The authority of Jesus

The readings for Sunday February 1 2009: Epiphany 4 - Deuteronomy 18:15-20; PSALM 111; 1 COR 8:1-13; MARK 1:21-28

In this first chapter of Mark we are gradually brought into the process of understanding who Jesus is.
We have seen how individual disciples
are called to follow him
and now we have declared about him
that he has Authority.
The authority is no less than that of the authority of God.
This is why he is so important
he puts us into touch with the reality of God.
If we want to know God’s will,
if we want to understand God
then we look to Jesus.

The problem of authority is not without issue
Moses tells the people how to discern whether a person speaking in God’s name is an authentic prophet:

His principle is “If prophecy comes true then it is vindicated!”
This may raise more questions than it answers
Paul also tells people that they need to exercise discernment about what they believe and practice
While there are no longer “rules” not everything is necessarily helpful.
He tells people to be sensitive to other people’s weaknesses.

What Mark’s statement is about this is...that we have a new seat of authority
Jesus….the signs and wonders that he does, and principally his resurrection, validate his authority.

How then can we be in touch with Jesus?
It is simple and it is hard!
Simple because it is the straightforward job of just doing it: through, prayer, scripture, worship, talking with Jesus. By serving Jesus in others.
It is simple basic Christian stuff

But hard because we are also a bit deceptive about this sort of stuff
and it requires
honesty, openness and integrity
It is interesting to note that this does not always go down well.
And we ourselves can be slow to respond
or even just plain wilful.
This week:

• What is Jesus saying to me about my life?
• How can I better respond?
• Can I pray deliberately each day to pay attention to God’s will for my life and to respond to that

Counting the cost

Readings for the 31st August the 22nd Sunday of the Year can include: Exodus 3:1-15 [or Jeremiah 15:15-21] Psalm:Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c [or Psalm 26:1-8 ]; Romans 12:9-21 & Matthew 16:21-28

For all Peter's realisations that Jesus is pretty important in the scheme of things ( as we read last week) and he is rewarded with some pretty dramatic words....I will build my church on you
Words which the Church has been keen to exploit, they are not so keen to observe that moments later Jesus is berating this Prince of the Apostles and saying
"Get behind me Satan!"

And that he who was once a foundation is now a "stumbling block"
Equally strong words in the other direction.
I think we see here what is an observable phenomenon for spiritual people.
There are times when it is all pretty clear, and we can make it hang together
And then it evaporates and , once again, we lose the plot.



Equally well we have the seminal story of the burning bush.

This too is the experience of people.
God grabs our attention
and if we are attentive
we hear and receive
then we can hear what God might be saying

[I am not too worried about
how a bush might burn
or what it might mean
this is not a story about supernatural phenomena,
this is a story about how God catches out attention
how we hear God
and what we might then do]
As Christians who believe in an ever-present, and transcendent God
experienced in and through the world
we experiece "burning bushes" all the time.
Do we just take any notice?
Moses, we note, had to turn away from what he was doing
and go and take a look.
Our problem is that we may often see
but then just go on with what we are doing.
So we don't see or hear
God saying to us
I AM WHO I AM.
Instead we see the sheep going crazy.
It is when we turn aside
take off our shoes
because we realise the encounter is holy and powerful
listen
and then act out of that expereince that it all makes a difference.

This is what happened to Peter
when he recognised
what God might be doing in Jesus(here)
this changed his life fundamentally.
As did Moses.
Because he now had the choice to live out of something new.

This is how it works for us.
As we ask ourselves
where is God's grace active and alive for us today
there is also the invitation
to live rather differently.
Out of knowledge of the fact
that God is who God is
---we use the shorthand term Yahweh, Jehovah or LORD

The Question then is...what do we do with this?
The invitation
is to live out of the new encounter
the temptation is to go back to doing what we did before.

As I ask myself, where have I asked experienced God's grace today
the next step is:
And what difference does that make ?
Will I choose to live differently
because I have encountered God.
We don't always get this right.
This is Peter who was a "foundation"
becoming a "stumbling block"
Having been granted the vision of the future
do we choose to go back tot he past.

Too often yes!

This week

• Where have I experienced the presence of God at this time?
• What is God asking me to be and do? What does it reveal to me about the nature of God? What is the invitation to live differently?
• What changes do I make to the way I live because I have encountered God on holy ground?
• Will I live differently?

O God, you invite me to turn aside

and be with you.

Why on earth do you want to speak with me?

What do you want of me?

Give me not only this grace,

but also the courage to live out of your life.

