Come, Lord Jesus

Reflection on John 14:8-13

This morning's prayers:

Come, Lord Jesus!

Bring hope and harmony

to our lives.

when things fall apart

when life is chaotic

and when there seems

no way;

show us that

destruction and death

is often the gate

to new life;

that chaos

is the prelude

to a new way;

and that where there is

no way

we are invited to discover

that the Way, the Truth and the Life

is neither path nor gate,

it is not a test

but a person.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Come my Way, my Truth, my Life!

Speaking through the wall

The reading for today are the continuation of the Easter narratives:Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

This Sunday is the Second in Easter, April 11th 2010 sometimes called Low Sunday

We are at the business end of the Gospel

because, in the end, the resurrection is what it is all about.

In this passage from John 20:19-31 that we read today

we encounter a lot of important ideas.

So it is worth taking time this week to go through the whole passage.

Today I am only going to look at the beginning:

Jesus says Peace. Jesus says I send you with this peace.

Jesus says I equip you to do this by giving you the Holy Spirit

And, this peace which you are to share through the Holy Spirit is about

Forgiveness.

The resurrected Jesus brings peace.

This peace that we are talking about is the peace -shalom-that permeates the First Covenants

It is not only about the absence of war

It is about wholeness of life.

This is the life God wants us to have...abundant life, eternal life.

God wants a life for you and me

that is better than what we want for ourselves.

If you wonder what you are supposed to do with this

then this is The Good News that we are to share with others.

Key to this is the promise that forgiveness

can be a reality:

Forgiveness by God of those things we have done wrong

The capacity to forgive other people

and the openness to seeking the forgiveness of those who we have hurt.

Lest we think this is a tall order

Jesus also tells us....you do not have to do this in your own strength

but Receive the Holy Spirit of God to let you do this.

Today, as you worship and pray

Pray particularly for God's Holy Spirit

to enable you to receive

abundant life

to exercise forgiveness

to forgive

and to seek forgiveness.

Peace be with you

The Spirit of Jesus

During Lent we are thinking about the Apostle’s Creed
Traditionally Lent has been a time to prepare for baptism and the renewal of baptismal vows. The Apostles’ Creed contains the basic statements of Christian faith that Christians have traditionally affirmed at their baptism
The Apostle's Creed has three sections and the last one reads

I believe in the Holy Spirit
The holy catholic church
the communion of saints
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting

It may seem a curious hodge-podge of materials. Almost as if all of the left-over doctrines are just thrown in to make sure that the ground is covered!



But of course that is not what is going on.
Indeed the whole of the third section follows on in Trinitarian form.

I believe in God the Father
I believe in God the Son
and now
I believe in God the Holy Spirit

this church, communion, the promise of resurrection and the mystery of life in God
all flow out of the fact that we are born again (as Jesus promised) of the Holy Spirit


This third section is telling us about what God is doing now

and what God is looking to do in the future.
God is creating a universal community
(this is what the expression catholic church should be taken to mean)
open & inclusive
God is drawing together a community of chosen people the communion of saints
this is not an exclusive community, but an inclusive community (catholic)
of people who are chosen to be
what God wants them to be
the sign of this community is the resurrection of the body & everlasting life

At funerals I remind people that the Christian view of God and death
is not reincarnation, or oblivion, or meaninglessness
It is not that we somehow become a part of a universal spirit, and are assumed into God or the universe
We believe that we continue to have meaningful, unique and distinct life.
And just as God has cared for us and loved us since our conception (and perhaps before)
so, that care will continue into eternity
unique, distinct, personal.
this is The Life in the Spirit
It is what God is doing in us now and in the promise of the future

THIS WEEK

Take a little time to ask God to show you more about what the Spirit is working in you
What is it that God is calling you to be and do?
Can we pray to put aside our own limited view of life and embrace the vision and promise that God has for us?

God's only Son

During Lent we are thinking about the Apostle’s Creed
Traditionally Lent has been a time to prepare for baptism and the renewal of baptismal vows. The Apostles’ Creed contains the basic statements of Christian faith that Christians have traditionally affirmed at their baptism
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son our Lord
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son our Lord
By far the longest section in the Creeds is about Jesus
This doesn’t surprise us, we who call ourselves Christians
are called to follow Jesus.
The Apostles’ Creed tells us
that God is working out a purpose
in the life of Jesus
and in my life and yours.

