JOHN 20: 1-18
It was a miserable start to the day. Filled with desolation at what had happened but two days previously, Mary Magdalene went on pilgrimage to the tomb of Jesus whilst it was still dark. She had no reason to hope - only reason to weep. And on her arrival, what she saw must have been like a kick in the teeth. The ultimate desecration had happened. Someone had rolled the stone away. Given that grave robbing was a sufficiently big problem to cause an imperial edict against it t have been proclaimed, there could only be once conclusion - not only had Jesus been killed in a humiliating way but even in death he was not being left in peace.
Soon she would meet two of the followers of Jesus - Peter and the Beloved Disciple. Ultimately they would both enter the tomb and see the strips of cloth lying there. Now we are told that the Beloved Disciple did at this point believe but even then such belief was incomplete.
Soon the men have gone off to wherever they were staying. But Mary Magdelene remains at the tomb. Stuck in a Good Friday world, she is left to weep. We can barely imagine the extent of her agony. But now things begin to change. We are told that she sees two angels where Jesus should have been lying and they engage her in conversation before she turns to face what she thought was the gardener. It is only when this man calls her by name, that she realises just who she is speaking to. It is Jesus! And now the transformation in Mary Magdelene takes effect. “Rabboni!” she cries. And with that she embraces him with such commitment that Jesus has to tell her to stop. But now the tears have been replaced by joy and the Mary who returns to the disciples is as different as different can be from the Mary who had set off that morning. Why the change? Well, the reason is in those words on her return;
“I have seen the Lord!”
And for her just as ultimately for the other followers of Jesus, the world became transformed. Sorrow gives way to joy. Fear gives way to boldness. And a world drenched in the tears of Good Friday becomes a multi coloured world on Easter Day, no longer filled with despair but pregnant with new and wonderful possibilities.
And so this day is full of meaning for us. It is an event that affirms our value in the sight of God. I guess that the fear of rejection is one of the greatest fears within us. We live in a society that is prone to squashing people, squeezing the sense of self worth out of them. And yet the Easter story shows us Jesus taking the place of those who are most despised and rejected. He has become as one with them in his ministry and this can be seen in his death. In this he shows the degeneracy of society which is built on the imposed suffering of those who are scapegoated. His vision is of a Kingdom which embodies rejection of scapegoat for it is a Kingdom that embraces humanity in its diversity rather than excluding and rejecting. That Kingdom of radical and peaceful inclusion gets an emphatic YES through the resurrection of Jesus. The Nobodies become Somebodies in the new order to which Resurrection points. To use the title of a children’s song from Barney the Dinassour, “Everyone is Special.”
In today’s Mail on Sunday, there is for once an article worth reading. It is an Easter message by the archbishop of York, John Sentamu. In it he makes mention of how several years ago, he was a member of the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Feelings ran high especially when the four young men suspected of committing the murder appeared. Amongst the angry throng, there were four equally young men with iron bars concealed in their trousers, waiting for the chance of a revenge attack. Sentamu went out to tell these men that violence was not the answer. Their reply was;
“Bish, we don’t believe in God.”
Sentamu responded;
“It doesn’t matter. God believes in you.”
And this morning I want to tell you that everything about Jesus including his death and resurrection should tell you that God believes in you!
But not only is the Easter story telling us that God believes in each and everyone of us regardless of our status and failings but it also speaks to us about hope. As we have seen the Easter story is rooted in the appearances of Jesus to heartbroken people who had lost the capacity to hope, people who knew only shattered dreams. Back in 1992 when South Africa’s future was uncertain, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked if he felt able to remain hopeful as he looked at the pains of uncertainty. His reply was;
“I am always hopeful. A Christian is a prisoner of hope. What could have looked more hopeless than Good Friday? But then at Easter God says, ‘From this moment on, no situation is untransfigurable.’ There is no situation from which God cannot extract good.”
Indeed as Rev Nathan Baxter, the retired Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, puts it in challenging words that speak of how Easter can be as real to us as it was to those caught up in the Easter story we contemplate during this time of year;
“Remember this: Easter is not just a holy event that happened almost 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. It is a little Easter on whatever day we discover our need for the love of God. When we discover that all the Good Fridays of our lives cannot destroy the love God has for us.”
So this morning I invite you to respond afresh to the old story. Once more God invites you to move forward trusting in him who wipes away your tears and invites you into the circle of joy.
Christ is risen! This is the time for celebration!
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY MARCH 23RD 2008
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Easter Day - The Power of Love
MATTHEW 28: 1-10
Rowan Williams put it well when he says that when we celebrate Easter;
“we are standing in the Middle of a second ‘Big Bang,’ a tumultuous surge of divine energy as fiery and intense as the very beginning of the universe.”
What a claim that is - that the day we are celebrating is on a level with the very beginning of time. And yet whilst both ‘Big Bang’ and ‘Resurrection’ are in many ways beyond the scopes of our imagination, together they do so much to define our understanding of the world. The former brings the world into being and is in essence the science of creation - through which a loving God sets of the cosmos with its bright array of possibilities. The latter transforms how we see the world that is known to us and how we see ourselves. Both are within the realms of mystery. Both bring into play new realities.
And yet both come without expectation. One of the strongest evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus is that his followers did not expect it. On Good Friday and Holy Saturday we go about our lives contentedly because we know what the outcome of the story will be. And in that we lose some of the power of the story. For to those closest to Jesus, the inbetween time was a time of hopelessness and despair. Their world had caved in. The hopes and dreams that had been theirs, now lay totally and absolutely devastated. Their world was shrouded in complete darkness. All that remained was to visit the tomb - those painful visits that we all make in times of loss.
And so it is that Mary Magdelene and another Mary - the mother of James according to the other synoptic Gospels - came to the tomb. According to Mark and Luke, their intent was to anoint the dead body of Jesus but of this intent there is no mention made by Matthew. Indeed it is surely questionable whether the authorities would have allowed them to go about such a task. But anyhow, what matters is that such an anointing never happens and this becomes a most unusual visit to a tomb. Matthew tells us of an earthquake and an angel sat in the tomb, with Roman guards outside frozen in a state of petrification. The angel tells the news that Jesus is risen and tells the women to let the disciples know for Jesus is heading for Galilee where it had all began. And then as the women who are by now a combination of joy and fear, hurry away to take the good news to the disciples, they are met by the Risen Christ.
Every year we tell these Gospel stories of the appearances of the Risen Christ. And whilst the accounts of the Gospels have their differences, what they have in common is that there was no expectancy of resurrection and indeed those closest to Jesus had big difficulty in believing in it. Why? Because the Resurrection of Jesus was outside of their world vision. For the Resurrection of Jesus cannot but change how we see God, the world and ourselves. Yes, like ‘Big Bang,’ it is a defining moment!
But how does it serve as a defining moment? Well, William Sloan Coffin puts it well;
“Easter has to do with the victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power.”
In the story of Holy Week and the Passion of Christ, we see plenty of loveless power. We see loveless power in;
- the Authority of the Empire of Rome with its military might and power of life and death
- the economic power based upon the temple where the poor were exploited by the families who controlled the trade
- the religious power of the High Priest and Sanhedrin silencing the voices that might just undermine them and their positions of dominance over peoples’ lives
- the power of a mob who normally would have been subject to power but who were now relishing the moment of being able to decide a man’s fate.
But all this power rooted in domination, power that on Good Friday would seemed to have been triumphant, falls before the power of love. The power of love which had been demonstrated in the liberating teaching and healings of Jesus as well as in his self giving death, receives a resounding YES from God in the act of Resurrection. Here is the emphatic approval for all eternity of that all inclusive love embodied in Jesus. Now we begin to get the Resurrection message that
- Life is stronger than death
- Love is stronger than hatred
- Non violence is stronger than armies and weaponry
- Inclusion is victorious over all that excludes.