In Jesus name. AMEN

The key to the problem

This Sunday 24th August we use the readings for the 21st Sunday which can be taken from Exodus 1:8-2:10 (or Isaiah 51:1-6); Psalm 124 (or Psalm 138); Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20 [it is also St Bartholomew's Day so there are alternative readingn for that day too]

One of the points I made last week was that we always bring a lot of baggage to the Scriptures when we seek to interpret their meaning
One of the biggest pieces of baggage is our understanding of 'authority'.
If, after all, Scripture is divinely inspired [however we interpret that]
then what it has to say about authority is important.
The Gospel passage we read this week is one of those portrions
where the issue of authority is very much to the fore:
We read

16:18 I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The Roman Catholic Church has taken this passage to speak about the particular authority that was given to St Peter
and then by extension to Peter's successors as Bishop of Rome
This Papal claim may be interesting but, in the end, to me it is difficult to sustain.
More than this, it obscures the insight that is being offered here to all Christians.
It is part of th baggage!
The dynamic that is going on here
is that in relationship with Jesus
we come to an understanding of who we are.
So Peter, though he might be tempted to think otherwise,
comes to understand that he can and will be
a foundation that God can use to build
[By way of a side issue in John 1 :43-52 we see another man, Bartholomew,
(who is called here Nathanael)
who has a simple encounter of recognition with Jesus
and who is blown away by the fact that he seems to be known at depth]

Much of what is said about Peter in this encounter
would wait to be realised
It is often only in looking back that we see God's hand evident.
As we reflect on the Moses story, for example,
which we begin this morning also
we are able to frame a fairly hair-raising story of murder and cruelty
and see how God was able to take that and make something bold out of it.
This is not moralising or fable telling
with a view to getting an object lesson
but rather exploring a foundational principle of the faith-journey
that God takes the stuff of our life
and gives it meaning.
For Peter and Nathanael
(and indeed for us)
it is encounter with Jesus
which will give meaning to our lives.

This is what we are trying to 'explain' about Christianity
It is what happens to people when they are 'saved'
it is the 'grace' which God gives us
bringing meaning and purpose.

Our prayers, thoughts and reflections
might be well spent
listening to what Jesus is speaking into our lives

This is not an exercise in fantasy.
It is about getting in touch with the reality
of what God is saying to me today.

This week

• Sit quietly and ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit
• Lord show show me who and what you want me to be this week
• Use one of the following scripture passages
• Lord speak to me today

Romans 13:12
12the night is far gone, the day is near. Let
us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light;

1 Cor 4:13
13when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become
like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Matthew 14:23
23And after Jesus had dismissed the
crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was
there alone,

Judges 13:13
13The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Let
the woman give heed to all that I said to her.

Hosea 6:6
6For I desire steadfast love and not
sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than
burnt-offerings.

• What might God be saying to me ?
• What does this invite me to do tomorrow and in the week to come?

Looking up...what do you see?

Transfiguration Sunday-The Last Sunday after the Epiphany February 18th 2007

February 18, 2007 Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 II Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36, (37-43)

It is not always the case buty this week it is.

When you type in the word Transfiguration into Google you invariably get a religious style image.

With most words, like blessed, or happy (last week) you get a variety of ideas. But Transfiguration seems to engender the sort of narrowly religious idea.

Life would of course be quite boring without transfiguration, so we should not dismiss these experiences. I always point to the the birth of my first child as being such an experience, many men...even rough, shallow guys...attest to this.

There is a sense of the overwhelming awareness of "other", of change, of awe....all the things indeed we read about in this story...so we should be thankful for these events as well as trying to underestand them.

Theer is also a straight forward point made in this story, and in many of the hymns and songs about this event...while we are transformed ourselves by these powerful experience we have to move on from them.

"No," says Jesus to the apostles, "you may not build shrines here" His inference being that you must move back to ordinary life and allow this event to change that

'Tis good, Lord, to be here.
yet we may not remain;
but since thou bidst us leave the mount,
come with us to the plain.

It is good to know and expereince the supernatural presence of God. But this is not...in the end what life is about. At the best we are to ask ourselves how these powerful experiences inform and change our life.

It's all well and good to feel powerful change when your child is born, but how does this affect how you live your life.?
What is the point of continuing as is..after you ahve had a revelation?
If when our parent or spouse dies we experience the wonder of the grief process
and we find that our understanding of death, pain and resurrection is deepened
What difference does this make to the way we live our life?

You see we are tempted to allow Transfiguration to only be a religious experience
the invitationm that God is offering is for us to look through and beyond these experiences
and allow them to change how we live.
As we see God more clearly in glory
as we hear him speak
what is he inviting us to do with that.

THIS WEEK
Gather a sense of those powerful moments of your life when you have experienced Transfiguration
When things have shone in a new light and we have had new awareness.
When we do that the next question is to ask:
What is God trying to draw out of me through this experience?
And what will I do with that?