John 17: 1-11

Jottings on John…Easter 7… Revised 2020 

My class of theologs is shocked to hear a usually deadly dull lecturer say “Your prayers don’t go past this ceiling!”. When we realise what he means, we think, well, all is not quite lost after all! 

The second relates to a young woman whose marriage is suddenly broken off by her fiance. She speaks with me after the bombshell is dropped. Clearly in a state of shock, she says to me, “Fr. Brian, I’ve been praying to myself often about this, but I’m not getting an answer!” Do we see a problem here?

Apart from His teaching us to pray the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ here we have Jesus’ most important teaching on prayer. What seems important is that we take on board the example Jesus Himself  praying shows us here.

John features ‘glory’ Big Time. Not least in seeing Jesus’ death on the cross as His being glorified & God being glorified in Him. Now, 6 times in these few verses, Jesus uses forms of the word ‘glory’. Here we are privileged to watch & hear Jesus the Christ praying. In the closest communion with God a human being has ever been, can ever be. Letting us in on the inside to watch & hear Himself praying in a unique level of communion; of at-one-ness. With God, the Source of His being & ours.

Jesus is holding out to us the possibility of becoming so close to God, having, dare I say, an ‘insider’s view’ of God’ - we can hold the kind of conversation with God that Jesus does. Have the same quality of relationship with God. Are we, any of us, thinking, if not saying, ‘In your dreams!’? 

If so, can we grasp we’re on the Way to becoming so close to God we can experience such a relationship & not simply dream of it? No ceiling cutting off our prayers; no talking with oneself! 

Brian

Afterthought: Does our ceiling shut out, or open up to reveal new possibilities? Are we using ours to include or exclude? To exclude what is clearly evil is hard to quibble with, but what about when we are unclear? Who gets the benefit of the doubt? In the Scriptures we often see Jesus giving the benefit of the doubt to a lot of people we might understand as a bit ‘iffy’ & keep on the outside rather than letting them in. If God in Christ & by Holy Spirit is prepared to accept a person as ‘iffy’ as I am, who am I to argue for keeping them out of the Kingdom of the ‘iffy’?  

JOHN 14: 15-21

Jottings on John…Easter 6…Revised 2020

At a Confirmation I hear the bishop encouraging the candidates, all teen-agers, to be not just ‘good joiners’, but ‘good stickers’, too! That still sticks with me! Reminding me that the Paraclete, the Spirit Jesus calls to our side, not only joins us on our journey, but sticks with us.

‘Stickability’ doesn’t get onto the normal lists of ‘gifts of the Spirit’. It’s a great gift, though! Right up there with all those others Paul lists! God expects us to have stick-ability! 

Because God Himself is a Sticker. In the Person of Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, God is always at our side, come what may. ‘Paraclete’, ‘called to the side of’, &, keeping us ‘sticking’ is my preferred understanding of Holy Spirit since I hear that bishop put it that way that day.

Our Paraclete enables us to walk the Jesus Way, be as True as Jesus is, & Live out that Way & that Truth Jesus is as He sticks by our side in the ups & down & ins & outs of our humanity. Through thick & thin, there by our side is God in the Person of our Paraclete. Making God real for us & those among whom we live & serve. As       + Rowan Williams puts it: ‘…all that God does is done by the whole Trinity equally’¹ 

Today, Christianity, & God with it, is well & truly on the skids. Breaches of trust like abuse, inability, or disinterest in sharing the Gospel meaningfully at ‘ground level’, are turning our Churches from living, organisms of the Body of Christ into organisat-ions!

To let anybody, or anything distract us from our calling to Walk the Jesus Way, Live the Jesus Life, & be the Jesus Truth calls our personal stickability into question.

Recognising the Paraclete walking beside us, empowers us to walk beside others & stick with them as their ‘small p’  paraclete' by their side.

Brian

Afterthought : Among those who appreciate Celtic input, ‘anamchara’ may resonate-  a soul-friend who walks by our side & sticks with us through thick & thin come what may.  

