Sermon Tone Analysis

*                                                      Clarity of perception*

*At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

“I thank you, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,” he said, “that you have hidden these things from the wise and clever and that you have revealed them to babes.

*

(i) Verse 21 The wise man said that when we see something as a child for the first time we see it in all its wonder and beauty.

It delights us.

We seem to be intoxicated by the wonder of everything we see.

Then we are given names to put on these wonders and usually (not always ) that is the last time most of us really see them.

The next time we come to what was a delight we say: oh a daffodil!

Our computer clicks in and we automatically say Seen that!

And move quickly on without ever really seeing it.

In reality what we really saw was not the daffodil but the image of a daffodil stored in our brain.

This not true of everyone for some catch hold of that first childlike wonder  and never lose it.

Others lose but regain it by returning to the mountains, the forests the streams and the woods.

We need sometimes to retreat to, a Llanachen to stop and look once again, to be able to learn to see as a child the wonders around us.

All learning is of value.

It is a real gift from God.

The ability to discover, to improve, to change our world.

The possibilities are infinite for the world was formed by an infinite God.

The true hallmark of good science should be wonder and humility.

The really great scientists do have those qualities.

The hallmark of bad science is a proud arrogant I have seen it all, know it all attitude.

The major work of science is to discover the amazing complexity of life around us.

Because you discover the beauty and complexity before you, can hardly be a cause of pride or arrogance.

After all you  did not create that beauty and complexity.

It is possible that with the wrong attitude to knowledge you will in the end not be able to see the wood for the trees.

The scientist who says there is so much out there that I do not know is the one who at least has the possibility of discovery.

Different ways of seeing ?????

Christianity does not mean knowing all the theories about the New Testament; still less does it mean knowing all the theologies and the Christologies.

Christianity does not mean /knowing about Christ/, it means /knowing Christ/; and to do that requires not earthly wisdom but heavenly grace.

*                                          His relationship to the Father*

* Yes, Father, for so it was your good pleasure in your sight.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father; and no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

*

 Verse 22 tells of the unique relationship between Jesus and God.

This is what the Fourth Gospel means when it says, “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14), or when it makes Jesus say, “I and the Father are one,” or, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 10:30; 14:9).

To the Greeks God was unknowable.

There was a great gulf fixed between matter and spirit, man and God.

“It is very difficult,” they said, “to know God, and when you do know him it is impossible to tell anyone else about him.”

But when Jesus came he said, “If you want to know what God is like, look at me.” Jesus did not so much tell us about God as show us God, because in himself were God’s mind and heart.

*                                                     THE UNSURPASSABLE CLAIM        *

*He turned to his disciples when they were in private and said, “Happy are the eyes which see the things which you are seeing for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things that you are seeing and did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing and did not hear them.”*

Verses 23 and 24 tell us that Jesus is the consummation of all history.

In these verses Jesus said, “I am the One to whom all the prophets and the saints and the kings looked forward and for whom they longed.”

This is what Matthew means when over and over again in his gospel he wrote, “This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying … “ (cp.

Matthew 2:15, 17, 23).

Jesus was the peak to which history had been climbing, the goal to which it had been marching, the dream which had ever haunted men of God.

If we desire to express this in terms of modern thought we might dare to put it this way.

We believe in evolution, the slow climb upwards of humanity from the level of the beasts.

Jesus is the end and climax of the evolutionary process because in him humanity meets God; and he is at once the perfection of humanity and the fulness of godhead.