Being one

I will not be preaching this Sunday, which is the Sunday after the Ascension as we will be having a speaker, Royce Thompson from Bush Church Aid (here) This is a reflection from the last cycle of year CJohn 17:20-26

17:20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,

17:21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,

17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

17:24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

17:25 "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.

17:26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." I sometimes think John 17 goes round and round in circles and states, restates and then does it again the simple idea.

May my disciples be one with me, as I am one with you, that they too may be one with you.

We have equivalent phrases in modern parlance we talk about being 'together' or 'being made whole' or about 'holistic healing', 'self realisation', or in more recent times 'finding your voice' This important chapter speaks thus of the high destiny that each human being has. It is to find that we are indeed created in the image of God and that that image is deep within each one of us. It is not that we are God. It is rather that we are like God and that our Godliness will shine through if we let it. Jesus is ever praying for us that we may be open to this. The Holy Spirit is ever working so that our Godliness will be realised. We sell ourselves short if we understand anything less than God understands as being our destiny and self relisation. But what does it mean? This Easter season shows us that this 'togetherness', this 'unity' this 'ultimate destiny' is realised only in so far as we live our lives as Christ lives. The key is that we LIVE not that we are given a perfect box which we open and reveal it. As we look to Jesus we understand that he is not principally a doctrinal revelation That is he is not a text book. He is a life lived. The invitation is not to understand the text so that when we are examined on it we can get 100% The invitation is to put into practice in our own lives what we see being enfleshed in the life of Christ. It will be lived at the service of others a life of love and forgiveness of openness to suffering and not avoiding the darkness which is death. An invitation Where is Christ drawing me to be more like him? Where do I experience "togetherness" in my life, in the world? What might God be seeking me to be and do in order to consolidate that?

Ascension Day

This is a reflection from a couple of years ago about the Ascension

You might like to read another reflection on Resurrection and Ascension here by Bishop Tom Wright of Durham in which he speaks powerfully of the importance of the Ascension for the modern Christian

It isn't easy to understand how hard it is for a preacher to sit and listen to someone else preach.
Some times it's a delight
other times it is painful
(like last Sunday when I sat and heard a well-meaning priest
talk what seemed to me unending drivel
I kept asking myself ...

"But what difference does this make to anything?")
Now I struggle to be temperate
and humble...
Yes, in the face of the mysteries of God
you have to be be temperate and humble.
I am so often not good at either of these of things

That priest was talking about the Ascension of Jesus
and he seemed to make sense of it
...for himself....
but I struggled to make contact.
I don't think I was just in a bad mood.
Or being more arrogant than usual.
I had even alerted myself to the possibility
that it would be particularly difficult today.

It is partly the nature of the Ascension.
We just don't seem to get it.
So in the face of a story which talks about holy Jesus
being taken up on a cloud into heaven
we begin to make stuff up!
In wanting to believe everything the Scripture might be saying
we twist and we turn
in order to fit the text into our distorted view of God's reality.

Bishop Tom Wright makes the point that the one thing the Ascension story is not saying
is that Jesus is trail-blazing
and inviting us to find our own lift into heaven.
He notes that if we read the Acts of the Apostles
we struggle to find a view of the Christian life
which says:
If you keep on plugging at it then you will finally get your heavenly reward
he says, rather, that the early Church discovered
that Jesus was showing the world that
the kingdom of heaven was in our midst
it is not something that is to be discovered
it is here and now.
The New Testament community rather than being devastated
by the death of Jesus
discovered that far from Jesus being taken away from them
his life, his love, his community
was found in a deeper and profounder way.

Wright's message?
Let's not replace the vibrancy of the Spirit-filled New Testament Church
with the wishful thinking that if we hang on for long-enough
then everything will be fulfilled.
It IS here and now.

Archbishop Rowan Williams says:

… the idea of ‘the Christian religion’ is a late and weak formulation: what first exists is the Assembly, to give the literal meaning of the Greek word for ‘Church’, as a fresh configuring of the whole of experienced reality – a new set of human relations, a new horizon for what human beings are capable of, a new understanding of the material world and its capacities. The Christian involved in the celebration of the Eucharist is not affirming a set of propositions with the help of an audio-visual programme, but inhabiting, in speech and action, a drama which purports to ‘re-locate’ him or her in the space occupied by Jesus Christ in his eternal relationship with the Father, a relocation which is enabled by his sacrificial death and his rising from the grave and ascension into heaven.
Rowan Williams

The Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?

