Have a wash for advent!

Sunday 5th December 2021 Second Sunday of Advent

On the journey of Advent, we light the first candle, and we read biblical passages that propel us into the future to consider the end of time - the apocalypse. Today, our reading sends us in the opposite direction. On the second Sunday of Advent, we are pulled into the distant past to hear the words of the ancient prophet, Malachi.

I, the Lord All-Powerful,
will send my messenger
    to prepare the way for me.
Then suddenly the Lord
you are looking for
    will appear in his temple.
The messenger you desire
is coming with my promise,
    and he is on his way. Malachi 3:1 CEV

A messenger who will purify people's hearts. A messenger who will “be like a furnace that purifies silver or like strong soap in a washbasin.” Malachi 3:2 CEV

In the midst of our pre-Christmas hustle and bustle, the church trots out some primitive prophet who promises us an Advent scrub-down. Is that really what we need right now? You would think that the lectionary could come up with a few encouraging words at this time, assuring us that we will make it through another Christmas, instead of cheekily suggesting that before God arrives, we need a bath!

 

What does this mean? How are we to be refined? How are we to be purified? How are we to be washed with strong soap? And when God’s promise, spoken through the prophet Malachi, is finally fulfilled, what will look different in our world, in our churches and in our own lives?

 

Now I should add a word of caution. It would be easy when thinking about the second coming of Christ, to be talking about judgment and repentance and how all the wrong things of the world will be put right. How the wicked will be punished and so on. Yes, we are told those things will happen at that time, whenever that time is. But it’s not for us to draw up a list of those we think deserve to be punished.

 

IN fact, the prophesy we’re thinking about this morning, and indeed John the Baptist’s message in Luke 3, is not about judgment for the world. It is more about the followers of Christ being ready, being prepared, for what will happen when Christ comes again.

 

We can see that Malachi’s prophesy was foretelling the coming of Christ into the world. And in a few weeks, we will of course celebrate the wonderful event. But Malachi was giving his prophesy to God’s people many years before Christ’s birth.

 

Malachi’s prophecy was given after the Jewish people has returned from their exile in Babylon. Around 400 years before Jesus’ birth. Although the Jews had returned from exile and had been allowed to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, they were still subject to Babylonian rule. The glorious future that had been announced by other prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah, had not yet been realised and as yet God had not yet returned to the Temple. (It was central to Jewish belief that God resided in the Temple.)

 

These things combined to make the Jewish people doubt God’s covenant of love with them and made them no longer trust his promise of justice. They were going through the motions of their faith.

 

I think this is where the prophet Malachi has something to say to the church today. We followers of Christ need to be refined, we need to be washed in strong soap, just as Malachi said needed to happen to the Jewish people in their apathy.

 

What will this refining look like? What will it be like? I don’t know. But a starting point for each one of us is to look inside ourselves, to look inside our churches. Are there things we know need putting right? Things we wish to repent of? Things we wish to change or do differently? All in anticipation that one day Christ will come again.

 

Revd Sharon Rhodes – Wickett is an American Methodist minister who has spent time working in Africa. She relates the following story:

 

“At the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Sierra Leone, West Africa, meetings were held in a large church in the capital city, Freetown. Each day as we entered the large doors into the church there was a young girl, maybe about the age of 8, who begged at the door. She looked ragged, dirty, her hair was matted and knotted, and she had on tattered clothes. No one seemed to know her, and people brushed her aside upon entering. Some of the pastors tried to tell her to go away. We were busy doing the work of the church. She was a bother. This went on for several days.

As I sat in the pew observing the Conference one day, my peripheral vision caught some motion outside. I looked out of the window, and there on the patio, outside the sanctuary was a woman, a lay member of the conference. She found a bucket and some soap. Although dressed in a beautiful traditional tie-dye gown, she pushed up her sleeves, and she was giving that 8-year-old girl a bath. She soaped up her hair and was tenderly making her all clean and new. She washed the clothes the child had been wearing, and they were spread out on the bushes in the sun drying. The woman went out and got another dress for her to wear, too.

