tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52275109786166242602024-02-20T12:32:22.713+00:00The Vic's BlogVichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.comBlogger209125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-36208760064129978342016-06-25T14:22:00.000+01:002016-06-25T14:22:11.482+01:00Decision Making<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
Sorry, it's been a while since I posted here, but in the light of the referendum this week, here are some thoughts based on this Sunday's readings.<u><b><br /></b></u></div>
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<u><b>Fifth Sunday after
Trinity</b></u></div>
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Galatians 5:1, 13-25</div>
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For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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For you were called to freedom,
brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity
for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall
love your neighbour as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour
one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
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Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not
gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is
opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the
flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing
what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject
to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness,
carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you
before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with
its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be
guided by the Spirit.
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Luke 9:51-end</div>
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When the days drew near for him to be
taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers
ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face
was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it,
they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from
heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they
went on to another village.
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As they were going along the road,
someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And
Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another
he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and
bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their
own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’
Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say
farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who
puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of
God.’
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*****<br />
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Everyday we
are faced with choices. Some of them are easy: Shall I have toast
for breakfast? Do I fancy a cup of tea. Shall I wear this shirt or
that one? </div>
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<br /></div>
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OK maybe for some that's not such an easy choice.</div>
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But some choices are far more
difficult, and how we, as Christians, make those choices is probably
far more important than the actual decisions that we make. This last
week has seen the most momentous national choice made in a
generation.T here will be some
who are overjoyed and there will be some who are deeply disheartened
and worried for their jobs and their children's futures.</div>
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My concern though is not with the
decisions we make, it is the way in which we make them, about how the
big, (and the small), decisions in life are informed not by what we
believe, but how we allow what we believe to change us. The two
readings today work together to make us take a very long, hard look
at the ways in which we make our choices.</div>
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Let's begin with the Gospel reading as
our leaping off point, and in order to understand this you need to
know a little first century geography. The reading finds Jesus in
Galilee, the area he has made his home. This is the turning point in
Luke's Gospel as he begins to make his way towards Jerusalem in the
south for the events he probably knows will lead to his death.</div>
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So Galilee is in the north and
Jerusalem is in Judea, which is in the south. So what's the problem?
It's merely that the quickest way from north to south is through the
region of Samaria which lies more or less between them, and Jews and
Samaritans really don't get on.</div>
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It's an ages old quarrel that can be
traced back to the time when there was civil war in Israel between
the northern tribes and the southern tribes leading to a divide. Excuse the slightly simplified history of what follows.<br /> </div>
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Israel in the north was conquered by the Assyrians who took the
people of the northern tribes into exile and scattered them, hence
the ten lost tribes of Israel that some of you may have heard of. Judah was invaded sometime later by
Babylon and the same forced exile happened, but Babylon located the
Jews in one place so that they could continue their culture and
worship, and when Persia defeated Babylon the Jews were permitted to
return to their homeland, thus remaining one nation. However, in the meantime the Assyrians
had moved into the land formerly known as Israel, intermarrying with those who remained, and they had
brought their gods with them, but gradually they began to focus their
worship on the Israelite God, Yahweh, until we get to the strange
place where both Samaritans and Jews worshipped the same God, but in general the
Jews had low regard for the Samaritans because they weren't Israelites, or at the
very least they were of mixed race. So racial tensions ran high between the
two regions. Yet if you were a Galilean heading southwards, the
easiest way was through Samaria. In the past this had been no
problem and Jesus had spent some time amongst the Samaritans, if you
recall such events as meeting the woman at the well. </div>
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<br /></div>
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But this time
was different.</div>
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It was clear that Jesus was heading for
the temple in Jerusalem and the Samaritans did not recognise that as
a valid place of worshipping God since they had their own temple, and
so Jesus was made unwelcome in the first village he entered. This
causes James and John to want to call judgement down on them in terms
for fire from heaven. But Jesus rebukes them; he tells them
off. He recognises the spirit in which they have made that decision
as being wrong, being forged in the objectifying, dehumanising anger
that never lies too far beneath simmering racial tensions.
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If we turn now to St. Paul, we can see
a lot more about what those decision-making principles might be based
upon. Paul sets up a duality, that we choose
based on the desire of the Spirit or the desire of the flesh. If I'm
honest I think this is an over-simplistic argument. I know that in my
own mind I have to work very hard at discerning the foundation for
any major decision, but it seems to me that the easiest way to
consider this is that the desires of the flesh seem to have an inward
facing arrow and the desires of the Spirit seem to have an outward
facing one.</div>
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In other words, if I am making a
decision based solely on what I think is good for me, then it will be
an inward facing decision of the flesh. If I am primarily
considering how my decision will affect others, then that is an
outward facing spiritually based decision. That's why, in St. Paul's words, the
entire Jewish Law can be entirely summarised in one statement: 'You
shall love your neighbour as yourself.' </div>
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So the rule in decision
making seems to be abundantly clear, 'Am I choosing for my own
self-interest or am I choosing because I care about the needs of
others?'</div>
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If James and John had been able to set
aside the racial tensions between Jews and Samaritans and instead see
them as Jesus did, as ordinary people with the same hopes and dreams,
then they would never have dreamt of trying to destroy them. But
because they didn't love their neighbours they were able to objectify
them, and once you've done that you have dehumanised them and their
destruction ceases to be a moral issue.</div>
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There's footage of a lovely experiment
doing the rounds on the internet at the moment. It has been shown by
psychologists that if two people look deeply into each other's eyes
for at least four minutes, they begin to feel connected and loving
towards each other. The accompanying video has numerous people of
different ages and races doing precisely this. What follows is astonishing as the eye
contact forces people to recognise that the person in front of them
isn't an 'other'. They're not an immigrant or a Jew or an Indian or
a German or a Pole. They are simply people. By the end they are
hugging each other because they have been forced to see a common
humanity. They have been forced to look outside, beyond themselves. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XhrXUoD6U ]</div>
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Isn't it remarkable that even our
natural biological instinct seems to be to love our neighbour?
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We simply need to get beyond the
selfish inward desire to look at what 'I' want and focus instead on
what 'we' need. The choice of 'Which shirt shall I put on this
morning' becomes transformed into, 'Should I even buy this shirt if
it was made in a sweatshop?'
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If we give the Holy Spirit space, then
we should see Her fruit develop within us. And do please note that
St. Paul writes in the singular. All the attributes he mentions are
part of one fruit, not many different fruits.</div>
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So, coming back to our present
situation, there are going to be many changes in the future and it is
quite possible that a space has been created into which division and
factions may spread. That will surely happen if people like us
forget that on top of loving God with all that we have we have to
love our neighbour as ourselves and look to their needs and hopes,
whoever they are and wherever they came from.</div>
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May we grow in the Spirit so that all
of our decisions are based on the needs of others. I loved it when
one retired couple told me that they asked their grandchildren which
way they would like them to vote because they would inherit the
decision.</div>
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May that kind of spirit dominate all
our future decisions, that love for our neighbour forged in the power
of the Holy Spirit should be our driving force. </div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-31873115969199774342016-04-09T07:52:00.001+01:002016-04-09T07:52:23.068+01:00The Gaping Hole on Resurrection Day...
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There's a huge hole in the timeline of the day Jesus was resurrected...</div>
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<u><b>The Second Sunday of
Easter</b></u></div>
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Acts 5:27-32</div>
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When they had brought them, they had
them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them,
saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet
here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are
determined to bring this man’s blood on us.’ But Peter and the
apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human
authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had
killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as
Leader and Saviour, so that he might give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is
the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’
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John 20:19-23</div>
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Jesus Appears to the Disciples</div>
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When it was evening on that day, the
first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples
had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed
them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they
saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the
sins of any, they are retained.’
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*******<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">To
see what I mean about the hole in the timeline we need to look at what John records as having taken place. He begins this passage by saying that it was evening on that, the
first day of the week. So it's Sunday evening. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
timeline so far, according to John, is that at daybreak </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
morning </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mary
Magdalene has </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">arrived</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">at</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the tomb </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
Jesus </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
found it empty.</span></span> She's then gone rushing back into the city to the safehouse, probably
the same place as the Upper Room, where the disciples are holed up in
fear for their lives, to tell the disciples that the body has gone.
Immediately Simon Peter and the so-called 'other disciple', who most
of us take to be John, the author, run to the tomb. <span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
they get there and see that the tomb is empty, John records them as
saying, (</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
20:8-9), that they </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">saw</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and believed, for as yet they didn't understand the scripture that he
must rise from the dead. In other words they saw for themselves that
the tomb was empty and they believed, not that Jesus had risen, but
simply they believed that Mary was telling them the truth; the body
was gone. So they returned to Jerusalem. Mary,
however, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">stays
there </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">weeping
and thus perfectly places herself to be the first person to whom
Jesus shows himself. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">At
the end of the reading for Easter day it says that Mary Magdalene
went back to the disciples to proclaim to them, 'I have seen the
Lord'.</span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">N</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ow,
by my guess, if sunrise around this time of year is going to be
somewhere between 6 and 7am, that's going to be when Mary finds the
tomb empty. The tomb is not going to be far outside the city
walls and she's running. So maybe half an hour to get Simon Peter and
John out to see the tomb for themselves. Let's give it an hour to be
on the safe side given that they were all running </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">but
we don't know where in Jerusalem she'd had to go to</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. That
suggests that probably by 8am the two apostles have been out and seen
for themselves that the tomb is empty. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Therefore</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
by 9am Mary has met the risen Jesus and then hurried back into the
city. That means that by midday at the latest she has told them all
what she has seen. That's the end of verse 18, the end of the
reading for Easter Sunday.</span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now,
if it was you and one of your number came in to say Jesus has risen
from the dead, what would you do? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
see there is a massive hole in the day here, pointed out by author
Scott Hoezee. By my back-of-an-envelope calculations verse 18 has us
no later than lunchtime. But today's reading, starting at the very
next verse, begins, 'When it was evening on that day...'</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">J</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ohn
tells us that they were locked in for fear of the Jewish leadership.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you're not sure what this means it's because usually, when there is a
political troublemaker, one first </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">removes</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the leader, then you take out all the key followers. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
John seems to be suggesting that they had locked themselves away and
were in hiding for fear that this is what would happen to them. Y</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">et
when Mary Magdalene had first arrived there in the early morning,
Simon Peter and John had gone running to see for themselves, so they
overcame their fear of the Jews pretty swiftly then. And by
lunchtime Mary had told them the good news, yet by the evening </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">what
are they doing? </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They're still sitting inside with the doors locked.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
here is where there is a gaping hole in the timeline. What would you
have done if someone had told you that the Lord is risen? Would you
still have been locked away or would you have gone to see for
yourself? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yet
here they are, locked in their self-imposed safehouse.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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I have this mental image of Jesus sat by the tomb looking at his
watch and tapping his feet wondering why no one has come looking. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So
why didn't they? Why did no one else come and see?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
answer to that could be quite interesting. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
first possibility is that they simply didn't believe Mary. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
all they lived in a culture in which women could not be called to
give legal testimony in a court of law because their testimony was
deemed not </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
be trustworthy enough. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mary
had a track record of presenting as if possessed by seven demons,
either because she had been or maybe because she had suffered what we
would think of as a mental illness. Or maybe both. E</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ither
way, it's not impossible to imagine a scenario in which the disciples
listen to someone that they count as what we could once have called a
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hysterical
woman</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and simply dismiss her testimony as the ravings of someone whose
grief had put </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">her</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
back to the state of mind </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">she</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
had been in when Jesus had healed and delivered her. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Given
the male ego, it's not too difficult to imagine this as a
possibility. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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You could perhaps picture Mary becoming steadily more infuriated with
them.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
then, what if they had believed her? After all Simon and John
believed her testimony earlier on, so maybe they believed every word
she said to them. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Early
evidence suggests Mary was very influential.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Why then did they still stay put and not go searching for Jesus?
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Could
it be that, not only were they afraid of the Jewish leadership, but
maybe they were also afraid of Jesus too? T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hink
about it for a moment. One of them had betrayed him, although
admittedly he was never coming back so they could disown him. But
Peter had denied he'd ever known Jesus and the other disciples had
scattered as soon as it became clear what was going to happen. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
beloved disciple, we think John, was the only one of the twelve who
had stayed the course.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">R</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">emember
that when Jesus had first met Simon and 'borrowed' his fishing boat
to give him a platform on which to preach, after being on the
receiving end of a miraculous middle-of-the-day haul of fish, Simon
had said to Jesus, 'Get away from me for I am a sinful man.' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Simon
already thought very little of himself, which may have been behind
all the bluff and bluster. N</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ow,
with the events of the previous three days he had fully reinforced
his self-image as a sinful man who had turned tail and run away.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Remember also that the general impression at that time was that the
Messiah, the Christ, when he came, would be a political leader who
would deliver the Jews from Roman oppression, yet the disciples had
hardly shown themselves as decent soldiers; quite the opposite in
fact, despite Jesus' words to them to put away their swords.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So I imagine them as being a desolate bunch who are holed up feeling
miserable and confused, unsure of what they should have done and sure
that what they did do was the wrong thing, and now Mary tells them
that Jesus is risen from the dead. Given all of that knowledge, now
what do you think you'd have done? If it's true then Jesus is the most powerful man in the world and you
deserted him. Would you go looking for him? </div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Or would you hope to
God that he wouldn't come looking for you?
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So is it possible that actually they haven't gone looking for Jesus
because they're scared of what he would do if he ever saw them again? Is their fear of the perfection of Jesus inhibiting them from seeking
him out and being of use to the kingdom?
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
then note the very first thing that Jesus says to them after he's
become tired of waiting and gone to see them. His first words to the
disciples are, 'Peace be with you.' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Can
you imagine the collective sigh </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
relief </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
such a greeting would have elicited from them? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Can
you imagine the anxiety flowing away as they realise that he knows
them, he knows what happened, and that everything is </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">still</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
OK between them? G</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ranted
that in the next chapter he's going to make Peter face up to the
reality about himself if he's going to be reinstated. But
nevertheless, his first words to them are ones of reassurance.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So how is it for us?</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
see I think that, for many of us, in order to be effective in our
lives and as Christians, the words we most need to hear is Jesus
saying, 'Peace be with you'. </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
only is any kind of peace sadly missing from the lives of many of us,
there is also that simple need to recognise that the whole point of
the Easter story, the whole death and resurrection of Christ was all
about reconciliation.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
all boils down to God the Son being able to say to all those who put
their faith in him those four simple words, 'Peace be with you.' </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
those words convey a universe of reassurance. </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They
say to us that no matter how badly we have let God down, let
ourselves down, let our families or our friends down, Christ comes to
us and says, 'Peace be with you.' B</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut,
and it's a big but, it doesn't stop there. </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
is about a lot more than some psychological healing of memories.
This is about far more than some new age touchy-feely, 'There there,
everything's going to be OK.' </span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yes it is going to be OK. Yes it </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">is</span></u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
OK. But that is only the beginning of the story.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Look at what happens next. Jesus breathes the breath of the Spirit
of God on to them. Don't get caught up in the differences between
this and the Day of Pentecost right now. That's another story for
another day. Instead simply take note that following the decisive
statement of peace between them and him, between them and God, he
commissions them and gives them the Holy Spirit of God in order to be
able to fulfill that commitment. So much does this change them that before long, as recorded in the Acts passage above, they are willingly
standing up before the very people from whom they ran away, and
declaring that they obey God not human authority, and boldly speaking
out the Gospel of forgiveness of sins through Christ.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Now I get a bellyful of 'memes' on the internet which
say all sorts of lovely things that stroke our egos and are meant to
make us feel better about ourselves. But this, to me, means more
than any of it. Jesus says, 'Whatever has gone before, and however
much you will screw it up in the future, “Peace be with you”.
Now go and tell the world that there's peace between us.'</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-68805060097123881702016-03-27T19:40:00.005+01:002016-03-27T19:40:46.824+01:00From Passion to Easter: a series.
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>Passion Sunday to
Easter Sunday</b></u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
There is a sense of completeness that comes with a series of linked
sermons, as each one tells a part of the story in the build up to
Easter, and so here they are, one after another, beginning with...</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>Passion Sunday</b></u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Readings</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Philippians
3:4-14</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If anyone else has reason to be
confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a
member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor
of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have
come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard
everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,
and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from
the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by
becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the
resurrection from the dead.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Not that I have already obtained this
or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own,
because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider
that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what
lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on
towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ
Jesus.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
John 12:1-8</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Six days before the Passover Jesus came
to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one
of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume
made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her
hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But
Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray
him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred
denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because
he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the
common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said,
‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the
day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not
always have me.’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Address</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">What
makes you so passionate that you pursue it for all your worth? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">When
thinking about</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> Passion
Sunday, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">maybe </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we
need to look at passion as we understand it. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">When
I first met </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">my wife-tobe,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
I, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">unsurprisingly,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
thought she was very attractive. I also decided that she was waaaaay
out of my league. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">She'd
come back from a holiday and was looking very tanned whilst I had my
usual </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Arctic-</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">white
pasty face. Much as I was attracted to her, never in my wildest
dreams did I think she'd see anything in me. W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
also had a very different outlook on life and she came across as a
strong and engaging woman who seemed very comfortable up on stage
with nothing but her guitar for company. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I,
on the other hand, deliberately played a huge drum kit with lots of
cymbals and twin bass drums. This had the effect that when I was on
stage you could see there was someone behind the kit, but not who it
was. I couldn't see the audience and they couldn't see me, which
suited me fine. I was also the one who would gravitate to the back of
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a party</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
where I didn't have to speak to anyone. You see why I thought I
wouldn't have a chance.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Ali</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">son</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and I went away to the Greenbelt festival as a part of a small group
of people. Now remember that at this time I was a newly graduated
scientist who was very engaged in rational arguments. So had you
asked me if I believed it was possible to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">go
from attraction to wanting to be married to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">someone
over the course of a couple of days I would have laughed at you. But
that's what happened. I went from seeing Alison as a beautiful young
woman to realising that, from the depth of my being, she was the one
with whom I wanted to spend my life, despite our differences of
opinion on so many things at that point. You see this had never
happened to me before. I'd had a number of girlfriends and one very
serious relationship, but they had all sort of... happened. I had
never found myself in a position of wanting to pursue someone who I
thought wouldn't be interested in me. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This
was new ground.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ith
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">shared </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">musical
interests as a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n excuse</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
we agreed to meet after work one evening. So I </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">dug
out </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the nicest pair of
tight jeans I had and a really stylish white shirt and went to the
bookshop where she was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">then
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">working. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">As
I walked in through the door, she looked up and did a double-take.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">That
was a classic moment that remains forever etched in my memory because
at that point I realised that she </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">had
</span><i><u>seen</u></i><span style="text-decoration: none;"> me,
really noticed me. And so it began. Alison was the first woman that
I had ever really and truly pursued with a passion, and within a year
of that she was my wife.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
it raises all sorts of questions now. First </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it
ma</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">k</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
me wonder what others </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">have
pursued with a </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">similar
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">passion. I wonder what
you have gone after with all of your heart. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
then it made me wonder...</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">...</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">D</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
I pursue God with the same kind of passion? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Is
my relationship with Christ so very important that I wo</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">u</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ld
do anything </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">for that love</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Our
two Bible readings contain the stories of two people who made Christ
their passion. And I love the story of Mary of Bethany. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
first let me clear up a couple of points. Mary of Bethany was not
the same person as Mary Magdalene, and nowhere in the Bible do either
of them get portrayed as a prostitute. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
it is true that Luke has a similar account of a so-called 'sinful'
woman doing something similar to Jesus, but that was at the start of
his ministry and in someone else's house. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">his
account, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">however,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
takes place in the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, three siblings
who lived with one another in Bethany. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
also takes place not very long after Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead, a miracle which set his fate in stone when the Jewish leaders
saw what he had done. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">The
other thing that is probably worth mentioning is that there is some
suggestion that Mary, Martha and Lazarus </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">might</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
have been quite well off. First they had a family vault for burial,
but secondly because of the financial cost of what Mary did. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
just so you are aware of the value of the perfume, according to the
complaints Judas made </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
was worth 300 </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">d</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">enarii.
A denarius was a day's wages. So if the average wage now is
something around £24,000, then the value of that bottle was perhaps
the equivalent of £20,000 worth of perfume. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Of
course</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> it may well be that
Mary had saved up for a long while to buy it. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Or
perhaps it</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">was
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a gift given to her. It
might have been her life savings that she had </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">used
just</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> the previous week
after watching what Jesus did for her in raising her brother. But
whichever way you look at it, this was hugely expensive perfume. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This
was not a cheap gift.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">love
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Christ</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that much? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Mary
knew she owed Jesus everything. He had given her brother back to
her, and she would have known that this one action, more than any
other, would ensure that Jesus was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">likely</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to be </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">pursued by the
authorities and probably </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">executed.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus had put his life on
the line for the sake of her brother and somehow she needed to
respond with passion to that.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">her
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">act of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">passion,
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">of anointing Christ, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that
she demonstrated the love she had for </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">him.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Mary knew what was coming, and she wanted to show her </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">gratitude
to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">him in an incredible
act of love.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we have that kind of passion for Christ? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we want to have that kind of passion, because it is clearly very
costly. But then the more we receive </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">from
someone</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">, the more grateful
we become. I wonder how aware we are of what Christ has done for us?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">St.
Paul was. When you look at what is essentially his CV: 'circumcised
on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to
zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law,
blameless', what we find is a man who, from the perspective of his
Jewish faith, had it all. How many of us could say that, with
respect to keeping the commandments, we were blameless? Yet
everything that he had </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">achieved
he counted as rubbish when he compared it to knowing Christ. Even
the righteousness he had achieved he counted as worthless compared to
the righteousness that was counted to him as a gift from God because
he had put his faith in Christ.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we ever feel </span><u>that</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
passionate about anything, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">let
alone about Christ</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Of
course some might class this as extremism, but there is a difference
between passion and extremism. In extremism you want everyone to
follow you and do what you do. In extremism you are willing to
enforce your views on others </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
make them submit to what you believe in</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
in passion it's as if there </span><u>are</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">no others. You barely
notice anyone else because of the focus of your attention on that
about which you are passionate. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Passionate
believers in anything don't care about onlookers, just as Mary didn't
care. Being seen isn't a part of passion; it's far more pure than
that. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we get like that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">with
Christ</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we get like that with </span><i><u>anything?</u></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
There's a
frightening verse in the book of Revelation chapter 3 when Jesus is
speaking to the rich church of Laodicea. He tells them that he
wishes that they were either hot or cold, but because they were
lukewarm he would vomit them out of his mouth. Riches, all too
often, lead to complacency.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Sadly,
t</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hat </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">seems
to be </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">something we have
witnessed </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ince
news broke that we were being left a big legacy, giving has plummeted
to the point that even the interest earned on the money invested
won't close the gap </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">between
what it costs to run this church and what its parishioners are
giving</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. We are on the
verge of wasting a gift </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">which,
if used properly, could make such a difference in the parish</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">When there is a great
need to invest in people, instead we seem to see it as a way of
backing off our giving. Is this an indicator of the level of</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
our passion for Christ? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Or
maybe we're just not aware of the need. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
w</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">do</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
refer to ourselves as being created </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in
the image of God. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">And we
do think of ourselves as having</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Christ as our brother. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
if we want to look at what passion means, then it is his passion to
do the will of the Father and to open the gates to heaven which
should be our inspiration. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
is his passion for his friend Lazarus, whose death had moved him to
weep, whose raising to life was going to cost Jesus his own life;
that is passion.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
one thing that keeps coming out over and over again </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in
these stories</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> is
relationship. My on- going passion for my wife depends on our
relationship. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Mary's
passion for Jesus, St. Paul's willingness to count everything he had
achieved as rubbish compared to knowing Christ, these are stories of
relationship. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It is by
being in relationship with Christ that we will find we are driven to
passionately live as people of God. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">If
we are not engaged in that relationship; if we are not praying; if we
are not knowing and being known, then there will be no spark to
ignite passion, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">there is
only habit and duty.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
once again it comes back to the time we spend in the presence of God,
recognising the lengths he goes to for us. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">If
we are lukewarm about prayer, if we are lukewarm about worship; if we
are lukewarm about being silent in the presence of God, then there
will be no passion in our relationship. And if this all sounds
scary, and if it sounds like changing your relationship with God
could be risky because, being English, we know how passion can upset
our carefully controlled world, well you're right, passion is all of
those things. But my own experience is that, in those </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">rare</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
times when I </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">actually
manage to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">lay aside all
that </span><i><u>I</u></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
want and simply focus on reciprocating the love of God, then I
realise I don't care </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">about
the effect it could have on my life</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Nothing
is worth more then him.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Yes, passion can be disorientating because living like that changes
us, but it's a good change.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
for now, let us ask ourselves about passion. Let us ask ourselves
about how much of an impact on how we live does our relationship with
Christ have. And let us seek him with all our heart and be changed.
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
if you're not sure, then just take a step towards him and see what
happens.</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">*******************</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Changes</b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
(From
the meditation given at The Well on Passion Sunday)</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I read
a wonderful fiction book a few years ago in which a woman described
her forty year marriage to a much younger man who was contemplating
asking his girlfriend to become his wife. She said something quite
simple yet very profound to him: 'I have been married for forty years
to four different men, all called Bob.'</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Change
is a fact of life. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">It
is going to happen to you. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Alison,
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">my wife,</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
married a young scientist who, like she, wanted to be a full-time
musician. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">We were both hard
rockers at the time; she with her white electric guitar, white
leather jacket and awesome vocal and me with my huge mock-snakeskin
covered drum kit with double bass drums.</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">She ended up being </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
professional harpist </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">married
to a vicar. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">What's more,
this vicar, me, started his ministry from a quite rational state of
mind; not averse to the ways of the Holy Spirit by any stretch, but
nevertheless, a scientist through and through. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Throughout
my first few years </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">as a
minister</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, if you wanted to
look at my sermons </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">you would
see </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">an element of the
scientific method about the way I would write. But then, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
many of you remember,</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> my
sister became ill and died. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The
vicar that this church called was, within a year of starting, gone.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Gradually
a new one emerged with a somewhat changed understanding of the ways
of God. That was vicar mark 2. Mark 2 then went on sabbatical and
was then called by God into engaging with the otherworldly viewpoint
of the British Pagan community, something that the early rational and
scientific version would have found very difficult to do.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Change
and change again.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Change
keeps happening to us. Sometimes we curse it because we would like
the status quo to persist. We'd like to not get any older. We'd
like our youthful freedom to remain. We'd like to make plans in the
absolute certainty that they would come to fruition, and so on.
Change just keeps on happening, and most of it, so it seems, is not a
matter of our choice.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yet
what if I said that not only is change a part of life, but change is
willed by God?</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Note
this from Isaiah:</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Isaiah 43:16-21</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in
the sea, a path in the mighty waters, <br />who brings out chariot and
horse, army and warrior;<br />they lie down, they cannot rise, they are
extinguished, quenched like a wick: <br />Do not remember the former
things, or consider the things of old. <br />I am about to do a new
thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?<br />I will make a
way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. <br />The wild animals
will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches;<br />for I give water in
the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen
people, <br />the people whom I formed for myself so that they might
declare my praise.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
'I am about to do a new thing.' Those
are the words for the Old Testament reading for Passion Sunday, an
encouragement from God that he is going to accomplish something that
has not happened before. We now read this as referring to Christ, but
in its original context it was all about the people of Judah in
Babylon being brought home from exile.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
God does new things. But that does not
necessarily mean things that make life better for us.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The western dream is that you meet
someone nice, set up home, buy stuff, have a family, buy more stuff,
grow old together and enjoy a comfortable retirement into a sedentary
and comfortable old age of at least 90 plus, owning lots of 'stuff'.
But for God's people we are often called to a different way. And
change can be uncomfortable.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Change starts when something to which
we have grown accustomed is altered, and in Isaiah God says, “Look,
I am doing a new thing”. For a time we struggle with this, trying
to integrate it into who we are and finally we make peace with it and
learn to live with what has taken place.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The theologian Walter Brueggemann
recognised that there are three stages to how we respond to change;
<span style="font-weight: normal;">O</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">rientation,
Disorientation, Reorientation. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
wonder where you are with respect to these three at the moment.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">hink
about the life you currently have. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Does
it seem stable at the moment? </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Have
you reached an equilibrium? Are you happy with that? </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Have
you reached a place of feeling content that you are doing what God is
calling you to do?</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">O</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">r
do you feel like you're in a rut and need to do something different?</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Imagine
a landscape in front of you. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Parts
of it are completely flat and level. Might that describe where you
are at the moment? Might that be </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
way of life to which you have become acc</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ustomed</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Are you happy with that? Do you feel like you are in the place
where God has called you </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
probably doing what you are called to do at this time</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">?
</span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">You
can see a</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">long
hollow in the landscape</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">What might that mean to you?
The bottom of the </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">it</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
might indicate a sense of being stuck in a rut, of desiring a change
that never seems to come.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">There
are also slopes and contours </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
the land</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some
are steeper than others. You may feel that you are </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">in</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
need of a change but not too sure how to go about that. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
may be wondering whether God is wanting you to do something new. Or
you may be in the mid</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">dle</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
of a disorientating change </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">right
now and not sure how to cope with it</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">;
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">it might feel like you're
sliding down a hill and not in control.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And there is a
small hill. This could mean a number of different things. Maybe
this is a new place, a new orientation, at which you have arrived.
The view is good but you notice how easy it is to fall down the sides
of that. When you're getting used to a new place it's easy to feel
precarious there.
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But remember, all
new places feel like that initially. Gradually the ground comes up
to meet you, and slowly rises above your head until you feel you the
'new place' has become the 'old place'. The hill of a re-orientation
can become the plains of an old one.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So where do you
feel you are at the moment? And where would you like to be? <span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
what are you planning to do about it?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>Palm Sunday</b></u></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Luke 19:28-40</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When Jesus had come near Bethphage and
Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the
disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you
enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden.
Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you
untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’ So those
who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were
untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the
colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to
Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on
it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the
whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a
loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
saying,<br />‘Blessed is the king<br />who comes in the name of the
Lord!<br /><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Peace in heaven,<br />and glory in the
highest heaven!’ <br />Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to
him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I
tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Address</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Picture the scene if you will. It's a
bright spring day, but Jerusalem is up in the hills and there is
still quite a chill in the air, and so, as a crowd makes its way
towards the city for the Passover festival everyone still has their
cloaks wrapped around them. In the midst of one particular group
there is a man who is quite obviously the centre of attention.
Another small group of men are walking towards them, having come from
a slightly different direction, and they have a borrowed donkey in
tow.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Clearly the man at the centre has
planned ahead because he wants to make a statement.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And so as they stand on the Mount of
Olives, with a superb view across the valley to the walled city
opposite, with its colossal temple at the centre, gleaming in the
sun, some of the people put their cloaks over the donkey and the man
climbs on to it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As the procession winds its way down
the steep hill, others from their group grow so excited at what they
are seeing that they throw their precious cloaks on to the ground in
front of him. Now remember, these people have walked a long way and
camped out over several nights. The cloak was a garment that kept
you warm at night as well as by day. To throw it on the ground in
front of someone was a clear sign of honouring that person.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The symbolism, to any Jew of that
period, was clear and we should take note. Jesus was demonstrating
that he was a ruler who had come in peace despite the way the people
would treat him. Riding on a donkey was a tradition for Israel's
kings.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And so the disciples and the crowd sing
their praises to God. It's also worth noting that, whereas the other
accounts have the crowd shouting 'Hosanna' which translates as 'Save
us', Luke records no such thing. This is typical of Luke, as I've
been discovering, because he actually leaves out some of the material
that Mark has, despite basing his Gospel on Mark's. That's because
Luke has a different understanding of what's taking place, and more
about that will follow in the Good Friday address.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So here we are on a Sunday that became
known as Palm Sunday because of the exuberance of the crowd, and yet
just five days later, Jesus is hanging on a cross. How do you go
from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the wreckage of Good Friday?
One of the questions that we so often ask about this whole story arc
is this:
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
How could a crowd that was so full of
singing praises to God on a Sunday be so ready to shout out 'Crucify'
less than a week later?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The answer may be more simple than we
often think. They didn't. It's a trick question. I think it's two
different crowds. You see Jesus, like all good Jews living in the
Middle East, would periodically make the journey to the temple for a
festival, but Jesus didn't come from Jerusalem, he came from
Nazareth, from the Galilee region up in the north. And the kind of
responses we often read from the southerners about 'ignorant
fishermen' leads one to conclude that the residents of Jerusalem
probably thought of themselves as cultured and the Galileans as
ignorant northerners with funny accents.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So the scenario could be a little like
this if we were to re-imagine it into our own time and culture. In
the Black Country there has been a prophet with his broad Black
Country accent. He's been speaking out against injustice and he's
been healing people. Then he and his followers walk down, through
Birmingham, around Oxford and eventually into the middle of London.
