'Would You Adam and Eve It' (Transcript of Sermon St Oswald's Rugby 11th April 2021)

 John 20: 19-31

On Easter Sunday, Alan helpfully presented the resurrection in a wider Biblical context. He referenced Jesus’ resurrection as inaugurating New Creation as part of God’s plans and purposes for the redemption of the cosmos and in which we have a part to play. 

Today we are in John’s Gospel and reflecting on the story of Thomas, doubting Thomas, Thomas the twin!

I know I am not alone in thinking it rather sad that Thomas continues to carry the epithet ‘doubting Thomas,’ and that most often with a pejorative tone.  

What is overlooked is the tradition that he took the Gospel to South India and suffered martyrdom. Today the Thomasina Church reveres St Thomas as their founding father and Thomas continues to be highly regarded in the area even by some Hindu’s.

In a recent series on Netflix, ‘AD Kingdom and Empire,’ the development of the infant Church from the crucifixion is explored.

In one scene, Thomas is still ranting on about not believing until he sees Jesus and sees the wounds in his hands, feet, and side. Jesus then quietly appears behind him.

Doubt is something we all live with in matters of life and matters of faith.

However, doubt is not the same as unbelief.

In some ways doubt is good, as it pushes us on and stops us simply putting our brains into neutral and doggedly whistling in the dark or putting our fingers in our ears because we do not want to listen.

We need to develop a healthier approach to doubt because if it is simply pushed down or away this can lead to unbelief and unbelief can then lead to disbelief.

Doubt is not necessarily destructive and can become constructive.

We may find ourselves puzzling over the details of the Gospel narratives recalling the resurrection for example.

That the Gospel accounts do not exactly line up and tell a coherent story. Or there may be other aspects that we find we are doubting.

Live with those doubts, chew them over, do some work on them, but do not push them away.

You can be sure that if you find you have doubts, and if you have lived and wrestled with those doubts, you will be in a much better place to speak to those who also have their own doubts, doubts which may be a barrier to them coming to Faith.

Thomas had his doubts and looked for tangible proofs, which Jesus provided - along with a gentle reprimand and an encouragement for all who would put their hope and trust in Jesus in the years to come.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

What is interesting is where John has chosen to place this story about Thomas and his confession of faith, ‘my Lord and my God.’

There are some Biblical scholars who argue that chapter 20 concludes John’s Gospel, and that chapter 21 is an epilogue. With Peter’s re-commissioning, and with the ‘beloved disciple’ claiming authorship and authenticity.

Also, there is a fishing story and the disciples ongoing task to be fishers of people is outlined with their need to look to Jesus and not to the works of their own hands.  Chapter 21 then, becomes a call to continue to spread the word about the New Creation inaugurated by Jesus.

If John’s Gospel does end at chapter 20 it presents us with a fitting culmination to this Gospel account set within the framework of New Creation.

John’s Gospel opens with….

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.’

Echoing Genesis 1.1 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

John gives us seven signs (or miracles) in his Gospel to signify who Jesus is as well as seven I Am sayings.

He tells us that there are other things that he could have chosen to mention, but he chose seven signs, and that number is not insignificant.

Jesus was raised from death on the first day of the week, what we call Sunday, or as Alan referred to it, Resurrection Sunday.

In the Genesis creation narrative, we have six days of creation, then a seventh day of rest, followed by the first day of the week.

Creation going forward, God and humans cooperating in the ongoing work of caring and cultivating the garden. Even taking an evening stroll together.

And this is where all these seven signs in John’s Gospel have been pointing.

^‘On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

‘The first day of the week.’

Jesus rested in the tomb on the seventh day and then rose on the first day of the new week. The first day of New Creation.

New creation going forward…

But now going forward with Jesus as the new Adam.

Going forward with Jesus as the new Israel.

Going forward with Jesus as the new temple.

Going forward with Jesus as the new Moses.

Going forward with Jesus as the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King.

Going forward with Jesus as the new human.

Going forward with the possibility of humans and God once more being able to have a meaningful relationship.

Going forward with the same call to the first human couple. To work in partnership with God to care and cultivate, to be fruitful and to multiply.

Going forward as God’s image bearers.

Going forward in the hope of bodily resurrection and of redemption.

Going forward in anticipation that one day earth will welcome and receive her true Lord, King and Creator.

