Category: 2014 Lectionary Ramblings

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

August 2nd 2014: Luke 22:14-23

Read Luke 22:14-23 here

As the story of Jesus’ betrayal and suffering draws on inexorably. we are faced with the odd scene of the Passover meal among friends, after which Jesus knows He will be handed over to His death, and the mysteriously, powerfully symbolic with hindsight utterances commanding the disciples, and us, to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. As seems to have been the case with Jesus more often than we like to admit, what He says during this meal, and how He says it must have been quite perverse to those who heard/ Why didn’t Jesus just say “it’s Judas, he’s going to betray me”? Why didn’t He say “When I say it’s my body and blood, I mean that it actually is/spiritually is/is meant to signify the sacrifice I’m about to make and all that it means”? It would certainly have been a lot easier for us who followed after Him. I wonder though if that isn’t something of the point. Here, in the midst of the fear of oncoming death, in the middle of the most real, crucial event and undertaking in the whole of human history, Jesus doesn’t lay it all out in easy, bitesize chunks. Rather, He does what needs to be done, and doesn’t feel the need to elaborate or explain further.

So often, we want to break faith down in to easy, approachable elements. We want to make it seem attractive. We want to minimise the sacrifice we feel called to undertake in order to be faithful. We want to understand everything, to live it all day by day, and still to enjoy our comfortable, “successful” lives. I’m sure Jesus, in a sense, wouldn’t have minded doing that either. You only have to watch The Last Temptation of Christ to be able to see what a strong drive their might have been to follow that path rather than the crushing one set before Him.

The thing is, He took it anyway. I wonder sometimes if He truly knew what He was getting in to, the gravity and severity of the pain, the separation, and how it would feel to die an undeserved death on behalf of others who would reject Him continually. I have very little doubt that He knew it was needed and that the benefits to Him and to all would ultimately be enormous, but still, I wonder, how in control of things was Jesus at that point? And yet, He did it anyway.

Often, for me at least, unless the risks are minimised, the way is clear, the steps are logical and sensible, I’m not willing to move on in my faith and life. My trust in God only extends to the limits of my intellect. In which case it is no trust at all. I’m trusting myself and calling it trusting God instead. How can we live in such a way that we might be so obedient that, whatever the consequences to us, we follow God, His ways, and live, love and hope for the coming of the kingdom, today?

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

August 1st 2014: Luke 22:1-13

Read Luke 22:1-13 here

As Jesus’ story moves towards its conclusion and He and the disciples enter Jerusalem for the Passover, it might be easy to focus on the betrayal of Judas, and how this parallels our own betrayal of Jesus in our day to day lives. This, however, would be cheap, and would take away from the power of the narrative. We do, all of us, have a tendency towards living our own way, falling short of the glory of God, and the glory set before us in Christ. However, something else has grabbed my attention this morning:

The priests and scribes sought to find a way of killing Jesus “because they were scared of the people”. I’d not noticed this before when reading this passage. The priests, societal power-brokers and gate-keepers, weren’t scared of Jesus himself, they were scared of the impact He, and His message, were having. This indicates that the message was finding traction, that it was causing  a stir. The fear exhibited here also indicates some were worried about the upsetting of the status quo, the debasement of the truths of faith which they held dear. Placed in this context, in spite of the fact that there were dozens of “Messiahs” active in Israel at the time of Jesus, it is perhaps obvious why something needed to be done. Silence the leader and the rabble will go away.

Except it didn’t turn out like that, did it.

We live in a culture today where it’s ok to believe pretty much anything, except that Jesus is Lord. There is a societally-driven moral code which is pre-disposed to the expression of outrage, distrust and so on. It can also often show great compassion and care for the “other”. We like, though, to be right, to show our compassion from a position of strength, and to keep those we disagree with where we can see them. I’d go as far as to say that if you disagree with the prevailing cultural norm, on whatever issue, there’s an undercurrent now of a wish that you, and your opinion, would go elsewhere, or better still not exist.

