Bullying (Easter 7 Year B)

It has been an interesting week.

Our work on the New Monasticism is drawing to a close. The book just needs a few finishing touches. It feels like our lives have been overtaken by this book for the last few weeks.

But this week we moved on. We started our next project. Together we are writing two books on foster care and non violent (re)parenting we hope to have the first completed in about five weeks. In addition, I am researching corporal punishment in the public school system. I am shocked by what I am finding. So now our minds are becoming occupied with abuse and violence and the victims of it.

Last night, Andy and I went to the movies. We went to see the documentary film, Bully. It was not what we anticipated, yet nevertheless was thought provoking and profoundly disturbing. We had expected facts and figures, statistics and interviews. What we saw were five interwoven stories, with mainly the young victims and/or their families talking. There was no outside commentary on it. All were intensely grieving. Two of the five families had children who had killed themselves as a result of bullying, one was a teenager, the other only eleven. The third family had a son who clearly had some developmental difficulties. Actually a smart kid, who had been born at 25 weeks, but he looked a little different. All he wanted was to make friends. He was being bullied to the extent that there were concerns for his safety expressed by the filmmakers. The fourth family had a fourteen year-old daughter who had been bullied continually. She was in detention as she had finally retaliated, unfortunately by taking a gun on the school bus. The final family had a daughter who was gay, and dressed like a boy. The bullying she received was so bad that the family ultimately pulled her out of school.

Then I read the lectionary passage, the prayer of Jesus in John 17. As so often happens a couple of words, or a phrase, jumped out at me. It was as if they were highlighted. The words were “protect them”. Jesus is praying to the father-mother that the ones Jesus cared for would be protected. I am reading this in a very wide way. I am not interpreting it as Jesus referring to the immediate company of followers but to the whole world. Jesus’ heart was to see humanity protected with an ensuing unity.

It is a theme that has been picked up many times in popular fiction and songs. John Lennon’s Imagine is a classic example.

I think last night’s film showed as a society we fail. Those who are weak or different are not protected but are victimized. It is a sad reflection on society.

When we do not protect we do not act as Christ in the world.

Perhaps, even more disturbing in the film were the clips of school personnel talking to the children. They, also, were bullying the children, insinuating that it was the kid’s fault and doing little to protect them. It showed that the parents, too, were bullied by the school personnel when they tried to seek help for their children.

One of the many books I am reading is called Dangerous Schools: What We Can Do About the Physical and Emotional Abuse of Our Children by Irwin Hyman and Pamela Snook. I suspect I will be using several quotes from it in my thesis.

The authors talk about how 90% of the population, learn at an early age that it is okay for someone bigger and stronger to inflict pain. He talks about how people love to watch movies or play video games where heroes win by the use of violence. The authors comment, “We are a nation of violence junkies.”

The movie highlighted a huge problem, which is not limited to schools. It is not one we will be able to solve. However, hopefully, our eyes will continue to be opened. We will see victims of violence, we will see the weak, we will see those who are different, we will see those who have no voice and we will be the ones to try and protect . . . to be as Christ to them.

Blessings + Jane

Complexities of interpretation (Lent 3 Year B)

John 2:13-25

Today’s passage is a very familiar story . . . Jesus cleansing the temple.

It is probably a passage many of us know from childhood. Often found in a child’s book of bible stories accompanied by lurid illustrations depicting Jesus as a slightly wild character swinging a whip around his head while the animals run amok.

A version of this event is found in all four gospels. That gives us reason to believe it was considered important by the early church. So we have to ask the question, “Why”? Why is this story deemed essential enough for all four authors of the gospels to have included out of all the source material they must have had available. However, today I’ll just leave that question for you to ponder!

One of the issues I want to consider is the placing of this account. The author of John places this event right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It immediately follows Mary’s revelation to him that it is time for Jesus to show who he is. It is the first public thing Jesus did. Imagine the scenario, Jesus had been revealed to only the disciples and friends at a wedding, then suddenly he strolls into the temple and starts upturning tables and tipping the money out.

By contrast the synoptic gospels include this story at the end of Jesus’ ministry, a precursor to the events which led up to the crucifixion. Jesus upset the hierarchy and they sought to kill him.  For anyone concerned or intrigued by these apparent differences in the gospels a good starting point for study is James Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament.

