Introduction

When we think about dreams, there images that strike us as strange, unreal and even frightening. Dreams come from a different place and speak a different language. We can recognise that dreams speak the language of the unconscious.

Robert Johnson makes the point that we can experience our unconscious either in a voluntary or involuntary way. We can have explosive negative reactions to people or even overly positive responses ? this was a way that our unconscious can influence us without our choice. Or we can choose to listen to our dreams or other manifestations of our unconscious life (such as Freudian slips of the tongue, daydreams or active imagination). Johnson makes an interesting point, “All the forms of interaction with the unconscious that nourished our ancestors-dream, vision, ritual, and religious experience – are largely lost to us, dismissed by the modern mind as primitive or superstitious. Thus, in our pride and hubris our faith in unassailable reason, we cut ourselves off from our origins in the unconscious and from the deepest parts of ourselves.” (Page 9-10). The Jungian take on all this is that if we don’t open ourselves to the unconscious it will return as neurosis.

Reflect: do you have a sense of your unconscious and its importance or otherwise? In what ways do you notice this dimension.

Interpretation

There is a long history of dream interpretation. Over the centuries people have developed dream manuals to aid the dreamer in understanding dreams. Freud’s famous Interpretation of Dreams (1900) was the analytic equivalent and today there are countless new age manuals and internet sites.

How does the Bible approach dream interpretation? Some dreams are quite obvious. Joseph in Genesis 37 dreamt of his own greatness “a sheaf of the field” with others bowing to him. His brothers were resentful that he was their father’s favourite child, and they had no difficulty interpreting this dream. The brothers asked, “Are you indeed to reign over us.” (37:8) They sold Joseph into slavery. Later after Joseph arrived in Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed 7 fat cows, followed by 7 lean cows, which swallowed the 7 fat cows (Gen 41). He had a similar dream of 7 ears of grain. Joseph interpreted the dream as foretelling 7 bountiful years followed by 7 years of famine. The pharaoh responded to the message of the dream and used the good years to build a reserve of grain which fed the nation. We notice that the language of dreams is the language of symbols.

In other interpretations of dreams the symbols needed to be decoded. The Israelite Daniel was described in the book of Daniel as having “understanding in all visions and dreams” (1:17). The King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which troubled him. He went to his court appointed interpreters (2:2) but they could not tell him what he had dreamt. This was no problem for Daniel “You saw, O king, and behold great image. The image, mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you, it’s appearance was frightening. The head of the image was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked stone was cut by no human hand and smote the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and gold altogether were broken to pieces and became like chaff on the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Daniel chapter 2:31-35). Daniel (Dan 2) interpreted this as the rise and fall of kingdoms, “You are the head of gold. After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth. There shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron. Because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things … it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the firmness of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly either partly clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay so they shall mix with one another in marriage but they shall not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in those days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break to pieces all those kingdoms and bring them to an end shall stand for ever.”  Note that Daniel explained the meaning of the dream to the King “in order that the interpretation may be known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.” (Daniel 2:30) This not only honoured the dimension of dreaming, it was a trust in the unconscious.

When dreams are interpreted in the Bible there is a standard approach in which the symbols are identified and this ‘un-locks’ the meaning of the dream. In Daniel 2 the various metals descending in value were identified as the present rule of Nebuchadnezzar and then following kingdoms until the divided kingdom which is destroyed by God. This is a foretelling dream but essentially the interpretation follows a standard process of identifying dream symbols and then making meaning out of the dream as a whole. I will recommend something similar.

Discuss: Look around the church what symbols do you see?

Broadly, there have been various approaches to interpreting dreams which I’ll introduce now. I will identify three approaches:

• Using a dream dictionary and look up the suggested meanings. I did a research study about 10 years ago and I was surprised to find that this is reasonably effective. See www.dreamdictionary.org/  
• Freudian approach which means you take your dreams to a classical analyst who is an expert in dream interpretation. This is costly, if you can still find an analyst, and I am not convinced that the expert approach works well.
• Jungian approach puts the responsibility to interpret the dream back on the dreamer. In my experience this works well. The assumption is that it is your unconscious and you are the expert in understanding it with the right tools.

I will advise some practical steps which follow the self-interpretation of dreams along Jungian lines. The approach is well explained in Robert Johnson’s Inner Work book (now about 20 years old).