Isn’t this how Jesus and His disciples were treated? Most people who aren’t Christians think the whole thing is preposterous nonsense. Perhaps they’re right (I don’t think so) but it’s amazing how the minutest inkling of a fear that it might be true motivates whole swathes of culture to continually seek, with increasing desperation, ways of proving that it must all be bunkum. If you are a Christian, you’re silly. If you’re a Christian you lack the common sense, faculties of logic, fortitude etc to rise above the crass set of beliefs which must have been forced upon you anyway.

Or put it another way, society is actually scared of you. What if your belief is right? If your God exists? If Jesus is real and He did do what He said He would do? What then? If you believe today, stand firm and confident.

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July 31st 2014: Luke 21:29-38

Read Luke 21:29-38 here

Jesus continues in full parabolic mode in today’s reading, telling his listeners to be on their guard, ready for the coming end of the current age and the inauguration of the age to come. There’s plenty to get stuck in to here, but as I’ve read the passage again today, something else, something I’d never seen before, has reached out to me: Jesus withdrew.Jesus is,as we’ve seen recently, in a phase of much teaching and ministry. He is busy, seemingly taking every opportunity to declare and evidence the coming of the Kingdom. Anyone who’s undertaken a prolonged spell of public ministry will know how demanding it is, in every aspect of life. It seems that Jesus found it no different, He withdrew, by night, to the Mount of Olives, presumably (and I am presuming here) to rest, refuel, and to communicate with His Father as to what was coming next.

In our lives, whether we are in full time public ministry, as some of us are, or our lives themselves are our ministry (this is true for all of us), where is our Mount of Olives? Where do we go, in the midst of it all, to talk to God? To focus on Him? To hear from Him? To be fed by Him? This doesn’t necessarily need to be in silence, in fact it might well be better if it isn’t. It might not be possible for you to drop everything and disappear up a real or metaphorical hill every night to sit under the stars and talk to God, but maybe all of us need to build in to every day the time to stop what we busy ourselves with, and simply “be” with God. I don’t even mean reading scripture, doing a service or office, or any other form of active stuff necessarily, just being with God. That’s all. Jesus, the man, needed it. As we follow Him, so do we.

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July 30th 2014: Luke 21:20-28

Read Luke 21:20-28 here

“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

It would  be crass, I feel, to continue drawing contemporary political points out of the readings that we are presented with this week, suffice to say that it is interesting that the Scriptures, in spite of being laid down in a somewhat arbitrary reading pattern for us, seem to speak across time and context like nothing else.

“these things’ could well mean the fall of Jerusalem, it could well also mean the fall of known society, the breakdown of life as we know it, the persecution of the faithful, and lots else besides. Following from our previous discussions this week, the key point for me is that we are, whatever we are going through, to “lift up our heads” and set our faces towards the Lord. it’s hard to trust God. It’s a bit of a nebulous thing to do. How do we know when we are trusting Him and not trusting ourselves or something else? In the end, I think it is for us to look to our coming King. As we’re told that people will “faint from terror” in the days of violence and uncertainty to come, the only hope we can have is in Jesus.

With every day that goes by, our redemption is drawing nearer. Let’s be people who point to Jesus, to the truth of the Gospel, work for peace. Let’s not be people desperately seeking to justify violence, hatred and injustice on the basis of a skewed picture of scriptural “truth”.

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July 29th 2014 Luke 21:5-19

Read Luke 21:5-19 here

“By your endurance you will gain your souls”

At any given time, if we were to study the world news carefully, we would find Christians being persecuted. As things are at this particular moment, this reading feels especially apposite. I’ve already written this week about standing with those who are suffering for the Gospel – it is one of the primary tasks of faith I think, something which we in the UK are largely blind to. Often we are told that this is merciful, or a blessing and, certainly, I’d rather have the life I have, for myself or my family, than those experienced by those who are displaced, injured or even killed for their belief in the person of Jesus and His good news. However, Jesus is unequivocal here, we gain our souls through our endurance for the gospel. I wonder if this means that, if we are not sacrificing or suffering in some way as a result of our faith, we’re somehow not doing it right. I’m not saying that this is a positive, or perhaps even helpful message, and I could well be way off, but if my faith doesn’t challenge my life, if it doesn’t cause me any kind of difficulty at all, is it real faith?

