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Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God

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Second Sunday after Trinity – Year C – 10th in Ordinary Time
Luke 7:11-17

Blessed are you Poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven

Why should any of you think it incredible that God raises the dead?’
Acts 26:8

Years ago, when I had just started teaching, I found a boy in my class had written all over his physics text book, and being pretty new – I took the boy and the book to my HoD, a lovely gentle Quaker by the name of Paul Hopper. A man who wouldn’t harm a flea – and Paul spoke softly and gently to the boy, so softly indeed that he was struggling to hear and so drew closer to Paul, until Paul exploded – ‘You will pay for this book and Don’t you Ever do that again!!! It shocked me – goodness alone knows what it did to the boy, but he never vandalised another book 🙂

And how like Jesus . . . for IF we dare get up close, when we See what he does, when we Listen to his words they are deeply shocking – they shake us to the core, they dismantle our way of understanding the world, and we either have to surrender, to admit we don’t understand how the world works and acknowledge Him as Lord, or else build huge barricades to keep him at bay.
Jesus as revealed in the  scriptures seems so remote from our experience . . . Raising the dead??? It’s as if there’s something blocking him out . . .

Did we hear the gospel?? Or were its words muffled to us??  Like I suggested the other day we sometimes say the Psalm as if we were reading cereal packet ingredients, rather than speaking in the presence of the Living God, so we may listen to the Gospel as if we’re listening to a run down on the money markets on the radio, indeed we might even pay it less attention . . . did we hear the Gospel, did we hear what Jesus did? Jesus raises a man from the dead!!

A few years ago I was at a workshop led by a talented actor named Bruce Kuhn . Bruce’s gift is memorising and ‘performing’ the Scriptures and trains others to do it. The class he taught was on this gospel passage about the widow of Nain. To be frank for all my bible knowledge, I barely remembered the passage. After all how much was raising dead people part of MY world?? Bruce related how the story had impacted on the undefended – those who hadn’t built barricades against Jesus
He had visited a school in the city of Birmingham, England, and was confronted by a huge multi ethnic class, Sikh, Hindu Muslim – few of whom knew anything of Christian faith . . . Bruce told the story . . .When the Lord saw [the widow], he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then [Jesus] came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ The dead man sat up  . . . At that point almost everyone in the room Gasped!! Shocked, by this man who raised the dead!!  Jesus addressed the corpse – saying ‘Young Man Rise! – and the dead man sat up and began to speak . . .

But did we hear it, or have we also built our barricades against this Jesus who does and says outrageous things – Have we turned ‘Our’ Jesus into a safe, predictable, shadowy version of ourselves – a tame teacher of spiritual truths for a sophisticated modern age . . .

This account comes in a special place in Luke’s gospel. Jesus has announced his mission – The Kingdom of God in Ch 4, in Ch 5 he calls disciples to follow him, and choses the 12 – then in Ch 6 we have Luke’s account of ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ the core of his ethical teaching, you might say – including such gems as ‘if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other to them, and ‘Give to everyone who begs from you, if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them back . . .’, and of course, Love your enemies – do them Good . . . finishing up – ‘whoever hears these words of mine and does them is like the wise man building his house on the Rock’ . . . To jumble the metaphors, JEsus warns his hearers – ‘Do these outrageous things, or your life will end up on the rocks!’ The Kingdom is at Hand and it is outrageous according to human wisdom!! This is My World, My Kingdom – Pay attention to my crazy outrageous teaching . . .
Then the Kingdom begins to break out –  there are two ‘healings’ – the first of a young man near death, whom Jesus doesn’t even visit, ‘just say the word and my servant will be healed . . .’ outrageous faith . . . and then this Raising the dead son of the widow – without a ‘by your leave’ – he just breaks all thre rules – all the ‘laws of science’ – He just does it – He speaks to a corpse and raises him from the dead!! And what happens next??