Discuss: have you ever tried to interpret one of your dreams? Was this successful or did you become frustrated?

Practical Steps

You might be thinking I can’t remember my dreams, so I remind you to put a pad and pen beside your bed. This action will signal that you are receptive to your dreams. It is important to get down as much of the dream as possible including all the small details. All this is essential for the following steps which will help you to interpret the dream:

1. The most important dreams are vivid, surprising and possibly repetitive. When you wake up and remember something of a dream, record it on the note pad or journal. Begin with fragments and add details as you recall them. Make sure every detail that you can recall is recorded on the pad. Then I would advise you to go back to sleep, you can think further about the dream in the morning! But note that writing the dream down takes it seriously and indicates your intention to work on understanding the dream.
2. Set a time, maybe 30 minutes to work on the dream. Underline the key symbols. This includes people, actions and places. These will be central to ‘de-coding’ the dream. It is like when you learned a language at school. I did three years of Latin, you look at a passage, gradually you can get some sense of meaning, but a few words puzzle you until you get the dictionary to look the unknown word up. Then hopefully all becomes clear. It is the same process with dreams.
3. Then put the symbol-words on a page and associate meaning until one ‘clicks’. For example “rocking chair” then you might associate: grandmother, retirement, mortality and when one ‘clicks’ for you giving the meaning for that word, but not yet for the dream as a whole.
4. Do this with all the symbols, insert the meanings into the flow of the dream and then you will start to have a sense of the meaning. Make it about you personally. The dream will not be about mortality in an abstract sense but your vulnerability to death.
5. When you have a sense of the dream as a whole, try to hear a message to yourself. Try to express the meaning of the dream in a single sentence addressed to you, “My dream is telling me…”
6. Johnson also recommended doing an action to honour the dream. I have rarely done this but it does have the effect of making it part of daily life.

I am not saying that these steps will work every time. Also, I had long periods in which are hardly paid any attention to my dreams. But I have also had a number of significant dreams which have influenced the course of my life. I have come to think of the dreamer and the interpreter in me as part of my ‘wise self’. Not based on rationality but somehow caring and knowing what is best for me. I have found the messages very reassuring, especially in times of transition or making a major decision. It adds to my confidence in making a life decision to have this ‘wise self’ and my rational brain ‘in sync’.

To Do: begin with what you have. Do you have a dream fragment, the recollection of a repetitive dream from your childhood or adolescence, or a dream you recorded this week? Make a start.

Conclusion

Have you ever played the game of throwing a flat pebble and watching it skip across the surface of a lake? I suppose we all have. A harmless activity but it is a metaphor for how we live much of our lives. Just skimming the surface of life. Of course, there will be life crises when we are plunged beneath the surface: a health crisis, losing employment, a separation or the death of a loved one. But we can choose to go deeper in the water. I see the spiritual life as an invitation to depth. Of course, this is helped by our common worship, the beauty of music and art, meaningful friendships and intimacy with family.

Attending to our dreams is another pathway to psychological and spiritual depth. Dreams remind us of another realm: mysterious, potentially deep in meaning, and at times insistent. A little like God.

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Rev’d Dr Bruce Stevens is supply minister at GUC 2022-2023

Sermon 1 The Bible and Getting Ready

Every night we have strange visitors. We sleep, we dream, but often we are puzzled and even confused. Do we think about our dreams or forget them? I will argue that they can be like angels, who sometimes bring messages from God.

The Bible reflects the way people valued dreams as a way that God spoke to a pharaoh, pagan kings, prophets and apostles. In the 20^th century psychoanalytic thinking saw dreams coming from the unconscious with important implications for daily living. I will preach four sermons on how to understand your dreams from a spiritual perspective. Then I will offer a Saturday afternoon workshop for you to share a dream with others – perhaps gain further insights.

Early in the year we had some study groups on dreams, but I thought that there might be wider interest in the topic, hence this series of sermons and a workshop.

Dreams were important in the Bible. This is obvious in the Genesis passage of Jacob’s dream, “There was a ladder set up on earth, the top of it reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (28:12) My first thought is of Bath Abbey and the portrayal of this dream in stone on the west face. (overhead image) But Jacob was given a more spiritual interpretation with the land as a promise to him and his descendants. God said, “I will not leave you until I done what I have promised to you” (28: 15). However, I am not the only person to remain puzzled at the link between this dream and that promise.  Jacob at least understood “this is the gate of heaven”.

