tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24166900191923895832024-03-19T10:35:42.558+00:00What's this all about Vicar?(Formerly, Why do we have to do this Sir?)The musings of an ordinary sort of God-bothering curate and educator from Yorkshire, God's own country.
Sometimes I think I am in a parallel universe as I ponder why some Christians seem so wilfully theologically illiterate."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.comBlogger192125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-75346019706764547332015-08-22T16:00:00.005+01:002015-08-22T16:07:30.335+01:00Sunday Sermon: John 6. 56-69 - Stumbling blocks to faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzsxtBOxs7sB6s4pLv7BipJT3tSQoYjOdqBdUmSmlpILcJFnE85BFPmxZDv6blsoMbeCR6gJU4tx1sCR9ym5V-wuBad6Cd7408gMkEWgAtYoVzi6AGBjcu_sDPV258AWXZuanYBuaI52D/s1600/Jesus+teaches+his+followers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzsxtBOxs7sB6s4pLv7BipJT3tSQoYjOdqBdUmSmlpILcJFnE85BFPmxZDv6blsoMbeCR6gJU4tx1sCR9ym5V-wuBad6Cd7408gMkEWgAtYoVzi6AGBjcu_sDPV258AWXZuanYBuaI52D/s1600/Jesus+teaches+his+followers.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Those who eat my
flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living
Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live
because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that
which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will
live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at
Capernaum. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">When many of his
disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to
them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man
ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh
is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But
among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who
were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples
turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do
you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we
go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that
you are the Holy One of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<br />
Today we continue with Jesus’
discourse on The Bread of Heaven and this passage is either the preacher’s
dream or the preacher’s nightmare because there are so many themes that can be
explored. There are two themes that particularly struck me which I’d like to
share with you. The thing that hit me most forcefully about this Gospel passage
was the theme of a crisis of faith. Given, too, that the crisis of faith comes
as a direct result of religious teaching, I also think it’s a passage which is
subtly calling on us all to be more willing to argue good theology and to
challenge bad or lazy theological thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We can all
be theologians.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">When many of his disciples heard it,
they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I don't know
about you, but sometimes it's easier for me to identify with the crowds who
misunderstand and question Jesus than with Jesus himself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think this
is one of those times. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To
understand what I mean we have to recall just what Jesus has been saying here and
throughout the sixth chapter of John's Gospel: that Jesus, for instance, is the
bread of life; that he provides the only food which truly nourishes; that he
gives us his own self, his own flesh and blood, to sustain us on our journey;
that we are actually to eat the flesh and drink the blood in order to abide in
him. These are, indeed, hard words: hard to hear, hard to understand and for
many, hard to believe. For many they are stumbling blocks to faith, as they
were for some of Jesus’ followers in this passage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> really all that different? I mean,
which of us has not at one time or another wondered whether we have got it
wrong about God? People of faith don’t find ourselves immune to doubts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Something of
this sort appears to be happening in today’s Gospel. Earlier in this same
chapter we read about how Jesus has fed five thousand people with five small
loaves and two small fish. This had amazed the crowd so much that “they began
to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” Jesus
responds with an extended discourse on bread from God and the assertion that he
is himself the Bread of Life, using words that associate himself with the God
who had revealed himself at Sinai as “I am who I am.” “I am the bread of life,”
Jesus has already declared to them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s some
claim: “I am the bread of life.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And many
felt that he had crossed a line with those words. Some around him had already
been grumbling because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ Their
discontent was clear when they said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from
heaven?’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No wonder,
then, that many of those following Jesus now desert him. And at this point we
need to be careful how we characterise them, because it's always tempting to
write off those who gave up on Jesus as people too stupid or lazy or unfaithful
to believe. But John calls these people not simply "the crowds," as
in earlier passages, but rather "disciples." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The people
in today's reading who now desert Jesus are precisely those who had, in fact,
believed in him: those who had followed him and had given up much to do so. But
now, finally, after all their waiting and watching and wondering and worrying,
they have grown tired, and they can no longer see clearly what it was about
Jesus that attracted them to him in the first place, and so they leave. We are
so attuned to his words we probably find it hard to understand how offensive
Jesus had become to his hearers by this point, with the things he was claiming.
“Does this offend you?” Jesus had asked. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yeah,
actually it does.” Was, effectively, their response and they turned their backs
on him</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What just
happened? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What a contrast:
the crowd witness the feeding of the multitude but within a short space of time
have given up on the man responsible because his teaching was too hard. For
some, the religious implications of Jesus’ words were a step too far. What we
see here is that the teaching of Jesus is itself, not just the stepping-stone,
but sometimes the stumbling-block to faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem
was that this wasn’t the Jesus they wanted: they’d backed the wrong horse.
Their understanding of Kingship and his were incompatible. They wanted the
warrior king, the political leader who would lead them to victory over the
Romans and Jesus was offering them quite a different sort of kingdom: The
Kingdom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die!”
Some of them no doubt thought. “We want action now.” What good were all these
words when contrasted with the expectations of what they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> wanted to from Jesus?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jesus then
turns to the Twelve, his inner circle, and asks them whether they, too, wanted
to leave him. After all, if significant numbers of others were disillusioned
with Jesus, surely those closest to him must be having the same sorts of doubts.
They knew him better than any of those who had left. So what did they think? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Said their chief spokesman,
Peter, in words so significant that they have been incorporated into the
liturgy of the church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, given
that the Gospels make it fairly clear that there were many times when the
Disciples failed to understand what Jesus was telling them, it’s probably fair
to assume that they weren’t feeling much more enlightened than the others by
what Jesus had said. Remember, we come to passages like this with the benefit
of hindsight. We’ve heard the stories; we’ve internalised the meanings we’ve
heard them that many times ….. but try to imagine hearing and trying to make
sense for the first time of some fairly abstract and intractable ideas. You
might even have got a handle on what Jesus was saying, but the implications …
the implications. “Really? Have I got this right? Did he just say what I think
he said?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These
disciples were also plagued by doubt and fear. They suffered at times from
pride or a lack of courage, and they, too, eventually deserted Jesus at the
very time he needed them the most. So <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">if</i>
they aren't any better than the rest of Jesus' followers - then or now - what
is it that sets them apart? The Disciples surely didn’t respond as they did
because they understood the words that much better than those abandoning Jesus.
But they knew one other thing that made all the difference in the world and
that made them say that he had “the words of eternal life.” That difference was
this: “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Those leaving had
neither come to know or believe this. For the Twelve, it was the one thing that
made them stay, even though they carried on failing to grasp the meaning of
much of what Jesus was saying. Perhaps for some of them it wasn’t until Peter
articulated it that they were forced to confront this for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This man was
introduced to the readers of this Gospel as “The Word made flesh.” “The Word
was God and he was with God in the beginning.” In him, John asserted in those
opening verses, resided life: the “life that was the light of men.” Perhaps the
disciples couldn’t have spoken that eloquently when Peter spoke up for them
all, but they stuck with Jesus because at some point they recognized the divine
in him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">O.K. So
we’ve looked at the Gospel story and analysed it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It has to
have a practical application or we’ve rather wasted our time. We have to turn a
piece of religious history into something we can work with in our own lives;
that has the power to touch us, or we’ve missed the point of being here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, this,
according to many Christians down the ages, is what makes what we are doing
here this morning so important, so vital. Because each week, through the
preaching of the Word and the sharing of the sacraments, we're offered again
the words of eternal life which Peter and the others recognised. We're offered
again, the chance to encounter Jesus and his living Word. Through preaching and
through the sacraments, Jesus' real presence is revealed in our world, we
receive the promise that Jesus is, indeed, the bread of life and we are pointed
to the place amidst all the mess and ugliness of this world, that we can look to
and know with confidence that we can find God there, in Jesus, offering us
again the promise of forgiveness, acceptance, meaning, and life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The 16th-century
reformer Martin Luther argues this point. "God is present everywhere, but
does not wish that you grope for him everywhere. Grope rather where the Word
is, and there you will lay hold of God in the right way."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The trouble
is that we have to keep reminding ourselves of this. We are so far removed in
time from these events that, however much our imaginations might be grabbed and
transported back through time during the readings and the sermon; however much
our intellect and soul engage with the spiritual meaning of the words - the
theology - coming here week by week can very often seem a tired routine. Perhaps
we don't renounce or desert Jesus openly like those followers in today’s
passage, we just don't make the extra effort to get to church quite as regularly,
or we reduce what we've been giving, are more reluctant to support church
events, we give up on prayer, we find different priorities and other calls on
our time until, in the end, we’re just like those in today's reading: turning
our backs and leaving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Considering
the difficult times, the times of doubt, the times of misunderstanding, the
stale times in our pilgrimage of faith, other preachers at this point might
remind us of all God’s blessings and encourage us to consider what God has done
– and continues to do - for us. Well, true as that most certainly is, it never
quite works for me. It seems a trite refuge when things don’t feel right in
your spirit. I don’t necessarily want to count blessings. I’d rather struggle
with the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Those other
disciples deserted Jesus because his teaching was a stumbling block to their
faith. We hear this all the time. “I and the Father are one.” Jesus goes on to
tell us later in John’s gospel but in my Religious Studies classroom I am
repeatedly told “I can’t believe that Jesus is God. How could one man have
created the universe?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Man? One <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">man. </i>Right… ” And thereby we might start
discussions about God’s transcendence or the Trinity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And so,
unlike the first group of disciples in today’s reading, we aren’t satisfied
with our initial reaction to what we read and hear. We spend some time looking
at the reasons people give, their stumbling blocks, for not believing in God.
We examine them, we analyse them and then we look at alternative perspectives,
a bit like Peter did. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Actually,
not all Christians take that view because …..”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“But many
Christians would disagree with that viewpoint. They would say<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…..”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Actually
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t</i> what the Bible says.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re taking something literally that wasn’t
intended to be understood literally.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then there
are the misunderstandings of what Jesus says that are the stumbling blocks:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I can’t
believe in God. Look at Jesus’ teaching on abortion and homosexuality.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are real stumbling blocks for some people.
That Jesus doesn’t actually have anything to say about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">either</i> issue tends to come as a surprise. Does that come as a
surprise to you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People
believe some very strange things about God; about Jesus, and what they believe
is often a stumbling block to their faith, and when they express it, to the
faith of others. It is a shame, then, that much of it is ill informed. If you
aren’t sure about that, spend some time looking at the statements of American
politicians and evangelists in the run up to their election. It has been said,
rather unfairly perhaps, that the Church of England is the Conservative Party
at prayer. In America, something which passes for Christianity is the
Republican Party at prayer and it’s not a Christianity - in some of its
expressions - that many of us would recognise. Often what it proclaims is a
stumbling block to the faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the same
way that ignorance, misunderstanding and false expectations caused some of
Jesus’ would-be followers to turn their backs on him in today’s Gospel, so it
is today, but very often the stumbling block for Jesus’ would-be disciples now
are not the words of Jesus but the words of other Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s not the
same because some other people have agendas and don’t necessarily speak with
the mind or authority of Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Does what I
say offend you?” Jesus asked his followers. Perhaps some of Jesus’ latter day
followers could do well to adopt that mantra for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So a
practical application for dealing with stumbling blocks to faith?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, count
your blessings of course, but if it’s of any help at all try to think more like
Peter. Don’t be satisfied with an inadequate answer. Don’t assume that what
you’ve understood is the meaning that was intended and leave it there. Dust off
and examine your own position on things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Are there
alternative perspectives you’ve not considered? Perhaps it’s time you
considered them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Are you sure
that what you think is the teaching of Jesus or the tradition of the church
actually is the teaching of Jesus or the tradition of the church on any given
topic?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What type of
Christian is espousing that view you’re listening to? Are you generally in
sympathy with such people?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Is what
they’re saying related to issues of salvation? If not, in all conscience, can
there not be more than one viewpoint?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ask yourself
the question: “Who would I rather have put words into the mouth of Jesus? The Gospel
writers or Iain Duncan-Smith?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps in
our spiritual lives we do need a bit more of:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Actually,
not all Christians take that view because …..”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“But many
Christians would disagree with that viewpoint. They would say<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…..”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Actually
that isn’t what the Bible says.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“You’re
taking something literally that wasn’t intended to be understood literally.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Jesus never
said that.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know it sound
trite, but a stumbling block to faith – even a mature faith – is only a
stumbling block if once you’ve tripped on it you stay down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s not
stay down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s
struggle with it. Let’s argue with it. Let’s engage with it. Let’s talk about
it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s do
Theology.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We can all
be Theologians.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Who has the
words of eternal life?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-45679797377593182412015-08-04T15:15:00.001+01:002015-08-07T09:22:35.469+01:00Sunday Sermon: "I Am the bread of life." John 6.35 and 41-51<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to
me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I
am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have
come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among
yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I
will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And
they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the
Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is
from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has
eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so
that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh.”</span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></em></strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaspwBHB80CF6Lnsk2RO2r_NpLdClok6DfD1UQfgH4-An5ogbaG_2RzFdsy9_SmJctesIIpeZjwpRmXVsWrUwKQ8PtKx3hmNffan4ElmX6I9rhNftbzc5nYt5C6w8i2jLky9XjEgqr4S4/s1600/I+AM+the+bread+of+life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaspwBHB80CF6Lnsk2RO2r_NpLdClok6DfD1UQfgH4-An5ogbaG_2RzFdsy9_SmJctesIIpeZjwpRmXVsWrUwKQ8PtKx3hmNffan4ElmX6I9rhNftbzc5nYt5C6w8i2jLky9XjEgqr4S4/s320/I+AM+the+bread+of+life.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be
hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jesus’ promise to his followers then and now is a challenge:
what truly brings meaning and wholeness in our lives? Do we shape our lives
around what perishes or what endures? Do we will build our house on the sand or
on the rock?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we build it on Jesus and
if so, what is our understanding of who Jesus is? (Because today’s passage is a
call to understand Jesus.) Not Jesus as prophet, teacher, healer or miracle
worker, although he is undoubtedly all those things, but Jesus as God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So let’s have a look at this “I Am” saying of John’s Jesus:
“I am the bread of life.” John uses his phrases and theological ideas very
carefully and deliberately and without a little understanding of that
background, modern readers like us are likely to miss really important
meanings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes, of course we can understand this statement at its
literal face value – Jesus provides everything we need and provides it
generously and in abundance and we in the wealthy west tend to find that to be
largely true. Those who live elsewhere in the world might have more cause to question
that assumption. Who’d be a Syrian or Iraqi Christian right now? That
interpretation of Jesus’ words doesn’t really ring true for them – and for many
others, so there must be more to it. Not to have a deeper awareness of what
John is doing here would be to miss a very important point indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Firstly let’s have a look at a single word – not one that is
in this passage: Bethlehem, the place of Jesus’ birth. Bethlehem means
"House of Bread." (In Hebrew, beth = house, lehem = bread<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let me take you back further, to the Exodus. The God of the
Old Testament, the God of the universe calls Himself I AM. "And God said
to Moses, I AM WHO I AM . Thus you shall say to the Israelites, I AM has sent
me to you." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do we really think John’s use of the same phrase on Jesus’
lips is a coincidence?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just to underline the point, John’s Jesus uses this phrase
not just here in “I am the Bread of Life” but seven times in total.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Does anyone know what the other “I Am” phrases are?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the bread of life" (6.35)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the light of the world" (8.12)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the door for the sheep" (10.7; cf. v. 9)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the good shepherd" (10.11, 14)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the resurrection and the life" (11.25)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the way, and the truth, and the life"
(14.6)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">• "I am the true vine" (15.1; cf. v. 5)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So the original Jewish reader of John’s Gospel would have had
to have worked very hard to miss the point here. “I Am” the very words the God
of the Hebrews used to name himself. These “I Am” statements must be the way we
see and understand Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Jesus who explains himself by way of “I Am” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is saying nothing less than that he speaks not
just authoritative language, and specifically prophetic language but that he is to
be seen as the representative and mouthpiece of God himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s just think about that for a moment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When Jesus speaks he is speaking as God’s representative.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That should make us stop and consider very carefully all the
statements of Jesus recorded in the pages of the Gospels and act upon them
accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we simply did that what agents of change we could be in
God’s world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is, in effect, the summary of Jesus ministry and it is
deeply personal, referring as it does to human yearning which Jesus will fill –
and it will be universal because it “gives life to the world” (v33).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, in prophetic fashion he acts as spokesman of the One who
sent him, and as dispenser of the divine Spirit. Those who hear his words are
invited to believe not only the speaker, but the One who sent him. As Jesus has
already told us in chapter 5: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my
word, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need to recognise that this is as true today as it was
then.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first of the "I AM" sayings, in John’s Gospel,
then, is "I AM the bread of life" (6:35). This statement is found in
the passage which follows the feeding of the multitude. Jesus says to the
crowd, "Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures
for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you" (6:27). Here Jesus
is building up to the key statement and is leading the crowd to the point where
they might recognise his divinity and come to faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two go together: recognising Jesus’ divinity is the start
of faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For those of you interested in how the very words and grammar
of the Bible work, the definite article before the word bread indicates the
fact that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the one who is the bread of life. I am THE
bread. Not SOME bread. Not SOME OF THE bread. Not Any bread. THE bread. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The bread of life also points to the satisfying nature of
Jesus as we can see in the phrase, "never be hungry … and never be
thirsty." Jesus alone supplies the spiritual needs of his hearers: this is
not about mere physical hunger, where bread leaves people dissatisfied and
wanting more. In fact this idea can be applied in a wider spiritual sense where
other approaches to God leave the seeker ultimately empty: a direct challenge
to those who are already seeking. Jesus is making a plain statement about his
Heavenly origins here: in the following verses Jesus refers to a descent from
Heaven and explicitly states that “.. all who see the son and believe in him,
may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not about food: let’s be absolutely clear. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is literally about life and death, “ I tell you, whoever
believes has eternal life.” he goes on to tell them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In these sermons, I often talk about the challenge to each of
us about what we do with Jesus’ words. Well they don’t come much more
challenging than this do they? Here is a man who is telling us that he IS God
and he has already used one of those special signs of his to show us that: he
has fed the multitude out of next to nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s the sort of challenge that grabs you by the scruff of
the neck and demands a response, and that response can’t be “whatever”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are we going to do with this Jesus? Or perhaps we should
personalise it more: what are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
going to do with this Jesus, as I have to ask myself what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> am going to do with him? This is the very question that John was
asking his readers: those Jews who had not yet come to understand who Jesus
was. That is the function of this Gospel and its challenge remains the same, to
convince its readers of the divinity of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But being convinced is not the full response: mere assent to
the divinity of Jesus is not enough. I have to do something with that assent. I
have to make it personal. I have to make it mine. I have to enter into it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And so do you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Otherwise we run the risk of being one of the nay-sayers and
chunterers Jesus encountered in this passage: “Is this not Jesus, the son of
Joseph and Mary who we know?” Who does he think he is? Always cynical; never
quite ready; demanding more proof; more information; buying time; putting off
making a decision until all the doubts are met - which, of course, they never
are. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We follow where the Holy Spirit, who enables faith, leads. “No
one can come to me unless drawn by the Father” Jesus tells us. Well, we’re
here. The Father HAS been drawing us. We are here and the time is now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Look again at Jesus’ words. Does he say, “When you’ve got it
all worked out in your head?” No. Does he say, “When you’re good enough?” No.
Does he say, “When you’ve proved yourself worthy by doing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i>?” No. What
does he say? “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of
this bread will live forever.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We are here and the time is now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let us pray:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lord Jesus, I am coming to know and
understand you more deeply. Help me to see that you are more than mere prophet,
teacher, healer or miracle worker. Help me to recognise that you are God and in
recognising you as God, help me to follow you as a true disciple. Give me this
bread always.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Amen<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-42049926619667842452015-07-25T16:34:00.003+01:002015-07-27T08:53:18.230+01:00The Feeding of the multitude: John 6.1-21<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr3jLvLTU7l6SwN_5TmTa0XOJWKYliJZRml7CWul2fMBIO8kO47nRKufYE5g2Mu6KnhLlOVeAdgyp3_RM0L7jjZ50jsJX9lZs0xSNSpgvozcnZLcSvC4Rt4NR8QiVHsfsmtpvdMtBuE7t/s1600/Feeding+the+5000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSr3jLvLTU7l6SwN_5TmTa0XOJWKYliJZRml7CWul2fMBIO8kO47nRKufYE5g2Mu6KnhLlOVeAdgyp3_RM0L7jjZ50jsJX9lZs0xSNSpgvozcnZLcSvC4Rt4NR8QiVHsfsmtpvdMtBuE7t/s320/Feeding+the+5000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</span></span><span style="font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After this Jesus went to the other
side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept
following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus
went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover,
the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd
coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these
people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going
to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each
of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,
said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But
what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five
thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he
distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they
wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the
fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up,
and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they
filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they
began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When Jesus realized that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the
mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got
into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus
had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was
blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking
on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to
them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat,
and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I don’t know
whether it is something to do with the street I live in but this time of year
seems to me to be characterised by the smell of barbeques.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I must be
deeply anti-social or I have some other personality defect but I don’t find
chasing paper plates around someone’s garden in the teeth of a gale, while balancing a cup of
indifferent wine and avoiding ketchup stains and salmonella, a recipe for
unbridled fun. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today’s Gospel,
though not exactly describing a barbeque on the Galilean hills, tells of Jesus
meeting the needs of his hungry followers. When I was thinking about how best
to approach this reading I had a look at a book by the theologian Canon Dr.
Jeffrey John called “The Meaning in the Miracles.” He wittily relates how as a
schoolboy two of his teachers had approached the miracles in contrasting ways
and this really resonated with me because I had a similar experience when I
first started teaching. One of my colleagues, Mr. Forest, a Biology teacher
embodied the literalist or fundamentalist approach to scripture where
everything was to be taken at the plainest level of meaning and must have
happened exactly as it said. His response to this miracle would be to say “Well,
it just goes to show that Jesus is God, doesn’t it?” Doubting that a miracle
story happened exactly as it was recorded was tantamount to doubting the
divinity of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mrs. King,
my first R.S. Head of Department, on the other hand, took the reductionist
approach, wanting to “demythologise” the miracle accounts to reveal the morals
within the stories. In this case the moral to her was that when Jesus fed the
five thousand, he and the disciples shared out what they had and their example
encouraged others who had been holding back their own food to share theirs too.
The “real” miracle was when everyone discovered the joy of caring and sharing
with others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">She referred
to him as a snake-handling Baptist and he referred to her as a wet, liberal
Anglican.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I didn’t sit
with them in the staffroom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Life’s too
short.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While their
approaches seem diametrically opposed, they were in fact quite similar in the
sense that they both treated the miracles as straightforward descriptions of
events: they concentrated simply on what did or did not happen. Dr. John, on
the other hand, concludes that the real nature and purpose of the Gospel
miracles is found in the depths and dimensions of meaning found in the account
and these passed both the teachers by completely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem
with Mr. Forrest’s approach where miracles simply exist to prove the divinity
of Jesus is that it can say very little else about the event because it either
rejects or simply doesn’t understand any symbolism at the heart of the stories.
