I am not sure who picked the readings for us this morning. I have to say that at first sight I was not very impressed.

From Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18. 15 - 20), we heard a snippet from the rules and regulations for Levitical Priests. It happens to mention that these priests could expect a future prophet, like Moses, with some vague threats about what would happen if they didn’t recognise this new prophet.

From the writings of the Revelation to John (Revelation 12. 1 – 5a), we heard about a pregnant woman giving birth in some extraordinary circumstances; a dragon with seven heads hovering around. Just what you don’t need when giving birth.

And from St Mark (Mark 1. 21 – 28), there is the strange tale of demons and unclean spirits causing mayhem in Church.

All this fearsome stuff is in stark contrast to the previous three weeks of Epiphany, where we have heard about the three B’s: Birth, Baptism, and Betrothal. We have rejoiced with the Wise Men at the Birth of Jesus; celebrated the Baptism of Jesus; and heard again of the generosity of love in the New Wine at the wedding.

So what is the thinking?

Well, for a moment we have to think back into the minds of those first Christians. They were surrounded by a great deal of evil. The Roman Empire in which they lived was a brutal society. The army could do very much as they wanted to keep the population compliant, and that included enforcing Emperor Worship. In addition, there were plenty of people around who thought that the Christian faith undermined accepted religious practice, whether that of Jewish thought or of the many Gods of Greek thought.

Based on this background those first Christians found life very much more difficult than we do in Sheringham.

For the early Christians they faced many obstacles to pursuing their faith in the new life of Christ.

From their Jewish friends they could point to the fact that the leadership did not recognise the new Prophet as seen in Jesus, and as foretold in Deuteronomy.

From their Roman rulers they formed the impression that they were like a Dragon with seven heads – fearsome in opposition to their claim that only Christ could be king in their lives.

And in their Gospel, the good news of St Mark, they were aware that all this bad “Karma” was recognition of a sort. Recognition that Jesus was a force to be considered – else why would there be this continuous opposition to their faith?

All this negativity was taken to show that even Evil recognised the danger to itself from the good news of the Gospel.

You can just imagine those first Christians finding this positive take on the evil around them.

Today, we are faced with much expression of evil. To be sure, we only need to watch the television news: war, violence, corporate deceit, unsafe criminal convictions; we could make ourselves depressed with it all.

But we can take a leaf out of the books written by those early Christians. The activity of evil only goes to prove just how much we need to live the Christian life. Our job is to provide the contrast with evil. Our job is to live the new life of Christ to the glory of God.

The Revd Malcolm France