Vicaring - A sermon resource for all those involved in Christian ministry

First Preached         22^nd  July 2007        Trinity  7  (Proper 11 C )

Gen 18.1-10                :        Colossians 1.15-28   :        Luke 10.38-end

[Apologies these notes are unusually cryptic. I hope however that some of the allusions may be thought provoking. ]

Not do but be.

Be: Caught up in Christ. – in you the hope of glory. In Him Spotless.

And realise how magnificent a thing this is.

The attempts to diminish Jesus. We do have a very diminished comprehension.

A figure in history.

But for Paul [ Also particularly for John & Hebrews] history is in this figure. He is the centre, but also the beginning and the end of History.

So it is a farce to set him among other figures. At Colossae there were those who wanted to place him among angels. Today people would group him among other inspired leaders.

It is to miss the point. He is king of angels. More they owe their being to him.

There is no power that is not subject to his authority, and under his judgment.

The Barman Declaration: “We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords–areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.”[i]

Conforming to the way of the world leads to a false view of Christ. But trying to escape from it can have its own dangers. The religious mind loves subtlety for its own sake. The esoteric as intimacy with God.

For Jesus intimacy with God comes through loving your neigbour. And loving God. But not  from loving something in between.

That is the point. Jesus is the Way to the Father. He opens God up.

You are made in the Image of God. What you would you be like if you were God? -Like Jesus.

Jesus reveals the open heart of God,  the revelation of the Father.

He comes to bridge that gap. (Between what we were made to be and what we are)  To reconcile. No system does that. Not even the C of E! You really have to trust in Jesus to save you from the vicar.

All that is needed, is to acknowledge the need;  the alienation from God.

Our problem is our refusal to face up to sin. Our problem is the denial of the problem.

It should not be too hard to twig. The signs are all around us in our culture: The death of creative ideas. The efflorescing complexity; it reminds me of late Medieval Theology. The anxiety of our society.  The death of hope.

Christ in you the hope of Glory. The potential waiting to be realised. The new perspective on the world and its obsessions.

Above all the new perspective on yourself. Christ is in you and, “Neither height nor depth nor anything else  in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 8.39 

• Proper 11 C