It’s an interesting fact that most people want the sermon to tell them stuff that they neither implement in their own Christian day-to-day life and quickly forget (sometimes before they’ve even left the building).
People generally don’t like being challenged too much. I think it’s probably true that most of us are happy to survive the sermon and get out of the building without too much unsettling stuff challenging us.
The challenges come in the shape of me being challenged and from this each person hearing (or reading) the words needs to be challenged as well. So let’s see what’s causing me such concerns:
This week’s Gospel leads us to consider the plight of a woman who had suffered from a crippling condition for eighteen years. The Bible identifies the cause as something spiritual (something many would immediately discount as being nothing more than ‘ignorant ancients’ who saw demons and spirits in everything around them). This is the first of my challenges: How should I regard this ‘spirit’ thing? Is it real or borne out of ignorance? (after all, I have Wikipedia and so ‘know’ everything)
It’s the Sabbath – and because of this doing any work is frowned upon as being contrary to God’s command that it should be a ‘day of rest’ – but Jesus just breaks off from teaching and, ‘all of a sudden up he comes and cures her’, much like the ex-leper in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’*.
Now I expect Jesus to do this sort of thing because that what He did way back when and long ago in a land far, far away. Jesus does the ‘stuff’ then but what about now? Doesn’t the Bible say that we have the Spirit of God in us enabling us to do ‘stuff’ - and this brings me to my second challenge Isn’t doing the ‘stuff’ what we should see God do in our ‘now’ just like in the women’s ‘now’?
And having had Jesus do the ‘stuff’, up jumps the leader of the synagogue (which we should read as ‘church in our context) and gets all wound up because Jesus has healed on the Sabbath (which we should read as ‘Sunday’) and goes off on one about working for six days and keeping the Sabbath free from work. If you want to get healed, do it during the week, not on the Sabbath he shouts. And this brings into focus a couple more challenges. The third challenge surrounds ‘keeping the Sabbath’ and the fourth is something every denomination I have been involved in has challenged me with: The religious people (especially leaders) and their crass stupidity and hypocrisy!
I am becoming more and more certain that we are turning Christianity into yet another empty philosophical navel-gaze. It’s all words like all the other philosophies and fine thoughts and like them there is nothing of any merit to be found. With regard to being a lifestyle there’s few real obvious realities, outcomes or works to show it for what it really needs to be!!
Fortunately I think its fair to say this is something Jesus and I share as he gets stuck in to the foolish people before Him saying (my paraphrase), “You untie you animals and give them water or feed them and care for them and yet go all legal regarding the situation this woman finds herself and so condemn her to remaining oppressed by the devil.”
Now those opposing Jesus get a bit embarrassed whilst the others just cheer and celebrate God’s salvation being made real in the woman’s life – and just as it is today – people draw lines and cheer when they can claim whatever but struggle when it’s happening in another place that’s not under their control. Which brings me to my fifth challenge: Those churches and their leaders who serve God in ways that serve them and their monolithic organisations (and in doing so curse what God is doing elsewhere)!
Psalm 139 tells us that before we were, and when we were in the womb, and all the days of our life, and even after, God knew us – a thought echoed in our ‘call of Jeremiah’ passage.
God tells Jeremiah to come before those who oppose Him and His people: “Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Don’t be frightened by them (because I’m much more frightening than them!)”
Our Hebrews passage adds to this with the words: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (which leads me to ask my sixth question: ‘Where is the unequivocal witness and courage regarding the things of God and those who oppose it today?’)
So here's my challenges:
- How should I regard this ‘spirit’ thing? Is it real or borne out of ignorance (seeing demons in everything)?
- Isn’t doing the ‘stuff’ what we should see God do in our ‘now’ just like in the women’s ‘now’?
- ‘keeping the Sabbath’
- Religious people (especially leaders) and their crass stupidity and obvious hypocrisy!
- Churches and their leaders who serve God in ways that serve them and their monolithic organisations!
- ‘Where is the unequivocal witness and courage regarding the things of God and those who oppose it today?’
Let’s have a quick think about these things:
1. Demons and illness: One and the same?
I guess we only need to look at Matthew 4.24 to see that those ‘ancients’ did not classify all issues as being demonic: “So Jesus’ fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all their sick; those who suffered from various diseases, aches and pains: demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and Jesus cured them all.”