Don’t go out and seek to be a martyr for the sake of it today, but seek ways to endure, to be refined, to be challenged. Ask questions, rail against injustice, think of others before myself. These are my challenges to myself today. Join with me?

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July 28th 2014: Luke 20:41-21:4

Read Luke 20:41-21:4 here

We begin a new week with the reminder that Jesus, the Messiah, is nobody’s son but God’s. This will hopefully help us to remember the security of our trust in the life, works and authority of Jesus.

Verses 45 and 46, for me, have a particular resonance as I become used to being a curate. Just because we wear the clothes of Christian leadership and authority, we have no right to anything special. Don’t become a follower of Jesus, or a Christian leader, if you want respect, status and to be valued in the eyes of society. You might get all of those things for a time. Your Church might even like you (!) but actually we serve a great God who is jealous for His bride to be grown, nurtured and protected. That’s quite a task, quite a responsibility. All of us will answer for the fruit our lives have, or have not, produced. It’ll not matter a jot if we were popular while we were living, if the fruits of our lives and hearts were unjust, or self-serving. That’s bound to be a pretty uncomfortable, to say the least, conversation.

It’s no wonder, then, that Jesus comments on the “widow’s mite” next. Here is someone who, in seeking to honour God and seek His kingdom, gives all she has, without holding back, and without wishing to be seen to be doing right. Are we willing to do that today?

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July 27th 2014: 1 Peter 4:7-14

Read 1 Peter 4:7-14 here

“Above all, love one another deeply”. This is what we are asked to do this morning. As we serve, work, proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed, we are primarily called to love one another. The hardest command of Jesus, in my view, is to love God with everything we have, love our neighbours, and love ourselves. As I’ve said before here I think, some of us think we’re ok at 1 or 2 of those, but not many of us, if we’re honest, really cope with loving ourselves, others and God all at the same time. And yet this is what we’re asked to give our lives to.

What does it look like to love one another deeply? Well, ultimately I think it means to do everything we can to point one another to Jesus. This might be a wise word, a sermon or whatever, but more likely it’ll be the small act of kindness, the sacrificial giving, the offering of time, a listening ear. Time is the greatest gift we humanly have to share I believe. Not many of us are used to people giving of their time just to see how we are, to encourage and challenge, stretch and strengthen us. Jesus, though, died and rose so that we could spend eternity, unlimited time and space, with Him, and He with us. For us to truly love, and to be loved, we need to see that people are more precious than activities, that loving each other deeply is to prioritise seeing the work of God in another, or in a group of people,. drawing alongside them and asking God to help us to experience, and perhaps even to be, the sacrament of the present moment in the life of another.

As this passage goes on to suggest, and as we see all too often and easily in the present time, suffering is part of the Christian life and experience. As we deplore the treatment of Christians in Mosul and other, less publicised parts of the world, this morning, let us pray for them as they share in the sufferings of Christ, that they might know his presence and peace and, for us, that whenever we are brought into places and times of suffering for our faith, that we might faithfully love one another, love God and love our persecutors, deeply.

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July 26th 2014: Luke 20:27-40

Read Luke 20:27-40 here

Many people take this passage to be about the resurrection from the dead and marriage, but I’m not entirely convinced that it is the main point. I think the key here is Luke’s reminding of his hearers/readers that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. So, in fact in asking Jesus about marriage after the resurrection, it is possible to suggest they were making fun of Jesus, or trying to trap Him in to making a fool of Himself. After all, if they don’t think the resurrection will happen, why does it matter to them who is married to who? If you don’t think they are truing to, at best, be funny, read verses 28-33 fast a few times and see if you manage not to get confused.

Jesus, as normal, gets to the heart of the matter.Verses 34-38 include a key teaching for all of us to hold on to – those who are deemed worthy (because Jesus died for them, rose for them and intercedes for them at the Father’s right hand today, we could add now, although His hearers at the time could not) are chidden of God, “since they are children of the resurrection”. Jesus moves beyond questions of marriage, and asserts there is a resurrection, where relationship with God matters more than anything else. More than this, He beats the Sadducees at their own game by showing that it was all in the teachings of Moses too.

