Author: theelvesareheadingwest

Sermon for Epiphany 3 – 2016

Nehemiah 8:1-10
1 Corinthians 12: 12-31
Luke 4:14-21

‘Only connect . . .’

Well the past days have seen the church in a degree of turmoil over the issue of the day . . . the date of Easter. And I for one am glad that at last the churches of the west are getting their act together over this – after all it is SO annoying and disruptive the way the date keeps changing – every year we’re thrown into chaos as we panic about the date of Easter – especially in a year like this when it is so early which means we’re only just off our summer holidays and Ash Wednesday is nearly upon us – February 10 if you were wondering – how will we get everything in good order by then!!!! . . . Well as my son continually has to remind me ‘Dad, you know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit . . .’ . . . but, then, we all have to start somewhere . . . 🙂

Actually I must admit to a degree of agreement with our Orthodox brothers and sisters in this regard  – who understand it as I believe it is, another example of the capitulation of the western church to the spirit of modernity (whilst having the decidedly un-modern humility to acknowledge that even if they thought it were a good idea to fix the date, there is no way they could agree amongst themselves 🙂 ) The ability to laugh loud and long at oneself is surely a sign of the Kingdom of God 🙂 And perhaps the greatest sign of the sin which Modernity drags us into is that of taking ourselves way too seriously. I remember some years ago when I got myself into a terrible mess, speaking to my brother about how I was dealing with it – and he stopped me, saying, hang on, You got yourself in the mess, what makes you think that you can get yourself out of it . . . and thanks be to God, I laughed 🙂 But modernity which is the ‘death of God ‘ culture writ large is all about humans ‘building a better world’ . . . Please. Give me a break 🙂

During this season of Epiphany, we have come back again and again to the ‘Modern’ perspective on reality – where ‘this is this’ and ‘that is that’ and there is no sharing in existence – AND the sacramental understanding, which understands that everything is somehow bound together, and shares in existence. That at a personal level, my life has no meaning apart from others – ‘no man is an island’ as John Donne reminds us – and that at the level of the wider creation – all things co-inhere, hold together. ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us . . . Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together . . .’ This fixing of the date of Easter is a Very Modern move and I find it very troubling, indeed I see it in terms close to horror, on three counts – ‘separating out’ this from this, or ‘that from that’.

For it is a triple disconnection. Firstly, but not necessarily most importantly, the date of Easter is fixed by the lunar cycle – by the moon. I have spoken before of how our modern disconnection from the wider created order is the source of the murderous violence we pour out on that Creation. We refuse to allow the land to rest – we cannot wait for it to recover – we pour artificial oil based fertilisers onto the land. 20% of all usable soil has disappeared in my lifetime. We do not recognise our life as woven into the Creation. “Fixing a date according to the lunar cycle??? What does the moon have to do with us??” So, disconnection. This is the date of Easter – That is the lunar cycle.

Secondly it is disconnection from God’s ancient people, the Jews – for the lunar cycle sets the Jewish Passover, which therefore dates for us Easter. Disconnecting from Passover disconnects from our Jewish roots. The church has spent two thousand years trying to disassociate from its roots, as if it had some life apart. The Spirit of Modernity in this present age has wrought an equally appalling murderous devastation in this regard as that meted out to the Creation . . .

And thus finally, and binding the three in One it is therefore a disconnection from the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh, born into God’s ancient people, in whom all things hold together. Thus disconnecting heaven from Earth. We ‘Moderns’ think – there must be A date – the TRUE date. Yet fixing the date of Easter apart from Passover, in a horrible irony disconnects us from a Truthful Easter, which transcends our calendar – one which is bound up with the created order and the ancient story of deliverance of God’s people from slavery in Egypt – a reminder of our own slavery to sin and death, which Jesus and only Jesus rescues us from. For only in Jesus are all things woven together.

Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, comes to Nazareth. As he must have done many times over the years, he stands up in the synagogue, and the scroll is passed to him. He reads from the prophet Isaiah, announcing God’s mighty act of Salvation – and then makes the astounding claim, ‘Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ God’s saving work is made present – it is Revealed – it is manifested – it is an Epiphany. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, he has sent me] to let the oppressed go free, 19 [He has sent me] to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This Palestinian Jew is the locus of God’s saving acts in Creation, his Good purposes for all . . .

And what of our response? When Jesus has finished speaking, we read that the people of Jesus’ home town were ‘amazed’ at his gracious words . . . they couldn’t connect the son of Joseph with this Wisdom – they couldn’t connect Jesus to the saving acts of God. By the end of the story they are so enraged that they go to throw him off a cliff!! Yet before we think we know any better, our reading from Paul also does not show the church in a very good light.

As I said last week, 1 Corinthians 13 is a very odd reading for a marriage, for it is addressed to people who think they have it all, yet don’t love one another. It is not addressed to a couple but to a community, who are accustomed to saying, I don’t need you – ‘ I can get on perfectly well without you . . .’ they fail to acknowledge that their life is together . . . The modernist instinct of separation lies within us all – the instinct to individualism . . . but for most of history, the sheer hard labour of putting food on the table, has required some kind of co-operation . . . this individualist account – of Separation come to terrible fruition – has only come about in this age because the release of unimaginable energy in the form first of coal and then of oil has given many people the ability to escape the common bonds of Life Together, to close our door to the world. We are not constrained to have a concern for our fellow human being, because we cannot see how our life is in any sense dependent upon them. ‘We are all Individuals!!’ is the Creed of Disconnection. We readily curse those with whom we disagree, and so are cursed for we do not see that our life is together and recognise only ourselves.

And by and large we have also been blinded to our life with the wider Creation, living as most of us do now in towns and cities . . . I wonder, if we saw the full impact of our buying on the wider world – the ecological cost, the human cost . . . what would we do??? If we saw . . .

Jesus gives sight to the blind and that Seeing is so painful, that his own people would rather throw him off a cliff than see – yet that is not always the case. The pain of opening eyes to the reality of our existence can by the grace of God be born and can be transformative. So we are invited to See that recovery of sight in a shadowy form in our reading from the Jewish scriptures, from Nehemiah.

The people of God have been long in exile – they now stand amongst their modest attempt to rebuild Jerusalem – far from its Solomonic glory, and the Book of the Law is read to them . . . Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground . . . So they read from the book, from the law of God . . . And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law . . . Their eyes are opened at the reading of the Law – they saw as it were the cost of their way of living, their disconnection, from one another and the Land and thus from God – They had ignored the year of the Lord’s favour – they had never enacted Jubilee in which all land was returned to its original overseer – they had never set free economic slaves – they had acted as if there were no God . . . and they Saw, and they wept . . . there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth . . . But that announcement of the Law of the LORD is also the announcement of God’s Salvation – their sorrow leads to Repentance and Rejoicing. Nehemiah and Ezra See the holiness of God in these tears – God is present – Eyes are opened – This is a time for rejoicing, for those who were lost have been found!! “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Above all and through all and in all -The Joy of the LORD is your strength – Jesus comes to us, to reveal our condition – that our Joy may be complete!!

