenty of gods of the skies and the land. But the next part of the answer frightens them even more.

“who made the sea and the land.”

The sea was thought of as being the leftovers from the primordial chaos when the gods made the land, the sky and all the life on earth, but Jonah’s God also made the sea – the very thing that was threatening their lives.

Control of the sea

Now, if God has control of the sea, and Jonah is His servant, even if he is a bad one at the moment, the next question is the most logical they could ask:

“What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

Throw me in

But the answer “throw me in” is more than they can take, and to ensure that they do, God intensifies the storm. Now the sailors must take the action that Jonah suggests. They are now frightened of his God, because to kill a servant of a god will just bring them more trouble – worse trouble.

Innocent man

“Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man”

does not mean that they have proclaimed Jonah innocent of his crimes, it simply means that they understood that they don’t have the right to make that judgement, so Jonah must remain innocent.

Last Jonah knows

So, in he goes, and being completely unable to swim, in the stormy waters he will immediately drown. He will not know that the sea calms, and the sailors are in awe of his god.

Sacrifices

Each of them will make sacrifices to Jonah’s God when they finally return to shore as a way of giving thanks for their deliverance, but also because the power of this God has them scared, and they have just killed one of His servants.

What Jonah has done

So Jonah has been a witness to his God despite his disobedience. He is then swallowed by a big fish, and is inside the fish for about 3 days.

That’s as far as we go with this story, today.

Should you run away?

So, as a servant of God, should you run away?

From God – No, but from the world, there are times when it’s legitimate, here are a couple of examples:

2 Tim 2:3-5

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

… and the quickest way is simple, to leave (run away from) the situation where the temptation is happening – there will always be an exit.

 

Amen. 

Youtube

A link to the youtube video (sound only) from the practice read through:https://youtu.be/3MDBsqANilE

References

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/how-a-runaway-prays-dean-o-bryan-sermon-on-prayer-general-126635

https://redeeminggod.com/sermons/jonah/jonah_1/

https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/jonah-1/

https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/can-god-use-the-seasons-where-we-run-away.html

‘Seeing’ God

 Preached at Christ Church, Billericay for the youtube video service only

Title: ‘Seeing’ God

Purpose: How we ‘see’ God, and the effect that has.

Reading: Exodus 12v24-50; Matthew 17v1-9

Introduction

How do you see God? Well, you can't – right? Because Paul says in Colossians 1 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. But when we talk about God, what sort of image goes through your mind? The classic very old man on a throne in the heavens? A youngish long haired bearded man in flowing robes? Are either of them wearing a crown? Is it something more sophisticated, perhaps?

My Image of God

I don’t have an image of a person in my head when I think about God. It’s more the sense of a presence, a connection, a power, than it is a person. Of course, when we talk about Jesus, I have an image of a man, but not with any specific features.

What follows

As I look at these two passages this morning, I am going to consider how each of the characters that we meet sees God, and how that affects what they believe, and therefore what they do.

Exodus 12:24-50 (Moses)

We’ll start with the Old Testament reading, Exodus 12:24-50. I’ll treat Moses and Aaron as one person for the purposes of this discussion. So, Moses is issuing God’s instructions to the elders of Israel. They are probably the most important instructions that could possibly be given – how to avoid the angel of death – the destroyer in verse 23.

Ten plagues

You will, I hope, remember that Egypt, where the Israelites were slaves, had suffered 9 plagues:

1. Water turning to blood

2. Frogs

3. Lice

4. Flies

5. Pestilence

6. Boils

7. Thunderstorms of Hail

8. Locusts

9. Darkness

and the tenth is about to arrive – death of the firstborn. In all of this Moses had been the person that God worked through, so despite his initial doubts about his ability and the crimes he committed, he is now a faithful servant of God. He sees God as his master, and the saviour of his people. He will do what God tells him to, even when the Israelites are less than happy to obey. Putting blood on the doorposts would not seem as awful to them as it might to us.