Well the crowd are shocked, and word gets out and spreads as far as John the Baptist who sends his disciples to Jesus, asking – ‘Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?’ Luke goes on – Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, ‘Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?’ Are you crazy??? ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’ Blessed is anyone who can allow this to be true . . .‘Go and tell John what you have seen and [what you have] heard:

This is what the Kingdom of God looks like. It’s not a feeling – or some spiritual vision – it is God healing the blind, the deaf, the lame . . . even raising them from the dead. There is nowadays amongst certain circles an odd turning of the tables on Jesus which goes like this – ‘God has to obey the laws of the universe, but we don’t have to obey the laws of God’ . . . And How the Laws of God, How the Way God organizes things trips us up . . .
Jesus starts his teaching saying – Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of heaven – the Kingdom of heaven is for the poor . . . and even in the times of Jesus there was none so poor as this widow. The only ‘social security’ is the security of family, and this woman has lost her husband and now her only son . . . in all likelihood she faces her final years as a destitute beggar on the streets . . . and SHE is the one who Sees the Kingdom of God. Jesus doesn’t put his arm around her and say, there there – if only you understood, you would not grieve . . . no he raises her son from the dead . . . The woman who has nothing Sees the Kingdom of God – Jesus teaching could be paraphrased, blessed are the vulnerable, the weak, those who cannot stand on their own two feet, the poor the hungry and those who are weeping, those who are defenceless against reality.
It could be paraphrased – Live in vulnerability towards the world – sell your possessions – and you will find you are living in vulnerability towards God – and even you will see the Kingdom of God breaking in . . . Blessed are those who have not the resources to defend themselves from me says Jesus . . .
For this is Jesus’ Life. His teaching and his actions are so outrageous because He Lives fully before God – no shields, no defenses, nowhere to lay his head. He, the poor, meek, mourning, pure, persecuted peacemaker, LIVES in total vulnerability to the World – a world which wants nothing of Him and his ways and so Crucifies him – but because he is totally vulnerable before God, there is no barrier between Jesus dead body and the LIFE of God, and He is gloriously Raised . . . because he is totally vulnerable before the Father, the power of the Resurrection flows uninhibited through him and he restores the man to his mother . . .

Blessed are you who are poor . . . for you will see these things and indeed they still do. Around the edges, where most of us never dare venture, the Kingdom of God continues to break in
But our defences are SO high . . . We do not see these things – why do we feel we have to spiritualise them, to explain them away? Might it be that we are afraid they might be true, that all our careful barriers might come tumbling down? What is blinding us? Blessed are you poor . . . Woe to you who are rich for you have received your reward – you’ve got what you want . . .
Just after Sarah and I were married we went for a meal in Chinatown in London with some friends, but one person there Sarah and I had not met. We sat down and plates of food were put on the ‘lazy Susan’ in the middle. And this guy casually turned it round and every dish emptied about half of it onto his plate – there were six of us present . . . now THAT WAS outrageous!!!! Except . . .
The other day I was shaken to the core – brought up seriously short – and as I reflected on what had so shocked me about myself I couldn’t help but think that that person was me  . . . What brought me up short?? That I realised that I had used up what you might call my fair share of the Earth’s resources by the time I was about . . . 20 – and that now, well into my 50‘s I’m doing it for the third time – without a thought for my fellow diners, let alone the kitchen staff run ragged trying to keep up with my outrageous behaviour – and the world is collapsing around my ears . . . Jesus actions outrageous??Jesus words mustn’t be taken literally?? Jesus’ healings must be seen metaphorically??? Who really is living the outrageous life?? and all the while trying to argue that God’s Anger is unreasonable . . .
I, a not untypical Modern man, have already used nearly three times of my fair share of resources, and that estimation of ‘fair shares’ keeps the earth in slavery producing flat out for me, not allowing it its own freedom, its own Sabbath rest. And of course kept back what others need, or stealing from them . . .
In other words however much I might say that the world belongs to Jesus, my life says ‘it is mine!!’ I don’t know if you have ever known a person who has trouble with hoarding? Visited their house and found you couldn’t get in – it’s as if they are building a barricade against you . . . Why don’t we see him raising the dead, or healing the Deaf and blind amongst us?? Perhaps because we’ve built our barricades so high – because if we got very very close we might hear Jesus say ‘Who said anything about it being Your world?’ Blessed are the poor . . .

