Some books are more precious than others. And this is one of them.
Kathleen O’Gorman had been one of the leaders of our conference on Reconciliation at the Tantur Institute in Jerusalem. She teaches New Testament at the University of London.
“What book would you suggest I could best get hold of as a memento of our time in the Holy Land?”
Without hesitation she recommended Peter Walker’s In the Steps of Jesus. It had been published only two years before. Peter Walker is a New Testament specialist they at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. His book works not just as a wonderful pictorial guide to the Holy Land, but also as an accessible, but scholarly guide to the archaeology, history and social history that comes alive when you visit the Holy Land and brings the text alive ever afterwards, and at a third level it works as a commentary on St Luke.
I have since bought the companion volume ‘In the Steps of St Paul’ a pilgrimage I undertook 40 years ago. It serves the same purpose, but also acts as a commentary on Acts.
On the Sunday of our stay four of us had worshipped at the East Jerusalem Baptist Church with its Pastor, Alex Awad, who had also been one of the speakers at our conference. We had made our way by public transport across Jerusalem and walked from the old city to the Baptist church with every intention of visiting the Garden Tomb on the way back as it wasn’t necessarily going to be on our itinerary. We were disappointed to find it was closed on Sundays.
You can imagine our excitement when over coffee after the service in conversation with Alex Awad we found that the couple who were the resident curators of the Garden Tomb were present at the service. Quick introductions were made and we found ourselves having our own personal guided tour of the Garden Tomb when no one else was around. It was, as you can imagine, most moving.
Later in the week, on our last day in Jerusalem, we found ourselves with the whole of our group making it for a second time to the Garden Tomb, though this time it was heaving with people and not quite the same.
On the way out we had to go through the souvenir shop and book shop, as you invariably do at such tourist places anywhere in the world.
And there it was on the shelves.
I bought my copy of ‘In the Steps of Jesus’ there and then.
It was our last night in Jerusalem and on a whim, I decided to do something I am so pleased to have done.
I began to collect signatures of everyone who was there on the conference.
And so in the front inside cover is a wonderful collection of signatures of all those people, complete with greetings.
At the end of our week at the Tantur Institute we had got to know a little the staff who were at reception. And heard something of their story. I asked them to sign as well.
How glad I was that I did.
There in the endpaper are two signatures in Arabic with an anglicised form of the ‘Christian’ names.
They both had the same name.
The anglicised it as I s s a
They explained it was the name, Jesus.
In our culture that is a name not given to children. But among their Arabic, Christian community, it was as common a name now, as it had been 2000 years ago in the time not only of Jesus of Nazareth but also of Jesus Barabbas and many other Jesus’es too!
It was a common name, of course, because it comes into English in another form, a form that actually is still used in our culture as a Christian name.
Joshua.
It’s maybe no coincidence that we look to Jesus of Nazareth, who bears the same name as Joshua for Joshua is seen as the right hand man of Moses who acts as leader and maybe ‘saviour’ of the people bringing them finally to the place of safety of the land flowing with milk and honey. The name, Joshua, Jesus, means of course Saviour.
How appropriate to have two Arabic signatures bearing the name I S S A, Jesus, Joshua, in a book entitled In the Steps of Jesus.
I want to hold on to that connection and the title of that book as we turn to have a look at the Book of Joshua.
The Torah has come to an end, we now move into a set of hooks that appear in the Hebrew ordering of Scripture as Prophetic books. Known as ‘the former prophets’ they are ‘history with a message’.
Jesus lays claim to fulfilling all the Law and the Prophets. And so his claim is to fulfil ‘Joshua’ as much as the books of Moses. In some senses he is very much another ‘Joshua’.
Joshua has first occurred in the story of the people of Israel as early as Exodus 17:9 when Joshua is very much along with Moses. Now at the point at which Moses has died on the threshold of entering the Promised Land it falls to Joshua to lead the people over the river Jordan and into the Promised land.
After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, ‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites.
I deliberately chose to read from the New Testament the account of John the Baptist batizing in the Jordan. John tells us that it is Bethany by the Jordan. That is towards the south end of the river Jordan just before it enters the Dead Sea. You cannot get to that spot from the West Bank because the Israeli military regard it as a military zone. You can get to it from the East Bank of the river which is in Jordan – and there is a church in that place.
The Israelis have set apart a little stretch of the Jordan far off in the North where you can share in baptisms in the river Jordan at that point. Complete with its tourist shop. There is something very moving about that place, especially seeing people sharing in baptisms.
But some of our teachers suggested there was significance in the actual location so carefully identified as near the Judean wilderness in all the Gospels, and specifically located in John as Bethany by the Jordan.
The significane is that John took people out to be baptised in the Jordan at around the place where Joshua led the people over the Jordan. Our guide suggested that John would have led the people out of Jerusalem – and into or even over the river. Think shallow, narrow river more akin to a larger River Chelt than the Severn Estuary!!!
John is dressing as an Elijah, but also re-enacting a ‘reclaiming of the land’ as Joshua had arrived. Jesus lines himself up with John the Baptist’s movement and also recalaims the land.
The new Jesus, as the old Joshua, starts his ministry as he comes up out of the Jordan and moves into the wilderness which is the route to Jerusalem. He is going to roam all over the land until he finally reaches Jerusalem.
Joshua receives the promise of the land.
‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory.
In readiness for our arrival in the Book of Joshua I got hold of a newly published commentary on Joshua.
It’s in a series called ‘The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary’. And it is written by two authors. Gordon McConville is based here in Cheltenahm, was with us on our Good Friday walk of witness through the town, and teaches Old Testament at the University of Gloucestershire. He will be there on Tuesday evening, when the Regius Profess of Theology in the University of Cambridge, David Ford will be giving the tenth or eleventh lecture in a series on Biblical Theology and Interpretation – if anyone wants to join me say the word.
Gordon McConville does what you expect in a commentary. He gives a chapter by chapter set of comments on the text of the book of Joshua. It is a good commentary, as you would expect!!!
That is, as it were, the first horizon. It is a study of the Hebrew text of the Book of Joshua in its own right.
Then comes the twist in this particular commentary series. Stephen Williams is a Christian theologian. He then writes a sequence of essays exploring the way a Christian will read the book of Joshua. There then follows an conversation between the biblical scholar and the theologian.
Stephen Williams identifies a number of problems in the book of Joshua for a lChristian reader.
Two problems are major ones.
First the problem of ‘the land’.
This could not be more timely this week.
The sight of Netanyahu literally facing off President Obama the day after Obama gave his speech on the Middle East was remarkable, the like of which I have never seen.
Obama said the USA would insist on a two state solution with the 1967 boundaries. Netanyahu explained that ‘changing demographics made that not possible. He was referring to the proliferation of Jewish settlements accommodating in excess of 600,000 people dotted all over the West Bank, and taking over the very East Jerusalem where we had worshipped in that Baptist church.
What should we think?
If we read these verses in Joshua then it would seem that Jewish people must occupy not only the whole of this land, but even as far as the Euphrates – right up to Iraq and Iran. This is what drives many of those settlers. It is a policy espoused by many Christians in some parts of the world too.
Do we support Obama? Or Netanyahu.
Stephen Williams offers us a clue.
He observes that it is significant that Jesus does not anywhere make an issue of ‘the land’. Jesus speaks of fulfilling the prophets who later in Isaiah speak of the land reaching through the people of Israel to Gentiles. And this is significant. He opens up a Gospel for Jew and Gentile alike, where God’s love is for ‘the world’ and not rooted in a specifc piece of l and.
I want to come back to this book, In the Steps of Jesus.
We are those who follow in the steps of Jesus. I think it significant that Alex Awad, those committed to the Tantur Institue, all the great historic Christian churches of East Jersualem, the West Bank, Israel and Palestine urge us to reject the view that the land must be entirely occupied by Jewish people but to be a placed shared by Jew and Gentile alike where there is room for all.
That I believe to be the response we should make as Christians following in the steps of Jesus.
For he leads us towards a new heaven and a new earth where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female but all are one in Christ.
And as we follow in the steps of this new Joshua, this new Jesus, the promises made to the Joshua of old apply now as ever.
No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous;
But that is not narrowly of the claim to a specific piece of land, but now as we walk in the steps of Jesus in the whole world.
A year ago I was invited to preach at the welcome service of Adrian Wyatt to the pastorate at Kingswood, Wooton under Edge – he chose this passage to preach on. IT was wonderful to do so at such a service. For if we follow in the steps of Jesus, we should also rise to this command.
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful
Joshua is thinking back to the ‘book of the law’ that in the unfolding of the sotry of the Torah had just been written – for us the Book of Deuteronomy.
That classic principle is alluded to. The need to abide by it.
As those who follow ‘in the steps of Jesus’ we look to the whole of our Bible – particularly seeing it through the eyes of Jesus – for us it is the whole of this bok that we wiust meditate on day and night, so that we act in accordance with it.
Then comes the most wonderful of promises.
It meant the world to Joshua.
It meant the world to Jesus.
It means the world to each of us.
I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’
What a wonderful command.
We face fears on a personal level.
I think at times we can feel a little fearful of what is unfolding in our world at the moment, in the Middle East, in the Holy Land.
This is the promise we hold on to.
It is the very promise Jesus not only held on to through his life, but it is the promise he shared with his followers in those very last words of his in Matthew 28 when he said, I will be with you always.
In his morning devotions in a Japanese internment camp, Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame stood as it were to attention at the beginning of each day to hear the words of Jesus for that day.
It’s no bad thing to stand before Joshua-Jesus and hear these words at the start of each day.
I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Choose Life!
It’s one of the buzz words of the day.
So much depends on it.
At every turn, be it in health care, or in education, in life-style, or in television programming …
What counts is
Choice.
Choose the treatment you receive in hospital.
Choose the school your children go to.
Choice.
The snag is ‘choice’ is not as simple as that.
All sorts of things limit the choices we can make.
Circumstances we find ourselves in, our state of health.
We are free to choose – but our choices are limited.
In those last words of Moses to the people as they stand on the threshold of the Promised Land, it all boils down to choice.
But the choice is quite a stark one.
In a sense it is the greatest freedom, the greates gift God gives.
But in another sense it is a choice that is presented to us. It is not one we devise for ourselves.
It is one, however, that is realistic.
It is one that is within the grasp of each one of us.
Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.
So what is the choice?
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
That’s a pretty stark choice.
It is also a no-brainer.
We touch something now that rounds off the whole of the Torah, the books of the Law. But it is also something that is going to run like a strand through the next section of the Old Testament.
For the moment we will take it at it’s face value. But whole books of the Old Testament are devoted to the difficulties this choice poses to us. We’ll come to those in due course.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God* that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
That’s it – that’s the choice.
Obey God.
That’s the key.
That way things fall into place. Things work. Things hang together.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Choose life!
That’s the key.
But what does that involve.
This is the fundamental life choice.
To follow God.
There is at this moment a link – obey God, all goes well. Disobey God all goes badly. That is the theme that’s going to run through the next few hooks. And it is as a general truth, the insight that goes to the heart of our faith.
