Year A Proper 19 2008
Set free!
One of the frustrations of reading through the Bible the way we do Sunday by Sunday is that we often, like this week, have three amazing, awe-inspiring and challenging readings and then don’t have time to address all of them in the sermon – or rather if I tried to, then we would be here for most of today, if not most of the next week and maybe beyond…
Not a great way to be remembered, as the Vicar that went on and on and on and on….
Which of course I am never guilty of – ahem.
So it falls to me to try and pick perhaps one theme or idea from these readings and use that!
The most vivid and powerful image comes from Exodus as we hear that story that so many of us know well, the crossing of the Red Sea by the people of Israel. If we really think about it it’s a bit of a shocker, the wiping out of a whole army by their being covered by the Red Sea. We recoil in horror at the images on our TVs and in the papers of genocide or ethnic cleansing – both in history and still going on today, but we often don’t think about the horror of some of the stories in our Bibles.
But if shows that the Bible is not a selection of abstract thoughts and sayings, but something rooted in the earthy, disturbing, hard and difficulty world we live in – stories from history, yes, but also stories which are very real and which speak today to a world still filled with violence, fear, slavery and freedom.
We can’t deny the brutality of some of our Biblical stories. We can’t pretend that some of what is explained as the will of God in our Scriptures doesn’t exist, and nor should be pretend that it doesn’t horrify or at least disturb us. The more we get to know our Bibles, the more we will see of people struggling to make sense of the world around – especially the darker and more difficult parts of the world. The Bible doesn’t seek to put a gloss on the world, but is the record of the struggle to bring meaning and understanding to painful and horrific events. It also celebrates those times which lead to freedom and hope, even when the events that surround that seem bloody and violent to our modern sensibilities. For these people, our ancestors in faith, the salvation from certain death that the drowning of the Egyptian army represented showed the power of a God who delivered on his promise of freedom. It was a miracle.
I’m not going to try and explain how the parting of the Sea might have been accomplished, using spurious science or a historical rewrite of geography to talk of the ‘Reed Sea’. Nor would I presume to try and explain away this miracle recorded in scripture! I think the important thing to remember when we allow this passage to speak to us, and allow ourselves to be challenged by it, is to think about the meaning behind it and, if you prefer the phrase, the ‘moral of the story’.
That’s not to dismiss the difficulties behind it, but to remind us that our Bibles were written from the perspective of ‘a bigger picture’ – of looking for God in every part of life, and of being honest about the highs and lows of this world and believing that God has some part in both. That’s not to say that God manipulates every event and every moment – if that were the case I would never have to wait for a bus again – but that God is involved, God cares about what happens, and God is with us in all things in life.
For the Children of Israel there had been and there would be many times of trial and difficulty alongside the moments of triumph and in those moments where they could see their dream of freedom and hope become more real they rejoiced.
In many ways the crossing of the Red Sea mentioned in this story for today is the turning point in the journey of the Israelites – it marks the move from slavery, and the threat of slavery, and freedom for the God’s chosen people. Having come to Egypt to be saved from famine they found that as their nation grew the Egyptians saw them as a threat and enslaved them. God’s blessing upon them seemed to have brought them only jealousy and hatred. The Exodus of the people from Egypt, under the leadership of Moses, was the moment where God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would settle in a new, promised land, would finally come to be.
It was this that they remembered at the Red Sea. As God brought freedom from slavery, as God led them to safety from the threat of the Egyptian Army, as God rescued them from the potential genocide that Pharaoh’s troops would surely bring. That is why in Exodus 15 Miriam, Moses’ sister proclaims ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel…horse and rider he has thrown into the sea’. It’s not out a sense of delight in bloodshed, though there may have been some rejoicing in the fact that those who had oppressed and murdered the Hebrews for so long had received their ‘just desserts’, but Miriam’s declaration is a declaration of salvation, of freedom ‘The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation’ she sings.
