Thursday 29 March 2012

READINGS FOR PALM SUNDAY

Mark 14.1-15.47
1It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; 2for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
3While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a beautiful thing for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
This story of the woman with the Alabaster jar is a beautiful account deep with meaning and teaching and verse 9 is powerful indeed!

"Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her"

Why does Jesus say this? Perhaps he wanted to stress that the woman's action embodies the important truth that devotion is more important than doctrine. Not that doctrine is not important at all but that her and therefore our devotion is the vital oil that lubricates our relationship with our Lord.

Consider the words of Jesus to the Pharisees, the doctrinally sound and biblically orthodox of his day? 'These people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me'. At the house of Simon they were arguing about what was the doctrinally correct thing to do - what was the correct thing to do with this costly ointment - but our Lord and Saviour said that Mary had done a most beautiful thing to him and I am sure that Jesus remembered her when he was dying in agony on the cross. This Mary, as far as we know, did not cast out demons or perform miracles. All she did was to love Jesus with a lavish, extravagant love.

I suppose the love did not really flow from that alabaster jar but it flowed from her heart and Jesus says that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her (note: not of Jesus!) And as our Lord went through the humiliation of his fake trial and torture I believe the smell of that perfume was with him, buried within his garment, mixing with the sweat and the blood. And that perfume of loving devotion was with him as he carried his heavy cross. and the perfume has lingered on through the centuries, and is still with us today! The scent of her loving devotion pervades our lives still.

What a wonderful image and what a wonderful reminder as we come to the end of Lent.

12On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, 14say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
17When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’
22While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
26When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

When I was first beginning of my journey of faith I saw the eucharist as a meal and the communion table was at the centre where God’s people gathered to remember what Jesus did on the cross. But I suspect that in the mind of Jesus, sacrifice was in the forefront when he reclined at the Last Supper. Not only that, sacrifice always goes with covenant. Every covenant is sealed with a sacrifice. In the days of Noah, God promised that he would never again flood the earth and Noah performed a sacrifice. In the days of Abraham, God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants and Abraham performs a sacrifice by cutting several animals in half to seal the agreement. Moses did the same when he splashed blood on the altar and on the people and read the book of the covenant. This strikes us as grotesque these days but the image is that of pledging our life blood to God. It is as though God and Israel become blood-brothers. Then the covenant with David followed by the long years of temple sacrifice with round-the- clock sacrifices.

But there is a problem. Although God is faithful to his end of the covenant Israel is not. Israel does not live up to her end of the covenant. And so there begins a longing that one day the covenant would be fully realised. One day the fidelity of God would meet the answering fidelity of his people. We can hear the cadences of this in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31.
"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to
them, " declares the LORD.
33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.


Against that very rich background we see Jesus at the last supper. He says “This is the blood of the covenant..” The blood of God pledges fidelity to Israel and we see how the dream of Jeremiah becomes reality and the whole history of sacrifice comes to it’s climax. Divinity and humanity meet.
What is the eucharist? A memorial meal? Yes. But it is also, I think, an unbloody re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary. Even now, as we participate in it, are brought back to Calvary and Calvary is brought back to the present moment and we, here and now, participate in the dynamics of Christ’s sacrifice which saves the world and reconciles divinity and humanity. Christ’s blood poured out is made present to us in the sacrifice of the eucharist.

That is not to say that we are sacrificing Christ over and over again. No! His sacrifice was indeed a once, for all, action. But because we are doing what Jesus asked us to do in remembrance of him, the barriers of space and time are lifted (as they are, I believe, whenever we pray).

But the eucharist is also a meal and the altar is also a table. And what do we do with this body and blood of Christ? We eat and drink together. How powerful this is! Moses sprinkles the blood on the people but we do much more than that. We ingest the body and blood of Christ that we might be conformed to that sacrifice in the most visceral, bodily way possible. We have a fellowship with the sacrifice of Christ and therefore we have a connection with each other in love and that, I think, is how it works. What the eucharst is not is a celebration of ourselves. No! It is a celebration of the culmination of Israelite history. The culmination of this sacrificial tradition and now we have the privilege of eating and drinking and incorporating into ourselves the body and blood of Christ. How wonderful and how beautiful!

Every blessing for Palm Sunday

Mark



Wednesday 21 March 2012

THE GREEKS ARE INQUISITIVE

Brother,

None of the other gospels tell of this incident. But, as Barclay puts it the fourth gospel was written to present the truth of Christianity in a way that the Greeks could appreciate and understand and it is natural that in a gospel with such an aim the first Greeks to come to Jesus should find a place.

It is not strange that there were Greeks in Jerusalem at that time. They were inveterate wanderers and driven by the desire to find out new things. But the Greeks were more than that. They were people with a seeking mind. I wonder how it was that these Greeks had come to hear of Jesus and to be interested in him?