The difficulty I spoke of is that it doesn’t always work out that way. So often it is those who disobey God who get away with it, and those who obey God have the hardest of hard times. That’s the big issue that the likes of the Book of Job grapple with.
Jesus is very aware of this fundamental choice – the command is there to Love God, Love Neighbour. He then takes that so much further. But he knows that God is there as much for the person who is facing hard times.
In fact, Jesus’ insight is that when things go really well that is the point at which corruption all sorts of things set in and things begin to fall apart.
He too sets out the blessings and the curses in no uncertain terms.
But it’s interesting that what comes first is the way God’s love reaches out through Jesus to meet the needs of those who are facing the biggest troubles, for whom that prosperity has been so elusive they have collapsed in so many ways.
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
The starting point is the healing.
Then the alternatives – blessing or curse.
There is something really challenging here. It’s taken on board the Choice in the Law, the grappling with it in Job … and it presents us with a remarkable insight.
And then Jesus goes to the nub of the matter, with the word that for him is ALL IMPORTANT.
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Yesterday marked the end of a three year partnership the Federation has developed through Christian Aid with One Respe in the Dominican Republic. What was good about that project was that it not only gave us a focus for raising more than £30,000 for a key project in the Dominican Republic, but it also enabled us to build up an understanding of Christian Aid at work and a real contact with the people involved in that project.
Yesterday saw the start of a link with the second poorest country in South America, Nicaragua. The aim is once again to raise money – but more than that, build up links. It will be interesting that way to make that contact more real.
What is interesting is the extent to which we have so much to learn – we have as much to receive by way of that very real blessing, and much that must make us think again about our priorities too.
Good that we should share that here at the start of Christian Aid Week … it is that sense of involvement we have with those in so many parts of the world, not least there in Nicaragua that is so important.
Jesus builds up to that key word in his vocabulary – Love.
And he invites us through the generosity of a love that reaches out to all to commit ourselves to Mercy and so shape the world we live in.
And it all boils down to that choice we are invited to make.
Choose life!
So much depends on it.
At every turn, be it in health care, or in education, in life-style, or in television programming …
What counts is
Choice.
Choose the treatment you receive in hospital.
Choose the school your children go to.
Choice.
The snag is ‘choice’ is not as simple as that.
All sorts of things limit the choices we can make.
Circumstances we find ourselves in, our state of health.
We are free to choose – but our choices are limited.
In those last words of Moses to the people as they stand on the threshold of the Promised Land, it all boils down to choice.
But the choice is quite a stark one.
In a sense it is the greatest freedom, the greates gift God gives.
But in another sense it is a choice that is presented to us. It is not one we devise for ourselves.
It is one, however, that is realistic.
It is one that is within the grasp of each one of us.
Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ 14No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.
So what is the choice?
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
That’s a pretty stark choice.
It is also a no-brainer.
We touch something now that rounds off the whole of the Torah, the books of the Law. But it is also something that is going to run like a strand through the next section of the Old Testament.
For the moment we will take it at it’s face value. But whole books of the Old Testament are devoted to the difficulties this choice poses to us. We’ll come to those in due course.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God* that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
That’s it – that’s the choice.
Obey God.
That’s the key.
That way things fall into place. Things work. Things hang together.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Choose life!
That’s the key.
But what does that involve.
This is the fundamental life choice.
To follow God.
There is at this moment a link – obey God, all goes well. Disobey God all goes badly. That is the theme that’s going to run through the next few hooks. And it is as a general truth, the insight that goes to the heart of our faith.
The difficulty I spoke of is that it doesn’t always work out that way. So often it is those who disobey God who get away with it, and those who obey God have the hardest of hard times. That’s the big issue that the likes of the Book of Job grapple with.
Jesus is very aware of this fundamental choice – the command is there to Love God, Love Neighbour. He then takes that so much further. But he knows that God is there as much for the person who is facing hard times.
In fact, Jesus’ insight is that when things go really well that is the point at which corruption all sorts of things set in and things begin to fall apart.
He too sets out the blessings and the curses in no uncertain terms.
But it’s interesting that what comes first is the way God’s love reaches out through Jesus to meet the needs of those who are facing the biggest troubles, for whom that prosperity has been so elusive they have collapsed in so many ways.
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
The starting point is the healing.
Then the alternatives – blessing or curse.
There is something really challenging here. It’s taken on board the Choice in the Law, the grappling with it in Job … and it presents us with a remarkable insight.
And then Jesus goes to the nub of the matter, with the word that for him is ALL IMPORTANT.
‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Yesterday marked the end of a three year partnership the Federation has developed through Christian Aid with One Respe in the Dominican Republic. What was good about that project was that it not only gave us a focus for raising more than £30,000 for a key project in the Dominican Republic, but it also enabled us to build up an understanding of Christian Aid at work and a real contact with the people involved in that project.
Yesterday saw the start of a link with the second poorest country in South America, Nicaragua. The aim is once again to raise money – but more than that, build up links. It will be interesting that way to make that contact more real.
What is interesting is the extent to which we have so much to learn – we have as much to receive by way of that very real blessing, and much that must make us think again about our priorities too.
Good that we should share that here at the start of Christian Aid Week … it is that sense of involvement we have with those in so many parts of the world, not least there in Nicaragua that is so important.
Jesus builds up to that key word in his vocabulary – Love.
And he invites us through the generosity of a love that reaches out to all to commit ourselves to Mercy and so shape the world we live in.
And it all boils down to that choice we are invited to make.
Choose life!
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Teach them to obey everything? Jesus, the new Moses
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy stand as a great testament to the way God wants his people to live in the world. The Torah is more than a collection of rules and regulations, it is the account of a people living life to the full under God. And it offers a way of life for the people of God to fulfil.
If Leviticus focuses on the ritual of priest and tabernacle, sacrifice and atonement, Numbers returns to the story of the people wandering in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses and Deuteronomy is as the very name itself in Greek suggests the second reading of the law. It is a kind of summation Moses shares with the people as he stands on the threshold of the promised land.
Here in Deut 4.1 is what this Law, God’s way for the world is all about.
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.
When Jesus breaks into the world the turning point in Matthew, Mark and Luke of his story comes at Caesarea Philippi as his followers recognise in him the long expected Messiah and then on the Mount of Transfiguration it is as if this recognition receives the seal of approval from Moses as the one who stands for all the Law, and Elijah the one who stands for all the prophets.
At his resurrection the women tell the disciples to go ahead of Jesus to Galilee where Jesus will meet with them. In Matthew 28 that is exactly what happens – and as Jesus meets with his disciples he gives them a commission to go into all the world,
It is as if Jesus is standing on the threshold of the world he has come to – it is not the promised land, but the whole world. And as he stands on the threshold of that world he has something to share with his disciples, and it is just as Moses had shared so long ago …
‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
People are to obey everything Jesus has commanded just as long before the people of God were to obey everything Moses had laid out. Matthew recognises in Jesus a new Moses.
See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.
Can you hear the echoes in what Jesus says in Matthew 28?
More than that, Matthew brings the commandments, the teaching of Jesus into five great discourses – an echo of the five books of the law.
In the middle of his gospel in chapter 13 is Jesus teaching in the form of parables all about God’s rule.
On either side is Jesus teaching for the mission of the twelve (in chapter 10) and the life of the church (in chapter 18). And then at the beginning in chapters 5-7 the great sermon on the mount in which Jesus works out what life in the kingdom will be like. And then at the end in chapters 23,24,25 Jesus final words of challenge.
What’s fascinating at the beginning of the sermon on the mount is that wonderful statement we think of as the Beatitudes – Blessed are … and at the beginning of the last great sermon, a set of Woes to those who are falsely religious.
It is as if the whole of all that Jesus stands for is a matter of blessing or of woe.
There are all sorts of echoes here of Deuteronomy which comes to hinge on blessing and curse and making the right choice.
Jesus has taken all the Torah is and brought it to fulfilment in himself, in his story and in his commandments. It is not that he has come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them. The point is that the kingdom is coming in Christ, the moment of accomplishment when all is fulfilled is at hand … and so this new Moses has a new Torah to share entirely in keeping with, but at the same time fulfilling the old Torah, and bringing it to fulfilment – a new slant, you have heard it said, I say to you.
But there is in what Jesus stands for a new twist. He is not the all-conquering hero who carries all before him – he is the suffering servant who goes to his cross. What’s more he is the one who invites his followers to take up their cross, share in this suffering servanthood and follow him.
And there is a new twist here.
Deuteronomy is in some ways all about success and people thinking well of you …
I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
Jesus too longs for people to be wise and discerning. As far as Jesus is concerned the wise man is the one who hears the words of Christ and acts on them – he is like the wise man who builds his house on the rock.
But Jesus knows full well that that will not necessarily bring praise and adulation from people out there.
Far from it, people will fail to understand for the way of love that Jesus maps out, the way of blessedness that he is about is one that people will find deeply offensive and object to massively. It is the way of love for God, love for neighbour and love for enemy that will result not in everyone saying that’s brilliant but in everyone taking offence.
David Cook, the Bible translator who spent time with us at the Ministers Conference shared with me a wonderful reading of the Sermon on the Mount.
How many beatitudes are there? He asked. Some texts, not least the NRSV, include Matthew 5:9 with the beaitutides. A ninth beatitude. But it is written quite differently from the others. It lacks the poetry. It is one too many.
No, he suggested.
It is the start of the next section of the sermon on the mount.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you
What does it take to be the people willing to be reviled and persecuted and spoken ill of?
It means you will be salt of the earth – you will be the light of the world.
Salt in a tasteless world, light in a dark world.
And you won’t be admired but persecuted for it.
Quite the opposite of the popularity envisaged in Deuteronomy 4.
How far can we take seriously the sermon on the Mount?
I was reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer this week – passionate about being a peacemaker, committed in his opposition to Nazism, he was willing to make one compromise – and so became part of the bomb plot to assassinate Hitler.
Does the assassination of Osama bin Laden have echoes of that? I wonder.
It does raise questions for us as Christians. How do we respond to terrorism. What would Jesus do? What does Jesus want us to do?
It is important to raise the question. I for one feel the Archbishop of Canterbury was right to do so … and has a right to do so as one of those who on 9/11 was only two blocks away found himself very much caught up in all that happened.
He calls in question whether justice is seen to be done in such an assassination. It is a big question. One we need to ask.
I was moved when Felicity drew my attention to something that Sharon Wallington had posted on Facebook. It made me stop and think again …
It was Sharon Wallington who posted the heart-felt response on Facebook that Felicity drew my attention to.
I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice at the death of one, not even an enemy. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr
That was it.
That is what had unsettled me so much.
Those scenes of jubilation that greeted the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden were as profoundly disturbing as the scenes of jubilation that had in some places greeted the news of 9/11.
That is what is in danger of making us hurtle further down the spiral of destruction terrorism unleashes on us.
