“Suddenly the heavens
were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said.”
And a voice from heaven said? I wonder if like me you have longed for,
deeply desired, or craved for God to be saying
something to you not simply through the scriptures or through another person, but God’s
very voice. The words of Matthew’s
gospel are tantalising, they taunt us in the silence of our own lives. A voice from heaven: what would it mean to hear a voice from heaven in your own life. An audible word from God to you, not just a
sense that God
As if to further tempt and tantalise us the two readings
from the Old Testament tell of God’s speaking. It is in the reading from Isaiah
who conveys what the voice of the Lord had told him. And, it is in the Psalm, no less than seven
times, “The voice of the Lord…” is over the waters, is powerful, is full of
majesty, breaks the cedars, flashes forth, causes oaks to whirl and strips
forests bare. The voice of the Lord, a
voice from heaven. God’s powerful
imposing voice is set before us, yet for many of us, I suspect most of us, the
reality is that our experience of God is not the resounding voice but silence.
I am left wondering am I deaf? Why cannot I hear this powerful and
resounding voice?
In the last week a re-read Shusaku Endo’s brilliant novel
“Silence”. Written in 1966 Endo’s novel
explores the silence of God in the face of the immeasurable suffering and
persecution of Japanese Christians in the 17th Century. The key character, a Spanish Jesuit priest,
cannot fathom God’s silence as he constantly prayers in the face of the brutal
persecution and coercion by the Warlord to get him to denounce Christ.
What do we do we God’s silence?
Today I deliberately gathered in our church in the round surrounded by the
prayers written on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that we have attached to the
walls. Expressions of our hope and faith
in the face of problems that may, for many of us, seem insurmountable. Will God be silent? What answers will come? Will God speak to us and answer these our
prayers?
No doubt each of you has experienced God’s apparent silence
in your life. No doubt you to have felt
the heart breaking reality of moments of feeling Godforsaken. Where is the voice we long for?
Returning to the scriptures and understanding why they were
written can help us with this conundrum.
As always, I would note that when we pull a snippet of scripture from
the Bible we don’t get a sense of the ebb and flow of the story that the author
of a particular book is building.
Matthew opens his gospel by recounting the genealogy of
Jesus back through David all the way to Abraham. This is one of the reasons Matthew is the
first of the gospels, despite not being written first. Through his genealogy Matthew creates the
bridge between the Old Testament and Jesus identity. This was very important for Matthew’s first
audience who were predominantly Jewish.
Jesus’ life is traced back through the Davidic line.
Following on from the genealogy Matthew tells us of the
appearance of an angel to Joseph. The quotation of the words of the prophet and
the birth of Jesus provide a further affirmation of Jesus importance. There is the genetic connection and there is
the prophetic connection.
The next story Matthew tells is somewhat unusual. It is the story of the wise men from the East
and Herod appears to give an importance to Jesus’ identity that breaks the
barriers of the Israelite nation and implies Jesus’ coming is relevant to the
whole world.
And, then, we come to the baptism of Jesus by John. This is introduced with an explanation of
John’s importance as the forerunner of Jesus and prophecies about their
relationship.
Then in the baptism Matthew’s words witness to something
that was beyond the common experience.
“And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I
am well pleased.’” In traditional jargon we might call this a theophany – an
appearance of God – and this theophany sits alongside a series of assertions
concerning Jesus identity.
So why does Matthew need to build this story about Jesus
identity? What does he retell the story
in the way he does? Why does he write it down? What was he hoping to achieve?
I think Matthew is building this argument for his audience
about Jesus’ identity because they too have neither seen nor heard Jesus or
God’s voice. Not everyone gets to hear
God’s voice. You and I do not necessarily
hear that audible voice of God in our lifetime.
Though we might desire it, seek it, and crave it. Though we might discipline ourselves to
reading the scripture and being in worship and prayer and contemplation. So often what we experience is silence.
It is helpful to be reminded that the scriptures only ever
report a very small number of people that hear God’s voice or as having a
theophany. The people of Matthew’s
community, so long ago, were relying on his witness to them in the absence of
their own opportunity to hear God’s voice.
The same is true for us we rely on the witness of others to
sustain us in our faith.
