Finding Power and Strength When We are Weak : Mark 6.1-13 & 2 Cor. 12.2-10

For power is made perfect in weakness…whenever I am weak, then I am strong.  These words from St Paul have confounded spiritual thinking since they were first written.

          In the USA, there is a particular heresy which reflects the spiritual longing of many people.  It is called the prosperity Gospel.  The central belief here is that if you believe in God and walk in God’s ways then you will be blessed.  Blessing means a life filled with material things and with being protected and guarded from the trials and tribulations of life.  It is such a human longing to have a life where there is no struggle, no pain, no problems.  While we may not be foolish enough to subscribe to a prosperity gospel, many of us live with the longing for a life spared the struggles and hardships of life.  But even Jesus himself endured the pain of rejection by those who knew him.

          St Paul’s words about finding power and strength when we are weak suggest that that there is another way to view our hardships, another way to view the times when we are weak.

          This morning reflecting on the Gospel reading and St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians I want to look at three ways we experience power and strength we are weak.

          The first way we find power and strength in our weakness is that often in such moments God works in surprising and unexpected ways. 

          Control is the characteristic of the successful and powerful person today.  Control comes through having all the right information, through managing one’s life so there are minimal disruptions, and through dictating what others will do for you.  Today we often speak about people being control freaks.  Control freaks like to know in advance exactly what is going to happen…no surprises.

          Jesus faced a peculiar situation.  In his own hometown, despite people being astounded by his teaching and amazed at his deeds of power, people simply did not believe.  They even took offence at him, ‘Why this person is not special, he is the carpenter, Mary’s son.  We know his brothers and sisters.  Who does he think he is?’  The bible says, he could do no deed of power there in his hometown, that he was amazed at their unbelief.  We glimpse Jesus vulnerable, rejected, hampered in his ministry, possibly dejected.  It is a moment of weakness.

          But what emerges from this episode.  He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.  What emerges from Jesus’ experience of being limited and cramped in his ministry is the mission of the twelve.  Jesus finds a new and creative way to expand and extend his ministry through others.  His ministry takes a new path forward.

          Sometimes we want to control what happens; we want our plans to be clear-cut and unhindered.  We get upset when the day or our plans do not go like we expected.  But often, that is the moment when instead of us being in charge, instead of us having it all figured out, that we have to think outside the box, that we have to open ourselves to thinking creatively.  It becomes a vulnerable moment when the Spirit can move and show us something new and surprising, when God can work in a creative and innovative way, like Jesus sending out the twelve. 

          A second way that we can experience power and strength in our weakness is by finding the help and assistance of others when we are weak.

          Self-sufficiency is a key quality of the successful person today.  These lines from the Henley poem, Invictus, are the mantra for our times: ‘I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.’  It is perceived as weakness to need others, to be dependent.  But there will always come a point in time when we cannot manage on our own, when we will need others.  There is power and strength to be drawn from this mutuality, this community, even this dependence on others.

          God has created us to be in relationship with others.  One of the great lessons we can learn is how to make ourselves open and vulnerable to others.

          The reality is, with others we can achieve so much more.  It may be slower; it may be more complicated.  But working with and alongside others achieves more and benefits more.  The common good is the Christian perspective.  Jesus’ mission was transformed as he passed the baton on to the twelve.  After his rejection by his hometown, he found strength and power in being with his followers and sharing his life and work with them.  St Paul likewise, though a strong character, cherished the mission team he worked with: Timothy, Titus, Sylvanias and many others.

          We are not self-sufficient.  We are dependent people who need each other.  The reality is we find strength and power when we open our lives to others and let others share in our life and our work.

          A third way we find strength and power in our weakness is by discovering afresh God’s presence and grace. 

          Sometimes in life when everything is going well, we feel great, in charge, in control.  There is, in a sense, no need for God.  It is when the need or weakness emerges that we suddenly become aware of our own inadequacy and of our need for God.  You heard about the atheist who fell off the cliff and cried out, ‘God save me’.  Suddenly his coat caught on a branch stopping his fall, and said, ‘Never mind God, this branch caught me’.  But God is not the God of the gaps, only there when we need him or when we can’t make it on our own.  None the less, when we face our weaknesses, we often realise our need for God.  St Paul, wrestling with this thorn in the flesh, prayed that God would take it away, but it didn’t go.  As a result he discovered that God’s grace was sufficient to help him bear this problem.  As a result of his need, St Paul discovered afresh and in a deeper way that God was there for him.

          The reality, of course, is that we are never alone or forsaken.  God is always with us.  But sometimes it takes a moment of weakness or vulnerability for us to see that God is there with us and for us.  When we are down and we discover God’s presence afresh, we find new strength and power, even grace to carry on.

