Love is all you need?This Beatles song summed up the philosophy of the generation that most of us grew up in. It was a hope, an aspiration for the world that we believed could be realised by turning our backs on everything that divided us, including our notions of God.As John Lennon sang ‘Imagine there’s no heaven’. Religion for many of us represented all that was worst in human societies, bigotry, intolerance, and division, and yet at the centre of Christ’s teaching is the commandment to love God and your neighbour as yourself.Last year the Church of England encouraged churches to study a booklet ‘Living in Love and Faith’, setting out the arguments for and against the blessing of same-sex unions in church. Opinions are sharply divided, as you will know within the Anglican church, between those who take a conservative approach and a more liberal understanding of scriptural teaching. It all depends on how you define ‘Love’The Great CommandmentJesus of all the great religious teachers put a priority on love above all other scriptural commandments, even the strict prohibition of working on the Sabbath. In doing so he sets a precedent for questioning all the other interpretations of scriptural teaching in the light of the commandment to love.The challenge set by the religious lawyer was to prioritise the commandments:“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Mark 12: 28.This was a trap, beloved of lawyers designed to force Jesus into taking a position that would antagonise and divide. There were so many binding commandments that to prioritise one over another would lead to a heated argument.Onr Rabbi challenged to the same test answered:“What you hate for yourself do not do to your neighbour, that is the whole of the law, the rest is commentary” Rabbi GamielNotice how Jesus’ reply differs from this:“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Mark 12: 29He starts with God and not the neighbour. Love, then, is to be defined not by human love but by divine love. We cannot take human love as the measure because, as Joh writes in his epistle to the Church:‘Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God’ 1 John 4:7Divine Love – Unity in diversityWhat then is the love that defines God, the love that makes him one?First, God’s love is a shared love, a love that embraces three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It would follow that if love is to hold us together in unity it must embrace all types and conditions of men and women.There can be no one outside the love of God. That is why Jesus had no time for the divisions of race, culture or status. The unity in diversity of the God of love questions the basis of any discrimination either by race, gender, or sexuality.Divine Love – Unity in PurposeThe wide embrace of God’s love is however single-minded in its purpose for it exposes the fallibility and compromises of human cultures and traditions as we see so often in the gospel accounts of Jesus' teaching and ministry.Human love is to be defined not by the standards or laws of society but by God’s love for us. In Jesus Christ, we see God’s undivided love for us. Through his Son, he loves us with all his heart, with all his Soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength, so that he might restore a world in rebellion against its creator and at war with itself.Divided Love?Because Jesus defined love in this way he often came into conflict not only with the religious authorities but the Roman authorities. Mark, in this chapter, gives us three examples of the choices and challenges of loving God with the same undivided love as he loves us.The parable of the Tenants and the Vineyard owner, speaks of rebellion against God’s love. The paying of taxes to Ceasar, speaks of loyalty to human authorities and loyalty to God. Finally, in the question about Marriage, he speaks about the difference between relationships on earth and those in heaven.In all these situations Divine love challenges human priorities and preferences. There are times and places where we must choose between what we believe God has called us to do and the pressures of power, wealth or social acceptability.Love your neighbour as yourselfYou will notice that the second commandment is not phrased as a negative but a positive. Loving your neighbour is not about refraining from harming others, but about actively seeking their welfare, whether they be friend or foe. Whatever our differences we are to act towards our neighbour out of love.On both sides of the argument on same-sex relationships, there is a real need to lay down personal agendas and seek the welfare of the whole Church and indeed the whole of humanity.Love is not all you needLove requires a definition, a direction and a distinctiveness that is Christian.The definition of love is seen in the unity of God who is three persons embracing all in one.The direction of love is seen in the obedience of Christ who chose to challenge the priorities, and prejudices of human societies in rebellion against God.The distinctiveness of love requires that we love not out of selfish ambition but out of love for those who disagree with us.The distinctive architecture of Byzantine churches illustrates these points.They are topped by a single dome to symbolise the unity of God, Three smaller domes usually surround them to represent the diversity of the Godhead, and they are open to the sky so that the light of the Holy Spirit can shine into our hearts.Inside there is a large communal space, without pews or chairs so that all gather together in a space shared by all.
