This world needs a Saviour, we need people to look up to, to follow, to draw inspiration from, and yet so often we find there is no word to respond to, no person to look to. No interpreter of heaven for us….
So it was in the time before John came.
For years heaven had been silent, prayers had been offered and answered, but there had been no spokesperson, none to challenge the nation, no voice whose clarity cut through the religious niceties and drew people to the truth.
But the hunger was there, a hunger in the hearts of ordinary folk, folk like you and me, hungering for God to speak, a hunger that grew more and more intense. People were looking and longing for the Messiah to come, when suddenly (for so it may have seemed) there was a voice in the desert, a voice crying out, challenging the people to repentance. Challenging the people to look beyond himself to another voice that would soon come after him, another voice whose words would be so filled with God that God himself would be speaking….
John, that fearless messenger and forerunner of Jesus; John crying out for truth and pointing to the light. John's voice, prophesied by the ancients, a voice of truth….
It was truth that was spoken to Herod, and truth, God's truth that Herod feared as John denounced his relationship with Herodias- his brother's wife, for in his heart of hearts Herod knew that John was right, and even though he had attempted to silence him through imprisonment the challenge probably haunted his thoughts and his dreams. And yet Herod drew short of beheading John, at least for a while, for one, quite possibly drunken night, everything changed. The scene unfolds like something in a steamy novel, Herod has thrown a banquet, the food is plentiful and the wine is flowing.
Enter the dancing girl, his daughter, who pleases Herod's guests so much that he declares that he will give her anything she asks for. A quick consultation with her mother and the deal is done. John is beheaded. For all Herod's fear of John, he feared the potential mocking of his friends and guests more.
But the message was not silenced, the message still prevailed, and it was not long before the news came to Herod of this message being accompanied by healings and miracles. The message was growing stronger and stronger, it had not been silenced!
John of course had never pointed to himself, Isaiah described him as a voice crying out in the desert: prepare ye the way of the Lord… and prepare the way he did. John speaking God's message, challenging people to repentance and preparing the way for Jesus…
And now Jesus was speaking, God's message was being heard loud and clear, those who were hungry for God flocked to him….
Herod of course was not exempt from the cry and the call to repentance, if John had challenged him, how much more did Jesus? I wonder how he blocked Jesus message from his ears.
And so Jesus came, healing and restoring, and offering hope, challenging and rebuking just as John had, and more, for in him God dwelt in fullness….
We know the story of course, the way he taught, the way he challenged, the way he restored hope and healed the broken. We know the story of the cross and of the resurrection….
But I wonder today do we KNOW IT IN POWER?
As Methodists we have John Wesley's story to look back to, how he, learned as he was experienced a transformation within himself- his famous phrase, "my heart was strangely warmed" offers us a small glimpse into the transformation that took place within him. He experienced a deep assurance that all he knew was true, and with that came a confidence and boldness that propelled him out to preach God's word in the power of the Spirit.
The reading from Ephesians reminds us that in Christ, God has supplied us with everything we need. In him there is assurance, in him there is life and power. In Christ we have been forgiven, the riches of God's grace have been lavished upon us. In Christ we have been called to be a part of God's plan for proclaiming his message! And we can do it if we truly hunger for that message to spring to life within us in power.
The question is are we hungry, or have we become so easily satisfied with dry morsels of dusty old dogmas that we could not stomach real spiritual food if it were offered to us?
In Jesus we find the bread of life, in Jesus we find streams of living water, and if we dare to eat and drink we will find ourselves filled to the fullness with the love of God, our hearts may indeed become strangely warmed….
We need to awaken or perhaps re-awaken within ourselves a hunger for God, for his holiness, for his message and for his power to be at work within and amongst us. The only way is prayer, not shopping list intercessions, but plunging to the depths of our beings we might find ourselves praying without words and crying out to God not just for ourselves, but rediscovering a passion there for this place, this land and his world.
And we need not hide our faces and hang our heads in shame for:
Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, and everything on planet earth.
It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. (Ephesians 1: 7-12 The Message)
It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. John knew that, that is why he pointed away from himself and towards Christ. Herod knew it and shrank from it, fearing the message and the messenger. Wesley knew it, and dared to step into the riches of grace that God desires to pour out upon all of us….
Dare we step into his shoes afresh today; dare we discover within ourselves a fresh hunger and thirst for God's truth to be set free in us? If we dare, he will answer, and the living waters of the Spirit will begin to flow within us again….
…and they might not make us comfortable, for they will wash away the dirt and grime of the years, dirt and grime we may have become comfortable with, dirt and grime that we may have felt was a part of who we are….
…they may not make us comfortable, but they will make us clean, and they will refresh and resource us, and refreshed and resourced we will be able to take a stand, refreshed and resourced we will find within a fresh confidence and a new assurance.
The alternative is to stop our ears from the cry of the one who loves us more than we could ever imagine. And in doing so we might become like Herod! Those who heard, and were challenged, but ultimately turned away.
