Journeying and Resting (Proper 18 Year C)

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Psalm 139:1-5, 12-18

Philemon 1-21

Luke14:25-33

This week a phrase from the Psalm was especially notable for me. The phrase is in verse two, "You trace my journeys and my resting places". Perhaps, it was because we have spent some weeks journeying this summer that this got my attention.

I started thinking about my personal journeys and the amount of preparation needed. Sometimes I am just going a short distance, minimum preparation. Othertimes, as this summer, I was going to be away for several weeks. Then much more preparation was needed. I had to consider how I was going to get there, what I needed to take and what I was going to do about the dogs and kids. The longer the journey the more preparation is needed. Yet always some preparation is needed.

In the passage in Luke Jesus is preparing the people for a journey. It is a journey into discipleship. Jesus is telling them to be prepared. In a number of different metaphors Jesus urges them to look at the journey and make sure they can make it. Quite a preparation is expected . . . give away possessions, consider the cost, might even lose family!

Then I turned my thoughts to resting places. Resting places are necessary if a journey is to be successful. Actually, most of our preparation this summer was focused around resting places. I chose motels and cities for coffee breaks. All carefully calculated with mileage and driving time taken into consideration. I wonder how did people plan journeys without “google”!

I thought of resting places in two ways . . . planned or unplanned.

Planned are those resting places which we choose to visit. We choose to make a stop. For example, we left Atlanta in the mornning, stopped for coffee in Birmingham, Alabama, stopped overnight in Memphis Tennessee. It helped to break the journey in this planned way. We even had an approximate idea of the times we would stop. Although not in today's readings, the scriptures give us several examples of Jesus choosing to rest. A time to regain energy, a time to consider the next leg of the journey. Paul also talks about times of rest.

On our long car journey our bodies told us when we need to find a resting place. We need fresh air and to stretch our legs. Happily, our careful planning was in sync with our bodies. Spiritually we need to be equally in tune with ourselves. We need to recognise when it is time to take a rest.

Then there are those resting places which I am calling unplanned. We didn't choose to rest it just happened through circumstances.

Perhaps the first example of this is the womb. Our psalm today talks about formation in the womb. The resting place of the womb, a time for growing and preparing for birth and life.

Yet, most of our iunplanned resting places can be frustrating. We didn't want to stop! We wanted to keep going, yet circumstances prevented it. Just how long is this traffic jam going to last!

Of course, some are much more serious than a traffic jam. Perhaps, sickness, or loss of a job or some other circumstances that cause us to halt the direction we were going in. These are the resting places that we need to learn to make the most of. We need to recognise them as a chance to recharge and to assess the direction we are going in rather than an irritation.

Paul had many experiences of unplanned resting places. He was often in prison or stuck on a boat. Yet he obviously used the time wisely, he wrote to the churches, he prayed and when direction was changed accepted that as God's choice for him.

Sometimes in our various areas of ministry we seem to reach a stop. We feel unproductive, things that were once fruitful suddenly seem to dry up. This can be a hard time. We need to change our thinking, not worrying about why things seem to have stopped, but seeing it as a resting place, a place and time to prepare for the next leg of the journey.

In Philemon we see the cyclical nature of this journeying and resting. We see how journeying and resting interact and weave in and out of each other. We see how we need each other in this dance of journeying and resting.

Paul was in an enforced resting place . . . prison

Onesimus was sent on a journey . . . to help Paul and tend his needs

Onesimus made another journey . . . into discipleship

Paul, in his resting place, prepared the way for Onesimus' next journey . . . the journey out of slavery and into freedom.

I think here we have a helpful pattern for each of our lives . . .

journey

rest

help others prepare to journey

. . . and like a circle we just keep going round and round this pattern.

A Significant Woman (Easter 6, Year C)

Acts 16:9-15

Psalm 67

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

John 14:23-29

I want to look briefly at the Gospel passage and then move on into Acts. Today our passages are about the spread of the good news of God’s Realm.

Picture the scene . . .

