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.

JOHN 3:1-17

Jottings on John…Lent 2…Revised 2020

Nicodemus knows in his spiritual bones he doesn’t have the kind of relationship with God he discerns in Jesus. How do we see our own relationship with God? Have we yet reached N’s point of discerning that if anyone can help us, Jesus can?  As a leading Pharisee, N discerns sound doctrine, & obedience to it, isn’t enough by itself. He’s been led - by Holy Spirit - to come to a point, where doctrine isn’t enough. He needs a relationship with God he isn’t yet experiencing. Have we reached that point yet?

There are so many possible approaches to preaching this passage, but I’ll highlight just a couple of possibilities I see. Firstly, the incident of a bronze snake being lifted up on a pole is always stirring in Jesus’ psyche. It ‘burns’ there, & becomes more & more central to His understanding of His Messiahship; to His being a ‘greater than Moses’ & to His own eventual being ‘lifted up’ on the cross. How can we make that same understanding central to our own discipleship? Focussing neither on N, nor on Moses, but on Jesus? Bringing it into today, not leaving it back in the 1st C.? 

Is N’s approaching by night & being enlightened by Jesus, symbolic of one of JN’s great themes; the contrast between Light & Darkness? If so, & I believe it is, where do we see ourselves along the spectrum? If we’re only part way along, we haven’t reached the Light yet, have we? 

If N were to remain where he reaches on that first tentative visit by night, he won’t have reached the Light, either, will he? Yet we know from later in the Gospel, after Jesus has literally been lifted up, N champions His cause. He uses his position in society to go so far as approaching Pilate to seek Jesus’ body &, that being granted, helps inter Him. N is now ‘living in the Light’ & passing that Christ-Light to others. 

If we’re to live in the Christ Light, doesn’t it follow that we, too, will be passing that Light on to those around us living in darkness of all kinds?  

Brian 

Afterthought: Hildegard of Bingen somewhere says, ‘God stirs everything into quickness’. Today we hear Nicodemus being stirred by Holy Spirit into the ‘quick-ness’ of coming to Jesus, God the Son, that night. When the time is ripe God stirs! Have you & I yet reached the point of being so stirred that we come to the Light thrown on everything & everybody by Jesus? 

JOHN 1: 29-42

Jottings on John…Epiphany 2…New 2020

Time is important to JE. It’s also important for JB, Jesus Himself, & those who elect to follow Him, both then & now. Are we as conscious as we might be of God’s timing in our lives? Of whom we’re being called to be? Now! God’s time is always Now! 

As well as Timing, Space is highlighted here too. Our passage moves on not only in Time, but also in Space, from spot to spot. Where we are, & where we’re starting from also has a lot to do with our search. Some time ago, I discover great, great, grandparents of mine had been buried in the old Melbourne General Cemetery. The cemetery authorities kindly provide us with a detailed map, & armed with this, we confidently set out to find their grave as numbered on said map. After an hour or more of fruitless searching, we give up in disappointment. Days later we return, but this time enter by a different gate. In ten minutes, there’s our grave! Today’s passage about people, including Jesus Himself, going out to JB to be baptised reminds me of trying find that grave. What are we looking for? Are we starting from the right ‘gate’ as it were?

That Jesus asks “What are you looking for?” - not, ‘Who are you looking for?” - is another possible starting place for exploring our passage. So, what are we looking for in Jesus? I sometimes wonder whether we ourselves are looking for a great, great, countless greats, kind of grand-parent figure in God. And, by default, Jesus, too!

Highly regarded Benedictine, Sr. Joan Chittister, sums up what she believes we’re looking for, or should be, like this: ‘a way to live calmly in the middle of chaos …a way to live productively in an arena of waste…a way that empowers us to live lovingly in a whirlwind of individualism…a way that empowers us to live gently in a world full of violence’. I’ve mislaid the actual reference, but tracking it down will undoubtedly prove worthwhile! 

Brian

Afterthought: If we’re looking for a way of life in Christ, never mind Jordan’s bank! What better place to start than rediscovering our own Baptism! Grow into it. Let it really happen to us & in us. Check the date of our baptism & begin celebrating that day as never before. If we don’t know that date, set about discovering it by checking likely (& even unlikely) sources.

