“…then
I was beside him, like a master worker [another reading is ‘like a little child’: isn’t that interesting?]; and I was daily his
delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and
delighting in the human race.” [that’s the voice of Lady Wisdom, Proverbs 8:30, 31]
“For
in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was
pleased to reconcile to himself all things…” [that’s Paul and Timothy, speaking
of ‘our Lord Jesus Christ,’ Colossians
1:19]
“And
the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory
as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” [and that’s John, speaking
of Jesus, John 1:14]
Delight.
Rejoicing. Pleasure. Reconciliation. Glory. Grace. Truth. Our readings today
fizz to bursting with these good things.
The
Church year is rooted in ‘seasonal’ time and ‘ordinary’ time. The goal of
seasonal time—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter—is to form us, as a
community, into the likeness of Christ, according to the story handed-down to
us in scripture. The goal of ordinary time—the short window between Epiphany
and Lent, and the much longer portion that sprawls across our summer and
autumn—is to train us to encounter God in our everyday lives.
Today,
we are in ordinary time; and our three readings are all concerned with creation. Our first, from Proverbs, retells the story of God
creating the world from the point-of-view of wisdom, which is personified.
Wisdom, we discover, is expressed in delight and joy flowing back and forth.
Our
second, from Colossians, is an
outpouring of praise for Jesus, but the context is another creation-retelling
or recalling: this time repeatedly describing the gospel—or, good news—as bearing
fruit and growing in the whole world; describing what has happened in the lives
of the saints as the separating-out of light from darkness; and describing
Jesus as the means by which God exercises life-giving, ordered rule over the
rebellious forces of chaos.
Thirdly,
our gospel reading, that introduction—or, Prologue—to the Gospel According to John, recalls and reframes Genesis chapter 1—with it’s repeated
‘And God said’—with a fresh focus on the creative Word itself, still creating
light, and life, and a new humanity.
Earlier
this week, we had an un-seasonally warm afternoon, and I went for a walk I
Backhouse Park. I think it is my favourite park in Sunderland, and this time of
year, with the snowdrops and crocuses bursting out, is my favourite time to
walk there. The park was full of dog-walkers and birdsong; couples, both young
and old, hand in hand; grandparents with their grandchildren; a father with two
young daughters.
In
Proverbs, Wisdom and Folly are
personified as female characters, women with agency to build-up or to destroy.
And when Lady Wisdom is recalling her own beginnings, it is as a little child,
a young girl out for a walk in the park with her father, delighting in
discovering a world bursting-forth with life, delighting in one another.
Sometimes
we awake, as from a hibernation, to the realisation that we have forgotten all
that. Left it far behind, long ago. Like Susan Pevensie, for those of you who
are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia. We have outgrown that childish
innocence—and lost much; though, like the 21-year old Susan, we need not be
lost forever.
Sometimes
we have much to learn from the very young, and the very old—those who have found
their way back to childhood. And sometimes God comes to us, in the mystery and
wonder of the world that has sung of its creator through all human history, and
says, “Why wait? This is the day I come to you. Will you receive me?”
So,
when you go out from this place, go expectantly. May you know delight and joy
in your encounters, whatever you come across, and whoever crosses your path; may
you know more day-by-day of the depth of the Father’s pleasure; and may your
eyes be opened to see traces of glory, grace and truth, the footprints of Jesus
in the world.
And
all the people said, Amen.
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