Jesus is sat with the disciples. It is their last meal together. Jesus has already modelled leadership in the new community of believers. He served them as a servant by washing dirty, dusty feet. Now it is a special time, Judas has left, the end is near. I’m sure even those who didn’t fully understand sensed something significant was about to happen. Have you ever felt that? A sort of spiritual unrest, like the whole of nature is disturbed.

Therefore these last words of Jesus are important. I’m sure the disciples were hanging onto every word. Jesus’ mission on earth would continue through them. These words would set the way for the church to grow and develop.

Already a new commandment had been given. It was nothing to do with how they behaved, how they lived, what they ate, etc. It was so simple “love one another”. Love as Jesus loved, serving and willing to lay down one’s life.

Then (in our passage today) Jesus passes something onto them.

What would you have expected? If you had been there, what would you have hoped for?

The ability to heal?

The ability to raise from the dead?

The ability to change water into wine

The ability to multiply food and feed the hungry?

These would have certainly been good things to have and, indeed, we do see that the disciples on occasion were able to do miracles.

However, that is not what Jesus left with them on this auspicious occasion. They were not the most important things. That was peace

Peace for themselves, what we would call inner peace today (Do not let your hearts be troubled)

Peace for others, peace to pass on (do not let them be afraid)

I think that is wonderful. The message for the spread of God’s Realm is love and peace.

Then the passage in Acts gives a specific example of the spread of God’s Realm.

Paul and Barnabas were travelling together. The reading tells us they got a very mixed reception, from being welcomed and received with joy to being stoned. Eventually Paul and Barnabas separate and Paul takes Silas and Timothy along with him.

Then during the night Paul has a vision. He saw a man saying come to Macedonia.

He was obedient to the dream and he went. They met Lydia and the women gathered for prayer.

I wonder if Paul’s vision had shown a woman he would have still gone. What do you think?

I wonder if meeting this woman after his vision of a man (aner) had the same effect on Paul as Peter’s experiences which led him to proclaim “I truly understand that God shows no partiality”

Lydia, a woman who worshipped God, a woman in charge of a household, a woman who was in business. Probably not what Paul expected, yet obviously Paul recognised God was in this and stayed at her home.

Here is another significant woman in the life and development of the community of believers in Acts. Perhaps this story is a little more well know than the one about Tabitha. Yet, her significance as the first believer (or at the very least first named believer) in Macedonia is lost.

I think it is really important that we recover a part of our Christian heritage that seems to have been lost. That is the significance women played in the history and spread of the gospel.

+Ab. Jane

The Inclusive Nature of the Church (Easter 4, Year C)

Acts 9:36-43

Psalm 23

Revelation 7:9-17

John 10:22-30

Today Acts and Revelation both give us an example of the inclusive nature of the church.

Revelation talks about “a great multitude . . . from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”

It is a great picture of the all-inclusive church. I love the picture C. S. Lewis gives us right at the end of The Last Battle. The mythical land of Narnia has ceased to be, the children are climbing the mountain to Aslan’s own country. Suddenly they are aware that people are streaming up the mountain from all sides. Different people, surprising people, even those they had thought of as enemies. It is a great picture. All finding their own way to God, all on different journeys yet all reaching the summit!

We could discuss the idea of all nations, all peoples, all tribes, all languages (a reversal of Babel) in much more detail. However, I want to move on to one specific example of inclusivity that we find in our Acts passage.

The author of Acts writes “There was a disciple”.

What a simple phrase, yet so full of meaning. A disciple . . . one who has dedicated their life to following Jesus. This disciple was a woman!

I believe one of the tasks of Feminist Theology is to bring to our collective consciousness stories of women which have, in the past, often been read over quickly and dismissed. I don’t believe that we should isolate such texts from the body of scripture but allow them to take their place within the whole. As Ann Thurston says, ‘my concern is to discover what energy there might be in these texts for the transformation of the Christian community today.’

I believe this is one such text. We need to consider it carefully and ask ourselves why is it placed where it is and what energy does it contain for us today. Therefore context is important.