Sharon went on to comment on the quotations she had posted
“... Because I can’t say it better myself and am sickened by the triumphant baying to which my kids are subjected every time they turn on the TV or radio. I read this to them this morning.
It was good to read the many responses Sharon had.
One friend commented, “I too was sickened by those of us who hated the crowing of some when the towers were attacked, now crowing because we have revenge. “Vengeance is mine says the Lord.”
What challenged me further was the quotation Sharon then posted from Romans 12
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Are those words of Paul, echoing as they do the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, simply pious platitudes that have nothing to do with the real world?
Or are these the words of Christ we are not only to hear but also to act on if we are to have the wisdom and the discernment of the wise man who built his house on the rock?
One thing I am pretty sure of. These are not popular responses.
But then Jesus did not want us to seek popularity, but to risk the unpopularity of following the way of God as he outlined it with its unrelenting emphasis on the way of love, even love for enemies too.
If Leviticus focuses on the ritual of priest and tabernacle, sacrifice and atonement, Numbers returns to the story of the people wandering in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses and Deuteronomy is as the very name itself in Greek suggests the second reading of the law. It is a kind of summation Moses shares with the people as he stands on the threshold of the promised land.
Here in Deut 4.1 is what this Law, God’s way for the world is all about.
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.
When Jesus breaks into the world the turning point in Matthew, Mark and Luke of his story comes at Caesarea Philippi as his followers recognise in him the long expected Messiah and then on the Mount of Transfiguration it is as if this recognition receives the seal of approval from Moses as the one who stands for all the Law, and Elijah the one who stands for all the prophets.
At his resurrection the women tell the disciples to go ahead of Jesus to Galilee where Jesus will meet with them. In Matthew 28 that is exactly what happens – and as Jesus meets with his disciples he gives them a commission to go into all the world,
It is as if Jesus is standing on the threshold of the world he has come to – it is not the promised land, but the whole world. And as he stands on the threshold of that world he has something to share with his disciples, and it is just as Moses had shared so long ago …
‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
People are to obey everything Jesus has commanded just as long before the people of God were to obey everything Moses had laid out. Matthew recognises in Jesus a new Moses.
See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.
Can you hear the echoes in what Jesus says in Matthew 28?
More than that, Matthew brings the commandments, the teaching of Jesus into five great discourses – an echo of the five books of the law.
In the middle of his gospel in chapter 13 is Jesus teaching in the form of parables all about God’s rule.
On either side is Jesus teaching for the mission of the twelve (in chapter 10) and the life of the church (in chapter 18). And then at the beginning in chapters 5-7 the great sermon on the mount in which Jesus works out what life in the kingdom will be like. And then at the end in chapters 23,24,25 Jesus final words of challenge.
What’s fascinating at the beginning of the sermon on the mount is that wonderful statement we think of as the Beatitudes – Blessed are … and at the beginning of the last great sermon, a set of Woes to those who are falsely religious.
It is as if the whole of all that Jesus stands for is a matter of blessing or of woe.
There are all sorts of echoes here of Deuteronomy which comes to hinge on blessing and curse and making the right choice.
Jesus has taken all the Torah is and brought it to fulfilment in himself, in his story and in his commandments. It is not that he has come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them. The point is that the kingdom is coming in Christ, the moment of accomplishment when all is fulfilled is at hand … and so this new Moses has a new Torah to share entirely in keeping with, but at the same time fulfilling the old Torah, and bringing it to fulfilment – a new slant, you have heard it said, I say to you.
But there is in what Jesus stands for a new twist. He is not the all-conquering hero who carries all before him – he is the suffering servant who goes to his cross. What’s more he is the one who invites his followers to take up their cross, share in this suffering servanthood and follow him.
And there is a new twist here.
Deuteronomy is in some ways all about success and people thinking well of you …
I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
Jesus too longs for people to be wise and discerning. As far as Jesus is concerned the wise man is the one who hears the words of Christ and acts on them – he is like the wise man who builds his house on the rock.
But Jesus knows full well that that will not necessarily bring praise and adulation from people out there.
Far from it, people will fail to understand for the way of love that Jesus maps out, the way of blessedness that he is about is one that people will find deeply offensive and object to massively. It is the way of love for God, love for neighbour and love for enemy that will result not in everyone saying that’s brilliant but in everyone taking offence.
David Cook, the Bible translator who spent time with us at the Ministers Conference shared with me a wonderful reading of the Sermon on the Mount.
How many beatitudes are there? He asked. Some texts, not least the NRSV, include Matthew 5:9 with the beaitutides. A ninth beatitude. But it is written quite differently from the others. It lacks the poetry. It is one too many.
No, he suggested.
It is the start of the next section of the sermon on the mount.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you
What does it take to be the people willing to be reviled and persecuted and spoken ill of?
It means you will be salt of the earth – you will be the light of the world.
Salt in a tasteless world, light in a dark world.
And you won’t be admired but persecuted for it.
Quite the opposite of the popularity envisaged in Deuteronomy 4.
How far can we take seriously the sermon on the Mount?
I was reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer this week – passionate about being a peacemaker, committed in his opposition to Nazism, he was willing to make one compromise – and so became part of the bomb plot to assassinate Hitler.
Does the assassination of Osama bin Laden have echoes of that? I wonder.
It does raise questions for us as Christians. How do we respond to terrorism. What would Jesus do? What does Jesus want us to do?
It is important to raise the question. I for one feel the Archbishop of Canterbury was right to do so … and has a right to do so as one of those who on 9/11 was only two blocks away found himself very much caught up in all that happened.
He calls in question whether justice is seen to be done in such an assassination. It is a big question. One we need to ask.
I was moved when Felicity drew my attention to something that Sharon Wallington had posted on Facebook. It made me stop and think again …
It was Sharon Wallington who posted the heart-felt response on Facebook that Felicity drew my attention to.
I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice at the death of one, not even an enemy. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr
That was it.
That is what had unsettled me so much.
Those scenes of jubilation that greeted the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden were as profoundly disturbing as the scenes of jubilation that had in some places greeted the news of 9/11.
That is what is in danger of making us hurtle further down the spiral of destruction terrorism unleashes on us.
Sharon went on to comment on the quotations she had posted
“... Because I can’t say it better myself and am sickened by the triumphant baying to which my kids are subjected every time they turn on the TV or radio. I read this to them this morning.
It was good to read the many responses Sharon had.
One friend commented, “I too was sickened by those of us who hated the crowing of some when the towers were attacked, now crowing because we have revenge. “Vengeance is mine says the Lord.”
What challenged me further was the quotation Sharon then posted from Romans 12
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Are those words of Paul, echoing as they do the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, simply pious platitudes that have nothing to do with the real world?
Or are these the words of Christ we are not only to hear but also to act on if we are to have the wisdom and the discernment of the wise man who built his house on the rock?
One thing I am pretty sure of. These are not popular responses.
But then Jesus did not want us to seek popularity, but to risk the unpopularity of following the way of God as he outlined it with its unrelenting emphasis on the way of love, even love for enemies too.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Be the person God meant you to be and set the world on fire!
John 20:19-31 and Exodus 33:12-23
Each one of us will have a special memory from this week.
What’s yours?
Was it the wedding?
Within the wedding was there a special moment?
Does sharing in something like that take you back to special moments?
What special moments are there that you look back to?
What about Easter … our celebration of Easter? Was there a special moment?
For me the special moment has to be in the quiet – playing that Mahler’s fifth symphony – and then the connections – from Livingstone Fellowship, through Daniel Harding, to the awfulness of the Japanese earthquake, to the strange experience of the ending of CF Youth as it began with a conference here at Highbury to the thought that these youngsters are doing as we did and shaping a future for youth work in our churches. And then through this week another special moment – worship at our conference led by Roberta Rominger, General Secrretary of the URC, a very special moment in itself. Through her worship she invited us to reflect on what kind of Easter people we should be.
Each morning she had a wonderful children’s story to read and to tell. And in the evening she told us of her experience of playing under Benjamin Zander, the conductor, and going to his annual master class on conducting. She read from his The Art of Possibility each evening.
And on the last evening, she spoke of an occasion when he was conducting Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Do you love Mahler, she asked? Well, I found myself nodding, not from a longstanding love, but from a warming kind of love that is discovering Mahler, thanks to having listened a number of times last week.
One of the second violinists was not engaged in the final rehearsal. Sitting back, uninterested. He went up to her aftrer and asked. Is there anything troubling you?
The response was not what he expected. But he listened.
She loved Mahler. She loved this symphony. But she found he was taking it too quickly for the bowing to work in the way she as a violinist knew it should.
He thought. A string player himself, he knew how important getting the bowing right was. He did not that afternoon do as he usually did before a concert. Have a rest, a shower, a good meal. Instead he went through the score again. He identified those passages where maybe he was inviting the orchestra to go fractionally fast and he decided how he could take into account this one player’s thoughts.
He did. She was engaged. And it was a wonderful performance.
So pleased was he with the performance that night that a few weeks later Zander rang the Violinist up, a trans-atlantic call. When she picked up the phone and he introduced himself, she was so taken aback … no conductor had rung her at home before. Neither had any conductor adjusted the tempo in response to her comment before as well.
For Roberta it said an immense amount about the nature of leadership, the understanding it calls for. Perhaps it speaks more than anything of else of the need for servant leadership.
In her worship she took us through John’s account of the Resurrection and invited us to think of ourselves as Easter people.
It was good to read through John’s account of resurrection.
I found myself going over the whole story once again … and I found myself drawn to one moment in that story that stands out for me among many.
I wonder whether any moment in the story of Resurrection and the story of Easter stands out for you?
The moment that stands out for me is that moment in the upper room when only 10 are present, Thomas the doubter is not with them and Jesus appears to them.
Peace be with you, he says.
And then he goes on to say this.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
When he had said this he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Maybe it’s because I grew up with the hymn, Breathe on me, breath of God, that that moment is special for me.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.
Maybe it’s because I grew up with the Narnia Chronicles, and that wonderful experience of being joined on the top of Earl’s Hill, Pontesbury at a dawn service when we actually saw the sun rise – a wonderful experience. And Robin returned to his studio and re-designed and re-drew the pictures for the final part of his wonderful pictorial version of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to have a vibrant double page spread of Aslan bounding into the air with Lucy and Susan clinging to his mane. Turn the pate and he leaps over the wall of the Wicked Witch’s fortress where so many of the great beasts of Narnia have been turned to stone, and he breathes on them … and they come to life.
Breathe on me breath of God
The wonderful thing about being Easter people is not just that we can bear testimony to the resurrection of Christ, but that the very essence of Christ, the Spirit of Chist is breathed into our innermost being.
We have a new strength within us, a power from God, infused into our very being.
The risen Jesus breathes into us, each one of us and we can hear him say, Receive the Holy Spirit.
But as were those apostles long ago, so are we then sent – Easter people don’t just stay put … we are sent just as Christ is sent – into a world of need to bring something of the love of God into that world.
What is it we bring?
One thing is very special. WE can bring into people’s lives the reality of the forgiving love of God in Christ.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.