¹ The Dwelling of the Light, John Garratt, Mulgrave, 2003, p.49

JOHN 14: 1-14

Jottings on John…Easter 5…Revised 2020

Years ago my wife & I land at Dublin airport, pick up a car, & head towards the B & B we’ve booked to stay in. We have clear directions: down the highway, turn off at such & such a road, then turn left at the pub on the next corner. Do you think we can find that, ‘pub on the next corner’? No way! 

Three times we re-drive that stretch with no success. We spot an elderly gent beside the road, so we pull over, & ask if he can direct us. He says, “Sure & the pub’s just up there a wee bit, on the corner.” We say, “It may be up there on the corner, but we can’t find it!” Our old gent simply says, “I’ll come with you & show you the way!” 

So he hops into the car with us, & off we go; rather more than ‘a wee bit’! Our passenger suddenly says, “ Turn here”. So we turn where he says, & with a triumphant pointing of his finger, “There it is! Didn’t I tell you, now?” Would you believe we still can’t see this pub on the corner! But sure & it is there. Completely hidden by a hedge of trees so thick no-one who didn’t know it was there could possibly find it!

We thank our guide profusely. He says, “Goodbye to ye. I don’t suppose we’ll ever meet again in this world, but we’ll meet again one day in Heaven!” and off he goes.

What still strikes us though, is that our new Irish friend has the very essence of Gospel in his heart: “I’ll come with you & show you the way” is at the heart of today’s passage from JN. Can we perhaps recall other personal examples of being shown the way, have someone walk the Way with us, rather than just give us directions? Such personal stories resurrect Jesus’ offering Himself as the Way.

(If  you’re observing Mothers’ Day, you may think of our mothers (& fathers) as those who, hopefully, don’t just give us directions but walk the Way with us.)

Jesus does more than come with us & show us the way; Jesus Himself is the Way. He doesn’t beckon us from around corners, nor hide behind hedges; not anything like that. Jesus’ Way is an inner Way that leads us to become like Him. John often points to Jesus’ Signs. Jesus is Himself a package deal like no other!i

Brian

Afterthought: It was almost as hard to drop the car off at the airport as it was to pick it up! No one seemed too bothered to take it off our hands before we had to board our outbound flight. Do we shake our heads in puzzlement, or give thanks that there are more important things in life than taking possession of things - or people!

John 10:1-10

Jottings on John…Easter 4…Revised 2020

When I was a child, our local paper ran a weekly page for kids. One feature was a riddle column. One riddle it took me a long time to work out was, ‘When is a door not a door?’ A: ‘When it’s ajar!’ Victor Golyavkin¹ poses a different kind of door riddle; a poem by him called, ‘The Door’ runs, ‘This door had no hinges. And it had no handle. And it had no keyhole. And it wasn’t entirely a door…..’ That door was in fact serving as a bier for his dead father! 

The Easter stories make much of a locked tomb & locked doors. Perhaps we could see our passage as a riddle: ‘When is a door not a door?’ A: ‘When it’s a Good Shepherd!’ Jesus, the Raised Christ, refers to Himself as both Gate & Shepherd. He can only be both because He is resurrected! He is the Gate through whom we enter into the resurrected life of Christ’s flock, & be lovingly cared for in the course of our new raised life in that flock. Are His words also a warning to us that we will exclude ourselves from both if we persist in remaining on the wrong side of a locked door, & shunning the arms of the Good Shepherd? It is Christ’s being raised from the dead that raises us from the dead, too! It’s now & forever. Now or never!

 Whatever the answer, it has to be applicable now. Not in some future. The Essence of God, the Eternal “I AM”, is that God is always the God of Now. We’re to live as God’s people Now, or there’s no tomorrow! So, live in the Raised Christ / Good Shepherd now!