As they approach St. Paul's Cathedral they start shouting out about
how God has come amongst them, and of course they are all speaking in
their broad accents. Meanwhile all the rich, white, well educated
middle class Londoners who commute in from Richmond look on bemused.
To start with they can barely recognise what the people are saying
because of their accents. Then when they do start to figure it out,
they just look down their noses at them. 'These ignorant Brummies,
what do they know about theology and God?' And in the middle of the
crowd there are a bunch of learned Brummie vicars, called the
Pharisees, who are saying to the followers of our Black Country
Jesus, 'Shhh, stop it. They think we're stupid as it is. They can't
even tell a Black Country accent from a Brummie one!You're not making
it any easier for us.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But of course, the crowd takes no
notice, and so the Pharisees turn to Jesus, who they know well having
verbally and theologically jousted with him for the last three years,
and ask him to tell his followers to be quiet, at which point Jesus
declares, in his broad Black Country accent, 'I tell you, if they
were silent, the very stones would cry out.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
However, over the course of that week
it all goes horribly wrong. The Black Country crowd start to see the
real danger of the capital city, and when Jesus is arrested, they
kind of melt away, like almost all of Jesus' disciples did. They
become overwhelmed by a new and louder voice; one which is angry at
Jesus and his uncultured ways.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
By the end of the week, using trumped
up charges and judicial trickery, the rich, wealthy and powerful
people have the upper hand.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Talking of which, have you noticed how
little the world has changed when it comes to politics?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And so when they shout, 'Crucify!'
there is no one left with the courage to sing praise to God any more.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So I wonder, which crowd would we have
been in? I wonder, would we have kept our nerve? When someone says
to you, 'Are you a Christian?' how do you respond? When the going
becomes difficult, who will still cry out, 'Praise God'? When people
poke fun at us, will we still remember all that Christ has done in
us, the ways we have been changed by the Holy Spirit to become better
people than we were?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So don't be intimidated by what others
think. Don't be intimidated when they say, 'Your beliefs are
rubbish.' Don't be intimidated if, because you are a Christian your
politics change because you know that Jesus always had a heart for
the poor and the disabled. People will mock us.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I think, therefore, that the tale of
two crowds spread across this week, is a reminder to us that there
are going to be times when we are going to have to make a choice.
There are going to be times when, even though we may be embarrassed
by our fellow Christians and what they say and do, we need to be
ready to say, 'You can mock all you want. You can take the mickey
out of me for what I believe, but it changes nothing. Christ is
still my Lord.' Jesus tells the Pharisees that even if he does tell
them to shut up, even the stones will shout out praise.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That's as may be, but wouldn't it be
better if it were our voices?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>Good Friday</b></u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Let me describe the vicarage garden to you. As I write this I can
see at least three large self-seeded ash trees that weren't here when
we arrived. There's a copper beech which is just coming into leaf
and blossom, several apple trees, one of which has forgotten how to
bear fruit so now has a nesting box instead, and there's a very wild
patch towards the end which is also host to a growing willow arch.
In front of the glass sliding door there is a large bird feeder on
which up to a dozen birds can be seen at any one time although at the
moment there are only three, and about four meters to one side there
is an old birdbath being frequented by a robin.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
All of this is true. I could go on to tell you that the grass needs
mowing and the weeds need weeding and that I've just seen a nut hatch
bully two long tailed tits, but that they're persistently returning.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
now, let me </span></span><u><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">describe</span></i></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the vicarage garden for you. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
fling wide the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sliding</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
door and step out</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">side</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
wishing that my feet were bare on the damp green grass. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
the door opens the air space I occupy is filled with birdsong. My
senses are almost overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and smells.
As the birds sing, so the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bright</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
spring sun warms the chilled </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">M</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">arch
air. And my spirit soars as a sense of joy fills the core of my
being. I feel the cares of the day fall from my shoulders and my
spirit gives thanks to the Spirit within me for calling me to such a
beautiful place.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Same garden.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
What I began with was factually correct, but the second telling was a
description of what the garden <i><u>means</u></i> to me. And this
is how it is with theology and belief. I can, and will, tell you
what it means, in so far as I am able, but I can also tell you what
it means to me, what my experience has been. Both are important, but
only one has the power to challenge us.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So let's remind ourselves about what Christians believe about the
death of Christ.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Our theology, at face value, is very simple. God is utterly perfect;
glorious beyond our comprehension. The Creator of all things, and
this is a big universe, is more powerful than we can even begin to
comprehend. Yet this Creator is also big enough to want
relationships with each tiny member of his creation (and yes, note I
didn't just say 'human'...) But there is a major difficulty with
this. Exposure to God, in all of God's perfection, would utterly
destroy us because we are a long way from perfect. Each of us knows
how, on a daily basis, we screw things up; we do the things we
shouldn't do or we don't do the things we should do. This is what we
call sin; the human propensity to screw things up. And so any
relationship between us in our sinful state and God in his perfect
state is impossible. The writers of the New Testament are then
explicit, that Christ died to save us from our sins; that in some way
his death and resurrection reconciled us to God. The technical word
for this is 'atonement' which is a compound word, 'at-one-ment', that
through the death of Christ we are made at one with God; we are able
to enter an intimate parent-child relationship similar to the one
that Christ himself had.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
The difficulty begins in how we understand that Christ achieved that,
a difficulty that is further enhanced because not only does the
Church of England have no official doctrine about the atonement, even
the writers of the New Testament and the church throughout the last
two thousand years has not been able to agree on how Jesus did it.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Permit me a moment to give you a very brief introduction to some of
the major theories, although I'll hold one back for Easter Sunday to
try and explain what <i>I</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
believe.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
In the early church they lived in a culture in which sacrifice was a
part of spiritual life. One would offer up a sacrifice to whichever
deity you followed in the hope that by giving up something of value,
so you would be given something of even greater value, in this
context to be reconciled to God: The principal of unequal exchange.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So for some of the early church they held the belief that Jesus
offered his life as the once and for all ultimate blood sacrifice to
obtain the forgiveness of our sins. The problem for the modern mind
is, why would God need a sacrifice to forgive sins? Can he not
simply forgive them if he is all powerful?</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
A second early model draws on a comment Jesus made in Mark 10:45
where he says that he offers his life as a ransom for many. The
question that has to be asked would be, to whom is this ransom paid?
Some parts of the church believed that we were held prisoner by the
devil in our sin, but that he released us from his clutches by
receiving what would have been a far greater payment, the death of
the Son of God, i.e. Christ's death was the ransom paid by God to the
devil for us. The devil was then thwarted when the Son was raised
from the dead. He got his ransom but then lost it again. Whilst
there are still people who believe this, again there are questions
about it. No Biblical writer says anything about to whom payment is
made. Many nowadays would question whether this kind of relationship
exists between God and the devil.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Then there are the more popular models which have gained ground over
the last few centuries, which are the substitution models. Here God
is presented as standing in judgement over sin. The penalty of sin
is death and so we can expect nothing more than eternal separation
from God. So far this makes rational sense, regardless of whether
you believe it, hence it's popularity in the modern scientific era.
But it is then suggested that instead of punishing us, God the Father
sent Jesus to be killed on our behalf. God the Father substituted
his Son instead of us and enacted judgement and punishment on him.
Now from a rational perspective one can understand how this works;
it's a kind of balancing the scales. Everyone deserves to die for
their sin and the only one who could die for everyone's sin is God
himself.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Those of you who are parents should be able to detect the problem
with this.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
It portrays a God so angry that he has to take it out on someone and
so he takes it out on his Son. Recent scholars have likened this to
divine child-abuse. Whilst many in the Evangelical church hold this
to be the only true interpretation, it is relatively recent in church
history and has massive shortcomings.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So can you see the problem?
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Christ's death and resurrection are central to the Gospel, yet no one
can agree on how he achieved what he did, which is the reconciling of
God with humanity. And to make matters more complicated, this year
we are studying Luke's Gospel and there is a body of opinion, not
universal but well supported by good theologians, that Luke has no
theology of the atonement with respect to the cross. Now if this
sounds outrageous, it's worth briefly mentioning something that many
of us are unaware of. Many Christians know of the theory that Mark
wrote his Gospel first and that Luke and Matthew based their Gospels
on Mark's adding material from a separate document called 'Q', and
also the fruits of their own eyewitness researching. That leads to
the assumption that what they did to Mark was to add to it. However,
in Luke's case that isn't true. Luke also deleted some aspects of
Mark's Gospel, and this was a shock to me, as I suspect it may be to
you.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Remember that verse I mentioned a few lines back, that in Mark 10:45
it says, 'For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to give
his life as a ransom for many'? Matthew has exactly the same thing,
but Luke does not use this verse. He appears deliberately to have
omitted it. What we get instead is a greater emphasis on the Holy
Spirit in his writings than is found in the other writers.</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
(I should mention that there is also a large block from earlier in
Mark's Gospel that's missing, but it is these isolated verses that
seem to indicate that Luke may have a different understanding of the
meaning of Jesus' death from that of Mark and Matthew.)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Now the debate echoes loud and long across theological journals,
between books and around the internet, asking the question, 'Did Luke
actually believe that Jesus' death atoned for our sins?' I would not
declare myself an expert on this by any stretch, and I don't want to
rehearse the arguments for and against in any depth because it seems
to me that the most important thing is that there <i><u>are</u></i><span style="font-style: normal;">
arguments.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
can have any number of discussions about how Jesus saved sinners
through his death on the cross, but the important thing is not </span></span></span><i><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">how</span></u></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
he did it </span></span></span><i><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">that</span></u></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
he did do it. I think the key comes in </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">Luke
23:44-46, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">t</span>he death of
Jesus. Let me re-read this for you:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<blockquote>
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole
land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed;
and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying
with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
'The curtain of the temple', what does
that mean? To understand it you have to know how the temple was laid
out in several courts. Furthest out was the Court of the Gentiles.
That was as close as the non-Jews could get to the temple. Next you
have the Court of the Women for Jewish women. Closer still was the
Court of the Men. In front of them was the Court of the Priests.
Then you got into the inner sanctum of the temple, and at the centre
was the Holy of Holies, the holiest place on earth where it was
believed that the glory of God dwelt behind a thick heavy curtain.
Only the High Priest could go in, just once a year, and the other
priests would tie a rope around him so that they could haul him out
if he was overcome by the presence of God.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That thick curtain, that thick veil
between the presence of God and the rest of humanity, that is the
temple curtain to which Luke is referring. What Luke is saying, I
believe, is not <i><u>how</u></i> Jesus reconciled humanity to God,
but that <i><u>however</u></i> he did it, something about his death
meant that there was no longer any barrier between us and God.
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">And
all of this brings us back to my description of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">my</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
garden. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I want to close with
a story about how I became a Christian. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I
don't tell this story often because I fear it will make people think
that you have to have some amazing experience in order to be a proper
Christian. I prefer to think of it as Jesus whispering to me for
years and finally getting tired </span><span style="font-style: normal;">of
me not listening </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and </span><span style="font-style: normal;">so
he began </span><span style="font-style: normal;">shouting. We need
to learn to hear the whispers.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">So I
was fifteen and, despite having been brought up by church-going
parents, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I </span><span style="font-style: normal;">was
beginning the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">well trod path</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
away from the church. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I was
discovering girls for the first time in earnest and just, kind of
moving on. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">M</span><span style="font-style: normal;">y
next door neighbour, Helen, with whom I had more or less grown up,
had become involved with a local church youth group. She kept
inviting me to things and I kept finding excuses not to go. B</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ut
one day she invited me to go to a film with her and her mum being run
by Youth for Christ. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I have
no idea why I said yes on this particular occasion rather than on any
other, but I did. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The film
was about how a pastor in New York got to know a street gang called
the Mau Mau's. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">He persisted
in telling </span><span style="font-style: normal;">them</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
about </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Jesus</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">over many months </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and
in the end many of them turned to Christ.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">At the
end of the film one of the local </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Youth
for Christ </span><span style="font-style: normal;">leaders, Andy, who
was </span><span style="font-style: normal;">only </span><span style="font-style: normal;">in
his early twenties, got up on the stage and said he would like to say
a prayer giving thanks for the film. He told me sometime later that
he had no idea what to say, just that he had to get up there. After
the prayer Andy asked us to keep our heads bowed and said that if
there was anyone here who would like to find out more about Jesus
then just to go quietly to the back of the hall and there would be
someone there who would speak to them. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">It
was at about this point in time that my heart started racing. I
remember thinking clearly to myself, 'I'm OK, I go to church. I'm
OK, I go to church.'</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And then I was on
my feet.
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Someone
told me I kicked over someone's tin of coke on my way down the aisle
and that I more or less ran to the back. I don't remember that, but
I do remember being met by a local Baptist pastor called John who sat
with me and prayed with me as I gave my life to Christ. The whole
time I was literally shaking and this went on for over an hour.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Helen's mother, who also
happened to be my Godmother, that's how long we'd know each other,
sat next to me and put her arm around me while I shook. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">From
there on my life changed direction quite dramatically, and I can plot
a direct line from there to here.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
point of me telling you this is simple. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">At
that point in time </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I knew no
theology. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">All I knew was
that now Jesus was in my life and I was saved. I didn't know how it
worked. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">I
didn't care. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">In
fact the model of theology that was explained to me that night, of
penal substitution, is the one that I like least because, as I've
said, it sounds to me like divine child abuse. But it doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter how I have been reconciled to God. All
that matters is that somehow, through </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Christ,
through </span><span style="font-style: normal;">my Lord, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">dying
and being raised, I know that I have been put into a relationship I
do not deserve and which means more to me than anything else.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">That's
the difference between sitting at the window and describing the
garden and getting out there and being overwhelmed by it's presence.
Doubtless, over how</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ever</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
many years </span><span style="font-style: normal;">are </span><span style="font-style: normal;">left
to me, my theology will change and develop, but what I want more than
anything, for me and for all of us, is an on-going life-changing rich
encounter with Christ that can happen in quiet whispers or loud
shouts.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">As a
middle-aged man I can tell you that these days he whispers to me
more. Perhaps I've learned to listen a little better. But this
means more to me than I think I can convey in words. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I
know that I sometimes have a bit of a reputation as a woolly liberal,
but that's only because sometimes I can't put mysteries into words, I
have lots of questions and I don't think God gives us simple answers.
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">But I
do know I'm saved, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and I do
know that Jesus did it. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>Easter Day</b></u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">John
20:1-18</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that
the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to
Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and
said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do
not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other
disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running
together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb
first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying
there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him,
and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and
the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen
wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other
disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and
believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he
must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
</div>
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But Mary stood weeping outside the
tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw
two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying,
one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman,
why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my
Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had
said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did
not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you
weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the
gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell
me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said
to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’
(which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me,
because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers
and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to
my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the
disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had
said these things to her.
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<u>Address</u></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
that reading from John's Gospel we hear of the first encounter that
the risen Jesus has with Mary Magdalene. Initially she doesn't
recognise him which seems strange to us because we wonder ho</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">w</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
she could not have known who he was, that is until we put a few
things into the mix. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mary</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">might
well have </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">held
her grief in the day before while she, with the other women, had
begun the preparation of the spices and ointments with which they
were going to anoint his body. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Those
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
us </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">who
have been bereaved know that there is a time between death and
funeral when we go on autopilot to do what must be done. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
that's how it was for Mary, w</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hen
she arrives at the tomb to find it empty that grief is going to flow
over her in wave upon wave, so her eyes are going to be flooded with
tears. It is also sunrise, and if she has been looking into a dark
tomb and then </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">turning
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">around
to see someone who may well have the sun behind him, she's going to
see a silhouette. On top of that, have you ever had that experience
of running into someone you know well in an unexpected place? You
know that initial disconnect before you place them? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
happened to me at sunrise last Easter when a good friend who doesn't
live locally came to the service as a surprise, and because I didn't
expect to see her, and the light level was a little low, I didn't
recognise her. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well
imagine how much more when you saw the person die two days ago. How
much more difficult would it be for </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">your</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
mind to accept what it's seeing. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
it is not until that moment when he says her name that she knows who
he really is, and responds saying, 'Teacher!'</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
wonder </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">how
you think Jesus would have said, 'Mary', and how she would have
responded with 'Teacher'. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Remember,
there is no punctuation in the original, so it's even possible there
would have been a question in her voice. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Would
there have been a long pause while the penny dropped? Would there
have been a 'Teacher?...... Teacher!!!' moment?</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
it strikes me that the most important thing about this is hearing him
say her name. It is not the name itself but the way he says it, the
way that only he can say it. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
is something deeply significant about hearing our name spoken by
someone special to us, but there is more going on here. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
is something deeper being hinted at by the speaking of her name</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Something
else takes place which makes us wonder even further about the
significance of this exchange </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
it's because</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Jesus tells Mary not to hold on to him </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
he's not yet ascended. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
might that mean to Mary and what might it mean to us?</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">think
it's this: Jesus has </span></span><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">named</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Mary in the first day of a </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">N</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ew
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">C</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">reation.
In this new creation he communicates far more by sound, by voice, by
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">speaking
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">our
names, than by seeing him. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">People
often say that they wish they could have been there and seen it with
their own eyes. Indeed that's exactly what Thomas said about the
first resurrection appearance of Jesus to the disciples </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">which
he missed</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
But that was the old creation. In the new creation the risen Christ
speaks not just to those who can physically see him, but to anyone
who wishes to hear him. By being risen and ascended he is able to
send the Holy Spirit in such a way that anyone who asks, who learns
how to listen, can hear him speaking. We don't have to hold on to
him because, within us, he holds on to us.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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So what then is this new creation?
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Well in some ways it is like the stories told of Adam, Eve and God
walking in the garden together. Remember, Jesus was arrested in a
garden and here he meets Mary Magdalene in another garden. The
garden motif is no accident. He shows her that in this new creation
it is once again about walking together, but rather than walking
alongside each other, through the Spirit, he will be walking within
her.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
then has he made this new creation? </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
is this new thing that has taken place? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Think
of it like this, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
this is what I promised in the God Friday address; this is the
closest I have come to in understanding what the death and
resurrection of Christ means</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
the mists of time emerges a story of God's intention that he would
walk alongside his people, but his people, represented by Adam and
Eve, continually put blocks in the way. We arrive at a point where
we have screwed things up so much that it is no longer possible to be
with each other. The perfect love and beauty of God has become more
than we can bear </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">because
of our human ability to screw things up, otherwise known as 'sin'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
so rituals were put in place to try and deal with this. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
Old Testament times, on what was called the Day of Atonement, or Yom
Kippur, the Jewish High Priest would lay his hands on a goat, called
the scapegoat. H</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
would pray on to the goat all the sins of the people, all the ways in
which they had screwed things up. Then the goat would be cast out of
the city to take with it all of the things that they had done wrong
away from them so that they could walk closely with God again. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With
time came a fear that, what if the goat came back? What if it
brought the sins of the people back into the city. And so the
scapegoat was taken out of the city and killed so that the sins of
the people would die with the goat. But they had to do it year after
year.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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This was a ritual that the people performed, and it didn't solve the
problem. And so God took upon himself the way to solve this issue
once and for all by sending his Son instead. That gives us a more
complete picture of what happened on Good Friday. Jesus, by the will
of the Father and his own agreement, becomes the scapegoat on to whom
the Father lays the sin of all humanity. When he dies everything
that we have done wrong, everything that we are doing wrong and
everything that we will do wrong, dies with him.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Some people talk of Jesus taking the punishment for our sins, but
it's much deeper than that. He actually takes the sins themselves
and destroys them in death so that there is nothing, absolutely
nothing, that you can do, or that you have done, that can come
between you and the love that the Father has for you. Nothing.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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But the story isn't over yet. In demonstration of his power over
this and to bring a new start, a new creation, Christ is raised from
the dead, yet is somehow more powerful, more real than he was before.
This is the new humanity, the resurrected body that can live in the
presence of God because everything that we ever did wrong has been
dealt with and destroyed.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
so now we are in the position where Christ calls each of us by name,
and walks within us. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
can speak your name and call you into the new garden where we walk
with him. This is why St. Paul wrote about becoming a new creation
in which the old order has passed away and everything has become new.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat's
why </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">our
</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">celebrati</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ons</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
today means we are celebrating the start of everyone being given the
chance to </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">begin</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
again, </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">just
like the three people who were baptised at sunrise this morning</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">All
we have to do is say yes, </span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
want to be a part of this new creation. And then it all begins
again.</span></span></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-5302501641038393812016-02-28T20:00:00.001+00:002016-02-28T20:00:24.470+00:00So... Do you feel guilty enough yet? (Third Sunday of Lent)
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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1 Corinthians
10:1-13</div>
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I do not want you to be unaware,
brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in
the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and
all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual
rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God
was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the
wilderness.
</div>
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Now these things occurred as examples
for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become
idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat
down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’ We must not
indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three
thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as
some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain
as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These
things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written
down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if
you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No
testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is
faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but
with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be
able to endure it.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Luke 13:1-9</div>
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At that very time there were some
present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that
because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners
than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you
will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when
the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse
offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you;
but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Then he told this parable: ‘A man had
a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on
it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three
years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I
find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He
replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it
and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but
if not, you can cut it down.” ’
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************<br /><br />
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Hello you miserable sinner. How awful do you feel about yourself so
far this season of Lent?
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Sadly, guilt can
be, and often is, used by religious organisations to manipulate
people, but Jesus doesn't work like that. His intention is that we
are changed and freed, not shackled. Let me explain.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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It is the
easiest thing in the world to make people feel guilty, especially if
they are people in church or in some religious cult. Christians are
generally, by definition, people who are aware of our own
inadequacies. The church has traditionally referred to that as sin,
but I prefer a modern definition: Sin is the human propensity to
screw things up.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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That's a
slightly abridged version of the definition written by Francis
Spufford in his book, Unapologetic, but I think he's right. Sin is
the human propensity to screw things up.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So if you're in
a church, the chances are you're already there because you know
you've screwed up, at least that's my reason. I know that the world
outside these doors tends to think that we come here because we
believe that we're better than anyone else. They think we're
goody-goodies. We know better. Or at least I hope we do. So we're
already half way down the path to feeling <i><u>really</u></i>
guilty.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
And the people
who put these lectionary readings together seem to be playing on that
too. Look at that reference to sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians.
How many of us squirm in our pews because of something in our past or
our present that we wish had been otherwise, or that the authorities
in the church tell us is wrong (even though we think otherwise...)?
As soon as a reading like this is trotted out, it's bound to
reinforce that feeling of guilt and to make space to be controlled or
manipulated.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Or in case that
doesn't get you going, then there's also a comment in there about
complaining. And what happened to the people who complained? They
were destroyed by the destroyer. Oo-er. Better make sure you never
complain then, and sit there in your pews doing whatever the leader
or the authority says you should. And if you have complained about
something, well, there you go, that's why you feel guilty. And we're
in the middle of Lent, so we are <i>supposed</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to feel guilty aren't we? Isn't that the point? </span><span style="font-style: normal;">W</span><span style="font-style: normal;">e
come </span><span style="font-style: normal;">to church </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and
the preacher makes us feel guilty and so we repent and go away
feeling all better thank you because someone has put a sticking
plaster on the wound of our sin. And I can make you feel guilty </span><span style="font-style: normal;">i</span><span style="font-style: normal;">f
you like. But I'm not going to. </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Now don't get me wrong about guilt. I'm not averse to my unconscious
mind or the Spirit within me warning me that I've done something
wrong. It happens most days. It's just that, despite what you might
have heard, that is not primarily what Christianity is about, and
it's not what church is about. Or at least it's certainly not what
<i>this</i> church is about. I will grant you that there are, sadly,
some churches and also pseudo-Christian organisations where the
leaders will use guilt to manipulate people, but that is not what
Jesus does in the Gospels, and today's reading make that clear as,
despite provocation, Jesus does not try and shame his listeners. He
is, instead, far more creative as he tries to show us how God <i><u>really</u></i>
works.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Here, when he is confronted with two stories about sudden death, he
does not do as his listeners expect; he doesn't blame people for
bringing down death on themselves because they were sinners.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
We don't know a great deal about what took place. The stories are
lost in the mists of time and there are no historical mentions of it
anywhere but here, but it seems that a group of Galilean pilgrims
were slaughtered by Pilate. We don't know why, but we do know that
he had a reputation for a casual brutality.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
And as for the tower falling, again there is no record of this.
There are steep inclines around that part of Jerusalem so it's quite
possible that a tower built there could fall. But neither of these
are the point.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
And notice that at no point does Jesus try and give us an explanation
of why these things <i><u>did</u></i> happen. All he does is to make
it clear that they did not happen as a result of sin. The people who
died weren't any worse than anyone else. This gives the lie to the
saying 'Things happen for a reason.' Sure some things do, that's
action and reaction. If I blow air into a balloon it gets bigger.
If I drive like a lunatic, someone might get hurt. But other things
happen due to chance. When something goes wrong and we say, 'What
did I do to deserve this?', more often than not the answer will be,
'Nothing, that's just the way the cards fell.'</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Take notice of that.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Jesus is presented with an absolute gift on a plate in terms of
making people feel guilty. It's an old style evangelist's dream, and
he doesn't take the bait. He doesn't use this as an excuse to make
people feel more guilty in order that they get down on their knees
and pray a prayer of repentance, which sadly, in some places, means
'Do whatever the leaders tell you.'</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
All Jesus basically says is, 'It happens.' Things happen and people
die. It's very hard to maintain this body as a living, breathing and
thinking thing. You have to avoid accidents, eat, drink and sleep,
not catch a disease that will kill you and so on. Staying alive is
hard. Dying, though, happens too easily. One mistaken action, or
being next to someone who's infectious with a killer disease, or
eating something toxic or whatever and the body dies.</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus
doesn't even attempt to explain why, perhaps because death was much
closer </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
people in that culture </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
a more accepted part of living. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">No
one thought that living to 90 was their right. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
what he does say is simply, Everybody dies, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">so
what will you do while you live? Will you have used your gifts? Will
you have turned and followed God?</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>This isn't about dying because you've done something
wrong, it's about living, and taking the chances you have been given.
It's about repentance and being the people we are supposed to be.
The question I think we are faced with is far more, what are you
going to do with the life you do have, not the guilt you carry? So
whilst some testimonies can sometimes sound like a person found
Christ and became successful middle class people with no problems,
sometimes it helps us to be reminded that Christ can really change
lives.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Sometimes it can help to be reminded of
this. This example is not meant to be a political compliment because
my political views are very different from his, but many of you will
remember the politician Jonathan Aitken who lied in court under oath
and was sent to jail. What happened to him next? Well, while in
prison he began to study theology having been on an Alpha course that
stirred his interest. And now? He has been the president of
Christian Solidarity for ten years. I still don't agree with his
politics, but he is an example of someone who began the long process
of change and of bearing fruit that lasts. And that brings us to the
parable Jesus tells.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now what I think happened to Aitken,
and I'm sure to many of us, is the kind of thing that Jesus is
telling his story about, because the parable is not about guilt, but
to understand that we have to remember that i<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">t's
a parable, a story that makes a point to ponder, not an allegory that
makes a point about God. The focus is on the fig tree, not the other
characters.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">I
want to be clear about this. </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">There
is a big difference between an allegory and a parable. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The
problem with allegorising a parable is that you end up tying yourself
in knots. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Who is the garden
owner? Is it God? Are we the fig trees then? He doesn't sound like
he cares much for us </span><span style="font-style: normal;">if he's
so willing to chop us down</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
But then who's the gardener? Is that Jesus? So is Jesus like the
friendly Son of God trying to placate his angry Father God who wants
to cut down the trees?</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">And
what if the tree is us as individuals? Of course that would play
well on the 'Woe is me, I am </span><span style="font-style: normal;">a</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
miserable sinner' muscle that we all have. But traditionally in the
Bible the fig tree represents Israel. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Oh,
then is this actually about God trying to get Jesus to make Israel
repent? But then what if it's about the church? Is that the whole
church or just our denomination, or just the Roman Catholics, or the
Baptists? Can you see how allegorising a parable is very dangerous.
</span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">There
is, instead, a far easier way to deal with this. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Notice
perhaps the most important thing. What is a fig tree supposed to do
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">according to this story</span><span style="font-style: normal;">?
It's supposed to bear figs. That is the fruit that is supposed to
grow on a fig tree. But it wasn't growing any figs. It wasn't doing
what it was meant to do, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">what
it was created to do</span><span style="font-style: normal;">. So
what happens? Well by rights it should be chopped down, but it
isn't. The gardener says to the owner, 'Give me some more time with
it and maybe I can get it to grow figs.' </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">The
meaning of this parable then is </span><span style="font-style: normal;">more
than </span><span style="font-style: normal;">about </span><span style="font-style: normal;">simple
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">repentance. </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">It's
about </span><span style="font-style: normal;">more than </span><span style="font-style: normal;">being
made to </span><span style="font-style: normal;">feel guilty. It's
about asking the question, 'Are you doing what you are meant to be
doing?' </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Are you bearing
fruit?</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> And if you're not,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">(</span><span style="font-style: normal;">and
please don't go straight on to a guilt trip that will tie you up in
psychological knots</span><span style="font-style: normal;">)</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
but if you're not</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> God isn't
about to cut you down and throw you away. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">He's
going to work harder with you to try and make sure you do. </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">W</span><span style="font-style: normal;">hat
are your stories? How did you come to be</span><span style="font-style: normal;">lieve
what you believe </span><span style="font-style: normal;">today? I
bet that if you look back on your life carefully you will be able to
see little things that happened to guide you to where you are now.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">So the question we have to
ask ourselves is, in what ways is the Spirit of God tending to me </span><i><u>now</u></i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to try and enable me to bear fruit?</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">We
have to ask ourselves if there are ways in which we are being
prompted, and are we responding? The voice of God is usually such a
quiet whisper on our souls that we can crowd it out with other things
very easily. Do you sense the Creator quietly saying to you, 'There
is more. You're not done yet'? </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Christians
don't get to retire until they put us in the ground.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">O</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ur
stories are likely to be different </span><span style="font-style: normal;">from
one another</span><span style="font-style: normal;">. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Some
of us will have gone through huge changes as a result of the way God
has met with us, and others of us will have experienced </span><span style="font-style: normal;">small,
incremental changes. But the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">changes</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
should still happen because the Spirit is trying to work with
everyone of us to help us produce fruit. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">By
the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to work with </span><span style="font-style: normal;">us</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
to try and change </span><span style="font-style: normal;">us</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
to help </span><span style="font-style: normal;">us</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
so that </span><span style="font-style: normal;">we</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
do start to produce the fruit that </span><span style="font-style: normal;">we</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
were designed to produce.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">So
what is the fruit you're supposed to bear? </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I
can't answer that one for you, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">but
p</span><span style="font-style: normal;">lease don't stop </span><span style="font-style: normal;">searching</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
And some of you are bearing fruit. But if you are wondering what
you should be doing, then pray; ask for guidance.</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Come and chat. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">I
can maybe help you ask the right questions, but ultimately this comes
down to you in your relationship with God and the commitments you
have in the world. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">What are
you going to do with the remainder of your life?</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">W</span><span style="font-style: normal;">hen
we baptise someone, as a mark of hope we give them a candle lit from
the Easter candle, the candle </span><span style="font-style: normal;">that
symbolises</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> Christ's light in
the world, and we do that as a symbol that we believe wherever they
are in the world will be better and brighter because they are there
shining with his light within them.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
If you are doing what you are supposed to be doing then your corner
of the world will be a better place because you will be the hands of
God. Are you and is it?
</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-91382693303530465342016-02-14T09:25:00.002+00:002016-02-14T09:25:16.266+00:00The Bible says....