The problem with Mrs. King’s approach as a call to greater charity is that it
hardly sounds like good news and certainly not a tremendous demonstration of
God’s free, miraculously overflowing generosity to his people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I
discovered, before I gave up on them and went and sat with the Maths
Department, was there was no middle ground between them. For where two or three
are gathered together in my name….there will inevitably be an argument. (To
paraphrase Matthew 18).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I
digress.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was the
day Jesus was trying to get away from the crowd. Jesus crossed the sea and
climbed a mountain just to get away and get some time for prayer. He often took
some time out, insisted on getting some quiet time; some prayer time. Jesus
modelled for us that no matter what you're involved in, you¹ve got to make time
for God, time for reflection and time to listen to God – a good learning point
for us all. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, on
this particular day, Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee and climbed up a
mountain; he’d sat down to catch his breath, looked up, and can you believe it?
Here they come. The crowd had somehow found their way to Jesus: here they came
scrambling up the mountain to be with Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, let’s
look again at the story and, two thousand years down the line we don’t
instantly recognise the subtext as the original listeners and readers would
have, and that diminishes our understanding of the Gospel. There are so many
layers to the miracle stories.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now in this
passage notice that John tells us the crowd “saw the signs.” This would have
had Mr. Forrest and Mrs. King arguing straight away, so let’s be clear. In
John’s gospel, miracles are signs that point beyond themselves – to God. Every
time Jesus performs a miracle he is saying something about God and about
himself in relation to God. The miracles are not important merely because this
or that person is healed or because Jesus changes water to wine or whatever.
The miracles are signs that point to the reality of who Jesus is. Yes the crowd
gathered for healing, but they kept following him because of the signs, even if
they didn’t yet fully understand the implications.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps the
most obvious theological emphasis of this feeding miracle is to tell us that
Jesus is the new Moses. Even with a sketchy knowledge of the Old Testament most
people are likely to remember that Moses had done something similar with the
manna in the desert. Like Moses Jesus crosses the water into the desert, sits
the people down and feeds them with miraculous bread in such abundance that
there are basketfuls left over. Much less obviously, because this Old Testament
story is perhaps less well known, Jesus’ actions also recall Elisha. Some of
the details of the feeding stories reflect an incident in 2 Kings when Elisha
takes an army into the desert and feeds them miraculously with a few loaves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taking Moses
and Elisha together, the story seems to be hinting that in repeating what Moses
did, Jesus is fulfilling the Law and, in repeating what Elisha did, Jesus is
fulfilling the Prophets. Whatever else this feeding miracle is intended to
teach us, it also reaches us that Jesus is truly the one whom the Law and the
Prophets foretold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some
commentators go further: the words and actions of Jesus over the bread are
exactly the same as at the Last Supper. The association with Moses and the
Exodus here, in what we are told was the Passover season, points to the new
Christian Passover, the Eucharist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These are
the signposts which point to Jesus’ divinity and to the readers and listeners
of the day they must have been akin to flashing neon lights which spelt out the
truths, hopes, patterns and meanings and modern relevance of the Old Testament
scriptures those elements represented.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy). Only all too often
we have lost the key and therefore miss many of the nuances.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What should
this mean for us today? When we read the miracle of the feeding of the
multitude, how should we react? Well, perhaps the best response is the one
provided by scripture itself, the discourse of Jesus on the Bread of Life in
John’s Gospel. In John, it's Jesus himself who will become the real food: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I am the
bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from Heaven so that one may eat of it and not
die. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven. Whoever eats this bread
will live forever.” Jesus understood all too well that if he let people claim
him as their physical provider, they would miss the reason for his coming. His
intent was to point them beyond their physical needs to their spiritual ones.
He wanted them to look not merely to bread, the most meagre sustenance of the
poor. “The bread you will eat”, John tells us Jesus said, “is my flesh.” In a
profound spiritual sense, Jesus wants his followers to understand that their
communion with him, their participation in his very life, will lead to new
levels of maturity and understanding. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What would
Mr. Forrest and Mrs. King have made of it all, I wonder?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 22pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-20017911396994537592015-07-11T14:18:00.002+01:002015-07-12T18:24:48.949+01:00Sunday Sermon: Mark 6.14-29. The Death of John the Baptist<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em><sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">14</span></sup>King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">15</span></sup>But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">16</span></sup>But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” </em></strong><strong><em><sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">17</span></sup>For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">18</span></sup>For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">19</span></sup>And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">20</span></sup>for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">21</span></sup>But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">22</span></sup>When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">23</span></sup>And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">24</span></sup>She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">25</span></sup>Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">26</span></sup>The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">27</span></sup>Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">28</span></sup>brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">29</span></sup>When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.</em></strong><br />
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I’ve a real soft-spot for John the Baptist. Not the personal
hygiene, the diet or the dress sense, obviously, but I like the fact that he
told it as he saw it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I admire the fact
that he took on the powerful and the vested interests of his day and pointed an
accusing finger at the corruption and religious hypocrisy that was rife. And
that’s a part of the story that tends to be overshadowed by the more familiar
part of his story: we tend to see John, “the voice crying in the wilderness”,
primarily in terms of his preparing the way for Jesus. What we might be less
familiar with is the whole backstory of his getting up the noses of the
religious and political authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’ve switched off after hearing today's Gospel text I
don’t blame you. This is a terrible story. It's hard to say "Praise to
you, O Christ!" after such a story. Perhaps we should skip this story and
read the next one instead. It's a much more uplifting story about Jesus feeding
the 5000. Mark is a very careful writer. Herod's distasteful banquet segues
into the story where Jesus makes sure that everyone is fed. Mark wanted these
stories back to back because of the contrast between Herod’s banquet of death
and Jesus’ banquet of life. But I won’t steal next week’s preacher’s thunder.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, hard as it is to listen, let's go back to Herod's story.
This feast was a very public state event – the King’s birthday celebration:
there may not have been a large crowd, but there was a select guest list of
important officials. Herod's wife, Herodias, was there, even though she
shouldn't have been because he’d stolen her from his brother: an unlawful
liaison that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John had condemned and, as
a consequence, had ended up in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Though Herod was a Jew, the power that the Roman Empire had
given him - even as puppet king - had replaced his sense of religious
commitment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why did he give in to
this terrible request for John’s head on a plate? Wasn't it enough that John
was in prison? I should imagine alcohol may have played a part, combined with a
bit of self-indulgent self-promotion playing to the gallery, “Look at me. I’m
the King. I can do whatever I please. I have it within my power to grant
whatever you may wish.” Except that in reality he didn’t: maybe this Big-I-Am
routine was a way of covering the fact that as a Roman-appointed king his power
was actually very limited indeed, so where he could exercise power he was going
to make a show of it. And perhaps this is why he made this promise to his
step-daughter rather than someone who might actually call his bluff and ask for
something he couldn’t deliver. The silly slip of a girl was bound to ask for
something trivial after all, like a necklace. Well, Herod didn’t bank on
Herodias’s bitter desire for vengeance against the man who had held her up to
public ridicule. John’s death was Horodias’s idea, not her daughter’s. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Herod had liked to listen to John, which was odd indeed for
John preached repentance wherever he went. Was there something inside Herod
that remembered God's word, some spark of God that drew him to John's teaching?
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Herod was upset by her request because he feared the crowd
beyond his palace gates, because they revered John as a prophet. He was also upset
because he was still drawn to what John said. But his guests had heard his
oath. How could he back down without losing face? Who knows what the guests
might tell someone higher up? So Herod gave the command, and soon the head of
John the Baptist was brought out on a platter, as thought it was the last
course of the meal. This was a very different banquet to the abundance of
Jesus' feast. Not twelve baskets of food left over, but a horrifying leftover:
John the Baptist's head served on a platter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, there’s our context. What are we to make of this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">John is often regarded as the last of the Old Testament
Prophets because he stands in that long line of men of faith who spoke the word
of God to their own generations. When we talk about “Prophets” let’s be clear
what we mean: this isn’t about foretelling the future. The Prophets of the
Bible were the outspoken critics of their day, speaking out against all sorts
of abuses meted out by the rich and powerful, deliberately or by omission,
against the poor and the marginalised. If there was any element of foretelling
the future it was only in as much as they predicted the anger of God and the inevitability
of the downfall of the wicked as a consequence of their corrupt behaviour and
lack of compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We look back on them now as some sort of Robin Hood type folk
heroes, but they can’t have been easy people to have been around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isaiah typically delivered a message few people wanted to
hear: “Come back to the ways of God you apostates.” Although, in fairness, he
also talked about the hope of forgiveness. Jeremiah was a relentless doom-and-gloom
merchant, challenging Judah’s moral decline – and he was persecuted for his
pains. Ezeikel, was another prophet who warned the People of Israel of the
consequences of turning their backs on God. How about Malachi? Let the wicked
be warned by the certainty of judgement. Amos: God is just and must judge
wrongdoing. Obadiah: retribution must overtake merciless pride. Nahum: doom is
to descend on the wicked.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, there’s a theme: get it right with God and get it right
with your neighbour. Micah’s question, “What does the Lord require of you? To
act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” is echoed later
by Jesus, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as
yourself."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It costs to be a prophet: John wasn’t the only one who died
an unpleasant death as a consequence of speaking out and yet we are all called
to be prophets …. in some sense, and it’s a hard ministry to pull off: I think
of those high profile American and South African Christians who spoke out
against desegregation of the races. Well, they were on the wrong side of both
history and morality. Going further back, both in America and here, there was a
powerful Christian lobby against the abolition of slavery. The wrong side of
history and morality again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scripture has something to say about false prophets. Matthew
warns, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but
inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In Romans we read, “For such persons do not
serve our Lord Jesus, but their own agendas, and by smooth talk and flattery
they deceive the hearts of the naive.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, how do we discern a position on the moral and religious
issues of our day where we should feel compelled as Christians to speak out?
Well, the direction of scripture points to justice, inclusion, compassion and
equality. I’ve no doubt you’ve all heard the mantra WWJD? (What would Jesus
do?) It isn’t a bad mantra for a Christian to live their life by. We know of
Jesus’ compassion for the poor, the weak, the downtrodden, the powerless and
the marginalised. What would Jesus do/say/think about the suffering of
civilians in Iraq and Syria? And the West’s response to the humanitarian
crisis? What would Jesus do/say/think about welfare cuts to the most vulnerable
in society in the name of austerity? – And I mention that last one acutely
conscious that the prophets of the Old Testament were often not at all popular
when they spoke out. The Church of England published a critique of the Thatcher
government called Faith in the City. “Pure Marxism.” said Norman Tebbit. David
Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham spoke out during the miner’s strike. He
was vilified by sections of the press who mounted a smear campaign against him.
“Make him look a fool and no one will take any notice.” Our own Archbishop,
Justin Welby has spoken out against the banks and against corporate greed. That
same press has been on his case ever since. “Lefty clergy.” Pope Frances has
spoken on environmental issues. He has done so with full papal authority and
his influence will go far beyond the Catholic faithful. America’s Fox News has
described him as the most dangerous man in the world and suggested that he
should stay out of politics and concentrate on religion. After all, what does
he know about science? (Apart from his doctorate in Chemistry from Argentina’s
premier university. Let's not let factual accuracy get in the way of a good rant, after all!) Being a prophet doesn’t make you popular with the vested
interests of your day.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If all that sounds like a party political broadcast on behalf of the Hard Left, it isn't meant to. We come from all colours of the political spectrum, I'm sure. My argument is about each of us speaking to our own peer groups and holding to account those who promote policies and strategies which clearly do not bring the Kingdom of God closer. It come as something of a personal revelation, but others ARE accountable to us in all of the spheres we inhabit daily. Sometimes people need to be reined in and told, <strong>not in my name.<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran Pastor invoved in
the plot to assassinate Hitler and undoubtedly a prophet of his time: executed.
Martin Luther-King, a tireless campaigner against racial injustice and
undoubtedly a prophet of his time: assassinated. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El
Salvador, a tireless campaigner against political corruption and the crushing
of opposition parties in his own country and undoubtedly a prophet of his time:
assassinated – in his own cathedral, during the Eucharist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Being a prophet’s a bit of a risky business.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, where does that leave us?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we accept that the arc of scripture bends towards justice;
if we take seriously the mantra WWJD; if we believe that the Holy Spirit works
in our lives to bring the Kingdom of God closer in small and incremental ways
perhaps we could consider to what extent we might need to “man-up” a bit. If
you are anything like me you’ve probably kept quiet when you should have spoken
out: spoken out against the casual racism, sexism, Islamophobia and homophobia
we encounter daily; kept quiet when politicians of all colours have said and
done things which clearly have not brought the Kingdom of God closer and when
we’ve known in our hearts that such-and-such a policy is clearly not
Christlike. Did we try to make anyone accountable? Should we have done? One of
the things about Christianity – and the thing that frightens the powerful like
Herod and Herodious – is that followers of Jesus are called to activism. How
else will the Kingdom of God come closer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Me? Speak out? I’m not called to be a prophet! Well, let’s be
clear, none of us here are likely to be a John the Baptist, a Martin Luther
King, a Dietrich Bonhoeffer or an Oscar Romero, but the English Philosopher,
Edmund Burke is quoted as saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is that good men do nothing.” WWJD?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Maybe that would be a good thought on which to end. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Amen<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
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"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-48016853943115866842014-11-27T15:29:00.000+00:002014-11-27T15:29:15.647+00:00Teaching Religious Studies in English schools
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You may have
been aware of a flurry of activity in the worlds of education and the media
recently as a long awaited curriculum review of Religious Studies has reached
its consultation stage. It is careful and detailed and makes a number of
recommendations: some teachers like it, others are less sure, but it comes from
a genuine attempt to raise the standards of RS in our schools.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is
only one problem: the curriculum review fails to address the institutional
problems faced by RS in the school curriculum. I have been teaching Religious
Studies for over 30 years and throughout that time it has been a marginalised
subject: one not taken sufficiently seriously by successive Head Teachers,
governing bodies, politicians, OFSTED and, therefore, generations of pupils. "Sir,
why should we take this seriously when the school doesn't?"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the heart
of the problem is the peculiar and unique status of RS on the curriculum. It is
not actually part of the National Curriculum and exists in all subject lists as
an add-on. This means that it is treated as an add-on in many schools. The
previous Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, made an active
decision to exclude R.S. from the Humanities section of the English
Baccalaureate, significantly marginalising it: not only has his successor,
Nicky Morgan, shown no enthusiasm for putting this error of judgement right,
she is on record as having advised young people that they should avoid
Humanities subjects because they do not lead to the best career choices.
Presumably this wisdom comes from her previous job as a Careers Advisor. Excuse
me? Oh, she wasn't a Careers Advisor? My mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am
assuming that the Curriculum Working Party believes that R.S. students are
being given an appropriate time allocation for studying the subject. If so,
they have been labouring under a serious misapprehension. Most of us who teach
R.S. have to contend with one lesson a week, while being expected to achieve
good GCSE grades. Other Humanities subjects, however, have two or three times
more teaching time allocated. It seems that this is the accepted order of
things in curriculum timetabling regardless of the fact that all the exam
boards expect all three humanities subjects to be taught at between 120 and 140
hours for a Full-Course GCSE. On the one lesson a week model Religious Studies
is allocated well below that minimum figure. Until R.S. is granted a level
playing-field in the allocation of curriculum time, curriculum development is
just so much hot air. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">R.S. is
further disadvantaged because it is increasingly being taught by non-specialist
teachers: when I and one of my Specialist R.S. colleagues recently moved on
from a large high school the subject was left to be taught by the one remaining
specialist R.S. teacher and 12 non-specialists, often teaching to GCSE level
and often sharing groups between them. This is not uncommon. How can it be
acceptable practice? Again, if we are serious about R.S. being taught
effectively, schools need properly trained and qualified practitioners.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is the
fear of many of us that we are watching a deliberate, managed decline and
further marginalisation of Religious Studies. Many schools now pay it only
lip-service on the curriculum, burying it in some Integrated Humanities scheme
of work or worse, allocating a couple of dedicated days in the school year to
R.S. projects, while excluding it from the taught timetable completely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Those of us
who are concerned go round in circles, batted from pillar to post between Head
Teachers, timetablers, politicians and exam boards. They damn us with faint
praise, all assuring us that they value Religious Studies and that it is a very
important subject but no one is willing to be the one who takes actual
responsibility to say, “Enough is enough.” And make moves to do something about
it. If the Secretary of State for Education is seen, not only not to be
supportive but to be actively antagonistic, what hope for the future?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The irony is
that R.S. is one of the most popular subjects for GCSE uptake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, at risk of labouring the point:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1) R.S. has
been institutionally marginalised throughout the length of my 30 year teaching
career.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2) There
aren't enough specialist R.S. teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3) Students
are not given enough time to adequately study the subject and gain a depth and
breadth of understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Until these
inequalities have been addressed, curriculum reform is merely window dressing
and I have no confidence that things will improve in any way for our students
and teachers as a result of these proposed curriculum reforms: the primary
problems of R.S. are not being addressed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-72896925324460477652014-11-22T18:58:00.002+00:002014-11-22T19:02:25.964+00:00Sunday Sermon for Christ the King: Matthew 25. 31-46<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></i></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b> </div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his
glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people
one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will
put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will
say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I
was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me
clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited
me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you
hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when
was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you
clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of
the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he
will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and
you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a
stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing,
sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer,
‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or
sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them,
‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you
did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">May I be granted the grace to speak God’s word.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was away last weekend at Vicar school and at one stage - to
do with nothing we were learning at all - somebody mentioned the ultimate
meaning of life<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- as in what’s the
answer? Quick as a flash someone came back with “42!” The person who asked the
question is in her twenties and looked blank – much, I see, as most of you are:
it must be a generational thing. In 1979 Douglas Adams wrote a book called “The
Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy” which was subsequently televised and has
recently been made into a film. Being of that generation I devoured it. It is
wonderful, funny, anarchic and bonkers in equal measures. In it there is a
computer called Deep Thought who, having been asked to answer the question,
“What is the meaning of life?” after seven and a half million years of
calculation and pondering, delivers the answer: 42. This, of course, completely
confuses those who were waiting for the answer and then Deep Thought suggests
that perhaps those who had framed their ultimate question might not have
thought it through.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, here we are at the Feast of Christ the King which
finishes the liturgical year: next week we start Advent and this seems as good
a time as ever to consider the point that when we're seeking ultimate answers,
how we understand the question matters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, what’s the question for today’s Gospel passage?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The passage seems to be about judgement, believing in God and
what each of us needs to do or display in our lives in order to get to heaven.
Is that what this passage is about? The problem is that the Gospels in general and
Matthew in particular don’t seem all that interested in Heaven and Hell.
Neither did the early church Fathers. Come the Reformation in Calvin’s writings
there are two paragraphs about Heaven and One about Hell: in the totality of
his writings. When the Bible talks about the Kingdom of God, the trend for
quite some time now has been to understand it as The Kingdom of God … on Earth:
God’s sovereign rule breaking through into the here and now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you think the question is “Am I going to Heaven? Will I be
saved?” Matthew seems to be suggesting that you have missed the point. At the
end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus laments that many people will call him
Lord, but only those who act upon his ethical teachings can be his true
followers. That’s quite a different answer to the question. What you're seeking
is probably not pie in the sky, but, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, pie in
the here and now. So maybe the question rightly asked is not “what happens at
the end of things?” but more like “what am I supposed to be doing right now?
What does Jesus want me to do? To be? How will my life be different if Christ
is King?” Certainly we should be asking whether we are sheep or goats.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, at the Time Matthew’s biography of Jesus is set
this was a really pertinent question because of the ongoing theological and
political debate about who really was THE LORD. Was it the God of the Hebrews,
Jehovah, YHWH, or was it the Emperor in Rome? Well, those days are long gone
but the question remains, certainly theological and yes, political too: who is
the Lord? Jesus or something else offered and affirmed by modern culture? The
usual things people elevate as gods - power and influence, wealth, celebrity
and fame - are subsumed in the Kingdom of God by the supreme values of service,
love, self-sacrifice, and faithful community. Life in God's Kingdom is not
about self-aggrandizement, it's about renunciation. It's not about big words,
it's about little actions, often little anonymous actions. Life in God's
Kingdom is not about what we have or who we are, it's about what we do. It's
not about what the world values, but what God values. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This isn’t a revolutionary idea: in the Old Testament book of
Micah, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is what the Lord requires of
you: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”</i> The
message is this: if we love God, if our values are God-values instead of the
world's values, if Christ actually is King, then we will love as God loves,
give as God gives, forgive as God forgives. If our values are God-values, we
can't help but live as Christ taught and in doing so we bring the kingdom of
God closer. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. told how he would like to be
remembered, and in doing so, he zeroed in on that ultimate question: If Christ
is King, what does that mean? “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If Christ
is ruler over our lives</i>”, Dr. King told his audience, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">then my Nobel Peace Prize is less important than my trying to feed the
hungry. If Christ is King, then my invitations to the White House are less
important than that I visited those in prison. If Christ is Lord, then my being
TIME magazine's "Man of the Year" is less important than that I tried
to love extravagantly, dangerously, with all my being.</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Perhaps the feast of Christ the King is just the right time
for a personal spiritual audit: if we were to take a snapshot of our lives now
how are we doing? Ezekiel put it rather well, “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>This</u></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> is the sin of Sodom: she had pride, plenty
of food, and comfortable security, but didn't support the poor and needy.</i>”
Now that’s not what many Christians will tell us the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah is all about but they’ve clearly got it wrong if we accept what Ezekiel
is telling us. So in our personal audit perhaps we should be asking ourselves
where we are on the true Sodom scale of personal ethics. In Today’s Epistle St.
Paul commends the Christians at Ephesus for their</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“faith in the Lord Jesus and love
toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for
you as I remember you in my prayers.” These people are working out what their
responsibilities are as Christians to each other and more widely. And Paul
commends them for it because they were called to be a sign of the age to come
just as we are, the Kingdom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We cannot avoid the recognition that what we are talking
about here is not just personal ethics. It has a huge political dimension. When
the Church of England published its critical report Faith in the City in the
1980s, members of Margaret Thatcher’s government dismissed it as Marxist
ideology and concluded that the church was run by a load of communist clerics.
The message was quite clear: the church shouldn’t meddle in politics.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the other hand noted, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When people say that the Bible and politics don't mix, I ask them which
Bible they are reading</i>”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Equally, St Teresa of Avila wrote in the 1500s, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no
feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on
this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the
hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the
feet. Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, no
hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion
on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That should give us all pause for thought. Let’s look at
Matthew’s list again: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the
sick and the prisoner. It’s not much of a stretch of the imagination to see who
those people are in modern British society: they are mainly the marginalised,
the “other” upon whom we look down: the poor, the homeless, the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asylum seeker or refugee, the immigrant –
black, Asian or Eastern European, the offender … but we are quite good with the
sick! What’s that? One out of six. My aren’t we doing well? And it’s not meant
to be an exhaustive list. We could add in attitudes to do with gender and
sexuality, with class, with size and weight, with education and so on. These
are political issues and the Religious Right, particularly in the United States
gets this so wrong. Did you know that you can be imprisoned in Florida for
feeding the homeless? Just listen, “Church leaders in Florida were preparing
for a second confrontation with Fort Lauderdale police on Wednesday over a controversial
new ordinance that bans them from feeding the city’s homeless.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pastors from two local churches and the 90-year-old leader of
a long-established food kitchen were arrested at a park on Sunday, two days
after the law took effect, for attempting to serve meals to homeless residents.
