Sun 8 Jan, Wk 19: 'Jesus coming of age'...WMRBW

Before we entered worship,
communion glasses filled with water had been placed in the vestibule. People were invited, as they entered, to take a glass and pour it into the large jug used for baptisms.
At the start of worship, as the Bible was brought in, so too was the jug now full of water - this was placed on the baptismal font.
Later, we were invited to quietly reflect on water and grace, of our baptism, and of being God's beloved, as the water was poured from jug into font...

1st READING: 1 Kings 3:1-28;
2nd READING: Luke 2:39-3:14; 3:21-22

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, amen.

High up in the hills, the smell of incense and burnt offerings fills the air.
Amid clouds of smoke, rising heavenwards, a figure stands before the altar.
He is praying.
As he prays, God speaks, saying to the young man so recently made king:
‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’
...A tantalising offer – the offer of a lifetime.
Solomon has the potential
to hold the whole world in his hands;
to have ultimate power;
to have ultimate honour and prestige;
to have wealth beyond all human imagining...
Solomon is asked, by the One who has it in his gift,
to have anything his heart desires...
A dizzying thought –
and, placed in that same situation how would we respond?
But there, in that high and holy place,
faced with the opportunity of a lifetime to have it all, Solomon does three things:
first, he gives thanks to God for showing kindness to his father, David
second, he acknowledges his own limitations – he’s young and inexperienced,
and none too sure how to carry out the great and many responsibilities of kingship...
and third: in both of those steps, Solomon understands that all the power,
all the wealth, and all the honour in the world, are utterly useless, if he doesn’t
know how to deal with it...
and so, in a moment of astonishing insight,
he asks    for wisdom.
And in the asking, Solomon pleases God greatly.
God is so pleased, in fact, that the writer of this account tells us that
wealth and prestige are added into the equation anyway:
having asked such a humble request, much more is given.

Shortly after this, Solomon’s wisdom is put to the test in a difficult case
involving a dispute between two mothers over a child –
whose child is it?
What will Solomon decide?
We heard the outcome of that story in our reading earlier –
and we also saw that, following on from his decision,
the whole nation was in awe:
though young in years, here was a man worthy to be king –
worthy to hold a position as a dispenser of justice –
his decisions were grounded in a wisdom given by God, which meant,
his decisions could be trusted,
his decisions were...good.
All in all, it’s a promising beginning.

Sadly, by the end of his reign, things will have gone very wrong indeed:
was God’s justice truly exercised?
Were Solomon’s judgements eventually rather murky and possibly,
even a little Machiavellian – the ends justifying the means?
Ironically, his ambitious building scheme –
particularly of the Temple –
was based upon the exploitation of human beings:
slave labour – and hard and punishing labour at that.
200 000 of his own people are conscripted into the building scheme,
along with foreign workers.
And, while it takes him seven years to build the Temple,
it takes fourteen to build his palace:
is this a wee indication of where he sees himself in the grand scheme of things:
has he begun to place more importance on himself, than upon God?
Later, he would chase after other gods – building altars to worship them...
gods who required child sacrifice which had,
from the time of Abraham’s trip with Isaac into the wilderness,
been shown by God to be abhorrent.
This was not what the people of God did.
In the end, all his power and astonishing wealth end up corrupting him.
After his reign, the kingdom will be split in two, and much diminished –
easy pickings for neighbouring enemies.
His kingdom fails, falling time after time into the hands of foreign empires.

Hundreds of years pass.
The current foreign empire is Rome.
Another young man appears –
a child of promise who has a strange birth heralded by angelic messengers,
with visitors travelling in starlight’s path,
and with the elderly Simeon and Anna singing his praises
upon his presentation in the Temple at 8 days old.
We’ve heard the stories over Advent and Christmastide...
And now we find this young man –
a young man ...for he’s just turned 12, the beginning of adulthood in that society...
we find him heading off to Jerusalem with his family
on their annual trip for the Feast of the Passover.
It’s a journey that takes several days –
it’s roughly 70 miles of travelling by foot or donkey.
They travel with many others, fulfil their religious obligations and then,
prepare for the return journey.
Parents, clearly thinking he was somewhere in the midst of the group,
actually begin the journey home,
only to find a full day later that he’s nowhere to be found.
And so they return, travelling weary miles back along the road to Jerusalem to track him down.
It takes them three full days.

