To behold

Sermon preached by Ray Anglesea at Wolsingham Methodist Church Covenant Service

Sunday 19^th January 2014

The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew: Matthew 4 v18-20

                       Caravagio (1603 -1606) 

One of the joys of working in the circuit is the beautiful scenic car drive from Brancepeth village along Stockley Lane to the B6299 through the former pit villages of Stanley along the ridge at Billy Row, to Sunniside then on to Tow Law and the B6297 down Redgate Bank passing the John Duckett Martyrs Memorial Cross to Wolsingham. Whatever the season, Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall as Carole King’s song goes the view of Weardale from along this route is spectacular, with farmland, dry stone walls, sheep, stunning views of rich green agricultural land, redundant limestone quarries, small historic villages, significant buildings, footpaths and a train service. I often stop the car at the War Memorial at the top of Billy Row bank to drink in the sheer beauty of this striking valley; the valley certainly has what my children would call the “Wow” factor.

I wonder what your wow factors might be, sunsets at the beach perhaps, a beautiful meal with friends, a graduation ceremony, sitting by a cascading waterfall, an international holiday, reading a poem, standing in front of a masterpiece, holding a grandchild, standing by Seaham Harbour lighthouse at the waves crash over the stone pier? Some friends of mine recently celebrated a significant birthday drinking champagne in the Grand Canyon, Arizona; they flew into the striking and awesome Colorado River Canyon by helicopter from Las Vegas. They have never stopped talking about it since. It was a wonderful and memorable holiday indeed. Wow!

In our gospel reading this morning we hear of a “Wow” moment. John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, and in the translation offered by the King James Bible says, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

The word I love most in this reading this morning is the word Behold – John says “Behold , the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” Behold. Not a word we use too much these days, rather old fashioned you might say, but the bible is full of beholds – “Behold, A virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy” – you can almost hear the tunes of The Messiah ringing through the acclamations. And that notion of beholding - that’s what I feel like when I drive into Weardale, to “Behold Weardale in all its beauty,” a breathtaking momentary experience. I wonder whether Prince William had a wow moment when he beheld Kate Middelton, his bride at his wedding in Westminster Abbey. A couple of seasons ago I sung with my Newcastle choir Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony; the chorus starts with a majestic and stately opening “Behold the Sea - itself,” the majestic fanfare of an introduction of Walt Whitman’s poem. It is music to arrest your attention, to make you listen. At Crook last Advent the chapel community looked at a number of Advent poems, one of which was Edwin Muir’s poem The Annuniciation. The 19^th century Orkadian poet too has a wow moment; he asks the reader to focus and gaze intently at the moment of the annunciation. He addresses the stillness and the holiness of the moment when an angel brings the news that heaven and earth are to be united in the body of an ordinary woman. He uses words like “bliss,” limbs and “trembling” which hint at the importance of this religious moment as he focuses on the two faces of Mary and the Angel, their mutual gaze and the sense that they increasingly reflect each other. Next Sunday we shall look at the call of the disciples from Matthew 4, the calling of Andrew and Peter, James and John. The early seventeenth century Italian painter Caravaggio painted the scene in 1603 or there abouts; the painting was purchased by Charles 1 – an avid art collector – in 1637. Sold during the Commonwealth it was re-acquired by Charles II after the Restoration. It has since remained in royal possession, and is today owned by The Queen. Kept in Hampton Court Palace it was long believed to be a virtually worthless copy of a lost original, but after six years of restoration and examination the Royal Collection declared on 10 November 2006, that this was, in fact, an authentic Caravaggio. The verdict has been corroborated by external experts, and the painting is now probably worth more than £50 million. A Wow moment indeed 

The words that John ‘seeth Jesus coming unto him’ makes me imagine the way they are viewing each other, eyeing each other up, holding each other in their gaze, not just a walking towards, but with a look that says it all - John is the one seen and chosen by Jesus. To behold then is to see with complete attention, to see the remarkable. To “behold the lamb of God.” Here is a phrase so rich in meaning. ‘Lamb of God’ – for the Jews, here is a word with a whole history of powerful symbolic meaning.

The sacrificial lamb, the unblemished lamb whose blood was smeared on the two doorposts and the lintels of the Jewish household as a sign of God’s liberating saving power, a covenant sign that God had chosen to enter into their history. The Jews believed no one could see the face of God and live. But now John the Baptist calls us to behold – to behold the one who becomes our liberator, the saviour, the friend of sinners. We are called to look on the face of God.

We will be called later in this covenant service to behold with all our attention the sacrament of Holy Communion  - for some Holy Communion is the living presence of God shown forth in bread and wine, for others it may be a picture or representation of God in bread and wine, which is of itself a wow moment.  ‘Beholding the lamb of God’ at Holy Communion is to look into the presence of God. It is being filled by it. It is to see salvation.

John the Baptist in our Gospel today makes space for the one he beholds. He does not try to convince or explain. In fact as soon as he sees Christ, he gets out of the way himself: “Behold the lamb that taketh away the sin of the world.” John opens himself to the one who comes. He really sees. He is suddenly aware of the blessing of God breaking into the world. He sees the heavens opened and sees the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove. He knows the Son of God is here with us.

There is a brave humility in this recognition. John does not cling onto this blessing or attempt to possess it, or to seize it for himself as a mark of his own authority or power. There is no attempt to control or manipulate or possess. Here is an example to each one of us and to the Church at the start of his New Year. This blessing of God is for all to behold; it is not the possession of the institution to dispense. It is the love of God like sunlight falling on each one of us. How then must we respond? John lets go. He opens his hands. He responds to Christ with a generosity which mirrors the grace of God. He tells his disciples to “behold the lamb of God” – he points towards Christ and allows them to follow. “Where are you staying?” they ask Jesus. “Come and see,” Jesus replies. And over a meal and drinks which lasted at least till four o'clock in the afternoon; there appears another wow moment for Andrew – he experiences a new calling, a new walk with God. His first response was to find his brother, and, with extraordinary certainty asserts that he had found the Messiah. And so Andrew and his friends answer the call and offer their lives for renewal, without knowing the outcome.

As Andrew and Peter were different people who were called by Jesus, it is worth remembering at the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity God does not call any one type. God calls all types. The gifts are not competitive, but rather complementary. The gifts are bestowed from grace, so all may be of benefit. The unity of the Church flows from diversity, not uniformity. From the very beginnings of the Gospels, the story about vocations is a testimony to the extraordinary range of people that God uses to share in the work of the Kingdom, it is about a God who uses our weaknesses – the foolish and base things of the world to bring about change. Which is why he says to each and every one of us today, as he did to the fisherman at the beginning of the Gospel today – Come and see.

Perhaps that is the best New Year’s resolution any of us could make: to behold Christ in one another, and to behold Christ’s presence in our own lives; a beholding which means becoming aware of blessing, to “behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Amen

Isaiah 49.1-7; 1 Corinthians 1.1-9; John 1.29-42

MP 728 We have a gospel to proclaim

MP 65 Brightest and Best (tune: Epiphany Hymn)

MP 67 Breathe on me breath of God

MP 755 When I survey the wondrous cross

MP 501 O Jesus I have promised