Each received a citation threatening 60 days in prison and a $500 fine. Dwayne
Black, pastor of the Sanctuary Church, said he and church members would set up
their regular feeding station at Fort Lauderdale beach on Wednesday in defiance
of the ordinance. He said he expected to be arrested again and to spend the
night in jail.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“We have been feeding the homeless for a long time. It is our
calling and our duty to not let another human being go hungry. But now it’s a
crime to feed a hungry person,” Black told the Guardian.” The Mayor who
introduced this law, Jack Seiler, isn’t an Atheist but a regular member of a
local church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An extreme example possibly but, without wishing to turn this
into a party-political broadcast, it serves, I hope to illustrate the Parable
of the Sheep and the Goats. As we listened to that report we will have pictured
the events. We will have had a range of emotions. I think we should keep hold
of those thoughts and feelings as we go back and re-examine our own attitudes
to the marginalised in society: the poor, the homeless, the foreigner, the gay,
the prisoner, the poorly educated, the African Ebola sufferer and so on and ask
ourselves again where we are on the new Sodom continuum. “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>This</u></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> is the sin of Sodom: she had pride, plenty
of food, and comfortable security, but didn't support the poor and needy.</i>”
We could ask ourselves whether, like Martin-Luther King jnr, we are loving extravagantly,
dangerously, and with all our being.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How are things going to end? What happens after we die? I
don't know, and neither do you. But we do know the shape of the story a loving
God is writing. If Christ is King, we know Jesus waits at the end of that
story, that he will see us, and know us, and that if we have done what he taught
us, he will claim us as his own.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our prayers for ourselves today should include the petition
that as we continue to grow to spiritual maturity we become the sort of
Christians who care for the poor and the needy, the outcast and the
marginalised, not because of fear of judgement and our place in the afterlife
but because it is the Christlike way to behave. It is the way of Christ the
King.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, I have to say, that is question and answer enough for
me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">May God grant that I have spoken his word. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-63172850949527612702014-10-21T10:17:00.000+01:002014-10-21T10:17:10.683+01:00Sunday Sermon Matthew 22:34-46: Jesus, the Pharisees and the existing order<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em><strong><sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">34</span></sup>When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">35</span></sup>and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">36</span></sup>“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">37</span></sup>He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">38</span></sup>This is the greatest and first commandment. <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">39</span></sup>And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">40</span></sup>On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” </strong></em><em><strong><sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">41</span></sup>Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">42</span></sup>“What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">43</span></sup>He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">44</span></sup>‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">45</span></sup>If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” <sup class="ww"><span style="font-size: x-small;">46</span></sup>No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.</strong></em> <br />
<br />
There is no debate like a religious debate. Religious
disputes are extremely difficult to handle because everyone engaged in a
religious dispute claims to have the Word of God and the will of God on his or
her side. Everyone involved in a religious debate claims to speak for God, and
when a person is convinced that he or she speaks for God, there is really not
much, if anything, that anyone else can say. When a person believes that he or
she knows the Word, has the Word, reads the Word, and speaks the Word, there's
not really much room left for open dialogue and critical reflection on what we
believe and why we believe it. No wonder that throughout history, every
religious reformer, every person who attempted to challenge, reinterpret, or
broaden the traditional long-standing religious views of the faithful met with
virulent and sometimes even violent opposition-opposition that was mounted and
advanced by religious people who sincerely believed that they were defending
the Word and the will of God from being altered, contaminated, or changed by
something or someone considered to be new, different, or strange, not just as
history, but into the present: only this week we’ve seen the problems a
reforming Pope has had dealing with entrenched theological conservatism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In our Gospel today there is tension. There is pressure. The
religious authorities repeatedly try to trap Jesus with their trick questions.
But every time, he evades the trap. He refuses to be caught by their either-or
options, their rigid theological categories. At every turn, Jesus’ answers
unsettle the ordered and controlled world of the authorities. Jesus disrupts
their interpretations of Scripture, and he rearranges their theological
certainties. Our text begins and ends in silence. Here we have the final
episode of an extended exchange between Jesus and the religious authorities. Jesus
has already silenced the Herodians and the Sadducees. So the Pharisees gather
to question him. But by the end of the exchange between Jesus and the
Pharisees, again there is silence. No one can answer Jesus’ query. Nor from
that day on does anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Silence is the
consequence of Jesus’ speech.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Silence. And this silence is not golden. It’s an eerie
silence. It’s the silence of the “powers that be” as they regroup and retrench.
It’s the silence of wagons being circled and theologies hardening. It’s that
silence that arrives when the time for words is over and something else must be
done. And this silence is deadly because the next time we see the religious
leaders, they will be plotting to kill Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Back and forth, back and forth, they verbally duel over
critical matters of theology and biblical interpretation. And the exchanges
take place in the temple, with a large crowd watching the entire time. And
there is an irony here: the Pharisees generally get a bad press but we need to
understand that they were the good guys of their day. They cared about the
spiritual health and status of God’s people but they were hidebound by a
theological orthodoxy that could not entertain an alternative perspective. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We met such people in the church today. Times don’t change
much do they? We have the same backwards and forwards; the same toing and
froing today theologically as the church debates poverty, the role of women in
the episcopate, human sexuality, peace and conflict and any number of issues
which at the same time preach the Gospel of Good News and cloud it in
increasingly bad tempered exchanges which largely confirm and entrench clearly
held doctrinal positions: we sometimes feel as if we are battling for the soul
of the church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s not that Jesus’ initial reply was in any way
controversial, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first
commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as
yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is perfectly consistent with the teachings of the Old
Testament prophet Micah when he says, “And what does the Lord require of you
but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and
walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6.8) It is perfectly consistent with the
teaching in Leviticus which notes in Chapter 19, following a summary of the Ten
Commandments, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of
your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And finally, at the culmination of the exchange, Jesus offers
a little riddle of his own:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” Jesus
asks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the Pharisees answer, “The son of David.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I suspect the Pharisees probably mumbled their answer, almost
whispered it. For the crowds had been calling Jesus the Son of David. Remember
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Hosanna to the Son of David!” the crowds had shouted.
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Pharisees are on dangerous ground here. But no other
answer is possible. The suspense builds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And Jesus doesn’t leave well enough alone. Instead, he
continues, quoting the Pharisees’ own Scripture -- Psalm 110.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“How is it then that David by the Spirit calls [the Messiah]
Lord, saying,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put
your enemies under your feet”’?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If David thus calls [the Messiah] Lord, how can he be
[David’s] son?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With his little riddle, Jesus interrupts the Pharisees’ nice,
neat theology. The old categories simply don’t work here. A person cannot be
both son and Lord to David. Something new is here, something that can’t be
contained in the old frameworks. The riddle cannot be solved -- except by
recognizing and following Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And that response is impossible for the religious
authorities. It would rearrange their entire world. It would mean a loss of
control and authority. So they don’t answer. And they don’t dare to ask any
more questions. Instead, they are silent. And they circle their wagons and
harden their theology. They plot to kill Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m beginning to think the gospel itself has this unsettling
character. The gospel itself is a kind of jester. All the way through the
gospel we find paradoxes and riddles and parables that melt the solidity of the
old age that is dying and call us into an unsettling new creation that is being
born.</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There’s no solving
the riddle with the old categories and the familiar ways of thinking. Rather,
we have to enter a new world where those old categories are melting away and a
new, unsettling life beckons. Think of these juxtapositions: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Crucified Messiah. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good Samaritan. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Blessed poor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Love your enemies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Footwashing Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Weak power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Foolish wisdom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last first.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First last.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paradoxical riddles all of them. They can’t be solved as if
they were a nice, neat mathematical problem. Rather, they create a new reality,
which we live into by following Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Jesus Christ the new covenant has interrupted the old age.
As several New Testament scholars have noted, Jesus’ interruption of the old
age creates a kind of threshold space, like the threshold space between two
rooms. This space is unsettled; it’s an in-between space. A threshold is
neither fully one room nor the other, but it contains a merging of each. On the
threshold we are moving, always moving in between. The threshold is neither
stable nor secure. It is the opposite of circled wagons and hardened
theologies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s the kind of space Jesus creates when he interrupts the
old age with his teaching. He creates a threshold space in between the old that
is dying and the new that is being born. And he calls us not to solve the
riddle by trying to plug it into the old categories. Rather, he simply calls us
to live into that unsettling threshold space. It’s odd, really. Jesus doesn’t
call us to stability or security or certainty. Rather, Jesus calls us to follow
him, always on the move, always on the way from the old to the new.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And maybe today we are in a position to appreciate this
unsettling, in-between gospel. For we belong to a church that is in transition,
that is in between - between the old ways that are dying and the new that is
being born, even though we cannot fully discern its form yet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And we live in a nation that is in transition. We sense that
something is happening: something old is dying, and the future will be
different from the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And the world itself seems to be in transition - political,
cultural, environmental - moving toward something new and at times frightening.
In such a context, the great temptation is to circle the wagons, to secure
ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the book of Philippians, St. Paul advised us to work out
our own salvations with fear and trembling: that’s how the prophetic voice of
the church is heard. My challenge to myself as much as to you in this threshold
time when we do indeed seem to be fighting for the soul of the church is not to
sit quietly being satisfied with the old certainties and ways of looking at
things, while occasionally muttering our dissent in corners. No, rather it is
to take up the fight; to engage and join in with those debates in the power and
guidance of the Holy Spirit, recognising that the old ways of thinking
sometimes really won’t do; that circling the wagons and hardening our
theologies as a reaction to the threat of change merely leads to entropy and
irrelevance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And how do we do that? Well, I think the Pharisees gave us
the first part of the answer, Jesus the second and St. Paul the third, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From the Pharisees we need to ask ourselves the question, are
we hidebound by a theological viewpoint that isn’t open to an alternative
perspective?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From Jesus we need to heed the challenge in the way we speak <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for</i></b>
God and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to</i></b> other people, “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and you are to love
your neighbour as yourself.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And from St. Paul we need to hear the challenge to find our
own prophetic voices, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-78657994857152124052014-08-09T08:45:00.002+01:002014-08-09T14:04:08.581+01:00Sunday Sermon: Matthew 14.22-33 : Peter walks on water<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Immediately he made the disciples get
into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.
And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to
pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat,
battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And
early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the
disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a
ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and
said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it
is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got
out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when
he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he
cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught
him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into
the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly
you are the Son of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I am always intrigued to know peoples’ thought processes as
they hear or read the Gospels. How do we process these stories? How do we seek
to apply them, particularly on this, a Baptismal Sunday? I’d love to know what
everyone is thinking right now in relation to today’s passage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As a general principle I try to imagine my way into Gospel
stories. I try to see myself as an anonymous member of the crowd as I try to
walk through the story. Who do I most identify with? Who do I sympathise with?
Who irritates me? What if I sat here or over by him? What if I couldn’t hear
properly because of the crowd? What if I didn’t actually trust this man Jesus?
What if I was a Pharisee? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I have to do this because I am almost always disappointed by
the brevity of the gospel stories and their lack of background detail: they
seem so clinical and succinct. I want to know that there was someone there who
kept coughing at inopportune moments, or that there were children playing
nearby, or that there were cooking smells or that it had just rained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But not this time: today’s Gospel taps into a phobia of mine.
I am not at all comfortable on a boat – however big. Some years ago, I
travelled from Tallinn in Estonia to Helsinki in Finland by ferry and back
again – in the depths of winter with a leaden sky and horizontal snow. It was a
memorable journey. I wanted to kiss the ground when I disembarked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As we arrived at the ferry terminal I was immediately
horrified by our ferry: it looked like a tug. It fought with the ice for most
of the journey so violently and my travel companions and I couldn’t escape to
the outer decks to nurse our misery because of the intense cold – colder than I
have ever been before or since. We finally found a place in the bar but we didn’t
think drinking would be too clever, but we did note upon arrival back in
Tallinn that there were many who had decided on that refuge to the extent that
they were so drunk the crew couldn’t tell whether they were Estonians or Finns.
So we sat there in the most surreal of settings imaginable, pale green with
sea-sickness while half a dozen couples - seasoned veterans clearly - spent the
evening dancing exhibition Latin American and ballroom to a live five piece
band - including (I kid you not) the theme to “Titanic”. So strong is that
image at a time when I firmly believed I was going to die that I fully expected
my journey into resurrection to be accompanied by a woman wearing red sequins
and dancing a rumba!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Fear is the word that comes to mind: fear of circumstances
being beyond our control, fear of the ice, of the cold and fear that death
could be just a moment away. Such is the fear, I’m sure that the disciples in
the boat felt when they were “battered by the waves” on Lake Galilee one
evening as they waited for Jesus to finish his private prayers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I can hardly imagine someone walking on a sea when it is
calm, much less when the waves are rolling and the wind is whipping the surface
of the sea. Yet Jesus comes along, not reassuring the disciples by his arrival
but initially adding to their fear. Their first reaction is that he must be a
“Ghost”. Jesus’ unrecognized presence on the sea was a threat to the disciples.
So, in order to calm their fears, Jesus identifies himself, but the real test
for that early morning, was whether they could trust his four-fold word to
them, “Take heart; have no fear; it is I;” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and then to Peter, “come”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These words might just seem like a quick reassurance but they
are full of resonance and meaning and we must imagine them being delivered with
great authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Take heart,” recalls Moses’ words to the Israelites on the
edge of the Red Sea with the pursuing Egyptians right behind them. “Take heart;
do not be afraid, stand firm and see the deliverance that the Lord will
accomplish for you today.” says Moses. And “do not be afraid” runs through the
Gospel narratives spoken by God’s messengers to Joseph and Mary, by Jesus to
Peter, John, and James on the mount of the Transfiguration, by God’s messenger
to the women at the tomb and by Jesus as he sends the disciples into the
mission field. Finally, “it is I,” that takes us back to the burning bush and
God’s thundering, “I am who I am,” and all the “I am” statements of Jesus in
John’s Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Walking on water has come to be synonymous, even outside the
church, with the idea of stepping out in boldness, taking a risk. It has become
another phrase along the lines of “When the going gets tough, the tough get
going.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And here we are as Emma and Paul bring Luke, and Wayne and
Kelly bring Kyara to baptism this passage takes on another resonance: Emma and
Paul and Wayne and Kelly have decided that they, their friends and family want
what Peter experienced for Luke and for Kyara: they want the children to be
equipped to respond to Jesus’ call to “Come”. They want Kyara and Luke to be able
to cope with the storms and the uncertainties which life will throw at them
with the confidence that keeping their eyes on Jesus will bring them through;
confident that they can, in Jesus own words, “Take heart” and be reassured;
that they can overcome their fear because their lives have been built on the
foundation of he who said, “I am who I am”, and “I am the bread of life”, “I am
the good shepherd” and “I am the way, the truth and the life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">When Jesus says, “Come,” Peter has to respond. In this respect
we have to see Peter here as a template for Christians down the ages and
therefore for Kyara and Luke - and that for me is the key point: we are faced
with how we interpret Jesus’ words in any given Gospel passage whether we read
it or hear it. We need to be clear who Jesus is talking to. Well, we see Jesus
here talking to Peter and if we, all this time later, consider ourselves also
to be disciples then this passage is most certainly for us to hear - and to act
upon. The Gospel passages have to have the power to challenge us and to change
or they will remain marginally interesting pieces of religious literature,
nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So, in whatever situation we find ourselves, when Jesus says
“Come!” we’re faced with the same choice as Peter was and today as Wayne and
Kelly and Emma and Paul are for their children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">When Peter steps out of the boat, the reader and Peter are
given the startling truth that this indeed is the one who commands the waves.
This is the “I AM” who revealed himself to Moses and who has intervened with
saving power so many times in the history of Israel that we should pay
attention now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This changes everything in terms of how we now see ourselves
in this story. In Jesus, the great “I AM” has come to dwell with us and for us,
whether we are tossed about on the seas or hungry on the hillside, whether we
are in the boat or out of the boat. The point of this presence is not to show
us that God has supernatural powers so much as to give us calm in the midst of
our stormy world to imagine that we too might wade out into the storm with
God’s help. In fact, like Peter, when we recognize God present in our world, we
are commanded to go out into the water, knowing that in the storms of this life
Jesus is with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In a book I was recently reading, several Characters are
about to embark on a dangerous journey. One of them, fearfully asks, “Is it
safe?” The leader replies, simply, “No. Let’s Go!” This is, I suppose, the very
situation that we face, really when we wake each day. We rise in the morning
and look at the news to discover that our world continues to be rocked by bombs
and terror, by kidnapping and murder, by disease and famine. We might not even
know that we do it, but each of us prays wordlessly to God, “Is it safe?” And
the reply comes back, simply, “No. Lets Go!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It is hard, isn’t it, to imagine ourselves in such a set of
circumstances as Peter however we might seek to put a personal gloss on what
“the storm” might be interpreted to mean in our own lives when we are in the
midst of our own discomfort and we call on Jesus for help: work; study;
relationships; personal crises of faith; frustration with the culture and
politics of our time; our own sense of our Christian calling – whatever
destabilises us and distresses us. And as we consider ourselves, let’s not
forget those whose personal storm is to be driven from their homes with the
threat of death hanging over them for being identified as disciples – in Iraq
and Syria, in Southern Sudan and Northern Nigeria. What can this passage mean
to them? Is there any way that we can respond to Jesus on their behalf when he
calls “Come!” rather than concentrating on our own woes, given the contrast in
their traumas to those of our own?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We also know that when Peter’s attention returned to the wind
and the water, he began to sink and then, as if it had not already been so, his
only hope was Jesus. The final good news in this passage comes as Peter falters
and starts to sink. We too will surely falter. We too will feel that we are
drowning in the depths of our world’s darkness. We too will surely feel that
the chaotic waters of life are too treacherous for our tentative footsteps. We
too will sink. That is real. That’s life. Only fools pretend otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This isn’t, as some Christians might imply, a story of Jesus
as the magic talisman, protecting us from all dangers. No. This is Jesus who
enables us to cope in those dangers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And see as Peter does - and as Luke and Kyara hopefully will
- that Jesus’ hand reaches out to us. We also discover that our doubts and
fears, while the cause for a rebuke from our Lord, do not, in fact, take us
outside of his care and concern. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It is my prayer that we will look not to our own feelings for
a way out of the problems that we face as individuals and as a church, but
rather look to the one who walks calmly in the midst of our storms, our
anxieties and our personal and institutional controversies. When, surrounded by
the moving waves, we falter, will we too grasp Jesus steady hand? Or will he
huddle in the safe and comfortable boxes and routines we have established for
ourselves as our inadequate coping strategies to fend off the outside world?
The choice is ever before us! The great “I AM” continues to walk out in the
chaotic waters of the world. How will we answer when he bids us, “Come!”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-9610919940997808162014-07-22T11:58:00.001+01:002014-07-29T16:30:23.398+01:00Sunday Sermon: Matthew 13.31-33 and 45-52. The thing about parables ....<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matthew 13.31-33 and 45-52</span></span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b> </div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He put before them another parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in
his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the
greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable: “The kingdom of
heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of
flour until all of it was leavened.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like
a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he
went and sold all that he had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is
like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it
was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but
threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come
out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of
fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood
all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe
who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a
household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘And he said to them “Have you understood all this?” and they
answered “Yes.”’ Well that’s a first – or at least it seems like it. The poor
disciples have got a bit of a bad press, although less so in Matthew’s Gospel,
for being a bit dense. More often than not we read that they had to have a
special tutorial with Jesus because they hadn’t understood the nature of the
parables: just before this section Jesus had told them the Parable of the Sower
and had had to explain it to them in detail. In fact every time Jesus tells a
parable it seems to me to be The Parable of the Sower all over again with the
disciples taking the various roles outlined there:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then he told them many things in
parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the
seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on
rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because
the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and
they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew
up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced
a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let
them hear.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The disciples came to him and said, “We
don’t get it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Listen then to what the parable of
the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their
heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground
refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But
since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or
persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling
among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this
life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But
the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and
understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty
or thirty times what was sown.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know I will have said this here before but when we hear or
read Bible passages we always need to ask ourselves whether or not we are the primary
or intended audience for the teaching in any particular passage. There are
times when Jesus appears to be speaking to the Disciples, for instance, but is,
in fact, talking to the Pharisees. So who is today’s Gospel passage directed
at? We are told at the start of this chapter that “great crowds” had turned out
to see Jesus: these were a real mixture of people and whatever motive they had
for being there we would have to characterise them as “enquirers” and that
would include the Disciples. Well, we’ve turned out to hear Jesus this morning:
that must make us enquirers and many of us would self-identify as Disciples, so
this teaching is directly for us and yes, like some of the them we can also be
a bit dense from time to time, so a quick recap on the Sower wouldn’t go amiss
for us too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some of you know I’ve recently retired from the full-time
teaching of Religious Studies and this parable constantly puts me in mind of a
group of less able teenagers:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
seed in the parable is the word of God. Well in my classroom it’s the word of
Sir, although that could encompass the word of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some
seed falls on the path and the birds steal it. We are told the evil one snatches
it away. Now far be it from me to describe any of my former students as evil
but, “Sir, I can’t concentrate. Ryan’s stabbing me with a pen.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
seed on rocky ground is the seed that can’t take root because it has no depth
of soil and so may sprout quickly and showily but shrivel up quickly. “Sir, I
couldn’t do the homework.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But you were getting it right in the lesson.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Yeah, but when I got home I didn’t
get it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
seed in the weed patch represents those who are easily distracted by what’s
going on around them. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where’s Tom? He was
supposed to be presenting his topic this morning. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Sir, he’s got football practice.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which
leaves the seed which fell on the good soil and grew and flourished: This year
Gemma has worked conscientiously; has taken a pride in her work and has shown
evidence of real progress. She takes an active role in class discussions and is
always prepared to ask when she doesn’t understand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To me, the point about parables is that they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">supposed</i> to make us think. Too many of
my students want to be spoon-fed. “I don’t get it.” Is the perpetual whine of
most teenagers in the classroom and it’s shorthand for “I can’t be bothered to
think about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, we may not be teenagers but don’t we sometimes find
ourselves in a similar mindset? “This is too hard. Just tell me!” It doesn’t
say much for our discipleship does it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Whoever has ears, let them hear!” We’re supposed to struggle
with it because often Jesus does leave the parable with its hidden moral
unexplained and we are expected to be the seed that lands on fertile ground. “Whoever
has ears, let them hear.” <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">.” The Theologian N.T. Wright once wrote, "For too long
we've read Scripture with 19th century eyes and 16th century questions. It's
time we get back to reading with 1st century eyes and 21st century questions.” I
identify very strongly with this observation: what are we today to make of the
parables?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We look at the parables today - and this may just be me, of
course, - but they lose something by their familiarity: “Oh yeah, I know that
one.” And we pay less attention. They are also stories of their time and reveal
the culture and concerns of the people of Jesus’ day. That impact may be to
some extent lost on us today but we mustn’t underestimate the impact those
stories would have had then: Jesus wrapped up his teaching in examples from
everyday life that people could identify with. He talks about family life
because everyone was, or had been, in a family; at a time when people built their
own homes, he used building as an example; when most people were subsistence farmers,
Jesus talked about agriculture; in today’s passage Jesus uses cooking as an
example and on other occasions he talked about housekeeping; today he addresses
the fishermen in his audience; today he talks about buying and selling. “The
Kingdom of God is like this ….” By using simple examples from everyday life
Jesus makes his message more understandable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think we all have a tendency to do that don’t we? I
realised after I’d written it that I had done the same: to help make my point I
talked about life in the classroom. We’ve all been teenagers. Many of us are
parents. We understand about school. I simply put Jesus’ parable into a more
modern context and I understand it better as a consequence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take the parable of the Good Samaritan: it’s one that I’ve
used in the classroom regularly with 11 and 12 year olds. I read it to them.