Perhaps like Jacob we have mysterious dreams, but find it hard to make any sense of the experience, and somehow find any relation to ‘everyday reality’.  

Illustration When I was a young man, before my conversion to Christianity, I broke off an engagement as a result of a dream. Has a dream ever influenced your actions?

Abraham Herschel had a dream in the late 19^th century of the Jews returning to the promised land. This led to establishing the Zionist movement and the eventual Jewish state.

Bible and Dreams

Dreams are mentioned over 50 times in the Bible. There are many insights, for example, we dream when stressed, “for dreams come with many cares.” (Ecclesiastes 5:3) Dreams are a way that God talks to humanity, God appeared to Solomon in the dream “Ask what I should give you.” (1 Kings 3:5). Dreams were important to kings, for example Pharaoh was troubled by a series of dreams which only Joseph could interpret (Gen 41). The same happened with Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel who credited the Almighty, “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” (Dan 2: 27). Five dreams were associated with the birth of Jesus. In the NT Paul was guided “a man of Macedonia pleading with him, ‘come over to Macedonia and help us’ in a dream (Acts 16: 9-10).

Dreams were associated with the ‘end times’. The prophet Joel foretold, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.” (2: 28) Well, at 72 which qualifies me as old and I certainly dream – have we arrived?

Relevance?

Now you may respond, “So what?” You might forget your dreams as soon as you wake up. Maybe dreams are ‘out of fashion’ by about 2000 years! And almost everyone would agree with you, except for a handful of Freudian and Jungian analysts (and there’s not too many of them left!). However, I have found that dreams provide meaningful guidance at significant transitions in life. Two examples of when I found either reassurance or a disturbing realization:

• In 1982 I had been accepted as a graduate student at Boston University. I was worried about the financial implications of taking a wife and four children to live in Boston. I knew the city was expensive, clergy jobs almost impossible to get and a leading minister told me “Don’t go!” In this time of transition, I had a strange dream in which the diocesan Bishop Cecil Warren was playing a child’s game jumping over the backs of other people. I worked on the dream and came to the realization that I had an overly masculine view of the church and its hierarchy. I was challenged to believe in a more feminine and nurturing side – one that would care for me and my young family. I felt reassured and it worked out well with both a university scholarship, to cover some of the fees, and successive clergy jobs to support my family.
• In 1994 I had returned to further parish ministry but after five years in a busy parish, Holy Covenant in Jamieson, I was completely burnt out. I was planning to teach part-time at St Marks and to work as a psychologist. But I was conflicted about leaving parish ministry. In a dream I was drinking wine from a crystal chalice and it broke in my mouth. I was wounded in my vocation as a priest and concluded with a healthy measure of self-care that I needed a break from parish ministry (which has lasted 25+ years!).

I am not saying that all dreams have such significance. Some dreams seem to ‘clear the clutter’ of daily life. But some are important. I am aware of my dreams and I can sense when one has an important message for me – maybe once or twice a year. So how do we begin to understand our dreams?

Discuss: Have you ever had repetitive dreams? Or dreams seem so vivid that you can’t forget them.What sense did you make of it? Discuss for 5 minutes.

I had a person keep returning in my dreams: Ian George who was at St Johns, Reid when I worked there a total of 6 years (in two shifts) in the 1980’s. I think he was presemt in my dreams for about 20 years because he was so significant as a father-figure to me.

TO DO THIS WEEK

1. Be Ready: Place a notebook and pen beside your bed. The ready to record even a fragment of the dream. Even a brief, seemingly insignificant dream will try to tell us something we need to know. Dreams never waste our time. (Johnson, 1986, 44)
2. Invitation: Say to God, yourself or your unconscious, before going to sleep “I am willing to listen to you. Send me an important message through a dream.”
3. Respond: Challenge yourself to remember a fragment or a dream in the next two weeks. Record it. And think about what it could possibly mean.

Reading: Luke 2:1-14

In this sermon I would like to ask one important question and provide a surprising answer.

In the gospel reading Luke provides a picture that we most associate with Christmas: the baby Jesus in “swaddling clothes” and a “manger”. And a host of angels appear to shepherds in the field singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among us with whom he is pleased.” (2:14). Usually, the wise men make an entrance, but sadly not in this gospel reading (see Matt 2).