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><b>1<sup>st</sup>
Sunday of Lent</b></u></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Readings</u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Romans
10:13</span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">For,
‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ </span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Luke
4:1-13</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Temptation of Jesus</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at
all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The
devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone
to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone.” ’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then the devil led him up and showed
him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said
to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for
it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If
you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered
him, ‘It is written,<br />“Worship the Lord your God, and serve
only him.” ’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem,
and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is
written,<br />“He will command his angels concerning you, to protect
you”, <br />and</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“On their hands they will bear you
up,<br />so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
<br />Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.” ’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When the devil had finished every test,
he departed from him until an opportune time.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<u>The
bad Bible...</u></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
wanted to call this, 'The </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bad</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Bible', which is, of course, intended to be a provocative title.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Perhaps
it would be better to use the phrase, '</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Bad</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
use of the Bible'. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Today
marks the first Sunday of Lent which is the season in which it is
intended that we look very closely at ourselves and our nature, and
what I want to do is to question the benchmark that we use to do
this. W</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat
I mean by that is, how do we know that something is right or wrong in
our behaviour? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
mean, sometimes it's easy. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
I walk up to someone in the street who I've never seen before and put
them in an armlock before wrestling them down to the ground, that's
very clearly wrong because it's a use of unprovoked violence. B</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
what if I'd done that because I'd just seen that person lift
someone's purse out of </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
handbag? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
take the same action, but now that we can see the motive for my
action, that changes whether it's right or wrong. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I've
done the same thing but now it is an act of protection </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">for
someone</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">O</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">r
how about this? This was a story I was told in a session on
situation ethics many years ago when, as a teenager and very
enthusiastic new believer, I went to a week-long Christian
conference. The speaker </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">spoke
of</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
a very shy woman, very quiet and who always had her head in a book.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, except that for her it
was a way of keeping safe from the world, of not engaging with it.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
then one day, quite out of character, she met a man to whom,
unexpectedly, she was very attracted. And again, quite out of
character, she had a one-night stand with this man. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
result of this single sexual encounter for the shy woman who never
left home was that her world suddenly opened up with a
self-confidence she had never before known and an experience that
left her wanting more out of life.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
so she began to live. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She
began to make something more of her life. She began to become
someone who socialised and engaged with the world. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now
I remember being very shocked, as a new Christian, to hear this story
at what was a charismatic and evangelical conference. Surely sex
outside marriage was wrong, I thought. And especially a one night
stand of uncommitted passion. Y</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">et
here was a leader who called that into question, and it began to get
me questioning, and to ask a question that </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
continue to ask </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">throughout
my adult life, which is this, what is the benchmark for right
behaviour? That is a question to which the answer you will normally
be given is, 'Well what does the Bible say?' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
that, I think, is when we begin to get into problems. </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">At
the beginning of Lent, w</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat
</span></span><u><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">does</span></i></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the Bible say? </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
mean we live in an age when Christians are fighting against
Christians about all sorts of issues, but especially about the role
of women in leadership and human sexuality. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Over
and over again I hear people say something along the lines of, 'The
Bible says that marriage is between one man and one woman.' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well,
yes it does... </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Eventually.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
it also gives the following examples of marriage:</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
were plenty of p</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">olyg</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">m</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ous
</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">m</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">arriage</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">s
where a man has more than one wife. Granted that the tendency with
time was to</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">wards</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
one man and one woman, but King Solomon was not condemned for having
too many wives; </span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
was condemned</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
because he married women of other religions and followed their gods.
</span></span></strong><strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
sin, according to what was written about him, was not the many wives,
but that he became unfaithful to God.</span></span></strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then
there was </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Levirate
</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">m</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">arriage
</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">where a
widow with no sons was married off to her dead husband's brother.
Children of that union were legally counted as the children of her
first husband. And of course, she had no say in this. </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
her brother in law was a brute, that was tough because her duty was
to have children for her dead husband so that there was someone for
his property to pass on to.</span></strong></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then
in addition to polygamy, a man could also have several concubines.
These were a kind of secondary wife meaning that any children
conceived had no inheritance rights. </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Following
o</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">n</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">
from that come </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
more shocking examples, </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">yet</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">
these are not condemned but were culturally acceptable practices. So
female prisoners of war could be forced to become wives or
concubines, and unmarried victims of rape were forced to marry their
rapists. All of these came about because women were treated as
property </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
the Bible</span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
This is something about which we violently disagree now, based on
ethical principles which we derive from our faith, yet those ethical
principles are fairly new.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
point I am trying to make is that, when we are trying to decide upon
what is sinful behaviour, it is not as simple as looking in the Bible
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">for
a verse to guide us</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
One has to execute judgement in the matter, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
have a good idea of the breadth of opinions expressed, and the
culture within which they were written</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
And this is brought home for us in the story from Luke's Gospel
about the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">temptation
of Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jesus
is tempted by the devil with three different temptations. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
the first one the devil appeals to his relationship with God. Just a
few verses earlier, at his baptism, Jesus heard God say to him, 'You
are my Son.' So here the devil begins with '</span></span><u><b>If</b></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
you are God's Son.' So he begins by trying to sow a seed of doubt in
the relationship he has with God; did Jesus hear </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
Father </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">correctly?</span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
second temptation is an appeal to be powerful and influential; all
Jesus has to do is ascribe honour and worship to the devil. But it
is the third one which most affects us here in the context of
understanding scripture because the devil quotes the Bible at Jesus</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Both
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
quotes</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
come from Psalm 91, and if you read the psalm as a whole it is all
about how God will protect those who love and trust him. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It's
a wonderful psalm and can be very comforting. But what the devil
does with it is to take that one psalm on its own and make a theology
out of it in isolation. If you throw yourself off the top of the
temple, the angels will catch you because it says in the Bible that
they will. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
often do we hear that phrase, 'The Bible says...'</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now
if you are of a mind to use the Bible as your benchmark for what is
good behaviour, and that in itself is </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">not</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
a </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bad
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">thing,
we have to be very mindful that this is the devil quoting scripture
at Jesus in order to justify a particular act. But Jesus rightly
quotes another bit of scripture back at him </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
paint the whole picture.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
And that is the essence of what I want to say here.</span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you use the Bible as your benchmark, then you must use the </span></span><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">whole</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Bible, not just a part of it, otherwise it will say exactly what you
want it to say. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There's
another example in the new testament reading from Romans where Paul
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">quotes,
'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hallelujah!
Praise God! </span></span><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">Everyone</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
without exception, who calls on the name of the Lord </span></span><u><b>will</b></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
be saved. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
know it to be true because the Bible says it's so.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Except...
Jesus says in Matthew 7:21, '</span></span><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
everyone who says “Lord, lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.' Jesus paints
a far more complete picture. It's not just about asking for
salvation, it's about responding and living as someone who has been
given it. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">To
understand our faith you need to know all the Bible,</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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So as we begin Lent, and as we start to consider the standards we
live by and how good we are at living to those standards, can I
encourage you to become far more fully engaged in learning the Bible
as a whole, not just the bits you can remember or which seem
palatable. Allow yourself to be challenged. If you are local to us,
the Pilgrim course for Lent is running through Lent on Wednesday
afternoons and Thursday evenings. I invite you to come and learn
more, that we may better understand what is asked of us.
</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-4007591772546517842016-02-09T15:39:00.001+00:002016-02-09T15:39:08.697+00:00In the presence of God
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<u><b></b></u></div>
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Ezekiel
43:27-44:4</div>
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When these days are over, then from the
eighth day onwards the priests shall offer upon the altar your
burnt-offerings and your offerings of well-being; and I will accept
you, says the Lord God.
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Then he brought me back to the outer
gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. The Lord
said to me: This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and
no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has
entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince,
because he is a prince, may sit in it to eat food before the Lord; he
shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by
the same way.
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Then he brought me by way of the north
gate to the front of the temple; and I looked, and lo! the glory of
the Lord filled the temple of the Lord; and I fell upon my face.
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Luke 2:22-40</div>
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When the time came for their
purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to
Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of
the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the
Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in
the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’
</div>
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Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward
to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see
death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit,
Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the
child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon
took him in his arms and praised God, saying, <br />‘Master, now you
are dismissing your servant in peace,<br />according to your word; <br />for
my eyes have seen your salvation, <br />which you have prepared in the
presence of all peoples, <br />a light for revelation to the
Gentiles<br />and for glory to your people Israel.’
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And the child’s father and mother
were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed
them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the
falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will
be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and
a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
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There was also a prophet, Anna the
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age,
having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage,
then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple
but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that
moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child
to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
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When they had finished everything
required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their
own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with
wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.
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*******</div>
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Richard Rohr said these words: 'We're already in the presence of God.
What's absent is awareness.' We're going to think about the glory
of God in his temple in Jerusalem and in the many temples of the Holy
Spirit now. But first, in order to understand the Old Testament
reading, we need some historical background about Ezekiel the
prophet.</div>
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As so often happens when we start talking about Old Testament
prophets, we feel a little confused because we think we know so
little. Yet there are passages from Ezekiel that many of you will
know or remember, even if you didn't know where they came from. For
example there's the one that Erich von Daniken was so fond of back in
the 1970s when he was busy trying to convince everyone that God was a
spaceman, which is the story of Ezekiel's calling to be a prophet
which tells of the bizarre vision he has of God's chariot with wheels
within wheels and strange looking angels. No, not a UFO, but radical
prophetic and Jewish imagery. And you may remember the story of the
valley of the dry bones, or at least the song 'Dem bones dem bones
dem dry bones.' That one is a prophecy of hope that God can even
bring that which is utterly lost back to life.</div>
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But there is no doubting that, like all the prophets, Ezekiel was
quite an eccentric with a vivid imagination on which God drew.
Incidentally, this is yet one more reason why we need to accept that
God's people come in a variety of psychological shapes and sizes.
The prophets of old, from Elijah to John the Baptist, were not the
equivalent of men and women in smart suits. But Ezekiel seems to be
among the most outlandish of all, and I wonder what he must have been
like to live with. We do know that he was probably of an important
Jewish family. We can infer this because he was amongst the first
wave of Jews to be carried off into exile in Babylon after the defeat
of Judah, and the way in which the Babylonians worked was to carry
off the most important first, to make a leaderless people in their
own country far easier to govern.</div>
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So Ezekiel was probably reasonably high-born. This is perhaps the
reason why, unlike Isaiah and Jeremiah, his book is much easier to
follow because it is almost entirely written in dated order, with
only a couple of prophecies seemingly out of place. He was an
intelligent man who knew how to write.</div>
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And his book is divided into two halves, both written in Babylon.
The first chunk of the book is full of doom and is addressed to the
Jewish nationalists remaining in Judah, warning them of the coming
destruction of Jerusalem, perhaps to warn them off the rampant
nationalism that would get them all killed by the Babylonians.
Suffice it to say that didn't work. After the fall of Jerusalem,
however, the prophecies turn to become ones of hope, beginning with
the valley of dry bones, and of a return to Jerusalem, and that is
the context in which today's reading falls.
</div>
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</div>
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But it is also worth mentioning that the Jews learned a very
important lesson in exile, that worship of YHWH could take place in a
different land; that their God was still God even though they
couldn't worship him in their temple. This was a massive change in
religious practice because hitherto all nations had local deities,
but the Jews in exile discovered that YHWH was not local and he could
still hear and answer their prayers. This was the environment in
which Jewish monotheism began to develop more fully. Yet despite
that, there was a yearning to return to the temple to worship because
that was where they felt the presence of God dwelt, and that brings
us to the subject at hand today. In order to understand it, though,
we need to turn back a number of chapters to an earlier episode in
the book.</div>
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Way back in chapter 10, Ezekiel was writing about Jerusalem during
the time before it was laid waste. And he tells of a horrific
occurrence for a Jew of that period who was focussed on the temple,
as he describes how the glory of God left the temple, heading east,
because of the behaviour of his people. After that event, Jerusalem
fell. Then we start to hear messages of hope from Ezekiel until
finally in chapter 43 he describes the awesome beginning of the
return of the glory of God to his temple as he hears, from some
distance, coming out of the east from whence he left, the sound of
mighty waters. Finally his vision culminates in the last verse of
today's reading: '...and I looked, and lo! the glory of the Lord
filled the temple of the Lord; and I fell upon my face.' This was a
vision of hope for the future, that one day there would come a time
when God would return to his temple, and the only response that
Ezekiel could do was to fall down on his face and worship. YHWH was
back.</div>
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Our Gospel reading comes from almost six hundred years later, a time
of Roman rather than Babylonian rule, in a rebuilt Jerusalem with a
rebuilt temple. Once again this is the focus for Jewish worship,
although the lessons learned in exile in Babylon mean that worship
also took place in synagogues all over the country. Nevertheless the
temple was the main focus. The reading finds us with an eight day
old Jesus, about to be circumcised, and because he was Mary's first
born, under Jewish law he was to be offered before God at the temple.
</div>
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Now the temple was a busy place. The plaza on which the temple was
built was huge and would have been about 480 x 300 metres, with
various courts that one could enter depending on whether one was a
Gentile, a Jew, a Jewish male, a priest or the High Priest, with each
court being closer to the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of
the temple. This was not like a little quiet and private family
baptism in church on a Sunday afternoon. There would have been lots
of people around, and so Mary and Joseph, two faceless, anonymous
peasants, like many before and after them, enter the temple courts to
bring Jesus to be named and circumcised by a priest.</div>
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</div>
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Enter Simeon, a man of great age who was devout in his prayers and
righteous in his life. Here was a man so aware of God that he had
heard the voice of the Spirit telling him that he would not die until
he saw the one anointed to save the people. That morning the Spirit
had moved him to go to the temple and there he saw Jesus, and then he
knew, this was the one for whom he had been waiting all his life. So
he takes up the little baby in his arms before his astonished parents
and declares the words we sing almost every Sunday night at Evensong,
'‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according
to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have
prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to
the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’</div>
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Can you see the implication that this is tied to the vision of
Ezekiel? Can you see how this could be interpreted as the fulfilment
of the prophecy of the return of the glory of God to his temple? Yet
the glory of God seems different to an onlooker to how it seemed to
Ezekiel. To Ezekiel there is the sound of many waters, a rush of
noise, but to Simeon there is a quiet voice; 'Go and see Simeon. Go
into the temple now and watch. That for which you have waited all
your life is to be revealed in the temple today.'</div>
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We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.</div>
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And then there is Anna, another prophet, an eighty four year old
woman of unceasing prayer, a woman so incredibly aware of God that
the moment in which Jesus entered the temple would be forever etched
on her consciousness as she felt pulled to the glory of God,
returning to his temple.
</div>
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Yet how many others knew? Just Simeon the devout and Anna the
prophet. The glory of God visits his temple again but only two
people, not even his parents are aware of it. They know the truth of
what Richard Rohr says: We're already in the presence of God. What's
absent is awareness.</div>
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And it makes me wonder, just how often do we miss the glory of God?
How often, in our busy troubled lives, does God walk right by us and
we simply don't see because we're looking the other way?</div>
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Or not even looking at all?</div>
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We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.</div>
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</div>
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So how then do we gain this awareness? Is it through attending
church every Sunday? Nope, Simeon wasn't in the temple when he was
called there that day, and there were plenty of other people,
presumably including a very bemused priest about to do the
circumcision, who were there in the temple, as they were on every
sabbath, but they didn't see either.</div>
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</div>
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We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.</div>
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</div>
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Anna and Simeon are our answers to this puzzle of awareness. They
practiced the presence of God. They <i><u>knew</u></i><span style="font-style: normal;">
what God felt like because of the amount of time they had spent in
God's presence. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">If you take
a look at other believers, what do you see? </span><span style="font-style: normal;">St.
Paul reminds us that our bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit. God
is here in the midst of us, in the centre of each one of us, as we
sit here with the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Your heart is the
Holy of Holies; your core is the dwelling place of God. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Maybe
God came to you like the sound of rushing waters, as Ezekiel
experienced. Or maybe you never knew God was there until this
moment.</span></div>
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We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">And when we </span><span style="font-style: normal;">share
in communion together, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">in is
t</span><span style="font-style: normal;">he on-going sacrament of the
presence of Christ in and amongst his people, as we take his body and
his blood into us to make it a part of us.</span></div>
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We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.</div>
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</div>
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So let us learn the practice of being still. Let us learn to notice
God by slowing our selves down and gazing; gazing at each other;
gazing within; gazing at the world God inhabits. This, then, is how
we learn what God asks of each of us. Because God is already here,
already calling.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
We're already in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness.
</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-49808704737721249392016-01-03T18:31:00.001+00:002016-01-03T18:31:14.416+00:00Ontology and Functionality : Being changed in who we are and what we do
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
John 1:10-18</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
He was in the world, and the world came
into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to
what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all
who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become
children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the
flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And the Word became flesh and lived
among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s
only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried
out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks
ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we
have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever
seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s
heart, who has made him known.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
*****<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">In
the run-up to Christmas we all had the joys of looking for Christmas
cards for our nearest and dearest. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
quite enjoy this process and can </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">sometimes
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">be found sniggering
quietly in the card shop at all the cards that wouldn't be suitable
to give to Alison, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">but
which are amusing nevertheless. B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
every year, at both Christmas and again at Valentine's, there are
cards that start with the question, 'What is a wife?'. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
find myself </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">thinking</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that if I gave that to Alison, when she opened it she'd look at me
and say, 'Well if you don't know by now sunshine, then what have you
been doing these last 26 years?!'</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t
does, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">however,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
raise an interesting point with that question, 'What is?' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
psalmist uses it in awe of the expanse of God when he writes, 'What
are we that you should be mindful of us; mere human beings that you
should seek us out?' </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n
philosophical terminology this is all about ontology and
functionality. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Let me
explain: </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ontology is what
you are, and functionality is what you do; what flows out of what you
are. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">So ontologically I
am a human. My function, what I do as a human, is to grow, to learn,
to work, to love, and, for many humans, to make more of our species. We
often have eight-legged friends in our house who ontologically are
spiders. Their function is to catch flies and eat them. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">You
get the idea. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
what I want to think about is how, through Christ, God
changed our </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">human </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ontology
from children of men and women to being children of God, and in so
doing he </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">also </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">changed
our function in the world. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he Gospel reading describes a clear </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">difference
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">between us and Christ himself</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This passage from the
beginning of John's Gospel sets out something which shows a clear
ontological distinction between what we </span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">are</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and what we </span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">can be</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
as children of God, and what Jesus </span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
as Son of God. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
distinction comes </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">from a
comparison in what we can read </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">at
the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">beginning and the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">end
of the passage. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">At the
beginning we have 'But to all who received him, who believed in his
name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of
blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.'</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">'Children
of God': </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in Greek it says
'tekna' - children, 'theou' - of God</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">In the Old Testament you
find similar phrases, although usually it refers to 'sons of God', a
phrase often applied to a king or someone who has shown themselves to
be distinctly holy.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
at the end of th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
paragraph we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">read of how</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Jesus, the Word of God, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">being described
differently. Here the writer says, 'It is God the only Son, who is
close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
key phrase here is 'God the only son.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
Greek it says 'monogen</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ē</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">s'
- only begotten, 'Theos' - God. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
difference is between </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Children</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><u>of</u></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
and </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">God
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><u>the</u></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Son</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
There is a clear </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">distinction. Jesus is ontologically different from us.
We can become daughters and sons </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><u>of</u></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God, but </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">only
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
is God </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><u>the</u></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Son. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
are, and forever will be, created beings. He, on the other hand, is
uncreated, and through him everything that has been made was created. The
reason this is important in what John is saying is that it is because
it is only God the Son, </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
Word, who is himself divine,</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
who can transform children of men and women into being children of
God. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
can effect an ontological change in who we are.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
We will also
remain ontologically different from Jesus because he is God <u>the</u>
Son, whereas we are children <u>of</u> God. But we become more like
him, more like God, and that is what is intended; that was the whole
point of the incarnation, that we are ontologically changed from
children of people to children of God, a miracle that could happen
because the God the Son became a son of Mary, or as he sometimes
called himself, 'Son of Man.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
How has he
changed our ontology from children of humans to children of God? </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
It
began with being born as one of us, born into our humanity. He lived
a human life, so it continued through the process of growing up. It
became focussed through his earthly ministry towards his death, and
then more sharply focussed at his resurrection.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
That was the
key, because when he died, the earthly body that died was clearly
made of the stuff of this world; his physicality was as a son of
Adam. But his resurrection body was different. He could still eat
and drink, but now he could appear in a locked room or disappear at
will. This new body was somehow more than the old one. This new
body was immortal.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
The final part
of the change he brought to humanity was his ascension to heaven, and
this is crucial; Jesus, when he ascended to heaven, did not leave his
risen humanity behind but took it with him; his humanity was
incorporated into the Godhead. In this way a door was opened and an
invitation given, that the children born of dust could be adopted
into heaven to be children of God.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
But an
ontological change implies a functional change as well. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Something,
or some things, begin to change in what we are to do here on earth as
we live out this life. To understand the changes in function we need
to look at the life of Jesus. If we are adopted into his family and
become children of God, and if the Spirit of God dwells within us,
then we should be being gradually changed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Jesus was and is
a lot of things, but his main function here on earth, it seems to me,
was to take evil out of the world. To challenge it where necessary,
to respond to suffering, and to pro-actively work to improve the
lives of others and their relationship with God. The clearest
focus for that was on the cross when he took on to himself all the
worst that humanity could dish out, and he didn't respond. It didn't
go any further than him. He absorbed it and took it into death with
him when he died. The key thing
about that was that he didn't reflect it back. It was in his power
to respond, to draw deeply on heaven's well throughout his ordeal,
but he didn't. You could think of him as being like a black hole
with the ultimate event horizon. Evil is sucked in and lost forever.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
So if we are to
be like him, if we are ontologically changed to be children of God,
then it strikes me that our function on this planet should be related
to his. In practical terms I think you can divide it into responses
to evil and responses to suffering. Where we can limit evil we
should.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
But it can also
be a willingness to permit evil to go no further than you. So if
someone tells you some juicy gossip, you simply don't pass it on. If
someone cuts you up when you're driving, you let it go. We are to be
people with no thought of revenge because in so doing we quite
literally take evil out of the world. Do, of course,
remember that not enacting vengeance is not the same as there being
no justice, but even there perhaps we should be thinking more of
restorative justice rather retributive justice. How can our prison
systems be made to work so that people climb out of crime rather than
prisons being a place where people can learn to be better criminals?
To do such things are Christlike.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Similar
questions come with a response to suffering. How can we pro-actively
divert some of our energies to helping others in their need? Those
things become our motivators in how we live out our lives.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
I recognise that
this is a complex issue, but remember this; you are already sons and
daughters of God. That is what Christ accomplished by his
incarnation. The challenge to all of us is to think about what that
means in terms of how we live. A change in ontology should lead to a
change in functionality.If we are being changed in who we are, then we should be being changed in what we do, especially with regards to others.</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-54037651104232692762016-01-03T18:19:00.000+00:002016-01-03T18:19:51.240+00:00John the Apostle (First Sunday of Christmas)
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John 21:19-25</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After this Jesus said to Peter, ‘Follow
me.’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom
Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to
Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to
betray you?’ 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!’ So the rumour spread
in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not
say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he
remain until I come, what is that to you?’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is the disciple who is testifying
to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony
is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if
every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself
could not contain the books that would be written.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
*****<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I remember,
as a teenager, going to a big evangelical charismatic Christian
conference where there were lots of seminars and teachings taking
place during the day, a huge big top for three or four thousand
people to share in worship in the evening, and then entertainment
went on into the night. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot as a
young Christian. But one memory that has stuck with me
was sitting in a session with a speaker who was a 'Famous Christian'
but who, whilst he was a great writer, wasn't actually a terribly good speaker. I remember
wondering if I could do a better job, which sounds really arrogant,
but, hey, I was just a teenager. I realise of course, as I think I did
then, that this was just a young man's desire to be noticed, to be
important, something that, hopefully, most of us grow out of, because
it is only if we can leave behind such shallow ambition that we can
actually become the people that God calls us to be. Nevertheless that is one occasion in my
mind when instead of pondering what I should do with my life, I
wondered about what someone else was doing and wanted to do their
job.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And it seems to me that this is what's
taking place in the last part of John's Gospel on this day when we
focus on John the Apostle. We can see what seems to be the first
step on diverging paths between the apostles John and Peter which is
triggered by the question Peter asks Jesus.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The scenario appears to be this. Jesus
says to Peter, 'Follow me', and the <u>very</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
next thing that Peter does is to look behind him at John the apostle,
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">who most believe to be </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
disciple who Jesus loved. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus
has just reinstated Peter after Peter's denial about knowing him the
night he was arrested </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">yet
it's John who capture's Peter's attention</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">There
are several occasions in the New Testament where </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Peter
seems to be preoccupied by other people, their </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">opinions</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
about him, whether they will get a better deal than he will, and what
effect that will have on his future, but Jesus is quite firm with him
and requires of him that he takes his eyes off others and looks at
him. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span>he
main thrust of this is Jesus saying to Peter, 'Don't look at someone
else's calling; simply follow me.' The reason for this was that John
and Peter had two totally different callings. Both were apostles,
but Jesus wanted different things from them, as history, stories that
were handed down and myth bears out.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It can be a little difficult to be sure
of what took place after the events recorded in the Gospels and Acts,
but we know enough to believe that they eventually went in two very
different directions. To begin with Peter and John were both
based in Jerusalem, but they both gradually went further afield.
Peter, despite his apparent insecurities, took up the role given to
him by Christ as the leader of the apostles. He preached a massive
and very public sermon on the day of Pentecost, and was instrumental
in the Gospel being taken out to the Gentiles, a huge and courageous
step for a Jew. Peter eventually went to Antioch with
his family and there are claims that his descendants still live
there. Ultimately it seems that he arrived in Rome where he was
crucified under the reign of Nero.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So despite his failings and his
insecurities, Peter stuck it out to the end. Being fully aware of
not having reached the heights of perfection, even in his death he
chose humility, asking to be crucified upside down for he felt
unworthy to die like Christ.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But John had a very different journey. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John, it appears, was the only one of the remaining apostles not to
die the death of a martyr. When we first meet him it is as the
brother of James, another apostle. Jesus called them the 'Sons of
Thunder' which may have been a dig at their tempers or alternatively
it may have been an encouraging comment, perhaps suggesting that they
were normally quiet people, but that Jesus knew their voices would
eventually be loudly heard. They were also part of the inner circle
of three disciples, the other being Peter, indicating a very strong
bond with Jesus. So strong was their friendship that John was the
only disciple with sufficient courage to stay at the foot of the
cross with the women after the others had fled.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After the events recorded in the
Gospels and Acts we have to turn to extra-biblical sources to ponder
what happened next to John. It seems that he was in Jerusalem for
about twelve years until persecution drove the disciples out. From
there it seems likely that he found his way to the Christian
community in Ephesus. That seems to be where he settled and
there is some thought that it was under the community's encouragement
that he wrote his account of the life of Jesus. You might have
noticed that the penultimate verse in today's reading says, 'This is
the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them,
and <i><u>we</u></i> know that his testimony is true.' Who was the 'we'? Quite possibly it
was his community. This lends support to the idea that all of the
writings attributed to John the apostle came out of this community,
and although there are differences in style, certainly there is a
strong case to be made that the Gospel of John and letters of John
are closely related but not from the same author. In fact there is a body of thought that
even the Gospel was written by a number of people working together
out of the Ephesus community using John the Apostle as their primary
source. There are also stories that he trained
Polycarp who went on to be the Bishop or Smyra and who in turn taught
Iraneus, both of whom were very influential in the early church.
John probably died of old age in 98AD, a year that works well with
the tradition that he was the youngest of the apostles.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Trying to look back through twenty
centuries of history means it is perilously difficult to be sure
about much of this, but when we look at the writings attributed
either to John or his community, what we find are works of profound
depth, with layers of meaning there to be discovered for those
willing to delve into the text.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Let me give you a couple of examples of
what we can find in his legacy. We've heard John 1 read twice over
Christmas yet there are hidden depths to it, hidden in the use of
language for the discerning eye. The first one of those we famously
translate as 'In the beginning was the Word.' But that's not what it
actually says in the Greek. In the Greek there appears to be a
'mistake'. The word 'the' is missing. An error? Possibly, but I think not.
What makes this profound is that there is a genuine known error in
the early Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. Guess what you
find when you look at the first verse of Genesis? There is a mistake
in the translation from Hebrew. We may well translate it into
English as 'In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the
earth, but in the Greek it says, 'In beginning.' The word 'the' is
missing. By simply copying that error in his
Gospel John was able to say, 'That beginning that you know of, that
entire creation story as told in Genesis 1; that all took place
through the Word of God who became born to us as Jesus, Son of Mary.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And then later on in the same chapter
there is another one. 'The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it'. But it also means, 'the darkness has
not comprehended, or understood it.' Which did John really mean? I
suggest he probably meant both. And there are other examples like
these scattered throughout his Gospel, illustrating the depths and
challenges that study reveals.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
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So what we see are two men who go in
different directions. Peter was never going to be an academic. He
himself says, in one of his letters, that Paul writes many difficult
things in his letters. Peter is recognising himself as not being a
profound writer. That was never meant to be his calling. He was
called to speak out and to lead. In contrast it appears that John
developed into a man who recognised that there were depths of mystery to
be found in God; who was unafraid to write about the divinity of
Christ in explicit detail. Through John's writings we have a legacy
of knowledge and understanding, of wisdom and ever-more questions
that lead us to seek more deeply the nature of Christ.</div>
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But what if they had tried to do each
other's jobs, to fulfil each other's callings? Can you imagine if
Peter had tried to write a Gospel like John's without having his
grasp of mystery and language? Would we have had such a profound
work as John's? I suspect not because in-depth writing was not
Peter's calling.
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And John, a man with an ability with
understanding and written communication, would he have been able to
fulfil Peter's calling? Would he have had the brashness needed to
stand up in front of a large crowd of people on Pentecost and preach
a sermon that pulled no punches? I don't believe so. It was Peter's
very brashness and ability to open his mouth that made him ideal for
that role.</div>
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John's role was, instead, to instruct,
to pass on his knowledge to others, and to write for future
generations. His voice continues to thunder twenty centuries later.
Neither could do the job of the other.</div>
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And that brings the spotlight back on
to us. To what work are each of us called? A church becomes
stronger when people can play to their own strengths. That should
come with an encouragement to look at what those strengths might be,
and to ask each other, our trusted friends, to help us see things in
ourselves that we might have missed.
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For example, some are better than
others at being at the front. Others are very good at giving
encouragement to those who are low or struggling. I've been the
recipient of that in the past so I know how important a ministry it
is. Yet others are wonderful at showing hospitality. Some are good conversationalists, or
good contributors in discussion groups, or good at baking, cleaning,
making sure that which is needed is there when it's required,
chairing meetings, listening, singing, reading, leading prayers,
helping children and young people, and so on.</div>
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When we are at our best the church is
most able to function as what it is, the Body of Christ on earth.
And right at the heart of that is what Jesus said to Peter when he
caught him looking at John. Don't worry about the ministry other
people have because we are all different. All we have to do is to be
obedient to Christ, to follow him, and he will lead us to where we
are supposed to be.</div>
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Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-48592739404700945472015-12-25T09:28:00.003+00:002015-12-25T09:28:37.972+00:00Christmas Day: The God who risks
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The Gospel story
of Jesus being born in a stable was so good that it tore a hole
between the fabric of earth and heaven, lying alongside us, that was
so big that a myriad of angels burst through it with uncontrollable
joy, singing at the top of their angelic voices at what had just
taken place.</div>
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So when did Christianity stop being such good news? </div>
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When did
self-identifying as a Christian become embarrassing? I have friends in other religions who are proud to follow their beliefs. So when did
Christianity stop being Good News? No birth in history has had such a long lead up to it as the birth of
Jesus, and few continue to make ripples around the world for two
thousand years. And yet across the western world, still the numbers
fall and people turn away from the church because there are far more
fun things to do on a Sunday morning than go and sing some hymns and
listen to some bloke in a dress drone on for two hours about
something incomprehensible.</div>
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When did it stop becoming Good News? </div>
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Was it, do you think, when we
started mixing up the church and the state, as far back as when the
Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, and the church started
oppressing those who disagreed with it? Maybe, but that is ancient
history now. What difference does that make to us? Well maybe more than you think. You see it marks the way in which
Christianity keeps being used as a vehicle by others to obtain and
then hold on to or validate power. Christianity is too often a means
of control, of telling people how to live, whilst those who do the
telling keep having leaders who are exposed as not being terribly
good at doing what they're telling everyone else to do.
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So if I tell you that knowing the Spirit of God is alongside me and
within me, freeing me up to be the person I was created to be from
the very beginning, and helping me, slowly, slowly, to overcome the
worst of my faults and become more human and outward-looking, and
less self-centred, well hey that's Good News isn't it? But then if I explain to you that the best place to experience that
is in an organisation that wants to tell you how to live, will
prescribe for you exactly what you should and especially what you
shouldn't believe, an organisation that wants some of your money,
essentially an organisation that looks like it might want to control
your choices, well then that's when it doesn't seem like such Good
News.</div>
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And it isn't. </div>
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The church shouldn't have that kind of power and
control. Jesus was born powerless, of parents about to become
refugees in Egypt. That should be the role model. A priest is to
offer help, assistance, to pray for and with you. Any more than that
feels like trying to control people. My reason for being here is to
help you engage with the One who takes a risk on you just as he took
a risk on me.</div>
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You see, if I'm honest, that's what I think the Good News that comes
at Christmas is all about; the God who takes risks with people. Now
think about this for a moment. Lots of you are parents. When you
took the decision to have a child or to adopt a child, you took a
risk. When you get pregnant you have no idea and no control over
what happens next. Nature takes over. The growing baby inside you consumes as much of
the mother's resources as it needs and the mother's body willingly
gives up those resources. It's a foreshadowing of what is to come
because good parents will go on and on, through every day of the rest
of their lives, wondering what they can do for their children. </div>
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And it's all because you took a risk. My parents took several risks
and they ended up with three children who were alike and yet so
totally different, able to try their patience in oh so many different
ways. Becoming a parent is taking a risk. And of course you seek to guide and help your children find their way
into the world, but a wise parent knows from very early early on that
you cannot exert complete control over a child.</div>
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Now think for a moment about what it must have been for God the
Father choosing to bring Jesus the Son into the world and hand him
over to two completely naïve individuals, one of whom, Mary, was
probably only about fourteen. Isn't that the ultimate in taking
risks? But this is what God does, over and over again, throughout
history. </div>
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God takes risks, God doesn't seek to control us.</div>
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So you get King David, of whose line Jesus is eventually born. David
the little shepherd boy whom God referred to as a man after his own
heart. God took a risk on him, and by and large it paid off, until
he committed adultery, got another man's wife pregnant and then
arranged for her husband to die in battle. But even after suffering
the consequences, God took him back and showed him a way forward. In fact it was a child that he had later, Solomon, with the woman
whom he stole, who went on to become known as the wisest king Israel
ever had. God takes risks and helps us through the messes of life.
