The Unlikely Evangelist - lectionary_reflections

Humanity V's Religion

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:30:00 +0100

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 21 Year C
Luke Chapter 13 verses 10 - 17
Isaiah Chapter 58 verses 9b - 14
Hebrews Chap 12 verses 18 - 29
Psalm 103 verses 1 - 8

Here's a very brief explanation of all four of this weeks lectionary readings, based on reflections from our Bible Study group at Heald Green. Simple, but I hope you may find it helpful.

- The Psalm says, God is a God of justice for all ... [so how do you think we should behave?]

so if we want some examples ...

- Luke says, don't treat people badly and use your religious traditions as an excuse!

- Hebrews says, God was previously seen as distant and scary, but through Jesus we now see God as a bit more touchy feely and human! Therefore, follow Jesus and you won't go far wrong.

and so we don't think God being nice is just a New Testament thing,

- Isaiah says, there just isn't a conflict here, showing humanity to others IS following our religious traditions!

Loads of big stuff here and other strong themes as well, most noticeably in Luke about the role and status of women in our religious traditions.

However, in a blog about evangelism and emerging church I simply want to ask, if we are in the business of helping people have a healthy relationship with God and each other, which of our religious practices are we not willing to either reject, reform, refresh or reveal in a new way, in order for our shared faith journey to be more relevant to peoples lives. [5 re-words in one sentence, that's possibly a record even for me!]

As ever, our task is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind AND love (or even BY loving?) everybody else!

I feel some more re-words coming on, Reimagening, Responding, Reconnecting, Relationships ... maybe I'm onto an idea here ... watch this space! [This means I need to work out how to do a link to a PowerPoint from my Blog!]

Bye for now
The Unlikely Evangelist

A Conflict Within?

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:30:00 +0100

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 20 Year C
Luke Chapter 12 verses 49 - 56
Hebrews Ch 11 v 29, Ch 2 v 2

A few thoughts

- Jesus just wasn't the type of Messiah people were expecting and waiting for, not a warrior king, but 'the prince of peace'.

- Yet although his message was of justice and peace, it was inevitable that this message would bring conflict, especially if Jesus and his followers grew, and began to put his message into practice.

- Not only because those who chose the Jesus way in later years would be leaving their own Jewish tradition, and therefore bringing division to family units, but simply because those with power and status in the world as it is would believe that they have much to loose in a world of justice and peace. Jesus didn't set out to bring conflict, it was just inevitable if he was truly committed to his message and its implementation.

- Therefore, perhaps a lesson for our often 'conflict shy' churches, is that yes, Christians are to love each other and believe in justice and peace, but we need to be 'as wise as serpents' and not just 'as gentle as doves'! [Matt 10 v16] As the Prayers of Intercession say in Worship: from the United Reformed Church;

God, Maker and Lover of all,
we know that your way is not always easy;
that peace is not given lightly,
that sometimes justice comes only through struggle. p 93

Jesus is clear, he is a peace maker, not a peace keeper!

The world we live in is as troubled as it ever was, and we still pray each week for the earth to be as it is in heaven. But with that prayer comes hard work and with that hard work comes struggle. But once we have heard the call of God and the message of Jesus, how can we not be changed and how can we fail to respond?

Which causes me to reflect, in our society when most are indifferent to the church, maybe the conflict of choosing the Jesus way is not so much between families, (though I am aware of difficulties within our churches where often the male partner in a couple doesn't attend, or the 'guilt' many members feel that their children no longer attend as adults) and maybe the division is not only between those who campaign for justice and those who enjoy the status quo, (though work in this area is a major part of what it is to be church) and maybe the division is not even disagreements within the church at this time, (though they are making the headlines and the URC has had its divisions in the not too distant past). Maybe, the first conflict and division is not between us at all, but within us. The choice we each face when we hear the call of God and try to respond to the message of Jesus. Are we prepared to follow, even on the way to the cross, a way of struggle and conflict, to bring about a world of Justice and Peace!

Sermon Notes - A Vision4Life no. 1

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:30:00 +0100

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 19 Year C
Genesis Chapter 15 verses 1 - 6
Hebrews Chap 11 verses 1 - 3, 8 - 16

Introduction

•Eating beef burgers in the rain will help build the Kingdom of God! (Reference to our church BBQ after the service, raising money for Committment for Life)

Point ONE: Hebrews

•The first Christians in the book of Hebrews had a Vision4Life
•They believed, like we may do, that their world was in a bit of a mess
•But they also believed, through faith, that one day, and one day soon, Jesus would return, and the world would be transformed,
•they believed in the Hebrew prophesies of old,
othat deserts would spring to life,
othat the lion would lie with the lamb,
othat poverty and hunger would be things of the past,
othat war and disease and death and dying would be no more
•They believed that one day, and one day soon, Jesus would return and the whole world would be at peace
•And the earth would be as it is in heaven!

