Deut 5:12-15; 2Cor 4:6-11; Mk 2: 23-3:6

"We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure"

No doubt, like me, you have been told over and over again that we should study our Bibles more often a more carefully.

The trouble with this sort or of oft-repeated advice is that in the end it becomes a cliché or as it's now called, a sound-byte. Those of us to do read our Bibles regularly reckon that we don't need to be told yet again to do so; whilst those who do not, turn the proverbial deaf ear to the advice they are being given.

This morning, however, we are going to look at the alternative. Not a substitute mark you but something which can usefully supplement, stand alongside, cast its light upon regular Bible study.

That "something" is a hymn-book. For the present purposes it doesn't matter which one: English Hymnal, Songs of Praise, Ancient and Modern: all have a wide range of hymns in them and it's one of these hymns, one which comes in most collections that we shall be looking at this morning.

But first a few general facts about hymns, Christian hymns in particular, though the Old Testament also has many examples of hymns, notably the book or of Psalms.

But the New Testament has enough examples of fragments of hymns for it to be certain that when the early Christians met together for worship, as likely as not they sang hymns, providing they could do so without attracting the attention of the local police force. For Christianity was, remember, an illegal activity for many years, till AD 325 to be precise, and the fact that so many hymn tunes which we use to this day are based on popular folk songs meant that if the local Bobby rapped on the door during Mass in someone's house and asked what all the noise was about the person guarding the door could say "that's quite all right to Officer, we're just singing Ten Green Bottles" (or whatever the early Roman equivalent was).

There are three quite different reasons for singing hymns. One is a very mundane reason that people, myself included, enjoy it. It helps us relax, feel at home, and generally warms up the atmosphere.

The second reason is that hymns, like Liturgies and Vestments and Chalices and crucifixes are part of the Christian heritage. By using them we are consciously identifying ourselves with the whole people of God, past and present, in Paradise and on Earth.

But the third, and most important reason is that every hymn, if you look at it closely, is the source of easily accessible Christian teaching. Once you've learnt the knack of unravelling the poetic medium, and that's a skill any one can acquire with a little trouble, then a whole treasure-chest of easily remembered Christian teaching lies open before us. In a couple of dozen lines of verse, a good hymn can teach us more than two or 300 lines of prose.

So let's take the example the 17th century by Jean Baptiste de Santeüil "Disposer supreme and judge of the earth" is based on the second reading this morning, when it speaks of us as the "frail earthenware jars" to whom God has entrusted the riches of his grace

Here is the first verse:

Disposer Supreme and Judge of the earth

Who choosest for thine the weak and the poor

To frail earthen vessels and things of no worth

Entrusting thy riches which aye shall endure.

What does this mean? It means that God in his infinite wisdom and judgment has entrusted to you and to me the the riches of his Kingdom. God, knowing us to be like fragile earthen vessels, has nonetheless chosen us, as he has often chosen, the weak and the poor, God knows why, to be the carriers or containers of his grace to man.

That's why, for the Christian, the there are no "ordinary" people around. It is neither to the specially clever, or the specially good that he has confined this ministry. Of course the good and the clever have their place alongside the simple and the sinful; there's no "reverse discrimination" policy in heaven. But the fact remains that each one of us is in some way or another of vessel which he has chosen to use.

Look at the second verse:

Those vessels soon fail though full of thy light

And at the decree are broken and gone

Then brightly appeareth thy truth in its might

As through the clouds riven the the lightnings have shone.

God, in other words, expects us to fail; yet like any good strategist he seeks all the time to put these failures to good use. It's not his will that we should fail, but all the time he has what we might call "contingency plans" whereby the apparent failure is turned back into triumph. The most obvious example of this, of course, is the Crucifixion, whereby the apparently successful attempt by the clergy of the day to extinguish the Light of the World resulted, in fact, in the one, true, pure, immortal sacrifice by which the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world.

Hence, as St Paul says in this morning's reading "we are in difficulties on all sides but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been knocked for six but never killed". And in a different letter he writes "to those who love God, all things are worked together for good".

Like clouds are they born at do thy great will

And swift as the winds about the world go;

The Word with his wisdom their spirits doth fill

They thunder, they lighten, the waters o'er for flow.

Don't you get the impression of the tremendous power that the Holy Spirit is able to wield in this world by means of the frail earthen vessels like us? The unfortunate thing is not that God has too high expectation of us but that we have far too low an expectation of ourselves. It's not a sign of humility when we say "I'm sure God doesn't see me as anyone special". You're quite wrong. You are unique and he knows it!

Their sound goeth forth: Christ Jesus the Lord:

Then Satan doth fear, his citadels fall:

As when the dread trumpets went for forth at thy word:

And one long blast shattered the Canaanite's wall.

In this verse the poet switches from the image of Gideon and his lamp-carrying pitchers to another, earlier Old Testament image: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.

Jericho was tightly shut up. There seemed to be no way through or round it as Joshua led his people toward the Promised Land. But God knew otherwise. By meticulously following God's instructions, and for a long time with nothing apparently to show for it, the People of God were eventually able to walk clean through the ruins of Jericho which till then had prevented them from progressing. Christians hold one truth above all "Christ Jesus the Lord". From the very beginning, it was the Lordship of Christ which empowered them to turn the world upside down, as their opponents so bitterly complained.

O loud be their trump and stirring their sound

To rouse us, O Lord, from slumber of sin:

The lights thou hast kindled in darkness around

O may they illumine our spirits within.

There have been many bad times in Christian history, and the present time is far from being the worst of all. But even if it were, or to become so, there are lights coming on all over the world to encourage us not to give up. The problem is that most people are still only half-awake as to what's going on around them. They know they don't like it, but their response is to turn over in bed, close their eyes, and go back to sleep again. My friends, that simply will not do!

All blessing and praise, Dominion and might

To thee Three in One eternally be

Who round us has shed his own marvellous light

And called us from darkness thy glory to see.

God has called us, as St Peter says, out of darkness into his marvellous light. The question to one has to ask of himself is simply this: Would I prefer to stand in the light which God sheds on those who choose to accept Enlightenment, with all the embarrassment that it entails; or do I prefer to remain in obscurity in the company of those who prefer darkness that deeds are evil?

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