And loving it - all day long

During Lent & Easter we will be paying attention to some of the Psalms. Today, (March 25, Lent 5) we look at part of Psalm 119. Verses 9-16 and also some thought on the Gospel which is John 12:20-33

I am always struck by the little passage in John 12 where those disciples are asked by some outsider to let them see Jesus!

It is, in a way, what every Christian is asked ever day of their life

To let people see Jesus

in the quality of their words and  thoughts

and the integrity of their actions.

This indeed is what this great long Psalm is about. It is 176 verses long

[Immediately we suspect something suspicious

because 176 is divisible by 22

and we remember that’s how many letters there are in the Hebrew alphabet

so, yes, it’s a beautiful acrostic poem

each of the eight lines of each section begins with the same letter.

This is section 2 and begins with the letter B or Beth]

And it says this (22 times over)

• Live according to God’s way
• keep the rules
• treasure the gift you have been given
• and do what is right
• not what is wrong
• Let every day be a day that I seek to do this better.
• Let me speak it
• let me learn to love it
• to not be distracted by materialism
• and to ‘meditate on it’
• keep my ‘eyes fixed on it’
• and to keep at it

This seems pretty important stuff!

Live it and breathe it.

I think this passage in John 12 is reminding us of that too.

As Christians people are saying to us

"We want to see Jesus"

What does this mean?

I don’t think it means that we should be able to explain the Creeds

or the nuances of esoteric doctrine

It does mean that they should see in us

people who take the life and teaching of Jesus seriously

Can this be said of you and me?

Do we forgive, as God forgives?

Heaven knows we pray that often enough

"Forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us!"

Do we love those who no one else loves?

or are we only interested in loving the lovely?

Is our life given to truth telling

and confronting religious hypocrisy

All sounds a bit too hard

Lent at the very least reminds us that we have a serious job to do.

People want to see Jesus.

And they are asking you and me what that means.

James Mays says about this Psalm. It is about two things.

Obedience.

Hearing the word of God and doing it, following its commands, its laws and its way of life.

and Faith

learning more about God, 
and what it means to trust God.

And he says this constant recurring theme is this….

“God calls for both obedience and faith and faith that obeys, and obedience that believes”

I worry that sometimes I, we, are neither obedient nor faithful.

And we wonder why people don’t see Jesus!

Neither of these ways is easy, they go against popular mood.

Jesus goes on to tell the new seekers

that life is about service

that great love is about laying down your life

it’s like being buried and then being born again

This is both a metaphor and a truth

Even Jesus wants this to pass!

Live the law

Do what it says

Live the law

Believe what it says.

Psalm 119: 8-16…

How can the  young  keep their way pure?
   

By guarding it according to your word. 
With my whole heart I seek you;
   

do not let me stray from your commandments. 


I treasure your word in my heart,
   

so that I may not sin against you. 


Blessed are you, O Lord;
   

teach me your statutes. 


With my lips I declare
   

all the ordinances of your mouth. 


I delight in the way of your decrees
   

as much as in all riches. 


I will meditate on your precepts,
   

and fix my eyes on your ways. 


I will delight in your statutes;
   

I will not forget your word. 

Take time this week

•                If asked about Jesus what would you say he tells you to be?

•                What does he ask you to do

•                Is there someone he wants you to forgive?

What are the promises of God?

•                What should I pray for this week?  

Belonging

Fifth Sunday of Easter , May 22 2011, Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14

The story is told of St Christopher

that he searched the world over

for the strongest king to serve

he rejected one after the other

even the devil

and finally he is told to serve God

and to do this by helping people across a dangerous river.

One night a small child comes

and Christopher carries him across the river

he senses the burden getting heavier as he crosses

and it is only as he gets to the other side

that he realises he has been carrying the Christ child.

It is a nice story, and has a good moral.

These days it is regarded as legendary

rather than an account of an actual event.

This does not make it untrue.

It rather points us to the fact

that we are called to serve Christ in the work we do in this world

and that we often don't realise that Christ is there.