It’s not just that we are to say, ‘That’s OK.” When someone says sorry to us.
It’s much more than that.
So much of the Books of the Law, the Torah, are all about bringing God’s forgiveness into people’s lives. The whole story as it unfolds is a story of people tasked with following God, who continually fall down on the job.
That’s the wonderful thing Moses did. The people have just gone their own way and abandoned God once more. This time they have made a Golden calf.
And Moses intercedes on behalf of the people to God. “Consider too that this nation is your people,” he pleads with God.
God is wonderfully gracious to Moses – Moses longs to see God.
And God responds – I will make all m y goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name ‘The Lord’.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
But you won’t actually see me. Hid in the rock as I pass by.
The story that unfolds is of that very experience, the making of new tablets for commandments, a renewal of the covenant ensues. And then there are all sorts of laws that are outlined about making the Tabernacle, appointing priests, carrying out sacrifices. And as you read on in the rest of Exodus and on into Leviticus, it is all about recognising that people fall short of what God requires, that they need forgiveness and a strength from beyond themselves, and it sets out things to help that happen.
A place – the tabernacle which was later to become the Temple, particular people, priests, a set of sacrifices the priests only can carry out in the Temple, to bring about the reality of that forgiveness that is God’s.
This is the basis of being the people of God.
But we stand the other side of Jesus. We look to the risen Christ, and Jesus breathes into us and says to each of us, Receive the Holy Spirit.
Now we, like those apostles, are sent to bring God’s love into the world. And it is our task, the task of each one of us, to declare God’s grace, to declare God’s mercy and to make real God’s forgiveness.
This is our task – this is what we are called to share.
It isn’t that we need a place to go to, priests to turn to, sacrifices to carry out. God breathes his very being deep into us, and we too receive the Holy Spirit. WE are sent by him into the world to bring God’s forgiving love into the world and into the lives of people all around. We can declare the forgiving love of God … and prompt people to start anew.
What an exciting task we are called to share. And we each have our part to play, and we are called to play it to the full.
The one part of the wedding that caught my eye was a quotation from Catherine of Sienna, whose Saint’s day yesterday was, quoted by Richard Chartres in his address.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is.
He was thinking of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they set out on marriage together.
It speaks also to each one of us … and especially to each one of us as Easter People.
Be the Easter people God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire!
It was a very personal prayer, William and Kate composed for their wedding day. But it is one we too may adapt as the Easter people God calls us to be.
God our Father, we thank you for all you have given us; for the love that we share and for the joy of Easter..
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union with you help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
[Original: God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.]
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18136
Each one of us will have a special memory from this week.
What’s yours?
Was it the wedding?
Within the wedding was there a special moment?
Does sharing in something like that take you back to special moments?
What special moments are there that you look back to?
What about Easter … our celebration of Easter? Was there a special moment?
For me the special moment has to be in the quiet – playing that Mahler’s fifth symphony – and then the connections – from Livingstone Fellowship, through Daniel Harding, to the awfulness of the Japanese earthquake, to the strange experience of the ending of CF Youth as it began with a conference here at Highbury to the thought that these youngsters are doing as we did and shaping a future for youth work in our churches. And then through this week another special moment – worship at our conference led by Roberta Rominger, General Secrretary of the URC, a very special moment in itself. Through her worship she invited us to reflect on what kind of Easter people we should be.
Each morning she had a wonderful children’s story to read and to tell. And in the evening she told us of her experience of playing under Benjamin Zander, the conductor, and going to his annual master class on conducting. She read from his The Art of Possibility each evening.
And on the last evening, she spoke of an occasion when he was conducting Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Do you love Mahler, she asked? Well, I found myself nodding, not from a longstanding love, but from a warming kind of love that is discovering Mahler, thanks to having listened a number of times last week.
One of the second violinists was not engaged in the final rehearsal. Sitting back, uninterested. He went up to her aftrer and asked. Is there anything troubling you?
The response was not what he expected. But he listened.
She loved Mahler. She loved this symphony. But she found he was taking it too quickly for the bowing to work in the way she as a violinist knew it should.
He thought. A string player himself, he knew how important getting the bowing right was. He did not that afternoon do as he usually did before a concert. Have a rest, a shower, a good meal. Instead he went through the score again. He identified those passages where maybe he was inviting the orchestra to go fractionally fast and he decided how he could take into account this one player’s thoughts.
He did. She was engaged. And it was a wonderful performance.
So pleased was he with the performance that night that a few weeks later Zander rang the Violinist up, a trans-atlantic call. When she picked up the phone and he introduced himself, she was so taken aback … no conductor had rung her at home before. Neither had any conductor adjusted the tempo in response to her comment before as well.
For Roberta it said an immense amount about the nature of leadership, the understanding it calls for. Perhaps it speaks more than anything of else of the need for servant leadership.
In her worship she took us through John’s account of the Resurrection and invited us to think of ourselves as Easter people.
It was good to read through John’s account of resurrection.
I found myself going over the whole story once again … and I found myself drawn to one moment in that story that stands out for me among many.
I wonder whether any moment in the story of Resurrection and the story of Easter stands out for you?
The moment that stands out for me is that moment in the upper room when only 10 are present, Thomas the doubter is not with them and Jesus appears to them.
Peace be with you, he says.
And then he goes on to say this.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
When he had said this he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Maybe it’s because I grew up with the hymn, Breathe on me, breath of God, that that moment is special for me.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.
Maybe it’s because I grew up with the Narnia Chronicles, and that wonderful experience of being joined on the top of Earl’s Hill, Pontesbury at a dawn service when we actually saw the sun rise – a wonderful experience. And Robin returned to his studio and re-designed and re-drew the pictures for the final part of his wonderful pictorial version of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to have a vibrant double page spread of Aslan bounding into the air with Lucy and Susan clinging to his mane. Turn the pate and he leaps over the wall of the Wicked Witch’s fortress where so many of the great beasts of Narnia have been turned to stone, and he breathes on them … and they come to life.
Breathe on me breath of God
The wonderful thing about being Easter people is not just that we can bear testimony to the resurrection of Christ, but that the very essence of Christ, the Spirit of Chist is breathed into our innermost being.
We have a new strength within us, a power from God, infused into our very being.
The risen Jesus breathes into us, each one of us and we can hear him say, Receive the Holy Spirit.
But as were those apostles long ago, so are we then sent – Easter people don’t just stay put … we are sent just as Christ is sent – into a world of need to bring something of the love of God into that world.
What is it we bring?
One thing is very special. WE can bring into people’s lives the reality of the forgiving love of God in Christ.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.
It’s not just that we are to say, ‘That’s OK.” When someone says sorry to us.
It’s much more than that.
So much of the Books of the Law, the Torah, are all about bringing God’s forgiveness into people’s lives. The whole story as it unfolds is a story of people tasked with following God, who continually fall down on the job.
That’s the wonderful thing Moses did. The people have just gone their own way and abandoned God once more. This time they have made a Golden calf.
And Moses intercedes on behalf of the people to God. “Consider too that this nation is your people,” he pleads with God.
God is wonderfully gracious to Moses – Moses longs to see God.
And God responds – I will make all m y goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name ‘The Lord’.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
But you won’t actually see me. Hid in the rock as I pass by.
The story that unfolds is of that very experience, the making of new tablets for commandments, a renewal of the covenant ensues. And then there are all sorts of laws that are outlined about making the Tabernacle, appointing priests, carrying out sacrifices. And as you read on in the rest of Exodus and on into Leviticus, it is all about recognising that people fall short of what God requires, that they need forgiveness and a strength from beyond themselves, and it sets out things to help that happen.
A place – the tabernacle which was later to become the Temple, particular people, priests, a set of sacrifices the priests only can carry out in the Temple, to bring about the reality of that forgiveness that is God’s.
This is the basis of being the people of God.
But we stand the other side of Jesus. We look to the risen Christ, and Jesus breathes into us and says to each of us, Receive the Holy Spirit.
Now we, like those apostles, are sent to bring God’s love into the world. And it is our task, the task of each one of us, to declare God’s grace, to declare God’s mercy and to make real God’s forgiveness.
This is our task – this is what we are called to share.
It isn’t that we need a place to go to, priests to turn to, sacrifices to carry out. God breathes his very being deep into us, and we too receive the Holy Spirit. WE are sent by him into the world to bring God’s forgiving love into the world and into the lives of people all around. We can declare the forgiving love of God … and prompt people to start anew.
What an exciting task we are called to share. And we each have our part to play, and we are called to play it to the full.
The one part of the wedding that caught my eye was a quotation from Catherine of Sienna, whose Saint’s day yesterday was, quoted by Richard Chartres in his address.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is.
He was thinking of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they set out on marriage together.
It speaks also to each one of us … and especially to each one of us as Easter People.
Be the Easter people God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire!
It was a very personal prayer, William and Kate composed for their wedding day. But it is one we too may adapt as the Easter people God calls us to be.
God our Father, we thank you for all you have given us; for the love that we share and for the joy of Easter..
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union with you help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
[Original: God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.]
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18136
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Principles and Practice in the Law - Exodus 20-26 through the eyes of Jesus
It is good to see the way in which churches are coming together at the moment in Cheltenham. Yesterday it was good to join with CCC church in the opening of their new home at the Pavilion in Hatherley. It has been great working with Ali Bates, their minister, whose husband had been minister of what was then the New Life Church, Bill Bates, but who died so sadly at a young age. Ali has been very involved working with churches recently and she quite deliberately made a point of asking me to say prayers for their new church home on behalf of the churches and from Highbury because it was not that long ago that their church broke away from Highbury. Clifford Small felt he carried out a healing ministry. I felt yesterday was an important moment in that healing process.
We had met together with the new Area Dean of Cheltenham Tudor Griffiths who is living round the corner from us on Thursday and reflected on working together as churches. It was good to have input from the new Principal of the Mission College, Redcliffe College in Gloucester. And then we found ourselves reflecting on the importance of building up the churches understanding of and involvement in Christians Against Poverty – maybe a significant response to the needs of the town as they are unfolding at the moment.
Then to go on to the Friday meeting reflecting on what The Big Society means for Cheltenham.
There is something very important for us to share as Christians and I believe we have something to share that is firmly rooted in the Bible …but we need to take care in the way we read our Bible.
Part of that initiative of working more closely together involves sharing in prayers for Cheltenham each day from 12-30 to 12-45. It’s in the oldest place of worship in the town, St Mary’s. On the wall are printed the Ten Commandments.
That’s no bad starting place for the needs of our society.
But we must read with care.
Read on in Exodus and I think three things emerge that we have to offer today. But care is needed in the way we read.
First a set of personal standards – in the ten commandments. Jesus offers us a great summary of them: Love God, love your neighbour.
Next the importance of having a framework for society. Notice what I am saying here. The importance of having a framework. What we go on to read in the next three chapters is a good sample of the kind of laws that were part of the framework for this ancient people.
Some would want to take them to the letter and say this is for today.