Put bluntly the message of Resurrection confronts much of what we glibly accept. It speaks to us of a new way, Christ’s way, which embraces human dignity and dares to dream of realising a new reality of peace, building people up and respect for what Rabbi Jonathan Sachs describes as “The Dignity of Difference” rather than our lazy acceptance of inevitability of conflict, shame culture and fear of diversity. Resurrection challenges us to question where we are going when
- a Ghanaian widowed mother of two, Ama Sumani, dying of cancer is deported to a land where it was known that she would be denied the drug that would have prolonged her life
- failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe are threatened with deportation and the promise of imprisonment on their arrival by the ever tender, Robert Mugabe
- great games can be hosted and the most lethal of weapons afforded and yet basic housing is left an unfulfilled dream for all too many, even here in Bideford
- the children of this country were fund to be the unhappiest in the west in a recent survey despite Britain being the 5th wealthiest country.
You see, Resurrection is not a safe subject. It means that we have to take this Jesus and the Kingdom he proclaimed very seriously. His message challenged the norms of his day and the response can be seen in Good Friday. To expect it to be warmly welcomed today is a pipe dream born from the womb of ignorance.
And yet, it has to be the basis of our hope. Without Resurrection, hope is dead. But with Resurrection comes hope to battered lives and smashed up communities. For new and fresh beginnings become possible through the resurrected one who says;
“Behold I make all things new.”
This evening I want to encourage you to put Resurrection at the heart of your faith. I do believe that it points us to life beyond the grave. I take the Apostle Paul very seriously when he writes;
“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
I take him seriously when he says that without Resurrection our faith is futile. And as one who is often involved in accompanying people whose lives are coming to an end, and in comforting those who are bereaved, this is important to me and I wholly believe it. But I am equally convinced that Resurrection is as much about our living as followers of Christ.
Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Bishop of Mew Hampshire. His appointment was controversial due to the fact that he had been in a same sex partnership for some years. In the melee surrounding his appointment, he received many death threats and indeed before his consecration he was asked to provide his blood type so that if he was attacked at the consecration, treatment could begin on the way to hospital. Writing for the online Anglican publication “The Witness” at Easter a couple of years after the events, he looked back making the following observation;
“I remember saying to our two grown daughters, who were worried and anxious about my well-being, "You know, there are worse things than death. Some people actually never live -- and that is the worst death of all. If something does happen, remember that the God who has loved me my whole life, will still be loving me, and I will have died doing something I believe in with my whole heart."
As I strapped on my bulletproof vest just before the service, I remember feeling blessedly calm about whatever might happen. Not because I am brave, but because God is good and because God has overcome death, so that I never have to be afraid again
That is the power of the resurrection. not in what happens after death, but what the knowledge of our resurrection does for our lives and ministries before death.”
Mighty words indeed that remind us how we are in the care of the one who has defeated the most dreaded of enemies. Words that encourage us that we can journey forwards knowing that we are accompanied by a living, loving God. A God who sets each of us free and takes away the fear of hopelessness. Jurgen Moltmann came to faith amidst the ashes of his country’s defeat in the Second World War. He first read the Bible in a prisoner of war camp. There he sought hope and found it in the risen Christ and hope has been a theme of his writings ever since. In his “Jesus Christ for today’s world” he puts it this way;
“ In the image of the resurrection of the body, life and death can be brought into harmony in such a way that death doesn’t have to be repressed either. In this spirit of the resurrection I can her and now wholly live, wholly love and wholly die, for I Know with certainty that I shall wholly rise again. In this hope I can love all created things, for I know that none of them will be lost.”
My favourite film of all time is “Dead Poets Society.” In that film the inspirational albeit unorthodox teacher, John Keating, seeks to inspire the pupils of a stuffy school where boys live out their parents’ dreams. In once scene he takes them to look at the pictures of past pupils who are long dead. He urges them to get close to the glass and asks them if they hear what those pupils are saying to those of today. At that, Keating starts to whisper
“Carpe Diem! Carpe Diem!”
before sharing the words in English -
“Seize the moment! - Have an extraordinary life boys!”
So today as we celebrate the “surge of divine energy” that is the Resurrection, we are called once more to live out the counter cultural Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. His work of radical inclusion of all peoples as being of infinite worth goes on. And it continues with the Risen Christ. May we live extraordinary lives as Easter People daring even to be a little bit subversive.
Carpe Diem! Seize the moment!
BIDEFORD METHODIST CIRCUIT EASTER SERVICE SUNDAY MARCH 23RD 2008
Rowan Williams put it well when he says that when we celebrate Easter;
“we are standing in the Middle of a second ‘Big Bang,’ a tumultuous surge of divine energy as fiery and intense as the very beginning of the universe.”
What a claim that is - that the day we are celebrating is on a level with the very beginning of time. And yet whilst both ‘Big Bang’ and ‘Resurrection’ are in many ways beyond the scopes of our imagination, together they do so much to define our understanding of the world. The former brings the world into being and is in essence the science of creation - through which a loving God sets of the cosmos with its bright array of possibilities. The latter transforms how we see the world that is known to us and how we see ourselves. Both are within the realms of mystery. Both bring into play new realities.
And yet both come without expectation. One of the strongest evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus is that his followers did not expect it. On Good Friday and Holy Saturday we go about our lives contentedly because we know what the outcome of the story will be. And in that we lose some of the power of the story. For to those closest to Jesus, the inbetween time was a time of hopelessness and despair. Their world had caved in. The hopes and dreams that had been theirs, now lay totally and absolutely devastated. Their world was shrouded in complete darkness. All that remained was to visit the tomb - those painful visits that we all make in times of loss.
And so it is that Mary Magdelene and another Mary - the mother of James according to the other synoptic Gospels - came to the tomb. According to Mark and Luke, their intent was to anoint the dead body of Jesus but of this intent there is no mention made by Matthew. Indeed it is surely questionable whether the authorities would have allowed them to go about such a task. But anyhow, what matters is that such an anointing never happens and this becomes a most unusual visit to a tomb. Matthew tells us of an earthquake and an angel sat in the tomb, with Roman guards outside frozen in a state of petrification. The angel tells the news that Jesus is risen and tells the women to let the disciples know for Jesus is heading for Galilee where it had all began. And then as the women who are by now a combination of joy and fear, hurry away to take the good news to the disciples, they are met by the Risen Christ.
Every year we tell these Gospel stories of the appearances of the Risen Christ. And whilst the accounts of the Gospels have their differences, what they have in common is that there was no expectancy of resurrection and indeed those closest to Jesus had big difficulty in believing in it. Why? Because the Resurrection of Jesus was outside of their world vision. For the Resurrection of Jesus cannot but change how we see God, the world and ourselves. Yes, like ‘Big Bang,’ it is a defining moment!
But how does it serve as a defining moment? Well, William Sloan Coffin puts it well;
“Easter has to do with the victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power.”
In the story of Holy Week and the Passion of Christ, we see plenty of loveless power. We see loveless power in;
- the Authority of the Empire of Rome with its military might and power of life and death
- the economic power based upon the temple where the poor were exploited by the families who controlled the trade
- the religious power of the High Priest and Sanhedrin silencing the voices that might just undermine them and their positions of dominance over peoples’ lives
- the power of a mob who normally would have been subject to power but who were now relishing the moment of being able to decide a man’s fate.
But all this power rooted in domination, power that on Good Friday would seemed to have been triumphant, falls before the power of love. The power of love which had been demonstrated in the liberating teaching and healings of Jesus as well as in his self giving death, receives a resounding YES from God in the act of Resurrection. Here is the emphatic approval for all eternity of that all inclusive love embodied in Jesus. Now we begin to get the Resurrection message that
- Life is stronger than death
- Love is stronger than hatred
- Non violence is stronger than armies and weaponry
- Inclusion is victorious over all that excludes.
Put bluntly the message of Resurrection confronts much of what we glibly accept. It speaks to us of a new way, Christ’s way, which embraces human dignity and dares to dream of realising a new reality of peace, building people up and respect for what Rabbi Jonathan Sachs describes as “The Dignity of Difference” rather than our lazy acceptance of inevitability of conflict, shame culture and fear of diversity. Resurrection challenges us to question where we are going when
- a Ghanaian widowed mother of two, Ama Sumani, dying of cancer is deported to a land where it was known that she would be denied the drug that would have prolonged her life
- failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe are threatened with deportation and the promise of imprisonment on their arrival by the ever tender, Robert Mugabe
- great games can be hosted and the most lethal of weapons afforded and yet basic housing is left an unfulfilled dream for all too many, even here in Bideford
- the children of this country were fund to be the unhappiest in the west in a recent survey despite Britain being the 5th wealthiest country.