They look at me as if to say “So what?” Then I explain to them that I’ve been
to Israel and I’ve done the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho – albeit by air-conditioned
coach – and that it would be a difficult trek to make on foot because of the
inhospitable semi-desert landscape and I show them pictures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time of Jesus
it was a notorious place for the mugging of the lone or unwary traveller. When
Jesus told this story, “There was a man who set off from Jerusalem to Jericho ….”
His audience would have identified with the context: many would have done that
journey themselves or they’d have known someone else who had. They knew about
the trauma of that journey in the heat of the day through an arid landscape and
of the importance of travelling in a group for safety. When Jesus talked of a
lone traveller he’d got their attention because they were already forming an
opinion of someone who was foolish enough to go on his own. Now my kids are
listening because it’s become real.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then their task is to update the story because finding a
modern context for the moral makes that moral more compelling. It becomes about
them, not some people from ancient history. And they are very creative: they
talk about Leeds United fans being beaten up by Manchester United fans and, bleeding
in the gutter with no mobile phones, are ignored by passing nuns – you’d be
amazed by how many nuns are walking the streets where my pupils live – before being
taken care of by a decent upright Manchester United fan. We’ve had soldiers in
a war zone, astronauts and aliens. You name it and my kids can use it to retell
the Parable of The Good Samaritan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The point is, if I’d left it at a reading of the original,
which seed would they have been in the context of the Parable of the Sower? They
don’t forget their own versions, though. Which seed are they now?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We can all do that. We don’t have to be semi-detached when
hearing a parable because it is overfamiliar in its original setting, so I
think my challenge today – to myself as much as to you – is to go away and think
about the stories Jesus told; to struggle to find the meaning or the hidden
moral and, while remaining faithful to that moral, to reset it in the present.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Look back at the example that starts today’s Gospel passage. This
is a parable about spiritual maturity and the growth of faith that benefits
others. I don’t identify with mustard seeds. What could I use from my own
culture and historical context that would be as compelling to me as football is
to my pupils in the retelling of the Good Samaritan - and which would stick in
my mind?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then we have, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast”. This is
a parable about us as the yeast being spread equally in our society and making a
radical change and difference to the original. Most of us no longer bake our
own bread. How could we rework this parable to make it as fresh today as would
have been when Jesus first told it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for fine pearls, well perhaps the story would have more
resonance if it was about the unexpected discovery of early shares in Facebook.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How do we describe the Kingdom of God to others? At the heart
of all that I’ve pondered on here, it seems to me that we are talking about
mission. I take this short series of parables as a challenge to me to come to a
better understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven breaking in around me and then to
be able to explain it to others in simple terms they can identify with. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-41409027728160743712014-06-15T14:59:00.002+01:002014-06-15T15:03:55.934+01:00Sunday Sermon: The Great Commission<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">Matthew 28:16-20</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiGmID3huj8wy5n5IS4Kp6y68GHjN23WQJ-aSQtkkhqZ5WzN5jU_3OGpaS0DNwDRgg6Ul4Mz3hJdZl0XWPxj9ujyof8asNKbbB1GN0Mk-YrNFIkDebw8SoZPlcUpJ4LZuvoLUHRR6bqJBO/s1600/CCF14062014_00001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiGmID3huj8wy5n5IS4Kp6y68GHjN23WQJ-aSQtkkhqZ5WzN5jU_3OGpaS0DNwDRgg6Ul4Mz3hJdZl0XWPxj9ujyof8asNKbbB1GN0Mk-YrNFIkDebw8SoZPlcUpJ4LZuvoLUHRR6bqJBO/s1600/CCF14062014_00001.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
(Picture from Simon Smith's wonderful contemporary Easter Story "Raised in Leeds". Click on to enlarge.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to
which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some
doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am
with you always, to the end of the age.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
It w</span>ould have been easy for the disciples to assume that
everything was over. The call, the commitment, the commission could have all
ended on that fateful Friday, when the one to whom they had committed their
lives was executed. Even in the face of the resurrection, there did not have to
be an understanding that what began three years earlier would continue. The
trauma of the crucifixion had sent them scattering into hiding in fear and
grief. And as much as Jesus had tried to prepare them, they really weren't
ready for life and work without him. It could have been over. <o:p></o:p></div>
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
</div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But something happened after they received the testimony of
the women. "He's not dead. He's alive!" they said. "Go and meet
him in Galilee." And when the disciples gathered, the resurrected Christ,
the living Lord, Jesus, met them there. But as Jesus greets them and they're
worshipping him there are still some questions, there is still some uncertainty.
We don’t, of course, hear Jesus’ full response – that’s what is often so
frustrating about the Gospels, they are not a verbatim record of the conversation,
merely, as we might put it, edited highlights, but Matthew tells us that as
part of his response Jesus said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That is the gist of today’s Gospel passage and, short as it
is, it takes some unpacking. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think the first thing I’d like to say may well be something
that I’ve said before here and it is about the nature of how we interpret
Jesus’ words in any given passage. We need to be clear who Jesus is talking to.
Well, we see Jesus here talking to his disciples and if we, all this time
later, consider ourselves also to be followers or disciples then this passage
is most certainly for us to hear - and to act upon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This passage is often called The Great Commission: it
sets out very clearly an instruction, an imperative - and therefore not an
option - in terms of making disciples of others. It’s The Great Commission, not
the Great Suggestion. However, there are many today who would say that we have
failed in our obligation and that we should call it instead The Great Omission.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The church really does seem to have lost sight of its mission
to make disciples. This is one of the reasons why the traditional churches in
the main with one or two notable exceptions are struggling to grow; Anglican,
Methodist, Baptist, United Reformed and so on. The statistics don't look good.
The church is not replenishing itself with a new generation of disciples and we
aren’t reaching the younger generation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What has happened? Why can't the church today be like the
early church? The answer comes through something that a number of Christian
commentators have noted: "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the Church
today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If
the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament Church, 95% of what
they did would have stopped, and everybody would have known the
difference." To put it another way, we do too much in our own strength and
from our own agendas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last week in the Town Hall we heard a stirring sermon for
Pentecost Sunday. We were told about the transforming nature of the Holy Spirit
in the lives of the first disciples and how that power is available to all
disciples down the ages since. The following day I came upon a cartoon
which showed the inside of seemingly empty church but there were two speech
bubbles coming from under the pews. One was asking, “Is he still here?” and the
other was replying, “Yes, stay put. He’s looking at the notice board.” It made
me smile. Is this how Christians today really approach Pentecost Sunday and the
receipt of the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit? Yet here we are and the
expectation is, that as the story unfolds, we are in receipt of that awesome
power and we’re certainly going to need it for The Great Commission!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Is the Holy Spirit the driving force of the church today? If
we are to reclaim the fire of the Spirit the early church had, if we are to
share our witness effectively we must be willing to open ourselves to the
movement of the Spirit! That's what the early followers of Christ did! They
were not sophisticated people. They hadn't been to college; they hadn't read
books on church growth and marketing the church. They simply made themselves
available to the Holy Spirit. And look what happened in Acts chapter 2,
"Each one heard them speaking in his own language." It was clear! The
Holy Spirit did it through them because they were simply willing to be used!
The Holy Spirit broke through communication barriers and the gospel translated.
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps we should remind ourselves again what the text says.
What we have is, “All authority is given to me and I am sending you.” The
unavoidable truth is that as Christians we are called to bear witness, to tell
people about Jesus--to make disciples. Now, this may scare some of you to
death: it certainly does me!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, let’s also note that the passage talks of making
disciples, not converts! If all authority belongs to Jesus, the mission of the
church is not to convert people -- only the Holy Spirit who expresses that
authority in the world can do that -- but to invite or urge others to join us
on the road of following Jesus. Jesus does not command us to maximize
conversions but to enable people of all backgrounds to become true and lasting
disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Integral to that process of discipleship is learning to walk
the road alongside people of different backgrounds. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In words usually attributed to Archbishop William Temple, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The church is the only institution that
exists to serve the needs of those who are not its members, so Christian
mission is about assisting what God is doing in the world.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So Christian mission is
about assisting what God is doing in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I was at Vicar School, one of our first modules was that
of Mission. It was one of the ones I most enjoyed. We were taught about the
Missio Dei - The Mission of God. Mission is not the church going out and saving
people. Rather, it is God creating and saving the world. The mission of God
came first and the church was created as a response to that. That makes the
church a product of mission rather than the other way round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat up and began to take serious notice
here: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The mission of God came first and
the church was created as a response to that. That makes the church a product
of mission rather than the other way round.</b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow! And I think of the hours I have spent in
church meetings trying to plan the next parish mission!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, all approaches to evangelism are valid but there should
be a balance rather than a heavy reliance on one method. I have very strong
memories as a teenager of feeling “guilt tripped” over the model of evangelism
that was being promoted then. “You have to tell people about Jesus. You must
speak up or they will be damned.” I have never felt comfortable with the
altar-call approach to mission and it came as a surprise and relief to discover
an approach to the Missio Dei which advises being reactive rather than
proactive, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">reactive rather than
proactive</b>: discern where God is already at work and join him there, after
all, it is God’s mission. I no longer had to be apologetic about mission:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply had to be as good a role model of
discipleship as the Holy Spirit gave me the grace to be and see what happened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As someone who comes into contact with people from a variety
of faith backgrounds, and is trained to teach about them, I have always been
interested in the interface between Christianity and other religions and the
wisdom I find there. The Magi, the Centurion, the Syrophoenecian Woman and
others were not Jews, but their witness was valid and affirmed in the New
Testament, so I can talk to my Muslim, Sikh and Hindu colleagues about my faith
and I don’t have to smack them around the head with my Bible. I do,
however need to listen in return because that is the nature of dialogue and yet
we can get so much more over about the nature of our beliefs if what we are
doing is chatting, so much more than if we were lecturing or berating. We don’t
convert, the Holy Spirit does and we don’t know what seeds we may plant for the
Holy Spirit to work on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People take notice when the church becomes involved in social
action: the negativity which often characterises the public’s attitude to the
church, and therefore by extension to Christianity, is replaced by a general
positivity when the church speaks out with authority on behalf of the poor and
marginalised. It is as if the majority of people I meet are somehow
subliminally programmed to expect the church to speak out against injustice, a
positivity which is not apparent towards the street preacher outside Marks and
Spencer. We bring the Kingdom closer when Christians stand alongside others for
an end to poverty and oppression even if it risks the wrath of politicians?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I am also struck by the opportunities for discussions
about faith which arise naturally. That I am a Christian is widely known by
those I regularly meet: as a Religious Studies teacher discussions about
matters of faith are everyday – often with colleagues too. It’s best not to
second guess the Holy Spirit: all conversations that take place in the street,
in the supermarket and at the bus stop are mission conversations because they
bring the Kingdom of God closer; every one of those people is potentially a
penitent thief on the cross so all conversations are potentially a means of
grace - but rarely if that other person feels that there is an agenda for
conversion - <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">but rarely if that other
person feels that there is an agenda for conversion. </b>I cannot earn God’s
favour by speaking about him but His grace won’t be limited when I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However we approach mission we must show
genuineness, empathy and respect and question our motivation. Is what I am
doing the Missio Dei - God’s mission - or is there another agenda? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-46802443057538900032014-05-05T14:38:00.001+01:002014-05-05T14:48:08.850+01:00Approaches to Mission 4: Enlightenment Modern Mission and Mission within Postmodernity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">As before, I am looking at Stephen Spencer’s studyguide </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Christian Mission</span></b><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzvpT197WMynm9eXyBc_yLh8D27nAL0lYT3luMD8kSrzgrVlwLWgviOK0OJ41EWB9KgMgCcZNjsIcQ51e52ebKpSZcPifRD4JT5gaJw7HvBHZzIC9sL-neBJgEKyIS6u1N5Pqbhga-INe/s1600/Christian+and+Sikh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzvpT197WMynm9eXyBc_yLh8D27nAL0lYT3luMD8kSrzgrVlwLWgviOK0OJ41EWB9KgMgCcZNjsIcQ51e52ebKpSZcPifRD4JT5gaJw7HvBHZzIC9sL-neBJgEKyIS6u1N5Pqbhga-INe/s1600/Christian+and+Sikh.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Enlightenment Modern Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
approach to mission is concerned as much about the physical and mental
conditions in which people live as their spiritual lives. It is rooted in what
Küng calls the Enlightenment Modern paradigm, itself formed by key ideas of the
eighteenth century Enlightenment in European culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a hugely influential approach to
mission in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, leading to a
construction of schools, hospitals and other educational and medical work all
around the world and also propelling Christian laity and clergy into the
forefront of social reform in the West. With Christian contributions to the
founding of the welfare state in Britain, this mission type arguably reached
the height of its influence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In some ways
the Protestant Reformation provided a seedbed of the Enlightenment Modern
paradigm. This was through its theology of the two kingdoms and the way this
brought about an increasing separation of civil and spiritual realms. The
Church was to be concerned with the latter, while the state and civil society
were concerned with the former. On political, social, economic and even moral
questions the Church was gradually sidelined: its concern was to be the things
of Heaven rather than of Earth. This resulted in the Church losing control of
scientific endeavour and the post-Reformation period in Europe saw the
blossoming of scientific exploration across the continent. In this paradigm,
the Kingdom lies in the future but is being realized through human progress.
Jesus is present among us as the pioneer of of a new humanity which is
gradually coming about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bosch,
writing in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Transforming Mission</b>,
provides a helpful summary of key features within this new way of thinking:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was pre-eminently the Age of
Reason, where reason was seen to belong not only to believers but to all
people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It operated within the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subject-object</i> scheme, in which nature
ceased to be “creation” and was no longer peoples’ teacher but the object of
their analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It eliminated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purpose </i>from science, introducing direct causality as the clue to
understanding reality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It believed in the notion of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">progress </i>with exploration of the world
as well as science opening up new possibilities for human living, convincing
many that humanity had the ability and the will to remake the world in its own
image.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scientific knowledge was regarded as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">factual, value-free</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">neutral, </i>and as really the only kind of
knowledge that counts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">All problems were in principle solvable, </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">though it would take time to solve
them.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Human beings are now<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> emancipated, autonomous individuals.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taken
together, these ideas represent a revolution in European thought: the Age of
Reason saw an increasing turn away from supernatural revelation as the source
of truth and an increasing suspicion of medieval thought as stifling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
Enlightenment also saw the rise of historical consciousness developing out of a
critical study of history, including the Bible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were
political consequences too. The rise of individualism implied the rise of
democratic ideals and the overthrow of the medieval monarchies. The two most
significant examples were the American War of Independence and the French
Revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scientific
understanding led to the development of newer technologies and commercial
expansion overseas followed in the nineteenth century, which carried European
culture, philosophy and education to many points around the globe. The Age of
Reason became the Age of Empire, which harnessed technology and
industrialisation for the scramble for global domination by the European
powers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
Enlightenment belief in progress, and especially in European culture’s progress
within science, technology, philosophy and politics, had a major influence on a
new type of mission within churches. Progress suggested the imminent
this-worldly global triumph of Christianity. Some believed that the entire
world would soon be converted to Christianity or that Christianity was an
irresistible power in the process of reforming the world, eradicating poverty,
and restoring justice for all. The spread of Christian knowledge would suffice
in achieving these aims. The philosopher Leibnitz described the Church’s task
in the world as the propagation of Christianity through science or knowledge.
The advance of the honour of God was equated with the good of mankind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
increasing provision of education became one of the most significant<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the churches in nineteenth century Britain
and God’s Kingdom would become increasingly aligned with the culture and civilization
of the West.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second
half of the twentieth century has also seen this type of mission promoted in
various parts of the worldwide Church, though in different ways. For instance,
in The World Council of Churches report <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The
Church for Others</b> (1967), the particular role in the mission of God was
seen as pointing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to God at work in
history, to discover what he is doing, to catch up with it and to get involved
ourselves: for God’s primary relationship is to the World and it is the world
that must be allowed to provide the agenda for the churches</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Roman
Catholic world also embraced this kind of socially and historically rooted
outlook. The initial impetus came from the Second Vatican Council’s document <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gaudium et Spes, </i>which, in rousing
language called on the Church to turn outwards to the world in which it lived.
This led to the Bishops of Latin America responding to that call with
solidarity and applying it to their own context. As the Bishops opened their
vision and hearts to the peoples’ struggle for justice they initiated the
Liberation Theology movement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A different
and influential example is the 1985 C of E report <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Faith in the City, </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
response to inner-city riots which made it clear that both church and nation
needed to take anew look at the most deprived areas in the larger cities and
the recent growth of poverty. This was fiercely attacked by the Conservative
government of Mrs. Thatcher.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission within Postmodernity<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The roots of
this new theological paradigm partly lie in the collapse of Enlightenment
aspirations. The Age of Reason became the colonial age of empire in which
European powers harnessed technology and industrialisation for the scramble for
global domination. The next step along this road was war between the competing
European powers which many see as the outcome of the Enlightenment era. These
desperate events included the Holocaust and the dropping of atomic bombs on
Japanese cities and for many these events undermined the belief in the existence
of human progress based on reason and technology. While the work of church
schools, hospitals and political involvement undoubtedly improved the physical wellbeing
of many people, such work had not resolved or begun to resolve the ultimate
issues and questions of the reign of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A second key
development during this period has been mass immigration into western societies
from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, the West Indies and central Asia which
resulted in the rise of pluralist societies in Europe with different religions,
cultures, languages and customs rubbing shoulders with each other in the larger
European cities. This has included not just the arrival of other faith groups but
also Pentecostalist forms of Christianity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the latter
part of the twentieth century these two developments gave rise to a new way of
relativistic thinking in Western culture - at least in the urban centres. This
is often referred to as “postmodernism” and has led some commentators to
describe the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first
century as the start of a new postmodern era, contributed to by writers such as
Adam Smith, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud and many others, who claimed to provide
systems of political, religious or cultural ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In tandem
with these traumatic social and cultural events there has been an unfolding
theological revolution. Karl Barth led a revolt against the way of thinking
which had seen religion as concerned with the cultivation of people’s spiritual
faculties and which believed that humanity might achieve union with the divine
by gradually leading itself to God. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Christ’s
revelation is primary for Barth: everything else must be seen in the light of
that. The discipline of theology must have Christ’s life, death and
resurrection - or “The Christ Event” - as he called it as the beginning, the
middle and the end. Theology consists in tracing the significance of this event
for every aspect of life. Christ, the Word of God, reveals the truth of all
things. Barth’s theology does not begin with general and abstract philosophical
arguments about the “ground of being” or “the feeling of absolute dependence”
as nineteenth century theologians tended to do. He begins with God as revealed
by Christ in his birth, death and resurrection: he addresses the doctrine of
God and brings the doctrine of the Trinity to the centre stage because he sees
the nature of God as defined by the interrelations of the Son, the Holy Spirit
and the Father. Even when Barth explores the doctrine of Creation he relates it
to Christ. He describes God’s work in creating the world as being about setting
in place the right conditions for the revelation of his Son.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Barth was
first misunderstood and rejected, especially in Britain and North America: his
theology was labelled a “neo-orthodoxy” and dismissed as reactionary but now he
is recognised as a pioneer of an approach to theology which is no longer
dependent on philosophy or the study of history and has found its authority in
transcendent revelation: the Word of God as found in the Christ Event. The
Kingdom of God comes as His gracious gift, as a transcendent reality breaking
into the corruption and failures of human life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Barth was
the key figure behind the coining of the phrase <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">missio Dei </i>as a summary of mission’s dependence on the initiative
and substance of God himself. Mission was not to be seen as one of humanities
building projects, carried forward by its own strength and reason, but as a divine
movement in which the church was privileged to participate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of Barth’s
students, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, who
resisted the Nazis and was put to death by them, has been described as the
architect of a new way of understanding the mission of the church. He believed
that the Christian community was the concrete presence of Christ in the world
and needed to be valued and nurtured as such. He also saw that the Christian
life, if taken seriously, is no easy matter. He opposed what he called the
offering of cheap grace by the established churches to their members. In his
book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Cost of Discipleship</b>, he
described the costly nature of following Christ, a way of service rather than
domination. His writings, and particularly his <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Letters and Papers from Prison, </b>help to articulate a theology of
mission implicit in the witness of his life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Man is challenged to participate in
the sufferings of God at the hands of a godless world. He must therefore plunge
himself into the life of a godless world, without attempting to gloss over its
ungodliness with a veneer of religion and trying to transfigure it….It is not
some religious act which makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the
suffering of God in the life of the world…. The church is only her true self
when she exists for humanity. </span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">(Letters and Papers from Prison)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Christian
mission, then, is about the church laying aside its own power and becoming open
and vulnerable to the world, giving itself to serving the needs of others,
locating itself where they live and, only then, finally, seeking to communicate
the meaning of the gospel: Christian mission is all about witness out of a prior
vulnerability.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
open-ended approach to mission has been expressed in an increasing number of
places in the latter part of the twentieth century, especially as migration has
resulted in people of different faiths increasingly living side by side and
churches have had to enter into dialogue with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs,
Buddhists and others. This has taken place at every level, though not usually
under the label of “mission”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dialogue is the norm and necessary manner of
every form of Christian mission, as well as every aspect of it, whether one
speaks of simple presence and witness or direct proclamation. Any sense of
mission not permeated by such a dialogical spirit would go against the demands
of true humanity and against the teaching of the gospel. </i>(Bevans and
Schroeder: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Constants in Context: A Theology
of Mission for Today.)<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As Bosch
affirms, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We do not have all the answers
and are prepared to live within the framework of penultimate knowledge, that we
regard our involvement in dialogue and mission as an adventure, are prepared to
take risks and are anticipating surprises as the Spirit guides us into fuller
understanding. </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(Transforming
Mission)<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gibbs and
Bolger, writing in<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Emerging Churches:
Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Culture,</b> conducted extensive
research into the Emerging Churches movement in Britain and the U.S. They
identified patterns most prevalent in churches that take postmodern culture
seriously. The three core practices are;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Identifying with the life of Jesus,
including welcoming the outcast, hosting the stranger and challenging the
political authorities by creating an alternative community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Transforming secular space in the
same way that postmodernity calls into question the separation of sacred and
secular.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Living as a community within all
realms of the life of their members, not just within a Sunday morning meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This strong
sense of the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> missio Dei </i>has led some
leaders to renounce traditional evangelism altogether. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We do not do evangelism or have mission. The Holy Spirit is the
evangelist, and the mission belongs to God. What we do is simply live our lives
publicly as a community in the way of Jesus Christ, and when people enquire as
to why we live this way, we share with them an account of the hope within us….