JOHN 1: 1-5, 9-14, 16-18

Jottings on John…Christmas…Revised 2019

Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures launches with its magnificently imaginative & evocative story of a Creation told into being by YHWH God: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth..…’ Is it simply a co-incidence that the writer of John also chooses to start with ‘In the beginning…’ & a magnificently & imaginative, evocatively poetic, expression of how the New Creation comes into being? Can any account of Creation improve on that of the Genesis tale-teller? Any account of how the New Creation comes into being improve on JE’s? For me, it’s always JE when it comes to Christmas Gospel & Christmas preaching! 

I omit vv.6-8 because they’re an interruption - who dared to do this we don’t know - to JE’s original hymn. A distraction that destroys its integrity. They belong, with v.15, after the hymn where JB properly makes his entrance after v.18. Let’s not interrupt JE’s mind-blowing, spirit-expanding verses! Interrupting the flow of the Gospel like that might represent our inserting of ourselves between God & God’s purposes.

But has JE’s Hymn to the Word with its deep, meaningful, imaginative, & creative take on the Christmas event become too hard to preach? Compared with stables, mangers, & other MT & LK trimmings? Some Christmases ago, I’m sitting near another priest I know at a Midnight Mass. The ‘sermon’ turns out to be a kind of watered-down ‘kids’ talk’. This at one of the biggest, largely adult, congregations of the year. After the Dismissal, as we’re leaving, my colleague turns & whispers to me, “He sure dumbed that down, didn’t he?!” Christmas is never to be dumbed down!

The Word who speaks Creation into being in the beginning now speaks the possibility of a new & restored us into being in Jesus. God’s Divine Word in the Person of Jesus  is God’s ‘new beginning’ for us. Jesus doesn’t just speak God’s language to us, He is God speaking to us today. In response, are we living lives recognisably ‘speaking’ God’s language, God’s ‘Word’ for others, today?

Brian

Afterthought: However else JE wants us to respond to his magnificent poem, he wants us to glorify God as Jesus does in His Person. If our Christmas worship, including a sermon on this passage, gives glory to God, JE, John the Poet, has achieved what he sets out to do! Not simply back in his day, but now in ours.

JN 16: 12-15 

Jottings on John…Trinity Sunday…Revised 2019 

Despite being the proud wearer of a T shirt emblazoned with ‘Heretic - In Good Company’ (the gift of a theologian son!) I have nothing at all against the Trinity! Can you hear God sighing with relief from wherever you are?! Seriously, though, what-ever we do, let’s not shirk preaching the Trinity today. More, when we preach ‘The Trinity’, let’s preach the Holy Three as a Relationship, not as a Doctrine.

Doctrine, of course, has its place, but rarely, I suggest, from the pulpit. Preach the Holy Three as Doctrine & we lose the Energy inherent in Them & between Them. We’ll also lose the congregation, too, I suspect. As my granddaughter is wont to say when I’m nearing dangerous ground, “Don’t go there Grandad!” (Or you’ll spoil the relationship!)

So, how to preach the Holy Trinity as the the most Lively, Life-giving, Energy-filled- Relationship from before the beginning of time? As relevant & necessary today as ‘It’ has ever been!

I once saw a banner proclaiming what the Trinity is & what ‘It’ isn’t. It consisted of a shield with 'ribbons' linking the Persons of the Trinity (One in each corner) with the words: ‘The Father is not the Son; The Son is not the Spirit; &, The Spirit is not the Father. Then, running from each corner to the word 'GOD' in the centre, other ribbons proclaimed ‘The Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God’.  It represented, or tried to, pictorially, a doctrine of God seemingly flowing between deepest mystery & the obvious.

Today’s Gospel proclaims God’s ‘In-house’ relationships quite clearly if we’ll explore it. There is still, though, much that Jesus would like to share with us: 'I still have a lot to tell you but you can't cope with it yet’ [v.12]. Despite long theological exploration - or, could it be, because of it? - are we still in that 'yet' stage? Do we know the Holy Three as Personally as God knows us? Person to person? What are our own personal Relationships like? Are we at one within ourself, as the Holy Three are One?