You see, Resurrection is not a safe subject. It means that we have to take this Jesus and the Kingdom he proclaimed very seriously. His message challenged the norms of his day and the response can be seen in Good Friday. To expect it to be warmly welcomed today is a pipe dream born from the womb of ignorance.
And yet, it has to be the basis of our hope. Without Resurrection, hope is dead. But with Resurrection comes hope to battered lives and smashed up communities. For new and fresh beginnings become possible through the resurrected one who says;
“Behold I make all things new.”
This evening I want to encourage you to put Resurrection at the heart of your faith. I do believe that it points us to life beyond the grave. I take the Apostle Paul very seriously when he writes;
“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
I take him seriously when he says that without Resurrection our faith is futile. And as one who is often involved in accompanying people whose lives are coming to an end, and in comforting those who are bereaved, this is important to me and I wholly believe it. But I am equally convinced that Resurrection is as much about our living as followers of Christ.
Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Bishop of Mew Hampshire. His appointment was controversial due to the fact that he had been in a same sex partnership for some years. In the melee surrounding his appointment, he received many death threats and indeed before his consecration he was asked to provide his blood type so that if he was attacked at the consecration, treatment could begin on the way to hospital. Writing for the online Anglican publication “The Witness” at Easter a couple of years after the events, he looked back making the following observation;
“I remember saying to our two grown daughters, who were worried and anxious about my well-being, "You know, there are worse things than death. Some people actually never live -- and that is the worst death of all. If something does happen, remember that the God who has loved me my whole life, will still be loving me, and I will have died doing something I believe in with my whole heart."
As I strapped on my bulletproof vest just before the service, I remember feeling blessedly calm about whatever might happen. Not because I am brave, but because God is good and because God has overcome death, so that I never have to be afraid again
That is the power of the resurrection. not in what happens after death, but what the knowledge of our resurrection does for our lives and ministries before death.”
Mighty words indeed that remind us how we are in the care of the one who has defeated the most dreaded of enemies. Words that encourage us that we can journey forwards knowing that we are accompanied by a living, loving God. A God who sets each of us free and takes away the fear of hopelessness. Jurgen Moltmann came to faith amidst the ashes of his country’s defeat in the Second World War. He first read the Bible in a prisoner of war camp. There he sought hope and found it in the risen Christ and hope has been a theme of his writings ever since. In his “Jesus Christ for today’s world” he puts it this way;
“ In the image of the resurrection of the body, life and death can be brought into harmony in such a way that death doesn’t have to be repressed either. In this spirit of the resurrection I can her and now wholly live, wholly love and wholly die, for I Know with certainty that I shall wholly rise again. In this hope I can love all created things, for I know that none of them will be lost.”
My favourite film of all time is “Dead Poets Society.” In that film the inspirational albeit unorthodox teacher, John Keating, seeks to inspire the pupils of a stuffy school where boys live out their parents’ dreams. In once scene he takes them to look at the pictures of past pupils who are long dead. He urges them to get close to the glass and asks them if they hear what those pupils are saying to those of today. At that, Keating starts to whisper
“Carpe Diem! Carpe Diem!”
before sharing the words in English -
“Seize the moment! - Have an extraordinary life boys!”
So today as we celebrate the “surge of divine energy” that is the Resurrection, we are called once more to live out the counter cultural Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. His work of radical inclusion of all peoples as being of infinite worth goes on. And it continues with the Risen Christ. May we live extraordinary lives as Easter People daring even to be a little bit subversive.
Carpe Diem! Seize the moment!
BIDEFORD METHODIST CIRCUIT EASTER SERVICE SUNDAY MARCH 23RD 2008
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Palm Sunday - The heat is on
It’s a day of excitement. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem as he has done many times before. Only this time it is so very different. Now his mission is reaching its climax and he has come to confront the powers of his day.
And as he enters the city in a meticulously planned entry, there is much expectation surrounding him. Now, I do not think for a moment that the whole city was filled with excitement. Amidst the bustle of the coming Passover celebrations, the streets would have been full. Probably only a limited number of people were caught up in the events of the day for otherwise Rome, paranoid at such times, would surely have intervened as a matter of order. But for those who were involved in these events, this was surely a heady day.
And how they celebrate as Jesus comes into the city upon a donkey. Cloaks are placed on the road whilst branches are cut from the trees and placed on the road whilst some go forwards shouting;
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
So what is this day all about? You see, it is a day that we have made safe for those sweet processions with donkeys, processions that so very often would seem to be so very distant from the passions and the radical challenge posed by that entry which we remember today.
Let’s for a moment look first at Jesus riding on a donkey. The detailed preparation for this suggests that we have here no accident. Far from it, we have before us a highly subversive piece of street theatre in which all was deliberate. There is a fulfilling of ancient prophecy from Zechariah even to the point of Matthew improbably suggesting that Jesus was riding two animals. And yet the riding on a donkey is highly significant. For whereas we tend to have a less than exalted image of donkeys thinking that their main purpose is to provide rides for children at such cultural centres as Blackpool or Skegness, they were well regarded animals at the time of Jesus. So well regarded as to be fit to carry a King. But here comes the rub, the donkey was fit to carry a King who came in peace whereas a horse was the means of transport for a King who came for war.
But then those branches and the shouts. Well to understand that we have to go back about 200 years to a story that was well known to Jesus’ contemporaries albeit not included in our Bibles unless we have the Apocryphal books. Anyhow a tyrant named Antiochus Epiphanes had tried to destroy thr practice of Judaism with great brutality. An elderly priest named Mattathias had rounded up his sons and they had launched a sort of insurgency. It was a bloody affair. And it took some 20 years and the loss of many lives before it came to a successful conclusion. When one of the brothers led his victorious troops into Jerusalem the First Book of Maccabees tells us, he was greeted with praise, palm branches and music. Now there are clear echoes of this in the welcome that Jesus receives in our Palm Sunday narrative.
And quite frankly there’s the rub. Because this hints at an expectation as to what Jesus would be. For many in the crowd, there would be the hope that Jesus would be the one who like the Maccabeans would bring freeedom from an oppressive overlord. Even Zechariah’s prophecy would be remembered as coming in the context of the destruction of hostile enemy nations. Of course this expectation could only be whispered. After all not that many years before, a Zealot revolt led by Judas of Galilee and Zadok the Pharisee had been punished with the public crucifixion of all 2,000 people captured during that rebellion. Surely, the years of hurt might be brought to an end by this Jesus. No wonder the shouts of “Hosanna” meaning “Save Us” pierce the air.
Indeed, the failure of Jesus to meet these expectation may well have been a significant factor in the change in public opinion during that week. For the week would end with a crowd that may have included some of the first crowd now crying out;
“Crucify him!”
But we need to hold it here. Because Jesus doesn’t lead a bloody insurrection, does not leave us with a Jesus merely uttering pious sentiments. Far from it. Palm Sunday is full of radical challenge. And there are two ways that I feel we need to be aware of that.
The first of those ways is in Jesus living non violence. The American theologian Walter Wink has written much in recent years about what he calls the “myth of redemptive violence.” Wink contests that this myth rather than Christianity, Islam or any of the other world religions, is the dominant myth in our world today. He roots this myth back into early Babylonian creation myths and notes its prevalence in much of the television we inflict on our children today. Its essence is that evil is defeated by what is often seen as heroic against the odds violence. Violence redeems ths bad situation. Commemorating as we are doing this week the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, we see the power of this myth. If there is an evil or an unplatable situation the answer is force - John McCain a possible future President of the USA singing, “Bomb. Bomb bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” only last year to a well known Beach Boys song. And the same goes on in a smaller way in just about every playground. The myth is strong and drowns out all talk of mercy, peace and reconciliation.
