MARK 4: 1-20
The parable of the sower - I guess that at least one or two of you are wondering if I have had a bit of a senior moment. After all, this is a parable that is often visited at Harvest Thanksgiving but Church Anniversary - well it just does not see to belong.
But believe you me whilst I have my fair share of doddery moments, I was in no way experiencing one of them when I decided that I would preach on this parable for tonight’s service. So why are we looking at this parable? The reason is quite simple - it speaks directly into the ministry of the church for today.
It helps to appreciate the realities of Palestinian agriculture. The common practice was for small family farmers to eke out a basic living from marginal plots whilst wealthy landowners kept the best land for themselves. The peasant farmers would throw their seed earnestly hoping for the best. After all the stakes were high. They would need sufficient return to feed their families, pay the rent and invest in sufficient seed in order to repeat the cycle again the following year. If the yield was insufficient and they fell into debt the farmer would face the prospect of borrowing from the wealthy landowners against the security of their land. If the cycle of failure continued and debts could not be repaid, they would face the prospect of losing their land to the lenders and of having to work to pay off the debt.
This system was fundamentally unjust. It deprived the peasant farmer of real choices in life. For truly such people were in chains. And yet Jesus in this parable gives a picture of a better tomorrow. His parable envisages a bumper harvest way beyond the expectations of his hearers, a bumper harvest that could make all the difference, the bumper harvest that would break the cycle of poverty and struggle. Beyond reasonable expectations, it looked to a future of liberation.
Sometimes, we downplay this aspect of the Gospel. We speak as if our aspirations can be measured in the size of congregations. This is absolute piffle. Much better to small and faithful than be seduced by a cult of numbers in pews or the trimmings of success. We need once more to touch base with the inspirational words of James Russell Lowell who proclaimed;
“They are slaves who fear to be in the right with two or three.”
And a part of our calling is the work of liberation which lifts people up from being nobodies to the value that God would bestow on all. This means that the church must be a community that confronts the prejudice that excludes in all its forms. This means that the church must be a place that embodies in word and deed radical inclusion for every single one of God’s children. After all has not Jesus spoken of coming that all may have life with abundance. Of course this speaks into the role of the church as a prophetic voice.
I wonder if anyone read today’s Sunday Times which proclaimed that the richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth quadruple over the past decade. When I read that, I wanted to puke. For I see plenty of the struggles of people even within my own town whose lives feel as bare and who are a limited in choices as the sower of whom Jesus told. I have no time for an easy accommodation with the powers that be if they cannot see the corruption in extreme wealth and life denying poverty side by side. Our faith is a faith that takes material seriously, a faith that is sorely misrepresented if we see bums on seats as more important than the denial of a good life for those at the bottom of the pile. Oh I know that the church matters but may we never forget that the church is not an end in itself but a signpost that points to God’s Kingdom of justice, peace and joy for all.
Back to the parable and we find the differing outcome of the seeds that are sown. Sowing on poor soil, it is no surprise that much of the soil would land in the places where it would fail to bring a yield. This is a simple fact of life. And I think that today in our efforts to make the Gospel real in peoples’ lives, there is here an echo. Much of what we do bears no obvious fruit. And yet, surely our greatest calling is to faithfulness rather than to success. Now I have no problem with planning or prioritisation - these are obvious realities in the ongoing life and work of the people of God. But they must never blind us to the reality that what we are about in the mission to which God calls us, is the incredible reality that God’s grace is for all. There is no nook or cranny that is beyond God’s love, no place of darkness that cannot be illuminated by the light of God, not one of our Hells that cannot be transformed by grace.
Of course, in many an exposition of this parable we have found ourselves contemplating the difficulties of sowing God’s seed. We are encouraged to think of the factors that seem to be obstacles to God’s work. Lack of roots, troubles and persecutions, the lures of this world, all these things come to mind. Such things represent challenges and remind us that God’s mission requires patience and a capacity to resist the temptation of shortcuts. And as those of us on the Pioneer Disciple Course will be finding, mission in God’s world involves a need for understanding of what is happening in that world.
But yet, it can be more personal. Use your imagination for a moment and picture the sower as being not us but God. Picture ourselves as the seed that is thrown, landing on various soil. You may imagine yourself in the varying cataegories of where the soil has landed. And if you are like me, that will not be easy because I know that at different times I am each of those seeds. For generally we are all a mixed picture. More and more I think that we fail to conclusively fit into neat boxes such as saint or sinner. At different moments, we can be both of these things and a whole lot more beside. So here this parable serves to challenge us about addressing our points of weakness so that we might grow in fruitfulness to God living lives and being in community in such a way as to make a difference and to bring about the signs of the Kingdom of God.
Fremington Methodist Church, today you celebrate another year as a community of God’s people in this village. You can look back with gratitude at past blessings. You can also look ahead to a continuing part within God’s ongoing mission. May this parable encourage you to move forwards with God, seeking to be the seeds that produce a yield.
But don’t expect it to be easy. Don’t expect great applause for this Gospel is full of challenge and controversy. Jesus, himself, was met with hostility for in so many ways it is a challenge to the orthodoxy of not just his but any age. Yet here is a challenge to both love and sow wastefully for if we hold back no seed is sown. And if no seed is sown there can be no yield.
So go forwards dreaming dreams and seeing visions of what can be. For we are called to simply allow ourselves to be a part of God’s unlimited possibilities. Holding nothing back, who knows what might be?
FREMINGTON METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 27TH 2008
Sunday, 27 April 2008
EASTER 6 If you love me
JOHN 14: 15 - 21
“If you love me”
Don’t those words send a chill through you? The note of qualification is all too present. How often those words are used by a child, a lover or even a parent as a precursor to some demand or other. They are the words that make you feel apprehension as to the contents of your wallet or your bank balance - provided the credit crunch hasn’t emptied these things already.
And yet now these words are coming to us not from one on the make but from Jesus himself. And so we get the feeling that we are about to find out the true cost of faith.
But what follows is perhaps even more demanding. What will we do if we love Jesus. The daunting response to that is;
“You will keep my commandments.”
Wow! For me those words take me back to a friend from my teenage years who advised me against being confirmed into the Methodist Church. After all the miserable so and sos would turn my life into an unending endurance of boredom in which anything remotely enjoyable I might do, would bring the wrath of the religious thought police down upon my unsuspecting head.
And to be honest this is the sort of text that I used to dread hearing preaching on. I always feared that a sort of Christian Taliban would tell me that I couldn’t enjoy a pint, the punk music which I loved in my youth and to be honest still do, or chasing women. Now there may well be good reason for a measure of restraint in these things but we do a violence to this scripture if we suggest that this is what Jesus is talking about here.
For to Jesus, the essence of his teaching was not the petty restrictions that have damaged many peoples’ perceptions of religion, but instead was about love. Think back to a teacher of the law who came to Jesus asking what was the most important of the commandments only for Jesus to respond;
“The first is ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
See, it is love that is at the heart of the commandments of Jesus. And indeed only a few verses before our scripture reading, in the same dialogue at the Last Supper, Jesus has given one final commandment;
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So when Jesus says;
“If you love me you will keep my commandments”
He is not talking about ethics. He is simply saying that those who love him with be people who are people of love.
Now I know that love can easily be a debased word. It can be spoken in a shallow way such as on a first date or in the desire for a few moments of peace. At times the word seems divorced from any reality. Some of you will remember the song “Both Sides Now” penned by Joni Mitchell, a song revived in the film “Love Actually” - a song which contains the words;
“I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all.”
And the reality is that far too many lives are marked by an abundance of love talk accompanied by a great shortage of love action. For the love that Jesus speaks of is a love that in gratitude is directed to God and which also develops for other peoples including ultimately as demonstrated by the example of Jesus, those whom we might see as the most unlovely. And that love directed at others goes well beyond fancying or fluffyness. It is the love that seeks the best for others even when they are awkward or living in a way that is destructive to self or others. And is this not what we see in Jesus? - that great capacity not to see or to freeze people in their worst moments but to see amidst the tattered realities, preciousness and even potential.
And make no mistake, love really changes things. This week I read of some of the tensions after the erection of that dreadful Berlin Wall. Apparently in the early days thereafter, truckloads of stinking garbage was dumped from East Berlin into West Berlin. Anger developed and many in the west wanted some sort of payback. And yet, the Mayor took a very different path. He asked that beautiful, fragrant flowers be gathered. These flowers were taken to a place along the wall before being poured over to the east along with a banner that proclaimed;
“We each give what we have.”
