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        ‘I have set my face like flint . . .’

Sermon for Palm Sunday 2014

[2 Kings 9]
Isaiah 50:4-9
Phil 2:5-11
Matthew 21:1-11

Behold the Servant of the Lord!

(Spectators or participants?)
Whilst I have been contemplating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem this past week, one story form the old testament has consistently come to mind – that of the anointing of Jehu as King over Israel, and instrument of God’s judgement against the house of Ahab. Briefly, the prophet Elisha sends one of the company of prophets to Jehu with instructions to anoint him King. The prophet takes him aside privately, anoints him and declares his mission, to wipe out the line of Ahab and the priests of Baal. Then he flees. Jehu then takes his men and sets off to Jezreel, the city of Ahab’s line. As he approaches – the watchmen say ‘Look! There is Jehu! Send someone out to see whether he is coming in peace!’ As each emissary reaches Jehu’s advancing army, he is told – ‘what do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!’ And so it goes on – an almost terrible intensity of purpose as the annointed one, the instrument of God’s judgement approaches the city

An intensity which is seen in Jesus. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. Luke 9:51-53 There is something about the manner of Jesus as he sets his face, flint like towards Jerusalem, that causes people to draw back. In Jesus, the long heralded Servant of the Lord, there is utter focus, intensity of purpose – Isaiah says 
4 The Lord God has given me
   the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
   the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
   wakens my ear
   to listen as those who are taught. the Servant of the Lord awakens to hear that which the Lord God has to say – he is sustained by these life giving words and so he sustains others – Jesus says, ‘my food is to do the will of the one who sent me’ – When Satan tempts him in the desert with bread – he replies ‘man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’. Jesus in his humanity knows the sustaining of the word of the Lord.

This is what he lives for
 – The Lord God has opened my ear,
   and I was not rebellious, 
   I did not turn backwards.

And Jesus does not rebel, he does not demur, He is obedient – even to the point of death, the death of the cross

I gave my back to those who struck me,
   and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
   from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me;
   therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
   and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near

As Jesus comes to Jerusalem, his purposefulness is evident. In the words of the Psalmist ‘Behold it is written of me in the scroll of the book. I have come to do your will O God’
Singleness of purpose – the one who fulfils his own words – ‘seek ye first the Kingdom of God . . .’ Jesus coming into Jerusalem as the instrument of the judgement of God, coming Only to do the will of his Father.
And what of us?? Through Lent we have been reading together John Kirkby’s book about the establishment of Christians against Poverty. As people have mentioned to me, there are many times when humanly speaking it seems as if the game is up – usually because the financial resources have dried up, but throughout John remains committed to what he perceives to be God’s call on his Life – the way in which he is anointed to serve the purposes of God, and God has mightily vindicated that trust.
I think of Andrew Scott at Brockville – from times living from day to day, not knowing where the next dollar might come from, but as he has consistently told me since I first met him – this is what God has called me to, so here I stay. The issue is not the money, it is my obedience to God’s call. And like the story of John Kirkby, God has vindicated his servant. From nobody, in three months Andrew now has 16 people reading the BIble in a weekday study group – there have been numerous adult baptisms – there is little or no money – but there is obedience and so there is life.
When we speak of the blessing of God upon us, I think very often we misunderstand – what is the Life that God blesses? It is the life of faithfulness to his purposes. If we desire to serve God – God will honour that and through that conduit of faithfulness produce fruit to his glory. The one who lives for the glory of God, sees the glory of God.
We have lived for too too long with a narrative that says – God blesses our lives if we are ‘good’. The truth is that God glorifies himself in the one who is focused to live entirely for the purpose of the glory of God. The more clearly our life together is focused on the purposes of God, the more clearly His glory is revealed.

We have lived too long with a narrative that says, this is all about us and our happiness – whereas it is entirely about God and His Glory. That is the purpose of our very existence. The Image of God – revealing God’s glory in and through the Creation

This surely is the Truth revealed in Jesus. ‘The one who honours me, says the Lord, I will honour’ – ‘How will I honour him? By glorifying myself in him’ There is no greater blessing than for God to reveal his glory through us. Even in death.
Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus emptied himself, and thus became the place wherein the glory of God might reside – therefore God highly exalted him – to the glory of God the Father.