Barclay quotes J.H. Bernard who has an interesting answer to this question. It was in the last week of his ministry that Jesus cleansed the temple and swept the money-changers and sellers of doves from the temple court. These traders were doing business in the Court of the Gentiles which was the first of the temple courts. The gentiles were allowed to come into that court but they were not allowed to pass beyong it. Now if these Greeks were in Jerusalem at all they would be sure to visit the Temple and to stand in the Court of the Gentiles. Perhaps they had actually seen that tremendous day when Jesus had driven the traders from the Temple and perhaps they had wished to know more of a man who could do things like that.

Whether or not this was the case, this is one of the great moments of the gospel story because here is the first faint hint of a gospel that was to go out to all the world and you and I became eligable for salvation. Thank God for his great mercy!

So the Greeks came with their request to Philip. Why Philip? Perhaps because he had a Greek name and they thought he would be more sympathetic. But Philip didn't know what to do and he went to Andrew. Andrew was in no doubt. He led them straight to Jesus. Andrew had learnt that no-one could ever be a nuisance to Jesus and that Jesus represented an open door that no-one can ever shut.
There is hardly a passage in the New Testament which comes as a shock to those who hear it for the first time as this one! Barclay points out that it begins with a saying everyone would expect and ends with a series of saying which were the last things that anyone would expect.

Jesus begins by saying that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To the Jews the Son of Man stood for the undefeatable world conqueror sent by God so when Jesus said this, his listeners would have caught their breath. Barclay says that they would have believed that the 'trumpet call of eternity had sounded and that the might of heaven was on the march and that the campaign of victory was on the move'.

But Jesus did not mean by 'glorified' what they meant. By glorified they meant that the subjected kingdoms of the world would grovel before the conqueror's feet; by 'glorified' he meant crucified! So the first sentence which Jesus spoke would excite the hearts of those who heard it; then began a succession of sayings which must have left them staggered, bewildered, amazed - because they were saying which spoke, in in terms of conquest, but in terms of sacrifice and death.

I suppose we will never understand our Lord and Saviour Jesus until we understand how he turns our ideas upside down - a dream of conquest into a vision of the cross. No wonder they/we did not/do not understand him!

Mark

Sunday 18 March 2012

SERMON FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY IN LENT - PASSIONTIDE BEGINS

  

John 12:20-33 (NRSV)


Some Greeks Wish to See Jesus


20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

Jesus Speaks about His Death


27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people* to myself.’ 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.


It is a wonderful truth that this passage reminds us that Jesus is for all people – without exception – no not distinction (as we once believed). The death of Jesus is powerful to save the whole world and all those who ever lived, live now, or will live in the future – all without exception. That many refuse the gift is another matter – it is nevertheless for all. And we know that those of us who have accepted it, have been enabled to do so by the grace of God, so that no one may boast. This is one of the great mysteries of our faith, and who knows, perhaps more people are ‘saved’ than any of us could ever dream of. Perhaps it is only those who deliberately harden themselves and become so conditioned that even when confronted with the evidence – what John Hick speaks of as eschatological verification – when we meet our Lord in Glory – and still reject the offer of grace and love – that these are the only ones who are lost. Maybe none? What about Hitler, Stalin, Polpot? Thank God that this is His business and not mine.

But it is clear from this reading that Jesus is for all – not only the Jews – also the Greeks. Paul of course echoes this in Romans 1:16-17 (the verses that brought Martin Luther to his great understanding of the Gospel) that it is by grace through faith – a gift – offered to all “… the Jew first and also to the Greek.” It is this emphasis on free will and choice for all that is at the core of Methodist understanding and is encapsulated in Wesley’s Rule of Conduct:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

We are required to treat all people as those for whom Christ has died. I fail dismally all too often and stand convicted as a type these words. I believe that we, as Christians, need to beware that we do not fall into the trap that had been the experience of the Jews of Jesus’ day, and think of ourselves as an exclusive group.  As John Marsh puts it:

“The revealed religion given to Israel through Moses was not intended to be or become Israel’s possession; it could only be kept by the paradox of passing it on.”

I am reminded of the experience of Mary Martin before a stage production of “The Sound of Music”. Oscar Hammerstein noticing her exhaustion slipped a note into her hand before she went on the stage. She performed as she had never done before, and when asked what had happened she showed the note, which read:

A bell is no bell till you ring it,
A song is no song till you sing it,
And love in your heart wasn't put there to stay,
Love isn't love till you give it away.

We are challenged to give to all the love that God has filled our lives with – and when we do this, it grows in our lives and we enable people to “ … see Jesus …”

Indeed, the paradox of the Christian faith is that it turns things on their heads. We have noted in past reflections how “God thinks otherwise” and here we have another example.

To many, death is the end; it is final and that is it. But we know that death is far from the end but the real beginning, because it is only by death that there can be life. Paul picks this up with the notion of dying to sin and rising to new life, a wonderful image. Again he speaks of the physical body being transformed into a spiritual body. Barclay reminds us of the idea of dying to self and uses that great Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Laing’s example of hearing the voice of God saying “You are wanted” which resulted in him burying personal ambition which freed him to become useful to God. Jesus refers to a grain of wheat which, when buried, bears much fruit and spreads.

