Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas

4 January 2004

In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Jigsaw pieces

Jigsaws are all about trying to put the picture together.

The process starts with a calm determined approach. Some bits fit quickly. A certain confidence takes over. Shapes and patterns fit the picture.

Then frustrations begin to emerge. The jigsaw pieces become harder to find. Hopes are dashed of a quick success. So some try to force pieces together that are clearly not intended to fit.

Then it appears some pieces are missing. Even worse some pieces seem to belong to another jigsaw. Confusion compounds frustration and some give up.

But others persevere – even to the extent of finding lost pieces. The jigsaw is completed and the whole picture is admired in all its wonderful colours and detail.

In this life we have been given many wonderful pieces that put together give us a picture of God.

Of course we don’t have all the pieces but we have enough to show us the character of a loving God who reveals himself to
us.

The Bible is a key piece. In the scriptures we see the nature of God described to us in an even-handed way.

He doesn’t come over as a giant robot – but rather a personal God who makes a covenant with his people. He relates to his people, working with them and ‘in them that which is good’.

The Four Gospels in particular give us a well-rounded view of God – “The Word of God who became a human being and lived among us”.

And the emblems associated with each of the gospels help us piece together a picture of God.

St Mark’s emblem is of a man. Here is a gospel that is plain speaking, a straightforward news report of the life of Jesus and His ministry on earth.

St Matthew’s Gospel, with its emphasis on the Saviour, the promised Messiah, uses the emblem of a lion, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, to establish the historical root of our faith.

St Luke chooses an Ox – an animal of service and sacrifice to emphasise the message of God’s concern for the weak and the outcast.
And the most distinctive piece is St John’s Gospel, the spiritual gospel with its emblem of an eagle – the only living creature that can look straight into the sun and not be dazzled.

John gazes into the eternal mysteries and more than any other gospel writer reflects on the experience of Christ Risen and living within the Body of the Church.

John gazes into the Mind of God. It’s a wonderful piece in our picture of God. John is not just stating historical facts but rather interpretating the meaning of the Incarnation –“God with us”.

‘Here is God’, says John, ‘Acting in the form of a man, the man Christ Jesus’.

So John helps us look into the light, into the very truth of God and of ourselves.

Of course there are many more pieces.

There are the teachings and fellowship of the Church; the holy sacraments and the tradition of liturgy and worship; the testimony and witness of people, ordinary people, who have made the love and mercy of God real to us and the wonder and beauty of creation.

All these things and more help us to piece together a vision of God.

However, as the scriptures warn us, we need to beware of false images, pieces that must be rejected, that simply do not fit.

The scriptures warn us of deceivers, those who in the name of Christ distort the image of God in order to follow their own pernicious and selfish ambitions.

This kind of distortion manifests itself in such things as
personality cults and religious fanaticism.

Also pieces in the jigsaw may be wilfully ignored or manipulated to fit into a marketing mould that excites or identifies true faith merely in terms of numbers.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple warned that manipulation of the image of God is wicked and perverse.

He said: “If your conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are the worse it will be for you. You are opening your soul to be moulded by something base. You had much better be an atheist.”

So as we persevere in the faith of Christ and open our hearts and minds to see Him more clearly, we should keep in mind some guiding principles.

Humility is a good starting point. We constantly need to accept that our knowledge of God is incomplete. “We see through a glass darkly” in this life. Yet in a spirit of reverence and gratitude we may draw near to God because he has come near to us.

And we should draw near with a sense of wonder – the very essence of true worship. It is the wonder Jesus saw in ‘the little child’ when he invited us to accept the Kingdom as a little child – learning and discovering the Love of God, ‘beholding the true light that gives light’.

Moreover we need to hold fast to the principle of manners – good manners in our dealings with people and our manner of living. These shape the image we create of God in the world.

This is a great mystery but in our actions and attitudes, as the Body of Christ, we piece together and show forth the love of God to a suffering and needy world.

Paul said: “Put on Christ Jesus”. It is a truism that what we worship shapes us. In true worship we put on something of the character of Christ.

So when the world considers the jigsaw of Christian faith the first pieces it sees are you and I. How do we shape up?

Dean Patey of Liverpool said: “If all we can know about God were like a jigsaw puzzle we would be missing many pieces. But the pieces he has graciously given us are magnificent.

“When we fit these together they form patterns of great beauty and wonder – they stretch our human conceptions to the limit.”

So they do.

And above all in the Risen Christ we see the centrepiece in the jigsaw of life – the piece that interlocks time and eternity, past, present and future.

Amen.