Eternal Echoes

Christ the King Sermon: Revelation 1:4-8 & John 18:28-37

Both of today's Scriptures capture scenes that could come from a Hollywood blockbuster.

 

Jesus the bedraggled hero; bloodied and apparently beaten before the tyrant captor; and yet just under the surface runs an undercurrent of hope….

 

Then the final scene, the hero has overcome, and everyone recognises him….

 

Revelation tells us that; He will come in glory, and we will wail at the sight of him….

 

And we find ourselves asking; Is this the same Jesus who was born in a rough hewn stable swaddled and placed in a manger by his mother?

 

We read further that; He will ride in on the clouds and every eye will see him…

 

Do we shake our heads in disbelief; Is this the same Jesus who learned carpentry in his fathers shop, and spent his early adulthood amongst sawdust and sweat?

 

Finally our hero speaks; He declares himself to us as the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and was and is to come…

 

Do we wonder if this is the same Jesus who called fishermen his friends, the same Jesus who healed the sick and did not scorn the outcasts?

 

A quick read through the gospels reveals to us that this is indeed the case and that though his apparent ordinariness concealed his glory and power there were times when the concealment slipped and he was revealed in glory….

 

Peter recognised him when he calmed the storm with words…Peace, be still….just a glimpse of the glory of Jesus was enough to draw from him the strangled cry "Get away from me Lord, I am a sinful man…"

 

Lazarus responded to the commanded of Jesus "Come forth" as life re-entered his lifeless body

 

At Jesus command demons fled and the sick were healed, five loaves and two fish fed thousands and water turned to wine….

 

And we will see him coming again in the clouds, Jesus the Alpha and the Omega, the author and perfector our faith…

 

I wonder how we respond to this Jesus, this King whose kingdom is not of this world….

 

If he had wanted worldly power he could have seized it…

 

If he had wanted worldly riches they lay within his grasp…

 

If he had wanted popularity and acclaim the means to both lay within his grasp, and yet he turned them all down, refusing the things of this world he proclaimed that His kingdom was different…

 

…and he called people to follow him

 

…and he went to the cross…

 

So how do we relate to this Jesus today?

 

Through the gospels we encounter him as Jesus in human form- Jesus the God who laid aside the glories of heaven and took on flesh. Jesus who became as small as a pinhead in his mothers womb, and who grew in stature to be the greatest teacher the world has ever known- and yet he knows our frailties, he knows what it is to be hungry and to weep, to feel pain and to be utterly exhausted. He knows the joy of relationships and what it is to laugh with friends- and because he knows he can relate to us, and we to him….

 

…and yet he is so much more….

 

He is God in the flesh, and God in Spirit and substance, he is able to calm the storm and walk on water, at his command sickness flees. He is God-full of grace and truth…

 

Pilate's power could not hold him, for although he was condemned to die death did not have the last word, for Jesus was raised to life from death ( as he said he would be), as the mighty Spirit power flowed through him…

 

AND HE WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY AS HE SAID HE WOULD…

 

As for us, he calls us to follow, and although we look around and see our weaknesses he sees our potential. We the church are his body on earth today, and he calls us to walk through the mess that is life in the fullness of that truth….

 

As we do, we can expect every now and then that the veil of frailty that holds us will be drawn back and we will be who we truly are, for Jesus has promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, to equip and empower us to walk in his ways, to be members of his upside down unworldly kingdom.

 

As Jesus who stood before Pilate he could have chosen to save himself, and Pilate might just have listened, he may not have done it for Jesus sake, but he might just have done so to upset the Jewish leaders. We know however that the story went differently and that Jesus did abandon himself completely to Gods purposes and went to the cross…

 

He died, AND HE WAS RAISED TO LIFE!

 

He calls us to follow, to be among those who are being raised. We might look around us at the state of the church today and despair of the state we are in- we might look longingly at the past and weep over what was and what might have been.

 

BUT Jesus calls us to look up and out, to see the new things that he is doing, to seek fresh vision and to follow him. The story of the people of God has always gone through peaks and troughs of successes and failures, and success often follows risk and obedience.

 

We are being challenged by our denomination to seek fresh ways of being, I believe that that is something we must do, but that we must do it in obedience to God with our whole lives, and dare I say that includes our bank accounts!

 

Jesus gave himself completely to God's purposes, and he WILL come again in glory!

Friday Five -Thanksgiving

Jan over at Revgals is offering a Thanksgiving Friday Five, asking questions about customs and traditions. As a non-American member of the group ( a Brit) I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving- next Thursday will be a normal day of work for me and I will not be eating any special foods, and my children will all be working on their studies at various their Universities around the country.

