How much are you worth?

The current debates about welfare got me thinking this week about how much we are all worth. Some of us it seems are much more valuable than others; some of us deserve vast sums of money, status and power, whilst others deserve nothing.

At the heart of the Christian faith however is the Good News that God values each and every person exactly the same: we are all equally loved and valued by God. This radical aspect of the Christian faith can challenge us in all sorts of ways: God loves the multi-millionaire; God loves the person out of work struggling to keep their home; God loves the criminal in prison who murdered someone; God loves your average man or woman; God loves you and God loves me.

God values each and every person and wants them to flourish; and human flourishing involves repentance and conversion. Each and everyone of us, whoever we are, needs to repent of ways and habits of life that devalue and diminish others. If one person has too much than another person doesn't have enough; if one person commits adultery then another is hurt; if one person thinks only about his welfare and the welfare of his family then the orphan is neglected. We are all inter-connected - the things that we do and say - the life choices and decisions we make effect people we never see or meet. And the crisis about benefits brings into light this reality, that the choices we make as a society and as individuals have a huge impact on our common life and on human flourishing. We all need to learn a discipline in our consumption and a fairness in our approach. We cannot give up on anyone in society, we cannot abandon the criminal, the orphan, the one living with mental ill health, the one who is unemployed, the one who is addicted to drugs, the one who is exploitative and cruel, the one who is powerful. God loves us all - we need to start loving one another.

Recognising Jesus as the Risen Lord

‘He will call his sheep by name and they will follow him because they know his voice’ John10.27

Think about somebody you love who has died.

Think about an action or gesture that you think captures something of their character. If you were writing their Eulogy, what one thing could you say so that everyone would think ah yes, that was? ….

One of the defining elements of Jesus’ resurrection appearances was that at first his disciples and followers didn’t recognise him when he first appeared to them. It is so with Mary Magdalen; she was there at the tomb weeping, she turns round and sees a man she assumes is the gardener. But she does not know that it is Jesus. It is not until Jesus addresses her by name that she sees it is him. ‘Mary’ he says. And when he calls her, addresses her directly, only then does she know it is him.'Rabouni' she replies.

Why?? Why might it be that people didn’t at first recognise Jesus? One thing it suggests to me is that seeing Jesus as the resurrected Lord, is not so much about physical sight, but about seeing with the eyes of faith. Moreover, faith depends upon the quality of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

John’s Gospel teaches that Jesus:

 ‘will call his sheep by name and they will follow him because they know his voice’.

This shows us quite simply that we cannot follow Jesus, we cannot believe in him if, we don’t know who he is. God communicates with us, fully, in Jesus Christ. Jesus came and built specific, personal and real friendships with his disciples and followers. They knew him; he was their friend and teacher.  All the people that Jesus appeared to had a relationship with or knowledge of him and what he said and did before he died. He came back to them not as a stranger but someone who they already knew. Their prior understanding of him enabled them to recognise him when he called them by name, or blessed and broke bread: actions that defined him. God in Jesus takes time to individually get to know us, so that we might follow him when he calls us.

But how do we have a relationship with Jesus now? There are different ways that we can do this. One way is through participating in worship, in particular Eucharistic worship. The Eucharist re-enacts again and again what the Bible tells us Jesus did. ‘On the night before he died at supper with his friends…’. The other is through reading the Bible, in particular the Gospels which tell us about Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection. Another way is through prayer and another still is through fellowship with other believers.

But, the simple message of Easter is:

We cannot recognise Jesus as the Risen Lord if we have no relationship with him; just as you would not be able to recognise the description of someone in their funeral service if you had never met them. Belief depends upon knowledge and God gives us knowledge of Himself in the most direct and clear way through His Son, Jesus Christ.

‘Things Fall Apart – the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’

 Holy Week Reflection

 The Jewish people had a framework for understanding the world and most importantly their relationship with God and with one another. They had the Law and the Prophets and yet at various points in their history they were radically challenged by the events that occurred in their communal history. The deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians became a foundational narrative for them about God’s ability to save. They were not a people unused to suffering, unused to war, unused to persecution and these experiences led them as a people to expect from their God – compassion, mercy and most importantly deliverance. They could understand their sufferings in various ways, they could attribute them to their own sin and waywardness, but at the centre of their faith was a belief that God had established a covenant with them and that he would be faithful even if they were faithless.

Jesus came into this history as a possible Messiah, as the Anointed One who would perhaps fulfil the expectations of the Jewish people concerning the redemption of Israel. He cured and healed, he taught with authority, he even raised the dead to life and yet, at the last Jesus did something unexpected.

For Jesus’ disciples and followers, the death of Jesus was real – his crucifixion the most utter betrayal of all their hopes concerning Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One. He had let them down – he had failed. We often look to the narratives of Holy Week and focus on Peter’s denial or Judas’ betrayal – but for the disciples it was Jesus’ failure that was most real – they were left desolate, frightened, brought face to face with the religious and secular authorities of their day – brought into conflict with real power – power that had the ability to destroy and their leader had been destroyed: killed, crucified. No wonder they hid after his death. Jesus had promised so much and in the end delivered so little.