But Jesus confronts the myth. He has done so in his ministry time and again. He will do so again when Peter draws a sword in Gethsamene. For the King who comes in peace on a donkey comes proclaiming and embodying a love that is more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. And in now way is that contrast more clear than the events of this day. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossman project the possibility of two processions on that day. From the West Pontius Pilate and his military enter the city with all the apparatus of state power, coming to remind the people at this notoriously volatile celebration, just who is boss. From the East, Jesus and his followers enter the city with all their powerlessness. And yet, despite a day of darkness looming later in the week, it is the powerless unarmed Jesus who brings transformation to the world rather than the imperial might offered by Pilate. Contrary to the voice of the “myth of redemptive violence” it is Jesus that we need rather than the Superman our culture cries out for.
But finally, whilst his path is non violent, Jesus does indeed confront the powers. You do not need to kill or bomb to confront effectively. It is the Nobodies of the world who enter the city with Jesus. And in the week ahead, Jesus will continually challenge the powers on behalf of the Nobodies. This would continuee within the early church. And that church would challenge the symbols of empire and the exploitation of one human by another. For Jesus comes as the King who offers a very different Kingdom to that of Rome or even the empires of our day. His is Kingship rooted in self giving love and mercy rather than in the cult of domination. And today as then he challenges so much of what we think is our Christian way of doing things. The hostile crowd who would say he was no friend of Caesar were right then. And still today they are right. This Jesus is truly the great subversive who subverts even those things we do not question.
So into a bustling city comes Jesus laying down the gauntlet. Still today he lays down that gauntlet. And he invites you and me to move from the domain of the Pilates of this world to the Kingdom that he embodies.
ALWINGTON METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 16th 2008
And as he enters the city in a meticulously planned entry, there is much expectation surrounding him. Now, I do not think for a moment that the whole city was filled with excitement. Amidst the bustle of the coming Passover celebrations, the streets would have been full. Probably only a limited number of people were caught up in the events of the day for otherwise Rome, paranoid at such times, would surely have intervened as a matter of order. But for those who were involved in these events, this was surely a heady day.
And how they celebrate as Jesus comes into the city upon a donkey. Cloaks are placed on the road whilst branches are cut from the trees and placed on the road whilst some go forwards shouting;
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
So what is this day all about? You see, it is a day that we have made safe for those sweet processions with donkeys, processions that so very often would seem to be so very distant from the passions and the radical challenge posed by that entry which we remember today.
Let’s for a moment look first at Jesus riding on a donkey. The detailed preparation for this suggests that we have here no accident. Far from it, we have before us a highly subversive piece of street theatre in which all was deliberate. There is a fulfilling of ancient prophecy from Zechariah even to the point of Matthew improbably suggesting that Jesus was riding two animals. And yet the riding on a donkey is highly significant. For whereas we tend to have a less than exalted image of donkeys thinking that their main purpose is to provide rides for children at such cultural centres as Blackpool or Skegness, they were well regarded animals at the time of Jesus. So well regarded as to be fit to carry a King. But here comes the rub, the donkey was fit to carry a King who came in peace whereas a horse was the means of transport for a King who came for war.
But then those branches and the shouts. Well to understand that we have to go back about 200 years to a story that was well known to Jesus’ contemporaries albeit not included in our Bibles unless we have the Apocryphal books. Anyhow a tyrant named Antiochus Epiphanes had tried to destroy thr practice of Judaism with great brutality. An elderly priest named Mattathias had rounded up his sons and they had launched a sort of insurgency. It was a bloody affair. And it took some 20 years and the loss of many lives before it came to a successful conclusion. When one of the brothers led his victorious troops into Jerusalem the First Book of Maccabees tells us, he was greeted with praise, palm branches and music. Now there are clear echoes of this in the welcome that Jesus receives in our Palm Sunday narrative.
And quite frankly there’s the rub. Because this hints at an expectation as to what Jesus would be. For many in the crowd, there would be the hope that Jesus would be the one who like the Maccabeans would bring freeedom from an oppressive overlord. Even Zechariah’s prophecy would be remembered as coming in the context of the destruction of hostile enemy nations. Of course this expectation could only be whispered. After all not that many years before, a Zealot revolt led by Judas of Galilee and Zadok the Pharisee had been punished with the public crucifixion of all 2,000 people captured during that rebellion. Surely, the years of hurt might be brought to an end by this Jesus. No wonder the shouts of “Hosanna” meaning “Save Us” pierce the air.
Indeed, the failure of Jesus to meet these expectation may well have been a significant factor in the change in public opinion during that week. For the week would end with a crowd that may have included some of the first crowd now crying out;
“Crucify him!”
But we need to hold it here. Because Jesus doesn’t lead a bloody insurrection, does not leave us with a Jesus merely uttering pious sentiments. Far from it. Palm Sunday is full of radical challenge. And there are two ways that I feel we need to be aware of that.
The first of those ways is in Jesus living non violence. The American theologian Walter Wink has written much in recent years about what he calls the “myth of redemptive violence.” Wink contests that this myth rather than Christianity, Islam or any of the other world religions, is the dominant myth in our world today. He roots this myth back into early Babylonian creation myths and notes its prevalence in much of the television we inflict on our children today. Its essence is that evil is defeated by what is often seen as heroic against the odds violence. Violence redeems ths bad situation. Commemorating as we are doing this week the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, we see the power of this myth. If there is an evil or an unplatable situation the answer is force - John McCain a possible future President of the USA singing, “Bomb. Bomb bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” only last year to a well known Beach Boys song. And the same goes on in a smaller way in just about every playground. The myth is strong and drowns out all talk of mercy, peace and reconciliation.
But Jesus confronts the myth. He has done so in his ministry time and again. He will do so again when Peter draws a sword in Gethsamene. For the King who comes in peace on a donkey comes proclaiming and embodying a love that is more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. And in now way is that contrast more clear than the events of this day. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossman project the possibility of two processions on that day. From the West Pontius Pilate and his military enter the city with all the apparatus of state power, coming to remind the people at this notoriously volatile celebration, just who is boss. From the East, Jesus and his followers enter the city with all their powerlessness. And yet, despite a day of darkness looming later in the week, it is the powerless unarmed Jesus who brings transformation to the world rather than the imperial might offered by Pilate. Contrary to the voice of the “myth of redemptive violence” it is Jesus that we need rather than the Superman our culture cries out for.
But finally, whilst his path is non violent, Jesus does indeed confront the powers. You do not need to kill or bomb to confront effectively. It is the Nobodies of the world who enter the city with Jesus. And in the week ahead, Jesus will continually challenge the powers on behalf of the Nobodies. This would continuee within the early church. And that church would challenge the symbols of empire and the exploitation of one human by another. For Jesus comes as the King who offers a very different Kingdom to that of Rome or even the empires of our day. His is Kingship rooted in self giving love and mercy rather than in the cult of domination. And today as then he challenges so much of what we think is our Christian way of doing things. The hostile crowd who would say he was no friend of Caesar were right then. And still today they are right. This Jesus is truly the great subversive who subverts even those things we do not question.
So into a bustling city comes Jesus laying down the gauntlet. Still today he lays down that gauntlet. And he invites you and me to move from the domain of the Pilates of this world to the Kingdom that he embodies.
ALWINGTON METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 16th 2008
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Lent 5 - Out of the depths
PSALM 130
“And now I am happy all the day.”
So ends the chorus of a popular hymn. And whenever I hear it I get the urge to throw up. Why? Because nothing is to me more alien than those words. They just don’t ring true with my experience of life.
I freely admit to having a very powerful depressive streak in my life. There are times when I find functioning very difficult indeed. I’ve been through some of that this week and even this evening I know that I am struggling. But hey I am not alone. And this evening I want to get across the message that Christians who are feeling down are as much a part of the body of Christ as those who are at the top of the mountain. Indeed some of us are in both situations at differing times.
Now don’t bother feeling sorry for me. I won’t have it. After all I am in some pretty good company. Winston Churchill used to tall of being plagued by the “black dog” - something I can identify with him in even if not in much else. Martin Luther was so affected by depression that on one occasion his wife dressed in black, explaining to him that from the way he had been behaving she assumed God had died. And dear Vincent Van Gogh, the artist who had once been a pastor, in an extreme attack of depression, cut off his ear. So you can see that the company, if not the experience, is pretty good.