As today’s passage is in John that is where I want to focus. I want to talk about why this passage was deemed significant to start the public ministry. However I don’t want to offer an interpretation but just offer some suggestions for pondering.

In a sense, I want to use this passage to illustrate the complexities of biblical studies. All of our understanding of biblical passages is interpretation. We read, we study, we ponder, we talk with others and we try to decide what we think is the best meaning for a passage. Others may come to a different conclusion. No interpretation is necessarily wrong. They are simply people’s best efforts to understand the significance of events which happened over two thousand years ago. In addition, we have to realize that those writing down the stories were also interpreting them based on their own experiences and understandings. The gospels weren’t diaries of  the travels of Jesus, written down as things happen. They were stories collated over the years,  some eye-witnessed accounts, some passed down by word of mouth and written to help the newly immerging church to understand their history. I have always been fascinated by the thought that the gospels were written to balance (or even correct) the doctrine circulating in the epistles.

So when one tries to reason with this passage we won’t have a definitive interpretation merely suggestions about the author of John’s reason for the early inclusion of this material.

Today I am going to offer three of several suggestions all of which are brief and would lend to much more in-depth study (indeed books have been written about them)

First I want to comment about the temple. The temple was one of the most important symbols in Jewish life.  I have heard it said that the temple was the centre for national, cultural, social and religious life. Sacrifices were made on a daily basis. The animals, wine and flour were sold in the temple, one needed “temple money” to purchase them. Apparently the money-changers changed ordinary money into temple money often making huge profit for themselves. The priest allowed them to set up inside the temple for payment.

Possible interpretation 1

Jesus was appalled by the way the temple was being used. The poor, and even the not so poor, were being exploited. The priests were getting rich by the people’s desire (or even need) to worship. Jesus deplored what had been originally a place for humanity to meet God being used in such a way. Jesus' bias towards the poor and stranger can be seen. In this interpretation the author of John showed this bias to the poor and stranger right at the onset of Jesus’ ministry.

Possible interpretation 2

Jesus was self-revealing as the true Lamb of God. The scapegoat was no longer needed.  Right at the beginning of the ministry Jesus had shown that he willing walked the path intended for him. He was overturning the old order. Rene Girard writes extensively about this. Girard says, “If the term sacrifice is used for the death of Jesus, it is in a sense absolutely contrary to the archaic sense. Jesus consents to die in order to reveal the lie of blood sacrifices and to render them henceforth impossible.” 

Girard again, “When John the Baptist refers to Jesus as “the Lamb of God,”  or when Jesus refers to himself as “the stone rejected by the builders, who becomes the cornerstone,” the sacrificial process appears and loses its efficacy. The revelation and repudiation of sacrifice go hand in hand.” (Sacrifice, Rene Girard, xi)

Possible Interpretation 3

I stumbled on this one accidentally in the book, Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. Jesus (and the Essenes) stood against animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice was invented by humanity to justify eating animal flesh. The relevant part about the temple can be viewed at amazon or google. Find the book and look inside, it may even inspire you to buy it!

Of course, even within these three possible interpretations there are many nuances and different emphases.  I realize how simplistic and superficial these thoughts are. My hope is I have given you some food for thought about biblical interpretation and this passage that, in turn, will cause some deeper pondering throughout the week.

Welcoming Strangers? (Epiphany 4 Year B)

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Mark 1:21-28.

Demons

What does that word convey to you?

What springs to mind when you hear the word demon?

Today the reading in Mark is about Jesus’ encounter with a man possessed by a demon (unclean spirit) which he cast out. The author of Mark placed this story right at the beginning of the gospel . . . setting the stage to show Jesus’ authority.

However, today, I don’t want to think about authority I want to think more about demons and welcoming those who are different.

The scriptures are full of demons. So is our world, a popular work of fiction is entitled Angels and Demons. In our culture there is continuous fight between good and evil. The idea grips everyone regardless of religious persuasion. Video games and Hollywood are full of it.

What do we make of demons in Jesus’ time?

It is fairly clear when we read the accounts of demon possession throughout the gospels that we would perceive many of the situations differently. If the events happened in the twenty-first century we would see people with epilepsy. We would recognize people with various physical and mental illnesses. We would not immediately talk about demons. Our society would like to think that we would seek medical and psychiatric help for the people.