Now my question: “Why the big fuss?” When you think about it, we all had a birth scene. When I was born 72 years ago, I think my parents were excited by the event, but it caused no ripples beyond my immediate family. It was not particularly notable, just a sanitised hospital, no manger, shepherds, wise men, or angels. Handel or Bach did not compose music, neither Leonardo da Vinci nor Rembrandt paint my nativity scene. There may have been a line or two in the newspaper (I suspect not) but that was it. Completely forgettable except that I’m standing here today!

But the birth of Jesus led to an excitement which has lasted 2000 years. You can visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and countless churches throughout the world similarly dedicated. The artistic and musical legacy has enriched our Western civilisation. I think of libraries such as St Mark’s filled with books, universities such as Harvard which started in a pastor’s study, even wars have been fought in Jesus’ name. Today, right now, we gather… and the fuss continues.

It is reasonable to ask why? Can we offer an answer that does justice to this birth of one child in relative poverty, with a hint of scandal (Mary was pregnant before marriage), not of royal blood and in a context of world events ? insignificant.

What kind of event has such an impact? We need to come up with an answer that does justice to it. And that is no easy task.

Here is my answer: God became one of us. I will repeat that assertion: God became one of us. That is the traditional, orthodox and biblical answer. It is in the major creeds and faith statements of the church. It is enshrined in church traditions including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and more recently Pentecostal. Great theologians have wrestled with ideas of the Trinity, the Son of God being one of three consciousnesses in the Godhead, the idea of the humility of God through the incarnation, et cetera. This is my last of four sermons on Christology which includes who Jesus was and what he did for us. I acknowledge this is mind-bending stuff and hardly easy to follow, but you can step into the story wherever you like and of course step out.

I would suggest two entry points:

• Literally ? that an amazing miracle occurred in the virgin-birth of Jesus. A perfect human being, in the words the creed, fully God fully human, came into existence.
• Symbol ? that the birth of Jesus signalled a completely unique view of God and in a profound way identified humanity with divinity.

Your faith may not stretch to a literal belief in the assertion that God became one of us, but let us pause for a moment and consider how unique such a view of God is. The infinity of God ‘packaged’ in the human Jesus. This view of God, implied by the incarnation, is simply astonishing. God shared our common life, God saw life through human eyes, experienced human emotions, felt all the temptations we feel and even suffered an unjust and cruel death.

A few years ago Joan Osborne sang One of Us. The music video is on Youtube. She asked, “What would you ask God if you had just one question?” She went on to sing the following:

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us,

just a stranger on the bus,

trying to make his way home,

the way to heaven all alone.

Osborne is not a gospel singer but she expresses a depth of longing: God can you really understand us? The answer of Christmas is yes!

2022 has been another difficult year: COVID continues and people die, the invasion of Ukraine and wars of some kind persist on almost every continent, and now economic difficulties for many families and we are seeing a sharp rise in mental health problems in Australia. It is Christmas and we can only hope that in 2023 things will change for the better. What does the belief that God became one of us have to do with all this?

It means that God understands. This is not really possible if your view of God is a deity who remains in heaven and looks down on us. But if God became one of us, God understands our human experience. All our faults, frailties and fallible actions are completely intelligible.

In the church we affirm this view of God and keep the memory of Jesus alive. This is the message of Christmas. May the fuss continue…

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Rev Dr Bruce A Stevens was the Wicking Professor of Ageing and Pastoral Theology at CSU (2015-2019). He is a minister in association at Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest and a clinical psychologist. He is the supply minister at GUC.

CS Lewis, the brilliant Oxford academic, lay theologian and author provides one in his book Miracles. Lewis invited the reader to imagine the incarnation as a diver plunging into a deep pool of water to retrieve a lost precious object. The diver first strips off his clothes and then dives into the warm green water, as the diver swims downward, the pressure increases, he swims down further to the black and freezing cold waters, to an area of ooze, slime and decay, then, the diver comes up again towards the surface, back to the colour and light, with his lungs almost bursting, he breaks the surface, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. And what is this lost yet precious object, that merited this dangerous and difficult descent? It is “human nature”. God “descended into his own universe, and rose again, bringing human nature up with him.