Now I can offer no easy responses to the problem of feeling down. If I could you would be able to direct at me the call to heal myself. I simply want this evening to make the point that for some if not most of us, there are times when we can feel wretched. And if we are to be real then we should not have to hide it. Oh be gone cult of unending happiness. Instead let us embrace reality and banish artificiality.
Now any serious reading of the scriptures makes clear that following God is not about entering on an unending “Happy Clappy” convention. Indeed the thought of such a thing is to me at least nausea inducing. The scriptures are very honest in showing us quite a range of human feelings and experiences. So I find Psalm 130 to be a helpful piece of scripture. Indeed its first verse is so real;
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.”
There is no posing here. The author recognises the situation in which the author is ensconced and knows that there is no benefit in trying to put on a front to God. The author feels wretched and is prepared to recognise it in the presence of God. And surely if there is a requirement on us when approaching God, it is to be real. That being real means a recognition of where we are and also an expression of desire as to what we might become.
Anyhow despite the pain, the Psalmist clearly longs to be in communication with God. This is good as communion with the God who is the source of our being, enables us to experience the deepest of realities. After all is it not an important desire that we should be in relationship with the one to whom we owe our being. Indeed many have argued that we only find true fulfilment in harmony with God - that this is a need within each of us. Man at war with God is hardly likely to be at peace with fellow man. And if our Being is the product of God then surely God understands us better than we can even understand ourselves.
Still within our Psalm there are two essential revelations about God which are of help to us in our desire for peace of mind.
The first of these is that God is forgiving by nature. The Psalmist grasps what we see in Christ - namely that God has deep wells of forgiveness. Too often, we find ourselves thinking that we can never be forgiven. Indeed we can become dominated by our failings. Yet despite the church too often portraying God as austere and remote, the truth is that God longs to forgive us. Like the father in Jesus’ story about a Prodigal Son, God’s nature is to be all forgiving without regard as to how far we have roamed. It is as demonstrated by Jesus upon the cross amidst mockery and abuse yet crying out;
“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Forgiveness without limit regardless of the extent of our offences! It is this that is the means by which we are put right with God rather than the special pleading of the Psalmist based upon hours of waiting on God.
Secondly, there is reconciliation with God made available. The Psalmist links this with God’s work in both past and future. We see God’s unfailing love in his dealings with Israel going back to ancient Covenants. We see it going forwards in the work of Christ which is able to bring us full redemption. The sins of the past can be as if they never happened. God has wiped them away. And this is surely life changing for here is God’s love breaking into our hearts enabling us to make new beginnings - all thanks to Christ who has entered into our world and suffered and died that we might embrace the peace with God to which Jesus points.
None of this makes life a bed of roses. Hard times and injustices continue in the world. At times we may feel rather rejected. At times our faces may have tears rather than smiles. Yet hope can not be obliterated because God is for us even when we are at our lowest - indeed maybe more so at such times. The Psalmist kindly points us to a love that will not let us go, a love that we witness in the Passion of Jesus Christ who journeys to a cross with all the pain and rejection that this entails, out of a courageous and passionate love for you and me. He is on our side amidst our vulnerability. For surely God is for us even when we feel furthest from that love.
Now we await his entry to Jerusalem. We await the witness to that love on Calvary. And we await its vindication through resurrection on Easter Day. And then we celebrate by accepting an invitation to his table where we find wonder of wonders, that not only are forgiven and loved but we are right royally accepted as we are. And so we find meaning in the amazing truth that the Maker of the Stars and Seas is for us - no more than that the Maker of the Stars and Seas invites us to be his friends.
Wow!
NORTHAM METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 9th 2008
“And now I am happy all the day.”
So ends the chorus of a popular hymn. And whenever I hear it I get the urge to throw up. Why? Because nothing is to me more alien than those words. They just don’t ring true with my experience of life.
I freely admit to having a very powerful depressive streak in my life. There are times when I find functioning very difficult indeed. I’ve been through some of that this week and even this evening I know that I am struggling. But hey I am not alone. And this evening I want to get across the message that Christians who are feeling down are as much a part of the body of Christ as those who are at the top of the mountain. Indeed some of us are in both situations at differing times.
Now don’t bother feeling sorry for me. I won’t have it. After all I am in some pretty good company. Winston Churchill used to tall of being plagued by the “black dog” - something I can identify with him in even if not in much else. Martin Luther was so affected by depression that on one occasion his wife dressed in black, explaining to him that from the way he had been behaving she assumed God had died. And dear Vincent Van Gogh, the artist who had once been a pastor, in an extreme attack of depression, cut off his ear. So you can see that the company, if not the experience, is pretty good.
Now I can offer no easy responses to the problem of feeling down. If I could you would be able to direct at me the call to heal myself. I simply want this evening to make the point that for some if not most of us, there are times when we can feel wretched. And if we are to be real then we should not have to hide it. Oh be gone cult of unending happiness. Instead let us embrace reality and banish artificiality.
Now any serious reading of the scriptures makes clear that following God is not about entering on an unending “Happy Clappy” convention. Indeed the thought of such a thing is to me at least nausea inducing. The scriptures are very honest in showing us quite a range of human feelings and experiences. So I find Psalm 130 to be a helpful piece of scripture. Indeed its first verse is so real;
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.”
There is no posing here. The author recognises the situation in which the author is ensconced and knows that there is no benefit in trying to put on a front to God. The author feels wretched and is prepared to recognise it in the presence of God. And surely if there is a requirement on us when approaching God, it is to be real. That being real means a recognition of where we are and also an expression of desire as to what we might become.
Anyhow despite the pain, the Psalmist clearly longs to be in communication with God. This is good as communion with the God who is the source of our being, enables us to experience the deepest of realities. After all is it not an important desire that we should be in relationship with the one to whom we owe our being. Indeed many have argued that we only find true fulfilment in harmony with God - that this is a need within each of us. Man at war with God is hardly likely to be at peace with fellow man. And if our Being is the product of God then surely God understands us better than we can even understand ourselves.
Still within our Psalm there are two essential revelations about God which are of help to us in our desire for peace of mind.
The first of these is that God is forgiving by nature. The Psalmist grasps what we see in Christ - namely that God has deep wells of forgiveness. Too often, we find ourselves thinking that we can never be forgiven. Indeed we can become dominated by our failings. Yet despite the church too often portraying God as austere and remote, the truth is that God longs to forgive us. Like the father in Jesus’ story about a Prodigal Son, God’s nature is to be all forgiving without regard as to how far we have roamed. It is as demonstrated by Jesus upon the cross amidst mockery and abuse yet crying out;
“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Forgiveness without limit regardless of the extent of our offences! It is this that is the means by which we are put right with God rather than the special pleading of the Psalmist based upon hours of waiting on God.
Secondly, there is reconciliation with God made available. The Psalmist links this with God’s work in both past and future. We see God’s unfailing love in his dealings with Israel going back to ancient Covenants. We see it going forwards in the work of Christ which is able to bring us full redemption. The sins of the past can be as if they never happened. God has wiped them away. And this is surely life changing for here is God’s love breaking into our hearts enabling us to make new beginnings - all thanks to Christ who has entered into our world and suffered and died that we might embrace the peace with God to which Jesus points.
None of this makes life a bed of roses. Hard times and injustices continue in the world. At times we may feel rather rejected. At times our faces may have tears rather than smiles. Yet hope can not be obliterated because God is for us even when we are at our lowest - indeed maybe more so at such times. The Psalmist kindly points us to a love that will not let us go, a love that we witness in the Passion of Jesus Christ who journeys to a cross with all the pain and rejection that this entails, out of a courageous and passionate love for you and me. He is on our side amidst our vulnerability. For surely God is for us even when we feel furthest from that love.
