'Things were done differently back then!' - Weekly Reflection 24th November 2024

 Four Yorkshiremen are in conversation: “Very passable, I say, very passable.  Aye, right. Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?”

Thus begins a classic comedy sketch probably best know through Monty Python Flying Circus. (Check it out; the sketch in various guises has a bit of history)

Basically, things were done differently back then.  Earlier today I asked our nine-year old granddaughter if she knew what a shilling was, she didn’t.

It’s an obvious point but one we sometimes forget is that if we are going to critique any time period or culture we should understand something of that time period and culture and not simply transpose our current understanding and then pass judgment based on that understanding.

I heard an interesting question recently regarding the ‘Mark of the Beast’ – 666. Was this really the Satan and should we be avoiding it on our phones and the like.  The answer given was first to go back to the Rome of the time. Then recognise that letters stood for numbers.  There is strong evidence to suggest that 666 comes out as Nero. The Greek name “Nero Caesar” put into Hebrew letters is NRON QSRN, which adds up to six hundred and sixty-six.  Back then, either Nero was lord of all, or Jesus was lord of all, and it is still the same for us. On this Sunday before Advent designated as Christ the King Sunday we are invited to recognise King Jesus as Lord of our lives. Because if Jesus is nor Lord of All he is not Lord at all!

Another thing done differently ‘back in the day’ was safeguarding. I recall when safeguarding and DBS checks began to be asked of all those in positions of some responsibility within the church. A Tower Captain felt affronted that he was being asked to undergo training and be subject to a DBS check. There are obvious reasons why this is uppermost in my mind currently. However, apart from the Makin Report, today we had a Safeguarding Sunday at St Oswald’s. We watched a short video and all given a copy of our Safeguarding Policy and had our two Parish Safeguarding Officers given an opportunity to speak and be identified. On Friday I also took part in Safeguarding at Leadership Level and have another ninety minutes session next Friday with ‘homework.’

Now abuse is abuse and should always be called out. However, we must recognise that the structures and strictures were not in place or had limited power and place in any real sense forty years ago.  Therefore, in our ‘conversations’ this should factored in and a certain ‘understanding’ that we lived in a very different culture back then. Of course, questions must be constantly asked as to how we can improve to ensure all our Churches are safe places. The other difficulty is that the Church, and particularly the Church of England, which does not have ‘membership’ operates in the public space with a culture of an open welcome to everyone.  How do you balance welcome with being wary.

And as Jane and I prepare to go and join the Sycamore Tree course tomorrow we are very aware of the ‘life sentence’ some crimes can land on people. Abuse is one such crime and lives with the victims of abuse for the rest of their lives. In all the calls for resignation and different structures we must never lose sight of those victims.

Sycamore Tree - Prison Fellowship

(Does anybody else balk at that word, it’s not my call, but I prefer to think of survivors rather than victims.)

In preparation for Session Two of the Safeguarding Course we have been asked to answer the question below. I wonder how you would go about answering this question? I wonder how you feel about the importance of safeguarding and how to be both welcoming and yet wary. 

Here’s the question…

What has influenced your values and beliefs with regards to safeguarding?  Please identify one thing that reflects what has influenced your individual connection with safeguarding and underpins your values and beliefs. This might be an abstract conceptualisation linked to song lyrics, nature, or literature, or may be informed by your own theology, religious scripture, or teachings. I would ask that you come to the next session prepared to share what’s influenced you and explore how this has informed your responses, values, and beliefs regarding safeguarding. 

Perhaps for next weeks reflection I could you give you my answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Here's mud in your eye!' - Weekly Reflection 17th November 2024

 Have you heard the story about the ‘Mud in Your Eye’ Church?

The story goes that the three men whom Jesus had healed of blindness met after Jesus had risen and ascended.  One, recalled how Jesus had to pray for him twice, and use saliva and at first he saw men walking as though they were trees.  (Mark 8.22 ff) However, Bartimaeus said, no, no, Jesus healed me with a word of command. (Mark 10.46 ff) At this the third man, as recalled by John (chapter 9) said, “what about the mud, there has to be mud mixed with the saliva, you must have mud in your eye for Jesus to heal you.”

Today at St Oswald’s we continued our sermon series on the Letter to the Romans and our focus was on Romans 14. Here Paul is taking to task those in the Churches in Rome because it would seem they had fallen in disagreement over certain issues. Paul uses the language of weaker and stronger in the faith and I get the point, but I don’t think that’s is the most helpful phrase. 

14.1-2.  ‘Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.’  

I don’t want to go down that route, even as a vegetarian! However, the situation in Rome and meat goes a lot deeper than being veggie.  Most, if not all the meat, that found its way to the butchers for sale was first offered to a god in Roman temple worship. It’s not hard to see why some would have an issue with this.

On Saturday night we had the Big Tearfund Quiz at St Oswald’s. We were invited to bring drink and snacks. I asked the question about the drinks – soft drinks only or was alcohol allowed. 

