Click here for Astrid's video messageMatthew 16:13-20 Romans 12:1-8Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.In an attempt to find some space to relax during my holidays, I picked up a new book and began to read what seemed to be a kind of detective story. It turned out to be something of a ‘Da Vinci Code’ kind of book: a quest of some sort, for some buried ‘treasure’ or clue as to a certain identity. All a bit vague, I admit, and as I progressed in the book, I became more and more frustrated with it. At times, I was tempted to throw it down, but there was still a tiny part of my mind that wanted to know the end, whether they’d come to their senses. We all like to know that, of any story, I guess.The reason why I became frustrated with it was because of the references it made to the Bible that were so clearly false and taken out of context, that they began to be irritating rather than exciting. One thing was that it claimed to find the keys that Jesus had given to Peter… literally the physical keys that Peter received… As if they had indeed been some actual keys that would open the kingdom of heaven..! No wonder I could be found muttering from time to time as I read, ‘what utter nonsense!’ and that’s the sanitised version…But the keys that the Bible talks about are of course symbolic. As in Isaiah 22 verse 22, ‘the key of the house of David’, the keys that Jesus talks about are a symbol of authority. When he then says ‘whatever you bind and whatever you loose’, bind and loose are judicial terms meaning ‘forbid’ and ‘permit’. In a way, Jesus is using images and parable type of language, as he does so often. So we can safely assume that when Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means ‘rock’, he didn’t literally turn Peter into stone!The whole episode about the rock, on which Jesus is to build his church, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven, comes after Peter has answered Jesus’ question as to who the disciples thought he was. It wasn’t a trick question. It wasn’t an attempt to quiz the disciples or let them take an exam. It was, rather, to see how far they’d come in understanding the healings and other miracles as pointers to his identity. How they understood the context of Jesus’ ministry. Also, it gave Jesus the opportunity to warn them not to begin proclaiming Jesus as Messiah before the time was right to do so. For there was still some important work to be done and Jesus couldn’t risk the disciples jumping the gun.Jesus is going to build a new community; not an actual building or Temple, like the one in the background of the story. But like the wise man who built his house on the rock in the parable Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is reconstructing a new community, not of stone, but of all who recognise Jesus as God’s anointed one. The state of justice and peace that God is looking to form, will come about through faithful allegiance between Jesus and his followers. The work of building God’s Church begins with the instruction of Peter and, with it, a new perspective of his future, hence his new name. The beautiful message is that if we see the whole picture and keep it all in context, we can also see how our own perspective and our lives are made new through seeing Jesus. Being a Christian is not a quest to find an actual key of some sort, but rather knowing that we have been found, by God himself, and made partakers and residents of his new kingdom. We’ll often get it wrong – Peter did too. We’re a bunch of forgiven sinners. But our past does not define us; our future does. And that is really key.. Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messageMatthew 15:21-28 Romans 11:1-2a; 29-3210th Sunday after TrinityThe Chairman of The Flat Earth Society, as pictured in a cartoon in the Church Times a few weeks ago, proclaimed a point of order at their AGM: ‘Post truth, fake news and disinformation pose a major threat to societies across the world, not around the world…’I kept the cartoon; for some reason I didn’t keep the article that it illustrated and which offered five ways to fight back against fake news. But the illustration is what I now wanted. What is it about fake news, a term we’ve only recently become familiar with, that’s so subversive and obtrusive, and even dangerous? And why would some people even want to give it out? These last 5 months, with a raging pandemic that stopped many people’s movements and changed society in a dramatic way, more and more people, it is noticed, are looking for more depth in their lives. They are wondering about the meaning of life and quite a few seem to be searching for the truth. This is encouraging, although there will always be those who prefer their ‘old’ existence, when they were quite happy to follow their own views and were not challenged to change their ways. .But challenges come, to us all, at some point in our lives. Whether we find ourselves having to deal with illness, financial