For us, it is very easy to cynically question whether there is life after this, or whether this is all there is. Some of the key thinkers of our age attempt to narrow our field of vision to simply this life, this time, these places. It is not for us to have to bend to the logic of the age, however, just as Jesus did not bend to the logic, or fall into the trap of the Sadducees. Wen have a promise of life, today, tomorrow and for eternity to share with the world. The world can never take that away, however hard it tries.

 

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July 25th 2014: Luke 9:46-56

Read Luke 9:46-56 here

Who’s the greatest? At different times we’ve all asked that question. Perhaps it was in the playground as a child, perhaps it was on a sports field or court, perhaps it’s when vying with another for the romantic affections of a stunning person. We like to compare ourselves to others and we like to win. As I write this (on Sunday 20th) we can see all over the world the need of groups of people, governments, faith communities, nations to prove that their cause is right and just, that they deserve to win, to take a lead. It might be due to greed, a perceived call of god, or even fear of what will happen if another is allowed to lead (and there are a lot of other reasons people seek to raise themselves over another which I haven’t mentioned here). Of course the ultimate, sad irony of it all is that being the “greatest” in our culture is only fleeting, transitory. What is on top one moment, say a football team, a pop song or a political party, is in the gutter the next. We take great delight in bringing the “other” down, I think humans always have.

This is something which even the disciples of Jesus indulged in, so it seems it’s human nature. As they’re feeling pretty good about themselves, having ministered powerfully in the name of Jesus (exercising the authority we were talking about earlier this week) an argument amongst them ensues. They want to know which of them is the best. And look at the answer of Jesus!

“Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them,“Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.””

The child here symbolises one who is not worth much. Certainly, it is not the answer the disciples were expecting, just as it isn’t the answer our society expects in asking the same question. Will we walk alongside those who are the least, living on the same level as them, not out of charity or sympathy, fear even, but out of the knowledge that they are worth just as much as we are? Will we seek to make ourselves the least, like Paul did in Corinth, so that he might win some of the people of the city for Christ? All our puffed up notions of ourselves and our own importance can be blown apart in a single second. If it doesn’t happen in this life, I imagine it most certainly will as we stand before God to give account for what we have done with the gift of life which we have been given. It might not be cool, but wouldn’t it be great to be known in the places in which we lived as ones who were so humble, so little about ourselves, that we let nothing hinder the shining out of the love of God and its impact on those we meet? Our world might run on a different system, but I believe this is the economy of the age to come. It would do us no harm to start, or return to, trading in its currency today.

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July 24th 2014: 2 Corinthians 3

Read 2 Corinthians 3 here

This is a rich and vibrant passage. I would encourage you to read it more than once today. The joy, almost exuberance, Paul shows in his writings to the Corinthian Church are something to behold and to delve deeply into. For today though, I want to focus on the last three verses. Here they are:

“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

If we turn to the Lord, the veil (the inability to see/perceive/feel/know the truth) is taken away from us, and as far as we are able to, we can grasp on to the majestic wonder of what God has done for us in Jesus and what is on offer to us. Many of us who have been in church a long time may have grown tired of phrases like “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”, but how gloriously true it has been since before the foundation of the world and how gloriously true it remains. The freedom of the Lord is exhibited in us as we are made more and more like Him. We are made more and more like Him every single day, whether we feel it or not. The deposit of the Spirit has already been placed in us when God made us in His image, designed to be like Him, know Him as far as we are able, and to be known by Him. God causes us, every day, to be made more and more like Him. He does it because He wants to. He declares worth over us which leads Him to welcome us in to Himself. In this way we can live out having been made one with Christ.

The Spirit of the Lord is with you, in you, beside you, before you, behind you drawing you on. So, when we say that there is freedom where the Spirit of the Lord is, what we are really saying is that there is freedom for all, should they choose to receive it. What a gift to be given. What a gift to share with the world. Because of Jesus, we have freedom today.

Do you feel free? What’s helping or hindering you in living out your freedom this morning?