Moving on in faith

Readings for the Sunday after the Ascension (Seventh Sunday of Easter) May 24, 20098 Acts 1:15-26 Psalm 1,  I John 5:9-13 John 17:6-19

Now this can either be hard or easy!
Because, either the point of the physical removal of Jesus
that we call The Ascension
is an insurmountable obstacle to 21st century rational-scientific minds
or it is as easy as recognising
that in order to mature
we cannot go on having others
doing for us what we need to do for ourselves!
I opt to think, today, about the Ascension
in this latter way!

In the most obvious sense
God wants mature men and women.
People who will have depth and understanding
that is not achieved
by always stepping in making up for our inadequacies.
Any parent knows the truth of this.
Indeed anyone in any relationship whatsoever
needs to understand this,
we are not called to step in and make up
for the inadequacies, mistakes and failures
of others.
However well-intentioned,
this breeds immaturity and over-dependence,
rather than freedom, initiative
and sophisticated maturity.

There is a difference between supporting people in difficulty
and in not allowing people the opportunity to make their own mistakes!

The withdrawal of the physical presence of Jesus
rather than being an expression
of God's disappointment and heartbreak with the world
can and should actually be seen
as a statement of faith by God in you and me.
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective people
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective church
God believes that we have within us
the capacity to fail and to know that failure is not the end

This is what is going on

Two encouragements
This is something about the very nature of what relationship
with God is all about
We are not passive observers
of a world in which God is active
but we are ministers of God's presence to the world.

Now what does a minister do?
A minister acts on behalf of someone
So, a Minister of the Crown exercises authority of behalf of the Queen and the Government.
A minister of the Church
acts on behalf of God.
And we understand that Baptism
confers upon you and me
the responsibility
to be Minister of Jesus
We will say We are the Body of Christ
So Jesus can say to the Father...

I am no longer in the world but they are in the world.

Now this 'they' who he is talking about is you and me


We may feel as though this is too hard sometimes
Jesus prays for our protection
he prays that we may be united to each other
and that we may be filled with joy

He does not pray
that we should be relieved of responsibility
or taken out of the world.
But rather that we should exercise this responsibility

It is a great statement of the trust that God put in you and me
as ministers
to act with confidence in the name of the God who equips us for ministry.

May this be ours too

This week

• Can we look for opportunity to a faithful minister and commit ourself deliberately to God's care and protection as you seek to be more faithful
• Look at the circumstances in which we live and see where God is calling us to serve others.
  Pray deliberately for joy where ever we find ourselves to be

..

Putting it all together

Readings for the Sunday after the Ascension (Seventh Sunday of Easter) May 4, 2008 Acts 1:6-14 Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 I Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11

Now this can either be hard or easy!
Because, either the point of the physical removal of Jesus
is an insurmountable obstacle to 21st century rational-scientific minds
or it is as easy as recognising
that in order to mature
we cannot go on having others
doing for us what we need to do for ourselves!
I opt to think, today, about the Ascension
in this latter way!

In the most obvious sense
if God wants mature men and women.
People who will have depth and understanding
then that is not achieved
by always stepping in making up for our inadequacies.
Any parent knows the truth of this.
Indeed anyone in any relationship whatsoever
needs to understand this,
we are not called to step in and make up
for the inadequacies, mistakes and failures
of others.
However well-intentioned,
this breeds immaturity and over-dependence,
rather than freedom, initiative
and sophisticated maturity.

There is a difference between supporting people in difficulty
and in not allowing people the opportunity to make their own mistakes!

