Literally it means nothing more than that which is handed on, but for some it has come to mean ‘dead religion’, or ‘praying by rote’. It has in some circles come to exemplify lifeless religion – except properly understood this cannot be so, for what do we have that we did not receive?
Paul here interestingly speaks of tradition in a way with which we might be unfamiliar. We might think of tradition in terms for example of liturgy, or hymnody. Perhaps if we are a little more biblically alert, we might think of it in terms of doctrine. But Paul here has in mind something more profound than this. He speaks of tradition in the light of his way of living. This for most of us is an alien way of considering tradition, and certainly viewed in this light makes it far from ‘a lifeless thing’.
Essentially that which is passed down is a life, the Life of the Risen One. This life is communicated through the laying on of hands, through baptism, through the liturgy of the church, all means which the Spirit uses to impart the Life of Christ.
It is perhaps no surprise that when Paul again commends ‘tradition’ [remember that the letters to the Thessalonians are the earliest of Paul’s letters we have], in 1 Corinthians 11, it is the handing on of the Tradition concerning the Lord’s Supper, the Tradition of the ‘life imparting heavenly manna’.
As we come to the end of Psalm 119, it may indeed feel like a tremendous accomplishment – it has been a long road.
But in the Christian Life we are always beginning and the Psalmist forcibly reminds us of this. In the End we are utterly dependent on the mercy of God, which is good news. The Psalmist does not rejoice in his steafastness, indeed as the prophet Hosea expresses his devotion to God – ‘it is like a morning cloud’. The Psalm ends not on a note of confidence in the righteousness of the one who prays, quite the opposite.
‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments’
The supposedly true story is told of a four year old child when his proud parents bring home his sibling [Richard Rohr : Immortal Diamond Kindle location 505]
The baby was placed in his cot in the nursery and his brother petered his parents saying ‘I want to talk to the baby!’ They assured him he could, but he pressed them saying, ‘No, I want to talk to him now, on my own!’ Well curiosity got the better of the parents, wondering what was going on, they left the boy with his baby brother and listened in at the door, to hear these words, ‘Quick, Tell me where you have come from! Tell me who made you! I am beginning to forget!’ . . .
At the heart of the human story is forgetfulness, we forget to whom we belong. Our story starts off in the garden where who we are is plain to see, but then Shame plays its part, and we hide, and in that hiding is a forgetting – it is as if we want to forget, because the pain of knowing who we are is too great – we are Afraid.
In the Garden, our ancestors we are told, hid because they were afraid. In the direct presence of God his Father, the man says, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid’ So we hide, and the longer we hide, the more we forget why we are hiding – but then occasionally some sharp stab of reminder comes back, some hidden shame and we hide once more.
Easter as I will not tire of saying, comes round every year, and lasts for fifty days. For fifty days every year as the people of God, we are held in the Light of the Risen Christ burning in full glory. Light Pouring forth that we would shield our eyes from, so Brilliant is its intensity. And we want to hide. 50 days is just too much exposure to the light
Over the coming weeks we will hear readings from the book of Acts which hold before us a picture of the church which to our ill formed eyes is impossibly pure and hopelessly idealistic. We dismiss it – we deny the Light. Today we see Saul blinded by the brilliance of Christ, and hear the Risen One ask him why he is persecuting Him, we are confronted again with a seeming impossibility about who we are as the Church, that Christ’s identification with the church is Total! Not why are you persecuting my people, no, Why are you persecuting me. So much of what we do as a church, so much of our carefully contrived theology seeks to deny the one who would love us. ‘Lord, you cannot identify yourself with us’ We want to live with the Shame, it is easier than coming into the Light’. We say ‘we are the body of Christ’ but then try and reduce it to mere words.
From Revelation, a door into the Presence of God is revealed, with the everlasting brilliant worship around the Throne – and most sharply of all, we are confronted with the Risen Christ, who commands us to abandon our doubts, who places upon us what often seems the impossible burden of forgiving others – and who stands before us, when all we want to do is hide.