When I read the story in Mark the thing I noticed and started to ponder was that this “demon-possessed” man was in the synagogue.  I also thought of the use “us” as he talked to Jesus. This passage has often been interpreted as meaning there were multiple demons in the man. Yet, I wonder if it wasn’t multiple people. Perhaps the “demon-possessed” man was speaking for a small group of outcasts. Outcasts who were in the synagogue hoping for help, healing and acceptance.

We will never know for certain . . . that is just the image I have. A small band of outcasts lurking in the Synagogue.  Perhaps they became concerned as they listened to Jesus’ teaching. Worried they would have to leave the synagogue. Their experience led them to expect scorn and rejection. Instead Jesus offered healing.

I wonder if things are much different now. We may not talk about demons as readily, yet how do we treat the outcasts? Have things really changed? Or do “outcasts” still lurk in corners hoping for help, healing and acceptance?

Statistics show that people with mental illnesses fill the prisons. Of all youth leaving foster care between a quarter and a third end up on the streets homeless. (Just Google the various categories) Also see http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html

And mental illness/homelessness is just the tip of the iceberg when we talk about those society may consider outcasts.

I have no answers just a couple of questions for reflection.

How can we be as Christ to those perceived by society as “outcasts”?

How can we hold out help, healing and acceptance?

How can we welcome strangers?

+Ab. Jane

Good News! (Advent 2 Year B)

Good News!

The gospel of Mark opens with these words.  Good News!

Don’t we all love these words? Good News! If someone comes to us and says I’ve got some good news to tell you it immediately engages us. We usually start to feel happy, maybe even a little excited. We give the speaker our full attention. We listen in anticipation.  After we have heard their good news it often leaves us with a sense of wellbeing.

Immediately before writing this I was glancing at the English newspapers online. It seems to me that they are filled with bad news. Today, I read about financial disasters, soldiers getting killed, child abuse, legal and governmental corruption to mention just a few. I’m sure good things do happen but the focus always seems to be on the bad stuff!

I imagine it was the same in the first century. I doubt if human nature has changed much.  So Mark opens the gospel with the words good news and not just one event, an ongoing state. “This is the beginning of good news”. What a way to get the readers attention.

It served as a salient reminder to those believers who were suffering persecution and hardship. By the time the gospel was written Jesus had already been dead more than 30 years. For those disciples it must have felt a long time, perhaps memories of the events were starting to feel old. Perhaps a little hopelessness was setting in.

Then the reminder is given  . . . “This is the beginning of good news”.   The gospel was written and must have been a light to them, a chronicle of good news.

Perhaps, that is how we should view advent. It is a light to us. Reminding us of what is important. Indeed, the beginning of good news.

Bad news seems to loom strongly at this time of year. There seems to be a lot of extra pressure on our time and finances. It can be a stressful time. With the rushing and the busyness it is sometimes hard to remember what it is all about.

I do love the advent wreath and the lighting of the candles each week. The candles representing hope, peace, joy and love culminating with the Christ candle to welcome the Christ child. They are our tangible reminders of what advent is about: the beginning of good news.

So as we continue to journey through advent, take a moment to light those candles and remember what the season is all about. Good News!

+Ab. Jane

More Reading Parables Subversively (Proper 28 Year A)

 Matthew 25:14-30

Today we read the parable of the talents. The way I want to look at this story is to subvert it.

As with other parables in Matthew I want to read this as a social comment to the hearers of the day.

This parable has traditionally been interpreted as a comment on the ‘end times’.  The inference being that God is the landowner, we are the slaves and how we live our lives will be reflected in the ‘rewards’ we will earn in the ‘end times’.

What are the problems with this interpretation?

1. Would we want to describe God as harsh?

2. Would we want to picture God as absent?

3. Would we want to picture God as leaving all the work to slaves whilst reaping the benefits?

4. Would we want to picture God as enormously rich and wanting to get richer at the expense of others “reaping where one does not sow”?

Comments on the culture of the day

1. A Talent is specifically a unit of money. Please don’t try and interpret this parable to say that if God makes one good at singing, speaking, art, etc then use the gift! This is not a parable about using one’s abilities for God. It is a parable about moneymaking.

2. Biblical scholar John R. Donovan, S.J., tells us a single talent was equivalent to the wage of an ordinary worker for fifteen years. A talent was 3,000 shekels.