Isn't that Good News?</div>
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I could tell you any number of stories from the Bible or, if we were
wanting to be brutally honest, from our own lives, of when God has
taken a risk on us, and we've messed up, and he's still been there,
still been alongside us, still helped us find a way through and out
the other side. God takes risks, and being born as one of us was
taking the greatest risk of all.</div>
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Of course there will be some with a more philosophical mind who will
tell you that God takes no risks because he's outside of time and can
see everything from the beginning through to the end, to which I
would answer, give me half an hour and I will show you a multitude of
times in the Bible, and a few convincing philosophical ideas where God was surprised or changed his plans.
Why? Because when God takes risks, they are real risks.</div>
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So Jesus being born was taking a risk. Being born to an unmarried
teenager in a country where that carried the penalty of stoning was
taking a massive risk indeed. But God takes risks because you and I
are worth more to God even than our own children are to us.</div>
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This church here will not try and control you. I will not tell you
how to live. I might encourage you in various directions if you ask
me, but I'm as likely to screw up as anyone else. That's what sin is
by the way; the human propensity to screw things up. But I know that
God takes risks, so, will you take a risk? Will you take a risk that maybe, in the mess of all its control
issues and financial worries, that the church might actually be
entrusted with a fundamentally important piece of Good News; that the God
who risks wants to take a risk on you?</div>
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This, ultimately, is the good news of Christmas, that the love which
God has for God's whole creation is so strong that God took the risk
of emptying out all of that power and glory in order to be one of us,
so that God could gather us up into the kingdom that is being
created, one by one, as we respond.</div>
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I am not embarrassed to say that I'm a Christian. I might be
embarrassed sometimes about the organisation I work for and the
pronouncements of some of its bishops and leaders. I might be
embarrassed that it follows equality rules that seem not to have
progressed since the dark ages. I might be embarrassed that it genuinely does need real money to run.
But I'm not embarrassed to be a Christian, because God took a risk
on me. And at Christmas, the birth of a tiny baby shows he's willing
to take a risk on you too.</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-54315425346988730472015-12-24T21:08:00.002+00:002015-12-24T21:08:41.434+00:00Christmas Midnight: Humility and Awe
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Christmas
Midnight</b></u></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
problem with the word ‘Awe’ is that in the modern West we tend to
precede it with two other words, ‘Shock and...’ ‘Shock and
awe’ has become the phrase used by Western military commanders to
describe a way of waging war on a country they expect to be
completely unprepared and unable to defend itself against the
onslaught. It
has become a tactic of overwhelming force that treats another country
with contempt. But I want to suggest to you that this is the wrong
way of understanding awe. This is to put ‘awe’ in terms of human
power and maybe arrogance. If we are going to properly understand
Christmas we have to put away the phrase ‘shock and awe’ and
replace it with ‘<i><u>humility</u></i> and awe.’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">To
comprehend the miracle of what has taken place we need to look first
at ourselves and understand something of what we are. So I’d like
you to hold your hands wide open and facing each other about 5 or 6 inches apart. In
the space between it is possible to fit your human brain, that
spongy, fragile, blancmange like thing which is the place where most
of your conscious mind resides. I say, ‘Most of’ because the
scientific jury is still out on whether the rest of your body may
also have contributions to make to that sense of ‘Me’ that we all
have. Certainly
those of us who do any form of meditative exercise know that it’s
possible to move your sense of awareness around the body. But to all
intents and purposes that lump of matter that can sit between your
hands, to put it colloquially, ‘That’s you, that is.’ It’s
not much really is it. Yet it is an outstanding piece of biological
complexity. </span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Within
your brain you have some 86 <i><u>billion</u></i> neurons, those are
the nerves that do the thinking. Something like a quarter of the
energy you generate from the food you eat goes into running the
brain. Yet the numbers become more astounding as we go. On average
each neuron connects with seven <i><u>thousand</u></i> other neurons. That
means you have something like one to five hundred trillion
connections</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">in
your brain. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">It’s
no wonder that we haven’t yet been able to duplicate it with
silicon chips or quantum computing. You are an amazing thing,
140-200 pounds of self-aware animal. It is an astoundingly wonderful
thing to be human, to feel </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>alive</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">,
simply to be.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
if we’re not careful we can lapse into solipsism, that sense of
self-importance that semi-defines western culture. Sometimes we need
to gaze out of the train window at the houses going past, or at the
drivers and passengers alongside us or coming towards us on the
motorway, or at the airliner flying over our heads and remember that
every single one of them is an ‘I’. They
all ‘exist’ same as you. They all have their loves and fears.
They all have their hopes and ambitions. Every one of them is a part
of the same lineage that we all share, trailing back to some distant
African ‘Eve’, and we are all different yet all the same in our
experiences of ‘I am I’. And there are not thousands; we could
get our head around that. We’re
not even millions; we are billions, billions of individuals all
around at the same time, all being aware of who we are. The numbers
begin to mount up beyond our capacity to imagine, and then we need to
think that every thought you have, every thought </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>they</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
have, every hope and dream is known and cared about by t</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">h</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">e
one we call God and who calls himself ‘I am’ who is being itself.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
don’t even know all my own thoughts, let alone any of yours, and
yet in his later life the one whose birth we celebrate tonight says
that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without God knowing
about it. In order to get our heads around this and feel the
appropriate awe we need to come back to that mental image of our
brains held between our hands. That’s
it; that’s all that you are. The reason you can’t get your heads
around God knowing all that God knows is because <i><u>we</u></i>
can’t do that. We are so very limited. Even with all of those
connections in our brains, we are so little, so tiny, and we have
such hyper-inflated ideas of ourselves that we can scarcely begin to
comprehend the magnitude of this God who we worship. </span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
cannot imagine a God knowing as much as that because we can’t do
it, and because we can’t do it, we assume that he can’t, and
thus, atheism, it seems to me, is born from a rational arrogance. Yet
when you look down at an ant crawling around on the floor, do you
wonder if it’s interested in Eastenders? Do you ponder its ability
to comprehend quantum physics? Of course not. We accept the
difference between the ant and the human to be so vast that
understanding is not possible. Yet we rarely scale up from ourselves
to think big, to think </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>really</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
big. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Maybe
awe frightens us. Yet
humility and awe are such a part of Christmas that, unless we start
thinking about the size of God in comparison to our minuscule nature,
and recognise it for what it is, we are not going to be able to
recognise what has taken place here in our tiny world.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
see an awareness of the number of humans is only the start of it.
Once we start upscaling we can start thinking of the number of stars
in our galaxy, which is between two and four hundred billion, many of
whom we know to have planetary systems. And
scaling up from there we begin to think in terms of two hundred
billion galaxies in the visible universe, each containing, on
average, a similar number of stars to our own. We can’t get our
heads around the number of individual human stories in our county,
let alone the nation or the world, and yet there is a mindblowingly
large universe out there with billions upon billions of planets, many
of which may also support self aware life.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
we, in this tiny corner, have the audacity to say that one being
created all that; that one being is fully aware of all of that. It’s
no wonder that people think Christians are nuts, irrational,
contemptible and stupid. Yet I want to suggest that to adopt such a
position is an arrogant one, one which forgets that, try as we might,
we are actually very little, vanishingly small creatures.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">How
could we possibly comprehend how one vast Being manages to create,
sustain and be aware of it? Of course we can’t, and that’s the
whole point of awe. It is an emotional gift which says, ‘I cannot
get my head around this purely because it is not possible for a human
to really take this all in. Yet it might still be possible.’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
at Christmas that has to be our starting place because only then can
we begin to imagine what it must take, what it must have meant, how
incredibly, unbelievably important it must have been for the mighty
creator to allow the part of God's self that is named the Son, or the
Word to be emptied of all that power and ultra-awareness and to be
born a human birth with a tiny little brain, initially too small to
be able to knit together a coherent divine thought.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">That’s
the true miracle of what we’re celebrating tonight. It doesn’t
matter whether you start with a question of how he did it, whether
Mary was a virgin, whether all the Gospels tell it how it actually
happened. What is truly important is that it did happen. And only
once we can comprehend the magnitude of what God accomplished in that
emptying out of himself can we ask the question, ‘Why?’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
only force capable of making that kind of emptying out possible is
the love of a Creator whose experience of reality transcends anything
we can begin to imagine, who was willing to do that in order that we
can be in relationship, that we can speak the same language and
realise that we are wanted, each and every individual one of us, we
are desired by God more for who we are as people than we can take in.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
did it happen? I believe so. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And humility and awe are the only two
emotions than can make sense of it for us.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Merry Christmas </span></span></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-61755080557920530212015-12-16T16:32:00.000+00:002015-12-16T16:32:06.497+00:00Third Sunday of Advent : Good news is not always nice news.
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Reading</u></span></span></span></div>
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Luke 3:7-18</span><br />
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear
fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We
have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from
these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is
lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’
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And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply
he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who
has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even
tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher,
what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the
amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we,
what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from
anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your
wages.’
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As the people were filled with expectation, and all were
questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the
Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with
water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy
to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his
threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the
chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
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So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the <i>good news
</i>to the people.
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<u><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Address</span></span></span></u></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">We’re
very lucky </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">in
this church</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
Over the last few years we’ve had five people offer themselves for
Reader ministry, and it’s been a real privilege to walk with each
of them as they’ve wrestled with whether this was something God was
calling them to do, giving them space to try it out and preach a
couple of sermons to get a sense of whether there was a vocation
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">waiting
to be explored</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
Part of the fun of this, from my perspective anyway, has been the
assessed sermons when I, and several others in the congregation, have
to listen to the sermon </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">with
a critical ear </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">and
then write comments on it from a specially prepared sheet that comes
from the diocese. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Basically
we get to mark someone's sermon!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
on that sheet there is an array of questions, and one of those
questions is always ‘Where was Good News to be found in this
sermon?’ Where was Good News? Suffice it to say, the Gospel
reading we have today is not one of the passages that they get asked
to preach on, because when John the Baptist starts speaking we have
to ask the question, ‘Where is Good News here?’ Now it seems to
me that Luke is an absolute master of irony (I'll explain what I mean
in a moment), but I don’t think he even means to be. I'll explain
what I mean in a moment, but first, listen again to the accusatory
message he records John as sharing. He starts off by shouting at the
crowd, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath?’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Great
start. Could you imagine that coming from an Anglican evangelist? I
am so very careful to try and say ‘We’ and never ‘You’ when
I’m preaching. I am very aware of my own shortcomings so I don’t
dare say, ‘You awful, dreadful people. You despicable sinners.
You vile worms.’ Maybe I’m just too English, too polite, too
scared of putting my parishioners’ noses out of joint. But that
doesn’t seem to be a worry for John. He has no parish share to
worry about, no people he has to keep ‘onside’. He feels
completely free to say whatever he wants to the gathered crowd. So
he starts by calling them a brood of vipers. Then he warns them that
unless they do good deeds to show they’ve changed their minds about
how to behave, they had better consider themselves to be trees about
to be felled. And he just doesn’t let up. </span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">After
giving some very practical advice on how to live properly, by giving
away what you don’t need, (there’s an anti-capitalist message if
ever I heard one), by telling the truth and being fair in business,
he ups the ante even further, pointing t</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">owards</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
the one who is to come, explaining that he </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">himself
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">is
not the Christ, but that they had better be very afraid of the one
who is coming. Why? Because the Christ is coming with unquenchable
fire to burn up that which is useless. And then, after all of this
‘turn or burn’ preaching, we get the ultimate in irony when Luke
writes, ‘And with many other words Luke preached the </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Good
News</u></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
to the people.’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Good
News? Good News? What’s good about that? To paraphrase one of my
all time favourite films, that’s not Good News, that’s ‘Oh God,
Oh God, we’re all gonna die!!’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
John just doesn’t know how to stop. He goes on in the same
condemnatory way until he criticizes King Herod and is arrested and
locked up for doing so. Where is the Good News here?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well
it is there, and actually you don’t even have to dig down very
deeply. You have to recognise that there is a difference between
Good News and nice news. We need simply to ask ourselves why God has
sent John the Baptist. Principally he is there to prepare the way
for Christ. In other words he has to get people out of the ruts
they’ve got into. He has to instil in a nation the understanding
that something momentous is about to happen for which they need to be
ready. To do that he has to tell them how it is, with no holds
barred. The people have to be shown the reality in order that they
can begin to appreciate the predicament in which they find
themselves. It’s a harsh message but it’s a necessary one.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sometimes
people talk to me about a dying relative, and they ask me whether
they should tell them the truth about their situation. My feeling is
that you should always tell people the truth about these matters,
because how else can they begin to prepare themselves? It may not
seem like Good News, but it’s all relative. There's a difference
between Good News and nice news.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">If
something difficult or challenging is coming, or likely to come, you
want to tell people about it so that they can make their plans about
how to deal with it. John knew what was coming on the people; he
was, after all, a prophet. This was his job, to warn people of
what’s coming. It becomes Good News because it gets people in the
right frame of mind to do something about it, but it brings us to an
interesting place in good old English middle of the road Anglicanism.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
I was a curate there was a Baptist church up the road from us. It
was lively and often more full than our church. Partly it was the
style of music and the type of worship, and partly it was the
preaching. They had a no-holds-barred minister, and people lapped it
up.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why
is that? Why do we like to be told how awful we are? It’s a good
question and not one that I feel qualified to answer. Is that what
you want from me and the other preachers? Do you want us to tell you
all how awful you are? We would of course point the fingers at
ourselves too, but is that what you want?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
see there are several sides to this. They may have had a full
church, but I can also tell you about the friends I have who went to
churches like that, who were told over and over again that they were
miserable sinners, and who left, ultimately, because there was
nothing but condemnation. Some of the people in Forest Church feel
that way, that it’s the only place they can feel safe to worship
Christ without someone shouting at them about being a miserable
sinner. Some of the people I've met in other religious and spiritual
movements are there because of this kind of preaching in the church.
And, interestingly, some of the people who came to St. Andrew's,
where I did my curacy, came there because they had left that other
church, having been condemned by the leadership for their life
choices. In fact one of the most curious things about all of this is
that churches like that declare themselves to be Bible-based
churches, and yet a report out this week has shown that people who
actually read all of their Bible, rather than just the popular bits,
tend to be quite a long way out on the liberal end of the Christian
spectrum, because that's what they find in God's word!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
sometimes we need to call a spade a spade from the pulpit, and it can
make it very difficult to bring a balanced message when you
absolutely know that what feels heavy on your heart is going to upset
some of your congregation. But there's a difference between Good
news and nice news. You see it can also become incredibly easy to
avoid the reality of our predicament. If all you ever hear from us
is, ‘Carry on chaps; you’re doing a great job of being
Christians’, then that is really not going to help you at all.
Nice news changes nothing, it just makes us feel good, perhaps at a
time when we should be feeling bad.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">We</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
will be completely unprepared to face God if we don’t sometimes
talk about the need for change, </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">just
as the Spirit speaks in to our hearts too, to convict us of where
change is needed</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">.
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">James
3:1, reminds those of us in the pulpit of the burden we carry with
these words: '</span></span></span>Not many of you should become
teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach
will be judged more strictly.'
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">preaching
the hard teachings</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
always comes with a risk. In any demographic there are going to be
things which </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">congregations
think should be</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
no go areas for us as preachers, which, to be honest, tend to be the
ones we get most called to speak about. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
know that I have upset people in the past with some of the subject
matter of my sermons, a</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">nd
I am not, for a moment, saying that we always get it right in what we
preach, but sometimes we feel very strongly that the Spirit is saying
something to us and we have to find the words to convey that. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
much of the Bible speaks strongly about possessions and justice so
maybe we should preach that strongly.</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
Some</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
things have to be said. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">Good
news is not the same as nice news. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">That
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">also
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">means
that w</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">e
have to take notice of what John the Baptist says when he tells us to
get rid of any excess to someone who is having to go without, because
he’s right. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
w</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">e
have to be prepared to hear the things that hurt and upset us,
because if we don’t then we will be unprepared to face God at the
end of our lives.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
let me lay some groundwork for after Christmas. Let me be a bit
'John the Baptist' in preparing the way for an important message.
One of the greatest problems the Church of England faces at the
moment is money. I hate talking about this because I hate to come
over as us trying to fund an organisation when the reality is about
trying to be the presence of Christ in the parish. But in a few
weeks we’ll start to tell you just how bad our finances are in this
church. Some of you will be thinking, ‘You must be kidding; we’ve
heard about the legacy you’ve been left. We know about the farm
house you have to sell.’ </span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
maybe you don’t know the deficit we’ve been running at. Maybe you
don't know how far down we've had to run our reserves to keep going.
Maybe you don't know that we've had to rely on one or two huge
donations to keep going these last few years. Maybe you don't know
that, even if carefully invested, that great gift we've been given
will just barely allow us to keep operating as we are. Maybe you
don't know how much some of us want to invest in children and
families work but are struggling because the congregations are not
giving enough and even the legacy we hopefully have coming may not
bridge the gap.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
maybe I should preach nice, warm, welcoming, everything's OK sermons
so that more people will come and feel happy. But I'm not convinced
that's what John the Baptist would have done. But that is always
going to be the tension between running a parish and being an
itinerant preacher. I think, though, that I speak for my colleagues
in the pulpit when I say that what we most want to do is to try and
tell you what the Lord lays on our hearts when we preach. It may not
always sound like Good News, and we may not always get the
translation right, but anything which challenges us to draw near to
God is surely Good News really. </span></span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
good news is not necessarily nice news, but Good News means something
can be changed. </span></span></span>
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Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-13386114084124112572015-12-02T16:06:00.001+00:002015-12-02T16:06:12.549+00:00Advent Sunday - Panentheism and the Wrath of God
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The reason for this particular focus is a promise I made to the congregation about how we should respond and what we should think about the place of God in a world filled with terrorism. It's not something that makes me doubt the existence of God, but it forces us to think hard about how God may respond.</div>
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<u> </u></div>
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Apologies that there are three readings. These were the ones set for last Sunday evening and they make sense of the topic at hand.<u><br /></u></div>
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Joel 3:9-end</div>
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Proclaim this among the
nations:<br />Prepare war, stir up the warriors. Let all the soldiers
draw near, let them come up. <br />Beat your ploughshares into swords,
and your pruning-hooks into spears;<br />let the weakling say, ‘I am
a warrior.’
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<br />Come quickly, all you nations all
around, gather yourselves there.<br />Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of
Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the neighbouring
nations.
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<br />Put in the sickle, for the harvest
is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great.
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<br />Multitudes, multitudes, in the
valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of
decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw
their shining.
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<br />The Lord roars from Zion, and
utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth
shake.<br />But the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for
the people of Israel. The Glorious Future of Judah.</div>
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<br />So you shall know that I, the Lord
your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be
holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
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<br />On that day the mountains shall
drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream
beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from
the house of the Lord and water the Wadi Shittim.
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<br />Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate
wilderness, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in
whose land they have shed innocent blood. But Judah shall be
inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge
their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the Lord dwells in
Zion.
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Revelation 14:13-15:4</div>
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And I heard a voice from heaven saying,
‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’
‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labours, for
their deeds follow them.’
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Then I looked, and there was a white
cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a
golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! Another
angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one
who sat on the cloud, ‘Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to
reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’ So
the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the
earth was reaped.
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Then another angel came out of the
temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel
came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and
he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, ‘Use
your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth,
for its grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle over the
earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the
great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden
outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a
horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.
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Then I saw another portent in heaven,
great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the
last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.
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And I saw what appeared to be a sea of
glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its
image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass
with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:<br />‘Great and amazing
are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty!<br />Just and true are your
ways, King of the nations! <br />Lord, who will not fear and glorify
your name?<br />For you alone are holy.<br />All nations will come and
worship before you, for your judgements have been revealed.’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John 3:1-17</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now there was a Pharisee named
Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said
to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the
presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’
Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown
old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be
born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter
the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is
born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from
above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of
it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it
is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a
teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of
what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive
our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No
one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son
into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>The Wrath of God</u><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
Parental
anger seems like a good place to start...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Most of us, if we are lucky enough to have been brought up in
a happy household, will have one abiding memory of that time when, as
a child, we pushed one of our parents just a little too far and their
anger, their temper, snapped. Maybe we got a smack, or maybe we were
shouted at. Whatever it was, it left an impression,
an abiding memory, of that time when we went too far, when parental
resolve to be reasonable was pushed beyond the limits.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Maybe you weren't as lucky as I was.
Maybe there never was much parental resolve. Maybe you had a parent
who was utterly unpredictable so that an action would be fine one day
and intolerable to them the next, a method of control that I've known
psychologists refer to as 'Mad Dog'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Whichever way around it is, for most of
us there is a memory of a mental disconnect, of a moment of shock
when the love that we thought we could rely on turned an angry face
on us and our world was changed. It may very well have been our
fault. As children we often know that we are pushing the boundaries.
But the memory still remains with us.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
And maybe your experience of childhood
is far worse, and even now you're still, on a very deep level,
struggling to understand the idea of an all-powerful yet all-loving
God who wishes to be known as Father, or Mother in some traditions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I believe that these experiences may
well be at the psychological root of why it is that we find talk of
God's wrath to be extremely difficult to cope with. I know many
Christians, including some clergy, who simply believe the Bible to be
wrong about this aspect of God; that God is only loving and forgiving
and that all people will eventually come to rest in him. I respect
that point of view, even though, as I hope I can show, I disagree
with it. I also have friends who have left the
church over this because they have been subject to the kind of 'Turn
or burn!' abusive rhetoric that annoys and upsets me intensely. No
one should ever be scared into conversion, and neither should the
fear of God, or rather of hell-fire, be used to control people.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Whichever way around it is, I think the
wrath of God is a problem for us partly because of our personal
experiences and fears, and also because it's not something that we
teach from the pulpit much these days. But the First Sunday of Advent's theme and
readings leave us little choice, and in the face of the headlines in
the papers over these last weeks and months, it's high time we took a
look at this.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
***</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As a Christian I am a Panentheist. ["A
what?" Read on...] </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's a compound Greek word which literally translates as
'All-in-God'. Essentially it declares that all things are in God,
and God is in all things. It differs from pantheism that declares
that 'All is God', because panentheists believe that God also has a
separate existence from the created order. When they start thinking
about it, most Christians would probably think of themselves as
Panentheists. Why do I bring this up on Advent
Sunday? It is because here we are faced with two readings that
focus on the wrath of God and only one that focusses on hope, and
because I want to focus on God's wrath since it is only in
understanding that, that we can understand the value of hope.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
You see when we turn on the news, or
read it online or in the newspapers, we have a choice. We can, if we
want, simply change channels. We can put the paper down. We can
click away to another site. When we read stories of homosexuals
being thrown off tall buildings in so-called Islamic State, or of a
young man and his girlfriend killing his step-sister for his own
gratification, or of a government that seems hell-bent on making life a misery
for the weak and the poor, or any number of other real-life horror
stories we can turn away.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But if God is in all things, and if all
things are in God, then God cannot turn away. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
God has to live with
it all day every day, atrocity mounted upon atrocity; cruelty upon
cruelty; lie upon lie, and because it is all happening within the
universe within which God is fully present, God can't change the
channel, click to another site or pick up a good book instead.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
God gave us freedom of choice and
placed us within a universe that has freedom to grow and develop, but
in my faith I believe that God also is all-pervading, seeing, knowing, experiencing our choices.
God cannot, will not, turn away.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
People say to me, 'How can you suggest
that a God of love can be a God of wrath?' but if you are a
panentheist you find yourself thinking, 'If God is a God of love, how
then can he not also be a God of wrath?' How could he not want to
act?' I can only imagine a supreme act of will power is staying his
hand now for the sake of those who may yet turn to ask for
forgiveness. God and the angels play the long game, but they have
abiding memories.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yet at the same time we fear what it
might mean to us if he is angry with us. We are influenced by the
memory of parental anger and so we fear the same thing might be
coming to us from God. More than one Christian has explained to me
how this talk of God being angry leaves them terrified of what might
happen to them if they do just one thing wrong; that God is waiting
to pounce. However, I think that this is based on
a fundamental misunderstanding; that we are equating anger and wrath
when in reality they are two very different things. If we can
disconnect anger from wrath and look instead at this wrath through
panentheistic eyes, then perhaps we can better understand what is
happening, and why we need not be living in fear.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Anger is a proper parental response to
a wrong doing that needs correction. I'm not now talking about the
loss of temper I mentioned at the beginning, but instead that
controlled anger a parent uses which lets a child know, in no
uncertain terms, that something that they did was unacceptable. As
Christians we can expect that kind of correction from time to time
because our behaviour will sometimes warrant it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But wrath is different... </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
...and wrath is
<u>not</u><span style="text-decoration: none;"> God losing God's
temper</span>. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Wrath is the response to an onslaught of evil that
will not respond to correction. If we are to live without fear we
need to disconnect those two concepts in our experience of God as
God's children.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
***</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When people have related the stories of their lives, of
abuse within the home or family, I've felt a deep anger at the injustice of
how one with power dominates the powerless, and so I find myself
wondering at how it must seem to God, to dwell within each home,
within the scope of the abuser and the abused, to know the pain first
hand and to weep the tears of hopelessness in the darkness. We often say, 'Why doesn't God do
something?', and I suspect that God is also saying to us, 'Come on,
take responsibility and <u>you</u> do something – I am treating you like
adults, behave like them.' However, tonight's readings and the
general theme give us a taste of what is coming; that there is a time coming when God's patience runs out, and what I called 'the long game' above is played out.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But what are we to do with the belief
in God's wrath and how are we to live and preach a Gospel in the
light of it? Let's have a very brief look at each of the readings to
guide us.
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Joel is a difficult prophet to preach
about because we know so little of the context in which he preached.
Even dating him can't get within much less that a 150 year period of
time. The book as a whole seems to revolve around a plague of
locusts that devastated the land but which Joel then used as a
pictorial image to call the people back to God in repentance. This particular passage, which is
difficult to understand, nevertheless contains the shocking
antithesis to the commonly used reading at Remembrance Sunday which
talks of beating swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning
hooks. But here the story is reversed; here we have the preparations
for war against God's people with ordinary farm labourers making
weapons out of their tools. But the over-riding narrative is of
judgement using the wine-press as an image of God's wrath, and this
is the imagery that the book of Revelation picks up.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There we have a story of two harvests.
The first is a reaping harvest, of bringing in that which is good
from the earth. The second is one of wrath, of the objects of God's
wrath as being like grapes that are trodden, and of the flowing of
blood, a symbol of death and destruction. And yet even this is not
the end of it, for it's declared that there are still seven angels
with seven plagues of God's wrath.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now to be honest it is not the in-depth
study of these passages that is important. There is little way of
knowing the minutiae of what is being described in either of them.
But what is necessary is that we recognise both of them affirm the
wrath of God as a reality, and we then have to decide what we do with
that imagery.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What I want to suggest is that
these two readings affirm the wrath flowing from God's justice,
whilst the Gospel affirms God's mercy and our hope. Justice and
mercy walk hand in hand. Humanity is offered both. Persistent abuse
of power simply cannot be ignored by God because it takes place
within the universe of which God is 100% aware. Nothing is missed.
Indeed you or I may personally be called by the Spirit to be God's
hands in bringing a cruelty to an end.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But where there is no turning away from
the evil that one person brings on another, then there is a final
judgement, which I believe to be a final destruction. I don't think
hell is of an eternal torture – even in wrathful judgement I don't believe
that to be within God's nature. But I do believe that God is willing
to utterly destroy, without possibility of return, those who persist
in their ill treatment of their fellow humans. I therefore think that the story of hell is one
of annihilation, of the end of hope for those who refuse mercy and
forgiveness. Did you know, incidentally, that forgiveness is not a
concept you'll find in all religions? It is given a prominent place
in Christ's revelation of God's nature, but there are a lot of
religions that have little or no concept of it. But forgiveness requires a turning of
one's back on the hurt that has been doled out to others. Where no
space is left for mercy; where no sign of repentance or sorrow is
seen, there is wrath and a final destruction.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So yes, when we look at or hear the
horrific stories of what is taking place across the world, places
where we seem powerless to be able to help, there is still a
judgement to be faced, and a wrath that goes beyond anything we can
imagine. [Just once, as a teenager, for a very brief moment I sensed something of God's holiness, and was terrified by the awesomeness of it. It made me realise we have little idea, from a human perspective, of what facing God is like.] But please do not mix divine wrath up with God's parental anger
when his children need correcting; the two are very different indeed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Never forget St. John's commentary on
the coming of Christ that, ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be
saved through him.' God offers mercy and forgiveness, something that
Christ made clear for us. The overarching story of Christianity is one of hope being offered to those who, in their own strength, could not stand before the naked power of God, and a Way being offered to those who would like to know as they are known.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Conclusion</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I think that there is a fundamental
difficulty at the heart of western Christianity which is a belief
that God is an angry God at heart, waiting to pounce on us the moment
we do something wrong. Many of my friends who have left the church,
and others who struggle to stay within it, wrestle constantly with
this. There is a sense that God feels affronted by our behaviour. Yet I think that if we adopt this panentheistic view
that God cannot turn away, then I think God's wrath stems not from
what we do wrong, nor even from whether we ignore him or not; after
all God doesn't need us. He loves us, but he doesn't <i>need </i><span style="font-style: normal;">us.</span>
No, I think God's wrath towards humanity is birthed within our
behaviour towards each other.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This also fundamentally alters our
understanding of the cross. If you have an angry God who is angry
against our sin, then you can justify God needing sacrifices to stem
his anger, and ultimately needing the ultimate sacrifice of his own
Son, because only then can his anger be channelled on to one eternal
individual; Jesus as God's lightening conductor.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That model provides this image of God
barely able to contain his rage; that sense of 'I am sooo angry I
have to break something really valuable.' But that is a fundamental
misunderstanding of the nature of God; that is to make God in our
image, when it's surely the other way around. The Christian
fundamentalists have this so very wrong.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Instead we have a God who offers his
very self to us, to show the lengths to which he will go to draw us
into his own family. We have a God who is not looking to burn with
uncontrollable anger at anyone who dares cross him, but is instead
unable to turn away from what we do to each other, and who assures us
that, ultimately, there will be judgement for the wicked, the
abusers, the power-hungry and all those who deliberately inflict pain
on others.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I can't tell you, for example, how that
means we should respond to so-called Islamic State and the atrocities
they commit. I can't say whether my beliefs as a Christian mean we
should go to war. But I can say this: I fear for the innocent on the
ground who will simply be in the way of the war machine that we will
probably inflict or at least aid. And I fear that war just keeps breeding more
terrorists. Pouring petrol on a fire is rarely the best way to put
it out. Maybe we are walking in to a trap, a hope that we will
respond exactly like this and thus breed yet more terrorists.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But what I do know, as a panentheist
and a Christian, is that God <u><b>cannot</b></u> turn away from the
evil that is being done, either there or here. As I said on
Remembrance Sunday, we should never think God is on our side, but
neither should we be in any doubt about what is written throughout
scripture, that God sees, and there will be a judgement, but
judgement may fall just as hard on anyone who kills the innocent and
robs their children of a future.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
May we be for ever preserved in his
mercy through Christ, and may we never cease to pray for our enemies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
[Postscript - for those who wish to pray about this there will be a vigil in the church on Sunday 6th Dec, this Sunday, from 4 until 5.] </div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-53356414246877170862015-11-22T18:15:00.001+00:002015-11-22T18:15:19.587+00:00"Christ the King" is the festival - but what kind of king and what does it mean to be one of his subjects?