Hundreds of pastors and devoted laypersons poured into the Methodist Church of Freetown to do the work of the church. But outside, on the edges, quietly and without notice, the work of redemption - the work of Jesus Christ was being done. It was not the work of committees and reports and programs. It was the work of soap and water and human touch and being able to see the face of Jesus in that of an abandoned 8-year-old girl.”

 

I relate this story as it serves as a good example I think of where the Church has sometimes got its priorities wrong. Certainly, in the Methodist Church I feel we are very good at talking about things and having lots of rules and regulations – and these can serve an important purpose. But all too often we are in danger of overlooking those 8-year-old girls sat outside the church door needing a wash while we focus on whether or not each church should have a first aider!

 

At Advent we are reminded that the promise of Christ’s coming again into the world is true. He will come again. It will happen under God’s control and in God’s time. There will be a refining and a cleansing. But it will be worth it. After all, if metal is refined it becomes purer and stronger. If something is washed it is better than something dirty.

 

God is sending his messenger Jesus. Why would he do that? The mes­senger comes from a heart of love. Love tempers judgment. The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories, illustrations, quotes, and messages of God’s eternal love. The one verse that typifies the essence of redemption is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). The writer, John, goes further “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17 NIV). 

Those days are surely coming

 Sunday 29th November 2021 First Sunday of Advent

In these days before Christmas, we in the Church are in a different time and place to the world outside. Outside, many people are looking forward to “the big day” but equally they are wrapped up in the here and now thinking about what to buy, thinking about when to post cards, thinking of the food order, putting off thinking how they’ll pay for it all.

We followers of Jesus on the other hand are called to be in a different time. In fact, in Advent, we are thinking in many different times. We are looking back. We are in the here and now. But we are looking to the time to come. We are hopping around time like Dr Who!

In a few weeks’ time in  our carol services we’ll hear the words of Luke read out:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  Luke 2:1

Luke telling what happened in Nazareth and Bethlehem.

But on this first Sunday of Advent Jeremiah tells us that we must look to the future

¹⁴ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 

In those days and at that time ….

In these days before Christmas the future is not where our culture encourages us to go. Whether that encouragement takes us to the Outlet Village or to wallow in nostalgia of Christmas like we used to know.

Jeremiah speaks words to the captive Hebrews in Babylon. Captives who he’s previously told in chapter 29 that they are going to be in Babylon for some time. So, they’d better make the most of it. They’d better settle down, allow their children to marry local people, help Babylon prosper.

Jeremiah is saying that God’s promised future will come not through giving up on God’s promises during this period of waiting but by trusting God to deliver in God’s time

¹⁴ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In God’s good time - In those days and at that time …. All will become well.

It can’t be easy being a prophet. Imagine being given the task by God to tell the Hebrew people, who have been conquered, who have seen their city flattened, who have been taken off as slaves to Babylon, imagine going to them and saying trust God. Yes, trust God, God who has allowed these things to happen to you his people. Yes, trust him because he is at work. He will deliver you from captivity. In those days and at that time God will make things right.

Heidi Neumark was a minister of a Lutheran church in a very deprived part of New York. In her book Breathing Space she wrote about how for her and her church, Advent captured their mood perfectly.

“I might not feel sorry during Lent when we’re told to beg repentance. I might not feel victorious on Easter morning. I might not feel full of the spirit on Pentecost. But in Advent I always feel in sync with the season.”

She goes on to explain that “Advent embraces and understands my reality” A reality which seems to be one of plodding on, of waiting for something better to come about. Being a good and faithful servant but feeling tired and fed up.

A feeling like the Hebrews in Babylon. Maybe a feeling we know too?

Heidi Neumark explains that what Advent means to her can be summed up by a Spanish word “anhelo” which roughly translates as “longing or desire.”

She says

“Advent is the time when the church can no longer wait, when the church can no longer contain it’s unfulfilled desire and it cries out with anhelo “Come Lord Jesus! Come o come Emmanuel!”

This is they cry of Christians trying to make sense of the crazy world we are living in. It is the cry of Christians who are fed up with seeing injustice and unrighteousness. Its is the cry of Christians who see the need for change in the world but who have lost hope in change coming through governments. Come Lord Jesus! Come o come Emmanuel

The Hebrews in Babylon longed to be released from captivity. They longed to return to their homeland. They longed for a time when God would

execute justice and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah 33:15

So many of us feel that longing now. We long for a day when God’s kingdom in heaven will be here on earth. Surely that day is coming? We long for the day when the poor are not having to live on the streets or made to rely on food banks. Surely the day is coming? We long for a day when all people care for the world that is the Lord’s. Surely the day is coming? Yes. Surely that day IS coming!

For over 2,000 years we followers of Jesus have expressed “anhelo”. For over 2,000 years we’ve longed for Christ to come again and bring in his reign of justice and righteousness. It might seem it will never happen. But we must believe it will.

Ruby Bridges was just six years old when, in 1960, she was chosen as the first Black child to integrate into the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. A school of white children. Photos show the incredible courage of this little girl who was escorted to school each morning by police officers to protect her from the angry white parents who screamed curses, insults, and threats at her each day.

Dr. Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist from Harvard, interviewed Ruby Bridges in an effort to determine how young children learn to cope with such frightening and dehumanizing abuse day after day. In the interview, Ruby told Dr. Coles that she prayed for the people who threatened her, insulted her, spat at her. Her mother and her minister had told her that God was watching over her each day, and it was her duty to pray for, and forgive, the people who opposed her.

When Dr. Coles asked Ruby if she thought this advice was correct, she said, “I’m sure God knows what is happening . . . He may not do anything right now, but there will come a day, like they say in church, there will come a day. You can count on it. That’s what they say in church.” (6)

“. . . there will come a day. You can count on it.” That was Jeremiah’s message almost 3000 years ago. The days are surely coming

That is what we hope for. That is what we long for. The day when Christ will come again. Those days and at that time when God will cause a righteous Branch to spring up and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Those days are surely coming. Come Lord Jesus!

Beware of hypocrisy

 

Reflection Sunday 7th November 2021

The focus of the passage we’ve heard today from Mark’s Gospel is usually the bit about the Widow. It is often used to remind people about their need to give generously and selflessly. But I’m not thinking about that today. Rather I’m thinking of the first part dealing with the scribes.

You may have heard last week an earlier passage in Mark 12: 28 - 34 where another scribe came to Jesus and asked which commandment was the most important. Jesus was satisfied with that scribe’s attitude when the scribe said it was most important to love God and to love our neighbour. The scribe went on to say that to do these things was “more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33

But now a short time later Jesus is concerned about the teachers of the law, the scribes in other words,  who like to be seen in the right places, wearing the right clothes and have the most important seats in the synagogue. Men who “devour widows houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.” Mark 12:40

So, who were the “scribes”? They were originally people trained in writing skills and were used to record events and decisions. During the exile in Babylon educated scribes became the experts in God’s written word, copying, preserving, and teaching it. By the time of the New Testament, they had become a profession in their own right. They were akin to what we would think of as lawyers. They interpreted the law, taught it to followers, and were experts in cases where people were accused in breaking the law of Moses. They were mainly Pharisees (the Pharisees being like a political party.) They weren’t necessarily priests as such but were closely associated with the high priests in the Temple.

Jesus’ charge that “They devour widows’ houses” probably means several things. The scribes were part of the process of setting the rules for the Temple. Rules that required people to make sacrifices and gifts to the Temple in order to ensure that people were right with God. It’s possible that some scribes profited directly by this but it is more likely that the harsh rules meant that some widows sacrificed everything in order to comply with the Temple rules.

Others think that this phrase “They devour widows’ houses”, might be a reference to the practice of some scribes expecting and receiving lavish hospitality from widows in an attempt by the scribes to support their own wealth and power. Which widows couldn’t really afford.

These practices made Jesus angry. And consequently, when he sent the disciples out to preach, Jesus prohibited the disciples from accumulating wealth or from exploiting households that offered the disciples hospitality. He also warned the disciples against seeking honour rather than serving others.

The obvious question for us then is “Who are today’s scribes?” Who are the hypocrites in our world? Who are the ones who don’t practice what they preach?