Of course, part of our Christian understanding is that God
is present with us and that in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, as well as
the out pouring of the Holy Spirit, the opportunity for relationship with God
is opened out in a new way. This may be
true but it does not necessarily equate to everybody being doled out a special
spiritual experience all of their own.
Matthew knew this and was encouraging people and nurturing
people to hold on to their faith that Jesus was indeed who Matthew claimed he
was: “the Messiah, the son of David, the Son of Abraham”, “God is with us” “the
Nazorean”, “the Beloved, Son of God”.
In his witness to Jesus’ identity Matthew is nurturing and
encouraging people of faith to follow the teachings and way of Jesus, even if
they do not experience or encounter a direct divine revelation all of their
own.
This is important for us to reflect deeply on in 2017. To believe in Jesus. To believe in God. What a strange and difficult thing to do this
is becoming! The silence of God is
palpable and people are responding and turning away from faith. This week I read statistics that indicate in
Australia over the last 20 years belief in God has dropped by just over 20%,
down to 55%. Only 1 in 2 people you meet
on the street believe that there is a God.
And among younger people the results show around a third believe in God.
There are significant questions raised for me as we reflect
on the readings that speak so strongly about God’s voice when we struggle to
hear it for ourselves. What will help us hold on?
In a culture filled with the noise of so many voices: the
advertisers enticing us to buy and consume; politicians encouraging us to vote;
sceptics challenging our belief; scientists warning us of disasters. Can we hear God’s voice above this clamour?
It makes me think of Elijah on the mountain top waiting for
God to pass as he sat in the cave. Was
God in the fire, or wind, or thunder no God was in the sheer silence!
I think we need to be honest in our faith about the
challenge of the silence and how we rely on the witness of others but also to
remember that silence may not mean absence, indeed it does not! Our faith is built on the witness of
others. On the witness of Matthew:
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,
with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus is worth listening to, he is worth following, he is
God’s beloved.
We may find that we do not have the miraculous
encounters. We might find that much of
our faith is built on what others have taught us. The silence of God or the lack of a miracle
in my own life does not mean that God is any less real or any less present. Living the faith involves patience and
commitment and perseverance. We wait in
the cave alongside Elijah anticipating that God will pass. And yes, we may be blessed enough to have a
transformative encounter with God, but if we are not we can stay the course and
hold our faith as we trust the message that has been handed down to us.
This kind of perseverance and patience is increasingly
difficult in a world where everything is instantaneous. We can have what we want tithe the click of a
few buttons. To be people of faith
involves learning to be patient and to live differently in the world.
What do we do as we stand at the beginning of this New
Year? How do we be a community of faith?
What is God asking of this little congregation?
At the beginning of the service I suggested that today we
reflect on our own baptism and in the baptism service the congregation is
invited to say these words:
With God’s help,
we will live out our baptism
as a loving community in Christ:
nurturing one another in faith,
upholding one another in prayer,
and encouraging one another in service,
until Christ comes.
Essentially for instructions to help us follow Jesus in our
lives and live out our own baptism.
Live as a loving community in Christ – that means caring for
each other, and the community we are part of.
Nurture one another in faith – that means being prepared to
talk openly about our faith and to commit ourselves to learn more.
Upholding one another in prayer is self-explanatory.
Encourage one another in service means to become each
other’s supporters.
As I was preparing for today I read an ancient writing of
the church. Written by Gregory of
Nyssa’s around 1600 years ago his “Life of Moses” begins with a description of
himself as being like a supporter at a chariot race he calls out in
encouragement.
I know some of us here struggle to engage deeply in the
mission and ministry of the church. We
are tired, some of us are unwell, and some of us are aging. But we can support one another and we can
sheer on and encourage those who do the work.
In doing these simple things we sustain one another in the
silence and presence of God and it would be my prayer that we can learn again
to share our faith with people who have fallen away from believing in God at
all.
“Suddenly the heavens
were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said.”
A voice from heaven.
Do we hear it? Does it
matter? We have heard the witness and we
have believed and we are blessed.
It makes me think of Thomas’ encounter with the risen Christ
when Jesus says to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come
to believe.” “Blessed are those who have
not heard the voice of God and yet have come to believe.”
“Blessed are you who have not heard the voice of God and yet
have come to believe.”
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