I believe we have to recognise the need for a framework – but take care in recognising that Jesus has opened up for us new ways of thinking that take seriously the need for a framework but prompt us to think through what is appropriate in the light of Jesus’ teaching and for us today.
Provision is made for the treatment of slaves – but I passionately as a Christian reject slavery and want to oppose the modern versions of it that are still around, sometimes rather too close to home here in Cheltenham in sex trafficking and the like. Slavery is wrong.
Next come laws about violent acts. Capital punishment – not just for murder but for a host of other things as well, not least cursing your parents.
I passionately oppose capital punishment for that range of things – as a Christian that is not acceptable to me.
Then come laws about the responsibilities of owners of beasts, and laws about repayment. Moral and religious laws follow.
Again they give me a glimpse of an ancient framework of law – but not one for today, something has happened with Chist to make a difference.
In chapter 23 there are more principles about justice and fairness. They ring a bell for me. I find myself saying amen when it says, Do not deny justice to a poor man at his trial.
I find myself as a Christian drawn to that principle of Justice and fairness.
Then comes the notion of the seventh year and the seventh day. A rhythm of rest where debts are written off in a jubilee year, where land lies fallow, where there is a day of rest.
There are principles there that I am drawn to as a Christian and want to affirm.
What’s going on here?
Am I picking and choosing at random in a way that demonstrates a disregard for Scripture?
No, I believe something else is going on. And in these sermons I am wanting to offer grounds for reading in a different way that still does justice to the Bible but sees it through the eyes of Christ.
By chapter 24 we see that this framework is part of a covenant that is sealed between God and his people.
First, there is a set of priniples in the Ten Commandments summarise in 2 that are for today.
Second there is a framework that shows the importance of having a framework of laws for the good of society, but has to be read with care.
The third insight is the need for a sense of something other. A sense of the reality of God.
This is something desperately needed in our day – but in a way that is true to what is described here and yet very different from it.
We begin a wonderful description of what will become the tabernacle. A tent that can travel with a journeying people, where they sense the presence of God with them in a very real way.
It’s where the commandments are to be kept, where sacrifices are to be made, where priests are to serve – and where the bread of the presence is to be kept.
A great deal of time is then spent exploring what this tabernacle means. Much later the tabernacle becomes the model for the temple.
We value the sense of the presence of God that I believe is vital to living in the world. But once again you could accuse me of picking and choosing. While I find the description of the tabernacle a fascinating glimpse of how this ancient people of God sensed the presence of God it’s not how I sense the presence of God.
Three insights – a set of principles for personal living, a framework of law for society, and a way of sensing the presence of God. And yet I appear to be picking and choosing the bits I want to follow.
I maintain that what I am seeking to do is not arbitrary. And to help explain what I mean I want to focus on one thing that held central place in the tabernacle, and interestingly it is something that holds central place for us here tonight as well. And that is bread that is placed on a table.
Bread baked from corn – bread that is the Bread of the Presence.
Inside the back cover of the Bible I took with me to the Holy Land I have a stalk with ears of corn. A modern version of pressing flowers – I put it through a laminator. It is a treasure.
It was wonderful to walk through a grainfield just as Jesus did with his disciples in Matthew 12. Jesus walking through the cornfields – it is a Sabbath – and the disciples do exactly as I was to do a couple of thousand years later. Though when I did it it was not a Sabbath. They began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Now this is forbidden on a Sabbath elsewhere as that principle of the seventh day of rest is worked out in the Law.
When the Pharisees saw it, they castigated him. “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do n the Sabbath.” It is against the Law, against the Torah, it against these first five books of the Bible to do this on the Sabbath.
What Jesus does is very telling. He tells a story that comes from the next part of the Bible, the prophets. It is almost as if for Jesus that story acts as a commentary on the law. He draws on the story to throw light on what is important for him in the law.
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests.
Jesus recognises that The Scriptures are not simply black and white statements that as it were stand for all time. He sees in them a process of dialogue and discussion going on. It is as if from one part of the Scripture a discussion is going on.
What’s more he goes on to point out that within the Torah there are different ways of looking at things – and some of the laws regarding what priests can do break other laws about what cannot be done on the Sabbath.
To read the Bible in the spirit that Jesus reads the Bible we must read with wisdom and seek the guiding of the Spirit of Jesus in prayer.
But in this passage in Matthew 12 I believe a principle can be seen that will help us in our reading especially of the Law of the Old Testament.
Jesus goes on to say in verse 6, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”
What’s important is the presence of God with us. That presence of God is made real in the Tabernacle. Later, all that was said of the tabernacle is said of the Temple. But now something greater than the Temple is here. And that is Christ. It is no longer in a place, no longer in a tabernacle, no longer with all these instructions that the presence of God is made real. But it is where Christ is, there God’s presence is.
In the breaking of bread around a table, in the gathering together in his name, in the giving of food to someone who is hungry, in the giving of water to someone who is thirsty.
For us, it is in Christ that God’s presence is felt.
Then in this passage Jesus offers us something to measure all the detailed framework of law that. For me this is one of those verses that becomes a key to unlock the words of the Old Testament, and the detail of this law.
Again, Jesus draws on the prophets, this time Hosea, to read the Law in that light.
But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Ono the one hand the over-riding concern that takes precedence over the detail is God’s desire for mercy and not sacrifice. That’s why through the detail of the details of the law I am on the look out for the principles of justice and mercy that underpin that law. And all of it is under Christ who in saying that he is ‘lord of the Sabbath’ shows that he is lord of the Law.
Principles for living life personally in the ten commandments as summarised by Christ Love God and love your neighbour.
A framework of law built around justice and mercy, always remembering that Christ is lord of the Sabbath, lord of the Torah.
And the presence of God with us made real not in the trappings of the tabernacle, not so much in the bread of the presence, but the presence of God made real for us in Jesus Christ himself.
We had met together with the new Area Dean of Cheltenham Tudor Griffiths who is living round the corner from us on Thursday and reflected on working together as churches. It was good to have input from the new Principal of the Mission College, Redcliffe College in Gloucester. And then we found ourselves reflecting on the importance of building up the churches understanding of and involvement in Christians Against Poverty – maybe a significant response to the needs of the town as they are unfolding at the moment.
Then to go on to the Friday meeting reflecting on what The Big Society means for Cheltenham.
There is something very important for us to share as Christians and I believe we have something to share that is firmly rooted in the Bible …but we need to take care in the way we read our Bible.
Part of that initiative of working more closely together involves sharing in prayers for Cheltenham each day from 12-30 to 12-45. It’s in the oldest place of worship in the town, St Mary’s. On the wall are printed the Ten Commandments.
That’s no bad starting place for the needs of our society.
But we must read with care.
Read on in Exodus and I think three things emerge that we have to offer today. But care is needed in the way we read.
First a set of personal standards – in the ten commandments. Jesus offers us a great summary of them: Love God, love your neighbour.
Next the importance of having a framework for society. Notice what I am saying here. The importance of having a framework. What we go on to read in the next three chapters is a good sample of the kind of laws that were part of the framework for this ancient people.
Some would want to take them to the letter and say this is for today.
I believe we have to recognise the need for a framework – but take care in recognising that Jesus has opened up for us new ways of thinking that take seriously the need for a framework but prompt us to think through what is appropriate in the light of Jesus’ teaching and for us today.
Provision is made for the treatment of slaves – but I passionately as a Christian reject slavery and want to oppose the modern versions of it that are still around, sometimes rather too close to home here in Cheltenham in sex trafficking and the like. Slavery is wrong.
Next come laws about violent acts. Capital punishment – not just for murder but for a host of other things as well, not least cursing your parents.
I passionately oppose capital punishment for that range of things – as a Christian that is not acceptable to me.
Then come laws about the responsibilities of owners of beasts, and laws about repayment. Moral and religious laws follow.
Again they give me a glimpse of an ancient framework of law – but not one for today, something has happened with Chist to make a difference.
In chapter 23 there are more principles about justice and fairness. They ring a bell for me. I find myself saying amen when it says, Do not deny justice to a poor man at his trial.
I find myself as a Christian drawn to that principle of Justice and fairness.
Then comes the notion of the seventh year and the seventh day. A rhythm of rest where debts are written off in a jubilee year, where land lies fallow, where there is a day of rest.
There are principles there that I am drawn to as a Christian and want to affirm.
What’s going on here?
Am I picking and choosing at random in a way that demonstrates a disregard for Scripture?
No, I believe something else is going on. And in these sermons I am wanting to offer grounds for reading in a different way that still does justice to the Bible but sees it through the eyes of Christ.
By chapter 24 we see that this framework is part of a covenant that is sealed between God and his people.
First, there is a set of priniples in the Ten Commandments summarise in 2 that are for today.
Second there is a framework that shows the importance of having a framework of laws for the good of society, but has to be read with care.
The third insight is the need for a sense of something other. A sense of the reality of God.
This is something desperately needed in our day – but in a way that is true to what is described here and yet very different from it.
We begin a wonderful description of what will become the tabernacle. A tent that can travel with a journeying people, where they sense the presence of God with them in a very real way.
It’s where the commandments are to be kept, where sacrifices are to be made, where priests are to serve – and where the bread of the presence is to be kept.
A great deal of time is then spent exploring what this tabernacle means. Much later the tabernacle becomes the model for the temple.
We value the sense of the presence of God that I believe is vital to living in the world. But once again you could accuse me of picking and choosing. While I find the description of the tabernacle a fascinating glimpse of how this ancient people of God sensed the presence of God it’s not how I sense the presence of God.
Three insights – a set of principles for personal living, a framework of law for society, and a way of sensing the presence of God. And yet I appear to be picking and choosing the bits I want to follow.
I maintain that what I am seeking to do is not arbitrary. And to help explain what I mean I want to focus on one thing that held central place in the tabernacle, and interestingly it is something that holds central place for us here tonight as well. And that is bread that is placed on a table.
Bread baked from corn – bread that is the Bread of the Presence.
Inside the back cover of the Bible I took with me to the Holy Land I have a stalk with ears of corn. A modern version of pressing flowers – I put it through a laminator. It is a treasure.
It was wonderful to walk through a grainfield just as Jesus did with his disciples in Matthew 12. Jesus walking through the cornfields – it is a Sabbath – and the disciples do exactly as I was to do a couple of thousand years later. Though when I did it it was not a Sabbath. They began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Now this is forbidden on a Sabbath elsewhere as that principle of the seventh day of rest is worked out in the Law.
When the Pharisees saw it, they castigated him. “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do n the Sabbath.” It is against the Law, against the Torah, it against these first five books of the Bible to do this on the Sabbath.
What Jesus does is very telling. He tells a story that comes from the next part of the Bible, the prophets. It is almost as if for Jesus that story acts as a commentary on the law. He draws on the story to throw light on what is important for him in the law.
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests.
Jesus recognises that The Scriptures are not simply black and white statements that as it were stand for all time. He sees in them a process of dialogue and discussion going on. It is as if from one part of the Scripture a discussion is going on.
