'The Glory of God is Man' - transcript of sermon St Anne's, Brown Edge May 14th 2017

Sermon – St Anne’s Brown Edge 14^th May 2017

Acts 7.55-60 Psalm 31.1-5,15-16* 1 Peter 2.2-10 John 14.1-14

We have just returned from our post Easter break during which we spent a day in Barcelona.

Some people from the Cruise ship went to see the famous football stadium, others to the Park Guel and yet others to the many other wonderful buildings in the city.

Jane and I had booked tickets for the Sagrada Familia.  This is the most astonishing building you are ever likely to encounter by the artist/architect Gaudi.   

The Sagrada Familia is Gaudi­'s crowning achievement that is a work in progress! 

This ornate church embodies both the renowned Catalan architect's ambitious imagination and his religious devotion. 

There is nothing understated about the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí­'s magnum opus. Its slender spires tower over the Catalan capital, and every surface is intricate and significant. It is truly a marvel, incorporating both Christian symbolism and organic forms in its own unique style.

Gaudi was so dedicated to this project that he lived onsite for 16 years (and is buried in the crypt below).

It was Gaudí's wish that the people finance the temple’s construction. Entrance fees therefore go towards the completion of the church on which work began in 1882.

When it is finished in 2026 - on the 100th anniversary of Gaudí­'s death - the Sagrada Familia will have taken 144 years to complete. The original plan called for eighteen spires, the tallest of which will be 172.5m, thus making it the tallest church spire in the world. This is just a little lower than the highest mountain overlooking the city – because man cannot outdo God!

The Temple in Jerusalem that Jesus would have known was of equal magnificence before the Romans in AD70 destroyed it. It was able to accommodate a million people and was the size of six football pitches.

Standing on top of Mount Moriah gleaming white stone embellished with gold, it would have taken your breath away glinting in the strong sunlight.

Not only was it an awesome building it was also considered the place where heaven and earth came together.

Little wonder people misunderstood and scoffed when Jesus said, ‘destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.’

From our reading in the Acts of the Apostles we heard the concluding part of Stephen’s martyrdom, the first of many to give their lives in testimony to their faith in Jesus.

Earlier he had had said these damming words…

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:  “‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?

That is always a danger – when we think we can place God in a building however magnificent. Or when our worship is so caught up in the wonder of the building we lose sight of the glory of God to which it seeks to give testimony.

I think that if Gaudi ever thought that people would come to ‘worship’ the ‘Sagrada Familia’ he would want it torn down so that one stone was not left standing on another.

Buildings also feature in our Gospel reading from John and here we have a Mansion with many rooms.

Taken as it reads it is just a tad confusing. Yet hidden away in this passage are many gems that have become very familiar quotes.

One of John’s ‘I am’ quotes – ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’

Also...

‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’

‘No one comes to the Father but through me’

Then there are the many rooms to which Jesus promises to lead us.

This is often used at funerals seeking to give comfort that in heaven there is a place for everyone – some pressing that hard and saying that everyone will come to accept God and a room will be ready for them in heaven.

However, heaven is not a place Christians go to when they die – that is not the Christian hope despite the popularity of such thinking, even in our culture that talks in such a way. ‘Stars in heaven’, ‘gone on ahead and waiting to be reunited,’ ‘there’s a home for little children, beyond the bright blue sky.’  All very nice and well meaning yet unbiblical.

The journey Jesus is going on alluded to here is through death and resurrection.  

Once that has been glorious achieved there will be a new relationship made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit who would come and take up residence with those who invite God into their lives.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was an outstanding monument – Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia is also quite literally breath taking.

Yet neither of these comes close to the wonder of a man, woman, boy or girl alive in Christ.

Gloria Dei est vivens homo!

‘The Glory of God is living man’ said St Irenaeus.

Saint Teresa of Ávila wrote ‘An Interior Castle’ in 1577 as a guide for spiritual development.

Through service and prayer, the pilgrim is guided through a castle containing seven mansions, which she interpreted as the journey of faith through seven stages, ending with union with God.

We journey on becoming more and more like Christ.

'And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.'

So here is the question – where is Jesus now?

Well as Stephen was killed, he was standing at the right hand of God – which is a nice touch as we more often correctly talk of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Here he is standing as if to welcome the first Christian martyr.

However, Jesus is also present in His people, the Church, the Body of Christ upon earth.

'…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.'

We hope one day to return to Barcelona and to visit the Sagrada Familia – maybe even in 2026 when it is completed.

Because this is a work in progress and is growing almost organically.

Therefore, my question is, are people looking at you and me, as the people of God, as a holy priesthood, and seeing more and more of the glory of God reflected in our lives as we grow into the likeness of Christ. Because we are also a work in progress.

Peter is emphatic as to what we needs to happen by way of clearing out debris and the things that get in the way of our growing into Christ's likeness.

'Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.'  

Then the glorious, breath-taking beautiful, wonderful glory of glory, reflecting back praise to God as we recognize that we are…

‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

That my brothers and sisters is our calling, our destiny – and I am convinced that if we could but show even a measure of this then people would flock to see it much in the same way they flock today to view the glories of the Sagrada Familia.

And I am talking about right here and right now in Brown Edge.

‘So then let us also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let us throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.’ Hebrews 12.1-2

As a runner, I know a thing or two about stripping away ‘extra baggage’ to help run the race. Let me ask you what ‘extra baggage’ might you be carrying, and what ‘extra baggage’ might St Anne’s, Brown Edge be carrying that is slowing it down and tripping it up and not allowing the Christ light to shine through.

The John passage may be a tad confusing, yet one thing is as plain as a pikestaff – we are to fix our eyes upon Jesus and look only to him, not that we might gain heaven when we die but rather reflect His glory on our earthly pilgrimage thus bearing witness to God’s love, mercy and grace. To be brought into one of the many rooms in the mansion that has our name upon it, so that in this God given space designed especially for us, we may flourish and grow more into the full stature of Christ likeness.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3.20-21