The Israelites

The Israelites see God as a great power, they have seen the plagues come, and they now have enough experience of God to be ready to obey – even when the commands seem a little odd. Then we get to a phrase that occurs only a couple of times in the whole Old Testament, “The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded”. Now, I’ll bet that a lot of them were afraid. They had seen the plagues escalate and realised that this was the final one, so best do as you’re told. Sadly, their complete obedience would not last.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh thinks of himself as a god, and the owner of the Israelite slaves. He, therefore, sees Israel’s God as a rival -a competitor. Someone who will steal his slaves. He is not convinced at all by the plagues so far, indeed they have largely served to strengthen his resolve (the Bible calls it hardening his heart). But the final plague strikes closer to home than any of the others. He loses his own son. That pushes him over the edge, and now he’s determined to get rid of the whole troublesome lot of them and hopefully their invisible God too. Not just letting them go, but evicting them.

His change of heart doesn’t end there, though. Look at the end of verse 32. “And also bless me”. Pharaoh is asking for a blessing from Moses, which will, of course, come from the competitor God.

Egyptians

Some of the Egyptians saw the Israelites and their God as something more, something different, something better, and decided to leave with them – and took their livestock – their whole way of life with them. It’s hard to know whether they cared for God, or just decided to follow the winner. This led to a whole raft of laws about who may or may not celebrate the passover. They are designed to ensure that only those truly committed to God can partake of the most important remembrance ceremony of the time.

Matthew 17:1-9

In the New Testament reading, Peter, James and John see Jesus in an entirely new light (sorry, for the rather obvious pun). Have you ever tried to picture the scene? I found an episode of Star Trek TNG, called ‘Transfiguration’ that is clearly inspired by this event. Here’s what the special effects crew made of it.

[video]

That’s a pretty good attempt, I think, and it helped me to imagine the scene a little more clearly.

Peter

More important to us this morning is what Peter, James and John made of it. Peter is his usual self, a man of action, trying to do the best thing in any situation he finds himself in. When Moses and Elijah appear he wants to put up shelters for them. Mark tells us he did not know what to say because he was frightened. That is probably an understatement – they had only gone up the mountain to pray.

James and John

We have no record of what James and John thought, but I would expect they were as frightened as Peter was. Maybe they were stunned into silence.

Moses and Elijah

Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. So this would have happened after the disciples had been with Jesus a long time.

Voice

It’s the voice that really makes a difference to them, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

If they were afraid before, now they are all terrified and fall to the ground face down to worship God.

Jesus tells them to “Get up”, and to not be afraid, and the event is over.

‘Proof’

If they were having any doubts at all about who Jesus was, this was an important event for them. It can only have helped to convince them that there was something very special about Jesus. After all, Moses and Elijah are the two most important people in their scriptures (our Old Testament). They have seen something of the amazing power of God, and yet there is Jesus, gently telling them not to be afraid.

Don’t Tell

On the way down the mountain, they are told not to tell the others what they have seen. This story must be kept until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is too close to a proof of who Jesus really is.

Changed

Because of what they have seen, Peter, James and John, now have a different view of Jesus, who He is and what He is about to do. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, they still find it hard to accept that He has to die and be raised from the dead.

Aspects of God

We have seen quite a few different views of God this morning.

Power

His power has been shown to us through the plagues in Egypt, where he controlled events to bring about a particular outcome. His power has been shown through the change in his son, from looking like any other man you might meet to being something quite different – that’s a power over the physical being, not just people’s actions.

Love

His love is shown in His plans for the Passover feast to happen every year in remembrance. It will not only teach his people about their heritage, but will bring them together.

His love has been shown to his Disciples too, as he prepares them for events to come that they will struggle to deal with and as always He assures them that they never need to be afraid in His presence.

Initiative & leading

In both readings, we see God taking the initiative and leading His people forward. The plagues show us that God has a plan, He set out to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and the plan succeeded. He set out to redeem the world through His son, coming as a man and dying on the cross to pay for our sins. We only saw a small part of that plan this morning with the transfiguration, but unlike the Exodus, this plan is still in progress, and we are part of it.

Amen.