What’s more he goes on to point out that within the Torah there are different ways of looking at things – and some of the laws regarding what priests can do break other laws about what cannot be done on the Sabbath.
To read the Bible in the spirit that Jesus reads the Bible we must read with wisdom and seek the guiding of the Spirit of Jesus in prayer.
But in this passage in Matthew 12 I believe a principle can be seen that will help us in our reading especially of the Law of the Old Testament.
Jesus goes on to say in verse 6, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.”
What’s important is the presence of God with us. That presence of God is made real in the Tabernacle. Later, all that was said of the tabernacle is said of the Temple. But now something greater than the Temple is here. And that is Christ. It is no longer in a place, no longer in a tabernacle, no longer with all these instructions that the presence of God is made real. But it is where Christ is, there God’s presence is.
In the breaking of bread around a table, in the gathering together in his name, in the giving of food to someone who is hungry, in the giving of water to someone who is thirsty.
For us, it is in Christ that God’s presence is felt.
Then in this passage Jesus offers us something to measure all the detailed framework of law that. For me this is one of those verses that becomes a key to unlock the words of the Old Testament, and the detail of this law.
Again, Jesus draws on the prophets, this time Hosea, to read the Law in that light.
But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Ono the one hand the over-riding concern that takes precedence over the detail is God’s desire for mercy and not sacrifice. That’s why through the detail of the details of the law I am on the look out for the principles of justice and mercy that underpin that law. And all of it is under Christ who in saying that he is ‘lord of the Sabbath’ shows that he is lord of the Law.
Principles for living life personally in the ten commandments as summarised by Christ Love God and love your neighbour.
A framework of law built around justice and mercy, always remembering that Christ is lord of the Sabbath, lord of the Torah.
And the presence of God with us made real not in the trappings of the tabernacle, not so much in the bread of the presence, but the presence of God made real for us in Jesus Christ himself.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Exodus and Law Fulfilled in Jesus
In the opening section of the Old Testament there is one more story to tell.
The first five books of the Bible make up the Law, the Torah.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis contain a sequence of larger than life stories that tell of the beginnings of things but speak to the world of today in every generation.
From Genesis 12-50 there is a sequence of true to life stories that help us to understand who we are and how we relate to each other. They tell of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekkah, of Jacob and Rachel, and of Joseph. The last great story of Genesis tells the story of the sons of Jacob and Rahcel, the 12 brothers who become the clan
There is then one more story to tell. It is the story of Moses. Born in troubled times and rescued from Pharaoh’s purge of Hebrew male children, he is brought up in the Egyptian court until he intervenes when a Hebrew slave is beaten to death by an Egyptian guard. Moses fless to the land of Midian where he is welcomed as a refugee and an alien. He settles there and marries and has a son. It is while on the mountain top that he has an experience of God in the burning bush and is given the task by God of leading all God’s people from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.
Moses is wary of speaking to the people unless he knows the name of God. God responds in that most mysterious of ways and identifies himself as I am who I am, or I will be who I will be, or I am what I am.
With the help of a spokesman, Moses then appeals to Pharaoh. A sequence of 10 disasters wreaks havoc with the region of the Nile where the Hebrew slaves are being abused … until at the very last they mark the lintels of their doors with lamb’s blood and the angel of death passes over.
Pharaoh is persuaded at last and lets God’s people go.
They escape through the Red Sea, and expect to go straight to the promised land.
It is not to be, however, and the people find they face a prolonged period in the hardships of the wilderness. They complain to Moses. And God provides each with their daily needs … and no more.
Still the people are not happy.
They reach Mount Sinai and there Moses encounters the presence of God on the mountain top and receives the Ten Commandments.
From then on the wandering continues and from time to time the people rebel. Set into the framework of the story of Moses and the liberation story of Exodus are law codes that shape individual behaviour and society at large. There are also law codes to do with ritual, worship and holiness.
For the Jewish people Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are the core of their Holy Scriptures. The bulk of the five books are built around Moses and so the Law, the Torah, is associated with Moses.
Each Synagogue would have its scrolls of the Law, the Torah, they would be read each week at the Synagogue.
Jesus was part of the synagoguge in his home town of Nazareth and from the very youngest age read the Torah, and reflected on it. By the age of 30 so steeped was he in the Torah and the Prophets and Writings that he was highly regarded as a Rabbi, able to teach from the Torah in a gathering of the Synagogue.
From the outset of his ministry something very curious happens.
By the time you get to Mark chapter 3 verse 6 still at the beginning of the Gospel you are left in no doubt at all that something very strange is going on. As Jesus speaks and teaches he is highly regarded: but those who are drawn to him recognise that it is ‘a new teaching – with authority!’ (Mark 1:27). He is prepared to touch the one suffering from leprosy, he is prepared to heal on the Sabbath, he is prepared to forgive the sins of the paralysed man. And he was flagrant about it. By the time he heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue and on the Sabbath Jesus has succeeded in doing the impossible, he has brought together Pharisees and Herodians. The two sets of people could not have been further apart. The Herodians were content to collaborate with the Roman power. The Pharisees on the other hand went in the face of Roman domination and wanted to maintain the identity of the Jewish people by reasserting the purity of the Law.
What Jesus was doing was too much.
And yet it was something of a paradox. For while Jesus was prepared to break the law and engaged in what people recognised as a new teaching with authority, he yet had respect for the Law.
Matthew’s gospel hasn’t covered so much ground before Jesus preaches the first of what is to be come in Matthew a sequence of five great sermons. It is right at the outset in the Sermon on the Mount that he says quite categorically …
‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
What do we make of this curious set of circumstances?
The key to our understanding of this is a key to our understanding as Christians of the Torah and the Books of the Law. It is, it seems to me, vitally important for us to grasp it.
Jesus has come not to abolish but ‘to fulfil’ the Law.
Until heaven and earth pas away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
The key to our reading of the Law lies in those two phrases – what does it mean for Jesus to say he has come to ‘fulfil the law’ what does it mean to when he talks about all being accomplished.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke the central point of the Gospel, the turning point, the hinge on which the Gospel story comes in a narrative that is full of mystery, awe and wonder.
Like the sermon on the Mount it happens on a mountain.
It’s 8 days after the moment when Peter has made his confession of faith saying to Jesus You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.
Jesus takes Peter, John and Jams and went up the mountain to pray. And while he was praying
And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.
.
That’s all Matthew and Mark report. But it is tremendously significant. Moses stands for the Law. Elijah is the archetypal Prophet. We will return to this moment and to him when we come to look at the Prophets, the second section of the Hebrew Scriptures we think of as the Old Testament.
It is as if these two figures of the Law and the Prophets who are seen on the Mountain, in the glory that is the shekinah cloud of God’s presence, endorse Jesus.
Jesus has maintained that he has come to fulfil the law and the prophets. This appearance of Moses and Elijah so central to each of the first three Gospels is making an enormous statement. Each of those Gospel writers is convinced. Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets – and he has received the endorsement of Moses and Elijah to that end.
Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eaves drop on the conversation.
Luke enables us to do just that. Luke tells us what they were talking about.
In practically all the English translations you miss the point of his description of the conversation.
They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Four things are significant in that sentence.
First the word ‘they’. It has to be Moses and it has to be Elijah. They are the embodiment if you like of Law and Prophets. The major part of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures.
They appeared ‘in glory’. That word ‘glory’ is a major key word. It is the tangible cloud of glory, the shekinah cloud that signifies in so many accounts of mountain-top experiences in the Torah the very presence of God.
They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure.
That’s where our English translations let us down. Luke uses a very specific Greek word. When I read it out you will immediately recognise it. The word translated ‘departure’ is simply the word Exodus.
The second book of the Torah is called Exodus because that is what it is about – the Exodus of the People of Israel from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. The settlement in the promised land reaches its climax in the establishment of Jerusalem as the city of God.
They appeared in glory and were speaking to him of his Exodus which he was about to ‘accomplish’
The word translated ‘accomplish’ there is the word ‘fulfil’
Jesus was about to accomplish his ‘exodus’ in the very place where the climax of the Exodus story is reached, albeit quite a bit later, in Jerusalem.
As far as Luke was concerned, and for that matter the other Gospel writers too, Jesus had fulfilled, brought to its fulfilment, accomplished, the Law. By the time his death and resurrection were completed a new Exodus had been accomplished.
Something new was here.
Matthew points out echoes of the story of Moses in all sorts of ways, in the birth of Jesus, the slaughter of the innocents and the flight into Egypt. He then structures his Gospel around five sermons of Jesus as if it is a new Torah.
Mark it is who puts the endorsement of Moses and Elijah, Law and Prophets, right at the centre of the Gospel.
Luke sees in Christ the accomplishment of a new Exodus.
And as for John – he sees in Jesus the one who lays claim to the very identify of God disclosed to Jesus when he uses that very phrase of himself, I am …
All four Gospels see in the death and resurrection of Jesus the fulfilment of the Passover. And that is sealed in the institution of communion to take the place of the Passover.
The excitement of all this is that we can treasure the account of Moses and the Exodus and the whole framework of law. But we cannot do that by simply lifting those laws from the Old Tesatment and abiding by them.
Because Jesus has fulfilled that Law, because of that endorsement by Moses, we must take into account the perspective Jesus gives on the law in his teaching.
And that is what we are going to do as we take a look at those law codes that shape individual behaviour and society at large, at the law codes that have to do with ritual, worship and holiness.
The first five books of the Bible make up the Law, the Torah.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis contain a sequence of larger than life stories that tell of the beginnings of things but speak to the world of today in every generation.
From Genesis 12-50 there is a sequence of true to life stories that help us to understand who we are and how we relate to each other. They tell of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekkah, of Jacob and Rachel, and of Joseph. The last great story of Genesis tells the story of the sons of Jacob and Rahcel, the 12 brothers who become the clan
There is then one more story to tell. It is the story of Moses. Born in troubled times and rescued from Pharaoh’s purge of Hebrew male children, he is brought up in the Egyptian court until he intervenes when a Hebrew slave is beaten to death by an Egyptian guard. Moses fless to the land of Midian where he is welcomed as a refugee and an alien. He settles there and marries and has a son. It is while on the mountain top that he has an experience of God in the burning bush and is given the task by God of leading all God’s people from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.
Moses is wary of speaking to the people unless he knows the name of God. God responds in that most mysterious of ways and identifies himself as I am who I am, or I will be who I will be, or I am what I am.
With the help of a spokesman, Moses then appeals to Pharaoh. A sequence of 10 disasters wreaks havoc with the region of the Nile where the Hebrew slaves are being abused … until at the very last they mark the lintels of their doors with lamb’s blood and the angel of death passes over.
Pharaoh is persuaded at last and lets God’s people go.
They escape through the Red Sea, and expect to go straight to the promised land.
It is not to be, however, and the people find they face a prolonged period in the hardships of the wilderness. They complain to Moses. And God provides each with their daily needs … and no more.
Still the people are not happy.
