{"id":3732,"date":"2020-02-16T19:11:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T19:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3732"},"modified":"2020-02-16T13:11:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T13:11:50","slug":"sermon-16th-february-2020-evening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-16th-february-2020-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 16th February 2020 – evening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Sunday before Lent – evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 16th February 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2 before Lent – evening
\nProverbs 8.1, 22-31
\nRevelations 4<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nSometimes it is hard to\nappreciate the wonders of creation and mother nature \u2013 especially\nwhen we seem to be stuck in a succession of miserable, stormy days\nand nights. But of course we don\u2019t see the half of it. We don\u2019t\nsee the growth happening below the soil and new life is burgeoning\nthere. Only when the spring flowers burst forth \u2013 plenty of\nsnowdrops around at present and even the odd daffodil braving the\nwind and rain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis evening\u2019s psalm\ncelebrates creation with a universal imagination. The Psalmist is\nunlikely to have experienced half of what he writes about, but he is\nthinking about the fullness of God\u2019s creation. And all of God\u2019s\ncreatures are to look up to him \u2013 the God who gave them life and\nput them in order. We know that God\u2019s power goes beyond the merely\nvisible and with the Psalmist we appreciate that our fellow creatures\nand other parts of God\u2019s creation are more numerous and varied that\nwe may imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe book of Proverbs also\nplays its part in celebrating God\u2019s creation. But this time, as\nwell as summoning praise, it invites us to wonder at God\u2019s\ninnovation. In the personification of Wisdom we learn of a vital\ncomponent or member of the creative process. This Wisdom-person is\nthere alongside God from the beginning. There are echoes for the\nChristian of the Gospel of John, where the person of Jesus is also\nwritten about as the word, the logic, the reason of God. There is a\nsense that even the idea of creation from nothing required a sense of\nteamwork and cooperation in God\u2019s very self. That is one of the\nways that the Church began to formulate the concept of the Trinity,\nto better understand the divine power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt is such an attractive\nimage, isn\u2019t it? That Wisdom-person dancing around and alongside\nGod, laughing, pointing, delighting in every detail of creation. What\na beautiful thought that God had a partner in creation; someone to\nshare his pleasure and joy in new things that were given life. When\nwe go deeper beneath the surface \u2013 which is, after all, one of the\nspecial gifts of God\u2019s wisdom \u2013 there is so much more to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo much of the Bible\nchallenges us, makes us go beyond what we already know, see and\nexperience \u2013 our surface understanding as it were. Like so many\nbulbs or root vegetables, nuggets of worth and value \u2013 it helps us\ndig out things deeper than our understanding, nutritious,\nlife-giving, miraculous. It helps us look past what we know every\nday, to an imagining of what lies behind, beneath, beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nRevelations 4 is another\nexample of the wonder that comes through our heart\u2019s imagining of\nGod. I wonder how you imagine heaven to be? Certainly here we have\nan amazing picture \u2013 almost psychedelic in its nature! St John the\nDivine wrote down his visions as best he could, but you get the sense\nthat language \u2013 mere words \u2013 proved quite inadequate for the task\nhe gave them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHere utter stillness and\nperpetual movement seem to go hand in hand. There is the jewel-like\nthrone and the enthroned one \u2013 like rock in the Greek \u2013 and the\nvast surrounding crystal. If you look at the image up there behind\nthe altar, you will see an attempt to represent it. This too fails to\ncapture the utter splendour that we sense John wanted to convey! Such\nsolidity, preciousness and stability. But then we have all the elders\nand the creatures surrounding the throne constantly engaged in noisy\nworship; singing God\u2019s name: naming his holiness and power and\neternity. The stillness in the centre is surrounded by lightening,\nrumblings of thunder, bright flaming torches and all this movement\nand worship. It is, literally, other-worldly and awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nGetting things in the right\norder \u2013 the right perspective \u2013 echoes the divine creativeness.\nIn Proverbs 8 Wisdom repeatedly emphasises that she was there \u2018first\u2019\n\u2013 at the beginning. And then she witnesses God setting in stone the\nlimits of the sea and the earth. The Hebrew word is not just about a\nphysical boundary line, but also implies a statute or decree \u2013\nlines that are not to be crossed. Wisdom was there first, and she\nknows the divine orders of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe cannot help but wonder if \u2013\nwith climate change and extreme weather conditions it may be that we\nhave \u2013 even unwittingly \u2013 breached those decrees and disturbed\nthe natural order. Denied Wisdom\u2019s self. Such that the seas and the\nearth no longer know where the limits lie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo, first things first. Let\u2019s\nmake sure we have a vision of heaven as the foundation stone in our\nlives. A vision of perfection to which we aspire. As close to God\u2019s\nintention and his original plan as we can achieve. Surely that would\nbe the wise thing to do? Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Second Sunday before Lent – evening Sunday 16th February 2020 2 before Lent – evening Proverbs 8.1, 22-31 Revelations 4 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the wonders of creation and mother nature \u2013 especially when we seem to be stuck in a succession of miserable, stormy days and nights. But … <\/p>\n

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