Rev Helen preached this sermon on Wednesday 17 December 2023 – the feast day of St John the Evangelist. Here it is for you again:
Today is the feast of St John the Evangelist, one of a trio that follow Christmas Day, on the 26th you have St Stephen’s day, the first martyr, on the 28th you have the remembrance of the Holy Innocents, the murder of children as depicted in Matthew’s Gospel and then you have this one in the middle, St John the Evangelist charged with telling the story (as we have heard the gospel today) and he didn’t even come to a gruesome, as it believed Jesus other disciples did, he died of old age, not that I’m disappointed you understand.
So who was St John Evangelist? It is generally believed he is the beloved disciple from John’s gospel and the author behind it. There have been several other candidates put forward, is it John brother of James, Jesus two disciples who wanted to sit one on his right side and one on his left, is it the person who wrote the letters that made up the book of Revelation, I’ve even heard someone suggest John the Baptist which would be a trick as he was executed before Jesus but could it have been his followers who formed a community who followed Jesus and recorded events.
I would be inclined to think it was a disciple of Jesus and in the gospel one is given charge to tell this story and possible started the community which produced the gospel of John which…it is what it is, this disciple, as depicted seems to be a constant and stable person with Jesus and the other disciples, there were some disciples who were quite hot headed, Peter springs immediately to my mind, you might think of another. John seems to me to be a constant and stable person who Jesus could rely on and after he was gone continued to proclaim his name. That was John’s mission and that’s what he did hence his title of evangelist.
This reminded me of another John, a John I got to know through dissertation purposes when I was writing about the Oxford Movement last year. This was a group of Anglican Clergy men who wanted to remind the church of some of the tradition, pomp and ceremony it had forgotten after the reformation (that is a brief summary of the 12,000 words I wrote on it). One of the key figures in this was Rev John Keble, you may have heard of him he is commemorated by the Church of England on 14 July, I really liked him. The more I read about him he had this same sort of role as the anchor, the stability, the official and accepted mouth piece for the movement keeping the more hot headed men under control like Richard Froude and John Henry Newman.
John Keble was also good at telling the story he wrote a book of poems The Christian Year which was compiled in 1827. In this there is a poem for Sunday of the Church year and other special occasions like the restoration of Charles II and the gunpowder plot so to finish today I am going to read some of his poem for St John the evangelist, now I’m not a great lover of poetry but I do like this one and it’s based on some of the gospel we heard today: When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’
1.”Lord, and what shall this man do?”
Ask’st thou, Christian, for thy friend?
If his love for Christ be true,
Christ hath told thee of his end:
This is he whom God approves,
This is he whom Jesus loves.
2.Ask not of him more than this,
Leave it in his Saviour’s breast,
Whether, early called to bliss,
He in youth shall find his rest,
Or armed in his station wait
Till his Lord be at the gate:
3.Whether in his lonely course
(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay,
Or with Love’s supporting force
Cheat the toil, and cheer the way:
Leave it all in His high hand,
Who doth hearts as streams command.
- Gales from Heaven, if so He will,
Sweeter melodies can wake
On the lonely mountain rill
Than the meeting waters make.
Who hath the Father and the Son,
May be left, but not alone.
- Sick or healthful, slave or free,
Wealthy, or despised and poor –
What is that to him or thee,
So his love to Christ endure?
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the billows past?
- Only, since our souls will shrink
At the touch of natural grief,
When our earthly loved ones sink,
Lend us, Lord, Thy sure relief;
Patient hearts, their pain to see,
And Thy grace, to follow Thee.
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 