And what of us?? Through Lent we walk with Jesus, with him we fast pray and give alms. We search our hearts and pray for the Grace to continue the journey with Jesus through Holy Week. Unlike those first disciples, we know where this story ends – and Jesus’ gracious invitation is that Holy Week is not for us a spectator event, but one we participate in. It is in truth the renewal of our Baptism – we are included in the death of Jesus that the Life of the risen Jesus might be revealed in and through us – to the glory of God the Father.

As he walks into Jerusalem with but one purpose in mind, we lay aside all other concerns and set out also to die with him. Last week we heard the story of Lazarus – and early on in that long story we hear Thomas say ‘Let us also go with him, that we may die with him’ These are the words of faith. Thomas speaks the words of the one whose life Is Jesus, who desires one thing, to hear and do the will of God, even unto death.

I began with that strange story of Jehu – it might sound a very very odd parallel. Jehu, the anointed instrument of God’s judgement against the house of Ahab. Yet there are powerful parallels, except in one key aspect where the true nature of the King of Israel is revealed. Jehu rides towards Jezreel for Judgement with a mighty army and riding in his chariot. Jesus, with similar intensity of purpose, His Face set like Flint, comes also to the city for judgement – that Jerusalem, all her people and as we shall see all of humanity stands under the judgement of the Living God. And the King comes, but not upon a chariot to kill and destroy – but ‘humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey’. The violence of the Kings of Israel thrown into stark contrast with ‘The King of the Jews’, who is ‘gentle and humble of heart’.

As Jehu approaches Jezreel he says to those who come to ask if he is for Peace, ‘What have you to do with peace? ’ Jesus also declares, I have not come with Peace, but with a sword, but the execution of Judgement will fall upon him.

Jehu says to those envoys ‘Fall in behind me.’ And so Jesus, face flinty with purpose of the Servant of the most High God, says to us, ‘Fall in behind me’ ‘Let the same mind be in you, as was in Christ Jesus’ – the one who emptied himself that the Life of God in all its purposes and all its glory might be revealed in the world.

This is the reason for the existence of the Church – This story of Holy Week is Our story – we are a people born from above with one purpose and one purpose only – to be those vessels for the Glorifying of God. As with Our Lord, We lay down our lives, the world in its violence and hostility to God’s just and gentle rule is judged. God’s glory is revealed.

‘Let us also go with Him, that we might die with him – for God’s glory, that the Son of God may also be glorified’

Amen

So this week, one of my speech mannersims has caused me a little trouble – that is my habit of saying ‘to be frank’ – which is silly because I am not Frank 🙂 [The name of our Kenyan Mission partner]. So imagine my consternation when I tell you that regarding our gospel I want to tell you a story, about Frank – but not This Frank. Another Frank 🙂 a very frank Frank 🙂

Frank was a member of my congregation back in England. He Was Very frank in his speech – something which didn’t enamour him to everyone, expecially on those ODD occasions when his frankness was not, how shall I put it, was not seasoned with Christian Grace and Mercy. Frank and I shared something very important in common in that we were, along with Clemency Wright :-), natives of Carlisle, that DOUR border city in the North of England. I must say, Frank was not at ALL like Clemency :-). It was Frank and I who shared that Northern English trait of being ‘frank’.

OK, enough of frankness in all it’s guises, apart of course from our good friend here with us today 🙂 Except to say that I didn’t call Frank, Frank, I along with his daughter called him Lazarus. I literally lost count of the times over the years that I was either called to a bedside or informed by phone – ‘Oooh he’s fading fast Vicar’, only to encounter him the very next day, up and walking around, being Frank. And so the name Lazarus stuck, for he was always coming back from the dead . . . except of course when he didn’t – well he was in his 90’s 🙂

