The Second Sunday of Christmas   (no audio available)
Luke 2:41-52

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

Have you ever had a moment where you thought, “Where is God in this?”
Not because you stopped believing — but because you couldn’t see how He could possibly be at work in whatever you were going through.
Maybe you thought you were following His plan, and the things you believed you were called to simply didn’t work out. Or maybe there have been moments of deep pain or grief, where you cried out to God and He didn’t take the pain away.

When I left my last parish, I was an associate vicar of an inner city church plant, and felt strongly called to senior leadership in a church in London. I left my last role as a step of faith, and had four job opportunities in different parishes, all of which the Lord asked me to turn down.
Which was quite challenging to do, and very embarrassing in front of my Bishop. I couldn’t see how God was working at all, or where He was as He seemed to be closing every door and not opening any new ones.

In our Gospel reading today, we see a couple in deep distress, frantically searching for God.
Have you ever lost track of one of your children like this?
Have you experienced the shock, the horror, all the things that go through your mind?
The flood of relief when you find them?

They search, and find Him after 3 days! Can you imagine! When they finally find Him Mary says: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” (v48)
And instead of being defensive, or blaming them (after all, they were the ones who left Him in Jerusalem), He responds with gentle surprise: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (v49)

This is probably a very familiar story to you. But as I was reading about this passage something struck me for the first time. I was reading N.T. Wright, an Anglican Bishop and well-respected biblical scholar in the UK, who notices that there are some strong PARALLELS with this passage and another story in Luke’s Gospel. 
Both involve a journey away from Jerusalem
Two people who think they have lost Christ
And they find Him after three days.
And Christ is surprised, they didn’t know where He was (going about His Father’s work)

Do you know what it is? (The Road to Emmaus in Luke 24)
     - Disciples journeying away form Jerusalem
     - They think Christ is dead (they saw Him crucified)
     - Christ starts walking with them – and their ‘eyes are shut’ they don’t realize
     - Christ explains the scriptures and what had to happen to Him
     - Its not until they get to a place to rest, and sit down for their meal, that Christ lifts up the bread and they finally realize it was Him! Christ vanishes in that moment

Luke 2 Mary and Joseph Luke 24 Emmaus
Travelling away from Jerusalem (to Galilee) Travelling away from Jerusalem (to Emmaus)
They think they’ve lost Him (literally) They think they’ve lost Him (death)
Find Him after three days (Temple) Find Him after three days (Risen)
Christ responds with a question - Christ responds with a question

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (v49)

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (v25,26)

By framing the Gospel with these stories we wonder what God, through Luke, is trying to tell us.
N.T. Wright suggests that we should call these pair of stories: ‘On Finding the Jesus You Thought You’d lost’

In both stories, Christ seems surprised that they didn’t know where to find Him. But He was there all along, exactly where he should be, and promised He would be.

Perhaps like Mary and Joseph you are searching frantically for God. Not understanding where He is or why He is allowing these things to happen to you. ‘God, why did you let this happen?’ Or perhaps, just like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, you are just plodding along in life, getting on with things, and are in danger of missing His presence even when He’s standing right
next to you.

Christ is not always where we expect Him to be — but He is always where He has promised to be.

We cannot predict Him, He is, like Aslan, “not a tame lion.”
But when we do find Him, when He makes His presence known, it is MORE WONDERFUL THAN WE COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED.

Christ is not always where we expect Him to be — but He is always where He has promised to be.

When we suffer, and go through true grief and pain our brains usually react in one of two ways:
- We cry out to God (even atheists) ‘How could you let this happen I don’t understand!’
- We blame ourselves, ‘If only I’d done X then this wouldn’t have happened.’
In clinical, psychological research, it has been posited that one of the reasons for this is that when the brain reacts to these deeply painful experiences, it desperately seeks to construct a safety plan to avoid the same thing happening in the future. It desperately searches for a causal link to what has happened so that we have some hope of preventing it from happening again. If we can find a way to blame ourselves, then we have found a way to stop this thing happening again. It is rarely the case that true tragedy was really your fault. Understanding this doesn’t remove the pain — but it can free us from false guilt.

So where is HE, when we go through these incredibly difficult seasons?
Probably not where we expect, doing what WE think He should be doing. But working His Father’s will in your life in ways MORE WONDERFUL THAN YOU COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED.

For Mary and Joseph, they were ASTONISHED at finding Him with the teachers, and everyone AMAZED at what he was saying.
The Disciples at Emmaus, see Him not in the grave, but RISEN from the dead! Everything He said and promised was true, and their hearts burned within them.

So WHERE CAN WE LOOK?:
Here is often where we look for Christ in distress:
     - We look for Him to take our suffering away (Who hasn’t longed for this?)
     - We look for Him to act immediately, in the ways we think He should
     - If we don’t find Him in these places, we give up (despair), or we look for other things to help (we sin)
But Christ never promised that he would be in those places, or do those things. In fact, He tells us the opposite: We will suffer “In this world you will have trouble.” John 16:33 (NIV)

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12 (NIV)

Promises His presence: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Psalm 23:4 (NIV)

That suffering will end: “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18 (NIV)
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”
Revelation 21:4 (NIV)

God does not promise that we will not suffer — but He promises that we will never suffer alone,
never suffer without purpose, and that one day all our suffering will cease.