This is not haphazard random chaos.
it is about how God’s world works
and how we fit into it

We’ve been through the Christmas season and we see unfolded the activity of God’s Spirit in choosing a partner, Mary, and in conceiving a child whose life unfolds as a profoundly saving life.
We get the teaching of Jesus
the Good Samaritan, the love of God , the call to forgiveness, and the promise of the new creation
This comes at a cost
and the cost is paid by Christ
in his body.
The cost brings about a change.
It means we can be open to the mystery of life in God for ever
a new experience of God
which we call resurrection
an entering into heavenly life
which we call ascension and heaven
and the assurance that we are secure in this
through faith in Jesus
which we call judgement.
Where Christ sets us free from the trials and tribulations
of our former limited, deathly life.

Remember, this Creed is a concise way of stating all that God does.
A lot packed into a little.
The three things we can focus on this week
How does Jesus speak to my life? As I look at Jesus, and think about him, as I try to hear the Spirit of Jesus and to talk with him, and listen ...what is God asking me to be and do?
As I recognise that privilege also means responsibility and cost, where am I called to imitate Jesus in my life
Where is God showing me the challenge, joy and hope of eternal life? And How might I respond?

THIS WEEK
Take a little time to ask God to show you more about Jesus, God’s plan, God’s work and Goid’s hope,

Reviewing the meaning of life

Suffering is the great mystery. We struggle to understand it but don't find it easy. Maybe there is not an answer in the narrow way we often think of such things

there
Readings for Sunday 18 October 2009, Pentecost 20, (Proper 29) Job 38:1-24; Psalm 104:1-26; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:32-45. These readings can be read progressively through the week to prepare you for Sunday

Is the "mystery of suffering" revealed this week? (See Job 38)
I don't pretend that the "answer" that the book of Job gives to the purpose, cause and meaning of suffering
is ultimately satisfying.
It does however point us to an ultimate reality or two!
Mystery
We do not comprehend everything.
We live under the misapprehension
that everything is ultimately knowable.
If only we can get enough information
or if we can gain enough experience
then we will utimately arrive at the answer.
The story of Job suggests to us that this is not entirely true.
We will never understand the mystery of God
how he creates, renews, restores
The best we can hope for is, like some sort of calculus,
to draw close to the absolute limit of our understanding
but we never reach the complete finality.
Entering into the mystery
The gospel passage though gives us another way in
To James and John who quite miss the point of what life with Christ might be like
and seem to think that it is about some sort of power play
Jesus says "Can you be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?"
When this question is asked they glibly say "Of course!"
But one must wonder if they would have spoken so boldly on Good Friday
or 20 or more years later.
What Jesus is reminding us in this passage is that there is a cost involved
and we might say we understand the mystery of life
as we engage with it.
It is necessary to enter into the mystery
it is not an idea
it is an experience.
It is not a series of theologies
it is relationship.
This is evident to me when ministering to those at great points of difficulty
like grief, or relationship breakdown
or depression
I am sometimes led to say that this sort of experience
is an extraordinary opportunity as well as an enormous difficulty.
Quite often people affirm this insight after the event.
It is, after all, another way of stating the mystery of the cross.
If we are to look at how God operates then we should turn to the powerful events of our faith
We will be brought to the point
where our life might be extinguished
and we can choose to encounter this
as Jesus does
and in so doing
we pass through it and are transformed
or we can play religious, theological, or philosophical games about God
when we are actually being called to encounter the reality of God.

THIS WEEK
Where is Jesus calling you to respond to challenge and the Cross?
What are the practical demands that this places on my life?
Pray for the courage to accept this challenge.

What ever we want!

Readings for Sunday May 17th, the 6th Sunday of Easter  Acts 10:44-48;  Psalm 98;, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17

St John in the section of the first letter that we read today

reminds us that we come to understand 

what life is about

and how things fall into place

by faith.

This is the victory that conquers the world,

our faith.

This is a seemingly innocent, even predictable, statement

which we may gloss over.

But it is also in a real sense the key.

We proceed to live life in a different way because of faith.

This is about a decision that we make to choose to live life in a deeper

more authentic way.

John hammers home Jesus’s bold assertion that everything flows out of the reality that God loves us.

It is not the declaration of rules and laws, but the reality of a commitment to live life in a radical and deep way

(Perhaps what Scott Peck called the “Road Less Travelled”)

So we are confronted again by the challenge to go out and bear fruit

and we hear the promise

that this fruitfulness will be undergirded by God’s provision of whatever we ask for 

and need to be fruitful.