Human sheep stray. Like little Bo Peep’s. When that infamous shepherdess eventually goes looking for her lost sheep, ‘She spied their tails side by side, all hung on a tree to dry’. ‘She tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, to tack each tail back on its lambkin!’ Dare I add a verse that’s not LBP’s? ‘She tried super-glue, & blue-tack too, some wall-paper paste & then Clag, She tried tying & drilling but results were not thrilling, So her sheep still have nothing to wag!’

Christ’s Resurrection makes our own possible! In Him we have a Shepherd raised from death who’s also our door so let’s avail ourselves of the scope He offers! If we have a Door who’s also our shepherd, & the Good Shepherd at that, let’s take full advantage of the nurture He provides. Stray, & we have a lot more than our tails to lose! Stay, & we have a lot more than our tails to wag! 

Brian

Afterthought: Resurrection, Christ’s & through His, Ours, ties all the ends together. Without it religion can quickly become a series of loose ends leading off in all directions! To all sorts of destinations, many of them not helpful at all! Some of them dangerous, & in the end, extremely so!

JN 20: 19-31 

Jottings on John…2nd S. of Easter…Revised 2020 

How Jesus 'broke into' that room isn’t nearly as important as how you & I are broken out from behind any ‘locked doors’ we’re using as barricades right now. Think of them as anything we’re using to keep someone out of our life. Anything preventing God from being there for us, & our becoming the person God has always known we could become for Him. Jesus, resurrected from behind the great rock door of Joseph’s tomb, is our freedom, too; from behind whatever ‘locked doors’ are entombing us. 

‘Breaking & entering’ is a common crime these days. If ‘Cracks-people’ can break in to our lives to steal anything of value, why not imagine God as the Great ‘Cracks-Person’? But One who has only our well-being in mind! Breaking into Jesus’ tomb as He does; breaking Jesus out from death to new, raised life.. YHWH-God in Jesus & by His Spirit then breaks into the room the disciples have shut themselves up in, & breaks them out from behind their doubts & fears. What doubts & fears do you & I need to be broken out from today?

I.T. programmes we use are constantly offering us ‘up-dates’; ‘fixes’ for security issues to keep us a step ahead of those who would break into our world for dubious purposes. When God, though, breaks into our world it is always to keep our spirits & our defences up-dated. Against anyone or anything - including ourselves - threatening God’s intentions for us. What implications does this have for your life & mine?

In breaking into Jesus’ tomb, YHWH God breaks into Death itself! Turns the tables on Death so its power to hold Jesus, or any of us, is destroyed. If Jesus can be freed & raised to a quality of life called ‘Eternal’, & those first disciples with Him, so can we, today’s followers, be. God-qualities like Eternal Life are neither a history lesson, nor ‘Pie in the sky in the sweet by & by’! 

‘Eternal’ always embraces right now! Sure, we expect to be raised at that ‘Last Day’. But it would be foolish indeed to wait for ‘it’ till some time in the future when we can choose to be raised with Christ Today! The raised Christ of the first Easter means we can experience our own Easter, right now! Living in the new Eternal dimension of life God makes possible today! 

Brian

Afterthought: ‘No-one’, says JN, could 'write down all the signs in this book'. Some-one else, though, does add another chapter later! Easter is an opportunity, for us all to become new chapters of ‘the old, old, story’ by becoming an extension of it as we live out our own experiences of being raised by Jesus’ Spirit.

JOHN 9: 1-41

Jottings on John…Lent 4…Revised 2020

Are longish passages like this in the liturgy (as distinct from in studies) a ‘turn-off’ instead of the ‘switch on’ we hope they will be? David Lose, in a reflection on his former site ‘In the meantime’ , suggests reading only the Gospel that day; is this worth considering? 

