Daily Office - June 29

Peter and Paul, Apostles
Ember Day

Psalm 71
In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame.

In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;

incline your ear to me and save me.
Be for me a stronghold to which I may ever resort;
send out to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor.
For you are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence, even from my youth.
Upon you have I leaned from my birth, when you drew me from my mother’s womb;
my praise shall be always of you.

I have become a portent to many, but you are my refuge and my strength.
Let my mouth be full of your praise and your glory all the day long.
Do not cast me away in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails.
For my enemies are talking against me, and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.

They say, ‘God has forsaken him; pursue him and take him, because there is none to deliver him.’

O God, be not far from me; come quickly to help me, O my God.
Let those who are against me be put to shame and disgrace;
let those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.

But as for me I will hope continually and will praise you more and more.
My mouth shall tell of your righteousness and salvation all the day long, for I know no end of the telling.
I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God;
I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, you have taught me since I was young, and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.
Forsake me not, O God, when I am old and grey-headed,
till I make known your deeds to the next generation and your power to all that are to come.
Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens;
in the great things you have done, who is like you, O God?
What troubles and adversities you have shown me,
and yet you will turn and refresh me and bring me from the deep of the earth again.
Increase my honour; turn again and comfort me.
Therefore will I praise you upon the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will sing out as I play to you, and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
My tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long,
for they shall be shamed and disgraced who sought to do me evil.

Psalm 113
Alleluia.
Give praise, you servants of the Lord, O praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore.
From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the Lord be praised.
The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God, that has his throne so high,
yet humbles himself to behold the things of heaven and earth?
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ashes,
To set them with princes, with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a place in the house
and makes her a joyful mother of children.

Isaiah 49.1-6
Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,  in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,  Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with The Lord,  and my reward with my God.’

And now the Lord says,  who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength - he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant  to raise up the tribes of Jacob  and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,  that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’

Acts 11.1-18
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.” And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’

The Collect
Almighty God,
whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul
glorified you in their death as in their life:
grant that your Church,
inspired by their teaching and example,
and made one by your Spirit,
may ever stand firm upon the one foundation,
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A church of two halves

The words of Ecclesiastes 1. 9, 'What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun,' ring true today as we turn our attention to Peter's encounter with a bunch of circumcised believers in Jerusalem.

Here we have a church of two halves: the circumcised (Jewish) believers and the uncircumcised (Gentile) believers.

We also have a great deal of righteous anger and loads of passion (funny how prejudice does that isn't it?) along with it.

Now considering that working back from the current Pope the line (albeit just a little fuzzy in places) tracks back to the man himself: Peter! So what we have here is 'the man' being taken on by the Jewish believers ( of course this won't be the last time the 'Judaizers' find themselves in the spotlight - Paul encounters them in Galatians); not the leaders but the influential, Jewish, believers are taking him to town. What is interesting it that it must have worked for, despite his own words in the Acts 11 account, we later find Paul giving him some real stick over his 'encouraging Gentile believers to not only follow Christ but adopt Jewish practices).

What today's readings teach us is that we have a new commandment to live up to - we make love our priority and our rule of life; we don't put stumbling blocks in the way of new believers, neither do we impose ritual or worship style, liturgical tastes or our own personal fads, habits and desires. What we do is bless that what God is already blessing and help those outside the kingdom to recognise the voice and hand of God in their lives.

What we must do is to seek to recognise the image of the invisible God made visible by the presence of the person before us and celebrate the fact that nothing (and no one?) God has made 'clean' is unclean. Regardless of where we have been, what we have seen or done - there are no definitive sins (outside that one 'unforgivable' sin against the Holy Spirit in Matt 12//mark 3) - all are equal and carry the same weight whether there's one or dozens of them.

High, low, charismatic, traditional - fundamental, liberal or confused: We need to celebrate the fact that people come to God through Christ and refrain from putting our yokes on them.

He whom the Son sets free is free indeed - so let's not put our burdens on they and break their backs with our personal likes, dislikes and arrogance, eh?

Easter 3 and . .

the response, 'He is Risen indeed!' is beginning to sound a little hollow.