Mountain top experiences

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay at 8am on 19 February 2023 (based on a similar sermon from 2017)

Exodus 24v12-18,Matthew 17v1-9, Genesis 22v1-19

Introduction

We are looking at mountain top experiences this morning as we look forward to the start of Lent on Wednesday. The phrase is really a metaphor for the type of experience, but in both our readings it is also the geographical location.

Mountain top experience – what you get

When we talk about a mountain top experience, we usually mean something that is an amazing revelation, something that gives you an understanding that you have not had before. It gives you the sense of the presence of God in a new and exiting way. It may change your whole approach to life and set you off in a different direction, or it may bolster your faith years later. It may have been a scary experience, or a joyful, exhilarating one. It will certainly have been a memorable one. It may even have been your conversion.

Scary experience – Abraham

As we will see later, Peter, James and John had a scary experience, but there is an even more scary mountain top experience recorded in Genesis. In Chapter 22 Abraham is tested.

In verse 2 God says to Abraham:

God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Isaac was the son that God had promised Abraham he would build a nation through, so what is God up to in asking Abraham to sacrifice him? It is a test of his faith, of course, does the boy belong to Abraham, or does he belong to God. Who does Abraham really think is in charge?

Outcome for Abraham

If you don’t know the story, let me tell you that God provides a ram at the very last minute, and Isaac’s life is spared. God, of course, keeps his promise to Abraham and Isaac’s descendants become the great nation of the Israelites.

That was a mountain top experience that neither Abraham nor Isaac ever forgot.

Have you had one?

Maybe you have had a mountain top experience, if so think about it - remember it, spend some time today reflecting on what you learnt, and what it means to you now.

Mountain top experience – what you need

Sometimes these experiences can be triggered by nature, so I am not surprised that we also like to have the literal experience. Going up a mountain to see what you can see. Being up a mountain usually means that you are on your own with God (or with just a few others). It’s also helpful if there is nothing that might interrupt you – so that you can concentrate on God, and listen to him in a very special way.

Exodus 24:12-18

In our Old Testament reading, it is not Moses we’re really following. He’s off up the mountain to get the 10 commandments from God, and he will be gone a long time. First he has to wait a week before he is called further up the mountain, then he is up there for forty days.

Forty

The number forty represents testing in the bible – so the forty days in the wilderness for Jesus that we remember during Lent is a time when He tested his faith and prepared Himself for the ministry to come. Forty days up the mountain for Moses, is not so much a test for Moses, but a test for the Israelites – can they remain faithful to the Lord when their leader is gone? It’s a test that the Israelites spectacularly failed – even before they were properly established as a people. If we skip on a bit to chapter 32 we can read the story of the golden calf.

Mysterious God, their guide

God appears mysterious, remote and rather frightening in this passage as only Moses and Joshua are allowed on the mountain, and then only Moses is called to be closer to God. God had been guiding them through the wilderness in the form of a pillar cloud of during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. (13:21) He had been feeding them on Manna and Quail (16) and providing water from rocks. Now the pillar of fire is on top of the mountain and is described as the Glory of the Lord. It was the way that God showed his presence with the Israelites.

Volcano?

Mount Sinai, in case you were wondering, is not a volcano, so this is not a mythical tale of primitive people worshipping what they do not know, and have no way to understand. This is the Living God making the Israelites into a people, and demonstrating any number of times how much He loves and cares for them.

The laws He gave them are remarkable for their fairness, their concern for the poor and the foreigner, they proved an incredible challenge to the Israelites then, and they still do – even in our supposedly more enlightened times.

Transfiguration

In the transfiguration story, we see a number of similarities and a number of differences, which we will look at now.

Where

Both are on mountains, but are they the same mountain?

Mount Tabor

There are three candidates for the location of the ‘high mountain’. The most likely appears to be mount Tabor, which was suggested as the location by Origen in the third century.

Mount Tabor is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee.

Mount Hermon

Another good alternative is Mount Hermon.

It is much higher and also closer to where Jesus and His disciples were said to be, so it might qualify as the ‘high’ mountain.