Now we await his entry to Jerusalem. We await the witness to that love on Calvary. And we await its vindication through resurrection on Easter Day. And then we celebrate by accepting an invitation to his table where we find wonder of wonders, that not only are forgiven and loved but we are right royally accepted as we are. And so we find meaning in the amazing truth that the Maker of the Stars and Seas is for us - no more than that the Maker of the Stars and Seas invites us to be his friends.
Wow!
NORTHAM METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 9th 2008
Lent 5 Hope in the darkest hour
EZEKIEL 37: 1-14 John 11: 1-45
I found a story that I liked only yesterday. It’s about a man who had just moved to a new city. Sat in a taxi, he was looking for somewhere that would be good for dinner. Leaning forward, he tapped the driver and said, “Hey mate!” - only for the driver to let out a blood curdling scream followed by his losing control of the vehicle which in the next few moment almost hit a bus, jumped the curb and stopped only inches from the window of a crowded restaurant. After a prolonged silence in which all that could be heard was two hearts beating like base drums, the driver turned around and said;
“Man you scared the living daylights out of me!”
The passenger who was still in a state of shock replied;
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise tapping you on the shoulder would scare you so badly.”
Quickly the driver explained;
“Well, it’s not your fault. This is my first day driving a taxi. For the past 25 years I’ve been driving a hearse.”
Today as approach Easter, we are reminded of the reality of the shadow side of life. Ant timely that is for our faith has to take seriously the dark realities of life if it is to be real. Sure we can rejoice as we shall do on Easter Day but many a time of rejoicing can only come after times of darkness and even despair.
Ezekiel certainly knew about the dark side of life. After all this priestly prophet was living through what many felt to be a time of calamity. Jerusalem had been destroyed and many of its more able people such as Ezekiel himself were living in distant exile in Babylon far from what they knew best and cherished most. All around him the temptation to give up was at its greatest. And yet this prophet sought to communicate a message that all was not lost. For God would never abandon his people and despite all that had happened could be trusted. Despite the past, and Ezekiel had plenty to say about that, there was still a future to look forward to.
Part of this vision of hope is to be found in the vision of the valley of dry bones. The valley envisaged may well have been an actual battle site from one of the battles that had reduces the people to such a sorry state. What matters from the vision is that these unburied bones are as dead as dead can possibly be. They are caput - finished! There is no reason to place any hope in them. And yet through the Spirit, these bones are enabled to rise up, find life and renewed purpose.
What is the vision all about? Quite simply Ezekiel is proclaiming the message that the shattered defeated people of Israel who are as finished as dry dead bones, may experience a new life - a new life not rooted in anything special about them but rooted in the purposes of God. The God who will raise Jesus from the dead, the God who will equip that motley group of Galilean followers of Jesus for mission, the God who today empowers the church of Christ - that God brings new hope and life to a people who have sunk into despair and who are to all intents and purposes dead. And perhaps we need to engage ourselves with that vision of Ezekiel when we are tempted to lose hope for our world.
And then from John’s Gospel we find that familiar story of the raising of Lazarus. Here we find a foretaste of the resurrection of Christ. Listen for a moment to those words of Jesus when Martha rebukes him for not coming quicker;
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
This, the sixth of John’s seven signs that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, shows Jesus possessing Divine power over the greatest of humankind’s enemies, death itself. Certainly John’s narrative points to Lazarus being very much dead. And one day he would be again. But Jesus is here revealed as the one who is able to bring new life from death in these sense here of bringing a man back to life just as in his hands as we die to what we have been he is able to make us into new creations that will reflect his love in a way that we could not have previously envisaged. For the time for being born from above is not at the moment of our physical death but here and now. As Lindy Black puts it so eloquently, it is a case of;
“From womb to tomb and vice versa!”
This morning we are reminded of the shadow side of life with all its pain. More of it we will see in the hatred and violence that leads to Good Friday. And if we are to be real, there is no way that we can ignore the darkness. And yet it cannot be the whole picture for in those moments of our greatest helplessness, God is weaving exciting possibilities of new beginnings. Today we see those new beginnings being dreamt of within a vanquished humiliated nation and in coming to fruition in a corpse that is especially mourned by two sisters. Why? It all boils down to the Divine love that wills only the best for us. We have seen it in Jesus of Nazareth bringing new life for all manner of people in Galilee through healings and the granting a new sense of their value. This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. As former Roman Catholic priest John Dominic Crossan puts it;
“Life out of death is how the people would have understood the Kingdom of God, in which Jesus helps them to take back control over their own bodies, hopes and their own destinies.”
Indeed! Life out of death! And that we shall see afresh as we enter into the Easter story and find once more of death being unable to hold back the new life embodied in Jesus - the new life that is the source of all our hope
GAMMATON METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 9th 2008
Opening story comes from Billy Strayhorn
I found a story that I liked only yesterday. It’s about a man who had just moved to a new city. Sat in a taxi, he was looking for somewhere that would be good for dinner. Leaning forward, he tapped the driver and said, “Hey mate!” - only for the driver to let out a blood curdling scream followed by his losing control of the vehicle which in the next few moment almost hit a bus, jumped the curb and stopped only inches from the window of a crowded restaurant. After a prolonged silence in which all that could be heard was two hearts beating like base drums, the driver turned around and said;
“Man you scared the living daylights out of me!”
The passenger who was still in a state of shock replied;
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise tapping you on the shoulder would scare you so badly.”
Quickly the driver explained;
“Well, it’s not your fault. This is my first day driving a taxi. For the past 25 years I’ve been driving a hearse.”
Today as approach Easter, we are reminded of the reality of the shadow side of life. Ant timely that is for our faith has to take seriously the dark realities of life if it is to be real. Sure we can rejoice as we shall do on Easter Day but many a time of rejoicing can only come after times of darkness and even despair.
Ezekiel certainly knew about the dark side of life. After all this priestly prophet was living through what many felt to be a time of calamity. Jerusalem had been destroyed and many of its more able people such as Ezekiel himself were living in distant exile in Babylon far from what they knew best and cherished most. All around him the temptation to give up was at its greatest. And yet this prophet sought to communicate a message that all was not lost. For God would never abandon his people and despite all that had happened could be trusted. Despite the past, and Ezekiel had plenty to say about that, there was still a future to look forward to.
Part of this vision of hope is to be found in the vision of the valley of dry bones. The valley envisaged may well have been an actual battle site from one of the battles that had reduces the people to such a sorry state. What matters from the vision is that these unburied bones are as dead as dead can possibly be. They are caput - finished! There is no reason to place any hope in them. And yet through the Spirit, these bones are enabled to rise up, find life and renewed purpose.
What is the vision all about? Quite simply Ezekiel is proclaiming the message that the shattered defeated people of Israel who are as finished as dry dead bones, may experience a new life - a new life not rooted in anything special about them but rooted in the purposes of God. The God who will raise Jesus from the dead, the God who will equip that motley group of Galilean followers of Jesus for mission, the God who today empowers the church of Christ - that God brings new hope and life to a people who have sunk into despair and who are to all intents and purposes dead. And perhaps we need to engage ourselves with that vision of Ezekiel when we are tempted to lose hope for our world.
And then from John’s Gospel we find that familiar story of the raising of Lazarus. Here we find a foretaste of the resurrection of Christ. Listen for a moment to those words of Jesus when Martha rebukes him for not coming quicker;
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
This, the sixth of John’s seven signs that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, shows Jesus possessing Divine power over the greatest of humankind’s enemies, death itself. Certainly John’s narrative points to Lazarus being very much dead. And one day he would be again. But Jesus is here revealed as the one who is able to bring new life from death in these sense here of bringing a man back to life just as in his hands as we die to what we have been he is able to make us into new creations that will reflect his love in a way that we could not have previously envisaged. For the time for being born from above is not at the moment of our physical death but here and now. As Lindy Black puts it so eloquently, it is a case of;
“From womb to tomb and vice versa!”