And if we are to be followers of Jesus who love Jesus, we need to get into offering reconciliation where there are barriers, peace where there is confrontation and love where there is hatred. Why? Because we are called to give what we have and these are the things that Jesus offers to us.
And Jesus tells us that help is at hand. In our Scripture reading, he has talked of a promise. Soon the friends with whom he is speaking will be without his presence for soon he will die for love. Yet, he wants them to know that they will not be without God. That is why he promises them that they will not be orphaned for the Holy Spirit, the go between God. Will be with them to assist them in their futures. The Holy Spirit will guide them and enable them to live out the way of love.
This morning I want to encourage you to travel the journey of love. Oh there is life without love but it is a waste of time or as the poet Mary Oliver puts it;
“not worth a bent penny or a scuffed shoe.”
Its value is negligible. But Jesus points us to a better way - the way that he has embodied, the way of love. Each person here this morning is within his circle of unending, divine love. God’s love for each of us is as powerful as that of any parent, lover or friend - passionate and without condition. And yet he asks us to let it embrace our entire being that we might model love with all that we are.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
And what are those commandments? In one solitary word - love!
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH - SUNDAY APRIL 27TH 2008
“If you love me”
Don’t those words send a chill through you? The note of qualification is all too present. How often those words are used by a child, a lover or even a parent as a precursor to some demand or other. They are the words that make you feel apprehension as to the contents of your wallet or your bank balance - provided the credit crunch hasn’t emptied these things already.
And yet now these words are coming to us not from one on the make but from Jesus himself. And so we get the feeling that we are about to find out the true cost of faith.
But what follows is perhaps even more demanding. What will we do if we love Jesus. The daunting response to that is;
“You will keep my commandments.”
Wow! For me those words take me back to a friend from my teenage years who advised me against being confirmed into the Methodist Church. After all the miserable so and sos would turn my life into an unending endurance of boredom in which anything remotely enjoyable I might do, would bring the wrath of the religious thought police down upon my unsuspecting head.
And to be honest this is the sort of text that I used to dread hearing preaching on. I always feared that a sort of Christian Taliban would tell me that I couldn’t enjoy a pint, the punk music which I loved in my youth and to be honest still do, or chasing women. Now there may well be good reason for a measure of restraint in these things but we do a violence to this scripture if we suggest that this is what Jesus is talking about here.
For to Jesus, the essence of his teaching was not the petty restrictions that have damaged many peoples’ perceptions of religion, but instead was about love. Think back to a teacher of the law who came to Jesus asking what was the most important of the commandments only for Jesus to respond;
“The first is ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
See, it is love that is at the heart of the commandments of Jesus. And indeed only a few verses before our scripture reading, in the same dialogue at the Last Supper, Jesus has given one final commandment;
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So when Jesus says;
“If you love me you will keep my commandments”
He is not talking about ethics. He is simply saying that those who love him with be people who are people of love.
Now I know that love can easily be a debased word. It can be spoken in a shallow way such as on a first date or in the desire for a few moments of peace. At times the word seems divorced from any reality. Some of you will remember the song “Both Sides Now” penned by Joni Mitchell, a song revived in the film “Love Actually” - a song which contains the words;
“I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all.”
And the reality is that far too many lives are marked by an abundance of love talk accompanied by a great shortage of love action. For the love that Jesus speaks of is a love that in gratitude is directed to God and which also develops for other peoples including ultimately as demonstrated by the example of Jesus, those whom we might see as the most unlovely. And that love directed at others goes well beyond fancying or fluffyness. It is the love that seeks the best for others even when they are awkward or living in a way that is destructive to self or others. And is this not what we see in Jesus? - that great capacity not to see or to freeze people in their worst moments but to see amidst the tattered realities, preciousness and even potential.
And make no mistake, love really changes things. This week I read of some of the tensions after the erection of that dreadful Berlin Wall. Apparently in the early days thereafter, truckloads of stinking garbage was dumped from East Berlin into West Berlin. Anger developed and many in the west wanted some sort of payback. And yet, the Mayor took a very different path. He asked that beautiful, fragrant flowers be gathered. These flowers were taken to a place along the wall before being poured over to the east along with a banner that proclaimed;
“We each give what we have.”
And if we are to be followers of Jesus who love Jesus, we need to get into offering reconciliation where there are barriers, peace where there is confrontation and love where there is hatred. Why? Because we are called to give what we have and these are the things that Jesus offers to us.
And Jesus tells us that help is at hand. In our Scripture reading, he has talked of a promise. Soon the friends with whom he is speaking will be without his presence for soon he will die for love. Yet, he wants them to know that they will not be without God. That is why he promises them that they will not be orphaned for the Holy Spirit, the go between God. Will be with them to assist them in their futures. The Holy Spirit will guide them and enable them to live out the way of love.
This morning I want to encourage you to travel the journey of love. Oh there is life without love but it is a waste of time or as the poet Mary Oliver puts it;
“not worth a bent penny or a scuffed shoe.”
Its value is negligible. But Jesus points us to a better way - the way that he has embodied, the way of love. Each person here this morning is within his circle of unending, divine love. God’s love for each of us is as powerful as that of any parent, lover or friend - passionate and without condition. And yet he asks us to let it embrace our entire being that we might model love with all that we are.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
And what are those commandments? In one solitary word - love!
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH - SUNDAY APRIL 27TH 2008
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Easter 5 Simeon says
LUKE 2: 25 - 33
There are times when the lectionary seems just a little perverse. Today’s lectionary is one such occasion. We are still in the season of Easter and yet the Gospel reading for the second service today, takes us right back to beginnings, to the time when Jesus was still a helpless, gurgling baby.
And yet the story of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple is a story that is bubbling with meaning and important messages that we do well to take seriously.
Let’s for a moment go back to just before our reading from Luke’s Gospel begins. For we find two significant early events in the life of Jesus. Firstly, he was circumcised on his eighth day in accordance with Jewish requirement and with along with that he was named Jesus or Yeshua as it probably was in the Hebrew. Secondly, there was the purification of his mother which would have been 40 days after the birth. This would be combined with a sacrificial offering.
Why does this matter? Well it is important to remember the Jewishness of Jesus. Yes, we can say that Jesus is for all people but the specifics of his birth are that he was born, lived and died a Jew. And his parents were quite clearly observant Jews. To fully understand Jesus, it is important to appreciate that he was a Jew and not a Christian. That heritage needs to be taken seriously if we are to be diligent in seeking an understanding of Jesus.
It also leads us into the matter of anti Semitism. The church needs to be aware that there is a long history of Christian anti Judaism which has been a breeding ground for anti Semitism. The failure to appreciate the Jewishness of Jesus, has often led to anti Jewish violence particularly at Easter. That this unsavoury history of anti Jewish Christian thought was a contributing factor in the Holocaust is beyond doubt. As the Dabru Emet statement of Jewish scholars makes clear, whilst the Holocaust was not a Christian event, it could not have happened without the history of Christian anti Semitism. Certainly we need to exercise care in how we read the Gospels for whilst at times our translations suggest a negative picture of Jews, these Gospels were written by Jewish men to point us to a Jewish saviour. Where hostility is suggested, it needs to be read in the context of a family quarrel in which the possibility of a middle ground is squeezed out.
So anti Semitism is not a valid Christian option. In the coming fortnight much of the country will be having local government elections. We are an exception. Now I have deliberately never used the pulpit to endorse political parties - it would be an improper thing to do. However, I have absolutely no hesitation in affirming that a vote for the BNP is a vote against Christ. Why? Because this political party comes from a background of neo Nazism which has historically been involved in vicious anti Jewish campaigning. It makes no difference that it now has taken to turning its bile against Muslims, may of whom are themselves semitic peoples. It is the same poison directed against specific people who are other than the perpetrators of hate. Look at it this way. Jesus came from a people who have more than most been at the receiving end of hatred and prejudice. This being so, invalidates all prejudices against other groups who from time to time enter the firing line. Such prejudice is wrong on principle as well as being contrary to the teachings and practices of Jesus.
