Sermon: Mattins 6 Jan 2013

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 6th January 2013

Service:

Mattins

Readings:

Jeremiah 31:7-14

John 1:29-34

Piscine Patel re-fashions his name to overcome playground bullying.  He identifies himself with the mathematical constant “Pi” – an irrational number, whose decimal representation never ends.  The abbreviation to 3.14159 serves a practical purpose; the representative value of the Greek letter π hints an infinity.  So begins the “Life of Pi”.

Pi is a teenager acutely aware of the possibility of the divine. His father dismisses his fascination with religion as irrational and chides his inability to choose one path. Pi’s wonder and his faith emerge in the narratives of Hindu gods; he is introduced to Christ by a priest and wonders at the depth of God’s love for humanity revealed in suffering; he wonders at the many names of Allah and in the pattern of Islamic prayer sees the ground on which he stands as being holy. 

We might say that Pi lives through a series of epiphanies; moment by moment he is seized by sudden realisations about the nature of the created order or the meaning of life; his perception of reality is shaped by intuitive insights.  Martel’s novel is brought to life by Ang Lee, who uses the latest cinema technology to produce astonishing visual effects. 

Pi knows of love and letting go; he experiences in wonder and desperate exhaustion. He faces death and doesn’t lose hope.  He makes space for doubt, because it makes faith a living thing.  He tells a story of courage, of struggle of imaginatively suspended reality. A story of a shipwreck, loss and survival, shared with a tiger. He tells another story of courage, of struggle of human compassion versus brutality. It is a  story of shipwreck, loss and survival that he lives through in hope.

At the end Pi asks: So which story do you prefer? The aspiring writer replies: The one with the tiger. That’s the better story.  Thank you says Pi, And do it goes with God.

Pi might be accused of having an eclectic approach to spiritual life; of reducing all religions to a generalised theism.  But he lives life in awareness of the divine breaking through.  He struggles to comprehend a God who so loved the world that he sent his only Son. Pi's life reflects  resilience and altruism in adversity;  the possibility of faith, hope and love.   The redemptive power of God does indeed reshape the world of suffering; it is a love that cannot be bound by false limits of our own.  The wideness of God's mercy is celebrated today; in the Epiphany: the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to all people. 

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world says John, when he sees Jesus.  He picks up on the prophetic language of Isaiah. Here is the Lamb of God; the suffering servant. Such images describe not only who Jesus is, but what he does.  It is precisely this imagery that is puzzling to Pi.  This manifestation, the witness of John which re-shapes our perception, is the epiphany of God with us.  God's creative, sustaining, redeeming and self-giving love is revealed in the Word made flesh.

John recognises Jesus as God’s chosen one when he sees the Spirit descending from heaven.  At this moment of epiphany, he realises that God’s love is made manifest.  He does so because his heart and mind have been shaped by attentiveness to the hopes of humanity and the faithfulness of God.  John points to Jesus. He testifies to the divine breaking in.  Where there is Epiphany there is a witness to transformed lives; so too our lives witness to this Epiphany.

Jesus, as Lamb of God, fulfils the hopes expressed by Jeremiah; we are called to point to that reality; to embody it.  The remnant of God’s people will be gathered together; weeping will be met with consolation.  We are called to live lives that witness to the compelling light of God and reveal his compassion.  The young and the infirm will be radiant; those bearing new life and those worn down by life’s struggles will together form a great company. We are called to be part of a diverse and inclusive Kingdom rich with possibility, joy, resilience and mercy.  There will be grain and wine and oil and a young flock; there will be dancing, merriment, joy and comfort.  Mourning and sorrow will be transformed.  We are called to manifest such abundant love with generosity.

Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

God's love breaks in. We are to respond.

A new world breaks in.  We are to manifest its impact in our lives.

John points to the one who is the better story; and so it goes with God.