Be Attractive

Lent

Mat 5:13-16  "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”.

Jesus expects those who follow him to be different. He uses analogies like “salt” and “light” to make his point. Jesus-followers ought to add flavour to life; they ought to bring light into darkness. These are positive illustrations of how we can add richness and texture to life.

Sadly, all too often, Christians have a reputation for taking the flavour out of life, and for bringing darkness into a social gathering. They are the ones whose angry glances and hateful speech cause misery for people who are gay, or bring heartache to an unmarried mother, or drive away the Muslim person.

Embrace the challenge of Lent: to live your life in such a way that these, and other people we want to marginalize, might “see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”.

(To Sing Aloud): This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Listen to Jesus Christ
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.100

 

Love Divine

Lent
Matthew 5:1-12  When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.  "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 This then is the good news of Jesus: God does not favour the healthy, wealthy and wise. Every generation has been tempted to think that God rewards those who are strong and capable. Not so, says Jesus: Those who are spiritually poor, who mourn, and who are meek (timid, weak, lowly) are the ‘blessed’ of God. We do not first have to get well, or get strong, or get whole, before we can relate to our Creator. This is Grace.

The same holds true for the people around us. They too are welcomed by God, even when they are broken. The invitation of Lent is for us allow the Grace of God to overflow our experience to the people around us. God’s dream is for humanity to share his welcoming love with each and every person.

Prayer:

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Those that Seek and Those That Have Re­demp­tion in the Blood of Je­sus Christ, 1747.

 

The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Listen to Jesus Christ
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.100

 

 

Master Speak Thy servant heareth

Lent

Mark 10:35-45  James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."  And he said to them, "What is it you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"  They replied, "We are able." Then Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;  but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."  When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.  So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,   and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Even when writing 60 years after the event, the writer of Mark’s Gospel manages to capture the impertinence of the words of James and John: "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." (vs 35). How dare the students demand that the teacher become their servant!

Yet how often is this not still with us? We, the created, demand that our Creator do our bidding.  Sometimes we dress up our demands in religious language, like adding “In Jesus Name” or “I claim it by faith”. And when God does not do as we demand, we curse God and say there is no God. The challenge for Lent is to learn to be content. We learn contentment by accepting that we are servants of our Creator. We are created to obey God’s bidding.

Prayer

Master, speak! and make me ready,
When Thy voice is truly heard,
With obedience glad and steady
Still to follow every word.
I am listening, Lord, for Thee:
Master, speak! O, speak to me!

Words: Fran­ces R. Hav­er­gal, Min­is­try of Song, 1869.

 

The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Listen to Jesus Christ
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.100

 

A Clean Heart

Lent
Matthew 15:1-11  Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,  "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat."  He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God said, 'Honour your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.'  But you say that whoever tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,' then that person need not honor the father.  So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God.   You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:  'This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;  in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'"  Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand:  it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles."

The ritual washing of hands lies deeply embedded in the religious practices of Jesus’ culture. What had historically begun as a hygienic precaution had been elevated into a sign of religious observance. Hands were thought to become unclean from more than dirt. Touching or associating with anyone termed “sinners” could make one unclean – which covered association with a range of humanity that included people too poor to pay their religious sacrifices, through to people who were deemed unwelcome in the temple because of a physical defect or because of a foreign ancestor.

It seems that the followers of Jesus had decided not to wash their hands every time they met a religious outcast. It would also seem that they made no secret of this – and so Jesus was warned by the religious leaders that they risked the chance of being excluded from the religious circle by association. Jesus bluntly answers that the real unclean-ness lies in the heart that refuses to be touched by compassion for human suffering.

Prayer: Lord God. Purify my heart from thoughts of superiority and self-righteousness. Fill me with compassion for those who need to be touched by your love. Amen.

 

The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Listen to Jesus Christ
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.100

 

 

The Childlike Kingdom

Lent

Matthew18:1-9  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.

 The disciples of Jesus had heard him teach about “the kingdom of heaven” (the reign of God) since they had first started following him. They knew that his ideas on “kingdom” were different from the authority they had experienced at the hands of the Roman Empire, or at the hands of King Herod. So they seize the moment and ask him – "tell us how power works in God’s new creation".

“Well”, says Jesus, “it is quite simple. This is not a dream of status and dignity and importance. It is a dream about curiosity and playfulness and humility”. And then Jesus adds a warning – “Watch out that we, the professionally religious, do not get in the way of those who experience God from the margins / the underside / the little places of life”.      

So let us remove all those things that prevent us from reckless religious revival.

Sing:

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free
Queen

 

The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Listen to Jesus Christ
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.100

 

Prevenient Grace

Lent
Jer 31:27 -34  The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.   And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.  In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."  But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.   The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

 These words come from a very difficult time in Israel's history. Since the rise of Assyria in 745 BC, Israel had lost control of her national life. The Babylonians had come in 598 BC, and would come again in 586 to destroy the country. These words from Jeremiah are set between these two Babylonian invasions. He has spent the past 40 years warning both the people and their kings that unless they truly repented and changed their attitudes toward God they would not survive. But they refused to listen.

And so the prophet pronounces God’s judgement on the people. Now Jeremiah speaks the words of hope recorded above. He describes a God who is willing to overlook their failure and give the people a second chance - a New Covenant. Theologically, this is an example of the concept of Prevenient Grace:  Jeremiah speaks of how God’s loving Grace precedes any response the people might make. The experience of this grace will enable Israel to respond to God, since they have themselves lost the ability to respond. God is willing to work with humanity even in the face of recalcitrance, even when experiencing sinful rejection of God.

 

Thought

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace
Newton/Tomlin

 

The Eighth Sunday after Epiphany

Protected by God
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.95

 

The Water of Life

Lent

Revelation 22:1-5  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever......
Rev 22:17  The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

John is shown “the river of the water of life”, crystal clear and flowing from God’s throne down the middle of the street. It irrigates the tree of life for the benefit of the nations that seek healing from it leaves.  This vision draws on two biblical themes, "the tree of life" in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9), and Ezekiel's vision of water flowing from the temple in Jerusalem all the way down to the Dead Sea (Ezek 47:1-12).

As with much of the vision in Revelation, this has seen interpretation that covers the range from the responsibly reflective through to the bewilderingly batty. I am not adding to this. I do want to point out the startling invitation that concludes the vision: anyone is welcome to the water of life. The right to drink is not earned, for it is a gift. This echoes the invitation of Jesus that he will freely give “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

This then is the invitation; come to Jesus and be refreshed, as if we have drunk the elixir of life itself. This offer is free to all who would respond. There is no charge, no course to be completed, and no ritual to perform – for the water of life is a gift.  

For thought: Why, oh why, do we who have drunk freely from the cup of life, seek to deny other people the same opportunity unless they drink from the cup according our religious rules?.

 

The Eighth Sunday after Epiphany

Protected by God
Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.95