Just like those who live in places where tourist attractions are to be found (and I can plead guilty to this having had a bridge, a pier, cathedrals, museums and more bedsides) and yet see nothing special in  them, some are beginning to forget Easter Sunday and the joy it brings.

The Pascal candle is lit (and?); the greeting, 'He is Risen!' is proclaimed (yeah, we know!); the Eucharist is celebrated (we do that EVERY week?).

In the readings today we have Saul 'still' breathing out murderous threats encountering the risen Christ and losing his sight that he might see more clearly.  The Angels proclaim the truth about Jesus, the Christ and all created things worship Him - without ceasing! Peter takes up a new role as shepherd, walking in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd.

Three passages from the Bible that challenge, inspire and demand.

How can we be anything but caught up in the One who died and rose again from the dead?

How can we be anything but caught up in the love of those in whom the invisible God is made visible?

How can we not shout the words, 'He is Risen indeed!' and get loud when we come to the 'Hosanna in the highest' bits?

On this, and every mini-Easter Sunday we can stand and excitedly respond to the proclamation:

Jesus, the Christ, is Risen!

Cant' we? 

Heroes of the Faith - Flawed like us?

During the sermon on Pentecost Sunday I was very aware of the heroic Simon Peter standing, as he did, raising his voice and addressing the crowd. This wonderful, bold, saintly person. The cry, "Oh that we might be like him," on the lips of so many of us. Others look at the Apostle Paul and wish they could be the consistently 'go for it' zealot that we see in him.

Well of course these two mighty men of faith were heroes and were 'all out' for God. But they were also as flawed and fallible as us; They too had their feet of clay and their sinful natures poked through the thin layers of righteous clothing in exactly the saem way it does for us.

Take a look at the divisions, arising from the Gentile Pentecost, between Peter (leaning towards Judaism) and Paul (leaning towards freedom from the Jewish way). The divisions and the way that the primary figures handled themselves leads on to think that they weren't all sweetness and light and that they wouldn't have fared well in so many of our twee, 'let's agree to differ (and sing I love you with the love of the Lord)' churches and fellowships.

Let's face it, these two were flawed, aggressive and probably not the plaster saints that so many would have us believe. Don't believe me? Take a look at Galatians and the strongly worded, and extremely robust, attack on false Apostles. Who do you think Paul was having a pop at? Who were the 'pillars of the church' Paul was having a swipe at?

Not all the time, for there are indications of love and mutual respect, but there are barbs and the flawed and sinful human nature shows it's head from time to time.

I recall reading a biography of Paul which spoke of the man being depressive and flawed at times. Amazingly, depression is seen as making us fallible and open to attack of all kinds (mental, emotional and more) and yet it is often a hallmark of the Christian saints, historical and present, and thus should not be seen as something that limits but perhaps opens us to God and his healing, enabling and grace.

The tension between reflecting Christ in our lives and living with the hidden depths of our ever-present depraved nature is no different for us as it was for Simon Peter, Paul, James, John or any other of the saints and heroes. The ability to do good and to think differently, to endure the idiots we meet and struggle to see the image of the invisible God in the person before us (hoping that they might be doing the same with us), is part of the daily struggle to follow the path that leads to the cross and denying of self.

Watching the film, 'Machine Gun Preacher' recently I found myself cheering as the flawed man that was Sam Childers apparently found Christ in a church service. I applauded as the Childers character went to East Africa and worked with others to construct buildings for orphans and returned and encourage people to give themselves and be committed to the work of God. Yippee, a real-life action hero of the Christian kind?

Well it was 'Yes' and then, for me, 'No'.

The man becomes more and more taken up with doing stuff in his own strength and his encouragement of others turns to condemnation and reviling and the means that he adopts deny the Christian message and puts off God entirely. The story is one of excess in all areas and by being so displays the ability to be the saint and have that subverted by our passion, commitment and desire to see 'stuff' happen, with or without God and His people.

I struggle to lead by example and be non-directive (which some see as a failing) and yet I know that there is a need for me to walk at God's pace in a way that might bring others on the journey with me and so, despite myself, I continue (but there's someone in me who wants to act differently).

When you look in the mirror do you celebrate the image of the invisible God made visible in you or do you sag at the image of the flawed and fallible person? May we make our prayer the words of John (3) in that, "He must become greater and we must become less.”

Pax