Highbury
Congregational Church
Congregational Church
A place to
share Christian friendship,
explore Christian faith and
enter into Christian mission
share Christian friendship,
explore Christian faith and
enter into Christian mission
John
A series of sermons preached between Christmas and Easter 2006 at Highbury by Richard Cleaves.
It was linked to the new visual Bible, The Gospel of John.
Matthew, Mark and Luke see Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.
As John opens with a celebration of the creative word of God and the larger than life Son of Man we are in the world of the third section of the Hebrew Scriptures ... That is the world of the wisdom literature.
The wisdom that is explored in the books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and elsewhere in the so-called ‘wisdom literature’ of the Old Testament has been defined as ‘the ability to cope.
That’s the theme we have taken up in our series of sermons on John’s Gospel in the Spring of 2006.
1 Jan Wisdom and the abilitiy to cope John 1
8 Jan Coping with something new - John 2
15 Jan Coping with the Big Questions of the Meaning of life John 3
22 Jan Coping with differences in the church John 4
29 Jan Coping with the question of euthanasia John 5
5th Feb Coping with Religion
19th Feb Coping with our own frailty and weakness
John 7
26th Feb Coping with feelings of oppression John 8
5th March Coping with Growing Up - a Celebration of Baptism - John 9
12th March Parade Service
19th March Coping with Pastoral Care John 10 Psychiatrist, Kate Blazey reflects on Mental Health, Mental Illness and the church’s Pastoral Care
26th March Church weekend away - a visiting preacher
2nd April Coping with bereavement John 11
9th April Palm Sunday and a look
Forward to a major new series on the BBC for Easter about the miracles with David Waters who researched the programmes.
16th April Our Celebration of Easter
It was linked to the new visual Bible, The Gospel of John.
Matthew, Mark and Luke see Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.
As John opens with a celebration of the creative word of God and the larger than life Son of Man we are in the world of the third section of the Hebrew Scriptures ... That is the world of the wisdom literature.
The wisdom that is explored in the books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and elsewhere in the so-
That’s the theme we have taken up in our series of sermons on John’s Gospel in the Spring of 2006.
1 Jan Wisdom and the abilitiy to cope John 1
8 Jan Coping with something new -
15 Jan Coping with the Big Questions of the Meaning of life John 3
22 Jan Coping with differences in the church John 4
29 Jan Coping with the question of euthanasia John 5
5th Feb Coping with Religion
19th Feb Coping with our own frailty and weakness
John 7
26th Feb Coping with feelings of oppression John 8
5th March Coping with Growing Up -
12th March Parade Service
19th March Coping with Pastoral Care John 10 Psychiatrist, Kate Blazey reflects on Mental Health, Mental Illness and the church’s Pastoral Care
26th March Church weekend away -
2nd April Coping with bereavement John 11
9th April Palm Sunday and a look
Forward to a major new series on the BBC for Easter about the miracles with David Waters who researched the programmes.
16th April Our Celebration of Easter
Coping with Being the Church in a Troubled World
What’s expected of the church … and how do you cope with such expectations?
It has been said that the church exists for other people. In a troubled world what do you think the church has to offer? How do you cope when you belong to a church with those expectations?
As John chapter 7 opens, Jesus’ followers have a clear idea what people need from Jesus. Something dramatic, that will make all the difference. They need another powerful sign that will convince those who are wavering in their faith. And now’s the opportunity to do something spectacular. It is the festival of Shelters, one of the three great pilgrimage festivals when all the men folk within twenty miles of Jerusalem would make for the city. What a wonderful opportunity to take Jerusalem by storm.
But that was not the way Jesus chose, neither was the time right. He preferred to go up secretly.
The religious authorities in Jerusalem want Jesus to conform to their ritual and to their religious expectations. They want a set of external standards to judge Jesus by: but Jesus stands for something deeper that has to do with an inner truth.
Read John 7:1-24
What do we have to offer other people?
What is it that we have to offer other people?
As the last great day of the festival that had begun on a Sabbath and came to its climax on the next Sabbath arrived, Jesus latched on to one of the things that played an important part in the festival.
