andygoodliff

The Ox and the Donkey: A Christmas Sermon

We’ve just heard read the account of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s gospel. Familiar words. Its one of those bits of the Bible, that if I asked you to shut your Bibles and your eyes and tell me what happens, I think most of you could get pretty close to the words Luke uses. Don’t worry I’m not going to put my theory to the test. These are very familiar words. And if I asked you to describe the nativity scene, I’m pretty sure we know what would need to be in there. Mary, Joseph and Jesus of course. A stable with a manger. An ox and donkey. Some shepherds with maybe one or two sheep. Three magi with their camels parked outside. A star over the stable. This is the scene on the increasingly rare Christmas card, this is the scene of numerous paintings of the Nativity by great painters, this is the scene at the end of the BBC’s version of the Nativity from a few years ago. And of course its wrong.

Yes, we read of Mary, Joseph and Jesus lying in a manger. We don’t actually read of a stable, but this is surmised from the presence of the manger. We don’t read of any animals. We do read of some shepherds arriving. We don’t read of any stars. We don’t read of any magi or wise men or three kings and any camels – they turn up in Matthew’s gospel and the suggestion is Jesus is no new-born by then, but perhaps at the age of beginning to walk. Our version of the Nativity story is a creation, it’s a mash-up. I’m not saying this is wrong and we shouldn’t do it, but wanting to draw attention to how we have sought to sentimentalise the story, to make it almost fairy-tale like, when it was anything but. Over time and legend, we’ve taken the danger, the trouble, the scandal, the poverty out of the story. Familiar words have made us over-familiar with the story we celebrate.

Having said all that, I want to come back to the ox and donkey. Why on earth do they come to appear in the story? Well the answer emerges from early Christian readers of the nativity story who saw Luke’s emphasis on the manger – he mentions it three times: ‘lying in a manger’ and from an verse from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 3 reads: ‘the ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Early Christians read the Old Testament a lot. A lot more than we probably do. They read it through the eyes of the gospels. This verse from Isaiah finds it fulfilment in the birth of Jesus. Luke’s repetition of ‘manger’ is an echo to this verse, and so of course an ox and donkey must be present at the nativity. Why does Luke want us to think of Isaiah 1.3?[i]

Because this word of judgement against Israel — Israel does not know or understand — is now being repealed in the birth of Jesus. Those who did not know, through the shepherds are now beginning to come to know — as they ox knows its master, so the shepherds come know the birth of Jesus as the coming of God. The mystery of God’s faithful love is being revealed, is being announced.

Or perhaps it’s the opposite, perhaps the echo is to remind us that God’s people, will continue not to know, will continue not to understand, that in Jesus, God is in the midst. They will remain ignorant of Jesus’ identity, and so point to all those who miss who is the manger, those who refuse to accept or believe the tender mercy of God. God does not force himself upon us, for he comes as vulnerable and defenceless baby.

Or perhaps the presence of the ox and the donkey is a sign of God’s care for the Christ child. One writer imagines, ‘the ox and the donkey kneeling down, putting their mouths to the manger, breathing through their noses on to the Child, because they knew that at that cold time he needed to be heated up in that manner.’ I love the image of that. It takes us back to our animal service in October, and the reminder that animals know how to show affection and care and Jesus receives their affection in this moment, they know who is before them, they recognise who is lying in their manger.

Or perhaps the presence of the ox and the donkey should be seen as a sign that the whole of creation shares in the joy of the birth of Jesus. That perhaps those who are included in those on whom God’s favour rests is on all creatures. God’s salvation is for all the whole cosmos, and so just as shepherds represent the poor and lowly, and the magi represent the nations, the ox and donkey represent the creatures of the earth. All come to worship and bless the birth day of Christ.

This short verse from Isaiah, and the presence of the ox and the donkey in our nativity scenes, present us with the question of whether we know our master, of whether we recognise the owner of the manger? Will we draw near and offer our love to the one who is God’s love made flesh? Will our familiarity with the nativity story, give way to a new reception of the Lord of shepherd and maiden, of carpenter and prince, of ox and donkey, of the one born king of angels and king of all creation?

The long wait is over, God has arrived, born of Mary. Now is the time for singing and dancing, now is the time for mooing and braying, now is the time for joy and feasting. Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests. See what God has done, it is marvellous in our eyes!

 

[i] These reflections were helped by Richard Harries, A Gallery of Reflections: The Nativity of Christ (Lion, 1995), p.36.

