St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by The Reverend Bruce W. B. Jenneker at Evensong in St George's Cathedral, Cape Town on the the First Sunday after Epiphany, 10 January 2009

Here the beginning of the year, the lectionary focuses our attention on the Baptism of our Lord. John, that passionate man clothed with skins and eating wild honey, stands in the muddy river at the edge of the city, baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins. 'The kingdom of God is at hand,' he preaches, 'Repent and prepare the way of the Lord.'

So that we may understand more fully the meaning of John's action, especially as he prepares to baptize our Lord, the lectionary holds up before us unforgettable words from Isaiah. These words of consolation and hope were spoken in the 6th century BCE, just before the end of exile. Spoken into experience of dislocation and dispossession these words proclaim the breaking in of God's new era. The people who walked in darkness and in the shadow of death can hope for their return to their homeland and its shalom.

Two distinct voices are heard in this well-known prophecy. The voice that cries in the wilderness proclaiming God's tenderness and overwhelming compassion: Comfort, O comfort my people, speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

What a voice and what a message. Every dark sin is twice forgiven, every dirty stain is twice washed clean, every crushing burden of past misdeeds is twice lifted up and thrown away. God is ushering in a new time and a new life, the prophet proclaims. Whatever seductions have led humanity astray, whatever temptations have corrupted them, whatever avarice has blinded them, all of these God sets aside, every penalty paid, every debt cancelled.

But this is not the only voice that cries out. Another voice says that the people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. Called to intimacy with God, they run after other Gods. Called to obedience and faithfulness, they revel in defiance and waywardness. Called into God's embrace, they have strayed far away.

The prophet's words strike an echo with us, for we need consolation and comfort. We need them precisely because our world is so far from the shalom of God. Our children and perilously at risk – they, who should be protected, cherished and raised with care, are abducted, raped and murdered. Our young people are without hope – dispirited by a world that has no place for them, despairing of meaningful lives with fulfilling employment, they lose themselves in drugs, slide into gangsterism and prostitution. Greedy for possessions and covetous of comfort we have become masters of corruption and vice, and those who should be our role models and the custodians of our best values are arrogant in their self-indulgence at the cost of the people. We thought education was the answer, and our education system is bankrupt. We trusted in a political dispensation to bring a new future, but the poor and poorer, the sick are dying and crime increases. Our world is falling apart. We need comfort and consolation: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Not just in the big picture of society at large has the rot set in, but also in the little worlds of our own lives. We have learnt to value our relationships in terms of what they can do for us. Where we are made to love one another, we have learnt to use one another, turning both ourselves and those close to us into commodities and objects. Called to build a better world, one of kindness and generosity, forgiveness and reconciliation, we have found polite words to mask the ruthlessness with which neutralize those who challenge us. Made to share the gifts of God with one another, we look for profit rather than exercise generosity. We keep score of wrongs and our grudges run very deep. Not for us forgiveness or reconciliation.

Into this maelstrom that we have made of our lives, a threatening hurricane of selfishness and malice, comes the Baptist's voice: Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Look, the Baptist says, here is the man, the sinless one who takes away all sins, the stainless one who washes away every stain. Look to the Jesus, in him is life, life everlasting, pressed down and running over.

The voices that cry out in Isaiah's prophecy remind us just how limited our horizons are. Besieged by demands and daunted by challenges we keep our eyes on the road just in front of us. Restricted vision and narrow horizons impoverish us. Impatient with complexity and frustrated by truth in its simplicity we cannot imagine what might be possible. Dogged insistence on the facts and the facts alone doesn't give hope a chance. Anxious and stressed, we demand to be in control, we'd rather 'go it alone' than risk someone else's mistakes, or be weighed down by their burdens and weaknesses. Rugged independence and self-reliance deny the possibility of love.

At the beginning of the year need, faith, hope and love. It's an old recipe for good and wholesome living, one tried and tested, and one that we should embrace for this new year.

Reinhold Neibuhr, the 20th century theologian wrote that “nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.” [The Irony of American History, 1952, Charles Scribner's Sons]

Around us much is dark with trouble and precarious with turmoil. May the blessings of God endow us this year with faith to risk the darkness and dare the turmoil. Around us the odds are against good things happening and the evidence supports the pessimist's gloom. May the blessings of God endow us this year with hope to see beyond the odds and trust to dream great expectations. Around us lie the ruins of the relationships we have destroyed and we stand on the lonely stones of our individualism. May the blessings of God endow us this year with love to break the barriers that separate us.

For it is faith that empowers us in our present, it is hope that leads us on to a better future and it is love that redeems all our selfish strivings. God grant us and our nation faith, hope and love in this new year of grace.

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