God had done more for the Israelites than they could ever have imagined, and no matter how our eyes may look at it now, for the children of Israel it was the difference between life and death, between slavery and freedom. God had set them free!
And we too are those who have been set free. We too have had the chains of slavery broken by death – only this time it was not the death of an angry and hostile army, it was the death of the only sinless man this world has ever known. It was the death of the one who is God made flesh, the lamb of God. If we find the death of the Egyptian army unpleasant, we should find the death of Jesus Christ, the way in which he took our guilt, our sin, our death upon himself all the more offensive. It should inspire us to anger, to guilt, to despair, but more than that is should fill us with a deep sense of gratitude at the grace of God which made this possible. Blessed be the Lord God, for he has become our strength and salvation.
We have been set free through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and we should, we must live in such a way that shows that in our lives. If we truly allowed these scriptures to sink in, to affect us as the wonder and magnitude should affect us, then it would transform our attitudes to all that we do, to all that we have, to all that we are.
Though, of course, as I say week after week, it is the Spirit, the touch of God, that makes these stories real to us, that gives us the grace to realise all that these wonderful, disturbing, transforming scriptures mean and which inspires us to change and to live as those who are redeemed from slavery and bondage to sin and death, and to be those who can, with God’s help live lives of grace, of being forgiven and of forgiving others – even seventy times seven!
May the word of God dwell in us richly, and continue to make us the people that God calls us to be. Amen.
Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible. Show all posts
Friday, 19 September 2008
Monday, 29 October 2007
Bible Sunday Sermon
Bible Sunday (2007) Year C RCL Principal
Today is the Last Sunday after Trinity, it is also the Feast day of the Apostles St Simon and St Jude, and on top of that it is ‘Bible Sunday’ – so our thoughts this morning are focussed around the idea of the feast of God’s word that is our Bible. And I have only minutes to get to grips with the subject. So here goes, oh and for those who were at Team Evening Worship last week who recognise any of this, my apologies, some of this had to be said again!
How would you describe the Bible? (Few suggestions?) Word of God is the usual one. It is a title we need to be careful of, though – JESUS IS THE WORD OF GOD (John 1.1 ‘In the beginning was the Word’) I have a high regard for the Bible, it is foundational in my faith, it guides me, leads me, tells me the roots of the Christian story and invites me to join in. But I do not worship the Bible, I worship Jesus Christ.
How would you feel if we did as members of Sikhism do? If we treated the book of the Bible with such reverence and awe that we gave it its own bed to sleep in, and every morning took it out of bed with a procession and placed it on its reading stand. The act of worship in a Sikh temple basically involves reverencing the Granthi – the Holy Book, and listening to it. It is believed by Sikhs to be the living embodiment of truth. I don’t wish to imply any disrespect to the Sikh religion, what is contained within the Granthi is worth listening to and living by – but that is not how we as Christians are supposed to relate to our holy Scriptures. I think it is fitting that the main service is many Christian Churches is the Eucharist, which draws us towards an understanding of the word of God which is living and active – encountered in one another and in bread and wine – made real and solid, not simply in words on a page but in flesh and blood.
We are those who follow Christ, the living Word. In the Bible we are given stories, ideas, explorations, struggles, – but we are not called to worship the Bible. The response of many Christians to a difficult issue is ‘the Bible says’ – as they pull out a verse which is often out of context and relates to a different culture, a different era, a different world to where we are today.
In the Second letter to Timothy that we have been following over the past weeks in our service, chapter 3 verse 16 says, as I spoke on last week, ‘All Scripture is inspired by God’. But what exactly does that mean? Well if you read some other translations of the Bible, or even go back to the original language of the New Testament, Greek, you will find that the word ‘inspired’ means something like ‘God breathed’ – all Scripture is ‘God breathed’.
For Jews and Christians living about the time that this was read there was an idea that Scripture was living and active. There were many many books that came within the understanding of Scripture – so when the writer of this letter to Timothy talks of Scripture he is not talking about the Old Testament as we know it, and the New Testament has not even begun to appear yet, except as letters to Churches. The writer of this letter is talking about the tradition of Scripture – the books of law and prophets and the Jewish books that seek to interpret the law and the prophets. And the Jewish people had no concept of gathering all the scrolls together and making one definitive list, that did not happen until well after the time of the New Testament.