The time spoken of in Revelation 21, when heaven descends to earth…

 ‘the dwelling place of God is now with His people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.’

What are we told that Thomas encountered along with the other disciples?

A tangible physical body that was so much like a human body and yet so much unlike a human body in their current frame of reference.

A body that ate and drank.

A body that carried the marks of the crucifixion.

(Why did they remain and why only these particular wounds)

A body to which doors, walls and geography provided no limitations or constraints.

What Thomas saw in Jesus, and what we see with the eyes of faith, is Jesus as the first of God’s New Creation of immortal human beings.

Colossians 1:18 ^‘And he (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.’

God has not rejected his original plans and purposes outlined in the opening chapters of Genesis.

Jesus is part of the overarching narrative of how God would bring about in the fullness of time his perfect plans and purposes. Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension are integral to those plans.  

And cooperation and partnership with humans are also an integral part of God’s plans and purposes.

The story we read in our Scriptures is of God seeking to work out his plans and purposes through the human medium. Albeit they keep messing up big time and failing.

It has been said, ‘that without God we cannot, and without us God will not?’

Thomas wanted physical proof of Jesus resurrection.

What would it take for us to believe and to seek to work within God’s plans and purposes?  To embrace the New Creation inaugurated by Jesus, working towards the redemption of the whole of the cosmos – but beginning right here and right now in Rugby.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that the Messiah, the Son of God, is Jesus, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 Let us pray…

O Christ in the synagogue at Nazareth,

O Christ in the pulpit of our Churches,  

O Risen and Cosmic Christ,

O Voice of the Compassionate

  and Righteous God,

 give us no peace until we become workers

 for your Gospel.  

Amen

 

 

I

A Truthful Story

 St Matthew & St Oswald’s with Overslade, Rugby entered 2021 by engaging with ‘God in my Everything.’ A book written by Ken Shigematsu and published by Zondervan in 2013. The essence of the book is to build our lives on a trellis drawing on ancient Christian wisdom, particularly from St Benedict and his ‘Rule.’ The hope is that we will create ‘Rhythms of Grace’ that will inform and enhance our lives as the people of God.

(See below for a picture of the trellis)

In our ‘Preaching Series’ we have explored a basic overview of the trellis and in this sermon we begin to explore one of the trellis uprights, the Bible. 

We are beginning with the 1st "root" practice on the trellis - BIBLE READING and we will be looking at different aspects of the Bible over 2 weeks before we move on to PRAYER and SABBATH. 

We are exploring ‘Guide me in your truth’ 

Reading 2 Timothy 3: 10-17 and Psalm 119: 1-8.

Once upon a time long ago a beautiful woman was travelling along a wild and lonely place in her horse drawn carriage. She came upon a poor young girl, beaten and half-starved and dressed in rags.

The woman asked the driver to stop and they picked up the young girl and put her into the carriage. The woman wrapped warm blankets around the girl and dressed her wounds as best as she was able. She also gave her some warm soup from a flask and made her as comfortable as possible.

They journeyed on for some time and the young girl fell asleep.

When she awoke, she felt and looked much improved.

So, the woman began to enquire about the young girl, who was she, how had she come to be left by the side of the road in such a desolate place and in such a condition. The young girl said that her name was Truth and that she had heard of a particular town notable for its vice, for its cruelty and lack of care for the most poor and vulnerable. She felt compelled to go and speak to them and hopefully get them to see the error of their ways. But they laughed at her and began to beat her and eventually tied her backwards onto a donkey and sent of her off into the wilderness. Eventually the donkey collapsed, and she was left as the woman had found her, lying desolate by the wayside.

The woman gave the young girl a big hug and drew the blanket around her and offered her some more of the warm soup. The woman then said that from that day on the young girl would always travel with her in the carriage. They would become companions and together they would visit places were people lived in ignorance and seek to show them the error of their ways.

‘What is your name,’ the young girl asked. The beautiful woman replied, ‘my name is Story.’

So, from that day to this - Truth has always been carried by Story.

In the 17^th & 18^th century a new story started to be told. This story had little or no room for God or divine beings. 

There were several variations on how to deal with a redundant God. 

Some claimed he used to be around, but like a divine watchmaker he had created the universe, wound it up, set it going and then withdrawn leaving the universe to do its own thing.