Now we need to remember that the raising of Lazarus is NOT such a miraculous resuscitation. We never buried Frank . . . except when finally we did, yet Lazarus ‘had already been in the tomb four days’. John is careful to mention this – not three days – he is telling us this is NOT the resurrection. But Lazarus IS Dead. As Jesus said to his disciples when they were unsure, “Lazarus is dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

We may well hear an echo here of last weeks gospel, the man born blind – This man was born blind ‘so that God’s works (the separation of Light and Dark) might be shown in him.’ Jesus does Not rush off to Lazarus when he hears he is ill, ‘he stayed there two more days’ He does not go to Lazarus, because if he had been there Lazarus would not have died as Mary so rightly says “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And, as the man born blind was born blind so that the works of GOd might be revealed in him, so also Lazarus dies, so that the works of God might be revealed in HIM – so that we might believe.

As John says towards the end of his gospel, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

There are many myths about Jesus which do the rounds, none of which do us any help. When it comes to Jesus, we need the medicine of the Truth. As it says in the advertisements, ‘Accept no alternatives!’. As I have frequently said, it is amazing to me how regularly one can be in the company of Christians speaking of faith, and even in the Church’s official pronouncements Jesus is never named – So there is the invisible Jesus ‘myth’.

Then there is the ‘Jesus went about doing good’ myth. Which leads onto that famous question ‘What would Jesus do . . .’ as if copying Jesus was what it was all about . . . Well OK then, so far in John’s gospel, Jesus has gone about doing good by turning water into wine, by healing the dying son of a Royal Official, with less good grace than we might perhaps expect, when the man begs him to heal his son (read all about it at the end of Chapter four); then he heals a paralysed man; then he feeds 5000 people; then he heals a man born blind; then he raises Lazarus from the Dead . . . Jesus went about doing good, so should we – ermmm . . .

The signs that Jesus performs are just that – Signs – they are meant to Direct our Gaze – To Jesus. He is the Messiah, the one who will tell us all things – he reveals by telling the Samaritan woman the truth about herself – He Is the bread of life he reveals by feeding the 5000 – He Is the Light of the World he reveals by healing the blind man – He is the Resurrection – AND HE is THE Life – The One Ezekiel hoped in as the one breathing life into those dry bones.

Mary was right and indeed if he had been there her brother would not have died – but not because he has special powers, because He IS Life – Jesus Is Resurrection – Jesus Is Light – Jesus IS Truth – Jesus Is Bread. And He Is Life.

Why is Lazarus Alive – because of the presence of the Living One – the one who through the miracle of new birth Lives now in him

Last week, as we thought about Loving God with our minds, we reflected that this was to give our minds over to God for His purposes – St Paul puts it like this ‘in view of God’s mercies, offer yourselves as living Sacrifices – Holy and Acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. The woman at the well rushes back to that community which her history had excluded her from to tell them about Jesus; the man born blind bears courageous witness to the Truth of Jesus, to the point of being thrown out of the synagogue. Lazarus? Well how might life be for one whom Jesus Life has so dramatically filled? We read ‘the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.’ Why try to kill Lazarus – for he is now a Living Sign to the Life of Jesus. He is Full of the Life that the darkness tries in vain to overcome – The Life of God in Jesus Christ.

One final myth – the myth of what I call ‘The Chaplain God’ – the myth that is the most pervasive, pernicious and indeed destructive of true faith in Jesus. That Jesus is there for us – that he exists for our sakes – that he is there to help us live our life. No – We Live for Him. If we are born again – as Lazarus is in the most dramatic way – then we are vessels of HIs Life – His Spirit guides and directs our lives in every part. We spend each moment in attentiveness to him – for apart from him we can do nothing. But in response to Him – we can do all things. Jesus said to Martha, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone [from the grave]. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Jesus Command Is Life – Jesus Is the Creative Word of God – In Him Is Life and that Life is the Light of all people

The presence of Frank – that is This Frank 🙂 and Flora and the rest of the team from Kenya with us these two weeks – is in celebration of the coming of the gospel to these lands 200 years ago. But what is the Gospel? What Is the Good News? It is nothing more nor less than the Life of Jesus Christ, present amongst us. He is our Treasure beyond value. He is Our Life. And apart from Him, we have nothing.