'It's beginning to look a like Advent': A Sermon

The radio and the world have been singing:

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’

for more than a few weeks now.[i]

In the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

it’s never Christmas, it’s always winter.

These days we’ve done the reverse,

it’s never advent, it’s always Christmas.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

is about the liberation of Narnia from winter,

it’s liberation from the evil rule of the White Witch.

I wonder if we need a liberation from a perpetual Christmas,

a liberation from the powers that seek to make us their disciples

of greed and waste.

It is in this way that the church stubbornly sings an advent song:

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christ is coming’

and the tune is not such a jaunty one.

The song or prayer can be found in the scriptures.

Paul prays ‘Our Lord, come’ (1 Cor 16.22)

and the Book of Revelation ends, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ (Rev 22.20).

This prayer is one of the earliest prayers of the Christian faith,

but is hardly prevalent today.

I wonder if we’ve settled too much,

and Advent comes to make us restless for Jesus once again.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

This is the song of the church.

This is the mystery of our faith,

and the third sentence is just as important as the first two.

The Jesus of Christian faith is also the Jesus of Christian hope.

Salvation is left unfinished if Jesus stays in heaven.

Advent looks forward as well as back.

Too often we spend all our time looking back to the stable,

and not enough looking forward to the coming of Christ again.

We like Christmas

because who doesn’t like a story about a baby.

We’re not sure about the Parousia,

to give the word that is often used to talk about Christ’s coming in glory,

and little wonder in the language Jesus uses to describe it.

One theologian has said ‘we can’t fathom the Second Advent of Jesus Christ,

and we stammer when we try to speak of it.’

One reason for our reluctance to talk about the Parousia

is that only a certain kind of Christian talks about the Parousia

and they tend to talk about it a lot

and often in fairly aggressive ways

and we’re pretty sure we don’t want to be associated with them.

What this means is while for some Christians it’s all they talk about,

for others we never talk about it.

What does it mean to declare ‘Christ will come again’?

It means when God renews the whole universe, Jesus himself will be present,

and not just a bystander, an onlooker,

but as the centre and focus of what God is doing.[ii]

There is no God apart from Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.

‘We do not know what is coming,

but we know who is coming to us.’[iii]

It means we live been a ‘now’ and ‘not yet.’

It means God’s great act of salvation in Christ

is finished but not yet complete.

It means Jesus didn’t come to give us an escape route from the world,

but to the see world renewed,

to see heaven and earth bound together in eternity.

The story of Jesus is not yet finished,

because of the story of creation is not finished,

but the story of creation can only be finished,

with the coming again of Jesus.[iv]

Christ’s coming, his advent in glory,

is the ending of history, the completion of the story.

This ending, this completion is not in any doubt,

the Jesus of Bethlehem, of Galilee, of Calvary, of empty tomb,

has redirected the world towards its end in him,

and that course is fixed.

The future of creation is bound with the future of Jesus.

This is the meaning of hope.

The coming of Christ again means

that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

is undoubtedly universal in scope.

What is clear is that the coming of Christ again

will not be quietly in some insignificant village

to insignificant parents.

It will not be a birth, Christ will not be born a second time,

It is Christ in glory who will come, who will appear,

and every eye will see him.

There will joy and there will be trembling.

The truth of who Christ is will be revealed for all to see.

The universal Lordship of Christ will be made known.

The universal love of Christ will be made known.

The universal end of evil will be made known.

The way and truth of Christ will be made known.

All of history and reality will be illuminated in glorious revelation.[v]

This is the meaning of hope.

The coming of Christ again means

that the church lives in patient hope,

lives with longing.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

We are not a memorial community.

We do come to worship at the shrine of some dead figure.

We do not gather to pay tribute to a fallen hero.

We are not a club are the comfortable and complacent.

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

We need Advent to remind us that this is not it,

to remind us that Jesus has not left us,

to remind us that the point of Christianity is to not that we might escape this world,

but that we might wait with faith and hope for the renewal of this world.

What this means is that Advent is most Jewish of Christians seasons.

In Advent we all become Jews once more.[vi]

We await the Messiah.

The promised and anointed one.

We know he’s coming and we know his name,

but we don’t know when he will arrive,

so like the Jews of Babylon we wait and pray and hope.

Isaiah says:

            I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;

            They will never be silent day or night.

            You who call on the LORD,

            Give yourselves no rest,

            And give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem

            And makes her the praise of the earth (Is 62.6-7).