I’m sure you can produce your own list without any help from me!

But let’s bring our attention closer to home. Jesus insisted that his disciples should not adopt the standards of power and influence that society might have expected from followers of the Messiah. And Jesus’ expectations apply to his disciples today.

Sadly, we know all too well how over the centuries people who claim to be followers of Jesus have come to expect power, influence, and wealth because of their positions. It’s been a charge levelled at parts of the Roman Catholic Church for instance for many years. But before we Protestants get all self-righteous, parts of the Protestant Church today are just as guilty.

A colleague told me of his experience with the South Korean Methodist Church when he visited a few years ago. Ministers there are incentivised to grow their congregations. The more members the bigger the car supplied by the church, the bigger the house the bigger the salary. It didn’t sit well with my colleague. It doesn’t sit well with me. I feel it wouldn’t sit right with Jesus either.

As a minister, I think I’m always aware that I live in a glass house, and so I’d better not throw stones! And as someone once said when we point a finger at someone, we’d better remember there are three fingers pointing back at us!

Nonetheless it is important to be what is called “a critical friend”. To say  to someone in a kindly way that maybe they’ve stepped out of line. Or have they thought about what they are doing. Sometimes it is right that we call out practises which are damaging to others, unjust or even illegal. It is right that we do speak out against those who seek to exploit their position for their own gain. I’m not just thinking of Church. It is true in all contexts.

A young minister was pleased that a particular woman in his congregation always asked for copies of his sermons. One day his pride got the better of him and he asked her about it. "Oh," she responded brightly, "they're just the perfect size for the bottom of my budgie’s bird cage!"

This little story serves as a useful reminder to ministers of keeping our feet on the ground. Of not getting above ourselves. A few years ago, I had such a moment. I’d been preaching at a church in another part of the service. After the service, an old gentleman came up to me and shook my hand. The conversation went something like this:

“Brother! What a word you brought us today! I watch the God channel all the time. And it was worthy of being on there.”

As you can imagine I was quietly pleased. I’ve long realised that sometimes when I preach a sermon it can be received in ways I’d not thought of. But this was praise indeed. He was obviously a very discerning old chap.

A few days later, we had our staff meeting. And my colleague who was the minister for the church asked how I’d got on. I told her my experience. “Oh. That was Bob. Yes, he’s a lovely man. He says something similar to every preacher!” Oh well

It was a good reminder to keep thing in perspective. To not get above ourselves. To have those “critical friends” who keep our feet on the ground.

The American poet Edgar Guest wrote these wise words:

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one, any day;

I'd rather one would walk with me than merely tell me the way;

The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear.

Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear,

And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,

For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

Ruth - a tale of a refugee

 

Sunday 31^st October 2021

 

The story of Ruth is an interesting one. Ruth is an important figure in the Old Testament. She is King David’s great grandmother, and she is given as one of Jesus’ ancestors. And yet she was not Jewish. She was a Moabite woman who was married to a Jew. Given how some prophets – Ezra and Nehemiah – called for an expulsion of “foreign” wives after the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon, with the suggestion that Jewish society was being polluted by the presence of foreigners, Ruth’s place in history shows how special she was.

The story starts with “a certain man of Bethlehem” along with his wife and sons leaving Bethlehem for the country of Moab as there is a famine. Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion settled in Moab. The sons took local women as wives – Orpah and Ruth. But in due course Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion died. As a widow Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem as she had heard that “the Lord had considered his people and given them food.” Ruth 1:6

This is then where the story gets interesting. Naomi tells her daughters - in - law, Orpah and Ruth, to stay in Moab which Orpah says she will do. But then in these beautiful words Ruth says:

 ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. 

In a world that’s suspicious of immigrants – whether legal or illegal – this is a story about forced immigration. Naomi and her family don’t cross into Moab because they are religious radicals. They head to Moab because there is no bread in Bethlehem. (Ironically, Bethlehem means “house of bread” in Hebrew.) This is a desperate thing to do. For Jewish people Moab was a place to avoid. And yet Naomi and family settle there, and the sons marry and start to settle. Even if it is perceived to be hostile territory.

