Proper 13 (2008) Year A RCL Principal
Wrestling with Angels
When I was younger – in my early Teens, I think, there was never anything on TV on Saturday’s apart from Grandstand or ‘Dickie Davies’ world of Sport.’ As someone who didn’t appreciate spectator sports, this used to leave me frustrated and annoyed! There was one thing that grabbed my attention, though, (and considering it was 25 years ago now, it must really have grabbed my attention!) and that was the Saturday Afternoon ITV wrestling! This was in the days of ‘Big Daddy’ and ‘Giant Haystacks’ – it mainly involved huge men grunting a lot, running around a ring and jumping on each other!
But it was the sense of theatre, the make-believe aspect of it that really caught my attention. I was naïve enough to think that they might really be fighting – my illusions have since been shattered! But apart from that aspect of the make believe there was a sense of unreality about it – it seemed to be a game, not real, something that didn’t really hurt, despite the moans and groans on the TV. Of course, I now know that none of it was real, and the US wrestlers have taken the whole theatrical aspect of wresting to extremes with ‘WWF’ and ‘WCW’ (ask my nephew if you want to know what that stands for). But wrestling, at least any wrestling outside of the Olympics, has connotations of falsehood, unreality about it.
So I wonder how it felt to Jacob! There by the brook of Jabbok he settles down to rest and is wrestled by ‘a stranger’ who fights with him all night. Perhaps it seemed like a dream, it is certainly a strange picture. Jacob is waiting upon God, seeking reassurance and guidance before meeting his brother Esau after many years estrangement. Remember – Jacob had tricked Esau out of his inheritance, he had taken the blessing meant for the eldest son, and had gone ‘on the run’ as it were, fearful of his brother’s vengeance. Jacob had been tricked in return, though, and found himself with two wives: having been promised one sister, his first wedding was to the other, and he had to wait to marry the woman he had hoped for.
But Jacob had overcome his difficulties, he had turned his back on treachery, and deceit and had sought to do as God commanded. In the course of this he had become a successful man, he had built up large flocks, and owned land. As time had past, however, this had not been enough, and he felt the need to be reconciled to his brother. So he set off back to the family lands to meet Esau and to ask his forgiveness. In the earlier part of this chapter we see his fear about his brother’s reaction, we see him sending gifts ahead of himself in order to express his penitence, we see him worrying that he literally might not make it out of an encounter alive – after all, the last time they had met Esau was ready to kill his brother there and then.
So Jacob goes away to pray, to wait upon God, to seek God’s help.
And what happens.
A stranger comes along and wrestles with him!
But Jacob doesn’t roll over without a fight, he struggles back, even when the stranger cheats and dislocates Jacob’s hip. He holds on to the stranger and will not let go of him until he tells Jacob his name.
Of course, to those of us who know the story, we can say ‘yes, Jacob was wrestling with God’ – or more accurately with an Angel, because in the Old Testament Angels are the solid manifestation of God, not separate beings but, in some way, mini-incarnations of God. Yes, Jacob wrestled with an Angel, and was willing to keep struggling, even when things became difficult, when things became painful
And in return, he was blessed. He had seen God face to face, in some way at least, and had prevailed. He had wrestled with an Angel.
And it seems obvious that this offers some parallels to the nature of prayer in the Christian life.
To go back to the TV wrestling – there’s a fair amount of prayer that comes from the big daddy school of prayer – lots of grunting and groaning, and awful lot of noise, great theatre, wonderfully entertaining – but where is the substance??? It’s easy in ministry to make our prayer wordy and impressive, and look back after a service and say ‘actually did I really say anything there????’.
There is a place for formal prayers, for liturgy, for prayers that are led for us – but not as a replacement for our own prayer.
Real prayer, to be honest, is hard work. If we take prayer seriously, our Bible story tells us, then it’s going to be like wrestling with God.
Prayer is not about saying the right words, or about being in Church. Prayer is learning to wait on God, to listen, to be willing to be quiet – to be open to God working.
And that can be difficult, because when we are praying, and I mean really praying, we may well encounter God. We may find ourselves struggling in prayer. We could be struggling over finding God’s will, we could be struggling over having to leave something behind, we could be struggling with God because we have things that are blocking our relationship with Him and God wants to move us on in our faith.
There are as many reasons why prayer can be a struggle as there are people in this world – we may all have our reasons – but ultimately the question comes back…
Do we want to meet God? Are we willing to take the risk of finding out more of who God is?
Because, like Jacob, if we do meet God – we will be changed. We may suffer, because in the face of God’s holiness, God’s power and even God’s love we can feel battered and bruised, emotionally if not physically. But we will be changed – and ultimately we will be blessed – because we will encounter God and we will prevail.
And we will see the generosity of a God who is actually willing to come and meet us, who wrestles with us not because he is difficult, awkward or obstinate, but because by wrestling with us he allows us to see him more and more, and he can touch us with his grace and generosity because he is close to us.
And if you wish to see a little of God’s generosity then I will finish by pointing you towards our Gospel reading for today – as Jesus is confronted with a hungry crowd and has only five loaves and two fish with which to feed them. He looks to heaven, blesses the food, breaks it and feeds all five thousand men (plus women and children who aren’t included in the headcount, apparently), then there are also twelve baskets of leftovers at the end.
That’s the kind of God we approach in prayer, abundant, loving, caring, willing to cater for our needs. But that’s the God also who we wrestle with, who as he reveals himself to us strips away the things that prevent us from being close to him, sometimes painfully. This God is willing to meet us in our prayers – but are we willing to face the consequences??
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish far more all than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Monday, 4 August 2008
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Samson
This is out of the usual pattern of sermons, we have been covering Old Testament figures under the very broad title 'Heroes of Faith' - seeing in these often deeply flawed individuals inspiration for our own journey of faith. This is the end of the series....
Heroes of Faith - Samson
We probably know a number of stories about Samson, perhaps like me you heard the stories of Samson in Sunday school and were presented with a great hero of faith, almost a kind of Old Testament ‘Superman’ – missing only a cape and pants outside his tights. He is renowned for his strength and his long hair – and being tricked by the dodgy Delilah! My My My Delilah…
A Summary of his life, as found on Luther Seminary’s online ‘people of the Bible’ website:
Samson - A judge noted for great physical strength.
Samson was born to aged parents. He was a Nazirite set apart for God's service and therefore did not cut his hair or drink alcohol. His exploits included tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, killing a company of the men of Ashdod, setting fire to their fields and orchards, and slaughtering a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. After a Philistine woman named Delilah enticed Samson to reveal the secret of his great strength, she cut off his hair, and the Philistines gouged out his eyes, bound him with strong fetters, and set him to grind at the mill in the prison. But Samson's hair, the secret of his strength, began to grow again. The day came when the Philistine lords sent for the blind Samson to laugh at him. Samson felt for the pillars on which the house rested, pulled them down, and died along with many Philistines.
That’s probably how most of us remember it, pretty straightforward really – almost ‘Grimm’s fairy tales’ in its scope, at least at first glance. We tend to remember the exploits, the tales of lions being killed and bees making a hive in the carcass, or we remember foxes being tied together and set off into the fields with burning tails, or the various wiles Delilah used to get him to reveal the secret of his great strength, or the heroic ending where blinded and mocked Samson enacts revenge on his Philistine captors by the ultimate ‘last word in entertainment’ – really bringing the house down…. sorry, couldn’t resist!
But all of this seems a bit two-dimensional, and there’s one thing that scripture doesn’t really let us get away with, and that’s seeing life in two dimensions. This is not a fairy story, it’s a history, something to challenge and inspire, a story in which we are invited to share, to immerse ourselves in and allow to affect us. The almost comic-book simplicity which comes from popular perceptions of Samson doesn’t really encourage us to do this. So in keeping with our other ‘heroes of faith’ talks, I want to try and delve a little deeper by looking at the text itself and seeing how it can speak to us today.