This story is set within the middle of a series of chapters that contain a number of very significant stories. Key stories in the history of the church. They are stories that everyone who is a little familiar with the bible would be able to find easily. If I asked, I know you would all find them quickly. Yet, if I had asked, where is the text about the rising of Tabitha, I suspect most of us would struggle to remember where it is.

In this section of Acts we have Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, we have the conversion of Saul, we have Aeneas and Tabitha raised from the dead, we have Peter’s great vision and Cornelius.

Then Peter began to speak and said, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality”

I encourage you to read the chapters preceding this statement and see what sort of people were included. You may be surprised!

However, I want to go back to Tabitha

It is clear from the text that this disciple was with others. Men and women who loved and respected her. Disciples who loved her enough to tend her in death. Men who cared enough to go and seek help and hope for her healing. In these few sentences we see a picture of the inclusive nature of the church. Women and men together, a woman’s life important and significant.

In this culture women were property, romantic love as we know it was not part of the picture, usefulness and childbearing (Or even we should say son-bearing) were important. Woman could easily be replaced. This story tells us that in the church the women were important, each was unique and irreplaceable. Tabitha was a special, needed person in the life of the church.

I hope that when Peter uttered that great statement, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality” that he was also remembering Tabitha (a woman) as one of those who is fully included.

I hope that we too can say with honesty that we truly understand that God shows no partiality. That when we reach out to those around us it is regardless of their gender, their sexuality, their race, their colour, their age, etc.

The gospel passage today tells us that ‘my sheep hear my voice’. Our lives and actions are God’s voice on earth today. I hope that in the Lindisfarne community we will all reflect the inclusive nature of the church. All are welcome, there are no exceptions!

+ Ab. Jane

Thomas’ Plea for Inclusion (Easter 2 Year C)

Acts 5:27-32

Psalm 118: 14-29

Revelation 1:4-8

John 20: 19-31

Imagine the scene:

The disciples were locked together in a room. I imagine a variety of mixed emotions would be going through their heads as they ponder the events of that first Easter.

Fear . . . will the religious authorities think we have stolen the body?

Terror . . . will we be crucified too?

Excitement . . . Is it true what Mary told us? (Luke and Matt have more women)

Incredibility . . . . Mark tells us the disciples didn’t believe.

Hopelessness . . . only three years and it’s ended, it’s all over .

Confusion . . . What’s going to happen to us now?

Shock . . . think how traumatic the weekend has been

Guilt . . . didn’t we all scatter and deny Jesus

Regret . . . I wish I’d stayed at the cross

Suddenly Jesus appears and says “Peace be with you”

Wow, amazing, what an impact that must have had . . .

Jesus was once again amongst them.

Jesus understood their inner turmoil

Jesus understood their weaknesses but didn’t condemn

They may have abandoned Jesus but Jesus didn’t abandon them

Then Jesus breathed on them. The Holy Breathe was breathed on them and into them. And something happened. Suddenly they had direction and strength and purpose.

Jesus mission hadn’t died on the cross. They were going to carry it on.

I believe this is the Johannine account of pentecost. I think here is a perfect example of what James Dunn calls ‘Unity and Diversity’ in a book of the same title. This is John’s account of the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is not spectacular and noisy as in Acts but quiet and relational.

However, I really want to focus on Thomas. I want to rethink the image of Thomas. I want to shake off the doubting label that has been upon him for centuries

Not a doubting Thomas but a Thomas who is so desperate for inclusion, desperate to share the experience, desperate not to have missed out.

Can you relate?

Has anyone ever told you about a great spiritual experience they had and you wanted it for yourself? (Not in a selfish way)

Have you ever felt excluded on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, etc.?

Have you ever felt you missed out on something?

Maybe Thomas who represents all who have ever felt excluded.

I think we can learn from how Thomas behaved:

Thomas stuck around in spite of missing the initial experience.

Thomas didn’t need the same experience (he didn’t get to touch the wounds)

Thomas was included in his own way.

Thomas saw his own vision of the risen Jesus.

This way of viewing contains hope for all of us. Even though we might not get to see and experience Jesus in the same way as others we are still blessed.