difficulty or redundancy, any loss of any kind is a challenge, sometimes to our lifestyle, and sometimes to our perception of life and the world. We need to know where we stand in the larger scheme of things, find our bearings and then move on. The thing is, though, that we need to know where the truth lies in order to understand our own place within it, or we won’t be able to make the right decisions or to move on. That is why it’s important to know the truth. And that’s why today’s message from the Gospel reading is one that we should understand.So here we have it: a woman from a non-Jewish district addresses Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and asks him to heal her daughter. When Jesus doesn’t respond except with an insult, she persists and is finally commended for her faith and her daughter is healed. There are two things we are to learn from this account: 1) that Jesus was sent to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’ first of all – and 2) that the kingdom of God breaks into our world through faith.Firstly, in choosing and calling Israel to be his special people, God would bring the living Word and his promise of new life through them, to the rest of the world. The whole world was to be offered hope, but only through Israel, not around it. The purpose for which this people existed had everything to do with God’s plan of rescue for the whole world and which had been foretold by the prophets. If Jesus had begun by circumventing God’s people, he would have made God a liar.Secondly, as with so many of the things that are happening around Jesus, the future keeps breaking in to the present. It’s as if the woman is already looking at Easter, while Calvary hasn’t even happened yet. In recognising Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David, she is seeing the truth at a much deeper level and it’s that truth – as proclaimed by her faith – that sets herself and her daughter free. She reckoned that if Israel is indeed the people that bring the promise of God to the world, then Israel’s Messiah will bring that blessing about. The dogs will share in the scraps that fall from the children’s table. It was absolutely vital that she knew the truth, so that she was to receive the life that God had promised.We need to know the truth. The whole – round – world needs to know it too. What issues are we facing today? And what future promise of God that we don’t see yet but that should be claimed now, can we present to God with fervent prayer and faith?Let us pray.O God, as our loving and ever faithful Father, you do not turn away those who seek you with all their heart. Hear us as we pray for your promise to become ever more alive in us and in this world. For the sake of your dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messageMatthew 14:22-33 1 Kings 19:9-18After the feeding of the five thousand, we have the account of Jesus walking on the water of the lake. We could almost say: of course, if he can feed the crowd on basically nothing, surely, he can walk on water! We don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we can expect the Son of God to manifest power based on his special authority. If only we see it. For the things of God, as revealed at the beginning of creation, as well as his dealings with people all through history, and the law and the prophets, are being proclaimed now, anew, by Jesus. As somebody has remarked, the scene of Jesus (and Peter) on the water, has rarely ever been painted. Perhaps because it was so tricky to portray, or perhaps because some people would say it went too far, in showing up Peter’s shortcomings in terms of his faith. Whatever the reason for not painting this scene, it still is a powerful record of the way in which God is above the created order. It shows us how he uses creation ‘as a footstool’, as the Psalm says, and that faith in God can be a witness to his glory. And when it comes to the glory of God and our relationship with him, we shouldn’t be too worried about Peter’s reputation, or our own as it happens. I like Peter; he’s a bit of a larger-than-life character: impulsive, ready for anything, as long as it means action, tending to act first and think later. An endearing but somewhat risky characteristic. But then, what kind of friend would you rather have: one who did what seemed the right thing and then worried about it afterwards, or one who spent so much time thinking it all through that it would take weeks or months before anything got done? I’ve got a cousin who described his two sisters like that: one as impetuous, acting without thinking, and the other as thinking, without ever acting. But let’s not digress.Here is the picture: we are all in the boat, and there, all of a sudden, is a strange figure, walking towards us. He looks like a ghost, an image of fantasy; just like many people in the world see him, unrelated to our lives or our problems. Some find him frightening; others wish he’d go away and leave