Sermons

Epiphany Sunday
Sunday 4 January 2009

David Paton-Williams
Readings: Isaiah 60 v1-6, Matthew 2 v1-12

"They knelt down and worshipped him, then opening their treasures they offered him gifts."

If New Year resolutions are about working on things that are important in our lives then I want to start the New Year at St Edmund's with us thinking about worship. Because worship is at the heart of our life together as a church.

The wise men help us to see that worship is about offering our gift to God.

In the birth of Jesus, and in every moment of our lives, God offers himself to us in love and in worship we offer ourselves back to God in return.

And if that is true then worship is not limited to what we do on a Sunday here in church, or even what we do in our times of prayer and reflection at home.

Worship is our whole life as a Christian. It is all that we do, offered to God. It is all that we are, given to God.

So worship is our daily tasks and responsibilities - at home, at work, at school, in the community. It is our relationship to our neighbours.
It is our commitment to peace and justice in the world
- our celebration of the gift of creation
- our rejoicing in the gift of human love.
It is about us offering who we are, and what matters to us, to God
- living our lives in response to all he has given us.

So if that is the big picture of worship, what about our worship together here as the Christian family?

Well, if worship is offering our gift to God then it is not just turning up on a Sunday singing a few hymns that we like (or don't like)
listening (or maybe not listening) to a sermon saying a few prayers and eating some bread and drinking some wine.

We can do all those and still not have worshipped.

They are the outward trappings of worship, they are the things that (hopefully) help us to worship that help us to express our worship,

but they can be empty words and actions if they are not a way for us to encounter God and to offer ourselves to him

When the wise men knelt down before Jesus what they offered wasn't just their gold, frankincense and myrrh.

They brought their whole life, the experience of their journey to Bethlehem, all they had been through. Ultimately they brought the gift of themselves, who they really were, and laid it before Christ. Our worship is about us coming to God as we really are. It is about bringing ourselves, our journey, all we have been through, to him.

What have you been through recently? Joy, or sorrow? Have you been alone or in company and were they good experiences or not?
What of your work? your relationships with others? the things you have been thinking about or wrestling with or worrying about?

All of this and more is part of the "you" who has turned up this morning. And if your worship and mine is to be real then we need to bring something of the reality of who we are and offer it to God.

That is why our preparation for worship is so important.

When the wise men turned up in Bethlehem they came prepared, with their gifts ready to offer to Christ.

We need to prepare, by spending time looking back over the past week - becoming aware of what we are bringing to God

Is there something we want to give thanks for?
Is there something we feel we need to say sorry for?
Is there someone or some situation in that world that we carry on our hearts and want to bring in prayer?
Is there something you need guidance or direction about?
How are we doing at living for God, and what do we need from God as he meets us in this sacrament?

If we spend time in preparation before we come to church, or in the time before the service it will make our worship more real we will feel more engaged with it, and we will give more of ourselves in it and receive more from it

Otherwise we will be more likely to find ourselves just going through the motions and giving less to, and getting less from the service.

So in our worship we worship God by offering our gifts to God. What might they be?

To begin with we are simply offering our presence here. Sometimes that's all we can offer. "God I am in such a mess and my mind is on so many other things that all I can do is offer you the fact that I am here."

That is worship.

Sometimes I am able to offer more: sometimes I can consciously bring my joys and sorrows my thoughts and questions, my concerns and worries and say: "Here I am God, this is me today."

And that too is worship.

And we don't worship as isolated individuals but as a community. And the gift that we offer can enrich worship for everybody else.

Some of us may offer our reading of scripture, our leading of the prayers, our greeting at the door or arranging of flowers, our singing in the choir or assisting with communion.

But all of us, simply by being here offer support and encouragement to the others around us we remind each other that we are on a shared journey of faith in the family of Christ.

In the end we offer to God the gift of ourselves.

When we kneel at the communion rail we come with open hands, offering ourselves as we really are, so that we can receive God as he really is.

Sometimes though, offering to God the gift of ourselves may not seem to amount to very much.

That reminds me of a Mystery Play that Jenny and I saw a few years ago. It was a modern adaptation of one of the mediaeval plays about the birth of Christ.

In it the shepherds were very ordinary people - and figures of fun

And yet at the end these very simple people spoke simple words of devotion and offered their own gifts.

The first shepherd gave his mouth organ, the second gave a Wensleydale cheese and the third offered his most precious possession,
his Middlesborough scarf. And yet it was very moving

There was a sense of real worship because ordinary people were offering what they had and what they were, and what mattered to them, in simple but real ways.

That is the heart of worship.

What can I give him poor as I am?

In worship we kneel beside the wise men and as they offer their gifts to God in Christ we also offer the gift of our selves.

So what do you bring to him today? However humble, it is what you have to give.

So offer it and make your worship real, help make our worship together real as well and then go out and carry on worshipping God
by offering your self to him in all that life holds for you this week.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay