CONSIDERING CAREER OPTIONS...

One of the questions adults like to ask children is: What do you want to be when you grow up? and the answer usually includes an astronaut, a train driver and a football; or a princess - depending on who you’re talking to.

Hence the old joke about the child who comes home from Sunday School in floods of tears and his mum asks him what’s wrong. He replies “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam - but I want to be an engine driver!”

Not all that long ago James did a course at school to become a Peer Mediator, and as he was explaining what he was doing he said it was a bit like the job that Mum did - Alison being a Counsellor. So Alison said “Do you not fancy being a priest like Dad?” To which James replied: “Oh no; you see I’m not a born entertainer...”

I think maybe I need to reconsider my career options. (At least that’s what Bishop John said.)

So what do you want to do when you grow up?

Well whether they wanted to know or not, Jesus’ parents were told one or two things about their child and what he would do when he grew up... In fact their child is still a babe in arms and they already know a great deal about his future:

• Angels alerted the shepherds that the Messiah, the Christ, had been born;

• the Magi brought gifts for a king, a priest and something to embalm his dead body...

• and now in the Temple Simeon talks about the child Jesus as being Salvation;

• Anna talks about him being redemption

• Mary is warned that Jesus would divide people, that some would be raised up on his account and some cast down, and that a sword would pierce her heart...

Candlemas - or the feast of the presentation - marks the end of Christmas: we take one last look back at the Crib, before we turn our attention to the Cross. Our celebration of Christmas is closing and our consideration of Lent, Holy Week and Easter is beginning.

Candlemas is also a bittersweet festival... and this is one of the recurrent themes we’ve noted throughout the Christmas Season - how the destiny of the child born in Bethlehem is tied up with his death. This is the side of Christmas which reminds us most powerfully that Christmas is not just for the children.... Mary’s heart will be pierced with a sword as she stands at Calvary watching Jesus die in agony so that we could know God.

And the destiny - not just the future, but the “now” - of the child Jesus was that he would cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel. It was true then: and it’s true today.

Look at the people in the gospels who found Jesus a stumbling block, one who brought them low: people like the rich young ruler; Pilate; Ciaphas; the Sadducees; King Herod...

Still today there are many for whom Christ is a stumbling block: those who are proud; those who like to think of themselves as independent, self secure... There are those who find it intellectually unacceptable to take a step of faith. There are those who cannot cope with the demands of following Christ: loving enemies, forgiving, going the extra mile, the discipline of prayer and worship, the re-orientating of our lives.

That’s different from those who have rejected the wrong Christ: a god who punishes and frowns; those who really don’t understand what the gospel is about. Those who know next to nothing about the faith but have rejected it. Sometimes we are to blame for that: how often to hear people saying “It’s not God I have a problem with: it’s some of his friends...”? And at the moment if you look nationally, or internationally, all the Anglicans seem to be doing is arguing about sex: about who ought to be sleeping with whom; who should or shouldn’t be priests or bishops. I hope that our friends neighbours and families see a different side to the faith when they rub shoulders with us each day.

So there are still those today who do find Jesus to be a stumbling block; one who brings about the falling of many. In one sense this is what we should expect: Jesus is a person who demands an opinion. He is difficult to ignore and we form an opinion about him as we encounter him.
CS Lewis once said that there are only three opinions you can hold about Jesus: he was either mad, bad or God. Don’t forget: this was the child whose very birth split history! - we talk about events which happened Before Christ and Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord).

So Simeon was telling the truth about this child: he was destined for the falling of many - but he was also to be destined for the rising of many.

And those who found themselves raised because of him were a mixed bag: shepherds; the poor; tax collectors; the morally dubious; the weak and vulnerable; children; women; foreigners...

And there are millions today who are discovering that Jesus still specialises in raising the fallen: those who are wounded and weak, the worried and confused, the vulnerable and the frightened.. those, who in the eyes of the world are of no - or little - value...

Simeon knew that he wouldn’t see the grown up Jesus, yet he was content to die in peace having caught a glimpse of the one who - even now in his life time - was beginning to transform the world...

This is very much a Christmas thought. Do you remember that at the beginning of the Christmas season we were reflecting on the inevitability of the resurrection - how could we possibly have thought we killed God by nailing him to a tree? We are reminded again that God’s stepping into our world in the person of Jesus was the most incredible thing: in one sense the rest was a natural out working of that... of course God would come with a mission, a reason... of course that would divide humanity... of course we would find it very uncomfortable to have perfection amongst us... of course we’d try to do away with God... and of course we wouldn’t success because love is stronger than hate, than death, that fear, than violence...

So the incarnation - what we celebrate at Christmas - is the basis for our faith. God didn’t remain an idea - even a good religious idea - God stepped in our world and showed that God was on the side of the poor, the downtrodden, those at the bottom of the heap, the wounded, the vulnerable - and God had some pretty hard things to say to those who were doing the wounding, the down treading, the violence...

The future of this child was to be challenge and division: some would side for Jesus, others would reject him. The gift of Free Will enables us to choose - but that too means that some must be free to reject: this is the hard part of love.

And the future we look forward to - as a church community and as individuals - will have that challenge and division too. There will be those who don’t like it when we take the side of Christ, when we support the downtrodden, the abused, the forgotten, the voiceless, the lost, lonely and strange...

Mary is often seen as the pattern for our discipleship - in her response to God’s call, her sharing in the mission of God, her nurturing and loving the Christ, her kissing the face of God. Let’s also not forget that if her love of Jesus lead to a sword piercing her soul, then that is what we can expect too... So let’s not get surprised when the going gets tough.

As we turn to take one last look at the crib, as we moved from the Christmas Season and jump straight into Lent, so we can reflect on what happened as the child grew into maturity... The adult Christ was a different facet of God than the Christ child. And as we put the baby Jesus back in his box until next Christmas and prepare to engage with the grown up Jesus, let’s also not forget that division, and heartache are part of the deal as we seek to follow the one who is the light of revelation to us Gentiles...
 

Fr Andrew Perry

Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea