Click here for Astrid's video messageSixth Sunday of Easter John 15:9-17 Acts 10:44-endWhenever I visit somebody in their home, I enjoy seeing family photos on display. Even when there are few, they offer a glimpse into their life story, and are a sign of love. When my father was in a home because of his Alzheimer’s, we stuck photos up on the wall in his room, and went through them during visits, to help him keep that connection with his loved ones. We were fortunate that his love was very generously bestowed on us, his family, but I do appreciate that it’s not the same for everyone. Love, though, is an essential ingredient of life; we all need it to thrive, whether we’re young or old. For those who received little, it will be more difficult to give much, but here also the principle applies, that whoever gives much, will receive much in return, if not from the same person, then in other ways. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy.Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 15, about his commandment to love one another, etc., is often taken out of context and applied rather crudely in manipulative rhetoric: wartime being a case in point. His words, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’, have been used at the human level, to order soldiers to go off to the front line and die for their country. God honours the self-sacrifice of those who firmly believe that they are doing their duty, but he also judges those who use it to put moral pressure on other people. Besides, Jesus didn’t talk about political duty; rather, he spoke of the love of God for his people and that he himself, as God’s Son, would lay down his life for them, in an act that showed the highest degree of love and that would never be repeated.That is why Jesus can indeed issue the command that we ‘love one another’, and so remain in his love, because he has acted out the greatest thing that love can do. But his actions are not coercive or manipulative. Rather, he has come to give us joy and freedom, to make us more human, not less. He doesn’t ask us to become super- or even semi-human, but to bear fruit in accordance with God’s mission and purpose for us, so that, at the end, both the lover and the beloved become more human; more like God intended us to be. ‘You didn’t choose me, I chose you’, says Jesus in verse 16. And once we grasp the truth of God’s love and intentions for us, we find that loving one another is not a heavy yoke to bear, but, in humility and loyalty, the means to build life-giving relationships that honour God.Now, I would not suggest that we could ever do that perfectly in our own strength. Jesus doesn’t say that. What he does say, is that the disciples (and we) are his friends; that he has made known to them everything that he has heard from his Father, and has appointed them to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give them whatever they ask him in Jesus’ name. And Jesus is giving them these commands so that they may love one another, as brothers and sisters. I am reminded here also of another kind of love: of courtship and marriage. Some may say that that’s a bit old-fashioned. I think it’s as beautiful as it’s biblical: an image of the Lover calling the Beloved, who is to be his bride. Love points to God, reflects God, honours God. The love shared among Christians tells the story of God’s love for the world. When it is given freely, it is a testimony of a personal relationship of love and loyalty to the One who has loved us more than we can ever begin to imagine. It may be difficult to love one another; it may also be the first step towards a fuller humanity and freedom. Love one another. Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messageFifth Sunday of Easter John 15:1-8 Acts 8:26-endThere’s something to be said for slow roads. In the days of the early Church and for almost two thousand years after, the speed at which people travelled was determined by the power of a horse. Until the days of steam powered engines changed that. But in the record of Acts chapter 8, about Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch, slow travel meant that somebody could actually come up to a chariot and walk a little beside it, to capture what the person inside was saying. This meant that Philip, who had heard the man read aloud from the prophet Isaiah, could then explain what it was all about. A chance encounter? I think not. The fact that we have this episode in the story recorded would suggest otherwise, especially with the mention of the Spirit seemingly directing events. I love this story, not just for the encouragement it offers about the very ordinary ways in which the Good News of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed, but also because of what else we can glean about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.For that, I refer to the Gospel reading from John chapter 15: Jesus saying that he is ‘the true vine, and his Father is the vinegrower’ and he also says, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.’I confess here that I am a bit of a haphazard gardener. I enjoy being out in the garden and doing some work, but I’m not there every free moment and I’m certainly not an expert. I am one who doesn’t even know all the names of the plants that are in there, and who would refer to them as those ‘green and yellow leaves’ or ‘pretty edges and of a kind of deep green’. Well, that would narrow it down, wouldn’t it!But what Jesus is referring to here is that of an image that the people would be very familiar with and that explained something about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, and through him, with God.As even I would know, a plant needs to have roots, it needs to have a stem or a trunk, with branches with leaves etc. You