This principle is one that we have lost. We have encapsulated Scripture and claim that it is a solid block that cannot be tampered with. We forget that the Bible isn’t a book, it’s a library, with many different textures and stories woven together. Many Christian claim to know what it means and to use their interpretation to guide them throughout their life – but without recognising that they see Scripture through very different eyes from the ones who wrote and collated it so many years ago.
I believe that Scripture is living and active. That it leads us beyond itself to the God who is behind it all. I believe that we can use Scripture to guide us and teach us, to lead us into truth. But I do not believe that we do so by simple picking it up, saying ‘Oh, the Bible says this or this’ and then applying that straight to our lives. No I have more reverence for the Bible than that.
The Bible is a collection of thoughts, some of them good, some bad, that lead us to knowledge of God and a relationship to Jesus Christ. Reading the Bible should not give us a nice cosy feeling that we have the truth all sorted out – rather it should disturb us, and shake us from sleep, it should be like a slap in the face that calls us to follow Christ more faithfully.
You see, the Bible often does not have answers to every question we have. As a minister I find myself asking many questions – both about my faith and about God. This is especially the case as I wonder about the way life is going to change for Jo and I when our baby is born in the near future. It’s also the case every time I officiate at a funeral, or speak to someone of their difficulties in life. And the Bible does not give me a definitive answer to questions such as why things happen, instead the Bible offers me the understanding that God is alongside us in life and in death, in the times we feel empty and alone, in the times we feel elated.
Look at the Psalms, for instance, the ‘Theology’ in some of them is terrible and does not fit well with the Christian message – The Psalmist talks of death being the absolute end, that no one who dies will ever be able to praise or see God. In the light of the resurrection of Christ, however, and the understanding that has grown up since then we believe that God offers us life eternally, in all its fullness. But though the Psalms may be incomplete they do offer us a picture of how we might be honest before God. In this way they are inspired, they allow us to be ourselves. In one Psalm the writer says of the Babylonians ‘blessed is the one who dashes your children’s heads upon the rocks’. A sickening image, and one which we would in no way ascribe to, but it gives us an idea of how to be honest before God, not to hold back our anger, our fear, our feelings.
And so Scripture offers us stories, ideas. As a whole it gives us ‘The Story of Faith’ from a perspective of the Christian Church. And it allows us to join in that story, to tell it ourselves, to make it our own story and to add our own stories to it. What I am saying is that I don’t think we should just take Scripture as it is – we must acknowledge that we are in a process of interpreting scripture. Scripture is living and active, and that means that we have to work at discerning the truth beyond the words.
To truly engage with Scripture takes work, it takes study, prayer and meditation. We need the eyes of faith in order to see its truth, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need to be open to new ideas, to be willing to admit we were wrong, to move on and be shaken by God speaking through the Scriptures.
The problem often with the way in which we read scripture in Church is that it all sounds the same, we have short passages read out of context and even the best preacher (and I don’t count myself in that number) can only give so much background to each Biblical passage week by week. We need to look at Scripture ourselves, to read it, perhaps with the aid of Bible notes, day by day. Not to read it for the sake of reading the Bible, but to delve into this wonderful feast of faith that is the Bible. Last Sunday I got the small group that came to Team Evening Worship to consider the different types of writing that our Bible contains – the styles of writing, which we call Genres, within the Bible. We came up with quite a long list – and if we were advertising it in the way in which movies are advertised then some gravelly American voice would have their work cut out ‘War, romance, poetry, story, parable, myth, history, biography, faith, letter’ all of this kind of writing and so much more make up our Bibles, and just asking ourselves as we read ‘what type of writing is this, and where did it come from’ can offer us insight into the depth and variety of our Scriptural diet.