Or, are we conflicted within? In which case we’re also more likely to be conflicted without, too, aren’t we? What are Relationships like within our congregation? Those in our wider community? Whatever these relationships are, & in all of these cases, how do we need to act to bring them up to a Godly  standard? A Trinity-like standard? How, & what should we be praying to bring any & all of these relationships up to the standard the Holy Three expect of us & need from us? Dare I ask if we’re bringing our good intentions down to earth? As well as God does - Father, Son, & Spirit?

Brian

Afterthought: God is God, not doctrine about God! God limited to any descriptive terms we've come up with can’t really be God. Even in terms we can 'prove' are Biblical! God always lives outside the Book. Any book! Not least our Bible!

JN 14: 8-17 

Jottings on John…Pentecost…New 2019

At sermon time, why not re-read the opening of the Acts passage, dramatically, as: ‘Suddenly from heaven there comes the sound like the rush of violent wind! It breaks through the roof of the church & fills the entire place! Tongues like fire come down & distribute themselves & sit on each one of us! And we are all filled with Holy Spirit & begin to speak in other languages as the Spirit makes it possible.’

When it comes to the ‘other languages’ I have no problem with re-interpreting the speaking in tongues bit in the light of today’s needs, rather than those of the first spreaders of the Gospel. The language that matters most of all today is that of Love. In short supply in most lands, & in religions of all stripes. Resist any temptation to bog down in fruitless theological dissection of ‘tongues’. To do that would be yet another distraction from that One Language we all need to learn to speak. And we’re all capable of ‘speaking’ when the Spirit empowers us; the language of God’s love. 

Going further, when we reach the Greeting of Peace, & the President says, ‘We are the Body of Christ’ let’s shout back, ‘His Spirit is with us!’ And respond to ‘The Peace of the Lord be always with you’ with an almighty, ‘And also with you!’ Then share that peace with those nearby, looking them straight in the eye with our ‘Peace be with you’ & holding that gaze till they look us straight in the eye, too, with their ‘And also with you!’ A good way to share the Peace, today & every day!

In the Gospel, Philip hovers on the brink of a great discovery: that Jesus really is the human face of God. But he doesn't quite get there. Not even after Jesus explains it to him so simply as to say, "Look at me, Phil; if you see me you see God". Pentecost is our annual celebration of the Spirit of Jesus being God’s Living Reminder that Love is the One Language that speaks across all barriers & boundaries. God’s new creation depends not on speaking in tongues - in any sense - but on people being able to look at us & see God looking back at them in us! As Phil didn’t quite get!

Holy Spirit isn’t a doctrine. Any more than Jesus is. Or the Father! Pentecost is all about God making God-self present & knowable in the Spirit of Jesus the Christ. Putting it another way, Holy Spirit brings us together in ourselves & in each other as God is All Together! All Together One. Pentecost, like Resurrection, needs to be a personal, on-going, & unifying experience if God is to be real for us, & if we're to be real to God & for each other.

 Brian 

Afterthought: In the beginning the Spirit of God sweeps over the waters unifying what God is calling into being step by step, ‘day’ by ‘day’. The Spirit of Love is still at work sweeping over us & unifying us as a New Creation.

JN 17: 20-26 

Jottings on John… Easter 7…Revised 2019

As my late, great, teacher, Leon Morris wrote,¹ ‘The dominant concern in this section is for Unity & for the divine Glory’ (capitals mine). His two points offer us a focus more likely to be helpful than any more complicated theologising on prayer we may be tempted to try. In a passage harder to preach than Jesus’ more concrete teachings, let’s look at the Unity with Him & God & each other that Jesus prays for us to have. In the light of the divine Glory we recognise in Him.

That we can have any kind of One-ness with God is mind-boggling in itself. A One-ness literally brought down to earth in a new kind, a Personal kind, of One-ness we can enjoy with God & others. Jesus isn’t praying two things here, just the One. Being at One with God & each other is product of, & inseparable from, giving God that Glory that’s His due. Jesus shares His praying with us to encourage us to focus on that One-ness He’s praying for. Encourages us to become as One with God as He is. As One with our fellow human beings as He is through giving God the Glory. Does this mean many of us will need to re-focus our praying to the Jesus Way? Can we illustrate this in our congregation’s situation? 

