Epiphany 2 2016
I would like to begin with my final sentence. This
church will never be the same again, for today little
Matthew is baptised into the Body of Christ, and as the
church is the Body of Christ, so the church will never
be the same again.
Some phrases stick in the mind and make you think.
For me this is true of the words of the blessing we use
at the Christmas services.
'Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
things earthly and heavenly, fill you with peace and
goodwill and make you partakers in the divine nature'.
On the days just after Christmas I like to spend a little
time each day to visit people who are housebound to
take the Christmas Holy Communion to them. I used
this blessing at each one at the end of the short service.
In one room it was a relative who was particularly
struck by the words of the blessing and we had a short
discussion about it. She was taken by the beauty of the
image and the power of the message. I could not help
but agree with her.
However for me it is one particular small phrase that I
can't shake off. Nor should I, for it seems to me that it
sums up the whole Christian enterprise. It's this –
'make you partakers in the divine nature'.
We are accustomed at Christmas to focus on a crib and
a baby – and yes, we know, most of us, that this baby
grows up and is eventually crucified. The kid in the
crib is the Christ of the cross. Those of us who travel
with Jesus on his journey into adulthood, through the
Way of the Cross, to his death and rising again know
what it is we are to believe – we say it often enough –
and we know what we are to do – there is an
acceptable way for Christians to behave. From that
safe position of believing and behaving we feel we can
pass judgement on others who don't believe and who
don't behave in certain conforming ways. We may
conveniently ignore the fact that we have periods of
doubt about belief, and we may fall from time to time
from the behavioural norms that church people aspire
to.
However, how many of us stop and give real
consideration not to what we are believing and doing,
and instead give attention to what it is that God is
doing? What is God doing as Creator? What is God
doing entering into this Creation as flesh in Jesus as he
lies in his little makeshift cot? What is God doing in
Jesus when he turns water into wine? What is God
doing when he seemingly abandons his Word made
flesh hanging on a cross? What is God doing in raising
him from the dead? What is God doing in this
eucharist? What is God doing in the baptism of
Matthew? What is God doing with you and with me?
So many questions and we could propose more until
our minds are bursting with questions. And there is
perhaps only one answer to all of them. He is
imploring us to be part of his divine nature. He reveals
to us in and through Jesus who and what each of us is
truly like when we fulfil our true and fullest humanity.
We focus too much on the how and what of being
disciples, and give little or no attention to the why of
discipleship.
The God of Epiphany is revealing to us his truth, and
in so doing he is revealing the truth about ourselves.
We are made in his image, and if human sin is
anything it is in not honouring that. Surely God is
saying profound things to us in crib and cross about
this central truth. 'Be partakers in divine nature'. This is
the invitation. It is the invitation through Jesus; it is the
invitation through eucharist; it is the invitation to
Matthew and all of us in baptism.
God's crystal clear message through Christ and
scripture is that our place, our home, our abode, is to
be one with him, restored to him, partaking in his
divine nature.
Christ's church, his body, has a responsibility placed
on it – placed on us- to defend this message of human
participation in the life of the divine. We are called by
God to turn away from the sin that disfigures God's
image reflected in humanity. I am no great fan of
David Bowie, in fact I know little about him, but
everyone else is talking about him so I feel I should.
Many have spoken about David Bowie's contribution
to music, to culture, to art, to fashion and these are all,
of course highly significant for human flourishing, but
perhaps the greatest contribution was that he helped
many people to have a better image of themselves than
society, supported by the church, allowed them to
have. Bowie has been able to to do for Gay, Lesbian,
Bi-sexual and Transgender community what the
church has not been able to do, and still fails to be able
to do as we have seen this last week. We still don't feel
able to say to them 'be partakers in the divine nature'.
Maybe Bowie had a more honest sense of God's
calling to all his people to recognize within them the
divine image, and to be partakers in that divine image.
Matthew's baptism is a powerful statement, not just
about the faith of the church and about human belief
and response, but also, more significantly, about the
action of God. God has come among among us; he is
with us; he reveals himself fully in Jesus; he calls us to
participate in his divine action, to live adopted as his
daughters and sons.
The Church will never be the same again, for today
little Matthew is baptised into the Body of Christ, and
the Body of Christ is the Church, so the church will
never be the same again.