”Today, I would like to look at a few aspects of the incarnation through the lens of today’s gospel reading, the story about Joseph accepting Jesus as his Son.

I personally believe that Matthew was a faithful witness to the events that he saw and was faithful in recording the stories he was told. Matthew, was a “tax collector” but was explicitly called by Jesus to be one of his 12 disciples. It is widely accepted that Matthew’s gospel was written to a Jewish audience, Matthew focuses on the fulfilment of the Old Testament. he quotes from the Old Testament sixty-two times, more than any other gospel writer. We see an example of this in todays reading, with Matthew referencing an ancient prophesy from Isaiah, ‘A virgin is pregnant; she will have a son, and will name him Emmanuel” . Emmanuel comes from the Greek rendering of two Hebrew words, `immanu, which means “with us,” and ‘El, which means “God”. Turn it around the other way and we get Emmanuel, God with us.

Today I thought I would look at three implications that come out of the name Emmanuel which tie into the Incarnation.

They are: Jesus is God, Jesus is Human and Jesus is with us.

Jesus is God

The Jewish religious leaders and scholars acknowledged the passage in Isaiah as a prophecy, but they didn’t think that it was to be taken literally. They thought it was talking about some great Leader, or Messiah, who would come and help Israel, and through his work, God would be more present with them. [Tim Keller – Hidden Christmas]

Virgin Birth stories were not a Jewish invention, the Egyptians had them, The Greeks had them, and the Romans had them too. The Jews distinctive view of God actually made them the people on earth least open to the idea that a human being could be God. Matthew was a Jew, he knew the Jewish scriptures, he knew Jewish culture, knew Jewish thought. But Matthew also knew Jesus, He knew what he did, he knew what he said, he knew what he thought, he would know the backstory concerning his birth. What Matthew is saying was this prophecy was greater than what anyone else had imagined, That Jesus was God, and the prophesy was meant to be taken literally.

The Jews believed in a single God, their God was both personal and infinite, and to the Jews, God was not part of creation, they believed that their God was the ground for its existence, and their God was sovereign over it. At Christmas we are reminded that God intervened, he added himself into our world. Somehow, the mechanism God used to do it is a mystery, God came in human form, as bunch of human cells now implanted and growing in Mary’s womb. Was Joseph the real father of this child?, No, God was the real father.

Jesus never explicitly said that he was God, but he did drop a few hints, About 30 years later, we find Jesus living in the fishing village of Capernaum. Jesus, as he did often, was teaching the locals about the kingdom of God. Jesus was popular, lots of people came to hear him, and on this day the crowd was so large that the house they were in was packed and you couldn’t get in. The people came from all walks of life, the locals, poor, the sick, the rich and well off, as well the local religious leaders.

While Jesus is talking, four men arrive outside of the house, they bring with them their paralysed mate, hoping to see Jesus. But they couldn’t get in. They come up with a harebrained plan, they get up on the roof of the house, they cut a hole in it, and through that hole, using improvised ropes they lower their paralysed mate down to the room below. I think even Jesus would have trouble completing with that.

A hush comes over the room, Jesus stops talking and looks at the man, he pauses, then smiles, then nods his approval, and then does something surprising, something odd, something unexpected. something the Angel told Joseph Jesus would do. He looks the man in the eye compassionately and tells him ‘your sins are forgiven’.

The religious leaders sitting in the front seats were furious, they are on their feet screaming! they knew their scriptures! they knew that only God could forgive sins, This was Blasphemy! Jesus stops, looks at the crowd, and then turns slowly back to face the religious leaders. He scans them one by one, looking for their leader. He finds him, yes, the one in the middle, The crowd goes quiet, they are waiting to see what Jesus will do. The religious leaders are still angry but also go quiet.

Jesus looks their leader straight in the eye. Then he asks him, ‘Which is easier to do, to heal this man or forgive his sins?’ The religious leader, not sure how to answer that one, looks at his colleagues for help. But no help is forthcoming. Jesus walks slowly over to the paralysed man, he reaches out and takes the man’s hand, Jesus pulls it up gently, at the same time telling him to get up and walk. For the first time in years the man is on his feet. He can stand! He takes his first tentative steps! He looks at his mates trying to figure out what just happened, At the same time crowd reacts with lots cheering, clapping and laughing, they were amazed, and the religious leaders are left stunned. Jesus quietly slips out the door.