Sermon for Lent 4 – Year A – Sunday March 30th 2014

John 9

‘Without humility no-one will see God’

Lord Jesus Christ, take my lips and speak through them; take our minds and think through them; take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. Amen.

What does it mean to love God with all our mind?

When I was in the process of considering the call to come here to St John’s – as any person might do I checked the parish website. And there I saw the comment ‘St John’s not a church where you need to leave your brain at the door . . .’ I must admit at first I was quietly pleased, it would be disingenuous of me to say that I am not interested in the life of the mind. But I have to say that as I typed these words out they made me shudder . . . I will pass over my objections for now, to an obvious objection to my taking issue with it. For as we have hear every Sunday, Jesus in calling Israel to remembrance of who She is recites the Shema – ‘Hear O Israel, The Lord thy God, The Lord is One, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength’. There it is!! Love God with All of your mind!! What’s my problem? Well simply this – What does it mean to Love God with our minds?? Because just Using our minds is not necessarily loving God with them. (Although we would like to think so) For our minds can obviously be put to many uses that have nothing to do with loving God. And even thinking about God is not necessarily to love him with our minds – esepcially if we consider God to be some sort of ‘problem’ – as if we were thinking about the ocean, or the news, or what to have to dinner tonight. To think about someone you love is not the same, and this is to love God with our minds. And, to make matters worse, the better our minds, the better we are at deluding ourselves that we are loving God with our minds.

To Love is to Give. God so Loved the world, that He Gave. Love is a giving over of what we have for others. To love God with our minds is to surrender our minds to God. Now the very phrase ‘To Surrender our minds to God’ may well cause us to shudder. I struggle with it. Yet without that First step, we cannot be enlightened – we cannot by our own self serving processes of Reason come to the Truth. But if we Surrender our minds to God, Trusting in his Love then He will lead us deep into the Truth of who he is. We Must acknowledge that we are utterly dependent on God to know the truth of God. Theology as the doctors of the church tell us is ‘Faith seeking understanding’ What is faith? Faith is the surrender of our lives to God. In other words we begin by saying Yes to God. And the rest of our thinking is predicated on that unreserved ‘Yes’
All too often the phrase ‘we don’t check our brains in at the door’ leaves us in effect putting ‘God in the Dock’ – as if our pitiful powers of reason could elucidate the truth. To hear our own St John – if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us. To as it were put God on trial, to put him to the test is to assume we are without Sin, that our eyes are completely clear. That We See. But Jesus destroys our illusions “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. If we start from the assumption that we see, then we all we admit is our blindness. That is why long hours of loving prayer – of spending time with God is the prerequisite for any thinking about God. Without Love for God, no thinking about him can be truthful. For to Love IS to Know. To do otherwise is to assume that we are greater than God, in practise, if we would never acknowledge that in theory.

I recounted to the Lent group a week ago how I had been revealed as someone smug, superior and arrogant and dreadfully sinful by my Spiritual Director some years ago. How she had listened carefully to me and then asked ‘Eric, would you prefer it if you were right and God were wrong?’ And facing the state of my wicked heart I admitted that that was the case. She dismissed me with the words, “I think you have some serious work to do!’’ I don’t think that ever, before or since I have so felt the fires of hell licking at my heels. For we cannot love God with our minds if we will not surrender our need to be right . . . and that battle for the love of our minds is right at the heart of our Gospel today. As is the whole Gospel – the encounter with Jesus, the lover of our souls, the one who confronts us with terrible truths about ourselves, that we might turn from our wickedness and live. I had assumed that I was greater than God – although if you were to put it to me I would have said ‘Never!!’. But the Truth of my life was revealed by a skilled and holy director.

