#godthinking

a sermon text on Mark 2:23- 3:6 - Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath....

So we’re on to Week 5 of JSP themes - Prophetic challenge  - and I begin thinking about this enormous, challenging and important topic with a clip form Matilda the musical...

Why?

If I’m honest its because I think kids probably get this idea much better than we do as adults. 

Ever been with a child when they’ve not understood something? 

Ever been with a child who’s loudly proclaimed ‘thats not fair!’?

And if it’s not right…… you’ve got to put it right…..

Children almost instinctively want to know and understand, and they almost instinctively seek out justice (at least they do within the realm of their experience and world view - even if they are still in that face where the world effectively feels to revolve around them!)

Kid’s get prophetic challenge better than adults.

This most mysterious and incredible Spiritual gift, the spiritual gift St. Paul says we are to long for prize above all others, and somehow, I do think children are actually more eager or willing to engage with it with than many more ‘mature’ believers. 

Prophesy is the God-given ability to speak the voice of God into a given situation, often challenging, but also sometimes encouraging, upholding and empowering. It’s the gift Paul prizes so highly because it is the gift which challenges, raises up and calls the whole Church to her true vocation in God. (1 Cor. 14:5)

And yet it’s often unpopular.

It can be especially unpopular in ‘successful’ Churches.

It was unpopular when Jesus exercised this gift towards the pharisees in this morning’s reading, when his prophetic actions questioned the much loved laws of religious purity and appropriate behaviour - or at least questioned the motives of those enforcing them.

According to Mark, it was so unpopular that this questioning was the very act which led the Pharisees to begin their plot to destroy him, such was the potential they saw of Jesus to disrupt the status quo.

So it’s important we understand Jesus’ question - because like so much Jsus does, it wasn’t JUST about the eating of the corn or the healing of the man’s shrivelled hand. It was about the prohibition to engage in those acts simply because of which day of the week it fell on. 

It was about using the rules to prevent the underlying command to love God and love neighbour.

Jesus’ big question is more about how his father’s law has become an object of control rather than of freedom?

And he’s only able to ask this question, because he’s able to see this reality.

He’s only able to see this reality because he’s so unbelievably focused on his Father and his mission that he’s able to see past all the religious infrastructure which is SUPPOSED to be promoting that.

In a similar way, Prophetic challenge for us begins with a commitment to close relationship with God above all other concerns,  and a willingness to look at our own world, experience, culture and context through objective eyes. - What St Paul calls the ‘renewing of our minds’ which connects us to the vision of God’s will. (Rom. 12:2)

[sidebar - culture - Church as the fish who’s only known water - how can it describe or critique that water which so shapes and enables its very life and existence - it knows nothing else? - Similarly can Church leaders always recognise the church culture which surrounds them?Sometimes we ALL need to be willing to challenge our faith traditions as well as the world outside the Church - looking at Jesus’ example it may be even MORE important to challenge within the Church than outside it] 

And that can cause us to ask some pretty difficult questions of that world, culture and context - as we try and engage with the questions Jesus might well have been asking if he were walking our streets? 

Or the people he might be speaking up for - as he did for the disciples and the man with the shrivelled hand.

He might ask us how his Church has gone from a radical community of obedient and repentant disciples to sometimes become an uncritiqued bastion of ‘nice’ people and polite and ‘proper’ behaviour?

He might well sometimes ask me how I’ve done the same, inclined as I often am to leave all apple-carts un-upset.

So a reading of these stories, as well as encouraging us to think about the elements of our culture we should be speaking out against, must leave us also asking who is Jesus would be speaking up for.

Prophetic challenge asks us who’s voice are we - am I - willing to stand up for? How and for whom am I seeking to go beyond the accepted norms in the in interests of justice, healing and reconciliation for all God’s creation?

Prophetic challenge also calls us individually to an ever increasing connection to God and to the values we’re proclaiming within our own behaviour challenging ourselves first above all others (and thus removing the planks from our own eyes before the specks from our brothers and sisters) - because we see in Jesus that his words have power because they’re in keeping with his actions - he’s already been healing the sick, proclaiming healing and reconciliation, even forgiving sins. He has SEEN the needs of the people, and he’s been responding.

Which brings us back to where we said prophetic challenge begins - with seeing things differently.

