3. Thy kingdom comeMark 4: 26-34 New Revised Standard VersionThe Parable of the Growing Seed26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”The Parable of the Mustard Seed30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”There’s a traditional rhyme which begins, “For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of the shoe the horse was lost…” the rhyme goes on to tell how the kingdom was lost because of the lack of the horse in the army that would have made all the difference in the crucial battle. One nail missing, and a kingdom is overthrown, the poem expresses the same conventional wisdom as the saying, “Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.” These sayings warn people not to look only for the big issues, but to keep an eye on the small things in life.Jesus too recommends that we look carefully at the small things of life, but for a different reason. For Jesus, paying attention to the small things is not a way to keep a grip on money, or to make sure that we win wars. Rather it is because it is in the little things that we can see God’s kingdom.The kingdom of God starts very small. That is the essence of the two parables Jesus tells in this mornings Gospel reading. The kingdom is like seed scattered on the ground which is tiny to start with, and appears to do nothing at first. But eventually, if the farmer is patient, it grows into a substantial harvest. Or the kingdom is like an acorn, which disappears into the ground but, given time and patience, grows into an enormous tree.These are familiar parables, so familiar that perhaps we forget the shock which they might have been greeted by Jesus’ first listeners. Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, the rule of God. What would we expect the rule of God to look like? Where would we look for it? In our time we are not use to being ruled by an absolute monarch, but the people of Jesus’ day were. Their king was Caesar, the Roman emperor, ruling from distant Rome through his governors, with efficient authority. Caesar was the equivalent of a god, and indeed at some times was worshipped as a god. His power was absolute, and obedience was demanded. His presence was attended by much pomp and ceremony. He lived in luxurious palaces, and enjoyed rich food and fine wine from gold vessels. The people of Jesus’ day knew what a kingdom looked like. It was big and grand and powerful. And if that was true of an earthly kingdom, how much more true would it be of the kingdom of God? When the ruler of the universe came to reign on earth, how grand and terrible his reign would be. He would be heralded by a multitude of angels, accompanied by flames of fire and crashes of thunder. The earth and sky would shake and God would appear on the clouds, too splendid to look at.So Jesus’ parables of the kingdom come as something of a surprise. The kingdom about which Jesus speaks is altogether quieter, and smaller. It sneaks up on you like a thief in the night; it lies dormant in the ground waiting for a tiny sprout; it hides in ordinary working folk, farmers, shepherds, fishermen, housewives, as they go about their everyday business. God’s reign is present everywhere, hidden, tiny, ordinary. It doesn’t arrive with thunder and lightning for all to see. If you want to find it you have to look, very carefully and very closely, at the little things.We live in a world that is fixed on size and success. Businesses have targets for growth. The growth of the national economy is carefully encouraged. Much of our world is ruled by huge multinational conglomerates. Churches are anxious about declining attendances. In the midst of this, Jesus’ words encourage us to look for God at work in the little things; small acts of love and generosity that grow into warmth and community; the everyday kindness of people who serve others. Small groups of faithful people whose prayers spread over their neighbourhood. Sunshine and rainbows, buttercups and sparrows, small signs of God’s creative will.It takes commitment and patience to see in these things signs of God’s reign. But it matters that we do. God’s kingdom will come, Jesus said, but it is also already here. It is the task of his people to look for the signs, and to nurture them, until the whole world see’s God’s glory and God’s love. Amen
