Why read the Bible...

How to approach the Bible?

For some the Bible is a book where each word has been dictated by God irrespective and independently of the human hand, which acts simply as the means for the divine command to be written. The Bible becomes literally the words uttered by God. 

For others, the Bible is a just book like any other. It may be  a particularly interesting anthology of ancient texts and is of genuine historical interest particularly given the sociological implications of their formative impact on so many societies - that is, they have had a significant impact in the past but the insights are now surpassed by greater learning and understanding. These texts are only enlightening in a retrospective dimension.

Very often these are the only two possibilities put forward and the debate becomes polarised between them. This means that rather than engaging with what the text actually says these two perspectives are forced onto the reading of the Bible and the meaning of the words get lost  in the argument.

I would like to offer a different place to start when approaching the Bible. I suggest that the Bible is best understood as testimony and has been captured by many people in many forms. What do I mean by testimony? A testimony is an account of an experience. If you see a crime, if you're part of the experience of that event you are called to give your testimony in court - to give an account of what you have experienced.

The Bible is a collation of different experiences of God in human history. Some of these experiences are captured in story form, some in legal writings, some in poems, letters, some in visions, prayers and songs.

But what makes these captured experiences so special is that they all point to in a particular direction and that direction comes to a single person - Jesus Christ.

This underlying consistency of direction finds its fulfilment in this particular person at a particular time. And this is truly amazing when you consider that there are dozens of authors, there is a time span of at least 1500 years between when these stories start and when the last words are added to the writings, yet they come together.

The Word of God - the revelation of who God is, is not these words (the Bible) But The Word - the message of the living person - Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word of God and these written words direct us to Him.

So. these written words are the experiences of people, priests, prophets, poets and kings who experienced God and captured in words what they experienced. These experiences have a commonality - a touch stone of Orthodox spiritual experience and what this book offers is an experience of God that will lead us to Jesus. 

The same Spirit that  gave the writers their experiences works through these words to draw us to be part of the same movement of God.

These experiences - the knowledge and understanding of the nature God, the certainty of His spiritual presence, are offered to you and me. 

When we read these words and we experience the same underlying Spirit, our eyes are opened to who we are in God's sight and where we are heading. 

We see that sin and brokenness are not held against us, but are part of a process of becoming God's own sons and daughters. 

We experience how far we are from what we could be, what we will be and how we often fail to accept life as the gift God intends it to be - just like the people who wrote these words. And we experience the transforming power of the Spirit changing our desires and leading us into a new way of thinking and living that increasingly makes old mean, fearful ways unbearable.

The effect of these written words is to draw us into a relationship with the Living Word and through that relationship into our eternal destiny with God. Even to begin to grasp how wonderful this future will be, our imaginations need to be broadened by the words of vision and poetry in this book.

Blind Bartimeus says to Jesus, "I want so see" - and Jesus says,"your faith (your open trust in me) has made you whole". 

So, experience that wholeness. The real and miraculous opening of his eyes is a living metaphor for the power of God opening our spiritual eyes. And this has to be personal and real to us. Jesus says, "it's the truth you know that sets you free." 

Not someone else’s experience - not a concept or an idea - but your experience of God that releases you into the hope and power of God's vision for your life and beyond.

When that happens – facilitated by these words and God’s Spirit - when our spiritual eyes are open, the experiences of those who wrote these words become our experiences. We know what they mean because we share our experience of the underlying work of God's Spirit in our lives. 

This library of stories becomes our personal history - our story.

So, my advice? Get reading. Treat yourself to a new Bible - a good contemporary translation like the NIV or the NRSV and read it again. 

Click here for a suggested reading plan and here for an on-line Bible and get reading.

Truth and Traditions

Mark 7:1-13 (For reading click here)

I remember a conversation I had once with a quite senior clergyman who was talking about what the Church has to offer. His response was, "We will always have our traditions." Is this really what Jesus came to do? To set up traditions to be followed?

It seems from this passage that Jesus came to do something different. So what is the spiritual danger in placing so much importance in tradition and what is it that Jesus wants us to do?

There are several spiritual dangers in focusing on traditions above all else. Firstly they can become something we hide behind. So long as we are carrying out the right rituals, saying the right words and behaving in public in the way everyone is used to and recognises we can feel confident about ourselves. But we can do these things without God. Jesus calls us to open up our real selves deep down to God's Spirit, to hear Him, feel Him and respond to His word and direction. He calls us to wrestle with ourselves before Him and be changed. He calls us to grow up and on, not to stay where we are. At times, rituals form a very important part of this, but there is a danger that if we put traditions before relationship we create ourselves somewhere to hide. I worked for a man who ran a sales force, many years ago. He refused to give his salesmen desks because he said that if they have them they will sit at them! If they don't have anything to hide behind they will have to go and talk to people and get selling! Traditions can become a safety blanket that we hide behind.

Secondly, rituals and traditions always end up being organised in such a way that there are roles for different people. Some of these roles appear more important than others. The danger with this is that having a public role of apparent importance nurtures pride. Pride is folly and is always followed by a fall! It is easy, too easy to believe our own PR! Humility before God - an awareness of our need for Him is essential to being in a place where we can hear and serve Him.

So Jesus calls us to grow in our relationship with God - to become more in tune with what pleases Him and to be changed by His Love into the likeness of our role-model, Jesus. If tradition, ritual and routine nurture this - great - but we must never confuse the means with the ultimate ends.