The Wonder of Water
Water.
It was one of the things he used to help people appreciate what he was about.
For a moment try a word association game with the word ‘water’. What comes into your mind when you think of ‘water’. Think, first of all the positive things … and then think of negative associations.
Water – positive and negative associations
Water figures large in John’s telling of Jesus’ story.
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It’s not any old water that’s turned into wine it is the water specially stored for ritual washing. It is as if he is taking the old rituals and transforming them into new life.
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It’s not any old person that he meets at the well in John 4, it is a woman and a woman from Samaria. It is as if he is suggesting that he has life-
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It’s not any old well for that matter … it is Jacob’s well. As if Jesus is identifying himself with Jacob who dreamed of a ladder spanning earth and heaven
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It’s not any old sea that the disciples find themselves adrift on … it is a stormy sea; and into that place of fear comes the presence of Jesus to bring them home.
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But here in John 7 come two things that we as a church have to offer to people living in a troubled world:
Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink.
1. First, we have on offer something that quenches thirst
a. There is a thirst for meaning in a world that sometimes seems so meaningless, Jesus offers meaning and purpose in life, as he calls us to live not for ourselves but for the good of others.
b. There is a thirst for acceptance in a world that sometimes seems very hostile: Jesus accepts us as we are and then uses us for the good of others in a purposeful way.
c. There is a thirst for justice in a world of injustice: Jesus embodies a justice that is for the poor, for those who are oppressed, for those who are rejected by others.
d. There is a thirst for the spiritual: Jesus offers us the presence of God deep within our hearts.
Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pout out from his heart.”
2. Second, we have on offer something that’s flowing
a. Jesus picks up an image from Ezekiel 47, an image of flowing water taken up in Revelation 22. In his vision of a wonderful temple in the glory of God’s new heaven and new earth, Ezekiel envisages an altar in the temple – and water is poured on to the altar … and then it flows out from the altar into the world. And it becomes a life-giving river flowing into desert places to bring things into life.
b. What the church has to offer is not a package. It is not something static. It is something flowing, something filled with life – that flows out into the world with its needs. Collectively as a church we are to channel this flowing water of life into the world around us … in our commitment to the community, in our commitment to justice, in our commitment to people in need around us. Indivdually as Christians that is our task. To be the conduit through which living water flows into a dry world.
c. What a challenge! Are we up to it? There’s one thing this picture shows us we need to be on the look out for. We need in our individual lives and together as a church family to be ‘flowing’ and not ‘static’. We need to be on the move … flowing and on the move. A week on Thursday we have our annual meeting and an opportunity to reflect on the life of the church. One of the important things to look out for is whether we are on the move. Are we a channel through which God’s love is actually flowing. Or have things become stagnant. That’s a measure we can use in our own Christian lives as well.
d. How do we ensure that we are on the move, that we are flowing? That’s where this passage from John 7 becomes not just a challenge but actually good news. Jesus hints here in a way that will become more and more clear as the Gospel unfolds that it is not down to us. We have something that we can draw on individually in our Christian lives and collectively as a church. It is a power from God that is unseen and yet very real. It is as Jesus suggests here, the Holy Spirit.
How can we cope with such expectations?
What makes us flow with thirst-quenching water to offer to a dry world is not our own creativity, our own ingenuity or our own capacity to make a difference: what makes us flow is given us by God through Jesus Christ in the unseen yet so very real power of the Holy Spirit.
Let that power of the Holy Spirit, flow through us into the world around us and into the lives of people we touch in that world.
In a dry, barren world, Jesus shared the water of life.
His was a world of broken relationships, violence and abuse,
where the fear of rejection was all too real.
Ours is too.
His was a world of barriers and divisions,
of faith and religion, of culture and gender, of politics and race.
Ours is too.
His was a world of hunger, a world of need, crying out for
a healing touch, a look of friendship, forgiveness and love.
Ours is too.
In our dry, barren world, Jesus shares the water of life, and says, “Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink. As the Scripture says, Whoever believes in me, streams of life-