St Catherine’s Church, BurbageFriday 22 May 2020Reflection for Morning Prayer“Hallowed be thy name”Isaiah 6: 1-86 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said:“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory.”4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”ReflectionParts of the Bible have experienced the Hollywood treatment by various cinematographers and directors, like Cecil B. DeMille and Ridley Scott. We have seen vivid recreations of ‘Noah’s Flood’, Moses and the ‘Parting of the Red Sea’, and ‘Samson and Delilah’, otherwise known as the most expensive haircut in history. Presentations of the life and times of Jesus Christ are firm favourites, though seldom do they appear on British television channels today, except, perhaps, at Easter time.Holy Scripture includes other events, which lend themselves wonderfully to large scale visual recreations. You have just heard one of them, a passage from Isaiah. It is glorious, isn’t it; you can almost imagine it in your mind’s eye. It recalls an occasion at the time when King Uzziah of Judah died, most likely in the middle of the eighth century BC. Isaiah came to the Temple, where he was met with something a little out of the ordinary, certainly something that would have made you think twice at any rate. Isaiah had a vision of the Lord in that space, which was filled with smoke, and God was accompanied by angelic winged-beings, seraphs, who sang out a hymn “Holy, holy, holy”, a hymn we repeat today in church in a modified form. We are told that the whole space was filled with the sight; the hem of the robe filled the Temple, which gives you an idea of the scale. The pivots of the thresholds shook because of the voices of heaven.This is clearly an extraordinary and unique event, one to be remembered and to be recorded. It reveals something of God. It shows something of the majesty of God, the wonder of God, the mystery of God and the greatness of God. It shows something of the ‘specialness’ of God. This occurrence marks out God as a god worthy of praise and thanksgiving. Something ‘holy’, just as the seraphs’ hymn reinforce.The word ‘holy’ is a very difficult one to define; once you start to get a grip on it, the definition then slips through your fingers, unhelpfully. Some words which are used to explain the term ‘holy’ include special, sacred, right and pure. Indeed, the word ‘holy’ marks out a God who is God above all gods.And this word ‘holy’ relates to another in the phrase ‘Hallowed be thy name’, a line from the ‘Our Father’ that we are thinking about today. The word ‘hallowed’ is related to holy. In other words, to ‘revere’ to ‘honour’ that special and sacred name. To reverence that glorious name of the Father which is above every other name. It teaches us to treat God, and his name, with the respect he deserves and not to be too ‘chummy’. But how to remember the ‘specialness’ of God; how to remember the ‘sacredness’, or ‘holiness’ of God, is a question worth keeping in mind. This is where worship plays a part, though sadly beyond our reach at present. Although Anglo-Catholic liturgy is sometimes criticised as being old fashioned by many in the church today, there is something about it that promotes the holiness of God, and a reminder that God is great, huge, enormous . . . better still, is very much the Almighty. The use of singing, the utilisation of incense, and the physicality of the sacred space, all contribute to that point and that is that the name of God is to be ‘hallowed’, or revered. Throughout history, churches have tried to achieve this and succeeded to greater or lesser extents. The Medieval church conducted it with aplomb, coming unstuck at the Reformation. In England, under the reign of Charles I in the seventeenth century, greater ritual was employed. And in the nineteenth century, the Anglo-Catholics, but also the ascending Roman Catholics, brought a sense of God’s majesty and awe into some of the most bleak and deprived parts of this country. This all went hand-in-hand with their endeavours to bring social justice to those communities dominated by those ‘dark Satanic mills.’So, that phrase in the Lord’s Prayer speaks of the great and holy God, whose name should indeed be revered. God is special and worthy of our honour. Isaiah’s encounter with God was dramatic to be sure. Our encounters with the holy God maybe very different. Who knows, you might receive a vision of clouds of smoke and singing cherubs in St Catherine’s. But whether our encounters be grand, or quieter affairs, be ready to respond as Isaiah did: “Here am I; send me.”