Again Barclay refers to the image of spending life rather than preserving it as a comment of Jesus’ words of losing life in order to gain it and once again makes the distinction between existing and really living. Spending life can be costly, but it is only by service that real greatness can be achieved. Barclay cites the example of a real Christian attitude which is a challenge to me. He speaks of a retired Salvation Army member who moved to London just when the Blitz began. For some unknown reason to the people of the region, Mrs Berwick’s house seemed to be safe. It would have been perfectly understandable if she just kept to herself, for she had indeed spent her life in service to others and was retired, but she felt that she must do something. She cobbled together a simple first aid box and put a notice in her window: “If you need help, knock here.”

What a testimony this is, especially in our times. Service seems to be something of the past. People are reluctant to do anything unless they can get something out of it for themselves. Barclay comments: “They may well become rich, but one thing is certain – they will never be loved, and love is the true wealth of life.”

What also strikes me about this passage is our Lord’s anguish. He, like all of us in times of real testing, must have felt great temptation to shy away from what lay ahead of him. This is John’s reference to our Lord’s anxiety that the other evangelists refer to in the Garden of Gethsemane. Barclay makes the vital point that real courage does not mean that the person concerned is not afraid, in fact the truth of the matter is that the courageous are often terrified ‘… and yet they do the thing that ought to be done … God’s will meant the Cross and Jesus had to nerve himself to accept it …’It is all too easy to trivialise the Cross and the horror it must have meant for Jesus; and it is also all too easy to forget that we are called to bear our own crosses. Putting things right in the world cost God a great deal. We are called to be witnesses to the truth and to stand up for what is right and just – and this too will be costly. Are we willing to pay the price? I am once again reminded of those important worlds of Niebuhr who challenges us to remember the costs involved, for otherwise:

"A God without wrath, brings people without sin, into a kingdom without judgment, to a Christ without a cross."

God is angered by sin and the suffering it causes; there will be judgement but redemption is freely available to all who would accept it, and it is free and unconditional. But when we accept it there is a price to pay; but the reward is real living. Jesus responded to his own fear with the words: “No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.”

I am once again reminded of these important words:

There are two important days in any person’s life: the day one is born and the day one finds out why! Jesus was able to face all that came his way for many reasons, not least because that was why he came to earth.

It is good to be reminded that God speaks clearly to us still today; I believe God speaks to us all the time. I celebrate the amount of time this discipline of ours forces us to spend studying Scripture. I remain convinced, as I said in an earlier reflection, that we need to do a work of retrieval and redeem the Church’s focus on the Bible as our greatest source of God’s truth for us today. But as Barclay suggests, “Are we listening?” It is all too easy to forget that God also speaks in many different other ways as well, including the “still small voice of calm”. Do we spend enough time listening for the voice of God? I know I do not.

God has spoken through His Son, Jesus, and while we might not have His exact words and even though most of us only work in translation, I believe the Holy Spirit is there to guide us into all truth as we reflect on the words of the Bible. I believe the author to the letter to the Hebrews puts it in a nutshell: THE LETTER TO THE
Hebrews
God Has Spoken by His Son

“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son ...

Jesus also speaks to us through others, as Mother Teresa explained using an important and stark example; she spoke of how she would think about Jesus and then go and seek him in the poor and destitute of Calcutta. This is really challenging, but in accord with our Lord’s own words in Matthew 25.

Jesus is lifted up whenever we declare the truth of the Gospel as we faithfully expound the message of the Scriptures. When we do this, Jesus gives us the privilege of being his instruments to draw others to him. May you be blessed as you listen, and expound God’s truth to others.

Amen.


Saturday 17 March 2012

Mothering Sunday

Brother,

Here is the reading from the New Testament for next Sunday (Mothering Sunday)

Ephesians 2.1-10
1You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.




On Mothering Sunday this year I focus on Mother Theresa. According to many people, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was perhaps the greatest Christian in the 20th century. Mother Teresa captured the hearts of all of us. Her integrity, her humility, her total giving of herself to the poor of India. Mother Teresa captured the hearts of the world like nobody else on earth in our time.

She was to our century what St. Francis was to his century. Her name will be etched into the 20th century like St. Francis’ name was etched into his century. The world remembers the prayer of St. Francis and the world will remember the wonderful life of Mother Teresa. Many people will proudly say, “I lived in the time of Mother Teresa.” I already think that. “I lived when Mother Theresa lived.”