Like all of those we are calling ‘heroes’ from our Old Testament stories Samson is very human, in fact you could say deeply flawed. He doesn’t seem to know what’s good for him, and really doesn’t seem to pick up that Delilah, who he is obviously obsessed with, might not have his best interests at heart. It’s like the old joke – a man goes to the doctor and says ‘Doctor, I’ve broken my arm in three places’ to which the Doctor replies ‘I’d stop visiting those places if I were you’ – boom boom! Samson seems to head straight for trouble! Hot headed, and it seems at times, daft as a brush Samson keeps getting himself into trouble.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get Biblical and start at Chapter 13 of the Book of Judges and see in the first five verses:
A bit of background, then, the people of God, God’s chosen people, are pretty Godless – they’ve given up on living the way that God has called them to, in fact they don’t seem too bothered, and they are overrun and ruled by the Philistines – as far as we know these were an even more godless bunch! And the people of Israel leave it there – they don’t even cry out to God for help, they allow themselves, it seems, to be subjugated and ruled by these unbelievers. There are only a few still faithful, and it seems that this ‘righteous remnant’ are pretty silent most of the time….
And then God takes the initiative, sending and Angel (or visiting himself, as in the Old Testament the word ‘angel’ seems to represent God visiting rather than some kind of being distinct from God – but that’s another discussion for another time!). He comes to a woman unable to have children and offers her a lifeline (remembering that children are a lifeline in a society where there are no social services or benefits or pensions, who else would care for you in your old age or carry on the family line?). She will have a child who will be dedicated to the Lord, he will be a Nazirite for all of his life.
This in itself is unusual, normally a Nazirite vow was taken for a set time, say a month or period of weeks, during this time the person having taken the vow would abstain from cutting his hair, could not touch or go near a dead body, and would not partake of any alcoholic drink. This was a standard of purity and discipline which reflected a rejection of worldly pleasures and earthly pursuits and focused on God and God’s standards. There are only three mentions in scripture of men who were lifetime Nazirites, Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist – interestingly all of them born to women who were unable to have children (that dreadful word ‘barren’) and all set apart for specific purposes – one to be a prophet to bring the people back to God, one to combat the Philistines, and one to proclaim the coming of Christ.
So from the moment Samson is conceived he is dedicated to God completely and utterly. In this way he mirrors our own calling to faithfulness. In the New Testament there is no mention of the practice of Nazirite vows for Christians, perhaps because we are called to practice such standards in all of our walk with Christ. No matter how Samson failed, the fact is still there that his devotion to God is the very foundation of his being, not just because certain vows have been made, but because God has a plan for him, and God longs to use him. In some ways maybe Samson is an example of the greatest ‘what if…?’ of Scripture – what if he’d not been drawn to this Philistine woman, what if he’d not been daft enough to give away his secret, what if he’d remained faithful?
In this way I think that the Lutheran Seminary summary is deficient. It’s not that Samson’s hair was the secret to his strength, but that the vow which was behind it was the basis of God’s ability to work in and through Samson. Ultimately it wasn’t a magical barnet that was the source of Samson’s super power, but his devotion to the Lord and the way that this devotion made it possible for the Holy Spirit to work in him. We see in Chapter 14 verses 5 & 6 that Samson may not have been super strong all of the time but was given strength of the Spirit to combat the lion which threatened him…
So a message here, to allow our devotion to God to be such that we too are open to the strength which the Spirit offers. Now we might not be nipping out on any lion ripping expeditions but there are things which we encounter day by day where we need God’s strength and God’s power in order to conquer. What Samson’s story says is that its not just about turning to God in emergencies, though often God is gracious enough to respond to our cries with the help and strength we need. It was the foundation of a devoted life that made it possible for the Spirit to enter Samson’s life in power in this moment of need!
The story continues in chapter fourteen with the exploits around Samson’s marriage and his desire to be with a particular Philistine woman. The Bible says that this was all part of God’s plan to bring the Israelites back from their subjugation by the Philistines, mainly it seems by Samson knocking seven bells out of lots of Philistines, killing them to get robes from them when he loses a bet, tying foxes together and setting them on fire to burn the fields, and the killing lots of them (a thousand we are told) with the jawbone of an ass when he’s really, really angry! All of that can be found in chapters 14 and 15 of the book of Judges if you want to look it up – stirring and slightly disturbing stuff, but not really what I want to concentrate on today.
Then in chapter sixteen of the book of Judges we get to that point where, having been a leader of Israel for twenty years Samson meets his greatest challenge.
Actually its worth noting that Chapter 15 verse 20 is a verse we often miss (its also mentioned again in chapter 16 verse 31), it reminds us that despite his failings God continued to use Samson, and after his disastrous marriage and his fearsome anger he is, as far as we can see, faithful again to his promise and returns to God and serves God and Israel for many years. Obviously without quite the same level of adventure as the rest of the story, as its skipped over and we get to the meaty bit. Samson and Delilah.
Unlike Samson’s first disaster in the romance department, his paramour isn’t under the threat of death (along with her family and everyone she knows or has ever looked at it seems in chapter 14) if she doesn’t find Samson’s particular brand of kryptonite. Delilah is in it for the money. Nice and simple. Chapter sixteen is an exercise in seeing how anyone can be distracted from what is right by differing vices. Samson finds himself completely at a loss because of his obsession with this woman, and blinded by love (and distracted by nagging, it seems) finally gives away this secret of his hair, the mark of his vow, which sees him shorn and stripped of his power. Delilah does the will of the Philistines because she wants to make a quick buck – faithful to neither the man who loves her nor her own people, but doing it for the cash – and quite a good amount too, about 26 pounds of silver. Not a bad return for a little bit of betrayal!
Samson, who starts chapter 16 with a visit to a Philistine prostitute (Gaza was a philistine stronghold) has a weakness for Philistine women. Earlier in the story God uses this weakness as a way of combating the Philistines. In Chapter 14 we read
But this time, it’s Samson indulging his preference for Philistine womanhood that is going to be his downfall. Again and again Samson has drifted from his vow, and though the serious haircut he received in verse 19 is the symbol of the betrayal of his vow of faithfulness, he slips – as RC Sproul writes – ‘inch by inch into sinfulness’ and the low point is his visit to a prostitute in Gaza leading on to his odd relationship with Delilah. It’s almost as if he wills himself into that final loss of his strength, again and again falling into sin, blind to what Delilah is doing.
For a hero, Samson is something of failure. Despite the way the Spirit of God has inspired and strengthened him, despite all that has happened, he falls in a big way. For all we know his twenty years of being a Judge of Israel, the last in the line of the Judges, were successful and faithful – but in the end Samson fails to deliver Israel, and can’t even deliver himself.
Of course, after his capture and blinding by the Philistines he turns again to God and we are told in Chapter 16
So his cry is heeded and his strength returns to him again.
Leaving behind our twenty-first century distaste for the bloodshed and violence that characterises much of this story. (Though there is much that could be said about that!) We are left with a story that contains a tragic hero, someone who despite being dedicated to God from before his birth, leaves that behind to satisfy his own carnal desires. With bouts of faithfulness, and at times an underpinning of devotion Samson shows perhaps how God is willing to use even those with a seriously patchy faith. But we are left with a feeling of a life wasted, and left to wonder just what might have been achieved if Samson had remained faithful and sought God….
And I’m sure I don’t need to join too many dots here to think about the application of such a story to our own Christian lives. The message seems pretty clear, look at what Samson did do, but also at what he didn’t – all those questions about what he might have been able to achieve if he’d not wasted. In our own lives are there distractions that prevent us being the people we are truly called to be and doing those things that God longs to do through and with us.