Some questions to ponder:

Can we identify with Thomas? (Have we ever felt excluded, that we missed out?)

Can we be content to be included in our way rather than seeking another’s way?

Can we find our place amongst the Christian church?

Women, can we find our place without striving to be one of the men?

Two Final Comments on Thomas:

1. Thomas wrote a gospel. It is older than the gospels we have included in the Bible. Pheme Perkins, in Searching the Scriptures ed Elisabeth Fiorenza.

“ The sayings in the Gospel of Thomas presents a Jesus who reveals a hidden but timeless wisdom . . . Jesus is not an end-time judge who rescues believers from the wrath of God. Rather Jesus mediates the discovery of a wisdom that enables persons to recover the integrity of the human person as created by God”

A great resource for looking at the Gospel of Thomas, various translations and commentaries.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas.html

2. Thomas is supposed to have evangelized India

According to legendary tradition St. Thomas was invited by the King Gondophorus to India to build a palace for him. St. Thomas came and declared that he would build a heavenly palace instead and distributed the money among the poor. For this he was put into prison, but later pardoned. He evangelized the region of Malabar, then was martyred at Mylapore, near Madras. In 394 his remains were brought to Edessa. Another version that his remains are still in India at a place now called San Tome.

Lost and Found (Lent 4 Year C)

Joshua 5: 9-12

Psalm 32

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

On reflection, I wish that today’s gospel reading had covered the whole chapter and not jumped from verse three to verse eleven. Then we would have seen the story as part of a whole series of ‘lost and found’ stories.

So I want to briefly cast a glance at all three of the ‘lost and found’ stories. (The shepherd with the lost sheep, the woman with the lost coin and the parent with the lost child.) These stories were told as a response to the grumbling that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them.

‘Eating with them’ is significant. This is more than just accepting sinners, this is a sign of real friendship. In almost every culture inviting people into your home, sharing food and eating with them is a sign of intimacy and true friendship.

In these stories Jesus is showing the value of lost things. Jesus is revealing the seeking and compassionate heart of God. A picture of God as represented by a shepherd, a woman and a father.

Even the order the stories are placed in is interesting. They seem to subvert the expected positioning. First it is 1:100, then 1:10 and then 1:2. Surely we would have expected it the other way round, ending with the message that even one out of a hundred is important. Even one in a hundred is worthy of care and consideration.

I want to look, firstly, at the man with two sons. (Two sons perhaps representing the two groups of people mentioned at the outset of the chapter — tax-collectors & sinners and Pharisees & scribes).

Right at the beginning of the story the reader (or listener) is alerted to something unusual about this story. The man divided his property amongst his two sons. Surely that wasn’t quite right. Surely the elder son was entitled to more (a double portion at the very least). Right here at the outset of the story is something that will challenge and need careful consideration. This is pointing to a generosity that exceeds law.

We all know the story. The younger son squanders everything until his poverty and desperation cause him to realise that he needs to go home.

I want to look especially at how he is received. His father sees him and runs to meet him. Look at the heart of compassion. Compassion with its root meaning in womb. A God of womb-like love and nurture.

We are told that the son is repentant, but the father did not know this. He merely sees his child in the distance and ran and welcomed him with a kiss. This is another reversal of the norm. Shouldn’t forgiveness follow after confession and repentance? Not here, this is unconditional love poured out. Forgiveness precedes repentance.

Anne Thurston in her book Knowing Her Place comments that “It is love which creates the possibility for repentance, for true metanoia ‘change of heart’. Conversion is not a condition but a consequence of God’s love.”

In addition, several commentators have pointed out that it would be shocking for the first century readers to hear that the father ‘ran’ to the son. This would not happen. It would be considered undignified. This would certainly cause a ripple of shock through the early readers.

It seems that in this story both the sons have missed the aspect of true relationship. The younger son had planned to return as a servant. His elder brother had talked about himself as working like a slave.

Thurston comments, ‘”The language of servant and master, the relationships of patriarchal household have been replaced with the offer of unconditional love, ‘all that is mine is yours.’”