When she was given the Nobel Peace Prize, it was well deserved. She received it with such humility, saying, “I am unworthy. I am unworthy to receive this. This award is a recognition of the poor of India.” Mother Teresa was the greatest saint of our time. The year was 1950. Mother Teresa had founded the Missionaries of Charity. She then trained young women and then sent her sisters to the poorest of the poor in all parts of the world. Those sisters listened to her words when she said, “Let there be no pride. There should be no vanity in this work. For this is not your work but God’s work. These are not your poor but God’s poor.”

She and her fellow sisters went off to carry the bodies of the poor off the streets of Calcutta. What amazes me, is that even though she was a Nobel Laureate, one of the most famous people in the world, she would still pull the poor people out of the gutters and help them to die with dignity. Though famous, she would do what others would call the dirty work. She still cared for the lepers, the homeless, and the dying bags of bones, even after becoming famous. How many of our football stars or politicians would do that?

In America, Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity were busy. They began their work in St. Louis, Missouri, and her work then spread out all across that nation. I discovered today that she said once, and I love this quotation: “I am interested in persons, not programs. Programs are for a purpose; but Christian love is for a person, and I am committed to helping Christian persons.” The centre of her life was not to organise programs; the centre of her life was to care for individual people. Mother Teresa said that the biggest disease today is not leprosy, nor tuberculosis, not Aids, nor cancer. Rather, the biggest disease in the world today is the “feeling of being unwanted, uncared for, and deserted by everyone.” Her words are profound and still stir us inside.

Mother Teresa? Hers is a life of total poverty. Mother Teresa? Hers is a life of total submission to the will of God. If anyone deserves eternal life, Mother Teresa does. If anybody deserves to get through the pearly gates, Mother Teresa does. If anyone deserves to live in the eternal heavenly Jerusalem with streets paved with gold, Mother Teresa does. And yet, wonder of wonders, we are rescued by faith alone - Mother Theresa and you, me, are equals - because of Jesus and the free gift which Faith brings.

Mark

Sunday 11 March 2012


John 3:14-15 (NRSV)
14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.* 16 ‘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. 17 ‘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. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’*


Brother,

We are providing a resource for fellow preachers, by publishing reflections / sermons early in the week. I wonder if any people are using them. (Is there any way of finding out. I would enjoy fellowship with them!)

The incident that John refers to here is the time in the desert when there was a plague of snakes and people were dying and Moses was instructed to make a brazen image of a snake and when he lifted it up and the people gazed upon it, they were saved.  This is recorded in Numbers 21:4-9 and is a remote story only really known in Christian circles because John makes the link with Jesus.

The people began worshipping the image as an idol and, finally, in the days of Hezekiah, it had to be destroyed because of this (2 Kings18.4). The healing power lay not in the brazen serpent; it was only a symbol to turn their thoughts to God. When they did this, they were healed.

Jesus was lifted up on the Cross and when we look on the cross, sign ourselves with the sign of the cross or offer the Blessing – Jesus is lifted up - our thoughts are turned to God and we are touched by God’s peace.

We are reminded that Jesus did not take the easy way and so must we avoid taking the easy way. Jesus did not refuse the Cross, neither must we; because the Cross was the way to glory for Jesus and it will be for us too (as has been part of our earlier reflections).

This passage ends with the words: “…whoever believes in him …” These are important because it includes “…may have eternal life …”

What does it mean to “… believe …?”

Barclay points out that it means believing that God loves us, cares for us and wants nothing more than to forgive us. This would not have been easy for a Jew of those days to accept, because they looked on God as law-giver, a judge and one who demands sacrifices and offerings. To get into God’s presence one had to pay a price. Now Jesus reveals that God is a Father, “… who longed for nothing so much as to have his erring children come back home.”

God had tried to make this clear through His intervention into the life of the people of Israel and Judah and through the prophets, but they could not see it, so it cost the life and death of Jesus to make this clear.

How can we be sure of this? Because John begins his Gospel by explaining that Jesus is the Word of God – the same as God – one of the great mysteries of faith and so whatever Jesus says about God is true. It also means accepting Jesus’ message and obeying his commands.

In Sum: Belief that God is a loving Father, that Jesus is the Word of God and following him in obedience are all vital ingredients in what it means to “believe in him”!

What does it mean to have “eternal life”?

Barclay suggests that this life is the “very life of God Himself”. If we possess eternal life, what do we have?

Peace with God – having God as a loving and forgiving Father; peace with others whom we are ready to forgive because we are so freely forgiven; peace with life – even though we do not understand it any better and are perplexed by it - but we will not resent it any more and peace with ourselves. Barclay comments on what this means for us as individuals:

“He knows his own weakness; he knows the force of his own temptations; he knows his own tasks and the demands of his own life. But now he knows that he is facing it all with God. It is not he who lives, but Christ who lives in him. There is a peace founded on strength in his life.”

And this peace is only a shadow of the peace which is to come.

It is good to be reminded that we have the peace of God which passes all understanding – the words I often use when introducing the Blessing after having begun an act of worship with the words: “The peace of the Lord be with you …”

Linked with your thoughts here again we see that it is God who takes the initiative and is motivated by His love for all that he was willing to make it possible for people to have eternal life which is to share life with God.