Others pushed God upstairs and if you still maintained a predilection for belief in a divine being then okay you can do that – but please do it in your own time as we are busy.

We are busy making scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. We are busy creating a new world where disease and the ills of the past will one day be eradicated.

We are busy building a world where fortunes can be made.

We are busy building a world that because of our skill and ingenuity we can transport and transplant anywhere across the globe. And they make not like it at first, but people will come to see the benefit and want to join in and make this story their own.

The days of darkness are past, and a new dawn of enlightenment has arrived. Some scholars claim the end of the Enlightenment as a distinct movement ended in the mire of the French Revolution. Others put it later.

Whenever or however the Enlightenment period ended, the momentum has continued apace particularly in Western culture.

And America is perhaps arguably the most notable child born out of the Enlightenment. The epitome of secular western democracy.

Now we have much to be thankful for and there are enormous benefits brought by the advance of science and medicine over the last couple of hundred years.  That would include a COVID-19 vaccine in record time.

However, it has come at a cost.

Think of the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

Think of those who lived in the most appalling conditions in Victorian slums or slaving down mines or in the ‘dark satanic mills.’

Think of the mechanical war of World War One and then, lessons having not been learned, spilling over into another global conflict.

Think of the banking crisis of a decade ago.

Think of Japan’s working weeks of 80 hours as outlined in Ken Shigematsu’ book, ‘God in my Everything.’

Think of the way we greet each other, ‘hello, what’s your name and what do you do?’ And the demoralising effect of not doing anything, of being unemployed, useless, not wanted, no good, no purpose, no value.

Think of the pandemic that has shown that although the Emperor may have underwear on,  the fabulous outer garments are a mere chimera.

Covid-19 has highlighted fault lines of enormous and far-reaching proportions in the UK and across the globe. 

The poor, the weak, the vulnerable have been disproportionally affected by this pandemic. 

Then consider the way that economics have driven the response to the outbreak and the cost of human life that has created.

This is a demonstrably fact, not fake news.

I am sure we could all add to the failure of the enlightenment story and its ongoing legacy to bring us to a promised utopia.

It is time for a new story with truth at its heart and core.

As God’s people we are custodians of an Old Story with truth at its heart and core. The Bible, where we find this Old Story, is like a beautiful carriage carrying Truth.

As we write a new story hopefully with Covid-19 if not eradicated then at least under control, we need to ensure that this Old Story is woven into any new story.  That God is not a watchmaker, or that he lives in the attic, or is irrelevant and no longer needed.

Paul writing to his young protégé Timothy says that this Story is, ‘inspired.’

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3.16-17

David Long last week introduced us to Jesus’ rhythms of grace, Jesus’ rule of life. The patterns we can detect of Sabbath, Prayer and Scripture.

This week and next as I outlined at the beginning, we are focussing on Bible reading, our own Bible reading as an important part of the trellis, one of the foundational uprights.  

This passage is probably familiar to most of us. We understand the importance of God’s ‘inspiration’ for giving us confidence that in the various ways and means by which we have come to have the canon of Scripture we do, that this was guided by God.

However, as we continue in our exploration of our rhythms of grace, I would like us to notice what Paul says is the purpose of our reading the Scriptures.

‘…so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’

Our endeavours to create rhythms of grace in our own lives, our attending to Bible reading is so that we might be informed.

Informed about God’s will and ways.

Informed of the trajectory of God’s programme going forward.

Informed about how we can speak truth to power, truth to fake news.

When people are hungry, ill housed, or sleeping rough. When people have no jobs and so are then deemed a problem and given hand-outs.

When we take heed that unless we take drastic action the global crisis of environmental control will spin off the scale.

If we are reading into the Old Story that it is only about Jesus dying for us so that we might go to heaven when we die. Then we need to re-read this Old Story.

If we are all going off to heaven singing glory hallelujah and leaving this old world behind, then yes, why bother, let it go to hell.

But if we read carefully, the Genesis story, of God speaking the cosmos into existence. If we note that the crowning glory of creation is humankind into which God breathed life and declared it very good – humanity is God inspired!   

If we read Romans 8 with the image of creation groaning as in labour pains.

If we tie that in with the vision of Revelation 21 with a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth.

If we grasp God’s great plan to redeem, restore and recreate a perfect heaven and earth.