The Stairway to Heaven

Proverbs 9 and Mark 5:35-end (click here and here for the readings)

Although am 45 very soon, there is still a part of me that remembers what it is like to be a wild student. I remember the time of being able to make immediate decisions to do daft things - normally involving too much alcohol and staying awake far too late and laughing far too loudly. I remember the kind of abandonment based on the idea that there were no consequences to my decisions. I felt untouchable, totally free from responsibility.

I can remember too the day I gave up my job to travel for a while. Again the sense of freedom was amazing - no ties, just what I owned on my back and the cash in my pocket and lots of empty time to fill.

These times were great in their way. But the truth is that I after a while I got bored. The emptiness of the diary became an emptiness of purpose and I began to hunger for something of worth to do. I can remember seeing people who seemed to have chosen this uncommitted "freedom" as a way of life. I found them frightening. Most often they looked quite haggard - self indulgence had become their means of filling the empty hours. It looked and felt like they had fallen in to a trap. This is the same trap the the writer of Proverbs is warning us against.

The famous Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" has the line:

"There are 2 paths you can go down but in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on"

I think this is a dangerous fallacy. The reality is that the choices we make day by day shape who we are and become. It gets harder and harder to change as we rehearse day in and day out the choices we make. I am thankful for the freedom I enjoyed but I am more thankful that it left with a quest for meaning and purpose - I am thankful that after a while such things became boring because without that experience it would have been harder for me to try to search for the truth. I am thankful that God in His Graciousness did not let go but kept within me a hunger for something more, something that can be only be found in Him.

I still feel that urge for freedom within, but I hope that I have learned that it cannot be satisfied with the next indulgence or new time-filler. I pray that I have learned that true freedom is the freedom to want more of God without fear, because in Him there is always more to grow into.

The ladder into Heaven

Genesis 28:10-19 and John 1:43-51 (Click here and here for readings)

'And all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and your offspring".

Amazing words! Spoken to a man in a wilderness over 3,000 years ago and still being remembered and understood today. The words are in contrast to the personal blessing promised to Jacob - of a land and a family - and Jacob receives a vision alongside these personal promises to enable the greater promise to be understood.

It is put simply as this - from the line of Jacob (Israel) the way to Heaven will be opened. God reconfirms to Jacob, as he had to Abraham, that it is through his line that humanity will find its way to Heaven opened and the Heavenly accessible here on Earth.

Jesus, in the reading from John, claims this promise as fulfilled in Him. Right here at the beginning of John's Gospel, Jesus explains what He has come to do. He understands the expectations of the Israelite Nathanael (Bartholomew) who Jesus understands to be patriotic and seeking the liberation of his land through a worldly Messianic and military leader. But Jesus points him beyond these immediate earthly concerns to the greater promise that all families will be blessed in Him. Their eternal, heavenly future is being made known and available.

This eternal heavenly future is to be made available through Jesus Himself. The ladder we need to climb to Heaven is Jesus himself. He has opened up the way to Heaven for us and God's promise is fulfilled.

Our God of blessing, who cares for our needs in this world has always the greater eternal blessing in mind as He hears our prayers.

Competition vs co-operation

Proverbs 3:27 - 4:19 and Mark 4:21-34 (For texts click here and here)

We are rapidly getting used to the idea that a market economy underpinned by a capitalist philosophy is the only sensible solution to meeting the needs of the human race. It seems to work well for many people, generating wealth and harnessing the aggressive and competitive side of human nature and steering it into the direction of understanding each others needs through enlightened self-interest. But we have seen that there needs to be significant controls around this market melee if the worst, most selfish instincts of human nature are not to ruin life for everyone. These 'controls' must be rooted in a higher philosophy, a greater ideal of what it is to be human. If these 'controls' stem from this higher ideology what is it? How do we express it?

Our readings today both point towards this greater paradigm of human understanding. Proverbs calls this greater perspective and understanding "wisdom". The wisdom described here is relational, it is all about not acting in isolation for yourself. Help your neighbour when you can - don't withhold help - co-operate! In families, listen to each other and respect the wisdom of those with greater life experience and hear their wisdom.

Jesus teaches about the fulfilment of this human ideal in the Kingdom of God, a way of being that fulfills human potential both in their relationships with each other and their relationship with God. There is a humility before God that accepts and lives in gratitude for the gift of life - not seeking to pin down or control but enjoying and celebrating the blessing of life. He describes this way of living and being as a tiny seed that will grow to be the largest of all trees and calls upon the image of the tree as a self-less life-support system for the creatures that live in it. Again, the picture has the feeling of sharing and generosity of giving and receiving, not competing and beating. It progresses from survival of the fittest to care and love for everyone and everything because of their intrinsic value.

There is a far greater ideal, a richer wisdom underpinning human existence than the buy and sell of a capitalist economy and the sooner we realise that the market is a useful tool and not our master the sooner we can harness the co-operative power of relationships and take another step towards the Kingdom of God.

Living through the tantrums

Mark 3:19 - end (For text click here)

Anyone who has ever raised children will understand that there comes an age when the relationship begins to change. When they are younger, they seek your advice on everything, they want your company and they listen to what you say - sometimes they even try to put the advice into practice. The help and care is offered and received.

Then, most often, the relationship changes. As the child becomes a young adult and the need for independence grows the advice is not sought so keenly - in fact, very often the attention and advice is actively shunned at times. The care and love is still there, still being offered - but for a time the young person cannot receive it like they once did. Hopefully, this is a phase that everyone grows through, learning to listen to each other until we reach a state where openness is restored and love and care, advice and wisdom can again be exchanged.