Thy Kingdom Come’ on Ascension Day, Thursday 21 May: ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’The Ascension Reading: A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 1.1-11In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ReflectionAscension Day marks the first day of Thy Kingdom Come – an annual invitation to prayer called by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Lasting for eleven days, the focus is specific prayer in churches, households and as individuals for friends, families, communities and countries to come to know the saving love of God in Jesus Christ, and for ourselves that empowered by God’s Spirit we would grow in confidence to show and tell of God’s love. This year the focus is Prayer and Care particularly in view of the time in which we find ourselves, when our church buildings and other public buildings are closed and many people are feeling the strain of isolation and physical distancing.From now until Pentecost, during our Morning Prayer Zoom sessions, our short Reflections will be considering the Lord’s Prayer line by line. So today, we think about ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’. We are reminded that we are part of a family which extends through earth and heaven – the community of the Church. Isolation and loneliness are epidemics in our modern world. The more we are connected, the more alone we can feel. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us daily that we are not alone in the universe. We are called into a deep relationship with our Father in heaven. We are called into a meaningful community: a universal fellowship.Today especially, we are reminded of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Having completed his Father’s mission on earth, he was taken up to be reunited with His Father, to sit at His right hand, far above all earthly rule and authority. Today, like the disciples in the Acts 1, we can wait and pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us to be Jesus’ witnesses to our family, our friends and in our Parish community. May each of us be willing to ask God how we can share the love of our Father in Heaven with the people we know.AmenMary Tynan
JESUS AND THE BELOVED DISCIPLEGospel of St. John Ch.21 vs20-23As I have often said before, “we do not know a lot about this man”. Well, we do know quite a lot about Jesus through the Gospel of John, the Revelation to John and the three letters ascribed to his name, but who was John? According to the other Gospels, John was the brother of James who were the sons of Zebedee. Jesus referred to the brothers as "sons of thunder” so they were obviously dynamic followers from the start of his ministry. It is thought that John was perhaps the only disciple to die a natural death and most probably in forced exile on the island of Patmos. It was on this island that he received his Revelation, which is perhaps the most neglected book of the New Testament, but one that contains many jewels to help us with our faith. The Gospel of John refers to the very special loving bond that a disciple had with Jesus and it is assumed that the author is that disciple. John and his brother James were evidently very close to Jesus and this brought about some jealousy amongst the disciples, as was evident when their mother asks that they might sit one at his right hand and one at his left when Jesus comes into his kingdom. (Matthew 20 v20-28) Although Jesus rebukes them and tells all of them that it is his Father who will reward them accordingly. Christ's mission on earth is not to apportion people's rewards but to suffer for their salvation. This very end of John's Gospel in an appendix that was probably added after the text was originally finalised at the end of Chapter 20, is another reiteration by John of his closeness to Jesus and perhaps a clarification of his long life. Perhaps he still felt slightly hurt that his fellow disciples were jealous of his closeness to Jesus and uses words of the resurrected Jesus to rebuke them. However, the most important and shortest sentence in this passage is what Jesus wanted us all to do when he said. “Follow me!”This passage made me think about friendship and how important friends are to us. Having a close friend is important to all of us. For some of us that is our partner, or perhaps someone we have known for a long time. A true friend is someone who we know we can trust with confidences, someone who we can explain our faults and frailties to without feeling that we are being judged or condemned. A true friend is also someone who can bring their joys and griefs to you and expect them to be respected in confidence.I am very fortunate in having a wife I love and who is my best friend I then have family, and I have several other close friends who know me well. I then have friends I know through Church and other organisations, and then I have acquaintances. Having been a member of the clergy for 34 years the number of people who “know” me is probably enormous. Truly close friends have to be few in number and they may change in time, but they are friends who I treasure greatly and hopefully they reciprocate the feeling. One inevitability of getting older is that we lose friends through their death and through isolation, through illness or disability. The loss of a close friend or partner is devastating, it is almost as though a part of us has died – that is true love and only God can heal such pain. Jesus was a man as well as being the Son of God and true friends were precious to him. When I was preaching about Peter and John running to the empty tomb some weeks ago, I said that my instinct tells me that John was an introverted man. I still hold to that and think that his closeness to Jesus was because of that thoughtfulness and ability to empathise with him. The pain John must have felt when he watched Jesus die on the cross is unimaginable, but his pain was healed when he saw the resurrected and glorified Christ.In the farewell discourses at the last supper, John emphasises the words of Jesus “I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father”. (John 15 v15) We are indeed friends of Jesus and that is the most special of all friendships, but it has to be a two-way friendship. I don't think our best friends would be best friends for very long if we kept forgetting, or even worse, betrayed them. Our friendship with Jesus must always be sacred. He loves you - love him and do his will – FOLLOW HIM. Amen.Fr. Terry