Taking care of the sick and needy creates all the evangelism we need. </i>(Gibbs
and Bolger)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-44910356391700391142014-05-01T16:28:00.004+01:002014-05-03T16:26:24.048+01:00Approaches to Mission Part 3: Medieval Catholic and Protestant Reformation paradigms<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As before, I
am looking at Stephen Spencer’s studyguide <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christian
Mission</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Medieval Catholic Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As
Constantine took control of the Western Empire he stopped persecution of the
church. His family and court began to adopt the faith in increasing numbers and
Christianity effectively became the state religion. The church began to become
the religious arm of the Roman government. This shows the birth of
“Christendom”, with the Christian community firmly embedded within the political
structure in a position of power and wealth, but under a Christian monarch who
has authority over the church as well as the state. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Emperor
was being given a mandate to use the power of the empire to bring its diverse
peoples into the Christian religion and the use of coercion within mission was
being sanctioned. While Constantine himself allowed a plurality of religions to
be practiced in the empire, later emperors, particularly</span> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Theodosius, would proscribe all
religions except Christianity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All this
throws light on the statement in the Nicene Creed that the Church was “one” as
well as “holy”, “catholic” and “apostolic”. The Church was to be one as the
empire was one, exercising authority over everyone within the empire. The
Christendom paradigm had made its appearance: there was to be one order with
Christ at the head and beneath him, the Emperor or, later, the Pope. Implicit
within this was a new understanding of mission: the Church was to come into an
increasing unity with the state and together do all they could to incorporate
more and more people within its jurisdiction. The Church, in other words, was
to work for the establishing of Christendom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the
Eastern empire, this marriage of church and state remained as the norm for the
next thousand years. In the Western empire the situation was more confused with
the invasion of Goth hoards and the sack of Rome but St. Augustine established
a theological framework that would give the church a renewed sense of its own
inherent authority in the medieval world. Based on his reading of St. Paul in
Galatians and Romans he became increasingly convinced of the deep corruption
and sinfulness of humankind and of its inability to raise itself up. He
developed the doctrine of original sin to account for this weakness and he saw
that salvation must be entirely the gift of God, learning from St. Paul’s
teaching on justification. This theology brought the cross to the centre of the
faith: it was Christ’s death on the cross that achieved salvation for the
believer, not their own efforts. It also shows that God must be the one who
decides who shall be saved and who will not. The seeds of the doctrine of
predestination are sown here. It is God who moves towards us, having
predestined some to be saved and others not to be saved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All of this
is significant to mission because it places the individual soul at the centre
of mission: to belong to a corporate community that has access to the gate of
heaven, as in the Hellenistic paradigm, is not enough. The issue is whether the
individual has appropriated that fact for themselves. The community as a whole,
through its teaching and liturgy can aid that process but it cannot do this on
their behalf: justification through the cross of Christ can only be
appropriated by the individual believer. Bosch describes this as the
individualisation of salvation and it would have dramatic effects on the
practice of Christian mission, especially during the reformation era.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For
Augustine, the Church was an indispensable because God’s gift was given through
the Church: only membership of the church could allow salvation to be imparted
to a believer, for salvation depended on unity with the church of the apostles.
This meant that an awareness of boundaries between people came back into
mission theology: Augustine’s theology created a sharp and decisive boundary
between those who were part of the sacramental life of the Church and those who
were not, and mission became all about moving them across this boundary. It is
God who moves towards us, having predestined some to be saved and others not to
be saved. Those to be saved belong to the city of God: the rest belong to the
earthly city; in this life both cities are intermingled but in the next life
they will be separated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
association of a church-centred mission with coercion was to gain strength over
the course of the Middle Ages. Pope Gregory advocated that those who would not
listen to “reason” be “chastised by beating and torture, whereby they might be
brought to amendment” and free men were to be jailed. All of this was for the
non-believers’ own good.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spencer goes
on to discuss the relationship between Pope Leo III and the Emperor Charlemagne
to explain how the relationship between church and state was strengthened. The
Poe’s responsibility was to intercede for the Emperor and his military
campaigns. Each needed the other. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the Church
of England today we see vestiges of this paradigm in the Monarch’s role of
Supreme Governor of the Church. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Protestant Reformation Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Augustine
bequeathed a deep theological contradiction to the medieval world, one which
helps to explain the eruption of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. He stressed
the city of God and the earthly city, arguing that the church contained both
good and bad and it would not be until the final consummation that the two
groups would be separated and this led him to adopt the idea that God must have
predestined those who are saved. He espoused the Cyprian principle that there
is no salvation outside the church. However, he also argued the Pauline
doctrine of Justification by God’s grace: salvation is given freely to the
sinner by God and this could only be received by an inner conversion of the
soul, a reception that only God can see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Martin
Luther is the pioneer of the Reformation paradigm of Christianity and, within
that, the Protestant Reformation type of mission. This took place at a time of
the rise of humanist learning with its undermining of much medieval theological
thinking and at a time when ordinary people began, firstly to tire of the Pope’s
attempts to commercialise the business of religion and then to be<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opposed to it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Luther was
an Augustinian monk and the turning point for him was a theological one: he
experienced an increasing sense of anguish and despair as he failed repeatedly
to live up to the holy and righteous life. He came to believe that the Epistle
to the Romans was the most important document of the New Testament: the Gospel
in its purest expression. While he accepted the Augustinian doctrine of original
sin and the dependency of humanity on God, he concluded that a believer could
only be declared righteous through faith in the crucifixion and resurrection of
Christ. In this sense he agreed with Augustine but he rejected Augustine’s
contradictory idea of predestination as found in his doctrine of two cities. The
crucial arena for the receiving of salvation was within the soul of the
believer and what took place was known only to God. The corporate life of the Church
ceases to have any direct role in the securing of salvation and Luther was
particularly critical of the corruption of the church of his day, particularly
through the selling of indulgences. The doctrine of justification by grace
through faith gave a theological rationale for sidelining the institutional
church in the salvation of the believer. The key relationship was between the
believer and God and was a direct one-to-one engagement. Everything else was
secondary to this and therefore there could be no coercion to outward shows of
faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A second
important strand in Luther’s thinking was the elevation of scripture over the
church as the authoritative guide in the life of the Christian. It was Luther’s
own reading of Romans which had opened his eyes to the true nature of salvation
whereas the teaching of the church had clouded these truths. If scripture
taught all things necessary for salvation then it was scripture that should be
recognised as the primary authority in the life of the Christian. This, of
course, meant that it needed to be accessible to the individual and therefore
needed to be translated into the languages of ordinary people rather than in
Latin which, as most people did not understand it, could only be interpreted to
them by the church. In addition Luther ejected the idea of a “spiritual” and a “secular”
estate: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All Christians truly belong to
the spiritual estate and there is no difference between them apart from their
office … We all have one baptism, gospel and faith which alone make us
spiritual and a Christian people. </i>This has become known as the doctrine of
the priesthood of all believers and it became a central feature of the new
Reformation paradigm. Inevitably these ideas began to spread and take root
elsewhere in Europe where they were championed by native theologians.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In each
nation or area of civil government the unity of church was to be secured by an
established religion: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Now anywhere you
hear or see the word of God preached, believed, confessed, acted upon, do not
doubt that the true Holy Christian Church must be there. </i>This clearly shows
the centrality of preaching to the life and mission of the church. It is
through preaching – both its delivery and its reception - that the visible
church (the outward organisation) most closely resembles the invisible church
(the true church, whose membership is known only to God) but this happens only
through the God’s action by the Holy Spirit and not through the will of
preacher or congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The starting
point for the Reformers’ theology was not what people could do for their
salvation, but what God had already done in Christ. Christians were therefore
under an obligation to preach and teach the gospel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to the erring pagans and non-Christians because of the duty of
brotherly love. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However,
there are weaknesses here. The emphasis on the pointlessness of “good works” as
a means to please God, when salvation comes through faith alone, has given some
the excuse to be inactive about struggling for justice and social change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Additionally
the emphasis on the role of scripture has restricted some of the disciplines of
Biblical criticism as a conservative understanding of scripture has held sway. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-20445304651988121642014-04-30T08:48:00.002+01:002014-05-03T16:28:36.875+01:00Approaches to Mission Part 2: The Apostolic and Hellenistic Orthodox Paradigms
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This post is
based on Stephen Spencer's studyguide <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christian
Mission</b>. It might make more sense if you have already read the previous
introductory post.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Apostolic Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the
earliest days of Christianity converts were primarily Jewish and had a worldview
dominated by eschatology, particularly the book of Daniel: they believed the
end of the age was near and would bring a time of catastrophe but there would
be deliverance for God’s people at this time. Many early Christians related
these ideas to the Roman occupation: the end was indeed nigh.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
Christians came to associate Jesus as the figure described in Daniel, “I saw
one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of Heaven.” (Daniel 7.13) The
death and resurrection of Jesus became, for them, the inauguration of the
end-times and they believed he would return in their lifetimes. Some of the
earliest New Testament writings (I Thes and 1 Cor) show this view clearly. The Parousia
was imminent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This meant
that it was desperately important that as many people as possible were told
about the offer of salvation. It was imperative that people turn to the Lord,
put their lives in order, and be made ready for his coming: the church was the
ark of salvation. “Repent and be baptised” was the motif of the period.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Christian
mission was all about appealing to the hearts and minds of Jews and then of
Gentiles to bring about belief in Jesus and repentance before it was too late.
It was not about changing cultures or religious structures: time was too short.
It was a search and rescue operation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We can see
how this approach is still the basis for mission and evangelism in many
conservative and evangelical churches today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Hellenistic Orthodox Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
non-return of Jesus in the expected time-frame precipitated a minor crisis for
the early church and some were questioning the church’s claims: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">First of all you must understand this, that
in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and
saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? </i>(2 Peter 3.3) So the church
had to rethink its eschatology at the same time as it was spreading into a
predominantly Greek speaking and thinking culture in Asia Minor and Greece.
Christians were influenced by that milieu which was a long way in so many
senses from the Palestinian Jewish culture with its emphasis on righteousness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Christianity
became influenced by Neoplatonism: immortality is no longer seen as linked to
some future day of judgement but in the here and now, through learning and the
acquisition of knowledge. With its emphasis on the Eternal Being as an ever
present reality in the world, Neoplatonism can be detected in some later
passages of the New Testament. There is a shift away from future eschatology to
realized eschatology. John’s Gospel best illustrates this with its emphasis on
what Christ has already accomplished and what he offers here and now, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indeed, God did not send the Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe
are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only
Son of God. </i>(John 3.18-19) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Very
truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to
life. Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the
dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. </i>(John
5.24-25) Furthermore in one of the best known passages of the New Testament it
is the interior value of belief rather than the practice of righteousness that
is presented as the heart of Christian living and the gateway to eternal life: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
</i>(John 3.16)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some of the
church Fathers from this period (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo and Origen) interwove Neoplatonism with
Christianity. Justin Martyr develops the idea of the logos, who had sown the
seed of truth in all people and becomes incarnate in Christ in order to teach
all people the whole truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this
period the Biblical stories began to be read allegorically, carrying a meaning
which needed to be unlocked from the text of scripture. Philosophical thinking
is the means by which the Greeks are to be led to Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No longer is
the church living between past and future events which would culminate in the
imminent second coming and requiring righteousness on the part of Christ’s
followers. In this second paradigm Christianity is about holding correct
beliefs which can be definitively stated as doctrine which articulate eternal
truths, hence the development of the creeds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Salvation is
all about the progress of the soul as it learns these doctrines and becomes
united with the immortal wisdom of God. It is the church which is the vehicle
for this progress: the conviction gradually grew that the church was the
Kingdom of God on earth and to be in the church was to be in the Kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the first
paradigm the key boundary was between those who were within the saved community
and those who were not. Here the key boundary was between earth and Heaven. The
church was no longer the ark for the saved but the door for the whole
community. It is not enough merely to attend the liturgy: participation must
include an interior Theosis as the human and divine meet in communion. The
liturgy becomes central. In the liturgy, eternal truth radiates into the world and
Orthodox theologians refer to the “second liturgy” which takes place after the
service in the world, in the lives of those who have participated in it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission is
part of the nature of the church. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Outside
the context of the church, evangelism remains a humanism or a temporary
psychological enthusiasm.</i> (David Bosch, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Transforming Mission.)<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This
paradigm significantly influenced the theology of Anglican Archbishop Michael
Ramsay in the 1960s and, with its emphasis on contemplation, stillness and
openness to the divine, can be found at the heart of the modern Taizé movement.
It is still the basic paradigm of the Orthodox Church today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However it
does not see this realm as lying in the future and coming through change and
struggle. It therefore entails a certain acceptance of the social and political
status quo and a loss of the radical and transformative dimension of Jesus’
mission. The Orthodox Church has been attacked for this by some in the West.
The Anglican Church has often been described as the Conservative Party at
prayer. In their own political and social contexts, similar can be said of the
Orthodox Churches. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-39796732838300389152014-04-29T09:59:00.001+01:002014-04-29T10:01:24.268+01:00Approaches to mission<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I was
at Vicar School, one of our first modules was that of Mission. It was one of
the ones I most enjoyed. I am revisiting my understanding of mission and so,
with some pleasure, it was to Stephen Spencer’s SCM Studyguide <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christian Mission </b>that I turned and I
unashamedly summarise and plagiarise him here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Stephen
Spencer’s introduction identifies three traditional view of mission:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission as Social Action<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spencer
begins by relating the story of Rosa Parks and setting it in the context of the
American Civil Rights Movement. The gist of the argument is that the mission of
the church is God’s mission and is about the coming of the Kingdom with its
peace, justice and healing. The role of the church here is to assist this wider
mission through its support of various liberation movements as Christians speak
out for an end of poverty, injustice and oppression. In words attributed to Archbishop
William Temple, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the church of God is the
only institution which exists to serve the needs of those who are not its
members, so mission is about assisting with what God is doing in the world:
mission is human development.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is worth
noting the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church here: Vatican II speaks of
human progress in creating a more just social order in the modern world which
can be through the secret moving of the Spirit in human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However,
there needs to be a vibrant church to do the assisting and the fact of that
mission needs to be made public and identified. It also needs to be related to
its various scriptural imperatives. If significant energies are not devoted to
building up the church, how will it avoid losing itself in the struggles of the
world?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission as Church Growth<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The C of E
report<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Mission Shaped Church </b>looked
extensively at different kinds of congregational church life and took great
comfort in “Fresh Expressions of Church” which it saw as a sign of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">great creativity of the Spirit in our age …
a sign of the work of God and of the Kingdom. The church is the fruit of God’s
mission … creating new communities of Christian faith is part of the mission of
God. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However,
some of these initiatives are seen more as maintenance as growth – a kind of
chaplaincy to those who cannot bring themselves to attend traditional churches anymore
and it is questionable whether real mission has taken place. This conversation
takes place in the context of a universal decline in church attendance in the
developed world in all denominations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission as Public Witness<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If Christ is
not known in missionary work then it is questionable to what extent CHRISTIAN
mission has taken place at all. In this model mission is about proclaiming
Christ and the churches need to take an enthusiastic lead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evangelism is seen as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the</b> defining feature of mission. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Transforming Mission</b>, Bosch alludes to a real crisis of nerve over
mission, claiming that the church was no longer sure what it meant! Leslie
Newbeggin, writing in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Gospel in a
Pluralist Society</b>, called for the churches to engage in the mission of
proclaiming the Gospel as “public truth”: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We
have been shown the road. We cannot treat that knowledge as a private matter.
It concerns the whole human family.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The emphasis
is on the key features of Jesus own mission, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God and saying “The
time is fulfilled; repent and believe the Gospel” </i>(Mark 1.14-15) This isn’t
about Jesus’ glorification but about something much bigger, the ushering in of
the Kingdom of God and the personal response of those who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">repent and believe</i>. People are to change the direction of their
lives. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The task of prophetic ministry is
to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the
consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. </i>Walter Brueggemann,
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Prophetic Imagination.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spencer goes
on to talk about:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missio Dei: God’s Mission<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The mission
of God is,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The mission that belongs to God and flows from the heart of God. The
Missio Dei speaks of the overflowing of God’s being and nature into His
purposeful activity in the world. </i>Avis, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Ministry Shaped by Mission.</b> It is the mission of the Son and the
Spirit through the Father that includes the Church. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God is a missionary God and mission is first of all His action. The
missionary initiative flows from the love of God to reconcile His created yet
alienated world. He trod a long road of redemption with Israel, until out of
the depths of His love the Father sent the Son to reconcile all things to
Himself. Jesus accomplished the mission for which He was sent by a complete
atonement in His death and resurrection. On the basis of this accomplished work
God poured out the Spirit of Jesus to gather His people together into one body
as a first fruit and an earnest of Christ’s redemption. That same Spirit of
Jesus equips and empowers His people to continue His mission as witnesses to
God’s redeeming love and work. Thus the church is caught up in God’s redeeming
action. </i>(Newbigin)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission is
not, therefore, the church going out and saving people. Rather, it is God
creating and saving the world. The mission of God came first and the church was
created as a response to that. That makes the church a product of mission
rather than the other way round. It is also important to note that that since
God’s concern is for the entire created order, so too, should be the scope of
mission: it should embrace both humanity and the world and it is this which the
church is privileged to participate in. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There
is no participation in Christ without participation in his mission to the world</i>.