In this morning's reading, Jesus is saying that this is how it is with God and us - offering and receiving forgiveness. Jesus is in the midst of teaching and healing. People are receiving forgiveness and wholeness through Him. Those who are open to what is happening are being greatly blessed by God and are being freed from their old demons. But the free way in which people are experiencing the love of God offends many of the religious people of the day; that Jesus dares to pronounce this forgiveness and healing shocks them in the insecurity of their own relationship with God; the changed lives that are the result of this ministry has become evidence that needs undermining. Unfortunately for them, this means that they are closed to the new relationship that God is offering - like difficult teenagers, they are closing their spiritual eyes and ears to what is going and refusing to believe that God is so warm and loving. While their minds are closed to what the Holy Spirit is doing, they cannot receive for themselves the gifts that He is offering - they cannot receive the forgiveness and new life they lead. They remain trapped in their unforgiven state without the power to change and without the knowledge of forgiveness. If this blasphemy (this statement of falsehood against the God) continues they will not be able to receive from God what they need. Like parents dealing with teenagers through a difficult phase, God's love, care and offer of forgiveness remain, but cannot be received.

We all have our tantrums still. In the face of so much love we all fail at times to believe that God really forgives, accepts and renews us. But He does.

Wisdom in practice - dealing with success

Proverbs 1 and Mark 3 (For texts click here and here)

In this passage in Mark, Jesus is beginning to become increasingly popular and needs to find ways of dealing with His success. His miraculous works have drawn great crowds to Him and there is so much desperate need around Him that He needs to plan howthe needs are met nd the teaching can happen. In this passage He deals with this "success" in three ways.

Firstly, he takes precautions for Himself, His disciples and those who come to find healing that the ministry can continue in an orderly way. He does not allow the situation to get out of control or degenerate into a scrum. He organises for a boat to be made available. This, of course, also ensures that the message He has to deliver will be heard.

Secondly, He tries to ensure that the expectations of the people, who seek political freedom through conflict, are managed down. As the evils spirits leave those who are being healed, they acclaim Jesus as the Son of God and although this is of course true, I wonder whether or not they are stirring things up to try and distract Jesus and off rail his Kingdom Ministry through earthly expectations. He recognises their game and does not fall for it.

Thirdly, He shares the ministry and the work as soon as He can. He withdraws to a mountain and appoints the twelve with whom He shares His authority for the work He is doing. He multiplies the blessings that God is pouring out by multiplying those who can administer them.

This is wisdom in practice. An understanding of the work that God has called Jesus to do, a wise discernment of the pitfalls and a vision for seeing it grow. Mark captures the simple clarity of the thinking. Wisdom in hindsight always looks so simple; but of course, the trick is to see it in the midst of the potential mayhem!

Love that heals not harms

Proverbs 1 and Mark 2:23 - 3:6 (For texts click here and here)

It takes a lot of wisdom to love well. Loving well is like walking a narrow path. On the one side, there is a desire to give to a person you love anything they desire and want, when they want it without question. On the other side, is the desire to protect someone from all harm and make them perfect in all they do. The first side is the side of false freedom which spoils and prevents someone from growing into wisdom themselves - true wisdom that puts the love of God and others alongside themselves. The second side is restrictive and legal, over-protective and does not allow a person the space to take responsibility for their own actions and to develop deeper motives of love and compassion for others; they only learn fear of doing wrong.

Walking this narrow path of wisdom requires the humility to listen to God. We are called to let go of the pride that leads us to believe that we have all the answers immediately. It requires to us relinquish the sloth that wants quick answers and short cuts to avoid spending time considering difficult situations. It requires a peace and a pace of life built on the solid foundation of a clear decision in ourselves to want to do what is right and not what is easy.

Jesus models this wisdom for us in a life of love and compassion. He sees through the narrowness of controlling religion and challenges the false freedom of lives lived solely to satisfy transient passions and demands. The Word living as a person calls us to have our own hearts and minds transformed in such a way that we live as He does, loving in a way that heals not harms.

The sort of "fear of the Lord" that is the beginning of knowledge, is the concern to walk this narrow path with Him. This fear is not based on punishment but on the understanding that we lose so much when we step off God's path - we lose the wisdom to live and love well.

Running away from being blessed?

Jonah 1 (For the text click here)

One of my earliest memories of a decision taken to obey God or not is unfortunately a decision to disobey God. I would have been about 17 and attending a Christian youth group with a girl friend. At some point she turned to me and said, "We don't need this; you only God when something is going wrong and everything is OK at the moment." I listened to that comment and decided to stop going. I have regretted that decision ever since and the decision to disobey has haunted me and remained with me, particularly when I found out that God wants to bless us all and lead us into a fullness of life that we can not imagine. The idea that He is only there as a last resort is actually really sad because it means that many of us live lives that are disconnected from the wonderful source of all the good things in the universe!

The story of Jonah is a story full of misunderstandings about God and His motives. Jonah doesn't want to bring judgement on a town that is well of the rails, maybe because he imagines that the town will blame him for their punishment. As we know, the story will turn out that the people will change and all will be well, but the expectation that God is bent on punishment and not blessing is part of Jonah's understanding of God.

