Hebrews 1:1-4 & 2:5-12

Whenever I hear the opening words of this passage:

"Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways ... "

I always think of the Advent hymn; 'Long ago prophets knew Christ would come born a Jew ..." a hymn that takes this bit of Scripture as its inspiration and celebrates the 'Word made flesh' in creation. The unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is at pains to show that Christ is the pinnacle of God's marvellous creation as well as being fully divine as well. Christ is the one bit of creation that shows us men and women the human face of our divinity:

"He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being ... "  1:3a

Personally, I find the words 'the exact imprint' very powerful. For in Christ's humanity we can see the very essence of God, our Creator. What a strong image that is for us humans to recognise and it puts us human beings into a very special place within the creation. It also puts up on us a responsibility to live up to that position as well. For if we share in Christ's human imprint do we not also share in his divine imprint as well? For we share the 'imago dei' (image of God) with him and as such I believe it gives us a responsibility to care for God's creation and not to think ourselves above it.

The writer of the epistle also reminds us that as God's creation we should try to be like Christ and not ashamed to call each other brother or sister. The author is at pains here to emphasise our family relationship to each other. To remember that we are family with all the human race is no bad thing for the human race is not just a branch of creation, it is first and foremost the bit of creation that God chose to be born into and in being related to God through each other puts a responsibility upon all our shoulders to ensure that all God's people are all treated with respect, care and compassion. As Christ tells us we are not to ignore the stranger, the hungry, the sick or those in need but to try and provide for their basic needs when possible. 

As a child, I was awakened to the beauties of nature by walks in the Yorkshire Dales. Later I discovered that I had literally been following in the footsteps of an important philosopher and theologian, William Paley. Paley’s father was the headmaster of a Yorkshire grammar school in the middle years of the 18^th century. 

Paley’s best-known argument for the existence of God begins with him inviting us to imagine walking across the moors and stumbling upon a watch. Surely, he argues, the complexity of the watch and its ability to tell the time accurately are convincing evidence of the existence of a watchmaker. In the same way, the complexity of the natural world cannot be the result of chance. Rather it points to the existence of a creator, to the existence of God. Even the young Charles Darwin was impressed by this line of argument, though he later famously abandoned it.

The watchmaker analogy makes me uneasy because it might encourage us to think of the universe as a mechanism, and of God as a mechanic who sets the whole thing in motion and then steps back. Such a view of God isn’t Christian and doesn’t offer the right grounds for today’s Harvest Festival celebrations. 

Our reading from the prophet Joel suggests that we are part of a creation that is abundant and generous and is an expression of the love of God. The prophet celebrates this in fine, poetic style. 

O children of Zion, be glad

and rejoice in the LORD your God;

for he has given the early rain for your vindication,

he has poured down for you abundant rain,

the early and the later rain, as before.

The threshing floors shall be full of grain,

the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

And there’s a verse which rang a particular bell with me, partly because it challenges the belief that nature is a mechanism, and partly because it points to some important trends in philosophy and theology.

Do not fear, O soil;

be glad and rejoice,

for the LORD has done great things!

But surely, you’re thinking, soil isn’t capable of rejoicing, soil doesn’t feel emotion. That’s just poetic fancy. 

That’s what the mechanistic, materialist view of creation has for a couple of centuries taught that we should think, but now some philosophers such are suggesting that every particle of matter contains a minute amount of consciousness and purpose and some theologians are reminding us of an ancient Christian tradition, most fully preserved in the Orthodox Church, of viewing the whole of creation as charged with the presence of God and therefore with the love of God. From that perspective, everything is sacred and so everyone is sacred too. 

This notion of Creation as a living thing, every particle of which is charged with the presence and the love of God, brings with it three important vocations which we are called to follow.

The first is a vocation to celebration and gratitude, to the thankful rejoicing of which Joel speaks. 

Rejoice in the Lord your God

And our harvest hymns strike that note of gratitude:

All good gifts around us

are sent from heaven above;

then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord

for all his love.

The second is a vocation to trust, and this is emphasised by Jesus in today’s Gospel. 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

And the basis of our trust is the fundamental goodness and fruitfulness of a creation which is alive and has the capacity to be self-sustaining.

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Jesus is telling his disciples and us to trust in God, but he isn’t inviting us passively to accept God’s creative love and generosity. Trust has, of course, more than one meaning. 

We can trust in God’s creation to sustain us but we also hold that creation in trust. The Creation story in Genesis makes that clear:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

We are called to be active users of creation – to till it – but also to look after it, to keep it, to conserve it. So our third vocation is a vocation to stewardship. If, as some philosophers and theologians are now suggesting, the whole of creation is in some sense conscious, purposive and divine, then looking after it isn’t just a matter of self-preservation. Rather, we are called to look after the natural world just as we are called to care for one another, a calling to which you have responded today by your gifts to the foodbank run by St Salvador’s.