know the drill.The most obvious thought here is of course that all the parts are connected. A branch without a stem will die. And in order to yield a good crop, sometimes the dead branches need to be cut back, or the flowers reduced. So far, that’s a pretty simple picture, that is not hard to understand. However, the image that Jesus would want for the people to really take in, is that of the absolute necessity of the branches drawing nutrition from the trunk or stem, so as to bear any fruit at all. In other words, you have to ‘remain’ or ‘abide’ in Christ, which means that you listen to his words and take them to heart – draw in as nourishment – in order to lead fruitful lives that honour God. How do we do that? Well, reading the Bible regularly, praying and meeting with other Christians and joining in worship are the obvious means to that end, as we also learn from the story in Acts 8. Philip knew the words of Isaiah; he had learned them through hearing and reading for a long time. Then, he had come to see them fulfilled in Jesus himself, so that he was now able to proclaim the Good News to the eunuch he had met. Philip was a branch that was bearing fruit, as he obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The story finishes with the baptism of the Ethiopian, who then ‘went on his way rejoicing’, while Philip was taken on to another place, where he could continue his mission. How extraordinary! And how beautiful it is that the ‘remaining’ and ‘abiding’ in Jesus equips us for moments of the Spirit. It may be a bit of work but then a beautiful garden doesn’t happen overnight, as I will readily admit! Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messageFourth Sunday of Easter John 10:11-18 Acts 4:5-12The Good ShepherdThe first thing I thought of when I read John’s gospel reading was Psalm 23. Of course, you’d say, there’s none more famous than this Psalm, when it comes to the image of the Lord as shepherd. And my second thought was, ‘now where’s my little sheep?’ You know, the one I ‘crafted’ last year when we came to this subject. Thankfully, it’s still here; I found it hiding behind my computer…Of course, when we talk about sheep, we talk about their shepherd – or their lack of one – and when we talk about a shepherd, we also think of sheep. The two images go together.When I was staying in my Mum’s house earlier this year, during her illness and after her death, the view from that place was still that orchard and the flourmill beyond, with the church in the distance, as I’d known it. A quintessential, typically Dutch village. And it was easy to remember the times when I had seen the orchard full of sheep, grazing in summer, as their shepherd had directed them. The picture was idyllic and beautiful, but also down to earth. After all, sheep must eat, and a village orchard benefits from them in another way…Psalm 23 is a reflection of what it means to have the Lord as our Shepherd. And in today’s reading from John 10, Jesus confirms that he is that One, Good Shepherd, whom God had promised since the prophets, like Isaiah chapter 40. But there’s something about the Good Shepherd that isn’t always easy to grasp. For we know him, Jesus says, because he lays down his life for the sheep. Anybody else, pretending to be their shepherd, is only interested in personal gain, and doesn’t really care for the sheep. At the first sign of danger, the sheep are abandoned and left to the approaching predator, who snatches and scatters them. Jesus, on the other hand, is the One, who, according to God’s plan, looks after his people in a way that is nurturing and life-giving, precisely because he is to lay down his life for them. And not only that: he has power to lay down his life, and he has power to take it up again; as God the Father has commanded. You see, God has a plan! A plan to save humankind from the darkness of the valley of death; to guide us in paths of righteousness; to comfort us, and prepare us a meal, even! The plan is to give us life, and life to the full. That means that although things may often look bleak, and we are confused and confounded by suffering, well, frankly, as it has looked for over a year at a global level during a pandemic, we still have hope. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus himself goes before us; his rod and staff are symbols of comfort, for we know that Jesus uses them to guide and protect us. And he is calling other sheep to follow him and enter into the fold. In other words, to listen to Jesus and accept his word and his work, so that they too may have life. If we are still doubting: Jesus has given proof of being the Good Shepherd by carrying out God’s plan of salvation. He has laid down his life and he has taken it up again, according to the Father’s command. We may not fully understand it. We may find it difficult to accept something that science has not explained. God’s plan and God’s love are often inexplicable. But that doesn’t make them less true. They are a gift for all who long to receive and are listening to Jesus’ voice. The voice of the Good Shepherd is the one who brings us truly home. A prayer by Thomas ‘a Kempis:Dear Lord and God! O Holy One, O Lover of my soul! When you come to my heart, all that is within me will leap up for joy. You are my glory, the rejoicing of my heart. You are my hope and my refuge in my hour of peril. Yet I am still weak in love, imperfect in goodness, and I need your strength and comfort. So visit me often and teach me by your holy discipline; free me from evil passions, and cure my heart of all its undisciplined emotions; then I shall be healthy and clean within, made fit for loving, strong for suffering, steadfast for enduring. Amen.
A reflection for Easter Sunday with Revd Nick Williams.Click here to view the video message