James A Scherer, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mission Theology.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mission and paradigm shifts<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The church
is only one player in mission. The others are the social and cultural context
and the inaugurated Kingdom of God. In tracing the history of mission it is
important to understand how the church has related to these other two.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Spencer
identifies a number of paradigms. He notes that while there has been a
continuity of faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the intellectual framework
that holds this belief in place changed from one era to another. Each of the
paradigms, though closely identified with a particular paradigm shift and era,
continues to be found in different parts of the world today. New paradigms have
come about as a result of social and political change revealing the creative
engagement of the church with different cultures throughout history.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I shall explore these various paradigms in subsequent posts.</span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-42441810228202876212014-04-17T13:25:00.003+01:002014-07-27T14:59:51.226+01:00A Meditation for Easter Day: Halelujah! He is risen indeed! Mark 16.1-8 <br />
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<strong>Mark 16.1-8</strong></div>
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<em>When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">2</sup>And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">3</sup>They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">4</sup>When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">5</sup>As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">6</sup>But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">7</sup>But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ <sup class="ww" style="display: none;">8</sup>So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid</em></div>
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Without Easter, we wouldn't know about Jesus: if his story had ended at the crucifixion he would probably have been forgotten other that for passing references in contemporary sources. There would have been no community memory to pass on.<br />
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What kind of stories are the Easter stories, then? What language do they use? Are they intended as historical reports and thus to be understood as history remembered or do they use the language of parable and metaphor to express truths that are much more than factual? Or is it a combination?<br />
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Those of us who grew up as Christians in in overt Christian environment have an awareness of the Easter message, albeit an amalgam of the entirety of the four gospels and the gloss of Acts and the epistles.<br />
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Borg and Crossan use the terms "hard" and "soft" interpretation. The hard form, affirmed by Christians committed to ideas of biblical inerrancy, sees every detail as factually, literally and infallibly true. Many other Christians affirm a softer view: aware of differences in the accounts, they do not insist on the factual accuracy of every detail and recognise that witnesses to any event can have quite different recollections depending on a number of factors. In my own classroom last week thirty fourteen year olds were unable to agree on the exact sequence of a simple cause and effect process. Those who affirm the softer view are not concerned whether there was one angel (Mark and Matthew) or two (Luke) at the tomb and may disagree amongst themselves about the meaning of the word angel and therefore the nature of angels. They don't worry about where the disciples hid out after the crucifixion: Jerusalem (Luke) or Galilee (Matthew) but they do affirm the historicity of the basics: the tomb was really empty, this was because God transformed the body of Jesus and Jesus did appear to his disciples after his death in a form that could be seen, heard and touched.<br />
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So central is the historical accuracy of the stories for many people, that if they didn't happen in this way, the foundation and truth of Christianity disappear. If Christ has not been raised then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. (St. Paul 1 Cor 15.14) At one and the same time some of us assent to Paul's statement while not necessarily assuming that it intrinsically points to the historical accuracy of a tomb empty of a physical body. When I was an undergraduate my Professor of Theology, David Jenkins, left to become the Bishop of Durham and he got in deep water for saying such things and was roundly condemned as an atheist Bishop amongst those who followed the hard interpretation. He is still a byword for apostasy and heresy in certain circles of the CofE, unjustly so. "The Resurrection is more than a conjuring trick with old bones." he said. I was constantly amazed and disturbed that the words <i>more than</i> were excised from the text of his address.<br />
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It must be the case that an emphasis on the historical facts of the Easter stories, as if they were reporting events that in another time could have been filmed as they unfolded, gets in the way of understanding them. On the one hand, it is a stumbling block for those who have difficulty in believing that the stories are factual. If such people think that believing these stories to be factually accurate is essential to being a Christian, then they can't be Christians. The issue is not simply whether "things like this" ever happen. Rather, the issue is generated by the stories themselves; often the differences are hard to reconcile, and their language often seems to be other than the language of historical reporting. We often do not get beyond the "Did they happen?" reply to the "What do they mean?" question.<br />
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When these stories are seen as history, their function is to report publicly observable events that could have been witnessed by anyone who was there. When we see these stories as parable we need to use the model of parable Jesus himself used - the truth of the story is not dependent on whether it is historically accurate: there was no Good Samaritan. Does that render the story meaningless? Parables can be true - truth filled and truthful - regardless of their factual accuracy and to worry about factual accuracy misses the point. The point lies in its meaning and in you and I getting that meaning.<br />
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Seeing the Easter stories as parable does not involve a denial of their factual accuracy. It's quite happy leaving that question open. What it does insist upon is that the importance of these stories lies in their meanings. As an example, an empty tomb without a meaning ascribed to it is simply an odd event. It is only when meaning is ascribed to it that it takes on significance. Parable can be based on a particular event (there could have been a Good Samaritan whose actions Jesus based his story on) but it need not be. <br />
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Effectively we are saying: believe, if you want, that the events strictly happened in that way. Now lets talk about what they mean. Equally, if you're quite sure they didn't happen quite like that, fine. Now let's talk about what they mean.<br />
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Importantly parable and parabolic language can make truth claims: we should not think of history as truth and parable as fiction and therefore less important. Indeed, this identification is one of the central characteristics of modern western culture. Both Biblical literalists and people who reject theism completely do this: the former insist that the truth of the Bible depends on its literal accuracy and the latter see that the Bible can not be literally and factually true and therefore don't think that it is true at all. What both miss is the fact that parable can be profoundly true independently of its historical accuracy. Asking the parabolic meaning of Biblical stories is always the most important question. The alternative of fixating on whether it happened in this way will likely lead one astray.<br />
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Mark's Easter story is very brief but he provides us with the first narrative of Easter. He does not report any appearance of the risen Jesus and the story ends very abruptly. His story starts with the women who saw Jesus' death and burial going to the tomb to anoint his body, concerned as to who will roll away the stone covering the entrance to the tomb. As they arrive, their question becomes irrelevant. They saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled back. They enter the tomb, somewhat tentatively we might guess, to discover a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side. We generally interpret that young man as an angel, but even that word is loaded with countless unhelpful images of wings and harps and halos thanks to medieval artists. Let's be clear: an angel is God's messenger. Let's strip away the fanciful appearance. He says to them "Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him."<br />
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Mark then tells us that the women were given a commission: "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you." Though Mark does not recount any stories of the risen Jesus the stage is nevertheless set for such events. Then Mark's story abruptly ends. <i>So the women went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.</i> This ending was deemed unsuitable as early as the second century and so a second ending was added in vs 9-20.<br />
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Without denying any factual accuracy of the story, let's look at this section as parable. It is powerfully evocative.<br />
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* Jesus was sealed in a tomb, but the tomb could not hold him and the stone has been rolled away.<br />
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* Jesus is not to be found in the land of the dead. "He is not here. Look this is the place where they laid him." <br />
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* Jesus has been raised. God's messenger tells the women this. Jesus who was crucified by the authorities has been raised by God.<br />
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* God has said Yes to Jesus and No to the powers who killed him. God has vindicated Jesus.<br />
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* His followers are promised You will see him.<br />
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* The command "Go back to Galilee" means go back to where the story began, to the start of the Gospel.<br />
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What do we hear at the start of the gospel? We hear about the way of the kingdom.<br />
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Without the emphasis on Easter as God's decisive reversal of the authorities verdict on Jesus, the cross is simply pain, agony and horror. It leads to a horrific theology: God's judgement means that we all deserve to suffer like this, but Jesus died in our place. God can spare us because Jesus is the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. It also leads to a skewed view of the current world where we conclude that the powers are in control and Christianity is about the next world, not this one.<br />
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Easter as the reversal of Good Friday, on the other hand, means God's vindication of Jesus' passion for the Kingdom of God, for God's justice and God's "no" to the powers who killed him, powers still very much alive in our world. Easter is about God as much as it is about Jesus. Easter discloses the character of God. Easter means God's great cleansing has begun, but it will not happen without us in terms of personal transformation and political transformation: dying to the old way of being and being reborn into a new way of being. In short, being born again."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-22896075709958410702014-04-17T13:19:00.003+01:002014-04-17T13:19:43.785+01:00A Meditation for Holy Saturday using The Creed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After detailing every day from Palm Sunday through to Good Friday, Mark says nothing at all about the Sabbath then picks up the story on Easter Sunday with the finding of the empty tomb. What about the day we call Holy Saturday? Was there nothing to say about that day in earliest Christian tradition? If we, as Christians, have followed Mark's silence about today, have we lost something in the process?<br />
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We can see very clearly what Mark has omitted by looking at the Apostles Creed<br />
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Friday Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried.<br />
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<i><b>Saturday He descended into hell.</b></i><br />
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Sunday The third day he rose again from the dead.<br />
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The descent into hell is not to the later Christian place of eternal punishment, but the Jewish Sheol, the afterlife place of non-existence, the grave writ large. What is the meaning of that event?<br />
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As Mark set out to describe Jesus' execution he was working within Jewish tradition that had always emphasised how God vindicated those righteous Jews who remained faithful under persecution and were ready, if necessary, to die as martyrs for their faith in God. In the Apocryphal book of Wisdom we read But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be a destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. (3.1-4) It is such theology which is behind the gospel stories of Jesus death and vindication. First Jesus is mocked by passers by, by the authorities, and even by those crucified with him for the lack of preemptive divine intervention to save him from death on the cross.<br />
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Then we recall future vindication from several places in Mark's text. Apart from three prophecies of death by execution and vindication by resurrection in 8.31, 9.31 and 10.33-34, the promise of vindication is repeated in 13.26, They will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory, and again in 14.62, You will see the Son of Man at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven. This is post-death public vindication which was in accordance with the scriptures for all who knew their tradition.<br />
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Scholars have debated whether that divine salvation refers to the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the body. If, as in Biblical tradition, your faith tells you that this world belongs to and is ruled by a just divinity and your experience tells you that that the world belongs to and is ruled by an unjust humanity, eschatology becomes almost inevitable as the reconciliation of faith and experience. God, you believe, will transform this world of violence and injustice into one of nonviolence and justice. God will act - indeed must act - to make new and holy a world grown old in evil.<br />
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Eschatology is absolutely not about the end of this world, but rather about the end of this world's subjection to to evil and impurity, injustice, violence and oppression. It is not about the evacuation of earth for God's heaven, but about the divine transfiguration of God's earth.<br />
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How then did the claim of general bodily resurrection, surely the most counter intuitive idea imaginable, become part of that scenario of cosmic transfiguration? The general reason was because the renewal of an all-good creation here below upon this earth demanded it. How could you have a renewed creation without renewed bodies? That magnificent vision of a transformed flesh as well as as a renewed spirit, demanded transfigured bodies as well as perfect souls.<br />
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The specific reason for bodily resurrection became part of the scenario was related to martyrdom, particularly in the 160s BC in the Seleucid persecutions. The question was not about their survival but about God's justice when faced specifically with the battered, tortured and executed bodies of martyrs. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12.2)<br />
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Those general and specific reasons had come together in apocalyptic eschatology and Pharisaic theology at the time of Jesus. When God's great cleansing happened the first order of business was the general resurrection. Since God's purpose was to establish a just and non-violent world, it had to deal with the past before it could deal with the future and there was already a great backlog of injustice that had to be redeemed, a great crowd of martyrs who had to be vindicated.<br />
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If you believed as Jesus did and as Mark wrote, that the Kingdom of God was already here on earth, you were claiming that God's great cleansing had already started, then the bodily resurrection and vindication could indeed begin with Jesus at the head of those others who had died unjustly, or at least righteously before him. This is what Jesus' descent into hell was all about. That is what Jesus had to do on Holy Saturday."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-43073725690298349012014-04-17T13:16:00.001+01:002014-04-18T09:23:33.178+01:00A Meditation for Good Friday: A day of pain and suffering. Mark 15.1-47<br />
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<strong>Mark 15.1-47</strong><br />
<em>As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed. </em><br />
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<em>Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.</em><em> </em><em>Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. </em><em></em> <em>They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. </em><em></em> <em>It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. </em><em></em> <em>When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!</em><em>" </em><em>There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem. </em><em></em><br />
<em>When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.</em><br />
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We refer to today as Good Friday out of sheer habit and familiarity. There was nothing "good" about it in one sense, but in another today was the day, as Christians have affirmed for centuries, when, despite its horror, the redemption of the world was accomplished. Many of us have a preunderstanding about today based on a cultural exposure to Christianity, arising out of centuries of Christian observance and of theological reflection about the death of Jesus, although that is less and less the case with each passing generation.<br />
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The best known understanding of Jesus' death emphasizes its substitutionary sacrificial nature: he died for the sins of the world because we are all sinners. In order for God to forgive sins, such a sacrifice must be made but it would not have been adequate for any ordinary human being to have been the sacrifice, because such a person, as a sinner, could only be dying for their own sins. Therefore the sacrifice must not be a sinner, but a perfect human being. Only Jesus, who was not only human but the Son of God, was perfect, sinless and without blemish. Thus he is the sacrifice acceptable to God and the sacrifice which makes our forgiveness possible.<br />
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For most of us this understanding is part of the landscape of our religious upbringing and is reinforced by our hymns and liturgies which commonly use the language of substitutionary sacrifice. It has become the official line and is defended by the church, including many who hold a degree of scepticism towards it.<br />
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We need, therefore to recognise that this is not the only Christian understanding of Jesus' death and that it took more than a thousand years for it to become dominant, appearing in its current form for the first time in a book by Anselm of Canterbury in 1097. This common Christian understanding goes far beyond what the New Testament says, even given its use of sacrificial language: the N.T. writers also see Jesus' execution as the domination system's "no" to Jesus (and God), as a defeat of the powers that rule this world by disclosing their moral bankruptcy, as revelation of the path of transformation, and a disclosure of the depth of God's love for us.<br />
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As we approach today, then, we might need to aware of how our theological preconceptions can get in the way of what Mark is saying. Perhaps it would help us to recognise that we often see Jesus' death as a composite of the gospels as we do with Christmas, getting our inns, angels, shepherds and wise men all mixed up. Each narrative differs in some respects: only Matthew has Pilate washing his hands of Jesus and the cry of the crowd His blood be upon us and our children. Only Luke has Jesus appearing before Herod Antipas as well as three of the "last" words of Jesus. In John's gospel we have much more dialogue between Jesus and Pilate and John also adds more "last" words as Jesus addresses his mother and John. In addition our composite understanding is informed by the language of St. Paul (whose letters predate the gospels) and the author of the letter to the Hebrews where Jesus is the Great High Priest who offers himself as a sacrifice. Paul's letters are not narratives, though, and thus do not include a story of Good Friday. Indeed Paul's language contain a number of interpretations of the significance of Jesus' death.<br />
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In order to understand Mark we need to set aside all these filters.<br />
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Even so, although Mark's Gospel is the earliest, we must not imagine his story to be free of post-Easter interpretation because it combines retrospective interpretation with history remembered. However, there is no theology of substitutionary sacrifice in Mark's gospel: dying for the sins of the world is not there at all in Mark. Even when Jesus says in 10.45 that he came to give his life as a ransom for many the Greek word translated as sacrifice (lutron) is used in the Bible not in the context of payment for sin but to refer to payment made to liberate captives or slaves. A lutron is a means of liberation from bondage. So now we have The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a means of liberation for many. The difference may seem subtle, but it is there. Could this be semantics and the liberation is actually from sin? Of course that interpretation could be made, but it is not what Mark is saying.<br />
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Mark tells his story in bite-sized chunks of three hours to reflect the Roman military watches (or maybe his original audience had a limited concentration span.)<br />
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<b>6am to 9am</b>: As day breaks, the local collaborators - chief priests, elders and scribes - hand Jesus over to Pilate who interrogates him. Are you the King of the Jews? with some mocking emphasis on you no doubt. We might also hear a mocking tone in Jesus' response You say so. Jesus says nothing else which would surely have enraged a man like Pilate, unused to insubordination. Jesus shows courage in this strategy.<br />
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Pilate then offers to release Barabbas instead of Jesus. This seems an odd thing to do with its risk of releasing a known rebel. Perhaps we need to remember who the first audience was for Mark's Gospel in AD70. Both Barabbas and Jesus defied imperial authority: Barabbas advocated violent resistance and Jesus, non-violent resistance. By the year AD66 the Jerusalem crowd had chosen Barabbas' way and the Roman destruction of the temple would still have been fresh in the minds of Mark's audience. Mark uses this "incident" to underline a point.<br />
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Mark tells us the the temple authorities stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. These were not the same crowds who had heard Jesus with supportive delight during the week: Mark gives us no reason to believe that this crowd had turned against Jesus, indeed it is highly unlikely that the earlier crowd, so supportive of Jesus would be allowed into Herod's palace. This crowd, stirred up by the chief priests, would have been likely to have been much smaller and was probably a version of rent-a-mob provided by the authorities. So when Pilate asks Then what do you want me to do with the man you call King of the Jews, the crowd respond Crucify him.<br />
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Jesus is handed over to Pilate's soldiers who, in time honoured fashion, torture and humiliate him. Then they conduct a mock coronation, dressing him in a purple robe, placing a crown of thorns on his head and hailing him King of the Jews. Then the humiliation continues as they strike him and spit on him, then they undress him again and lead him out to be crucified. Exhausted as he was, Jesus was unable to carry the bar of his cross to the place of execution and a passer by, Simon of Cyrene, was press-ganged to help.<br />
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<b>9am to Noon</b>: Mark doesn't bother with the details of the crucifixion. He didn't need to because his community were all too familiar with this process of imperial terrorism. This was a barbaric, agonising and drawn-out punishment, its public nature aimed to be a deterrent. What made it the supreme punishment was not just the amount of suffering or even humiliation involved but the idea that there might not even be enough left for burial: victims were often crucified low enough to the ground that not only carrion birds but scavenging dogs could reach them and they were often left on the cross until little was left of their bodies for burial.<br />
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On the cross an inscription was placed: The King of the Jews. Pilate surely intended it to be derisive although it has served to be accurate from the vantage point of Christianity. Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified between two bandits, not robbers or thieves. Bandits is a term commonly used for guerrillas or freedom-fighters so their presence in the story reminds us that crucifixion was used specifically for those who systematically refused to accept imperial Roman authority. Ordinary criminals were not executed.<br />
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<b>Noon to 3pm</b>: Jesus has been on the cross for three hours and the next three hours are dealt with simply in the phrase When it was noon, darkness came over the land until three in the afternoon. As astronomers can tell us exactly when and where eclipses have taken place Mark can not be referring to such darkness. We could argue for a particular intervention by God at this point but such a darkness would not have gone unremarked in contemporary writings and there is no such reference. Instead the darkness is a byproduct of Mark's use of religious symbolism. In the ancient world, highly significant events on earth were were accompanied by signs in the sky and such images appeared in Mark's own sacred text, the Jewish scriptures. What was Mark's intention? To convey grief? Suffering? Mourning? Judgement?<br />
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<b>3pm to 6pm</b>: At 3pm or shortly thereafter Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. Mark has Jesus uttering a cry of desolation My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? in a quotation from Ps 22. In another piece of symbolism Mark gives us the curtain of the temple, the curtain which separated the holiest place from the rest of the sanctuary, tearing in two - access to the presence of God is now open and Jesus has allowed access to God apart from the temple.<br />
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At the same time the centurion guarding the cross exclaims Truly this man was the son of God. This is most significant because according to Roman imperial theology the emperor was Son of God, one who brought salvation and peace on earth. Now, however, a representative of Rome affirms that this man Jesus, executed by the empire, is the Son of God.<br />
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Where are Jesus' followers at this point? The men have fled leaving the faithful women who can only watch from behind the barriers. It is these and other women disciples who are the key players in the story from now on. They witness Jesus death; they follow the body and note where it is buried; they are the first to go to the tomb on the Sunday for completion of funeral rites and experience the news of Easter. Are they there merely because they would not arouse the suspicion of the authorities when the men would have, or is there another reason? Jewish and Gentile women of this period were subservient. Jesus and the early Christian movement subverted the conventions of the day. Sadly the church has denied this subversion but it is prominently here for all to see in this most significant of elements in the climactic events of Jesus' execution.<br />
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There is a remarkable departure from the standard practice as Joseph of Arimathea seeks and gains permission to take the body down and remove it for burial. Mark has Joseph as a respected member of the council who was also waiting for the Kingdom of God and we can perhaps surmise a sympathy for Jesus here. In the other gospels his status is changed to that of an active disciple. Whatever Joseph's history the stage is now set for Easter morning.<br />
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"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-83104196411704692312014-04-17T11:45:00.002+01:002014-04-17T13:31:30.699+01:00A Meditation for Maundy Thursday: A secret meal, prayer, betrayal and arrest. Mark 14.17-72<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong>Mark 14-17-72</strong></div>
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<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></sup><em>And when it was evening he came with the twelve. <span class="text Mark-14-18" id="en-RSV-24763"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And as they were at table eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” </span> <span class="text Mark-14-19" id="en-RSV-24764"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>They began to be sorrowful, and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” </span> <span class="text Mark-14-20" id="en-RSV-24765"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-21" id="en-RSV-24766">For the Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”</span></em><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-22"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And as they were eating, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” </span> <span class="text Mark-14-23" id="en-RSV-24768"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-24" id="en-RSV-24769"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-25" id="en-RSV-24770"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Truly, I say to you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”</span></em><br />
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<em><span class="text Mark-14-26">And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. </span> And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ <span class="text Mark-14-28" id="en-RSV-24773"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-29" id="en-RSV-24774"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-30" id="en-RSV-24775"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” </span> <span class="text Mark-14-31" id="en-RSV-24776">But he said vehemently, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.</span></em><br />
<span class="text Mark-14-31"></span><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-32">And they went to a place which was called Gethsem′ane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I pray.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-33" id="en-RSV-24778"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. </span><span class="text Mark-14-34" id="en-RSV-24779"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch.”<sup> </sup></span><span class="text Mark-14-35" id="en-RSV-24780"><sup> </sup>And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. </span><span class="text Mark-14-36" id="en-RSV-24781"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-37" id="en-RSV-24782"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? </span><span class="text Mark-14-38" id="en-RSV-24783"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-39" id="en-RSV-24784"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-40" id="en-RSV-24785">And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer him. </span><span class="text Mark-14-41" id="en-RSV-24786"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And he came the third time, and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come; the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. </span><span class="text Mark-14-42" id="en-RSV-24787"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”</span></em><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-42"></span></em><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-42"></span></em><em><span class="text Mark-14-43">And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. </span><span class="text Mark-14-44" id="en-RSV-24789"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I shall kiss is the man; seize him and lead him away under guard.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-45" id="en-RSV-24790"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And when he came, he went up to him at once, and said, “Master!”<sup> </sup> And he kissed him. </span><span class="text Mark-14-46" id="en-RSV-24791"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And they laid hands on him and seized him. </span><span class="text Mark-14-47" id="en-RSV-24792"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. </span><span class="text Mark-14-48" id="en-RSV-24793"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? </span><span class="text Mark-14-49" id="en-RSV-24794"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-50" id="en-RSV-24795"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And they all forsook him, and fled. </span></em><em><span class="text Mark-14-51" id="en-RSV-24796">And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, </span> <span class="text Mark-14-52" id="en-RSV-24797">but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.</span></em><br />
<span class="text Mark-14-52"></span><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-53">And they led Jesus to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled. </span><span class="text Mark-14-54" id="en-RSV-24799"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the guards, and warming himself at the fire. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-55" id="en-RSV-24800">Now the chief priests and the whole council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none. </span><span class="text Mark-14-56" id="en-RSV-24801"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>For many bore false witness against him, and their witness did not agree. </span><span class="text Mark-14-57" id="en-RSV-24802"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, </span> <span class="text Mark-14-58" id="en-RSV-24803">“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” </span><span class="text Mark-14-59" id="en-RSV-24804"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>Yet not even so did their testimony agree. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-60" id="en-RSV-24805">And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” </span><span class="text Mark-14-61" id="en-RSV-24806"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” </span><span class="text Mark-14-62" id="en-RSV-24807"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And Jesus said, “I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-63" id="en-RSV-24808"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>And the high priest tore his garments, and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? </span><span class="text Mark-14-64" id="en-RSV-24809"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. </span> <span class="text Mark-14-65" id="en-RSV-24810">And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.</span></em><br />
<span class="text Mark-14-65"></span><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-14-66">And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the maids of the high priest came; </span><span class="text Mark-14-67" id="en-RSV-24812"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-68" id="en-RSV-24813"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway.<sup> </sup></span><span class="text Mark-14-69" id="en-RSV-24814"><sup> </sup>And the maid saw him, and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” </span> <span class="text Mark-14-70" id="en-RSV-24815">But again he denied it. And after a little while again the bystanders said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean.” </span><span class="text Mark-14-71" id="en-RSV-24816"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” </span> </em><span class="text Mark-14-72" id="en-RSV-24817"><em>And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept</em>.</span><br />
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Mark's story of Jesus' last week moves towards its climax. On Wednesday Jesus had been anointed for burial by a woman disciple and betrayed to the authorities by one of the twelve men closest to him. On Thursday, the events set in motion by Wednesday unfold<em>. </em>Holy Thursday is full of drama. In the evening Jesus eats a final meal with his followers and prays for deliverance in Gethsemane; he is betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and deserted by the rest. Arrested in the darkness he is interrogated and condemned to death by the High Priest and his council, the local collaborators with imperial authority. All of this happens before dawn on Friday.<br />
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Details of this passage recall the preparations for Jesus' entry into the city on Palm Sunday. In both cases Jesus sends two of his disciples, tells them what to look for and instructs them what to say. In this case the preplanning has to do with secrecy: Mark has Jesus withhold from Judas the precise location of the meal so that Judas can not tell the authorities where Jesus is during this meal. This meal matters and Judas must not be allowed to interfere with its completion.<br />
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As Mark tells the story, Jesus knows what will happen. How could he not? He must have known that the noose was tightening, that the cross was approaching. He was not oblivious to the hostility of the authorities and no doubt saw his arrest and execution as inevitable.<br />
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With the arrival of evening Jesus and the disciples come to the upstairs room where the arrangements have been made. This final meal has multiple resonances of meaning: it projects backwards to the public activity of Jesus and forward into his death and the post Easter life of Christianity. Jesus' Last Supper will be the First Supper of the future.<br />
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We need to remember that Jesus had been repeatedly criticised for eating with tax collectors and sinners. The issue is that Jesus eats with undesirables: with the marginalised and outcast in a society which had sharp social boundaries. It had both religious and political significance: religious because it was done in the name of the Kingdom of God and political because it affirmed a very different vision of society.<br />
