PLEASE NOTE THAT AFTER 25TH JANUARY THIS ARCHIVE WILL CONTINUE AT redesdalevicar.blogspot.co.uk
January 2015
___________________________
‘For that is what I came out to do’ (v.38)
14th January 2015
Mark 1 29-39
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus is making a name for himself through his healing and his exorcisms.
We are still in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. What a breathless narrative it is. Mark has already told of Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness.
He has begun his preaching with the words ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’.
He has called his first disciples, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John and as they follow him they witness remarkable healing and exorcisms. The begin to see that here is someone very special indeed - no ordinary rabbi.
They begin to wonder. Has the time indeed come? Is the power and presence of God in Jesus? Is HE the long awaited Messiah? Mark, writing with the benefit of hindsight, and the Holy Spirit, wants us to be sure that in the person of Jesus the kingdom is at hand, for wherever he goes, Jesus can’t seem to help healing people who come in great need. It is a sign, right from the beginning what the fulness of God’s kingdom will be like. Jesus has just caused great astonishment in the synagogue at Capernaum after cleansing a man of an unclean spirit and now he goes to stay at Simon Peter’s house - for it is the Sabbath. While there he heals Simon Peter’s mother in law who was in bed with a fever.
Word gets out and at the end of the day at sunset (remember it was the sabbath and the day ended at sunset) people came in their droves to see this wonder worker and seek healing. Jesus heals all who come but does not want word getting around, because he does not want people just coming to see a wonder worker, he wants them to listen to and act upon his MESSAGE, to see him for who he really is.
The following morning Jesus goes out to a deserted place to pray alone. His disciples are concerned, perhaps a bit angry. Why have you not stayed? There are so many more who need healing. But Jesus will not go back. I must move on, he says. I have to proclaim the message in other places too.
He cannot stay in the one place, no matter how great the need because he has further healing and further teachings to give but it will all end on the cross because that is the ultimate healing. He has to tackle the cause of the disease of humankind which is sin. This is something we cannot do by ourselves. He has to draw out the poisonous sting of sin and pain and death by taking it all upon himself and when he is lifted up on the cross for us to see we will be totally healed and eternally cured. Jesus message is not just proclaimed in healing and teachings but in what he did on the cross. It is when we look upon the cross that we see. And in some mysterious way all is changed and there is resurrection.
Many have prayed to Jesus for healing. Many have been anointed and had hands laid on them. Some have found physical healing. Many have not. Many perhaps feel like those left behind at Capernaum when Jesus moved on. Ours is not to reason why but to know that Jesus had a greater task ahead. Ours is to know that we if we have not received physical or mental healing Jesus has not forgotten us. He has brought us a greater gift - the gift of eternal life and the beginning of the renewal of creation. Thanks be to God.
God is great because God is love
11th January 2015
Mark 1.4-11
'You are my child, I love you and with you I am well
pleased'
How many men have ever heard that from their fathers.
And is it just a men only thing?
Is it difficult for fathers to express such sentiment?
Many people and most men spend their lives trying to
prove something to an absent Father and often this is projected onto their
religion,
'You are my child, I love you, and with you I am well
pleased.'
This pretty much sums up the whole healing message of the
Christian gospel. But we think those words are limited to Jesus. They are
not. The simple message is that God gives that assurance to all who
accept and try to follow Jesus.
It is said to us at OUR baptism.
Because when we are baptised we become part of Christ’s
body - so the words are transferred to us.
There's no way we can earn God’s love.
But that's what we try to do, we try to please our
absent human father.
This is what most people in the world are doing and it's
what lies behind all kinds of illness and pain, and barbarity - such as we have
witnessed this week in Paris.
The reason to proclaim the Christian gospel is to help
people find a peace in being loved and accepted now, anyway, unconditionally.
Salvation lies in accepting that God is love as shown in Jesus. Otherwise we
are condemned to eternal guilty striving.
And from this resting place to grow and flourish into a
the kind of people God intends us to be.
We are to let the words change us, mould us, make us into
somebody new.
When Jesus was baptised the heavens were torn apart
(meaning opened) like the veil in the temple was torn apart when Jesus died. It
means that heaven is opened up and a different spiritual reality became
visible.
A good deal of Christian faith is learning to live in the
light of this reality, even though we cannot see it ( the reality that God
loves us, that he says to us what he says to Jesus). And to hold these words
even when, like Jesus we travel through the wilderness.