The father throws a party and the invitation to celebrate is open to all. No-one is excluded. What a wonderful offer of unconditional love to all!

In conclusion I want briefly to glance at the other two ‘lost and found’ stories.

A shepherd responsible for 100 sheep leaves 99 to seek for one lost one . . . madness! Not at all logical. Why leave 99 sheep unprotected to search for one? That is not even good shepherding. It is another unexpected view. Then when the sheep is found the shepherd hosts a feast. Perhaps costing more than the value of the sheep.

Then the second parable, the woman with 10 coins. She is obviously a rich woman, a householder, responsible for her own affairs. She does all the correct things in seeking diligently. What a great picture of God, a woman seeking for that which was lost until it is found. Yet again, when the lost thing is found the woman threw a party to celebrate finding the coin. Again the party may have cost more than the value of the coin!

Thurston again, commenting on this second parable, “the woman diligently searching portrays God, who even when there is no urgency, goes out of her way to seek out the lost. The woman hosts the feast with the prodigal generosity of God . . . the idea of a woman hosting the feast, which suggests the eschatological banquet prepares the way for the final subversion of the patriarchal model of God which we saw in the third parable.”

I want to end with two thoughts to ponder . . .

Can these three stories of ‘lost and found’, sheep/coins/sons help us in re-imagining our view of God?

Can we receive people with unconditional love?

+Ab. Jane

Power, Control and Service (Proper 24 Year B)

Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalm 91:9-16

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:35-45

Today, I want to think about the passage from Mark. In Mark we have three passion predictions. Today’s passage follows immediately after the third and most detailed one. Jesus has told the disciples that “the Child of Humanity will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes . . .they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him, and after three days he will rise again” (Mark 10:33-34) (1)

Immediately Jesus is asked by James and John if they could have seats of honour in the coming realm. Jesus does not rebuke them as one would expect, but merely asks if they can stand firm in persecution. After they have replied in the affirmative Jesus told them that they would suffer persecution, but that positions were not Jesus’ to grant. We (and the readers of Mark) know that these two disciples would indeed suffer persecution and that James would ultimately be martyred.

This first section of the passage shows us that suffering does not earn us any rewards. Jt is not exalted as the way of discipleship. It is simply something that happens. A possible consequence of following Jesus. This is a challenge to any Christian (or Jewish) understanding that suffering is pleasing to God and will merit reward. It is worth noting the contrast with Mark 9:41 where giving someone a glass of water will bring reward! We are already seeing that the way of discipleship is service not suffering.

As the story unfolds the other disciples were annoyed with James and John. Markan Jesus uses it as an opportunity to contrast the way of power with the way of servanthood. And not only a servant but a slave! Slave status was despised and thought of as even lower than the poor peasants. Additionally, Jesus said they needed to be a slave to all. Each person was to serve as if they were the lowest of the low.

It is worth noting who Mark had Jesus speaking to here. It was the twelve disciples. Jesus was not speaking to the women disciples, nor to the children, nor to a crowd of poor peasants, servants and slaves. In other words he was not speaking to those whom society already considered should serve, but to the free men, those who already had some status and power.

Then Jesus uses his own life as example of life given in service. Mark does not see the death of Jesus as atonement but as the completion of Jesus life lived in service for others. It is martyrdom not sacrifice. Martyrdom was considered honourable.

Joanna Dewey says, “The disciples are encouraged to follow Jesus not only in preaching and healing but also in faithful behaviour in the face of persecution”1 . The disciples, too, may have to give their lives as they seek to follow Jesus in lives of service to others.

Henri Nouwen in In the Name of Jesus says, "The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led." and “The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which the world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross. . . . It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest." (2)

This desire in humanity to seek power and success, seems to be part of the human make-up. It was present even with Adam and Eve as they sought to ‘be like God’.

As each of us seek to be disciples of God can we lay aside that human need for power and control and use our lives in the service of others?