With the death of Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion as we’ve heard, Naomi sets off for Bethlehem once more. And Ruth goes with her. But think for a moment. If Jewish people feel that nothing good can come from Moab, what will they think of Ruth? And yet Ruth agrees to accompany Naomi to confront all the prejudice and hatred that such an action will entail.

It is debatable why Naomi told Ruth to return

¹⁵ ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’ Ruth 1:15

Is Naomi just glad of an excuse to get rid of her foreign daughters in law? Did Naomi fear what people would say when she arrived back in Bethlehem with a Moabite woman in tow? The fact that Ruth decides to stay with Naomi suggests these aren’t the case. It seems more likely that Naomi felt she’d be unable to provide for her daughters - in - law (Jewish custom would have meant Naomi’s own family or more likely Elimelech’s family would have provided for Naomi but no one else. Certainly not a Moabite woman.) Or perhaps Naomi feared the abuse her daughters - in - law would face.

Orpah decides to stay. But Ruth has what the Hebrew calls “hesed,” steadfast love for Naomi and refuses to leave her side. Hesed is a love that will not be restricted by ethnic or religious boundaries.

This steadfast love causes Ruth to “cling” to her mother-in-law Naomi. This steadfast love, this hesed, is more powerful than ties to a nationality or country or even s birth family. Hesed comes above all things and is more powerful than all things.

I said at the start that Ruth is an ancestor of Jesus. In the Genealogy of the Messiah given at the start of Matthew’s gospel we are told that “Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth” 1:3

What Ruth does to Naomi is what Jesus told his disciples to do -  “Cling” on to him and let go of things that “cling” on to them. Things like their assumption that only Jewish people could be associated with the Messiah. Ruth’s actions in being prepared to associate with someone outside her own culture, faith and nationality, are a forerunner of what her descendent Jesus would say centuries later.

This is a challenge to us, or at least a reminder to us not to cling on to things that hold us back. Not to cling on to our prejudices perhaps or the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset that we can fall in to from time to time. Ruth’s actions show the importance of being prepared to take a great risk. Of leaving something behind and clinging on to something new and better.

For a Moabite woman like Ruth, especially one who has been part of a mixed marriage with a Hebrew man, to leave her homeland and set foot in Bethlehem would have been a massive risk. A risk of alienation from her own people and a risk of not being accepted in her new home. Ruth might have been facing a language barrier, a food barrier, a social etiquette barrier, and a religious practice barrier. She would also have been facing the constant reminder that she was “not one of us.”

It’s worth remembering that for those people who risk coming here in flimsy boats across the English Channel, they are giving up everything they have known. They, like Ruth, are facing language barriers, food barriers, and social etiquette barrier. They face hostility. They may have the freedom here to worship as they wish but to do so can often put them at risk. And some may say “Well that’s their choice. No one’s making them come here.”

True. But to those people I’d say for a moment try and put yourselves in the shoes of some of these refugees. If you saw the BBC news from Afghanistan last week, you’d have seen people starving, as the food aid from other countries they’d relied on, has been stopped by the Taliban. You’d have seen one mother who had agreed to sell her baby daughter to a man so that this baby can in due course become a wife for one of the man’s sons.

And as the COP26 conference happens in Glasgow, it’s worth remembering that as climate change has its impact on increasing numbers of people, whether through rising sea levels or increased drought, it is likely that more and more people will be forced to flee their homelands.

It is for reasons like these and many more that some people risk everything to come to a place they’ve heard is safe and welcoming.

It’s easy to romanticise the story of Ruth and Naomi as the faithful daughter in law clinging to this older woman out of a sense of Hesed – steadfast love.  But the story of Ruth and Naomi isn’t romantic. It is in fact a story of how people can be constricted by some social, ethnic, racial, or religious boundaries. Yet it is a story of how God can work across these boundaries and can break them down to bring new life and new hope.