I for one am often guilty of seeing only my sin, of only seeing the devastation I have wrought upon the world – and the Grave danger of that is despair, a Deadly sin. Deadly for it refuses the Salvation of God. Despair says ‘all is hopeless’. Yet that is not what the Jews of Nehemiah’s time were told, nor is it what Jesus brings – Yes he opens our eyes – that we might see, but more that we might see Him, the fulness of God’s purposes, in whom all things hold together. That we might walk in His Light – the Light of His Life, in which all things hold together. That we might have JOY, the Fruit of Life Together in Him, through Him and For Him. God for ever praised.

Amen

Sermon for Epiphany 2 – 2016

Isaiah 62:1-5
John 2:1-11

When preparing couples for a wedding the selection of a Scripture reading for the service is not straightforward – after all, as I remind the couple, no scripture was written with a marriage service in view. The apostle Paul didn’t sit down one day and think ‘we need something to read out at a wedding . . .’ and run off the 13th Chapter of his letter to the Corinthians – a common choice. This is a rather blunt example of how we imagine that Scripture is primarily written for us, rather than to us.

And that is a very significant difference!! Try as we might, it is very hard not to understand Christian faith as something which is in its essence ‘Anthropocentric’, that is, it’s all about US, and its primary goal is human happiness. So we use the Scriptures – sometimes to bolster a position ‘Well the Bible says . . .’ . . . or we go to a favourite passage in a trying time . . . or we go to it to try to find a suitable reading for a wedding.

One of the worst examples of this ‘putting the Bible to our own use’ is to be found in the marriage liturgy of the Church of England. In the marriage preface, the lengthy discussion of the nature of marriage and its purposes in Creation, we hear ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ was himself a guest at a wedding at Cana in Galilee . . .’ There you are. Jesus is interested in our lives, he even once went to a wedding 🙂 As if the point of the Scriptures was to justify our lives – as if John in his gospel knowing the other gospels was thinking – hang on a minute – there are no weddings!! So includes the wedding at Cana – as if he’s writing Jesus’ diary for him. ‘On the third day – went to a wedding at Cana with Jesus, his mum and the rest of disciples. Wine ran out. Jesus fixed it . . .’ . . .’just a wedding’, ‘just another miracle’.

Over the last two weeks we’ve been considering the sacramental nature of our existence in Christ. Heaven and Earth woven together in Jesus. Nothing is ever just ‘this’, or just ‘that’. Nothing is ‘just’ anything. It’s never ‘just’ a wedding . . .  For above all and through all and in all, Jesus never ‘just’ does anything . . . certainly he never ‘just’ went to a wedding. So we might ask ‘What is this passage talking about? Is it about my wedding or Jesus’ wedding? Which is it?’ and as we have leaned, the answer is ‘Yes’ 🙂 Not that human weddings and the marriage of Christ are indistinguishable, but that we cannot think of one without thinking of the other . . .

Hang on a minute though!!! Who said anything about this being ‘the marriage of Christ?’ Jesus went to a wedding, he didn’t get married!!! Did he . . .?

None of the gospels are a diary of the events of Jesus’ life. Indeed such writing was unknown in the time of Jesus – it wouldn’t make much sense for, in the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning ‘Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush ablaze with God.’ For the people of Jesus’ time, nothing was just a thing – everything was crammed full of meaning. So in John, Jesus does not ‘perform miracles’, rather he ‘does signs’. Everything Signifieis. Each of the evangelists in their own way are telling the story of Jesus crammed with heaven – everything ablaze. Just this week for example I noticed Luke does something extraordinary in his account of the 12 year old Jesus left behind in Jerusalem . . . Jesus’ parents miss him . . . three days later they find him. They lost him . . . three days later he is restored to them . . . My point is that the evangelists are presenting Jesus to us – Here He Is. And there is far far more to Jesus than meets the eye  – the evangelists have more significant [sic] things to be doing than detailing Jesus’ diary for the day . . . And that is nowhere more clear than in John

All the other evangelists share a great deal of material, not John. And where he does he is about revealing Glory. He is the Revelation Evangelist – and this affects how he tells the story, All the evangelists except John place the cleansing of the Temple in its chronological position, at the beginning of the Holy Week. John begins his account of Jesus’ public ministry with it. the first time Jesus steps into the public sphere in John, it is in the most dramatic fashion in the Temple, with his startling promise to those who are appalled at his behaviour – Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will rebuild it . . . A little while and you will see me no longer, and a little while and you will see me . . . After three days they found him in the Temple . . .

But before this the wedding at Cana. He and his disciples have been invited – and his mother is there . . . no decent weddings without a mother . . . and the wine runs out . . .

So accustomed are we to Jesus’ miracles, that we might just gloss over this, but this is John – as I said, he isn’t writing up a diary – he is writing these things that hearing them we might believe, that we might See!!  And John does this by carefully leaving space . . . he leaves space in his gospel, by not giving us too much detail . . . He never refers to himself, rather he leaves space leaning against the breast of Jesus for any who would follow, for any whom Jesus loves . . . and there is another space deliberately left, in this story.

We know how it goes, but do we See?? The wine runs out, Mary the mother of Jesus, (whom by the way John also never refers to by name . . .) goes to Jesus and tells him. He tells her his time has not come, but she persists and he tells the servants, ‘Fill the purification jars with water and take some to the Steward of the feast’. So they do it and take it to the Steward. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ the steward called the bridegroom and said to him . . . the steward addresses the bridegroom, ‘You have kept the good wine until now . . .’ Who is he addressing? The bridegroom. Who is the bridegroom . . . And all of a sudden as the disciples watch the words of Isaiah come ringing into their ears

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. , , ,  4You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

And they believed in Him . . . Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Why a wedding?? The Scriptures are book ended with Marriage. The scriptures open with an account of the Creation, a thinly veiled account of the Temple – the Dwelling place of God – and in its midst, the man and the woman – become one flesh. Jesus draws directly on this account when he speaks of marriage . . . and then in the book of Revelation – at the very end – what do we read ‘I saw the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. The apostle Paul speaks of the Church as the bride of Christ. And the Salvation of God is spoken of as God joining himself to his people irrevocably in marriage –  as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

In this on the face of it common and familiar event, a wedding – we see the whole of Scripture, the whole of God’s Salvation purposes for human kind – we see the beginning, we see the end, because John would have us See Jesus, the one who is the Resurrection and the Life, the One who is The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The Source and Fulfillment of God’s purposes – their Culmination. John would have us SEE Jesus

the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; . . . and his disciples believed in him. May the Grace of Believing in Him be granted to all who hear his Word.