It is an Easter encounter

we don't realise at first that Christ is alive and there amongst us.

He surprises us by being in the ordinary place.

The disciples have to learn this.

They are often easily distracted and, well,...just plain 'thick'

Not unlike you and me really!

What is on offer by Jesus is not some fairy tale encounter

nor is it some pious ritual.

It is a glimpse of glory,

it is sharing of the vision of the open heaven and God reigning in power, peace and love.

St Stephen, at his martyrdom, is able to blurt this out.

Things often become very clear to us in the valley of the shadow of death.

For most of the time it is a struggle, like Christopher,

to not insist that God does things in the way that we want them done

and rather to open ourselves to the mystery of what God might be offering us.

Not what we vainly want but what God might be trying to invite us into.

In the halting passage in John 14 again, often read at funerals, Jesus promises a prepared-place.

He is of course speaking imaginally

we are not talking about the Legian Beach Hotel or some Georgian mansion

But rather of the fact that there is a place.

This is a comfort to the dying and the bereaved, I suggest, to know that whether we live or whether we die God has a place for us.

But as we read on we discover that the place is not so much a location as a relationship....

How can we know the way? and Jesus says to you and me

I am the way and the truth and the life

I think once we grasp this we are, indeed, on the way.

This is what Christopher found.

It is not discovery of the answer it is by entering into relationship with Jesus.

This is the relationship which will reveal to us the life of God himself

We Christians believe that this shepherd, this Jesus,

this way, this truth, this life

uniquely draws us into the life of God.

This is not an exclusivist claim it is the promise and hope of relationship.

I will know God, and God will know me.

I will know and be known. It is a glimpse of glory.

This week

• Where is Jesus telling me about himself?
• What do I tell Jesus about myself?
• How does this mutual revelation change us both?
• How do I change my life to better live that experience
• What will I do this week as I live out of this relationship

• .......love.....forgiveness...reconciliation all seek resolution in practice

Jesus meets us

Readings for this week, of Sunday May 1, 2011 are for The Second Sunday of the Easter Season Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31

Easter is not just a one day festival

but rather a way of life

The rather good stories that tell how early Christians encountered Jesus after his death

help us to assimilate our own experiences of Jesus.

Take Peter, for example, who stands up boldly and reminds his listeners

"This Jesus who you crucified"...

he might also be saying....

"and who I deserted at his time of need"

...well "This Jesus God has shown to be the Messiah,

the incarnation of God himself."

It is, a reminder of the way we take the revelation of the Godhead for granted

and fail to see

what mind-blowingly transforming stuff we are involved in.

Thomas, too, who is a quintessential figure in the Christian story.

Not with the disciples when Jesus appears

he does not just take at face value

the fact that they have "seen the Lord"

Why, indeed, should he?

There is perhaps a salutary reminder

that sometimes we assume that people will take our witness for granted.

When we tell them what our experience of the Godly encounter is

we should not just assume that is going to be the last word in the debate.

We often mistake what is happening

we do not name it rightly

we may fail to appreciate where the other person is

(all these are warnings for the would-be evangelist)

but more than this we need to appreciate

that conversion is not so much about persuasion

as about openness to the Holy Spirit of God.

The disciples encourage Thomas

to articulate what it would take for him

to be convinced of the truth

of what God is doing in our lives.

What would it take for me to be convinced?

Perhaps more deeply convinced, or more fundamentally convinced,

can you write a short list of the doubts you have

and what God needs to do to allay those doubts.

Thomas did....I need to see and feel the wounds...

to experience the physicality and the aliveness of Jesus.

This confrontation and naming of doubt enabled him to respond well

when the moment came.

This is an important statement about the integrity of God

The God who honours our shortcomings

as well as our insights and our strengths.

Indeed the story seems to suggest

that doubt is not necessarily a "shortcoming"

The experience of resurrection

invites us to explore

both the light and dark places

where God is to be encountered in our faith journey.

What would you name as your doubts?