3. Burying one’s possessions was a common way of keeping them safe. This was normal practice in the time.

4. Those who make money were often seen as greedy and unscrupulous. Money making allowed the rich (in this case, the person who owned property and had much money) to get richer. This usually caused the hardship to the poor.

5. The landowner actually was asking the third slave to make money by investing. Usury was against God’s law. There are many references in the OT forbidding this. (eg. Ex. 22:25, Lev. 25:37, Neh. 5:10,11)

Where are we going to find God in this parable?

May I suggest in the third slave . . .

the one refusing to exhort from the poor and suffering greatly as a result

the one who refused to be caught up in the money making schemes of the world.

the one who is rejected and thrown out  (the cross?)

Who should we strive to imitate?

Again may I suggest the third slave . . .

that we have the courage to resist the money making schemes of the day that disadvantage the poor and outcasts

that we follow God’s way even when we know it will cause us to be ostracized and rejected.

Blessings +Jane

PS,  An interesting exercise to do is to read the parable and whenever you see the words "The Master or landowner" substitute "The Emperor" or "Ceasar". You will be surprised how differently it sounds.

Reading parables (Proper 23 Year A)

Today’s parable (Matt 22) talks about a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. The invited guests did not come so he invited those from the streets to come. When they did so, one was without a wedding garment and thrown into the outer darkness.

 This parable is another interesting one. It is the last parable in a little series of three. The other two being entitled (in my Bible) the parable of the two sons and the parable of the wicked tenants. (Matt 21).

 I want to look at this parable in my usual way. That is to take God out of the leading role. I do not think the king is a picture of God.

 Look at how he is described. One who becomes enraged, who sent out troops to destroy people and property and, finally, sent a poor person from the streets bound hand and foot into “outer darkness”.  This is not a picture of God

 Likewise, last week in the parable of the tenants. I don’t think the landowner is a picture of God either.  Landowners were not liked, actually we could be as strong as to say they were often hated. They were seen as those who kept most of the people in poverty. The economic system was such that the landowners were very rich. They usually lived away from their land in the cities. They paid the workers very little so that they were completely dependent on the landowners for sustenance. The workers were often continually in debt to the landowners as there was no relief if the crop should fail or be poor. To the landowner only profit was important, not the people who worked the land.

 Further more, although not always clear in our various biblical translations, the opening starts “there was a person (anthropos), a king”. Although it can be said that this was a typical Aramaism, we also have to consider that maybe Matthew was simply emphasizing that this was a human being not God. Interestingly, the same opening was used in last week’s parable about the landowner, “there was a person (anthropos), a landowner”. 

 I think these parables were simply a comment on the classist system of the day.

 The king is a powerful person who expected people to do his bidding. Perhaps, he was something of a tyrant. He was obviously not well like, friendless, none of the invited guests attended his son’s wedding. When he didn’t get his own way he sent in troops to cause harm and hardship. Then he demanded that the people in the streets were commanded to attend the wedding. They had no choice.

The poor had to do the bidding of the king. They were helpless and voiceless. They had no control over their own fate. Think about the person thrown into outer darkness. This person had no wedding garment, probably beyond the means of a poor person. Yet the king had no compassion, no provision for the poor one. This person had no voice. That is often the situation of those trapped in poverty.

 Why was just one chosen? When one reads the story it sounds like many of the ones compelled to attend were poor, so, perhaps, a little unrealistic to assume only one was improperly clothed.

 I, also, want to cast a glance at the responses of the Pharisees (although that probably encroaches on next week’s reading). After these parables they plotted to trap him.  Interestingly, their minds went immediately to Ceasar and paying taxes. But I will leave that for you to ponder!

 The same with last week’s reading. The passage comments that the chief priests and Pharisees realised Jesus was speaking about them. Perhaps, they saw themselves not as those who did not receive the servants and son of the landowner but as the ‘landowner’ in the parable. They were being exposed because of their unjust economic dealings with the populous.

 Therefore, I think one way of reading these parables is that they were a comment on the social system of the day. Jesus was exposing the injustice of the system to chief priests and Pharisees. Jesus was exposing how desperate, angry, helpless and voiceless the poor were feeling.

May we be as Christ to all we meet.  

May we help the desperate to find justice

May we help the angry to find peace

May we help the voiceless find a voice.