Amen

Baptism of Christ – 2016
Isaiah 43:1-7
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17,21-22

“The life of Jesus is the place in history fitted by God for propitiation,
and fraught with eternity”  Karl Barth – Romerbrief

Last week we spent a little time considering carols. Those which I suggested were the product of the ‘Modern’ mind – carols which ‘told the “facts” of the story of Christmas’ – carols which suggested that they told us the “Truth” about Christmas, or better perhaps based on the assumption that ‘the bare facts reveal the Truth. And ‘Pre-Modern’ carols – carols which too our mind perhaps are less helpful for telling the story, carols like the Holly and the Ivy. Which work with metaphor – causing us to think and hopefully see deeper – and to Pray and to Worship

Now as I said, ‘Modern’ and ‘Pre-Modern’ aren’t referring necessarily to periods in history. Some ‘Modern’ carols go way back . . . A few ‘Pre-Modern’ carols, a very few it must be said, are quite contemporary, because ‘Modern’ and ‘Pre-Modern’ here are lenses through which we view reality . . . we are always looking at what we see through a lens of interpretation, and ‘Modern’ and ‘Pre-Modern’ are two, very different lenses. Lenses which cannot be easily interchanged. Rather like two different languages, for after all languages are particular cultural interpretations of reality – and the problem is that when we ask a question in one language, we get an answer which may well make no sense to us in our language. (This is even more difficult when we assume that because we use the same words we mean the same thing – but referring a particular word to a particular thing is a profoundly modern blindness) Take for example the ‘Pre-Modern’ carol, The Holly and the Ivy. What do berry and blood refer to in the carol?? (A ‘Modern’ question)

The person who sees the world through the glasses of modernity may ask “When the carol mentions the holly berry, as red as any blood? are we supposed to think of the holy berry, or of the blood of Jesus?” And the pre-Modern person will answer, infuriatingly for us, “Yes” . . . “So both the berry and the blood?” “No!” “Then which, the berry or the blood?” “Yes” . . .

As I said last time, ‘Modern’ thought sees things in distinction from one another – this is this and that is that . . . they do not ‘participate’ in one another, as if somehow the redness of the berry in some sense more than a ‘bare memorial’ made the blood of Jesus present in Creation . . . Put another way, the ‘Pre-Modern’ glasses were sacramental – they saw the things of Earth and the things of heaven somehow woven together, like for example a Christmas tartan. ‘Is it red, or is it green?’ “Yes” 🙂

Well, today is the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus and when we declare our faith using the words of the Nicene Creed we declare ‘We believe in One baptism for the forgiveness of sins’. Now I am pretty sure that when we say these words, this One Baptism, what comes to mind for most if not all of us, certainly for me, is our own baptism. That this refers to our baptismS . . . but note how our minds take that which is One and turn it into many – separating out your baptism, and my baptism, and yours and yours and yours . . . each we treat as if it were a discrete ‘historic’ event, in my case at the parish Church of St Michael’s, Stanwix, Carlisle, in 1962 on April 1st . . . I know the date and place of My baptism . . . or do I? We are perhaps too quick, too Modern to assume that the One baptism for the forgiveness of sins refers to mine, and yours and yours and yours . . .

There are many many arguments over baptism . . . can you baptise an infant? Should baptism be by sprinkling or immersion? How many godparents? Can it take place outside of a public service of worship. These disputes have raged more or less dramatically in the ‘Modern’ era, not least the rise of the ‘Anabaptists’ whom all ‘good’ protestants declared Heretics! Why well the word anabaptist was a slur and meant ‘Rebaptiser!!’ and of course there is only One Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, ‘you and you and you and you and you – can only be baptised once’
. . . and in all these things we speak as if the Incarnation has never happened, as if the Word does not become flesh and resides amongst us, as if heaven and earth were not woven together in Christ Jesus to the Glory of God, as if the Baptism of Jesus was something other . . . as if this was this and that was that and we’re arguing about THAT!! Not the Baptism of Jesus . . . When we say ‘we believe in One Baptism for the forgiveness of sins’, are we talking about our Baptism or the Baptism of Jesus . . . and the answer comes to us . . . “Yes”

When we share in the Lord’s supper, St Paul reminds us, we are Participating in the body and blood of Jesus . . . when we are baptised, we are participating in the Baptism of Jesus. That is why there is nothing wrong in talking about ‘our’ baptismS when we re-member the Baptism of Jesus, for as we remembered last week – we cannot  – indeed must not imagine the wife without the husband and vice versa, two woven into one, how much less can we talk of our baptism apart from the Baptism of Jesus.

Listen carefully to the words of the Gospel of Jesus again  Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized . . . and [Jesus] was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ ‘Heaven opened’, like the rending of the curtain in the Temple, is the breaking in of the eternal into the Temporal. We are at once seeing things heavenly – the eternal Love of the Father for His only begotten Son – but this is not just a matter of heaven. It is heaven woven together with earth – where?? In Jesus!! It is the Culmination of History. Jesus Baptism – everything about him is not ‘just another discrete event in history’, it is its fulfilment. Heaven woven together with Earth . . . the Great YES. The YES of the Father . . .

In the man, Jesus, in his birth, in his life at Nazareth, in his death upon the cross, in his resurrection and his ascension, and in his Baptism, God takes hold of humanity and says YES – our baptism is our participation in that Yes, our rejoicing in that Yes, our re-echoing that Yes. To the Glory of god the Father. Amen

We cannot speak of one Baptism apart from the Baptism of Jesus without the other, for heaven is opened, the eternal is woven into the temporal, the mortal is dressed in immortality in Jesus, HIs Baptism For US.

Second Sunday of Christmas 2016, Year C

Ben Sirah 24:1-12
Ephesians 1:3-14
John 1:10-18

Heaven and Earth woven together
‘you never just . . .’

‘Oh, I don’t know about you, but I’m caroled out . . .’ – a not untypical complaint at this time of year, not least because we treat Advent as if it were Christmas, indeed we were still in Advent when I heard this complaint this year. I suppose that I’d put it a little differently – ‘there are some carols which if I never sing them again it will be too soon, yet there are others for which e’en eternity’s too short to sing and to ponder.

Insofar as I can draw a line between the two, I’d say it lay between ‘Modern’ carols and ‘Pre-modern’ carols. By ‘Modern’ I do not mean contemporary carols. Rather I mean ‘Modern’ in the sense that they are carols written from a philosophically ‘Modern’ understanding of the world ( a way of looking at the world which is, by the way, several hundred years old  ) – that is, they are only interested in ‘the facts’. Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, there she has a baby, whom the angels tell the shepherds is ‘Christ the Lord’, so they rush off to Bethlehem and find him wrapped in swaddling bands, lying in a manger, or whatever the latest theory is, and then some astrologers come from far to the east following a star etc.etc.etc. Put another way, ‘Modern’ can only be sung at or with reference to Christmas – yet many carols are not like this. They may reference ‘the facts’ but they do so to open a door to a much denser reality than ‘Modernity’ will allow. They suggest that Carols can be for Life – not just for Christmas . . .

I suppose one way of telling them apart is ‘can you pray this carol? Does it sound as if the writer was caught up in something bigger when they were writing – struggling to find words – using words that led beyond words?’ As I heard someone say in a sermon ‘you never Just pray . . .’ When we pray something happens, we are making a deeper connection, there is more to our life than ‘the facts’, something has been and is being woven together . . .