 

 

Serve and protect God's creation

 

Reflection 26^th September 2021

 

I don’t know about you but during this last 18 months I’ve valued time with nature more than ever before. Whether that’s been in the garden watching bees and butterflies, or hearing bird song, robins, blackbirds and even an owl. At dusk watching bats flitting around. And, on those occasions when we’ve ventured further afield, we’ve seen hares and birds such as egrets. Even as I wrote this I am looking out of my window and saw two wonderful spiders’ webs on a bush outside.

These moments with nature have been precious. And they have made me feel more and more strongly of the need for us, as God’s people, to be speaking out more loudly about the need to care for God’s planet. For that is our understanding of this world. God who created this planet has lent it to us to care for and nurture.

In Genesis 2:15 we hear that

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. NIV

But the Hebrew can be translated differently. It could be translated as “God put the man in the Garden of Eden to serve and protect it.” The Contemporary English translation captures this well:

¹⁵ The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. CEV

When we think that way, that we are you to serve and protect this planet on God’s behalf, we get a clear understanding that the Earth is not humankind’s to do with as we please. It is God’s. We are God’s servants, and we are called to look after his creation. Think of it this way. A friend gave you a precious possession to look after. We’d do so, wouldn’t we? Why then have we treated our beautiful planet so differently?

Despite what many people think, our planet is not a commodity. It is God’s precious possession. He’s allowed us to use it. But by exploiting it and damaging it we are hurting God. And we are hurting Christ too.

In Colossians 1:17 we are told that:

¹⁷ Christ himself is before all things, and in^[a] him all things hold together.

The Church has tended to move away from thinking this. There has been an avoidance of wanting to place too much emphasis on nature for fear of worshipping nature itself. But as long as we remember that it is through Christ that everything holds together, we understand the importance of nature and our part to play in caring for it and valuing it. All too often people have done things in isolation without realising the wider consequences. If we damage one thing, we damage everything. All parts and all people, all issues are interconnected. In Christ.

For example. For many years there was no concern expressed about the rain forests being cut down. But gradually there has been a realisation that the vast rain forests provide an important part of keeping our planet habitable by taking CO² out of the atmosphere and releasing oxygen. As well as the rain forest proving habit for all manner of creatures and people. If we destroy the rain forests, we destroy the planet.

If you like me enjoy orchestral music, you’ll understand that in an orchestra all instruments have a part to play. Without them all, the orchestra loses its harmony. In fact, the harmony is destroyed. And it is the same with our planet. It matters that God’s creation is being destroyed. If the harmony of God’s creation is disrupted, then all of nature is not together.

The responsibility to care for the planet belongs to all people. But I feel that as Christians we have a special responsibility. In fact, we should be setting an example. We should be seen to be taking a lead in all we do. Whether that means ensuring our investments are ethical, buying toilet paper made from recycled paper, thinking about using green energy providers at home and in church, lobbying our MPs. There are so many ways in which can demonstrate to the wider world that we care and recognise that in serving God we are tending his planet.

Of course, there are many people outside Church who see this as an important issue. Young people especially. I’m sure many of you will have found that your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are really into this. And rightly so. It is their future we are talking about. They are looking to us to act. I was watching something on television last week and an advert came on for a green initiative targeted at companies to make them greener. It featured children around the world speaking about their concerns. But the one that touched me was a little American boy saying “I’m six! What can I do to sort it? You need to sort it.” Very true.

Caring for the earth is part of our worship. In caring for God’s planet, we are worshipping him and his precious son Jesus. After all, God made the planet for Jesus too!

In caring for our planet, we worship God, both in our attitudes and our actions regarding creation. You may remember how in the creation story in Genesis 1, God creates human beings and, depending on the Bible translation we read, it says that people will rule over the planet and creatures or have dominion over them. I think that way has led to an attitude of exploitation by much of humanity. I much prefer how The Message puts it “Let us make human beings in our image, reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle And, yes, Earth itself, Genesis 1 26 – 28 The Message

We are made in God’s image. So why have human beings not cared for God’s creation? We are supposed to be stewards of HIS planet, yet we’ve exploited it and harmed it. However, we must remember that Jesus promised that through him there was a new creation. Through Jesus we as his followers can hope for things to change. But we must be part of the new creation ourselves.

