Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Mark 7:1-8; 14-15; 21-23 James 1:17-endAppearances can be so deceptive. And how we like to fool ourselves into thinking that we are always everything we claim to be…! Last week I spoke about fashion, not just with reference to clothes, but also in terms of behaviour. And behaviour is what Jesus is talking about in the passage from Mark’s Gospel; and also James, in the first chapter of his letter, speaks about that. The main issue is the discrepancy between what goes on inside a person and their outward appearance; they don’t always add up! It’s only human, we might say, when we say something that is not totally in accordance with what we do. As the saying goes: do as I say, not as I do. And we all make mistakes. But how does that relate to the Christian life? After all, our journey with Christ through life is a process of change. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we know that we are accepted as we are, but God loves us too much to leave us like that – he wants the very best for us and that includes a change of heart in the right direction. God, by his Spirit, works on us, so that we grow into strong, righteous and dependable people, when we have been weak and unreliable before. He is a true life-changer! The figure of speech that God uses in the Bible is about clothes: we need to be dressed anew, in clean robes that reflect our new status as children of God. This is not about our outward appearance, but about the heart. That’s another kind of fashion than the one we tend to think of!In Mark’s Gospel reading for today, Jesus is challenged by the scribes and Pharisees about the disciples eating without first washing their hands. It’s a good custom, of course, to wash hands before touching food, and we do well to observe hygiene; but in the case of the Pharisees, they tended to make a bit of a show of it. Which is why Jesus answers by quoting the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”’ For Jesus knew what was in their hearts and their inner motives, and their behaviour did not match their words or outward appearance. He then called the crowd again and said to them: ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ When the disciples ask him later what he meant by that, Jesus explains: ‘Whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer. It is what comes out of a person that defiles, for all evil things come from the human heart.’ It is something that James also writes about in his letter, in the translation of The Message: ‘Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.’ Wise words and helpful to remind us that our actions speak louder than our words. I like what comes a little later in James’ letter: ‘Anyone who sets himself up as religious by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.’ He doesn’t mince words and he goes straight to the heart of the matter, or, to the matter of the heart, as Jesus might say. It is a summary focus of the way faith works out in practical and social observance that honours God. Righteousness, then, in word and deed, when words and actions add up. That’s what wins God’s approval and helps us grow in faith. Amen.
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity John 6:56-69 Ephesians 6:10-20I had to go through my wardrobe the other day, looking for something to wear to a party. I know, it’s great to be invited to a special event like that, but after the initial excitement comes the question: what do I wear? The question might relate to what would be fashionable, or it might be about hitting the right note as to colour or style. It can be such a trap! Fortunately, there is also such a thing as ‘vintage’, meaning anything that is ‘of an age’, and in the context of clothing between twenty and fifty years old. Now that suits me fine; no pun intended. After all, I want to look reasonably nice in what suits me, not being draped in the latest expensive but unflattering fashion. That leads me to another question: how do we decide what is really important? Not only in the context of an invitation to a party, but when it comes to the way we live our lives. That goes deeper, no doubt. And even there, in terms of life style, there is such a thing as ‘fashion’. Let’s think about it for a moment. Do we live our lives by certain principles because we know them to be right or because they are convenient or even popular? And how does the answer to that question affect our behaviour? In other words: what is the yard stick that we use to help us ‘get it right’? We are at a time in our history when we are seeing a lot of unrest in the world, economically, socially, reflected in nature, and many of these problems can be brought back to human failure. Failure, that is, to consider ‘the other’ and to understand that freedom comes with responsibility. From the very beginning, the biggest problem of humankind has been pride: the idea that we have a right to everything we want when we want it. As the story of Adam and Eve tells us, it makes us very vulnerable to the lures of the devil. And that’s another thing: Many people don’t believe that there’s something like spiritual warfare, or that there’s a struggle between good and evil. They certainly don’t personify evil and call the devil by his name, or they make a joke of it. But Jesus knew what he was dealing with. The temptation in the desert – as recorded in the other three gospels – has made that perfectly clear. As he says in today’s passage in John 6, ‘It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.’ In his work, of teaching and healing and performing miracles, Jesus often speaks about the fact that it is the people’s faith that has healed them or helped them receive what they are asking for. And it seems that their faith also recognises the struggle between good and evil, God and the devil, far more easily than we do today. Now, I know that we have all the advantages of science to help us understand illness and how it can be cured in many cases. Science can be a blessing and it can be complementary to faith. But it isn’t science that will win the victory over evil. Science cannot give us love, grace, mercy, kindness and the like. In that sense, for faith to really flourish it needs to accept the Son of God and the work of salvation that he has done. As Jesus has said: ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.’ Many don’t like this and leave; they are not able to see beyond the physical and don’t appreciate the spiritual dimensions that Jesus is talking about. When Jesus asks the disciples whether they too will want to leave him like those others, because they find his teaching too hard, Simon Peter says, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ What an amazing statement! The Spirit of God gave Peter this insight, as Jesus had indicated. So, where do you stand? The enemies of the Christian believer are not human but spiritual, as Paul warns in Ephesians 6. Therefore, we need to wear the armour of the divine protector: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So wear it. It may not be the most popular. It may not even be fashionable. But it helps you to stand in the strength of God’s power when you need it most. Amen.