Like that other young man before him, Jesus is in a high place –
the Temple commands a good view of the city.
He has been soaking up the atmosphere,
and, learning as much as he can.
He delights in time spent in the company of religious teachers –
listening to them,
asking them questions,
and...they, enjoying this young man’s enthusiasm and obvious talent for learning,
ask him questions in turn.
There’s a deep wisdom in this young man – and all who hear him are amazed.
Perhaps they wonder what his future might hold.
Whatever it is, it’s sure to be bright:
God’s hand is so very clearly upon him.

After much searching, his parents to find him, and it perplexes Jesus:
why didn't they start at the Temple?
For to him, it's obvious: where else would he be, but in his Father’s house...
So, even at this young age,
having just attained manhood,
Jesus actively seeks out God.
So young, yet so focused on following.
They head back home.
And all we know of Jesus, from this point until we see him at thirty, is that,
‘he grew in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and men.’

Before we meet Jesus again, in our reading from Luke, we’re introduced to his cousin, John.
John is now full-grown, and, sensing a call from God, begins a preaching tour,
calling on those he encounters to repent –
to have a change of focus and of heart:
to turn their lives to God.
He preaches, too, of the One who will follow after him – the Messiah.
His manner of preaching is blunt:
you don’t get many preachers who call their listeners a brood of vipers...
The crowds seek him out, fascinated and possibly fearful,
and he is asked by many how they might live a more godly life.
And then, one day, the One he’s been speaking of appears, seeking baptism.
Jesus, still eager,
still focused,
still walking in God’s ways
and now: a new beginning –
the baptism moves him into what will be his public ministry
and will set him on the long walk to Jerusalem and a cross.

At 12, in the Temple, he had sought to please God.
In his baptism, we see God’s response.
As Jesus prays,
it is as if heaven opens...
the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove;
and a voice is heard in heaven:
Jesus is named, and claimed in this act of baptism –
this act of obedience that seeks only to please God...
And God is well pleased with this Son of his.
Unlike Solomon, the good beginning that Jesus has made will continue,
eventually, conquering even death,
and, his kingdom will be totally different to the kingdoms of the world.
He will not become corrupted:
although he’ll face temptations,
he will stay focused,
he will live into his calling –
live as fully one of us,
modelling God’s kingdom of heaven on earth.

In baptism, Jesus enters into the human experience of living
as one who is named and claimed by God;
he shows us Gods grace –
shows us what God has done, is doing, and will do in our own lives.
Baptism is an entryway into new life,
new possibilities,
new beginnings.
It is an entry into the kingdom of God –
a kingdom of freedom,
a kingdom where all are of equal value
and none are oppressed –
for here, in this kingdom the yoke will be easy and the burden light;
It is a kingdom in which all are claimed,
and named ‘beloved’.

Baptised into this kingdom, how do we keep our focus upon God –
and not allow ourselves to become distracted
and corrupted and find ourselves in a bit of a Solomon-like mess?
Well, we’re baptised into community:
called to love one another –
so, we could start with speaking words of encouragement to one another,
maybe even be so bold as to remind each other of our place in God’s kingdom,
and call each other God’s beloved –
to see each other as God sees us.

In these early days of a new year:
if you’re minded to make resolutions
why not be minded to start a revolution –
to remember your baptism –
and in doing so, to live in God’s grace and be gracious to those you encounter;
to speak truth to power;
to help those beaten down, to stand;
to find the good, not the bad –
but not in some kind of Pollyanna, divorced from reality kind of way...
but rather, in the words of the song, to show that:
goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
and that vict’ry is ours,
vict’ry is ours
through him who loves us.

Let’s pray:
Turn us around, God –
around into your way of thinking,
around into your way of loving.
Turn us around, God,
and confront us with Jesus.
Baptise our fears with your joy. Amen