While Jonah is busy running away from God's call on the boat, Jonah assumes that he is going to be killed for his disobedience and when hiding is no longer an option he does the honourable thing to save the crew and tells them to throw him overboard. In this part of the story, the men on the ship are busy trying to appease their ideas of the gods and their response to the sea calming down when Jonah is thrown over board is again fear. God offers Jonah a surprise and miraculously saves him. The disposition of all the characters is that God is a God of punishment. The disposition is that God is one who condemns. The only time to approach such a God is when things are going badly to try and appease the anger.

But God is not like this. God has shown in Christ that He is working to bless us all. Why do we find it so hard to believe and trust that God is working in our lives to bless us all with what we need.

Yours Lord is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour and the majesty;

For everything in Heaven and on Earth is Yours;

All things come from You and of Your own do we give You.

Amen.

Morning Prayer

Luke 11:27,28 (For the Bible verse click here)

Have you ever noticed how we are increasingly living in our heads these days? "Self-image", digital profiles to create an online alter-ego, ideas that "work for me" - all these aspects of modern life are considered by many acceptable, possibly even indispensable. It is very easy to become our own frame of reference and life is so much more simple when we only have ourselves to deal with.

Jesus calls us out of these things back into reality. God calls us to engage for real with who He is.

In these verses, a woman calls out to Jesus from the crowd exclaiming that his mother must be blessed to have borne him. I imagine that she is thinking about how proud she must be seeing her son teaching such wonderful things and being celebrated by so many people. Maybe the woman is thinking about how she would feel to have a famous son, how it would embellish her standing and make her famous by association. Wouldn't it give a whole new dimension to life to have raised someone like Jesus!

But of course, the reality for Jesus and Mary are very different. Mary knows real cost of her calling and the sword that will pierce her heart is always present. She would remember the frightening times of childhood, running away from a mad king who was trying to find her family and kill her son; she would remember the growing self-awareness in Jesus - an understanding of what it was actually going to take for her son, God's Son, to walk the path of obedience, the path to the cross.

Jesus responds to the woman that true blessing only comes from obedience to God and walking in His Way; He is not placing a disciple above Mary, or belittling his mother - exactly the opposite. He is explaining how Mary is truly blessed. Not through the social standing or public pride from the temporary popularity which would pass very soon, but through the deep obedience of walking and living in the path that God has called her to.

The woman in the crowd is called to look deeper to find who she can be in Christ; the same call is made to us today. Only be fully engaging with God and the world around us will find life in its fullness. Only be letting go of the obsession with self-interest and a constructing a make-believe world around ourselves will we be able to embrace and play our part in God's ongoing Creation - so far beyond our own limited imaginings.

Morning Prayer 28th May

1 John 4:1-6 (Click here for text)

There is a great temptation in the name of 'being relevant' to present an acceptable Jesus. Reducing Jesus to a kind of Palestinian Ghandi figure who taught peace and love ("man"!) is a real temptation. Someone once suggested to me that the best thing to do when preaching to a non-committed congregation was to concentrate on behaviour - present some good guidelines for living based on Jesus teaching.

But the problem with this is that it's like buying a computer to use as a simple calculator - there is no power. The Good News about Jesus as John puts it is that Christ has come in the flesh from God. Jesus does not simply provide us with another set of rules or inspirations (although he raises both these things to a new level); Jesus offers the Spirit of God - real power to grow in to God - into holiness. When we reduce Jesus to a comfort blanket we miss the point; Jesus has the power to transform our lives into lives that are holy and good. He has the power to change us but not just through providing a rational, theological framework to work out what is right. The power Jesus has is the creative power to actually change a person.

When I first realised just who Jesus is I remember the amazing sense of joy in singing praises to His Name. It was an incredible force within that simply made me joyful; from the joy came peace and a sense of direction and purpose.

This is not received through knowledge but through connection. John encourages us to open ourselves as little children to this connection and ENJOY!

Morning Prayer 25th May 2009

1 John 2:18-end (click here for passage)

St. John has a very neat way of dividing people, teachings and actions into opposites. Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Love and Hate, We and You, Us and Them, Christ and Anti-Christ.

Either one is in or not - there is no middle ground. St. John's measures are very clear too. It is quite simply the anointing of the Holy Spirit that both informs what you believe and guides how you live and therefore places you 'in' or 'out'.

His logic is simple and straightforward. The Holy Spirit is the means be which we understand the Gospel, it is the means by which we recognise and accept Jesus as divine and one with the Father and it is the way that we recognise truth and have our lives our shaped by it.

This is of course not a rational argument but it is rooted in orthodox Christian experience. When the Church comes to make decisions and understand the truth, it absolutely must be led by this same Holy Spirit and remain connected with the apostolic experience and message. We are all connected through this Holy Spirit in a way which is real or not - it is not something that comes and goes - it is the source eternal life and the life starts now.

Antichrists are not strange people who have occult powers to corrupt, they are simply ordinary people who deny Jesus - his divinity and his claim on their lives and thereby denying themselves the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The eternal life of the Gospel is something that is always there and there are a thousand antichrist arguments that sound so reasonable, but from St. John's perspective - you either know or you don't. Sometimes, the simplest choices are the hardest and the ones we are keenest to avoid.

Morning Prayer - Tuesday after Easter

Luke 24:1-12 (Click here for text)

The confusion continues. Everyone is looking for Jesus in the wrong place! Of course  it makes perfect sense to expect Jesus to conform to normal human standards - i.e. if he's dead to stay dead. The women, desperate to express their love and grief, have continued about their plans - why should they do any different? Peter, doesn't believe their tale and characteristically rushes over to see for himself and sees the grave linen but no body! He is confused - why shouldn't he be?