Now if the Bible makes this distinction then so should we. But this means that we have to recognise that some of the stuff out there that troubles us is spiritual. But aren’t we ‘spiritual’ beings in physical bodies and so that would seem to make sense. (and don't forget the ancients knew more than many of us and had to work it out for themselves, not Google it!).
2. What about doing the ‘stuff’ today?
This seems to be a fair question, after all we are told that, “We are not in the flesh but in the Spirit – in fact the Spirit of God dwells in us. Those who do not have the Spirit of Christ do not belong to Him”. (Romans 8.9)
I believe that God can, and does, work in and through us in places and situations and that ‘miracles’ should be expected. I have seen blind people see and have witnessed cerebral palsied children being healed and more beside. The problem I have is that we live in an unbelieving world that craves signs. They want to see the magic but they don’t really want to know the source of it. In Africa those around me were expectant and believing and yet in the UK I find the Christian either tell God what to do or limit His manifest love through doubt. Perhaps the key is to ‘only believe’ and take it from there!
But ‘yes’ I am convinced it still happens.
3. Keeping the Sabbath
There are many Christian I meet who tell me that this is just an Old Testament thing (10 commandments: No 3 - Exodus 20). Some think that with Jesus’ coming the Sabbath had been fulfilled because we were with God every day – so no need for a special set aside day (they get this from Augustine). The reality is that if it were not for the Eucharist (the Communion) and meeting on the Sabbath to share it, the Church would have vanished in the way we know it today. But there is benefit in having a ‘rest day’ – something those outside the church acknowledge:
“Long working hours and Sunday work seem to cause the greatest disruption to family life: parents with these working patterns were more likely than others to say that work limited their engagement in family activities. 38% mothers and 54% of fathers worked at least one Saturday a month; Sunday working (once a month or more) was reported by a quarter of mothers and just under a third of fathers; 18% of mothers and 22% of fathers worked every Saturday and Sunday at least once a month.
In most cases Sunday work was a job requirement and of all the atypical work times, this was the most unpopular. Parents who worked on Sundays were considerably more likely than others to report that their work frequently disrupted family activities. Any potential business benefits of extending Sunday opening hours (currently limited to six hours) would need to take into count the costs to families."
Source: The influence of atypical working hours on family life,
Ivana La Valle, Sue Arthur, Christine Millward, James Scott with Marion Clayden, 25th September 2012. Joseph Rowntree Foundation
We have come to think of Sunday as ‘just another day’ and this contributes to the secularisation of the world around us. Money is the god of this age and profit (and isn’t that why shops open on a Sunday) rather than relationship and well-being drives most things. But a day to enjoy relationships with each other, with God (whatever you perceive that word to mean), and to recover from the daily grind – are still important today for our well-being.
4. Religious people, crass stupidity and obvious hypocrisy
What a can of worms this is. Even though it is as true for non-theists as much as the theists, it’s the ‘God-botherers’ I am concerned with here. The problem is that we are driven by having church operate in the ‘right way’ (which means the way I want it to be) and so we start on time and run through the running order without allowing distraction or deviation.
Jesus sees a need and He deals with it. He stops the sermon and does the stuff. I have been In services where the running order and the format and the whims and wiles of the leader were more Important than anything else. I’ve seen people rolling around groaning, moaning and distracting from the main event ‘The Eucharist’ with their silliness. But when God really turns turns up (and we miss it so often), we need to be sensitive and make space in the running order for the Guest star!
Over the years I have seen too many congregations kowtowing to some ‘important’ visitor (or some foolish distraction) such that the ‘God moments’ were ignored. But this is wrong! Wrong on the part of the grovelling masses and even more wrong on the part of the ‘important’ people who fail to respond to the needs before them. Being a leader means we lead by example, sensitively responding to the move of the Spirit.
The other side of the coin may be found in the way that ‘the Church’ all too often invents foolish explanations to defend God (who surely if He is God needs no help) and to bring comfort and favour by weakening the word and rubbing out the lines between right and wrong. Worse still, our leaders can stand up and look authoritative and sound only for us to find that they have defended the wrong and concealed their sinful abuses and wickedness to protect the guilty.
(Take a look at this https://bit.ly/2Nz5KBd regarding the Peter Ball scandal).