I hope your will excuse my bit of improvisation, but it is the little hints that Jesus drops that confirm he is God, He taught His disciples to pray in His name. He claimed that He and the Father were one and that He was the Son of God. He claimed that to know Him was to know God, to see Him was to see God, and to receive Him was to receive God. To believe Him was to believe God and to honour Him was to honour God, while to hate Him was to hate God.

Jesus is Human

With pregnancy a certain chain of events takes place, these happen on a pre-defined timeframe and they are not negotiable. These were known just as much in ancient times as they are now. And so, several months after that Angelic visit, a baby was born.

‘That baby that was born to Mary, [who was named Jesus], at the time was unable to do more than lie, stare, wriggle, and make noises. Jesus needed to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.’ [J I Packer]

Jesus was subject to the same bodily limitations we have, he got weary, he got hungry, he needed sleep, he’d sweat, he experienced physical pain. Jesus also exhibited the full range of human emotions, Joy, Sorrow, Love, Compassion, things astonished him, he got angry and felt lonely. Jesus had a body, He had flesh and bones, and bled when cut.

There is one story in the bible that highlights Jesus’ humanity to me. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, Just outside of Jerusalem is the tiny village of Bethany, It was home to Jesus good friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Mary and Martha had sent a message to Jesus. Lazarus was sick, very sick. They wanted Jesus to come immediately. But Jesus was delayed. It must be a bloke thing. I get busy and distracted and don’t aways come when called, particularly at meal time, Just ask Liz. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus is dead. Now it may be the shortest verse in the bible but it’s full of meaning. ‘Jesus wept’. Jesus’s good friend was dead, and Jesus completely lost it, he was overcome with grief. Jesus’ humanity was on show for all to see.

Jesus of Nazareth was not some kind of made-up legend. Apart from the Gospels there is historical refenced to Jesus by Tacitus (Roman Senator and Historian) , Josephus (Roman Jewish historian), and the Babylonian Talmud (a central text of rabbinic Judaism). The consensus among even sceptical historians is that Jesus was a real person who existed in the first century AD. These days, you would have more trouble convincing someone about Jesus’ divinity than you would about Jesus’ humanity.

In Ancient times we see the reverse, the early church had to deal with Docetists, a branch of Gnosticism, Docetists insisted that Jesus only seemed to be human (Gk. Dokeo – “to seem”), even asserting that Jesus had a “phantom-like body.” Docetism denied the true humanity of Christ.

Have you ever considered what it was like for God to become human? We get some insights to this an early Christian creed that Paul included in his letter to the Church at Philippi.

Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

As a human being Jesus was vulnerable, for example as a baby, he was whisked away to Egypt to avoid the wrath of a jealous king. He was nearly thrown off a cliff in his own hometown, The religious authorities were frequently plotting against him, he was let down by his closest friends in his hour of need, he was betrayed, Jesus could be tortured, Jesus could die!

Jesus is with us

When you think about it, Emanual, God with us, Infers relationships.

In the beginning of his ministry, Jesus appoints twelve disciples, Its recorded in Mark chapter 3, but it’s interesting, that in that passage, Mark included something that you probably wouldn’t notice at glance. Mark says Jesus appointed the disciples so he could be with them. Jesus spent time with them, he taught them, he ate with them, he travelled with them.

This is very different to what we see in the Old Testament. There, having God with you was a terrifying experience. To Abraham [in Genesis] God appeared to as a smoking furnace. To Job, God spoke out of a storm. To the Israelites fleeing Egypt [in Exodus], God appeared as a pillar of fire. Moses wanted to see God, but when he asked, God told him in no uncertain terms that it would kill him.

But when God showed up as Jesus, He arrives as a Baby. Babies are cute, they are fun to hold, and to cuddle. People go ga-gar over them. You see it here in this church, a new baby turns up, and people are queueing up for a look, secretly hoping hold them.

But why does God turn up as a baby? There are two accounts, one in Matthew and the Luke, two accounts of a heavenly messenger visiting Mary and Joseph. In both accounts, the Angel explicitly tells Mary or Joseph what to name the child. ‘You are to call him Jesus’. In those times, names have meanings, names have a purpose. Jesus, when translated back into Hebrew is ‘Yeshua’. It’s the same as Joshua. Yeshua means ‘to rescue or to deliver’. God didn’t turn up as the big angry God to judge, but came to rescue or to deliver us, Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sin, to remove the barrier between us and God, so that we
can be together, God didn’t do this just so we would know that he existed, He came to be with us but also, so we could be with him.