Can you think of a time when you felt that God had let you down, when he had failed? When did you last ask God - why? Why me, why this, why now? When did you last feel that God’s promises to you had been betrayed?  There are all times in our lives I am sure when we feel that God is not fulfilling his side of the covenant. Christians can be guilty of thinking that being a believer means that good will come and that trouble and affliction will be averted. The story of the Cross tells us something else. These times of difficulty are the times when we have the opportunity to either keep on believing and readjust our understanding of God, or when we give up on God, throw in the life of faith.

‘Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit’

Jesus re-wrote the history of salvation. He re-cast what it means to be one of God’s chosen people, and in so doing he took his disciples and followers into the way of the Cross, the way of death. He takes us there too. When we are confused or troubled or when our world falls apart, Jesus is there at the Cross, telling us that wherever we may go, he has been there before – he has looked death and destruction, loss of hope and desolation in the face and returned.

Last week the great Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe died, his most celebrated novel Things Fall Apart, narrates, from an African perspective, what happens when what is known and what is valued is destroyed by an outsider who threatens, challenges, or simply tells a different story. He takes the title of his novel from Yeat’s poem, ‘The Second Coming’:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

When things seem at their worst, we can expect God to transform the situation by doing the unexpected.

The sign of abundant wine

Jesus turns water into wine, the wedding at Cana
John 2:1-11

Like the feeding of the five thousand, this sign shows us that God’s action in the world is one that is about generosity, grace, abundance: there will always be enough of what God is offering.

God is always thinking about feeding us, and in this instance not only feeding, but giving us great wine to drink! Perhaps this is the most Jewish of signs, one quite difficult for us Christians in 2013 to understand. What do we know of Jewish marriage feasts and culture? What can we understand from this Gospel reading?

There are such odd things about this reading, Mary’s appearance, for instance, unlike the image that we have become so familiar with over Christmas and over the years – the young women – obedient and accepting. Here, to me she seems much older, familiar with her son – he’s a grown-up after all. Used to referring to him for help – ‘they have no wine’; expecting that he has the answers/solutions: ‘do whatever he tells you’; what would it be like to be the mother of such a son? She obviously loves him – understands him.

 And then, the wine – why create such wine at a wedding feast? Of course, yes, people want more wine; it has run out, a potential huge embarrassment for the host, more than that something that would shame them. But, so much of it; what is this sign, what does it mean? Abundance, generosity, overflowing – these words begin to describe something about this sign that we are meant to understand. God is acting, God has acted: He gives us more than we need, more good things than we require. He is a generous God.

 Yet, the experience of much of the world, is lack, is need, is want. We talk about recession, and some people are really suffering in our country, but look abroad for much more severe forms of want and lack. We don’t seem to live in a world where there is enough.

 Well – first of all, it is no mere magic trick to turn water into wine. Jesus’ divinity is being gently suggested at here. It is of course a situation that perhaps could be explained away – of course there was more wine – the hosts forgot what they had left etc. etc. did you actually see it being turned into wine? Doubt is always there. But, if we believe, then the sign tells us that Jesus is able to govern the rules of nature, a sign of his divinity.

 Second, the nature of the sign: water and wine are fundamental elements of life, and they play significant roles in our Christian faith. The Jewish jars of water were for purification rites. Jesus has just been baptised in the river Jordan announcing a new baptism of the forgiveness of sins. The sign reminds us of the new purification that Jesus brings, a purification that leads to eternal life – through the waters of baptism. And wine we know becomes the sign, the way that Jesus keeps offering us himself for all time, in the sacrament of the Eucharist. So the water and the wine are both significant signs and aspects of the faith. Purification and eternal life: unity with God.

 Third: the sign could be called something like, ‘the sign of abundant wine’ – the amount of wine must be significant. Like the feeding of the five thousand, this sign shows us that God’s action in the world is one that is about generosity, grace, abundance, there will always be enough of what God is offering. And what does he offer: something for all – forgiveness, unity, grace, new life, salvation.

 So, this sign of abundant wine, becomes to us who know what Jesus went on to do, a foreshadowing of our inheritance in Jesus. Jesus is the reason for all our rejoicing, the great guest at all our feasts – the guest who offers us himself with a love that never ever runs out. Imagine the huge stone jars overflowing with wine as a sign of God’s love for you and drink of everlasting life in the wine of the Eucharist. Imagine that God wishes you to drink and be merry in the great heavenly banquet surrounded by all the saints and angels and all those you have ever loved.

The Offering of Gifts

The Baptism of Christ, Epiphany 13th Jan 2013

The wise men offered gifts of great value to the Christ child and they travelled from afar to make that offering. On the second Sunday of Epiphany, we celebrate Jesus' Baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is given to all believers at baptism.  