But in these rituals something else can be discerned. That something is the material lack of wealth on the part of the Holy family. Back in Leviticus, there had been laid down the requirements for the sacrifice to be made when the days of a mother’s purification were over;
“If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.”
Well Luke suggests that it is the poorer option of payment that is taken by Mary and Joseph, not entirely surprising as they will soon be living in the backwater of Nazareth. Now this does not mean that they were amongst the desperately poor. It merely suggests that they were people of limited means - not exactly the sort of people likely to have a child that would turn the world upside down. These are simply humble folk coming to consecrate their first born child to God - as should be the imagery of our infant baptism.
But now something remarkable is to break in on this everyday Jewish happening. And the sign of it is an old man named Simeon. An elderly man, he longs to end his days in peace, released from regrets. Within him as the flesh grows weak, however is a hope and a longing that he might witness the consolation of Israel. And in a split moment, that longing finds fulfilment. Driven by the Holy Spirit, he enters the temple courts. Seeing Mary and Joseph with the child, he takes the child into his arms and says the words that we echo in our Nunc Dimitus, used at many a funeral;
“Lord now lettest they servant depart in peace.”
It’s OK. He can leave this world in peace for now he is sure that God is fulfilling the hopes of all the years. And he, Simeon, is a witness to this. Now he can leave this world in peace and tranquillity for he knows that God has stepped into a world of woes - through a peasant couple and their baby. Whilst we too often make a hash of dying, this man is able to go in peace.
But what is particularly wonderful is how this man grasps the significance of the child. Any nationalistic expectation that he had hitherto had, goes out of the window. As indeed should our feeble efforts to portray God as an Englishman. I am reminded of a church in Cornwall where at a civic service the civic leaders intended that Robert Hawker’s “Song of the Western Men” be sang. It’s a sort of Cornish National Anthem and frankly with words as meaningless as most National Anthems. But because of the violent air to those words which hearkened back to a Cornish rebellion when James 11 incarcerated Bishop Trelawney, the minister refused to have it sung in an act of worship - a stance I hope to take should I ever be confronted with similar circumstances. Quite a row broke out and a lot of nonsense was spoken by the Councillors of Cornwall - not unusual believe you me! The one note of sanity was when the minister said that what was sung should reflect the fact that we worship “the God of all peoples and not all things Cornish.”
Well Simeon would agree on that for now he speaks of a salvation;
“prepared in the sight of all people,
A light for revelation to the gentiles
And for glory to your people Israel.”
Do you get it? This very Jewish boy is not a revelation of a tribal God but of a God whose salvation and grace is for all the nations of the world. Whilst we erect walls that keep people apart, this Jewish child reaches out beyond each and every one of these barriers. And in a sense that was not new. Whilst in ancient Israel, there were those who saw God as being for one nation, the Hebrew Bible has far more about welcoming foreigners than loving neighbours - something the British Government might just take on board when deporting unsuccessful asylum seekers to lands such as Iraq, Zimbabwe and Uzbekistan where they face unsafety or cancer sufferers to lands that cannot provide sufficient medical care.
But the picture I like most from Simeon is that of providing light. The more time I spend in North Devon, the more I become aware of people being trapped in darkness. My town has many inadequately housed people, people unable to find stimulating employment, people trapped in addiction be it alcohol, drugs or gambling, people struggling for a sustainable lifestyle that will not keep putting them in conflict with the law, people even young people sinking into a morass of depression. Christ offers a light to these people by telling them that they count and are of worth, and by kicking our behinds that we might challenge the morally bankrupt structures of our society that have become a force for continual darkness. And that which is the case in North Devon is equally the case elsewhere - sometimes even more dramatically. This Christ directs a light on all that dehumanises or creates fear. His light shines in the darkest of places. And all of this was revealed to Simeon. Easter tells us that despite undergoing death, Jesus is alive and God has given a Yes to all that Jesus has said and done. If we need to see more of that purpose, well Simeon has seen to it for us - it is to bring the light that will bring salvation to those entombed in darkness
TORRINGTON METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 20TH 2008
There are times when the lectionary seems just a little perverse. Today’s lectionary is one such occasion. We are still in the season of Easter and yet the Gospel reading for the second service today, takes us right back to beginnings, to the time when Jesus was still a helpless, gurgling baby.
And yet the story of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple is a story that is bubbling with meaning and important messages that we do well to take seriously.
Let’s for a moment go back to just before our reading from Luke’s Gospel begins. For we find two significant early events in the life of Jesus. Firstly, he was circumcised on his eighth day in accordance with Jewish requirement and with along with that he was named Jesus or Yeshua as it probably was in the Hebrew. Secondly, there was the purification of his mother which would have been 40 days after the birth. This would be combined with a sacrificial offering.
Why does this matter? Well it is important to remember the Jewishness of Jesus. Yes, we can say that Jesus is for all people but the specifics of his birth are that he was born, lived and died a Jew. And his parents were quite clearly observant Jews. To fully understand Jesus, it is important to appreciate that he was a Jew and not a Christian. That heritage needs to be taken seriously if we are to be diligent in seeking an understanding of Jesus.
It also leads us into the matter of anti Semitism. The church needs to be aware that there is a long history of Christian anti Judaism which has been a breeding ground for anti Semitism. The failure to appreciate the Jewishness of Jesus, has often led to anti Jewish violence particularly at Easter. That this unsavoury history of anti Jewish Christian thought was a contributing factor in the Holocaust is beyond doubt. As the Dabru Emet statement of Jewish scholars makes clear, whilst the Holocaust was not a Christian event, it could not have happened without the history of Christian anti Semitism. Certainly we need to exercise care in how we read the Gospels for whilst at times our translations suggest a negative picture of Jews, these Gospels were written by Jewish men to point us to a Jewish saviour. Where hostility is suggested, it needs to be read in the context of a family quarrel in which the possibility of a middle ground is squeezed out.
So anti Semitism is not a valid Christian option. In the coming fortnight much of the country will be having local government elections. We are an exception. Now I have deliberately never used the pulpit to endorse political parties - it would be an improper thing to do. However, I have absolutely no hesitation in affirming that a vote for the BNP is a vote against Christ. Why? Because this political party comes from a background of neo Nazism which has historically been involved in vicious anti Jewish campaigning. It makes no difference that it now has taken to turning its bile against Muslims, may of whom are themselves semitic peoples. It is the same poison directed against specific people who are other than the perpetrators of hate. Look at it this way. Jesus came from a people who have more than most been at the receiving end of hatred and prejudice. This being so, invalidates all prejudices against other groups who from time to time enter the firing line. Such prejudice is wrong on principle as well as being contrary to the teachings and practices of Jesus.
But in these rituals something else can be discerned. That something is the material lack of wealth on the part of the Holy family. Back in Leviticus, there had been laid down the requirements for the sacrifice to be made when the days of a mother’s purification were over;
“If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.”
Well Luke suggests that it is the poorer option of payment that is taken by Mary and Joseph, not entirely surprising as they will soon be living in the backwater of Nazareth. Now this does not mean that they were amongst the desperately poor. It merely suggests that they were people of limited means - not exactly the sort of people likely to have a child that would turn the world upside down. These are simply humble folk coming to consecrate their first born child to God - as should be the imagery of our infant baptism.
But now something remarkable is to break in on this everyday Jewish happening. And the sign of it is an old man named Simeon. An elderly man, he longs to end his days in peace, released from regrets. Within him as the flesh grows weak, however is a hope and a longing that he might witness the consolation of Israel. And in a split moment, that longing finds fulfilment. Driven by the Holy Spirit, he enters the temple courts. Seeing Mary and Joseph with the child, he takes the child into his arms and says the words that we echo in our Nunc Dimitus, used at many a funeral;
“Lord now lettest they servant depart in peace.”
It’s OK. He can leave this world in peace for now he is sure that God is fulfilling the hopes of all the years. And he, Simeon, is a witness to this. Now he can leave this world in peace and tranquillity for he knows that God has stepped into a world of woes - through a peasant couple and their baby. Whilst we too often make a hash of dying, this man is able to go in peace.