Why communion is special

 

Reflection 15th August 2021

A significant part of my calling to be a minister is that I felt a strong call to be able to preside at communion as the phrase has it. In other words, to be able to dispense communion. And by definition a Methodist “presbyter” to use the official term, is “A Minister of Word and Sacrament”. In other words, I preach and share the Gospel wherever and whenever I can, and I give communion.

Now before I go on, I should say that a question posed very often to me is “Why is it only ministers can serve communion?” The answer is that for time immemorial in most denominations only those who have been ordained can serve communion.

For me being able to preside at communion is a central part of my calling. And when I entered ministry in 2007, I held this in reverence. I took it very seriously and felt that everyone who received communion should treat communion with reverence too. So, when one of my churches told me that it had been agreed that children could receive communion as long as their parents were happy with that, I was not very pleased. How could a child treat this “solemn memorial” as communion is sometimes described in Methodist doctrine, with reverence? Nevertheless, I agreed – for the moment – to go along with it.

The first Sunday I took communion at that church a family came up to the communion rail. Mum and Dad and three children including a 5-year-old. I went along the rail and placed bread in each of their hands. Then I came to 5-year-old Jenny. Jenny looked into my eyes and gave me a beaming smile as she held her hands out. My heart melted. And at that moment I felt ashamed that I’d had negative thoughts about children at communion.

One of my other churches also had the practice of children receiving communion. After my experience with Jenny, I was fine with this. And duly gave communion to several children there. Several months later, after one communion service in which a small boy had dropped his communion glass spilling the “wine”, an elderly lady came up to me after service. “I don’t know we allow children to receive communion. They don’t understand what is going on!” I replied to her “Tell me Mrs Evans. Do you really know what is going on at communion for I don’t, and I doubt you do either!”

The Methodist Catechism says that

 “In The Lord’s Supper Jesus Christ is present with his worshipping people and gives himself to them as their Lord and Saviour. As hey eat bread and drink the wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit they receive him by faith with thanksgiving. They give thanks with the whole Church for Christ’s sacrifice of himself once and for all on the cross. The Lod’ Supper recalls Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples. It proclaims Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, unites the participants with him so that they are a living sacrifice in him, and gives them a foretaste of his heavenly banquet.”

 

The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion is a sacrament, and as a sacrament it is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace. In other words, it is just like in baptism. When the water is poured over a person's head or into which a person is submerged, it is a sign that the person has been spiritually changed from the inside out, and they have died with Christ so that they might rise with him. In communion the bread and the wine become for us a sign of what Christ is doing inside us, in our very souls.

American Methodist Minister Will Willimon relates the following story. It was a cold Christmas Eve.  Will Willimon, was rushing his family to get into the car.  They were running late for the communion service.  "Where are my sermon notes?  Where is the pulpit robe?  Don't forget to turn off the lights.  Everybody get in the car and be quiet!"

On the way to the church, rushing through the traffic, their 5-year-old- daughter, Harriet, got car sick and vomited.  "Great!"  Will Willimon thought, "If people only knew what preachers go through."  He wheeled into the church parking lot and jumped out of the car, leaving his wife, Patsy, to clean up the car and get the kids into the church… and he thought, "If people only knew what preachers' spouses go through."

His wife, Patsy, led a still unsteady and pale Harriet into the church.  They sat on the back pew in the darkness just in case Harriet got sick again.  Their son, William junior, aged seven, ran down to the front of the church to sit with his grandparents.  Will Willimon threw on his robe, took a deep breath, and started the service.  He made it through the first part of the service and the sermon.  Then came Holy Communion.  Mrs Willimon came forward to receive the sacrament, but she left Harriet on the back pew.  Harriet was still so pale and so weak and so sick. 

But then something beautiful happened.  Seven-year-old William junior got up and came back to the communion rail.  "What on earth is he doing?" wondered his parents.  "He's already received communion once.  What is he up to?"  They watched him race to the back of the church and scoot down the pew toward his sister.  He opened his hands revealing a small piece of bread.  "Harriet," he said, "This is the body of Christ given for you."  Without hesitation, little Harriet picked the bread out of her brother's hands and plopped it into her mouth and said, "Amen."  And in that moment Holy Communion had never been more holy.  Then 7-year-old William patted his 5-year-old sister Harriet on the head.  He smiled.  She smiled.  And then he turned and ran back down to the front of the church to re-join his grandparents. 