If we heed this and carefully note the unfolding story outlined in the whole of the Scriptures. If we allow this to impact us and stir us up in the very depth of our being, then our rhythms of grace will be saved from becoming mere introspection, a personal piety.

They will become life transformative both for ourselves and for our sphere of influence.

It is time to search the Scriptures, to seek for truth, and its time to tell the Old Story and ensure that it becomes embedded in whatever new story emerges as a way of society ordering its affairs going forward from now on.

In short, a realized Lord’s Prayer.  

May I commend to you ‘The Bible Project’ that offers podcasts, videos, reading notes and other material. Their strap line is, ‘helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.’

The Bible Project is one great way for us to build a firm Biblical upright for our trellis.

Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ 

Is that fake news or Good News?

How you answer and respond to that will make a world of difference and should make a difference to the world.

Let us pray….

Creator God, we do not just want to have a head knowledge of Biblical stories, but a heart knowledge of Biblical truth and godly love. We want to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to You and to be used by You as a witness to Your grace and goodness, as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto You. We want to be Story Tellers singing out the light of your glorious Gospel to the whole of creation. Help us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest your most precious and Holy Word that we might be transformed and transformative. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

 

 

The idea of being created in God’s image and being tasked to co-create and re-create, especially with environmental concerns, is helpfully explored in USPG’s Six Session Study Course.

United Society Partners in the Gospel | For Such a Time (uspg.org.uk)

 

AI, Alexa, or Adam?

Love and loyalty will always by nature face tests.

Reflecting on the rich young ruler of Matthew 19: 16-30

 (Mark 10:17-31 Luke 18:18-30)

The creation narrative outlined in Genesis is a rich mine for understanding human nature, work, sex, our relationship to the cosmos and God's overarching plans and purposes. All this is set within the framework of a creator God whom we discover is a perfect community of reciprocal love from which creation naturally flows.

And in creating humans ‘in our image’ – imago dei’ God did not want AI or Alexa but an Adam and Eve.

This introduces choice and free will. Love must always be able to say no, I do not want your love, I have no desire to reciprocate.

Arising from this and the Genesis narrative an important lesson we learn is that love and loyalty by nature will always face tests.

The story of the first human couple tell of their being placed in a prefect garden, one in which God was able to walk around and converse with the human couple.

This human couple are made in God’s image and likeness and given a vocation to fill the earth and subdue it. One imagines that although the potential for the rest of the world was for good, it still required management. Like an overgrown or wild garden that requires attention to bring out the best.

With freedom of choice Adam and Eve face a test of love and loyalty. God gives them every tree bearing fruit to eat.  (But no animals to eat, that comes later, see Genesis 9). 

However, there is one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they are given strict instructions not to eat from.

We know how the story unfolds, the tempter comes and sows’ seeds of doubt, they eat of the forbidden fruit, and all hell breaks loose. Well not quite all hell, but certainly the beginning.

They have failed the test of love and loyalty. They have chosen their own will and way.

This sets a pattern of facing tests that we find repeated throughout the rest of the Bible.

Some fail, some pass, some fail one test but pass a further test. 

With Adam and Eve's 'failure' we see another underlying Biblical theme set in place in the creation narrative, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration.

The ‘rebellion’ of Adam and Eve reveals their nakedness. (Genesis 3.10)

God in mercy and love covers their nakedness with skins, Genesis 3.21. I think it is an acceptable assumption that these were animal skins.

And animal skins would seem to suggest a dead animal, an animal sacrificed to cover up the nakedness of humanity caused by their rebellion. (See 1 John 2.28 where we find  that we can be clothed with Christ and therefore not ashamed of God’s appearing.)

Back to tests of love and loyalty now played out not only in relationship to God but in human relationships. 

Hot on the heels of Adam and Eve we have the story of Cain and Abel, and here hell begins to develop yet further, now stained with innocent blood.

Cain is facing a test of love and loyalty because for reasons we are not told his offering to God is not acceptable.

⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” 

 Genesis 4: 6-7

Many more stories follow, here are just some of the better-known ones and not by any means an exhaustive list.

Noah – he passed the test and built an ark in the desert.

Abraham and Sarah – failed by not trusting God and having a child by their servant, Hagar. But then Abraham passed the enormous test of being willing to sacrifice the child of the promise, Isaac.

