Race across the world - the way to the father?

This is a Reflection written for my congregations in lockdown, for Sunday 10th May 2020

For the last couple of months, we’ve watched a programme on BBC2 on a Sunday evening called “Race across the world”. If you’ve not seen it let me explain. (By the way, if you have been watching but haven’t yet watched the final LOOK AWAY NOW!)

5 teams of 2 people started off a journey from Mexico City with a limited budget. They had to travel from Mexico City to Ushuaia Argentina, on the Southernmost tip of South America. The first couple to reach Ushuaia won £20,000. By a winning margin of around a minute – after 2 months – uncle and nephew Emon and Jamiul claimed the prize.

The men are both Muslims – though Emon admitted he was less devout than his nephew. But clearly the values of their faith, in terms of compassion for others, was important. For they both were deeply affected by scenes of child poverty in Sao Paulo Brazil. So much so that they immediately donated £10,000 to a charity working with street children in Brazil and have since given £5,000 to a similar charity in Bangladesh.

They came across as really good people.

And it with those men in mind that I read the Gospel reading for this Sunday and, in particular, John 14:6

‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’

This is one of those Bible verses that can get people all hot under the collar. Depending on how we understand it. On the one hand it suggests quite clearly that only belief in Jesus ensures we will come to the father i.e. have eternal life. And what’s the problem with that many will say.

The problem with that approach for some other Christians, is that it excludes other people from God. People like Emon and Jamiul. Good people who aren’t Christians.
Who’s right?

A constant theme in John’s Gospel is criticism of “the Jews”. Those words in themselves can be misunderstood. When John talks of “the Jews” he means Jews who weren’t followers of Jesus. (Like the Jewish members of the Sanhedrin who arrest and murder Stephen in the reading from Acts for today.) But there were plenty of people in the early Church who were followers of Jesus but who still thought of themselves as Jewish.

“The Jews” believed that the only way to God was through study of the Scriptures, the Torah, and by trying to uphold the many Jewish laws. These were things Jesus had frequently criticised.

Therefore, for John’s original readers, Jesus statement “I am the way” is showing that the way to the Father is through following Jesus and modelling our lives on him. (Just like Jesus is saying in John 10:9 “I am the gate”) It is as if John is recording Jesus saying, “Don’t be like ‘the Jews’. The way to the Father isn’t through studying the Jewish scriptures and learning them off by heart and trying to follow all the Jewish laws. The way to the Father is by modelling your life on me.”

You may be wondering what this visit to the first century church has to do with us. Well I think it is important to help us understand why John felt he should record Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. John needed his readers in the first century to know that Jesus wasn’t just some other rabbi or prophet. Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And as God’s Son, Jesus is the way to God, he speaks God’s truth and is the life God wants us to have (life, in all its fulness.)
But what of now?

As I said, this verse can be used as a way of saying other faiths are inferior to our faith. Or as a way of excluding people from God’s kingdom.

I’ve heard it said by other Christians that we shouldn’t emphasise this verse because other people have other ways to God, so we ought not to offend them by believing that ours is the way to God.

I feel we can miss the point. If other people have other religions or no religion at all, that is fine. And who knows maybe God in his grace and mercy helps people find a way to him through their faith.

(Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said “We’ll be surprised at who we find when we get to heaven. God has extremely low standards”. In other words, through his grace and mercy God may well welcome into his Kingdom people we think should not be there. People of other faith and people of none maybe? And whilst I believe faith in Jesus Christ is most important, I hope that God’s mercy extends to people like Emon and Jamiul. Of course, I don’t know.)

But as long as we are respectful of others’ views, I see nothing wrong in us stating that we believe that Jesus is the way to God. This is what we believe to be true - that Jesus is God’s son and through him we know God and come to God.

Professor Karl Barth was a Swiss theologian of the 20th century. Perhaps one of the greatest. On one occasion he was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton university in America. One student asked Professor Barth "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son."

And that I think is the key point. It is what John was trying to emphasise 2,000 years ago. That the way to God is through his Son. Not by being a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim. But by accepting that God’s Son is the way, the truth and the life, for if we have seen the Son we have seen the Father.

Paul in Athens - the one true God

This is a Reflection written for my congregations in lockdown for Sunday 17th May 2020

A couple of weeks ago the Christian charity Tearfund published the results of a survey it had undertaken about British attitudes to faith during lockdown. There is quite a lot of information in the published findings, but the key points are:

Nearly half of adults in the UK (44%) say they pray
24% of UK adults say they have watched or listened to a religious service during lockdown
Over half of those who pray (56%) agree that prayer changes the world.