We should take time to read the bits we don’t like, not just the bits we do, we should struggle with the food laws in Deuteronomy, or a huge wedge of genealogy every now and then in order to ask ‘why is this here’ and ‘what can I learn from this’, or the question that I was taught to ask at every point of my training ‘where is God in all this?’ This is not an approach that fits well with taking Scripture as a solid block, instead it is a process of learning, of seeing where scripture leads us, of being unafraid to ask difficult questions and not expect easy answers. I pray that we will all grapple with Scripture and allow it to grapple with us. Amen.
Today is the Last Sunday after Trinity, it is also the Feast day of the Apostles St Simon and St Jude, and on top of that it is ‘Bible Sunday’ – so our thoughts this morning are focussed around the idea of the feast of God’s word that is our Bible. And I have only minutes to get to grips with the subject. So here goes, oh and for those who were at Team Evening Worship last week who recognise any of this, my apologies, some of this had to be said again!
How would you describe the Bible? (Few suggestions?) Word of God is the usual one. It is a title we need to be careful of, though – JESUS IS THE WORD OF GOD (John 1.1 ‘In the beginning was the Word’) I have a high regard for the Bible, it is foundational in my faith, it guides me, leads me, tells me the roots of the Christian story and invites me to join in. But I do not worship the Bible, I worship Jesus Christ.
How would you feel if we did as members of Sikhism do? If we treated the book of the Bible with such reverence and awe that we gave it its own bed to sleep in, and every morning took it out of bed with a procession and placed it on its reading stand. The act of worship in a Sikh temple basically involves reverencing the Granthi – the Holy Book, and listening to it. It is believed by Sikhs to be the living embodiment of truth. I don’t wish to imply any disrespect to the Sikh religion, what is contained within the Granthi is worth listening to and living by – but that is not how we as Christians are supposed to relate to our holy Scriptures. I think it is fitting that the main service is many Christian Churches is the Eucharist, which draws us towards an understanding of the word of God which is living and active – encountered in one another and in bread and wine – made real and solid, not simply in words on a page but in flesh and blood.
We are those who follow Christ, the living Word. In the Bible we are given stories, ideas, explorations, struggles, – but we are not called to worship the Bible. The response of many Christians to a difficult issue is ‘the Bible says’ – as they pull out a verse which is often out of context and relates to a different culture, a different era, a different world to where we are today.
In the Second letter to Timothy that we have been following over the past weeks in our service, chapter 3 verse 16 says, as I spoke on last week, ‘All Scripture is inspired by God’. But what exactly does that mean? Well if you read some other translations of the Bible, or even go back to the original language of the New Testament, Greek, you will find that the word ‘inspired’ means something like ‘God breathed’ – all Scripture is ‘God breathed’.
For Jews and Christians living about the time that this was read there was an idea that Scripture was living and active. There were many many books that came within the understanding of Scripture – so when the writer of this letter to Timothy talks of Scripture he is not talking about the Old Testament as we know it, and the New Testament has not even begun to appear yet, except as letters to Churches. The writer of this letter is talking about the tradition of Scripture – the books of law and prophets and the Jewish books that seek to interpret the law and the prophets. And the Jewish people had no concept of gathering all the scrolls together and making one definitive list, that did not happen until well after the time of the New Testament.
This principle is one that we have lost. We have encapsulated Scripture and claim that it is a solid block that cannot be tampered with. We forget that the Bible isn’t a book, it’s a library, with many different textures and stories woven together. Many Christian claim to know what it means and to use their interpretation to guide them throughout their life – but without recognising that they see Scripture through very different eyes from the ones who wrote and collated it so many years ago.
I believe that Scripture is living and active. That it leads us beyond itself to the God who is behind it all. I believe that we can use Scripture to guide us and teach us, to lead us into truth. But I do not believe that we do so by simple picking it up, saying ‘Oh, the Bible says this or this’ and then applying that straight to our lives. No I have more reverence for the Bible than that.