I could go on, but sometimes we just need some time to reflect – to dedicate ourselves again to God in order that when the storms come we are on the rock of Jesus Christ. That when things go wrong, we don’t run around desperate for guidance, blowing dust off of our Bibles and hoping for strength – yes, God is faithful even when we are faithless, but if we are rooted in lives of devotion and commitment, then when things happen – for good or bad – we will be equipped to meet them with the strength, grace and spirit of God.
Heroes of Faith - Samson
We probably know a number of stories about Samson, perhaps like me you heard the stories of Samson in Sunday school and were presented with a great hero of faith, almost a kind of Old Testament ‘Superman’ – missing only a cape and pants outside his tights. He is renowned for his strength and his long hair – and being tricked by the dodgy Delilah! My My My Delilah…
A Summary of his life, as found on Luther Seminary’s online ‘people of the Bible’ website:
Samson - A judge noted for great physical strength.
Samson was born to aged parents. He was a Nazirite set apart for God's service and therefore did not cut his hair or drink alcohol. His exploits included tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, killing a company of the men of Ashdod, setting fire to their fields and orchards, and slaughtering a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. After a Philistine woman named Delilah enticed Samson to reveal the secret of his great strength, she cut off his hair, and the Philistines gouged out his eyes, bound him with strong fetters, and set him to grind at the mill in the prison. But Samson's hair, the secret of his strength, began to grow again. The day came when the Philistine lords sent for the blind Samson to laugh at him. Samson felt for the pillars on which the house rested, pulled them down, and died along with many Philistines.
That’s probably how most of us remember it, pretty straightforward really – almost ‘Grimm’s fairy tales’ in its scope, at least at first glance. We tend to remember the exploits, the tales of lions being killed and bees making a hive in the carcass, or we remember foxes being tied together and set off into the fields with burning tails, or the various wiles Delilah used to get him to reveal the secret of his great strength, or the heroic ending where blinded and mocked Samson enacts revenge on his Philistine captors by the ultimate ‘last word in entertainment’ – really bringing the house down…. sorry, couldn’t resist!
But all of this seems a bit two-dimensional, and there’s one thing that scripture doesn’t really let us get away with, and that’s seeing life in two dimensions. This is not a fairy story, it’s a history, something to challenge and inspire, a story in which we are invited to share, to immerse ourselves in and allow to affect us. The almost comic-book simplicity which comes from popular perceptions of Samson doesn’t really encourage us to do this. So in keeping with our other ‘heroes of faith’ talks, I want to try and delve a little deeper by looking at the text itself and seeing how it can speak to us today.
Like all of those we are calling ‘heroes’ from our Old Testament stories Samson is very human, in fact you could say deeply flawed. He doesn’t seem to know what’s good for him, and really doesn’t seem to pick up that Delilah, who he is obviously obsessed with, might not have his best interests at heart. It’s like the old joke – a man goes to the doctor and says ‘Doctor, I’ve broken my arm in three places’ to which the Doctor replies ‘I’d stop visiting those places if I were you’ – boom boom! Samson seems to head straight for trouble! Hot headed, and it seems at times, daft as a brush Samson keeps getting himself into trouble.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get Biblical and start at Chapter 13 of the Book of Judges and see in the first five verses:
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."
A bit of background, then, the people of God, God’s chosen people, are pretty Godless – they’ve given up on living the way that God has called them to, in fact they don’t seem too bothered, and they are overrun and ruled by the Philistines – as far as we know these were an even more godless bunch! And the people of Israel leave it there – they don’t even cry out to God for help, they allow themselves, it seems, to be subjugated and ruled by these unbelievers. There are only a few still faithful, and it seems that this ‘righteous remnant’ are pretty silent most of the time….
And then God takes the initiative, sending and Angel (or visiting himself, as in the Old Testament the word ‘angel’ seems to represent God visiting rather than some kind of being distinct from God – but that’s another discussion for another time!). He comes to a woman unable to have children and offers her a lifeline (remembering that children are a lifeline in a society where there are no social services or benefits or pensions, who else would care for you in your old age or carry on the family line?). She will have a child who will be dedicated to the Lord, he will be a Nazirite for all of his life.
This in itself is unusual, normally a Nazirite vow was taken for a set time, say a month or period of weeks, during this time the person having taken the vow would abstain from cutting his hair, could not touch or go near a dead body, and would not partake of any alcoholic drink. This was a standard of purity and discipline which reflected a rejection of worldly pleasures and earthly pursuits and focused on God and God’s standards. There are only three mentions in scripture of men who were lifetime Nazirites, Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist – interestingly all of them born to women who were unable to have children (that dreadful word ‘barren’) and all set apart for specific purposes – one to be a prophet to bring the people back to God, one to combat the Philistines, and one to proclaim the coming of Christ.
So from the moment Samson is conceived he is dedicated to God completely and utterly. In this way he mirrors our own calling to faithfulness. In the New Testament there is no mention of the practice of Nazirite vows for Christians, perhaps because we are called to practice such standards in all of our walk with Christ. No matter how Samson failed, the fact is still there that his devotion to God is the very foundation of his being, not just because certain vows have been made, but because God has a plan for him, and God longs to use him. In some ways maybe Samson is an example of the greatest ‘what if…?’ of Scripture – what if he’d not been drawn to this Philistine woman, what if he’d not been daft enough to give away his secret, what if he’d remained faithful?
In this way I think that the Lutheran Seminary summary is deficient. It’s not that Samson’s hair was the secret to his strength, but that the vow which was behind it was the basis of God’s ability to work in and through Samson. Ultimately it wasn’t a magical barnet that was the source of Samson’s super power, but his devotion to the Lord and the way that this devotion made it possible for the Holy Spirit to work in him. We see in Chapter 14 verses 5 & 6 that Samson may not have been super strong all of the time but was given strength of the Spirit to combat the lion which threatened him…
5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.
So a message here, to allow our devotion to God to be such that we too are open to the strength which the Spirit offers. Now we might not be nipping out on any lion ripping expeditions but there are things which we encounter day by day where we need God’s strength and God’s power in order to conquer. What Samson’s story says is that its not just about turning to God in emergencies, though often God is gracious enough to respond to our cries with the help and strength we need. It was the foundation of a devoted life that made it possible for the Spirit to enter Samson’s life in power in this moment of need!
The story continues in chapter fourteen with the exploits around Samson’s marriage and his desire to be with a particular Philistine woman. The Bible says that this was all part of God’s plan to bring the Israelites back from their subjugation by the Philistines, mainly it seems by Samson knocking seven bells out of lots of Philistines, killing them to get robes from them when he loses a bet, tying foxes together and setting them on fire to burn the fields, and the killing lots of them (a thousand we are told) with the jawbone of an ass when he’s really, really angry! All of that can be found in chapters 14 and 15 of the book of Judges if you want to look it up – stirring and slightly disturbing stuff, but not really what I want to concentrate on today.
Then in chapter sixteen of the book of Judges we get to that point where, having been a leader of Israel for twenty years Samson meets his greatest challenge.
Actually its worth noting that Chapter 15 verse 20 is a verse we often miss (its also mentioned again in chapter 16 verse 31), it reminds us that despite his failings God continued to use Samson, and after his disastrous marriage and his fearsome anger he is, as far as we can see, faithful again to his promise and returns to God and serves God and Israel for many years. Obviously without quite the same level of adventure as the rest of the story, as its skipped over and we get to the meaty bit. Samson and Delilah.
Unlike Samson’s first disaster in the romance department, his paramour isn’t under the threat of death (along with her family and everyone she knows or has ever looked at it seems in chapter 14) if she doesn’t find Samson’s particular brand of kryptonite. Delilah is in it for the money. Nice and simple. Chapter sixteen is an exercise in seeing how anyone can be distracted from what is right by differing vices. Samson finds himself completely at a loss because of his obsession with this woman, and blinded by love (and distracted by nagging, it seems) finally gives away this secret of his hair, the mark of his vow, which sees him shorn and stripped of his power. Delilah does the will of the Philistines because she wants to make a quick buck – faithful to neither the man who loves her nor her own people, but doing it for the cash – and quite a good amount too, about 26 pounds of silver. Not a bad return for a little bit of betrayal!