But what is particularly wonderful is how this man grasps the significance of the child. Any nationalistic expectation that he had hitherto had, goes out of the window. As indeed should our feeble efforts to portray God as an Englishman. I am reminded of a church in Cornwall where at a civic service the civic leaders intended that Robert Hawker’s “Song of the Western Men” be sang. It’s a sort of Cornish National Anthem and frankly with words as meaningless as most National Anthems. But because of the violent air to those words which hearkened back to a Cornish rebellion when James 11 incarcerated Bishop Trelawney, the minister refused to have it sung in an act of worship - a stance I hope to take should I ever be confronted with similar circumstances. Quite a row broke out and a lot of nonsense was spoken by the Councillors of Cornwall - not unusual believe you me! The one note of sanity was when the minister said that what was sung should reflect the fact that we worship “the God of all peoples and not all things Cornish.”
Well Simeon would agree on that for now he speaks of a salvation;
“prepared in the sight of all people,
A light for revelation to the gentiles
And for glory to your people Israel.”
Do you get it? This very Jewish boy is not a revelation of a tribal God but of a God whose salvation and grace is for all the nations of the world. Whilst we erect walls that keep people apart, this Jewish child reaches out beyond each and every one of these barriers. And in a sense that was not new. Whilst in ancient Israel, there were those who saw God as being for one nation, the Hebrew Bible has far more about welcoming foreigners than loving neighbours - something the British Government might just take on board when deporting unsuccessful asylum seekers to lands such as Iraq, Zimbabwe and Uzbekistan where they face unsafety or cancer sufferers to lands that cannot provide sufficient medical care.
But the picture I like most from Simeon is that of providing light. The more time I spend in North Devon, the more I become aware of people being trapped in darkness. My town has many inadequately housed people, people unable to find stimulating employment, people trapped in addiction be it alcohol, drugs or gambling, people struggling for a sustainable lifestyle that will not keep putting them in conflict with the law, people even young people sinking into a morass of depression. Christ offers a light to these people by telling them that they count and are of worth, and by kicking our behinds that we might challenge the morally bankrupt structures of our society that have become a force for continual darkness. And that which is the case in North Devon is equally the case elsewhere - sometimes even more dramatically. This Christ directs a light on all that dehumanises or creates fear. His light shines in the darkest of places. And all of this was revealed to Simeon. Easter tells us that despite undergoing death, Jesus is alive and God has given a Yes to all that Jesus has said and done. If we need to see more of that purpose, well Simeon has seen to it for us - it is to bring the light that will bring salvation to those entombed in darkness
TORRINGTON METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 20TH 2008
EASTER 5 - The martyrdom of Stephen
ACTS 7: 51-60
It’s a story of religious violence, a story of the violent death of a religious dissident. A death brought about through the brutality of stoning!
Indeed our story leads us into the difficult subject of such a brutal method of killing being not merely suggested but actually commanded by religion.
Now today we think of stoning as being a punishment that belongs to the world of Islam. Indeed, the only countries I know of in which stoning is carried out are some of the countries in which Islam is the dominant faith. These include Saudi Arabia, Iran and parts of Afghanistan. Having seem a part of a video of this atrocious barbarity, I can only describe it a sickening and evil. Yet, it is worth noting that there is no endorsement of stoning within the Quran - rather it is the Hadith collections concerning the way of the Prophet that endorse this method of killing.
Today, there is a debate concerning such Hadiths within Islam. Indeed, amongst others, Tariq Ramadan the Muslim academic who has written extensively on an interpretation of Islam within modern society and who is currently lecturing at Oxford, has called for a moratorium on capital and corporal punishment in the Muslim world. And he is certainly far from alone in pursuing such an argument.
Now, I hope that Muslim reformers are successful. But before we think that stoning is simply an Islamic problem, it is possible that its acceptability in early Islamic society may owe something to the fact that its religious roots can be seen in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. Within the Arabian Peninsula at the time of the Prophet, there were both Jewish and Christian presences. And indeed many of our Old Testament prophets are to be found within the Koran, people such as Abraham and Moses. So there would have been an exchange of religious ideas going on.
In this we learn much of stoning being promoted as an act required by God. The crimes for which the first five books of our Bible endorse stoning include;
- touching Mount Sinai
- cursing or blaspheming
- adultery (which includes urban rape victims not screaming loudly enough)
- preaching the wrong religion
- breaking the Sabbath
- cursing the King
- and my favourite which I occasionally remind James of, being a disobedient son.
Thank God that nowadays not even the most extreme, unbalanced Christian, in this country anyway, demands that those scriptures are adhered to.
Indeed, I cannot reconcile any teaching of a religion of love with such a practice of execution with maximum suffering as is the reality with stoning.
Actually, I would go much further. I cannot reconcile execution or indeed killing of any sort with following a religion of love. The five countries reported by Amnesty International as being responsible for 88% of known executions - China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA - merit pariah status in those parts of the world that claim to be civilised. Indeed, Amnesty’s estimate that at its current rate of executions, approximately 370 people will be executed by a bullet in the head during the Olympics makes all the excitement generated by people hopping, skipping and jumping, seem somewhat tawdry.
You see, as Christian, we have a particular interest in this subject. We follow a Lord and Saviour who was publicly and brutally executed by the powers of his day. And in his living and dying we are granted a picture of one whose perspective and values are as different as can be from those of the executioner. Indeed, the only time other than his own execution that we find Jesus near such an event, is the occasion recorded in John’s Gospel where a woman caught in adultery is brought before him. By the law of Moses, albeit that capital punishment was a matter for Rome, she merited stoning to death. Yet the response of Jesus was to challenge whoever was without sin to throw the first stone. And when the accusers melted away, he dismissed her with;
“Go now and leave your life of sin.”
See, at the heart of Jesus’ approach was the desire that people should learn from their failings and live better lives. Always at the core of his being was not a longing for law or justice but the unfolding of grace, that which is kinder to us than we can ever deserve - grace which the cross shows us being directed at us even when we are at our most vile. Oh may we never forget that we would be without hope in encountering a holy God were it not that the chief characteristic of that God is grace. But that grace is for us even when we are at our worst. As Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher put it;
“Nothing in man can be an effectual bar to God‘s love.”
Anyhow back to our Bible reading. It is as much a story of religious inspired violence as the Inquisition or those who fly planes into buildings. It is as much a case of mob violence and hatred as any example we see in the world today. And it is centred against a man called Stephen. This man was of those who had been set aside to take care of the needs of the most vulnerable people such as widows. He seems to have been diligent in this task. He seems also to have been a powerful witness on behalf of Jesus Christ. And so in response to this, a plot began amongst those within the synagogue who felt threatened by the new Christian movement. And so Stephen was tried for blasphemy - along with heresy the time old accusation that religious people have used against those with whom they disagree. But Stephen demonstrates great courage. Facing the Sanhedrin that had not so long before condemned Jesus, he gives it to them straight. He recites a history of his and their own peoples’ disobedience to God. One can imagine the heckles rising. But then as if he was the first person to contemplate writing a book entitled “How to lose friends and alienate people” he ends with a furious denounciation;
“You stiff necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him - you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
Strong stuff! And it sure brought great fury upon him. For his religious judges drag him outside the city walls and there they stone him to death. And Stephen dies bravely with the prayer that Jesus should receive his Spirit and the entreaty that echoes that of Jesus on the cross, that this violent deed should not be held against the perpetrators.
And that is the end of the story. Or is it? You see, one of those present at this stoning was Paul or Saul as he then was. We do not know what impression the martyrdom of Stephen made on him. We know that at the time he approved - in other words he accepted a religious understanding that dehumanised him to the dignity of those who were other than him. And yet, one wonders if what he saw, might not have touched him somewhere in his soul even if it would take some time before he could identify with Stephen. But we know that heroic self sacrifice can bring great effects. Over a century later, when there had been many more Christian martyrs in the tradition of Stephen, Tertullion the African Christian leader who became Bishop of Carthage, would observe;
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
And down through history those words have been abundantly true. For the history of Christianity is a history in which many have suffered the ultimate penalty out of their adherence to Jesus Christ.
And why is this so powerful? In part it is because there is in the Gospel a pattern of death not being the end. We see it in Jesus Christ who was well and truly killed yet raised more alive than ever. We see it in the saints of history and even in our own age. Who can forget Archbishop Oscar Romero whose courageous stand against economic injustice and paramilitary violence led to his being slain as he celebrated the Mass - a man who had prophetically proclaimed just a week before that fateful gun shot;
“I have been frequently been threatened with death. I should tell you that as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will come to life again in the Salvadorean people. If they kill me from the moment I offer my blood to God for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador, my death will be for the liberation of my people and as a testimony of hope for the future.”