For we Christians, a good example of how ‘Modern’ thinking trapped us would be over the Eucharist. ‘Modern thinking can be traced back to the C14 when the doctrine of transubstantiation was first taught – that the bread and wine were Changed to be the flesh and blood of Jesus. The Reformation, a largely ‘Modern’ movement, said ‘No!’ The Bread ad Wine are Bread and Wine, but they help us think of the flesh and blood of Jesus. They are purely ‘Symbols’. ‘Modern’ thought might stretch to a symbol – but never to the heart of the Eucharist which is a Sacrament. Not a symbolizing or referential reality – but a weaving together of the physical and spiritual – or better, a weaving together of heaven and Earth. Like green and red threads in a Christmas decoration – maintaining their difference, but at the same time not the same without each other

So ‘The Holly and The Ivy’ A good example of a pre-modern carol – The Holly bears the crown – The holly bears a berry as red as any blood – a bark as bitter as any gall. A ‘pre-modern’, a sacramental vision of Creation sees – the blood of Jesus in all things red, the mixedness of the Kingdom in the Holly and the Ivy growing up together – understands the bitterness of the gall offered to Jesus where it encounters bitterness in Creation. Truly an Incarnational vision – which in the Word made flesh understands heaven and Earth to be woven together in Jesus.

The message of Christmas is ‘never just’ that God in Christ has come to be with us . . . it is that in the Incarnation the realm of heaven and Earth are woven together, and that all Creations speaks of Christ. In the Incarnation of the Word, the immaterial adopts materiality, that the Created may take on the Uncreated – the immortal takes on mortality, that the mortal may take on immortality – and that Seeing the Kingdom of God is losing the sense of separation. That we cannot look at the Created things without Seeing the Creator – through whom they are created. They bear Him to us. The heart of the understanding of an Ikon – Everything becomes in some sense an Ikon

A simple analogy [in its pre-modern sense] is that of marriage, where ‘the two become one flesh’, and so now one cannot truly think of the wife without thinking of the husband or Vice versa – and we See this reality of marriage in children who are the embodiment of that One Flesh – each a One flesh from one flesh – a weaving together of the two – the created revealing its maker one might say. As I said at midnight, how can one look into the eyes of a child and not see countless generations woven together – ultimately how can one not see the True Source of their Life, the Word made flesh – present.

Ultimately the ‘Modern’ account of reality with its insistence on ‘facts’, on ‘this is this and not that’ is one devoid of the possibility of Life, of the participation in Life together which we spoke of as we thought of St John the Evangelist last week – of that profound Koinonia, Fellowship, Participation and sharing in Life. It is perhaps true that the ‘Modern’ age is one where to Share is perhaps the most un-natural thing to do – rather it is a world of facts, of rights of responsibilities of choices – as if none of our lives were in any sense sharing in anything together. ‘Heaven’ being for afterwards – when you die – it is a philosophy of Death. Its carols quickly weary our imaginations

But . . . in our Waking to the Life of the Word made flesh, of Jesus – Wisdom coming to  seek a home – we find a door opened to the eternal participation in the heavenly realm – and concepts such as materiality, space and time take on a Deep Quality.

St Paul knows of this reality – he tells us, ‘the mystery of God’s will [is] . . . to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things in earth’ Christ Jesus – the one in whom all things earthly and heavenly are woven together – from the redness of the berry, to the redness of his blood. All things, to the praise of his glory

Sermon for the feast of St John the Evangelist 2015

Exodus 33:7-11
1 John 1:1-5
John 21:19-25

“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known . . .: John 1:18

Jesus said this to Peter to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God . . . Over the three days following Christmas, the Church commemorates those who bear witness to Jesus. Tomorrow, we remember the Holy Innocents, those children whom Herod slew – Yesterday was the feast of Stephen, the ‘first’ martyr. Today we might think we have as it were a little pause from martyrdom – for today we celebrate our own patronal festival – that of St John the Evangelist. Yet to be a martyr in the truest sense is nothing more than bearing witness. The church of old recognised this and so made a distinction between Red martyrs, those like Stephen whose blood was shed, and White martyrdom . . . those who had persevered in faith down long years, their lives a Living witness to the Life which is the light of all people

In an age where even in the church there are many who have wandered from the Truth, who claim new messages and enlightenment, red martyrs will be few and far between, at least in times of stability . . . we are all too aware I hope of brothers and sisters who have not fallen from the truth and have born witness to Jesus through the shedding of their blood in other places . . . No here in our time, the challenge is not to a quick and brutal martyrdom, but to the long slow, day after day, month after month, year after year, witness to the Word made flesh. To the Gospel. To Jesus Christ. And our own St John goes before us showing us the way.

Of course ‘Evangelist’ is not a word that sits easily on the lips of those who have wandered from the Truth. ‘Evangelists’ are all too often the object of lies and derision . . . those who allegedly ‘ram the message down people’s throats . . .’ I must admit I’m still waiting to meet one of them. They must be out there somewhere for everyone seems to be afraid of them . . . 🙂

But what is an ‘Evangelist’? Simply one who makes the Evangel, the Good News known. One who makes Jesus known . . . and John is the Evangelist par excellence . . . and his Example is the way we might by Grace become Evangelists ourselves . . . or like St John, white martyrs. For Christians only come in two colours, Red and White. To be a Christian is to bear witness to Jesus, it is to be an Evangelist . . . but how??

Often people complain rightly about sermons of exhortation, and I’m sure I’m not entirely innocent of that charge – sermons which say ‘You must do this!’, or ‘You must do that!’ So ‘You must bear witness to Jesus!!’ And the response may well come back ‘Yes! I know! But How??!!’

St John knows and he would have us know . . . he is the one who reclined next to Jesus – but he is never named as such – he is famously ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ . . . but his name is never used in that context . . . in other words in witnessing to Jesus, he makes space for us to recline next to Jesus . . . this message of staying close to Jesus – of not drifting away runs not only through John’s gospel, but it is woven through all of Scripture. The psalmist tells us that those whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on his Law they meditate day and night – they are like trees, Planted by streams which yield there fruit in due season
We heard from the reading in Exodus how Moses went into the tent of meeting, to spend time with God – to talk with him as one would talk with a friend. The lectionary however does us [yet another] dis-service for it omits the last part of the narrative Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. . . Then Moses would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.

Joshua, one of only two of the Israelites who left Egypt who entered the land of promise, Joshua Knew God – for he had remained in his presence. Joshua would not leave the tent, like a tree planted by a stream . . . One of the words John uses over and over again throughout the whole gospel is ‘Remain’, or the translation I prefer ‘Abide’ When Jesus first appears in John’s gospel, some of John the Baptist’s disciples set off after him. Jesus turns and asks them, ‘What are you looking for?, they answer ‘Rabbi, Where are you staying – where are you abiding – where are you planted’ Jesus said, Come and see, and they came and saw where he was abiding and they abided with Him the rest of the day . . .

Jesus says ‘I am the Vine and you are the branches . . . Abide in me, as I abide in you . . .’

In our gospel, whilst our attention has been on Jesus and Peter, mysteriously there is John . . . following – staying close to Jesus. Peter has to be recalled to his attention – ‘What about him?’ Jesus replied, ‘If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to you? You follow me’ John is already following, where else would he be, but close to Jesus, abiding with him.

We are reminded that John had reclined next to Jesus at the supper . . . this is described using the same language that John uses when he says ‘No one has seen God. God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart has made him known’ John reclines close to Jesus’ heart . . . it is where he abides . . . like Joshua, Like the Psalmist, he makes known the one with whom he is intimately acquainted . . .