Blessings +Jane

Fairness (Proper 20 Year A)

 If the parables were intended to cause us to pause and think about the complexities of life this one has certainly succeeded.

 We have the story of a landowner who hired people to work in his vineyard. The landowner hired a group of workers early morning for an agreed wage. Then as the day progressed the landowner saw people who had been unable to find work still standing around waiting. They were also hired, some at 9:00, some at mid-day, some at 3:00 and, finally, some at 5:00. Then at 6:00 he paid each of them the same wage. Those who had worked all day received the same amount as those who had worked only an hour.  There was, of course, grumbling amongst the workers especially those who had worked the longest. The landowner reminded them that they had been paid the agreed wage.

 This is one of those parables that somehow makes us feel uncomfortable. Actually, as we read, part of us wants to say that is not fair! Even using a definition of fairness that says that fairness is not equality but ensuring that everyone gets what they need, it still feels unfair. These vineyard workers were only paid subsistence wages and even a day’s illness would cause much suffering and hunger for a family. A little extra was always needed.

 One of the things I always do with parables is take God out of the central role. Often parables are interpreted as if the main character is representative of God. Then one has to try to interpret the parable in such a way as to give the character God-like virtues ignoring or twisting the text to explain away when the central character behaves in a very un-Godlike manner! So this is not a story to be interpreted as the landowner represents God. This is simply a story about a landowner and some workers. That allows us the freedom to look honestly at the story and say maybe the landowner was unfair.

 I just want to interject at this point that as I read this and the other parables in this section, one of which John talked about last week. I wondered how much they were redacted. Clearly, last week’s was. There was talk about the “church” in a parable supposedly spoken pre-crucifixion. I wondered if maybe this was influenced by Paul and the early apostles, who had not physically been with Jesus and witnesses to the Easter event, trying to justify that they were worth as much. Anyway, no more on that thought!

 Let’s get back to fairness.  We see this scenario played over and over again in our society. The concept in this parable is not strange or unfamiliar to us. It is not new. Look at your places of work.  I know where I work most people work really hard, usually even through breaks and lunchtime. Yet, some get paid lots of money, others a pittance often with equally good college degrees and qualifications especially in the current economic climate.

 The Realm of God is not some distant utopia where in the words of  C.S. Lewis “wrong will be right”. (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) It is our reality now. As people of faith we are living in the Realm of God. Maybe unfairness is what we have and what we see around us.  This is the world we live in. (If I wanted to talk on a global scale the problem is more acute.)

 So what do we do with this unfairness?  That has got to be the key consideration. We live in a society where some have more and some have less. Some get sick, some stay well. Some live safely some face disasters. That is simply the way it is.  Often it is circumstantial we don’t get a choice.

 Remember the workers who didn’t get hired weren’t lazy or work-shy. Actually, they showed amazing perseverance. I don’t think I would have stood from 6:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening hoping for work.  Maybe, that is where we can see God, in the character of the workers who didn’t get hired until 5:00!

 This parable twists and turns, maybe the ones who didn’t get hired initially thought it was unfair that others got a full day’s work!

 So what do we do with this parable? What does it teach us?

 I think it is just simply that sometimes life seems fair and sometimes it doesn’t seem fair.  It is often beyond our control. Where we get a choice is how we live . . .

 “To be as Christ to those we meet, to find Christ within them”

 +Ab. Jane

If you love me ... (Easter 6 Year A)

Acts 17:22-31, Psalm 66: 8-20, 1 Peter 3: 13-22, John 14:15-21

Today’s lectionary readings have several interesting passages. We could have looked at the promise of the Holy Spirit or Paul revealing the unknown god to the Athenians.

However, the phrase that caught my attention was “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  A very simple, yet very strong statement. Love has an outworking and that is keeping the commandments as interpreted by Jesus . . . Love God, Love neighbour. 

It is the second of this couplet that I want to talk about. How do we love our neighbour?

As I pondered this another familiar phrase kept running through my mind. Well-known by all who have worked or do work within the medical field

“Primum non nocere”   First, do no harm. 

Love neighbour . . . First, do no harm

As I was thinking about these two statements they seemed to become connected and interwoven. If I love my neighbour I will first do no harm.

In the global climate we live in this has far-reaching implications. Our neighbour is no longer the person next-door or even someone living within the same village. Our neighbour is the whole of humankind. In the last few years we have seen how something that does harm in one part of the world effects another part.