Sin exposed

So as my director revealed My Sin – so our Gospel also reveals Sin. As I said to put God on trial it is first necessary is to assume We have not sinned, however we might protest otherwise. Our Gospel reading hones right in on this, God in the person of Jesus is on trial, and the occassion of this is the healing of the man born blind, and notice how Sin is a thread running through the whole story.
First there is the question of why he is blind. ‘Did he sin or was it his parents?’ – Jesus declares that the straightforward connection between suffering and sin is wrong. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned” You are wrong to make this connection – but then Jesus adds a somewhat mysterious phrase ‘he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him’ I’ll come back to that at the end. “4We” ( Jesus is here including the disciples in His work) “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” This healing is a Sign of Who Jesus is, ‘the true light who enlightens everyone.
So Jesus dismisses sin from the equation concerning the man’s blindness – but that does not mean that he is dismissing sin as we shall see.
Secondly, the man in obedience to Jesus goes and washes in the pool. Note Jesus does not say ‘go and wash the mud off’ – just ‘Go! Wash!’ Surely we are right to see here an allusion to Baptism. He went and washed and came back able to see. And as he comes from the pool more astonishingly he is not easily recognised – the mud takes us to the thought of the creation of Adam, from Mud. The Man is a New Creation – not readily recognisable, as of course neither was Jesus after his Resurrection, The New Creation. He has been born again. His parents without realising what they are saying tell the Pharisees, ‘Ask him yourself, He has come of age’ They say ‘he is no longer our child’, by their refusal to defend him – and in truth he is not – for now he is God’s child.
And notice also that Jesus is not in the picture. The man stands alone before the Pharisees. As the confusion over sin and his blindness reveals, health was seen as a spiritual matter. If he is healed, this is religiously important. So as the healed lepers are sent by Jesus to the Priests as a testimony to them, so also the man is Sent, to the waters of new Birth, then sent before the Pharisees, to witness.

Jesus says to those who follow him, ‘As the Father sent me, so I have sent you!’ The Man is one of the Sent ones, as Jesus the firstborn from above was sent.

Jesus as the Judge – the one who brings into Light things hidden

Now the story really hots up. It is at this point in John’s gospel that the narrative of conflict between Light and Dark is brought right to the forefront. Previously it is alluded to – Nicodemus comes by night and leaves in the dark – the woman at the well comes in broad daylight and receives Life from Christ. But now it is exposed. Jesus words from the end of the story “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” are enacted as the man bears witness to Jesus. This is what faithful witness to Jesus does, it reveals Light and Dark. His presence Is judgement. We blithely think that Judgement is something for the end of our lives, but it is Now, wherever Jesus is present – the Spirit separates the Light from the Dark, the Day from the Night, and Yes, there is more to the Creation story than a story of origins . . . Jesus is made present in the testimony of the man, as he simply declares what happens. The man testifies to what Jesus has done for him . . . as all those who are baptised are called to. We bear witness to Jesus, not primarily by talking about him in the Objective sense, but by bearing witness to what he has done for us – in this sense our words and actions can be understood as one, for our lives are renewed in all dimensions. And the Light breaks in exposing the darkness of the Pharisees. And they are angry
“Give glory to God! (On Oath – ‘Tell the Truth!!’ and the man does) “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know (Again the pride – that same pride that Nicodemus came to Jesus with ‘We know that you are a teacher who has come from God) ‘We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 (There is that Creation theme laid bare) Not since the Beginning has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out. In the blind eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus is a sinner for healing on the Sabbath, and the man is a sinner because he was blind. So Light and dark are separated. the darkness cannot abide the light and seeks to drive it away.

The Pharisees and Us

The Pharisees had a very highly developed theological system of which they were judge and jury. They were at the centre of things, however much they said God was – they had things arranged so that they could have a very comfortable life and still worship God. Life entirely on their own terms. I have no doubt that they would have said ‘this is how we worship God with our minds’. They were not about to surrender their way of thinking to God. They were not about to accept that this man whom all their training said must be a sinner, had been healed by Jesus, whom they Also they saw as a Sinner for he healed on the Sabbath. Their whole way of life was under assault, and they were not about to admit that they were Wrong, for that would cost them Everything! As Faith in Jesus does. Jesus and his sent ones find themselves rejected by those who think that they are the centre of everything. They are ‘outside the camp’ Jesus will be crucified outside the city. There is no place for obedience to Jesus in the Pharisees system. Light has come in Jesus – their darkness is revealed. ‘You were born blind!! You were steeped in sin at your birth!! – How dare you try and lecture us!! The Action of Jesus has threatened them to their very core. If what the man says is true then their whole way of life has come under judgement in Jesus . . . and it is the same for us.