Samson, who starts chapter 16 with a visit to a Philistine prostitute (Gaza was a philistine stronghold) has a weakness for Philistine women. Earlier in the story God uses this weakness as a way of combating the Philistines. In Chapter 14 we read
1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
3 His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)
But this time, it’s Samson indulging his preference for Philistine womanhood that is going to be his downfall. Again and again Samson has drifted from his vow, and though the serious haircut he received in verse 19 is the symbol of the betrayal of his vow of faithfulness, he slips – as RC Sproul writes – ‘inch by inch into sinfulness’ and the low point is his visit to a prostitute in Gaza leading on to his odd relationship with Delilah. It’s almost as if he wills himself into that final loss of his strength, again and again falling into sin, blind to what Delilah is doing.
For a hero, Samson is something of failure. Despite the way the Spirit of God has inspired and strengthened him, despite all that has happened, he falls in a big way. For all we know his twenty years of being a Judge of Israel, the last in the line of the Judges, were successful and faithful – but in the end Samson fails to deliver Israel, and can’t even deliver himself.
Of course, after his capture and blinding by the Philistines he turns again to God and we are told in Chapter 16
28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
So his cry is heeded and his strength returns to him again.
Leaving behind our twenty-first century distaste for the bloodshed and violence that characterises much of this story. (Though there is much that could be said about that!) We are left with a story that contains a tragic hero, someone who despite being dedicated to God from before his birth, leaves that behind to satisfy his own carnal desires. With bouts of faithfulness, and at times an underpinning of devotion Samson shows perhaps how God is willing to use even those with a seriously patchy faith. But we are left with a feeling of a life wasted, and left to wonder just what might have been achieved if Samson had remained faithful and sought God….
And I’m sure I don’t need to join too many dots here to think about the application of such a story to our own Christian lives. The message seems pretty clear, look at what Samson did do, but also at what he didn’t – all those questions about what he might have been able to achieve if he’d not wasted. In our own lives are there distractions that prevent us being the people we are truly called to be and doing those things that God longs to do through and with us.
I could go on, but sometimes we just need some time to reflect – to dedicate ourselves again to God in order that when the storms come we are on the rock of Jesus Christ. That when things go wrong, we don’t run around desperate for guidance, blowing dust off of our Bibles and hoping for strength – yes, God is faithful even when we are faithless, but if we are rooted in lives of devotion and commitment, then when things happen – for good or bad – we will be equipped to meet them with the strength, grace and spirit of God.
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Year A Proper 9
Tricky Jesus
In my wife’s room as she was growing up there was a picture of Jesus surrounded by animals and children – a wonderful example of Victorian Kitsch, all soft focus and shiny blonde Jesus – around it was a line from a well known hymn which said ‘all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all...’
It was a meant to be a comfort, a picture of a Jesus who welcomed the vulnerable and who projected an aura of love and acceptance. It didn’t possess any particular artistic merit, but was unthreatening and warm.
I’m not sure what picture you have of Jesus in your own mind, perhaps you share such a ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ image, perhaps you have a mental image of the publicity campaign a few years back which had a picture of Jesus on a red background, looking remarkably like the Che Gevuara pictures which have adorned lots of student walls for the past thirty years or so which say ‘Meek. Mild. As If’ Or maybe an image of a man on a cross, or Christ surrounded by light rising into glory, or a Jesus who never blinks like Robert Powell in the Jesus of Nazareth TV series. I could go on and on...
But all of these pictures, whether you consider them good or bad images of Jesus, can’t really encapsulate this grace-filled, awe-inspiring, earthy, divine and human, disturbing and joyful man which we read about in the Bible. A Jesus who, on a regular basis, breaks free of our own stereotypes and preconceptions, our own prejudices and human limitations.
And it is this Jesus we encounter in our passage for today – a disturbing, challenging Jesus, a frank and forthright Jesus, perhaps even a slightly exasperated Jesus and yet also a Jesus who offers comfort and care for us.
If we look at the text itself we see many different aspects of Jesus’ character. We see him begining with a children’s saying in response to the pharisees criticism of him ‘we played the flute for you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn’. As far as his detractors were concerned, these strange teachers such as Jesus and John the baptist could do nothing right – if they were austere and aescetic they were miserable and were wrong, if they were open and welcoming, enjoying a party and spending time befriending people then they were equally wrong.
I must admit to being drawn more to Jesus’ model of reaching out myself – and it makes me smile when he is called a glutton and a drunkard – or ‘winebibber’ in the older translations of the bible! But there is a welcome and a joy in his reaching out to people that I believe that we are called to model as the church today!
In the text, though, Jesus is critical of those who are so negative towards his ministry. There is a sense of frustration in his pointed response, and it leads on to Jesus rather strong criticism of those who consider themselves clever and dismiss the truth by using complicated arguments: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants’. There’s also a strong message to us no to veil the Gospel by clever argument, but by open and straightforward sharing of our faith to make real the good news of the kingdom of God by being open and straightforward ourselves!
Jesus continues saying that ‘no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father exceptht he Sond and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’. There is again a challenge for us to take up that call to reveal Christ in our lives and by our words and actions to live lives that draw others to getting to know Jesus, that we may be windows through whom Christ shines.
And having been so forthright in his speech, Jesus finishes this passage with words which console and offer a hope of comfort. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’. After these challenges, which apply not just to those original hearers, but to us today, we are given the reminder that the message that Jesus brings is one of life and freedom, rather than burden and struggle.
For those of us who follow Jesus, we are set free into the life which only he can bring. We no longer have the burden of living a certain way because we ‘should’ but of living life, as Jesus says in John’s Gospel chapter 10 ‘in all its fullness’. We are set free to live lives of joy, peace, hope, gentleness, self control, patience and more by the benevolent grace of the Spirit of God.
None of this is academic. This text isn’t here just so we can see different parts of Jesus character. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to know about Jesus I want to know Jesus – and in the same way that everyone we get to know has the capacity to surprise and challenge and disturb and inspire us, so it should be with Jesus. Then as we know Jesus more, we can call others to know this wonderful, difficult, grace filled person of God made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. As we read this passage we should be excited by the joy of calling others to know Jesus to. This passage doesn’t allow us to box Jesus up into nice easy categories, but serves to remind us of the fact that we who follow Jesus have still so much to learn about him, and that it is this Jesus we are called to share, that others may know the excitement of knowing him to.
May Jesus again refresh us as we see him anew and share his risen life with all those we know and those we meet.
Thanks be to God!
Sunday, 29 June 2008
Peter & Paul
Lousy Choice (of followers)?
I am not in the habit of hanging around with Bishops or Archbishops – I have a healthy (Biblical) respect for those in authority, but I don’t make a thing of trying to meet up with them, or catch their attention. At the Bishop’s annual garden party I always say hello and make small talk for a minute then make myself scarce and chat to colleagues.
There is one exception to this – I used to know an Archbishop quite well. He was a very unprepossessing man, diminutive in stature, though very much great of heart. I knew him in the last years of his life, having been the Archbishop of Uganda, predecessor and friend of the African Martyr and Ugandan Archbishop Janani Luwum Bishop Leslie had returned to the UK and became Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich before returning to Cambridge.
Bishop Leslie Brown had done a huge amount in the reform of liturgy in the Anglican Church, he had been the first Archbishop of Uganda and oversaw the foundation of the province there and led it in its early years. In his later years at Westcott House, where he was a part of the worshipping life of the College, his eyesight was failing and a number of us had the joy of reading to him on a regular basis and chatting over pretty much anything with him. He was a sensitive, intelligent, wise and spiritual man, and a man of great humility.