The Bible is a collection of thoughts, some of them good, some bad, that lead us to knowledge of God and a relationship to Jesus Christ. Reading the Bible should not give us a nice cosy feeling that we have the truth all sorted out – rather it should disturb us, and shake us from sleep, it should be like a slap in the face that calls us to follow Christ more faithfully.
You see, the Bible often does not have answers to every question we have. As a minister I find myself asking many questions – both about my faith and about God. This is especially the case as I wonder about the way life is going to change for Jo and I when our baby is born in the near future. It’s also the case every time I officiate at a funeral, or speak to someone of their difficulties in life. And the Bible does not give me a definitive answer to questions such as why things happen, instead the Bible offers me the understanding that God is alongside us in life and in death, in the times we feel empty and alone, in the times we feel elated.
Look at the Psalms, for instance, the ‘Theology’ in some of them is terrible and does not fit well with the Christian message – The Psalmist talks of death being the absolute end, that no one who dies will ever be able to praise or see God. In the light of the resurrection of Christ, however, and the understanding that has grown up since then we believe that God offers us life eternally, in all its fullness. But though the Psalms may be incomplete they do offer us a picture of how we might be honest before God. In this way they are inspired, they allow us to be ourselves. In one Psalm the writer says of the Babylonians ‘blessed is the one who dashes your children’s heads upon the rocks’. A sickening image, and one which we would in no way ascribe to, but it gives us an idea of how to be honest before God, not to hold back our anger, our fear, our feelings.
And so Scripture offers us stories, ideas. As a whole it gives us ‘The Story of Faith’ from a perspective of the Christian Church. And it allows us to join in that story, to tell it ourselves, to make it our own story and to add our own stories to it. What I am saying is that I don’t think we should just take Scripture as it is – we must acknowledge that we are in a process of interpreting scripture. Scripture is living and active, and that means that we have to work at discerning the truth beyond the words.
To truly engage with Scripture takes work, it takes study, prayer and meditation. We need the eyes of faith in order to see its truth, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need to be open to new ideas, to be willing to admit we were wrong, to move on and be shaken by God speaking through the Scriptures.
The problem often with the way in which we read scripture in Church is that it all sounds the same, we have short passages read out of context and even the best preacher (and I don’t count myself in that number) can only give so much background to each Biblical passage week by week. We need to look at Scripture ourselves, to read it, perhaps with the aid of Bible notes, day by day. Not to read it for the sake of reading the Bible, but to delve into this wonderful feast of faith that is the Bible. Last Sunday I got the small group that came to Team Evening Worship to consider the different types of writing that our Bible contains – the styles of writing, which we call Genres, within the Bible. We came up with quite a long list – and if we were advertising it in the way in which movies are advertised then some gravelly American voice would have their work cut out ‘War, romance, poetry, story, parable, myth, history, biography, faith, letter’ all of this kind of writing and so much more make up our Bibles, and just asking ourselves as we read ‘what type of writing is this, and where did it come from’ can offer us insight into the depth and variety of our Scriptural diet.
We should take time to read the bits we don’t like, not just the bits we do, we should struggle with the food laws in Deuteronomy, or a huge wedge of genealogy every now and then in order to ask ‘why is this here’ and ‘what can I learn from this’, or the question that I was taught to ask at every point of my training ‘where is God in all this?’ This is not an approach that fits well with taking Scripture as a solid block, instead it is a process of learning, of seeing where scripture leads us, of being unafraid to ask difficult questions and not expect easy answers. I pray that we will all grapple with Scripture and allow it to grapple with us. Amen.
Monday, 14 May 2007
Sermon for Easter 6 Year C
Year C Easter 6 (2007) RCL Principal
Going further
Today’s readings are interesting, and I am afraid that I have no funny story or witty introduction to begin with this week because, really, the readings speak for themselves. Our Gospel reading contains words of Jesus from John’s Gospel – the section of John’s Gospel known as the ‘farewell discourse’ where Jesus – before his crucifixion, offers encouragement and comfort to his disciples as he tells them that the Holy Spirit will come and be with them, and that he gives his own peace to them as a gift to keep them steadfast through what is to come.