The task of the church is ‘to remind Christ,

            and to keep reminding Christ,

                        to remind Christ without ceasing’,[vii]

            of the world’s need and his promise.

                        ‘Come Lord Jesus!’

                        ‘Your kingdom come!’

At the same time the call of the church is also to tell the world,

            and to keep telling the world,

                        to remind the world without ceasing,

            of the good news of Jesus and of his coming.

                        ‘Change your life and believe the good news’

                        There is a point, an end, to life and it is Jesus.      

I started with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Let me end with The Lord of the Rings by C. S. Lewis’ friend Tolkien.[viii]

The third book (and film) in The Lord of the Rings is called

The Return of the King

and so we pick up this theme of a world that is under deep threat

from powers of evil,

that must be freed

and the rightful king will be revealed and enthroned.

Before this coming of the king can take place,

and the restoration of his kingdom,

the people of middle-earth must undergo great tribulations

with patient endurance and steadfast commitment.

The Lord of the Rings is an advent story.

It is waiting for the king,

it is waiting for the final battle to be won,

it tells the story of a company of people – a fellowship –

making their way across the world, like the church.

At the dying of one character he says

he is going to the halls of waiting,

until the world is renewed.

We are in the halls of waiting,

alert, watching, enduring, steadfast,

waiting for the return of the king

and the renewal of the world.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent,

it’s beginning to look a lot like Christ is coming.

 

[i] I was helped with this beginning by Bruce Puckett’s sermon for the First Sunday in Advent at Duke Chapel on Nov 29, 2015.
[ii] N T Wright, Surprised By Hope (SPCK, 2007), p.130.
[iii] Cited in Richard Bauckham & Trevor Hart, Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology in Contemporary Context (DLT, 1999), p.117.
[iv] Bauckham & Hart, Hope Against Hope, p.118.
[v] James Alison, Raising Abel (SPCK, 2010).
[vi] Rowan Williams, Open to Judgment (DLT, 1994), p9ff.
[vii] Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 40-66 (WJK, 1998), p.222.
[viii] These reflections were helped Fleming Rutledge, The Battle For Middle-Earth (Eerdmans, 2004), p.41-42.

Judgment and Promise: A Sermon on Isaiah for Advent

The season of Advent
is shaped around the twin themes of judgment and promise
and so the book of Isaiah is a perfect reading companion.
It is, as it has been called, the ‘fifth gospel’ – it prepares the way,
it sounds in advance the gospel message of Jesus.
Isaiah is a book with three parts.
The first part contains chapters 1-39 and is the work of the prophet Isaiah in the eight century BC.
The second part contains chapters 40-55 and is the work of a prophet in the sixth century BC, in the midst of exile.
The third part contains chapters 56-66 and is the work of a prophet in the fifth century BC after the return from exile.
While these three parts reflect three different points in Israel’s history,
the book hangs together so that we can read it as a whole.[i]

First Isaiah (ch.1-39) is largely an exercise in prophetic judgement.
We think of prophecy as predicting the future,
but the prophets of the Old Testament work more in the vein of criticism.
like newspapers have commentators,
who offer their weekly view on the issues of the day,
so Israel’s prophets uttered their judgements
            on the nation’s politics, economics, and worship.
                        They speak not in their name,
but in the name of the God who calls them and appoints them.
Isaiah announces that judgement is coming
            because of the lack of trust that king and people have in God
            and because of their disobedience,
their failure to live according to the ways of God.
First Isaiah confronts
the false faith, the unjust policies, the fake worship           
            that he finds amongst king and people.
If you continue, he says, judgement will come,
            this will be the consequence of your sin.
First Isaiah reminds us that the task of the preacher and the church is to challenge the status quo,
            both within the church itself and the wider society in which it is situated.
To name the ideology that fails to acknowledge the sovereignty of God,
                        that works against justice     
                        that is stuck in complacency
                        that believes God is on their side irrespective of their actions.
First Isaiah comes to us as an Advent voice to wake us to the reality of judgment.
                        It is coming, it is on it’s way.
The church becomes so comfortable and complacent that we don’t know what to do with judgment,
            We don’t know how to receive the long passages of judgment that are found amongst Israel’s prophets.
            We have made God so friendly that we consider him harmless
                     so that like Jerusalem in Isaiah’s day we think there is nothing to fear.
            We have made the grace of God cheap.