A story which sums up this humility is one that he told at his enthronement as Bishop of Eds and Ips (as St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is known. Leslie told of a time when in Kampala he went to the Cathedral and found a young boy playing with the mud near the Church. The boy was very involved in moulding and shaping the mud and Archbishop Leslie was fascinated so he asked what he was doing. ‘I’m making a procession for the Cathedral’ the lad said – then pointed to the figures made of mud – ‘there’s the choir, there’s the dean. there’s the vergers, there’s the clergy’. ‘Oh,’ said Leslie ‘Where’s the Archbishop?’ ‘I haven’t got enough muck for an Archbishop’ replied the boy. This response, said Leslie, kept him humble!
We all need reminders every now and then of what we are made! We are a collection of elements that – through some great process divinely inspired – has evolved into living, breathing, speaking people. As the words for the Ash Wednesday Liturgy say ‘remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’.
And yet, out of these unlikely elements God is able to do great things. We may not be perfect, we may not feel we are very special, but God thinks we are amazing! In many ways, its not believing in God that is important in the life of a Christian, but the knowledge that God believes in us!
Today is the festival of Peter and Paul. It’s a day where we honour two of the founders of the Church, two martyrs, two apostles, two men used by God to change the world. And though Paul was very keen to stress that all God’s people are Saints, we call Peter and Paul Saints in a special way as we recognise and give thanks for the contribution they have made to the life of the Church and the importance of that contribution even up to today.
We remember that Jesus said of St Peter that he was the Rock upon which the Church of Christ would be build. We remember that he was told that he would carry the keys to the kingdom of God – hence the popular image of ‘St Peter at the Pearly gates’ so beloved of cartoonists and writers. Peter is the one who, in our reading for this morning, confesses Jesus as the Christ, a startling revelation that is the basis for Jesus statement that Peter is the rock that Peter will turn out to be!
We remember that St Paul was added to the apostles by divine call, having heard the voice of Jesus and been struck blind by the light of Christ he went on to write letters which form much of the Canon of scripture and as a Pastoral Theologian steered the early Church in its formation as he spread the good news of Jesus Christ and as he reached out to the gentiles in a way that the early followers of Jesus weren’t keen on doing!
Yet we remember too the unlikely materials that God built these two great saints from. Peter, a fisherman, often shown in the Gospels as the one who speaks before thinking, and who ‘dashes in where angels fear to tread’ as it were! It is Peter who cuts of the ear of the high priest's servant, it is Peter that contradicts Jesus immediately following today’s Gospel reading and who is rebuked with those words which must have been so painful to hear – “Get behind me Satan...” It is Peter who denies Christ three times. It is Peter who dashes into the tomb without waiting to be confronted with the folded grave clothes left behind by the risen Christ.
Paul fares little better, again and again in his letters he speaks of his own unworthiness and sinfulness. Despite his high standing in the pharisaic tradition and his great Jewish heritage, Paul sees that his persecution of the Church and his religious zeal made him an enemy of Christ and that it was only the divine intervention of that vision of Christ which made possible the transformation of grace which was the start of a new life in Christ. Paul – or Saul as he was known – was the one who looked after the coats for those who stoned Stephen, who was charged by the high priest with rooting out these delinquent Christians from the synagogues, who needed to hear the voice of Christ saying ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ before he could be changed into the faithful follower of Christ he would turn out to be.
The stories of these two great saints are not celebrated each year to make us feel worthless in comparison.. We remember Peter and Paul as two deeply flawed human beings transformed by the power of God and called into his grace in order that they might change the world.
And we remember that in the same way we are called to transformation – to leaving our past behind, to recognising that God wants to use us, and being open to that touch of Grace that can turn everything around!
We may feel that we are ‘muck models’ of faith, but in the end it us up to God to make us who are were meant to be, to make us more than the nothings we may convince ourselves we are. God chooses the most unlikely people to work for him – just look at your clergy if you are in any doubt of that – and he calls us all to be open to his transformation, in order that through us the world may be changed. Through our prayers, our worship, through our action and through our own faithfulness God can and will do great things.
I suspect that when Peter and Paul began their journeys in faith they had little idea of where God would lead them, as they grew in faith they grew also, it seems, in the knowledge that what God required of them was faithfulness and the willingness to go where he led, no matter what it cost.
May we have that same faith and be faithful to God. May the examples of Peter and Paul serve not to create a sense of unworthiness, but a sense of partnership in the work and life of Christ which has stretched from the first followers of Jesus until now. May we allow God to reshape us, and through us reshape the world. Amen!
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Year A Proper 4
Here's a sermon from a couple of weeks back....time to catch up again!
Genesis 6.9-22; 7.24; 8.14-19
Psalm 46
Romans 1.16,17; 3.22b-28[29-31]
Matthew 7.21-29
Psalm 46
Romans 1.16,17; 3.22b-28[29-31]
Matthew 7.21-29
Preparing for the floods
Flooding is an uncomfortable subject at the moment, and our hearts go out, I’m sure to those who have experienced the terrible flooding and devastation inBurma
And its this kind of reminder that can make our Bible readings for this Sunday all the more powerful and distressing as we consider them today.
Flooding is an uncomfortable subject at the moment, and our hearts go out, I’m sure to those who have experienced the terrible flooding and devastation in
And its this kind of reminder that can make our Bible readings for this Sunday all the more powerful and distressing as we consider them today.
Not that I want to make a simplistic leap from the very real and painful realities of our world today and the Bible stories set for this week. Nor am I lessening what is happening to our brothers and sisters in Burma or China by comparing the events – on the contrary the real power of the story of Noah in our Old Testament reading and the ever-so-familiar parable of the wise and foolish builders are made even more striking when we consider the genuine danger that floods and the power of water pose even in our technologically advanced world where we seem to think that we are safe from the powers of the natural world. If only that were the case!
Water is commonly used in Scripture to impress upon the reader the power of the natural world, and the ultimate authority God has over the universe. From the very beginning of the book of Genesis we are to be awed by God’s might and power – as the Spirit of God hovers over the waters before the creation story. God demonstrated his creative power and authority over everything by controlling the waters, in the Genesis stories, and creating earth, sky and even land from the waters.
For those in the ancient world there was little which was more awe inspiring than water, the sea seemed to stretch on forever, indeed it was considered that the ocean would take unwitting sailors to the end of the world. Ships, no matter how mighty and well built they were, were still subject to the power of the waves. Floods could take away everything a person had, and the rains brought life, or death depending on when and how heavily they came.
So the God of the mighty waters who created the earth from the oceans, who could wipe out humans and animals with the rains, who led his people through the Red Sea from slavery to freedom, and who could withhold the rain from Israel during the time that the Hebrews deserted his service and worshipped Baal despite Elijah’s calls to be faithful, this was a God to be worshipped and feared.
This is the God of the flood in Jesus parable of the wise and foolish builders. On the one hand it’s a pretty straightforward story that most of us know so well, including the song with actions! But like most parables there’s a lot more to it than the meaning that might spring out at us.
Jesus is probably talking about building near a wadi pronounced wad –ee)– a watercourse that is dry in the hot weather, but rapidly fills in times of wet weather and flows with such ferocity that it can sweep away anything that gets in the way. Like those who farm on the fertile slopes of a volcano, or on the flood plain of a river, it was a risky business to build near a wadi but the rewards were great, the land would be good for grazing and growing, and water could be stored for use later. Those who knew they were building near one of these watercourses took sensible precautions and it would be a very foolish person indeed who didn’t make sure the foundations of their house were stable and able to withstand the inevitable flood waters.
Be prepared! Unlike so many of the floods we hear about on the news, in our own country and throughout the world, this parable is concerned with something which the foolish builder should have seen coming. It’s not a surprise…
There is a further twist to the parable – if God is the God of the flood then he is the one who controls the mighty waters – he is both the power of the flood and the rock which keeps the faithful safe.