Through the gifts of the Spirit we are enabled to live as Christian and therefore the gifts of the Holy Spirit are really important for our common lives as Christians. They are given by grace and not for our own credit, but to the glory of Christ and for the building up of the whole Christian community. Unlike talents that are so celebrated today to the glory of celebrity, and the individual - gifts are given so that all may take their part in the kingdom of God. It is our duty then as Christians to stir up the gifts within us that we have been given and in turn offer them for the health of the whole community of Christ of which we are a part. As Christians each one of us should expect to be growing in Christ; in knowledge, in wisdom, in faith and in our individual and corporate discipleship. 

-     St Paul speaks of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit, among them: wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues – these are distinct from the roles that people are called to in the church – as teachers, apostles, administrators, leaders etc. There is no need to see this list as exhaustive, but it gives us some parameters for understanding. 

•     Are you able to discern gifts in your life from the Holy Spirit
•     Spend time in prayer, opening your heart to the Holy Spirit and God's gifts
•     Expect God to give you good things
•     Be thankful and in everything you do give glory to God

The birth of God

‘And the word became flesh and dwelt among us’ ……

If anyone has seen a child come into the world, they will know something of the magic of seeing the moment when what was not becomes what is. The moment when new life takes on flesh in the external world and is made known to its parents, is a revelation. This new creature, suddenly alive, embodied is a whole new reality. What was only a heart beat, a rounded belly, black and white sketches on a scan becomes a real creature with a face you can touch: it is the magic and mystery of life itself.

The moment of Jesus’ birth was just the same, except what was coming into being at that moment, was not only another human life, but it was a divine-human life. Christmas is a celebration of God’s birth – His birth into our world, a world where things come into being – take on shape and form and live – a world different from the divine world. The two worlds mixed – and Jesus was born.

Some cynical voices, some agnostic voices, some atheist voices and just some average voices often tell us that God is absent; they say God doesn’t care – God doesn’t speak, God doesn’t intervene, God is not there. Well, Christians very empathically say, well hang on a minute; he actually bothered to be born, to become just like us, to let us know about himself. That seems to me like a God who is very present if you ask me.

God became a human being to teach us about Himself, his character, his personality. God is born in order that we might learn who God is – because we are creatures that are born: he wants to communicate with us so much he becomes one of us: ‘in these last days God has spoken to us by a Son’ – ‘He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being’. Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son – if He is not God’s son then there is nothing to the Christian faith. He cannot simply be a good man, that would be great if he were a good man that happened to live 2000 years ago, but he wouldn’t have changed the course of history if he just happened to be a very ethical and good person. Even if he happened to be a martyr to that goodness, that’s very loving but it doesn’t really change very much. For people die all over the world today for things they believe in, for good reasons, but that doesn’t change the course of history. Christians only have something to proclaim because they believe that Jesus is God’s Son, meaning that God actually chose to make himself known to his created order, by becoming incarnate, taking on flesh, becoming like us so that he might teach us who and what he really is.

So at Christmas we celebrate like new parents, that moment when we see for the first time something of the shape, the form, the look of the new child. It is for the first time that we can hold them, we can see them, and we can hear and smell them. The nativity scenes begin to tell us that story – to communicate with us who and what God is. The familiar scene has a Virgin birth, a star, shepherds, wise men from afar, Mary and Joseph with donkeys and sheep. From before his birth God tells us all the time about who He is. He is humble, he comes to the poor and lowly, he has no status, no privilege. He has no home, but shares a stable with animals, and yet there is A sign of something different, the star that leads people to Him, the Virgin birth. And so we begin to taste this God – this God who has become flesh, this God who has given himself a body and a voice. But we must wait; we must wait for Jesus to grow, to become a man and to teach us even more. Christmas is only the beginning of the Christian story, the moment when everything changes for human kind. But, it is as a man that Jesus leads us into more truth – it is as a man that Jesus reveals the Father’s face in its fullest form. Christmas is the first chapter of the most life-changing and extraordinary story that has ever been told. It has the key to eternal life --- don't stop reading.

Preparing for Christmas

In Advent we are presented with the great figure of John the Baptist. So humble and so sure of Jesus’ greatness – a short life lived solely to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. As we wait for Christmas this year, in what ways can we truly prepare ourselves? 

I’m reminded in this idea of preparation for pregnancy: the nine long months of growing a child within you – with the necessary preparations, practical, emotional, spiritual, medical etc. I remembered thinking one very key thing about being pregnant and that was it took such little effort – unlike other things that I had prepared for in my life - exams, job interviews, ordination - it was my body that grew this child and did the work. I just had to let it. And perhaps God’s relationship with us, could be a little more like this: this sense of gift or grace if we let it be. Because I know that good things require a lot of work and commitment, but I have a sense that God’s love is something we are asked to receive rather than work for. So, the obvious metaphor for Advent, pregnancy, as we think of Mary growing the Christ child within her, is perhaps a very fruitful one. For Mary had only to listen to the Angel and say ‘ I will’ for God’s astonishing will to be done. So, perhaps, this Advent we can learn (I can learn) to accept God’s wonderful grace – to stand before Him in simplicity and say ‘yes’, and receive Him and let him do the rest.