This morning we are reminded of the shadow side of life with all its pain. More of it we will see in the hatred and violence that leads to Good Friday. And if we are to be real, there is no way that we can ignore the darkness. And yet it cannot be the whole picture for in those moments of our greatest helplessness, God is weaving exciting possibilities of new beginnings. Today we see those new beginnings being dreamt of within a vanquished humiliated nation and in coming to fruition in a corpse that is especially mourned by two sisters. Why? It all boils down to the Divine love that wills only the best for us. We have seen it in Jesus of Nazareth bringing new life for all manner of people in Galilee through healings and the granting a new sense of their value. This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. As former Roman Catholic priest John Dominic Crossan puts it;
“Life out of death is how the people would have understood the Kingdom of God, in which Jesus helps them to take back control over their own bodies, hopes and their own destinies.”
Indeed! Life out of death! And that we shall see afresh as we enter into the Easter story and find once more of death being unable to hold back the new life embodied in Jesus - the new life that is the source of all our hope
GAMMATON METHODIST CHURCH Sunday March 9th 2008
Opening story comes from Billy Strayhorn
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Lent 4 - Eyes opened to love
John 9: 1-13, 28 - 42
It is one of those less than endearing facts of life that those who get the worst deal in life tend to also have to put up with the sneers of those who are more fortunate suggesting that in some way they are to blame for the kicks in the teeth that they endure. An example is the Poor Laws which existed until some way into the 20th century. Sure they protected the poor from being unable to exist but surely I cannot be alone in finding something repugnant in the wealthy assessing who is deserving poor and who is undeserving poor. My own great grandmother was but one of many who ended her life being subjected to this onslaught on her human dignity. Thank God for the arrival of the welfare state which put an end to this nonsense. May it never return although recent pronouncements as to who may and who may not have local authority housing fills me with no small measure of alarm.
Or Gospel reading this evening tells us of man who was down on his luck and who suffered the same sort of pious sneers as to whether his sufferings were his own fault. He was a blind man who had to beg in order to exist. I don’t know about you but I shudder when I hear the question put to Jesus by his closest followers;
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The theology behind the question is surely vile to us. It represents a theology that provides us with a repugnant view of God, a view of God that were it to be true would in all honesty make it impossible for me to worship God. And yet it was not seen as the view of crackpots. Far from it. This question came out of the orthodoxy of he time of Jesus. After all, a theology had come to prevail from the time of the exile which suggested that if a person or nation was faithful to God, then rewards and blessings would follow. As for a person of nation that was unfaithful, the opposite outcome would occur. And to be fair it was a theology that enabled people to make sense of the horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the elite. More than that it was a theology that enabled those who returned to create a nation that took faithfulness to God seriously.
But the problem was that it created an image of a thoroughly capricious and petty God. So it becomes a theology that is an abomination. And yet it had deep roots. We see it in the friends of Job who rebuke him amidst his sufferings - in love of course! We also see it in those who suggested that the victims of a collapsed tower at Siloam were necessarily particularly sinful. In that regard Jesus rejects this wretched perspective. And so he does in this case.
So let us be clear that a theology that suggests God is pleased with the rich or the healthy but displeased with the poor or the sick is a total abomination. It is no better than the vomit of Satan. And so it needs to be rejected and exposed wherever it rears its ugly head. Indeed, let any theology that denies the absolute love of God be confronted. Instead may we seek to always represent God as all loving as is seen in Jesus. For the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be in conflict with the loving, inclusive Jesus. Do you get it? Theology matters because it is important that we do not misrepresent the God to whom we point people towards. Be gone indeed, every life denying image of God!
So what does Jesus do? He sees an opportunity to work for good in a bad situation. Only the past week, I was at a meeting concerning the housing crisis in Bideford. The problem of people being unhoused or inadequately housed in Bideford or Anywhere else for that matter is nothing short of scandalous. I shiver at a system that leaves people uncertain of shelter or having to walk the streets for much of the day until they can return to temporary abodes whilst money can be found for weapons of mass destruction, gambling dens or appeasing the self interest of life’s greatest winners in a material sense. It is nothing short of a moral and spiritual disgrace. But sadly we cannot obtain the necessary changes to this shocking state of affairs. So rightly Christians and others are getting together to develop a scheme that will seek to bring hope to some of those whose needs is greatest. For suffering has surely to bring a challenge to engage with the problem.
And Jesus engages with this man. In John’s account he doesn’t even wait to be asked to help. He just gets on and helps a man in need. Making mud with saliva Jesus spreads it on the man’s eyes - there are echoes here of the second creation story in Genesis. He tells the man to wash in the pool of Siloam on the south side of the Temple. And the result is that the man is enabled to see. Now hold on to this. Jesus responds to suffering by opening up the possibilities of God working loving purposes in the situation. And that is surely a good model for us.
But this story is not just about a healing. It is about a transformation. Let me tell you a story. It goes like this. One day a Christian and a Communist were sat on a park bench watching the world go by. As they observed the goings on, they noticed a poor, drunken beggar dressed in rags. The Communist pointed to the beggar and said, “Communism would put a new suit on that man.” But the Christian responded, “Maybe so, but Jesus Christ can put a new man in that suit.” Now for me this should not be seen as an either/or story. The Marxist in me entirely approves of the words of the Communist - to each according to his needs is not a bad concept. But it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t solve the problem for problems can keep repeating themselves. A new creation is needed to go along with the social transformation. And in John’s story, the greatest miracle is the transformation that takes place within the blind man.
What is the transformation? Well I don’t know how many of you watched Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian.” It’s actually quite a good film and if you read interviews with the team you will find that it was not intended to make fun of Jesus but to make fun of how we are prone to searching for gods made in our image and to be honest of the church - and I think there are times when people are entitled to do just that. Anyhow there is one scene in which Brian who has become a messiah figure due to public misunderstanding, is harassed by a beggar crying out;
“Alms for an ex leper.”
We are encouraged to believe that this is a leper who has indeed been healed by Jesus after many years of leprosy accompanied by begging. In the dialogue there is a cute moment when Brian asks the ex leper who cured him only to get the answer;
“Jesus did. I was hopping along minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes, cures me. One minute I’m a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood’s gone, not so much as a by-your-leave.. You’re cured, mate. Interfering do-gooder!"
And in that we see that healings such as this one are not just about a cure to an illness but about entering a totally new way of life. This blind man would probably have developed a security from his practice of begging. He has done it for years. But now as a man who could see, that practice had been taken away from him. He would have to learn to live a very different way. How this man did so we are not told but in his conversation with the Pharisees we see a man rise to levels that can hardly have been expected. The man who had begged for his subsistence, the man who had had to please others so that he might have the necessities of life, now becomes a man who is not prepared to be browbeaten but who is prepared to argue his case with those learned Pharisees. Yes, the man has been transformed and now he is a new creation. So never forget that Jesus is in the business of changing people. He transforms them into new creations. And this is part of the business of the church today.
But finally the blind man seems to see better than the Pharisees. Hence that mysterious phrase of Jesus;
“I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
There is indeed an irony that a blind beggar would seem to see better than the religious professionals. There is a temptation to reach that point where one cannot see the wood for the trees. And amongst these quite definitely devout people that state had been reached. For there are times when we all need to see the most important truths of all. I am reminded of a story about Karl Barth who may have been the greatest theologian of the 20th century. His “Christian Dogmatics” are certainly a most impressive legacy. Yet coming towards the end of his life he was asked after a lecture what he considered to be the greatest truth that he had learnt in his fruitful life. His reply was this;
“The greatest truth I have ever learned is ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,’”
And that my friends we need to see - that Jesus loves me, you, the cussed guy down the road who drives us crazy and yes also the Muslim bowing down to Allah. Never, ever forget that the love of Jesus is for all. Otherwise all we are left with is sanctimonious mumbo jumbo!
And that is at the heart of seeing. Forget your aspirations at knowing the truth to all life’s big questions. Search for truth for unfocused devotion can be a dangerous thing but have the humility to know with Paul that our knowledge is partial and that we see as through a darkened glass. Still remember that the love of God for all and through all is what matters most.
One of the best hymns to have come out of America in the 20th Century was Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, take my hand.” Sung at the funeral of Martin Luther King, its background was in the unexpected deaths of Dorsey’s wife Nettie and the child she was carrying. Dorsey went through guilt at not having responded to an instinct to remain with her rather than travel to a revival meeting. He also felt let down by God until he came to a place of resolving to listen closer to God and in that fund peace. That peace took him to a piano late at night in a music school and there as he played a melody came that most memorable of hymns;
“Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When my way grows drear
Precious Lord linger near
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When the darkness appears
And the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.”