Which should bring us pause for thought.
Jesus calls us to live lives founded on his word, and to trust in God. This parable is more than just a warning to make sure we believe the right things and live the right way, its saying something about being prepared for the power of God.
We are to build our lives on the rock of Jesus Christ, we are to have a faith which is founded on his truth and his life. Perhaps the flood that is coming is not one of destruction, but one of the power of God and we need to be prepared for that.
Things are changing in our Churches, in our team, in our parishes. I truly believe that God is at work in our fellowships and that great things are happening and will happen in the coming weeks, months and years. God’s Holy Spirit, that Spirit which Peter proclaimed at Pentecost as being ‘poured out’ is at work in our lives here and now.
We need to be prepared, to make ourselves ready for the work of God in this place.
It starts with examining ourselves and our lives of faith, asking questions about what we, both as individuals and as Churches can do in order to hear and understand the way that God is speaking to us. Prayer, worship, Scripture, living lives that glorify God, loving God with all we are and loving our neighbour as ourselves – all of these are the foundation on which we are to build. Perhaps as Church fellowships we need to ask questions of ourselves and what we do as Church, and what we should be doing to advance the kingdom in our communities.
It is different for each Church and for each one of us, there is no blanket recommendation, but a call for each one of us, together as the body of Christ in these villages, to pray and to consider where God is leading us.
I sincerely believe that God is doing something which will transform our Churches, and that we are called to stand firm and to trust in his power. Not to be swept away, but to use that power to change, to grow and to inspire our fellowships. For those of us building near the wadi of God’s Spirit we need to be rooted and grounded in Christ, and ready to respond to the rise in the river.
It’s a risky business being here near the watercourse, but we can trust in the words of God from Isaiah 43
18 Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
Amen.
Friday, 13 June 2008
A sermon for Trinity Sunday
The Sunday clergy dread preaching on.... I get the feeling that I may well have preached this all before!
Trinity Sunday
How does the Trinity help?
Today is Trinity Sunday, so I am going to talk about the Trinity. But I am not going to try to explain the nature and meaning of ‘God in Trinity’. I am not going to tell you that God is like a Shamrock with three leaves, or explain one of the Church’s profoundest teachings using the image of a Triple Decker chocolate bar or of toothpaste with three stripes in - all of these things do not do justice to the depth and wealth of theological thought around what exactly it means to describe God as ‘The Holy Trinity’
Neither, you will be pleased to know, am I going to try and explain any of this theological discussion around themes such as ‘what is the trinity’ or ‘how do the persons of the trinity exist together’ nor will I be exploring the words ‘consubstantial’ and ‘co-eternal’.
The reason I won’t be looking at the doctrine of the Trinity is because, if we’re honest most of us, myself included, would say that the idea of the Trinity is somewhat confusing, that phrases describing God as ‘three in one and one in three’ leave us feeling a bit bemused. Many of us get by without ever really considering what it might mean to describe God as ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, or ‘Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer’ as some prefer to say. The doctrine of the ‘Trinity’ is not first and foremost in our minds when we turn up at Church to worship God, a God who we strive hard to understand even at the simplest level.
This doesn’t mean I think that the idea of the Trinity is unimportant or irrelevant - just that greater minds than mine have made attempts to explain the meaning of the Trinity and have done a much better job of it as well.
This doesn’t mean either that I find the idea of the Trinity boring or unhelpful, on the contrary I believe that God being revealed as Trinity, as ‘three in one and one in three’ is the most exciting thing about Christianity - it makes our faith a dynamic, awe-filled experience - it offers a very different way to understand and know God to most other systems of belief.
It’s just that I don’t want to talk about doctrine and theology - I want to say a little bit about why I get excited about the God of the Bible - about God who is revealed as one and three persons - about a God who is too big for even our imaginations to contain. I don’t want to talk about the nature and meaning of the Trinity, I want to talk about what we can learn from the very idea of God as Trinity - a very different theme.
So, what can we learn from the Trinity? Well first and foremost the Trinity teaches us something about the importance of relationships. It tells us that the first thing that ever happened in the universe wasn’t creation, or a cosmic battle between Good and Evil. The first thing that happened was a relationship, the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I’m not going to try and explain how this happens - but it strikes me as foundational to our understanding of the foundation of God - that God lives in relationship.
This should influence how we feel about ourselves. We are made, says the Bible, in God’s image. If we are made to reflect God then being in relationship is part of who we are – we’re not made to stand alone or to struggle by ourselves, we are made to share - to live in community, to relate to one another and to live in the love of God.
In the light of this our relationships take on a whole new dimension - no wonder Jesus said it was important to love our neighbour as ourselves - because in doing that we are reflecting the very nature of God. If we take this seriously we have to value the relationships we have, our friendships, our neighbours, those who go to Church with us, even those we do not like or who think differently from us - even our enemies. We are called to live in relationship with them, we are called to live in love with all people. This is no small thing - it is the very foundation of who God is and who God has made us to be.
The second thing that the idea of the Trinity has to teach us is about the importance of integrity. Integrity is a word that has been made very popular in the past few years - I’ve seen books on it by psychologists, business writers and Christians. It’s a trendy word. But don’t let the fact that it’s overused distract us from its importance. God lives in integrity. That means that thought there are disparate parts within the Trinity, though we describe God as being ‘in three persons’ God is still one, God is still ‘whole’.
Integrity means being whole, it means bringing together all of our internal parts and reconciling all our differences. I know of some Christians who faithfully attend Church, they say all the right things - they are models of ‘perfect Church members’ but when you look at how they act they seem to be different people away from the life of the Church. It’s not that they are bad or deliberately rebelling but that they do not apply their faith to the rest of their lives.
They may be managers who don’t always do what is best for their employees, they may fiddle their accounts, they may not stand up for what is right when pushed into a corner. Whatever the situation, what is lacking is integrity.
Faith should not be a part of our lives, but the whole of our lives. Integrity means we reflect God’s nature as we apply the whole of our lives to being like and loving like God. It means we consider our bodies, minds, hearts and souls to all be in the service of God. It means we give our all to God and seek what is right for ourselves and for others. It means learning to be whole.
My third point about what the Trinity can teach us is this - it’s a mystery. We have to know when to give up trying to understand things that are beyond us. We ask questions of God, about God and because of God and it is perfectly right and proper that we do so. No, more than that, it is good and we should always be applying our hearts and minds to search for truth. Ultimately, however, there is a time to give up - to cease asking questions and just accept that some things are as they are, and there’s no changing them and no understanding them. This is a difficult point to reach, but one which we all need to get to at sometime - it is an acknowledgement of our humanity - that we are finite, limited by our time, place and nature. It also means letting go and letting God - of resting in the knowledge that God is bigger than all of this.
The Trinity teaches us that, when it comes down to it, God is God. God is beyond our grasp, beyond our imaginations and our plans, beyond what we want God to be. God is unknowable, and yet God allows us to glimpse what he is really like - God allows us to use names like Father, Mother, Friend, Companion exactly because he understands our limits and wants us to realise that he is without limit. The names and ideas we have about God are only glimpses, we have to realise that God is a mystery which we will never fathom.
My prayer for all of us is that we will grow in our understanding of this God who is trinity and that the hallmarks of our Fellowships will be tolerance, love, a quest for truth, wholeness of life and a willingness to let God be God.
And to God who is ever Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom all power, might, mystery and majesty belong. To God alone be glory in our lives and in the Church. AMEN
Trinity Sunday
How does the Trinity help?
Today is Trinity Sunday, so I am going to talk about the Trinity. But I am not going to try to explain the nature and meaning of ‘God in Trinity’. I am not going to tell you that God is like a Shamrock with three leaves, or explain one of the Church’s profoundest teachings using the image of a Triple Decker chocolate bar or of toothpaste with three stripes in - all of these things do not do justice to the depth and wealth of theological thought around what exactly it means to describe God as ‘The Holy Trinity’
Neither, you will be pleased to know, am I going to try and explain any of this theological discussion around themes such as ‘what is the trinity’ or ‘how do the persons of the trinity exist together’ nor will I be exploring the words ‘consubstantial’ and ‘co-eternal’.
