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The Danger of
Change
by Reverend Murray Spackman, Vicar. Sunday 19th December, 2004 Romans.1:1- 7 Matthew 1:18-25. A few moments ago we just prayed a very dangerous prayer. The prayer we prayed – the collect for today – printed on the front of the pew sheet, read …. “God of all love, open our hearts in welcome, that your Son Jesus Christ, at His coming, may find in us a dwelling prepared for Himself…” This is a very dangerous prayer to pray, because it’s a prayer about being receptive, open, available and welcoming to God. Now when I read through the Bible and see what happens when people are open and receptive to God I begin to get a little nervous. What if God were to begin to challenge me in some area about which I don’t really want to change? What if God were to begin to call you and me to make the kind of changes in our personal lives, or changes in our careers, which He called some of those people in the Bible to make? I’m not over-confident that I would welcome that as much as I should! It could be ve--ry scary! Today, this fourth Sunday in Advent, the Sunday before Christmas, my address is really about the Danger of Change. For the past few weeks, in this Advent Season, we have been looking at the over-riding theme of “Time for Change”. A fortnight ago I quoted Charles Kettering the engineer and inventor who said “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” This morning , in our readings, we came across two people who got into God’s danger zone of change – and both of them accepted, without knowing the outcome, the possibility of change – and as we can now see – that change affected the course of human history. In the Gospel of Matthew we read about Joseph, who was engaged, and later married to Mary, the Mother of Jesus - and we also read briefly from a letter of St.Paul , the opponent of Jesus Christ who was radically changed into a follower of Christ and became the most tireless and effective proclaimer of the Christian faith. Both of these men felt and faced up to the Danger of Change. They both inevitably experienced the anxiety of imminent change in their lives, and having faced that change and embraced it - lived lives that changed the world. Lets consider Joseph first. St.Matthew’s gospel tells the nativity story from Joseph’s perspective. Here was a man who probably thought his life’s direction was all quite simple and straightforward. He would spend his days as a carpenter, earning an honest living, supporting his wife and probably a family. Then suddenly his life is turned upside down when Mary breaks the news to him that she is expecting a child. Joseph – a good and righteous man – a religious man who was concerned to do God’s will, was no doubt deeply distressed by the news, imagining that it meant only one thing – that Mary had been unfaithful to him, - ponders on what to do. In the course of a dream an angel appears to Joseph and challenges him to do something quite outside of what a normal, righteous, man of God would be expecting to do! God wanted Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to marry her. What a challenge to Joseph! What would the neighbours say? What would the others in the synagogue say? I am sure Joseph would have thought long and hard about the dream he had had. In the end, he decides that this IS God’s message to him, - he embraces this challenge and obeys the word of the angel. Joseph’s life would never be the same again. He would now, for the next however many years ( and there is a tradition which says that Joseph died when Jesus was fairly young) , Joseph would have the privilege of being father and role model to the Son of God. I wonder what the outcome of the story would have been if Joseph had refused to change, or to adopt God’s plans? God sometimes challenges us also with a completely different direction for our life than that which we mapped out. But that’s one of the unique challenges of being a Christ-follower! You never know what’s around the corner. St.Paul was another who faced a life-changing moment on his journey to Damascus. From being a devoted student of the Law of God he was changed to become a servant of Christ Jesus. And it is with these words that he begins his letter to the church in Rome. “From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus and an apostle chosen and called by God to preach His Good News.” (Rom.1;1) Paul’s life was probably well mapped out too! He was a religious professional – a Pharisee, an academic and student of the Law of God. He would have been assured of a good job in the synagogue, some prestige, and probably reasonable pay. If anyone knew what God wanted, surely a Pharisee would. But God had something different for Paul! On a number of occasions Paul had been confronted with the story of this Jesus who died on the cross and was raised from the dead on the third day. He had heard the preaching and seen the manner of life of those who maintained that he was alive, and was the Messiah, the Son of God. On the road to Damascus it all seemed to come to a head. A light flashed about him and his companions, Paul was struck blind, and a voice came from heaven announcing that it was not some religious zealot whom Paul was persecuting but none other than the Risen Jesus. You could say that Paul didn’t have much option, after that experience, to decide whether to turn to Christ or not – but I believe that there was always the possibility that he could have rejected that call. The Danger of Change, then , - especially when God is at work - is that we may not see the value of it. We may not see the potential in it – we may not be receptive enough for it. Just as entrance into the Kingdom of God begins with being receptive, so living in the Kingdom of God requires us to be receptive also. That’s how Kingdom life begins, and how it continues. Scientists tell us that the ovum and sperm have to receive each other before they can begin the positive business of producing active life. The seed in the ground receives moisture and nutrition from the earth before it can begin to give forth in flower and fruit. If it doesn’t begin with receptivity – its doesn’t begin! The scientist who doesn’t sit down before the facts as a little child and who is not prepared to give up every preconceived notion and follow to whatever end nature will lead him will know nothing. The Danger of Change is that we may refuse to be receptive to it. The first law of life is the law of receptivity, and that is also the first law of the Kingdom of God. “As many as received Him” says the author of John’s gospel - “As many as received Him” - to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” At the threshold of Christ’s kingdom, then, we are met with the demand for self-emptying and receptivity. So as Advent comes to a close with the dawning of Christmas day, have you made your own response to this invitation to open your heart in welcome to God? If you are not willing for this change – then nothing else follows. If you are willing , - then everything else follows. Let us pray: “God of love,
open our hearts in welcome, that your Son Jesus Christ, at
his coming, may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself.” |