The trouble was, they were wrong!

•Jesus didn’t return in their lifetime
•and the idea that he would, led some to indifference, why do we need to bother toiling when Jesus is soon to return and fix everything!

Their faith had lead to apathy and paralysis, not love and action. Things had gone terribly wrong.

Point TWO: Genesis

•Abraham had a Vision4Life, or rather God did, but Abraham had trouble seeing it.
•Years earlier, God had said to Sarah and Abraham, despite your advancing years, you are to have a child,
•Despite this seeming impossibility, your children will be the start of a great nation, who will be my people
•Yet later, here Abraham was again, trying to keep faith, but asking God, where are all these descendants you promised?
•Even older now, God’s plan seemed even more ridiculous
•But God said, look to the stars in the sky and count them … if you can count them all! Your descendants will be just as many!
•Abraham couldn’t see it, maybe didn’t even believe it, but he did have faith!

Point THREE: Faith

So let me try and explain this faith business as I see it! The Bible is a book of stories, of people like Abraham and Sarah, people like 'the Hebrews', … people like you and me, struggling with our faith, trying to trust in God’s promises, however unlikely they seem.

The trouble is, they seem to seem even more unlikely to us today, we’re much more sophisticated than the people of Biblical times, … at least we like to think we are! And we live in a world of science and reason, logic and knowledge, the spectacular and supernatural promises of the Bible, just don’t make sense to us anymore.

Yet, to take these stories literally, is perhaps to miss the point.

"Faith," doesn't mean intellectually agreeing with an idea, it means something more like "trust". Faith is not about what we usually call "belief" so much as it's about relationship.

Having faith is not about trying to convince yourself that you are convinced of something. As I’ve said before, sometimes we treat the Bible like it’s that book we know were supposed to believe, but if we are honest we struggle.

Knowing the bible, is not about belief, it’s about a deeper relationship with God.

Point FOUR: So What!

Today the world may be a bit different, but the struggles are just the same. AND SO ARE GODS PROMISES!

We long to see a world of justice and peace, and pray that the world is just like heaven, and we long to see a church thriving again, but don’t quite believe God’s promise.

And like the Hebrews, maybe we sometimes think it would be great if God were to come down and fix everything!

But maybe they learnt that is not what the promise was, Jesus won’t come again to fix it all, but it will be as if he is returned when WE have fixed it all and the whole world lives as Jesus did.

And it may not be done in our timescale, even in our lifetime, but we too have a story of faith to give us hope, that when Jesus realm is on earth as in heaven, that those that have gone before will share in God’s glory. And the deserts will spring to life, the lion will lie with the lamb, poverty and hunger will be things of the past, war and disease and death and dying will be no more, the whole world will be at peace and the earth will be as it is in heaven.

Conclusion

My journey, God says, it with a people of faith, and you know you've got faith when, you find yourself engaged in activities which the world says are hopeless and a waste of time, and when however your heart pounds as you do it and whatever fears you have, you take the next step forward into the desert.

When you work tirelessly for justice and peace, buying Fairtrade, telling others about it, using our shopping bags.

When we send money to Bangladesh, as much as we can spare, to give to people of another faith, who need our help. Knowing that it will be a drop in the ocean.

And when we gather with friends, with huge smiles on our faces, to eat beef burgers in the rain, to witness to the world to God’s glory, that’s when you’ll know you have faith and belief and a Vison4Life!

Living Prayer

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:50:00 +0100

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 17 Year C
Luke Chapter 12 verses

In my last post, 'Vision4Life - a first reflection' I comment that of the three themes of Vision4Life, Prayer is the area where I am least confident or comfortable. So imagine my delight when I discovered that this weeks lectionary seemed to be all about prayer. However, as usual, spending time searching the scriptures with others, produced some simple, surprising and helpful results.

The Lord's Prayer

An examination from the Gospel reading of what we most commonly call 'The Lord's Prayer' led us into a wider discussion about how we pray in worship. Being a good Reformed worship leader, schooled in the 'Hymn Sandwich' model of Sunday worship, I do follow the prayer structure of ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) in both our Family Friendly and Traditional Worship services each Sunday, which will be common in very many churches. I was a little surprised therefore in this weeks Bible Study groups, that only those who lead worship themselves were familiar with this model, (and even more surprised that only one knew something of the reasons for this order). Most only had a vague idea of the order and that the last prayer in a service is always praying for others, but that was about it.