So my final question is this; What do only you notice - both in Church and in the world around us? What is it which you see as in need of God’s prophetic challenge, healing and reconciliation?

And following on from that, What is it you are called to do in living out Jesus’ prophetic challenge and Call into healing and reconciliation?

‘cos if it’s not right…… you’ve got to put it right…..

Some other thoughts to reflect on: 

Kids - relentless questioning as a contemporary outworking of Jesus’ exhortation to accept the Kingdom of God ‘as a little Child?

Jesus’ every act either proclaims or enacts the Kingdom of God (Brian Zahnd) - wouldn’t it be amazing if we could truly say the same about ourselves and about Church - if we can’t say that who are the voices willing to ask the difficult questions about why not?

thought I might stick some sermons out there a bit - they’re seldom particularly academic or intellectual, but hopefully that’s helpful for some!

Here’s one on Mark 6:1-13:

I find these passages exciting.

In the same way I think parachute jumping [slide], or swimming with sharks , or personally stopping an armed robber [slide] would be exciting.

But thats exactly what this guy did - there was no way he was standing back and watching a crime happen - he was getting stuck in - however much I’m sure his personal instinct for survival might have been trying to convince him otherwise.

There’s bits about this passage - which actually tells of two distinct events, one in Jesus’ home town and one out and about around surrounding villages - which if I’m honest I find really intimidating, if not genuinely terrifying, and yet nonetheless I still find them exciting, challenging and inspiring.

I suspect that might have been how the disciples felt a some of the time, like they were skirting a fine line between terror and exhilaration.

And if we too are called to follow in their footsteps, just as they did in Jesus’, then surely sometimes we’ll also feel a little out of our depth.

Which makes this passage an even more interesting one to be thinking about with regard to team building!

So lets have a look at the passage shall we?

The Lack of faith of the people to whom Jesus goes at first ACTUALLY SEEMS to PREVENT his mission. [slide] [v5]

This is a massive thing to get our heads around - does this mean that Jesus’ power is somehow dependent on our faith? Do the people somehow dis-empower Jesus?

Every bit of me wants to question this verse - if Jesus truly is, as we proclaim in the creed, ‘fully God and fully man’, then surely he can do anything? 

But I’m not sure thats the point - I think there’s more here in the reality that Jesus refuses to force himself on those he’s coming to. He wants them to see themselves as part of the team, as partners in God’s mission to themselves and to the world, and as such, their choices are honoured and make a difference.

MY choices are honoured and make a difference.

MY lack of faith in what God can do in with and through me might actually have an adverse effect on the brothers and sisters I claim to love.

Thats what terrifies me about this passage.

But there is hope.

because it’s not long after we see that Jesus explicitly gives his authority to his disciples. [v7]

It’s like he’s saying to them come on, your turn now, everything you’ve been watching me do, I want you to do it as well. 

AND YOU CAN.

AND YOU WILL

And this rag tag group of nothing specials that Jesus has been gathering to himself are sent out into the world to do amazing things.

I love the way the Message describes what they go on to do:

‘ Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits.’

A rag tag group of nothing specials that Jesus has been gathering to himself are sent out into the world to do amazing things. If that’s not something encouraging and exciting then I’m not really sure what might be. 

Jesus has built his team, and Jesus will make good use of his team.

Which leads us on to the story maybe getting a little intimidating again 

Because the jobs the Disciple’s go and get up to are at the same time, by our human standards, booth amazing, and completely beyond us: 

proclaim that all should repent - maybe, if I’m feeling brave

drive out demons - ok, starting to feel a little out of my depth here

Heal the sick - but what if it doesn’t work? I can’t do that, cant we get a specialist in for that?

And yet Jesus sends the team out, and this is what we read elsewhere they come back rejoicing in - which Jesus will remind them is the signs of the Kingdom of God and that it is God who is glorified through it.

Because they went out, listening to Jesus, and gave it a go.

I don’t know if they were trusting it would work, or if this was a group of people acting in faithful obedience to what Jesus had said, but they went out, and they gave it a go.

In there everyday lives, with the people they met and the communities they would be a part of, they gave it a go.

And their choices were honoured and made a difference. 

And this is the the big question the story poses - how will we get involved in the mission of Jesus - where will we walk as members of his team?