From the perspective of the angels, their confusion is ungrounded. Why? Because Jesus had told them very clearly what it is that would happen and what they were to expect. Despite the disciples fascination and even service to Jesus they clearly had not believed him. A couple of weeks ago my daughter was to visit us on holiday and needed to travel by train. We told here to book the ticket early because it would be a lot cheaper. She didn't, was charges excessively for her ticket and on arrival claimed that she didn't know. She had been told but had not had that personal experience that cements the expectation as part of her understanding.

This is the process of faith. Once we have come to terms with the fact that the tomb is empty, we then need to start believing what Jesus actually says! Jesus promises to be with us all until the end, he promises the Holy Spirit within us, He promises that we will continues to do the things he has started. When do we start believing in what He says? What does it take? Jesus seems to express his own frustration with this too when he says to Thomas,  “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Christian life really starts when we believe what Jesus actually says! It is then that the power of the resurrection becomes real for us.

Morning Prayer - Monday of Easter Week

Mark 16:1-8 (Click here for text)

I always find Easter Eve a strange time. Having immersed myself in the passion on the Friday and been amazed again at what Jesus went through and how He manages to forgive and retain his hope in humanity, I feel a bit lost on the Saturday. Of course preparations for Sunday kick in and occupy time, it is spiritually an in between place.

In Mark's Gospel we have the only hint at what the disciples were up to. The women, here, had clearly observed the Sabbath following the placing of Jesus' body in the tomb and as soon as they were able they had bought some spices on the Saturday evening to honour Jesus in death at first light. Where were the men? The women must have felt unable to ask them for help in moving the stone - maybe the men were avoiding the soldiers and had heard that a guard had been placed on the temporary tomb. So their main focus is honouring Jesus in death as they no doubt have a horrible night wracked with grief and worry.

So it is in a complete state that they arrive at the first Easter morning. Not with anticipation of Easter Eggs and a more upbeat service than usual under girded by the joy of knowing that Jesus succeeds in making all things new, do they arrive, but with trauma and loss.

The angel they find rightly soothes them with the words, stop being afraid,' but it hardly has any effect. They run away and for a time remain too terrified to speak.

What must have been the impact of this early morning event as they went away? The plans and concerns of the last 36 hours have all been wiped away. There is no body to care for. There is no Jesus to prepare for proper entombment. How did it finally dawn that there this might mean resurrection? When did they dare to believe? Was it Mary's experience? Followed by Peter and Cleopas and Luke?

Just imagine the transformation of perspective! Hope beyond hope! It must have been strange - the certainty of the death and mourning rituals replaced with the uncertainty of of hope in the miraculous. How much evidence would it take? How many appearances? How much explanation until it finally sank in.

But with the joy of the resurrection dawns the understanding of the significance - not just for them, the ones who were mourning and are now rejoicing, but for the world! How long until the responsibility for them begins to take hold and they realise that their testimony is needed for the world to understand what God is doing in Jesus.

Isn't this where our journeys become connected. Once the reality of the resurrection sinks in and we become convicted of its truth, so the responsibility of that understanding dawns too. This is not simply a personal event but a transforming event for all people. And we who believe without seeing first hand have no less a share in that responsibility than those first few who experienced Jesus alive directly before them.

Morning Prayer - Easter Eve

1 John 5.5-12 (Click here for text)

We are being offered new life in Christ every day. This new spiritual (spiritually evolved) human being that each of us is called to be us real, every day. Our role is to live it.

How do we do this?

There is no avoiding that the starting point is faith. While we search and argue and debate (and no doubt we will always do this) we are not necessarily embracing this new life offered. We embrace through believing it - accepting that this the reality. God through Jesus really has bought into being a new way of being a human being and the Holy Spirit enables us to become this. The first step to living this is believing it and embracing that like is often linked symbolically with the water of baptism, not simply a washing away of sin but an act of commitment - saying this is my view of the world.

The second thing we do - and this is very difficult -  is that we begin to die with regard to things of the old way of being. Jesus death on the cross - as well as a physical death - is a death to the old order of being. He will not retaliate, He will not use the sword, He will not flee, He will  have faith that God is bringing in to being the new order. So he forgives; he blesses; he offers peace even to those who hate Him. In this day and age, with an aggressive secular, atheistic streak there is a real temptation to respond in kind. Such a response is a lack of faith. The new order forgives, reaches out, blesses, understands their blindness and reaches out. The blood of Jesus is the symbol of an atoning death that fulfils and removes a previous sacrificial system but it is also a symbol of overcoming the brokenness of the old humanity - of dying to the world - so that the new can grow. This is the blood that we must share in - the cross that we must carry.

And finally we must allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us. To take the points of tension in our lives and resolve, like a spiritual dissonance into the cadence of the Kingdom. We must allow ourselves to be for others even when they are against us - 'for others' meaning that the hope that they too will embrace this new humanity and allow the Spirit to draw them on too.

We live it primarily through 'becoming' - through being changed in our mind and our desires that our actions will flow from the Kingdom that one day will be fulfilled in Jesus.

Morning Prayer - Good Friday

Hebrews 10:1-10 (For text see here)

Here is the heart of the Gospel; that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once and for all.

To a post-modern mind this statement can appear shocking.