Indeed they weren’t about to surrender their way of thinking and indeed they weren’t about to surrender anything!

But what of us? The man hears the command of Jesus to go and wash and he does. In Obedience he is reborn. In obedience to the Son of Man, he is revealed to be a child of God. Every time we hear the words of Jesus, so plain in their command, it is Judgement. The words of Jesus reveal light and dark. Every time we respond in obedience to Jesus we are revealed as children of Light.
But if with the Pharisees we to use our thinking to adapt his command to our lives, rather than obey their plain meaning – we are revealed as children of the darkness. Take for example the command to love our neighbour as ourself, for many people the epitome of Jesus’ teaching. Love your neighbour as you love yourself. What would you do if you were hungry? Is your neighbour hungry? What would you do if you were cold? Is your neighbour cold? Etc. Etc. Yet how readily do we modify this word of Light, to one of darkness, namely Love your neighbour insofar as it is convenient to you – insofar as you can continue to live the life you want to have. And therein is found the heart of it – which life DO we want?? But the life of faith is not life on our terms, it is the Only life there is, the life of God, the life of alignment to the purposes of God, the life of simple obedience.
And such obedience, apart from staring it in the face and counting the cost of it, requires not much thought. Obedience does not require brain power. In truth some of the greatest of Saints have been the simplest of people. Loving nothing more than to love God with their lives.

Every time we take the plain words of Jesus and use our minds to change their meaning we are doing exactly what the Pharisees did

Who are the recipients of mercy

The man who witnesses to what Jesus has done for him is thrown out – he suffers the rejection of Jesus. Jesus comes to him outside and the man worships him. Two weeks ago we heard of Nicodemus – coming by night. A Pharisee with too much to lose . . . although as his story unwinds we see that there is even hope for Nicodemus . . . Then last week Jesus seeks the woman in the Light – the woman who is an outcast finds life in the Truth about her life being brought into the Light – The man who is born blind – the man who is a beggar – born thus that he might be the ground of God’s New Creation – receives New Life from Jesus. These people with nothing, the humble poor, the poor in Spirit of The beatitude see the Kingdom of heaven. The people with nothing to lose receive the Life of God. Next week we see this brought to a dramatic climax with the raising of Lazarus. The epitome of someone who has lost his, and so might gain it

Thus humility is the prerequisite for our Life in Christ. Thinking much of ourselves is always an error – Thinking much of Christ is always the way to Life. As St Benedict has it ‘The first degree of humility is obedience, and that without delay.’ And only one whose mind is surrendered to God, one who has laid down their Pride can live in such obedience.

Perhaps rather than ‘St John’s not a church where you need to leave your brain at the door . . .’ We might say, ‘St John’s is a church where we seek to support one another in the apparently foolish, very difficult yet life giving path of surrendered obedience of our minds to Jesus Christ – Our Life.’

The Recording can be found by clicking [HERE]

The sound quality of this recording is poor for the first minute but then improves considerably

In this session which was meant to be a repeat of earlier material I gave some teaching which I had earlier missed out – this led us into waters I hadn’t expected to navigate on the Necessity of the Church in terms of the Salvation of the World

Part 2

Lent course 2 – Session 1

Lent Course 2 – Session 2

One of the great gifts of my retreat was the disconnection from the internet – and yes I am not unaware of the irony of disclosing this on the internet, but bear with me 🙂

For many years now I’ve experienced what I can only describe as constant mental distractedness, fragmentation and stress, and my time away from the screen in addition to rich times of prayer and communion with the Ngatiawa Community saw this disappear for the first time for a long time. Returning home, feeling Well in a way I had never experienced, (And with people telling me how different I seemed and how well I looked) I noted that blogging, social media etc. just raised this sense of stressful distraction once more. Surfing, keeping an eye out for messages, following link after link of fascinating and ‘worthy’ posts just brought back that old dull pain in my forehead. [And thank you for your concern but my glasses prescription is fine 🙂 ]

