12th Sunday after Trinity

Isaiah 58.9-14; Hebrews 12.18-29; Luke 13.10-17

I'd like to draw your attention first to the reading from the letter to the Hebrews this morning because for me it reminds me about what the Church and our worship is all about. It's summed up for me in a phrase I picked up from a theologian that impressed me while I was on my leave. He says that the Church 'is the presence in the world of a saved world'; (The Journals of Fr. Alexander Schmemann 1973-1983) and for Him the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, is the manifestation and realisation of the Kingdom of God now; that when we gather to do this that we are about this morning, we become the Church and we step into the Kingdom of God and we are doing what the Church is here for. That's a bit simplistic but maybe you see something of what he means.

Look at what it says in this letter to the Hebrews - 'You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them......But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.'

What is being said here is that as we read in the Old Testament, the Hebrew people, as they wandered in the wilderness came to Mount Sinai which was a place where God called people to meet with Him. But it was a place of fear, a place not to be approached or touched unless God called. It was out in the desert where people couldn't live permanently. So even though the people were meeting with God they couldn't enter into God's holiness. But now, Mount Zion has replaced Sinai and it's a place where the people of God are encouraged to gather; because we are already in the Kingdom of God, we take part in it and dwell there. And the Kingdom isn't an earthly Kingdom but a heavenly Kingdom inhabited by angels as well as people. It is an unending assembly, the divinely instituted gathering of God's people of all ages where they know themselves as the Church. And in this Kingdom there is no blood crying for vengeance as Abel's did, but the blood of Christ, of which we partake in the Eucharist, and it calls for mercy, that is God's overflowing great goodness towards us, for forgiveness, atonement and unending life. (Orthodox Study Bible) Do you see the difference? And it's the latter of which we are a part, all of us gathered here this morning, as the Church.

This that we read in Hebrews is the sort of vision we should have of ourselves as Christians and as the Church and of our gathering and Eucharist. It's a very lofty vision, a holy vision. And sometimes it's hard to capture or realise as we live our lives in this fallen world. To put it another way, it's hard to realise that we Christians, as the Church, are the presence in the world of a saved world.

St. Paul said that we are 'in the world but not of it'. And this might make the world sound like an evil place. But the coming of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God blessed again all of creation; and we through his incarnation, death and resurrection have the possibility of realising our salvation. Being made in the image of God we have the possibility of becoming more like God through His Spirit and achieving oneness with God. So although the world is a fallen world, through Jesus we can become all God meant us to be which we see in Adam and Eve before their fall. This is the Kingdom of God. And we have a vision of this Kingdom, here but not yet fully here, when we gather as the Church to partake of this heavenly banquet which is the Eucharist; a banquet that goes on continually and that we, as it were, step into every time we gather as we do this morning.

As I said, this is a vision to capture; and you might find it difficult to capture this vision. But because we see it each time we are here like this, if we really look and listen when we are here, then that vision actually becomes real for us and we are changed and reformed by it into the People of God. But we need to be really here, in body, mind and soul. It's so easy to be only partly here because we have so many distractions within and without. If we can really hear what's said and sung and really see what is around us and let the words, music, sights, sounds, and smells do their work on us then we will become what God intends - the presence in the world of a saved world.

And that's our immediate mission, the mission to ourselves, before we go to tell others. Our first call and commission is to be the Church, the Body of Christ, Christ's real presence in the world. And that's what all those miracles and those healings are about that Jesus did, as we read of in St. Luke's gospel this morning. They are the signs of the Kingdom, the signs of the presence of that saved world in the world. They are signs of the presence of God. And they help us see God and keep the vision of the Kingdom alive.

We argue so much about what it is we are doing when we come to church, what church should be like, what we should do, sing and say; who should do what, where, why, when and how. And it's in all the dispute and disagreement that we lose the vision because all we are talking about is our own sinful self, speaking out of our own pride. What we witness when we come to Church at the Eucharist, however it takes shape before us, is a miracle. We witness our own salvation, our redemption, our joining with God in His Kingdom, ever being accomplished by Jesus Christ. To see it happen, all we need do is stand still and keep quiet long enough.