To start with 'we' are passive in this. However, being made 'holy', taking on the likeness of Christ is a divine act of Creation. We cannot give ourselves life, we cannot choose to be born or be instrumental in our own making. In the same way, we cannot be instrumental in our sanctification - our being 'born again'. This is an act of God - an act that has been completed in the death and resurrection of Christ. The Old Testament tells of man's awareness (his consciousness in this passage) of sin. This awareness invokes fear of judgement and guilt and the systems of sacrifice were there to absolve the conscience on an annual basis - a ritual dealing with the fear and guilt that the consciousness of sin invoked. It did not prevent sin, but enabled the people to continue in some kind of relationship with their Creator despite the awareness of the reality of the grip of sin on their lives.

Jesus Christ is a new act of Creation by God. Fear of judgement and death are removed permanently by the cross where the divine takes the reality of sin and judgement and death visibly and transforms them into the resurrected Christ. The consciousness of sin is the first stage in a process of spiritual creation (spiritual evolution?) in which the direction of humanity (as free from sin - i.e. sanctified and holy) emerges. The Cross is the act of God which offers the way into the completion (next stage?) of humanity. The cross, by the reckoning of it's shadow (the sacrificial system of the OT) deals with punishment - but the event is much more than that. The shadow or type can never hold the reality of the new paradigm, of the new order. Likewise the OT model is broken in God making Himself the offering for sin. But in its place is a new power - a sanctifying power - now at work in the world, the power to take the human being and lift her into God. In this way a whole new consciousness is born - a new mind - the mind of Christ. Not a set of boundaries of behaviour or rules to be followed, but a new way of thinking that shapes us so that we are different and from this change in our being new behaviours flow and new possibilities arise.

So if this is God's work what is our role? Our role is to live it!! To believe in what God is doing and to embrace His vision for us. To connect with the power of the Resurrection for our own lives - to open ourselves to its possibilities. This is not a return to an older, more perfect order of things before 'a fall' but the on-going Creative work of God, leading us on. This we work towards, guided by the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ to new life from death. This is the meaning, purpose and direction of all life. It is not a political vision (but change flows out of it), it is not a cultural vision (but new ways of keeping this vision before our eyes are essential). Embracing this work of God, living in it, is quite simply the answer to life's questions and the basis and direction of all human life.

Morning Prayer - Wednesday of Holy Week

Luke 22:54-71 (Click here for text)

It is very easy to speak of commitment and to make brave statements about what we believe. We will never really know what we are committed to until our backs are against the wall and there is a real cost to pay for what we believe in. It is when the cost comes to bear that we find out what we really believe in. Even then, it is part of a process. How we feel about the decision we have made - will we be able to live with ourselves and the choices we have taken? Working through these choices is the subtext of this reading.

Peter - after all his bravado - finds that he cannot stand. But then when he falls, he finds he cannot do that either. He learns, taught by a short prediction of Jesus followed by a quick glance, what both sides of the decision feel like. The boldness of standing next to Jesus and the cowardice of running away. This lesson is a difficult one for us all to learn and can we ever say we have fully 'chosen' to stand by Jesus until the end.

Jesus, in his responses to the Pharisees, attempts the same kind of dialogue. They are only interested in finding a charge to bring against Jesus before Pilate so that the judicial processes in place swing into place and dispose of this troublesome man! Jesus, in contrast, does not seek to defend Himself but to engage them with their own behaviour and attitudes. He refers to the scriptures in understanding His Messiahship, He points out to them their own accusations and the testimony of the people. In other Gospels, Jesus talks of the openness of His teaching and exposes their underhand tactics in dealing with Him.

Jesus is being denied and set-up. He is being beaten and humiliated. But He never responds in kind or out of fear. He has fought His battle in the Garden and set His face to expect no different.

Morning Prayer - Tuesday of Holy Week

Luke 22:24-53 (Click here for texts)

Following Jesus means living as though the cross and resurrection happened last week. There is a world of difference between knowing about some past events, watching a film and feeling the fallout of the events of Jesus' Passion.

The experiences of Jesus and the disciples must not become fully assimilated - we must not adjust ourselves to accommodate and get over what has happened but rather we must feel the intensity of the emotions day after day. We must not forget nor must remembering become an exercise of memory.

I mustn't forget how the disciples were so wrapped up in the possibilities of their own glory that they failed to listen to what Jesus was saying and then when He needed them to be there for Him they fell asleep and denied Him. I need to feel how easily that happens in my own life. How easily I forget who I'm serving and get drawn into tasks and my own achievement - as though they mattered in the light of what Jesus does.

I mustn't forget how Jesus had to accept the burden of the world's sin - punishment, abandonment and isolation, despair - being taunted by the tempter to relinquish the hope for mankind as a lost cause. The feelings he must have borne

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
   and made me cower in ashes;  my soul is bereft of peace;
   I have forgotten what happiness is;  so I say, ‘Gone is my glory,
   and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.’ 

These feelings for Him are real and felt for me and every person who has ever lived and will ever live. He did this for and because of my deepest wickedness and selfishness. And it happened yesterday and I know Him and He knows me. And there is no escaping that He had to do it for me because it is the only way that I could be broken out of my sin and selfishness - the only way I could be drawn into God. And I am not worth the effort (except that I must be if He does this) and He is worth everything (and I cannot ever do that justice).

Remembering is about not allowing some wounds to heal. 