          In conclusion, often our desire is to be in control of our lives in order to ensure that we display no weakness.  But life is not ours to control.  We will all face moments of weakness and vulnerability, moments when our need is greater than our own ability.  We can curse those moments as some kind of failure or we can open ourselves to the way of the cross, to the laws of the Kingdom of God, in which weakness is strength.  When we are at our wits end, when we cannot triumph in our own strength, when we cannot succeed as we will—those moments are not failures, but opportunities.  In those moments we can discover new and creative possibilities that we had not seen before, we can discover that others are there for us to help us on our way, and we can discover God’s gracious presence to sustain and help us. 

Transforming Our Fear and Finding the Peace of Christ: Mark 4:35-41

Lets start with a story. And its the story of a young boy who was in the kitchen as his mother was making dinner. Now you may remember the pantry or larder that we used to have in our kitchens. They were a bit dark and you were never quite sure what you might find if you ventured inside. Well the boys mother asked him to go into the pantry to get her a tin of chopped tomatoes, but he didn't want to go in alone. ‘It's dark in there and I'm scared’ said the boy. His mother persisted and asked him again, but again the young boy declined. So finally she said to her son, ‘It's OK - you don’t have to be scared. Jesus will be in there with you.’ So the young boy walked hesitantly to the door of the pantry and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and was about to leave when all at once he remembered what his mother had told him, and said: ‘Jesus, if you're in there, would you hand me that tin of tomatoes please?’

Fear. Most of us encounter situations that will lead to that type of instinctive human response. It’s the instinctive response of the disciples who are caught up in a violent storm whilst crossing the Sea of Galilee in a frail sailing vessel, and can resonate with us in the winds and waves that we sometimes face in our own seemingly fragile lives. None of us are immune. Whether its a fear of the future because of all the changes that have happened or are happening in our lives; losing our health, and being dependent on others to take care of us; fear of being unable to support ourselves financially; or fear of losing a loved one, and the loneliness that that would entail for us - we know what fear feels like. So how might we understand better the way in which God is active in the fragility of our lives?

Mark describes for us how in this story Jesus conveys three important things which we might take hold of in the midst of difficulty and distress. Firstly recognising that God is present with us; secondly discovering that we can trust him with our lives; and thirdly that he wants to transform us from the state of paralysis which fear can cause in us. Recognition - trust - transformation.

Firstly then we are encouraged to recognise that God is, if you like, in the boat with us. To begin with though we need to understand the context in which Mark is writing. Mark writes to a community which is in the midst of persecution,  leading lives which were at risk and governed by fear. It’s a desperate community where fear is all encompassing and pervasive. So this story set on the Sea of Galilee would have urged that community, and also us, to recognise that God is with us in the midst of the storm. That he is with us. Not remote and uninvolved.

We might think that it was patently obvious that God was with those disciples. Jesus was after all in the boat. But listen to what those disciples say. ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing.’ Teacher, they call Jesus - not Lord. They do not recognise who he is. But then Jesus rebukes the wind and gives a command to the sea: ‘Peace. Be still!’ And the storm is calmed. Its a repeat of a the episode in Capernaum where Jesus rebukes and commands a demon to be silent. On that occasion also the disciples ask who this Jesus is, that he commands even unclean spirits and silences them. And as the phenomenon of silence is again delivered at his command on the sea of Galilee, Mark moves the disciples toward the recognition that this Jesus is no ordinary teacher. He is no other than the incarnate God of their ancestors. The same God described in todays Psalm - 107 - as the one who: ‘commanded ...... the stormy wind’ . 

But there is something else. We often wonder where God is in the stormy wind. The disciples desperately wondered that whilst their boat filled with water. And Job in the old testament spends 37 chapters giving voice to the question - Where are you? The disciples - Job - we all plead, for God's presence with us. A sense that God is near, concerned, interested, and cares for us.  We might not always readily recognise his presence just like those disciples. We want him just to do something. But Mark encourages us further that the deep calm sleep which Jesus initially displays is not inactivity or detachment on his part. Instead its a picture of that which he offers to us  in contrast to the destruction of the storm. Sometimes we just need to be still and know that he is God.   

The second thing that Mark urges us to do in this story is to consider the question of trust. I was at the Abbey with others last thursday evening to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury speak. One of the stories he told was of the former Archbishop of Saigon who was arrested and imprisoned in Vietnam for 13 years. In solitary confinement for most of that period, subject to torture and having to listen to others undergoing the same, he was challenged to consider whether he could trust God when God was all that he had left. How do we respond in difficult circumstances?Can we trust him? When Job complains about his own suffering, God answers him by taking him on a whirlwind tour of wonder at the power behind creation. And God points to himself as the one who is both intimately involved in all that he has created and who remains in control of it. To Job God says - I am in control - trust me. Similarly, Jesus asks the disciples in the boat, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith’, before they too are awestruck at his command over creation by calming the storm.