They reach Mount Sinai and there Moses encounters the presence of God on the mountain top and receives the Ten Commandments.
From then on the wandering continues and from time to time the people rebel. Set into the framework of the story of Moses and the liberation story of Exodus are law codes that shape individual behaviour and society at large. There are also law codes to do with ritual, worship and holiness.
For the Jewish people Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are the core of their Holy Scriptures. The bulk of the five books are built around Moses and so the Law, the Torah, is associated with Moses.
Each Synagogue would have its scrolls of the Law, the Torah, they would be read each week at the Synagogue.
Jesus was part of the synagoguge in his home town of Nazareth and from the very youngest age read the Torah, and reflected on it. By the age of 30 so steeped was he in the Torah and the Prophets and Writings that he was highly regarded as a Rabbi, able to teach from the Torah in a gathering of the Synagogue.
From the outset of his ministry something very curious happens.
By the time you get to Mark chapter 3 verse 6 still at the beginning of the Gospel you are left in no doubt at all that something very strange is going on. As Jesus speaks and teaches he is highly regarded: but those who are drawn to him recognise that it is ‘a new teaching – with authority!’ (Mark 1:27). He is prepared to touch the one suffering from leprosy, he is prepared to heal on the Sabbath, he is prepared to forgive the sins of the paralysed man. And he was flagrant about it. By the time he heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue and on the Sabbath Jesus has succeeded in doing the impossible, he has brought together Pharisees and Herodians. The two sets of people could not have been further apart. The Herodians were content to collaborate with the Roman power. The Pharisees on the other hand went in the face of Roman domination and wanted to maintain the identity of the Jewish people by reasserting the purity of the Law.
What Jesus was doing was too much.
And yet it was something of a paradox. For while Jesus was prepared to break the law and engaged in what people recognised as a new teaching with authority, he yet had respect for the Law.
Matthew’s gospel hasn’t covered so much ground before Jesus preaches the first of what is to be come in Matthew a sequence of five great sermons. It is right at the outset in the Sermon on the Mount that he says quite categorically …
‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
What do we make of this curious set of circumstances?
The key to our understanding of this is a key to our understanding as Christians of the Torah and the Books of the Law. It is, it seems to me, vitally important for us to grasp it.
Jesus has come not to abolish but ‘to fulfil’ the Law.
Until heaven and earth pas away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
The key to our reading of the Law lies in those two phrases – what does it mean for Jesus to say he has come to ‘fulfil the law’ what does it mean to when he talks about all being accomplished.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke the central point of the Gospel, the turning point, the hinge on which the Gospel story comes in a narrative that is full of mystery, awe and wonder.
Like the sermon on the Mount it happens on a mountain.
It’s 8 days after the moment when Peter has made his confession of faith saying to Jesus You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.
Jesus takes Peter, John and Jams and went up the mountain to pray. And while he was praying
And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.
.
That’s all Matthew and Mark report. But it is tremendously significant. Moses stands for the Law. Elijah is the archetypal Prophet. We will return to this moment and to him when we come to look at the Prophets, the second section of the Hebrew Scriptures we think of as the Old Testament.
It is as if these two figures of the Law and the Prophets who are seen on the Mountain, in the glory that is the shekinah cloud of God’s presence, endorse Jesus.
Jesus has maintained that he has come to fulfil the law and the prophets. This appearance of Moses and Elijah so central to each of the first three Gospels is making an enormous statement. Each of those Gospel writers is convinced. Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets – and he has received the endorsement of Moses and Elijah to that end.
Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eaves drop on the conversation.
Luke enables us to do just that. Luke tells us what they were talking about.
In practically all the English translations you miss the point of his description of the conversation.
They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Four things are significant in that sentence.
First the word ‘they’. It has to be Moses and it has to be Elijah. They are the embodiment if you like of Law and Prophets. The major part of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures.
They appeared ‘in glory’. That word ‘glory’ is a major key word. It is the tangible cloud of glory, the shekinah cloud that signifies in so many accounts of mountain-top experiences in the Torah the very presence of God.
They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure.
That’s where our English translations let us down. Luke uses a very specific Greek word. When I read it out you will immediately recognise it. The word translated ‘departure’ is simply the word Exodus.
The second book of the Torah is called Exodus because that is what it is about – the Exodus of the People of Israel from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. The settlement in the promised land reaches its climax in the establishment of Jerusalem as the city of God.
They appeared in glory and were speaking to him of his Exodus which he was about to ‘accomplish’
The word translated ‘accomplish’ there is the word ‘fulfil’
Jesus was about to accomplish his ‘exodus’ in the very place where the climax of the Exodus story is reached, albeit quite a bit later, in Jerusalem.
As far as Luke was concerned, and for that matter the other Gospel writers too, Jesus had fulfilled, brought to its fulfilment, accomplished, the Law. By the time his death and resurrection were completed a new Exodus had been accomplished.
Something new was here.
Matthew points out echoes of the story of Moses in all sorts of ways, in the birth of Jesus, the slaughter of the innocents and the flight into Egypt. He then structures his Gospel around five sermons of Jesus as if it is a new Torah.
Mark it is who puts the endorsement of Moses and Elijah, Law and Prophets, right at the centre of the Gospel.
Luke sees in Christ the accomplishment of a new Exodus.
And as for John – he sees in Jesus the one who lays claim to the very identify of God disclosed to Jesus when he uses that very phrase of himself, I am …
All four Gospels see in the death and resurrection of Jesus the fulfilment of the Passover. And that is sealed in the institution of communion to take the place of the Passover.
The excitement of all this is that we can treasure the account of Moses and the Exodus and the whole framework of law. But we cannot do that by simply lifting those laws from the Old Tesatment and abiding by them.
Because Jesus has fulfilled that Law, because of that endorsement by Moses, we must take into account the perspective Jesus gives on the law in his teaching.
And that is what we are going to do as we take a look at those law codes that shape individual behaviour and society at large, at the law codes that have to do with ritual, worship and holiness.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Turning Evil to Good - The Story of Jacob's Sons and Jesus
It must be sent for a purpose.
Some find great comfort in that thought as they grapple with awful circumstances they find themselves in, or as they struggle with yet another natural disaster.
I don’t find that way of looking at things so helpful. Indeed, I find it positively unhelpful.
Some things happen that seem to me to cut across all that is good and all that is of God. I cannot bring myself to believe that they were ‘sent for a purpose’.
I’m not sure I find that phrase in the Bible. Neither do I find that thought in the bible.
In the Bible I sense there is a reality of evil that cuts across the goodness of God. And that evil is not wiled by God for some greater purpose. Neither is it sent by God to achieve some greater purpose.
I find myself drawn to two different ways of looking at things.
No matter what may befall, God will always be with us. At times he may feel far away, but the reality is however God-forsaken circumstances may appear God is still there.
I am drawn to those last verses of Habakkuk.
Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food;though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.*
This is a faith to hold on to in the face of the awfulness of circumstances that are so filled with wrong as to be outside of the purposes of God. But God in the reality of that world is there with us.
This is so in the sheer awfulness of personal circumstances. It is so in the face of the sheer awfulness of all that has happened in Japan. I share this evening what I shared this morning. Shusaku Endo has become one of my favourite novelists. It came as a surprise to me to find that one of the leading 20th Century novelists in Japan should be a Christian. Not only that but through his novels he sought to express his Christianity in a way that would speak to Japan and its culture.
I have not often re-read novels I have read in the past. But this week I found myself drawn to pick up his novel ‘Volcano’. What caught my eye was a paragraph written by Richard A Schuchert, the translator in the introduction.
For Endo … the quintessence of Christianity lies in God’s loving compassion for his wretched children, His willingness to share with us in our suffering …Endo is attracted to Jesus the suffering companion of all men and women, more than to Jesus the wonder-worker; he is obsessed with Jesus the human reject eventually crucified, rather than with Jesus the glorious pantocrator.
In Jesus God comes alongside us, remains with us, and enables us not to stare awful circumstances in the face and echo the words of St Paul …
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 337No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is interesting that Shusaku Endo chooses to communicate the power of his message in helping people to hold to faith in the face of awful circumstances through the medium of the novel. It is in the telling of a story that the most profound truths can be explored.
We in the West need to be reminded of that.
Kenneth E Bailey spent a life-time teaching the Bible in the Middle East. In a recent book entitled Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, he reflects on the contrast between the way we think in the West.
“In the Western tradition serious theology has almost always been constructed from ideas held together by logic. In such a world the more intelligent the theologian, the more abstract he or she usually becomes, and the more difficult it is for the average person to understand what is being said…
He goes on to observe that Jesus tells stories. We misunderstand what Jesus is doing in telling those stories if we imagine him siply to be a ‘village rustic creating folktales for fishermen and farmers.” Kenneth Bailey suggests that when we examine the stories Jesus told with care we discover that ‘his parables are serious theology.’ Indeed it is through his story telling that he emerges as an astute theologian.
Stories are of the very essence of the Old Testament. From Genesis 36 through to Genesis 50 is a story that is brilliantly told.
It is the story of Jacob and his sons as Genesis 36:2 reminds us. Think of it that way and it is the story of enmity that develops between the twelve brothers and Joseph, an enmity that is destructive and murderous in intent. It is telling that this is the story of Abraham’s descendants.
In this evening’s service we read the opening of that story from Genesis 36 and the ending of that story in Genesis 50. We then went on to read part of the story of Jesus in John 8 where he speaks of his disciples as those who hear his word, and find the truth, the truth that will set them free. There then follows a lengthy debate about what it takes to be descendants of Abraham.
John’s Gospel has sometimes been accused of having the seeds of anti-semitism. That is to misunderstand what is going on in that Gospel. It does not pit ‘Jew’ against ‘Christian’. Instead it describes the tragedy when Jew is at enmity with Jew.
And this is precisely the story that is told of Abraham’s descendants in this lengthy and prolonged ‘story of Jacob’s sons’. The story of Jesus echoes that story as the descendants of Abraham are at enmity with each other.
Part of the wonder of the story of Jacob and his sons is that at the end of Chapter 50 the twelve express the fear that Joseph will wreak his revenge now that their father has died. But in reality Joseph forgives and they are reconciled.
The wonder of the Gospel story is that it reaches its climax in the forgiveness Jesus holds out to those responsible for his death in the words ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’.
The story of Jacob and his sons reaches a climax with a very powerful message that is a message of forgiveness which finds its echo in the story of Jesus.
More than that the story of Jacob and his sons comes to a climax with an insight that provides us with a very real alternative to the view that God sends something ‘for a purpose’
Just as the story has a start so too it has a finish. It is a beautifully crafted story. So beautifully crafted that you can think of as the story of Joseph and his brothers.
That story is so well told you could almost turn it into a musical, a best selling musical that would run for years and years.
The fist time I saw Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was at its very first outing into the West End. It was the second half of a double bill. The first half of the evening was a one act play by Galton and Simpson, the creators of Steptoe and Son. It was called Jacob and Sons. And it was as you can imagine a bit near the mark.