Morning Prayer 3rd April

John 12:30-36 (Click here for text)

The hour has come.

Throughout His ministry Jesus has often said that the time had not yest come for Him to be revealed. Now He says that the time has come for him to be revealed in His glory.

The trigger for Him is the beginning of a Gentile following. That nations will come to Jerusalem is a sign of the Day of the Lord and that Day is the day that the Messiah is glorified and God's Kingdom is established.

But the lifting up of the Messiah is to be understood in an ambiguous way. It is a 'lifting up' that will fulfil both meanings of the word - a lifting up on the cross to bear punishment and death and a lifting up to the throne of Heaven in the resurrection. Both these meanings are captured in this passage and the paradoxical nature of the unfolding of God's intentions are the subject of the wrestling in Jesus' words.

The seed must die to bear fruit; life must be relinquished in order to be gained; to hold on to life is to loose it. If only there was another way - Jesus prays that there is but understands only too well that there is not.

As usual, everyone else in the passage is confused by what is going on and what Jesus is actually prophesying.

Philip and Andrew don't understand whether or not Jesus is for the Gentiles or not. They talk amongst themselves and take the issues to Jesus. We don't know whether that understand his answer as an explanation that it is a sign of the coming fulfilment or not.

The crowd, as usual, are baffled. They don't understand the Messianic allusions that Jesus is making. They don't understand why there is an ambiguity in the lifting up of the Messiah as they understand the Messiah is going to reign forever - so how can he be killed?

Jesus doesn't engage with their confusions merely encourages them to continue to follow and listen to Him as He shifts the entire framework for understanding God's plans for His Kingdom to a new level. As ever, these things will only be understood when the cross and the resurrection are understood together as the saving and transforming work of God.

 

Morning Prayer 2nd April

John 12:12-19 (Click here for text)

Every action Jesus takes is designed to communicate God's Kingdom and just how different it is to the expectations that people tend to project onto God. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem is packed with irony. As with so many passages in John, he describes the different perspectives and symbolises how  Jesus' own is in contrast with them all.

Firstly there is the crowd. They are well in role proclaiming and waving their 'hosannas' around. Their words are a literal pleading to Jesus to save them and yet the salvation they seek is at best temporal and at worst a switch in political power base to them. However, spurred on by the miraculous sign of Lazarus they are really hopeful that at the least, something interesting might happen!

Secondly, the disciples haven't really got much of a clue. They are involved (and according to the synoptics instrumental in assisting Jesus with his mode of transportation) but they are totally bewildered. They will only be able to interpret events once they have all unfolded.

Jesus, as ever, knows exactly what He is about. He chooses deliberately to undermine the image of a warrior messiah and in contrast recreates the symbolism of the prophet Zechariah. He is about peace 'to the nations' and his victory is of justice. It is again ironic that the Pharisees comment echoes this idea - 'the world has gone after him' - but without understanding the true implications of their words.

It seems that Jesus is planning for his actions to be understood in hindsight. This is the amazing faith that Jesus demonstrates. To follow His understanding of what God is calling Him to - through death and to the resurrection beyond. Talk about a maintaining a sense of perspective!

This, of course, is the Christian perspective. Not only life before death, but to walk in His footsteps through death and to to what lies beyond. But it takes a lot of faith to maintain this sense of perspective when the decisions on this side of eternity cost you something!

Morning Prayer 1st April

John 12:1-11 (See here for text)

The love and unreserved devotion shine through Mary's actions. Mary is portrayed as someone who seems to understand better than those around her who Jesus is. When Jesus visits Mary and Martha it is Mary who sits as a disciple at Jesus' feet - not avoiding her duties but recognising the moment as a moment to be with Jesus.

When Jesus comes to the tomb, Mary stays at home - maybe more trusting about Jesus being in control (like the centurion who has no need of Jesus actual presence to know his power). But the moment when she meets the needs of Jesus intuitively through her devotion to Him is this outrageously generous and uncalculating act of love.

She anoints Jesus for his greatest trial in a simple and beautiful act. Many of us would be unable to make such an act. We would be too self-conscious, or too concerned that others may think us showy or wasteful. But the offering from this pure heart is received as exactly what is needed and intended.

The best gift she could give.

Morning Prayer 31st March

John 11:45 - end (For text click here)

Here is a picture of the way the world workswhen those in power want to hold ontothat  power. The Pharisees in this part of the unfolding passion drama find themselves in a difficult situation.

Jesus is clearly a good man at the very least. But much more than that He has been performing amazing works of power. These works all point towards who He is and for many have become unavoidable testimony that Jesus is the Messiah and is anointed by God.

But the possibilities for change do not even enter into the imagination of the Pharisaic party. This is a clash between true faith in the possibilities of God and decision they face. If Jesus is the Messiah of God and God is behind Him what is there to fear? Isn't God really in control? Isn't God demonstrating His presence in Jesus through His works and life? So why not believe it? 

Caiaphas the High Priestin is in a highly politicized situation with foreign occupation on the one hand, a corrupt King on the other and a people on the point of rebellion. He would need to be a shrewd politician, used to managing and dealing with situations on his own wits, to hold onto this job. 

In such a difficult situation, to retain power would require compromise and any compromise with an attempt at integrity requires some priorities to be drawn up and defended. And traditions are these easiest thing to name and identify as that which needs to be protected. 

It is natural to occupy a defensive mindset when surrounded. Cynically it is easy to dismiss Caiaphas for his spiritual weakness but John does not do that. Instead he writes that Caiaphas prophesies that one man must die for the nation.