Moses – passed many tests but then failed by striking the rock twice to produce water after God had told him that he must speak to the rock.  (I like the reflection here of Jesus, having once been struck, we now only to need to speak to him to produce life giving water)

Jonah – failed but then passed, failed, and passed.

Job – a huge story, but he came through in the end.

David failed with lusting after Bathsheba, but then passed and became ‘a man after God’s own heart.’

Solomon son of David passed many tests but failed by introducing idolatry into the kingdom though his many foreign wives.

Gideon – passed the test and reduced his army in compliance to God’s will.

Peter failed, was restored and then passed.  

Jesus, especially as we see him in the desert following his baptism passes the tests. Also, when in the Garden of Gethsemane. ‘Not my will be done, but yours, he said.’  Echoing the prayer Jesus had taught his disciples.

Then the rich young ruler of Matthew 19: 16-30 (Mark 10:17-31 Luke 18:18-30)

This is the test for this man, riches as Jesus points out, will always bring a challenge to love and loyalty and here is an extreme example that call for radical surgery.

‘Give away all that you possess to the poor and come and follow me.’

No compromise, no haggling, no well, what about 50%. He failed and in love Jesus let him walkaway rich in earthly possessions but poor in heavenly abundance.

(Perhaps we might be thinking about St Francis of Assisi here!)

Love and loyalty will always face tests.

Some of those tests will be life changing and transformative if we can face them down and make the right choice. Others will be more ‘mundane’ and yet none the less important.

Brother Lawrence was a 17^th monk who is perhaps best known for his little book, ‘The Practice of the Presence of God.’  Lawrence was able to say that after disciplining his mind to consider Christ presence he found that to be true no matter where he was and what he was doing.

Psalm 24. ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;’

Love flourishes and creates when reciprocated, but we will always have a choice. We can choose to say to God, ‘your will be done, or God says to us, your will be done.’

And like the rich young ruler God will out of love respect our choice!

 

 

 

 

TAX - to pay or not to pay, that is the question!

Sermon – St Matthew & St Oswald’s 20^th October 2020

Matthew 22:15-22

To say that the current political atmosphere in America is toxic is something of an understatement.

When the two candidates went head to head in a live debate recently one might have hoped for some carefully honed and thought out questions. Something that might put your opponent on the backfoot as they struggle to answer. Knowing that answer could sway the undecided voter.

Instead, sadly what happened was more playground than presidential election of one of the worlds most powerful and influential nations.

And it is power and authority that lies behind our Gospel story and the question about tax payment.

But first let me say something about this tax.

It was in 64 BCE that Rome conquered Syria and in 63 BCE, Jerusalem. So, by the time of Jesus there had been about 100 years of Roman occupation.

This tax was a business venture created by Julius Caesar, General Pompey and a wealthy Roman nobleman, Marcus Crassus. They formed the first triumvirate as Rome developed into an empire.

Marcus Licinius Crassus

The basic plan was that Crassus would invite wealthy friends to invest in the army. The army, under Caesar and Pompey would go and conquer countries who would then have to pay taxes to pay for the army who had conquered them.

So, it was not so much a tax as we might think of it, to pay for public services, but to pay for a business venture for wealthy Romans.

Little wonder it was hated and during Jesus’ childhood a tax revolt was led by a rebel leader called Judas. And with typical Roman brutality the rebellion was crushed and the hills around Galilee covered with crosses.

In Matthew’s telling of the Jesus story, he, Jesus, has entered Jerusalem in what we know as Palm Sunday. He was proclaimed as King, Son of David, Saviour by the crowd.

We then have the cleansing of the temple and a series of discourses Jesus has with the Temple authorities. 

On one of these occasions we see what might lie behind this question about taxes.  Jesus was asked directly by the Temple authorities on whose authority he was doing these things. Jesus answers this question with a question about John the Baptist, which they are unable to answer. So, he refuses to tell them by what authority he is doing things.

More sharp parables follow, check them out in chapter 21.

And then the ‘committee question.’ What a strange alliance happens here between the Pharisees and the Herodians.  That is like in the US the Republicans and the Democrats coming together to plot to overthrow a common enemy.

You can see what both sides bring to the table to frame this question that is going to put Jesus in a no-win position.