But non of this is the important bit! The important bit was, how helpful people found it all when the reason for the order was simply explained, using different words.

WOW! Sorry, Thank-you, Please

- When we meet together in worship, in the presence of God, how can our first response not simply be WOW!

- Once we've said WOW, recognising our own faults in God's presence, we are compelled to say Sorry.

- Having said Sorry, and received God's forgiveness and grace, the natural response is to say Thank-you.

- Then having acknowledged God's grace to us, how can we not pray for the same salvation for others?

I'm sure this won't be new to many of those reading this, and I'm sure many will have more accurate and technical explanations for the order of how we pray in public worship, but I just post this to highlight how helpful people found it. It seems to some extent how we pray in worship had become a lifeless formality, this simple explanation has for some, restored it as a living tradition again, one which gives expression and meaning to our way of worship, and one which can be simply shared with others.

Personal Reflection

I still recognise in myself that in preparing worship, the Sermon and hymns, for me, are always of much greater importance. (That is if the time I spend on crafting a sermon or selecting suitable hymns as compared with grabbing 'Roots' or the Worship Book to find a prayer that fits, is any indication). But maybe it's OK, good even, to use the talents of those more skilled than I in writing prayers for public worship, I just need to spend a little more time and care in the choosing!

Ask, Seek, Knock.

The lectionary reading concludes with Jesus talking about Ask, Seek, Knock. Again very familiar words, but something struck me for the first time. As this is a passage about how to pray, ask, seek, knock is saying something quite different, that prayer is active on the part of the one praying, not just God. It's not a case of asking God and sitting back for the answer, searching for the answer is our next prayer act. But neither does it end there, the searching needs to result in knocking on a few doors, trying a few handles and pressing the bell.

For me this has been very helpful in understanding my own prayer life, or as some would see it, lack of one. I've never been one for sitting down and thinking, "right I'm going to pray now". (Though I do occasionally). I've always regarded prayer as space to think, and I create this space for myself in lots of different ways all the time. Sitting and praying has never been enough, if not accompanied by active searching and experimenting with new ideas and potential solutions.

The challenge for our local church is then, is how do we break the practice in many of our churches of Prayer Meetings/Circles being little more than a sharing of pastoral news/gossip/list of ill people?

For me, it's not so much about a 'Prayer Life' but 'A Life of Prayer', constantly living, asking, searching, exploring with God and others, for the answers to life's questions.

This is the Vision4Life for us all to pray, search and strive for.

Mike
The Unlikely Evangelist

Thatcher, Attlee and the Good Samaritan

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:45:00 +0100

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Ordinary 15 Year C
Luke Chapter 10 verses 25 - 37

The best alternative use I ever heard about the Good Samaritan story was from my old supervisor John Atherton, former Canon Theologian at Manchester Cathedral. He told the story of society needing to make the 'roads of society' flat, a just and safe place for all to live freely, with nowhere for 'robbers' to hide. Also for society to ensure those likely to turn to crime are in employment with a decent wage. If there is no opportunity for crime and no need for crime, then we can remove it from our society and 'make earth as it is in heaven'.

The point of the story isn't therefore; if bad luck befalls you, let’s hope you're then lucky enough for a kind person to walk past (eventually). The point is what kind of society knows things like these are happening and does nothing to remedy the cause?

Therefore, the next stage is, for the occasions when preventative measures do not work and people are 'mugged', as a society we need systems whereby someone can be assured of an ambulance, hospital care, recovery time and sick pay or unemployment benefit. Not a kind individual who may or may no pass that way.

The Good Samaritan story is a call to the whole of society, not individuals, to ensure a fair and free society with little crime, high employment, decent pay, and a strong welfare state where health care is free at the point of provision and people who need it get a hand up, till they can contribute again.

Powerful stuff! Clement Attlee couldn't have put it better!

Political, YES, better than Thatcher’s use of this story, YES, worth a risk on Sunday ... ?
I'll leave you to decide. Hope you find it as helpful as I did, thanks John.

Mike
The Unlikley Evangelist

It's the end of the world ... as we know it ...

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:05:00 +0000

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Advent 1 Year C
Jeremiah Chap. 33 verses 14-16
Luke Chapter 21 verses 25 - 36

... but I feel fine!