So is God in this decision? Does God approve of his decision to sacrifice Jesus? He does not intervene to save Jesus instead the implication is that God inspires Caiaphas to be part of the crucifixion that is to follow? What is going on here?

The whole way of thinking among the Pharisees is so different to the way that Jesus is revealed as thinking. Jesus is focused on the Father - this connection brings an understanding of the train of events that is a contrast to the way in which all the other people think and act. Jesus is not concerned with cost - what will be lost; or risk - what is the safest way through this. The Pharisees feel like they're playing a game of chess, making the moves. Yet everyone, except Jesus, with their well rehearsed worldly attitudes are trapped in their grooves. Jesus is connected to a different track. He understands what is going on around Him and the implications of it but He is has a detachment from the worldly perspectives - clearly he undrstands them as he withdraws until the right time, but hey do not set his direction. Yet all the lines are converging. Everyoneis making different choices but the choices are the result of who they have become and they are all moving unavoidably towards the conclusion of events. 

Daily Prayer 30th March

John 11:28-44 (Click here for text)
The third part of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Tomorrow will deal with the fall out in the local area.

We are given so much curious and insightful details. As in the previous parts of this testimony, Jesus in a very different place to everyone around Him and all the characters seem to move around in isolation.

Martha, following her response of faith to Jesus statement of himself as the resurrection and the life has gone to fetch Mary. Martha feeling that peace that can be present in the midst of loss as a result of knowing that the one lost is safe and will be met again.

Mary, on the other hands, is still to find any peace. She appears cross with Jesus and says the words that Mary and Martha had been rehearsing - 'if you had been here he wouldn't have died'. It has resonances of the search for someone to blame that is often the case in these situations. Today, the accusation is more likely to be channeled in the direction of the medical profession!

The mourners are in their own world too. The follow Mary around and watch Jesus. They get everything wrong. They assume Mary is going out to mourn. They interpret Jesus' intense response as mourning and join in with Mary and Martha's challenge to Him that his authority must be somehow limited one so close was allowed to die.

Jesus, on the other hand, appears to have a totally different emotional track. He is moving in the knowledge that what has happened is going to bring glory to the Father through Him. He knows the end. His response to the weeping and wailing, to the lack of awareness of just how much He is in fact in control of the situation and the continued digs at Him not being there to save Lazarus get him riled. Jesus appears frustrated and angry at the lack of faith and hope in the situation.

So it is in this agitated stated that He orders the stone to be rolled away and in answer to the objections raised brings his own understanding of the situation to light and draws the others into what is really going. He proclaims again his prophetic understanding - God is being gloried her. He provides everyone with a glimpse of the connectedness at work between Him and the Father as He offers thanksgiving for the reality of the miraculous intervention that is happening and he brings the event to fulfilment with His command of "Lazarus come out". He explains that 'he knew' all along that the Father had heard his ongoing prayer.

And the event is completed. The narrative line will move onto 'the Jews' response and the next time we see these people together again will be before Passover and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It seems that Mary has begun to understand as at that point she will be the one who anoints Jesus in preparation for His coming ordeal and death.

All in all it is an emotional roller-coaster getting to know Jesus. It means living most of the time with the realisation that the chances are that we have not got a good grasp on the situation - that our understanding and responses are flawed. It is living with the reality that we are probably frustrating Jesus with our continued spiritual blindness and lack of focus on the Father's will. But it is also living with the certainty that we are moving in the right direction - that we are following the one is the Resurrection and the Life and the life and death should hold no fear for us.

Morning Prayer 27th March

John 11:17-27 (Click here for reading)

This passage is the middle third of a triptych of meaning. Yesterday's reading provides the overall understanding of what is happening - God is revealing his glory in situations filled with loss and doubt. Tomorrow's reading will describe the event. This middle panel provides the temporal context for the sign.

Martha provides this temporal understanding. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And then she adds the future - "the one who is to come". The resurrection of Lazarus is a sign - a sign of the coming judgement. Lazarus - a righteous man - will be raised and judged as such and Jesus is the one to do the judging. This hope of the future resurrection not only applies to that future time but also shapes the present.

Without Jesus, judgement is to be feared. There is a rejection of this concept in our current culture. The idea that we could be judged is almost seen as ridiculous and even unfair. The accusation is thrown back at God that if He is all loving then there is nothing to fear - no matter what. There is the hope that even the darkest deeds - unrepented wickedness, evil without remorse - can be wiped away without recourse to God or His work in Christ. It's almost a right to be forgiven as opposed to a responsibility to live well.

But even a momentary consideration can see the childishness of this attitude. The way a world view and moral framework are being constructed around a self-centredness that even a young child would be ashamed of.

So what is this saying? Are we to live in fear? Are we to tremble before a wrathful and angry God? Well, yes and no. We are to live with an awareness of the precarious nature of our situation and how prone we are to reject any accountability for our actions. And from this position to reject God and live selfish lives. Yet we can see in Jesus the offer of a lifeline as we tread this tightrope. The offer of support and forgiveness in response to a genuine orientation of the self towards God and the certainty that on that Day when our hearts are laid bare - we shall be known in Christ. This is life now and life in the resurrection - before and after the inevitable event of death and the inevitable event of judgement.

It is to this end that Lazarus becomes a tangible sign of the future and Jesus is revealed again as the true once and future King.