But I have celebrated Thanksgiving in the past, and was struck by truly celebratory nature of the occasion. For each of the three years that we lived in Texas (Katy, just outside Houston) we were invited by three different groups to celebrate with them. The first two times we were made welcome and treated as members of the family, we helped with some of the food preparation and joined in with the games and fun before and after the meal. I was struck by the way that the celebration was rooted in true thankfulness and that the reason for the first thanksgiving has not really been lost (despite the fact that most turkeys came from supermarkets, and that some of the pumpkin was canned!). I was also struck by the family centered nature of the occasion and was pleased when on the third occasion we joined a group who took Thanksgiving meal and celebration to a park in a poorer area of the city. Turkeys had been donated, four of them were cooked at home and four of them deep fried (yes really) at the park. Side-dishes were prepared and people were invited. We ran a shuttle of cars to take meals and blankets to folk who were housebound and laid on games and music for the whole of the afternoon. It was a truly community centered event.

Here in the UK many churches continue to celebrate Harvest, but it is a shadow of a celebration in comparison, the date is not set, and many folk don't celebrate at all. We have it seems become separated from the land. I know that the reasons for this are varied, and that our history is very different to that of the Pioneer settlers. but I do wonder if we are missing something vital and important.

When I look back through our Chapel records I see accounts of village feasts, and of communities working to bring the harvest home. I am also reminded that the land was not and is not tame, that the elements can make or break a harvest, they remain beyond our control. I live and minister in a rural area, and I wonder if the community centered nature of harvest is something that we need to re-visit, and I wonder how we can truly creatively do so. Perhaps as Jan hinted in the poem she quoted celebration is a cure for apathy- and that we need to put on a red dress, bake a cake, and share our lives more often!

Who will be welcome to our table?

Pilate ( musing on John 18:28-37)

He stood before me,

the ragged king

with heaven in his eyes,

and I knew he

saw right

through me.

 

And even as I

sealed his earthy fate

he looked on me

with knowing pity…

(even love),

and I wept inside

as I washed my hands

of his

blood.

 

What is truth?

I asked him,

and yet deep down

I knew that truth

stood before me…

 

I could have set

him free,

and yet I could not,

this was no trial…

for I (despite appearances)

was not the

one who held the power,

his life was his

to give,

not mine to take...

 

He saw right through me,

and loved me,

even though

I washed my hands

of his blood,

I did not seal his fate…

 

We have been made worthy.........

 I have been mulling over this post all morning, partly because there is too much to write, and partly because I do not even have the words to begin...

This is not an exegesis, rather it is my devotional response to this mornings New Testament reading from Revelation 5.

Revelation 5 offers us a vision of the lamb, who alone is worthy to open the scroll, but first the writer offers us a glimpse of his own heart.  Caught up in a vision of heaven he hears the angels calling for one who is worthy to open the scroll and none is found, not in heaven, nor in the entire created universe. His response challenges me to my core;

"I wept and wept because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." (vs.4)

The writer knew that he was not worthy, and knew that if none was found that the scroll would never give up its secrets, and so he wept. He wept for his own inadequacies and for the salvation of the world. This was not self pity or sorrow. it came from somewhere much deeper than that, and it continued to flow as an intercession of tears until he was called to look up and to see the Lamb of God approaching. The Lamb had been slain, and yet he was standing, and this was no meek Lamb, the symbolism of Revelation shows him as one who has been perfected in strength ( seven horns), and whose spirit has been sent to all and for all ( seven eyes).

I am not attempting to unravel the mystery of the symbolic and apocalyptic language of Revelation, but I am struck here by the picture of the Lamb- Jesus who gave all has been raised in power, and it is to this Jesus that we look for strength. Not that this Jesus is different from the Jesus of the Gospels, he still calls us to follow, his teaching is the same teaching, and his challenges are the same challenges...

..but too often I think we leave Jesus at the cross, too often we bemoan our inadequacies, and we forget that not only does he call us to follow but he also promises to equip us for the task.

Throughout the gospels we hear Jesus telling the disciples over and over again of the type of death he will die, we read of the struggle they had to come to terms with what they were hearing, of their denial of it, and of Jesus further insistence that this must happen. The disciples are still confused as Jesus explains what will happen:

"¹⁵ If you love me, you will obey what I command.

    ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever—

    ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

    ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

    ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

    ²⁰On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." (John 14)

 

Like those first disciples I think that we are often confused, and we feel inadequate, even orphaned. BUT he has not left us, he has overcome death, and he will equip us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can continue to follow and so that we can continue to share the wonder, the mystery and the astonishing truth that God loved the world so much that he came amongst us and gave himself for us....

He was slain, but he has overcome, and as the heavenly hosts burst forth in a song of praise they remind us that we have been put right with God to step into his calling for us:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll
   and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
   saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
¹⁰you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
   and they will reign on earth.’

We have been made worthy! In and through him we have and will overcome all that stands against us; this is not pie in the sky visionary stuff. This is God reminding us that he is for us and not against us, that he considered and considers us worthy of his attention and his love, and of the sacrifice he paid for us in Christ!

I need to be continually reminded of this as I work out my salvation and walk with others as the work out their salvation. God is for us, and he has overcome sin and death, and because he has overcome sin and death we will overcome sin and death...

As I read and pondered the Scripture this morning my first response was to sing a hymn of praise, and to allow myself to be caught up again in the wonder and the mystery of the truth that the Creator of heaven and earth loves us so deeply.

 

 

 

It is not all about Youth Work! It is not all about Church!

I have just returned from a church weekend away with a lot of stuff to ponder.Much of it has to do with the way and the reason we talk about mission within the church. I was asked if could name one thing I did as a Lay Worker that had a truly significant impact upon one of the Chapels I worked with...

The answer didn't take long to come up with, but it certainly surprised the folk who asked the question. The answer was that I closed something. The something that I closed was an after school club... "Are you crazy?" I hear you asking. "Have you lost the plot? Surely we need to encourage young folk...?"

My response is simple; yes we do need to encourage younger folk, but if the effort of doing so is wearing us out so much and depleting our creativity in the process then it is time to stop.

In this particular case two of the Chapel members were working alongside us to keep the Club running, ( others gave up as soon as a Lay Worker came on the scene for we all know that Lay Workers have miraculous Church building powers). The problem was that the Sunday morning Congregation were not willing at that time to embrace a new way of being and critisised any attempt to adapt to accommodate the children and their families.

So in consultation with the Church Council we closed the Club. It was the best decision we made! Freed from running a club that drained them the two Chapel members were soon energised and able to use their creativity again. A book club was started, and the members found other ways of reaching their community that were much more suited to their gifts and talents. Social activities were arranged and friendship groups began to spring up. Soon there were new members at the Chapel, and although they weren't young families they lowered the age profile by about 10 years!

So why am I writing this post; the reason is simple. If you read any Christian magazine or newspaper you will find dozens of adverts for Youth Workers, or Youth and Family Workers, but very few creatively thought out Lay Work positions.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Youth Work is unimportant, I am simply saying that it does not and must not stop there. We must open our eyes to see that when we talk about the missing generations that we mean EVERY generation, and significant numbers of people under the age of 65....not just folk under 30!

I believe that it is these missing folk who should be our focus when we talk about mission, too often we still see them as pew fodder and the answer to our problems, rather than recognising them as people whom God loves so much that he became human. We forget that he wove his story so intimately through our own human story in order that we could know of his deep deep love for us. We forget that we are loved, and so we forget to love others.

The Church is not a club, it is the living breathing body of Christ on earth, and he wants us to open our eyes upon the communities that surround us with fresh vision, they are full of people who need to be touched by the gospel message, and dare I say, that does not necessarily involve speaking it or preaching it to/ at them!

I wonder if the best description of the Church today is that we are a community of exiles, and I wonder if somehow that exile has been self imposed. Maybe it is time to listen to the prophets afresh:

"⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29)

 

In search of a new way of being...

As I write this I am aware that this conversation is a long way in the past for some, it is certainly one I have had before, but again and again, and in more and more places we must start asking ourselves questions about our traditions and practices. We must dare to consider being different, or as a member of one of the other Chapels I have charge for commented this weekend, "we will die!"

This morning I headed off to one of our smaller Chapels to lead a Communion Service, when I arrived we chatted informally for a while, this small congregation likes to gather in good time and the members relish the chance to catch up with one another. We then moved into the more formal part of worship, and these folk who had all been sitting together drifted to their (usual) separate pews.

Surprisingly and not un-welcomed this morning one of the members responded to questions I posed through the sermon, this in itself was an adventure because the person who had been assigned to read the gospel read Luke 6: 6-19 instead of Mark 13: 1-8. Knowing the embarrassment it would cause I simply shifted my sermon ( and it was quite a shift), making a note to double check that the Steward has heard me correctly next time I call! Sometimes though I think that the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us to help us to find a new way forward and this was one of those days...