Of course, individually we can’t do everything. We can’t help everyone. We can’t support every charity. We can’t be advocates for every cause.

But we can all do something!

Personally, loving neighbour/seeking to do no harm has led me in a number of directions . . .

Advocacy for women’s rights

Supporting and welcoming gay and lesbian friends

Fostering children who have been neglected and abused

Vegetarianism . . . unspeakable harm is done to our animal friends

Trying to be careful of the planet by using all non-harmful products, recycling and composting.

Each person’s journey of how to love neighbour will be different. These are our callings, our vocations  In Lindisfarne we can support each other as we seek to walk our own paths of loving neighbour/doing no harm. 

Perhaps some may want to share their journey as they seek to love neighbour/do no harm.

Blessings +Jane

Re-reading the Emmaus Road (Easter 3 Year A)

Luke 24:13-35

This week’s lectionary contains a familiar post-resurrection story. Two disciples are walking on the Emmaus Rd, a third person joins them who is ultimately revealed as the risen Christ.

I want to mention very briefly three things about this story.

1. Who were these two disciples?

I know many of you have heard me talk about this before. However I think it bears repeating. As I looked at various commentaries, articles and pieces of art about this passage I was, again, amazed how many times I read the phrase “these two men “. 

How do we know it was two men? Quite simply . . . we don’t! Scripture only names one of these two disciples, Cleopas, the other remains unknown. The only thing we know for certain is that it was not one of the eleven.  Scripture tells us that these two disciples returned to give the eleven news that they had met the risen Christ.

Therefore I want to challenge the patriarchal reading of the scripture that immediately assumes that an unknown disciple must be male. 

Personally, I think the strongest contester for the position of the unnamed disciple is Cleopas’ wife. She was one of the women at the foot of the cross. (John 19:25, Cleopas is the Greek form of the name whilst Clopas is the Aramaic.) Personally, I find it hard to imagine that she would have been left behind, much easier to think of this as a couple returning home, saddened by the events of the previous few days. These two disciples obviously shared a house as they invited Jesus to stay in their home.

However, we cannot definitely know who it was. As I already said I simply want to challenge the patriarchal reading of scripture that immediately assumes that an unnamed disciple must be male and open our minds to other possibilities.

2. Not recognising Jesus

It is interesting how in the post-resurrection stories Jesus remains hidden until a moment of revelation.

I want to think about recognising Christ. It is another of those themes that we have talked about many times in our community. That we learn to recognise Christ wherever we are, whoever we are with and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. 

I think in this story there are two keys to recognising Christ . . . conversation and hospitality. I think these are useful keys for us as we meet people in our daily lives.

Conversation . . .  Christ initiated the conversation, Christ went to them. C an we take time to converse with those who are different, those we would not normally bother with, those who are wandering down a road feeling sad, scared and a little lost?

Hospitality . . . opening our homes, inviting in the stranger, risky, yet, as in this case, the risen Christ may be revealed to us.

3. Eucharist 

 Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it.

“This four fold action is the paradigm of Jesus’ life, the way he would have us interpret his life. It is his life that God chooses to take, bless, break and give. This self-giving of the Parent of the universe, for us humans and our salvation, ought to just astonish us.” 

(Jeff Krantz, “Preaching Peace Online”.  2008 http://www.preachingpeace.org/) 

I wondered if we should make this the model for our lives and for our community. Lives dedicated to the service of God and God’s creation

Should we ask God to take our lives, bless our lives, break our lives and give our lives following this Eucharistic pattern?  In being broken our lives can be shared with others.

Hopefully, in living our lives in this model, the risen Christ will be revealed to those we meet.

+Ab. Jane

Christ is Risen (Easter Sunday Year A)

As I ponder the Easter events I have a question:

How does the resurrection affect me today?

The account of the resurrection in John is, perhaps, my favourite. The author of John writes that the empty tomb was discovered by Mary Magdalene, she then went and told Peter and another disciple. They returned with her, saw the empty tomb and left to go home. Mary remained and Mary met the resurrected Christ.

