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St John's Prologue
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 15th February 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
This morning's gospel reading from St John's Prologue is one of the most profound pieces of writing in the whole of the New Testament, or even the whole of the bible, but it can also be heavy going. So as a text I have selected one of the lighter parts of the passage John 1: 10 -13
He was in the world . . . . yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
Sounds like a bit of rejection to me.
Yet the world did not know him, and his own people did not accept him.
Also I thought we might start on a lighter note.
Does anyone remember the "Yes" "No" game?
To help me give a demonstration of it Harry Ching is going to give me a hand with it.
To explain the game - no question must be answered with "Yes" or a "No".
"Yes", "No" Questions for Harry Ching:
- Are you proud of being born in Hong Kong?
- But you went to school in England?
- Did you enjoy your time in England?
- Would you say you are a committed Christian?
- Do you enjoy life in Hong Kong today?
- What is your favourite food?
- Have you read any good books lately?
- I believe your favourite sport is Rugby?
- Do you play every week?
- Last summer you went to England to be a steward at the Lambeth Conference?
- How many Bishops did you speak to?
- Do you enjoy being the Youth Office for the Cathedral and its daughter churches?
"Yes" or "No"?
Which do we find the harder to say?
As we go through the gospel stories we find a lot of people said no to Jesus. The religious authorities of the day had a very firm no.
They were having nothing of him.
At one point even members of Jesus" own family despaired of him.
But perhaps the most famous "No" was the denial of his closest friend, Peter.
When it came to the crunch Peter just could not say "Yes" I am one of Jesus' followers.
The world didn't want to know him! His own could not or would not accept him!
The whole gospel narrative is a gradual building up of rejection and hostility that leads to the Cross on Calvary
There is an ever-increasing response and cry of "No". "No"," No".
In a few weeks time as we go through the passion story we will get the sense of Jesus as the rejected one.
And finally on the cross there is the cry of Jesus with the words of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" "Why have you said "No" to me?"
But we should notice that Psalm 22 does in fact end on an affirmative and confident note.
Which one dominates our lives, "Yes" or "No"?
I suspect its "No"
How often do we hear, or even ourselves use the words,
"No, I'm not standing for that."
"No I don't like that"
"No I won't or cannot do that"
And certainly, "No", I don"t want change."
It can be so much easier to say "no", than to say "Yes".
It takes less energy.
It makes fewer demands on us.
"No" closes down the options and keeps us safe.
With a firm "No" the matter is often closed; there is no more to be said.
"Yes" opens things up.
"Yes" makes us vulnerable to the unknown and the unsuspecting.
It's dangerous territory.
"Yes" can lead to more challenging and further awkward questions.
"No" shuts down the subject and leaves us alone to get on with a quiet life.
But if we look at Jesus, he is God's "Yes" to the world and to us.
One of the most wonderful things about us as a part of God's creation is that we are made free.
We are not machines or automatons, but free human beings.
God could have made us to his glory like an artist makes a glorious piece of artwork. The glory of fine piece of art is that it is at the will, imagination, skill and creativity of the artist. A piece of art, or any manmade object, is governed and controlled by its creator. It has no integral freedom.
As human beings we are free: free to glorify God by our lives or not to, free to love God and others or not to.
He trusts us; he believes in us, he has confidence in us.
He has a very positive disposition, attitude and approach to us.
In creating us free God was saying, "Yes" to us.
In coming into the world in the form of a human being, namely Jesus, God was and is saying "Yes" to us.
Jesus came to set us free again from the sin and evil that hinders the freedom God intends for us.
Today is the Second Sunday Before Lent.
The great penitential season of the Churches year is appearing on the horizon.
Lent is the time when we check out how much we have slipped away from God in the ordinary round of our lives. How much has "No" to God taken over from "Yes".
Lent is the time to reassert the "Yes". To know that God is always saying "Yes" to us. He wants us to be freely loving and serving him, through our worship, through our witness to him and through our service to him in serving others.
How often are we saying no on a Sunday morning? Something else calls for a "Yes", so worship will have to have a "No" this week.
How often do we say "yes" to the values of the world, which can mean no to God's values, of goodness, love, peace and justice?
How often do we say "Yes" to ourselves, and it means a "No" to someone else's need?
When we say "No" it often closes the issue, and it is impossible or hard to later turn round and say ""Yes". On the other hand, there will be times when we say "Yes" and that later has to changed to a "No".
Sometime ago I came across these words; -
"Shall we say "Yes" to Jesus - and open up our lives to him, daring to walk with him into the unknown, to allow him to change us and unsettle us, and to discover the fullness of what it means to be children of God.
The final verse of the text (12) But to all who received him,
who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."
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