I’d ceased to live from my heart.  I realised that I was writing mechanically out of a knot of mental wires. My blogging had just become one more thing to do. It wasn’t life giving – it left me drained. Unwell

Doing some research bore out what I had thought, that using the internet was in effect rewiring me neurologically. To put not to fine a point on it, the very nature of the internet affects us fundamentally, at a physiological level. It is certainly not going too far to say that our consciousness becomes wired into the net through our engagement. Whether you like to think of this or not, I think it is demonstrably true. Along with a good number of others, I had lost the ability to concentrate especially when reading books. (not good news when one is preparing for long term serious study that will take all my powers of prayerful attention)

I used to love study but it had become increasingly difficult. In neurological terms I was addicted to changing tracks – following ‘interesting links’ one after another – with nothing driving the process except my appetite for mental stimulation, fed by regular dopamine shots as I followed one rabbit hole after another. Long Deep Reading had become impossible for me where once it was my joy to get lost in a book.

Beyond this, research has shown that our capacity for deep relationship is very limited. (That recurrent theme of depth) By so much engagement I am spreading myself far far thinner than that limit. As I have said many times – there is a world of difference between written text and the sound of a voice, with its pauses and colour – and that is before you think of communication which is embodied, those occasions when long silence can be profound gift. In the ‘virtual world’ of the internet – silence only gives cause for concern. James’ warning to be slow to speak is unobservable.

As a Priest I am as it were bi-vocational. I am called to be with God -to spend long hours in prayer – and to be with people with God. As my pattern is the Word made flesh – I too am called to be such a presence.  And Called to be a presence Here. Despite the fervent protestations of its acolytes, such engagement is not possible in virtual reality. When we die, we don’t want lots of text messages – we want a hand, the sound of breath, touch, an eye to look into. And we should live as though dying, for we always are.

[The fact that anyone engages with any degree of seriousness in conversations about the possibility of Virtual Church makes me shiver in my very core. How can we have come to a point where we are so blind, so led astray by the Prince of this world??!]

I know  that I came away from retreat Well a few weeks back, and rewired into the net, and that sense of wellness dissipated. If I take time out it returns. It was interesting to observe this – to test it . . . Once, a long time ago, I foolishly played with fire like this. I was testing my vocation. I noticed that when I asked God for a sign, I got it – if I didn’t, I didn’t. I began to enjoy this, until I saw the utter sinfulness of my behaviour. I sense God gave me great healing in and through that disconnection – enabling me to be present to the world and other people and indeed with him in a way I had known deep down I hadn’t been for a long time.

This isn’t an age when we can afford to play with fire. I know what the internet does to me – I know how it draws me away from Him and His presence in others. I know how it sucks me dry and spits me out.

I am saying  that this is a particular weakness of mine. There may be others who can navigate these waters without harm.  All I know is that I once thought that way – I have realised that I was wrong.

So  – sermon postings aside, I’m disconnecting from this blog and other internet use, at least for the time being. There is a possibility that in the future I may again post articles on the blog, but they will be the product of the prayerful reflection that the internet has for now made impossible for me.

I’m not  deleting my FB account, although I have had a mind to. Partly because it can be a means of keeping in touch with friends, but I think I will probably reduce my participation to FB messenger on my phone, which is always on silent and which I only check periodically.

[Re-reading this I find it dreadfully incoherent – another sign that it is time to ‘log off’ :-)]

This has not been an easy post to write – indeed it has been edited etc. many times over and still doesn’t really say what I want to, but perhaps there again as another reason to quit. But as I was just about to go to sleep I read the following in Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove’s excellent book ‘Stability’ a book which I’ve much enjoyed and learned much from – this really seemed to sum things up

“What we hardly ever want to admit is that we are limited creatures. Subject to the confines of time and space, we cannot be anywhere, anytime. As a matter of fact, we can only be in this place, now.”