John the Evangelist remains close to the the heart of Jesus, he makes him known. God the only son who himself is close to the Father’s heart and makes the unseen God known. How do we bear witness? How do we ‘do the work of an evangelist’ – by remaining close to Him . . . and this is possible because he has come to be with us. Why? That we might be with Him. God in Christ has made this possible – he has come to abide with us, that we might abide with Him. The one who is close to the Father’s heart, has come to us, that we might share in his Life with the Father.

He has Loved us, that we might love him, and thus make him known – after the pattern of our beloved brother and patron, St John

Sermon for Midnight Eucharist
Christmas 2015

John 1:1-14

Deep Memory . . .

In the beginning . . . do you remember?

Christmas for all of us is a thing of memory. When we hear the word ‘Christmas’, our responses, our thoughts, our imaginings, our rituals – summon up a whole world of meaning for ourselves. There is a density to our memories that make tangible the intangible.
Perhaps our Christmases are an attempt to recreate something. Or perhaps we seek to turn things round and ‘do Christmas differently this year’ – which ever way – Christmas is a product of memory, that which was before. And it should not surprise us that this is so – for this is the nature of our existence – our hearts, minds and bodies, repositories of memories – of lives learned and lived – but not just of our lives, of the lives of others, many of whom we never knew, from the beginning . . .

In the beginning . . . do you remember?

Where did we come from to be here  . . . tonight? Our congregation here, like the population of New Zealand is a gathering together of people from many places – many stories, many beginnings. Those born here, and those from further afield, indeed from around the whole world. But before that? Where have we come from? ‘Oh well’ one might say, ‘my folks came out on one of the first boats . . . from Scotland, where they were farmers . . . and before that?? We are all from somewhere – places ultimately long forgotten.

As we look deep into the eyes of a newborn child – returning its gaze we look deep back through all the generations ‘Oh! doesn’t she look like your grandmother!!’, and back beyond . . . countless generations upon generations written into a smile, a frown, even the slightest turn of a head . . . memory coming to life in Flesh and blood . . . We are a Deep Memory

How many Christmases make up ‘Our Christmas’? How many memories? How many people would tell us something of who we are? Those Christmases past, those generations long long forgotten . . . they are all here – we are in a very real sense a very deep and dense memory . . . but of what?

In the beginning . . . was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing that came into being without Him . . . He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him . . . the world did not See, the world did not recognise Him, her beginning – the world had lost its memory, forgotten who she was . . .

At the heart of this Holy Night, we come together – not only as people gathering together but each of us piecing together a deeper truth about who we are – sharing in an act of deep re-membering – deep memory . . .
Memories of untold generations past embodied in hands and lips, in gait, in posture in prayer, in words and thought . . . the beginning is here, in our midst . . . He came to those who were his own . . . the beginning is always present . . . and perhaps, by the infinite Grace and mercy of God, Recognition, Remembering in the eyes of This Child – The Word made Flesh – Jesus Christ – The Alpha and the Omega – The Beginning and the End – Our End and Our Beginning . . .

For to all who received Him, who believed in Him, who in recognising Him rejoiced at His presence – to all of those, He gave power to become that which in truth we are – to remember our selves . . . in that Recognition which we call Faith the door of memory opens that we might become Children of God . . . to See the Light, to Walk in the Light . . . What has come into Existence in Him is Light – the dawning Light of Deep recognition and Memory – His Life – the Light of all people . . .

In this Holy Night – the Word of God – the Source, the Beginning of all things takes on our Flesh and stands before us, that we might behold His Glory, as of a Father’s only Son – full of Grace and truth – and in that Seeing we might Know our Beginning, and our End – and in that Act of remembering walk in His Light and Life all our days

Amen

Sermon for Christ the King – 2015 – Year B

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

‘Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and her redeemer, the Almighty
I am the first ad the last, beside me there is no god’
Isaiah Chapter 44 vs 6

Just this last week I resigned from x x x xx . Not because I have too much on my plate – but out of a certain frustration  x x x xx . But as I have reflected on the theme for this week, the Kingdom of God, made present to us in Jesus Christ – I have come to the realisation that my frustration came from a most unhealthy place, one I suggest which is familiar to all.

x x xx xGet the right people x x x x x and, with what is close to a majority, well surely we could do anything . . . and that my brothers and sisters is a highly dangerous temptation. That of the desire for that which belongs to God alone, Sovereignty – being in charge . . .

I remember my first ever ‘Vestry’ meeting. ‘The new Vicar’ – and round the table those elected by the parish to ‘get things done’ – and I will never forget the words of one of the people there during a conversation on ‘what needed to happen’. I can’t for the life of me remember what the point was, but she said, ‘Well, if I were the King of the jungle . . .’  Sadly I lacked the wit to retort, ‘Queen of the jungle, surely . . . ‘ which might have lightened the mood somewhat, but we had barely met and it was my first Vestry meeting. That desire to enforce our own will – to get things done – to put the world to rights – is so very very deep rooted – ‘If I were King or Queen of the Jungle . . .’, ‘If I ruled the world . . .’, ‘If I were like God . . . the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ You’ll know how to fix everything . . . very, very deep rooted temptation . . . to be God . . .

At a personal level we like to think we are right and thus more or less subtly seek to ‘do it my way’ . And of course the more money we have the easier it is at least to establish our own personal fiefdom, where things are as we would wish. As we move from the personal to the public, when it becomes about an organisation, a church, a country, or indeed the world to which we belong, we begin to seek out The Leader. The one on whom we’ll dump all our hopes and fears – the one who best reflects our own prejudices – in ages past, and in many places today – a King . . .

And so dominant is this narrative in our lives, personal, public at work, and civic in wider society, so dominant is that deep rooted story, that when we hear Jesus announce The Kingdom of God – we tend unconsciously to imagine that the ‘god’ of our imaginings is ‘the King of the Jungle’, or to use an unhelpful phrase; ‘in charge’, and if he is ‘in charge’ then frankly, to our eyes, he doesn’t seem to be doing much to fix things . . . [the unexamined presupposition over the question of God and suffering], because, “believe you me, if I was the King of the Jungle . . .” and as events in Paris this past week have revealed, it Is a Jungle . . . all we see is our own ultimate helplessness reflected back to ourselves, because we have determined what a King is and should be about . . . and thus the rush to abandon any idea of the Kingdom of God as the Reign of God in a meaningful sense, and the thought that in 7.3 billion and mutually contradictory ways ‘we’ll put it to rights’ . . . in the same old tried and tested and world weary ways, which didn’t work last time or the time before that or the time before that, but we are SO sure that we CAN enforce our will on the world and if ‘God’ won’t then we will . . .