What would it and does it take to be more firmly and deeply committed?

and can I allow that process to take place in God's good time

The voice of the prophets in Holy Week

Some short reflections from the prophets for Holy Week

Palm Sunday

Amos 5: ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream

It is not as if God's people do not know that justice is the preferred way.

Amos 9: ¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

God will restore, and restore properly. Not without pain, but through the very gift of his holy Son

Holy Monday

Obadiah 1: ²I will surely make you least among the nations;

you shall be utterly despised. ³Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of the rock, "> whose dwelling is in the heights. You say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ ⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.

How easily we misplace our trust.

Jonah 2: ⁷As my life was ebbing away,

I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. ⁸Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. ⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.

Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’

I make a mistake when I think I am the source of justice and holiness.

Holy Tuesday

Micah 1: ³For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,

and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. ⁴Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. ⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

The Lord's will to deal with my sin is unremitting and determined. He will forgive me. He will have me, even if I am slow and unwilling to respond.

Holy Wednesday

Micah 4

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, ² and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

In hope, not desperation; in faith not in decline. I come to the Lord because he draws me to himself.

Maundy Thursday

Habbakuk 3

His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. ⁴The brightness was like the sun; rays came forth from his hand,

where his power lay hidden.

There is no way to overlook the glory of the Lord

Good Friday

Zephaniah 2

¹¹The Lord will be terrible against them; he will shrivel all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place,

all the coasts and islands of the nations.

Everything that would wrongly demand our attention and our worship will be destroyed before Jesus, that we his sisters and brothers may live with the freedom and dignity that God destined us to share.

Holy Saturday-Easter Eve

Zephaniah 3

¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;

you shall fear disaster no more. .

The Lord completes all that he sets out to complete

Transfiguration

Sunday March 6^th is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany and readings can be taken from Exodus 24:12-18, Ps 2 or Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9

Not a myth

This story of The Transfiguration is a fascinating one.

And we need to understand its purpose We need to heed the advice

that Peter gives to his readers

which is that this is NOT a myth

This is difficult in a way because it has all sorts of supernatural bells and whistles

But it’s important that we hear Peter saying

We need to look beyond the supernatural.

This is about seeing Jesus for who he is.

It is one of those points when Peter is able to recognize that Jesus is Messiah

The Beloved of God

the one who is able to bring us into God’s very presence and life.

Not religion

This for Peter is an explanation of something he experienced

there are a couple of of things to note.

The first thing we might be tempted to do when we encounter God is to make it into a “religious” experience

Peter wants to set up shrines for Jesus Moses, and Elijah.

While religious sites have their place

Jesus tells them this is not what this about

Peter is adamant this is not about the bells and whitsles of supernatural experience

It is about seeing Jesus as God’s son

Beloved by God

And opening ourselves to God through Jesus.

Relationship with Jesus

We are being invited to not mythologise this opportunity

or perhaps we would say not fantasise.

Or to turn it into some religious experience

But to understand that this about God’s love

for Jesus, the Beloved Son

and for you and me

As Lent looms this is what is being handed to us

Not an opportunity to become more religious

but an invitation to relationship. with Jesus.

Maybe we don’t want this

the real danger about ‘religion’ is that it can actually be used to keep God at a distance.

Peter is adamant

this is not fantasy

Jesus is certain

no shrine or religious formularies

what is on offer is relationship

What might we do during Lent

to respond to this invitation?

The account tells us….This is my Son the Beloved

Listen to him.

If Jesus is speaking to me

what might he be saying?

if I cannot hear

can I spend a little time

trying to pay attention?

Time is of course of the essence

in any relationship.

You don’t strengthen your relationships

by not spending time.

And there are perhaps two warnings here

as Lent approaches.

One is, we can say…that is for somebody else to do

I think that’s wrong

we cannot delegate our responsibility for our individual relationship

we must allow time for Jesus

just as we should allow time

for our other relationships.

Second, let’s not make the mistake

of thinking that increased religious practice is what is being asked for

This is the warning that Jesus is giving the disciples.

So keep it Personal

and keep it Real