You might ask at this point – what is the Gospel for me?? What is the Gospel for the those who have used up far far more than their ‘fair share, far far more than God in his Love and mercy provided for us?? What does it have to do with Jesus? Well, As St Paul says – we have to work out our Salvation – it is not easy, repentance.
There is a scene near the end of the film Ghandi where after the partition of India terrible ethnic violence has broken out especially between Muslims and Hindu. The mahatma starts to fast – to death if necessary – in the hope that the violence might stop – he takes the violence into himself you might say. As he is close to death a Hundu man comes to him and throws a chappatti at him – Here he says ‘Eat!! a Muslim killed my son, and so I killed the son of a Muslim – I will not have Your death on my conscience as well!! And then he bursts into tears. He is in Hell – he sees no way out. Ghandi tells him – there is a way of salvation for you – take an orphaned Muslim boy, bring him up as your own son – but bring him up as a Muslim . . .’ The man stands back – aghast. Salvation is laid before him . . . outrageous Salvation – what will he do? We are not told. like the man, when Jesus comes near  we know Hell exists because we find ourselves there – what will we do

Jesus loves the rich – his gospel to them is outrageous Salvation – at its heart it is if you love me, keep my commandments – put my teaching into practise – -live with vulnerability towards God – in its practice?? Share your bread with the poor – give to all who beg of you – Sell your possessions, and you will have treasure in heaven – then come and follow me . . . St Augustine in his commentary on the raising of the son of the widow of Nain – says – to paraphrase – ‘Outrageous as this raising of this young man is – it is as nothing as the raising of those who are spiritually dead’ The words of Jesus are light and Life – Listen!!
‘Whoever you are . . . Rise!’ – and the dead man sat up and began to speak

Easter Magazine Article

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The Resurrection of the Body

There is something a little relentless about this period – so I am writing this on Good Friday in order to meet our publication deadline – and have just come away from our Morning All Age worship, and in advance of Easter . . .

A couple of things happened there which suggested to me something about the nature of our faith to which we would do well to pay more attention. The first was when our curate, Brett threw ‘pieces of silver’ over the floor and asked the children to count them. Almost before the coins hit the floor, I could hear several of the children calling out – ‘there are thirty . . .’ – which gave me pause. Certainly we might well congratulate ourselves on their being so well informed about the facts of our faith – but that is a very narrow way of knowing anything. Watching them pick them up, join together and count them with the question, ‘How much is a human life worth?’ ringing in their ears – holding the coins, with their human attraction to ‘Money’ – the question and the answer became far denser in its meaning . . .
A little later I was required to play the part of one who put the cross together, hammering nails into wood with a heavy hammer. Feeling the labour of it, and hearing the sound echoing around the bare wood of the chancel, stripped of its furnishings the evening before at Maundy Thursday – again a Knowing far more significant than a mere mental assent to the facts . . . In both these Knowings there was a Participation. The whole body was involved – and indeed must be if our faith is True.

The Easter Story tells us that our ultimate destiny is Embodied. The Word became Flesh, not do to away with our flesh, but that our flesh might itself be saved from its bondage to corruption and decay. Jesus is raised, not as an atmosphere, not a beautiful idea, but as a body, a body which is the dwelling place of God. For the Temple of his body having been destroyed, he raised it in three days.

Growth in faith is every bit as much the transformation of our bodily existence, a Learning of a way of being in the body, indwellt and taught by the Holy Spirit, as it is knowing the facts of our faith. These are Essential, but the greatest essential fact is the fact of the Risen Christ, who has conquered Sin and Death, in His Body.

For many many years now – we have been more and more reduced  to abstract ‘thinking’ beings. Education becomes about what we know in very narrow terms. The current mania over artificial intelligence is largely focussed on the damnable notion that if we can replicate a human brain, we can replicate a human being, as if we were reduced to a brain in a jar and fed the appropriate nutrients we would truthfully exist as humans.
René Descartes who was highly suspicious of our bodily nature, set us down this path wondering what it was that he could be certain of. He finally came to the conclusion that the only thing he could be SURE about was that he had thoughts – so said, ‘I think therefore I am . . .’ (Actually he was even more pessimistic than this and said, ‘my thoughts might themselves be a deception – but at least I can say that there is an I who is deceived!!’)