Notice (as last week) this is not 

wish-fulfilment (the new bike syndrome)

this is purpose-driven   

God makes provision 

out of his love

for everything we need

to live the kingdom life

which brings us the promise of abundance

—–let’s not play games with God

thinking he is a slot-machine

—–we are trying to live the life of faith

so we are likely to need to pray for:

—–forgiveness, love, reconciliation, patience, generosity

much more important than 

a new bike, or even wealth

Abundant, eternal life

will in the end seek to draw out of us

a life of faith 

This is the victory that conquers the world...our faith

THIS WEEK

What do we want  and need  to live a life of faith?

What is to stop us asking for it?

Christus resurrexit! Don't be alarmed

Readings for today, Easter Day, can be traken from Acts 10:34-43, Is 25:6-9.Psalm 118, 1 Corinthinas 15:1-11, Acts 10:34-43, John 20: 1-18, Mark 16:1-8 (our selection is here)

Our Lenten pilgrimage is at an end
we find ourselves at the climax.
Mark's enigmatic account of what happens at the tomb
is an interesting challenge to the believer
those who go to look for Jesus
flee, in amazement and terror.
They are told by a young man ( who is perhaps an angel) "Do not be alarmed!"
What ever it is you are seeking
is not here at the tomb, it is elsewhere.
This seems to me (at the very least) good advice.
We have to move on from the tomb.
We have to get beyond what alarms us.
More than this it is a key part of understanding
what resurrection might be about.
It is certainly about trying to understand
what death is about
and death is often a point where we are
deeply ALARMED.
But it's not the only point at which we get alarmed.
We encounter death in our relationships
in our particular world views.
The message of the tomb would see to be
that we don't deal with death
by standing at the tomb.
As terrifying and amazing as this might be
(and it was for the disciples)
we are called to go elsewhere.
In this story the disciples are told to go back to the place
where they experienced life
It's called Galilee for these disciples
but may go by a different name for you and me.

Where are we experiencing the grave at the moment.
Don't be alarmed!
Go back to where you experienced Jesus
to where you knew true inspiration
and that things were right.

He is not at the point where we buried the body.
He has gone back to where he gives you life.

What must I do?

During Lent we will be following a local series of lections.If you are looking for the Common Lectionary References try here Revised Common Lectionary

The principle reading for this 29th March, 2009 the 5th Sunday in Lent is Mark 10:17-31, other readings include Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 119:9-16, Hebrews 5:5-14

It seems that there is both a universal and a particular message
in this story of Jesus 's encounter with a rich young man
The particular message for this man
is that there is one area in which he hold himself back
from God.
That he may do all sorts of other things right
but there is still
one thing more
he will not surrender his fondness
for this world's wealth and security
The general message is that for each one of us
is there is always
"one thing more"
it may not be money, or security
(it may...it is very seductive)
but we are not to hold anything back.

What is it that we are reluctant to hand over to God?

The young man, and the disciples have rightly identified
that this is hard.
Let us not be seduced by the image....how then can it happen?
What is beiong said here is that
WE cannot effect our own salvation
It is indeed impossible for us.
We will always be compromised
always seduced by some other thing.
Our faith must be and can only be in God alone.

We can have faith that all this will work out
but we may not quite understand how.
We are not called to understand.
Weare called to have faith!

Thomas Merton, who we have talked about
in recent weeks
reminds us that this is serious business
we are not playing games with God
(so often we do!)
we are trying to bring our real self before God
because it is the only self
that is known by God.
This young man comes to Jesus
he presents not his real self
but what he wants the world to think he is like.
"All these commandments I keep,
I am a good person"
But Jesus sees right through this,
as he does so often with people who seek healing.
"You need forgiveness!" he might say
"You have go to sort out your relationships".
No game playing.
It is not a reward exercise
in which we get a prize for being good
It is that when we are known by God
that our life is fulfilled, right, good.
Anything less is a game.
It is (as Merton says) a false self.
God only knows our real self,
the pursuit and promotion of the false sself
leaves us sad and unsatisfied.
This young man grieves
the disciples are profounbdly shocked.
But the affirmation is this:
This is God's work, and with God nothing is impossible.
Anything else is false,
at best a game, and at worst the road to hell.
Can Easter be for you and me,
this time of presenting the real-self to God?
Of commitment to Christ, that we know is right.
But we may be too frightened to let go
of one (or maybe more than one ) thing?
THIS WEEK
What 'one thing' is God inviting me to yield to him?
How can I do it?
Pray each day: LORD HELP ME TO BE REAL