I wonder. Did that little boy want somehow to go back? Had he come to an age where he had come to realise that all human love was conditional, had he begin to see that the world was full of weeds and thorns and that it was only by toil and the sweat of his brow that he would be required to make a life for himself. Was he seeing how terrible it was to have to make a life for yourself? For indeed it is a literally a terrible thing – and indeed how terrible we seem in our self made lives to the eyes of a child? Realising the lies of the world, Did he want to go back? And like all of us discovering that we live in a world of deceit, discovering there is no way back . . .
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke of the Catastrophe of Easter. For the Resurrection of Christ is the End of the World as we know it – there is no way forward from Easter on our own terms. It is the end of making our Own lives as the life of the Risen one is all that is on offer and to our sin blind eyes it is intolerably bright. Having seen the sun in full glory, the temptation is to follow our ancestors and hide, to try and go back . . . back to that safe place that existed before Jesus was raised, before God’s New Creation came crashing into our consciousness
and so it is hardly any surprise that just two weeks later where do we find the disciples? they have gone back to their fishing. They have gone back to the easy certainties, a life where they can call the shots, where their skills as fishermen at least have a chance of securing them against a world of weeds and thorns – a refusal to accept the life that Christ offers them Now!
Perhaps as we are So wont to do, they too have reduced the Resurrection to a story about what happens to us after the death of our bodies. Perhaps they are starting to say, ‘well Jesus is Risen, that’s wonderful, we don’t need to fear death anymore – we can go back to our lives in the secure hope that after death we will go to be with him’. Brothers and Sisters, I want to gently, but firmly suggest that to reduce the Resurrection to a story, even a true story about ‘what happens when we die’ is the very work of the Devil. In fact it is no less than to put Christ back in the tomb. It is to behave as if nothing has changed, when the message of the Resurrection is Catastrophic, Hell is harrowed, Death is defeated, Angels are rejoicing. . . there is no going back, there is no back to go back to 🙂
But the disciples have tried – like a child trying to enter the womb a second time, to steal Nicodemus’ words – they have tried to go back to the false securities of the world they know. For the Life that Christ offers is too bright, too much, we cannot control it, it is out of our experience, it is beyond our hopes.
And Peter epitomises this – For Peter the Resurrection of Jesus has not broken into the reality of his everyday life – it has not yet called him forth into the full glare of the Light of the Resurrection. He has not yet been born again – he has not come blinking into the New Creation that the Resurrection of Jesus has announced. He is Not yet crying out Christ is risen, Alleluia, for him the Resurrection is catastrophic. It is Bad News. The Risen one is pursuing him, the Hound of Love, the Hound of heaven, and Peter wants to flee!! He’s still hiding, he’d prefer to live in amnesia.
John’s gospel is The gospel of the Resurrection – The New Creation that Christ Is is its theme, It is only John who speaks of the Cross in terms of Glory – for it is only the Resurrection which declares it to be such. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of, Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame. The Cross was the Great instrument of Shame – a Curse in the eyes of Pious Jews, Foolishness to the ‘Wise’ Greeks, and deliberate tortuous humiliation to the Romans rulers. Shame is writ large, Yet John speaks of it in terms of the Glory of God. Jesus takes our Shame. And Peter’s. Peter is Deeply ashamed, as were our first parents.
Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” Of course they haven’t – the Living One has already declared that now they will fish for men – their old life cannot be returned to. There is no going back
He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” This has happened before – Luke records the incident and Peter’s response – ‘Get away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man’ John writes – When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. Nothing has changed for Peter – perhaps he too hopes for heaven, but that hope hangs by the thinnest of threads, a thread which breaks the moment he realises the Risen One confronts him – he sees the Risen JEsus and all hope is Lost – for he does not yet understand. He does not believe that the Resurrection announces the Vindication of Christ’s work upon the Cross, that death and Hell, and Sin and Shame have been vanquished. he has not yet been born afresh into this new reality. He is still hiding with Adam and Eve – ‘I saw you on the shore, and I was afraid, because I was naked’ . . . but this is the New Creation, this is Not a second crack at the Old Story – rather this is what God has purposed all along – To Love the World from before the beginning of Time, as he has Loved the Son, since before the Creation of the World. Christ is Risen and now the relentless pursuer is Free in the World . . . steadily with unhurried pace . . . God is coming after us
In the Old story, Peter fails – he denies Jesus – thus he is condemned to a life of fishing and a vague hope that their might be something to come after it all, but not much hope given what he has done . . . Peter is You and I before we awaken to the Resurrection. Before we believe and are Saved. This is the story that is so well known, so familiar – we fail and we are ashamed and if we are caught, we are punished, and we say desevedly so – and indeed there is a distortion of the gospel which makes much of this old story . . . but another time
But What is our perception this morning? Not particularly as individuals, but as the Church? Peter is a cipher for the Church. What is the story which guides our common life? What are we doing here? Do we think about the future of the church in the light of the resurrection, or do we think about the future of the church as if the old story still holds sway? Will it all fail and die unless we do something? We need to find a way to make it better? Is there any hope? or have we awoken to the Reality of the Resurrection. After all, if the Lord can raise up stones to praise him, think what he might do with five people in a rural church? And here? What story do we live out of? Is this story about religion and ‘life after death’ or do we believe and wake up from that lie of the devil to be what in truth we are ‘The Community of the Risen One’. Of course that is so very hard. The comfort of the womb, the pleasures of Egypt, the golden days of the church, whatever and whenever they were . . . all death narratives. It’s easier to go back and hope for heaven, than to embrace the New Life of the Risen One and go where we are led – but listen to his voice . . .
Do you Love me?’ Do you Love me? Do you Love me? Peter has denied Jesus – he has said ‘Even if Everyone else goes, I will never abandon you’ He has shouted from the rooftops, ‘I Love him more than all the others!!’. He is utterly self deceived. He has denied Life – not once, not twice, but Three times. He has utterly nailed the door of Life shut . . . and the Risen One calmly steps through the walls of Peter’s shame . . . hear the words of St Paul – ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.’ There is No condemnation . . . Neither do I condemn thee . . . Simon, Son of John? . . . Look at me . . . I cannot . . . Simon, Son of John . . . do you love me more than these? “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. No Condemnation, no demand for better behaviour, no demotion – Feed my sheep – I will still build my church on this rock, No condemnation . . . this is otherworldly – it is God’s New Order. We can barely believe such radical liberation – No Shame, No guilt, No trying to get it right – Just Love.
Finally, Jesus calls them on. The disciples have tried to go back, but their nets are empty, only The Risen One now gives life – as Chris reminded us last week, The Risen One holds the keys – Only the Risen One empowers the mission of the church to fish for men and women. Peter and the Disciples are called to follow Jesus once more – he leads them away from their boats, finally the nets are abandoned for Good. ‘I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And in Peter’s case to the fulness of Identification with the One who utterly identifies himself with the church. Peter like Jesus will die a death of Glory. Peter is a cipher for the church – the body of people who in dying to the Old Story are born again to the New Life of the Resurrection and so Glorify God
“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And all God’s people said, “Amen!”
The law of tithing is a thorny issue at best. As more than one observer has noted, it provides an easy out for the wealthy who can easily afford it . . . (cf the story of the pharisee and the publican) – yet at the same time it is a remedy for our refusal to live as God’s children, that we are called to live in imitation of him who doesn’t hold back at 10%.
As we read these verses from Deuteronomy “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,” note the reason given for the tithe . . . So that various people who have no land on which to grow their own food, those excluded from the means of production of that which our bodies need for life, those who cannot have bread – have bread.
The Law of the Tithe is not given as a means of righteousness, it is given as a guard against our ungodliness, as indeed is all Law. Thus there is Nothing to be gained by the one who keeps the Law, for all the law does is ensure that the person and those around them live at the bare level of decency and do no further damage to the Imago Dei, than their otherwise self-centered lives do, demeaning the name of the one in whose image they are made.
