sermon for 17 January 2010

'My Son, whom I love'

Matthew 3.1-17

If there is one key condition for good emotional health
one thing needed for a well balanced contented life
it is to have had a good secure, contented relationship with your parents.

If there is one main blockage to good emotional health
it lies in a problem with your parents.
Not to know who your parents were or where they are
to be cut off from them
A feeling that you did not have had time to say goodbye to them properly
or something they said years ago which stung and you still hold the hurt.

The saddest thing I heard about this Christmas
was about a separated dad who told a journalist
that he wouldn’t pay his rent for a couple of weeks
because he needed the money to spend on Christmas gifts for his children.
I don’t know the full situation -
maybe there was a barring order on him,
maybe they were too far away for him to visit
but wouldn’t you love to say to such a person
that much more important than the money which he couldn’t afford to spend
was the time and attention which perhaps he could have given his children.
Had he not bought into the myth that if you throw money at a situation
you can solve the problems?
The reality is that the quality of your life does not consist in big Christmas gifts
but in the depth of your relationships,
particularly between parents and children.

Part of the humanity of Jesus
was that he needed to hear his Father speak to him and affirm his love.
That’s the significance of the voice from heaven after his baptism. (17)
‘ This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’

Jesus of course always was God’s Son
but he was also fully human.
At this point of baptism he has humbled himself
and, himself without sin, identified with sinful human beings like us.
It was important that he should hear as a human being
the reassurance and commendation of his heavenly Father.

It is like someone adopted perhaps, or for some reason separated
from their birth father and brought up in a foreign country
and one day the phone rings and a voice says
‘This is your father speaking and I love you my son.
You have always been my son even though we have been in different places.’

Or like a father walking along with his little son
and suddenly he reaches down and lifts him up for a big hug
for no other reason than he wants to express his love.
The coming of the Spirit like a dove and this voice from heaven
is God’s hug for his only begotten Son,

No doubt, as Jesus grew up,
Mary had told him the amazing things about his birth,
the angels declaring the birth of the son of God:
You may recall the moment of family drama in the temple
when his mother told him off because they had been so worried about him
and Jesus replied
‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house.’
That story of the 12 year old Jesus in the Temple at the end of Luke 2
shows that as he grew up Jesus had a growing awareness
that God was his Father.

Now, some 18 years after that, the adult Jesus stood on the bank of the river.
Though sinless himself,
he had identified himself fully with the people seeking forgiveness for their sin.
He knew it was a hard path before him.
Severe temptation was just about to start.
Three years of tiring and demanding public ministry
and the ever increasing shadow of the cross at the end.

What a profound moment of reassurance for Jesus
that at this point his Father should hug him in the descent of the dove
and these deeply reassuring and empowering words
‘ This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’

We can only wonder and imagine what that was like for Jesus at that point
to receive such reassurance and encouragement.

An even more wonderful thing for us is that this is also the main thing
the Spirit does in our lives
to give us reassurance and encouragement from God our Father..

The main thing the Holy Spirit does for us
is not to make us to be successful, high performing Christians
but to make us sure way deep down in our hearts that we are God’s children
and to deepen our love for him as we become more and more aware
that through Christ he loves us and delights in us

John the Baptist himself pointed to this in saying that Jesus
would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (v 11)
That was an encounter with God
which would burn away all that displeases God
and give us first and fundamentally
a sense, an assurance that we are God’s children
that we may call him Abba Father
and that nothing can change that
no matter who we are, or what we have been

The Holy Spirit authentically gives a sense of freedom in the gospel
and a sense of freedom and joy in worship:
with space to enjoy God and his acceptance of us
space to begin to accept each other
Because when we are forgiven we can then forgive others.

When we believe in Christ, when we commit ourselves to him
and stop trying to do it on our own and work things out by ourselves
we receive the Holy Spirit
and God longs that we enter more and more into the reality of that baptism
to sense the touch of his Spirit
to hear his Fatherly assurance and commendation.

Paul says the same thing in Romans 8.15-17

15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-
heirs of God and coheirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings in order
that we may also share in his glory.

Paul is saying: how do we see ourselves before God?
Sons and daughters or slaves?
Children secure in their Father’s love
or servants fearfully trying to get things right
painfully aware of what they have got wrong
and despairing that it can ever be different?.

If the Lord Jesus needed that touch of the Father’s love through the Holy Spirit
you and I need it much much more.

How can we get that sense that we belong to God the Father
and no-one can drive us out of his family?

Someone asked me recently was there a set prayer in the Presbyterian church
a form of words we could say to receive God’s blessing?
Actually, there isn’t.
There are prayers which are we can use.
short prayers which help you say you are sorry for your sin,
that you know you cannot change yourself nor save yourself
that you thank Jesus for dying on the cross in your place
and that you commit to follow Jesus always
no matter how hard it gets.

We can use such a prayer, it may be helpful, God may use it
but it’s not the particular wording which saves you.
It’s not because you have prayed in a certain way
but because God send s his Holy Spirit into you
and hugs you and says you are my son, my daughter
and in Jesus I am well pleased with you.

But I have learned by sad experience that not all such prayers always work.
I have helped some people pray such a prayer
and there was no long term difference in them
no evidence of the Holy Spirit purifying them.
One rascal I remember prayed the words of the prayer
but it became clear not long after that that what he wanted was money
I heard later that it wasn’t the first time he had prayed that prayer.

The key thing here is repentance.
There were two kinds of people who came to the Jordan to be baptised by John.
People who were willing to repent
and as John said bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
And, sadly, religious people, Pharisees and Sadduccees
with a great grasp on theology and a great interest in religion
but no desire for a real vital fruitful relationship with God.
As somebody has remarked,
those people cared about their reputation, not repentance.

I will not give you a form of words to pray today
but I do point to the attitude of heart which we all need
and which in the end is all that is needed
for the Holy Spirit to come and assure us of the Father’s love.
Repentance. The turn around.
The turning from self in charge to Christ in charge
To such a life the Holy Spirit will come
and assurance of the Father’s love will be given.

May God the Father from his glorious riches
strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
may you, being rooted and grounded in love
have power together with all the saints to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
may you know this love that surpasses knowledge
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.