It seems to me that the survey shows there is an emptiness in many people’s lives and a recognition that there is something or someone beyond our own understanding. The survey shows, that deep in people’s hearts, their souls, they hunger to know God even though they may not know who God is.

Today, I want to focus on the story of Paul in Athens in Acts 17: 22 – 31.

Paul is alone in Athens. He has been driven out of Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. He is being a faithful witness in a strange and complex place. A place where the culture encourages worship of all manner of false gods and idols.

We know a lot about a culture where people worship false gods and idols – whether it is consumer goods, fashion, beauty, military might and technology to name but a few. Paul would have understood the problems we as followers of Jesus face in trying to get our culture to recognise and worship the one true God.

Paul’s starting point is a recognition that the people of Athens are seeking spiritual satisfaction and that is to their credit.

“People of Athens I see how extremely religious you are in every way” Acts 17:22

Paul was clever in Athens. Instead of going on the attack and pointing out where the Athenians were wrong, he finds ways in which to engage with their culture, to work with them and relate to them.

Whilst some atheists would reject out of hand the very idea of something more than this world, many people give an expression to their spiritual yearning by putting their “faith” in something else. Consumerism, humanism, nationalism and so on. And people become very loyal to the idols they put their faith in. It was no different in Athens where people were loyal to their particular god.

What Paul had to do, and what we must do in our time, is to make people recognise that they need to live their lives according to the ultimate loyalty – God, as seen in Jesus Christ. And to do this, Paul looked for openings in people’s hearts and souls.

One of the things our culture is into, is use of modern technology. For example, when a new model of mobile phone comes out, many people want to have it immediately.

Therefore, if we are to engage with the culture around us, to show people the way to the one true God, we need to work with that love of technology, that idolatry.

Many churches have been putting services online and people are finding their way to these services during the lockdown. And I know from my own blog, (where I publish these reflections) it has been read by people outside church. Through this technology we can find wats to bring God into people’s hearts.

Paul also seemed to realise that he needed to adapt his approach and the sharing of the message to the culture. This is a difficult thing to do. We don’t want to water down the Gospel. But at the same time, if the Gospel message is to be heard, it needs to be delivered in such a way as fits with the culture. Paul realised, as I’ve said, that the Athenians were searching for the one true God. By building an altar to “the unknown god”, they seemed to be vaguely aware that there was more. They had a longing for something more. But they did not know what that was.

In our culture, when people fill their lives with desiring consumer goods, or trying to look more beautiful or trying to gain power, they are looking for fulfilment in their lives. They do not know what will fill the emptiness in their lives they just know there is something more. In reality, they are searching for the one true God as only He can give life in all its fulness.

Paul was not critical of the Athenians for having idols and worshipping false gods. His message was welcoming and hospitable as opposed to unwelcoming and hostile. He knew that the Athenians needed the message of salvation and hope that Jesus Christ brings. But his starting point was, as we’ve seen, the recognition that they were looking for meaning in their lives. Paul acknowledged this when he was talking with them, acknowledged their creative powers of thought and invention, and invited them to go further in their thinking with him.

It seems to me that the challenge for us as followers of Christ is to find ways of welcoming people into God’s loving family, whilst at the same time not avoiding the need for repentance and faith in Christ.

That the living Jesus is the only Messiah and the one Lord means all other competing loyalties and practises must be set aside in order to begin a new life in him. Despite Paul’s eloquence, most people in Athens were unable to do this and people today face a similar challenge when they encounter the Gospel. For many of those who are turning to prayer at this time, the need to look at their own lives and values and seek forgiveness and then a willingness to start life in a different way, will be a step too far. But we can pray that some who are exploring at this time will come to Christ.

Ascension - the design in the fabric

Reflection written for my congregations during lockdown, for the Sunday following Ascension 24th May 2020

The Ascension was that time when Jesus visibly departed from his disciples and came into the presence of God the Father. It represented the culmination of his earthly ministry. (As I saw some wag describe it recently "Jesus was now working from home") The Ascension was the day of transition. When the Jesus of the earth became the Jesus of heaven. Interestingly, on no less than four occasions, Jesus had foretold this event to the disciples and yet they are still surprised.

I suppose the hardest thing in the world is to say goodbye to somebody you love. This seems especially so at present when we hear stories of people who can’t visit dying loved ones due to Covid19.