It’s a searching question, but our reading this morning kind of gives us two opposite ends of the spectrum of answers to it

Are we so overwhelmed by the questions and the ways we think we can answer them about who Jesus is and what he can do that we’re paralysed to the spot, or are we out standing in the mirror pool offering to pray for healing and wholeness for everyone we pass?

Are we terrified of the challenge, or exhilarated by the possibilities?

I suspect if we’re honest, most of us are probably somewhere in the middle, wishing we were a bit closer to the right hand side of the line (as we’re looking at it!).

If you are, I think there’s a nice blunt question to how we move along that line:

What are you going to DO about it?

So I want to put a little challenge out there - this week has been international Random act of Kindness week according to the internet, so lets try, as part of our team effort, to each do something which we think proclaims or enacts the Kingdom of God for someone this week - I don’t know what it’’’ be, don’t plan it, just keep your eye out for the opportunity to share God’d love into someone’s life this week.

Because the amazing message this passage reminds us is that, in simple terms, You are enough.

Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel shows us that his command to them is also his command to us - what they’ve been taught, those they teach must follow also. 

to preach the kingdom of God, drive out demons and heal the sick. 

It maybe intimidating to be part of a team with that remit.

It may be the most exciting thing you’ve ever been part of.

I’m not sure I ever wanted to be ordained, in fact I’m pretty certain I wanted precisely the opposite. The call out of a youthwork organisation I love dearly was one with many tears along the way, and the journey of academic training has had it’s frustrations to say the least. But here I am, 4 months from that very event happening, and I’m reminded once again how and why I’m at that point.

As part of vicar school we’ve been out this weekend with teams from across the North made up of bishops, vicars and local people to spend a bit of focussed time in different community settings with the simple remit of ‘Talking Jesus’. Its had me in schools, youth clubs, pubs and rural town halls, speaking, listening and just being with people. It’s been a joy. 

Its reminded me of the power of community and local history. Its shown me just how deep that communal memory runs in some places where populations are less transient than in some of the more urban contexts I can be used to. Its reminded me of the joy of a story. Whether that be the glorious @storytellerross’ gift for telling stories to groups of all ages; or the gift of the chance to listen to the stories of others and help them think about how their story might intertwine with Jesus; or the (surprise) gift of a slide show telling the story of a community now feeling the despair of the loss of all their industry, but the togetherness that that offers them; it’s been amazing. Add to that the chance to see local volunteers spurred on to more and more of their own activities to help draw others to listen to God’s story, and energised to get on with stuff and Talk Jesus with or without the constant presence of stipendary clergy (as the consistent experience of churches in the North East, like lots of the country is that they share their vicar), and it gets all the more so.

The story that I’ve most connected with personally though came from the opportunity on Friday to spend some of the day driving round Weardale with the Bishop of Durham listening to elbow (as you do) and then visiting primary schools where children were asking whatever awkward questions they thought they’d get away with. Seeing a man who we heard gets to speak with everyone from the Queen to the homeless, yet who clearly found such joy being out in the communities he’s called to serve, and then hearing of his own journey of reluctant acceptance first of ordination in the Church of England and then to the Bishop’s seat he now occupies was a powerful reminder that it’s not always about what I want, Its about the story we’re all called to be a part of. 

All this though, was then followed up by some amazing experiences of being invited to listen to and join in with more and more other stories, even if just for a fleeting moment. This weekend I’ve chatted with Bishops, Doctors and teachers, children, retired professionals, builders refusing to retire, those with  dementia and those whose story is to support them. Be it nattering with a retired headteacher over his fourth pint, or conspiring with a 10 year old to help her swipe her 7th sausage roll off the church buffet, life with and amongst people is a priviledge, and sharing in theirs and in Jesus’ story is an honour. Not to mention sometimes it’s a whole lot of fun. Helping us all to see how the two stories match up, and how we work together to to involve more and more people in the faith, hope and love of God’s eternal story is the very root of the smile that’s so often plastered on my face. I’m still not always certain if I want to be ordained on July 1st, but it keeps looking more and more like its part of God’s unfolding story for me to be such, and with the joy of this weekend’s installment of that story ringing in my ears it definitely helps me look forward to it more and more. Lets face it, I wouldn’t have it any other way than an chasing the opportunity to spend more and more time helping people find out that God’s already found them.......