This vocation to the stewardship of creation may involve us in some careful thinking about our lifestyles. Today’s Epistle encourages us to be content with food and clothing and a part of what Timothy writes has a distinct and disturbing contemporary ring to it:

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

That reminds us of the uncomfortable but important truth that our levels of energy use and consumption are creating problems for people much poorer than ourselves as temperatures and sea levels rise and weather becomes more extreme. It’s not the place of a preacher to make concrete suggestions as to how individuals should respond to the calling to stewardship, for we all have different needs and challenges. That we have a vocation to the stewardship of creation is an important part of our Christian faith.

So this Harvest Festival is an opportunity to reflect on the three vocations to which the overflowing love and generosity of the Creator calls us. We are called to celebrate and be grateful. We are called to trust in God and we are called to care for a creation shot through with that overflowing love and generosity. 

Why was it that when our boys were growing up you could always guarantee that on a long journey in the back of the car they would start bickering. It was quite often to do with who was best at something. Normal sibling rivalry! I knew it well as I used to bicker with my sisters in the back of my parents car, years earlier. I suspect that you will have similar stories of your own growing up, or of that of your children and grandchildren.

Even good friends can end up bickering when tired and fractious after a long day and in the Gospel reading, we have just heard, we get a good example of it. Jesus and his followers had been traversing Galilee for months, sharing the message of repentance and God’s unconditional love. A message that was a challenge not only to the Roman authorities but also the clerical hierarchy of the day. Jesus and his disciples were marked men. They realised this and in their anxiety they started to bicker with each other as to who was the greatest amongst them.

Jesus hears what is going on and warns his disciples not to argue about who is the most important. Jesus, does not have a hierarchy of favouritism towards his followers - despite selecting some of them to perform specific tasks in the furtherance of the kingdom. Jesus, sees all of his disciples as being equal. He was, however, the first to recognise their individual skills and talents and to make good use of them.

Jesus never says that; ‘Peter is this’ or ‘Bartholomew is that’ or that they are more important than James or John. No! Jesus, charges each of them with tasks according to their gifts, aptitude and ability and sees all of them as having equal worth and necessity. The Kingdom of God is not built upon individual talents but by individuals working collaboratively and corporately to achieve a single goal - the sharing of the Good News of Christ.

Jesus’ treatment of the disciples argument and his recognition of the abilities of his disciples echos what St.James later wrote and what we heard in the Epistle reading:

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual and devilish.”    James 3:13-15

In rebuking his disciples for arguing about their greatness, Jesus hammers his point home in their silence by using the seemingly most insignificant person there - a child. (And, I might guess a girl child, to do so.) This child, he says, is as welcome in God’s kingdom as much as anyone else, and as such deserves to be treated with respect - not rejected or looked over because she is only a child.

Remember that under Jewish Law pre- pubescent children, and women were not part of the chosen race, only adult males were of significance! In telling his followers that this child is important to God, Jesus turns Jewish custom and thought upside down, and in doing so teaches his disciples a valuable lesson.

If a child is as much beloved by God as one of the chosen race - a man, then this God, that Jesus speaks of, is a god more loving and accepting than any god previously known. A god of impartiality, unconditional love and acceptance.

God, however, is the same as he has always been, what Jesus tells us though, is that no one has a greater precedence in God’s eyes by virtue of who they are, all are equal in God! Men are not more important than women, adults are not more important than children, no one is more important than anyone else in God’s eyes, despite what we or others might think. Remember what St.James said about the need for true wisdom, that is what we all need to pray for in order to truly understand what Jesus is telling us and what God is showing us to be true.

“What is it that you say?”

You can probably think of a time when you have wished that you had kept your peace and your tongue in check, as St.James cautions us this morning in the Epistle reading. Times when you have rued the day you ever said the words that you did say. Words that you instantly regretted saying as you said them.

None of us are particularly good at biting our tongues when provoked or tempted by spite or even when we think we are right. Most of us do it and I suspect that most of us always regret it. I say; ‘most of us’ because one does come across people who never repent of their ill chosen words, either because they were unaware they had caused hurt or offence or that they deliberately and with malice a fore- thought chose to let their tongues run wild.

St.James tells us to guard our tongues and to seek to bless rather than curse. The tongue is a small member but its power outweighs its size.