With that in mind you might suspect the story of the Ascension to be a rather sad one. Jesus was now going away, never to be seen by the disciples again. You’d think that they will turn homeward with heavy steps. But Luke tell us:

“he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.” Luke 24: 52 – 53 NIV

What meaning does the Ascension have for our lives? I would like to share with you three ways in which the Ascension has meaning for us.

First, it says that we can learn to depend upon God, without being dependent upon Him. Some people are raised to be dependent upon others. The fact is that struggling and wrestling with many of the grey issues of life and learning to think for yourself, is just as vital to the spiritual process as it is to the maturation process.

What was the situation as regarding the disciples? For three years their every move had centred on Jesus. Around his leadership these 12 common men have become the toast of Israel. They are famous but famous only by association. If they are to grow, Jesus must leave. If Jesus had not departed, they would have grown to be dependent upon his physical presence. Instead of struggling with great moral issues in the light of what Jesus had said and done, they would simply run to him for the answers. What was needed to launch them out into the world was not a kind of unhealthy dependence upon him, but a deep abiding faith. A knowledge they could depend on Jesus without being dependent on him. As Jesus told Thomas

29 ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ John 20:29

Secondly, the Ascension of Jesus says that at the heart of life there is mystery. We are know it alls. We like to have answers to everything. So, when we are confronted with the Ascension (or the Resurrection or the Virgin Birth or ….) we ask “Why? How?” instead of accepting the mystery.

The Ascension affirms that despite what we might think, life is still mystery. We are not the big cosmic know it alls that we think that we are. I cannot begin to explain how the Ascension of Jesus happened and that does not particularly bother me. It is interesting that the disciples did not attempt to explain the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus. They simply proclaimed it.

We are not in control of everything in life. As soon as we think that we can second-guess God, that’s when we have lost Him. It is not necessary for us to have all the answers in life. For in the end our faith is more important than our knowledge. That’s not to say we shouldn’t ask questions. But we need to accept we won’t always find answers.
Third, the Ascension says that God has resources for each of us that he has not yet revealed. Just before Jesus departed, he told the disciples,

7 But the fact of the matter is that it is best for you that I go away, for if I don’t, the Comforter won’t come. If I do, he will—for I will send him to you. John 16:7 Living Bible

He was, of course, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

It appeared as though Jesus was now leaving his disciples to flounder around for themselves. Not so. He was leaving them with a resource that at that time they didn't even know existed. We can be sure that God gives each of us resources that enable us to cope with future circumstances.

Who is to say what resources God will place at our disposal to face the future?

Before we make snap judgments about some of the despairing events of our own lives or these times, we would do well to remember this point. The Ascension, in a manner of speaking, makes it appear as though Jesus is leaving his disciples for good. The fact is that God never leaves us without inner resources to cope with future events. The Holy Spirit was about to come into their lives. This meant that Christ would be no longer limited by time and space as he was on earth.

Dr. Ernest Gordon was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. He grew up in Greenock on the Clyde. The nearby town of Paisley was famous for its weaving and Dr Gordon recalled how once he noticed a group of old weavers making very colourful, intricate, shawls. The only thing they could see during the entire fabrication process was the back of the shawls - simply a mass of tangled, coloured, threads. It was only as the shawls were completed and turned over, that they were able to see the fullness of their own creation.
Life can be like that, concluded Ernest Gordon. So often the events of our lives seem like the shawls did to the Paisley weavers, simply a tangled mass of disconnected threads. The Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus must have appeared like that to the disciples. But as the disciples looked back upon these events, and as we look back on our personal lives, we can see God’s design in the fabric of our lives.

The Ascension of Jesus was part of God's design. There is the design in the fabric. That’s what all the tangled threads reveal.

Pentecost 2020

This is a Reflection written for my congregations in lockdown, for Pentecost 2020

It’s sometimes said that Pentecost marks the birthday of the Church. For it was on Pentecost, 50 days or so after Christ’s death and resurrection, that the disciples – soon to become apostles – received the Holy Spirit and started their mission of proclaiming the Good News. And disciples of Jesus have been doing that ever since.

David Bender in his commentary on this passage in Feasting on the Word, (Year A Volume 3 (C) 2011 Westminster John Knox Press) builds on the image of the birthday, by imagining a birthday party and helps think of the passage in another way.