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Readings</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Revelation
1:4</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">b</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">-8</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Grace to you and peace from him who is
and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are
before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the
firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
To him who loves us and freed us from
our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving
his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen. <br />Look! He is coming with the clouds;<br />every eye will see
him,<br />even those who pierced him;<br />and on his account all the
tribes of the earth will wail.<br />So it is to be. Amen.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’,
says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the
Almighty.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John 18:33-37</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then Pilate entered the headquarters
again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the
Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did
others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me.
What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this
world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be
fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is,
my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a
king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was
born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<u>What kind of King?</u><br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Today we celebrate the festival
of Christ the King, but what </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">type
of King is he? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I want to
suggest that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">at least a
part of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the answer to that
question lies in </span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">when</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
it is being asked. In the time frame in which we are currently in I
would have to say that he is the king of a hidden kingdom, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">which
is what we find in the Gospel, whilst Revelation provides a different
picture</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Both,
however, will help us to consider what kind of subjects we should be
from what type of King he is. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Let's
look </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">first </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">at
the Gospel reading to get some idea of what I mean by that. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">h</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
events in the reading</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> take
place in the last few hours before the crucifixion of Christ. He has
been arrested, most of his disciples have run away and Simon Peter
has denied he ever knew Jesus. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Pilate
is questioning Jesus closely to try and understand what is actually
going on here </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and t</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here
is a sense of Pilate being ill-at-ease. He</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
knows that the Jewish leaders are using him </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
get what they want. He's a shrewd political operator; how else could
he have risen to being in charge of Judah? A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
the writer, John, seems to be portraying </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Pilate</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
as someone who is trying to find a way to let Jesus go. When Jesus
hears Pilate ask him if he is the King of the Jews, Jesus smells a
rat. No one in Pilate's position would think up a title like that. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">'Is
that title your idea?', asks Jesus. 'Of course not,' responds
Pilate, 'It's your own people who have handed you over to me.' Jesus
then explains to him that the kingdom of which he is a part is not
based in this world, and </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
evidence for</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is
that, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">if it was, his
disciples would be fighting to free him. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
wonder if, in part, Jesus is saying those words to point out to
Pilate that his disciples present Rome with no danger and that they
need not be arrested. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Was Jesus preserving their safety and the future of the Gospel with
those words? Certainly the disciples were scared after the
crucifixion and locked themselves away, fearing the Romans would come
for them in the way that they usually came for troublemakers after
catching the ringleader. <span style="text-decoration: none;">But
Jesus has underlined that he isn't here to become a </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Judean
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">king in the present world.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He presents no threat to
Rome. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
can see </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">this </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
be </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">true </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">if
we look back through the Gospels. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
you remember that there are a number of occasions when his followers
try to take him by force to be king? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
you recall the number of times Jesus walked off into the wilderness
or up a mountain to escape them, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">his
very own followers</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">? Or
the occasion when he was so straight with them about what following
him would cost them that most of his followers left him, leaving
Simon to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">respond to Jesus
questioning whether they would also leave with the words</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
'Where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Never
once in his ministry did Jesus try to gain worldly power. </span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
we can trace it right back to his temptations at the hands of the
devil when he is offered all the worldly power he wants, but he walks
away from it. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The kingdom
of Jesus is a very different one from </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">modern
democracies and dictatorships </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">because
it is about stepping away from power and control. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">If
Jesus had cultivated earthly power then his arrest would have sparked
a revolution. The
very fact that it didn't testifies itself to the way in which he had
conducted his ministry. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Truly
his kingdom was otherworldly, with different priorities and rooted in
a different place. </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This
is something that so-called Christendom has got wrong throughout the
ages as we have sought and taken political power for ourselves, and
Jesus says, 'My kingdom is not of this world'. Even
the action of seeking power for ourselves is wrong. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">L</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">et
me put it another way; </span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>When Jesus says his kingdom is not of this
world, he doesn't just mean location, he also means values. </b> </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This
is one of the biggest issues for me today in the way that Christians
conduct themselves. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
have so many friends outside of the church who are there because of
the way that they have been treated by Christians who need to be in
control, who need to be in charge. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
the kingdom that Christ rules is an otherworldy kingdom in which the
first become the last, and the least important in this world become
the most important in his kingdom.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Is
that how we are living? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
we value the needs and opinions of others? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Because
if it </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">not</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
then the plain truth is that, whatever we call ourselves, we are not
a part of his kingdom. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
fact I would go so far as to say that there may be others who attach
different religious label</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to themselves, yet by their behaviour towards the least in the world
show themselves to be a part of his kingdom.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here
are plenty of occasions in the Bible where the righteous ones are not
those who were either Jewish or Christian. Think of Job, declared to
be righteous and a follower of God, running away from evil. But he
lived in Uz. He wasn't Jewish. If the kingdom of Jesus is not of
this world and the values of Jesus are not of this world, then when
we adopt this world's values, when we seek power and authority for
ourselves or for the church we must ask the question, 'Are we
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">actually </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">of
Christ's kingdom?'</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Those
who were at last week's River service might hopefully remember the
verse we tried to memorise together, </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">John
13:35, where Jesus says, '</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">if
you have love for one another.’</span></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Love and power are
utterly mutually exclusive. If you love someone you cannot have
power over them.</span> If you try and have power over them then you do not love them. This
is not the same as proper authority, obedience and allegiance. I
have no difficulties with my oath of allegiance to the Bishop, for
example, but he is a servant, same as I am, same as you are, and we
all serve Christ who is himself the servant king. His kingdom is not
of this world, either in values or in place.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
if he's not a king in this world, where is he king? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
what is the future of his kingdom?</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
book of Revelation presents a different picture; </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
'</span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">when'</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
is including a look to the future</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The imagery begins with
the Trinity. First there is the God who is, who was and who is to
come, which is a description of the one we call 'Father'. The next
reference is this curious one to the seven spirits of God. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Remember
that Revelation is written in the style of Jewish apocalyptic. <span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat
means that </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">large
portions </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
it are intended symbolically. The seven spirits probably refers to
the Holy Spirit with seven being the perfect number attributed to
God. Listen and count to how Isaiah describes the Holy Spirit </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
chapter 11:2</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">'
Seven attributes.</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">And
then there is Christ as the firstborn from the dead. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
is also described as </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
ruler of the kings of the earth, but note there is no indicator of
their obedience to him; and that on his account the tribes of the
earth will wail. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
notice how John describes us as the kingdom. Once again it is a
kingdom not of this world. B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">John</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
does foretell a future day where heaven and earth are to be united.
I don't want to go too far down that route because that is more of an
Advent theme for the coming weeks. But it's worth asking the
question, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">why
does his return, depicted here, cause so much horror on the earth? </span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I suggest that it is because he is described as the one to whom all
authority is given and the one whose example all rulers, at whatever
level, should follow. <span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">H</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is
return to earth </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">something
of horror </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">b</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ecause
rulers </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tend
to </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seek
power </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">for
themselves </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">whereas
the model of Christ is to serve, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
give power away</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Those who want to have power rather than to give service, whether
they profess themselves Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan, Atheist or
whatever, are not going to appreciate the end of the kingdoms of
earth. Y</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ou
see the Christian faith holds that the kingdom of heaven will one day take over
the rule of earth; that the ways of justice and righteousness will be
established here by Christ. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Old Testament name for this is The Day of the Lord, but it is not
necessarily something to be looked forward to. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Old Testament prophets who speak of it do so in terms of judgement.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">W</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
can perhaps think of it </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
values of the kingdom of Christ, values that we have just thought
about, being imposed from above with authority. You may recall
Christ's saying, 'The meek shall inherit the earth.' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No
religious affiliation is implied there. It is, instead, about the
values of the kingdom of heaven; the kingdom of Christ being established in the present.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
of course, if those values are imposed, then we should perhaps expect
judgement on those who have lived according to their own gain and
their own power, which brings the story back full circle to put
ourselves as the subjects of what is being said. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Christ's
is a hidden kingdom. It is not of this world, yet we profess to be
of that kingdom but we </span></span><i><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">do</span></u></i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
live in this world.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
I want us to consider what we value and how we behave. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
once heard a preacher declare, 'The way you treat the person you like
the least is the way you love God the most.' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
do we treat those we dislike or are uneasy with? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
do we cope with our own internal ambitions? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
do we go about garnering power in order to use it for our own ends?</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Those who profess to be Christians place themselves </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">under the authority of Christ the King, but his kingdom is a
very different one from an earthly one. His kingdom is upside down,
where the most powerful and the most authoritative will lay down
their lives for the sake of others and where the last in line become
the first. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Those
are the rules of his kingdom, and if we want to think of ourselves as his subject then we need to be prepared to live by
those rules because that is what it means to be a Christian.</span></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-60818319773918905312015-11-08T16:32:00.000+00:002015-11-08T16:36:34.335+00:00Remembrance Sunday - Whose side is God on anyway?<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
[Please note: Due to the presence of someone important to me in a politically sensitive part of the world, the text of what follows is subtly different from the sermon preached on Remembrance Sunday. I am happy to send the original to anyone who asks for a hard copy. I hope readers will understand].</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Reading</u></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Joshua 5:13-15</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Joshua’s Vision</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Once when Joshua was near Jericho, he
looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his
hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you one of us, or
one of our adversaries?’ He replied, ‘Neither; but as commander
of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth and worshipped, and he said to him, ‘What do you
command your servant, my lord?’ The commander of the army of the
Lord said to Joshua, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so.
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
*****</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
What does
God really care about? Is it not the well-being of children? In
Matthew 18 Jesus says these words, ‘If any of you put a
stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it
would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around
your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.'
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What else does God really care about? Is it
not about justice and righteousness? Proverbs 6 includes these
words, 'There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an
abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to
run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows
discord in a family.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But then we can start to get a little more controversial. What makes God angry enough to wage
war? Now we're asking the really serious question, because as we
remember and honour those who gave their lives to
keep the freedom of this country, and set free those countries being
oppressed by a foreign force, we sometimes take comfort that in doing so we, we
were carrying out the will of God; that God was on our side because
we were fighting the oppressor.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But I want to suggest to
that the reality is much more subtle, and that whenever we talk
about war in the same context as we talk about God we have to be
supremely careful not to colour our understandings of the nature of
God. You see, contrary to what many extremists think, God does not
take sides.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That is not to diminish the sacrifices
given to defeat the despicable evil of Nazism or, in our own time the
sacrifices that may well be needed in conflicts to come, nor the
need for the defeat of an oppressive enemy by warfare when no other means
will work. Those who have allowed themselves to become unutterably evil may have put themselves beyond any kind of diplomatic solution. However, it is a very small and
dangerous step to go from seeing the evils of the other side to
declaring that our side must therefore be on the side of right, to
then declaring that God must be on our side because ours is a
righteous cause. Once we do that we walk a dangerous tightrope where
we risk become blinded to our own failings and a whole raft of evil
can follow because we think we can justify it in God's name.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
God does indeed go to war sometimes in
the Bible. When things have become persistently unjust, when
children are being killed, and when a system has collapsed into evil
and oppression, God will go to war. But when <u><b>we</b></u> go to
war, can we, should we, ever claim that God is on our side? And if
we can't claim that, should we actually fight?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now the reality of World War 2 was not
actually one of us declaring God was on our side and Nazi Germany also
claiming God to be on their side. If anything the ideology of the
Nazi leadership leaned heavily towards the occult, and was moving
towards destroying the church with over 6,000 clergy being either
imprisoned or executed during the war. But amongst the Allies there was often
a firm belief that God was on our side. I want to suggest that the
truth is much more subtle than that, and indeed that, if we don't see
the role that God <u>really</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
plays in conflict, we run the risk of all kinds of evil.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
To show you what I mean we need to look
at our first reading, from Joshua 5. Let me give you a little
context to the narrative. The story comes at a turning point in the
history of Israel. For forty years the people have been living in
the desert to give sufficient time for a disobedient generation, the
ones who left the slavery of Egypt, to die off. They had got in the way of God's plans
and God could not accomplish his ends with them in place. In his
mercy he simply delayed his plans to let them die off naturally
rather than take more drastic action. So what were God's plans? To
drive the Canaanites out of their land and give it to Israel. Why?
Because of the great evils that the Canaanites were committing, which
included, amongst other things, child sacrifices. The mistreatment
of the innocent will always bring God's wrath.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In the place of Moses, now dead with
his generation, God appointed Joshua as the new leader of Israel, and
God told him that now the time had come to go in and take the
promised land by force from the people who lived there. Notice that
God was using Israel as his instrument of judgement to take the land
away from the Canaanites.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In the reading, the people have just
crossed the river Jordan and are preparing to wage war against the
ancient city of Jericho. And so, in the lead up to the battle,
Joshua goes to spy on the city of Jericho, to get some idea of what
they are facing and to plan his attack. But as he approaches the city he walks
straight into a man standing before him with a sword in his hand;
pretty scary if you're trying to do some secret reconnaissance. The
question Joshua asks him, perhaps with one alarmed hand on his own
blade, is essentially, 'Are you with us or against us?' The answer
that is given is supremely important. The man answers, 'Neither'.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now who is that man? There are two
possible answers. He refers to himself as the commander of the
armies of God so he's a spiritual commander, not a human one. I
think he is probably the Archangel Michael who is, elsewhere in the
Bible, referred to as the one in charge of heaven's army. However it
can also be argued that this is a pre-incarnation encounter with
Christ. That puts a whole new take on 'Gentle Jesus, meek and mild' doesn't it. Either way, this is someone highly
important from heaven, and my whole argument about whose side God is
on depends on that one word answer. 'Are you on our side or the
enemy's?' 'Neither'. Let's be absolutely clear about this. God has
previously told Joshua that he must wage war against the evil people
of the land. But even despite that, God is not on his side...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The lesson that Joshua has to learn
here, which is the lesson that we have to learn, is that no one can
ever claim God to be on their side, and great evils in war have
ensued when people have done so because we become immune in our own
minds to the way we wage war, such as the complete destruction of
cities, of course including their children.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The question has to be completely
reframed, and this is the question that we must ask in terms of any
conflict, small, large or international: It is not, 'Is God on our side?' The
question that must be asked is 'Are we on God's side?' The
difference is vitally important. If we think God is on our side then
we can justify all kinds of evil in God's name, but if we recognise
that God is active in the world, working both to defeat evil and to
bring forgiveness, then we have to ask, 'In this course of action,
are we on God's side?'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Were the allies an instrument of God in
bringing down an evil and oppressive regime hell-bent on world
domination? Yes. Was God on our side? No. But I hope we can say
that we were on God's side, but I hesitate to say that was always the case. When we think of Dresden, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki; the unspeakable suffering wrought on families, on
non-combatants, we have to ask, could that ever be in the will of God? If we had questioned, 'Are we on God's side?', would we have done what we did?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Can you see how this reframes all sorts
of conflicts throughout the world? </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
God is not on our side. God is not on
anyone's side. The question must always be, are we on God's side?
Do we have any idea what he wants to accomplish in a situation? Do
we even have the humility to ask?</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So on this day, as we remember with
gratitude the honour and valour of those who gave their lives to
ensure the freedom of this nation, and as we look ahead sadly and
with regret to conflicts of the future, may we always ask the
question, in all things, 'Are we on God's side?' and never 'Is God on
our side?'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Postscript.... </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There will be more to come on this subject in the December issue of the Parish magazine because I want to suggest that when we move from international to personal, we might wish to introduction a different understanding, but you'll have to wait until December for that one. </div>
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Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-67641174631335253672015-11-03T17:48:00.002+00:002015-11-03T17:48:31.175+00:00All Saints Day
Two readings for this one but feel free to skip over (they're only short though).<br />
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Isaiah 25:6-9</div>
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On this mountain the Lord of hosts will
make for all peoples<br />a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured
wines,<br />of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines
strained clear. <br />And he will destroy on this mountain<br />the
shroud that is cast over all peoples,<br />the sheet that is spread
over all nations; <br />he will swallow up death for ever.<br />Then the
Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,<br />and the disgrace
of his people he will take away from all the earth,<br />for the Lord
has spoken. <br />It will be said on that day,<br />Lo, this is our God;
we have waited for him, so that he might save us.<br />This is the Lord
for whom we have waited;<br />let us be glad and rejoice in his
salvation.
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Matthew 5:1-12</div>
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The Beatitudes</div>
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When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up
the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then
he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
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‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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‘Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.
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‘Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth.
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‘Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
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‘Blessed are the merciful, for they
will receive mercy.
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‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they will see God.
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‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they will be called children of God.
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‘Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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‘Blessed are you when people revile
you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely
on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were
before you.
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Do you have someone in your family
history that everyone always talks about in glowing terms? My
my paternal grandfather, was an incredibly gentle kind of
character. It took a lot for him to show any kind of negativity
about anything and I can only once remember him saying anything
remotely critical. At his funeral he was described as one of God's
gentlemen. So, as you might imagine, his memory is
revered in our family. I imagine that many of us, especially as we
get older, have someone in our memories to whom we look up or wish to
emulate. That is the starting point for what I'm writing about here which is going to be two-fold; understanding the role of saints as
ancestors and wondering about our role as the ancestors of tomorrow.
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Right across the world, in almost every
region, there is some form of tradition of what is usually referred
to as 'Ancestor Worship', but is actually usually more to do with honouring
the dead. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a great surprise, then, to
find in our own tradition that there is something similar, today's
festival of All Saints Day, but perhaps with a subtle twist. In a number of religions down through
history and in the present day the idea behind this kind of honouring
was to safeguard the future of our ancestors in the afterlife. It
was also to preserve that sense of belonging to a family lineage.
However, in Christianity the sense is more of recognising, not so
much our ancestors of blood and bone, but our spiritual ancestors.</div>
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So whilst my grandfather's memory is
important to me, and I hope to develop traits like his, in the
context of the church we look further afield than those whose
genetics we have inherited. We look to the ones who came before us
in the faith and now dwell in God's presence in heaven as they, like
we, await the remaking of all things as spoken about in the first
reading we had from Isaiah. There is no need for us to pray for
them and for their continued well-being because they are dwelling in
safety, and in fact in some, more catholic traditions, the saints are
asked to pray for us. But who, actually, are these 'saints'? You
see we all recollect names like St. Paul, St. Peter and St, Mary
Magdalene, to which in this country we might add St. Nectan, St
Columba and any number of other obscure Celtic Saints, but who
decides that someone is a saint?
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You might be thinking that it's the job
of the Pope and a dedicated team at the Vatican, and that you have to
do something really special even to be considered for elevation to
sainthood, but actually the reality is much simpler. When St. Paul
uses the word, 'Saints', which he does a lot, he simply means,
'Christians'. That means that when I stand in the pulpit or behind the altar I am standing in the company of the saints who are alive. You see, sainthood isn't about anything
that <i><u>you</u></i> do or achieve. It isn't about being more
godly than most people. It isn't about being a better Christian than
someone else. It is simply about receiving the gift of God's love
and salvation. The initiative in sainthood comes from God to us, not
vice versa. We are saints because of the grace of God, not because
of any holiness in us. Being a saint doesn't depend on you living up
to everyone else's expectations, thank God (and I mean that!)</div>
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Since sainthood is a gift from God, it
then has a knock-on effect which is that once you are counted as one
of the company of the saints, you are always one of the saints.
Death doesn't remove you from that company, it simply means that you
move from being in the saints who are alive on earth to being amongst
those who are alive in God's presence. So when we honour the company, or the
communion of saints we are simply remembering those
who have trod the path that we tread before we did, and in many cases
they are the ones who helped create the path on which we now walk, or
who encouraged us to take this Way.</div>
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All Saints day is, therefore, a day in
which we can remember how, when we gather together in worship, it is
not just those who are seen who are present, but also the whole
company of heaven. At its best, worship on earth becomes plugged in
to worship in heaven. That doesn't mean we can or should talk with
the deceased, but it does mean that we sharing in the same act at the
same time.</div>
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I had a curious experience of this once
a couple of years ago at Evensong, which is a small service, rarely more than a dozen people. Near the beginning of that
service we hold a few moments of silence to remind ourselves of the
presence of God with us and within us. On that occasion it was
almost as if, for just a second or two, I felt aware of the presence
of heaven worshipping God alongside us. It's quite difficult to explain what I
mean as it was an awareness rather than actually hearing anything,
but it was as if our few small voices were joined in song with a
whole company of other voices, of the saints who had left this life,
maybe joined with the voices of the angels, lifted in worship. I can't tell you more than that as it
was so fleeting, like the sense of having just heard something that was on the edge of hearing, but the memory has stayed with me ever since as a
reminder that all worship, in whatever style, however grand or
humble, should be connected to the worship of heaven.</div>
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The communion of saints is, therefore,
the collection of all Christians, across the ages, in the presence of
God. When we worship together, so our voices are joined to those who
are our ancestors of spirit as well as those who are ancestors of
blood and bone. When we honour their memory, so we consider what it
was about them that we would like to emulate. In what ways were they
shining examples, and how should we respond to their examples?</div>
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Earlier I mentioned my grandfather, but
I could also talk about other Christians I have known, now in the
presence of God, whose lives were inspiring in one way, shape or
form, and whose ways I would like to honour. If you like these are
our ancestral heroes of the faith. <span style="text-decoration: none;">So
I believe in the communion of saints, but I also believe that a </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">reality as radical as this should be allowed
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to challenge </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">us</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
If we are all saints, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
we are,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> and if we remember
the ones who have gone before us and honour the way they shone light
for us to see the Way for ourselves, then we need to remember
something that a friend of mine, Nimue Brown, gave an excellent talk
about a couple of years back. She
declared </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a very simple
truth, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that we, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">those
who are alive in this present moment,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">will become </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
ancestors of those not yet born. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
here I don't </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">just </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">mean
ancestors of blood and bone, but </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">also,
and perhaps especially,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
ancestors of spirit. </span>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">Sometimes,
when I look at the board of names of clergy in our church lobby dating back over 750
years it makes me feel very small, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
I realise my responsibility of trying to build on what they
accomplished</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. But one day
some </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">future vicar, not yet
born,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> will see my name on
there, and I wonder what they will think. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I'm
not seeking compliments here, just thinking about responsibility. It
forces me to ask the question, 'What will I have left for them to
build on?' So what
about you? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Sometimes we
look at the state of the world around us and we feel really quite
helpless to do anything. But we're not helpless, we're just allowing
ourselves to be mentally defeated by scale. The
truth, though is that f</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ew
of us can change the world, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
few of us are called to, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">but
every one of us can change our little corner of it. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Those
words that Jesus spoke that we call the beatitudes; if we live like
that then people, communities and lives will be changed around us.
We can make a difference in Christ's name.</span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">In
what ways can you make your family life, or community life, or work
or school life better for others? How would you like to be
remembered? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">You, today,
are an ancestor of tomorrow. </span>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">The
choices and decisions you make in this present life will have
repercussions into future generations. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">People
often tell me about old characters in the parish, what they were
like, how they lived, and the effect they had on the people who lived
in th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
community.</span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">F</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">or
example, some of those who live in our parish remember Mabs Onions. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Mabs
was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">already </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">elderly
when I arrived and </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">had to
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">walk around the village
with the aid of a push along shopping trolley. But my first ever
memory of Mabs was the day after we moved in to the vicarage, nine
and a half years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">efore
you're licensed as a vicar you are not supposed to be seen out and
about, so we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">were </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ke</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">eping</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
our heads down. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But that
didn't stop Mabs. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hen
the door bell </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">rang</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
I opened </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">our front door</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to see this smiling elderly lady who held a bag out to me. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">She
said </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">simply</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
'Hello. I know you're not supposed to see anyone yet but I just
wanted to say hello. I'm Mabs and this is a cake for you and your
wife.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">' With
that she waved and set off back to her home. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
I have never forgotten that generous and yet so simple act of
hospitality. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">And it
changed me, just a little inside, because it made me wonder whether I
could ever be that hospitable. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We're
not related, but in that moment Mabs became one of my spiritual
ancestors, someone whose memory I honour because I want to be a
little like her.</span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o,
as ancestors of tomorrow, what do you want to be remembered for? </span>
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Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-7850945675043463382015-10-25T13:13:00.003+00:002015-10-25T13:13:54.260+00:00"In Jesus' Name...": What if he doesn't answer the prayer?In what follows you will see that on several occasions I use the word magick rather than magic. This is to distinguish between a stage conjuring trick, 'magic', and the tool that some use to impose their will on the world which tends to be referred to as 'magick'. <br />
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Revelation 21:1-7</div>
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The New Heaven and the New Earth</div>
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,<br class="kk" />‘See, the home of God is among mortals.<br class="kk" />He will dwell with them;<br class="kk" />they will be his peoples,<br class="kk" />and God himself will be with them;
<br class="ii" /> he will wipe every tear from their eyes.<br class="kk" />Death will be no more;<br class="kk" />mourning and crying and pain will be no more,<br class="kk" />for the first things have passed away.’
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And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making
all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true.’
Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from
the spring of the water of life.
Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
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John 16:22-33</div>
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Jesus said, “So you have pain now;
but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one
will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me.
Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name,
he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in
my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is
coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell
you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do
not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the
Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed
that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the
world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.’
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His disciples said, ‘Yes, now you are
speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you
know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this
we believe that you came from God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do you
now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be
scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I
am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you,
so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution.
But take courage; I have conquered the world!’
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<u>The Problem with the Prayer</u><br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I often speak </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
admiring terms </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
the layers upon layers buried within the language and symbolism that
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">John</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
uses </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
his Gospel</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
but </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sometimes
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
also has a talent for </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">raising
the issues that cause us to question our faith deeply, reminding us
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
be careful not to build a theology around one verse in isolation. H</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ere, in this passage,
we see misunderstanding by the disciples, encouragement by Jesus, a
reality check about the true state of their belief, and a final,
triumphant statement which makes it clear to them and to us that our
place before God is dependent upon Christ</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'s
grace</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
not on us and our doubts. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">massive
question </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">raised
about the assurance regarding what we ask for in prayer </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">against</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the dissonance of what we experience in real life; </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">i.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e.
'I asked in Jesus' name and did not receive.'</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some
of us have had the pain and privilege of accompanying someone through
their final hours and helping them on their journey out of this
world. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Others
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
us </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">have
watched as friends cried out in prayer for help and healing only to
see one trauma after another </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seemingly</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
piled on to them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There
is a rather trite saying that is sometimes trotted out by Christians:
'God never gives you more than you can handle.' This simple saying
has been the cause of much agony and heartache for many who have not
coped </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
felt guilty about it</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Just
within my own profession </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
could talk of the clergy suicides and mental breakdowns, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
I know other professions have similar tales to tell</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. The
saying is based on a simplistic premise which I want to challenge,
that God is in control. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
am not saying that he isn't, but I am saying that our understanding
of control and God's are radically different, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
we may need to modify ours if we are to understand this passage.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Control,
for us, is often </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">view</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ed</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
from a mechanistic angle. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I drive a car it is under my control (hopefully!). The reason for this is that it
doesn't do anything unless I tell it to. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Self-driving
cars worry us.</span></span> But the universe works differently. It is not driven mechanistically by God like we drive a car. It's designed, I believe, by
God to have more than just a small degree of autonomy, and that's why
this passage about asking in the name of Jesus and receiving is such
a problematic one for many with life experience rather than naïve
theology. What I hope to do here is to reduce the problems,
but in the process of doing so I may well raise new ones. So please feel free to post your thoughts either on this blog, or preferably on the Facebook page you found it, and I'll try and offer further thoughts.</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">s an important aside to this, when, in the middle, Jesus says </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">disciples</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
'Do you believe? Really?', </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it's
because he knows they don't actually understand yet that suffering
and death is implicit in what is going to take place. They haven't
understood yet that nothing of this will make sense without the
resurrection. I
am intent that we do not make the same mistake, and that's why there is a first reading from Revelation, not because it seems like 'Pie in the
sky when you die', but because without looking ahead we will be
simply unable to make sense of the present. So let's look at this
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">problem
statement from Jesus when he says, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
then underlines this saying, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'If
you ask for anything of the Father </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
my name, he will give it to you.'</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">oes
the resurrection make sense of that verse too? Because for me, this
concept of asking and receiving is </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">one
of</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the most problematic part of any of the Gospels. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">More
or less the same words </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">come
up in the synoptic Gospels </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
well as </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">here
in John's Gospel, so we can be pretty sure that Jesus said it, and
probably said it more than once. As
a statement on its own we can say that it doesn't </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seem
to be borne out of experience</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
but following the tone of this passage all being about how the
resurrection is the lens through which Jesus' life and teachings come
into focus, so we have to ask whether the resurrection makes sense of
'Ask and you shall receive'.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Because
we don't </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">always
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">receive,
do we, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">not
if we're honest</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Which
one of us hasn't had a family tragedy or colossal pain witnessed
amongst friends when we have prayed fervently for God to intervene
and change the course of our reality? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
many of us have prayed, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
the name of Jesus</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
and asked the Father to heal someone who was dying to</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
early?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">nd
how many of us have felt so screwed up about it, yet feel unable to
talk about it, perhaps because we're Christians and we're scared of what </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">other
believers</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
will say if we confess our anger at God? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">here
is a</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">n
emotive</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
part of me, following the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">experiences
of my own family</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and the pain of sitting with </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">other</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
people as they watch loved ones who or sick or dying, that wants to
hurl these words back at the face of Christ and say to him, 'You
lied. I asked and I did not receive.'</span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">here
was a time, a few years ago but after my sister had died, when
another member of the family was taken </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">seriously
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ill.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
remember clearly shouting in anguished prayer to God, 'Don't you dare
do this to us again! Don't you dare!' </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Outrageous,
isn't it. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Me,
a mere mortal, t</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rying
to tell</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
God what to do. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jesus</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
said, 'Ask and you will receive', and sometimes, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it
seems,</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
we ask and we don't </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">receive</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
So how do we make sense of that? Because if we don't make sense of
it, it has the possibility of sitting inside us and festering away,
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
I know that this is an issue that some of those who read this are facing right now.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
first thing we need to do is to relinquish any idea of God the Father
as being like some kind of </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cosmic
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Genie
wherein instead of rubbing a lamp we say magick words, 'In the name
of Jesus', and 'whoomph' there's what we asked for right in front of
us. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sounds
crazy I know but there's a branch of theology called the Prosperity
Gospel which really does believe this.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">n
order to address this problem fully we have to split it into three
questions:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
1. What does it actually mean to ask in the name of Jesus?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">2.
What happens when we take a wide</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">r</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
look at the way God has dealt with all of creation and use that lens
to read this verse?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
3. Jesus is speaking in the context of the resurrection, so how does
the resurrection bear upon the words he is saying?</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dealing
with them in order, then, the </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">first</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>
</i>question is about what it </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">actually
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">means
to ask for something in the name of Jesus.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Our main priority is to stop treating them as magick words which, if
recited properly, will permit you to impose your will on reality.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That,
genuinely, is what magick is; the imposition of will. If we think
that by saying, 'We ask this in the name of Jesus' on the end of a
prayer th</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">at</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
it will happen, then we are treating prayer as magick and we will be
sorely disappointed.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
if it is not about magickally imposing our will on reality through
using the correct form of commanding words </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
strong-arm God</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
what does it mean? </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
is all to do with acting on the authority o</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">f</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
someone else. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
someone who is above you in </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hierarchical
structure </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">gives
you authority to do something, then that's what you do; what they
have told you to do. When
you do that, then you are acting in their name. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
is about acting in accordance with the will of the higher authority.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
have a mental image of guards outside a castle saying to an intruder,
'Stop, in the name of the King!'. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
essentially it comes down to this: If you do something in someone
else's name then what you are doing must be in accord with their
will. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'In
the name of Jesus', then, is not a </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">magick</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">al
phrase</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it
is </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">about
being in a relationship in which those under authority consult </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Christ</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
as to whether </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">what
is being asked for</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
is in his will. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
it is, then when they ask for it, then they will receive it. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
can you see, then, that there is a problem. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
c</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ould</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
for example, cancer </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">possibly</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
be in the will of God? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I pray for someone to be healed in the name of Jesus, shouldn't they
be healed? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Isn't
that </span></span><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">always</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
going to be in the will of Christ? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
all the Gospels are full of the healings Jesus did, at least one of
which was a resurrection. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That
leads us to the </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">second
point</span></i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>
</i>we need to consider regarding what happens when we look at the wider
picture of creation.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">O</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">nce
we start to do that, and to be honest, once we start to get over
ourselves and our anthropocentric self-importance, then we see that the plan for all
creation is one that is based around freedom and freewill, and not
just for us but for </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">all
things</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
universe, in order to </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">evolve</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and grow towards supporting intelligent life, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">has
always </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">need</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ed</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
space to be what it was created to be.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
is where the seven-day creationist view becomes profoundly unstuck.
It is not just that the fossil record doesn't agree with Genesis 1,
which is a </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">poetic
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hymn
anyway, not a scientific textbook. It is also that the whole
understanding of the nature of God is undermined by seven-day
creationism because it portrays a thoroughly interventionist God and
the reality is very different.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
am not saying that God doesn't intervene; God does. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
God intervenes in often subtle ways, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sometimes
simply in the timing of a natural event</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
I believe in miracles and I have witnessed them, but not </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">necessarily</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
on demand, and I believe that is because of the freewill of the
universe, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
given by God</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
So what do I mean by that?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
universe has been created with freedom to grow and become what it is.