When it came to celebrating the communion we struggled with the constraints of the space, this was not the first time I had presided there, but I am pondering the awkwardness of the table which is no more than a shelf tucked under the pulpit, and the small platform hemmed in tightly by the communion rails which make movement difficult.

At the end of the service once again the congregation gathered together, a couple of us sitting on the floor, and others sitting on the front pews to talk through the Scriptures and their response to the sermon. I am left wondering if in such small gatherings whether a new way of being and worshiping needs to take shape...

How might it have been if we met over coffee, and pondered the Scriptures together? There would still be room for prayer and worship, it would simply be less formal. With only 10 people would it have been so terrible to form a circle and to share the Communion as if it were truly the family meal we believe it to be?

I am not calling for irreverence, but for relevance,  todays pace of life means that Sunday mornings are often the only time these folk can meet together, and the chance to be together and to encourage one another can be done much better through dialogue than through a hymn prayer sandwich.

I am also not calling for an end to all formal worship, maybe just a shake up in the variety of what we do together, a monthly or fortnightly cafe style service??? We have a lot to talk about it seems. Dare we take the risk?

Alive again… ( a weekend of sound)

 

…waves,

crashing on

the night darkened shore,

rendered visible

by moonlight,

deep calling

to deep,

these black,

and thundering

mysteries,

demand an awe filled

silence…

 

and then the music,

lifting my soul

drawing me beyond

my earthly limitations,

as voice

and string

in melody and counterpoint

demanded an awe filled

silence

(not applause)…

 

…and I am alive again

 

 

Late Night by Pete Collom

 

 

With thanks to the sea shore at Scarborough, and to the Sterndale Singers and Baroque Ensemble (my daughter played with them this evening).

Unlikely partners....

Tim and I went for a walk this afternoon to Fairburn Ings; a local RSPB Reserve. It consists of groups of lakes and wetland habitats, and runs alongside the River Calder. Not only does Fairburn Ings sit in the shadow of Ferrybridge Power Station, but it is situated on the site of an old mining complex that included a coal tip. The RSPB say:

"We are working with our partners to manage the restored coal tip. Measures include mowing and grazing the dry grassland to help breeding skylarks, grey partridges and lapwings; improving the shingle around lagoons for breeding little ringed plovers, ringed plovers and lapwings; and enhancing the farmland areas for passerines such as tree sparrows and corn buntings. 

We are also improving water control, introducing fencing, conducting patrols, and monitoring plants and invertebrates."

Ferrybridge Power Station and it's sister stations at Drax and Eggborough dominate the skyline as I travel around our Circuit, they provide employment in an uncertain age for hundreds of people, and that is good news for an area hard hit by the recession and suffering from high unemployment figures. All three burn Bio-mass  in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions produced by coal burning, but all three power stations still  serve as reminder of our reliance upon fossil fuels for electricity. That all three are involved in schemes to help the environment is to their credit... we live in a world of juxtapositions and contrasts. It would be easy to critisise the industry without thinking, it is more challenging to work alongside it in an effort to find a sustainable way forward whilst acknowledging that we currently live with a less than desirable situation.

Fairburn Ings stands out as a symbol of hope, trees and grasses now colonise the coal tip, and the lakes and wetlands cover the scared face of the mined land forming a rich habitat for bird and marine life. At the RSPB Centre groups of adults and children come to hear about wildlife and conservation and regular activities and opportunities for learning are planned.

I am struck by the potentially unlikely partnership here, and wonder what this has to say to us as a church; it seems to me that some of the most successful Fresh Expressions initiatives spring from unlikely partnerships, that creativity flourishes when we dare to step beyond our comfort zones, and that transformation becomes possible where we had thought that all was lost.

I am currently thinking and praying about creating a garden area on a piece of unsused land, I would like to involve the teenagers who hang around in that area drinking and smoking. It is certainly an unlikely partnership, and at the moment the task of convincing either of the groups who would be involved seems impossible and risky. It will certainly be messy, and won't be without problems, grace will be called for, but I wonder if together, by grace, and through prayer if we might just be able to create something beautiful....

Fairburn Ings is beautiful, and through its trees even the view of the towers was Ferrybridge were softened in the evening light.

 

We did see this Kingfisher today, there is a special viewpoint at the reserve where you can watch for Kingfishers, a testament to the work of an unlikely partenrship!