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As Mark narrates what Jesus did at the meal, he uses four verbs: took, blessed, broke and gave. These four words take us back to an earlier scene concerning food in which Jesus feeds five thousand people with two loaves and three fish. Mark's emphasis on a just distribution of what does not belong to us links that event to the emphasis on the loaf of bread and the cup of wine that are shared amongst all in the New Passover meal. Once again Jesus distributes food already present to all who are there and we might even assume a wider group of followers than the inner twelve.<br />
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As a Passover meal, Jesus' Last Supper resonates with the story of the Exodus from Egypt, his people's story of their birth as a nation. A story of bondage, deliverance and liberation, it was their primordial narrative, the most important story they knew because it was, and remains, the celebration of God's greatest act of deliverance.<br />
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Mark's version of the Last Supper leaves the connection to Passover implicit. What makes it explicit is the connection to Jesus' impending death and it does so with the "words of institution", familiar to us through their use in the Eucharist. The language of body and blood points to a violent death and without that it would not have been possible to talk of Jesus' death as a blood sacrifice. A correlation between Jesus as the new Paschal Lamb and this final meal as the New Passover becomes possible. The point is neither suffering nor substitution but participation with God through gift or meal.<br />
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Earlier in Mark (10.45) Jesus had said The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That liberation, redemption or salvation is echoed here in Jesus' statement "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." What is not immediately clear is how that is accomplished for many until we recall the challenge (8.34-35) If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the Gospel will save it. In other words it was by participation with Jesus and, even more, in Jesus that his followers were to pass through death to resurrection. It is to be noted then that all of the twelve, including Judas partake of the meal: participation in Christ not substitution by Christ.<br />
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Turning to Jesus' arrest: again we have the theme of failed discipleship as the disciples, seemingly untouched by Jesus' agitation and distress, are unable to support him through that night. Of course Jesus does not want to go through with it. Who would? Yet he gives himself over to God - "Not what I want but what you want."<br />
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I think we need to be clear that Jesus' death was not the will of God: it is never God's will that the righteous suffer. The prayer reflects not a fatalistic resignation to the will of God, but a trusting in God in the midst of the most dire of circumstances as a forerunner to Peter, Paul, Thecla and Perpetua and to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the nuns of El Salvador.<br />
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Judas now knows the plans for the rest of the evening. He has already left the meal and now Jesus can be arrested in the darkness away from the crowd. He leads the crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, the limited paramilitary force allowed to the temple authorities by the Romans. This is not the group Jesus has spent the week in conflict with, merely their enforcers so Judas has to identify Jesus for them to be able to effect an arrest. Why would they know which one Jesus is? He does this with a kiss of greeting and betrayal. There is a scuffle and one of Jesus' followers uses a sword against the temple police. Is this another example of the failure of the disciples in Mark's eyes? In any event Jesus isn't standing for it in his name. "Put your sword back; for all who take the sword will perish by it." In the general mele the disciples flee the scene anxious not to share their leader's fate, not to be heard of again until after Easter with the exception of Peter who at least follows the arresting group, presumably at some distance. We hear of Peter next after the trial in his famous denial "I do not know this man you are talking about!" We shouldn't be too hard on Peter. In our own ways and with our own words and actions or, indeed, in our silences, we too have denied Jesus or played down our association out of expedience. But we jump ahead of ourselves. <br />
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Neither do we hear of Judas again: it is left to the other gospels to explain that Judas has an attack of conscience and tries to return the blood money the religious authorities had paid him to betray Jesus. It is left to Matthew to introduce Judas' suicide.<br />
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So we reach the trial. We need to remember that according to Mark there were no overt followers of Jesus there. Is the account of the trial a Markan construct or can we surmise a sympathiser at the trial who later reported back? We also need to remember that the Sanhedrin, made up of collaborators as it was, didn't represent the view of the people who so far had been on Jesus' side.<br />
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It is not a good start to the trial from the perspective of the authorities: the witnesses lie and disagree amongst themselves. It says something about the Sanhedrin's "commitment to justice" that the trial went ahead from this point. However, in the absence of the three adult male witnesses who needed to agree for a charge to progress, the High Priest goes for a direct confession and challenges Jesus one to one. In response to the question Are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed one? Jesus responds, we are told, quoting Daniel with "I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power." On this basis Jesus is found guilty and the High Priest tears his robe as a sign that blasphemy has taken place. Jesus is condemned to death and the emotional and physical abuse begins. He will now be handed over to Pilate. It is not yet daybreak. The end - and the beginning - are near."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-17783079335332325892014-04-16T07:44:00.001+01:002014-04-17T13:27:58.000+01:00A meditation for the Wednesday of Holy Week: The scent of betrayal. Mark 14.1-11<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em> </em><strong>Mark 14.1-11</strong><em> </em><br />
<em>Now after two days was the feast of the Passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him with subtlety, and kill him: <sup>2</sup> for they said, Not during the feast, lest haply there shall be a tumult of the people. <sup>3</sup> And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; and she brake the cruse, and poured it over his head. <sup>4</sup> But there were some that had indignation among themselves, saying, To what purpose hath this waste of the ointment been made? <sup>5</sup> For this ointment might have been sold for above three hundred shillings, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her. <sup>6</sup> But Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. <sup>7</sup> For ye have the poor always with you, and whensoever ye will ye can do them good: but me ye have not always. <sup>8</sup> She hath done what she could; she hath anointed my body beforehand for the burying. <sup>9</sup> And verily I say unto you, Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. <sup>10</sup> And Judas Iscariot, he that was one of the twelve, went away unto the chief priests, that he might deliver him unto them. <sup>11</sup> And they, when they heard it, were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently deliver him unto them.</em> <br />
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Once again Mark uses a frame for the main story. The frame is the need for a betrayer and Judas' adoption of that role set around the main incident of the woman and the jar of perfume. <br />
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The religious authorities want Jesus executed but are deterred from overt action because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. Following his prophetic and symbolic actions in first, his entrance into Jerusalem to establish God's non-violence against imperial domination and second, his entrance into the temple to establish God's justice against high-priestly collaboration, the crowd currently stands with Jesus against their own religious authorities who oppose him.<br />
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The religious authorities need to act in stealth to kill him for they said Not during the Passover, or there may be a riot among the people. They can not arrest him during the festival and after it he would be gone. They give up - unless they can find out where he is apart from the crowd and that leaves 14.2 hanging in the air for the arrival of Judas, the stealthy one, in v10.<br />
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One of the things about Mark's Gospel is Mark's relentless criticisms of the disciples for being dense: all too often they simply don't get it. Mark's story of failed discipleship is his gift to us today. We must think of Lent as a penitential period because we know that, like the first disciples, we would like to avoid the implication of the journey with Jesus. We would like its Holy Week conclusion to be about the interior rather than the exterior life, about heaven rather than about earth, about the future rather than the present and above all, about religion safely and securely quarantined from all wider manifestations of politics. Confronting violent political power and unjust religious collaboration is dangerous in all times and places. Just look today at how the African churches are treating LGBT Christians as a simple contemporary example.<br />
<br />
Mark's criticism of the disciples is used to good effect as it is now set against the actions of the unnamed woman and her alabaster jar of perfume. She alone seems to have understood Jesus' prophecies of his death and resurrection, has believed them and acted accordingly: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. She is for Mark the first believer and for us the first Christian. She believed the word of Jesus before any discovery of an empty tomb. Hence the unique and supreme praise for her as the first believer and model leader. She represents the perfect disciple-leader and is in contrast to Judas, who represents the worst one possible.<br />
<br />
It is worth noting that Mark does not deal at all with Judas' motivation and he is always referred to as Judas, one of the twelve. His betrayal is simply the worst example of how those closest to him failed him dismally in Jerusalem. That is a salutary thought for all disciples today.<br />
<br />
And so Wednesday ends and the plot has been set in motion."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-15485723079532593102014-04-15T13:35:00.001+01:002015-08-04T16:11:16.074+01:00Teaching Holy Week to 12 year olds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
</o:p></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">For the past
few weeks here at the Knowledge College, we have been looking at Easter Themes
with Yr 8. The lack of background knowledge is gobsmacking. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"What do you mean Lent? What did he
lend?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My one Asian
student in this class has a better grasp of the events of Holy Week than any of
the indigenous kids. (There's probably an M.Phil in there somewhere.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Maths pal Karl has been winding my kids up
as they come into the room. "Do you believe in God?" he asks them in
turn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The general consensus is that they don't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"There
you go then" he says looking at me as if he has just won the Oxford Union
debate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">What? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">WHAT?</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We begin the
lesson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"But I
thought Jesus was a Christian." Donna is trying to brush her hair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Let's think about that for a minute.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We spend a
little time discussing Jesus' Jewishness and the theory that he wasn't setting
out to found a new religion so much as to reform the one he was born into. This
is clearly a new idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"So where did Christianity come from
then?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We discuss -
or perhaps more to the point I spell out - how the Disciples were turned away
from the synagogues for their heresy and how this little Jewish sect began to
take on its own identity which ultimately led to a recognisably new set-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Was Jesus an epileptic?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I'm sorry?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"You
know: epileptics can have this huge strength so he could of (sic) moved the
stone."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This is the
point at which the relentless and totally illogical 12 year old imagination
runs riot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Yeah and he could've escaped and bribed
the soldiers and crossed the border and lived in witness protection for the
rest of his life."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>You've been watching too much Law and
Order. Just remind me what sort of state Jesus would have been in after the
crucifixion. </em>(In an earlier lesson we had been watching the scourging and
crucifixion scenes from The Passion of The Christ.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>By which I
mean dead.</em><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(If, dear Reader, you have
seen those scenes, and managed to sit through them, you'll know just what an
excoriatingly appalling set of circumstances Mel Gibson portrays.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"But he could of (sic) recovered."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So hang on. With shock, blood-loss,
dehydration, sun-stroke, a severe beating, nails through his hands and feet and
a spear in his side, he's going to revive, find the strength to move the stone
and leg it?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yeah."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">With Roman Soldiers on guard?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"They were in on it."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"They felt sorry for him."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The Disciples helped him."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Hang on. Where did we last see the
Disciples?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"They were running away from the
garden."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As in frightened?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Yeah."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And....?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Well they got brave again."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Brave enough to take on the
disciplined soldiers of the greatest fighting machine then known to man?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"But they were in on it."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"No. The disciples killed them and put on
their uniforms."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And, what? Lived the rest of their
lives pretending to be Roman soldiers?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Yeah. Why not?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, just remind me. Why did the
Disciples steal the body?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Because they wanted it to have a decent
burial."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He already had a decent burial. He
was buried in a rich man's tomb rather than left to rot in a communal ditch to
be eaten by scavenging dogs which often happened. All he needed was for the
women to complete the funeral rites.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"No, right. He was in a cave. Maybe a
bear or rats ate him."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And left no bones?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"They
were hungry."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We go on to Google and look at pictures of
First Century tombs, interior and exterior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So not a cave, then? Now, where were
we? Ah yes, the Disciples rebury the body secretly and within the next thirty
five years most of them go to their deaths for preaching the Resurrection? I
can't see it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"No, no. Don't kill me. I was
only joking. He didn't really rise from the dead. I was only messing about. We
buried him outside Nazareth. April fool. Ha ha ha."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">No. Not seeing it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Well
you come up with a better idea."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Could I suggest we consider the
Resurrection?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No. This is clearly not a welcome idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">All I'm suggesting is that if God
exists and he is capable of doing what religious people claim, then anything is
possible.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"And
what" triumphantly "If God doesn't exist. Ha?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Then we still have a mystery and you
still have to come up with a better explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The Romans stole the body."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Why?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I dunno."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">You need to think about it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Why?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Look, that's not good enough. The
onus is on you to explain what happened.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Well the Romans were just mean and it
was a nasty trick."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Hmm. I quite like that but it still
doesn't work.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Why not?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Surely when the Disciples had been
fooled into believing that Jesus had risen from the dead all the Romans had to
do was to produce the remains to prove them wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"THIS IS TOO HARD!!!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Sir,
were Jesus' followers on Twitter."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes. @Jesus' Crew.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Really?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I don't believe in God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">That's fine. It still doesn't explain
where the body went.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I know, right. The guy whose tomb it
was, right? He had a set of secret tunnels at the back of the tomb."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And where did Jesus go?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Dewsbury Hospital. Ha ha ha."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">"Shut
up Tom. You're a div!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Why would the tomb owner do that?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Because he wanted Jesus' body."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But no-one knew in advance he would
offer them his tomb. What? So he kept the body?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Yeah."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">What? Like people do? Anyway, do you
not think the Romans would have scoured that tomb?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"No"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Really?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I don't believe in God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes, I think we've established that.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I look around at their expectant little faces
and wonder what Dan Brown must have looked like when he was twelve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I don't see why we have to do
this."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Still,”
says Karl after the event, “It could’ve been worse. While you were doing that I
had set seven. I wan’t you to draw this hexagon at a scale of two to one. What
does that mean to you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I venture,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> you want it twice as big.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“Exactly.
And at any stage did I say draw it five times bigger and add in two extra
sides?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Oh well,
maybe R.S. isn’t so bad after all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span> </span><br />"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-48990543407771900662014-04-15T12:53:00.001+01:002014-04-17T13:28:28.859+01:00A Meditation for the Tuesday in Holy Week: Jesus and the coin. Mark 12.13-17<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="heading passage-class-0">
<h3>
Mark 12:13-17</h3>
<div class="txt-sm">
<span class="text Mark-12-13" id="en-NIVUK-24687"></span> </div>
</div>
<div class="passage version-NIVUK result-text-style-normal text-html ">
<em><span class="text Mark-12-13"><sup class="versenum">13 </sup>Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. </span> <span class="text Mark-12-14" id="en-NIVUK-24688"><sup class="versenum">14 </sup>They came to him and said, ‘Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not? </span> <span class="text Mark-12-15" id="en-NIVUK-24689"><sup class="versenum">15 </sup>Should we pay or shouldn’t we?’</span></em><br />
<em><span class="text Mark-12-15">But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. <span class="woj">‘Why are you trying to trap me?’</span> he asked. <span class="woj">‘Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.’</span> </span> <span class="text Mark-12-16" id="en-NIVUK-24690"><sup class="versenum">16 </sup>They brought the coin, and he asked them, <span class="woj">‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’</span></span></em><br />
<span class="text Mark-12-16"><em>‘Caesar’s,’ they replied.</em></span><br />
<span class="text Mark-12-17" id="en-NIVUK-24691"><em><sup class="versenum">17 </sup>Then Jesus said to them, <span class="woj">‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’</span></em></span><br />
<span class="text Mark-12-17"><em>And they were amazed at him.</em></span><br />
<span class="text Mark-12-17"></span><br />
<span class="text Mark-12-17"></span>All day long on this very busy Tuesday Jesus is engaged in confrontation. The priests, Pharisees, and Scribes and even the Sadducees have been bombarding Jesus with theological questions in both hypothetical situations and very real, politically charged situations. All day long Jesus has been confounding them, telling parables that point out their failings and cleverly evading their attempts to discredit him. And somewhere in the middle of the day a scribe, an educated man employed by the priests or Pharisees, asks a question and agrees with Jesus’ answer. There is no confrontation, no test, no effort to make Jesus look bad or to incriminate himself. This is the only such situation all day. </div>
<br />
Jesus is challenged in the temple court before the crowd over paying taxes to Caesar. There is a fawning approach to Jesus Teacher, we know you are sincere and show deference to no one. This passage has reasonably been understood as a comment on the importance of keeping an appropriate relationship and distance between religious and civil authorities: we are to render to God and we are to render to Caesar. Some have argued that Jesus' response is a tacit acceptance that we are to be obedient to the state whatever it requires of us, but to see the passage this narrowly misses the wider context of attack, parry and counter attack, trap, escape and counter trap.<br />
<br />
Should we pay taxes to Caesar was a volatile question that went to the heart of Israel's status as a subservient nation. Either answer would get Jesus into trouble: if he were to answer no, he could be charged with denying Roman authority - in short with sedition. If he were to answer yes, he risked discrediting himself with the crowd who resented Roman rule and taxation. Perhaps the plan was to separate Jesus from the crowd and undermine his support.<br />
<br />
His response is clever and turns the situation back on his questioners: he sets a counter trap when he asks for a denarius which his interrogators produce. Whose head is this, and whose title? This strategy has led his questioners to disclose to the crowd that they have a coin with Caesar's image on it and in this moment they are discredited. Why? In Israel in the first century there were two types of coin: one type, because of the Jewish prohibition of graven images, had no human or animal images. The second type, including Roman coins, did and many Jews would not carry the second type in obedience to Jewish law. But these Pharisees did. The coin they produced had Caesar's image along with the idolatrous inscription heralding Caesar as divine son of God. They are exposed as part of the politics of collaboration and the crowd sees it. Their trap has been evaded and the counter trap sprung.<br />
<br />
His response Give to the emperor the things that are the emperors is a non-answer to their original question. It simply means It's Caesar's coin - give it back to him. This is not an endorsement of paying taxes to the occupying force. The second part of his response, though, is both evocative and provocative: Give to God the things that are God's. It raises the question "What belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God?" Everything belongs to God and by implication, nothing belongs to Caesar."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-65279787004156183812014-04-14T13:43:00.000+01:002014-04-17T13:29:40.368+01:00A Meditation for the Monday of Holy Week: The fig tree and the Temple. Mark 11.12-24<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
<h2 class="passageref">
Mark 11.12-24</h2>
<div class="bibletext">
<em><sup class="ww">12</sup>On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. <sup class="ww">13</sup>Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. <sup class="ww">14</sup>He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. </em><em><sup class="ww">15</sup>Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; <sup class="ww">16</sup>and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. <sup class="ww">17</sup>He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, </em><br />
<blockquote>
<em>‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?<br /><spacer size="10">But you have made it a den of robbers.”</spacer></em></blockquote>
<em><sup class="ww">18</sup>And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. <sup class="ww">19</sup>And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. </em><em><sup class="ww">20</sup>In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. <sup class="ww">21</sup>Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” <sup class="ww">22</sup>Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. <sup class="ww">23</sup>Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. <sup class="ww">24</sup>So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.</em><br />
</div>
Mark begins this Monday with a hungry Jesus looking for fruit on a fig tree, which he then curses for not being in fruit. We are next taken into the Temple in Jerusalem where Jesus effectively closes the place down through his driving out of commercial activity before we return to the fig tree which has withered away to its root.<br />
<br />
It is a mistake to see these as separate incidents: Mark's Gospel often contains pairs of incidents that are intended to be interpreted in the light of one another. Mark emphasises two seemingly contradictory elements in his account of the cursing of the fig tree: on the one hand it was Passover week which would have been late March or early April when the fig tree would not have been in fruit. It was not the season for figs. On the other hand Jesus was hungry and having failed to find fruit, cursed the tree to permanent barrenness. This is Mark's way of warning us to treat the event symbolically rather than literally.<br />
<br />
If we take the incident literally we see a petulant Jesus abusing his divine power, but taken as a parable the fig tree's failure is a cypher for the temple. The framing fig tree warns us that the temple isn't being cleansed but symbolically destroyed and that, in both cases, the problem is a lack of fruit.<br />
<br />
There are some Christians who assume Jesus was objecting to blood sacrifice although this is unlikely. From antiquity human beings knew two basic ways of creating and maintaining relationships with one another - the gift and the meal. How then did they create, maintain or restore good relationships with a divine being? What visible acts could they do to reach an invisible being? Again, they could give a gift or share a meal. In sacrifice as a gift the offerer took a valuable animal or other food and gave it to God by burning it on the altar and the smoke and smell rising upwards symbolized the transition of the gift from earth to heaven.<br />
<br />
In sacrifice as a meal the animal was transferred to God by having its blood poured over the altar and the meat was then returned to the offerer as divine food for a sacred feast with God.<br />
<br />
Neither is about suffering or substitution.<br />
<br />
There may have been an issue with the ambiguity of the temple as both the House of God on earth and the institutional seat of submission to Rome. The temple's ambiguity was, however, far more ancient than any problem with Caiaphas's collusion with Pilate in particular or High Priestly collaboration with Rome in General: it goes back at least a further half a millennium to the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 7 God tells Jeremiah to stand in front of the temple and confront those who enter to worship. Confront them about what? About their false sense of security. They seem to take it for granted that God's presence in the temple guarantees the security of Jerusalem and their own security too. Do you think, charges God through Jeremiah, that divine worship excuses you from divine justice and that all God wants is regular attendance at God's temple rather than an equitable distribution of God's justice? Has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your sight? The people's everyday injustice makes them robbers and they think the temple is their safe house. The temple is not the place where robbery occurs but the place the robbers go for refuge. God does not just insist on justice and worship, but on justice over worship. I hate, I despise your festivals and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies......But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.<br />
<br />
The temple incident involved both an action by Jesus and a teaching that accompanied and explained it. First the action: Jesus began to drive out the buyers and sellers, he overturned the tables of the money changers, he overturned the seats of the dove sellers and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.<br />
<br />
All of these activities were perfectly legitimate and absolutely necessary for the temple's normal functioning. What does it mean then that Jesus stopped the temple's perfectly legitimate sacrificial and fiscal activities? It means that Jesus has shut down the temple but in a symbolic rather than a literal shutdown. <br />
<br />
At this point the Marcan frames of fig tree and temple coalesce. The tree was shut down for the lack of fruit Jesus looked for - and so also was the temple. In the case of the temple it is not cleansing but symbolic destruction, and the fig tree's fate emphasises that meaning.<br />
<br />
Sadly in much modern Christian thought, den is ignored and robbery taken to mean the commerce going on in the outer courts of the temple. This is a symbolic fulfilment of God's threat in Jeremiah. There was nothing wrong with the combination of prayer, worship and sacrifice - they are commanded in the Torah. This is not the problem. God is a God of justice and righteousness and when prayer, worship and sacrifice substitute for justice, God rejects his temple - or, for us today, his church."Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-84395584573014751242014-04-13T14:50:00.001+01:002014-04-17T13:30:27.229+01:00A Meditation for Palm Sunday. Mark 11.1-11Meditations based on<em> The Last Week </em>by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan<br />
<br />
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<b></b><br />
<br />
<h2 class="passageref">
Mark 11.1-11</h2>
<div class="bibletext">
<pp><em>When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples <sup class="ww">2</sup>and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. <sup class="ww">3</sup>If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” <sup class="ww">4</sup>They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, <sup class="ww">5</sup>some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” <sup class="ww">6</sup>They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. <sup class="ww">7</sup>Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. <sup class="ww">8</sup>Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. <sup class="ww">9</sup>Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, </em></pp><br />
<blockquote>
<em>“Hosanna!</em><spacer size="10"><em>Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!<br /><sup class="ww">10</sup></em><spacer size="10"><em>Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!<br />Hosanna in the highest heaven!”</em></spacer></spacer></blockquote>
<em><sup class="ww">11</sup>Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.</em> <br />
<br />
Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30. It was the beginning of the week of Passover. One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession. From the east Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives. His message was about the Kingdom of God and his followers came from the peasant class. On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate the Roman governor entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Pilate's procession proclaimed the power of empire. The two processions embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus' Crucifixion.</div>
<br />
Pilate's military procession was a demonstration of both Roman imperial power and Roman imperial theology. It was standard practice for Roman governors to be present in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival: not out of religious sensitivity but to be in the city in case there was trouble. There often was at Passover, a festival that celebrated the Jewish people's liberation from an earlier empire.<br />
<br />
According to Roman imperial theology the Emperor was not simply ruler of Rome, but the Son of God. For Rome's Jewish subjects, Pilate's procession embodied not only a rival social order, but also a rival theology.<br />
<br />
Jesus' procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city. Pilate's procession embodied the power, glory and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus's procession embodied an alternative vision, the Kingdom of God. The confrontation between these two kingdoms continues through the last week of Jesus life.<br />
<br />
Mark makes it starkly clear that the ruling Jewish elite worked via the tacit approval of the Roman authorities, the domination system, and were therefore collaborators. The local people were oppressed not just by the Romans and their taxes but by the puppet authorities - which included the Temple Authorities whose primary obligation to Rome was loyalty - and their taxes. Caiaphas must have been particularly skillful as he lasted in office for nearly twenty years.<br />
<br />
This was the Jerusalem Jesus entered on Palm Sunday. His message was deeply critical of the temple and the role it had come to play in the domination system of empire and Jesus pronounces forgiveness apart from temple sacrifice. Jesus' message and activity put him in conflict with the temple authorities from the moment he arrived in Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
As we consider Palm Sunday we need to be clear that the conflict which led to Jesus' crucifixion was not Jesus against Judaism. Jesus was part of Judaism not apart from it. His protest is about a domination system legitimated by God. Jesus' is a Jewish voice arguing about what loyalty to the God of Judaism meant.<br />
<br />
Two processions entered Jerusalem that day. Which procession are we in? Which do we yearn to be in? This is the question of Palm Sunday and of the week that is about to unfold. "Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-37392378729444623552014-04-09T12:25:00.005+01:002014-04-09T12:34:37.972+01:00Fingers burnt: the Christian and Social Media<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What did we
do before Social Media? Surely it wasn’t that long ago when we met face to face
or rang each other up – or at a push e-mailed one another.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think I
was late in buying in to social media or in recognising its potential in terms
of mission and evangelism: I remember asking myself why I would need this while
at the same time, given my record as a Luddite, recognising in some vague way
that it would catch on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I resisted
Facebook for a long time but did embrace blogging: I felt I had a voice and, as
a Christian, I had something to say and share. In some self-indulgent, misty
way, I think I saw myself in the tradition of Nick Baines, the Blogging Bishop
and Giles Fraser who tweets, uses Facebook and regularly writes for the
Guardian. My style, as I saw it, was light, observational humour. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I soon found
a network of people willing to discuss – and not all with the same Christian
worldview - and I felt that my knowledge of the world-wide Anglican Communion
and other denominations was greatly enhanced by regular contact with them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, times
have changed: Facebook, Facetime, Twitter, My-space, Pinterest, Instagram and a
whole host of other sites I am not cool enough to know about have brought us closer
together …. while having the potential to drive us further apart. While on the
one hand I have a friend who tweets and Facebooks on the work of his church as
a means of evangelism, on the other hand the world of Christian Social Media is
not for the faint hearted and can be an incredibly combative environment where
no prisoners are taken. On more than one occasion I have been told that my
carefully thought through position on, say, the theology of stewardship and its
link to climate change was an obvious outcome of my “sin darkened mind”. (This
from a Texan). When we view social media from a position of our own discontent,
whatever we find will be coloured with bitterness. There is a real danger at
this point in finding one’s self locked into a dialogue of the deaf where no
one listens because everyone is keen to score points and assert the supremacy
of their own argument. “See how these Christians love one another” to summarise
1 Peter. It can all become very unedifying. There was a wonderful cartoon doing
the rounds on Facebook a while back showing a man hunched over his laptop.