Initially it was just hydrogen and helium that condensed ou</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
of the primordial inferno. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">None
of the other elements could be created until hydrogen and helium did
their work of fusing together in the hearts of the first stars. And
elements heavier than iron couldn't be created without the pressures
involved in giant supernova explosions. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
are all stardust. R</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ight
from the start there was space to build and grow </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">through
change and experiment</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
When it comes to life itself, we only progressed from the first
self-reproducing molecules by their mutation. Most mutations are dead
ends, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">whilst</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
some produce an evolutionary advantage and are passed on to the next
generation. But some mutations are harmful. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
life progresses and develops in intricacy by this process of
mutation, of trying out new random things which may or may not convey
an advantage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes
it's harmful. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So,
for example, cancer can be the result of a mutation, and so, instead
of a cell dying at the end of its life, it begins to reproduce
uncontrollably. T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat
is harmful to the individual and so we pray for their healing, but,
and make sure you hear <u>exactly</u> what I am saying, mutation </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
a function of life </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">must
be in the will of God if we believe God created the universe.
Without it there would be just dead planets. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That
is not </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">remotely</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the same as saying your cancer, or the cancer of a friend or loved
one, is the will of God. But the mechanism of </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">evolution,
of</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
which cancer is a biproduct, is mutation, and mutation is built into
the fabric of the universe. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
to ask God </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">simply
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
cure cancer is to ask God to have created the universe in a way that
was different from the one he chose. (Why he chose to make it in this way is another matter entirely that I can deal with, but not in the same blog post!)</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
same kind of thing goes for ageing and death. I hate that it hurts
to run now because of arthritis in two of my toes, but it it my body
reminding me that some day, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">also
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
the will of God, I have to get out of the way for the next
generation. That is how evolution and development works.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
what if this universe is just the first stage? </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> What if this is the
place where we are given the freedom to make a choice about what
comes next? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
if none of it makes sense without resurrection? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
know this isn't going to be a complete answer, but it takes us into
the </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">third point</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></i></div>
<i>
</i><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<i><br /></i>
</div>
<i>
</i><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
is where the resurrection comes in. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
this passage Jesus is talking about asking in his name in the context
of the resurrection. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
his resurrected form he is referred to by St. Paul as the firstborn
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">over
creation</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">;
that he is the new Adam, the one who marks the first inkling for us
of what the next stage in life, the next creation, will be like. A</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">nd
what do we see there? In </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Christ</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">post
resurrection </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">we
see one who is clearly the same person but </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">whose
humanity has been remade to be </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">immortal.
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
his own words Jesus declares elsewhere that things will be different
for us in the new creation, that we will be there far more like the
angels are now.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">praye</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">d</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
that my sister would be healed of the tumour that was taking her life
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
exactly the same way that many of you have prayed for loved ones who
were slowly succumbing to a terminal illness</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Yet she died in this life. Despite that, and this is not a cop-out - I've had to do some serious wrestling, I am slowly coming to the
conclusion that my prayer is in the process of being answered; that
in the context of resurrection, of her resurrection, so she is made
whole and far more complete than ever she was here.</span></span> Here I may pray, 'Heal her in Jesus' name' and he responds, 'I am,
and I have and I will, but in my timing in a new creation where it is
my will for there to be no more physical and biological mutations for
all things will be remade complete and whole.' That's why we had the
reading from Revelation as our first reading. That's why there will
be no more mourning, crying or pain.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This,
then, is an answer to the problem of why, when we pray in the name of
Jesus, we might not receive what we're asking for. It's not to be
used as a magickal phrase. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
we should not ask for something which we do not know to be within his
will. And his will is quite likely to be different from what we
imagine it to be.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">oes
that mean we shouldn't pray for healing? </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Of course not! </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sometimes,
and in the mystery of his own will</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">God
will heal some people. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
it is complicated. Wholeness of mind and spirit are of greater
importance than wholeness of body, but at the same time we cannot
divorce our physical capabilities from our non-corporeal being. We
are one being, not three divisible parts.</span></span> The healing, though, may sometimes come in the growth wrought in us
through the spiritual help that comes in coping with the difficulties
we are confronted with.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
in the final analysis we must not be like the disciples who said, 'We
understand now', unless we take into account the resurrection. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">At that point they hadn't and that's why Jesus questioned their understanding. The
prayer, 'In the name of Jesus', cannot make sense unless we have a
more complete understanding of the nature of the will of God. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That
means we can only pray it when we know we are asking for something in
accordance with his will.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
also means that sometimes his answer will be yes, but not in this
life. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ultimately</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
the only thing which makes sense of this life from a Christian
perspective is the assurance of the resurrection. Without it all we
have is a good preacher-man whose words haven't always been backed up
by our experience. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
let us learn to see life from the perspective of this just being the
first stage of existence. There is more to come. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<br />
</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-5429020812317938732015-10-21T10:44:00.001+01:002015-10-21T10:44:14.786+01:00Harvest Thanksgiving: Tilling and Keeping the earth - or Domination? Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2
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<u>Readings</u></div>
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Genesis 1:26-30, 2:4-9, 15</div>
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26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image,
according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth.’ <br />27 So God created humankind in his
image,<br /> in the image of God he created
them;<br /> male and female he created them. <br />28God
blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that
moves upon the earth.’ 29God said, ‘See, I have given you every
plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to
every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath
of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.
</div>
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In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5when no
plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had
yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6but a stream would
rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then
the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living
being. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and
there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground the Lord
God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
</div>
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</div>
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15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden
to till it and keep it. </div>
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Luke 12:54-58</div>
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Jesus also said to the crowds, ‘When
you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is
going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind
blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens.
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and
sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
</div>
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</div>
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‘And why do you not judge for
yourselves what is right? Thus, when you go with your accuser before
a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle the case, or you
may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the
officer, and the officer throw you in prison.
</div>
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<u>Harvest</u><br />
</div>
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</div>
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When it
comes to harvest, the question that I want to consider is, 'Are we Genesis 1 people, or Genesis 2 people?' The two chapters
were written by two authors at two different times and they say
different things about creation. Genesis 2, about Adam and Eve, is an
older story than Genesis 1, and we know this because in the Hebrew
they use different names for God and different writing styles. What
we find in Genesis 1 is a hierarchical build-up towards humankind
having dominion over the earth and subduing it. Genesis 2, on the
other hand, looks towards nurturing creation with a specific emphasis
on farming and our God-given human responsibility to till the ground
and keep it.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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The two are different. What I want to
suggest is that the first almost looks like it is
influenced by observation; that the writer saw what humanity does and
assumes that must therefore be what God made us to do, to subdue
everything before us. But, to my ears, Genesis 2 is more a command
from God. 'Here is the earth in your safe keeping. Farm it, care
for it and cherish it.' You might recall later on in Genesis 2
that God asks Adam to name all the animals, again underlining this
sense of the duty of care that is being placed on his shoulders.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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So it's easy to see that the two
chapters are really very different. If we take the Genesis 1
approach, which is to observe what humanity does and then call it the
right and God-given thing to do, we realise that this has become
unsustainable. When humans have 'dominion', it's one thing if there
are a few million of us, and when this passage was written there were
only about 50 million people in the entire world. Now there are
over 7 billion, but we haven't changed our habits.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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For example, recent fossil evidence has
shown what homo sapiens did as we moved out of Africa into the rest
of the world. Everywhere we went all the large animals quickly
became extinct. We hunted them until they were gone. That's
domination; that's dominion. But we can't keep on like that. We
cannot continue to be Genesis 1 people. We have to be Genesis 2
people now. And Genesis 2 is about tilling the
ground and keeping it; it's about caring for and taking
responsibility for that which has been placed in our charge for a
time. As we give thanks for the harvest of today, this is the
approach we will have to take in the future if we are to continue to
have harvests.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Another way we can think about this is
in the literal name of the church. Most of us, when we hear the
word, 'Catholic', automatically assume that we're talking about the
Roman Catholic church, but actually the word catholic simply means,
'universal'. That's vital in understanding the meaning of what the
20<sup>th</sup> century French philosopher and Christian mystic
Simone Weil meant when she asked this question:</div>
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“How can Christianity call itself
catholic, if the universe itself is left out?”</div>
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<br />
</div>
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So I suggest that when it comes to Harvest thanksgiving it should be about
receiving with gratitude God's graceful provision in the present
whilst accepting responsibility for the future, a future we are
currently not paying sufficient attention to. What I mean by that is
that, worldwide, we are simply taking more than the earth has got to
give. So Simone Weil's statement was that we,
as Christians, cannot call our faith catholic, or universal, unless
it takes account of the needs of the whole earth, and that's another
reason why we have to become Genesis 2 people.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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If there is to be a sustainable future
we have to go much further than we are currently going, both
individually and corporately. If we are to go on harvesting we are
required to change how we understand the earth and all the life
that's upon it. We need to move from treating our planet as a
commodity over which we have dominion to treating it as a sacred gift
in our care.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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There are two further things in the
second chapter of Genesis which, I think, back up this argument.
First the name ‘Adam’ means ‘man of dust’, or more literally,
'Dirt-man'. It is a subtle acknowledgement that Adam is made of the
same stuff as everything else on the planet. When we are conceived
our mothers use food from the earth, including all the healthy
minerals, to build our bodies. Throughout our lives we will go on
doing the same thing. But when we die we have no further use
for these bodies and so we return them to the earth for the minerals
to be taken up and reused in some one else. It's likely that every
atom in your body has been animate before in another form of life and
will be again after you have gone. We are all Adam. We are all made
of the same stuff of life that everything and everyone else on this
planet is.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Something else that's rather
interesting is that Adam is only a living, moving being because God
breathes his breath, his Spirit, into him. It is only because God is
within him that Adam lives and moves and breathes. So Adam, and us,
and our crops, and the birds, the dogs and cats, the sheep and cows
and every other living thing exists because of a partnership between
God and the earth. Our planet supplies the material and
God breathes in God's breath, God's life. God the Father is in
partnership with Mother Earth, and if we are created in God's image,
then we are expected to be as well. Nurture and participate, not
domination. Genesis 2, not Genesis 1.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Secondly, to add a little more detail,
there are two key words in this phrase from Genesis 2:15: '<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>till</u></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
it and </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>keep</u></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">
it.</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;">'</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span>‘Tilling’ means to cultivate - of
helping the land to become everything that it is capable of becoming.
Those of you who are farmers know all about this. We are grateful
to you and to the many others who put such huge amounts of work in to
cultivating the soil and enabling it to yield food for us to eat. So
farming is certainly a part of this, but it is not the whole of it.
We all have a role to play in ensuring future harvests. The reason for that is that the
phraseology is about care. This is further underlined by the use of
‘keeping’, which comes from a Hebrew word which means to take
great care of and guard. What we find, therefore, is that if we read
more of the story, then it emerges that God’s plan for humanity is
one of nurturing and participating with creation. It's a partnership.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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The trouble is, that is not what it has
become over the course of just one lifetime. This is highlighted for
Anglicans in the fifth of what we call ‘The five marks of mission’,
(which define for us the ways in which the church should be engaging with the world), which is stated thus: To strive to safeguard the
integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. And that is where the rest of us come
in. The farmers have to respond to the markets, but it is we, the
people, who drive those markets, and every scientific and economic
indicator shows us that we are over-consuming.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Look at what Jesus says in the Gospel
reading about reading the signs. He was talking in a different
context but the truth holds for us here. All the signs are that we
are changing our planet and wiping out vast ecosystems by taking out
more than we are putting back. We need to read those signs and
respond. And the really frightening thing is how
quickly it's happened; within the lifetime of some of those reading this.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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After the second world war we were left
with a planet full of wrecked economies. The powers that be,
especially in the USA, decided on a form of economy based on global
consumerism. The result of that was the on-going post world war two
boom. According to the calculations of Alan Durning, we produced and
consumed as many goods and services in the fifty years between 1950
and the year 2000 as we did throughout the <u><b>entire history</b></u>
of our species prior to that date.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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This cannot continue simply because the
planet isn't big enough. Some commentators suggest that if everyone
on the planet lived like the rich west does we would need seven
earths to sustain us. Genesis 1 domination has led us to this; now
we need Genesis 2 tilling and keeping.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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So what can we do? History shows that
democratically elected governments eventually change their policies
when there is a grass-roots shift. That's how they remain in power.
So we have to change first and that eventually will shift
governmental policy. Look at how the Green Party has slowly but
surely had an impact on the policy of successive governments. They
have changed opinions.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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The change to sustainability starts
with people like us. As we give thanks to God for our harvest we
need to resolve to change our approach to the world in which we live.
We need to learn to buy something and use it until it is worn out,
not just replace it because we can. We need to move back towards
repairability by buying the goods that can be repaired.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Examples of this comes from two friends
of mine. One is very mechanically savvy. He owns a very elderly,
very simple car. He doesn't have far to travel so he just keeps
repairing it. Another covers huge miles, so every few years she buys
a nearly new car that can cope with those miles. Then she runs it
right into the ground before replacing it. And when you do have to replace, take
the old one to recycling. Car dismantlers, for example, will give
you a few quid and keep other elderly cars going. We should aim to
be the last owners of everything we buy, and whatever we buy should
be aimed at what we need and should, within our budgets, be bought to
last and be repairable.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Many of the generation that used to
live like this are still alive. For the sake of future harvests we
need to look at a more sustainable lifestyle, because this one isn't.
If we care for our children and grandchildren we have to start
building lifestyles that will mean that when they are old they can
still give thanks for harvests whilst still
breathing clean air and eating food they can trust.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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We cannot continue to dominate the
planet. Genesis 1 is a poor fit for over seven billion people. If
we do we will wipe ourselves out and take a lot of the ecosystem with
us. But we can re-learn the skill of nurturing, of tilling and
keeping the ground; of naming once more the animals. Only then are
we fulfilling the commands of Genesis 2. And then, not only can we
give thanks for our harvests of today, we can look forward to the
harvests for our children and their children. </div>
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</div>
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<br />
</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-7647782701519441402015-09-05T21:55:00.001+01:002015-09-05T21:55:30.061+01:00Using our heads, not just our hearts. John's Gospel series week seven
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It is impossible to ignore the events across Northern Europe this week. What follows is an argument about using our brains, not just our emotions, in how we respond.</div>
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<u>Reading</u></div>
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John 7:37-52</div>
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On the last day of the festival, the
great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let
anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me
drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart
shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Now he said this about the
Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was
no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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When they heard these words, some in
the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This
is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not
come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the
Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village
where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of
him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
</div>
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<br />
</div>
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Then the temple police went back to the
chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not
arrest him?’ The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like
this!’ Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been
deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the
Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the
law—they are accursed.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before,
and who was one of them, asked, ‘Our law does not judge people
without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing,
does it?’ They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee,
are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from
Galilee.’
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Heads, not just hearts</u><br />
</div>
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Donald Trump
is providing some unpleasant entertainment in the race for the Republican
nomination for the US Presidential elections next year. He has come
out with some of the most outrageous statements imaginable. The most
newsworthy and controversial ones have concerned Mexican immigrants
who he has referred to as, and I quote, “bringing drugs, they’re
bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good
people” If you do a search for his remarks on
the internet you find a string of the most outrageous untruths and
downright lies that he propagates as he tries to make his points. To
me he seems to be talking about all the things he hates, all the
things that get in the way of the USA being the kind of country he
wants it to be. But I find myself wondering how someone
can be so sure of themselves in the face of such incontrovertible
evidence that they are wrong. </div>
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<br /></div>
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And of course we are no different in
this country. History records how we followed the US into war
with Iraq on false information. It seems clear to many that there were ulterior motives behind the war, and that it was
nothing to do with the so-called weapons of mass destruction. Instead they were a useful invention
which played on our fears in order to get the war sanctioned by the
public. Throughout history, over and over again, what we find is
that people will ignore the facts if they are emotional about an
issue. This last week we've heard some horrendous things said about
refugees from those who ought to know better. So today's message is
really a very practical sermon, a call to rational argument, with a
reminder of what can happen to the innocent if we ignore the facts.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Last time (week five) I shared with you the
beginnings of the story of Jesus going to Jerusalem to the Feast of
Tabernacles in private and the importance of how he would not be
swayed by the opinions of his brothers, but instead wished to stick
close to his vision for what God intended of him. We have now
reached the climax of the festival which included a special rite
which sets the context for us of what is taking place in this
reading.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
During each day of the festival, water
was brought by priests from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple to be
processed around the altar and then poured out as an offering,
possibly incorporating prayers for the rains to come now that harvest
was over, bearing in mind that this was their harvest festival. But this was the eighth day and was
treated like a Sabbath, and no water was brought to the Temple. This
provides Jesus was an occasion to teach the people.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So we can see that there is a strong
allusion to water and its absence being set as the context, and with
that knowledge behind us we can see why Jesus proclaims, ‘Let
anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me
drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart
shall flow rivers of living water.” ’
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This image of water and the Holy Spirit
comes up over and over again throughout the Old Testament, such in
Isaiah 12. What we see here is the way that Jesus is making clear
that the water of life comes from him. Indeed this has been a theme
that John has been building throughout his Gospel.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In chapter 2 there was the changing of
water into wine at the wedding at Cana. In chapter 3 we see Jesus in
conversation with Nicodemus and telling him that he had to be born of
water and the Spirit. In chapter 4 we had Jesus talking to the
Samaritan woman at the well and telling her that he gave living water
that would quench someone's thirst for ever. In chapter 5 we met the Pagan at the
pool of Bethzatha who couldn't get into the cleansing waters fast
enough to be healed by them, but then Jesus offers him cleansing far
more complete and healing than those waters could. Finally in chapter 6 Jesus calmed the
waters of the Sea of Galilee. So throughout there have been these
references to water and Jesus' claims which here he makes explicit. John also ties this to the giving of
the Holy Spirit, something which he makes clear would not happen
until after Jesus had been killed, resurrected and ascended. It's
being spelt out to us that Pentecost was not possible without Calvary
first.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That then is the context. The response
from the people seems to be one of both excitement and confusion.
Some think he is the end-time prophet; others that he is the Messiah,
and then John injects some irony intended to show how little the
people really knew about Jesus. He would have been known as Jesus of
Nazareth and a Galilean because that's where he lived at the time. But John, although he doesn't have a
birth narrative in his Gospel, is clearly alluding to what was known
about Jesus, that actually he was born in Bethlehem of Judea and was
of the line of David. John doesn't spell it out for us, he just
leaves us to note the irony in what is being said about Jesus when
the reality was that actually he <u>did</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
fulfill what was said of the Messiah. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">They
had their facts wrong. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">They
were ignorant of the truth.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
same confusion </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and irony</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
carries into the last part when the Temple police are sent to arrest
Jesus, but they can't bring themselves to do so because they, too,
are astounded by what they are hearing from him. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
this gives us a chance to see just how intense the hatred was against
Jesus from the authorities. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hey
were so vehement in their opposition to him, so incensed with what
they were hearing, that Nicodemus, who has already come to Jesus by
night and is clearly intrigued by him, has to remind them about what
the law says regarding hearing a person's testimony before condemning
him. So
again we have a sense of irony, that the leaders are using the law to
condemn Jesus and seem to be unable to comprehend that they have let
their feelings get ahead of them to such a point that they are using
the law illegally! </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This,
then, is the nub of the matter for us in the teaching here; an
observation about how we can be so </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">emotional,
or angry or upset</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> about
something that we let the matter destroy our reasoning skills. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
lose the ability to step outside the situation and look at it
critically on its own merits.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
can even begin to use our own religious beliefs to condemn an action,
without realising that what we are actually doing is ignoring what
our </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">religion</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
actually </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">teaches, bearing
in mind that the Bible is not always as clear as we would like
because it is a library, not a single book</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This
is what we see here as Jesus, a man who is entirely innocent </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
who clearly fulfils so many of the prophecies about him</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
becomes such an object of hatred by the religious leaders that they
utterly lose sight of their critical ability.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
that then brings it back to us. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
have watched, and participated, in the herd mentality. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Someone
gets angry about something and they stir it up by sharing their anger
with someone else. So it can quickly spread until people turn on
someone who didn't deserve it, and it happens all too often because
we don't check the facts.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> I </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">see </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it
happen </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">repeatedly </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in
theological or ethical arguments. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I've
lost count of the number of times that people who aren't Christians
tell me what I believe, only to struggle to take it on board when I
try and explain the real facts and beliefs about Christianity. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">O</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ften
it is because of something that has happened in the past which has
upset them, but rather than checking the facts they are running on
emotion.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
although I often talk about the mystical side of our beliefs, from
time to time I believe that it is necessary that we must also
remember that informed and rational discussion in the context of
Christian love is the only way in which we should ever try a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">d
solve disputes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">People
sometimes say to me, why can't the church go back to the beginning
when it was all love and peace and harmony between Christians. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
reality is that it was only like that for a very short period at the
beginning. By the time St. Paul was writing, and he pre-dates the
writing of the Gospels, there was a massive dispute between Jewish
and Gentile Christians</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">over the applicability of
the Jewish law to non-Jewish Christians. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here
have always been disputes and disagreements. We are in the midst of
several as a national church at the moment. Doubtless, as with every
church, we will have our own disagreements too.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Likewise
you can see the same emotive issues being fought out in the press
about the refugee crisis. Note that I call them refugees, not
migrants, because when we look at the facts we see a different story
from the emot</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ive</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
ones used to defend keeping our borders closed to those in need. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Our
beliefs as Christians, let alone simply being decent people, mean
that we need to help those in need. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">The
Gospel reading today comes as an important reminder that we should
never make up our minds on the basis of emotions alone. Decisions
and choices require knowledge and assessment of the facts.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">O</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">therwise
someone gets crucified.</span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-81452237779520031702015-09-04T11:25:00.001+01:002015-09-04T11:25:06.269+01:00John's Gospel Series. Sermons 3-5<b>Apologies not to have posted since the beginning of August. Various things have taken precedence. So here are the three sermons you've missed so far...</b><br />
<br />
<u><b>Number three</b></u><br />
<b>
</b>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>When Jesus went to a Pagan site</u> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John 5:1-18</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After this there was a festival of the
Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate
there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five
porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.
<i><b>[waiting for the stirring of the water; for an angel of the
Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the
water; whosoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was
made well from whatever disease that person had.]</b></i><i> </i> One
man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw
him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said
to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him,
‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is
stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down
ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and
walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and
began to walk.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews
said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not
lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man
who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’
They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and
walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus
found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made
well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made
him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he
was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My
Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason
the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not
only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father,
thereby making himself equal to God.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Not what you expect</u><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
Last time I
explained how three of the characters that seek Jesus out near the
beginning of John's Gospel respond in different ways, with the
Gentile being the one who most welcomes the Good News whilst the
Jewish Leader, Nicodemus, is the one who appears least at ease with
Jesus. In this story we see it from another perspective; what
happens when Jesus goes looking for someone who is seeking for help
elsewhere, someone who doesn't know or care who Jesus is?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
To my mind this is one of the most
awkward to understand passages in any of the gospels. There are a
number of really quite difficult questions that stand out which we
need to find the courage to give voice to because one thing seems
sure for me; we must not take this passage at face-value with a
western Christianised reading, because without some first century
understanding we will simply get this wrong.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is also one of those passages
whose understanding has been revolutionised over the last few years
because archaeologists working in Jerusalem have found and excavated
the site where this miracle took place. Whilst work began in the
19<sup>th</sup> century with its discovery, it is only in the last
fifty years that it has been fully exposed, and in so doing we have
become aware that there is something very important about this site. Despite being within the city walls of
Jerusalem, there now seems to be little doubt that this was not a
Jewish site at all, but was in fact a Pagan place of healing
dedicated to the Greco-Roman god, Asclepius, the god of healing, and
known to his followers as 'Saviour'. Knowing this changes everything
about how we might understand what took place, but it also raises new
questions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The first question we might ask was,
what on earth was a Pagan site doing within the walls of Jerusalem, a
city dedicated to the monotheistic worship of the Jewish God at the
Temple? Surely the city authorities would never have permitted this?
That certainly seems true, were it not for the fact that the site
was originally built outside the city walls and became what was
called an 'Asclepion' whose purpose was to service the Roman troops
at the Antonia Fortress which was close to the Temple, but just
outside the city walls. Their location would have meant that
they could keep a watchful eye over their healing site, and the city
walls were not expanded to bring the site within Jerusalem itself
until around the time of Jesus.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So the first thing for us to take on
board is that it appears that Jesus had deliberately visited a Pagan
healing site. Now we can deduce that this was probably missed even
fairly early on in the copying and distribution of this Gospel. We
can tell that from the rather odd verse 4 which is in italics and
brackets above. The reason for that is that it doesn't
appear in the earliest manuscripts and seems to be a later addition
by a copyist. We might wonder why someone would add such a verse,
but if someone was copying the text after Jerusalem had fallen, who
didn't know the city, they might have missed the point entirely about
where Jesus was, and so inserted a verse to Christianise the passage
by having an angel stirring up the waters even though, in itself,
that invented mythology is a little odd.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It seems strange to us to add this
because it immediately raises the question of why an angel would stir
up waters so that the first one in, who is probably therefore the
least in need of healing, should be the one to receive it.
Competitive healing doesn't square very well with the Gospel message
of, 'The first shall be last and the last first.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I suspect that verse 4 has therefore
been responsible for sending generations of people off in the wrong
direction. So the first thing we have had to establish is that Jesus
deliberately went to a Pagan healing site at Jerusalem. In reality the stirring of the waters
was probably caused by the keepers of the site allowing water from
the upper pool to move to the lower pool, but in many ways even
knowing that doesn't actually help us because of the series of
questions that this passage raises.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The next question is, out of all the
people present there, why this one man? John makes it clear that
when Jesus walks in to the area he sees a whole array of people who
are disabled in one way, shape or form. All of them were there
because they wanted healing. So why does Jesus single this man out?
Why not heal the others?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There are a number of possible reasons
for that. John makes a point of saying that the man has been there
for thirty eight years; could that have been the reason? Possibly,
but do we think that God works on the principle that a person becomes
more eligible for healing the longer they have been ill? And why not
heal everyone there? Think about it. Jesus is in the midst
of a big Pagan healing site. Asclepius was known as 'Saviour'
amongst his followers. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Jesus to
have healed everyone in order to show them that actually <u>he</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">
was the real saviour? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Well
to our minds, maybe it would, but this is just one more of those ways
that Jesus keeps us guessing by doing things a different way from how
we would do them.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hen
Jesus asks </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the man</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
if he wants to be made well? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">What
kind of question is that? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He's
been crippled for thirty eight years; of course he wants to be made
well! </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Except his reply is evasive... </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It makes me wonder whether the man had allowed his illness to define him. When asked if he wants to be well, the
man answers with an excuse, not the affirmative answer that we would imagine.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hen
Jesus does something that seems unexpected and raises yet more
questions; he simply heals him. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
reason this is unexpected is first the man doesn't ask him for it,
an</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">d</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
secondly the man has no idea who Jesus is! </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">According
to </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">M</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ark
6</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">, when Jesus visits his
home village, Nazareth, he </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">can't
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">do many miracles there
because they had no faith in him. Yet
here Jesus heals a man who doesn't even know who he is! </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">What's
more, he does it without touching him, which is most unusual since in
almost every other account of Jesus healing someone he does so by
physically engaging with them. So without touching him, Jesus heals
a man who hasn't asked for it and who has no idea about who Jesus is
and so cannot put his faith in him!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
then the mystery deepens even further. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">You
would imagine, given the location for this healing, that Jesus would
say, as he did to the disciples, 'Follow me.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
he doesn't even do that. Jesus just slips away into the crowd. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
when the man gets asked who told him he could carry his mat, he c</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n't
answer them. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hen,
as events unfold further, we begin to see some of why John included
this passage, together with a few more difficult questions. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">You
see the next time Jesus meets him is in the Temple. This almost
misses us until we think, 'Hang on a moment. Wasn't the man at a
Pagan site? What's he now doing in the Temple?' A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
that may well be a part of the point to the story. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
we're beginning to get a picture of a man of divided loyalties. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
wonder whether that was why Jesus picked him out from the crowd at
the pool, because he was essentially plucking at every different
spiritual straw.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
then Jesus says something deeply troubling to him, and which
completely contradicts something he says elsewhere. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus
tells him not to sin any more or something worse will happen to him.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This speaks directly into
our mindset of, 'What have I done to deserve this?' when something
goes wrong.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
answer we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">almost
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">unerringly give is,
'You've done nothing wrong. Sometimes things just happen.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Yet
here Jesus seems to be suggesting that his illness is down to his sin
and unless he stops sinning something worse will happen to him.
That's deeply disquieting. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
also seems to contradict what we find in Luke 13 </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">when
Jesus responds to questions about Pilate's brutality and a tower
falling on eighteen people and killing them by saying that they
weren't worse offenders than anyone else, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that
it wasn't their sin that caused their deaths. Y</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">et
here Jesus seems to be saying that unless the man changes his ways,
something worse will happen to him than his previous disability. The
man reacts to this by finding some Jewish leaders and pointing out
Jesus as the one who healed him thereby causing them to start picking
on Jesus.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Far from
following Jesus when he runs into him in the Temple, the man turns on
Jesus and I suspect John includes this passage to show us that Jesus
is already clashing with the authorities, and that by doing the right
thing for the right reasons, he is already on the path to Golgotha.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
what can we learn from this? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">You'll
notice that I deliberately haven't tried to give you cut and dried
teaching in this passage. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Part
of the reason for that is because I think the various questions and
contradictions are vital for us in understanding that we cannot put
God in a box. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus does
not always do the same thing. He is unpredictable, but our rational
twenty first century minds struggle with that. B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
what we find here is that, whilst stuff just happens in general,
sometimes we can bring it on ourselves by our behaviour. We find
that Jesus heals some people and not others, and he has his own
reasons for it. And
we find the grace of God </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that, despite knowing the man, knowing his background, knowing his
history, knowing how he will respond, Jesus still heals him. We
don't have to be good for Jesus to work in our lives.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
these are some of the things that arise from the questions and
contradictions, but there are </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">four</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
specific lessons that I want us to take away from this.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">First
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it reinforces what I said
last time, that signs and wonders </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">on
their own are no guarantee of a living faith</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This man was miraculously
healed by Jesus but all he did with that healing was attempt to turn
Jesus in to the authorities! </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
miracle</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> did not lead him
to faith.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">econdly,
do not be disheartened at people who see your lively and active faith
and aren't convinced by it. I think part of the reason for this
story is John reminding us that not every one, even when confronted
with a miracle, is going to believe.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Thirdly</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
this is a reminder to all of us that when we think we have a word
from God to do something, and we act obediently on what we think God
is calling us to do, it may not turn out right. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">That's
really important. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">We
have a faith that often says, 'Knock on the doors and the one that
opens is the right one.' B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
the reality is, if we find the right thing to do, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">if
we open the right door and walk through it, there is no guarant</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
of a happy ending on the other side. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Remember
that Jesus was called to crucifixion, and the seeds of that were, at
least in part, planted in this episode. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
right thing to do may not look like a good thing to the onlookers </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
it may not be something that we would choose for ourselves</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">fourth</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
thing here, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">which is the
one most likely to have an effect on our everyday lives, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is
one of awareness. An awesome miracle took place by the pool but
nobody noticed because nobody was looking. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">All
eyes were focussed on the pool, waiting for the right moment to go
in, hoping you might be healed. And
then, sneaking in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to the
Pagan place </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">by the back
entrance, along comes Jesus who heals someone who has been ill for 38
years, and then sneaks out before anyone sees. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
doesn't call the man to faith or anything. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">There's
no altar call. This is just Jesus being where he thinks he should
be, helping someone who needs help. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
just goes, does what he intended to do, and leaves.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">wonder what is going on in
our lives where Christ is seriously working away and we are
completely unaware of that because we're looking in the other
direction, maybe at our children or grandchildren, maybe at our jobs
or our social lives, maybe even at the work we do for the church.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus may be doing
something miraculously wonderful for us, but we haven't noticed
because we're looking in the wrong direction.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here
are many lesson</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
we could take from this passage but I think this is the most
important for us. We need to ask the question, 'Are my eyes open to
what God is already doing in my life?' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">May
the Great Healer remove our blindness so that we can can see where he
is already at work.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>Number four</u></b>
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<u>What does the Father do? What does the Son do? What should we do?</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
John 5:19-30</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I
tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees
the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does
likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself
is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you
will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and
gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes.
The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so
that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone
who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has
passed from death to life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour
is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the
Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has
life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in
himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because
he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is
coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will
come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘I can do nothing on my own.