The withdrawal of the physical presence of Jesus
rather than being an expression
of God's disappointment and heartbreak with the world
can and should actually be seen
as a statement of faith by God in you and me.
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective people
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective church
God believes that we have within us
the capacity to fail and to know that failure is not the end

This is what is going on

Two encouragements
We may feel as though this is too hard sometimes
Can we hear two things today:
That Jesus prays to the Father for our protection.
He is not assuming that it is going to be easy,
indeed the reverse would seem to be the case.
So he prays for our protection.
In the midst of difficulty
our faith requires that we bring that 'big gun' into play.
Let us not forget that God is on our side,
this is not some sort of crude lining up allies
during war
but rather seeking to draw out of you and me
Faith in God.
Perhaps we need to pray that prayer that one of the rulers prays
Lord I DO believe
but also help my unbelief.
feeling undersiege
is not necessarily a sign of spiritual weakness
but rather an invitation
to strengthen our faith
As we rely on faith
we learn to be faithful.

Second, Jesus's key promise
in this time
is that he will not leave us friendless.
He promises the Holy Spirit.
We are not called to do this alone,
but rather to realise that we act out of God's power.
there is something important
about being able to ask for help.
As we seek to move and grow
we pray that God's Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit of Jesus himself
will cause us to move as God wants us to
and to understand as God wants us to.

And we discover what the first Christians dicovered
that in acting out of faith
their faith is increased.
In that exercising their God-given independence
they find a new sense of freedom
which opens them up to the gracious life of Spirit of Jesus.

More mysteriously, then, though Jesus is no longer
physically with them
they have a deeper, profounder sense of His abiding love.

May this be ours too

This week

• Remember to commit yourself deliberately to God's care and protection as you seek to be more faithful
• Pray deliberately for the Holy Spirit to guide, encourage and lead you
  

Jesus with us now

Readings for the Sunday after the Ascension (Seventh Sunday of Easter) May 4, 2008 Acts 1:6-14 Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35I Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11

You might like to read another reflection on Resurrection and Ascension here by Bishop Tom Wright of Durham in which he speaks powerfully of the importance of the Ascension for the modern Christian

It isn't easy to understand how hard it is for a preacher to sit and listen to someone else preach.
Some times it's a delight
other times it is painful
(like last Sunday when I sat and heard a well-meaning priest
talk what seemed to me unending drivel
I kept asking myself ..."But what difference does this make to anything?")
Now you have to be temperate
and humble...
Yes, in the face of the mysteries of God
you have to be be temperate and humble.
I am so often not good at either of these of things

The priest was talking about the Ascension of Jesus
and he seemed to make sense of it
...for himself....
but I struggled to make contact.
I don't think I was just in a bad mood.
Or being more arrogant than usual.
I had even alerted myself to the possibility
that it would be particularly difficult today.

It is partly the nature of the Ascension.
We just don't seem to get it.
So in the face of a story which talks about holy Jesus
being taken up on a cloud into heaven
we begin to make stuff up!
In wanting to believe everything the Scripture might be saying
we twist and we turn
in order to fit the text into our distorted view of God's reality.

Bishop Tom Wright makes the point that the one thing the Ascension story is not saying
is that Jesus is trail-blazing
and inviting us to find our own lift into heaven.
He notes that if we read the Acts of the Apostles
we struggle to find a view of the Christian life
which says:
If you keep on plugging at it then you will finally get your heavenly reward
he says, rather, that the early Church discovered
that Jesus was showing the world that
the kingdom of heaven was in our midst
it is not something that is to be discovered
it is here and now.
The New Testament community rather than being devastated
by the death of Jesus
discovered that far from Jesus being taken away from them
his life, his love, his community
was found in a deeper and profounder way.

Wright's message?
Let's not replace the vibrancy of the Spirit-filled New Testament Church
with the wishful thinking that if we hang on for long-enough
then everything will be fulfilled.
It IS here and now.

Archbishop Rowan Williams says:

… the idea of ‘the Christian religion’ is a late and weak formulation: what first exists is the Assembly, to give the literal meaning of the Greek word for ‘Church’, as a fresh configuring of the whole of experienced reality – a new set of human relations, a new horizon for what human beings are capable of, a new understanding of the material world and its capacities. The Christian involved in the celebration of the Eucharist is not affirming a set of propositions with the help of an audio-visual programme, but inhabiting, in speech and action, a drama which purports to ‘re-locate’ him or her in the space occupied by Jesus Christ in his eternal relationship with the Father, a relocation which is enabled by his sacrificial death and his rising from the grave and ascension into heaven.
Rowan Williams

The Spiritual and the Religious: Is the Territory Changing?