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity John 6:51-58 Ephesians 5:15-20The teachings of Jesus can be hard to understand; especially when he says something like: ‘my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’ So, if you would rather turn away now, I understand, even though I also think it would be a mistake to do so. One of the most difficult things for people to grasp in those early days of the Church was the reference to ‘eating and drinking’ the Son of Man. Drinking blood was forbidden anyway, so how can Jesus talk about himself as being ‘consumed’? Of course, as with many parables that he taught, Jesus was not speaking in literal terms but as metaphor. Again, he is talking about ‘bread from heaven’, making that connection with the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in the days of Moses, and God’s own provision of food each day, in the form of manna. But he was not turning his friends into cannibals! Instead, what he does seem to mean, is a reference to the bread and wine of the sacrament of Holy Communion, which he says is celebrated ‘in remembrance of him’. In partaking of the food that is offered in the Eucharist as Jesus’ body and his blood, we are partaking of the life that Jesus has offered us by dying on the cross on our behalf and rising again to give us the hope of eternal life. The bread of life, Jesus himself, is given to us through death, so that we may not die but enjoy new life for ever. How does this work, though? The physical food and drink we consume nourish us, of course, but each time it is temporary and needs to be repeated. So how can eating the true bread from heaven feed us for ever? Well, maybe part of King David’s story may help. One day, when he was fighting the Philistines who had occupied Bethlehem, David was thirsty and said aloud: ‘O if only I could have water from the well in Bethlehem!’ This was picked up by three of his most loyal followers and they risked their lives to get water from the well and brought it to David. But David wouldn’t have any of it. He said, ‘God forbid that I should drink the blood of these men who risked their lives in such a way!’ To David, drinking the water that the men had got for him at the risk of their lives would be akin to drinking their blood. He was not going to profit from their putting their lives on the line. And that is what Jesus means but in his case it is the other way around: He is going to risk his life; in fact, he is to give it completely, so that others can profit. In that sense, if we want to profit from Jesus’ work of salvation, we have to ‘eat his flesh and drink his blood’; in other words: accept the Son of Man, who is Son of God and Saviour of the world. In that sense, our spiritual and emotional hunger and thirst are truly satisfied. The reading from Ephesians complements it, saying that we should live as wise people, making the most of the time we have and being filled with the Spirit, as we ‘sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs making melody to the Lord in our hearts, giving thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ God’s work through Jesus, the Word made flesh, is on offer to all who believe. This is the true nourishment that we need, the true bread from heaven. In the Holy Communion we are reminded of this as a foretaste of what is to come in the fullness of time, as God has determined. So take, eat, and rejoice in the provision of the living God, our Saviour. Amen.
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity John 6:35; 41-51 1 Kings 19:4-8One of the most difficult things, it seems, for people to do, is to realise that they need help. Most people like to be self-sufficient, able to cope, and strong enough to weather a storm. Great score is often set on being strong, and although it is good to have strength and to manage with most things, there comes a moment in life when we know that we need help. This happens when we fall ill and have to get medical care, for instance, or when we are stuck on the motorway with a failed engine, or even when we have to perform a task that is too difficult for a person on their own. I have found that it is impossible, for example, to put together a flat-pack wardrobe without somebody else to hold up certain parts in the process! In today’s reading from 1 Kings, we find the prophet Elijah, on the run from bad Queen Jezebel, who was out for his life. After a day’s journey into the wilderness, he has reached a solitary broom tree and says to God that he has had enough; he is totally exhausted and doesn’t care anymore whether he lives or dies and falls asleep. An angel wakes him up, offers food, and, strengthened by this attention and nourishment, Elijah is able to continue the rest of the journey. Yes, I believe that angels are sometimes sent to drag us out of our misery and help us to move on. As Paul himself testifies in the letter to the Hebrews, ‘Are not all angels […] sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?’ Also in our day, accounts appear from time to time about miraculous rescues that can only be explained by the intervention by angels. But this as an aside. The point is, that Elijah needed help and that God provided for him. In John’s Gospel account in chapter 6, Jesus also talks about the way God provides to those who are in need. By bread, in the literal sense, as we already learned from what comes before in the Gospel account, but even more and ultimately by God’s Son, Jesus. As with the people of Israel grumbling in the desert during the Exodus, the Jews are complaining now at Jesus. They, like their ancestors, are looking for a leader who gives them what they want. Their idea of the Messiah, the Anointed One, chosen by God, is quite different from what God has intended for them and that is what Jesus addresses here. His statement, ‘No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day’, is startling, because it changes their human concept of being chosen by God for having special attributes in and of themselves. Again, it is the heart – what goes on in a person – that needs to be ‘drawn’ in the secret silence within. Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 54:13, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ This reminds the people of one of the greatest prophecies of the renewal through the outpouring of God’s love – bringing the people back to himself. It is the complete helplessness of the people of Israel to be as God has intended them to be, that makes God take the initiative for their salvation. Jesus is the bread of life, as he says in verse 35, and, making further connections with history, he goes on to say, ‘Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ This is what gives us hope. The hope of eternal life, in a new sense, through faith, is the new life as God has always intended it. It begins already in the here and now, and carries on into life after death. Jesus pioneers this in the resurrection, and it is on offer for all who taste the living bread. The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, in his autobiography ‘Surprised by Joy’, says this: ‘His compulsion is our liberation’. In other words, God’s salvation of the world and the redemption of his people is his work and his alone. C.S. Lewis said that he had not made a decision to believe but that God had ‘closed in on him and he couldn’t escape’, even though, at the time, he wanted to. The point is, that the bread of life, and the water of life, are free to all, but we need to see our need of it and accept it in faith. Then we can be refreshed and strong enough for the journey ahead. Amen.