Prophesy, is not prediction, but a reading of the signs of the times. Therefore, warnings from the prophets are not clairvoyant glimpses of the future, but a foretelling of what will certainly befall us if we continue on our self destructive path apart from God. Similarly, the prophesies concerning the coming Messiah are a foretelling of a better future with God, NOT that the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth was predicted with a place, date and time. Simply that the prophets were sure, reading all the signs from their experience and knowledge of a life with God, that 'The Day of the Lord' (Kairos time), one day will surely come. In other words, we can say for us 'Jesus fulfils the prophesy', but we can't say 'Prophesy predicted Jesus'! Perhaps it's helpful to be reminded at Advent of this, that the Jewish Scriptures do not predict Jesus, not even the passages about young virgin's or new David's!

However, this is not the week to get into the historicity of the birth narratives, (as our Bible Study did on Monday), I'm sure we will have plenty of opportunity over the next few weeks.

So from Jeremiah to the Luke passage in hand.

Remembering all we have said about prophesy, this is not a passage that predicts the end of the world in terms of troubling events signalling the destruction of the planet. The troubles are signs, signs of the times, all times! Trouble is normal, that's the world we live in as we have always known it and will always know it until 'the Day of the Lord'. The signs of the end of the world, the ushering in of God's Kingdom/Authority (see last week) will in contrast be justice, peace, love of God and neighbour. The 'End of the world' in Biblical terms is the coming of 'The day of the Lord', the coming of the 'Kingdom/Authority of God', not the end/destruction of the planet and all life on it, but the ushering in of God’s purposes for us all. For Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it.

So in times of trouble, (therefore, at all times), those who see the world differently through the lens of the Jesus event should be sticking their head up and speaking of God's new world, not stooping down and colluding with this world. For when we see this world as we have always known it next to the world as we see it through Jesus (the one 'like a Son of Man'), we cannot help but see the contrast, and see that our salvation is therefore in Christ.

At Bible Study I was asked 'what's the difference between 'Son of God' and 'Son of Man''? So here's an insight I offer. For some time now I have understood these two phrases as Jewish not Christian in origin. 'Son of God' meaning someone in a right relationship with God, so therefore not a term exclusive to Jesus. Jesus himself in the Gospels says 'Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called Sons/Children of God'. However, this 'adoption' of the righteous as 'God's Children' many will believe was more perfectly manifest in the life of Jesus, therefore THE rather than A 'Son of God' may still be appropriate use of the phrase for Jesus.

The term 'Son of Man' has been less clear to me until this week. For a while I have been aware of a more literal translation as simply 'Human Being', Man as in the exclusive Mankind. Therefore, if 'Son of God' means in right relationship with God, does 'Son of Man' similarly mean right relationship with other people? I have no evidence other than my own conclusions, but it's a concept I've found helpful. Therefore Jesus as both THE 'Son of God' and THE 'Son of Man' is the one who reveals what it is to live a life which fully loves God and neighbour. A life which is both fully human AND fully divine!

Heresy? Maybe? But don't the creeds say something about Jesus being BOTH fully human and divine?!

Seek ye first ...

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:40:00 +0000

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Pentecost 25 Year B
John Chapter 18 verses 33 - 37

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God ... but before you do that, seek ye the meaning of the word Kingdom, before we can get anywhere with this weeks Gospel passage!

In non-Biblical contexts (i.e. in the world of Fairy Tales or the UK) the word Kingdom is commonly understood as describing the territory of a monarch, the land or area under their control. As such, when we read about the 'Kingdom of God' in the scriptures, we perhaps understand the image to be something like seeing the world in some way more under God's control, the world becoming 'God's territory' again. Or, more worryingly, the Kingdom of God being a place separate from this world/life, a place to strive for rendering this world/life of lesser importance'.

However, the original meaning of the word Kingdom, is more akin to the concept of Authority, (Oxford Dictionary - Kingly function, authority, or power; sovereignty, kingship), and it is this understanding which the Biblical world is working with.

Suddenly, this confusing Good Friday passage, appearing abruptly the week before Advent, opens up in a whole new way.

Until the discovery of Kingdom meaning Authority this passage gives us considerable trouble. Our study groups exploration of John 3:16 - 17 earlier in the year, had concluded with an understanding that John was not indeed the 'weird' 'spiritual' or 'other worldly' Gospel, but one centrally rooted in an understanding of God's saving relationship with this world/life. (Jesus did not come to condemn the world and save us from it, but to save the world, THIS world! How then could Jesus be saying here, 'My Kingdom/territory is not of this world?