Christ is not always where we expect Him to be — but He is always where He has promised to be.

So when we are in these seasons of struggling to see God at work, Where has HE promised us He will be?: In His Word: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 (NIV)

In Prayer: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)

In the Sacraments: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” John 6:56 (NIV)

In the Church: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20 (NIV)
“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26 (NIV)

His Promise to remain with us: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (NIV)

NT Wright puts it this way:
“But if and when we sense the lack of His presence, we must be prepared to hunt for Him, to search for Him in prayer, in the scriptures, in the sacraments, and not to give up until we find Him again. We must expect, too, that when we do meet Him again, He will not say or do what we expect. He must be busy with His Father’s work. So must we.”

When I left ministry in London, I had no idea what God was doing with my life. I knew I was called to give my whole life to Him — I had known that since I was young. But suddenly the path I thought I was on closed.  At the time, I could not see how Christ was working at all. And yet, looking back now, I can see that He was doing His Father’s work — preparing me for something I could not yet imagine.
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And He was preparing me for coming to you. Leading me to you, and placing in my hands such great trust and responsibility over His people (I feel the weight of that terribly). Making things better than I could have possibly imagine them by bringing me and my family to a community:
Of deeply loving people
With a deep love for Christ and each other
With a desire for historic, liturgical worship, and a reverence for the sacraments.
– more wonderful than I could have ever imagined!

Christ is not always where we expect Him to be — but He is always where He has promised to be.

One day, because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, we will look back and see clearly what we can now see only “through a glass darkly.” But until that day —when you find yourself asking, “Where is God?”
hear again His answer to Mary and Joseph:
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Christ is not absent.
He is here.
Here in His Word.
Here among His people.
And here, now, as we are about to receive His real presence at the Altar.

​​The First Sunday of Epiphany
Matthew 3:13-17 

Have you ever felt like you had failed God? Chosen the wrong thing? Fallen into sin again and again? Missed opportunities in life? If that describes you, then you are in good company my friends, because that describes us all.

Let's turn to the Gospel reading today. The Baptism of Christ is probably a familiar story to you. But imagine for a second what it would be like if you were hearing this story for the first time. In biblical studies in seminaries, professors often encourage their students to imagine what it would be like to be a ‘first-time reader’ of these texts, and look at what has gone before, and what is yet to be revealed.

The first three chapters of Matthew, tell this amazing story of a miraculous birth, angels speaking, political intrigue and escape from danger. John the Baptist, this wild and esoteric prophet has appeared on the scene, given the religious leaders a public telling off, and promised that someone powerful, mighty, and utterly amazing is on His way.

When we get to verse 13, this powerful figure we’ve been waiting for arrives, and it turns out to be Jesus Christ! The child we have heard so many miraculous things about, has grown up! Reading this for the first time, we would be incredibly EXCITED! We might respond with ‘Wow! It's Him! It's Jesus! I knew it would be Him!.’

This is the CULMINATION of the introductory chapters in Matthew’s Gospel. This special human being, who has been through so much wonder and danger to get here, is now about to start His ministry. But things, of course, as we looked at last week, Christ does not behave in the way we might expect. Things with John the Baptist don’t go the way we might have thought they should:

     1.  Christ arrives with no absolutely no fanfare at all.

All the Gospel says here is ‘Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.’ (v13)
Where are the angels singing? Where are the wise men who read the stars and knew He would be there? Where is the celebration, the pomp, the circumstance, the processions, for this heroic ruler who is going to baptize with fire, and cast judgment over Israel (v11-12)?

John has been preparing everyone for a mighty, powerful, figure of judgment. But what steps in front of him is a normal man, his cousin, dressed like everyone else.

     2.  Then something even more bizarre happens! Jesus asks to be baptized by John.

Now why is this odd?
It’s odd because the message John has been preaching is about repentance. John specifically says that baptism is for repentance (v11). This is not just odd…it’s almost horrifying.  
Why does Christ need to be baptized – He has no need to repent!
     Can you imagine, if Christ walked into our service right this second,
     Looked at you in your seat, and invited you to come to the front of the church.
     Then knelt in front of you, placed your hands on His head, and asked you to pray for Him?
Wouldn’t you be horrified?
Wouldn’t you say: ‘NO! No, Lord, this isn’t right, you are the one who should be praying for me!”
And yet, that is exactly the position Jesus puts himself in front of John at his baptism. John the Baptist felt exactly the same way you might of, and tries to put Him off. This is not how it’s supposed to work – we should be serving Him, not the other way round. But the kingdom of God repeatedly overturns what we think is proper, normal, or expected. Jesus reverses the worldly order of things again and again.