In the difficult moments of our lives can we still have faith?  When we are losing something, can we hold onto a basic trust in God, no matter what the circumstances? Because that is the challenge - to entrust ourselves and our very lives into the care of this God - especially when we’re afraid. And how might we trust? Its a difficult thing. But it will involve us letting go of whatever it is we’re afraid to lose—whether  it is our health, our financial security, our relationships, even our very life. Because the essence of fear is an insistence that we are in control.

The disciples battled with the boat in the storm rather than trusting Jesus whilst he remained asleep. They couldn’t bring themselves to trust in Jesus, who was with them, until they were so desperate that they shouted at him in frustration. Sound familiar? The real essence of faith is letting go. And its in the letting go that we find peace, contentment, even joy taking the place of fear—regardless of our circumstances. We can’t pretend that’s easy, because it’s not.  Mark though urges us to look beneath our fear and see the sustaining hand of the God of grace and mercy, even when life’s twists and turns daunt us. 

Thirdly, Mark presents a Jesus who calls us out of fear. Fear is no way to live. God desires for us to flourish, to be whole, and we cannot do that by living in our fear. This story in Mark’s gospel follows directly after Jesus has delivered the parable of the sower. And Jesus asks us to consider whether we will sow this seed of faith or trust upon fertile ground. The fertile ground that vests in him so that our fears might be transformed. Because he does not want us to remain in our fear and be governed by it. And so he encourages us not to remain in the midst of the storm, but to trust in him to transform that which we find disabling and debilitating. The disciples fears are not evaporated as Jesus calms the wind and the sea. Instead he transforms them from the paralysing anxiety that they create, and which assumes the worst, to a kind of holy awe at the presence and power of the God in their midst. That's the invitation for us as well: to bring our fears, anxieties, and concerns to God as best we can. And to watch as they are transformed so that we become increasingly aware of his presence.

So what in the end does Jesus have to say to us as we live out the unpredictable lives which give rise to our fears. Well you have to wonder if the disciples would have got into the boat if they had known that they were going to sail into the storm. Maybe not. But thats what the Sea of Galilee is like apparently. Calm and serene one moment but subject to sudden changes which produce gale force winds the next. There are just some things that you cannot predict. There is always a question as to whether we would have avoided changes in our lives had we known they were afoot. But life isn’t like that. Its not a question of if change will happen, but rather when. We can fear all sorts of things that life might throw at us sometimes - the  wind and waves of fear that manifest themselves in our lives as disapproval, rejection, failure, meaningless, illness - all kinds of adversity.

But if we will listen to the God who is with us and who asks us to trust him, so that he may transform our fears, we might too hear these words from Isaiah:

‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;    

do not fear, for I am with you,

   do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

   I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.’

Then we might know the image conveyed for us by Mark this morning. The image of Christ with his arms extended wide over the whole of our lives saying, ‘ Peace . Be still’!