For those of you intrigued as to why we are having this reading in the weeks following Holy Week and Easter, it is because in our Lectionary which runs over three years the Gospel of John is spread throughout the festival times of the year, such as the Easter Season, and therefore these words don’t necessarily fit with the Church year in a simple, chronological way, though we could argue that as we lead up to Pentecost, being reminded of the promise of God’s Holy Spirit is very appropriate.
Our other reading is part of our trek through Acts that always happens in the weeks after Easter, and that reading must always displace any other Old or New Testament lessons we have alongside our Gospel reading. And though it seems a relative straightforward reading there is, as is so often the case in Scripture, more than perhaps first meets the eye, and some encouragement or admonishment for each of us in this short, simple reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
First of all we have a Paul following the prompting of a vision to go to Macedonia. Being Paul, he was eager to follow what he saw as God’s leading, and, we are told immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convince that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
Paul responds to God’s prompting immediately, there is no hanging about – and we are even given the intricacies of the route he follows in order to show the effort he makes in response to this divine call, sailing from Toras, to Samothrace, Neapolis and Philippi. Then ‘supposing there might be a place of prayer, near the river they encounter a woman called Lydia from Thyratira who was already, we are informed, a worshipper of God – but the Lord opened her heart to the message of Paul and she and her household were baptised. Then she ‘prevails upon’ Paul and his companion to stay at her home.
So what have we to learn from this? Plenty!
First of all we have Paul’s response, it wasn’t that he needed a vision to go and proclaim the Gospel, but that he was open to God’s prompting as to where to proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel was there, the good news of Christ, and Paul was already proclaiming in word and deed the truth of Jesus. He didn’t need to be nudged into action, but directed as to where God wished him to be.
Likewise in our life as Church we shouldn’t really be focussing on what we do – we are called to follow Christ, and to encourage others to do so. We are called to live lives of love and faithfulness, and to encourage others to do so. We are called to proclaim the truth of Christ, and to encourage others etc etc etc. The fact is that Christ is our foundation, and is our message, and is our hope. We are called to think about how we make that message a reality, rather than what that message is. How to bring hope, life, love, grace and forgiveness to a world which struggles with the very idea of those words. Not to debate the whys and wherefores, but to seek God’s vision of how put this into action.
Then we have the example of Lydia. A successful woman, a trader in purple cloth – this may not seem like much at first sight, but actually it was both a lucrative and responsible position. Purple was a very difficult colour to make, and the dyes which created purple cloth were hard to get hold of, hence it was the colour of royalty and of the emperor. It made Lydia a woman of status and substance.
And yet she does not rely on her own success, but is open to God and willing to listen to the message of the Gospel. Already a worshipper of God, we are told, her heart is opened by the Lord and she is baptised there and then.
The acknowledgement of and repentance from sin that is part of baptism, the submission to Christ which baptism represents doesn’t cause Lydia to baulk or state her own success, on the contrary the impression we have is that she eagerly embraced baptism, along with her whole household.
Also the very fact that she was a worshipper of God did not cause her to say ‘well this is the way I do things and I don’t need a new way of seeing God’ but she was open to Paul’s message and responded with enthusiasm and humility in being baptised. For many of us, especially those of us who have been Christians or part of the Church for some time, we do rather get settled in our ways. For Lydia, the idea of ‘going back to scratch’, as it were, didn’t cause her to retreat into her own way of doing things, but she was open to the prompting of the Spirit and willing to open herself to God’s way of doing things.
Now I know that by saying that many people will be concerned that this is an attempt to leave the Book of Common Prayer behind, or to bring in guitars and drumkits for all of our services, or to stop singing old fashioned hymns or whatever. I am not making a statement about our liturgy, or about our music, but about our attitudes to what God is doing. In some Churches learning to do things under the prompting of the Spirit does mean a change in services. In others it means a revitalisation of worship in traditional form and a rediscovery of the deep heritage we have in the Church.
