Morning Prayer - Monday, 8 April 2019

Passiontide

Psalm 73

Truly, God is loving to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Nevertheless, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped. For I was envious of the proud; I saw the wicked in such prosperity; for they suffer no pains and their bodies are sleek and sound; they come to no misfortune like other folk; nor are they plagued as others are; therefore pride is their necklace and violence wraps them like a cloak. Their iniquity comes from within; the conceits of their hearts overflow.

They scoff, and speak only of evil; they talk of oppression from on high. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue ranges round the earth; and so the people turn to them and find in them no fault. They say, ‘How should God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?’ Behold, these are the wicked; ever at ease, they increase their wealth. Is it in vain that I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocence? All day long have I been stricken and chastened every morning. If I had said, ‘I will speak as they do,’ I should have betrayed the generation of your children.

Then thought I to understand this, but it was too hard for me, Until I entered the sanctuary of God and understood the end of the wicked: How you set them in slippery places; you cast them down to destruction. How suddenly do they come to destruction, perish and come to a fearful end! As with a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when you arise you will despise their image. When my heart became embittered and I was pierced to the quick, I was but foolish and ignorant; I was like a brute beast in your presence.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel and afterwards receive me with glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire in comparison with you. Though my flesh and my heart fail me, God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Truly, those who forsake you will perish; you will put to silence the faithless who betray you. But it is good for me to draw near to God; in the Lord God have I made my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not suffer your foot to stumble; he who watches over you will not sleep. Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord himself watches over you; the Lord is your shade at your right hand, So that the sun shall not strike you by day, neither the moon by night. The Lord shall keep you from all evil; it is he who shall keep your soul. The Lord shall keep watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth for evermore.

Jeremiah 21.1-10

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, saying, ‘Please inquire of the Lord on our behalf, for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will perform a wonderful deed for us, as he has often done, and will make him withdraw from us.’

Then Jeremiah said to them: Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I am going to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will bring them together into the centre of this city. I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both human beings and animals; they shall die of a great pestilence. Afterwards, says the Lord, I will give King Zedekiah of Judah, and his servants, and the people in this city—those who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them, or spare them, or have compassion.

And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have their lives as a prize of war. For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the Lord: it shall be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

John 11.28-44

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. 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.’

The Collect

Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory; through 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.

Journal: Can clergy be too passionate?

Yesterday I walked into a church building to be met by the comment, "Oh, here's Mr Passionate!"

I struggled to think of any time I might have shown the speaker passion, had I somehow entered into a parallel universe perhaps where I'd got drunk and lost control, or stumbled and fallen like the first Adam? Thankfully the 'passionate' label affixed to my lapel was an indicator of me and Jesus and the 'way you're always going on about Him!'.

Now to be honest, I didn't think I was going on about Him enough, so this came as a bit of a shock. To be blunt, what the blazes does a church member expect from a cleric and if they knew me at all they'd realise that this pop of theirs, for it wasn't applause, was the very opposite of what they'd appeared to have intended. It wasn't a barb but a blessing. It turned out that I'd shared Jesus with one of the speaker's friends (yeah, I'm surprised she has any too ;-) ) and they'd reported it back to them with something along the line of, "You never talk to me about Jesus!"

Of course I'm passionate about Jesus, He's the focus for everything I do and is (unless distracted by toys), and even when I am I share them with Him (sometimes)) and making Him known and introducing my big, important friend is a pride and joy. So anyway, that which someone meant for nasty, God turned to joy.

Looked at Justin's book today - it's OK and it's going to be a bestseller (obviously as so many diocesan Lent groups across the country are buying it ) - I ended up with stuff from out of left-field and so sat quietly (think I spoke but the once) and pottered around the web collecting and creating thoughts whilst listening to the thoughts of those around me. To be honest, although I've heard it before, God being the person digging up the pearl and us (I mean ME) being the pearl and Jesus being the everything that God is willing to dispose of to get ME - it's a bit up there with some of the takes on the wedding banquet and Jesus being the bloke tossed out the window, innit? Better than hearing another sermon on the prodigal's Mum and the woman's take on it all - and how I wish she'd remain as silent as the biblical account has her - innit?