Revd Shaun Speller, Curate, Parish of Harpenden

God's Rule in Our Lives and in the Church : Mark 4:26-34

Almost all of us have some sort of dream of some kind of utopia or paradise where all things are happy and good.  It is that fantasy or day dream we have when things are a bit bleak or when we are sitting in the garden or in a comfy chair recovering from a hard day.  Is the kingdom of God some kind of utopia or paradise?  The Gospel text is about the Kingdom of God.  I want us to think about what it means to you and me today.
First, what is the kingdom of God?  It is not some tangible realm where a ruler has some empire.  It is not the new heaven and earth that is to come.  It is not a place.  It is a way of being.
The problem is in a monarchy when someone mentions the word kingdom, we have a vision of some queen or king ruling over their kingdom.  But the phrase we translate, KofG, is actually more verbal.  It would be better translated as the reign of God or God’s reign.  It is the reality of God reigning over our lives and creation; God ruling or governing over all things.  It is the taking back of the world and humankind from the influence of selfishness (thinking we can do it all without God) and from the influence of evil forces and impulses (call it the devil, Satan or whatever).
       St Paul in one of the extremely rare comments about the KofG outside the Gospels states, For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  St Paul describes the effect of God reigning in the lives of a Christian as righteousness, peace and joy.   But the KofG is more than just an inner spiritual reality.  The reign of God affects the earth and all powers and principalities.  So Jesus can speak of his mission as preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, releasing the oppressed, proclaiming the year of the Lord's favour.  Wherever God’s reign is established things are transformed, turned upside down or right side up, back into their rightful and God designed purpose.  Where God is king, things are put right, justice reigns, the needy are cared for, the oppressed are set free.  The Kingdom of God is God’s rule in our hearts but also God’s transforming rule in the world, a social and political reality.
        In sum, when we think of the Kingdom of God we are not thinking of a specific place and concrete realm, but God’s reign over our hearts and lives and over the church and all creation.
Secondly, Jesus inaugurated the KofG.  You can kind of say that Jesus’ incarnation, coming to be with us in flesh and walking among us, was a reclaiming mission.  Jesus’ specific message about the Kingdom of God is recorded as, ‘repent for the KofG has come near’.   Another way to say this is: the KofG is in your midst.  In Jesus, the reign of God was being established in a new way.  It was being inaugurated or instated by Jesus’ message of God’s love and grace and of God’s judgment.  It was being initiated by Jesus’ actions, his healing, exorcisms, miracles, meals with sinners, touching the untouchables.  In Jesus’ life, message and actions the KofG is began in a new way.  In Jesus’ life, message and actions, we see what the reign of God looks like.
Thirdly, what do we learn about the KofG from these parables we heard?  First we learn that God causes the growth.  Our responsibility is not to bring in the KofG.  God has done that in Jesus Christ.  We are to witness to the KofG, that is to point it out to others in word and deed.  We are to live out the KofG in our lives and in the mission and ministry of the Church.  We display the reign of God in our lives by the way we live and by our words and deeds.  The church by the way it is and by what it does on Sunday and throughout the week, displays the reign of God to others in our community and beyond.  One thing we can be asking ourselves is how are we revealing the reign of God or the KofG in our  lives and in the life of our church.
Habitat for Humanity was founded by a Christian who believed that everyone had the right to a roof over their head.  He formed an organisation in which teams of people go to many different countries, mostly in Africa and South America, but even in Europe.  Through volunteer labour they build homes and people are able then to buy them at cost with no interest loans.  If they help build it as well this counts as payment toward the home.  One man put his faith into action and now thousands of families now have a simple basic home which they own and helped build with others.  This is the KofG on display.
The parable of the mustard seed says we need to recognise that KofG starts small and grows into something large.  We don’t always notice the growth but it is happening even while we are sleeping.
In one sense, the KofG began with Jesus, one person in Palestine and has slowly grown to be one of the most significant religious and faith movements in the history of humankind.  It is still growing even if in some places it is in decline.  In parts of Asia it is one of the fastest growing religious movements.  It is still growing rapidly in parts of Africa and South America.
In another sense, the reign of God on display can begin where we are.  It can start small but grow into something amazing.  In a parish in Birmingham, there was an old school house.  Someone in the parish got the idea that the church could use it as a church hall and maybe to have a place for community groups.  The parish was able to obtain it and fix it up.  It grew to become one of the largest and most active community centres in Birmingham, Centre 13.  A small idea grew into a city-wide and flourishing ministry.  This is a sign and symbol of the KofG.
       The way we participate in the KofG is not by striving to do all the right things, not by struggling to make things happen.  Nor is this a passive role, of sitting down and waiting and watching.  No, it is an active role of living out our faith with humility, integrity and action.   Living out our faith personally and as a church will mean sometimes we need to discern what God wants us to do (MAP).  We must pray and tune ourselves into God’s ways and God’s will.  We must then act as we believe God is calling us to act.  We may at times get it wrong and even fail in our efforts.  But God calls us to be faithful.
       In conclusion, the kingdom of God is God’s reign, God’s rule, God’s lordship being established over each of us and over all of creation.  God will bring it to fulfilment just like the little mustard seed grows into a large mustard shrub.  As children of God who have been brought into the KofG by faith in Jesus Christ, we bear witness to God’s reign. Our lives and the life of the church is a sign post, a large billboard of God’s reign.  We share in and partake of the KofG and its fulfilment by letting our lives be transformed and by bearing fruit that reveals God’s transforming power in our homes, in our communities and in our churches.  May God help our life and the life of the church to witness and to display the KofG in word and deed.

Making Choices to Go with God : Mark 3:20-25

This story from Mark’s gospel is one of the most unusual and most dramatic stories.  It has all the features of TV or movie drama.  Jesus’ public ministry has been launched to great success among the people.  They are thronging to him in Galilee.  The word has gotten out about how Jesus is healing and casting out demons.  At the beginning of Mark chapter three, Jesus gets away from the crowds to pray and to appoint the twelve.  He is equipping himself for all the hullabaloo that is to follow.  He is also organising himself to cope with the crowds by appointing disciples to help.  But more significantly, Jesus’ public ministry is the launch, the inauguration of the KofG, which is signalled by the appointment of the 12 disciples representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve who will rule in the new age with the Messiah.