Jesus’ praying focuses on His Servanthood among us, & the Self-Sacrifice He is about to accomplish on the Cross. (JN sees the Cross as Jesus’ Glory, rather than His Resurrection as others do, & we may be inclined to preach.) Jesus expects us not only to pray about changing ourselves & the world, but to go out & do it! Be that change for a world that doesn’t see itself belonging to anyone but itself! Cost what that may!  

I don’t believe Jesus is praying for what we refer to as 'Christian Unity' here. That kind of 'Unity' will be unachievable till we’re forced into it as a last ditch survival attempt! Too late! Jesus is praying here, for us to follow, in Unity with the ‘Mind of God’.Can we practise & preach a One-ness stemming solely from Glorifying God?

Jesus prays here that those God has ‘given Him’ will be with Him where His Glory is; i.e. wherever He sacrifices Himself & we identify ourselves with Him. He still prays we'll stay the distance, though His kind of Unity & giving Glory, is costly! ‘But, lo there breaks…..’ As the old hymn put it. 

Brian

Afterthought:  Can we be One with anyone, let alone whole in ourselves, until we are restored to the Oneness & Glory built into the Creation? Restored to Grace by Jesus the New Adam (in whom we can recognise the New Eve too.) 

¹ Gospel According to John, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1971, p. 733

JN 14: 23-29 

Jottings on John…Easter 6…Revised 2019

That magnificently & imaginatively evoking of how everything came into being in the first Creation story in Gn1 has YHWH-God saying again & again, “Let there be…..” God tells everything into being. Telling can be so Creative! From that point, ‘Word’ becomes a key word in the Scriptures as they develop. Just for fun I did a rough count of how many words Jesus speaks in our passage in the NRSV. About 238 in English by my count. (These weekly blogs are normally c. 500 words!) How many words are we going to speak in this sermon we’re about to preach? What new life are we going to tell into being?

In that Gn1 account we’re not told God gets as far as ‘loving’ what He’s bringing into being. Though again & again as Creation comes into being, ‘day’ after ‘day’, the ancient story-teller has God seeing everything is ‘good’. ‘Good’ is a starting place for the Love God will later tell into the story in the Person of, & earthly presence of, Jesus. Now it’s our turn to go on beyond merely ‘good’ to tell of, tell on, that love. More than by preaching about it; by living lives that tell it out loud & clear. How can we best share this with our congregation?

Love is always as self-giving as YHWH God is in Jesus & by His Spirit. Self-giving tells God’s love into being in us, over & over again, as we Love as God-in-Jesus loves.  

Nor is ‘Word’ shorthand for 'wordiness', a trap it’s all too easy to fall into! Being ‘wordy’, rather than ‘of the Word’, can too easily be ‘telling’ in another, wrong sense; can put at risk our being productive for God. 

The Paraclete, God's 'Living Reminder' (who first used that expression?) is called by God to our side to make Jesus, God’s Love in us & for others, possible.

Do you & I, & our congregation & the peoples of the world, need more than anything else for God’s ‘peace that passes all understanding’ to break out, rather than wars? 

What is it that troubles us? Or should that be ‘who’ is it who troubles us? Is the true answer more often than not, “I am!”? Where to from here in our story telling? 

Do we experience much rejoicing when & where we worship? If not, should we leave & go somewhere else? Surely God’s Word tells us to stay & play our part in making rejoicing happen? Might voting with our feet, & going off to another congregation, mean transferring our problem with us? How telling would that be?!

Brian

Afterthought: No matter how well we preach Christ’s ‘coming again’ at ground level, the Creeds' often appear to ‘futurise’ it, &, therefore Him, in people's hearts & minds. The Spirit is our Present, Living Reminder that there’s no future Jesus without a Present One.

JOHN 13: 31-35

Jottings on John…Easter 5…Revised 2019

It’s a long time till next Maundy Thursday, but seeing that’s when our passage is set, let’s explore it in that context. A question to start with may be to ask if the symbolic liturgical foot-washing we experience each Maundy Thursday in our churches also closes the door - as Judas does here - on our truly discovering what Jesus’ ‘New Commandment’ really means. What it demands of us in practice. There’s nothing wrong with liturgical symbolism, but by definition, it can’t be the whole story. 