And in all of this we Christians ignore OUR strange story. A people, who didn’t have a king, but were desperate for a King, because after all that’s how the World works. So because THIS people wouldn’t give up on the idea, God gave them what they wanted . . . so they had one King after another who tried to fix it, who tried in their own way to put it right, the same old tried and tested and world weary ways, which didn’t work last time or the time before that or the time before that  . . . eventually leading people into exile – and then endless foreign occupation and we come to the end of the road . . . and we look at this bedraggled remnant, a few Galilean fishermen, a tax collector, a nationalist zealot . . . and at their head a dusty, hungry, battered and bruised rabbi – looking as if he’s had nowhere much to lay his head . . . and we see Him stood before Pilate the representative of the Global superpower, with all its armies, the World Order, then as now . . . we see Jesus, the one who says ‘My Kingdom is not from this world . . .’ When Jesus says this, we must understand – he is not saying, my kingdom is ‘spiritual’ ethereal, otherworldly – Rather ‘My Kingdom is not like any Kingdom you know . . .
Jesus says ‘If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews, [using the same old tried and tested and world weary ways, which didn’t work last time or the time before that or the time before that] But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ ‘My Kingdom . . .’  The Kingdom of God, My Kingdom . . .

Jesus says ‘He has a Kingdom . . .’ as he announces the Kingdom of God, somehow it is His – He is the King of it. When Jesus says ‘The Kingdom of God is amongst you . . .’ he is not declaring some spiritual truth about the nature of reality which he is pointing us to beyond himself, he is pointing us to Himself. I am here, in your midst, ‘My Kingdom . . .’ is at hand . . . this is it – this is God’s answer – Jesus of Nazareth. The real world flesh and blood answer to human history, God’s King, in the flesh . . .

We live in a world in which words are routinely emptied of any meaning – and the phrase ‘The Kingdom of God’ is similarly prey to such evacuation. It gets attached as a religious label of convenience to any and every human project for ‘betterment’, for ‘putting the world to rights’, a ‘spiritual message of human well being . . .’ ‘It’s, you know, spiritual, it’s ‘out there somewhere’ if only you look . . . you know, the Truth – that which science is opening up to us, so we’ll see – it’s out there somewhere, the truth, the truth that will set you free . . . but The Truth is that which in truth we avoid . . .

ISIL claims that it was behind the terror attacks in Paris . . . and in the blink of an eye ‘France’ declares war on ISIL and goes to bomb the hell out of them, because of course ‘that will solve it . . .’ wouldn’t it be helpful if just once in a while, a Prime Minister or a President, or a King would come on TV and tell the truth? ‘I’m really sorry folks, I have no idea how we can sort out this horrific mess . . .’ but of course that would bring the whole edifice, the whole human project crashing to the ground – in five minutes they’d be out of office and replaced by someone ‘with a plan!’. Then as now, the truth is to be avoided.

Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’ ‘What is Truth?? St Jerome who first translated the scriptures into Latin plays a lovely word game with this, translating ‘what is Truth’ ‘Quid est veritas?’, which is an anagram of ‘Est vir qui adept’—‘It is The man who stands before you’ [HT to Ian Paul for this insight]

And so this hapless and to our gaze hopeless wandering rabbi – who declares he has a Kingdom – stands before Pilate and declares  ‘Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice’ I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life. I am the Good Shepherd – that ancient type of the King of God’s people, God himself come to be the Shepherd – My sheep hear my voice – they will not follow after another . . . I will lead them beside still waters . . . take my Yoke upon you and learn from me – the Yoke, the symbol of Kingly rule, the people under the yoke – learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart . . . Where is the Reign and Rule of God we might ask – where is this Kingdom of God? It is crucified – the world’s answer to Truth, the world’s answer to Love – but it is not overcome. Light cannot be. And God raises Jesus from the dead and sits him at his right hand . . . the place of authority of Kingly Rule – and here and there, people take him for their King, The King, The Truth, and here and there small communities form who take their authority, not from any ‘worldly ruler’, but from Jesus. And where his rule is acknowledged, there as in Galilee all those years ago – The Kingdom of God is born witness to. For this community which embodies the Rule of Jesus is his body, is the manifestation of the Rule of God in the World, in and through Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God takes fleshly expression – In the body of the Crucified One – and now in His body, that is, His people. A people saved by God from the consequences of their sins, to proclaim his mighty acts, revealed in Gentleness and Grace and Peace made known amongst us. The Kingdom of God is not an abstract unreal message about a world perfected by our efforts – an empty metaphor which we fill with our ultimately violent ideologies and agendas. The Kingdom of God only has reality in flesh – in the flesh of Jesus who only does what he sees the Father doing even to death upon a cross – and in the fleshly body of those who belong to the Truth who hear his voice and do not listen to another. We do not ‘build the kingdom of God’ – that phrase should be struck from our lips –
rather that we Hear His voice and obey his just and gentle rule – forgiving one another from our hearts – laying down our lives for one another – sharing all we have with one another – acting as that which we are The Body of Christ, the physical embodiment of the reign of God in Jesus, who is gentle and humble of heart.

“But will it make a difference to the world in which we live??’ you may ask. Frankly, that isn’t our problem. Our problem is living in obedience to Jesus – that is work enough. As someone once said, ‘it isn’t that Christian faith has been tried and found wanting, it has been found too difficult and so not tried’ Put another way, being the Church, Being the people of GOd requires all our energy, our imagination, our wealth, our lives. Directing our Life together with the One who comes into the World – that is our work. And we have the promise of Jesus, that in response to our obedience, the world might see and give glory to God. That is what it means to be the Church – a kingdom of priests, serving our God – to whom be glory for ever. Amen

Hear the prayer of Jesus for his Church :-
[Father] I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’ Amen

Sermon for Sunday November 8th, 2015
32nd in Ordinary Time – Year B

From Temple to Church – Discerning the Body
(Or ‘We’re all in this together . . .’ or are we??)

AUDIO – BEARS LITTLE RELATION TO THE TEXT BELOW

Resource sharing
Tikanga Maori – Tikanga Pakeha – Treaty of Waitangi
[Pasifika???? Anybody????]
Scratching their heads
that’s not the problem –

Down a level – the Dioceses . . .
Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland . . .
Not sharing – well if the Dioceses aren’t sharing . . .

that’s not the problem

Down a level – Parishes within a Diocese
Not sharing – hanging on to their pots . . .
Not sharing – well if the parishes aren’t sharing . . .

that’s not the problem

Down a level . . .

A question I ask when I consider my recommendation for ordination is
Is this person known in their parish for opening their home
for it being a place where the church meets and eats together??

If not, then they do not discern the One Body of Christ so how can they presume to discern that body in the Eucharist – there is no way they should be stood behind the table of the LORD – they haven’t even begun the journey of this Sharing Life in Christ

Christianity 101 – sharing – not counting anything our own
If we do not share all we have with one another
Then we nullify the table of the LORD

Jesus comes to the Temple
He sees the wealthy – those totally secure in their existence
He sees the widow – barely surviving
He sees that the people of God are not sharing the Life He offers which the Temple signifies

The Temple – rather than the dwelling place of the Living God has become a human religious enterprise
Everyone told to do their bit ‘to keep it going’ – and the poor as always giving the most

And Jesus sees . . .
He sees rich people who don’t see the widow in their midst – who don’t discern the body
They’re not feeding her and sharing in Life with her

TM and TPk don’t see TP
AKL and WGT and CHC don’t see Waiapu
Parishes don’t see the their brothers and sisters
but the problem is in the root of it
The people of God are blind – they don’t see the widow

So they are deaf – they do not hear the command of the LORD – there shall be no poor amongst you . . . In the Christendom church it has become the norm –  The Eucharist is ‘the time when the Kingdom of God is revealed for the Rich and the poor – even the homeless are gathered together at the table of the LORD.’
NO!!!! That is the table of demons – why do the rich not welcome the poor to share in their homes and their lives??