The Church would respond to Descartes and our culture of ‘thinking beings’ might say our Certainty is indeed enfleshed – the flesh of the Word made flesh, and now Risen from Death. We are, because He Is.

Phil Trotter – Intergenerational Church

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Phil is the National Youth Advisor for Tikanga Pakeha of the Anglican Church in New Zealand, and shared this with us this morning

 

 

Here is the first thought provoking video . . . adult and child perceptions?

 

Here is the second video clip – on how elders helpfully correct those who are younger 🙂

 

Lent – Forty days without . . . Day 18

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Continued thoughts on going without some of our technological appendages

 

and indeed, appendages they have become, limb like in their attachment to us. We are rapidly fusing with elements of our technological milieu, to the point where we have become accustomed to speaking in terms of ‘the post-human’, or imagining that AI is perhaps not the horror it was once perceived to be. Do we care if the ‘person’ who is looking after us is actually an advanced latex covered robot, if it seems human?

Although I am taking time to disconnect from a few of my own technological prosthetics – smartphone, tablet and computer – one of my repeated observations is that these ‘tools’ actually disconnect us from one another. I have become so used to seeing ‘friends’ spending half an hour in the same space, whilst sharing barely a word over ‘a coffee date’, staring at their devices. [ I still remember quite clearly how more than a year ago now: I was with my wife Sarah,  in a restaurant. A mother and daughter had brought the grandmother out ‘for a special occasion lunch’. The two younger members of the party were constantly on their phones, picking at their food as texts and emails allowed. The Grandmother was a picture of loneliness on ‘her special occasion’.]

There is such a thing as a companionable silence, which grows out of deep friendship, a mutual trust, and a sense of being known which goes beyond words. A Knowledge that frees one from the anxiety of ‘having to be connected’. Theologically we might express this in terms of God’s radical freedom From us, which is the assured basis of his being For us. God is not always anxiously trying to ‘be in touch’ and his friends worry less and less about ‘what to say’ in His presence. Love does not grasp.

But the technologically induced ‘silence’ is of another sought. Fingers fly over the screens – grimaces and more cross the face as people seek connection with ‘friends’, people whom perhaps they have never met face to face. Research reveals the non-companionability of such interactions. At the neuro-physiological level, there is no response which correlates to the presence of another. When we interact by text whatever our minds say, most of our being is unresponsive – text does not convey the presence of the other to us any deeper than those thoughts that perpetually flick across our consciouness. Silence in such cases is deeply troubling, for we do not actually believe that there is anyone there.

So in a counter intuitive way, disconnecting enables connection. It causes us to wake up to what Is. To God. To be truly human, not by addition, but by stripping away

I know from my own experience how I have lost track of prayer and spacious quiet in the presence of God, as my hand instinctively moved to my phone and its beep as yet another message came in. In my early days of such a device I completely lost my way, and ever since, even if I carry it, which I tend not to, it is always set to silent. The change in my mood has been marked, not least for my family, to whom I am more present.

What we fail to acknowledge, because it contradicts one of the most pervasive and deceitful myths of our age – that of ‘progress’ (magnified by technological ‘Change’ [sic]) – is that tools change us. The internet is awash with videos of how drivers of large cars are less courteous than those of small cars; we do speak far less to one another on those increasingly rare occasions when we are in company – google glass has perhaps not taken off, because we have already adapted ourselves to the cell phone appendage [Undertakers note a new wrinkle under the chin – cell phone glance wrinkle]; someone with a gun is not the same as someone with a gun; or to quote the old aphorism, ‘ to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail ‘ We love to say, because we Need to say ‘it is not the tools, it is how we use them . . .’ but even the simplest of tools come with the promise of Power, and Power corrupts

We have a sense that with technology we become More – we expand the scope of our power over our surroundings – perhaps this is the root of our obsession with The Self. The truth is that we become far less. We become like that which we worship, for it promises everything to us, and we have a hard time resisting the lure. With regards to smartphones etc. this is especially true as we disappear – we are no longer present. (purely having one on your person reduces your attentiveness to that which is around by about 15% . . .) The average smartphone user looks at the screen 80 times a day. We cannot look away . . . I have myself driven a visitor through the glorious scenery of the South Island, with them permanently glued to their screen . . .