I think for those of us wealthy enough to be able to read this, this is a huge challenge. We live in a world which seems to us to be of almost unlimited opportunities. So much so that we have largely lost touch with our 180lb frame of flesh and blood and often those around us. What Is it saying when people sit together and are wired apart? I admit it – I’m limited. Very limited. And that is no bad thing. It is a gift to be accepted.

And thereby we leave space for others: Proverbs 23:10; Luke 22:24-25

Whoever you are – if you have been following my posts, my prayer is that God will richly bless you, wired or unwired

Eric

In a day or so we will end our pause for consideration

‘a day or so’

It is a long time to pause

Or is it?

How quickly ‘a day or so’ passes

Our lives are but a breath

Pause

Savour the moment – Come to your senses

A Pause

If you are anything like me, you absorb a lot of information. Threads such as this one are in some regards most unhelpful for us – for we never settle with one idea, one thought, one necessary thing. Journals become places for us where we put things in order to forget them (however well intentioned we are)

So let us pause

Look back at the past 16 days

What is the One thing necessary?

What is the one gift the Lent might have for you?

Has it got lost under many other thoughts and ideas?

If it is The Gift, then unsubscribe from this blog.

Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us
   as prey to their teeth.

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

Psalm 123 (124) Vs. 6,7

One of the great gifts of Lent, as we considered yesterday was that of disconnecting in order to discover our disconnectedness. Jesus goes out into the wilderness on a journey, not so much of self discovery, but of the affirmation of his eternal identity as the Son of God.

Of course part of that journey was necessary, for from all eternity he had not occupied space in the flesh. Was it possible that the Son of God might take on flesh? The tests Jesus faced were ‘of the flesh’ – bread for the hungry; concrete evidence of his Father whom he could not see; and the temptation to lose that which he could not sense in order to gain all that his eye desired. All of these in their different way are very much temptations of desire – and our desires lead us away from our true identity.

Think of the prodigal, blind to who his father was, he sees the allure of the world.

So trained are we in thinking that our ‘selves’ are our minds, we easily fall prey to the temptations of the flesh, for our brains are more than capable of rationalising any action of the body, any act of unfaithfulness, any . . . I could go on. More than that our mental capacity is readily trained in serving the flesh in this way and if we call ourselves Christians, of dressing it up in theological language, taking the name of God in vain.

So ‘Retreat’ should always include elements of disconnecting, in order to unmask these unruly appetites of the flesh. But that use of the word, ‘flesh’ does not designate our bodies, only reveal what happens when we allow our bodies to master us. For our bodies are now, and always will be part of us, and as St Paul reminds us, we eagerly await their redemption. Death is not an escape from the bodily realm. The Risen Christ is flesh and blood – he lays a fire, he eats and invites us to touch his hands and side.

As I said yesterday, there is great gift in disconnecting from artificial light . . . as Christians we should be more wary than most of that which ‘masquerades as light’. On retreat I slept whilst it was dark, and I worked whilst it was yet light. This is a much undervalued way of life in a world where artificial light teaches us that our lives are without bounds. Burnout, stress, working every hour of the day and night is only possible because we have extended our sovereignty, even over the night.

It would be worth considering how different our lives would be did we not have light 24/7 in our homes. Would we be as tired? If previous generations managed to do that which God asked of them in the hours of daylight, who are we working for when we ‘burn the candle at both ends’? Our forebears in faith knew this, even before electricity made our lives so very frenetic

‘It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives sleep to his beloved.’

The Lord gave day and night. they are gifts. The day for work – and then only 6 in 7 – and the night for sleep. The Scriptures call the twelfth hour, 6pm, ‘the last hour of the day’. The Anglican divine William Law says ‘This is a time so proper for devotion that I suppose nothing need be said to recommend it as a season of prayer to all people . . . . As the labor and action of every state of life is generally over at this hour, so this is the proper time for everyone to call to himself to account and review all his behaviour from the first action of the day.’

For closure of the day.

Are we more wise than our forebears who almost throughout history did not work in the dark? Of course we like to think so, yet if our disconnected minds should trick us into thinking this is so, our bodies betray us. Or perhaps we are betraying our bodies, which are now and always will be, part of us?