(1) Joanna Dewey, “The Gospel of Mark” in Searching the Scriptures Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (ed) 495 (I have followed her interpretation of this passage)

(2)Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroads: New York, 1996), 60

Genesis Reflections (Proper 22 Year B)

Genesis 2:18-24

Psalm 8

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Mark 10: 2-16

As I read the passages for this week I paused for a while with Genesis. I felt quite sad as I read those very familiar words. What was supposed to be a lovely story about the origin of the human race has been so often used to promote domination and abuse of both human and non-human animals.

Just before reading these verses I opened my e-mails one of which included details of the upcoming Walk for Farm Animals to promote ethical and compassionate treatment for the animals. Unspeakable cruelty is being done to animals every minute to produce food most of which we don’t even need. Nor is it just farm animals who are the victims of cruelty.

How did the human race get from the privilege of naming and caring for the animals to our present day situation?

Women, too, have been controlled and dominated by men who assume that these words give them the authority over them. In my opinion, these verses have been misinterpreted and misused. Partly, it is because of the change in language. Try reading the Genesis passage and substitute human being for man. It gives the passage a very different feel.

For anyone wanting to study the language in detail I recommend God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality by Phyllis Trible. I love her interpretation of the Genesis story. It makes the most sense to me especially in view of her knowledge and study of ancient languages.

Trible talks about how the first human being was “sexually undifferentiated (neither male nor female nor a combination of both)” p.98. Then after the second human being is created the human beings are sexually differentiated.

As Trible says,

“One is female, the other male. Their creation is simultaneous, not sequential. One does not precede the other, even though the time line of this story introduces the women first (2:20). Moreover, one is not the opposite of the other. In the very act of distinguishing female from male, the earth creature describes her as ‘bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’ (2:23). These words speak unity, solidarity, mutuality and equality.” p99

Perhaps that last sentence of Trible’s is something to ponder as we consider how we treat others.

Another clue as to how we treat others can be found at the end of our final reading in Mark.

Here children are being brought to Jesus. The disciples rebuke those bringing them. It is so sad that discernment is already being made about who can be part of this new, evolving Christianity. Yet Jesus tells the disciples that it is “to such as these the Realm of God belongs”.

In a society where many children died young, where children had no legal rights, where children were considered the lowest of the low. I believe that in this scene Jesus is telling the disciples that the Realm of God welcomes all those who are outcasts and have been dominated.

A Revelatory Woman (Proper 18 Year B)

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Psalm 125

James 2 1-10, 14-17

Mark 7:24-37

Some rich readings this week. James challenges us about our attitude to the poor. Perhaps a very pertinent reading for these weeks. As + Andy and I read it out loud I couldn’t help but inwardly change the last verse . . . ‘if a brother or sister is naked and lacks health care and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; Keep warm and stay healthy; and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that.’

Anyway, that is just a brief thought to ponder.

The verses that really excited me are the ones in Mark. A reminder, once again, of the important part women played in the life of Jesus and, indeed, in shaping the future and development of the newly emerging Christian faith.

I have many times in the past talked about revelatory women in the life of Jesus. Women who seem to challenge Jesus and open up new horizons to him. Here, in Mark’s gospel we meet another.

We meet the unnamed Canaanite (Syrophoenician) woman who came to Jesus asking for healing for her tormented daughter. In Matthew’s version of this story the disciples even begged Jesus to send her away. They did not want to associate with her.

Jesus spoke to her and told her that he was sent only to the Jews (the house of Israel). Then followed it with an insult . . . that the children’s food could not be thrown to the dogs. No cute pugs in this thought, no much loved family pets but scavengers hungry and a nuisance to all. The unnamed woman retorted that even the dogs were allowed to eat the crumbs. In the telling of the story Jesus recognised her faith and her daughter was healed.

We could read this as a nice story of faith. But I think it is so much more. This woman was used to reveal to Jesus that this newly emerging story was also for the gentiles. It was as if Jesus’ had his eyes opened through the prophetic voice of this woman. Forget waiting for Cornelius’ house to include the gentiles . . . this woman opened the door. Now was the time for the ministry to include the Gentiles. It was a gift which included all.

Blessings Jane