I believe that God is more concerned about our faithfulness than the prayer books which we use, and I believe that the enthusiasm of Lydia is an example of how we should be, that the openness of heart, inspired by the Spirit of God, which comes from this simple, short passage is a shining example of what happens when we don’t always begin our thinking with ‘that is how we’ve always done it’ or ‘we’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work’. There is freshness, and an excitement about Lydia’s encounter with God which should inspire us to think again about how our own Church fellowship considers our calling to be Christ’s body in this village, and how as Christians we are called to serve this community.
Which leads on to the final point which I believe comes from this story. Lydia’s response was one of hospitality. After hearing the message and responding to the message of the good news, Lydia invites Paul to stay. More than that, our final line in the reading says ‘she prevailed’ upon the apostle.
Now much as I appreciate hospitality shown to me, and I do receive plenty, I think this little comment at then end of the passage is a reminder that we are called to be hospitable communities. Our Churches do have a reputation for the warmth of our welcome, I hear that as I go around our villages. I honestly don’t think anyone could accuse us of being unfriendly. But again we consider how we can extend the hospitality of Christ – which isn’t necessarily about inviting folk to stay, but offering compassion, warmth, love and support to our communities. Thinking of innovative ways in which to engage with our villages, and of ways in which we can encourage the folk of our villages to engage with one another, is part of our calling as Parish Churches.
So, a short, and seemingly simple passage becomes an encouragement, an admonishment, and a hope. And all of this comes back to the prompting of the Spirit of God, that Spirit promised by Christ in our Gospel reading today. It is his voice we are called to listen to, it is his voice that reassures, leads, guides and inspires, it is his voice that opens our hearts, and opens scripture to our hearts. May we be attentive and open to that voice. Amen.
Going further
Today’s readings are interesting, and I am afraid that I have no funny story or witty introduction to begin with this week because, really, the readings speak for themselves. Our Gospel reading contains words of Jesus from John’s Gospel – the section of John’s Gospel known as the ‘farewell discourse’ where Jesus – before his crucifixion, offers encouragement and comfort to his disciples as he tells them that the Holy Spirit will come and be with them, and that he gives his own peace to them as a gift to keep them steadfast through what is to come.
For those of you intrigued as to why we are having this reading in the weeks following Holy Week and Easter, it is because in our Lectionary which runs over three years the Gospel of John is spread throughout the festival times of the year, such as the Easter Season, and therefore these words don’t necessarily fit with the Church year in a simple, chronological way, though we could argue that as we lead up to Pentecost, being reminded of the promise of God’s Holy Spirit is very appropriate.
Our other reading is part of our trek through Acts that always happens in the weeks after Easter, and that reading must always displace any other Old or New Testament lessons we have alongside our Gospel reading. And though it seems a relative straightforward reading there is, as is so often the case in Scripture, more than perhaps first meets the eye, and some encouragement or admonishment for each of us in this short, simple reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
First of all we have a Paul following the prompting of a vision to go to Macedonia. Being Paul, he was eager to follow what he saw as God’s leading, and, we are told immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convince that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
Paul responds to God’s prompting immediately, there is no hanging about – and we are even given the intricacies of the route he follows in order to show the effort he makes in response to this divine call, sailing from Toras, to Samothrace, Neapolis and Philippi. Then ‘supposing there might be a place of prayer, near the river they encounter a woman called Lydia from Thyratira who was already, we are informed, a worshipper of God – but the Lord opened her heart to the message of Paul and she and her household were baptised. Then she ‘prevails upon’ Paul and his companion to stay at her home.
So what have we to learn from this? Plenty!
First of all we have Paul’s response, it wasn’t that he needed a vision to go and proclaim the Gospel, but that he was open to God’s prompting as to where to proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel was there, the good news of Christ, and Paul was already proclaiming in word and deed the truth of Jesus. He didn’t need to be nudged into action, but directed as to where God wished him to be.