But in Lent, we go without – we empty ourselves deliberately – and therein find great treasures in things perhaps long forgotten . . . Hopefully we find we wake up, and carry on doing without, for the Life which emerges.

Technology promises us that in taking more we shall be like gods [Again, a reason why the gnostic evolutionary forms of faith seem so persuasive] . . . but the way of Kenosis, of laying down, of letting go is the way we come to ourselves. The way of the Cross. The way of Jesus

How is it with your soul? Lent 1

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how is it with you soul?

One of the differences between rural ministry and that in an urban context was that in rural communities, Sin was visible, a public category. In a rural context it was rare for a funeral ‘tribute’ to be an entirely glowing word about the saintly character of the deceased. Or if it was you would hear much in the pub afterwards – ‘well that was a white wash if ever I heard one’. The fact that people – all people were sinners was undeniable. Everyone was too well known, even if they lived as recluses. Because of this the word sinner wasn’t one with overly negative connotations

But our world is dominated by the urban – large towns and cities are the places most people now live. And they are places of anonymity, of privacy. In a city one is not a public figure – one is largely unknown. And this shapes our public discourse, even in the church. ‘Sinner’ is not a category we tend to apply, we don’t tend to meet them in the street,
because in truth we meet very few people in the street, for all the people we see. And so we may listen to many sermons, read many ‘Christian’ blogs in this day and age and find no mention of sinners or Sin, or indeed the crucifixion of Jesus for our sins.

As I have commented before, the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ seems to have become curiously absent in accounts of what it means to be Christian, and indeed our understanding of God. We might say ‘the Cross reveals the Love of God’, but try explaining how without mentioning our need of saving from our sin, and you run into trouble. The Love of God is revealed in how God deals with those who do not love Him, by dying for them on the Cross, bearing in himself the wages of Sin, that is Death, the destruction of the Soul. Sin destroys souls

So It is little surprise that the disappearance of Sin, has seen the disappearance of the Soul. The bishop’s charge to a new parish priest ‘Receive this cure of souls, which is both yours and mine’ seem quaint to the modern ear. The Cure, the care of Souls . . . Souls??? In this season of Lent – how many of us, or how few will take the opportunity of confession – to lay bare our Souls?? Well here’s someone . . .
Lucy – the great Soul physician is approached by her brother Linus – he is deeply troubled by the state of his soul. ‘Lucy, I don’t want my heart to be half love and half hate – I want to be all love!’ This is ‘classic cure of souls’ territory. Someone knows and is honest about the state of their life before God. Their Soul. Linus is far far more alive than most of our contemporaries. He is troubled by the Sin that lurks within him. I wonder what counsel we would give. We might imagine trying to talk someone out of this bizarre worry. ‘Who do you hate – what did they do to you? Why, Linus you are so right to hate them!! How did they treat you? You have every right to be bitter? Why did you lie – Oh I so understand – I would do the same in your case . . . Our life before a holy God, our Soul is denied. ‘Guilt? Shame? No! We must do all we can to eradicate these foolish notions Those are so passé!!’ So we ignore those troubling thoughts, symptoms of the state of our soul – we become more insensitive to Sin, and we end up like the Pharisees, Self Righteous . . . not needing and cure of our souls. Pharisees are those who have denied Sin and their souls have withered . . . As Jesus points out – those who chose not to identify themselves as sinners, found themselves outside of the mercy of God. The denial of what was going on within them, meant they would not come into the light.