I continue this week with my North Macedonian odyssey travelling from one end of the country to the other to see the wonderful Byzantine churches and the stunning wall art.One of the puzzles of this wall art that surprised us was the defacing, or more specifically, the removal of the eyes from some of the saints that adorn the lower parts of the wall, and within easy reach of anyone with a knife.We assumed it must be the work of the Ottomans, whose Empire engulfed Serbia and Greece and brought to an end the Byzantine Empire. Many churches were destroyed, and in some cases, wall art was whitewashed over. However, our guide told us, it is more likely that the eyes were removed, not by the Muslim faithful but by the Christian faithful!Why would Christians remove the eyes of the saints? The answer appears to be that the faithful believed that the saint's eyes had special powers, powers of spiritual insight, and physical vision.This was not then the work of idle vandals but deeply religious if misled, Orthodox Christians.The Orthodox Church understood that all light and vision emanated from God who created it, thus sight and spiritual vision was a gift of God. The eyes of the saints are always painted a deep black to make the point that the light came not from them but from God.It is also true to say that knowledge of God was impossible without ‘revelation’, that is, God himself who is unknowable, must reveal himself to us, he cannot be found by reason or science. He can however be found through faith and it is by faith we ‘see’ God, or more accurately, the God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ. We might call this ‘spiritual sight’ and it is this spiritual sight the Orthodox Church valued above physical sight. It was the sight with which the faithful interpreted the mysteries contained within the Icon or in this case the wall paintings. The significance of ‘Blind Bartimaeus’ The wall paintings of the Byzantine churches are arranged in tiers, with the saints at the bottom and above them the stories of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Above that are the gospel stories, starting with the Nativity and culminating in the Resurrection above the Altar. Amongst the stories most often depicted is the story of ‘Blind Bartimaeus’. It is a story that speaks powerfully to an Orthodox understanding of ‘Sight’.Blind Bartimaeus is ignored, and Mark tells us ‘Rebuked’. The disciples see him as a nuisance and are angered because they believe that he is distracting Jesus from his path, and yet it is Bartimaeus who, despite their blindness and stupidity, ‘sees’ his real identity:“Jesus Son of David”, have mercy on me” Mark 10: 47This is the messianic title of Jesus that is revealed only to Peter. Mark makes the point that though Bartimaeus is blind, he is given the gift of spiritual sight. Not only does he recognise who Jesus is but he understands what Jesus has come to do – “Have mercy on me” Unlike the disciples, he is not clamoring for status and power but for mercy and grace.Mark shows Bartimaeus to be the one person who truly sees though he is blind! He is not the victim in this story but the one who teaches us.When we look back at this chapter we begin to see what Mark is saying:When Jesus explains to them what it will mean to be ‘Messiah’ they do not understand his mission of sacrificial service.When Jesus asks them what they want him to do for them James and John respond by asking for power and glory, but as Orthodox doctrine emphasised the authority of the saints came not for them to exercise power, but to serve others.The disciples follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem because they believe he is about to be crowned King. Along the way they push aside the weak and the lame, the children and the disadvantaged the very people Jesus says show us what his kingdom is about. The disciples clearly had not understood Jesus!Clearly, they have not understood anything, but Bartimaeus does and so do the children.It is these ‘little people’ who Jesus calls to him because they model for us what faith looks like as it reaches out to Jesus. The Church over the centuries has, at times, just like the disciples, failed to recognise in the weak and powerless its own need for mercy and grace.If we are to follow Jesus in the Way we must recognise our need:First then our blindness to others. As Bartimaeus shows us, faith in the Messiah is seen most clearly in the suffering and weak rather than in the powerful. It is suggested in the Acts of Apostles that Paul himself had weak sight, and it is this very weakness that Paul says is the source of his strength“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Corinthians 12:9The gift of the Messiah is not power and glory as James and John thought, but restoration and healing of body and soul so that we can serve others.If we are to follow Jesus in the Way we must respond to his call:Secondly our blindness to God. As soon as Bartimaeus responds to Jesus’ call he receives his sight. It appears that the gift of faith depends not on intellect but on our response to God’s call on us to recognise our need for grace and mercy. Paul recognised this need in his struggles, and indeed through his loss of sight.“ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in you” 2 Corinthians 4:11The light by which we see.It appears so counterintuitive to see the world in this way, clearly, the disciples didn’t understand Jesus and it is arguable that the church too, over its history, has failed to understand Jesus.We still overlook our own need for mercy and grace, our own blindness to God and others, and fail to ‘See’, in the Jesus we follow with Bartimaeus and Paul, the help we need to see the world in a new way.CS Lewis put it like this:“I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”We do not need to remove the eyes of the saints to see the light but we do need the light of God to open our own eyes!A prayer for peace in the Holy Land.O God of all justice and peace we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and traumaof violence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land.Be with those who need you in these days of suffering; we pray for people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims, and Christians and for all people of the land.While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace,we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples.Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children for, to all of us, you are our Heavenly Father.In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