Likewise in our life as Church we shouldn’t really be focussing on what we do – we are called to follow Christ, and to encourage others to do so. We are called to live lives of love and faithfulness, and to encourage others to do so. We are called to proclaim the truth of Christ, and to encourage others etc etc etc. The fact is that Christ is our foundation, and is our message, and is our hope. We are called to think about how we make that message a reality, rather than what that message is. How to bring hope, life, love, grace and forgiveness to a world which struggles with the very idea of those words. Not to debate the whys and wherefores, but to seek God’s vision of how put this into action.
Then we have the example of Lydia. A successful woman, a trader in purple cloth – this may not seem like much at first sight, but actually it was both a lucrative and responsible position. Purple was a very difficult colour to make, and the dyes which created purple cloth were hard to get hold of, hence it was the colour of royalty and of the emperor. It made Lydia a woman of status and substance.
And yet she does not rely on her own success, but is open to God and willing to listen to the message of the Gospel. Already a worshipper of God, we are told, her heart is opened by the Lord and she is baptised there and then.
The acknowledgement of and repentance from sin that is part of baptism, the submission to Christ which baptism represents doesn’t cause Lydia to baulk or state her own success, on the contrary the impression we have is that she eagerly embraced baptism, along with her whole household.
Also the very fact that she was a worshipper of God did not cause her to say ‘well this is the way I do things and I don’t need a new way of seeing God’ but she was open to Paul’s message and responded with enthusiasm and humility in being baptised. For many of us, especially those of us who have been Christians or part of the Church for some time, we do rather get settled in our ways. For Lydia, the idea of ‘going back to scratch’, as it were, didn’t cause her to retreat into her own way of doing things, but she was open to the prompting of the Spirit and willing to open herself to God’s way of doing things.
Now I know that by saying that many people will be concerned that this is an attempt to leave the Book of Common Prayer behind, or to bring in guitars and drumkits for all of our services, or to stop singing old fashioned hymns or whatever. I am not making a statement about our liturgy, or about our music, but about our attitudes to what God is doing. In some Churches learning to do things under the prompting of the Spirit does mean a change in services. In others it means a revitalisation of worship in traditional form and a rediscovery of the deep heritage we have in the Church.
I believe that God is more concerned about our faithfulness than the prayer books which we use, and I believe that the enthusiasm of Lydia is an example of how we should be, that the openness of heart, inspired by the Spirit of God, which comes from this simple, short passage is a shining example of what happens when we don’t always begin our thinking with ‘that is how we’ve always done it’ or ‘we’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work’. There is freshness, and an excitement about Lydia’s encounter with God which should inspire us to think again about how our own Church fellowship considers our calling to be Christ’s body in this village, and how as Christians we are called to serve this community.
Which leads on to the final point which I believe comes from this story. Lydia’s response was one of hospitality. After hearing the message and responding to the message of the good news, Lydia invites Paul to stay. More than that, our final line in the reading says ‘she prevailed’ upon the apostle.
Now much as I appreciate hospitality shown to me, and I do receive plenty, I think this little comment at then end of the passage is a reminder that we are called to be hospitable communities. Our Churches do have a reputation for the warmth of our welcome, I hear that as I go around our villages. I honestly don’t think anyone could accuse us of being unfriendly. But again we consider how we can extend the hospitality of Christ – which isn’t necessarily about inviting folk to stay, but offering compassion, warmth, love and support to our communities. Thinking of innovative ways in which to engage with our villages, and of ways in which we can encourage the folk of our villages to engage with one another, is part of our calling as Parish Churches.
So, a short, and seemingly simple passage becomes an encouragement, an admonishment, and a hope. And all of this comes back to the prompting of the Spirit of God, that Spirit promised by Christ in our Gospel reading today. It is his voice we are called to listen to, it is his voice that reassures, leads, guides and inspires, it is his voice that opens our hearts, and opens scripture to our hearts. May we be attentive and open to that voice. Amen.
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