The second half was a hit. And it was quickly expanded … and it’s been in production and on tour ever since!!!
The great thing about Joseph the musical is that it keeps so closely to the biblical story. And the story is so well told. And the awful thing about the Musical is that it misses the point.
As it comes to a great climax, the brothers and Joseph are reconciled and reunited with their Dad. And then Jospeh bursts once more into song. I have heard it so many times, I could sing it to you … but I won’t.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain to see for certain what I thought I knew,
And in the east the dawn was breaking, the world was waking.
So far, so good. That’s a wonderful image. And in a way it captures the climax to the biblical story.
The Joseph story marks the end of the book of Genesis and the tales of the great founding figures of the people Israel. We have moved beyond the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, Jacob and Sarah and we have reached the story of Joseph and the twelve brothers. It is not without significance that Jacob has been given the name ‘Israel’ and the twelve brothers become the ‘founding figures of the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the east the dawn was breaking of the story that was to become the story of the People of God. The dawn was breaking, the world was waking.
But then comes that phrase that makes me want to leap out of my seat and shout out no. The problem is the tune is so catchy I find myself carried along with singing … any dream will do.
No, ANY dream will NOT do!!!!
That misses the point all together.
What’s interesting is that the biblical story comes to a climax with a scene that has a wonderful statement in it. That serves as the key to the whole story. The summing up of the whole point of the story.
It is very thought provoking.
In each of the commentaries I looked at in readiness for this evening, Genesis 50 verse 20 was identified as the key to the whole story of Joseph and his brothers. I love the way the Good News Bible puts it …
Joseph has been reunited with his brothers. They are fearful of what he will do to them. But Joseph forgives and then says these words …
You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good.
I like the way the Revised English Bible puts it …
You meant to do me harm, but God meant to bring good out of it.
That captures something very special for me.
The debate Jesus has over what it takes to be descendants of Abraham leads into the story of the healing of the man born blind in John 9. That man born blind lives in a dark world – but into that man’s life Jesus brings healing and so the harm is turned to good, God brings good out of the awfulness of the circumstances that man finds himself in.
No matter what the harm, no matter the plotting, no matter the evil humanity can devise God will bring good out of it, God will turn it into good.
The whole story of Jesus in his passion that once again we will tell as Easter approaches, not least in a Palm Sunday evening service the choir are putting together that will enable us to celebrate once again the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version, the whole story of Jesus and his passion is the story of people who are out to bring harm and to do evil. And at the climax Jesus utters the words, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. It is as if God in Christ brings good out of the evil that has been done, he turns it all to good.
God sent it for a purpose? No, I cannot take that.
God in Christ is alongside us in the suffering of this world and he will not desert us. There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
This is the vision of Habakkuk and of Romans 8. It is the vision shared by Shusaku Endo of the Jesus who is our suffering companion. And it is the vision to hold on to.
God in Christ is alongside us in the suffering of this world. No matter how great that suffering, God will bring something good out of it. He will turn it to good.
This is the vision the story Joseph and his brothers has to share with us.
This, too, is the vision for us to hold on to!
Some find great comfort in that thought as they grapple with awful circumstances they find themselves in, or as they struggle with yet another natural disaster.
I don’t find that way of looking at things so helpful. Indeed, I find it positively unhelpful.
Some things happen that seem to me to cut across all that is good and all that is of God. I cannot bring myself to believe that they were ‘sent for a purpose’.
I’m not sure I find that phrase in the Bible. Neither do I find that thought in the bible.
In the Bible I sense there is a reality of evil that cuts across the goodness of God. And that evil is not wiled by God for some greater purpose. Neither is it sent by God to achieve some greater purpose.
I find myself drawn to two different ways of looking at things.
No matter what may befall, God will always be with us. At times he may feel far away, but the reality is however God-forsaken circumstances may appear God is still there.
I am drawn to those last verses of Habakkuk.
Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines;though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food;though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.*
This is a faith to hold on to in the face of the awfulness of circumstances that are so filled with wrong as to be outside of the purposes of God. But God in the reality of that world is there with us.
This is so in the sheer awfulness of personal circumstances. It is so in the face of the sheer awfulness of all that has happened in Japan. I share this evening what I shared this morning. Shusaku Endo has become one of my favourite novelists. It came as a surprise to me to find that one of the leading 20th Century novelists in Japan should be a Christian. Not only that but through his novels he sought to express his Christianity in a way that would speak to Japan and its culture.
I have not often re-read novels I have read in the past. But this week I found myself drawn to pick up his novel ‘Volcano’. What caught my eye was a paragraph written by Richard A Schuchert, the translator in the introduction.
For Endo … the quintessence of Christianity lies in God’s loving compassion for his wretched children, His willingness to share with us in our suffering …Endo is attracted to Jesus the suffering companion of all men and women, more than to Jesus the wonder-worker; he is obsessed with Jesus the human reject eventually crucified, rather than with Jesus the glorious pantocrator.
In Jesus God comes alongside us, remains with us, and enables us not to stare awful circumstances in the face and echo the words of St Paul …
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 337No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is interesting that Shusaku Endo chooses to communicate the power of his message in helping people to hold to faith in the face of awful circumstances through the medium of the novel. It is in the telling of a story that the most profound truths can be explored.
We in the West need to be reminded of that.
Kenneth E Bailey spent a life-time teaching the Bible in the Middle East. In a recent book entitled Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, he reflects on the contrast between the way we think in the West.
“In the Western tradition serious theology has almost always been constructed from ideas held together by logic. In such a world the more intelligent the theologian, the more abstract he or she usually becomes, and the more difficult it is for the average person to understand what is being said…
He goes on to observe that Jesus tells stories. We misunderstand what Jesus is doing in telling those stories if we imagine him siply to be a ‘village rustic creating folktales for fishermen and farmers.” Kenneth Bailey suggests that when we examine the stories Jesus told with care we discover that ‘his parables are serious theology.’ Indeed it is through his story telling that he emerges as an astute theologian.
Stories are of the very essence of the Old Testament. From Genesis 36 through to Genesis 50 is a story that is brilliantly told.
It is the story of Jacob and his sons as Genesis 36:2 reminds us. Think of it that way and it is the story of enmity that develops between the twelve brothers and Joseph, an enmity that is destructive and murderous in intent. It is telling that this is the story of Abraham’s descendants.
In this evening’s service we read the opening of that story from Genesis 36 and the ending of that story in Genesis 50. We then went on to read part of the story of Jesus in John 8 where he speaks of his disciples as those who hear his word, and find the truth, the truth that will set them free. There then follows a lengthy debate about what it takes to be descendants of Abraham.
John’s Gospel has sometimes been accused of having the seeds of anti-semitism. That is to misunderstand what is going on in that Gospel. It does not pit ‘Jew’ against ‘Christian’. Instead it describes the tragedy when Jew is at enmity with Jew.
And this is precisely the story that is told of Abraham’s descendants in this lengthy and prolonged ‘story of Jacob’s sons’. The story of Jesus echoes that story as the descendants of Abraham are at enmity with each other.
Part of the wonder of the story of Jacob and his sons is that at the end of Chapter 50 the twelve express the fear that Joseph will wreak his revenge now that their father has died. But in reality Joseph forgives and they are reconciled.
The wonder of the Gospel story is that it reaches its climax in the forgiveness Jesus holds out to those responsible for his death in the words ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’.
The story of Jacob and his sons reaches a climax with a very powerful message that is a message of forgiveness which finds its echo in the story of Jesus.
More than that the story of Jacob and his sons comes to a climax with an insight that provides us with a very real alternative to the view that God sends something ‘for a purpose’
Just as the story has a start so too it has a finish. It is a beautifully crafted story. So beautifully crafted that you can think of as the story of Joseph and his brothers.
That story is so well told you could almost turn it into a musical, a best selling musical that would run for years and years.
The fist time I saw Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was at its very first outing into the West End. It was the second half of a double bill. The first half of the evening was a one act play by Galton and Simpson, the creators of Steptoe and Son. It was called Jacob and Sons. And it was as you can imagine a bit near the mark.
The second half was a hit. And it was quickly expanded … and it’s been in production and on tour ever since!!!
The great thing about Joseph the musical is that it keeps so closely to the biblical story. And the story is so well told. And the awful thing about the Musical is that it misses the point.
As it comes to a great climax, the brothers and Joseph are reconciled and reunited with their Dad. And then Jospeh bursts once more into song. I have heard it so many times, I could sing it to you … but I won’t.
I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain to see for certain what I thought I knew,
And in the east the dawn was breaking, the world was waking.
So far, so good. That’s a wonderful image. And in a way it captures the climax to the biblical story.
The Joseph story marks the end of the book of Genesis and the tales of the great founding figures of the people Israel. We have moved beyond the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, Jacob and Sarah and we have reached the story of Joseph and the twelve brothers. It is not without significance that Jacob has been given the name ‘Israel’ and the twelve brothers become the ‘founding figures of the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the east the dawn was breaking of the story that was to become the story of the People of God. The dawn was breaking, the world was waking.
But then comes that phrase that makes me want to leap out of my seat and shout out no. The problem is the tune is so catchy I find myself carried along with singing … any dream will do.
No, ANY dream will NOT do!!!!
That misses the point all together.
What’s interesting is that the biblical story comes to a climax with a scene that has a wonderful statement in it. That serves as the key to the whole story. The summing up of the whole point of the story.
It is very thought provoking.
In each of the commentaries I looked at in readiness for this evening, Genesis 50 verse 20 was identified as the key to the whole story of Joseph and his brothers. I love the way the Good News Bible puts it …
Joseph has been reunited with his brothers. They are fearful of what he will do to them. But Joseph forgives and then says these words …
You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good.
I like the way the Revised English Bible puts it …
You meant to do me harm, but God meant to bring good out of it.
That captures something very special for me.
The debate Jesus has over what it takes to be descendants of Abraham leads into the story of the healing of the man born blind in John 9. That man born blind lives in a dark world – but into that man’s life Jesus brings healing and so the harm is turned to good, God brings good out of the awfulness of the circumstances that man finds himself in.
No matter what the harm, no matter the plotting, no matter the evil humanity can devise God will bring good out of it, God will turn it into good.
The whole story of Jesus in his passion that once again we will tell as Easter approaches, not least in a Palm Sunday evening service the choir are putting together that will enable us to celebrate once again the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version, the whole story of Jesus and his passion is the story of people who are out to bring harm and to do evil. And at the climax Jesus utters the words, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. It is as if God in Christ brings good out of the evil that has been done, he turns it all to good.
God sent it for a purpose? No, I cannot take that.
God in Christ is alongside us in the suffering of this world and he will not desert us. There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
This is the vision of Habakkuk and of Romans 8. It is the vision shared by Shusaku Endo of the Jesus who is our suffering companion. And it is the vision to hold on to.
God in Christ is alongside us in the suffering of this world. No matter how great that suffering, God will bring something good out of it. He will turn it to good.
This is the vision the story Joseph and his brothers has to share with us.
This, too, is the vision for us to hold on to!
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