Last weekend we celebrated the feast of the epiphany, the
unveiling of God's light and love in Jesus. This week we are witness to a
further unveiling. It's our task now to play our part in drawing back the
curtain which is obscuring the worlds view of the true nature of God. God
is great only because God is love.
**********************************
December 2014______________________________
The search for enchantment
25th December 2014
Not so long ago a story
appeared in at least one national newspaper under the heading;
I quote,
"Rev Margaret
McPhee made the mistake during a choir concert for primary school children from
Stalham Academy, in Norfolk.
During the service at St
Mary’s Church in the town, the curate asked pupils what they thought Christmas
was about.
When one child said
“Father Christmas”, she replied that he was make-believe and not real.
Angry parents posted on
Facebook to express their disappointment over the incident on Monday evening.
One wrote: “Sorry my
child will not attend any more church services again, she would not like it if
we said there was no ‘God’.”
Why was there so much
‘anger’? Do you sympathise with the parents? or with the minister?
I wonder if at the heart
of all this lies the fact that the world has lost its enchantment. The genie is
out of the bottle and we have grown up, as people and as a civilisation.
The dominant western world view is that there is nothing beyond what we
can see and measure. But we yearn for something we have lost, and maybe this is
the unconscious emotion at work when someone who is supposed to be a guardian
of this enchantment seems to question it even more by denying Father Christmas.
Perhaps thats why we want our children to stay enchanted -vicariously,
on our behalf. Perhaps that’s why we say Christmas is for the children.
For the record I prefer
Santa Claus to Father Christmas- because that reminds us of St Nicholas Bishop
of Myra, who liked to give gifts secretly. St Nicholas day is 6th December and
in many countries that is when gifts are exchanged.
Anyway.
We are and always have
been spiritual creatures but nowadays its as if we are marooned on a desert
island of materialism but sometimes we hear, on the wind, the sound of
distant music.,
music that we have not made ourselves.
And we then make our
own songs to try to recapture the celestial song. And the song of Father
Christmas is one such song. As are the carols on Classic FM. Or we drown it out
with The song of the checkout till or Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody.
Saint Augustine famously
said, in a prayer to God,
"You have made us
for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in
you."
That restlessness lies
behind so much of our striving today, and the false god’s we create to satisfy
that yearning. And woe betide anyone who bursts the balloon, be it a religious
minister, school teacher or anyone else.
Now don’t worry. I am
not going to say God doesn’t exist. Far from it. Nor am I going to say the baby
in the manger is a nice story and nothing more. But I am going to say that the
baby in the manger grew up - but that, as they say is a story for another day.
There is beyond-ness.
There is something other than the here and now. The music comes from somewhere,
it is not in our imaginations. We hear it in the story of Christmas and if we
keep listening we discover that it is richer and more beautiful but more
challenging and puzzling than we could ever imagine.
My Christmas night
prayer is that we may hear the celestial music which is behind all our singing.
But the prayer comes with a warning. For if we do catch even an echo of
it we will never get the tune out of our heads. And we will not be
the same again. And it won't matter when a minister suggests that Father
Christmas may not be as he is portrayed, it won't matter if Christmas doesn't
come up to the advertisers cosy ideal because the world will have been
re-enchanted forever.
*****************************
Sunday
21st December 2014
Each of the four evangelists introduces the
story of Jesus differently. Matthew gives a list of Jesus illustrious and royal
ancestors. Luke starts with the birth of John the Baptist whereas Mark goes
straight to John’s proclamation in the wilderness. John goes way back to the
beginning of creation itself. All are, in their different ways, preparing us
for the story of someone uniquely special. Only Matthew and Luke tell of the
circumstances of Jesus birth but each has a different emphasis. Luke gives more
detail and tells of the shepherds, which Matthew does not but he alone tells of
the Wise men. Our gospel reading today, taken from Luke tells of what is called
the Annunciation, the story of how the angel Gabriel visited Mary and we hear
Mary's response.
It is a well known and much loved story. But
before we reflect more deeply on it we need to face up to something which can
be a bit of a stumbling block for some, especially but not exclusively for
those who have no faith; the idea of a virgin birth. For many outside the
church this is just evidence of the naivity of Christians. Don't we know that
such a thing is impossible. We don't believe in such things nowadays. Actually
people in Jesus day knew how babies were made and the idea of a virgin birth
would have been viewed as ridiculous then as now. Which poses the question why
include an incredible story such as this, why open themselves up to public
scorn unless there was some truth in it. And if we believe in the resurrection
why do we find the idea of a virgin conception difficult?