them alone. There are others, like the disciples, who believe in him, but still don’t know what to expect from him. He often does the impossible, like healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the crowds, and challenging the religious authorities. Some people think it would be good to copy him, if only they could, and set out to bring his love and power, his peace and hope, to our world so full of need. But then they allow their focus to change: instead of keeping their eyes on Jesus, they let them drop and fall on the size of the problem. Instead of seeing Jesus, they see the darkness, the waves and the wind. Is that how our own faith works? Looking at the impossible and forgetting that God is with us? Christian discipleship is a bit like that. We know that we’re not supposed to walk on water in the literal sense, but other things, like wrestling with temptation, or focussing on our prayer life, are not impossible for us to do – if we keep our eyes fixed on the One who has perfect and total authority, whether we see it or not.Our hearts and wills may bounce up and down, as far as we allow them to be tossed by the wind and the waves of life. But if we are ready to listen to the encouragement of Jesus himself, we can stand. Who is it that created the world, and who has authority over it? That’s the one who rules, and that’s the one who saves. Amen.
Click here for Nick's video messageIs 55 v 1-5 Hope nb Thackeray in Vanity Fair a world where every one is striving for what is not worth havingRm 9 v 1-5 The Jews are still special people regardless = solicitude for Israel. lifestyle> wordsMt 14 v 13-21 feeding of the 5K - A little goes far with JesusReading the OT bit from Isaiah reads like life preCovid. Eat drink and be merry. Verse 1 build up yourcredit, V2 spend spend and don’t worry about what youhave bought . . V4/5 but then comes hope listening toGod will lead to a new covenant between God andman. And, you, Israel will be great.And not even the pandemic has seen a turning to Godon any revivalist scale. The miserable commentatorsare still miserable expecting more more and morehandouts and no one is counting the cost of all thebailouts, well nearly all, I bet the Chancellor has a verygood ideaIn all this I am reminded of the quote that became asignature quote at the beginning of each episode ofThacheray’s TV series - Vanity Fair - a perceptive and cynical book looking at early 19thc lifeamong the affluent “a world where every one is striving for what is not worth having.”In the epistle, St Paul is reflecting the sluggish response of the Jewish people to the Good Newsof jesus Christ - Paul would do anything to try to convince them even to saying that he is not acommitted follower of Jesus! If it would but convince them i.e. was Paul a stumbling block for hisfellow Jews?In the Gospel the situation is that Jesus has heard that His cousin John has been beheaded, He issaddened particularly as He becomes aware of the barbaric and callous events leading up to it.Jesus goes off to be quiet and in our Gospel story this morning we are told of Jesus’ reaction tobeing told that the crowds who have followed and are now gathered around, are hungry and haveno food. No quick take aways in those days, no ice cream vans - just an empty deserted place.The disciples solution is to send every one away and the crowd could then find food: and Jesusand the disciples could continue their quiet time to honour John the baptist.Jesus has a better idea - keep the crowd and promise them food shared by what ever means isavailable. Sounds a bit like a politicians more naive pronouncement! ? ? ?The rest of the story is well known, everyone sits down and there is enough food for everyone -about 5k men + the women and the children (doubtless the more sensitive commentators wouldhave demanded that the women and the children to be numbered with the men?)Put all this together, and the reality is that not all is perfect in the world. The devil is alive andkicking - that, in this context, means that God gave us free choices - we are not automatons. Sothe devil advises Eve to ignore God’s advice about not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledgeof good and evil; and Eve decides - and Adam joined in just as easily, that only knowing about thegood was a bit dull; wouldn’t it be a bit more exciting to know about the naughty bits as well - wellthat is one way of looking at it, so we all got tangled up in the blandishments of the culture ofThackeray’s quote a world where every one is striving for what is not worth having..Coming back to Peanuts, he, Peanuts recognises that his life may not be perfect but lets put asmile on our faces and choose to be happy. It is a continuation of whether the glass is half full orhalf empty. Or for those who remember the King and I when Deborah Kerr sings “whistle a happytune.” This is not ignoring reality - it is overcoming it = being resilient with the encouragement ofthe Holy Spirit.