          Jesus comes down the mountain, like Moses came down from Mt Sinai.  We are now in the heart of this drama.  Jesus comes down the mountain and he is crushed by the crowd.  So much so that they cannot even eat their meal.  Jesus’ fame and reputation is spreading and people want more and more of him.

Standing back and watching all this is Jesus’ family.  They realise that they are loosing Jesus.  He is the eldest son and oldest brother.  He has a responsibility to the family and the family business.  It was kinda of interesting that he took such an interest in spiritual things and in matters of the Law and faith.  In fact, he took so much interest in all these matters that people were starting to call him a rabbi.  But ever since he was baptised in the Jordon by his cousin, John the Baptist, Jesus has gotten a bit carried away.  And since John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus has begun to focus more and more on being with the crowds than being at home.  The family does not quite know what to make of his actions, miracles and exorcisms.  On the one hand they are amazed, on the other hand they cannot quite believe it is Jesus who is doing this.  Each day things seem to be getting more and more incredible.

And now, the crowds are overwhelming.  People are everywhere demanding Jesus’ attention.  The family cannot quite grasp it.  They wonder.  Has Jesus lost it?  Should they begin to bring him back down to reality, bring him back to his reasonable sense?  They tell him all this.  Jesus faces the fact that his public ministry, his grasp of his commission by God at the river Jordan and during his time in the wilderness is being questioned by his own family.  A test of loyalty that he did not expect has come.  Should he turn his back on all that is happening, all that God seems to be doing, and go back to Nazareth and be with his family?

Watching and observing from the side are also the religious leaders. They have noticed his growing popularity.  The have seen the amazing things he is doing.  They know their grip on the people is slipping away.  So they begin their campaign to discredit Jesus.  It is a media spin to turn the crowds against Jesus.  The religious leaders pit their reputation and authority against Jesus.

They say, this man is not an agent of God, but of Beelzebul.  They say that the source of Jesus’ power to do the incredible things come from the devil himself.  They portray Jesus as a trickster trying to draw people away from God into the arms of the evil one.

It is a clever ploy.  They stake their ploy on the fact that many people would look up to them because they were the religious leaders and they were the knowledgeable ones who could discern what God was doing.  They seek to totally discredit Jesus.

Jesus replies.  First he replies to the religious leaders, the scribes.  He challenges them how it is possible for Satan to be against himself.  Jesus’ actions and exorcisms is showing that evil powers are being defeated, broken, expelled.  God is reigning, taking back what is God’s.  If Satan was behind this, this represents a house divided which will not stand. 

Jesus explains that he has come into the home of the strong man to take it back.  The strong man must be bound so that the house can be returned to its rightful owner and inhabitants.  Jesus subtly implies that it is actually the religious leaders who are in cahoots with the evil one.  If they are opposing what God is doing, they show themselves to be on the side of evil.  Jesus makes it very clear that if one actively opposes what God is doing, if one calls the work of the Holy Spirit evil, then one is in danger of being excluded from God’s house, from the KofG.  They are stern, harsh words.  Jesus shows he is no meek and mild wimp.  He stands up to the religious leaders.  He answers their accusations with reason and spiritual insight.  He presents a choice to the people.  They must decide if they will trust the religious leaders or embrace what Jesus is doing as God’s work, as a good and holy movement.

We all face those choices.  Do we go with God or another way?  Sometimes the option to go it alone w/o God is enticing, just as the serpent enticed Adam and Eve to eat the fruit and to go their own way against God’s way.  The rewards of pleasing self or of storing up the riches of this world are attractive.  But what is truly right and best?  To go with God can mean that we go against the tide and flow of the majority.  It can be costly to go with God and walk in his ways.  We all face the choice.  Do we go with God or another way?

Jesus faced another choice as well.  His family wanted him home.  They appear to question his sanity.  It was a bit too much for them.  Again, to go with God can be a test of loyalty.  And people all over the world face this challenge.  It is not so much a test we face here in the UK.  For some people that choice can actually cost them the love of family.  Where is your loyalty?  We do not have to reject family to be a child of God.  But sometimes family rejects us.   Are we willing to take the risk, pay the price of going with God?  Jesus’ family would eventually become disciples, and that would only be possible because Jesus chose to go with God and not return home.

The gospel reminds us that like Jesus we face choices.  We must be careful not to call the things of God wrong or evil.  We must be careful in where we place our loyalty.  God is at work among us.  May God help us all to walk with Christ, to grow in faith, and to do what is right, true, and holy.