How right he was, for today Oscar Romero remains a huge inspiration for Christians not just in El Salvador but throughout the world. You just cannot censor love. You cannot censor grace. You cannot censor the Gospel.
We are meeting in the season of Easter. We know only too well how we can devalue the lives of others and become persecutors just like the crowd calling for Jesus to be crucified or the mob that dragged Stephen to be stoned. We need to guard against the tendencies within ourselves to treat others as lesser, as expendable. We need to guard against the tendencies within ourselves to feel that our understanding is so right that we must stamp on those who see the world or even faith in a way that is different from us. For all of us have within us the possibilities of being persecutors for persecution is not just done by monstrous characters.
But also we need to live within the Easter hope that sees death giving way to resurrection. Sure, we may not have the courage of the army of martyrs whose blood has been shed but from the we can learn that violence, hatred and deaths are not last words. For they give way to peace, love and life. For the victory of all that is beautiful is ensured by the resurrection of Jesus - and so the triumph of the stone throwers is but a temporary aberration. The defeat of what they represent is truly inevitable.
ALWINGTON METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 20TH 2008
It’s a story of religious violence, a story of the violent death of a religious dissident. A death brought about through the brutality of stoning!
Indeed our story leads us into the difficult subject of such a brutal method of killing being not merely suggested but actually commanded by religion.
Now today we think of stoning as being a punishment that belongs to the world of Islam. Indeed, the only countries I know of in which stoning is carried out are some of the countries in which Islam is the dominant faith. These include Saudi Arabia, Iran and parts of Afghanistan. Having seem a part of a video of this atrocious barbarity, I can only describe it a sickening and evil. Yet, it is worth noting that there is no endorsement of stoning within the Quran - rather it is the Hadith collections concerning the way of the Prophet that endorse this method of killing.
Today, there is a debate concerning such Hadiths within Islam. Indeed, amongst others, Tariq Ramadan the Muslim academic who has written extensively on an interpretation of Islam within modern society and who is currently lecturing at Oxford, has called for a moratorium on capital and corporal punishment in the Muslim world. And he is certainly far from alone in pursuing such an argument.
Now, I hope that Muslim reformers are successful. But before we think that stoning is simply an Islamic problem, it is possible that its acceptability in early Islamic society may owe something to the fact that its religious roots can be seen in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. Within the Arabian Peninsula at the time of the Prophet, there were both Jewish and Christian presences. And indeed many of our Old Testament prophets are to be found within the Koran, people such as Abraham and Moses. So there would have been an exchange of religious ideas going on.
In this we learn much of stoning being promoted as an act required by God. The crimes for which the first five books of our Bible endorse stoning include;
- touching Mount Sinai
- cursing or blaspheming
- adultery (which includes urban rape victims not screaming loudly enough)
- preaching the wrong religion
- breaking the Sabbath
- cursing the King
- and my favourite which I occasionally remind James of, being a disobedient son.
Thank God that nowadays not even the most extreme, unbalanced Christian, in this country anyway, demands that those scriptures are adhered to.
Indeed, I cannot reconcile any teaching of a religion of love with such a practice of execution with maximum suffering as is the reality with stoning.
Actually, I would go much further. I cannot reconcile execution or indeed killing of any sort with following a religion of love. The five countries reported by Amnesty International as being responsible for 88% of known executions - China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA - merit pariah status in those parts of the world that claim to be civilised. Indeed, Amnesty’s estimate that at its current rate of executions, approximately 370 people will be executed by a bullet in the head during the Olympics makes all the excitement generated by people hopping, skipping and jumping, seem somewhat tawdry.
You see, as Christian, we have a particular interest in this subject. We follow a Lord and Saviour who was publicly and brutally executed by the powers of his day. And in his living and dying we are granted a picture of one whose perspective and values are as different as can be from those of the executioner. Indeed, the only time other than his own execution that we find Jesus near such an event, is the occasion recorded in John’s Gospel where a woman caught in adultery is brought before him. By the law of Moses, albeit that capital punishment was a matter for Rome, she merited stoning to death. Yet the response of Jesus was to challenge whoever was without sin to throw the first stone. And when the accusers melted away, he dismissed her with;
“Go now and leave your life of sin.”
See, at the heart of Jesus’ approach was the desire that people should learn from their failings and live better lives. Always at the core of his being was not a longing for law or justice but the unfolding of grace, that which is kinder to us than we can ever deserve - grace which the cross shows us being directed at us even when we are at our most vile. Oh may we never forget that we would be without hope in encountering a holy God were it not that the chief characteristic of that God is grace. But that grace is for us even when we are at our worst. As Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher put it;
“Nothing in man can be an effectual bar to God‘s love.”
Anyhow back to our Bible reading. It is as much a story of religious inspired violence as the Inquisition or those who fly planes into buildings. It is as much a case of mob violence and hatred as any example we see in the world today. And it is centred against a man called Stephen. This man was of those who had been set aside to take care of the needs of the most vulnerable people such as widows. He seems to have been diligent in this task. He seems also to have been a powerful witness on behalf of Jesus Christ. And so in response to this, a plot began amongst those within the synagogue who felt threatened by the new Christian movement. And so Stephen was tried for blasphemy - along with heresy the time old accusation that religious people have used against those with whom they disagree. But Stephen demonstrates great courage. Facing the Sanhedrin that had not so long before condemned Jesus, he gives it to them straight. He recites a history of his and their own peoples’ disobedience to God. One can imagine the heckles rising. But then as if he was the first person to contemplate writing a book entitled “How to lose friends and alienate people” he ends with a furious denounciation;
“You stiff necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him - you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
Strong stuff! And it sure brought great fury upon him. For his religious judges drag him outside the city walls and there they stone him to death. And Stephen dies bravely with the prayer that Jesus should receive his Spirit and the entreaty that echoes that of Jesus on the cross, that this violent deed should not be held against the perpetrators.
And that is the end of the story. Or is it? You see, one of those present at this stoning was Paul or Saul as he then was. We do not know what impression the martyrdom of Stephen made on him. We know that at the time he approved - in other words he accepted a religious understanding that dehumanised him to the dignity of those who were other than him. And yet, one wonders if what he saw, might not have touched him somewhere in his soul even if it would take some time before he could identify with Stephen. But we know that heroic self sacrifice can bring great effects. Over a century later, when there had been many more Christian martyrs in the tradition of Stephen, Tertullion the African Christian leader who became Bishop of Carthage, would observe;
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
And down through history those words have been abundantly true. For the history of Christianity is a history in which many have suffered the ultimate penalty out of their adherence to Jesus Christ.
And why is this so powerful? In part it is because there is in the Gospel a pattern of death not being the end. We see it in Jesus Christ who was well and truly killed yet raised more alive than ever. We see it in the saints of history and even in our own age. Who can forget Archbishop Oscar Romero whose courageous stand against economic injustice and paramilitary violence led to his being slain as he celebrated the Mass - a man who had prophetically proclaimed just a week before that fateful gun shot;
“I have been frequently been threatened with death. I should tell you that as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will come to life again in the Salvadorean people. If they kill me from the moment I offer my blood to God for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador, my death will be for the liberation of my people and as a testimony of hope for the future.”
How right he was, for today Oscar Romero remains a huge inspiration for Christians not just in El Salvador but throughout the world. You just cannot censor love. You cannot censor grace. You cannot censor the Gospel.
We are meeting in the season of Easter. We know only too well how we can devalue the lives of others and become persecutors just like the crowd calling for Jesus to be crucified or the mob that dragged Stephen to be stoned. We need to guard against the tendencies within ourselves to treat others as lesser, as expendable. We need to guard against the tendencies within ourselves to feel that our understanding is so right that we must stamp on those who see the world or even faith in a way that is different from us. For all of us have within us the possibilities of being persecutors for persecution is not just done by monstrous characters.
But also we need to live within the Easter hope that sees death giving way to resurrection. Sure, we may not have the courage of the army of martyrs whose blood has been shed but from the we can learn that violence, hatred and deaths are not last words. For they give way to peace, love and life. For the victory of all that is beautiful is ensured by the resurrection of Jesus - and so the triumph of the stone throwers is but a temporary aberration. The defeat of what they represent is truly inevitable.