“I’ll be up in a moment darling. I’m just telling someone they’re wrong on the
INTERNET.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the
media, hardly a week goes by without some public figure or other being exposed
for intemperate language in a tweet, followed either by an apology and a
resignation or by an attempt to brazen it out … and a resignation. Do you
remember the priest who tweeted how boring the synod meeting he was attending was?
Social Media seems to have become a largely rule-free zone where people can interact
while accepting minimal personal responsibility for what they write. In the
absence of guidelines for healthy and polite social media etiquette, are we left
to decide our own boundaries for dealing with the many cyber opportunities out
there?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is the
Christian to do? (And I have to declare an interest here because things that I
have written have not always been taken in the spirit in which they were meant.
I believe I’ve learnt from that but I also hope that others have too.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, the
churches have woken up to both the opportunities of Social Media - and its
disadvantages - and diocesan policies now abound.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Like it or
not, social media isn’t going away: all our young people take it for granted.
When the Apostle Paul described what it meant to love others, he specifically
mentioned that love does not boast. That post, that tweet, that picture isn’t
just a picture, it isn’t just a tweet, it’s an opportunity to love others in a
way that reflects Jesus – or it’s an opportunity to show them something quite
different, something that looks nothing like Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what are the pros and cons of
Social Media for the Christian?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How could Social Media best be used
by the church?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
"Sir"http://www.blogger.com/profile/03459619874470824848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2416690019192389583.post-59541812079535611242014-04-07T14:52:00.001+01:002014-04-22T10:20:30.741+01:00Christian Priesthood: an open ended essay ....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J7yn9F0kufQgG7U0nNZiQx68AbziNNMEo7FjUpx9Y19LXQcIo5kUS1Vykg1yN0zoP-ORtHNy3MhZ5_Asdch0yYb6AP70iegmjJbBHd3tdE6jWJf7H03oV7O2aJCh3iwcCtOiw9LwGbGX/s1600/Priest+at+prayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7J7yn9F0kufQgG7U0nNZiQx68AbziNNMEo7FjUpx9Y19LXQcIo5kUS1Vykg1yN0zoP-ORtHNy3MhZ5_Asdch0yYb6AP70iegmjJbBHd3tdE6jWJf7H03oV7O2aJCh3iwcCtOiw9LwGbGX/s1600/Priest+at+prayer.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Historical context:</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> In ancient Israel, priests acted as
mediators between God and his people. They ministered according to God's
instruction and they offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Once a
year, the high priest would enter the holiest part of the temple and offer a
sacrifice for the sins of all the people, including all the priests. Christians
believe that Jesus' priesthood is the fulfilment of that prefigured in the Old
Testament. Confusion arises from the fact that the word “priest” is not used in
the New Testament in relation to the ministry as we have come to understand it:
Apostles, Bishops and Presbyters are never referred to as priests. Jesus alone
is the priest and the whole church is the priesthood. The priest does not so much stand between God and each of us as acts as a midwife to that relationship. In Jesus we see God and humanity coinhere. In other words God's divinity and our humanity permeate each other like a divine-human exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the New
Testament there are two words from which the idea of priesthood seems to
derive: ἱερεύς (hiereus) meaning "sacred one” and πρεσβύτερος
(presbuteros) meaning “elder" or “one who leads”. The New Testament
Epistle to the Hebrews draws a distinction between the Jewish priesthood and
the high priesthood of Jesus, particularly as Jesus was of the House of Judah
and not of the House of Levi; it teaches that the sacrificial atonement by
Jesus has made the Jewish priesthood and its ritual sacrifices redundant. So,
for Christians, Jesus himself is the only high priest, and Christians have no
priesthood apart from participation in the priesthood of Jesus, the head of the
Church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This Epistle
develops the idea of Jesus as supreme "high priest," who offered
himself as a perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 7:23–28). Protestants believe that
through Christ they have been given direct access to God, just like a priest;
so, in opposition to the concept of a spiritual hierarchy within Christianity,
the doctrine is called the priesthood of all believers. God is equally accessible
to all disciples, and every Christian has authority to minister. It is in the
First Epistle of Peter that the idea of church as priesthood is developed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">During the
Reformation, while Luther did not use the exact phrase "priesthood of all
believers," he talked of a general priesthood in the Christian world in
his <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">To the Christian Nobility of the
German Nation</b> in order to dismiss the medieval view that Christians in the
present life were to be divided into two classes: "spiritual" and
"secular". <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That the pope or bishop ….. dresses
differently from the laity ….. in no way makes a Christian or spiritual human
being. In fact, we are all consecrated priests through Baptism, as St. Peter in
1 Peter 2:9 says, "You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom,"
and Revelation 5:10, "Through your blood you have made us into priests and
kings."<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However,
this belief in the priesthood of all believers does not mean that there is no
order, authority or discipline. For example, The Lutheran Church maintains the
biblical doctrine of "the preaching office" or the "office of
the holy ministry" established by God in the Christian Church. So,
alongside the priesthood of all the baptized, the pattern of ministerial
priesthood from the old Catholic church was maintained, a pattern which shares
in a unique way in the priesthood of Christ, and which differs essentially from
the common priesthood of the faithful. The Augsburg Confession states:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Concerning church government it is
taught that no one should publicly teach, preach, or administer the sacraments
without a proper public call</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> (Article 14).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is hard
not to see this understanding influence in some of the other churches of the
Protestant Reformation, particularly the Anglican Church which considers all baptized
members of the Church able to take part in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
Anglican Christians traditionally believe that 1 Peter 2.9 <em>But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light</em> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>gives responsibility
to all believers for the preservation and spread of the Gospel and the Church,
as distinct from the liturgical and sacramental roles of the ordained
priesthood and episcopate. Anglicans, like the Lutherans, recognise the
apostolic succession of bishops, the means by which the historical link between
the present day and the early church is maintained. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Catholic
Church maintains to this day that the understanding of priesthood arising from
the Reformation has been debased because it has lost its unique sacral
dimension. They seem to interpret the Protestant understanding as taking away
the model of priest as “set apart” and different from the rest of men. The
tendency of Protestantism, it is claimed, has been to ground the identity of
the priest ecclesiologically rather than christologically with an emphasis on
functionalism with the priest is seen as a representative of the Church rather
than as a representative of Christ. The process of laity empowerment in the
church has been understood largely as a conferring of different ministries on
them, tasks which previously were often carried out by the clergy. The result
is a blurring of the identity of the priest both in the eyes of the clergy
themselves as well as among lay people. These practices “give rise to a
"functionalistic" conception of the ministry, which sees the ministry
of "pastor" as a function and not as an ontological sacramental
reality”. (Pope Benedict speaking as a Cardinal in 1998). This seems to bring
us back to the start of this section and the issue of whether ἱερεύς<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(sacred one) and πρεσβύτερος (elder or
leader) are compatible or mutually exclusive. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The priesthood as I understand it:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> In his book, <strong>Now is the Acceptable Time,</strong> Stephen Bayne writes talks about the tendency of individuals to talk about "their" ministries and points out, <em>There is but one ministry, Christ's ministry. He is the only minister there is in the church.</em> This idea is further developed by Kenneth Kirk, in his book, <strong>The Vision of God</strong> he writes, ... <em>Jesus, though he spoke little about "seeing God" brought God more vividly before the spiritual eyes of his contemporaries than any other has ever done. He gave a vision of God where others could only speak of it.</em> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Priesthood is a defined role: we act
within given parameters so it is not a licence to do our own thing but there is
no exact template and if there was no one would fit it. One thing that does
need flagging up, though, is that the call is Christ's but it is not a call to every role and
aspect of priesthood but a clear inner calling to some of it. How one writes
about priesthood is obviously influenced by personal perception and experience.
Throughout my adult life I have had the good fortune to know priests who
reflected in different ways the attractive image of Christ the Good Shepherd as
they witnessed to the radicalism of the Gospel.<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Priests are Christians before they are priests so whatever is special about Christians, or about the whole body of Christians, the church, will apply to priests too. We need to
be clear from the start that the priest is not called in the first place to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> something, but rather to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> something: a person who reflects the
person of Jesus and grows into his likeness in a distinctive way that builds up
the body of the church.<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Writing in
the introduction to Bonhoeffer’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No Rusty
Swords, </b>E. H. Robertson explains Bonhoeffer’s idea of a renewal of the mind
from within which could only be accomplished as the mind of Christ was formed
in the Christian. He [Bonhoeffer] took this beyond the “Be like Jesus” mantra
and recognised that this renewal was a process and not a formula. This is not
to be seen so much as a religious process, nor one that leads to the “religious
person”, but as leading to “the person”.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the key things that my time with the Lutherans taught me was that the efficacy of the sacraments derives from their being God’s sacraments and therefore the worthiness (or otherwise) of the priest is an irrelevance. This is fully consistent with the doctrine of Justification through Faith by Grace Alone and I find this immensely reassuring as I don’t think I could contemplate the priesthood without understanding this fundamental of the fact that it isn’t all about me. No one is ever worthy of the priesthood: the Disciples themselves were a very mixed bag, with their own weaknesses and doubts. I remember Simon Peter's words to Jesus as he sensed him calling him to service: “Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man” (Luke 5. 8). But Jesus called Peter all the same. What matters is not how I feel, but that Christ is calling me. It is not for me to ask, Why me?' (Although I do, constantly). God does the choosing. I am not chosen because I am better than others, or more worthy than them. Like God's people in the Old Testament, I am special because I have been chosen, not chosen because I am special. The priest is no less in need of salvation, forgiveness and healing than any other disciple. It is the Holy Spirit who unites the priest to Jesus Christ in a special way at his ordination, and the priest is totally dependent throughout his ministry on the continual indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The point is, as Michael Ramsey puts it in his book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Christian Priest Today, </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christ gives the gift of ordained priesthood and calls men [and women] to it.</i> in the same way that he called the twelve and the wider group of followers.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A priest friend never tires of telling me that a priest is a man of God’s pardon, an instrument of forgiveness to others, but he is also a sinner, in need of forgiveness and renewal himself. Consequently, a priest needs to be a man of humility, realizing that in his weakness God calls him and that he responds, not on his own merits, but through the power of God working in him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I would love to be able to say that humility is a strength of mine and I am sure that when he speaks in this way my friend is delivering a personal as much as a general comment. But I have experienced circumstances when I have felt drained of all my personal resources and strength and have felt “the dark night of my soul” and yet God has continued to use me and work through me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m also not very good at renouncing myself. Yet every follower of Jesus is asked to “renounce himself and take up his cross” and follow the way of the Lord (Matthew 16. 24). There is a radical “leaving behind” involved in all discipleship (Matthew 8. 18-22; Luke 5. 11, 28). The Disciples themselves left everything to follow Jesus, and any call to ministry will always involve something of the same. I don’t know what that might mean in real terms and I often wonder what God could possibly ask of me in urban West Yorkshire that would represent that level of sacrifice but in my current mind-set I don’t see the priesthood as being about “giving up”, but rather about “taking on”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Alter Christus and In Persona Christi:</span></b><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">During the actual service of ordination the Bishop reminds those to be ordained that they are called to “grow up into his (Jesus’) likeness and sanctify the lives of all with whom they have to do." I ha</span>ve always thought of the priest as being Jesus’ understudy in this world but an understudy who is also a representative of fallen humanity. Christlike? Me? If only! And yet we are called to be “alter Christus” - another Christ. In a very real way we, as priests, mediate between man and God and between God and man in the same way that the High Priests of the Old Testament did and in the same way that Hebrews asserts Jesus “our Great High Priest” did. In 2010, Pope Benedict told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square that a priestly vocation is “not chosen by anyone for himself,” but a call to serve God in the Christian community. When he answers that call, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the priest represents Jesus, who is never absent in the Church. </i>A priest "never acts in the name of someone absent, but in the person of the Risen Christ.” Catholic teaching notwithstanding, that sounds like a universal model, what Ramsey calls the representative nature of ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The priest is Christ’s ambassador, his authorized representative among his disciples. God entrusts him with his own continuing ministry. He puts his trust in the priest – the one he chooses, and makes him a steward, both of his people and of his presence. That is an awesome responsibility.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In their book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Fire and The Clay</b>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Priest in Today’s Church, </b>Peter Allan, George Guiver et al. note, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10.45). This image is given a more concrete presentation by John in his description of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples on the eve of his passion. As applied to priesthood, the image suggests the quality of humble labour for other, in obedience to the Father, and to the point of sacrificing one’s own life. This must characterise the life of the priest. This is one of the realities of Christ’s life into which priests must seek to grow, and thus make it present for their people.</i></span></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I remember when I was on my parish placement in Estonia, asking my supervisor about his views on the priesthood. It may have been a cultural or linguistic thing, but he talked almost exclusively in terms of “doing”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and it wasn’t until he began to talk in terms of “being” that much of what he had just said made more sense. It is what we are that matters. We do what we do because we are what we are: priests of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I read the references in Hebrews to Jesus as High Priest it seems to me that the writer repeatedly stresses that Jesus <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">was</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">is</b> one with the people. It is as though he recognised that there would be for many readers a hesitation about this article of our faith, that Christ was "truly human." This quality, essential for any priest, is declared repeatedly, "in the days of his flesh" "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears." At the point in his life which so vividly touches our own, qualifying him to be our priest, we have this time of fervent prayer. My challenge at this point lies in asking myself whether, in my humanity, I even begin to reflect this fervency of spirituality and, of course, I don’t much like the answer. I have to remind myself again that it is seeing Jesus as role model in my pilgrimage of faith which is what is required and any attempt at an analysis of levels of success is pointless.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Steven Croft in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ministry in Three Dimensions </b>notes that intercession is the calling of every Christian. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">However, we need to assert that this aspect of prayer which is the giving of one’s self secretly on behalf of others is a vital discipline and tool in priestly ministry ….. it represents the foundation and core of any ministry which is concerned with seeing individual people reconciled to God, churches established and made strong and society transformed.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That said, I have to identify more with Barbara Brown Taylor who, in her writing, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">An Altar in the World, </b>notes, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I know a chapter on prayer belongs in this book, but I dread writing it. I have shelves full of prayer books and books on prayer. I have file draws full of notes from courses I have taught and taken on prayer. I have meditation benches I have used twice, prayer mantras I have intoned for as long as a week, notebooks with column after column of names of people in need of prayer (is writing them down enough?). I have a bowed psaltery - a Biblical stringed instrument mentioned in the book of Psalms - that dates from the year I thought I might be able to sing prayers easier than I could say them. I have invested a small fortune in icons, candles, monastic incense, coals and incense burners.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I am a failure at prayer. When people ask me about my prayer life ... my mind starts scrambling for ways to hide my problem. I start talking about other things I do that I hope will make me sound like a godly person. I ask the other person to tell me about her prayer life, hoping she will not notice that I have changed the subject. </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps this is what Ramsey means when he talks in a more upbeat assessment of “wasting time with God” and notes that such time is never actually wasted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This leads into the idea of a priest needing to be a role model in his/her turn and the term often used is being of “good character”. I am slightly wary of this from my time with the Lutherans as I can see a variety of pitfalls looming, not the least being a sense of needing to be “good enough” and of living up to a model of discipleship that is defined by others and also because of its hints of a gospel of good works of which we should be cautious. I was once fortunate to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and was able to tell him something of my story. Something he said to me has stuck with me since, “God has chosen you for who you are. He chose you for your uniqueness. Do not let others change you.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There have been times when I have felt constrained by other people wanting to change me and expressing disappointment that I was unable to fit their template. But Archbishop Tutu is right. God has called me for who I am and for my uniqueness and I should be more confident about that and less apologetic about not being someone else. In that context, every time I remember that a Diocesan Bishop once told Archbishop Welby that there was no place for him in the Church of England, I both smile and feel encouraged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are obvious things that might designate someone as not being of good character: problems with drugs/alcohol, unhealthy and inappropriate sexual behaviours and attitudes; racism, sexism, homophobia etc; uncontrollable temper; lack of empathy; a sense of innate superiority; failings with confidentiality and lack of discretion, wearing sandals with socks and so on. Beyond that it becomes more difficult and, I would suggest, more subjective. If I am looking at the qualities of a priest, while I might reject the promiscuous, the drug addled, the gossip and so on, might I not also be in danger of rejecting people simply because they aren’t like me and the model of discipleship I have adopted and which largely reflects the model of discipleship of those I associate with? After all, how could someone possibly have a calling from God and espouse <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> theology or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> churchmanship? Might I not be wary of them because their life experience has been very different to mine; because they have a view of the faith which is too challenging and too prophetic for my sensibilities; because the methods they use in communicating the Gospel owe much more to contemporary methods of communication and technological know-how than I am entirely at ease with; because they are so unlike my understanding of priesthood that they seem rather threatening? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that context I remain intrigued by Archbishop Welby’s experience as someone who has also failed to fit other people’s templates of priesthood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All the churches stress the importance of “good character” in their Ordinands. So what does that mean? What constitutes “good character” and what constitutes subjective projection? This seems to me to be particularly relevant as we struggle with the nature of Holiness, especially as we are, none of, us fully formed or re-formed in the nature of Christ. However we are expected to acquire the essential priestly qualities which we see reflected in Christ's life as found in the Gospels: the priest's human personality should be a bridge for others to encounter Jesus. Jesus had a perfect human nature, and in Mark we read that as a man he did everything well (Mk 7:37). Of course many of his qualities will be underdeveloped in us and so they have to be worked at if we are to acquire that attractive Christ-like profile. But I fear that if we strive to be something we are not, and that striving for perfection leaves us all too aware of our limitations, that way lays depression and guilt. It is here that the words of Desmond Tutu always return to comfort me. “God has chosen you for who you are. He has chosen you for your uniqueness. Do not let others change you.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This, of course, needs to be balanced by St. Paul's words to the Christians in Rome, <em>I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.</em> This means our whole being, a transformation which is effected by God, by divine grace.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, despite our human limitations the priest has a duty to try to develop Christ-like qualities but not at the cost of sublimating his God-given personality. There is a fine balance here between striving for a standard we know we cannot attain and giving up because of the impossibility of attaining it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly as a priest I need to mature my talents for communication and social interaction so that God’s message through me comes across as credible and compelling despite society’s competing messages, but above all we need to live lives that will be authentic to the extent that they reflect Christ. We are, after all, in persona Christi (in the person of Christ). That however, begs the question of what authenticity looks like and to whose definition of that standard we are being held.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We see the characteristics of God revealed through Jesus’ disciples down the ages but primarily in Jesus as the incarnation, and those are the characteristics we must seek to emulate. It’s then down to us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to work out which of the Fruit of The Spirit and which of the gifts bestowed upon the church are best reflected in our personalities and to play to those strengths - and to try to work on the rest as the Spirit gives us grace, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians) Although we continue to be a work in progress, this requires a realistic sense of self and of self-worth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Vocation and ministry spring from the nature of God and therefore shapes the church. Does the church play safe? Are we too worried about the “troublesome priest”, the prophetic voice speaking through and to the church? Sometimes it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> voice which speaks more to the unchurched than the voices that seem to reflect the status quo. “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the world.” Jesus tells us in Mat 10.34. Personally, I don’t hear enough of that sort of talk in the church: I don’t think we have anything like enough Giles Frasers, Desmond Tutus, Martin Luther-Kings or John Shelby Spongs in the church today, but maybe, just maybe, with the arrival of a new Pope and a new Archbishop of Canterbury who clearly model and express a concern for the poor and marginalised, the tide may turn a bit more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prophetic ministry is, indeed, part of the priestly ministry but my own feeling is that we don’t hear it enough because in our selection of ordinands we are too reluctant to take risks: I can imagine a latter-day Giles Fraser “failing” a BAP chaired by a latter-day Martyn Jarrett. “Too outspoken. Too risky.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of its very nature the priestly vocation demands a deep relationship with Christ: 'I have called you friends' he told his disciples, who were, surely, his first priests, at the Last Supper (John 15.15). That relationship with Christ, however, is not something that comes automatically as a consequence of ordination. The Ordinand is already expected to have developed a mature relationship which can be developed further in priesthood, cultivated in prayer and study and allowed to mature progressively during the lifetime of the priest. That spirituality should also be an example for others to emulate. This gives central importance to the bonding between our spiritual life and the exercise of our ministry. When I look back at my own journey of faith and formation, it is clear to me and to those who have known me for a long time that I am not in the same place now as I was at the start of that pilgrimage. I would hope that those observers would interpret that as evidence of ongoing spiritual development. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The priest should be grounded in God. Dare I even whisper that? I don’t even come close – but I strive daily to be more the disciple God would have me be: my morning devotions include the petition, “Give me the words, the attitudes, the opinions and the skills” and I ask that I might reflect God to others; that they may see Him in me and that I may see Him in them. In those times spent reflecting on scripture I seek to find practical applications for myself’ I know the WWJD? Mantra may seem a bit trite to some but it is a good starting point. The idea of obedient discipleship is one that has been hammered home to me. The Lutheran Church is very suspicious about “good works” and the idea of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">striving</i> to be a better disciple is a non-starter because it smacks of a gospel of justification through good works, so the motivation behind our behaviours, particularly those which seek to please God, really come under the microscope. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was never entirely happy with this approach and I would always argue that while we don’t behave as we do to earn God’s favour, God still has expectations of us because of the requirement to be obedient disciples. “Go and do likewise ….”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For me, at the very heart of this lies the realisation that I am loved passionately and unconditionally by God and, when we know we are loved (and we see this in the world of our own human relationships) we respond: we want to respond in kind and to please and that includes, in our own inadequate ways trying to reflect and express that love to those who are around us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That leads me to another key role of the priest which is to preach the word of God, to be an evangelist. In the present cultural environment where, as never before, people are bombarded with audio and visual information-overload, it is difficult to make our voices heard above all the distractions. Our preaching is also challenged by an increasing religious illiteracy and as a teacher of Religious Studies I often hear myself asking, “How do you not know these things?” Since we believe we are bearers of the message of salvation, following the example of St Paul we are asked to preach the good news of salvation in and out of season if we are to convince people that the attractions of this world do not in the long run provide redemption and in such a secularised society that will often seem completely counter-cultural.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What do we mean by evangelism? Is it the street preacher, frightening away the shoppers outside Harvey Nicholls with their message of God’s wrath and judgement? Is it the saccharine-style “Just come to Jesus” which requires no intellectual engagement? The you-have-to-tell-everyone-about-Jesus-because-they-are-dying-in-their-sin approach, which, having given its message, notes: “I’ve done my bit. You know the message now. My conscience is clear.” – the approach which condemns the softly, softly approach of winning the right to speak and showing empathy, genuineness and respect to people as friendship evangelism. “What happens if they drop dead tomorrow and you’ve not given them the message of Christ Crucified”? Does priestly evangelism encompass new technology such as blogging, Facebook and Twitter? Is it only what I say, or can it be how I model discipleship? As a priest which method of evangelism should I adopt? Up until now, I’ve just been letting the Holy Spirit do her thing in my life, but then I’ve no scalps to display.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, we need to remember that while the priest may well be personally involved in mission, much of the time it will be about equipping others for the process of mission and evangelism. </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As priests we are members of a ministering church and the church is called to be a servant church in many ways. Within the Lutheran tradition diakonia - the diaconate - has most generally been interpreted in terms of social responsibility. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I could go on. I’ve got into my stride but enough is as good as a feast. I’ll leave the last word to Stephen Platten from his book <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Vocation</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Priests stand before God with humanity upon their hearts and, at the same time, before humanity with God etched on their hearts.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span><br />
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