The Ascension: Movement, development and change in God (John 17:1-14)

Movement, growth and development are usually perceived as good things, especially when it relates to spiritual growth.  Movement and growth usually mean change, but change is not always welcome.  The gospel passage is based on the prayer of Jesus in the upper room for his disciples before major changes occurred: the cross, resurrection, and the ascension.  There is a great deal of movement in the text which we will explore.  We are also in a season of movement and change.  Resurrection joy has moved on to Ascension glory and we are awaiting the celebration of the power of the Spirit at Pentecost.  Some people like always being on the go and changing, others like the steady security of little or no change.  The ascension which the church celebrated this week is a key movement and event in God’s story. 

Against the backdrop of Jesus’ ascension, this morning I want to explore how the movement of Jesus as recorded in his prayer for his disciples, (which includes you and me) interweaves with our own movement and change in our life with God.  I want to think about three movements which bring about change that are recorded in this text.

First, there is the movement from glory to glory.  Listen again to verses 1, 4 and 5: 1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you; I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.  Does God change?  I used think that God did not change and that it was a real security for my faith to dwell on the fact that God didn't change.  The world around may be afflicted by the changes and chances of life, but God remains the same.

          But how can God remain the same if we believe God is incarnationally intimate with us as ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ?  At the incarnation, God became one with us in a way that he was not before.  One of the significant aspects to the Ascension of Jesus is that the fleshly humanity of Jesus is taken up into the Godhead.  That very reality alters the Godhead.  Indeed, when we consider this it is not just the potential material change, it is the fact that Jesus takes up into the Godhead his human experience as well.

          This movement from glory to glory is captured in the way that the Gospel of John speaks of Jesus as the one who was sent, who descended to the earth and the who will ascend back to the heavens.  It is a movement of glory to glory.  The former glory before God in Christ descended at the incarnation was a 'painless' glory, a transcendent splendour untainted by earthly grit.  It was the glory of heaven untouched by humanity. But now that glory moves to a new glory.  A glory brought about by blood and death, through the glory of the cross.  It is the glory of God in flesh and blood, having tasted hunger and sorrow, completing the appointed time, completing the mission, and returning to glory: from glory to glory.

          As a result of God's glory on earth and revealed in flesh, as a result of God's glory seemingly snuffed out by crucifixion, God's glory now shines in a new, changed way.  In the Ascension, earth and heaven are united in a new way, flesh and deity are intertwined.  God changes and we are no longer the same.

God's change means there is a second movement.  It is a movement described from Jesus' perspective as, 'from me to you'; or in the third-person, 'from Jesus to us'.  In Jesus' prayer for us, he tells what changes will occur because of the movement from glory to glory.

          Listen to these words of Jesus (read vv. 6, 7, 8, 3): 6 "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me…And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

          The Word made flesh has disclosed the words of God and we now know God in a new way.  When we recognize Jesus as the sent one, when we believe his message, we have eternal life.  Jesus' mission is accomplished through the handing on of his knowledge to you and me.  And what Jesus knew intimately was God, for he was with God and was God.  In ascending to glory, he leaves in you and me intimate knowledge of God and the gift of abundant life.

          There is something spectacularly exhilarating about baptisms.  I have watched adults come out of the ocean waves.  I have seen young children dunked in a garden swimming pool.  I have watched adults in a church baptistery come up out of the water.  And I have stood by little babies made wet by the waters of baptism from an ancient font.  In every case, there is an electricity of new life, new knowledge, new beginnings.  Our baptism illustrates that as Jesus moves from glory to glory he passes from himself to you and me, intimacy with God and new life.  At our baptism, Jesus comes to us in the Holy Spirit to make his home in us.  A new relationship is initiated.  The knowledge transfer begins.

But the movement does not stop there.  Our movement to life and knowledge is a process that is never finished.  After all what is eternal life, but the uninhibited process of becoming, the process of continuing the transformation begun in faith and flesh.  So there is the third movement, the process of now until tomorrow: the ever future tomorrow, the tomorrow which is always the day after; the tomorrow which is our hope.  Listen to verse 11: And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

In these words, the promise of tomorrow rests and depends on the now.  2000 years ago, Jesus goes from the world, taking flesh up to God so that all flesh may dwell with God.  Because of that now, in the present, our now, we are protected so that we can move into tomorrow.  The hope of tomorrow is the promise of being one with each other and one with God.

          Christ's movement from glory to glory, our movement to knowledge and life in Christ, is all part of the movement of now to tomorrow.  Because of Christ’s ascension we have a real hope for the future.  Because of all that Christ did and does we are being transformed, changed, made a new creation.  We are becoming one with God.  This is a movement that is constant (even in our spiritual ups and downs), but never fully realized.  In our life with God every now has a tomorrow which moves us forward and closer and deeper in our walk with God.

