We pray: May your
word for us today speak into our hearts, minds and souls that we may truly live
as your people, loving God, one in Christ who makes all things new. Amen.
A new heaven and a
new earth, a new way of being, a new hope for our world, a commandment to love through
which we will show the world what it
means to be known as the disciples of Christ.
Just as Simon
Peter struggled with what that might mean in real life so too do we today.
Just as he had to
do away with embedded concepts such as; them and us, clean and unclean, our way
or no way, so too do we.
Just as Simon
Peter’s eyes were blinded to translating the way of Jesus into the practical
situations he found himself faced with so too are ours.
It’s a constant
that links Peter and us and all in between – how is it that, as a disciple of
Christ, living in the image of God, we can truly embrace the very heart of what
that means in our worship, our living, our relationships, our choices and
responses in this messy mucky world. And how often do we get derailed, hindering
God by our misunderstandings?
To begin our
thinking, to consider perhaps how we are doing, let’s reflect on these words
from Iona
(Our
image of Jesus from Present on Earth by Wild Goose
Worship Group p37)
It is of supreme
importance that we get our image of Jesus RIGHT.
For there are too
many blithering idiots, well meaning people,
religious
schismatics, church leaders,
liberals, right
wingers,
anarchists, establishment
figures, WHO ARE LEADING
PEOPLE ASTRAY.
So listen
carefully.... Jesus as we all know
came from a model family his mother was
pregnant when she got married
and lived in a secure home they were refugees
for goodness sake
as the old hymn says ‘Throughout his wondrous
childhood’.. about which we know next to nothing....
‘he was mild and obedient’.... he did a bunk when he
was twelve.
Jesus was the model working man he became redundant
when he was thirty
encouraging entrepreneurship in others he
told Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew to give up their jobs.
He kept good company, dining out with beggars and prostitutes
he had a good word for everybody vipers,
blind guides, hypocrites
his conversation was about the finer things in life, dough,
sheep, pig farming, wise virgin, demons
he never dabbled in controversy he just claimed
to be the son of God!
Jesus never upset anyone by his language except
priests, Pharisees, pigeon sellers, executioners and wealthy young men
he was respected in religious circles they
wanted to lynch him after his first sermon
Jesus was a man among men and women
he was a man of God he was the Son of God
in his majesty we see God at work in
his humility we meet God in person.
That’s why he was worshipped that’s why he
was crucified
Jesus isn’t here now he rose again on the third day
so we have to get on with it ourselves he
sent his Holy Spirit to guide us
We have to build the kingdom we have to celebrate his
presence among us
we have to give a lead we are to follow where he calls
stand up and be counted humbly
like soldiers as servants
we are a mighty army we are the body of Christ
It is of supreme importance That we get our image
of Jesus RIGHT.
To live as the body of Christ, not hindering
but making way for the new Jerusalem, requires us to remove the blinders from
our eyes and see life as it really is, right here and now. Franklin Reid in his book ‘Living in New
Jerusalem’ says ‘To truly be church is to be New Jerusalem in the world: to be
a place where God and God’s Lamb reign in justice and abundance for all people.’
To truly be church
is to live in the image of God – to be deeply accepting this new way of
servanthood, humility, love and justice.
Yet we constantly struggle with the desire to live in the image of us.
To live with: them and us, clean and unclean, our way or no way, chasing status
and money, divide and conquer.
It seems a good
time to think about what it is we do that we need to wrest back from human
imaginings and give again to God.
Always start with
the gnarly one – money! I look on with
horror as I see the bank notes swirling around in places like Destiny Church –
where people do without because they are told generous giving is the gateway to
heaven – or perhaps we should say the gateway to the bishop’s mansion. Yet equally there is another horror – that of
stinginess. And I am part of the horror
– on Saturday I was putting a note into the Hospice appeal and the fervent
thanks I got made me realise how I so often dispatch the loose change and save
the notes for coffee.
And here as this
church, are we giving with generous hearts the best we can – or are we still in
the loose change way of thinking? What is our attitude to giving, is it in any
way conditional, reluctant, piecemeal – and please remember, let it always be
within our means.
Talking of
generosity - last night Mike and I attended the farewell at First Church for
the Rev Anne Thompson who is finishing after 10 years there as Associate
Minister. I was prepared for the
generosity of food – but the sight of Anne and Ian sitting there as quilt after
cover after quilt was laid over their knees.
It was an incredibly emotional moment – basically each woman had made
something filled with love and given it to express their appreciation of who
she was to them. It was extravagant
generosity for all the right reasons.
Do we still hold a
‘them and us’ mentality? It could be in
protecting our ‘brand’ of Christianity, in our belief that we are in some way
superior, in our fear of those who are not like us. Has the shock of March 15 permanently removed
our barriers or are they starting to slowly creep back up?
Do we feel safer
when we can put down others ways, do we find ourselves speaking with disdain of
other faiths, cultures, ways of living to shore up our own? There are those who believe they will be
contaminated if they speak or engage with those of another faith – and so they
argue agin them from the safety of their uninformed prejudice. Should we not instead be engaging, growing,
sharing, sure of our God and willing to converse with the other.
What are our
examples of condemning another for eating with the uncircumcised? What is holding us back from eagerly
embracing those whom we once held unclean, unworthy?
There is the
relationship between Catholic and Protestant, where one considers the other
unholy. There are different ways of
doing church, when one considers the other irreverent, disrespectful to God.
There is the insisting
that the true measure of our Christian faith is found in a particular brand of
sexuality. What was that Peter said: ‘If then God gave them the same gift that he gave
us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder
God?
In whose image are
these behaviours based – not in God’s image, not in the image of the one who
came, taught, loved, died and brought us to new life, that is for sure.
Peter’s image of
the new heaven and the new earth needed some shaking up – the vision left him
in no doubt that he was wrong and that, in Jesus, things truly were different,
the old ways had gone and the new ways were with us. May we too see the obstacles that hold us
back from being one people in the name of God and may we challenge those ways
that hinder the gift of God for all people.
May Christ and
Christ alone be our vision, our best thought, our wisdom, our inheritance, our
joy, first in our heart, now and forever.
Amen.
Margaret Garland
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