Today’s passage centring on Jesus & Reuben (let’s give him a name & a face!) has me pondering Holy Spirit taking the initiative in the Lenten Gospels. Leading / driving (MK) Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. Next, leading Nicodemus to take it in secretly visiting Jesus by night. Then, leading Jesus to ask ‘Samara’ for a drink at Jacob’s well, giving Reuben his sight, & raising Lazarus. Jesus then sets in train the events of Palm Sunday, & lets the authorities take the initiative on the evening of Maundy Thursday, & in His being tried, condemned, & crucified on ‘Good’ Friday.

God takes back the initiative at Easter, but who’s taking the initiative in the events we’re hearing & preaching about today? Jesus, then ‘neighbours’, Reuben, some Pharisees, Reuben’s parents, Reuben again, who weathers abuse, & confesses faith in Jesus as Messiah. Pharisees try to re-take the initiative, but instead Jesus retakes the initiative that gives Reuben his physical & deep spiritual sight now. ‘Taking the initiative’ opens up a lot of preaching possibilities, does it not? 

Isn’t it odd that people who know Reuben well as a blind person, can’t - or won’t  - recognise him now he can see? Scene after scene builds up to make a real-life parable for us all. Are there people we know whom we define by their disabilities, short-comings, or perceived failure to meet some standard we set? Instead of seeing the possibilities of God taking the initiative in them & their - & our situations? 

Are our inner eyes wide open to the Deep Wisdom of God & initiatives God may want to take in our own lives, or, with His blessing, in someone else’s? Are we as aware, as Reuben becomes, that the Messianic age has come in Jesus? That that age isn’t something only to be looked forward to? Does that the raise the issue of letting God take the initiative in overcoming our human obsession with clocks & calendars. 

However we choose to preach this passage, how can we preach it as a matter of now rather than then! It is our story, in whatever form it takes, as well as Reuben’s?

Brian

Afterthought: In vv.25 onward, Reuben becomes feisty! That may not be a word we would often use of our living out Gospel, but may we need to re-think that? 

JOHN 4: 5-42

Jottings on John…Lent 3…New2020

Let’s call the woman of today’s passage ‘Samara’ . Everyone deserves a name if not a face! In v.11 Samara says to Jesus, “Whoa there! I’m the one with the bucket!” Jesus’ response is to tell her, “You may have the bucket, but I Am the water of eternal life”. 

How might we be able to convey Jesus’ & Samara’s open-ness to each other as being at the heart of Gospel? Is there an open-ness to each other in our congregation? If so, how are we going to build on that? If not, how may we help & encourage them to open up to each other as Jesus & Samara do?

The other Samaritans make an important contribution to our understanding of Gospel when they tell Samara, “Now we no longer believe Him through what you have told us, but we have heard Him for ourselves & believe!’ Does this suggest anything about 2nd-hand’ religion being 2nd class religion’? Or is there more to it than that?

When (v.28) Samara leaves her water pot behind, is this the equivalent of others who leave their nets, boats, families, tax booths…? Are there things, or even people, we may need to leave behind to become ‘first class’ disciples? 

In a world where religion is in many cases determined by physical geography, how can we help people become more interested in ‘spiritual’ geography? What can we learn from the way both Jesus & Samara cross their physical borders that might help us & others cross theirs? Do we first need to recognise such borders exist? And help others do the same?

Does the thought of having Our Lord Jesus Christ ‘springing up within us’ excite us or merely puzzle us? Do we need to go beyond simply having such thoughts, to real ‘tasting & seeing’ as Samara & her fellow Samaritans do here?

Does what Jesus says to Samara in v.23 mean that worshiping in St Thingamee’s or St. What’shername’s needs to become a matter of worshiping in Spirit & in Truth if that’s not already the case? 

Anyone & Everyone everywhere should be able to ask for a drink of water & be able to get it

Brian

Afterthought: That Jesus & Samara become open to each other is itself a gift of God. Think of Adam & Eve in the Garden being open to God & each other before they choose to fall from Grace. How Godly are the choices we are making? Are they Life Giving? Or are we, too, falling, falling, falling? If the latter, let’s not try picking our-selves up, but pray God will open us up to God-self & each other.