As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do
not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
<u>Address</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">This
is not a universal given, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
I don't know if it holds for daughters and mothers, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">but
there is a tendency of sons to want to emulate their fathers,
provided their fathers give a good role model. To be honest, even if
their fathers are poor models, the sons may well follow in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">heir
footsteps. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This can
especially apply to the jobs we take. As a child I can remember
being fascinated by the world my father inhabited. It
was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a world </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">full
of atoms and molecules and of big noisy machines that plumbed the
depths of chemistry and physics. At every opportunity I would
question my dad and he would answer me. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
recall one occasion in a public library where he had to quite
pointedly, but very gently, tell me to stop asking questions so
loudly.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t
was about that time that my parents discovered the Ladybird series of
books about how things worked, and I was soon hooked. Of course
whenever one question is answered, it gives rise to another. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
came as no surprise to my parents, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">therefore,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that I chose a career in science because that was what my father did.
I did what I saw my father doing. But
of course that wasn't all, and of course it wasn't just about
emulating my dad. In other ways I emulated both parents. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
saw them being loving to each other and trying hard to create a
stable home for us. I saw them give their time to the school I
attended, with my mum becoming the treasurer and my dad becoming the
chair of the PTA.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
I saw them
involved in their church and also having their own choir. They
looked out for people and had a sense of fairness. I'm not saying
that following in their ways was easy or even necessarily what I
always wanted to do, but they gave me a good role model and they
helped me to follow that too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
in some ways it comes as no surprise when Jesus responds to criticism
with the words before us, as he says, “...for whatever the Father
does, the Son does likewise”. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
context of this is a follow on from the reading we looked at last
week when the Jewish leaders began their persecution against Jesus
for healing a man on the Sabbath. Jesus is essentially saying that
he is simply doing what God the Father is doing. H</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">owever,
i</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t's actually a statement
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that is more far-reaching
than it initially appears </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">because
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in saying this </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
is </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">implying that he is the
agency by which the things of heaven are being enacted on earth.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">What that means, and you
can understand the Jewish leaders being upset with him, is that he is
declaring that h</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e is the
one through which we can know what God is like.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">his
is where our relationships with our parents begin to diverge from
Jesus and the Father. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
am not simply a blend of my parents. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Whilst
they rightly tried to influence me so that I made good choices, and
those choices would certainly have been influenced by my genetic
inheritance, I have made a number of choices that they would not have
made. I'm
not a rebellious son. But I have my own mind. Many of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">m</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">y
beliefs about life and values differ from theirs. Given a particular
set of circumstances, there is no guarantee that we would make the
same decisions. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We are
similar, but we are different.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
Jesus is saying something </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">else,
something more</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
is saying that he will </span><u><i>only</i></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
do what he sees the Father doing. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
some ways this is a rebuke to those who persecute them. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
is essentially saying to them, 'You call yourselves followers of God?
Yet here am I doing </span></span><u><span style="font-style: normal;">exactly</span></u><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
what God does and you are trying to kill me because of that.'</span> Now
for us this is deeply important. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
means that w</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">e no longer
need to stumble around in the dark asking, 'Is God like this? Is God
like that? Is God always angry? Is God never angry? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Is
God loving?</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">' We
need no longer question </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">whether
God is </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">trustworthy. The
person of Jesus reveals the nature of God. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
you want to know what God is like? Then look at Jesus. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
you want to know what God values? Look at Jesus. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
you want to know what God despises? Look at Jesus.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
when we look hard at Christ, what do we see? </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">We
see a mixture of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">questions
and </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">clarity. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus
himself says that he gives life to whomsoever he wishes. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We've
just seen that demonstrated when he healed one disabled man in a
crowd of disabled people. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
don't know why he chooses to heal some and not others. I
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">have a </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">friend
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">who </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">has
a marvellous testimony of her own healing, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">of
being completely bedridden for </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">several
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">years, yet who was prayed
for and healed</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Yet
many of us, myself included, have stories of family and friends who
were not healed. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He has
his reasons, and we may not like it, but he is God </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
we are his creation</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">whilst we might have
questions about the decisions God makes, it strikes me </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">do, at least, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">have
clarity over </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">what God</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
values </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">by the way Jesus
behaves around people</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Whose company did Jesus
seem to seek out? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Those
who were most in need</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">And who were his friends?
They were a mixture of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">small
businessmen, such as Peter the</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
fisherm</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n,
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">political </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">collaborators
like Matthew the tax man, freedom fighters like Simon the Zealot,
independent women like Mary Magdalene or Mary of Bethany,
housekeepers like Martha of Bethany. He
sought out those who were rejected because of their lifestyles, like
the Samaritan woman at the well</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">who'd had five husbands
and was a moral outcast. We can also see quite clearly who he
criticised; it was the religious leaders who claimed moral
superiority for themselves who</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">m</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
he labelled hypocrites, and it was the rich and powerful who used
their own wealth for their own desires and the desires of their
friends.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">These
are the values that Jesus lived by, and so, if he does what he says,
which is to </span><u><i>only</i></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
do what the Father does, then Jesus shows us exactly what God is
like. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
there is one more thing to add to this. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus
is the Son of God, but he is also the son of Mary. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Isn't
there a hole in my argument? Could we not make exactly the same
argument from a genetic point of view about doing what he sees Mary
doing. A</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">fter
all, she makes up a big part of who he is. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Why
does he make claims only about God the Father and not about Mary his
mother? </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
answer to that is to do with the two natures of Christ; that he was
both human and divine. We cannot separate the two and say, 'Well
that was his human side' or 'that was his divine side'. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
what we can say is that, as a human he was in total submission to
God, and as God he was the Son of the Father. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
both ways he was active in his decision to do the will of God.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ultimately
what it comes down to is </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">prayer.
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Over
and over again we see it recorded about the amount of time Jesus
spent in prayer, dwelling in the presence of the Father. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
don't think this is the intercessory type of prayer. I think this is
the simple spending of time quietly in the presence of the Father,
listening and learning, observing and waiting.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">H</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ow
did Jesus know what God was doing? Partly because divinity was in
his nature and partly because, as a human, he had to pray. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
he watched, he listened, he learned and then he acted. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
This was why, as both human and God, he could say, “I seek to do
not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
question it raises for us is, what about our actions? </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
are not divine, but we have divinity within us, united to our spirits
in the person of the Holy Spirit. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">This
is one of the greatest miracles of all. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
are adopted as children of God</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">as
St. Paul wrote in Galatians, so the same is open to us as we see in
Jesus. W</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">e
may not naturally, instinctively know the Father's will, but because
the Holy Spirit is within us, we can nevertheless, through prayer and
waiting, come to know what the Father would do. The challenge for us
is to have the courage to do that, and then to act. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b><u>Number Five</u></b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><u>The Effect of Integrity</u></span></span></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Readings</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Malachi 3:1-4</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
See, I am sending my messenger to
prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly
come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you
delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can
endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For he is like a refiner’s fire and
like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them
like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in
righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be
pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
John 7:1-13</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After this Jesus went about in Galilee.
He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking
for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was
near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so
that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one
who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things,
show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in
him.) Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time
is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I
testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival
yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet
fully come.’ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But after his brothers had gone to the
festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret.
The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is
he?’ And there was considerable complaining about him among the
crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were
saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ Yet no one would speak
openly about him for fear of the Jews.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Address</u><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When I was a
teenager there was a comment that was often thrown disparagingly at
rock bands who had managed a reasonable degree of success, and this
was that they were 'Big in Japan' There was some truth in this in
that a number of the British or European bands I really enjoyed had
indeed managed to have a big success in Japan. They could go there on tours and sell
out venues, yet back here many people had never heard of them and so
people generally thought, 'Well so what?' The reason for that was
that you couldn't be counted as a superstar unless you made it in the
US. And if we're honest we still see the same thing today, although
these days it's more about film stars and TV hosts. So in the UK the comedian James Corden
was pretty successful and well known, but when he began to make it
big in the US as well, people took him more seriously. The same
could be said for the actor Simon Pegg. Originally best known for
the UK series 'Spaced', he appeared in a number of critically
acclaimed British films. But what made people take notice was when he
started getting major roles in Hollywood films.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
What we seem to be seeing with this
story is more or less the same thing. To someone in the rural north
of Galilee it was no big deal if you made a stir there. So what?
Who cared about a few thousand country bumpkins. What really counted
was if you could make it big in the Hollywood of Jerusalem. That was
what really counted. So this story follows on from the
remarkable feeding of the five thousand on the shores of the Sea of
Galilee, with that being insufficient for Jesus' brothers, who don't
yet believe in him. So, perhaps mockingly, they tell him to go to
Jerusalem so everyone can see him.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now there is another good reason for
why this is mocking. At the end of the previous chapter, the
teaching that Jesus gave to accompany the feeding of the five
thousand had been deeply challenging to those following him. The
result of that had been that vast numbers had left. Jesus had
questioned the twelve as to whether they were going to go as well, to
which Peter had replied, 'Where else could we go? You have the words
of eternal life.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So Jesus had thinned down the crowd of
followers quite considerably by not holding back on the truth about
following him. When they began to take on board what he was teaching
and its radical nature, they had drifted away. Verse 1 of today's
reading explains that Jesus '...went about' in Galilee. That verse
tells us that for some period, possibly a reasonably long time, Jesus
worked as a rabbi around Galilee. But maybe his brothers had seen how his
initial support had bled away. So they mock him, saying, 'Go on
then, make it big in Jerusalem instead. Show the world what you can
do.' The response that Jesus makes is quite telling with regard to
his belief in the way he was conducting his ministry. Were he an
insecure performer he might have thought to himself, 'Maybe they're
right. Maybe I'm only ever get noticed if I go to the bright lights
and the big city.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But Jesus doesn't do that, and his
response says much to us. 'You go because any time is good for you.
My time isn't here yet. And anyhow, it comes as no surprise that
people reject me because I am telling them the truth about good and
evil. I'm not looking for fame and fortune.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This, then, is the key issue for us
here. Jesus is not controlled by outside influences but by an inner
conviction. He doesn't allow himself to be pressurised by others
into doing what <i>they</i> think is the correct thing to do because
he knows, in the depths of his being, the right way to act and the
right thing to do. In other words he has a vision that sustains his
direction and he will not be turned to the right or the left.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The way that John describes Jesus then
travelling to Jerusalem in secret is very important. I have often
spoken about how John's Gospel has lots of layers within layers, and
the same is true here because it seems he is drawing our attention
back to the last book in the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi, who
foretells a time when God will send a messenger ahead of him to
prepare the way.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That sounds rather like John the
Baptist doesn't it. And then the prophet declares how the Lord God,
whom they seek, will suddenly and unexpectedly appear in the temple.
So it is that Jesus, who the Gospel writer has made quite clear is
divine, travels secretly to Jerusalem, not taking part in the many
celebrations surrounding what was in effect their harvest festival. The very next verse after this reading,
which comes next week, shows Jesus suddenly appearing in the Temple
and beginning to teach, thus beginning to fulfil the prophecy of
Malachi.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So what we have seen is Jesus not being
tempted by his brothers to seek recognition, but instead to wait for
the right time, and instead of travelling openly, which would
probably have got him killed, he goes in secret, in God's timing and
according to his vision, and then appears in the Temple quite
unexpectedly, just as Malachi had foretold.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This is how the strength of conviction
works its way out. This is what it means to not be swayed by the
opinions of others. This is what it means to stick to your guns even
when others tell you that you're wrong.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This raises a number of questions for
us. As individuals, how good are we at doing what we think is the
right thing to do when others criticise or belittle us? There is a
temptation amongst the meek to do as they're told; anything for a
quiet life. We become afraid of the opinions of others who seem to
be more strong willed than we are. So in the first instance this is why I
try to encourage each of us to seek a vision from God as to what we
should be doing in our own lives. Noah was ridiculed, but he
persisted because he knew what God called him to. Let us do
likewise, and have the courage to do what we think to be the right
thing, or simply to say the right thing, or defend someone because
it's the right thing to do.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A second question that this raises for
us is how the Church responds to this. This is one of the reasons we
have concentrated so much on developing a vision for the future.
Proverbs 29:18 says that without a vision, the people perish. There
is a huge amount of truth in this. We have to know the direction
we're taking so that when we encounter difficulties we will have the
courage and the resolution to press on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We can also see the way the integrity
of Jesus to his vision bears fruit after his earthly ministry is
complete in the life of Jesus' family. At this point in time they
seem to be ridiculing him. Yet turn the clock forward and we
discover that the head of the Jerusalem church, after Peter leaves on
mission work, is James, the Lord's younger brother. I wonder at what point he became
convinced? We don't know and nor can we, but for most people it is
the little things that we notice in the lives of others that draw us
to share opinions with them, and maybe to follow them.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I suspect that James saw in Jesus a
resolution to follow his vision, and so gradually accepted him for
who he was. This is the power of having a vision from God for our
direction in life, and then staying with it. Not only do you do the
right thing, but others are drawn to it too. And in being drawn to
us, so they are drawn to Christ. </div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-86961860284361112822015-08-02T22:40:00.001+01:002015-08-02T22:40:33.223+01:00How do you know who to listen to? Series on John's Gospel : Two.
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<b>Fairly long post this week, and TWO readings! Apologies for that but felt that the first one would potentially provoke some debate.</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<b>Paul</b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>New Testament reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
1 John 4:1-12</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false
prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of
God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is
not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you
have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the
one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They
are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and
the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens
to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this
we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone
who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does
not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in
this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live
through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved
us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one
another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives
in us, and his love is perfected in us.
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Gospel
Reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
John 4: 43-54</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When the two days were over, Jesus went
from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a
prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). When he came
to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that
he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to
the festival.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then he came again to Cana in Galilee
where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal
official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had
come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and
heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to
him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The
official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the
word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going
down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he
asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him,
‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The
father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him,
‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his
whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after
coming from Judea to Galilee.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<u>So who should we listen to, and why?</u><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Some
of us were watching with great interest the information coming out
from NASA about the New Horizons probe which has just flown past
Pluto. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">New Horizons was
the fastest probe we have ever launched from earth yet it still took
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nine and a half years, and
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">some </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">gravity
assistance from Jupiter </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
speed it up</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">, before it
finally arrived at Pluto, travelling at 9 miles per second. Now
that sounds quite quick until we remember that light travels at
186,000 miles per second. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">That's
why, despite still being well within the boundaries of our solar
system, information from New Horizons currently takes four and a half
hours to get to us. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
helps us to come to terms with just how big our solar system is
compared to the earth, or even </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">just
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to our villages and towns. A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
when we expand that out to how large our universe is, well light from
our observable horizon has been travelling for 13.7 billion years and
we have absolutely no idea what lies on the other side of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t
horizon</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">, although
scientists tell us it's probably more of the same; galaxies filled
with stars and planets.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">It
is a very big universe, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">way
beyond our comprehension, or so they tell us. Why do we believe 'them'? It's </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">because
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we believe the people who
are experienced in these things to tell us the truth to the best of
their ability, and who have proven themselves capable of good research. We
believe them despite the fact that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">most
of us have experienced only the tiniest fraction of the reality of
the size of the universe. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
wonder what it would be like if we said we wouldn't believe it unless
we experienced it? </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
wonder how well NASA would do if its scientists said, 'We don't
really believe Pluto is there because no one has ever been there and
experienced it for themselves before coming back to tell us about
it'?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">wonder how science would
progress if everyone said, 'I won't believe your experiment until I
have done it for myself'? </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Thankfully, for the most part, sensible
people </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">are happy to accept
the truth from the people that we trust to tell us the truth </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
the best of their ability regarding what they have researched</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">We rely on other people
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">who have proven their
expertise by their results</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">However, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it's interesting that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">when
it comes to religious matters it all changes. I often talk about the
experience of God and of how, for me, that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">sometimes</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
occurs</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> in the reflective
times. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I wonder,
then, how Christian belief would look if we refused to accept
anything unless we had proof by </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">our
own </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">experience? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n
order to believe in God, do we need proof? Do we need miracles? Do
we need something unexplainable to happen </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to
us</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Why
is religion subjective truth when science seems to be objective
truth? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I'm not sure I can
give a complete answer to that, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">but
I hope I can at least show what I think is the yardstick by which we can make a
judgement as to whether we should listen or not. It
seems to me that i</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t is
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
issue that John seeks to deal with in the above Gospel reading as we
continue our series on the parts of John's Gospel that don't appear
in the regular lectionary. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">First
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we need to explore the
passage in front of us a little. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">John
has a particular way of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">construct</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ing
his narrative so that each section seems to build on the previous
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">one</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">That means that today's
story is developed from </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
encounters that Jesus has had over the last few chapters, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
its foundation is found in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
prologue of the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Gospel's
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">first chapter </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">where</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
John tells us that The Word of God c</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ame</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to what was his own and his own people did not accept him.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">John</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">illustrates this</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in chapter 3 </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">with
the encounter with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader who, although he knows
there is something special about Jesus, seems unable to accept him as
Messiah at this point (although intriguingly he seems to later.) </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
second encounter </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">John
shows us </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is with a
Samaritan woman who, after some debate, does accept him. To
understand the significance of that we need to r</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">emember
that Samaritans were thought of as being a mixed race by the Jews of that period.
So they were not quite Jewish, and </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it
is amongst them that John records</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Jesus receiv</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ing</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a slightly better welcome than he did from a Jewish leader. Our
passage picks up from Jesus having spent two days with them in a
Samaritan village before he moved on to Galilee.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">to build his narrative
John portrays </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a Jewish
leader </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">as</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
not very welcoming </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a Samaritan woman </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">as</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a little more welcoming once she understood more about him. What
happens when he moves even further away from Jerusalem and encounters
someone who was in all probability a Gentile, a non-Jew?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I should ad</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">d</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">it's possible some
confusion may arise here because this phrase about a prophet having
no honour in their own country appears in the synoptic Gospels but
there it is used of Jesus in Nazareth, the village where he was
brought up. In John's Gospel the same phrase is used but is applied
to Jesus moving steadily further north, away from Jerusalem, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
has nothing to do with Nazareth. T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">his
is because, from John's perspective, the Messiah's true home is
Jerusalem, but he receives no honour there, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">no
acceptance from those who lead,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and so </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">steadily
moves further away </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">until
we meet the royal official</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">One
of the reasons this passage doesn't make it into the lectionary is
because there are some strong similarities to the healing of the centurion's
slave </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">found in the other
Gospels, so much so that many commentators think it's the same story</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> only told differently.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">W</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">hat
John does here, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">though,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
is to give it a place in an ongoing and developing narrative rather
than a place for a simple miracle.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">On
the assumption, then, that this is the same story as the one found in
the synoptics but told in a different way, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
what makes this </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">so
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">interesting for us is
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that, in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
progression from Jewish leader to Samaritan to a man who is a
Gentile, John appears to be taking great pains to suggest that the
further away he goes </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">from
Jerusalem</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">, the more of a
welcome </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
receives. Given
that John was himself a Jew, we should NOT read this as anti-Jewish rhetoric. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
may simply have spent some of his time wondering why Jesus, a Jew,
was rejected by the Jewish authorities. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Bear
in mind that John's Gospel was an evangelistic text and there is a
body of opinion that it was written especially for Jews who no long</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">er</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
lived in Judea.</span> Personally I wonder whether John was someone who was deeply dissatisfied by the
way his country had been run and so a part of his reasons for writing
in this way was to express that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">But
t</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he point John seems to be
making </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in all of this</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
is that the message of Jesus is not just for Jews and, whilst in the
synoptic Gospels evangelism is limited mainly to Jews, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">i</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n
John right from the beginning the author is showing its acceptance
away from Jerusalem, the centre of Judaism.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">That,
then, is the background to this reading. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">What
takes place is that the official's son is ill. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
official</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">act</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s,
having heard about Jesus, by coming to beg him to heal his son.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus responds initially
quite abruptly by saying 'Unless you see signs and wonders, you will
not believe.'</span> That response is
quite important. Firstly it mirrors the kind of abruptness that
Jesus greets his mother's request to help at the wedding at Cana in
chapter 2 when they ran out of wine. Secondly, 'Signs and wonders', is a term that comes up a
lot in the Old Testament when describing the ways God has dealt with
the Israelites, and thirdly the word 'you' in that sentence is
plural, so we might translate it as Jesus saying, 'You people won't
respond unless you see signs and wonders.'</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
official's response is not one of desiring a sign or a miraculous
wonder. He just wants his son to be made well. He puts his faith in
Jesus </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">by </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ignoring
the test and </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">urging him to
come. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Jesus responds by
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">telling him to go because
his son will live. What happens next is crucial for us because, quite simply, the official
takes Jesus at his word and responds by going home where he finds
that, indeed, his son has recovered, and began to do so at the time
Jesus had sent him on his way. In
other words the man acts on faith, not requiring a sign. He simply
believes what Jesus tells him to believe. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He
doesn't have to experience anything to trust Jesus and the words he
speaks. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He responds to
Jesus in much the same way that we respond to today's scientists, by
simply believing him.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
And that seems
to me to be a perfect example of what faith actually looks like. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
He
has never seen Jesus before. He has never met Jesus for himself.
But he has heard what others have been saying about him and so he
responds to their testimony by putting his faith in Jesus. This is a
man who has not been tarnished by cynicism.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
wonder how that compares to us. What do we look for when we're trying
to decide whether we believe someone else when they tell us about
something spiritual? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">For
me, by and large, I want to see if it has had a positive impact on
who they are. Have they become someone I trust? Has their faith
meant that this is someone who I could tell anything to in the knowledge that it would go no further? I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s
this a person whose spiritual experiences have transformed them so
that their whole outlook on life is gradually being transformed from
inward facing and their own needs, to outward facing and serving the
needs of others? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Is true,
real, selflessly giving love something that seems to be growing in
the depths of their being? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">To
me, that seems to be the mark of someone who has touched the hand of
God.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
I have to admit that, especially in my younger days, signs and
wonders were a big part of whether I would put my faith in what was
being said. If I witnessed someone apparently being healed, or felt
caught up in some warm feelings inside by stirring worship, then I
was apt to listen to what was being said. I liked being convinced by
signs and wonders, yet Jesus, despite being the most amazing miracle worker,
disparages them. Why?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
suspect that t</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he problem
with a faith that depends on signs and wonders is the ease with which
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
can be misled. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now I can
point to a number of key spiritual or mystical experiences in my life
which have been important, but they just kind of happened. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">In the times when
God has seemed distant they have been helpful to fall back on, but
they shouldn't be the foundation stones for what I believe.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">H</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">owever,
for </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">some</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">people</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the proof of whether something is </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">real
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is whether it is also
dynamic and lively. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Do
things 'happen'? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">For
those who feel influenced by </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
Christian charismatic movement, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
I count myself within that,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
have </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">judged
whether a leader or a church is spiritual enough by whether there is
speaking in tongues or whether people are healed? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
know I used to.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Y</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">et
here Jesus make it pretty crystal clear that we should not be reliant
on those things as being solid indicators of truth. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
fact I would go so far as to say we can be very easily misled if we
do. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">For example, a few
years back there was a very influential movement in charismatic
circles which came out of the Vineyard church at Toronto and which
became known as the Toronto Blessing. A</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t
its height people were flying from all over the world to go there and
receive the blessing and then to bring it back to their own churches.
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Initially it seemed like something very special but after a while <span style="text-decoration: none;">I
became steadily more cynical because it became the next
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in-thing</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">'</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
the next mark of being a true believer. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Commentators
seem fairly sure that this did at least begin as a work of God, but,
that maybe, in a sense, we got in the way.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The intriguing thing for me, having spent some time researching some of the Pagan pathways, is </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">at
least some of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
hallmarks of the Toronto Blessing bore remarkably close resemblances to some of the known characteristics
of Shamanic practice </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">together
with similarities to a few psychotherapeutic practices</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">N</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ow
we can make of that as we will. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I'm not going to condemn Shamanism in this </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and
I have a couple of good friends who are practising Shamans</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
but </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">they have, on the whole,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a very different set of religious beliefs </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">from
Christian ones</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">However,
if we decide to use signs and wonders as proof of whether an
experience is genuine then we can find ourselves in a strange place where Christians uncritically adopt a form of behaviour that they would criticize in a different religion. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Christians need to recognise that there
are numerous religions which have signs and wonders attached to them and so they are not a proof that something is Christian.
For example </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I know of people who are
Wicca</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
who have engaged in a ritual called 'Drawing Down the Moon' in which
the priestess invites the Goddess to enter her, and of whom some have
testified that when it did happen the Priestess glowed with an inner
light.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">have known of someone who
converted to a Pagan religion because of an encounter in which they
felt deeply loved </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">by the
Goddess </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">on a spiritual
level in a way they had never before experienced. Yet these
experiences are founded on different beliefs from our own.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Signs and wonders are not
the exclusive preserve of Christianity.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
think this is why Jesus tried to make the point that we should not
demand signs and wonders as proof that makes us believe. What then should we look for?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I think </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">we </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">should we be looking
for </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">changed lives. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">If
someone is genuinely being touched by God, by whatever name we or they may use, then there should be a
movement within their lives to being more loving, more giving of
themselves. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">This is also
what we find in the first letter of John, that love is the mark of
someone who is touched by God.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">N</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
one is expected to be perfect, but if it is God who motivates us then
that kind of transformation should be evident to everyone and should
be the factor by which we should judge whether to listen a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">d
take note of what is being said or written. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Remember
that later on in John's Gospel, in chapter 15, Jesus says that
'Greater love has no one than to lay down their life for their
friends.'</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">S</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">o
with our modern scientists, we listen to the ones whose research has
a good track record of producing reliable results. Likewise with our
religious people we should listen and trust in those who seem to be
on the road to love.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">L</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ove
is the yardstick by which we decide whether to listen, and may the
Spirit of God so change us that love becomes the yardstick by which
others see the truth revealed in the ways in which we live our lives.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It's unlikely we'll reach
the heady heights of perfection, but let love be revealed as that
which is at the heart of the One who dwells within us. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-18701406068361856642015-07-30T11:26:00.000+01:002015-07-30T11:26:34.840+01:00John's Gospel series. One - the value of spiritual encounter<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
We begin a series on John's Gospel this week, looking at the passages which, for some reason or another, have been left out of the three year cycle of readings. That means you will probably never have had a sermon on them before and those of us who preach will probably have never preached on this before.<b><br /></b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Reading</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
John 3:22-36</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
After this Jesus and his disciples went
into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them
and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because
water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being
baptized— John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now a discussion about purification
arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and
said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to
whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’
John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been
given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I
am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.” He who has
the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands
and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this
reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease.’</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The one who comes from above is above
all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks
about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He
testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his
testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this,
that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for
he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has
placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must
endure God’s wrath.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Address</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always;">
A philosophical conundrum...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I'd like to
tell you what it's like to be me. I'd like to, but I can't. I'd
like to show you what the colour green looks like to me because I
truly want to know if it looks the same to you as it does to me. I'd
like to but I can't. I cannot show you because you cannot be inside
me and therefore cannot experience my reality. And the same difficulty exists with the
things of earth and the things of heaven. I have many friends who I
would like to show these spiritual things to, this God whom I
encounter, but I can't because they have no experience, no ultimate
frame of reference. The only way they can find out what I'm talking
about is to encounter for themselves the Ultimate Frame of Reference.
And that's what this reading is about; the gap that exists
between the things of earth and the things of heaven.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I think this reading probably falls
into the category of difficult to understand, but once we break it
down it becomes far easier to see that there is a deliberate
structure to what the Gospel writer has crafted here, the way it
builds on what he's already written and the point that he is trying
to make, which is to do with the greater importance of spiritual
things over material things.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So if we break the structure down the
passage falls into three chunks. The first gives us the context of
the events, the second tells us what actually took place and what
John the Baptist said, and the third is the author's own commentary
on the events.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At the outset we have some interesting
information from John that you won't find in any of the other
Gospels, that the beginning of Jesus' ministry was running
concurrently with the work of John the Baptist. In fact this looks
to be at odds with Mark's Gospel which seems to imply that Jesus
began his ministry in Galilee after John the Baptist had been
arrested. Matthew seems to suggest the same thing,
with John the Baptist's arrest triggering the movement of Jesus to
Galilee and his initial message being the same as John's: 'Repent for
the kingdom of heaven has come near.' But the author of John's
Gospel suggests that there was an interim period, when they were
ministering at the same time. In fact he goes so far as to apparently
link his Gospel to Mark's Gospel by making the rather over-obvious
point that this was in the period before John the Baptist was
arrested. So already we have learnt something new about Jesus, that
for a short while he and John the Baptist were active at the same
time. But the balance was changing, and as we move into the second
paragraph we pick up the story that the Gospel writer is going to use
to make his point.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">It
opens in a confusing way, that a discussion about purification arose
between John's disciples and a Jew. What makes this so confusing is
that the author tells us absolutely nothing about what </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">was
said in this</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> discussion.
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">However we can speculate
that it was </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">probably
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">something to do with
baptism </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">and that the
writer includes it here to reinforce a point he made earlier in the
Gospel about the superiority of Jesus and the baptism he brings. I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">n
the Jewish tradition one would immerse oneself in a mikvah, a bath of
running water from a natural source, either as a purification rite or
because one was converting to Judaism. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">John
the Baptist was using this as a basis for his baptism of repentance;
making the people clean for the coming of the Messiah. N</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ow
it may be that the Jew who was debating with John's disciples was
making a point that he felt clean and didn't need to undergo this
purification ritual. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Or
it may have been more to do with something that Jesus and his
disciples were doing concerning purification that was different from
John.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">suspect that the author is
leading us towards this second idea, that it is to do with something
extra taking place amongst the baptism offered by Jesus and his
disciples because that would be in the context of what has come so
far in </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">this</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Gospel. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Let me remind you
that when John the Baptist first appears </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">in
chapter one </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he declares
that he baptises with water but Jesus will baptise with the Holy
Spirit.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">That
narrative is followed by the wedding at Cana at which Jesus
transforms water intended for purification rites into high quality
wine, again giving the impression that the purification offered by
Jesus is something new, </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">something
far reaching on a deeply spiritual level, that in some way he fulfils the law, Torah, in a way that we are unable to</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
Immediately after that story the author places Jesus in the temple,
overturning the tables of the money changers, an event </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">sometimes
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">referred to as the
purification of the temple. Remember
that the synoptic Gospels place that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Temple
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">event in the last week of
Jesus' life but John uses it right at the beginning, once more, I
think, as a literary device to keep his readers' awareness on this
whole purification motif. And all of that has been building up to
the comments that </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">the
Baptist</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> makes in th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
second paragraph.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">So
his disciples come to John declaring, 'That man about whom you
testified; everyone is going to him.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
implication at the end of that sentence is, '...and not us.' </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
ministry of John the Baptist seems to be winding down and his
followers are worried about it. Are they perhaps even jealous? A
new preacher comes to town who seems better than the old one and so
everyone follows him instead.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">B</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ut
John, in an act of humility that illustrates the depth of his
spirituality, declares that this is exactly right. He knows that he
was sent to get things ready for Jesus and that now Jesus has begun,
his own </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ministry </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">should
decrease. The story of the bridegroom, the bride and the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">delight
shown by the </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">friend of the
bridegroom, or best-man as we would call him, is </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a
very touching one.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">here
are several suggestions given as to what the Baptist means when he
declares how the best man rejoices at the sound of the bridegroom's
voice. It could be that sense of </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">deep
happiness</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> that a best
friend feels for his intimate friend as he listens to him make his
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">wedding </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">vows.
It could be simply hearing his voice as he arrives for the ceremony. It
could even have been the exultant joy that he would hear from the
wedding chamber after he leads the couple to it following the
ceremony for the consummation! Remember, this was a very different
society from ours. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
whichever way we look at it this is John making it clear that he
plays second fiddle to Jesus, and that now the groom has arrived on
the scene it's getting near the time for the best man, having
completed his role, to vanish.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
third paragraph marks a </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">subtle
but import</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">a</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">nt
change</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">When
you hear it read you assume that it is the Baptist continuing in his
thoughts about Jesus, but actually, even though there is no
punctuation in the original, most commentators and translators are
convinced that this last part </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">is</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the words of the author </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">of
the Gospe</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">l</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">as he explains to us, his
readers, what this all means.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">t's
clear that he is harking back to the account of the conversation
between Jesus and Nicodemus just before today's narrative. You may
remember that Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born from above,
born a second time; born of the Spirit.</span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> So
the Gospel writer begins by asserting once more that if someone is of
the earth then they can speak only of earthly things, but th</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">at</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Jesus is from heaven and so he can speak of heavenly things from his
own experience. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">He can
bring to us a spirituality which we cannot find here because it is
not derived from here.</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">And
actually this shouldn't come as any surprise to us,</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
i</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">f, like me, you get
frustrated with the kind of things we hear from the so-called 'New
Atheists' such as Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkin</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">s</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">et al.</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">They
speak with an e</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">arthly
logic </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">which
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">currently
seems to depend on a rationalism that has no room for, and
consequently no understanding or comprehension of the spiritual. It seems to me that</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
they must surely be utterly ignorant on a deep level about what it is we
celebrate. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
don't blame them for this, but I get upset that they can use logic to
explain away the mystery </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">they
haven't experienced and which </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
can't even begin to put into words.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">he
Gospel writer is just telling us what we know, that once we have
encountered Christ for ourselves we can see the colossal gulf between
earthly and heavenly reality. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
think this is one of the reasons why we can rarely reason someone
into the Kingdom of Heaven. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">C.