ALWINGTON METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 20TH 2008
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Easter 4 Have I got good news for Ninevah ( a non lectionary sermon)
JONAH 1: 1 - 17
As if being someone who has struggled with depression for longer than some serve a life sentence isn‘t enough, crazily I find myself working as a Methodist minister. Sure there are very many good things about being a Methodist minister but there are also difficult things such as working for the church at a time when the mainstream church is we are told in a state of decline - and the statistics sure bear that out with Methodism struggling more than most. And as someone whose every school report spoke of extreme shyness, there are times when being in a public role is about as close to torture as it is possible to get - without being water boarded by George Bush and his merry friends.
So why? It’s not that I fell in love with chapel culture as a youngster in Cornwall - far from it! It’s not that I am committed to a system that will ensure that things stay as they are or even enable us to visit the past - far from it! It’s not that I long to see the world in black and white with clear rules - far from it! It’s not that I wish to stand against things that are new and unsettling - far from it! These things are totally and utterly meaningless to me - even in some cases abhorrent!
No the only thing that makes me voluntarily stand here this morning is my belief in a word called “grace.” What is grace? Well in short it is the sovereign favour of God for all humankind irrespective of our deeds, earned worth, or proven goodness. In the words of the U2 song by that name, grace is a “thought that changed the world,” that which finds beauty and goodness in everything. And such is the nature of God who finds beauty and goodness in each of us, God who sees the potential within us however buried from the world it might be.
And this morning, grace is at the heart of our service. We have seen it in the three baptisms that have taken place. All three children are so young, too young to have earned God’s favour. And yet we baptise them into the family of God in celebration of God being committed to them in love, with Jesus living dying, being raised and interceding to the Father for them. In the words of our liturgy and in words that we have sung, we can look at these children knowing that the story of Jesus is a sign of God’s love for them - “All this for you.” Yes, God is for us, even at cost, before we could know anything of it. Yes, God loves us well before we are able to love God.
But even this does not reveal the full scope of grace. And that is why this morning, we find ourselves looking at the story of Jonah. And what time we have wasted on speculation about man eating fish and the likes - time wasting that has diverted us from the incredible power of this story. For I am convinced that what we have is a Biblical satire which reveals great truth to us just as Jesus reveals so much through the parables that he told.
Anyhow, first let’s look at the likely background to the book of Jonah. The view of most scholars is that it was written about 500 years before the birth of Jesus. The elite of Jewish society who had been in exile in far away Babylon, had returned to Jerusalem and begun the task of rebuilding their community, their city and their temple once more. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, this rebuilding had taken a somewhat nationalistic turn in which foreigners were distrusted. Two examples of this were Ezra forcing men to separate from their foreign wives and the rejection of the offer of help in rebuilding the Temple from Samaritans. Xenephobia at it worst and religion at its most hateful!
And so we encounter this story that paints a subversive alternative view of what being God’s people is all about, a story full of unforgettable imagery. And the story is hung around the person of Jonah, son of Amittai, a fiercely nationalistic prophet who is mentioned in the Second Book of Kings. This Jonah is in our story told to go to Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria, the historic empire that includes portions of modern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Such a suggestion would have shocked the first readers of this story for Assyria had been a violent empire. Indeed it was the great enemy that, soon after the historic Jonah, overran much of the Northern Kingdom of Israel taking many into exile and repopulating the lands with amongst others those who merged with the remaining population in Samaria to become the despised Samaritans. Jonah like most of those who first heard the story would hardly want Assyria to be given a second chance when instant destruction was a more palatable alternative. So in our story, Jonah decides to reject the commission and to go in the opposite direction. Anyhow thanks to a storm he gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish. Vomited up, he once more gets the commission and this time he goes to Nineveh - only he is so successful that the King takes heed and leads a process of repentance. And at this God shows mercy. Poor old Jonah hits the very depths of depression. He is devastated and angry with God - so angry that he goes to a place to sit alone wishing he could die. Sat in the shade of a shelter he has made, he is blessed by the provision of a vine to protect him from the sun. But when the vine is chewed by a worm his mood deteriorates further. And so the story ends with God rebuking him with these words;
“You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
See it! The story is a warning that when we put limits on the love and grace of God as Jonah did, we are putting ourselves further from God than those whom we might see as the outsiders. For God’s grace is not merely for a nation or a type of people but it is for all. To the nationalists who dominated the rebuilding of Israel after exile, no suggestion could be more scandalous than the people of Assyria being within God’s love. For here is the absolute prohibition of exclusion.
This story which we have too often tamed into being a fishy story, this story which we have wasted far too much time over arguments about historicity, is a thoroughly outrageous story that outraged respectable opinion when it first emerged. And I believe it continues to do so today. For here is the message that all are of value to God even those who are caught up in a life denying, destructive, decadent culture as was the case with Assyria. God’s love is as much for the outsider as the insider. God’s love is for the reprobate as much as for the saint. God’s love is put out by none of the stenches that we create.
I worry that too often Christianity has been defined as not being as others. If you read the Daily Mail you find Christianity being defined as much by not being Muslim as anything else. But building barriers does not take you closer to God as can be illustrated by that particular rag trawling only recently for stories to reinforce prejudice against East European migrants. But you cannot define Christianity in terms of rejection. It just will not do!
You see, Christianity is rooted in a vision of inclusive love. It is so rooted in this story and indeed in the life of Jesus. God wills good for all and that includes those who are slaughtered by the weapons we make and sell. It includes those who are incarcerated for God does not say “throw away the key and forget them.” It includes those who are deemed to be life’s losers. Why? Back to that U2 song;
“Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things.”
That is the wonder of grace. Not based on the anti Christian shame culture that pervades society but on the limitless possibilities that flow from the love of God.
Yes, grace turns the world upside down. And because of that we have been hesitant to let it invade our world. It is a bit like the late Donald Soper who visited this church for the 75th anniversary celebrations, once put it;
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it’s been thought too hard and never tried.”
And there’s the rub! Grace is a fundamentally revolutionary concept. It is uncomfortable to the powers within our world. But Christianity in its earliest days had an uneasy relationship with the powers until the coup when a non violent faith based on grace suffered a takeover at the hands of the bloodstained Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. And yet, the message of grace has never been eliminated.
Today, the church stands on the verge of marginalisation. And that is no bad place to be. It is after all where Jesus stood. Church privileges are challenged as never before and the church is but one of many voices. Yet here comes the opportunity to re-emphasise the one and only thing we have to offer - grace! You do not have to have earned it as baptism has reminded us. You do not have to deserve it as the news in Ninevah reminds us. It is simply that which God offers us. It is God’s statement that every one of you count and if society says otherwise, then society is infiltrated by demonic values. The task of the Christian Church is to challenge the culture of domination with that which liberates. And that is grace. My grace be lived and experienced by each of us. May grace be unleashed in the public policy of this and other lands. Enough of domination! Enough even of justice! Grace is our hope!
And it is that and that alone which keeps me within the church. Good news for Ninevah of old and all the Ninevahs of today.
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008
As if being someone who has struggled with depression for longer than some serve a life sentence isn‘t enough, crazily I find myself working as a Methodist minister. Sure there are very many good things about being a Methodist minister but there are also difficult things such as working for the church at a time when the mainstream church is we are told in a state of decline - and the statistics sure bear that out with Methodism struggling more than most. And as someone whose every school report spoke of extreme shyness, there are times when being in a public role is about as close to torture as it is possible to get - without being water boarded by George Bush and his merry friends.
So why? It’s not that I fell in love with chapel culture as a youngster in Cornwall - far from it! It’s not that I am committed to a system that will ensure that things stay as they are or even enable us to visit the past - far from it! It’s not that I long to see the world in black and white with clear rules - far from it! It’s not that I wish to stand against things that are new and unsettling - far from it! These things are totally and utterly meaningless to me - even in some cases abhorrent!
No the only thing that makes me voluntarily stand here this morning is my belief in a word called “grace.” What is grace? Well in short it is the sovereign favour of God for all humankind irrespective of our deeds, earned worth, or proven goodness. In the words of the U2 song by that name, grace is a “thought that changed the world,” that which finds beauty and goodness in everything. And such is the nature of God who finds beauty and goodness in each of us, God who sees the potential within us however buried from the world it might be.