The Gospels are full of these moments which we call ‘reversal motifs’ or sometimes ‘the upside down Kingdom.’ Where things get turned on their head, and Christ acts in the opposite way than we expect Him to.

1. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first (Matt 20:16)
2. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant (Mark 10:43–45)
3. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. (John 13:14–15)
4. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3)
5. This widow’s two coins are worth more than all the rest (Mark 12:43–44)

He, our king, our redeemer, our savior and creator, but He submits himself to be our servant, to wash our feet, and to be humiliated on a Cross out of love for us.
Jesus does not argue theology with John.
He does not explain everything to John’s satisfaction.
He simply says:  “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”(v15)
In other words: “Trust me. This is the right thing to do.”
And John consents.
He obeys — not because it finally makes sense to Him, but because he trusts the person in front of him.
And then, after that trust is given, something extraordinary happens:
(v16)  As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  (v.17) And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Everything in Matthew’s Gospel has been building up to this moment.
            We knew Jesus was special, human, miraculous, and glorified, but now His true nature is revealed:
            Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
(That’s the moment in the cinema where people would get up and start cheering!)
Wow! This is amazing! I knew it was gonna be Him! Hooray!
John eventually consented to God’s will and obeyed. And look at how wonderful things can be when we finally give in to what He asks of us.

So what do we learn from John the Baptist here?
John knows exactly who Jesus is. He has been preaching about him for months. And yet, when Jesus gives him a command, John resists. Why? Because Jesus’ command does not make sense to him.
John’s reaction to Christ, I need to be baptized by you (v14) is understandable, but, ultimately, disobedient.
There is a logical flaw in John’s reasoning: He knows who Christ is, has been preaching about Him up till this point, but even John the Baptist questions Christ's commands when He arrives.
“Lord this isn’t how you should be doing this- I know better!”
How many of us have been in that EXACT same position, said those very words? (all of us!)
     In times of defiance, in times of pain and grief, in times of pride.
There are parts of our, hearts, minds, souls, and strength that easily slip into sin.   

There are two ways we usually fail at following God’s word:
     1.  Disobedience:  
For many of us, we know what scripture has to say about:

• Sexual ethics
• Forgiveness
• Truthfulness

• Generosity
• Prayer

But:

• Forgiveness feels unsafe.
• Truthfulness feels risky.
• Humility feels like weakness.

Sometimes, very simply, we know what we must do and we still choose not to do it.
Perhaps out of fear, out of selfishness, out of temptation.

The other way we fail at following God’s word is more subtle:
     2.  Mistrust
This is what John initially experienced when Christ asked him to baptize Him. He thought He knew better "It can’t possibly be this way" even after Christ has spoken clearly. This happens to us when we don’t really believe in His promises. We become angry at God for not acting in our lives the way we think He should.
(‘Why God aren’t you changing things the way I wanted you to! Why did you let this happen!’) We doubt that His way of life is really going to help us. (‘Faith is all well and good but we have to be realistic about things’)
We convince ourselves we are unworthy, and He meant these good things for other people and not for us
(How could He forgive me, after all I’ve done. / I’m not like these other people in Church). We forget how highly He has exalted us, and how dearly it cost Him to do so.

So how do we deal with ourselves?
People who know who Christ really is yet we still disobey Him, and don’t trust Him.

I think the antidote is this…
It’s not trying harder – that rarely works. If you could do that by sheer willpower, you would have done so already.

It’s by reminding yourself of the truth of who you are. 

You are someone who, like John the Baptist, has been given a place of high honor. Undeserving, almost embarrassingly so!
You are someone who has had your feet washed by the King and Creator of all things.
You are someone Christ has washed, purified, and declared clean from sin.

Here are some verses of encouragement:
1 John 3:1
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Ephesians 1:4–5
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

Romans 8:1
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Galatians 3:27
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Isaiah 61:10
“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.”

1 Corinthians 6:11
“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Ephesians 5:1–2
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love.”

Colossians 3:12
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

When we remember who we are before God, trust grows, and disobedience begins to fade. So how do we keep focused on who we are in His eyes?

1. The entire structure of our service is designed to remind us of this.

We journey through praise, confession, repentance, the creed, prayer, celebration, and ultimately, receiving communion.

You are here this morning, in the right place, being formed and reminded of who you are, and who God is, by every word that is spoken here.

This liturgy FORMS us, and as we repeat these words, week after week, they become a part of us. A beautiful reminder of the truth.

The reason we love our traditional services here at Grace is because it does so much more for us than contemporary services often do.   
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     2.  The Eucharist
At the table we are about to approach we remember how much Christ has done for us, and that all He did was to bring us back to God.
So today, if you feel distant from God, if obedience feels hard, if trust feels fragile -- do not begin by trying harder.
Begin by remembering.
Remember who Christ is.
Remember what Christ has done.
Remember who you are in Christ.
Through the words of our service, and as you come to the Altar.
Amen.