And they are lame – not walking in the light of the LORD – and wondering why no one is following them

They are spiritually DEAD – playing religious games . . .
Devouring the houses of widows – money is a zero sum game – all riches come from the poor – enjoying the acclaim of others in fine clothes –
not sharing their goods with one another
They are denying their identity as the One people of God

For the people of God have ONE Life
not a religious life and another one
not a Temple life and another
Not a church life and another
Life Together – sharing all we have with one another

One Life – the Life of the Triune God
A Life given to the Body and Shared
Jesus sees
They are playing religious games
Their religion is a sham
Their teachers of the law like the acclaim
We might say
They preside at the Table of the LORD but Their table is not open to others
Their home is their castle
Their condemnation is deserved

I once heard a story which I believe to be true
He lived in a small house, with only basic furniture
and little more than the clothes he stood up in
A man was CEO of a large utility in the UK
And a follower of Jesus
He shared what he had with the poor
He had heard the gospel of Jesus
He was that what we might call unique being, a rich man who heard the gospel and followed Jesus

Just One Man

One Body

Jesus Sees the religious games

And next week we shall hear his response – remember when you hear the story of the destruction of the Temple – it is the End for Religious game playing – and it was under God’s Curse. It is the end for Church where people refuse to live in the abundance of God sharing with one another

Jesus says – Destroy this Temple and I will rebuild it
Jesus destroys religious games
And that judgement is being worked out amongst the Anglican churches in ANZ

For if we do not share all we have – we have no gospel – for the Gospel is the Life of Jesus amongst His people – the Kingdom is amongst you

Not to have all things in common is to deny the Gospel
It is to deny Christ

When we pray the LORD’s prayer – we are bold enough to say – Forgive us as we have forgiven. ‘We have forgiven others – get in on the Act, G_d!’

So too, we can only receive the Life of Christ shared with us in the Eucharist – the Life God desires beyond anything to share with us – if we are sharing all WE have with others
We come to the table saying ‘We have shared your Life amongst us – Share your life with us . . .’
Otherwise it really is just bread and wine – it is a sham

The age of going to church is over
God in his merciful judgement is bringing the Temples down
The age of being the church is ever new
The Gift of Eternal Life

God gave his very Life for us
If we are his children we will share all we have with others
Then the Table of the LORD becomes a place of blessing and healing

The Door is open
All that stands between us and life is our hearts

Sermon for 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
October 25th 2015

Mark 10:46-52

Status Quo and the Christian Imagination

And I must begin with an apology to any denim clad disciples of 70s British Rock music . . . but it’s not That Status Quo . . . 🙂

Nothing more threatens the existence of the word as we know it, that we have become so accustomed to, than the gospel of Jesus Christ

These last few weeks I’ve been reflecting on the Christendom subversion of Christian Faith and Life. That distortion made Christian faith publicly acceptable, respectable even – Although Jesus reminds us ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you . . .’. But a respectable religion is of course no threat to the Status Quo. Certainly nothing to get crucified over. We adopted a form of Civic religion which pretty much legitimised the world as we know it. No one need get crucified anymore – just follow the rules . . .
So ‘The Kingdom of God’ from being something which one knew by faith, supposedly became a visible earthly rule and thus legitimised the way of the world – ‘the Rich man at his castle and the poor man at his gate, for did not God make them high and lowly and order their estate . . .’ For the marginal in this world, there was of course the comforting idea of heaven when you die, but the idea that Jesus called us into a radically new form of existence, which would often find its adherents in radical conflict with the Status Quo?? This largely disappeared from view

And this disappearance led to what we might call a Constantinian imagination, in which Christian Life became reduced to Spiritual messages to comfort people in the midst of lives which were irrevocably fixed. The World was and always will be happy for people to dispense such advice, especially if you can turn a profit doing so . . .‘The little book of Calm’ anybody?? . . . just don’t let people begin to imagine that there might be something else, like the Reign of God which calls for you to a radically different life in the midst of those around you – calling the lives of others into question purely by doing so.
Oh, by all means See God in Creation, if it pleases you, understand your existence in terms of Love, but please make sure you pay your taxes on time and are back at your desk on Monday . . . and whatever you do, don’t announce the Reign of God in the world, now, and here!! Don’t go talking about a New Life in following Jesus, with staggering possibilities, blind people being healed, the dead raised, finding life in giving up your life!!! No, its a spiritual message . . . Sell your possessions and give to the poor??? – if people start to go after that, why, the world economic order might collapse . . . so say the jailers of imagination, even sadly in our midst . . . Church reduced literally to a ‘chaplaincy of the imprisoned’ – not a dangerous jailbreak . . .

The Constantinian imagination is one which imprisons, one which is full of fear, at root afraid of Jesus Christ, for the Good News of Jesus Christ is that God in and through Jesus has radically set us free. That it is True –  the Reign of God is present in Christ, in the power of The Holy Spirit – all bets about the nature of our lives are Officially off . . . The door is Open . . . With God, All things ARE possible . . .

In England – I acted as a mentor for a Christian drug rehabilitation centre. Holgate House was and is quite a remarkable place. Sat in a hollow by the River Ribble in Northern England – it was a place where people came and many were set free. At a surface level from their drug addiction, but deeper down, from their spiritual enslavement, without which the addiction would never be cured.
Underlying all addiction there is spiritual enslavement – its just that some addictions, some forms of slavery such as drugs, threaten the Status Quo, – others addictions, for example buying your identity through shopping, or ‘making a life for yourself’ by working every hour of the day, addiction to the self pity and bitterness, these are socially acceptable – indeed the Constantinian imagined church may well encourage you to shop for your True Identity – find fulfilment in your work whatever it is . . . or send someone round to you to say, there there, you poor thing . . . but NOT to announce, ‘The Jail doors are broken – you are free to go’ You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave (sorry – back to 70s Rock 🙂 )

But Holgate house was and is about annoujncing the doors are broken and you can be free  by confronting the Truth. When I first visited there I went home and told Sarah, I’ve just seen the Kingdom of God. What I encountered was a group of people who in their desperate plight reached out to God in Christ and engaged one another in living in the Light of truthfulness. There was no wallowing in self pity allowed, for no healing could be found there. They confessed their sins one to another, they held one another accountable for their actions in community, and 75% of them did not revert to their former life, a statistic which always draws incredulity from those who know the field well.