To conclude: three movements, from glory to glory, from Jesus to us, from now to tomorrow.  Three movements which are intertwined and dance with each other in the now and in the tomorrow that is yet to be.  In the now, we see Christ's movement from glory to glory, yet we await the glory that IS to be revealed.  In the now we are coming to know God and have life, but tomorrow we will know more and have an even more abundant life.  In the now, by faith we are one and we are one with God, tomorrow we realise oneness with God and with each other in a new and greater way.

In the upper room, Jesus outlines the way God is moving.  When we join in the movement of God, we are changed.  We are woven into the life of God and God's life and glory is woven in and through our life and being.  In the now and tomorrow of God there is movement, growth and development.  As we heard last week, 'For in God we live and move and have our being'. (Acts 17.28)

Being an Easter Community

Easter so what?  The church looked lovely with all the flowers and special decorations, still does.  The service was a bit more alive than usual.  Perhaps you had a special meal with friends or family.  The Easter eggs and assorted chocolates make it special too.  And you had the next day off work.  But so what, what difference does it all make? 

          The church is an Easter community.  Each and every Sunday we gather to worship our God and key is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.  We are a community which believes in and embraces the new life we are called to in Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.

         What does it mean to be an Easter community, a post-Jesus resurrection community.  To do this, I want us to consider the kind of community Jesus was creating after his resurrection as he met the disciples (see John 20:19-end).

          First he created a community of peace.  Three times in this reading Jesus says, ‘peace be with you’.  When was the last time you felt totally at peace?  Some of you with young children or some of you living with chronic pain may wonder if you can remember.  But at some point we experience a sense of peace.  This is what we are called to be.  Peace is a sense of being a rest in the moment (not static).  Peace is sense of not being in conflict with yourself or others.  Peace is being right with God.  Listen to this: Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus before the death and resurrection promised peace to the disciples: John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.  This peace is the promise of the enduring presence of Christ in our midst.  As a Easter community we are to be a community marked by peace, the peace of Christ and peace between each other.

          Second, he created or commissioned the community to go: As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  We are a sent community.  Our church life is not just within the four walls of a church.  We gather that we might go out into the world to be the light of Christ, to proclaim the good news to others in word and deed, and to serve our community.  We are now the revelation of Jesus in the world.  What a challenge!  We must ask ourselves, how do we reveal Christ in our mission and ministry as a church?  In what way, as we leave this place, do we show Christ to others?  As an Easter community we are sent into the community to reveal Christ to the world.

          Thirdly, we are spirit filled community: Jesus breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.  The going out, the peace, and all we are called to be is enabled and empowered by the presence of God in our lives and in our midst through the Holy Spirit.  Where two are three gather in Christ’s name, God is present through the Holy Spirit.  We worship God in Spirit and in truth.  The Holy Spirit is also present in our individual lives as disciples.  The Holy Spirit gifts us in our service in the church and in the world.  Through faith in Christ and through baptism and confirmation we become spirit filled people.  The evidence of being Spirit filled is seeing the gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the Spirit in evidence in our community.  As an Easter community we are to be a spirit filled community.

          Fourthly, we are to be a forgiving community.  Jesus said, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.  The resurrection is about new life.  New life comes from repenting of sin and evil, those things which are contrary to God’s person and ways.  New life is about a second chance.  God’s forgiveness comes to us in the love of God extended to us in the cross and resurrection.  To be forgiven people we need the cross and the empty tomb.  The cross covers our sins and the empty tomb releases us to go and to live the new resurrected life as forgiven people.  Forgiveness is part of our community life as we confess our sins and are absolved when we gather as a community in worship.  Scripture says, If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Forgiveness is part of our community life as we forgive each other when we are wronged or hurt by someone in the community.  The Lord’s Prayer says to God, forgive us our sins as we forgive one another.  As an Easter community we are a forgiven and forgiving community.

          Fifthly and last, first and foremost, we are to be a believing community.  John writes: these things are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.  As an Easter community we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, that he is God’s only begotten Son, sent from the Father to be God’s suffering servant, God’s anointed one to reveal the father in truth and love as no one ever has before.  As we come to believe this, we are given the gift of life.  The life we were created to have in perfect communion with God, the abundant and shalom life that is God’s gift to all believe.  As an Easter community we are a believing community who are living the resurrection life, the abundant life now and in the life to come.

          The resurrection is so powerful it transforms you and me and it transform the church.  It makes us a new community marked by peace; it makes us a community sent out into the world; it makes us a spirit-filled community, a community of forgiveness, a believing community full of the life of God.  But this potential must be grasped to be made a reality.  We have to respond with open hearts and open hands to become what we can be.  May God help us to be an Easter community full of the life of God.

