The Company of Heaven - Rev Katherine Abetz

The Company of Heaven (for ACC NOW 17/1/2021)

(John 1:29; 43-51; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

How close is God? I remember a story told by Nicky Gumbel about a prank experiment. A group of young people went to the second floor above a bank which was on the ground floor. The idea was to find out how many people jumping off a chair or table it would take to be noticed downstairs. One young person was left downstairs to report on the effect. It turned out that it only took one jump to make a difference. With the second jump plaster started falling off the bank’s ceiling. The point of the story was that upstairs (i.e. heaven) is closer than you think.

How close is God? Psalm 139 says, ‘O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me! Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; thou discernest my thoughts from afar’. The psalmist continues, ‘For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb’ (verse 13). 1 Corinthians 6 states: ‘You are not your own. You were bought with a price’ (verses 19b-20). We are formed in our inward parts by God. We are not our own because we are bought with a price by God. You can’t get closer than that.

Last Sunday the lectionary took us to Mark’s gospel with a focus on Jesus’ baptism. This is the lectionary year of Mark’s gospel but this week the lectionary does a bit of a detour to the events surrounding Jesus’ baptism as recorded in John’s gospel. Mark chapter 1 records what happened: John the Baptist announces that someone is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit; Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River; John sees the heavens opened and the Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove; John hears the voice from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased”. John’s gospel tells us something about why it happened: ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,’ says John the Baptist. Jesus removes the world’s sin. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Jesus removes the unholy and replaces it by immersing us in the holiness of God.

Now a question: what if you don’t know what sin is? The lectionary takes us to the first letter to the church at Corinth. The town of Corinth was a byword for immorality in the ancient world. The name has stuck: one of the entries for ‘Corinthian’ in my dictionary is ‘profligate’ meaning ‘dissolute, reckless, extravagant’. Does that ring any bells for our day? But perhaps we would not admit that this sort of thing is sinful. Can you sin against your own body? Our modern world would say No – my body is my own. 1 Corinthians 6 tells a different story. We are not our own.

The ‘upstairs’ is closer than we think (even if our age doesn’t admit it). Perhaps none of us know what sin really is until we come face to face with Jesus. The unholy cannot stand in the presence of the holy. Then what is not holy will be shown up for what it is. But we can take heart. ‘Do you not know,’ the apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘that your bodies are members of Christ … Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?’ Viewed positively (rather than negatively) our heavenly company can help us overcome sin.

On meeting Jesus, Nathaniel says, “How do you know me?” “Oh, I know you,” Jesus replies. “I saw you under the fig tree. But, you’ll see greater things than this. You’ll see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.’ Heaven is open now for those with eyes to see. How close is God? Very.