The reason I won’t be looking at the doctrine of the Trinity is because, if we’re honest most of us, myself included, would say that the idea of the Trinity is somewhat confusing, that phrases describing God as ‘three in one and one in three’ leave us feeling a bit bemused. Many of us get by without ever really considering what it might mean to describe God as ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, or ‘Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer’ as some prefer to say. The doctrine of the ‘Trinity’ is not first and foremost in our minds when we turn up at Church to worship God, a God who we strive hard to understand even at the simplest level.
This doesn’t mean I think that the idea of the Trinity is unimportant or irrelevant - just that greater minds than mine have made attempts to explain the meaning of the Trinity and have done a much better job of it as well.
This doesn’t mean either that I find the idea of the Trinity boring or unhelpful, on the contrary I believe that God being revealed as Trinity, as ‘three in one and one in three’ is the most exciting thing about Christianity - it makes our faith a dynamic, awe-filled experience - it offers a very different way to understand and know God to most other systems of belief.
It’s just that I don’t want to talk about doctrine and theology - I want to say a little bit about why I get excited about the God of the Bible - about God who is revealed as one and three persons - about a God who is too big for even our imaginations to contain. I don’t want to talk about the nature and meaning of the Trinity, I want to talk about what we can learn from the very idea of God as Trinity - a very different theme.
So, what can we learn from the Trinity? Well first and foremost the Trinity teaches us something about the importance of relationships. It tells us that the first thing that ever happened in the universe wasn’t creation, or a cosmic battle between Good and Evil. The first thing that happened was a relationship, the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I’m not going to try and explain how this happens - but it strikes me as foundational to our understanding of the foundation of God - that God lives in relationship.
This should influence how we feel about ourselves. We are made, says the Bible, in God’s image. If we are made to reflect God then being in relationship is part of who we are – we’re not made to stand alone or to struggle by ourselves, we are made to share - to live in community, to relate to one another and to live in the love of God.
In the light of this our relationships take on a whole new dimension - no wonder Jesus said it was important to love our neighbour as ourselves - because in doing that we are reflecting the very nature of God. If we take this seriously we have to value the relationships we have, our friendships, our neighbours, those who go to Church with us, even those we do not like or who think differently from us - even our enemies. We are called to live in relationship with them, we are called to live in love with all people. This is no small thing - it is the very foundation of who God is and who God has made us to be.
The second thing that the idea of the Trinity has to teach us is about the importance of integrity. Integrity is a word that has been made very popular in the past few years - I’ve seen books on it by psychologists, business writers and Christians. It’s a trendy word. But don’t let the fact that it’s overused distract us from its importance. God lives in integrity. That means that thought there are disparate parts within the Trinity, though we describe God as being ‘in three persons’ God is still one, God is still ‘whole’.
Integrity means being whole, it means bringing together all of our internal parts and reconciling all our differences. I know of some Christians who faithfully attend Church, they say all the right things - they are models of ‘perfect Church members’ but when you look at how they act they seem to be different people away from the life of the Church. It’s not that they are bad or deliberately rebelling but that they do not apply their faith to the rest of their lives.
They may be managers who don’t always do what is best for their employees, they may fiddle their accounts, they may not stand up for what is right when pushed into a corner. Whatever the situation, what is lacking is integrity.
Faith should not be a part of our lives, but the whole of our lives. Integrity means we reflect God’s nature as we apply the whole of our lives to being like and loving like God. It means we consider our bodies, minds, hearts and souls to all be in the service of God. It means we give our all to God and seek what is right for ourselves and for others. It means learning to be whole.
My third point about what the Trinity can teach us is this - it’s a mystery. We have to know when to give up trying to understand things that are beyond us. We ask questions of God, about God and because of God and it is perfectly right and proper that we do so. No, more than that, it is good and we should always be applying our hearts and minds to search for truth. Ultimately, however, there is a time to give up - to cease asking questions and just accept that some things are as they are, and there’s no changing them and no understanding them. This is a difficult point to reach, but one which we all need to get to at sometime - it is an acknowledgement of our humanity - that we are finite, limited by our time, place and nature. It also means letting go and letting God - of resting in the knowledge that God is bigger than all of this.
The Trinity teaches us that, when it comes down to it, God is God. God is beyond our grasp, beyond our imaginations and our plans, beyond what we want God to be. God is unknowable, and yet God allows us to glimpse what he is really like - God allows us to use names like Father, Mother, Friend, Companion exactly because he understands our limits and wants us to realise that he is without limit. The names and ideas we have about God are only glimpses, we have to realise that God is a mystery which we will never fathom.
My prayer for all of us is that we will grow in our understanding of this God who is trinity and that the hallmarks of our Fellowships will be tolerance, love, a quest for truth, wholeness of life and a willingness to let God be God.
And to God who is ever Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom all power, might, mystery and majesty belong. To God alone be glory in our lives and in the Church. AMEN
Sunday, 11 May 2008
A Sermon for Pentecost
Year A Pentecost (2008) RCL Principal
Jesus Loves the Church
I recently found myself in a conversation with a minister who is Chaplain to an Anglican Church in Paris. There were lots of good things that came out of that conversation, but quite early on in the process he came out with something that really made me think. He said ‘I love Church, Church is why I get up in the morning.’
It’s not a sentence I hear very much. Not even for those of us whose life and ministry is lived around the Church…
Actually perhaps for those of us who are involved in the Church to a greater degree we are more likely to criticise and complain – to be honest – because we have invested so much in the life of our Churches.
I promise you, you never want to spend any great length of time in a room full of Clergy. Except our own Team Clergy, of course, who seem to have the gift of laughter and support to an unnatural degree…
But back to this who idea of loving the Church. What does it mean?
Well, for some people it is a love of the building and the history of these wonderful treasures which are the Parish Churches of England. And I don’t mean that with any sense of irony. I believe that the physical plant, the buildings, the bricks and mortar, or stone, or whatever, are a gift – they are visible signs of devotion to God throughout our land, they are places of prayer, they are sacred spaces, they say to the communities around us that faith endures. These buildings offer us great mission opportunities, they offer us potential for hospitality, they offer the chance for people to be rooted in the community through the good and bad times of life. I can see why people love these buildings.
But it’s not enough.
Some people love the traditions of worship, both ancient and modern, that are a part of the life of the Church. For many ‘Church’ is what you do on a Sunday, usually with a bit of music, a bit of Bible, a bit of a sermon (and/or a snooze depending on how good the preacher is), a bit of prayer, and with luck a bit of coffee at the end and nice biscuits – or even cake (hooray!).
And there’s lots to love – we have hundreds of years of heritage in our prayer books, with the services that we use now in Common Worship stretching back with a 2000 year heritage. Our Sunday worship can lift us to the heights of heaven and – at its best – can draw us to the throne of God where worship is offered eternally to the great ‘I AM’. The beauty of words and music, the depth of the liturgy, the opportunity for stillness and silence, the sense of being in God’s presence and of encountering our living and active God can inspire a great amount of devotion and affection in us.
But it’s not enough!
And others would point to the fellowship of the Church, to the feeling of family and togetherness that is a part of the life of our Parish Churches. I am constantly bowled over by the sense of welcome and care in our Churches, and believe our genuine openness and hospitality is a manifestation of God’s grace in our congregations and beyond.
In fellowship we can find a sense of identity, of being loved and forgiven, of sharing and healing and compassion and love.
And together we find strength, supporting one another and encouraging one another to grow and to act to change the world as Jesus calls us to. Together we can speak out against injustice, against those things which harm or destroy. We can change the world, together.