The creation account in Genesis tells the story of how God formed the creatures of the earth, brought them to mankind, and waited to see what he would name them. ‘Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. Genesis 2:19-20.This speaks of a profound relationship between humans and the animal kingdom from the beginning. Cave art from 40,000 years ago depicts this relationship, a two-way relationship in which mankind often took on the characteristics of animals, and animals took on the characteristics of humanity.We can see this in early Christian mosaics from the ancient Greek city of Heraclea in what is now North Macedonia, which I was fortunate to visit last week on one of Lucy Abel Smith’s fabled ‘Reality and Beyond’ tours. The location of the city is significant as it lies on an important east-west trade route that St Paul would have used in his mission to the Macedonians. Acts 16:9.‘During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing a begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”It is possible that St Paul visited the city and founded the church there, as by the fourth century it was an important episcopal centre. In the remains of the great Basilica were uncovered these remarkable mosaics depicting the Biblical narrative of ‘salvation’ not through the drama of human characters but through the drama of the animal kingdom.The lion representing nobility and courage, the deer representing the martyr’s faithfulness unto death, and The dove representing peace and prosperity, also from the pagan myths Cerberus, the monstrous watchdog of the underworld chained by Christ to the tree that represents his Cross.The plant world tells the same story. The tree from the Garden of Eden speaks of God’s provision, the barren fig tree that Jesus cursed speaks of humanity's faithlessness, and the Pomegranate tree whose fruitfulness speaks of life in all its fullness.The animal and plant worlds are then intimately linked to our world binding us into a relationship of mutual dependence. Today we celebrate our pets not just because we love them but because God loves them and has given them to us to care for as they care for us.Today, in Mark’s account of Jesus’ meeting with the ‘rich young man’ it is the camel who tells the story of his dilemma.‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!’ Mark 10:23The rich young man in our story was an observant Jew, religiously obeying to the letter the laws of Moses with all their many prohibitions and conditions. The unintended consequences of this rigorous legalism were that you had to be rich to be an observant Jew, and the poor were unintentionally excluded from the observance of the law and therefore, as we see in the New Testament classed as ‘Sinners’. Certain trades, such as leather workers and tax collectors could not be considered faithful Jews, even the poor and the disabled were considered to be outside the Law because they could not participate fully in the many provisions that the Law demanded.So our Rich young man was an observant Jew, yet it is clear that he felt that he lacked something necessary for Salvation. When challenged by Jesus on his observance of the Law he said, with complete honesty.“Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth” Mark 10: 20.Jesus knew that he was sincere. Often in the Gospels, we are told what Jesus said to people, not the way in which he looked at them, or the emotions that crossed his face. But here we have a glimpse into the face of Jesus which helps us to capture the mood and the drama of the whole scene.To begin with, when the young man declares that he’s kept all the commandments, ‘Jesus looked hard at him and loved him’. Mark 10:21The camel and the eye of the needle is thought to refer to the gate in the walls of Jerusalem through which traders would have to enter after all the other gates had been closed at night. To pass through this gate the camel had to be unloaded and the camel would have to kneel down in order to pass through. All this required a relationship of trust, if not love between camel and master. The camel an intelligent animal but notoriously stubborn would not do this unless there was a relationship of complete trust.This helps us to understand the young man’s issue, first his burden and then his pride. His burden was his riches and his pride was his dependence on them. Without his riches he saw himself as naked and defenseless, with his riches he saw himself as independent and powerful.What Jesus was offering was love and what he was asking of the rich young man was trust, the same relationship as between camel and master. Only where there is a relationship of love and trust can we unburden ourselves of the things that weigh us down. Only the security of God’s love gives us the peace of mind that neither riches nor status offer.God’s Kingdom is all about a new creation in which the rules of the world no longer apply. In his Kingdom you can’t push your way in by trying a bit harder, by making a bit more money, by impressing the world with good deeds, or great moral achievements, all these means of achieving status in the world have the unintended consequence of making it impossible to accept that God’s gift to us depends not on our efforts but God’s goodness.As seen in the mosaic at Heraclea we live in a world in which humanity lives in a state of dependency on God’s provision for his needs both physical and spiritual. Now God, in Jesus is doing a new thing, a ‘New Creation’ in which all are equally dependent on God’s goodness. There can be no advantages in being rich or powerful, and no disadvantage in being poor or disadvantaged. The only way to God’s heart is by receiving with faith his gift of undeserved love.Who was the Rich young man?Some commentators have speculated that the rich young man was Paul, it’s a fanciful idea but contains a truth. He tells us that he abandoned all his pride in his upbringing, training, and heritage, to gain the Messiah.“Of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrew, as of the Law a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteous under the Law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ... Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”Paul had discovered the unexpected benefits of being poor!“ We are treated as being impostors and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known, as dying, and yet behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” 2 Corinthians 6: 8-10“After all, he says Jesus loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20These were the riches that the young man desired and yet could not find in status or power or wealth.Maybe, just maybe it was this rich young man who later came to true riches in Christ.Just as Jesus looked into that young man’s heart and ‘Loved him’ Mark 10: 21He looks into our hearts and sees our deepest desires seeking in us the same love that “costing not less than everything” TS ElliotOur pets too speak to us of a relationship of love and trust and remind us that we are loved and can rest secure in that love forever. A prayer for peace in the Holy Land.O God of all justice and peace we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and traumaof violence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land.Be with those who need you in these days of suffering; we pray for people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims, and Christians and for all people of the land.While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace,we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples.Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children for, to all of us, you are our Heavenly Father.In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
There may be nothing so boring as speaking about your grandchildren, but I’m going to!When our first grandchild Isabella known to us as ‘Bella the beautiful’ celebrated her first birthday guess what she got from her mum and dad. Well, it seemed a bit strange to me but they gave her a pram! A bit young for that isn’t it, I thought, well I think really it’s a baby walker disguised as a pram!However, there is a serious side to this because, from the very earliest age, Bella is learning how to be an adult using toys. A child sees the world and comes to terms with all its complexities by using anything they can lay their hands on to make their own little world and reimagine ours. They have so much to teach us about the world of Jesus because that’s what he was doing in his parables of the ‘The kingdom of Heaven’My own little worldChild psychologists tell us that play is an essential part of a child’s development, not just an idle amusement because play enables the child to imagine, explore, and experiment with the world around them. Do you remember the thrill of your first train set or your first doll’s house? How real that world was, how excited you were to create your own little version of the world around you. A child can use anything, a dustbin can become a spaceship, a cardboard box, or a sailing boat, it just doesn’t matter because the child can see the endless possibilities in every object they find.Reimagining the worldJesus, then, asks us to enter into the mind of a child, to become like a child able to imagine the world as we would like it to be. ‘The Kingdom of heaven’ is the world that Jesus imagined, a world in which we would live in peace and harmony with each other, not an Edenic paradise, but a real world where we fail and fall short, but are forgiven. A world where love replaces law, and service replaces slavery. This was the kind of world imagined by the artist Henri Rousseau. His Jungle paintings, inspired by children’s picture books take us into ‘The Kingdom of heaven’ as he imagined it. It is a world without humans, maybe because he thought the world would be better off without us, but it is not a world without suffering. ‘Nature raw in tooth and claw’ is how he saw it, but innocent of the conventions and culture of the world he knew.As an artist, Rousseau himself was innocent of the conventions and culture of the established art world. As a self-taught artist who began painting at the age of 49, he stood outside the art world, but no one less than Picasso, who discovered one of his paintings at a street market recognised Rousseau’s genius and went to meet him. In 1908 Picasso held a half-serious banquet in his studio in Rousseau’s honour attended by eminent poets, painters, and writers of the period. Although never celebrated by the art establishment he is credited with inspiring many other artist movements that broke with convention, among them ‘Surrealism’ and ‘Fauves’.The world of JesusJesus was and is a child at heart. His teaching was always with stories and often with objects that were to hand. A seed, a flower, a handful of sand, and always with the words: “This is what the kingdom of heaven is like”. He invites us to enter his world and become like a child again, imagining with him what the world could be like. Today he invites us to welcome into our lives the child that is in us, for to welcome that child is to welcome him, and to welcome him is to welcome the God who can reshape our imagination and our lives.“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” Mark 9: 37.The world of powerSo we are urged to become endlessly creative, not just like a child but like God. How sad that today children are pushed into the harsh adult world of competition and testing so early that they lose the opportunity to play. It was this adult world that stunted the imaginations of the disciples and led them to argue about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It was this adult world that focused on control rather than compassion, power rather than play, and ideology rather than imagination. This was the game the religious leaders of the day wanted to play. They refused to imagine a world where they were not in control or to play with the possibility of a different world where peace, justice, delight, and compassion might shape their lives.The wisdom of the childJames calls this ‘child’s play’, Wisdom. It comes from the humility that recognises that submission to God is the fertile soil where the fruit of the Spirit can grow: ‘Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness’ James 3:18. To submit to God is to imagine another world where negative feelings are replaced by positive thoughts and a new future for the church and the world becomes not just ‘child’s play’ but reality.