We are called to meet the needs of the needy – this is the new Commandment, the Law of Love. Still, sadly to this day there are too many of us, all of us to a degree, who see ‘love’ as affection, rather than action. The True contemplative does not live a life in what one writer calls, ‘The desert of nonparticipation’ Life is only known in relationship – Life is Love. And Love Acts – Love takes on flesh – Love gives to the needy, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked – actually This now in the light of Christ is that bare level of human decency (Luke 3:11), apart from the gift of the Spirit. This is Basic humanity. It is only the beginning of the life of discipleship – in a sense it is no more than the law of the tithe . . .(Matt 19:21)
‘Therefore, when we could stand it no longer . . .’
In the last verses of yesterday’s reading from Thessalonians, we heard of Paul’s profound love for his new brothers and sisters.
Just take a moment to consider this.
Then he carries on with the words at the top of this post. Now remember, Paul’s relationship to these believers is at best sketchy – they don’t go back years and years, he has no blood tie – his only bond with them is that they are his fellow Christians. Yet he speaks of his affection and his desire to be with them in terms which frankly few of us use outside of profound romantic attatchments, or as parents to children.
Perhaps in this latter there is an echo of what is going on, for Paul has ‘parented’ these Christians. But I think in these words there is a HUGE challenge to us in terms of our Devotion to one another as borthers and sisters in the LORD.
Is this how we relate to those people with whom we worship Sunday by Sunday? Put another way, do we truly recognise Christ in one another.
Our devotion to Him is only in truth as deep as our devotion to one another . . . and vice versa.
Twice in these opening chapters of the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks of the imitation of these Christians of the way of life of the Apostles as the confirmation of their election. This Imitation is no mere copying though, throughout it is tied to their reception of the Holy Spirit. The word is not merely received, i.e. agreed to, no it comes with the Spirit and power that lives are transformed.
This aspect of conversion is more and more neglected in an age where faith is a matter of believing certain facts. A Sign of our elcetion, that the Gospel has gone home is that our lives are transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ, and that change brings with it persecution. Christian Life is not socially acceptable, for it calls the world to something New – to change.
The further emphasis on the word as being more than a message to be ‘believed’ is found as St Paul speaks of the ministry of himself and his companions amongst those at Thessalonica. He begins (2:1-7) by saying that they have spoken in such a way not as to win approval from men, as in the same way he speaks of bringing the gospel to Corinth. The words are not cover for something else, there is no flattery, no pretext for greed. The Apostles do not seek anything for themselves through the ministry. We might, were we to stop half way through verse 7, imagine Paul go on to say that they proclaimed the truthful word. We might imagine how we are commended to Truthfully proclaim the word, in and out of season – but at this point Paul changes the reminder of their mission to the words – ‘we were gentle’ amongst you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very selves . . .’
Paul’s model for evangelism is not ‘pure proclamation’, but the vulnerable an gentle sharing of lives. A model I suspect we have largely forgotten in the years since this the earliest account of Christian witness was written.
To turn for a moment to the writing in Deuteronomy – we find ‘limitation’ written into many aspects of the law. In particular this is expressed in 19:15 where there is a prohibition on moving boundary stones. This is rooted in the deep apprehension that the land is The Lord’s – it is gift and not for others to acquire. The Royal Law of Jubilee, which Christ comes to enact (Luke 4:19), is primarily concerned with allowing all to live the life they have been given, rather than allowing some to take life from others, to accumulate – which is always the outflow of Greed. Indeed anyone who enlarges his own land at the expense of another is under Curse (Deut 27:17). This of course is contrary to the spirit of this and any other age, for the Prince of this world holds sway over so many – the same one who in the beginning spoke to our ancestors calling them to live beyond their creatureliness. ‘You shall be like God’.