And this morning, grace is at the heart of our service. We have seen it in the three baptisms that have taken place. All three children are so young, too young to have earned God’s favour. And yet we baptise them into the family of God in celebration of God being committed to them in love, with Jesus living dying, being raised and interceding to the Father for them. In the words of our liturgy and in words that we have sung, we can look at these children knowing that the story of Jesus is a sign of God’s love for them - “All this for you.” Yes, God is for us, even at cost, before we could know anything of it. Yes, God loves us well before we are able to love God.
But even this does not reveal the full scope of grace. And that is why this morning, we find ourselves looking at the story of Jonah. And what time we have wasted on speculation about man eating fish and the likes - time wasting that has diverted us from the incredible power of this story. For I am convinced that what we have is a Biblical satire which reveals great truth to us just as Jesus reveals so much through the parables that he told.
Anyhow, first let’s look at the likely background to the book of Jonah. The view of most scholars is that it was written about 500 years before the birth of Jesus. The elite of Jewish society who had been in exile in far away Babylon, had returned to Jerusalem and begun the task of rebuilding their community, their city and their temple once more. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, this rebuilding had taken a somewhat nationalistic turn in which foreigners were distrusted. Two examples of this were Ezra forcing men to separate from their foreign wives and the rejection of the offer of help in rebuilding the Temple from Samaritans. Xenephobia at it worst and religion at its most hateful!
And so we encounter this story that paints a subversive alternative view of what being God’s people is all about, a story full of unforgettable imagery. And the story is hung around the person of Jonah, son of Amittai, a fiercely nationalistic prophet who is mentioned in the Second Book of Kings. This Jonah is in our story told to go to Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria, the historic empire that includes portions of modern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Such a suggestion would have shocked the first readers of this story for Assyria had been a violent empire. Indeed it was the great enemy that, soon after the historic Jonah, overran much of the Northern Kingdom of Israel taking many into exile and repopulating the lands with amongst others those who merged with the remaining population in Samaria to become the despised Samaritans. Jonah like most of those who first heard the story would hardly want Assyria to be given a second chance when instant destruction was a more palatable alternative. So in our story, Jonah decides to reject the commission and to go in the opposite direction. Anyhow thanks to a storm he gets thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish. Vomited up, he once more gets the commission and this time he goes to Nineveh - only he is so successful that the King takes heed and leads a process of repentance. And at this God shows mercy. Poor old Jonah hits the very depths of depression. He is devastated and angry with God - so angry that he goes to a place to sit alone wishing he could die. Sat in the shade of a shelter he has made, he is blessed by the provision of a vine to protect him from the sun. But when the vine is chewed by a worm his mood deteriorates further. And so the story ends with God rebuking him with these words;
“You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
See it! The story is a warning that when we put limits on the love and grace of God as Jonah did, we are putting ourselves further from God than those whom we might see as the outsiders. For God’s grace is not merely for a nation or a type of people but it is for all. To the nationalists who dominated the rebuilding of Israel after exile, no suggestion could be more scandalous than the people of Assyria being within God’s love. For here is the absolute prohibition of exclusion.
This story which we have too often tamed into being a fishy story, this story which we have wasted far too much time over arguments about historicity, is a thoroughly outrageous story that outraged respectable opinion when it first emerged. And I believe it continues to do so today. For here is the message that all are of value to God even those who are caught up in a life denying, destructive, decadent culture as was the case with Assyria. God’s love is as much for the outsider as the insider. God’s love is for the reprobate as much as for the saint. God’s love is put out by none of the stenches that we create.
I worry that too often Christianity has been defined as not being as others. If you read the Daily Mail you find Christianity being defined as much by not being Muslim as anything else. But building barriers does not take you closer to God as can be illustrated by that particular rag trawling only recently for stories to reinforce prejudice against East European migrants. But you cannot define Christianity in terms of rejection. It just will not do!
You see, Christianity is rooted in a vision of inclusive love. It is so rooted in this story and indeed in the life of Jesus. God wills good for all and that includes those who are slaughtered by the weapons we make and sell. It includes those who are incarcerated for God does not say “throw away the key and forget them.” It includes those who are deemed to be life’s losers. Why? Back to that U2 song;
“Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things.”
That is the wonder of grace. Not based on the anti Christian shame culture that pervades society but on the limitless possibilities that flow from the love of God.
Yes, grace turns the world upside down. And because of that we have been hesitant to let it invade our world. It is a bit like the late Donald Soper who visited this church for the 75th anniversary celebrations, once put it;
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it’s been thought too hard and never tried.”
And there’s the rub! Grace is a fundamentally revolutionary concept. It is uncomfortable to the powers within our world. But Christianity in its earliest days had an uneasy relationship with the powers until the coup when a non violent faith based on grace suffered a takeover at the hands of the bloodstained Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. And yet, the message of grace has never been eliminated.
Today, the church stands on the verge of marginalisation. And that is no bad place to be. It is after all where Jesus stood. Church privileges are challenged as never before and the church is but one of many voices. Yet here comes the opportunity to re-emphasise the one and only thing we have to offer - grace! You do not have to have earned it as baptism has reminded us. You do not have to deserve it as the news in Ninevah reminds us. It is simply that which God offers us. It is God’s statement that every one of you count and if society says otherwise, then society is infiltrated by demonic values. The task of the Christian Church is to challenge the culture of domination with that which liberates. And that is grace. My grace be lived and experienced by each of us. May grace be unleashed in the public policy of this and other lands. Enough of domination! Enough even of justice! Grace is our hope!
And it is that and that alone which keeps me within the church. Good news for Ninevah of old and all the Ninevahs of today.
BIDEFORD METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Easter 4 - Jesus the Good Shepherd
JOHN 10: 1-10
It’s fine to talk about “Good Shepherd” Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Easter but most of us in today’s Britain start with the great disadvantage of knowing precious little about shepherds. We rarely see them and the little we know of them probably owes much to the rustic literature of Thomas Hardy and creations of his such as Gabriel Oake in “Far from the Madding Crowd.”
So is this one of those Sunday that we would do well to dispense with? Not quite, in my opinion. For if we explore the metaphor, we find that this is a Sunday that can enrich our understanding of the God we encounter in Jesus Christ.
The image itself is ancient. It can be found as a metaphor as far back as the ancient Egyptian Pharoahs who saw themselves as having royal responsibilities as well as privileges. And these responsibilities included care for the subjects for our word “pastor”comes from the Latin translation. Within Israel, the symbolism can be seen in the shepherd boy David becoming Israel’s greatest King, the same David who is eternally associated with the psalm that begins with those words that have resounded down through the centuries;
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”
And now today we are invited to think of Jesus as our shepherd. An image that may help us see something of the meaning of Jesus as our shepherd, comes from Hawaii. The novel “Hawaii” by James Michener tells of an old man who contracts the leprosy that makes him an outcast in that society. His future can only be away from all he cherishes and those whom he holds dear - in the horror of a leper colony. The old man shares his sad news with his family but now his wife offers to become his “kokua.” These “kokuas” are healthy people who willingly commit themselves to accompanying and nursing a leprous patient. In so doing they take on the risk of catching the disease and experiencing the same suffering as those whom they offer themselves to. No wonder that they are asked as they prepare to go aboard the ship that will take them to their new lives;
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
After all to be a “kokua” demands a special level of commitment, commitment that can only come out of love. Jesus, the shepherd, demonstrates just that sort of commitment - the commitment of one who is prepared to sacrifice all out of love for the likes of you and me.
We see such a lifestyle in the Palestinian shepherd who would have shared in all the hardship and dangers of the flock, constantly alert to the dangers of attack. Theirs was a way of life that left them on the margins of society, unclean when it came to the religious observances of the day, and poor prospects as family men given that the protection of the flock would involve their own families being left vulnerable at night. Oh, the reality is so far removed from the cuddly image of shepherds that we see in our Nativitys.
And so it was with Jesus. Now all too often domesticated by the church, Jesus lived a counter cultural lifestyle which took him away from security, daring to express by words and actions the grace of God for all peoples in ways that scandalised so many of the respectable. Rather than exalting princes or religious leaders, he was often to be found with the most rank of outsiders telling them that they had a stake in the Kingdom of God. And through it all, he was attracting the enmity of the predators of his day, predators who would eventually get their way in his being hounded to a brutal public execution, causing even his family to question the path that he was treading. And all of it for you and me with a focus as intent as any shepherd protecting his flock from danger.
