The heart of the Gospel - Being with

Here's the sermon I preached at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning for a joint service of the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry: 

I wonder how you would respond to a friend who has just been bereaved. Your friend has lost a close family member in sudden, tragic and complicated circumstances. There is nothing you can do to fix this situation. You can't bring back the one who has died. There is nothing significant you can do for your friend and there are no words that can explain what has happened or that can take away the pain.

You can simply be there - be with - your friend in the middle of their grief pain and loss; alongside, sharing, being with. And that is what your friend needs from you. It is also the one thing you can give. Being with is also how God is with us. Being with is creation, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection. It is the Christian story and the Christian hope in one simple word, with.

Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explains it like this:

‘The Gospel of Matthew begins with the angel's promise that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel - God with us. The Gospel ends with Jesus's promise to his disciples, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." In between we get Jesus's promise to the church, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." … And, perhaps most significantly of all, the Gospel of John says "The Word was made flesh and dwelt with us."

… Jesus's ministry, above all else, is about being with us, in pain and glory, in sorrow and in joy, in quiet and in conflict, in death and in life.

And that same "with" is even more evident when we turn to the relationship within the Godhead itself, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is three, which means God is a perfect symmetry of with, three beings wholly present to one another, without envy, without misunderstanding, without irritation, without selfishness, without two ganging up against the third, without anger, without anxiety, without mistrust. So present to one another, so rapt in love, and cherishing, and mutuality, and devotion … that it seems they are in one another. And, to the extent that they are in one another, we call God not three, but one …

Given this perfection of being, this intersection of being with and being in, the astonishing mystery is why the Trinity's life is not simply self-contained, but becomes open to creation, to fragile existence, to life, to human beings - to you and me.’ Yet God’s longing to be with us in Jesus was such that that became the reason God created the world. God’s life is shaped never to be except to be with us in Christ, so God’s life as Trinity is shaped around being in relation with us from the very beginning of time.

We see this most profoundly on the cross where Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That question shows us that Jesus has given everything that he is for the cause of being with us, … because for the sake of our being with the Father he has, for that moment, lost his own being with the Father. And the Father has longed so much to be with us that he has, for that moment, lost his being with the Son, which is the essence of his being. The cross shows us the astounding truth that God thinks our lives are worth the Trinity setting aside the essence of its identity in order that we might be with God and incorporated into God's life forever. When we see the cross, we see that God is with us, however, whatever, wherever ... for ever. That is our faith.

All of that is encapsulated in today’s Gospel reading (John 14:23-29). Jesus teaches his disciples while he is still with them preparing them for the moment when he will no longer be with them. He is going to leave them but, although he will be gone, he will leave his peace with them through his Spirit who will remind them of everything he said and did. In that way, through the Spirit, the Father and the Son will come to the disciples and make their home with them. It is the same for us.

That is the revelation at the heart of the whole Bible. God is with us. That was what Moses discovered at the burning bush. That was what Isaiah discovered in the Servant Songs. That was what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego discovered in the fiery furnace. That was what Mary of Nazareth discovered at the Annunciation. That was what Mary Magdalene discovered in the garden. That was what the disciples discovered on the day of Pentecost. The revelation is that through the Holy Spirit in Jesus, we are never alone; God is always with us.

In Isaiah 43 God promised that when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. We could add to that list the pandemic and recognise that it is because God is with us in all these circumstances that we are not overwhelmed or burned or consumed and that, ultimately, we pass through them. God is with us, that is our witness as Christians and it is also our ministry.

If the heart of the Gospel is that God is with us in every circumstance and into eternity, then our task is to be with others in order that they experience God with them. That is ultimately why your friend needs you to be with them in their grief and pain and loss. Not just because there are no words you can say that will fix things and make it all alright for them, but, primarily, because it is as you come alongside them and are with them in their grief, that God is with them too. Because, through the Spirit, the Father and the Son have made their home with you, God will, in you, be with your friend as you are with your friend. Being with is the revelation of the Bible, the heart of the gospel, and the mission and ministry of the Church. It is how God is with us and how we can be with others. 

It is my prayer that together in our three churches – in our Team Ministry - we will experience God with us more deeply and fully than ever before and become more able and willing to be with others as God has come to be with us.

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I Cannot Tell Why He Whom Angels Worship.