God does not need to be pacified; He is not a wrathful God, and Jesus is not the lightning conductor that deflects God’s wrath and satisfies it at the moment when he cries out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” Yes, in my heady days as an undergraduate, I preferred the AV translation of ‘hilasterion’ in Romans 3:24 as ‘propitiation’ because all this is encapsulated in this word. But over the years, as I have walked with our Lord, I have come to the understanding that ‘expiation’ is far more appropriate (and equally valid translation of this word) – and refers rather to “atonement for sin” and ‘atonement’ is the word most translators prefer. God is not angry and Jesus not the gentle one ready to forgive; it is the mystery of both incarnation and atonement that I do not need to understand; it is something I know because it is part of my being, or as Paul puts it in Romans 5 because “I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is something more profound than just cognitive, mental understanding, it is part of one’s very existence – God’s Spirit testifying with my Spirit that I am one of his children – unearned and undeserved – a gift!

Wow!

It all started with God, who sent his Son, because he loved the people of the world.

Indeed, this is central to John’s understanding of God and this is beautifully represented in his Epistle where he simply states: “God is love!”

Barclay puts it this way:

“God acting not for his own sake, but for ours, not to satisfy his desire for power, not to bring a universe to heel, but to satisfy his love … God is the Father who cannot be happy until his wondering children have come home. God does not smash people into submission; he yearns over them and woos them into love …”

Augustine puts it even better:

“God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.”

I will never even get close to the example of people like Mother Teresa – but God will still love me as much as he loves Mother Teresa – all because of Jesus and his grace.

I do not need to write anything more, do I?

Here we encounter the paradox of love and judgment. Barclay explains how the experience of love can turn out to be an experience of judgment. He tells of a music lover, who finds that he is closest to God when listening to a great piece of music. He wants to share this with a friend. He has no aim other than to share both the majesty of the music and his experience of God’s presence – but the other person just does not get it – because he has a “blind spot on his soul”. I did not find this illustration convincing until I read further where he goes on to illustrate his point from an example from an art gallery where there are some of the world’s great masterpieces and one of the visitors comes to the end of the tour as states:

“Well, I don’t think much of your old pictures.” The attendant answers quietly: “Sir, I would remind you that these pictures are no longer on trial, but those that look on them are.” All that the man’s reaction has done was reveal his own blindness.

This now makes more sense to me. When people are confronted with Jesus, their souls ought to be attracted to him – “But if, when he is confronted with Jesus, he sees nothing lovely, he stands condemned.”

God sent Jesus in love, so that man might be saved, but it can become a condemnation when man condemns himself.  This is because, in our natural state, we love darkness rather than light.

I believe this is why our churches are emptying. People in the west are increasingly attracted to the darkness. When they come into the light they become acutely embarrassed because, deep down, they know of their guilt. The experience of Christians ought to be different; when we compare ourselves with our Lord we see ourselves as we really are, but the difference is that we want to be like Jesus and so we invite him into our lives, we repent and seek God’s grace and His Spirit so that we can become more like our Lord. Barclay puts it brilliantly:

“The man who is engaged on an evil task does not want a flood of light shed on him; but the man engaged on an honourable task does not fear the light.”

When preaching is faithful, it will show people what they really are. For those who place themselves under judgment and condemnation, this is the last thing they will want to see. They prefer being able to hide in the darkness. If a person loves Jesus, they will want the light to reveal where they fall short so that they might be transformed by the love of their Lord.

To put it starkly: If anyone was to have challenged Mother Teresa and pointed out her weaknesses and shortcomings – she would have wholeheartedly have agreed with them and prayed for forgiveness. Suggest to anyone who is not a Christian that they are not a good person and they will be outraged and will defend themselves most vehemently. And in so doing they reveal that Jesus, who was sent in love, becomes to them, judgment.

This is beautifully illustrated in Zechariah’s prophecy:

“Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan* standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2And the Lord said to Satan,* ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!* The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?’ 3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ And to him he said, ‘See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you in festal apparel.’ 5And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him in the apparel; and the angel of the Lord was standing by. 6 Then the angel of the Lord assured Joshua, saying 7‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.” (Zechariah 3:1-7, NRSV)

Coming into God’s presence is like coming into a great light – and reveals that our garments of righteousness are like filthy rags. But he clothes us “… in righteousness divine …” and gives us the command to “… walk in his ways and keep his requirements …”

We are justified by grace through faith and this is not our own doing – it is a gift of God – so that no one can boast.  And so we love coming into the light, because we know we are not condemned. We also want to become what we have been declared to be and so we want to light to reveal our shortcomings.

Amen.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.


Both to the cultured Greek and to the pious Jew the Christian message seemed like pure folly. Paul knows this and expresses it clearly. The Gospel still – for many – just does not make any sense! Paul makes the point that all the wisdom in the world had never found God – and this too remains true even today.