God is faithful, and I’m grateful that God doesn’t ask anything of me that he (or she) won't be right alongside me for....    

all to often on this ‘ministry’ journey, there’s little things that remind me just how skewed my thinking sometimes is. Don’t get me wrong particularly here at cranmer there’s been loads of learning, but while it’s great that all the classroom stuff sets a firm foundation for what we do and will continue to do, but its the other stuff where I continually find God teaching me stuff. Tonight I picked up #thenoisyone from a friend’s house, only to find him accompanied by a big stack of Christmas goodies. His friend’s parent’s generosity is overwhelming, and such a blessing. It got me thinking though about how uncomfortable that can sometimes feel - our human urge is to want to repay a gift, to earn our keep, to demonstrate our gratitude in what we think is an appropriate way. 

It got me thinking about God, whose massive generosity actually we sometimes overlook, or take for granted, but which we could never repay, not in a million years, not with everything we have. Tonight’s been a lesson in grace. I went beck to the frined’s house to pick up #thenoisyone’s abandoned coat which he’d left, taking a small gift I’d forgotten earlier which #theshriekyone and #thewifeyone had been making, and as I offered my little gift, somewhat apologetically, I was met with a response of pure grace - just remember us in your thoughts. I got into the car welling up with gratitude, tears and a reminder of what it’s really all about, but also with a interesting reflection for our view of what it means to serve and love other people when it’s not about what we give/do/can be for them, but also about how we can graciously and lovingly receive the good things God loves to give his children through them.

robin's asked me to speak tomorrow night on why the Holy Spirit's like water. I've only got 4 minutes, but i think i've come up with a few decent thoughts.....

lots of reasons to associate the person of the Holy spirit with Water, i just want to take a couple of minutes to touch on three of them now which have leapt out at me. 

I think that the Holy spirit is God's way of maintaining a constant connexion with His creation, so is it any wonder that the image of water is so fitting? after all, we cannot live without water, and I'd certainly argue we can't live without God's constant intervention in our lives either - we can't do without the Holy Spirit.

Refresh / Quench

ever been really thirsty? ever longed for water and then felt the pleasure of a well needed drink? water is refreshing, but nothing in comparison to the quenching of a soul touched by the Holy spirit. When Jesus encountered the woman at the well in John 4, He talks of living water, saying that all who drink of it will never go thirsty again. Quite simply put, when we take in the Holy spirit we let God supply ALL our needs through it. It's naive to say we'll therefore never find life a challenge, but like a well hydrated athlete, the Holy spirit helps us to be better able to face the challenges life throws at us, such is the fundamental impact of God's spirit's presence in us. - if this doesnt make any sense to you, please chat to someone at the end of the service about what it means to drink God's living water.

Cleanse

We use water for all sorts of cleaning jobs don't we, we wash our clothes in it, our faces, our bodies, we use water to make ourselves presentable to others. we know about Jesus using it to wash his disciple's feet, telling Peter that someone who's washed recently only needs his feet washing to maintain a level of overall cleanliness. This is also what the Holy Spirit does for us, makes us presentable before God the father  - we read in Romans chapter 8 and Hebrews chapter 10 of the Spirit's role in presenting us free of guilt and condemnation - romans 8:2 explains that this is 'because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit has set you free'. It's no surprise that the Spirit shows up in a  physical form at the moment of Baptism for Jesus in matthew 3 where we read that the skies opened up and God's spirit descended like a dove. Baptism uses water to symbolically cleanse us from our sins, the Holy Spirit cleanses us inwardly of them, and comforts and supports us in our efforts to resist them in the future. 

Revive

new miracle gro advert - takes a little bit of something, and adding water makes it into so much more.

I think the Holy spirit's like this for us - we turn up with our lives in whatever shape they might be in, and when we receive the Holy spirit, when we receive God's Gift of spirit, we're transformed into something so much more than we're capable of on our own - you only need to compare the reports of the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the flesh in Galatians 5 to get the idea that when the Spirit's within us our capacity to live the life that God wants us to lead increases - and with that our capacity for faith, and love.

Part of the Holy spirit's role is to quench, cleanse and revive God's creation, He makes us spiritually healthy and ready, presentable to God, and he awakens in us the ability to get life right.