The Herodians as their name suggest, support the puppet king, Herod. And have in all respects embraced Rome and working with Rome. So, the part of the question they bring to the table is that it is right to pay the tax to Rome, no question about it.

The Pharisees are more a movement than an organised group or party. But as we know, they were keen on every jot and tittle of the law being kept. So much so, that they expanded the laws they already had, adding more causitory laws.

So, they have their question, and they approach Jesus oozing false flattery that rather gives the game away.

They did not want an answer, but rather wanted to prove a point. If he says, do not pay the tax, he can be arrested as a rebel against Rome. And if he says yes, pay the tax, then he will lose his popular support. The support that is stopping the Jewish authorities arresting him in public.

Jesus begins his answer by asking them to show him the coin used for paying the tax.

And it is important to note that Jesus asks them to bring him the coin used to pay taxes to the Romans.

The coin Jesus is given is a denarius, bearing the image of Tiberius.

It also has an inscription around the edge ‘Son of God’ – ‘High Priest.’

Can you imagine anything more detestable to a first century Jew?

They were forbidden to make any graven image, and certainly the inscription would be nothing short of blasphemy.

The fact they have one to hand implies that they have accepted the rule and governance of Rome and therefore are obliged to pay for that privilege in a tax.

Jesus is not going to fall into the trap of denouncing the Roman occupying force and give license for open rebellion.

That would only lead to bloodshed and slaughter, such as was to fall upon Jerusalem within a generation of Jesus’ crucifixion.

But Jesus seeks to bring in the Kingdom of God by a loving revelation, not a bloody revolution.

And so, whilst he cannot be accused of fermenting rebellion, he is saying in effect give this odious coinage and all it stands for back to whom it belongs.

A deep intake of breath and then comes the punch line…

   ‘and give to God what belongs to God.’

And what belongs to God?

The people there would that morning have recited the Shema…

"Hear, O Israel: the LORD God, the LORD is one"

They would also have known the call to love LORD God with all their heart, all their mind, and all their strength.

They would also have known the call to serve no foreign god – including Roman Emperors.

‘…and give to God what belongs to God.’

Well, what does belong to God?

The answer as they would have known, was everything. As the Psalmist declares…

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; Psalm 24.1

Perhaps that is why it is we read this in 1 Timothy 2.1-3

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— for kings and all those in authority - so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour…

Although the Herodians and Pharisees put the question not to elicit an answer, but as a trap, the question they posited remains an interesting one for us to ponder upon.

To consider if there are circumstances when our call to the Kingdom of God means, that while we may continue to pray for the ruling authority, we might actively oppose them.

However, we do need to be careful not to take a text out of context and a pretext.

In this story we see Jesus simply answering a question and not giving any kind of ongoing mandate about the relationship between church and state.

Such an idea could not have been entertained anyway. Because broadly in one way or another, everyone was a theist until the rise of deism in the 17^th century.

However, over the course of history there are some who have made great play of this paying taxes story.  Calling for a clear demarcation between Church and State, as for example in America as it developed.

The danger with that is that the Church retreats into dealing with ‘spiritual’ matters and let government get on with the stuff of the world, roads, health care, defence, etc.

But such a view is not a Biblical view which is much more holistic, and the stuff of life and the stuff of heaven exist in a symbiotic relationship.

So, a question…

Allegiance to the ruling authority or allegiance to God?

Thankfully, I do not imagine that such a conflict would arise for us in the UK. However, this is a reality for some of our brothers and sisters of the Faith. We do well to remember them and pray for them. And pray to God that should we be brought to such a test we would remain faithful…

           ‘and give to God what belongs to God.’

Planning or Providence?

Farming Community Network  www.fcn.org.uk

Harvest Service Flecknoe 27^th September 2020

First Reading:  Deuteronomy 8 v 7-18. Second Reading:  Luke 12 v 13-31.

 

As we approached my retirement last year my wife, Jane, and I had some bit decisions to make about a whole raft of issues.

The Church of England have a good pension scheme, especially if you can get in all the required years for full benefits. Therefore, I worked on until I was 68 because I was able to negotiate an extension on my contract with the Lichfield Diocese.

One of the issues was how to take the benefits. Lump sum, monthly allowance, or an admixture. One of the things we kept bumping into is simply not knowing how long I might live so we could forward plan accordingly. I have x number of years and so we will require x amount of income.