There is another side to God with us, God is a source of comfort in times of trouble. As a parent I constantly make that classic Dad error. It goes something like this, Daughter has a problem, Dad diagnoses the problem, and outlines the solution. For example daughter says; ‘I can’t sleep’, Dad says. Stop using your mobile phone while trying to go to sleep. Well thought out and sound advice but usually goes down like a lead balloon. At best Dad is ignored, at worst Dad gets yelled at. My wife, on the other hand, takes another approach.

Liz will go and be with them, and sit beside them, she will hold their hand, she will reassure them, she will sympathise and empathise with them. She knows what it is like to go through what they are going through. She will be there for them.

When things are going well, you feel like a normal human being. But when things go wrong, you are suffering, it feels lonely. But if you meet someone who has been through the same thing you are going through, they know what it is like, you listen to them, you take their advice, they provide comfort. [Tim Keller – Hidden Christmas]

In the New Testament, in the letter to the Hebrews, the author points out that Jesus was made just like us, Fully human in every way. Jesus suffered all the pain, all the testing, the betrayal —and now he can provide help when help is needed.

I called Cameron the other day, Cameron has been on a trip to Cairns with other some other Cancer patients and I wanted to find out what his experience was like. The course of the conversation changed from topic to topic, but Cameron mentioned something about God being with him. God was with Cameron even when Cameron was unaware of it. He recounted a time he was in hospital, He said he wasn’t due for his regular observations but he happened to cough, A nurse was passing by, and checked in with Cameron to see if he was ok, Cameron said he was, and she was about to leave, But, she stopped and decided to check Cameron’s Oxygen levels anyhow, His Oxygen levels were way too low, Cameron said that woman’s actions probably saved his life. Cameron was taken off for an X-Ray, and when they looked at it they found that Cameron had a major infection in his lungs, If the Nurses and Doctors hadn’t acted when they did, if help wasn’t provided when needed, Cameron may no longer be with us.

To finish up, I’ll share something that I tell the Boys at Boys’ Brigade on Wednesday evenings. The thing I tell them is this. What God really wants, above anything else, is a relationship with us. We can now have this relationship with God through Jesus coming to earth to be with us. In Jesus, we get a person who wants to be friends with us. A person who is willing to be your best friend. A person who you can share things with. A person we can learn from, A gracious friend that forgives you when we go astray. A person who knows us intimately and wants to transform us into the person he knows we can be. In Jesus, we get God and a Human being in one package, someone who wants to be with us.

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Bruce Warren
Featured Image by Jan van ’t Hoff – Gospel images

Text: 1 Cor 15:1-11

Alice in Wonderland laughed and said to the White Queen “One can’t believe impossible things”. The Queen observed that Alice simply lacked discipline and practice, boasting that she sometimes believed “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” This begs the question: Does the church encourage you and I to believe impossible things? And then to feel guilty if we can’t? I think this is a problem for many thinking Christians – perhaps most obviously with the resurrection of Christ.

Paul explained his understanding of the Christian message that, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.” (15:3-4) Paul then gives a long list of appearances of the risen Christ: to Peter, then to the 12 apostles and then “He appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.” And “last of all to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles because I persecuted the Church of God.” (11:7-9).

Obviously, Paul believed that Christ could be seen. Paul was trying to be rational and cited the evidence of many people including himself. He did not add, though possibly worth noting, that many died as martyrs for their Christian faith. Maybe it was a more credulous age? Maybe unexplained things were more common?

Now what do we do with this? Most of us consider ourselves educated, rational people, inhabiting the 21^st century. My close friend Shayleen used to chide me that I believed in Jewish fairy tales, and I suppose believing in the risen Christ amounts to an impossible thing or less charitably a fairy tale.

In the Context of Science

Sometimes it feels strange to be a Christian and to live in two worlds. One of science and reason; one of faith and meaning. We tend to see reality through a ‘scientific lens’. Indeed, science has delivered, by improving our lives in amazing ways. This includes the technology we carry around, such as a smart phone. My car uses an inbuilt computer with GPS to tell me where ever I am (useful when I get lost in Gungahlin!). There are advances too numerous to mention. I think of medical science and I want my GP to be rational, to offer me evidence-based treatment and with appropriate medication ? in fact be a good scientist-practitioner.