Jesus was unique. He was charismatic. He was
a healer and a teacher. And in his death he took upon himself the pain and sin
of the world. And in his resurrection he brought forgiveness and power to all
who would accept it in his name. And still does. Millions have in varied ways
experienced the risen Jesus in their lives. If we start there then the idea of
the unique circumstances surrounding his birth don't seem so
unbelievable.
The idea of a virgin birth promotes a truth
which is at the heart of most religions and is of crucial significance to the
Christian faith. A truth which makes religion different to philosophy as a way
of understanding the way things are. It is the belief that true and lasting
salvation, wholeness and healing can only come from revelation from beyond.
From something given to the human race that no earthly imagination or
philosophy could conceive of. Something given from outside. Jesus as a human
being and Jesus as a story could only be conceived through a revelation and
inspiration from outside. And it can only be received as Mary received
Gabriel's message. And this the other main point of Luke's annunciation story.
He focuses on Mary's extraordinary faith,
character and response to this startling news brought by the angel. She has a
natural question and Gabriel replies that the Holy Spirit within her and the
overshadowing of God outwith her would make it all possible. But it all
required a crucial thing. Mary's consent. With Mary's consent God could do the
seemingly impossible and come to birth in her as fully human and fully God.
Because that is how God works. He needs human cooperation and human openness to
even the most extraordinary possibilities.
How open we to the possibilities God seeks to
give. Is God asking you for a response which will open up hitherto unimagined
things in your life and in the life of the church. Can you respond in the words
of Mary. You can be ambivalent about the literalness or otherwise of the story
but you can still accept the spiritual riches of it and you can still see Mary
as a role model for the Christian life which opens itself up God and so makes
extraordinary things happen.
*****************************
What’s
in a name?
Wednesday
17th December 2014
In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of
Being Earnest, the hero is asked about his family background, and is forced to
confess that he had lost both parents. He had been found, as a tiny baby, in a
handbag. The indignation that greets these revelations is one of the most
famous (and funny) moments in all Wilde’s work. As one of them comments, ‘To
lose one parent .. may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like
carelessness’.
The point is that tracing our family
pedigree is important, even in our individualistic western world. It gives a
sense of identity and belonging. In many traditional societies family histories
and family trees are a vital part of who you are.
This helps us understand what is going
on at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. In the Jewish world of Matthew’s day,
this genealogy was the equivalent of a roll of drums, a fanfare of trumpets,
and a town crier calling for attention. This is a compelling and impressive
family tree. The list of names are like a great procession coming down the
street. We watch the figures at the front, and the ones in the middle, but all
eyes are waiting for the one who comes in the position of greatest honour at
the end.
At the time of Jesus, when Israel had
been ruled by outsiders for over 200 years, to make a statement like Matthew
did of Jesus was to make a political statement. It was subversive. This list of
names demonstrated that Jesus was connected with the ancient ruling families of
Israel, he was in the line of the true kings of Israel, a serious challenge to
Herod, who was an opportunist military commander whom the Romans had made into
a puppet king.
Matthews list of Jesus forebears is more
than a political statement however. He includes Abraham, the founding father,
to whom God made a covenant promise. David was the great king to whom God made
promises of future rule over all the world. The others were also significant
names in Israel’s history. The last names were associated with a period of
exile and long years of waiting for God’s Messiah which, who, says Matthew, has
now come.
Some of the names show God working in
extraordinary ways through extraordinary people. Matthew is about to tell how
Mary, Jesus’ mother, had become pregnant not through her fiancé, Joseph, but
through the Holy Spirit. So he adds to his list the strange ways in which God
worked in the royal family itself: Judah treating his daughter in law Tamar as
a prostitute, Boaz being the son of Jericho prostitute Rahab, and David
committing adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite. If God can work through
these bizarre ways, he seems to be saying, watch what he is going to do now.
Matthew’s gospel has stood at the front
of the New Testament since earliest times. Millions of Christians have read
this genealogy as the beginning of their own exploration of who Jesus was and
is. Once we understand what it all means, we are ready to proceed with the
story. This, Matthew is saying, is both the fulfilment of two millennia of
God’s promises and purposes and something quite new and different. God still
works like that today: keeping his promises, acting in character, and yet
always ready with surprises for those who learn to trust him.
No comments:
Post a Comment