Of the 25% – well on the whole they didn’t engage, preferring the prison of the self to the Light of authentic Life, for which one had to stand accountable. Of those 25% a large number had become so accustomed to life in prison, that they truly understood how threatening the thought of true freedom was – but perhaps more tragic were the wealthier members of the community who imagined themselves to be free, yet who couldn’t see they were enslaved. They couldn’t in a sense believe they were there – they didn’t own their behaviour – ‘this sort of thing doesn’t happen to someone like me’. HArder for a Rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven . . .
By and large they found themselves in Holgate house with people from a much lower socio economic background – not the sort of people with whom they associated. The idea of sharing their lives, of laying them open, of confessing their weaknesses, of being held to account by THESE people . . . But in truth, they were no different to those who had become institutionalised by life in prison. No different to those outside, enslaved in a thousand different ways. Denying the darkness of their lives, they were strangers to the Light which was offered. As Jesus said, ‘If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness’
This living in the darkness was fundamentally a failure of Christian imagination – a failure to See who Christ is, and to Know the Gospel of Jesus, who sets us free to follow Him in Joy. As revealed in the healing of Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus is the opposite of the Rich Young man we heard of a couple of weeks to go. We might say that he has nothing to lose in following Jesus and everything to gain . . . but of course that is not true. Both are enslaved – It is true of each and every one of us that to follow Jesus we have to give up all we have. If the Rich man was like the wealthy drug addicts, Bartimaeus was like my drug addict friends who had been a long time in prison. Begging was not a great life – but it was a way of getting a living. There were enough devout Jews who gave alms to the poor. Life in some regards was better for beggars then – for our contemporaries who live on the streets there is no social pressure to help. In Jesus time giving money to the poor was socially ‘the right thing to do’. So in asking to See, Bartimaeus was relinquishing his worldly security every bit as much as those disciples who had left their nets.

There was a Status Quo to Bartimaeus’ existence – a form of comfortable existence . . . but as with my drug addict friends, it was no life at all . . .  So Bartimaeus is looking for Life, to be set free . . . whatever the cost . . .

Yet his story is about more than an individual freedom – it goes far far further than that. In many ways it is a story of finding true freedom in giving up the idea of individual freedom – for it cannot be found without others. And it is not safe! It is a way of existence that calls into questions perhaps everything that we have been trained to take for granted regarding the nature of our lives – about their stories. It is an existence which is not about worldly security – it is an existence which is disinterested in money, or career, or earthly citizenship. It is an existence which reveals the Truth of Mr Beaver’s words about Aslan – he is not Safe, but He is Good. If you are looking for a safe and secure existence then the world offers many varieties, all of them deadly and completely at odds with the Gospel. To follow Christ means that we must eschew the safe. Most dangerously, Daring to Know and be Known. It is Life together in the community of Christ, the community of the New Creation present in Jesus. Our fundamental problem is that our dreams of a better life are far too small, our imaginations shriveled, hiding from one another, hiding in the shadows.
Few, very few can imagine, and thereby desire anything more desirable than a good life on the worlds terms followed by what we call ‘heaven’. After all That is the story we have been sold since birth . . . But only God is Good . . .The Rich young ruler went back to his cell grieving, the wealthier clients of Holgate house returned to their illusory drug addled existence . . . and yes, many beggars continued to sit in the dust. How many beggars did Jesus come close to? Yet few took the Risk of crying out to Jesus,  My teacher, let me see again. In the end, they did not believe they could be free, or worse, having seen what true freedom in Christ meant, it was too Bright for them – they preferred the darkness. And in the illusory Constantinian imagined world we have created, the Risk of faith seems too much for us. It’s not a story we can control – Many do not believe . . .

But Bartimaeus does, and the people want him silenced, as in the end they seek to silence Jesus, so they will seek to silence all those who seek him in Truth. ‘Don’t tell us about another Kingdom! Don’t live in a way that calls our lives into Question! – In effect, be religious by all means, better be Spiritual, but don’t be the Church of Jesus Christ’  “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many sternly ordered him to be quiet . . . We might imagine that the crowds tell him to be quiet because he is making a noise, disturbing the peace, and indeed he is. As Jesus said, ‘do not think that I have come to bring peace but a sword . . .’ Bartimaeus is heralding The King – the One who is destined for the fall and the rise of many – and so threatening ‘the way things are’. What the Scriptures call, The World.

It’s an imagining we engage with and unconsciously absorb every moment we spend watching the Television, or reading the Newspaper – it is a World from which any announcement of the Kingdom of God, of the Rule of Jesus Christ is utterly absent. Of course the Constatinian Imagination teaches us that ‘its woven in their somewhere, you just have to look’, but without any explicit mention of Obedience to Jesus Christ, it is but another of the world’s lies, perniciously dressed up in supposedly Christian garb. For when Jesus turns up on the scene, Kings do not sleep, everyone is disturbed – when Jesus comes on the scene, the world has but one answer

Bartimaeus MUST be shut up because if Jesus is the King, then All earthly authority is radically called into question, and thus the very foundations of the lives we have built for ourselves on those authorities, those stories, those Imaginings. For those who were there this meant the Roman Empire. Rule #1 for a quiet life – a comfortable life – a safe life – don’t call the powers that be into question – keep busy, keep your nose clean, pray even, but DON”T go announcing that the World’s true King has stepped onto the scene. From Herod, to Pilate, to Nero, to Domitian, on and on the announcement of the Reign of God in Jesus Christ is Dangerous – and we have lived for many many years without realising that. Aslan is Not Safe – Life with Jesus is usually Not comfortable, not least because of the company we keep. The Christian Imagination is profoundly dangerous . . . it endangers everything . . . for the Son of Man must be crucified, and if He must be crucified, then so must all that follow him, and ultimately the very fabric of our lives in the world must go to the Cross. If the way of life is to follow Jesus, then Everything must Go
Life has many difficulties which are common to all – funnily enough . . . the world’s promises of a safe and comfortable existence turn out to be lies . . . but LIfe with Jesus has many more perils than that . . . Yet it is Joy!! It is True Happiness!! It is The Good!!! – it is worth everything, and it is more than worth crying out about . . . but it requires a renewed imagination and a desire for freedom which transcends any and all fears, even of death . . . For it calls into question that which we have come to call ‘life’

Funnily enough as I sat down to write this sermon, a friend posted a personal dream of hers. Rather cheekily, and with half my mind on what I was about to write, I asked, ‘So what is the first step? Or is it Just a dream??’ As we all know, the harshness of the World wake us from dreams – but what of the Kingdom of God, What of the Rule of Christ, what if That is The Reality. My friends at Holgate house, many of them Knew that there was another Life – Life in Christ – they did the dangerous work of imagining that Life,which kept them on track – but they would never have done it without one another, and mutually shaking one another awake – constantly calling one another to account – refusing to live with Sin in their life and confessing one to another – Crying out above the crowd which tried to silence them – ‘Jesus,  Son of David, have mercy on me’. Part of the Constantinian imagination in effect marginalised the Church refusing to allow it to be what it was and Is –  a people with a Different Existence – a Different Life – a New People – literally a New Race as the New testament called them – a people whose Life was that of the Crucified and Risen Jesus. A people who had refused the deceitful cup of the world, who had drunk from the Cup of Christ – who had thrown of the cloak of beggars, who had adopted the mantle of True Sonship in following their King.

What might it mean for us to live as such a people? That is where the hard work of dangerous Christian Imagining is done . . . or perhaps we just turn over and go back to our dreams?

The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.