Of course, some people would love it to be Mount Sinai and go out of their way to make the case. So I checked how long it would take and Google tells me it is 124 hours to walk to Sinai. If they had walked 21 hours a day, they might have just made it in six days. Even if we allow the 8 days mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, they would still have to walk 15.5 hours a day – and ignore the Sabbath! Everyone has to eat and sleep, and that takes more than three hours a day, so I think we can safely say that it was not mount Sinai.

Transfiguration Background

Which ever mountain they were climbing six days had passed, and we do not know what happened during that time, but we do know that before the six days Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his death and resurrection. It is difficult to know how much of this the disciples understood, so perhaps they needed to see things from a different perspective.

Glory

God’s Glory, of course, is present in both episodes, but in a very different way. Moses does not see the Glory of God directly, instead it is the Israelites who are treated to that vision – the “consuming fire” on top of the mountain. Remember, it is the Israelites being tested. Moses did not need to see it, he was doing business with God to get the nation set up.

Jesus Shines

For Peter, James and John, the Glory of God shines out through Jesus. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.” What the disciples are seeing is a demonstration that Jesus is God. God’s glory is no longer a separate entity, no longer something detached and scary, it is here inside the friend and teacher they have been following for a while. Moses and Elijah are there too, because this is about continuity – Moses represents the law and Elijah the prophets.

Peter

When Mark is telling this story he says that Peter was afraid, so perhaps his rather strange reaction - offering to put up shelters for each of them, is explained by that. The word used is Tabernacles, and refers back to the ways of worshipping before the temple was built by Solomon. Before he can finish making his plans, a bright fog came down, and God spoke.

The Voice

The voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased. Listen to him!” The disciples have heard this message before, at Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased.”, just the command “Listen to Him” was missing.

Maybe it's the place – the surroundings, - the situation, maybe it's the command, maybe they’re just a lot closer to God now than they had been last time they heard those words, whatever it is they are terrified and throw themselves to the ground face down – that was not how they responded at his baptism (3:17) – indeed no response is recorded. Now, the posture is one of worship.

Jesus supersedes Moses

Jesus comes to them and tells them to get up and not be afraid. When they do, everything has returned to normal – Moses and Elijah are gone, only Jesus is there. They start back down the mountain – the experience is over. You cannot stay on the mountain top forever, as good as it is to be there. Jesus is already focussed on how they will use the experience and says, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” The experience was meant for them – Peter, James and John. It was meant to be remembered, it was meant to strengthen their faith – so that when, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, they were questioning what happened, when they were questioning who Jesus was, they will have that memory to look back on. What they had seen will remind them that God’s love for all of us is so strong that he sent His only son Jesus came to die for their sins and bring them to eternal life, but also that Jesus is the fulfilment of all that has gone before – of all that Moses did, of all that Elijah and the prophets did and said. All of it points to Jesus and Jesus, their Messiah and ours, supersedes all of it. Salvation is found in Him alone.