The farmer we meet in the parable Jesus told is not thinking about mortality.  He has a cash crop which he hopes to realise so that he can takes his ease, maybe early retirement.

But having made his plans everything comes crashing down around his ears and another harvester appears on the scene, the grim reaper. 

I often end my emails if I am making plans to meet someone or be somewhere with Deo Volente or DV for short.  This is Latin for ‘God willing’ and we find the idea in Proverbs 27.1 ‘Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.’  

It is particularly fleshed out in James 4:13-17 

‘You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.”  Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. If you don’t do what you know is right, you have sinned.

Now I do not think for one moment this, or Jesus’ parable, or the encouragement to learn lessons from birds and lilies is saying we should not plan.

At the moment the farming industry is facing massive changes and there are many challenges ahead. The variable weather we have had over the past year has meant that for many it will be an extremely poor harvest. Added to the challenges of Covid-19 which has closed many of the outlets in the service industry. Just imagine the milk that Costa alone uses across the country every day.  Most of that gone in a stroke. Ahead, there is the massive uncertainty of Brexit, a new Agricultural Bill, new technology and a real push from the green lobby. This is to be welcomed and indeed it is by most farmers.  But as I heard recently you can’t turn green if you are in the red.

The FCN is a little like the Emergency Services. We hope we are not needed but need to be ready to respond should the case arise.  We have linked up with several other farming charities and have a raft of measure being rolled out over a five-year period. We have a strategy.

One of these initiatives is called ‘Time to Plan’ where we hope to help farmers plan for all the changes. Particularly those running small farms or who are elderly.  For them quite often the technology and everything being on-line is often baffling.

Simply put, a failure to plan is a plan to fail. Most of my ministry was spent as an itinerant evangelist helping churches draw up Mission Action Plans.  

So, no I don’t think planning is in itself a bad thing and as I said, I don’t think that is the point Jesus is making.

It is when, like a big barn builder, we take God out of the equation. When we think this is all down to me. When we think look at what I have achieved. Now it is time to reward myself as I have got an abundance all laid up and waiting. Now I can take it easy; eat drink and be merry.

Perhaps what our friend had failed to do recently was to read something like the story we heard from Deuteronomy…

‘When you become successful, don’t say, “I’m rich, and I’ve earned it all myself.”  Instead, remember that the Lord your God gives you the strength to make a living. That’s how he keeps the promise he made to your ancestors.’

And aware of the danger of trying to milk too much out of this parable (bad pun I know, but it is a harvest service) might we ask should this big barn builder have lived, would he have been able to relax?  What about a volatile grain market, what about theft, what about natural disasters?

If he is reliant on himself to make money, he then has the anxiety of keeping it. St Francis who embraced Lady Poverty said, if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.  That was a challenge to his 13^th century and remains a challenge for us in the 21^st century. 

Have we really got our priorities right?

Are we following to much the patterns and precepts of the society around us?

One of the largest number of cases the FCN handle is health and in particular mental health issues. We know, sadly, that on average one farmer a week takes their own life.

Those who are farmers here today don’t need me to tell you about the enormous stress involved in farming. Yet, despite that I have met no end of farmers for whom farming is not about making money and building bigger barns. They want to make a living, yes, but it is as much a vocation as anything else. 

However, however, however, if we heed Jesus words carefully. And if we read our Scriptures aright, all of our Scriptures that is, we learn that always and forever and, in all circumstances, underneath, undergirding and upholding are the everlasting arms of God.

Perhaps heeding the words of Mother Julian of Norwich, ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’ 

Today we come specially to give thanks for all the good gifts around us, and to be reminded that all good gifts are sent from heaven above, or better put from God.

 Don’t keep worrying about having something to eat or drink.  Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father knows what you need.

Bear in mind that Jesus is speaking here to people who lived at, or even below, subsistence level. Many of whom would have only the clothes they stood up in and eked out a precarious living.

The big question for those first hearing Jesus saying this and for us also, is, do we trust that our heavenly Father will provide for all our needs? 

As I have said, I do not think we are to simply pull up a chair and have a few beers outside a brand-new big barn for our friends last night and leave God to provide.