Firstly, how long has God been planning and preparing the party? For quite some while as right back to the first chapter of Genesis we are told of God’s creative Spirit blowing over the formless void. And in Genesis chapter 2 we are told of the life-giving Spirit of God. At various times in the Old Testament, at times of darkness and distress, the Spirit comes alongside people to bring comfort. For example, Isaiah alongside the exiles in Babylon brings comfort and hope by telling of the coming of one upon whom the Spirit will rest Isaiah 11:2 (A passage we know well from Advent.)

2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him –
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD – Isaiah 11:2

And even in the New Testament, before Pentecost, Luke records John the Baptist promising one who will baptise by the Spirit (Luke 3:16.)

16 ‘I baptise you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.

In the planning of the Pentecost party, God weaves together the generations through a Spirit that brings life out of death and hope out of despair.

All of us have lived through times dark times in our own lives. And at the present time due to Covid19 we seem to be living in a time of darkness and distress the like of which many of us have never known. Tens of thousands of dead in our own country, hundreds of thousands around the world. People in this country and elsewhere worried about whether they will have jobs to return to. Though we should not forget what we are experiencing is nothing like the poverty and disease and deprivation in other parts of the world all the time.

But even in the darkness we can celebrate and take hope from our own glimpses of the work of that same Spirit and we wait again for the blowing of that fresh life giving Spirit.

After the long period of preparation, let’s turn our attention to God’s guest list. For starters, who are “they” who are waiting aimlessly in the Upper Room?
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Acts 2:1

Was it just the men listed in Acts 1:13? Or did it also include the women listed in Acts 1:14? And what about the other men and women who joined Jesus in his ministry? For example, in Luke chapter 10 Jesus appointed seventy-two to proclaim the Gospel. Were they on the list? Therefore, was the guest list for the Church’s first birthday quite small or was it big? But either way, in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit opens the party to many more people if they wish to attend:

9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs Acts 2:9 – 11

Although from time to time people have tried to make the Church narrow and exclusive, the intention of God working through his Spirit was that it was open to all. “Jews and Gentiles, slave and free” as Paul puts it

13 For we were all baptised by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12: 13

As with all birthdays past a certain age, our Church birthday party includes smiles and joys and laughter but also some regrets. The guests at the first party no doubt regretted that Jesus wasn’t with them and wished that he were. Just like when we have our own birthday parties or our own church birthday / anniversary.

This year our Pentecost birthday will take place with the family scattered across north Wiltshire (and beyond.) Inevitably we will wish we were all together sat with our friends celebrating together. It cannot be so this year. But we can take comfort from knowing that the Holy Spirit binds us together with love.

As the story of the first birthday party progresses, we can sense a feeling of jealousy creeping in

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. Acts 2:5

Devout Jews who might have wondered why they weren’t on the guest list. And there was tension in the air as “the crowd gathered” Acts 2:6. Perhaps the devout Jews disliked the way the disciples could communicate with people from different countries, in different languages? Perhaps they were afraid, as they saw change was happening?

Maybe this is something we find from time to time? As we sit in our pews, we draw comfort from the pew not changing but are afraid as the world changes around us. We are certainly in a world of change at the present time, aren’t we? Times when our lives change can come with fear and mourning but also with promise and hope. We must remember that the Holy Spirit has been sent to us as a Comforter or a Helper to guide us through change and transition and to help us with our fears (John 14:6)

Finally, after the preparation, the guest invitations, after the regrets (the mourning and sense of loss), and the celebrations, it is time to give the guests a keep sake. A piece of birthday cake or a party bag is the fashion nowadays at children’s parties, for the guests to take away. And on the day of that first birthday, the disciples take away the most incredible gifts. In fact, it is almost like a party to celebrate a graduation. They have spent three years alongside Jesus. They’ve learned by Jesus’ example and from their own mistakes. Now they are ready to go out into the unwelcoming world with the gift of the Holy Spirit leading them and giving them their voice and courage and vision.

Treat today as a celebration. This is the day that the Spirit came. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. We’ve all be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are on the guest list. The Spirit has been loosed into the world and its creative life-giving power is given to families, communities, and churches. The question is not “How will I respond to party gifts of the Spirit?” but “How will we respond to these gifts?” Especially once we are gathered back together.

Shepherd, Pastor or Minister?