It's what we choose to not to see that takes away value. We see the things that matter to us and the things that matter to us are the things that we see - which is why so many, in and out of Church, don't see JEsus and aren't 'passionate' I guess!

One of the struggles with early banknotes came in the fact that people assigned less worth to a piece of paper than to a lump of gold. Gold shines and is attractive and has substance whereas a piece of paper. . . Well it's just a piece of paper innit? Talking to a debt coach who is also a psychologist they said the problem with credit is that it is all virtual - taking a sack of cash to a shop to feed their possession addications would stop many from ever spending (well that's their view).

Substance and substantial things confer something of strength and power - what you don't see, unless it carries some implicit and understood threat, is potentially nothing to be valued or frightened of.

Seeing with Jesus' eyes helps us to see the things the world cannot see - seeing with the world's eyes causes us to value what is obvious and to dispossess and ignore that, and those, we choose to ignore - truly, a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest?

Lord, give me Your vision - Your Passion - a sense of the tangible in a world of imagination.

Start the week with a bang: 1812 Overture

This is one of the most exciting versions of the 1812 Overture I have ever come across - definitely not one for purists (and needs headphones or somewhere away from people as it's LOUD) but it is one of those things that feeds and excites the musician in me.

I've got it for a funeral service this week - now that's cool!

At the cross where I first saw the dark!

Of course the words of the Isaac Watts hymn are, 'First saw the light,' and yet it is surely the darkness, the fruit of sin harvested and made obvious in the separation that Father and Son experience, that illuminates! How odd to think that the darkness is the source of the light that dispels the darkness within us - a real conundrum.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said:

'Most Christians would like to send their recruits to Bible college for five years. I would like to send them to Hell for five minutes. That would do more than anything else to prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry.'

Many years ago I tried this by taking some Christians to Soho's red-light district and found, to my surprise, that the experience did not raise their blood pressure and enlist them to stand against the darkness against which we are called to contend. I tried it with Amsterdam's red-light district (a notch lower still and sure that this place where self-respect and cheapening of life combine to surely make us draw a line and determine to make a stand. And yet, even though distaste was found, there was no inflamed passion and no taking up of the King's shilling!

The news coming in from Iraq at the destruction of Christian communities has raised among many Christians a hearty, 'Oh dear!' I've seen more passionate responses from Christians over their football club's cup run or league place than I have over Iraq. Change the scenery and I can honestly say that I've seen more enraged, and engaged, passions from Christians over the right to be, or have, or do, than I have over the conflict between us and the result of sin.

It is at the cross where the pain of separation is made manifest. The problem is that the promise of eternal life overwhelms us and causes us to deviate from the real issue - that moment when the distance is made obvious - and rather than contend with sin (in us, in others) we look merely to the blessing that we 'deserve', that healing which 'by divine right' should be ours for the taking. We retreat into our own self-serving world and cling to the salvation Jesus (being the Christ) wins for us without ever being touched by the darkness of it.

Would that those around me who claim the label 'Christian' might find in the darkness of the cross the passion to live as befits the life we claim to live rather than the self-serving and hollow deceptions so often found.

The darkness is apparent and yet many Christians are more concerned with their own  blessings than the scene at the cross and the import of what happened there. They are blinded by the promises so much that they cannot see the road they take is wrong. The light dazzles and confuses rather than renders the darkness impotent and broken.

We look to Grace and forget discipline (but who liked the cabbage when they were young?); we look to eternal life and live each day unable to fly on God's breath. We hear the words of life and live by their sound and not the voice that spoke them.

Would that for one brief second we would understand that darkness that Jesus experienced for us on the cross - that we would, glimpsing hell, take up for ourselves a 'lifetime of compassionate ministry' rather than the self-serving religion we have made for ourselves as a parody of that which Jesus died to give us.

Lord, help me to live in the reality of the cross;

To look into the eyes of Jesus and to walk in His footsteps,

To walk in the light rather than be blinded by the promises.

To live a life of truly compassionate ministry.

Amen.