This Lent, Jesus says, ‘Follow me’: A Lenten Reflection

These two words pick up on the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry when he says to those would be disciples, ‘come and follow me’.  But they also echo the poignant words of Jesus: If one comes after me, let them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me.  What does it mean for us today to follow Jesus.  I want to reflect on that by considering the path of martyrdom that some disciples have experienced in their journey of following Jesus and what that says about the challenge we face in following Jesus today.

If I said to you that I wanted to die for my faith in Jesus Christ, you would probably think me a bit odd; and certainly a bit fanatical about my religion.  Yet, the history of the Christian church is built in part on the martyrs for the faith, on those men and women in every age who have died because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ.

            On this Ash Wednesday, we begin a journey, a journey with Jesus.  During Lent we make the time to examine our own faith and to survey the depth of our devotion to God.  It is a journey of death, of dying to self and becoming alive to God.  Jesus said, 'If anyone comes after me, let them deny themselves, take-up their cross and follow me'.

            What does it mean to follow Jesus, to respond to the call, ‘follow me’?  For many it will mean the ultimate giving of one’s life. 

The first martyr for the faith was, of course, Jesus.  We do not know when exactly he began to understand that his life would end in death.  But we know that some months before he went to Jerusalem for his last Passover that he told his disciples that he would suffer and die.  Do you remember that Peter was simply aghast at this thought?  In fact, Peter demanded that this not happen.  What Peter did not understand was that through Jesus' death, life would come to many.  The single grain of wheat dies and produces many seeds.  Martyrdom for Jesus meant by laying down his life, others would be saved.  For Jesus devotion to God's purpose meant the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of his very life.

            The first Christian martyr was Stephen.  He was one of the first deacons appointed by the apostles in Jerusalem.  The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had Stephen arrested for blasphemy because his preaching about Jesus was so effective.  During his trial, Stephen unfolded his understanding of God's saving work in a lengthy sermon, even accusing the religious leaders of not comprehending the work of God.   As he finished his message he saw heaven open and saw a vision of the risen Christ.  Having heard his words and now this vision, the leaders were indignant.  They dragged Stephen outside the city and stoned him.  Stephen following Jesus' example, prayed for his enemies, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them'.

            Stephen's death was not in vain.  It did fill the Christians in Jerusalem with fear.  From this fear they fled Jerusalem into all parts of the Mediterranean world.  As a result, as Luke tells us in the Book of Acts, 'those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went'.  From Stephen's death came new life for many.  As a result of Stephen's martyrdom, many heard and believed the saving message about Jesus Christ.  A single seed falls in the ground and produces many seed.  From the offering of a life, comes new life.

            But Stephen's martyrdom produced a new understanding about following Jesus.  It suddenly became clear that witnessing about Jesus could be a dangerous business.  Jesus said, 'Whoever serves me, must follow me'.  Stephen's martyrdom clearly showed that to follow Jesus meant possibly even following Jesus to one's death.  But such sacrifice, such devotion would be rewarded: Jesus said, 'the one who loves his life will lose it; while the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life'.

            St Ignatius was one of the early Christians who articulated a desire to be martyred that he might be counted worthy of such devotion.  Such a blatant longing for martyrdom seems somehow wrong to our thinking.  But it reveals a passion for God that cannot but stir us, even shame us in our comfortable complacency.  Hear what St. Ignatius said about devotion, 'He who dies for us is all that I seek; he who rose again for us is my whole desire'.  We may not share St. Ignatius' longing for martyrdom, but do we share his longing for God?  This question deserves our consideration as we begin this Lenten season.

            Now, not all martyrs were such willing victims as St. Ignatius.  But the history of the church is filled with men and women who in following Christ found themselves in the jaws of death.  One of the foundations of the church is the spilt blood of men and women who have sacrificed their very life for the glory of Christ.

            Martyrdom brings into stark relief the issue that following Christ goes against the normal instinct.  As humans we fight to preserve our life.  As humans we strive hard to achieve something substantive, something lasting.  But martyrdom brings home the reality that following Christ often means the laying down of that which is precious to us, following Christ demands, following Christ entails sacrifice.  Who is worthy of it?  Who is capable of it?  I know I am not.  I actually do not want to die for my faith.  But I share with so many of you a desire to walk with God, a desire to know God in a deeper and richer way.  Martyrdom reminds us that such devotion requires sacrifice.

            Jesus says, if you want to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it in the end.  But if you offer your life to God, you will find eternal life.  Few if any of us will be actual martyrs for the faith, but from the example of the martyrs we learn that devotion to God is rewarded, from the example of the martyrs we are challenged to offer our life to God.  Jesus says, ‘if anyone come after me, let them deny themselves, take-up their cross and follow me'.  What does that mean for you and who you are and your life now?  May this Lent be a time that you reflect on what it means to you when Jesus says, ‘follow me’.