All Christians should be open, honest and tireless in making sure that things are right, proper and most of all, biblical. Our ‘Yes’ should be ‘yes’ and our ‘No should be No’. No blurring of lines or deliberate misrepresentation (but of course being human I’m sure we all fail and fall – but we learn and grow, not continue in the errors). And when we don’t know, we should resolve to find out rather than fudge of BS (Stanley Hauerwas has it right when he says, “It’s all about Jesus, the rest is just BS!”)
5. Church as monolithic organisations
I am increasingly finding myself caught up with the thought that the Church of England, and other denominations and groupings, are closing branches in a bid to keep the company afloat and preserve the organisation. The problem is that Church should be a family of believers living changed lives rather than the big business it operates like!
Consider for a moment the origins of the Church. It was a bunch of people touched by the teaching of Jesus who came together and lived as a community which welcomed those ‘far off’ with the language of love and forgiveness, relationship with each other and with God; something made real by the sacrificial death and Grace of God. Then it got to be ‘official’ and the leaders were powerful and political and ‘the church’ became wealthy and Influential (and corrupt and dodgy and more concerned with its own status and power).
Do we strive to make the word of God known or do we labour to pay the parish share so that the organisation can continue to pay the bills to ensure that the organisation and those who ‘run’ things can continue to thrive and prosper? A tough question which I’ll leave you to ponder!!
6. ‘Where is the unequivocal witness and courage of Christians to be found?
I asked this question of a colleague and their answer was, “Not in my church!’ Sadly, I think many would, if being honest, might say the same.
The problem is that increasingly I find people being more engaged and passionate over the things of the world that the things of the kingdom. I picked ten sermons (across the denominations and groupings) at random and found half didn’t mention the name of Jesus even once; seven were taken up with ‘contemporary issues' and only three spoke of Jesus and discipleship and being active witnesses in the world and ‘being the difference’.
We can get passionate about sexual politics, gender, ethnicity, social and political rights, Brexit, immigration and more besides - and none of these issues are a problem in themselves, but when we omit Jesus and the message of God’s Grace and love, a love that sees Jesus, the Christ, take upon Himself death on a cross for a fallen and broken humanity, then regardless of our intentions, we are minister of the Gospel have just got it plain wrong!
We need to call people to come into the reality that we have a God who cries out to each and every person in the broken, corrupt and flawed world that, “Nothing you’ve seen, nothing you’ve been, nothing you've done; nothing future, present or past, separates you from God’s love.” (Romans 8.38)
We need to stop finding ‘special’ sins and exceptionally wrong lifestyles and realising that God’s love crosses every race, creed, colour, lifestyle and falleness we need to preach nothing but Christ, crucified, risen and active in the world today through the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the courageous witness of believers and a life of true discipleship and love.
It’s so simple it’s not even the first rule!
And if you want to know the first rule, it’s this: “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12.30-31)
A very different offering today, but it’s where I find myself and I’d like to think I might be in the company of others who might share my thinking:-)
The Collect
Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jeremiah 1:4-19
The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
“I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.
The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”
The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?”
“I see a pot that is boiling,” I answered. “It is tilting toward us from the north.”
The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord.
“Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made.
Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Hebrews 12:18-29
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Luke 13:10-17
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Post Communion Prayer
God of our pilgrimage, you have willed that the gate of mercy should stand open for those who trust in you: look upon us with your favour that we who follow the path of your will may never wander from the way of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
* Alms for an ex-Leper (Life of Brian)
Ex-leper Alms for an ex-leper
Brian Did you say "ex-leper"?
Ex-leper That's right sir, sixteen years behind the bell and proud of it sir.
Brian Well, what happened?
Ex-leper Oh, cured sir.
Brian Cured?
Ex-leper Yes, a bloody miracle sir.
Brian Who cured you?
Ex-leper Jesus did sir! I was hopping along, minding my own business, all of a sudden up he comes, cures me! One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone! Not so much as a by your leave! "You're cured mate." Bloody do-gooder!
Brian Well... why don't you go and tell him that you want to be a leper again?
Ex-leper I could do that sir, yeah, yeah, could do I suppose. What I was thinking was, I was gonna ask him if he'd make me... a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which was a pain in me ass to be blunt, excuse my French sir...
Mandy Brian! Come and clean your room up!
Brian Here you are.
Ex-leper Thank you sir, thank... Half a dinare for me bloody lifestory!
Brian There's no pleasing some people.
Ex-leper That's just what Jesus said sir!
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