John, Evangelist and Apostle

Today is an important day as we celebrate the life of St John the Evangelist to whom this church is dedicated, and today’s gospel poses an incredible challenge to us as we think about the life of St John and also about our church.

The gospel reading (John 12:20-36) was set in the context of the Feast of Passover, one of the holiest days of the Jewish faith. Jewish people would travel long distances to celebrate the festival together at the Temple.

Some of these people were the Greeks who met Philip in our reading – and came up with the simple but incredibly profound words, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’.

Sometime ago I was talking with Bishop David Yeoman, who was then the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff, and he said that when he was travelling in Africa, a Bishop came up to him on the Saturday evening and asked him to preach at the big confirmation service the following day.

Bishop David hurriedly prepared what he thought he was going to say and the following morning climbed up into the pulpit about to preach, and in front of him he read a note that had been left for him. It said very simply, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus.’

Suddenly all the words he had to put down to preach were in question – how many of those words were actually helping to reveal Jesus to people ? Here he was in front of over 1000 people with a message that suddenly didn’t seem to be addressing the very basic needs of what the people wanted…

It seems so obvious that in our sermons and in our services we should be giving people a glimpse of Jesus – in all of our church activities we should be pointing people to Jesus and yet, sometimes he can seem pretty difficult to find.

I’ve often told the story of my nephew at a Sunday School party – they were playing a game which involved searching for names of biblical characters. When they were told to come and have food, Jack replied, ‘I can’t, I’m looking for Jesus…’

At the 2020 Vision Conference for the Church in Wales held back in November the Conference theologian posed the challenge to us all to make sure that we are making Jesus known very clearly in all that we do in our churches – she told of someone who had attended services and various events for a while, but who hadn’t really been able to find out any more about Jesus that when they first attended… 

So as we think of the life of St John and we think of the life of this church it seems a good time to just reflect on what we are doing to make Jesus visible here and outside our church…

Because I think actually we are faced with that same challenge given to David Yeoman – with many people wanting to see Jesus…

So let’s think of some pictures of Jesus – first of course might be the baby whose birth we have celebrated and continue to celebrate… The Saviour of the world coming into humble surroundings to take hold of the world and offer peace and hope and joy and love…

Another image we might see is the risen Jesus – triumphant, the conqueror of death, the giver of life. We may reflect on how our lives have been changed by the resurrection of Jesus… Joy and celebration should play a great part in our lives as we recognise that God loves us and went to enormous lengths to show us that…

Thirdly perhaps we’ll see the Jesus who fought for justice, who favoured the underdog and gave everyone chance after chance. We look at the Jesus who, for example, talked about a Good Samaritan, who talked about a Prodigal son, who talked of 1 sheep out of 100 going missing but that sheep being absolutely precious to the farmer; We look at Jesus, who spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well when nobody else would, who mixed with those who were considered the outcasts and sinners in society; Jesus, who taught about justice and peace; Jesus, who forgave sinners and promised to the dying thief on the cross, a place with him in paradise – Jesus, who confounded so many of the expectations people had about him…

And a fourth picture we must think of is the suffering Jesus. Through his earthly ministry he faced persecution constantly, he was rejected by many, he was tortured horribly, he was even killed…

It’s impossible to look at Jesus without looking at those parts of his life when people, people just like you and I, did everything they could to destroy Him, because it’s only in looking at his life in that way that we can really come anywhere towards seeing the love that he has for us all…

The incredible love and compassion that he showed in his earthly life is love that remains constant today – and that love is personal – it is for every single one of us…

And perhaps that is the most important thought on this celebration of St John.  – ‘We want to see Jesus’ means to want to see him in every way – it means to see him as a humble child, and a triumphant Saviour; to see him as an advocate for justice and for peace, to see him as someone concerned for the needs of absolutely everyone, it means to see him as a suffering servant – someone willing to give up everything for us, but above all it must surely mean seeing him as someone who can make a difference in our lives…

Jesus is not a picture in a book or a window, he is not a figure of history simply to be studied and admired; he is a Saviour who wants to transform our whole lives – a Saviour who wants to be invited in to share every moment of our lives….

Someone once reproached the preacher Charles H. Spurgeon and said to him, "Mr. Spurgeon you are preaching too much. You will kill yourself by damaging your constitution, Sir." Spurgeon at the time was preaching roughly ten times a week. Spurgeon smiled and said, "If I had a thousand constitutions I would gladly ruin them all for Jesus Christ's sake."

We may not have that strength but we are called to respond today and every day to a Saviour who gave everything for us….

And that is the Saviour that John knew and gave his life to… The Saviour whom he wrote about as the Word made flesh…

I often feel a bit sorry for Stephen whose feast Day falls on Boxing Day, and for John.  Being so close to Christmas the days on which they are remembered are often forgotten amidst the post Christmas rest or the early new year sales !

Stephen was the first known Christian martyr – his life was a wonderful witness to Jesus, and his faith allowed him to die praying for forgiveness for those who were killing him.

And we celebrate John, along with James, one of the sons of Zebedee – he, along with James and Peter were perhaps the closest disciples to Jesus – they were at the transfiguration, there at the last supper, they shared in the agony of the garden – and John was also there standing at the foot of the cross with Mary… then as a witness to the resurrection, he went about proclaiming Jesus as Saviour, the light that shines in the darkness, the light that can never be put out.

And over the next days and weeks as we once again recover from Christmas, John represents a great examples to us, the example of witnessing… It’s so easy to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and remember his death and resurrection, but we must also celebrate and proclaim his life. His life on earth and his life today.

That is what John witnessed to, and it is what we must witness to in everything in our lives and in our church. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, there was a shortage of currency in the British Empire. Representatives carefully searched the nation in hopes of finding silver to meet the emergency but the report came back that the only place they found silver was in the cathedrals where some statues of the saints were made of choice silver, and so Cromwell is alleged to have replied, "Let's melt down the saints and put them into circulation." 

As we move on from Christmas let us never forget the celebration of the child born so humbly, let us never forget a life lived full of compassion and peace, hope and courage, and let us never forget a death so painful, yet accepted willingly for us… a death of course that was necessary in order to show us that death can be over come once and for all and that eternal salvation can be obtained for everyone.

The light that is Jesus continues to be a light shining in the world today, and we are to be light bearers, we are to be saints ‘melted down and put into circulation’.

King George V was to give the opening address at a special disarmament conference, with the speech relayed by radio to the U.S. As the broadcast was about to begin, a cable broke in the New York radio station, and more than a million listeners were left without sound. A junior mechanic in the station, Harold Vivien, solved the problem by picking up both ends of the cable and allowing 250 volts of electricity to pass through him.  He was the living link that allowed the king's message to get through.

Let’s pray that as we continue to celebrate Jesus, we too can act as living links through which God’s love is revealed to the world, and let us celebrate and proclaim through our lives a living Saviour. AMEN