If First Isaiah sounds the warning of judgement,
Second Isaiah (ch 40-55) announces hope.
Not hope as some kind of empty optimism that things will get better,
but hope that emerges out and within the experience of grief.
Second Isaiah writes to a people that have been brought to their knees.
Some suggest that between the end of chapter 39 and the beginning of chapter 40,
we should read the book of Lamentations,
if we are to understand what has happened to the people of Israel.
In Lamentations we read Israel’s account of its pain and loss and humiliation at the destruction of its home and its exile into Babylon.
The first words of Isaiah chapter 40
            announce a song of comfort, of good news, of salvation, of hope.
The judgement of First Isaiah results in punishment,
            but through the words of Second Isaiah this punishment is now seen as Israel’s suffering vocation.
   It is Second Isaiah that contains the songs of the Suffering Servant (Is 42, 49, 50, 53)

Second Isaiah allows Israel to see that exile is not the last word,
            God does not judge and punish as an end in itself,
                        but for the purposes of a new exodus,
                                    a new salvation,
                                    a new understanding that God is not always for Israel,
                                                but God is always with Israel.
Second Isaiah also allows Israel to hear its story a fresh,
            free of the false versions that First Isaiah denounced.
                        Israel can once again see that God is
                                 The God of Abraham, Sarah, Noah and David (Is 41, 51, 54, 55)
                                                and because of this he is their God.
                                                God has not abandoned them.
                                                God remains with them.
                                                God is Immanuel.
Second Isaiah comes to us as Advent voice announcing hope to a people without hope,
            to a people who have ceased to believe another world is possible,
            who have ceased to believe that God is at work,
            who doubt whether the powers of evil can ever be defeated,
He offers hope, and comfort,
and with that he dismisses all others gods or powers as no gods and no powers in the face of the awesome Creator God of Israel,
who declares you chosen, beloved and precious (Is 43-44).

While First Isaiah warns of judgement,
and Second Isaiah proclaims good news and hope,
Third Isaiah envisions a new world,
            an alternative world.
What does this alternative world look like?
            It looks like a world where the foreigner and the outcast are welcomed and embraced,
            where God’s temple will be a house of prayer for all nations (Is 56).
            It looks like a world in which fasting is turned into the act of feeding the hungry and giving the homeless a home (Is 58).
            It look like a world that proclaims good news to the poor,
                        healing for the broken-hearted,
                        freedom for the captives.
            A world of jubilee, where forgiveness and redemption are enacted (Is 61)
The new alternative world that Third Isaiah imagines
            is ‘an assault on all controlled thinking that insists that the world is presently organized in the only way that it could be.’[ii]
            Third Isaiah culminates in the astonishing vision
                        of God’s promise to create a new heavens and a new earth,
                                    a new Jerusalem
                        in which
                           never again will there be in it
                                    an infant who lives but a few days
                                    or an old man who does not live out his years;
                                    the one who dies at a hundred
                                    will be thought a mere child … (Is 65)
Third Isaiah comes to us an Advent voice of imagination:
            Imagine another world says Isaiah,
            imagine another way of relating,
            imagine another way of living.
Where the church and wider society lacks imagination,
            lacks the space, the time, the desire to imagine differently,
                        Isaiah says let God open your eyes to his newness,
                                    to his kingdom.
                        Don’t settle for what is,
                                    imagine what will be.
                        Don’t settle for a world of war,
                                    a world of greed and profit
                                    a world of fences and walls
                                    a world of austerity
                                    a world of scarcity
                                    a world of self-interest
            See what God is promising
                        A world of peace and justice,
                        a world of reconciled relationships,
                        a world of generosity and freedom,
                        a world of feasting and abundance.
            Advent is a time for dreaming and imagination.

First Isaiah says speak the truth
Second Isaiah says do not be afraid, have hope
Third Isaiah says learn to dream again[iii]
            For God’s promised end has come and is coming
            Jesus has come and is coming
            God’s judgement on evil and promise of new creation.

 

[i] This sermon has been helped by Walter Brueggemann, ‘Unity and Dynamic in the Isaiah Tradition’ in Old Testament Theology: Essays on Structure, Theme and Text. Ed. by Patrick Miller (Fortress, 1992), pp.252-269.

[ii] Brueggemann, ‘Unity and Dynamic’, p.267.

[iii] I’m borrowing these words from the titles of Sam Well’s three collections of sermons: Speaking the Truth (Abingdon, 2008), Be Not Afraid (Brazos, 2011) and Learning to Dream Again (Canterbury, 2013).