Let’s look briefly at the essence of the Christian message:

1. God has come to the earth and taken on the form of a human;
2. The ordinary carpenter from a remote and insignificant settlement – was indeed this God incarnate;
3. Jesus rose from the dead;
4. Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of the majestic Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament;
5. Jesus will come again to judge the world – the living and the dead;
6. There is an urgent need for people to repent and receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.

For Jews, being hanged in any form was a sign that one was accursed of God (Deut 21.23) so the crucifixion of Jesus was ultimate proof for them that Jesus was not the Messiah. Even though Isaiah 53 speaks of a suffering servant, the Jews never dreamt of a Messiah that would suffer. Jews also looked for signs – starling things. Jesus had performed many miracles and wonders and signs, but he was still too humble and meek and avoided the spectacular and ended up on a cross. Barclay concludes: “… it seemed to them an impossible picture of the Chosen one of God.”

In Britain particularly, Jesus has not been taken seriously by an increasing majority, especially since the 1960s because it just does not seem to make sense. Even senior clergy have taken pains to ‘prove’ that the Bible is unreliable, a mere fallible and very imperfect document that has in fact been discredited.

But what of the experience of credible and intelligent people? Some of the greatest British minds have been those of profound faith in this same Jesus of Nazareth who they have found, intimately and personally, to be who he claimed to be, not because this is a rational thing, but something much more sophisticated – faith – what Kierkegaard claimed was the essence of what it means to be human.

Rowan Williams, Alistair McGrath, John Polkinghorne, Keith Ward, John Macquarrie, Richard Swinburne – all acknowledged as some of the greatest intellects of our time – and all men of the deepest and profound belief in the Christian message summarized above.

It is time that we stop worshipping at the shrine of reason and the limits of the human intellect, because that is to flatten and narrow human existence (to use an expression of one of the greatest philosophers of out time – Charles Taylor – and a lay Roman Catholic Canadian – not the African dictator!). Even when we have understood everything that it is possible for a human to understand – there is more – much, much more. It is available to all, not just to the great intellects, because it is God’s gift to humanity in and through the anointing of God’s Spirit Himself poured out into the hearts and minds of all who would receive it. It is called faith and it makes all who receive it wiser than human wisdom, stronger than human strength.

The Greeks sought wisdom. The Greek word for wisdom is ‘sophist’ and means ‘a wise man’ in the good sense. But in time, it came to mean ‘… a man with a clever mind and cunning tongue, a mental acrobat …’ sadly, Greek Philosophy degenerated into endless hours discussing ‘… hair-splitting trifles …’ They also ceased to try to find solutions but simply enjoyed the argument.

There is something to be said for this because, as a philosophy teacher, I think it is healthy to question everything. But there must be some point, or else we fall into the trap of losing focus and becoming like the medievalists who argued about the number of angels that could fit on the head of a pin! Charles Taylor, the great modern philosopher makes the point that what really matters to us can easily go to an extreme: like individualism becoming a self-centred and becoming a form of selfish atomism; efficiency and reliability can become a worship of technology and e.g. nursing becomes a technological enterprise where nurses are technicians instead of people caring for vulnerable and sensitive human beings. He does not advocates either the position of a supporter or a detractor or even take a middle road position. He advocated a work of retrieval – re-discovering what is good about what has become warped.

I think we need to do a work of retrieval of the importance of Biblical study and reflection and redeem the Bible as God’s inspired word from the extremes of fundamentalism at the one extreme and liberal dismantling on the other. I think we need to do a work of retrieval of the centrality of subjectivism and the importance of religious experience as a valid and crucial way of knowing God from the insistence on empirical proofs that simply do not exist and that (to use Taylor’s expression again) narrows and flattens our lives.

God is completely ‘other’ and we cannot know him simply through reason. But this does not mean that we throw reason away. We use reason and faith. Becoming subjective is also something that needs retrieval. It is not something that is unreliable because it is personal and not objective; it is at the core of what it means to be human. As Kierkegaard put it: becoming subjective is above reason and a central part of what makes us human.

Where would we be without love, hope, joy … all subjective, all vital and all of infinitesimal value?

This is part of the wisdom of God – that we ‘know’ God both by our minds and by faith. Once more it is a matter of both / and rather than either / or.

I ended last time with reference to the power of God (verse 24) which is available to believers through the preached word. O’Conner suggests that this proclaimed word ‘... is confirmed by the existential witness of the personality of the preacher.’ But as verse 24 makes clear, not all who hear the proclaimed word hear ‘a call’ which enables them to respond. It only makes an impact on those who have accepted Christ. All are offered God’s grace, and those who receive it and accept it, preaching becomes a call. O’ Conner continues: “... on those who refuse this grace preaching makes no impression, whatever the qualities of the preacher.”