I remember a Church in Oldham where they knew they had an acoholic in the congregation.  Therefore, all the wine used at the Communion was alcohol free for everybody out of love for this man. Similarly at St  Oswald’s we always use gluten free bread.

That is the point Paul is driving at here. There are some issues which we must defend, for example the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. I would also argue the Trinity. If you deny such things then, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, you have stepped away from orthodox Christianity. However, there are other issues that are not of primary importance, and we must seek to live in love and harmony, and if needs, to step back and not flaunt our so called ‘freedom’ just because we have a clear conscience over the matter.  Even worse, if we read this section of Paul’s letter. Going to the point of disparaging and judging those ‘weaker in the faith.’ 

As an itinerant evangelist working across various dioceses over several years, I became engaged in every shade of Anglican Church, and Methodist with the occasional visit to a Baptist Church. I was happy to wear full robes, or something a tad more casual and to follow the customs of the church with which I was engaging.

'For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ Romans 14.17

It is useful to remind ourselves occasionally of this because it is very easy over a period of time to allow our shibboleths to become sacred and viewed as of first importance.

Although the origin of this quote is somewhat disputed, it is the seventeenth-century Puritan divine Richard Baxter, (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) who is largely responsible for making this quote familiar to English speaking folks. 

However, whoever said it and when it was first coined I believe it to be a good maxim.

“In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity (love).”

Simply put, Jesus can bring healing and wholeness to the soul and sight to the spiritually blind with or without mud – mud is not that important!

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Binary Choices' - transcript of sermon St Pswald's 13th November 2024

 

Sermon – St Oswald’s Rugby ‘Tuesday Morning Worship’

Mark 1. 14-20

Over the past few years Americans have been presented with broadly two visons for the future of America. Trump and the Republican Party and Biden & Harris from the Democrat Party. There were two other candidates, but in reality this was a binary choice. And the American people have chosen. 

Making such a choice wasn’t something that the people of Jesus’s day would have known anything about. Not many, I would suppose, would have chosen to have their Roman overlords. And although the presence of Roman soldiers would have been rare in the northern provinces like Galilee, that was the job allocated to Herod, Rome’s vassal king, they would have known about the taxes, they would have seen the brutal punishments when visiting a larger town or Jerusalem with young men crucified and soldiers bullying local people and they would know of Roman coinage, even if it was treated with disdain. Remember the question about paying taxes to Caeser.  

And on visiting Jerusalem or a larger town they may have even heard an evangelist announcing Good News. Evangelist is simply a proclaimer of good news, the euangelion.

But this good news was about an all together different kingdom that Jesus spoke of and an altogether different king.

One speaks of good news about the emperor in far off Rome. Maybe a birthday or some other celebration. The other, as Jesus makes very clear, is that of the Kingdom of God.

And because this Kingdom of God is breaking into the world it demands a response. ‘Repent and believe the good news.’

It is almost as if a Democrat had decided that Trump’s vision is good news, offer healing and hope for the nation and the world, and then repented, turn around 180 degrees, and follows a very different path.

As Mark’s Gospel buzzes and fizzes along this is the stark choice that is being presented.

We will see that it is a choice first given to the Jews but then expands outwards and is a choice laid before everyone.  

Repent and believe the good news.

‘Come and follow me.’

We might wish we had more options, but from beginning to end of the Scriptures, this binary choice is the only one offered.

It begins in Genesis with Adam and Eve. The choice, the ‘test’ we might say, is, would they be obedient to God or choose their own path of acquiring knowledge and self-determination.

Cain also had a choice when he rose up and killed his brother.

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”  Genesis 4.7. Cain had a choice; it was not a done deal.

And that theme that gets repeated over and over again in the Scriptures.

About to enter the Promised Land, Joshua lays this stark choice before the people….

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”   Joshua 24.15

 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

At once they left their nets and followed him.

I chose to repent and follow Jesus on the 1^st January 1975.

You may or may not know a specific date when you chose to follow Jesus. 

C.S. Lewes likened coming to faith as if you were travelling on a train from one country to another. You have purposefully boarded the train in faith. But it might be that you are totally unaware of when you crossed the border. The important thing is that you now live in a new reality, a Kingdom of God reality.

These are some of the ideas we have been exploring through our series on the Letter to the Romans on Sunday morning.

So, we have repented, we left everything and followed Jesus and now we are living in a different reality. We believe that the Kingdom of God is real, that its final expression was ushered in by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Like the D Day landings, it is not the end, but the beginning of the end.

A binary choice is made which has implications.

When the Romans colonised a country they did not want or expect the people to travel to Rome. What they did expect is that the citizens of that country would become Roman in the sense that they took up the ideas, the way of life, and the gods, of Rome. Which, significantly for the early Church, meant that the emperor was to be worshiped as divine.

What does it mean to live in the Kingdom of God reality. What does it mean to live as a Christian, an apprentice to Jesus. What does it mean to follow Jesus, to become like Jesus and to do the things that Jesus did.

