The Role Of The Messenger
Sermon
In Greek mythology, Hermes ("pile of marker stones") was the god of boundaries and of the travellers who cross them. As a translator, he was the messenger from the gods to humans.
He was seen to be manifest in any kind of interchange which involved some form of crossing. So he was thought to be connected with transitions in one's fortunes, with the interchanges of goods (bartering and sale), with words and interpreting, and with the transition to the afterlife.
Hermes was also the god of thieves because he was very cunning and shrewd and was a thief himself from the night he was born. The night Hermes was born he slipped away from his mother and ran away to steal his Brother Apollo's cattle. He drove the cattle back to Greece, hid them and covered their tracks. When Apollo accused Hermes, Hermes began to play his lyre. The instrument enchanted Apollo and he agreed to let Hermes keep the cattle in exchange for the lyre. Since Hermes was the messenger of the gods who had to guide the souls of the dead to the underworld, no doubt his soothing lyre came in handy.
In the Bible, messengers from God could be either angels or humans. Only one angel, Lucifer the bringer of light, fell from grace and henceforth became known as Satan. Unlike Hermes, all the other angels were reliable messengers who could be trusted to bring good news to the people.
And there was quite a contrast between the night Hermes was born with his thieving activities, and the night Jesus was born. On the night that Jesus was born, an angelic choir brought the good news to shepherds on the hillside and angels were much in evidence in relaying God's messages to both Mary and Joseph in those early days surrounding the birth.
Human messengers weren't always quite so full of peace and goodwill, or quite so fortunate. In biblical times, when a messenger was the bearer of bad tidings he was often the brunt of the ill humour of the recipient of the news. When a messenger brought to David news of King Saul's death, David killed the messenger, even though Saul was David's deadly enemy (2 Samuel 1:6-10).
Perhaps we sometimes tend to react in a similar way today. If somebody brings us good news, we invite them to share in our rejoicing. But it's a difficult and painful task to bring people bad news, for we are inevitably affected by their pain and suffering.
It was the same in the time of the prophets. Most of the prophets brought messages of doom and gloom from God, dire warnings of awful things to come if the people failed to heed God's word. And the prophets were often either ignored or treated very badly. Jeremiah spent years in various prisons because he dared to carry the word of God to the people. When Jeremiah opposed idolatry with all his strength, arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace were his lot.
But when second (or Deutero) Isaiah was writing from exile, roughly a hundred years after Jeremiah, just before the first group of exiles was due to return from Babylon to Israel, the message held a note of excitement and promise and hope. And this is reflected in the way in which the messenger is perceived.
Deutero-Isaiah knew the huge excitement and the hope of the promised return to the Holy Land, but he didn't know what we know - that even greater things were to come. He didn't know that God himself would be born on earth in a human being. He didn't know that God would be so close to his people that God was actually within each human being through his Spirit.
For this is the promise and the excitement of Christmas; that God himself is within each of us, pouring his love, his joy, his help and his healing power into us. Around 2,000 years ago a baby was born who grew up to show us how that God within could fully inform our lives. Jesus grew up to show us how we could live a life which was totally reliant upon God and which was so terrific that it was a taste of heaven on earth.
The gods of ancient Greece may have had a winged messenger in Hermes who transported people into the next life, but they knew nothing of Jesus Christ who gives us that new life on earth as well as after death. Our Christmas hope, symbolised by a baby in a manger, is that if we allow the God within each of us to fully develop, we shall enjoy eternal life both here and now and in the hereafter.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings us that news!
He was seen to be manifest in any kind of interchange which involved some form of crossing. So he was thought to be connected with transitions in one's fortunes, with the interchanges of goods (bartering and sale), with words and interpreting, and with the transition to the afterlife.
Hermes was also the god of thieves because he was very cunning and shrewd and was a thief himself from the night he was born. The night Hermes was born he slipped away from his mother and ran away to steal his Brother Apollo's cattle. He drove the cattle back to Greece, hid them and covered their tracks. When Apollo accused Hermes, Hermes began to play his lyre. The instrument enchanted Apollo and he agreed to let Hermes keep the cattle in exchange for the lyre. Since Hermes was the messenger of the gods who had to guide the souls of the dead to the underworld, no doubt his soothing lyre came in handy.
In the Bible, messengers from God could be either angels or humans. Only one angel, Lucifer the bringer of light, fell from grace and henceforth became known as Satan. Unlike Hermes, all the other angels were reliable messengers who could be trusted to bring good news to the people.
And there was quite a contrast between the night Hermes was born with his thieving activities, and the night Jesus was born. On the night that Jesus was born, an angelic choir brought the good news to shepherds on the hillside and angels were much in evidence in relaying God's messages to both Mary and Joseph in those early days surrounding the birth.
Human messengers weren't always quite so full of peace and goodwill, or quite so fortunate. In biblical times, when a messenger was the bearer of bad tidings he was often the brunt of the ill humour of the recipient of the news. When a messenger brought to David news of King Saul's death, David killed the messenger, even though Saul was David's deadly enemy (2 Samuel 1:6-10).
Perhaps we sometimes tend to react in a similar way today. If somebody brings us good news, we invite them to share in our rejoicing. But it's a difficult and painful task to bring people bad news, for we are inevitably affected by their pain and suffering.
It was the same in the time of the prophets. Most of the prophets brought messages of doom and gloom from God, dire warnings of awful things to come if the people failed to heed God's word. And the prophets were often either ignored or treated very badly. Jeremiah spent years in various prisons because he dared to carry the word of God to the people. When Jeremiah opposed idolatry with all his strength, arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace were his lot.
But when second (or Deutero) Isaiah was writing from exile, roughly a hundred years after Jeremiah, just before the first group of exiles was due to return from Babylon to Israel, the message held a note of excitement and promise and hope. And this is reflected in the way in which the messenger is perceived.
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."
Deutero-Isaiah knew the huge excitement and the hope of the promised return to the Holy Land, but he didn't know what we know - that even greater things were to come. He didn't know that God himself would be born on earth in a human being. He didn't know that God would be so close to his people that God was actually within each human being through his Spirit.
For this is the promise and the excitement of Christmas; that God himself is within each of us, pouring his love, his joy, his help and his healing power into us. Around 2,000 years ago a baby was born who grew up to show us how that God within could fully inform our lives. Jesus grew up to show us how we could live a life which was totally reliant upon God and which was so terrific that it was a taste of heaven on earth.
The gods of ancient Greece may have had a winged messenger in Hermes who transported people into the next life, but they knew nothing of Jesus Christ who gives us that new life on earth as well as after death. Our Christmas hope, symbolised by a baby in a manger, is that if we allow the God within each of us to fully develop, we shall enjoy eternal life both here and now and in the hereafter.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings us that news!