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay at 10.00

We are looking at mountain top experiences this morning as we look forward to the start of Lent on Wednesday. The phrase is really a metaphor for the type of experience, but in both these cases it is also the geographical location. When we talk about a mountain top experience, we usually mean something that is an amazing revelation, something that gives you an understanding that you have not had before. It gives you the sense of the presence of God in a new and exiting way. It may change your whole approach to life and set you off in a different direction, or it may bolster your faith years later. It may have been a scary experience, or a joyful, exhilarating one. It will certainly have been a memorable one. It may even have been your conversion. Maybe you have had a mountain top experience, if so think about it - remember it, spend some time today reflecting on what you learnt, and what it means to you now. Sometimes these experiences can be triggered by nature, so I am not surprised that we also like to have the literal experience. Going up a mountain to see what you can see. Many years ago we were holidaying on the Isle of Man and decided to take the train up Snaefell, because we wanted to see the view from the top.
Snaefell doesn’t look too difficult a climb, and it isn’t very high, but the children were young, and the railway is a very special type – designed specifically for getting trains up hills. We were looking forward to the view from the top. This is what we saw.
I have something in common with Moses, except that the only voices I heard were other families trying to ensure they all stayed together, and working out how long they had before the train returned. It was a mountain top experience to forget (but I haven’t). We like pretty much everyone else were on the next train down. We got back in the car and drove away going round part of the mountain at one point we looked up, and this is what we saw:
While we were at the top of the mountain for only fifteen minutes or so, Moses was there for six days before anything happened – altogether he was there for forty days. In that time he received instructions on a number of things to be made, and also the tablets with the commandments and the law.
Forty The number forty represents testing in the bible – so the forty days in the wilderness for Jesus that we remember during Lent is a time when He tested his faith and prepared Himself for the ministry to come. Forty days up the mountain for Moses, is not so much a test for Moses, but a test for the Israelites – can they remain faithful to the Lord when their leader is gone? It’s a test that the Israelites spectacularly failed – even before they were properly established as a people. If we skip on a bit to chapter 32 we can read the story of the golden calf. God appears mysterious, remote and rather frightening in this passage as only Moses and Joshua are allowed on the mountain, and then only Moses is called to be closer to God. God had been guiding them through the wilderness in the form of a pillar cloud of during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. (13:21) He had been feeding them on Manna and Quail (16) and providing water from rocks. Now the pillar of fire is on top of the mountain and is described as the Glory of the Lord. It was the way that God showed his presence with the Israelites. Volcano? Mount Sinai, in case you were wondering, is not a volcano, so this is not a mythical tale of primitive people worshipping what they do not know, and have no way to understand. This is the Living God making the Israelites into a people, and demonstrating any number of times how much He loves and cares for them. The laws He gave them are remarkable for their fairness, their concern for the poor and the foreigner, they proved an incredible challenge to the Israelites then, and they still do – even in our supposedly more enlightened times. Transfiguration In the transfiguration story, we see a number of similarities and a number of differences, which we will look at now. Where Both are on mountains, but are they the same mountain?
There are three candidates for the location of the ‘high mountain’. The most likely appears to be mount Tabor, which was suggested as the location by Origen in the third century.
Mount Tabor is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee.
Another good alternative is Mount Hermon.
It is much higher and also closer to where Jesus and His disciples were said to be, so it might qualify as the ‘high’ mountain.   Of course, some people would love it to be Mount Sinai and go out of their way to make the case. So I checked how long it would take and Google tells me it is 124 hours to walk to Sinai. If they had walked 21 hours a day, they might have just made it in six days. Even if we allow the 8 days mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, they would still have to walk 15.5 hours a day – and ignore the Sabbath! Everyone has to eat and sleep, and that takes more than three hours a day, so I think we can safely say that it was not mount Sinai.
Which ever mountain they were climbing six days had passed, and we do not know what happened during that time, but we do know that before the six days Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his death and resurrection. It is difficult to know how much of this the disciples understood, so perhaps they needed to see things from a different perspective. Glory God’s Glory, of course, is present in both episodes, but in a very different way. Moses does not see the Glory of God directly, instead it is the Israelites who are treated to that vision – the “consuming fire” on top of the mountain. Remember, it is the Israelites being tested. Moses did not need to see it, he was doing business with God to get the nation set up. Jesus Shines For Peter, James and John, the Glory of God shines out through Jesus. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.” What the disciples are seeing is a demonstration that Jesus is God. God’s glory is no longer a separate entity, no longer something detached and scary, it is here inside the friend and teacher they have been following for a while. Moses and Elijah are there too, because this is about continuity – Moses represents the law and Elijah the prophets. All this has happened in plain sight, so Peter failing to understand as he so often does, or maybe just being terrified, tries to be helpful and offers to put up shelters for each of them. The word used is Tabernacles, and refers back to the ways of worshipping before the temple was built by Solomon. Before he can finish making his plans the fog came down, not a grey fog like on the top of Snaefell, but a white fog, and God spoke. The Voice The voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased. Listen to him!” The disciples have heard this message before, at Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased.”, just the command “Listen to Him” is missing. Maybe it's the place – the surroundings, - the situation, maybe it's the command, maybe they’re just a lot closer to God now than they had been last time they heard those words, whatever it is they are terrified and throw themselves to the ground – that was not how they responded at his baptism (3:17) – indeed no response is recorded.
Jesus comes to them and tells them to get up. When they do, everything has returned to normal – Moses and Elijah are gone, only Jesus is there. They start back down the mountain – the experience is over. You cannot stay on the mountain top forever, as good as it is to be there. Jesus is already focussed on how they will use the experience and says, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” The experience was meant for them – Peter, James and John. It was meant to be remembered, it was meant to strengthen their faith – so that when, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, they were questioning what happened, when they were questioning who Jesus was, they will have that memory to look back on. What they had seen will remind them that God’s love for all of us is so strong that he sent His only son Jesus came to die for their sins and bring them to eternal life, but also that Jesus is the fulfilment of all that has gone before – of all that Moses did, of all that Elijah and the prophets did and said. All of it points to Jesus and Jesus, their Messiah and ours, supersedes all of it. Salvation is found in Him alone.