But science tends to be reductive, to what we can see and understand in terms of cause and effect. A mathematical proof is clear and a hypothesis can be tested and retested. But the ‘common sense’ version of this closes off anything unusual and whatever does not fit in the ‘scientific model’.

This may seem ‘water-proof’ but science on both the macro and micro doesn’t fit this neat model. For example, on a cosmological scale equations breakdown in black holes and the Big Bang is an astonishing contradiction of everything we can observe. At the quantum realm, imagine subatomic particles are balls on a billiard table. Some will spontaneously disappear and reappear somewhere else. And there is uncertainty about what it is possible to know at this level. You can’t know both the momentum and the position of a billiard ball, which makes it hard to play the game. (Heisenburg’s Uncertainty Principle)

How does religion fit into this? The answer is easy, it doesn’t. Good science doesn’t pretend to offer answers to questions of meaning: Why do we exist? What is the purpose of human life? Equally, it has difficulties with ethical questions such as those deriving from stem cell research. And there are obvious important questions beyond the scope of science: did Jesus rise from the dead? Is there eternal life? The point I would make is that for such questions the response of both believer and unbeliever is a matter of faith ? for the simple reason that nobody really knows.

Why believe?

I think I must be a follower of the philosopher Descartes, my natural tendency is to doubt everything. Then I can walk through a supermarket of ideas and beliefs and choose what is most attractive to me. For example, I do not believe that the argument for God is intellectually compelling. I can accept both atheism and belief in God because both have a strong case. I have great sympathy for the agnostic position that there is not enough evidence to make a choice, maybe that is the most rational of responses and certainly a position most of my friends seem to hold. Also, I think that a person can follow the example of Christ, be a Christian but not believe all the ‘impossible things’ in the Apostles Creed. But I prefer to believe something.

Also I think that there is a world of difference between lazy believing and having convictions on the other side of doubt.

At Wesley I enjoyed a very public debate through a number of sermons with the Rev’d Rob Henderson. He is an articulate and theologically informed liberal. It is great being in the Uniting Church because it provides a home for a great variety of beliefs and supports a respectful dialogue. It is in that spirit that I offer this sermon.

Two points:

• I think it is rational to believe in something ‘outside the box’ of rationality.
• It is essential to have a sense of the sacred or the enchanted to gain a sense of meaning in life.

Rational?

I think it is reasonable to believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something created the church, and the effect of Christianity on our culture. I can’t think of anyone or anything that has been more influential.

Consider a pebble dropped in a lake with ripples going in every direction. Drop a brick in the same lake and the result is small waves. This is cause and effect. I ask what could have caused such waves to change two thousand years of Western civilization?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was like a meteor hit a large lake. And we are still feeling the results. Cause and effect? It is easier to believe that a miracle happened – with our faith as the result!

Sacred?

No one questions the rationality of the agnostic or atheist. And I hope it is clear that I don’t either. But I’ve always believed that hyper rationalism acts like a ‘paint-stripper’. Gone is the enchantment, the mystery, and ultimately the depth in living.

The origin of the word religion is religio ‘to bind things together’. It makes connections beyond the obvious. Les Murray, arguably one of the finest poets Australia has produced, was a devout Catholic and his poem Poetry and Religion is a classic. The opening lines are “Religions are poems. They concert our daylight and dreaming mind, our emotions, instinct, breath and native gesture into the only whole thinking: poetry.” And later “God is the poetry caught in any religion, caught, not imprisoned.”

The skills of the scientist are close to useless in the writing of a poem, creating a novel, composing music, and painting a picture. What matters is creativity and a sense of beauty.

When I choose to believe, and it is a choice. I believe that the depth of Christian belief as a sense of the sacred to my life as lived. I see people in terms of eternity, I see social justice in terms of God’s order, and behind any suffering I can sense the goodness of God.

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Dr Bruce A Stevens (PhD Boston University) was ordained in the Anglican Church and has served as a supply minister at GUC. He is a clinical and forensic psychologist. He had the Wicking Chair of Ageing and Practical Theology at CSU 2014-19.