Jesus associated with sinners – and he still does. Of late we have tend to respin this truth by saying ‘Jesus was with the marginal and oppressed’, but the gospels tell us he was a ‘friend of sinners’, that is he hung out with those who knew their condition – who knew they needed a doctor. He wasn’t against the ‘Self-Righteous’, he just called on them to be honest about their condition – he invited them to join him. ‘You say you haven’t committed adultery? But you have looked with desire at a woman? Come and join the sinners!’ ‘You say you haven’t murdered? But you will call someone an idiot. Come and join the sinners!’, ‘You say you do not love money? But you cry out for what you call justice when your parents give their entire inheritance to your siblings – Your heart is full of greed – come and join the sinners!’ Come to where I am . . . Lent is a time for coming to Jesus with our Souls . . . recognizing, as we face Easter that Sin as a condition is so death dealing that only the death of the only begotten son of God can deal with it . . . yet tragically there are few in the church who have the wisdom to begin to speak to how we respond to it in our lives . . . Lucy for example . . .

We are at the beginning of Lent – a season in which we prepare our souls and bodies together for Pashca – for the Great Feast of Easter – For God’s act of redemption in and through Jesus in which he saves us from our Sin – and in the divine mystery saves the entire cosmos . . .

In Lent, we are invited to go with Jesus into the Wilderness, to lay aside all things, to come to a place where the true nature of our Soul is laid bare. It is in the wilderness that Jesus in his humanity is faced with that which truly threatens his Life, His Soul, and no less threatens ours.
Satan . . . also curiously absent from most accounts of faith . . . is revealed . . . whispering words in the ears of Jesus . . . perhaps Jesus is driven there by the Spirit, because in the wilderness, away from a multitude of disctractions . . . Satan has nowhere to hide. His schemes are seen for what they are.
Yet Satan’s words seem so reasonable – you’re hungry? Turn stones into bread! You want people to get your message? Do something Spectacular like jumping off the temple! You want the kingdom of God to be brought in? Worship me, and you can have the whole world just as you like it, none of the pain, none of the suffering – none of the Cross . . . And after all isn’t that our definition of the Kingdom of God?? None of the pain, none of the suffering – none of the Cross . . . how reasonable Satan sounds
you hate? – you have good cause! You’re resentful? Who wouldn’t be, you poor thing! You deceive? Don’t we all? no, it is not greed or covetousness, these are your rights!! . . .

Those of an earlier age were wiser. They didn’t listen to this voice, they Fled from this to Christ and took up the medicine of the Cross, the Soul disciplines for each deadly sin. Firstly, Lent was always a time for Confession – for the wilderness experience of laying the soul bare, in the company of a wise brother or sister who would provide counsel and support. Struggling with Gluttony? Fast. Struggling with Avarice? Give more money away to the poor. Above all Pray that you enter not into temptation – learn the humility which drives away pride and sends you to Jesus . . . For each of the deadly sins, those things which we allow to grow in our hearts, to the ruination of our Souls, there was a discipline, which would in time lead if not to their immediate eradication, at least to their diminishment.

A priest tells a story of when he was first ordained. He had been ordained straight from college and had never earned any ‘real’ money. When his first pay cheque came he sat down to write out a cheque to the church for a tithe. In the past of course 10% of not very much wasn’t very much – but 10% of his first pay cheque . . . As he wrote he sense resentment growing up within him, against the church, his church . . . so he quickly tore the cheque up, and wrote one for twice the amount. Satan has not afflicted him in that way since 

This ongoing work, the struggle against sin, our participation in the sanctifcation of our souls was what we used to call discipleship – it was written into our baptism liturgy – ‘fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of Christ who has taken hold of you, and do not grow weary in your battle against Sin the World and the Devil, remaining Christ’s faithful soldier and servant to the end of your life . . .’ As we begin Lent – our hearts and minds are directed to the Last things – the death and resurrection of Jesus, the final judgment and in that light, the state of our Souls. The Good News is that Jesus has gone into that place of temptation ahead of us, come out triumphant, and he the great Physician of our Souls will strengthen all those who comes to Him as sinners, in faith.

Glory to God