Well, substitute Kingdom with Authority (some commentators translate Kingship) and problem solved! Jesus is saying my Authority is not from this world, if it were, then I would be like all the other rebels you have put to death. But as it is, Rome (in John's account) has nothing to fear from me (Jesus), my authority is not from this world. (This is a religious quarrel with 'The Jews' and they are trying to trick you into doing their dirty work!)

However, when I say nothing to fear, I of course mean everything to fear, but Jesus words here are too subtle for Pilate. If Jesus authority is from God, then that is a direct challenge to the authority and earthly kingdom of the Emperor!

So this unlikely figure of Jesus, who Pilate has to ask (to confirm he's speaking to the accused), 'Are YOU the King of the Jews?' is in truth a 'King of kings' whose authority is from God and therefore he is the one in complete control of this scene. (Not 'The Jews' or Pilate/Rome) It is he who has God's authority, it is he who will be raised up, not condemned on a cross. It is he who came into this world to testify to the truth, the truth revealed in part through our understanding of the word Kingdom. That God is not seeking 'control' of the earth, nor is God in control of an 'other worldly' territory separate from this world. But as revealed through Jesus, God is Dynamic, Alive and Active in the act of saving this world/life! The God who is, was and always will be incarnate in creation, best revealed (to us) through Jesus.

If this passage indeed concludes with a clue to God being incarnate in the world as well as incarnate in Jesus, (a panentheistic model) that perhaps it's not so strange after all to have this passage at the end of the Lectionary year, before we begin the story again at Advent!

Not One Stone ...

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 19:55:00 +0000

Lectionary Reflections
Week: Pentecost 24 Year B
Mark Chapter 13 verses 1 - 8

A puzzling text this week which initially offered little to our Bible Study groups' other than the argument over when Mark was written in relation to the destruction of the temple, and what the significance of the destruction of the temple would have been to the Jewish world of the time.

However, a train of thought that in the light of Jesus encounters with all the great and the good of the temple in the previous couple of chapters, lead us to believe in this story Mark's Jesus is talking metaphorically about the 'Blocks' which build the corrupt temple system. That being so, the temple system had already been pulled down, 'stone by stone' by Jesus devastating arguments with the authorities.

Is it then with a sense of irony that Mark tells us in Jesus trial scene with the Jewish authorities that he is accused of saying he will tear down the physical stone temple and build it up again in three days? Is it for this false claim that Jesus is killed? So while the religious elite are preoccupied with preserving their temple, they miss the point that (from Chapter 13 on), the temple is already destroyed, that is, it no longer has any credibility or hold over the people.

Not One Stone ...

Similarly in Britain today many of the 'Religious Elite' that is the minority that still attend a church are often equally preoccupied with preservation of buildings, even ruins! Yet at the same time failing to see that much if not all of what once was church is crumbling much more dramatically. The church in Britain has been dismantled stone by stone by a devastating attack on its at best irrelevant at worse corrupt practices. The church as we have known it is all but gone, to be preoccupied with preservation of buildings is a distraction, let English Heritage, The National Trust or private developers save the beautiful ones for people to enjoy, but cut them off from draining the resources of the church as the temple did to the people in Jesus day.

The 'Emerging Church' movement is rebuilding the church for a new generation of believers, in parallel, but not in competition with the existing church, indeed many 'mainstream' churches are also involved in innovative new expressions of church and worship. So as the church as we have know it in our lifetimes thus far continues to crumble, let us strive to build a new church before not one stone is left upon another!

Lectionary Reflections

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:30:00 +0000

Maybe it's a strange time to start a section of this blog which will be a reflection on one or more of the weeks Lectionary passages, as this is the last week of Mark's Gospel, preceding a one week excursion to John, before the Advent switchover to Luke. However, it is chance not only to give my beloved Mark a fitting send off, until we journey together again in two years time, but simply a chance to offer reflections from the weekly Bible Study groups I attend, (which are this week pertinent to one of the themes of this blog, namely 'the Emerging Church'). So this 'Lectionary Reflections' feature may not be a weekly event, nor a detailed exploration of the passage (for that Disclosing New Worlds is a MUST visit), but simply an occasional offering when appropriate. However, I do hope it will always appear by Wednesday, to allow time for any preachers out there to ponder our groups offerings.

So be sure to look under 'Lectionary Reflections' for future offerings.

The Unlikely Evangelist