This holds the promise of full life and experience to women. Mary, here, is portrayed as an apostle. The apostle to the apostles.  One sent by Christ to bear witness to the empty tomb. In a culture where women could not even give testimony in a court of law, a woman was used to bear testimony to the resurrection. The author of John is indeed showing that women can play a full and equal part in the community of believers. I am glad for us in Lindisfarne that is a reality.

A second way it affects me is, perhaps, the one I need to practice more often. In the text we are told the disciples went home, yet Mary remained. She was the one who took time to linger and she was the one who met the risen Christ. In our culture lifestyle is so rushed. It feels like my life is always busy. There is always so much to do. I would probably have rushed home to clean the house or do the ironing. In the business world busyness and productivity are often seen as signs of success. Yet, maybe we miss so much. We don’t want to be so busy that we miss the Christ.

Lastly, the way I am affected by the resurrection is influenced by the practice of finding God in everything. At Easter tide there is . . .

Joy rippling through the universe

Energy pulsating through the earth

A tiny green shoot pushing through the dark, cold earth

A small ray of sunlight peeping through the dark clouds

The dawn breaking

The birds singing

Resurrection Life bursting forward with all the promise and hope that brings

Christ is Risen . . . Christ is Risen Indeed.

Easter Blessings, + Jane

Light and Darkness (Lent 4 Year A)

Today the gospel reading is the story of the person born blind. This story is carefully placed in the Gospel of John and serves as an illustration for Jesus’ declaration. “I am the light of the World” which is one of the seven predicate “I am” sayings in John.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

The Jewish hearers would have understood the significance of this. Jesus was announcing that he was the fulfillment of the Jewish festival of the Tabernacles where light is a major part. It would also reference Jewish scriptures (for example, Isa 9:1-2, Zech. 14:7-8). Can you imagine the effect such a statement would make?

One of the motifs of John’s gospel is light and darkness. As part of the prologue the author wrote “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5) Jesus was declaring that he was that light.

Then into this understanding came the illustration of the blind person. A man blind from birth. One who had never seen the light. The author furthermore uses this passage to allow a discussion of sin. 

Was the person’s blindness a result of sin? Was it generational sin?

The passage then tells the reader that the man was born blind to allow God’s work to be revealed. (This poses a huge question for us and one for which there is no answer is given in the passage . . . the question about the relationship of Divine will and suffering.)

In the passage there follows a long discourse which, as well as the disciples, includes the man’s family and neighbours and the pharisees.  I don’t want to detail all the nuances of the discussion but will give the conclusion Culpepper reaches in his book The Gospel and Letters of John.

“Sin lies not in being born blind but in refusing to see when one is confronted with light . . . Sin consists of not being born unbelieving but in refusing to believe when one has seen the power of God at work.” (178-9)

I want to consider also some of the implications of light and darkness for us as we continue our own spiritual journey.

The question I want to pose (and, hopefully, let each of you consider) is what are we in darkness about today? Where do we need more light and truth to shine? It may be a different answer for each person. Although we gather companions along the way our journey is our own It is personal to us.

I know as I have walked my journey there have been many moments of revelation. The light shines and something is revealed to me. It is an “Eureka” moment and it changes me. Such a moment often determines the direction my journey will go. There are lots of twists and turns along the way as we follow the path God has laid out before us.

For me, such significant moments have included:

1. The place and treatment of women in the church. I rejoice in knowing that women are not barred from leadership at any level. Women can enter fully into whatever role they are called to. 

2. Finding God in all things and all people. As Sarah Breuer says, “We cannot be light to the world until we can see that light in the eyes of beggars in our town . . . welcoming that light as Christ's presence among us and receiving each bearer as a neighbor, a brother or sister with a face and a name." 

3. Rejecting the the marginalisation of people because of their sexuality orientation. All are equal in God’s sight and should be free to serve in any role in the church and world.

4. Embracing vegetarianism as a concern for our fellow non-human beings. Eating animals was a result of the fall. Redemption should include our speaking for those who have no voice.

These challenged me, changed me and caused me to rethink previously held positions. I can say I was blind but now I see. I hope each of you have had and will continue to have such moments. Perhaps you have some you would like to share with us.

In Lindisfarne we want to affirm each person’s individual journey as we each move towards greater light. Yet we also want to move as a community towards the light together. Can the community be a shinning light showing people the way out of the darkness of prejudice and hatred?

Or perhaps another way of saying it . . . can we be as Christ to all me meet?

Blessing +Jane