American preacher Scott Hoezee wrote:

“Perhaps the imagery of the Good Shepherd seems outdated, but has humanity in the modern world really outgrown its need for someone to love us fiercely and forever, the way only a truly good shepherd can? In our quiet and secret moments, we yearn for someone stronger and wiser to take care of us. Those of us who were raised in solid and good homes carry around with us the memory of how delicious it was to be tucked into our cosy beds at night without worries that would threaten our rest. Kids go to bed without fretting about whether the forecasted heavy weather will turn violent, or whether the bills can be paid. No, as children we wriggled drowsily in our beds awash in the knowledge that someone else was in charge and so we happily allowed ourselves to slip over the edge of slumber the way only a child can, with literally no cares to make our minds too busy to sleep.

We adults carry that memory in our sub-conscious and we yearn for something like it again. Indeed, we pine for it even more acutely because now we know what it is like to live without that security. Now we know what it's like to wait for results from the pathology lab. Now we know what it's like to watch a deadly storm roar ever closer on the TV. Now maybe we've gone through the pain of having to bid first grandparents and then parents and finally even friends a final goodbye.”

So, is the imagery of the Good Shepherd outdated?

During the time I spent on exchange ministry in America, I had to get used to being called “Pastor”. Pastor is a term frequently used there as a synonym, an alternative, for “minister”. So, I got used to being introduced as “This is David Gray our exchange pastor from England”.

Pastor is not a term much used in British Methodism. (Though other denominations in this country such as the Baptists and Pentecostals, use the word more frequently.) The word comes from the Latin word for shepherd and Chambers’ Dictionary tells us that a “Pastor is a person who has care of a flock or of a congregation; a shepherd; a member of the clergy;”

With the reading from John’s Gospel today, it’s easy to see where the term “Pastor” came from and how it came to be used for a minister. From time to time I describe people in the congregations I serve as “my flock”. And in Methodist terms I am the minister in “pastoral charge”.

So why don’t we use the term “pastor”? I think it’s because seems to limit what a minister does to one thing – care of the flock – though that’s important. And, because it suggests that a pastor is trying to be a Good Shepherd like Jesus. Or at least what Jesus says in John 10. But then we read what Jesus says:

11 I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep. 12 Hired workers are not like the shepherd. They don’t own the sheep, and when they see a wolf coming, they run off and leave the sheep. Then the wolf attacks and scatters the flock. 13 Hired workers run away because they don’t care about the sheep.

Is that a model we can follow? How many ministers / pastors give up their lives for the sheep, the congregations they serve? How many run away?
The we are told by Jesus

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me.

How many ministers truly know their flocks? And I don’t mean in a judgmental sense. I mean knowing about their worries and concerns? Their hopes and dreams? Their joys and sadness?

No minister / pastor can truly aspire to be a shepherd to the flock in the way Jesus is. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good model to aspire to and that ministers shouldn’t try to be Good Shepherds as afar as is humanly possible.

One of the challenges for me during the lockdown is in trying to find ways in which I can be the pastor. And I’ve been grateful to hear from many of you to say that you appreciate the services, the odd phone call, card or letter from me. As well as praying for you, that’s pretty much all I can do at present.

But what I’m also hearing back at present is how many of you are keeping in touch with one another and how (in our larger churches particularly) the “pastoral leaders” are very good at keeping in touch with their pastoral groups. (In the smaller churches, we tend not to have pastoral groups as such, everyone just mucks in as it were – though we still have a duty under the Methodist system to think in this way.)

The pastoral leaders are filling a role that has long been recognised in the Methodist Church. I’m reading a book at present by Gary Best called “The cradle of Methodism”. It is a history of John Wesley’s New Room in Bristol. And in the early days of Methodism Wesley recognised the importance of pastoral groups to ensure he ongoing welfare of members of the groups.

Over the years the terminology has changed – the groups were originally “bands”, they’ve been called “classes” and as I say in more recent times “pastoral groups”. But whatever the title, broadly speaking, they serve the same function. Caring for one another.

I can’t claim to be a Good Shepherd like Jesus, I don’t claim to model myself on John Wesley either! But the care of the flock, whether through friendships, pastoral visitors or ministers, is such an important part of our love for one another. No more so than at present. We are all pastors.

Like you no doubt, I sometimes think it would be easier being a child again with no cares. I do worry. I do wonder when the lockdown will end and wonder how and when we can get back to normality. But for now, the sense of Jesus Christ our Risen Saviour, Jesus the Good Shepherd, guarding us, guiding us and keeping us, during these uncertain times, gives me comfort. I hope it does too.