It is also worth remembering, as St.James implies that the tongue expresses that which is actually going on deep within us and it uses the words that are circulating in our minds:

“ ... the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.”                   James 3:6

The words I have just quoted are ones that we should take to heart and try to remember for the tongue can be a wonderful tool of support, affection and wisdom as well as a tool for destruction. If used well the tongue can build oneself, one’s neighbours and the community up. It can inspire others to great things - think of those inspirational orators, politicians, preachers or even broadcasters whose tongues when used for good can inspire thousands to do good. Sir Bob Geldof did that back in the 1980’s with ‘Band Aid’ in a speech that galvanised the world into helping those in need in Ethiopia. He encouraged both politicians and ordinary people to do something to help those in need. Dame Esther Rantzen in relation to Child Line and Silver Line, the footballer Marcus Rashford in relation to school meals and others have done similar things by using their celebrity tongues to lead change and development for the good of others.

The tongue, however, can also lead into temptation and evil. Think of Hitler or Mussolini and those politicians and celebrities who spout rubbish and often dangerous, unthinking rubbish that can lead to hatred, xenophobia or persecution of those different to them but who because of their celebrity status gain the support of the public who think they are right. Politicians and even Christians can fall into this trap when they speak without due thought or they allow their prejudices or preferences to run riot without check.

It takes a strong and humble character, however, to admit to a mistaken comment publicly and to ask for forgiveness and to seek penitence. We Christians have to be on our guard continually as to what we say and do.

Christian communities are notorious for their factions and in-fighting, just look at the Anglican Communion for a start. I am coming more and more to the conclusion that we Christians should pray daily for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and for wisdom before we say or do anything. Then perhaps we might give God a chance to speak his words before we speak our words to others.

Holy God, please grant us the gift of wisdom in our thoughts and daily life. That we may pause and think before we speak and seek to use our words to build your kingdom here on earth. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and guide. Amen.

Two of our readings this morning are specifically about Thanksgiving, so it is definitely time to give some real thought to what ought to be central to our practice of religion, but all too often isn’t. I must begin by saying that it isn’t easy! We look at all the horrors of the world we live in: Gaza, the Ukraine, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and it’s difficult, really difficult to feel thankful. We face the appalling fact of climate change and the potential destruction of our planet, and it becomes even more difficult to feel thankful. We must however not give way to the temptation of thinking that Isaiah, or Mary had it any easier than we do. Life has always been difficult for those living it.

The Ancient Near East was no less fraught with tensions and warmongering than is the Middle East today. The state of Judah was under constant threat from larger powers, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of all its leading citizens to Babylonia. It is not exactly known when The Book of Isaiah was written, but it is certain that these latter chapters were written after the return from exile, when the returning Israelites found that not much had been done to restore their country to its former glory. So Isaiah is reminding his countryfolk of their God, giving thanks for all he has done and will in future do for them.

After Gabriel’s visit to her in Nazareth, Mary cannot have had an easy time of it at first. Normally, sadly, there is only one explanation when a young unmarried girl is found to be pregnant. Who could believe her unlikely story: that she was with child by the Holy Ghost? It all really depended on Joseph; if he broke off their engagement it would be a tragedy, for no other young man would want her, would want to be the father of another man’s child.  Mercifully the truth was vouchsafed to him in a dream. Mary’s story was true: the child within her was of the Holy Ghost  and he need not fear to take her as his wife.

Then the story must have  begun to circulate among members of Mary’s family, reaching even as far as their relatives in the hill country of Judah.  So when Mary decided to pay a surprise visit to Elizabeth, she was greeted not with the fuss and suspicion which she had met with in Nazareth, but with a rapturous welcome and recognition of her position as the Mother of God. Mary’s response is enshrined in the Magnificat, that great song of thanksgiving both for God’s goodness to her as an individual woman and for his goodness to his people Israel, in fulfilment of his promises to Abraham and their forefathers.

What have we to learn from these two great world-historical figures? It seems almost impertinent to say it, but we must take from their examples the importance of speaking one’s thanks. We don’t have to go on at length; I find often that a short “Thanks God!” is enough especially if my attention is required elsewhere! You have all I believe lived in Edinburgh for far longer than I have, so perhaps you have got used to the spectacular beauty of the view when you come over the top of Drumbrae to see the Firth of Forth and the kingdom of Fife in the distance. I still need to say thank you.

And in the other direction are the Pentland Hills and the Scottish Borders. Should we not be thankful that we are surrounded by such beauty – and say so?! 

That’s the clue! We are all here given so much – not least the freedom just to be here and to worship God among friends. We have the joy of word and music – and coffee to follow! But how often do we give expression to our thanks to our friends and families and beyond them to the Giver of all things? 

Let’s resolve to try and do better in future!