S. Lewis is among a handful of people who became believers after
weighing all the evidence and making a choice.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">T</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">hat
wasn't my way. I encountered Christ first and was left in no doubt
by the experience </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">that
this was who I should follow</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
Subsequently I went on to develop a deeper understanding and theology,
but it began with an encounter with the one who, as the Gospel writer
puts it, is above all things. It's a little like the first time you meet your soul-mate. You can't explain why, you just know there is something special about them. In time you discover more about them, but to begin with there is just *something* that you long to be near. Then we get t</span>his
giving of the Spirit without any limits which is also my experience, that the
more I open myself to the things of the Spirit, the deeper I can go.
There comes no time when God seems to say, 'Nope, that's your lot.'
</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">It always seems to be a
beckoning deeper that I encounter. 'Come this way; there is more.'</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Now I admit that
I am uncomfortable with the last verse but I also think it's
important that I state that this is not the last word on judgement.
The writer only offers two categories; those who believe in Christ
and those who disobey him. There is a vast
array of other spiritual conditions between those two positions
that are simply not dealt with here.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">What,
then, does this reading mean for us? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
think it asks us a question about the focus we have on life. What do
we put our energies into? </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">Where
are we seeking the answers to our spiritual questions? Is it through
rational argument? Well there's no problem with that provided we
realise that it can only go so far. O</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">ur
beliefs and theologies are useful because they frame for us some of
what we can and should expect to find in God. We learn about the
character and nature of God, about goodness, perfection, love and
light. All of these things are good. </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
they pale in comparison </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">with</span><span style="text-decoration: none;">
an encounter with God, and that, therefore, should be the aim of our
spiritual practice.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;">How
will you do that? Well at least a part of it is in meeting together, but </span><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
suspect that the best place is in silence where there are no words,
just an invitation of our hearts which says something like, 'Come
Lord Jesus and reveal to me who you are.' May we find the time in our busy schedules for </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">dedicated
waiting, stillness and silence; of time to listen and
receive.</span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-91470393067651999432015-07-17T12:41:00.000+01:002015-07-17T12:41:02.075+01:00The Road to Freedom - thoughts about slavery
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Last week our choir led a special service, aided by members of the school choir, to help us consider slavery and our response to it. What follows is from my address in that service </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Luke
4:</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">16-</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">19</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">When
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jesus</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the
synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled
the scroll and found the place where it was written: <br />‘The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,<br />because he has anointed me<br />to
bring good news to the poor.<br />He has sent me to proclaim release to
the captives<br />and recovery of sight to the blind,<br />to let the
oppressed go free, <br />to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
</span>
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<br />
<br />
******<br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">L</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ots
of religious hymns and worship songs have sentiments like 'Here I am
Lord. Is it I Lord?' Or 'Lead me Lord'. These are lovely things to
sing as we convince ourselves of our willingness to do what God asks
of us. But what happens in the real world when God actually comes
calling? In the cold light of day, away from the emotional beauty of
the evocative music, we tend to be a little more reluctant.</span></div>
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“<span style="font-weight: normal;">What
difference can I make? Send someone else.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">I love the story of
Moses </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and his calling
because it is so brutally honest, and if you read the whole of Exodus
chapters 3 and 4 you find that Moses doesn't just protest
to God that he will stumble over his words. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Oh
no, it's far more than that. In
the Hebrew he protests</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, “I
am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.” </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Many
Jewish commentators </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">think
that this means Moses had a stammer. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Think
about what that means. God, almighty God, who knows everything about
everyone including our deepest thoughts, who is wise beyond
description, chose someone to be his mouthpiece and speak his words
who had a stammer </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and was
already guilty of murder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Not
someone who'd be chosen to be a bishop then... </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">urely
he was hardly the first person that we would have chosen </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
God's place</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. “What
difference can I make? Send someone else.” “No Moses. It's
you.” </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the midst of all
the </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">professionalism of the
modern church </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">it is
heartening that God has a different agenda. You
see we tend to think of God choosing big heroes, which is why it's
quite disturbing to read what he actually does, because suddenly that
places us in the potential line of people God might call. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">God
works with people who are broken, aware of their shortcomings and
their failures. God always seem to choose people who begin by
saying, “No”. I speak here from first-hand experience! </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">“What
difference can I make? Send someone else.”</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">H</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ow
about William Wilberforce, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
ma</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">n</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
credited with achieving the abolition of slavery</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">?
It took him forty six years to get the slavery laws repealed right
across the then British Empire. It took such a toll on him and his
health that he died just three days after he received assurance that
his final bill was going to make it through parliament. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yet
right back at the very beginning of the campaign he came extremely
close to giving up. He
was a Christian and I can imagine him saying, in the face of massive
opposition from the rich and the powerful in parliament, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">“What
difference can I make? Send someone else”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"> God's response was to
speak through his fiance, Barbara, who encouraged him, telling him
that she believed he could do it. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">W</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ith
her help he changed the world with regards to slavery. H</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
did what God knew he could do even though he thought it was too much
for him. “What difference can I make? Send someone else.” “No.
It's you.” </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut
thank goodness slavery is now i</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">n</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the past and none of us need to be worried about being called to do
the same kind of work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Unfortunately,
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">that's not true </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
either count</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. S</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">lavery
is not in the past </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and we</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
need our eyes to be opened </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">otherwise
how will we know when we are called to change something?</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Slavery is an outrage and it
still continues, even in the west. At its worst are the young women
who are trafficked from eastern Europe and sold for use by men in the
west. But
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">as we open our eyes to the
world in which we live, so we need to question whether </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">our</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
definition of slavery needs to be wider than this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Maybe
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">it </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">should</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
also includes those who </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">enslaved
in other ways and not simply those who are owned by others. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">For
example t</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">here can be the
desire by someone who wishes for power to gradually exert it until
they have a stranglehold on the direction of the lives and choices of
others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">So
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">slavery can be slavery to
our own desires, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">slavery to
someone else's need to have power over us, slavery because someone
has genuinely bought us, right</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
through to slavery to someone else's idea of how to run an economy
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">where we run out of ways to
climb out of poverty</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. The
list is long and we need our eyes to be opened to that. As
Christians, what is our response going to be when God says, “I want
you to be a part of the solution”? If we're anything like all of
the other major heroes in the bible, it's likely that the first thing
we will say, in the cold light of day, is </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
“What difference can I make? Send someone else.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Throughout
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">the bible are the stories
that show how God is always on the side of the oppressed </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
the enslaved</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
Old Testament prophets are littered with warnings and threats by God
against the powerful because of the way they treat </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">those
over whom they have power. And
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">then </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">comes
Jesus, and in this very short passage we get nothing less than his
manifesto. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now my
experience with the modern </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">c</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">hurch
is that we have a strong tendency to spiritualise everything and to
put all scripture into the ideal of personal spiritual growth in our
relationship with God. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
over the last couple of years I have been progressively more
challenged about this. S</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
it is that with this manifesto pledge of Jesus </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">some
of it is deeply spiritual, but some of it is very practical. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
he quotes from the Old Testament h</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
begins with a very clear affirmation of why he is about to do what he
is going to do. It is because the Spirit of God is upon him, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
we know from </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">his baptism
when the Spirit of God came down on him like a dove. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
Jesus is affirming that he is here because of the action of the
Spirit. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">This manifesto
comes right from the heart of the Father.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">n
the next line he claims he has been anointed to preach good news to
the poor. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">This is one of
those places where we automatically assume he means the spiritually
poor so that we can include ourselves. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">hat
interpretation </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">is not
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">invalid</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
but at the same time what the passage says is 'Good news to </span><b><u>the
poor</u></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">'. We can interpret it
any way we like but, at face value, the message of Christianity
should also be good news to those at the bottom of the social scale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
what is good news for the poor? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"> Isn't it that they will have enough?
So that suggests to me that the effect that the gospel has on the
rich should be to ensure that they share from their excess so that
the poor are no longer enslaved by their poverty, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
that they act to bring about the end of the causes of poverty</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
In other words the gospel should have a practical effect on the
world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">How
about freedom for the prisoners? </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">We're
back to slavery here. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
one level m</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">any of us feel
ourselves to be imprisoned by events in our lives and personal
histories. Our present actions and fears seem enslaved to what
happened in the past. Christ comes to set us free. But this is also
about how we should be good news for those in the world who are
genuine prisoners of conscience. What are we doing to set them free?</span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Recovery
of sight to the blind may well be about healing, but </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">it's
also </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">about spiritual
blindness. This is about when we look at other people and </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">judge
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">how they behave when the
reality is that we need to be looking at our own behaviour.</span> It's
that moment when you feel that sense of conviction that actually you
are the one who needs to sort their life out, not everybody else.
That's when we can say, “I was blind to my own failures, but now I
can see.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">But
then we get to the big one, to let the oppressed go free. What kind
of oppression? Slavery by being owned for sure. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
about the memories of how we were treated in the past oppressing our
present behaviour? Can this be about being set free from that too?
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">I believe so.</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">And</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
what about the people at the bottom of our economic ladder who feel
oppressed by the policies of </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">their</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
government? I did an experiment this week by </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">put</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ting
my</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> details into the BBC's
online calculator to see if </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
would </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">be better or worse off
under the new budget. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">var</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ied
my salary I </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">discovered that
the break even point was about £18,000. If I earn above that
ceiling I am better off. </span>
</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">But
when I put my details in but with a lower wage I became
catastrophically worse off, in one instance by well over £1,000! </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
think that those who say they are oppressed by the financial
decisions currently being made have a point. And what was Jesus'
manifesto? To let the oppressed go free. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">What
are we going to do about it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
is the manifesto of Jesus, </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
boy is it wide ranging! It also </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">means
that, if we are his people, then it is also meant to be our
manifesto. This is what Wilberforce did. It's what Moses did even
though he pre-dated Jesus. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">It's
what God's people do, to help those who are in need of help, whose
needs may have become so severe that they are enslaved.</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
what about us? </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What might you be being called to do? </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
might be something that is going to change the direction your life
takes. It might require a completely new way of seeing life by
looking at the real lives of other people and undergoing a massive
shift in how that means you're going to live. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Or
it might be something that seems small to you, at least to begin with.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
might simply be leading the prayers in such a way that God's Spirit
moves through you to change lives through your prayers being
answered. Or it could be working for a charity as a volunteer,
writing letters for Amnesty International, and so on. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
could be giving lifts to someone who can no longer run a car, or
visiting those who can't get out.</span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
when God calls, and </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
believe he is calling each one of us to something, how will we
answer? Will it be, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“</span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
difference can I make? Send someone else.” </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Or
will we trust God that he knows what he's doing, and even though we
think that we're the absolute last person for the job, God thinks
we're absolutely the right one.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
manifesto of Jesus is to pave the way of the road to freedom. That
must be our manifesto too. That means we have to do something when
we are asked. And we will be asked. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">All
Christians are tasked with a part of being Good News. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
will we answer?</span></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-41150087926137676452015-07-11T12:34:00.001+01:002015-07-11T12:36:47.138+01:00A social Gospel - breaking the taboos.<div align="CENTER" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Fourth
Sunday after Trinity</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Mark
5:21-43</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a
great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of
the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him,
fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is
at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she
may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for
twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had
spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I
will be made well.’ Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she
felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately
aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the
crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said
to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say,
“Who touched me?” ’ He looked all round to see who had done it.
But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and
trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He
said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace,
and be healed of your disease.’
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s
house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any
further?’ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader
of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ He allowed no one
to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a
commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he
said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is
not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. Then he put them
all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who
were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the
hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl,
get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about
(she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with
amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and
told them to give her something to eat.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">*****</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 100%; page-break-before: always;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not long ago<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> I, along with all of the other clergy of the diocese, were
privileged to have a morning listening to a talented lawyer, Shami
Chakrabarti, who is the director of the British human rights
organisation, 'Liberty'. Formed in 1934 by key public figures </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">such
as Clement Atlee and H. G. Wells</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
in response to the appalling treatment by the police and the
government in their response to the hunger marches of that year,
</span></span>Liberty campaigns for civil liberties and
human rights in the UK.
</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just to give you an idea of
how important this work is considered to be by the British
population, on their website they give specific information on how to
volunteer to offer your time to help at their London offices.
Embedded within that information are these words:
</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Unfortunately we don’t have enough space to take on
everyone who would like to volunteer, so there is competition for
places. We ask everyone to complete an application form, provide a
reference and attend a short interview.”
</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Just think on that for a moment. The British population take
human rights, and the need to maintain them, as being so important
that you have to compete to be a volunteer, applying for a position
as if it were a job. Now compare that to the church where we
continually struggle to get people to volunteer for roles. I wonder why that is? Is it maybe because our work is seen as
irrelevant? And is that maybe because, to most of the British
population, it is? I wonder how it would be if, by the way we are
church, human rights and dignities and their maintenance were counted
as far more important than it currently is when compared to our
various so-called 'strategies' for growth?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The reason I mention this is because of the way Jesus behaves in
this Gospel passage. The context here is of Jesus breaking social,
legal, political and religious taboos in order to help those in need.
Just before today's story he has been exorcising the man who called
himself Legion, the man who was living amongst the tombs, feeling so
wretched and rejected that the only place he feels he belongs is in
the most unclean place, amongst the graves. So Jesus goes to the unclean place to give him back his life, his
rights, his liberty and his place in the community. Jesus values him
when no one else did. Then when we come to the next two stories, the
ones in today's Gospel reading, we find Jesus continuing to do the
same thing, confronting taboos, being amongst the unclean in order to
restore them to community.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The two woman bear no similarities, and that's probably the point.
One is a little girl on the edge of adulthood from an important
family. We even get the name of her father, Jairus, a local
religious leader. The other woman is far older. She is nameless,
unclean, ashamed, embarrassed and shunned by her community because of
continual bleeding in a society that was even more uptight about
gynecological problems than ours. There is no one there to go to Jesus on her behalf because she has
fallen out of the bottom of society. In fact she is even breaking
the law by being amongst the crowd, and she certainly should not,
under religious law, have touched even the hem of Jesus' robe,
because in doing so, technically, she had made him unclean too. Yet when she touches him with intent, she is healed. But Jesus
won't let it go. He knows something has happened, and so he asks,
“Who touched my clothes?” The poor woman is terrified, knowing
that the game is up, so she collapses in yet more shame at his feet
as she pours out her whole sorry story.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I can imagine the concern on his face, the sorrow at what she has
been through and the way the legal system has been used against her
to ensure her ostracism from society. And so he publicly says, in
front of the whole community, “Your faith has healed you.” It
doesn't matter to him that she's broken the law by breaking a taboo
of touching him though unclean herself. What matters is that she is restored to her community and the only
way that can happen is to be pronounced clean in front of everyone,
using the title 'Daughter'. She is given her life and her liberty
back, just like Legion was. But then comes the news that Jairus' daughter has died in the time
it took Jesus to heal the older woman. Jesus, however, is undeterred
and presses on to see her. Ignoring the ridicule of the crowd he
goes in to her room, taking her parents and their supporters with
him.
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The little girl is dead, and Jesus breaks another taboo by taking
her hand, and he tells her to get up. Now we might think, 'Well
maybe he was right, maybe she wasn't dead after all', but the
language that Mark uses is the same as he uses to describe Jesus'
rising from the dead. Even at this early stage he is showing that he
is even Lord over death.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">So what then does this have to do with my opening remarks about
Liberty? I think it is because all too often we miss the social side
of what Jesus did. We assume that it was all about people's
spirituality. The church works to bring the salvation of Christ but,
for the most part in this country, we treat that as saving people so
they go to heaven.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the things I say to baptism families is to ask the
question, 'What is Jesus saving your child to <i><u>do</u></i>?'
It's not just about saving <i>from</i>, it's also about saving <i>for</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Salvation is about this life
too. So much of the work of Jesus, as in this passage, revolved
around valuing the people that everyone else cast out and restoring
these people to community.</span></span></span><br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">So that is what we should be
doing too. </span><span style="font-size: small; font-style: normal;">We might find it
difficult in our minds to even imagine that the government and the
police would take away the civil liberties of people in this country,
yet our government is seeking to abandon the European Human Rights
laws in order to put in place a much weaker British bill of rights
which will give the government far more power over the lives of those
at the bottom of community.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Where is the work of the church in all
this? People often say we shouldn't be involved in such things, but
if Jesus was openly flouting and challenging the taboos and laws of
his society in order to restore the unwanted, unnamed and unclean to
community, then so should we. I would urge you to allow yourselves
to be challenged. Read a different newspaper from the one you read. Hear the real life stories of people who are forgotten by society. Perhaps visit the Liberty website, or
look at other organisations such as Amnesty International. The needs
and the rights of people were paramount to Jesus, so they should be
to us too.</span></span></div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-82930205292452612502015-06-26T15:07:00.001+01:002015-06-26T15:07:22.526+01:00Christianity, disagreements and the real world
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
Sorry for the wait in posting this up. It's been a pretty busy week since I preached this last Sunday. <b> </b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>3<sup>rd</sup> Sunday
after Trinity</b></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Readings</u></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
2 Corinthians
6:1-13</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
As we work together with him, we urge
you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,<br />‘At
an acceptable time I have listened to you,<br />and on a day of
salvation I have helped you.’<br />See, now is the acceptable time;
see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in
anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but
as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through
great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings,
imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity,
knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,
truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of
righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and
dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as
impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as
dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as
having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We have spoken frankly to you
Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction
in our affections, but only in yours. In return—I speak as to
children—open wide your hearts also.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always; text-decoration: none;">
This New Testament reading is all about conflict and the reality
and messiness of living life as a Christian. But first we need to
understand what is behind this second letter that Paul has written to
the Corinthians in order to get a feel for why he was writing what he did.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Paul himself
founded the church in Corinth somewhere around the year 49AD, and we
can read about it in Acts chapter 18. It seems that once he founded
the church he remained with them for about eighteen months,
preaching, teaching and simply being there alongside them as one of
the apostles. His letters to them were probably written between 52
and 56AD and are therefore some of the earliest written parts of the
New Testament. They give us a
snapshot of one of the first churches, and a reminder that church
life has never been simple and without disagreement, so for anyone
who yearns for a simpler time when the church really lived out its
life as it was called to, that time never existed. There have always
been disagreements. Our love and behaviour as Christians should be marked by how we deal with
those disagreements, not by their absence. (That also includes the messiness of recognising when some relationships break down irreparably, such as Paul's relationship with his co-worker Barnabas.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
The Corinthian
church, in total, probably numbered about fifty or so people. Not so
large really by our standards. In the Church of England if your
congregation only numbered fifty, then you would only get half the
time of a vicar, if you're lucky. The Corinthians had an apostle all
to themselves for eighteen months plus visits and time from other
prominent leaders. How times have changed!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
We also need to
abandon any ideas of them having a building in which they met as that
also wouldn't have happened. At this point in the church's history
it had no political legitimacy and, in the Greek culture of the time,
they would not have jointly owned a property where they could all meet.
So instead they would have met in each other's houses and probably
only rarely would all of them have been together.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Paul wrote a
number of letters to them, not just two, and whilst the first letter
probably really is just a single letter, the second letter is more
likely to be a gathered collection of several letters, and scholars
think there were probably other letters in addition to these which
didn't survive. When we take
them all together what we find is Paul trying to deal with a number
of issues in his beloved church, and conflict is a large part of
that. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
In this section of the second letter Paul is almost sounding
rather defensive. So what had been
happening? What had gone wrong? Well it seems that essentially the
church in Corinth had rejected Paul as their leader. No one is
completely sure what happened but it seems apparent from elsewhere in
the collection of letters that a group of troublemakers had arrived
on the scene and stirred up key members of the church against Paul,
making them doubt the validity of his apostleship. No scholars seem
to be able to make a clear case as to what exactly these
troublemakers were saying or who they were; Paul simply doesn't give
us enough information in what he writes. But it seems likely that,
for Greek cultural reasons, the church in Corinth was drawn to more
overtly and outwardly spiritual expressions of faith than was healthy
for them. You might recall
in 1 Corinthians there is a section that runs through chapters 12 to
14 about spiritual expression, with the gift of tongues being
especially favoured by them, leading to Paul reminding them that all
of the spiritual gifts will come to an end, but there is something
greater, saying to them, 'I will show you a more excellent way'
before giving them a powerful lesson in love in 1 Corinthians 13.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
So it seems likely
that the external opponents of Paul who arrived in Corinth
capitalised on their tendency towards spiritual pride and boasting,
exploiting their weakness by preaching a softer Gospel which was one
of freedom from suffering and of receiving ever greater spiritual
experiences. These would have seemed very tempting to the
Corinthians. Think about it
for a moment. If you regard yourselves as culturally better than
much of the rest of the world, how much of a step would it be to
listen to voices that affirm this? Think of that L'Oreal advert that
continually pushes the message, 'Because you're worth it' and imagine
how enticing a message that would be. The
Corinthian church were probably, therefore, struggling with the temptation to listen to a
soft Gospel that told them that, as Christians, they were above
suffering and should instead be attaining ever higher spiritual
abilities. (Actually, if I'm honest, I've come across churches that still believe this.) In order to seal their authority and take over the
church, all that remained, then, was for these new preachers to
affirm that Paul was wrong and that the Corinthians should doubt he
was even a proper apostle. That's why,
scattered throughout these letters, we find occasions where Paul
clearly describes himself as an apostle, and in this section we have
a pretty good apologetic from him for these claims as he is brutally
honest with them by reminding them what it has cost him.
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
In this section Paul refers to
himself and his co-workers as undergoing hardships, of having been
beaten, put in prison, or worrying themselves through sleepless
nights, of going hungry, of learning to be pure, of developing the
fruit of the Spirit, of the battle to be righteous, of being held in
ill repute by some and as impostors by others, and so on. Life has been
difficult for him because of his beliefs, of that there can be no mistake, and yet he has
stuck the course and therefore feels justified in using his
persistence as evidence of his calling as an apostle of Jesus. And
even this description of his suffering should come as a wake up call
to the church in Corinth. They are being distracted by preachers
telling them that life should be very spiritual and that they should
be delivered from suffering. The reality of
life as a Christian is very different from this. We need only to
look at our founder and his crucifixion to see that. We need not
look much further than the 12 disciples, only one of whom lived into
old age, to be further reminded.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
In all of this,
though, what we need to admire in Paul is his persistence. He has
established a church. He's got to know them and worked alongside
them for 18 months. They've been friends on a deep level; trust me
you cannot minister to a church without them becoming friends. And
then when some new teachers come along and steer them on to a
different path, they turn on him. So out of his
love for them he sticks with them, saying sometimes harsh things to
them, and gradually working to bring them back on track, back to the
true Gospel of Christ and away from an easy self-centred one.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
What, then, does
all of this teach us, twenty centuries later? I think it's all about
a heady dose of reality. Spirituality and spiritual experiences are
a part of being a Christian, but only a part. We also have to live
in the real world where people disagree about the right way to do
things. That's life, as much for Christians as for the rest of the
world. That's the messy reality. What should mark
us out as different is love and persistence in how we are when things
go awry. There were occasions when Paul lost battles and had to walk
away from churches, but he tried very hard to make things right
first.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Given the grief
that the Corinthian church had given him, any one of us could
understand how he felt, and we would have excused him for throwing
his hands in the air and saying, 'To hell with the lot of you, I'm
going back to Ephesus!' But he didn't.
He carried on trying and committed time to them, despite their
behaviour. He persisted out of love despite their insults.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
May
we also learn to persist in those difficult situations that we all
face, both in church, home, work and social lives, and may we
remember that we do so because God continues to persist with us,
despite the barriers we, too, throw up. The Gospel
message is about how we live in this life, not just about our
destination when we leave this mortal coil. May we never forget
that.</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5227510978616624260.post-56435243636150701672015-05-30T22:20:00.004+01:002015-05-30T22:20:45.479+01:00Trinity: Experience is everything.
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">Just one reading to introduce this: </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;">John
3:1-17</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Now there was a Pharisee named
Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said
to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the
presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.'
Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown
old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be
born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter
the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is
born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from
above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of
it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it
is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him,
‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a
teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of
what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive
our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not
believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No
one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son
into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world
might be saved through him.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u>Trinity</u><br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Ah the joys
of Trinity Sunday. We say that we believe in one God who is three
persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet for many
western Christians we are really only paying the belief lip service.
I've become quite fond of a saying that my doctrine lecturer, Jeremy
Begbie, made when trying to describe the Trinity. He explained that
in western thought, 'God is one, but unfortunately three.' And that more or less describes where
most of us are at. So I might as well say, 'Today I am going to
explain the Trinity, and tomorrow I shall nail some jelly to the
ceiling.' Nevertheless this is a vital part of Christian belief, so I
am going to try and do this justice for us, but maybe explanation
shouldn't be the whole story. What I mean by that is that anything
that I write is going to fall short of the truth. Jesus makes that
quite clear when he speaks to Nicodemus who represents us with our human questions. He speaks for the
Jewish leaders at this point, and many times when Jesus says 'you'
in this passage we should understand that the word he uses is plural,
so Jesus' answer is to all his earthly questioners.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So we learn that the leaders have
recognised very early on that there is something about Jesus that
indicates he is from God. This is a part of the story that John, the
Gospel writer, tells right from his opening words, 'In the beginning
was the Word.' Jesus doesn't deny this, but adds into the mix his own
comment about the Spirit of God that blows where it wills. Jesus then tells Nicodemus quite
blatantly that he is not going to understand this because he is
trying to think rationally as a teacher, but what he needs to do is
experience the reality by being born from above, by being born a
second time. This, then, is the rider that I'm going
to put on this: all Christian doctrine is an attempt to explain or
describe what we have experienced in a logical way, but what Jesus
seems to say is that we should not be overly concerned with
understanding because this is a spiritual thing which we will
struggle to understand in earthly terms because we have no frame of
reference. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Instead we have to experience the reality of Father, Son
and Spirit.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That is, therefore, my main priority,
to encourage us to engage with the Trinity rather than trying to
understand it first. We're only human and so there will be a limit
on what we can understand. Having said that, there is still merit in
having some understanding in order to avoid what we believe are some
of the pitfalls of getting it wrong, so it's worth spending a moment
on why we believe in the Trinity and what we do <i>actually</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
believe.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So first of all, where does the belief
in the Trinity come from? It may come as a shock to hear that the word 'Trinity' does not come from the Bible. On the
very rare occasions where the phrase 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit'
does occur, it is usually thought of as a later addition and not
something present in the original text as written by the author.</div>
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How, then, did we get to it? Basically
it all comes down to combining experience with revelation. The first
Christians were all Jewish and Judaism, by the first century, had
become a monotheistic religion believing that there is only one God.
So all early Christians held this belief. It comes from something
called the Shema, a Jewish saying from Deuteronomy 6:4 which says:</div>
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'Hear, O Israel, YHWH is your God, YHWH is one.'</blockquote>
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As an aside, the word used for 'one' is
the Hebrew word <i>echad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Almost everywhere in the Old
Testament that word literally and numerically means 'one'. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">But
there are some interesting places where it means something that is
one yet also more than one. The one most often quoted is from
Genesis 2:24:</span></div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-style: normal;">'Therefore a man shall
leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become </span><strong><span style="font-style: normal;">one</span></strong><span style="font-style: normal;">
(echad) flesh.'</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">I
mention this not because the Shema is hiding a doctrine of the Holy
Trinity. It isn't. But it is interesting that the concept of
oneness can have a mystical nature to it in the same way that a
married couple know they are connected in a way that they can't
really describe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">Anyway,
going back to the first Christians, their belief was </span><span style="font-style: normal;">that
there is</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> one God. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Yet
their </span><i>experience</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> of
that one God, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">as described in
both our Gospel and New Testament readings,</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
meant that the description didn't go far enough. Over
the course of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">more than three
hundred years, debates echoed loudly across </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Christianity
as </span><span style="font-style: normal;">theologians wrestled with
with the belief in one indivisible God, whilst noting the experiences
and references to Christ as being divine, especially as found in the
John's Gospel, and the numerous references to the Holy Spirit of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">A
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">simple argument about the
divinity of Jesus is this: We say that only God can forgive, yet we
say that it is through Christ that we are forgiven. Therefore Christ
must be divine </span><span style="font-style: normal;">otherwise he
could not forgive</span><span style="font-style: normal;">. Of course
it can be a lot more complex than that, but in a nutshell that is at
the heart of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">many of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">our
beliefs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">So the
first Christians </span><span style="font-style: normal;">k</span><span style="font-style: normal;">new
God was one, yet they experienced </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">therefore,</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
wrote about </span><span style="font-style: normal;">three different
persons, and so from that combination emerged a belief in the Trinity
which is essentially that there is only one God, but within that one
God there are three separate persons who </span><span style="font-style: normal;">have
revealed themselves </span><span style="font-style: normal;">as the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">It's
important that we don't think of them as three different modes of
expression of God. Trinitarian belief is </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u><b>not</b></u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
that there is one God who sometimes expresses himself as the Father,
sometimes as the Son and sometimes as the Holy Spirit. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">They
are all separate </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and
different persons</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, but
nevertheless </span><span style="font-style: normal;">they </span><span style="font-style: normal;">are
one </span><span style="font-style: normal;">God</span><span style="font-style: normal;">. Think
of it like this. The Father is God, but the Father is not the Son
nor the Holy Spirit. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">The Son
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">is</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God but is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit, and </span><span style="font-style: normal;">the
Holy Spirit is God but is not the Son nor the Father</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">The Father is one person,
the Son is another person and the Holy Spirit is the third person.
Yet all are also </span><span style="font-style: normal;">one</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">How
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">can we possibly </span><span style="font-style: normal;">understand
that? </span><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-style: normal;">As I said, Jesus made
it quite clear that earthly logic is not going to help us understand
spiritual things because rational descriptions fall short of the
reality. That is not to say that spirituality should be full of
impossible paradoxes, but we shouldn't worry too much if we can't
fully describe something we're experiencing; that's par for the
course. But in
terms of how we can have three persons in one God, a</span><span style="font-style: normal;">s</span><span style="font-style: normal;">k</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
yourself the question, wh</span>at is a person? I think that the
answer is that a person is one who is conscious of themselves as
being distinct from someone else. So the Father is distinct in who
he is from the Spirit and the Son. However they are also all of one
essence; they are all one God.</div>
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What does this tell us about God? </div>
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At
its simplest level we know that God is a community based on love.
Each person is equal to the other but out of choice they defer to the
Father. When Jesus prayed that the church would be one as he and the
Father were one, see John's Gospel, this is what he was inferring,
that we would be a community based on love, united by the Spirit of
God. What this doesn't tell us about God,
though, is that the Trinity is not a formula that explains the
Godhead. It is merely the closest description that we can come up
with in language to describe something that goes beyond what we can
understand. Think of it along these lines. No matter how much a
mother tries to explain it to me, I will never know what it is like
to be pregnant. But that doesn't stop me puzzling over
the mystery of what it must be like to carry another human being
within one's self, and being caught up in the marvel of it.
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I think the same thing applies with the
Trinity. It has withstood nigh on 1,700 years as an 'official' and
defining belief of the church, but I cannot believe that it is a
complete and total definition of how God is, purely because I don't
think it's possible for humans to fully comprehend the nature of God
like that, and that's something that Jesus made clear in his words to
Nicodemus. I don't think that it's necessary that
we understand it. Rationalism has influenced our culture in ways
that make us think everything can be, or should be, describable given
enough research. But the doctrine of the Trinity is something that
we celebrate as a mystery which can remind us of the
incomprehensibility of God.</div>
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Nicodemus, the rational teacher,
appears three times in John's Gospel. He becomes steadily more
sympathetic to Jesus each time, and I would venture to suggest that
this is not because he understands, but because he has seen the
evidence of his eyes and has become willing to go beyond his need to
understand. So let me encourage us to do the same
thing. The things of the Spirit transcend our rational
understanding, and to not accept something unless we can understand
it will be to limit what can be accomplished simply by engagement.
Don't be put off by mystery, but instead celebrate it and engage with
it.</div>
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The Father sent the Son, and the Father
and the Son sent the Spirit. We need little more than to say, 'Come
Holy Spirit'. The mysteries will take care of themselves, but the
proof is in the changes that take place within us.</div>
Vichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00929385017239437750noreply@blogger.com0