But it’s not enough…
Loving our building, no matter how wonderful it is. Loving the services on Sunday, no matter how uplifting and enjoyable they are. Loving the fellowship, no matter how welcoming, embracing and inspiring it is. None of this is enough to live and die for.
Yet that’s what Jesus did.
Jesus lived and died for the Church. He is Lord of the Church. The Church, the Bible tells us, is his bride, that is how much Christ loves the Church. We are told in St Paul’s letter to the Corinithians that we are the body, we are Christ to this world, and Jesus is our living head.
Now, that’s the reason I get up in the morning.
But what does this mean? Well our reading from Acts for today stops short of giving us the whole Chapter. If we were to carry on we would hear in verse 41 of Chapter 2 that three thousand were added to the Church after that amazing experience – but if we read through from the next verse, verse 42 to the end of the Chapter we would hear this
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds* to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home* and ate their food with glad and generous* hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
What set the first Church apart at birth was not just the wonderful experience of Pentecost – of the great signs and wonders of that outpouring of the Spirit – but the everyday lives they led. These were people dedicated to lives of prayer, of worship, of sharing together. They were generous hearted, and open in a faith which was part of their homes, their work, their whole lives.
There was no part of their lives that they didn’t allow the Spirit to touch or to change. In many ways after the show of Pentecost, they settled down to lives of everyday devotion. There is that ongoing touch of the Spirit that changes everything they are a part of.
It is that touch of the Spirit that makes the Church the body of Christ, that binds us together like sinews and tendons and muscles and bone and flesh bind us each together. It’s that absolute devotion to God and to one another that should be the hallmark of Christ’s body, of our Church.
And it is that which is our calling today, and in our time that same Spirit is still on offer, we all have the Spirit in us, but we have to ask if we are really allowing God to work in us. Perhaps even more challenging is asking whether we are I excited about being a part of the body of Christ in this place. It’s a question I have to ask of myself every day – I so often try to carry on in my own strength and then realise that it is only with God that any of this is possible.
This Pentecost we have the opportunity, as we do every day, of allowing God to work in us and to allow God’s Spirit to strengthen us, to embolden us, to free us from the fear that can come when we think about how people might react to our Christian faith. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the Church in order that we might be built up together and that together we might change the world.
I believe that if we can trust in the Spirit, if we can be bold in our proclamation of Jesus Christ, if we are true to our calling as Christians to make Jesus known then we too can change the world. Rather than our concerns about our building, or services, or even the sense of fellowship that we share, if we were absolutely committed, in partnership with God through His Holy Spirt, then perhaps when the history books are written about the Church of this generation then it may say about us - And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Pray God it might be so. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus Loves the Church
I recently found myself in a conversation with a minister who is Chaplain to an Anglican Church in Paris. There were lots of good things that came out of that conversation, but quite early on in the process he came out with something that really made me think. He said ‘I love Church, Church is why I get up in the morning.’
It’s not a sentence I hear very much. Not even for those of us whose life and ministry is lived around the Church…
Actually perhaps for those of us who are involved in the Church to a greater degree we are more likely to criticise and complain – to be honest – because we have invested so much in the life of our Churches.
I promise you, you never want to spend any great length of time in a room full of Clergy. Except our own Team Clergy, of course, who seem to have the gift of laughter and support to an unnatural degree…
But back to this who idea of loving the Church. What does it mean?
Well, for some people it is a love of the building and the history of these wonderful treasures which are the Parish Churches of England. And I don’t mean that with any sense of irony. I believe that the physical plant, the buildings, the bricks and mortar, or stone, or whatever, are a gift – they are visible signs of devotion to God throughout our land, they are places of prayer, they are sacred spaces, they say to the communities around us that faith endures. These buildings offer us great mission opportunities, they offer us potential for hospitality, they offer the chance for people to be rooted in the community through the good and bad times of life. I can see why people love these buildings.
But it’s not enough.
Some people love the traditions of worship, both ancient and modern, that are a part of the life of the Church. For many ‘Church’ is what you do on a Sunday, usually with a bit of music, a bit of Bible, a bit of a sermon (and/or a snooze depending on how good the preacher is), a bit of prayer, and with luck a bit of coffee at the end and nice biscuits – or even cake (hooray!).
And there’s lots to love – we have hundreds of years of heritage in our prayer books, with the services that we use now in Common Worship stretching back with a 2000 year heritage. Our Sunday worship can lift us to the heights of heaven and – at its best – can draw us to the throne of God where worship is offered eternally to the great ‘I AM’. The beauty of words and music, the depth of the liturgy, the opportunity for stillness and silence, the sense of being in God’s presence and of encountering our living and active God can inspire a great amount of devotion and affection in us.
But it’s not enough!
And others would point to the fellowship of the Church, to the feeling of family and togetherness that is a part of the life of our Parish Churches. I am constantly bowled over by the sense of welcome and care in our Churches, and believe our genuine openness and hospitality is a manifestation of God’s grace in our congregations and beyond.
In fellowship we can find a sense of identity, of being loved and forgiven, of sharing and healing and compassion and love.
And together we find strength, supporting one another and encouraging one another to grow and to act to change the world as Jesus calls us to. Together we can speak out against injustice, against those things which harm or destroy. We can change the world, together.
But it’s not enough…
Loving our building, no matter how wonderful it is. Loving the services on Sunday, no matter how uplifting and enjoyable they are. Loving the fellowship, no matter how welcoming, embracing and inspiring it is. None of this is enough to live and die for.
Yet that’s what Jesus did.
Jesus lived and died for the Church. He is Lord of the Church. The Church, the Bible tells us, is his bride, that is how much Christ loves the Church. We are told in St Paul’s letter to the Corinithians that we are the body, we are Christ to this world, and Jesus is our living head.
Now, that’s the reason I get up in the morning.
But what does this mean? Well our reading from Acts for today stops short of giving us the whole Chapter. If we were to carry on we would hear in verse 41 of Chapter 2 that three thousand were added to the Church after that amazing experience – but if we read through from the next verse, verse 42 to the end of the Chapter we would hear this
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds* to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home* and ate their food with glad and generous* hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
What set the first Church apart at birth was not just the wonderful experience of Pentecost – of the great signs and wonders of that outpouring of the Spirit – but the everyday lives they led. These were people dedicated to lives of prayer, of worship, of sharing together. They were generous hearted, and open in a faith which was part of their homes, their work, their whole lives.
There was no part of their lives that they didn’t allow the Spirit to touch or to change. In many ways after the show of Pentecost, they settled down to lives of everyday devotion. There is that ongoing touch of the Spirit that changes everything they are a part of.
It is that touch of the Spirit that makes the Church the body of Christ, that binds us together like sinews and tendons and muscles and bone and flesh bind us each together. It’s that absolute devotion to God and to one another that should be the hallmark of Christ’s body, of our Church.
And it is that which is our calling today, and in our time that same Spirit is still on offer, we all have the Spirit in us, but we have to ask if we are really allowing God to work in us. Perhaps even more challenging is asking whether we are I excited about being a part of the body of Christ in this place. It’s a question I have to ask of myself every day – I so often try to carry on in my own strength and then realise that it is only with God that any of this is possible.
This Pentecost we have the opportunity, as we do every day, of allowing God to work in us and to allow God’s Spirit to strengthen us, to embolden us, to free us from the fear that can come when we think about how people might react to our Christian faith. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the Church in order that we might be built up together and that together we might change the world.
I believe that if we can trust in the Spirit, if we can be bold in our proclamation of Jesus Christ, if we are true to our calling as Christians to make Jesus known then we too can change the world. Rather than our concerns about our building, or services, or even the sense of fellowship that we share, if we were absolutely committed, in partnership with God through His Holy Spirt, then perhaps when the history books are written about the Church of this generation then it may say about us - And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Pray God it might be so. Come Holy Spirit. Amen.
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