Sermon: Fourth Sunday before Lent

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 9th February 2014

Service:

Cathedral Eucharist

Listen:

Download Recording (MP3, 7.9M)

‘With you, O Lord, is the well of life and in your light do we see light’ Psalm 36

+ In nomine Patris…

In the book of Genesis we read that in the very beginning God spoke the words, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light (Genesis 1.3). Light was the first thing to be named into existence, to shine above the swirling waters over which God’s Holy Spirit brooded. Water and light are there in the very beginning, elements created by God.

And this morning we celebrate the ongoing work of God’s creation in the lives of Alexander and George, bathed in the waters of the New Creation and drawn into the life of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And the Holy Spirit, who swept over the waters of creation, sweeps over the waters of baptism and draws and binds them and us into the life of Christ’s Body, the Church.

Like light and water, Alex, George, you and I are all created. And as human beings we are made in the image and likeness of God. So here’s a thought: when we look into the face of another human being we glimpse the refracted light of God made visible in a human face. We should delight in other human faces because of that - with all their weft and warp - and profoundly delight in our own faces, as we are restored, by God’s grace, into his image. There is nothing more beautiful than a human face lighting up with life and hope and joy. Last week’s Candlemas procession revealed that again.

I began with a quote from Psalm 36, which draws on images of water and light: ‘With you, O Lord, is the well of life, and in your light do we see light’ (Psalm 36). God is the source, the wellspring, of light and beauty.

This light shines on the righteous and unrighteous alike. God’s gift of light is impartial and undiscriminating and knows no bounds. The Church is the inclusive focus of the light and creativity of God, not its exclusive locus. The Church is like the spotlight illuminating and celebrating the coming Kingdom of God. I have a new torch that claims ‘one million candlepower’. The Church globally claims 2.1 billion candlepower, with 2 more added in George and Alex. Our task together is to illuminate and shine out the Kingdom of God.

So God gives us all light. St Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. I love to picture that as a candle flame glowing deep within me. Sometimes that light burns bright and strong, sometimes it seems only to flicker: but that is only ever my perception; God is constant and just. His light is even more visible in the darkness, when we most need light to guide us. The intensity of his light itself creates a darkness, which is his silhouette.

What do I do with that light? Too often the light of God in human lives is not just shut out, but shut in. It’s the equivalent of the bushel basket that boxes in the light, rather than allowing the light to shine. We shut in the light perhaps out of fear, out of a lack of love or lack of hope. It’s worth pondering for yourself: do you shut out the light, or do you shut it in? Another Psalm says, ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear. The Lord is the light of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27.1). Can you say the same?

St Paul again says, ‘It is the God who said, “let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4.6). Jesus beholds you, and Alex and George in his loving watchful gaze. Always look at his face to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. His brilliance reflects in human lives. For to be companions, brothers and sisters, fellow disciples, means looking together at the brilliance of the face of Jesus and to rejoice in the brilliance of the light of Christ refracted in each of our lives. It is a great gift to rejoice in the brilliance of others.

May we all with George and Alex drink deeply from the waters of salvation, the waters of the New Creation. With the psalmist may we say, ‘With you, O Lord, is the well of life and in your light do we see light’ (Psalm 36)