May our eyes like those of the blind beggar be opened to the courageous, unconditional love of God that comes to us through Jesus. May we see!
TORRINGTON METHODIST CHURCH - Sunday March 2nd 2008
It is one of those less than endearing facts of life that those who get the worst deal in life tend to also have to put up with the sneers of those who are more fortunate suggesting that in some way they are to blame for the kicks in the teeth that they endure. An example is the Poor Laws which existed until some way into the 20th century. Sure they protected the poor from being unable to exist but surely I cannot be alone in finding something repugnant in the wealthy assessing who is deserving poor and who is undeserving poor. My own great grandmother was but one of many who ended her life being subjected to this onslaught on her human dignity. Thank God for the arrival of the welfare state which put an end to this nonsense. May it never return although recent pronouncements as to who may and who may not have local authority housing fills me with no small measure of alarm.
Or Gospel reading this evening tells us of man who was down on his luck and who suffered the same sort of pious sneers as to whether his sufferings were his own fault. He was a blind man who had to beg in order to exist. I don’t know about you but I shudder when I hear the question put to Jesus by his closest followers;
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The theology behind the question is surely vile to us. It represents a theology that provides us with a repugnant view of God, a view of God that were it to be true would in all honesty make it impossible for me to worship God. And yet it was not seen as the view of crackpots. Far from it. This question came out of the orthodoxy of he time of Jesus. After all, a theology had come to prevail from the time of the exile which suggested that if a person or nation was faithful to God, then rewards and blessings would follow. As for a person of nation that was unfaithful, the opposite outcome would occur. And to be fair it was a theology that enabled people to make sense of the horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the elite. More than that it was a theology that enabled those who returned to create a nation that took faithfulness to God seriously.
But the problem was that it created an image of a thoroughly capricious and petty God. So it becomes a theology that is an abomination. And yet it had deep roots. We see it in the friends of Job who rebuke him amidst his sufferings - in love of course! We also see it in those who suggested that the victims of a collapsed tower at Siloam were necessarily particularly sinful. In that regard Jesus rejects this wretched perspective. And so he does in this case.
So let us be clear that a theology that suggests God is pleased with the rich or the healthy but displeased with the poor or the sick is a total abomination. It is no better than the vomit of Satan. And so it needs to be rejected and exposed wherever it rears its ugly head. Indeed, let any theology that denies the absolute love of God be confronted. Instead may we seek to always represent God as all loving as is seen in Jesus. For the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be in conflict with the loving, inclusive Jesus. Do you get it? Theology matters because it is important that we do not misrepresent the God to whom we point people towards. Be gone indeed, every life denying image of God!
So what does Jesus do? He sees an opportunity to work for good in a bad situation. Only the past week, I was at a meeting concerning the housing crisis in Bideford. The problem of people being unhoused or inadequately housed in Bideford or Anywhere else for that matter is nothing short of scandalous. I shiver at a system that leaves people uncertain of shelter or having to walk the streets for much of the day until they can return to temporary abodes whilst money can be found for weapons of mass destruction, gambling dens or appeasing the self interest of life’s greatest winners in a material sense. It is nothing short of a moral and spiritual disgrace. But sadly we cannot obtain the necessary changes to this shocking state of affairs. So rightly Christians and others are getting together to develop a scheme that will seek to bring hope to some of those whose needs is greatest. For suffering has surely to bring a challenge to engage with the problem.
And Jesus engages with this man. In John’s account he doesn’t even wait to be asked to help. He just gets on and helps a man in need. Making mud with saliva Jesus spreads it on the man’s eyes - there are echoes here of the second creation story in Genesis. He tells the man to wash in the pool of Siloam on the south side of the Temple. And the result is that the man is enabled to see. Now hold on to this. Jesus responds to suffering by opening up the possibilities of God working loving purposes in the situation. And that is surely a good model for us.
But this story is not just about a healing. It is about a transformation. Let me tell you a story. It goes like this. One day a Christian and a Communist were sat on a park bench watching the world go by. As they observed the goings on, they noticed a poor, drunken beggar dressed in rags. The Communist pointed to the beggar and said, “Communism would put a new suit on that man.” But the Christian responded, “Maybe so, but Jesus Christ can put a new man in that suit.” Now for me this should not be seen as an either/or story. The Marxist in me entirely approves of the words of the Communist - to each according to his needs is not a bad concept. But it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t solve the problem for problems can keep repeating themselves. A new creation is needed to go along with the social transformation. And in John’s story, the greatest miracle is the transformation that takes place within the blind man.
What is the transformation? Well I don’t know how many of you watched Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian.” It’s actually quite a good film and if you read interviews with the team you will find that it was not intended to make fun of Jesus but to make fun of how we are prone to searching for gods made in our image and to be honest of the church - and I think there are times when people are entitled to do just that. Anyhow there is one scene in which Brian who has become a messiah figure due to public misunderstanding, is harassed by a beggar crying out;
“Alms for an ex leper.”
We are encouraged to believe that this is a leper who has indeed been healed by Jesus after many years of leprosy accompanied by begging. In the dialogue there is a cute moment when Brian asks the ex leper who cured him only to get the answer;
“Jesus did. I was hopping along minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes, cures me. One minute I’m a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood’s gone, not so much as a by-your-leave.. You’re cured, mate. Interfering do-gooder!"
And in that we see that healings such as this one are not just about a cure to an illness but about entering a totally new way of life. This blind man would probably have developed a security from his practice of begging. He has done it for years. But now as a man who could see, that practice had been taken away from him. He would have to learn to live a very different way. How this man did so we are not told but in his conversation with the Pharisees we see a man rise to levels that can hardly have been expected. The man who had begged for his subsistence, the man who had had to please others so that he might have the necessities of life, now becomes a man who is not prepared to be browbeaten but who is prepared to argue his case with those learned Pharisees. Yes, the man has been transformed and now he is a new creation. So never forget that Jesus is in the business of changing people. He transforms them into new creations. And this is part of the business of the church today.
But finally the blind man seems to see better than the Pharisees. Hence that mysterious phrase of Jesus;
“I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
There is indeed an irony that a blind beggar would seem to see better than the religious professionals. There is a temptation to reach that point where one cannot see the wood for the trees. And amongst these quite definitely devout people that state had been reached. For there are times when we all need to see the most important truths of all. I am reminded of a story about Karl Barth who may have been the greatest theologian of the 20th century. His “Christian Dogmatics” are certainly a most impressive legacy. Yet coming towards the end of his life he was asked after a lecture what he considered to be the greatest truth that he had learnt in his fruitful life. His reply was this;
“The greatest truth I have ever learned is ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,’”
And that my friends we need to see - that Jesus loves me, you, the cussed guy down the road who drives us crazy and yes also the Muslim bowing down to Allah. Never, ever forget that the love of Jesus is for all. Otherwise all we are left with is sanctimonious mumbo jumbo!
And that is at the heart of seeing. Forget your aspirations at knowing the truth to all life’s big questions. Search for truth for unfocused devotion can be a dangerous thing but have the humility to know with Paul that our knowledge is partial and that we see as through a darkened glass. Still remember that the love of God for all and through all is what matters most.
One of the best hymns to have come out of America in the 20th Century was Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, take my hand.” Sung at the funeral of Martin Luther King, its background was in the unexpected deaths of Dorsey’s wife Nettie and the child she was carrying. Dorsey went through guilt at not having responded to an instinct to remain with her rather than travel to a revival meeting. He also felt let down by God until he came to a place of resolving to listen closer to God and in that fund peace. That peace took him to a piano late at night in a music school and there as he played a melody came that most memorable of hymns;
“Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When my way grows drear
Precious Lord linger near
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When the darkness appears
And the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.”
May our eyes like those of the blind beggar be opened to the courageous, unconditional love of God that comes to us through Jesus. May we see!
TORRINGTON METHODIST CHURCH - Sunday March 2nd 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