Today we look to Jesus as our shepherd. When Jesus spoke to his hearers, it was in a world in which many claimed a right to lead and guide. After all, Jesus was in a controversy with other religious leaders. When John wrote his Gospel, he wrote to a church with a veritable collection of would be leaders amidst a world in which the Gospel was very much a minority religious understanding. But, amidst the claims of so many, John forcefully reminds us that the true leader, the true guide, the true shepherd is Jesus. Why? Because John’s Gospel is written precisely so that we
“may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
For John, Thomas is spot on when having met the Risen Christ, he declares;
“My Lord and my God!”
And if Jesus is Lord and God, then the post of “Shepherd” is filled and we have no need to look elsewhere. Sure, the insights of others may have much value. Sure, ambitions, hopes and dreams may enrich our lives. But these things can never be our masters. That position belongs exclusively to Jesus and is no longer up for grabs.
And more than that, had our reading gone but one verse further, and we would have read that Jesus proclaims himself to be the “good shepherd.” Now I am not one of those who believes that Jesus should be worshipped simply for being God. It is not going too far to say that the object of worship must surely be worthy of worship. And at times down through the years, the church has given us a pretty poor picture of God. And this is a problem for other than a bit of unworthy wheeler dealing in our approach to God based on self interest, there is absolutely no point in worshipping a Lord who is other than good. If God is more vengeful than me at my worst, the whole things is a preposterous waste of time. For surely, the one whom we worship and whose guidance we accepts has to be better than you and me at our best. And whatever our difficulties with some scriptures, given that God is as God is revealed in Christ, then God is truly good. To know what God is like, we simply have to look at Jesus, and then we find that God is good beyond all measure. And that goodness is revealed in Jesus braving hostility and danger so that we might have life to the full, to the max!
Now, all these things are rather comforting. Shepherd images do that to us. And such is right for it is important to know that Jesus is for us as much in the times when we stray as when we are safely in the flock. And psychologists can tell us much about the importance of belonging. But before we contentedly wallow in these things, let’s not ignore the challenge that comes from Jesus being the shepherd. I simply refer you to Brian Stoffregen’s lectionary notes in which he refers to hearing a lecture by Ed Friedman who referred to a friend of his who had watched Palestinian shepherds with their sheep. He noticed that the most common action of shepherds to their sheep far from being coddling them was to hit them in the ass with a rod - not quite the empathetic action we might expect. So this morning it is that I encourage you to be grateful for the courageous love and care offered to you by the good shepherd who is Jesus but also be ready for kick up the arse that we each need to be true followers. Such is our Gospel - we receive unmerited love but from time to time we need the Gospel of the arse kick if we are to be what God intends us to be so that we might have life to the max!
ALVERDISCOTT METHODIST CHURCH - SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008
It’s fine to talk about “Good Shepherd” Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Easter but most of us in today’s Britain start with the great disadvantage of knowing precious little about shepherds. We rarely see them and the little we know of them probably owes much to the rustic literature of Thomas Hardy and creations of his such as Gabriel Oake in “Far from the Madding Crowd.”
So is this one of those Sunday that we would do well to dispense with? Not quite, in my opinion. For if we explore the metaphor, we find that this is a Sunday that can enrich our understanding of the God we encounter in Jesus Christ.
The image itself is ancient. It can be found as a metaphor as far back as the ancient Egyptian Pharoahs who saw themselves as having royal responsibilities as well as privileges. And these responsibilities included care for the subjects for our word “pastor”comes from the Latin translation. Within Israel, the symbolism can be seen in the shepherd boy David becoming Israel’s greatest King, the same David who is eternally associated with the psalm that begins with those words that have resounded down through the centuries;
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”
And now today we are invited to think of Jesus as our shepherd. An image that may help us see something of the meaning of Jesus as our shepherd, comes from Hawaii. The novel “Hawaii” by James Michener tells of an old man who contracts the leprosy that makes him an outcast in that society. His future can only be away from all he cherishes and those whom he holds dear - in the horror of a leper colony. The old man shares his sad news with his family but now his wife offers to become his “kokua.” These “kokuas” are healthy people who willingly commit themselves to accompanying and nursing a leprous patient. In so doing they take on the risk of catching the disease and experiencing the same suffering as those whom they offer themselves to. No wonder that they are asked as they prepare to go aboard the ship that will take them to their new lives;
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
After all to be a “kokua” demands a special level of commitment, commitment that can only come out of love. Jesus, the shepherd, demonstrates just that sort of commitment - the commitment of one who is prepared to sacrifice all out of love for the likes of you and me.
We see such a lifestyle in the Palestinian shepherd who would have shared in all the hardship and dangers of the flock, constantly alert to the dangers of attack. Theirs was a way of life that left them on the margins of society, unclean when it came to the religious observances of the day, and poor prospects as family men given that the protection of the flock would involve their own families being left vulnerable at night. Oh, the reality is so far removed from the cuddly image of shepherds that we see in our Nativitys.
And so it was with Jesus. Now all too often domesticated by the church, Jesus lived a counter cultural lifestyle which took him away from security, daring to express by words and actions the grace of God for all peoples in ways that scandalised so many of the respectable. Rather than exalting princes or religious leaders, he was often to be found with the most rank of outsiders telling them that they had a stake in the Kingdom of God. And through it all, he was attracting the enmity of the predators of his day, predators who would eventually get their way in his being hounded to a brutal public execution, causing even his family to question the path that he was treading. And all of it for you and me with a focus as intent as any shepherd protecting his flock from danger.
Today we look to Jesus as our shepherd. When Jesus spoke to his hearers, it was in a world in which many claimed a right to lead and guide. After all, Jesus was in a controversy with other religious leaders. When John wrote his Gospel, he wrote to a church with a veritable collection of would be leaders amidst a world in which the Gospel was very much a minority religious understanding. But, amidst the claims of so many, John forcefully reminds us that the true leader, the true guide, the true shepherd is Jesus. Why? Because John’s Gospel is written precisely so that we
“may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
For John, Thomas is spot on when having met the Risen Christ, he declares;
“My Lord and my God!”
And if Jesus is Lord and God, then the post of “Shepherd” is filled and we have no need to look elsewhere. Sure, the insights of others may have much value. Sure, ambitions, hopes and dreams may enrich our lives. But these things can never be our masters. That position belongs exclusively to Jesus and is no longer up for grabs.
And more than that, had our reading gone but one verse further, and we would have read that Jesus proclaims himself to be the “good shepherd.” Now I am not one of those who believes that Jesus should be worshipped simply for being God. It is not going too far to say that the object of worship must surely be worthy of worship. And at times down through the years, the church has given us a pretty poor picture of God. And this is a problem for other than a bit of unworthy wheeler dealing in our approach to God based on self interest, there is absolutely no point in worshipping a Lord who is other than good. If God is more vengeful than me at my worst, the whole things is a preposterous waste of time. For surely, the one whom we worship and whose guidance we accepts has to be better than you and me at our best. And whatever our difficulties with some scriptures, given that God is as God is revealed in Christ, then God is truly good. To know what God is like, we simply have to look at Jesus, and then we find that God is good beyond all measure. And that goodness is revealed in Jesus braving hostility and danger so that we might have life to the full, to the max!
Now, all these things are rather comforting. Shepherd images do that to us. And such is right for it is important to know that Jesus is for us as much in the times when we stray as when we are safely in the flock. And psychologists can tell us much about the importance of belonging. But before we contentedly wallow in these things, let’s not ignore the challenge that comes from Jesus being the shepherd. I simply refer you to Brian Stoffregen’s lectionary notes in which he refers to hearing a lecture by Ed Friedman who referred to a friend of his who had watched Palestinian shepherds with their sheep. He noticed that the most common action of shepherds to their sheep far from being coddling them was to hit them in the ass with a rod - not quite the empathetic action we might expect. So this morning it is that I encourage you to be grateful for the courageous love and care offered to you by the good shepherd who is Jesus but also be ready for kick up the arse that we each need to be true followers. Such is our Gospel - we receive unmerited love but from time to time we need the Gospel of the arse kick if we are to be what God intends us to be so that we might have life to the max!
ALVERDISCOTT METHODIST CHURCH - SUNDAY APRIL 13TH 2008
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