Tag: Lectionary Ramblings

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

August 3rd 2014: 2 Peter 1:1-15

Read 2 Peter 1:1-15 here

“….forgetting that they have been cleansed from past sins”

As with all the readings we look at here, there’s so much richness in today’s passage. I couldn’t hope to cover everything that Peter is driving at here in what I’m aiming for, bitesize chunks to make us think at the start of the day. As I’ve said before, please do return to this reading more than once through the day or during the week, and see what it might be saying to you.

For me, today, a key element of this passage is the part of a verse quoted above. Peter is exhorting us to desire the fruit of the Spirit, in ever increasing measure, so that our knowledge of God, in the holistic, rather than merely academic sense, might increase. It’s powerful rhetoric. We are foolish and without true faith, he argues, if we do not see increase in our knowledge, wisdom, love and hope. But in the middle of it all is the key bit, and the key pastoral message for us today, I think:

It all comes down to whether we truly believe that we are a forgiven, free people, or not. Do we really think that we have been forgiven of past sins to such an extent that God has forgotten them? We struggle, many of us, to forget sins we have done, or things done against us, so how can God forget? But if He does not count our wrongdoing against us, we can live in the positivity and hope of abundant life, knowing that we are secure. We don’t need to doubt, to question, whether we really are forgiven, whether the work of the cross truly applies to us. We can hold to it with confidence. And then we can, gradually, gather the strength and wisdom of God that He gives to us, so that we can focus on our primary task, to love God, our neighbours and ourselves, with everything we have, and to seek justice, care for the poor, widows and orphans, to be the radical world-changers that we are called to be.

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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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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 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 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?

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July 23rd 2014: Luke 20:1-8

Read Luke 20:1-8 here

This morning we return to the chronology of our previous story, and find Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God in the Temple. He is challenged by the Teachers of the Law – what authority does He have to be teaching here and in this way? We should remember that this is the same Jesus who has already claimed that the power to grant freedom to captives has been given to Him. The Pharisees know who they think Jesus thinks He is. They are trying to trap Him in to blasphemy so that they might capture and silence His troublesome ministry. Jesus, in His own enigmatic way, is far too clever for them, rhetorically running rings round them, keeping Himself alive and free (for now) to speak the truth of the Kingdom and, I would imagine, impressing His audience with the speed of His mind and wit.

We live in an age which is obsessed with rights. What gives us the right to do this or that? What gives the government to look here or demand this of us there? We know that Jesus’ authority was clear and special – He was God, come from God to complete the task that the Father had set before Him, and He would not be denied. This was victory on a cosmic, eternal scale, not merely an earthly one, played out before the eyes of an unsuspecting and uncomprehending world. These days it seems to be much the same. What right do we have to believe that God exists, that He is love, that He’s worth taking notice of and, more than that, that we think everyone should take note of Him and the life offered in Jesus? It’s an easy time to be spiritual. An easy time to be dogmatic, to spring to judgement, as society, each one of us, consistently colludes in remoulding and reshaping the moral codes by which we live in such a way as to make ourselves feel as superior (or even just adequate) as possible. Check yourself and how you think today. We all do it, I promise.

But here’s the exciting thing for today. Jesus knew who He was, what He had been called to do, and that He was going to complete the task set before Him, so when He was challenged, He answered without answering. Our commission to go and make disciples is not from this world, it is from Heaven. As we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, love ourselves and love our neighbours, let us constantly make sure that our first priority is God and the families and communities He has placed in to our care. With this focus in mind, questions like the one asked of Jesus here become a lot less important or powerful. We have all the authority we need. You have all the grace, mercy, love and peace you need, available to you today. Go out in to all the world and share it. I dare you

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July 22nd 2014: Luke 8:1-3

Read Luke 8:1-3 here

Today, thanks to the vagaries of the Lectionary, our gospel reading jumps from the rather exciting Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem of yesterday to the beginning of Luke 8, and the pre-amble to the parable of the sower. In 3 verses, we’re told quite a lot:

Jesus is travelling from village to village proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

There are a lot of people with Him, including some women who have been cured/delivered of all sorts of things.

These women are supporting the men from their own means.

What is the meaning of the women supporting the men of their own means I wonder for us today? I think it speaks of the way that ministry in whatever form or sense, is a team sport. Jesus and the Disciples were the ones who were, perhaps, up front, but without the crowds who followed and supported them, continued ministry, perhaps even existence, would not have been possible. In all the fashionable arguments we find ourselves involved in about the validity of ministry of different sorts by different people and social groups, it is easy for us to forget that we need each other for this task of partnering in the growth of the Kingdom of God, the task with which we have been entrusted. In the diaconal role taken on by the women in this passage, we see Jesus turning upside down, as usual, the social conventions of His time and His culture. What a shame, if we as contemporary Christians become so pharisaical about our traditions and wonts that we forget the simplicity of giving our lives to, literally or figuratively, to travel from village to village proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?!