The parallel between this temptation and that of acquiring land and wealth at the expense of others is striking. The Earth is the Lord’s – it is not ours to acquire, and yet our eyes are so easily captivated. Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Our limitedness is for the sake of others – it extends to every realm of life. Something which we are slow to learn. It is only those who have accepted this limitation who discover unlimited life, life eternal. Those who realise that life is not something they secure for themselves, through effort and hard work, it is not ‘their just deserts’ – rather it is gracious gift. And it is The Lord who has fixed your neighbour’s boundary marker, allotting to them also the place where in limitation, unlimited Life is discovered.
This limitedness we also read extends even to the King. Thus the Terrible transgression of Ahab and Jezebel, over Naboth’s vineyard, a story we see replayed over and over in the world today as the powerful move the ancient boundary markers, or as in the case of David, the roving eye sees a person whom he may acquire. All are limited, that all might till their own soil and therein find Life.
‘See to it that no-one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit . . .’
How easy it is to be taken captive. Of course this is not a frontal assault. This is not as if someone has stormed into our house and taken us all hostage. No, such captivity is ‘welcomed’ – we are ‘captivated’, entranced is a good word. Ideas, images, take hold of our thinking. We who were just a few verses ago seemingly captivated by the one who ransoms us, who liberates us, are now pondering those things which are upon the earth. We find ourselves caught up in controversy, a mass of words and thoughts which draw us in and then we find that they do not give us life.
There is so much in the world that so captivates us – it is all too easy. There is but one remedy, to through patient meditation root our minds in the Truth that is The Living One. To be alert to our souls anchor in Christ. As Jesus says, Abide in me, as I Abide in you. To dwell in Christ, to be at home in him, to know ourselves aas at home in him as he is in us reveals the falsity of those gleaming things which so tempt us away from the Hearth of God’s hospitality, as was the Prodigal, as were all the lost sheep.
There is but one problem, that he comes to us in ‘distressing disguise’ – so trained are our minds that we mistake the passing glory of the world for the Eternal Glory of Christ. Once more we are called to meditate upon Christ and him Crucified – there is nothing ‘captivating’, or entrancing there. Nothing to delight our passions and desires, just the pure appeal of Love. There is nothing in Him for our senses, just His presence as Gift.
The Christian walk is a long apprenticeship in learning the truth that Christ Crucified has become for us Wisdom from God, to become true philosophers, that is ‘Lovers of Wisdom’, The Wisdom present through all eternity. All else has been nailed to that Cross.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians is one of those texts, somewhat like John’s gospel, into which one almost fears to leap for fear the waters may be too deep. As with his letter to the Ephesians, phrase upon phrase upon phrase pour forth as if the vastness of his subject matter has taken him into a writing ecstasy.
As I have noted in the notes to this scheme – whilst there is a lower purpose of reading the scriptures through in a year, there is a greater goal, indeed a Unique goal. It is not right to say that this goal is greater, for it is not possible to compare it. And that is the goal of Koinonia, ‘Deep Fellowship’ with God in Christ himself. [For a far better exposition of how to read Scripture, Fr Stephen Freeman addresses it in depth HERE]
The Word of God is Sacramental. This nature is only fully apprehended as Scripture becomes not mere food for the mind, but the vehicle by which the Life of God, who fills everything in every way, fills and transforms us – lifting up to the heavenly places, to the fullness of life in Christ.
Thus as we read these verses, our goal is not primarily to get to the end, but to encounter the One who is The End, the goal of all creation. Thus our direction of travel through the text must be captured and taken hold of that we fall into the one who is present to us through the text.
Each verse of this opening chapter holds open a door into that life if we will but pause a while, but I would take a moment to focus on one verse, that is its heart, verse 27. The heart of it all, the Life bearing Seed, Christ in you.
there is nothing more guaranteed to release us from a religion of performance into the dance of faith than the deep apprehension of the life of God within us. It is the return to our Source. The Life we had at the first. The life which is eternal. It cannot be grasped, it cannot be attained for it just Is. Pure Gift. Glory. Grace.
the elves are heading west 