You may have heard the story of the vicar walking his patch and stopping to admire someone’s garden. The vicar said to the person whose garden it was, isn’t God’s work wonderful. To which came the reply, ‘well I’m not so sure about that. You should have seen this garden when God had it all to himself.’

We are called to participate and to partnership with God. That story is outlined in the opening passages of Genesis and the vocation of the first human couple to partner with God. To tend the garden and make it fruitful and multiply.

That God given vocation to humanity remains the same.

However, we must remain faithful and learn to trust in God’s goodness. Not to say, look at what I have achieved and what my hands has brought about.

We make our plans carefully and prayerfully. We learn to trust in the goodness of God. We learn to be thankful for all of God’s good gifts and to say thank you. Especially can I make a plea we get back into the habit of saying grace before meals, even if we are out in a social distanced pub setting. We learn that today, each moment, each breath, is a gift, a precious gift, so let’s not squander it but embrace it for what it is.

Above all and most importantly of all…

Let’s seek God’s kingdom first - and then, these things will be ours as well.

 

 

 

 

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

The parable of the workers in the vineyard Matthew 20: 1-16

A familiar enough parable, perhaps too familiar as we can easily read it, pass over it, saying yes, I know what that is about.

This parable sits in the context of Jesus heading determinedly to Jerusalem for the last time and wanting to get some of the wrong headed thinking out of the disciples about what kind of Messiah he was and what kind of Kingdom he was inaugurating and proclaiming.

Some of that wrong thinking imagined that the Messiah (who they had no concept of being divine) would be a Priest King type. They would usher in the Kingdom outlined in the prophecies and re-enacted every Passover. Israel would be brought back from exile, they would be free, the law would go out from Zion, and the pagan nations would be brought under God’s judgment. And several other things as well.  Absolutely no thought of any kind of heaven as another realm but rather this earth and heaven being combined as outlined in Genesis. What happened in the Temple, the earth heaven realm in microcosm, would be enlarged to encompass the whole world.

And the disciples are jockeying for position in the cabinet, for a seat on the front bench.

Matthew 18 begins this section and it always worth remembering chapter and verses were added in the 16^th century. Here Jesus presents the least in the current society as the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew has ‘heaven’ rather than God but means the same thing) This ‘none’ person is a child. This ‘children’ theme is picked up again in chapter 19v13-15.

Just before the parable we are reflecting on we have the hyperbolic saying about camels going through the eye of a needle which is nothing about a small gate into Jerusalem but is all about thinking about the unthinkable.  

Remember this was a time when there were mainly a small percentage of extremely rich people and a much larger number of poor people. 

‘The rich man in his castle the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly and ordered their estate.’

Then immediately before the parable, possibly the trigger for the parable, is Peter saying what they have given up in following Jesus and asking what they might expect in return.

Jesus gives an enigmatic response that may well have been taken literally by the disciples, lining up with their Messianic expectations of a real King and real Kingdom in this time space continuum.

But we are still turning things upside down – or perhaps the right way up.

I do wonder if the mother of James and John reflected about the request she had made of Jesus for her boys to have key cabinet positions when she witnessed Jesus climbing not a throne but a cross with two thieves crucified either side of him.

To the parable itself…

And one key reflection, the payment of a denarius. This was a day’s wage for a labourer. Is your mind thinking of zero hours contracts?

This payment had to be made at the end of the working day so the person could go and get food.

Deuteronomy 24.15 ‘You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

All those hired received a daily wage – ‘give us today our daily bread.’

We see people are hired early in the morning, later in the day, around noon at 3pm and finally almost the end of the working day – and all receive enough to allow them to get their daily bread.

Are you concerned like me when you hear of 3,000 people applying for one job in a pub? Are you like me concerned when you hear the Chancellor talking about removing the triple lock on pensions and welfare? Are you like me concerned when we continue to be fixated with employment linked to financial remuneration and often linked to status and the value placed upon a person? Are you like me concerned that there appears to be little creative discussions about a world without paid employment for an increasing number of people? Are you like me concerned when you hear of the exponential increase in the use of food banks?

Now I know this parable is about God’s outrageous grace, acceptance, love, and the upside-down Kingdom. However, I would argue having considered it in its context we are a given license to make a current application. What better current application could we make than to argue that everyone without exception should have enough to purchase their daily bread and to purchase that bread with dignity not opprobrium for being feckless.