Like probably the rest of the world I have been watching the live TV reporting from Israel and Gaza and the ceasefire takes its first tentative steps. (19/01/2025)
In many ways this event eclipses anything that might be happening in the world. Although, sadly, we are only too aware that there are other wars that continue to claim lives and destroy communities. (And the often-forgotten climate damage being done)
Currently
there are over one hundred armed conflicts across the world. This number is up from previous decades, but
even then it has rarely dropped below one hundred. There has been hardly any period in human history
where there hasn’t been armed conflict. https://www.geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts
I am very
cautious of making any simple pronouncements in the light of such human pain
and tragedy.
However, on
Tuesday last at our Morning Worship at St Oswald’s we were reflecting on Jesus’
baptism. I was suggesting that Jesus’ baptism was a Royal Coronation. (Not my original
thinking, but derived from a podcast I listened to exploring the baptism of
Jesus)
(A
transcript of the sermon is available on my Blog https://gordonnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2025/01/jesus-baptism-transcript-of-sermon-14th.html)
At the coronation of Israelite Kings there are key elements, some of which where used at the coronation of Charles 111. They are the presence of a prophet and a
priest, an anointing with the Holy Spirit and then an acknowledgment and public proclamation.
At Jesus’
baptism we see John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets declares Jesus, and
John is from a line of priests, his father Zecharia was a priest. We note the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in
the bodily physical form of a dove, and then the proclamation, “this is my son in
whom I am well pleased.”
At the close
of Matthew’s Gospel, we read what has become known as the Great Commission. Then
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me.” Matt 28. 18)
How did Jesus receive this authority on both heaven and earth? Well, simply put, it was by sacrificial, self-giving love and a refusal to bite back or seek revenge. “Forgive them Father for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus offered and demonstrated a very different way.
Currently we
are going through seismic shifts across the world. If you want an accessible and good overview
then I can highly recommend, ‘The Rest in Politics’ podcasts with Alistair Campbell
and Rory Stewart. (See for example https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gmchopW8tNxgGTvxLZZey?si=6f009ba35ba6451d)
We also have
AI coming on stream at an alarming rate with some pundits saying that our lives
are set to be radically altered by AI in the next three years.
Within all of this turmoil what is our part as God’s New Covenant People? Should we be joining in the discussion or keep out of it altogether.
There are those in the Christian tradition who
would claim that the Good News is that in due course, either by our physical
death, or upon Jesus’ return, those who are Christians will go to heaven and
thereby escape a condemned earth.
I do wonder
if such Christians have ever really read very slowly the Lord’s Prayer.
‘Your
Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.’
Nor perhaps
Revelation 21 or indeed Romans 8.22-24.
We know that the whole creation has
been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not
only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to
sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this
hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who
hopes for what they already have?
If these
matters are of concern to you and you wish to be better informed then can I recommend
that you sign up for the first 2025 Lecture from T4CG (Together for the Common
Good).
Here is how
they present it…
I'm delighted to announce our first event of 2025, a public
lecture with Luke Bretherton. You are warmly invited to join
us online.
We find ourselves in a period of epochal change as the old era is dying and the
new is yet to be born. Amidst cultural confusion, we see fragmentation,
dehumanising systems, the breakdown of trust and extreme inequality. As
concentrations of money and state power intensify, people feel the loss of
agency. There is a growing discontent. Burning questions around how to uphold a
common life and how to stay human, hang over us as we try to make sense of what
is going on.
In such an unstable context, how should the churches
respond? While some are drawn to shoring up tradition, others are
rejecting it; some turn to evangelism, some to social action, others to
experimental ministries. Some place their faith in managerial strategy, others
in contemplative withdrawal, while others are deconstructing, and some are
drawn to despair. In institutional form, many churches, in a state of
vulnerability, are often tempted into a defensive posture.
However, we are not to be afraid. God is at work, inviting
us to participate in spiritual and civic renewal. But what will that look like
in such a challenging environment? We are weary and often stuck in old
patterns. What can inspire us into a new, constructive imagination?
Sign up here - **Staying
Human: Reimagining the Spirit of the Commons** Tickets, Wed 19 Feb 2025 at
18:30 | Eventbrite
No comments:
Post a Comment