Salt & Light

Preached 5 Feb 2023 @ Christ church, Billericay at 10:00 Morning Worship

Isaiah’s Time

It seems that the world in Isaiah’s time was not so different in some ways than the world is now. They look like they followed God, they did all the right things on the surface, but underneath they we just being selfish. Then they wondered why their prayers were not answered.

God said about Israel

“For day after day they seek me out” (well, perhaps that’s a bit different) “they seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.”

Israel Replied

‘Why have we fasted, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’

Our reply

‘We come to church week by week, you have not seen us? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’

but God says to Israel

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.”

but God says to us

“Yet every Sunday, you go home and treat the rest of the day like any other. You expect people to serve you, to entertain you, and to sell you things.” … and no doubt, sometimes there is quarrelling and strife, even here amongst Billericians.

Religion must make a difference

Isaiah is saying that their religion must make a difference to their lives. The people show some evidence of wanting to do God’s will, they are even prepared to put up with the minor inconvenience of fasting. But it doesn’t make a real difference to how they live their lives, to how they behave on a day to day basis.

My commentary call this ‘empty externalism’ - religion on the outside which has no meaning to the person on the inside.

God’s requirement

God’s requirement is in verses 6 and 7.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

It is a common theme running through the Old Testament. In our communion prayer we sometimes have these words from Micah 6:8:

“And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

NT

Jesus has a different way of putting it to the crowds he is speaking to in the sermon on the mount. “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world”.

Salt & Light - Pliny

Pliny said, “Nothing is more useful than salt and sunshine”. So Jesus has used the two most important elements of life to teach the people. I’m going to look at each of these in more detail so that we can understand a little better how these sayings might have been received.

Salt

You won’t be surprised to learn that salt in the first century did not come out of a plastic tub. Instead, it was collected from around the Dead Sea. That means it is impure, it is a mixture of all sorts of things. When it gets damp, the real salt – the sodium chloride – is dissolved little by little. The salt still looks the same but is beginning to lose its saltiness.

Non-salty salt - uses

This non-salty salt was used on the flat roofs and when combined with the soil on the roof it produces a hard and waterproof covering for the house. The flat roofs are also used, children were allowed to play on them, Peter used to pray on the roof (Acts 10:9). In some places it is also used on roads, so that’s where the ‘trampled by men’ phrase come from.

Worth his salt (salary)

Salt was very important, as we have already heard from Pliny. It is where we get the phrase “He is worth his salt” - which means he is worth his pay. Sal, the Latin for salt is also the root of our word salary, which was an allowance paid to Roman soldiers so that they could buy salt.

Flavouring & Preservative

Salt was important for two reasons. It was used for flavouring food, as it still is today, but more importantly it was used as a preservative before the invention of refrigeration.

Preservative

It is this preservative property of salt that Jesus is getting at. “The salt of the earth” means that we are the preservative of the world. We are a sort of moral disinfectant, our purpose is to keep the world from becoming rotten.
Do you think we are doing a good job?