Think of that. 7-year-old brother William thought to include Harriet.  Either because she wasn't being included, or he thought it might help her feel better he reached out to his sister with what really mattered — the body of Christ in the form of communion.  There's a name for that. It's called LOVE! 

 

Let's be mindful of why communion is so special. Let's look upon the sacrament with wonder and awe, and bring our sins, and even our doubts, and behold the very presence of Jesus in the humble sacrament of bread and wine, of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

The royal law - Love your neighbour as yourself

 

Reflection Sunday 5^th September 2021

Chapter 2 of the Book of James starts off with a short illustration:

2 My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others. ² Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. ³ You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor. ⁴ That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge. James 2: 1 – 4 Contemporary English Version

James is writing to address a problem within the early church in Jerusalem – that preference is shown to rich people at the expense of the poor.  James is addressing those who claim to profess the faith of Jesus, but do not live up to it. It’s a reminder that preference for the rich, rather than the poor, is a betrayal of God’s law, the law of love.

The behaviour described in James’ story isn’t just confined to a first century church. It is typical of human behaviour on so many occasions. All so often the rich and prosperous – especially if they are well dressed and have the outward trappings of wealth – are welcomed in, and the poor are excluded.

As I was writing this I remembered a film called “Pretty Woman”. If you’ve not seen it, it is a story of how a very wealthy man falls in love with a prostitute – Vivian Ward. He saves her from the gutter as it were and then they live happily ever after. In one scene, after they have just met, he decides that if Vivian is to be his companion she needs to dress more smartly. He gives her his credit card and sends her off to some exclusive shops. However, when Vivian walks in to one shop in her scruffy jeans and t shirt, the swanky shop assistant refuses to serve her kind. Vivian is served in another shop, and she returns – beautifully dressed – to the first shop to point out the costly mistake of the shop assistant.

That is how people often are. Societies all too often treat the rich with worldly honour; meanwhile the poor are addressed with scorn and degradation. 2000 years ago, James was able to identify this behaviour going on in the early church.

James pulls no punches in telling those in the early church who favour the rich over the poor that they have done wrong.

⁵ Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? James 2:5

These words echo Jesus’ teachings in the Beatitudes Matthew 5:3, or in Luke 6:20

James reminds us that God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in respect of faith. God has promised that the poor are the heirs of his kingdom. The view of society – that the rich should be honoured – is completely at odds with the preaching and teaching of Jesus.

And James reminds us that there is a royal law:

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’^[a] you are doing right.

Christianity always has a special message for the poor and marginalised. The Christian message has consistently been that those who matter to no one else, matter immensely to God.

So often we in church are concerned about dwindling numbers. There are many reasons for the decline. But I cannot help feeling at times that one reason is that what the church says goes so far against the values of the world.  When we have a society that idolises the rich and encourages wealth – seemingly at any cost – then our message:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.

And

‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’

falls on deaf ears. But our message is truth and we must keep proclaiming it. In our own society when we are all rich when compared to most of the world, then people think they don’t need the Gospel. However we as Christians need to challenge the world. We need to keep proclaiming that:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.

And

‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’

That means we as Christians must be the voices for those who have no voice. That means for example, instead of tutting at refugees coming across the channel in small boats, we should be questioning why they are fleeing their countries in the first place. I use the word refugee. Sometimes the press talk about “Migrants”. Sometimes about “Asylum seekers”. And those terms have taken on a negative image in the press. But first and foremost these are people. They are human beings. We must remember that.

Maybe if we started to think of refugees and migrants as people needing Christ’s love, our attitudes would change? Maybe if we knew their names, their faces, their ambitions and their fears, their loves, what they fled from, then we’d begin to think of them as our neighbours? Maybe we’d challenge our politicians. Maybe we’d try to help them in some way? And maybe we’d be prepared to offer them sanctuary and help instead of rejection?