That’s a lifetimes work. And we know Jesus was steeped in the Scriptures. Recall the child Jesus staying behind in the temple.

 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Could we do anything less than follow Jesus here. To sit in community and debate and discuss the Scriptures so that we might discern what the will of God is. To learn how to live as citizens of heaven while on earth.

There is such profound wisdom in these ancient texts, and we neglect them to our peril if we are seeking to live as God’s Kingdom people.

Remember the little story Jesus told about the man who asked his two sons to do a task. One said yes, the other no. But then when it came to it the one who had said yes, failed to turn up, but the one who had said no, repented and helped with the task.

Recall where Jesus speaks of the separation of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.  (And this picks up my earlier point about knowing our Scriptures)

Let me remind you of some key verses….

 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I needed clothes, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you looked after me, I was in prison, and you came to visit me.’

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.   Mathew 7.21

The Republicans and the Democrats offered two very different visions for America.

And Jesus offers a very different vision for what it means to be human. For how we are to conduct our affairs. Yes, in the Scriptures there is no mention of some of the complexities of life such as we face in the 21^st century.

But even if we took at face value just this one story from Matthew 25 we would find it profoundly radical.

Indeed, the early Church did just this and it was profoundly radical, and it turned the world upside down. Or perhaps the right way up. And despite some awful failing and aberrations, those who left everything and followed Jesus have had a profound effect for good upon the world.

But it begins with a choice made by Adam and Eve, a choice made by Cain, a choice made by Joshua a choice made by Noah, by Abraham and countless others.  It begins with the choice of Simon and Andrew, the choice of James and John.

And God’s Kingdom continues to advance by your choice and my choice to follow Jesus, to seek to become like Jesus, and to do the things that Jesus did.

If you have made the choice to follow Jesus let me ask this final question that I will leave you to ponder over.

‘Just what on earth are you are doing for God’s sake?’

'Masterpieces in the Making' - weekly reflection 3rd November 2024

I am sure that I have mentioned before that the ‘Repair Shop’ in one my favourite TV Shows. Items, precious not necessarily because of monetary value, but because of emotional ties, are loving and creatively brought back into good order. A regular comment is the restored article can now be passed on to the next generation.

There is so much Gospel in this programme and what they are doing.  A recent episode had the famous Master Mind black chair brought in by Sally Magnusson, bequeathed to her by her late father, Magnus Magnusson.  What was fascinating is the way some parts of the chair were restored but others left bearing the marks of use. This was most notable in the arms of the chair where the paint had been worn off by many nervous hands grasping them as they sought to answer the questions.

The New Living Translation puts Ephesians 2.10 like this; ‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.’

We were reminded about this in the Sermon at Holy Trinity, St Austell a couple of Sundays ago and I have continued to ponder on this.

When we got married, like a lot of people, our first furniture was what we had been given or ‘flat pack.’  However, as cash strapped as we were, we did push the boat out on one item. A bespoke pine Welsh Dresser. We chose the design and it was then hand crafted in a local shop just outside of Luton where we were living at the time.  And having moved around the country we do not have any of the ‘flat pack’ left, it doesn’t do well with being moved around like that. But the Welsh Dresser is still with us, aged and now a deeper colour, with various marks of life lived in a busy household.

Here a question for us to ponder upon. Do we think of ourselves as ‘flat pack’ furniture or as a ‘masterpiece’ being handcrafted by God?

I hope your answer will be as in Ephesians 2:10, that we are being crafted into a ‘masterpiece.’

But here’s the thing about a ‘masterpiece’ it takes time and patience to produce.

One of the most remarkable examples of this is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Work began in 1882 and is currently set to be completed by 2034!  It is well recognised as one of the most iconic buildings in the world.  The structure inside and out almost appears to have grown organically, it truly is the most outstanding architectural artwork.  

The Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudí and when asked about the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked: "My client is not in a hurry.”

Shifting the focus just a tad here, I would invite you to recall a very familiar nursery rhyme as we step into next week. 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

(The history and story behind this nursery rhyme is fascinating, but I will leave you to explore that yourself)

People sit on walls of their own making, and those walls are often unstable because they do not have Jesus as the foundation stone.  Many, fall off and become broken people, the sort of people we may meet in our prisons.

In the nursery rhyme their position is hopeless, because the kings’ horses and king’s men couldn’t repair them. The 'worlds authorities' can only do so much in putting people together again. 

But those who follow Jesus, and have tried to build their own wall, and fallen off, know that there is a King who is able to repair even the most smashed up and badly damaged person, no matter how high they have might have fallen. And you and I, we are the Kings Men and Kings Women who are tasked to help people in the repair of their lives. And we are tasked to help people build their lives on sure and firm foundations.

This will take time, because God is crafting masterpieces, not flat pack furniture.

We heed Gaudi’s words, "My client is not in a hurry.”

But before we step out into the week, as the men and women of King Jesus, maybe it would be wise for us to check out the foundations of our own walls first.