Light

The other thing that Pliny reckoned was most useful was sunshine. In the days before electric lights real work could only take place in the daytime when the sun provided light to see by. The lamps in Jesus’ time gave off little more light than our candles. If you were outside on a moonless night it was impossible to travel. You might though have been able to see a city on a hill.

Billericay – town on a hill

I live on the top of the hill that Billericay stands on. There is never real darkness at any time of day or night. I can walk around the garden at 3am when I’m having a bad night without fear of tripping over or walking into the bushes. I can even see enough to navigate around the house if I open the curtains. That’s because of the street lighting outside bouncing off the atmosphere - it's called back scatter. Once, there was a permanent orange glow, now it’s just never exactly properly dark.

Points of light visible

Without street lighting, though, it is still possible to see points of light on a clear night that are miles away. Even with only candles, there would still be something that would be visible, and our eyes would be drawn to it – it catches our attention.

Limestone at dawn

At dawn, as the first light of the sun gets scattered around the atmosphere a city on a hill – especially one built of limestones houses, as many were, would soon begin to reflect light and become visible. At sunrise, it would become a beacon as the direct sunlight reflected off the houses. Think of the white cliffs of Dover in bright sunlight. We should also remember that the sun rises much more quickly in Israel, because it is nearer to the equator.

We are the light of the world

In the same way, we are the light of the world, reflecting the glory of Christ Jesus, we can become a beacon of truth and love. Light is good news as the sun brings light and heat and life can get underway again after the darkness and chill of the night. We are good news as we spread God’s word to those still in darkness, and they too realise that life can properly get underway now their darkness has been eradicated.

Cost

For the Christian there is a cost to all this. Here are a couple of examples.

West Nickel Mines School shooting

In Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on October, 2^nd 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the school house. He lined the girls up against the blackboard. He let the boys and the adults go. Eventually, the girls were shot, but not before they had time to understand what was happening. He then committed suicide.

It is just one of an unfathomable number of school massacres that have occurred in the United States. Forgotten now by a world that tires of hearing about them, but still remembered by families and the communities affected.

Bart township is an Amish community. The Amish are a protestant denomination.

What makes this shooting stand out from the others is that there was no call for revenge, only for forgiveness. One of the fathers said, “He had a mother and a wife and a soul, and now he's standing before a just God.” Members of the community visited and comforted Charles Robert’s widow and his parents.

They are being salt and light. They are doing what they can to preserve the family of Charles Roberts, and point them to a better future.

Gordon Wilson

My other example is Gordon Wilson, who you may remember. On 8^th November 1987 the provisional IRA blew up the Remembrance Day parade in Enniskillen. Gordon was injured, and his daughter was killed. His response was “I bear no ill will, I bear no grudge”. He begged the loyalists not to take revenge for the bombing. All this was reported along with the bombing in news reports across the world. The cost to Gordon was not just the loss of his daughter and his injuries, but the hatred of loyalists and a continued bombing campaign by the provisional IRA.

Much later though, this bombing, and especially Gordon’s reaction, has been seen as a turning point in the troubles.

Gordon Wilson was salt and light in his community because he forgave those who planted the bomb, because he effectively prevented a retaliation, and because for years afterwards he worked for peace in Northern Ireland.

And us

In both my examples, an act of evil spurred people to action. Their actions would not have been possible without the solid long term grounding of their faith in Jesus. I pray that none of us ever suffer those kinds of evils, but we all suffer evils of some sort, and we also see evils suffered by others.

Our calling means ...

Our calling is to be salt and light in all circumstances. That means:

to be an influence in our culture against further insensitivity and cruelty;

to season the bitter, dog-eat-dog world with grace and mercy;

to be that light shining in the darkest corner;

to be a beacon of truth and love.

 

How

How can we be salt and light for them and for the surrounding community?

By being there, by being active, sometimes by opposing, but mainly by helping and being available. By acting where others in society won’t. By being forgiving, by being always ready to give account of the hope that is in us. By being gentle and respectful and keeping a clear conscience.

Change Society

This is how we change society, not by joining in with the increasingly shrill shouting match that passes for debate, but by actions that are consistent with the gospel we preach. In other words by being salt and light in every situation.

Amen.