Here we have Paul, once more, speaking about the divine initiative and human freedom. People are on the way to salvation because they have accepted the freely offered gift; others are on the way to destruction because they reject what is offered to them.

Paul reminds the Corinthians of the make-up of their community. In human terms people assume that it is the wise, the rich and powerful, and the wealthy who effect the greatest changes in a community and so one would expect God to work through them; but in order to reveal His power, God does the opposite and chooses the foolish, weak, low and despised to achieve his purposes. The Corinthians were not the dregs of society; some were well-educated, and others had all the privileges of power and noble birth, but this was not true for the majority. Yet their world was transformed by all of them working together by the grace of God.

As always; God does extraordinary things with the ordinary ...

Monday 5 March 2012

SMALL TOWN PREACHER UPSETS


John 2:13-22

New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Clears the Temple Courts
 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[a]  18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
 20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Dear brother,

This gospel reading for next Sunday from John 2 shows Our Lord and Saviour acting out of character. He walks into the temple and begins to act crazy. In order to understand this we have to understand what the temple meant to the Jews. In a word, everything! Just like the Roman Forum and the Areopagus in Athens, the Temple in Jerusalem did not separate the religious from the secular. It was the religious, cultural, political and social hub of the nation.

To put it in modern terms for us in Europe, it must have been like a combination of the United Nations, the Vatican and the Houses of Parliament all rolled into one. Can you imagine the outrage if a small town vicar waltzed into a place like that with a whip and began to scream at people and chase them out? He would be arrested as a nutcase!

In essence, this is what sealed Jesus' fate and his enemies began to gather around him to find ways to get rid of him. To make matters worse, Jesus says that he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days! In our time terrorists, 9/11, Northern Ireland and Guy Falkes come to mind as similar threats to national security.

But what does all this mean? Jesus is showing us who he is. He is claiming an authority no-one else can claim in God's House. Only God himself can do what he did. It is interesting that all through his ministry people were asking, "Who is this?" "Who is this?". Remember the stilling of the storm and the disciples saying, "Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?"

Jesus is also showing us a new temple. The new temple is his body and the 3 days he said it would take to rebuild is a wonderful reference to Easter. He is saying, "I am God's dwelling place among you." And more, we, our bodies, are also God's temple. And so as we move through Lent, we ask, "What forces have found their way into the temple of my life? What tables is Jesus overturning? What thieves is he expelling?"



Have a wonderful week brother.

Mark

Thursday 1 March 2012

A draft of a sermon on the Gospel reading ...

Mark 8.27-end
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’28And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 29He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’


My text for next Sunday is written in Mark 8.36:
36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

It would appear that Mark starts a whole new section of the Gospel with this passage. Up to this point, Jesus has spent time saying and doing things; and it is all this that has caused people to ask the question: “Who is this man, who can teach as he teaches and do the things that he has done?” Jesus knows this and so puts the question to his closest disciples. Peter gets it right – and proclaims Jesus as the Messiah. One would expect Jesus to meet Peter’s answer with some enthusiasm, but we see in Mark’s account that Jesus’ response is ambiguous; he swears them to silence. It is also apparent that Jesus – at first – avoids using the word ‘Messiah’ for himself. This is probably because Jesus knew, all too well, that there were so many ideas about Messiahship going around that there was a real danger that many would have a misconceived idea of what this meant for him. There is a sense that – as most people expected the Messiah to be – Jesus was not willing to accept the title and so he forbids (indeed rebukes) the disciples from using it for him. Jesus chooses instead the title ‘Son of Man’. At the time, this would have been less militaristic or political. He also makes haste to define more closely what this meant: ignominy, defeat and suffering – indeed the opposite to what popular views of the Messiah were.

This leads the disciples to rebuke Jesus in return and they try to dissuade Jesus form speaking in this way. This leads to Jesus using even stronger rebuking language because it is vital that the disciples understand. Denis Nineham writes:

“The blistering severity of Jesus reply is evidence enough that what is at stake is a matter of quite central importance …”

In the first instance, what Jesus was predicting was something that ‘must’ take place; there was no choice in the matter. To persuade Jesus to try to avoid these things was to tempt Jesus just as Satan had done in the desert after his Baptism. In short, it was to tempt Jesus to disobey the will of God.

In the second instance, it would appear that the disciples did not want Jesus to suffer because they would feel embarrassed to be seen as a follower of a Messiah who suffers. (This was a time of many different ‘Messiahs’!) It would go against the grain. Spectacular victories would seem ‘better’; suffering brings no kudos and offends the pride of natural man who would ask: “What is the point?” Nineham suggests that the reaction of the disciples reveals that “… their minds and wills are governed by the standards of this world, of the unredeemed natural man …”

They need to be taught that “God thinks otherwise …” and in ways that are often in complete reverse of the standards of the world. This truth needs to be known by everyone, and so here, there is no need for secrecy. The path to true ‘life’ comes through trusting in God and being obedient to His will. This can imply suffering in this world – even death. Our behaviour will often not make sense to those in the world. But, while this life is precious, it is nothing compared with the life to come.

Jesus being the Messiah means him being the ‘Son of man’ and this implies redemptive suffering and death. The disciples’ failure to understand was a sign of their hardened hearts and their domination by the standards of this world. The purpose of this passage is not to explain what happened when Jesus was first recognised as the Messiah, rather, to show all what is involved and demanded whenever this recognition takes place. To see Jesus as he really is and to know how to respond “… is always a gift of God in Christ …”

We rejoice because our salvation is all of grace; unearned and undeserved, God’s gift to us. But as J C Ryle rightly suggests: “… all who accept this great salvation, must prove the reality of their faith by carrying the cross after Christ.” Part of this means upholding the faith which the world despises and a lifestyle which the world ridicules as too strict and too ‘righteous’. We need to crucify the flesh, mortify the deeds of the body, to fight daily with the devil, to come out from the world, and ‘… to lose their lives, if needful, for Christ’s sake and for the Gospel’s …’ Ryle rightly understands that these are hard sayings (he was writing in the 19th
Century, it is even more so in our world of today). Or is it?

Our ‘credit crunch’ has made people realise that the so-called easy life is not that simple, and that having an abundance of ‘things’ is not the path to fulfilment and happiness. Our Lord knew that being one of his disciples would be difficult, but he also promises to give us the strength to life the life that will bring us blessing and fulfilment, beyond measure. Because what matters is not only the body, but also the soul – what the translators of the NRSV refer to as ‘… life …’ (verse 36)

Our ‘life’ is made up of more than things; it is made up of relationships – with others but especially with God. Being in relationship with others is sometimes going to mean facing difficulties, it is certainly going to require selflessness a denial of our selves; it is also going to mean sacrifice. Being in relationships  - those that bring blessing and fulfilment to ourselves and others – certainly requires sacrificial living, a sense of giving of ourselves. When we do this, we discover what real living means. Mother Teresa discovered this, as did countless others. I prefer the translation ‘life’ rather than ‘soul’ in verse 26 as the latter sometimes distracts us thinking that what matters here is our eternal lives. Even Ryle suggests that these verses should be seen in the light of going through things becoming worth it because in the end our souls will live on in eternity. While this is all true, there is a danger of living for eternity only and not now also.  There is a sense that one might miss out on what it means to live ‘now’ – but living according to the way of Christ and not of the world.

Verse 38 also poses an interesting challenge. Many believe that they need to bring Jesus into every situation and conversation for if they don’t it means that they are being ashamed of him. This, for me, leads to much embarrassment when this is wholly inappropriate, and in my view, brings our faith into ridicule especially when over-simplified solutions are suggested to complex problems – e.g. ‘… the Bible teaches …’

The bottom line for me is that this sort of behaviour has done so much harm, that people in Britain, i.e. those outside the faith, automatically switch off when they hear the words ‘Bible’ and ‘Jesus’ and so we need to opt for different tactics, indeed more challenging and even more costly ways. We need to live the life – walk the walk – in order to earn the right to talk the talk. Words can be easy, but I believe our Lord is calling us to carry of Cross of sacrificial living.

Words come easy, living the life is more of a challenge, but, especially in today’s world it is vital that people see how sacrificial living, the way of the cross, leads to fulfilment and real ‘life’. We need to show that we are not ashamed of Jesus’ words, by living them. As St Francis put it: “Take every opportunity to preach the Gospel, and where necessary, use words!”

It is quite possible for a person to make a massive success of their lives but in another sense to be living a life that is not worth living; the difference lies where one puts one’s values. Barclay offers the following thoughts:

(i)                 A person can sacrifice honour for profit. This can happened when people desire material things and when one is not over over-particular about how we get them. People used false scales in the ancient past, but there are a number of different ways in which the same principal applies still today. The question is: “How does life’s balance sheet look in the sight of God?
(ii)               A man my sacrifice principle for popularity. Barclay writes: “It may happen that the easy-going, agreeable, pliable man will save himself a lot of trouble.” But in the end the question we will all have to face will be: “What does God think of it? It is not the verdict of public opinion, but the verdict of God that settles destiny.”
(iii)             A person may sacrifice the lasting things for cheap things. It is always easier to have a cheap success. Authors can sacrifice writing a real masterpiece for the sake of cheap success. There are many other examples. Barclay concludes: “But life has a way of revealing the true values and condemning the false as the years pass on. A cheap thing never lasts.”

We may sacrifice eternity for the moment. We can avoid all sorts of mistakes if we always looked at things in the light of eternity.  Barclay concludes: “There is many a thing pleasant for the moment, but ruinous in the long run. The test of eternity, the test of seeking to see the thing as God sees it, is the realist test of all.” If we see things as God sees them, we will never spend our lives on the things that lose our souls. Jesus put it this way as recorded in Mark 8.36:

36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
Amen.