A few days before, Judas is testy with Jesus when He allows Mary to anoint His head with precious oil; a truly Messianic gesture on Mary’s part, recognising Jesus for whom He is. Now, is having Jesus wash his feet & the feet of the other Apostles the last straw for Judas? No true Messiah would do that kind of lowly thing! So, out he goes, shutting the door! We do find Jesus doing things like this as a matter of course; as Isaiah’s, YHWH’s, Suffering Servant.

 Looking at things the wrong way around inevitably shuts Judas & us out from taking the next step in true discipleship; that of following the True Messiah. When Judas closes that door on Jesus (& the others), he’s closing the door of opportunity on finding the kind of God who has, in Christ, come among us in Person. Are we doing any such ‘door-closing’ in our own discipleship? Is our God as down to earth as Jesus shows us YHWH is?

Perhaps more than anything else He does, washing dusty feet demonstrates just how down to earth Jesus is. How down to earth God is. Not in any merely symbolic way like our foot-washing, but day by day. But, as Judas sees it, enough’s enough! You have to draw the line somewhere. Whatever good there might be in this Jesus, He can’t be the Messiah! Messiahs don't do that kind of thing! Don't get their hands dirty like that! Is there a connection between the way today’s church symbolically washes feet on Maundy Thursday, but often appears to  preach another version of ‘Glory’? Remote from getting our hands dirty for others on a day by day basis as Jesus does?

Can we keep Jesus’ 'new commandment’ to 'love one another’ until we accept loving Servanthood as the free Gift of Grace that makes that possible? Judas can’t go that far, & shuts the door on Jesus - & himself in the process. How open is our door?

Is it going to church, thumping the Bible, preaching our heart out & others' ears off, that show we’re Jesus' disciples? Or, getting down to the seriously dusty business of loving one another? With basin & towel, whatever form they may take, where they’re needed? And not just symbolically once a year!

Brian 

Afterthought: There are, of course, those in ancient times, &, still, today, who argue that Foot-washing should be established or restored as a formally recognised Sacrament. But that’s another matter!

JOHN 10:22-30

Jottings on John…Easter 4…New 2019

A theme that stands out for me in our passage is ‘Atmosphere’! First, it’s Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights to celebrate the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC after its retaking from profane hands. It’s winter! It’s dim, despite the festive lights. It’s cold! Despite the sacrificial fires burning. It’s smelly! From the smoke & the animal fats burning. The Atmosphere is amazing! You can taste it! How’s the Atmosphere where we lead or participate in worship? Whether we’re at the ‘smoke & bells’ end of the scale, or a more restrained conservatism, doesn’t matter as much as an Atmosphere of worship, flowing from our Attitude to YHWH God & each other. If the Atmosphere is God-centric in the way Jesus demonstrates God in His Own Person, that’s Great!

Contributing, too, to the Atmosphere that day is a restlessness among those who’ve come to town for the Celebration! Not least those who’ve come hoping to see Rabbi Jesus strolling among them & discover if He’s the Messiah. “If you’re the Anointed One, tell us!” Tell us! Are we making it clear in our living & preaching that Jesus is God’s Anointed One as He says? Or is there a restlessness, perhaps, in the way we’re coming across. Any uncertainty on our part will reverberate, creating its own Atmosphere. Not a good one, at that!

That people take Jesus to task isn’t one way traffic, though. Jesus takes those crowd-ing round Him to task! In no uncertain words. “I have told you, but you don’t believe!” Are there times when God moves us to take people to task, too? If we fail to do so, surely the Atmosphere of Faith & the worship that stems from it will reflect that? 

To be able to put this all together in our preaching, we need to hang on what Jesus says at the end of our passage: “The Father & I are One!” And, ‘the Jewish people took up stones to stone Him!’ 

Preaching the Truth of Jesus & His Oneness with the Father will make many restless today. People are not likely to throw stones at us in our pulpits, but there are those who would probably like to, if they dared! But Jesus’ Oneness with the Father by the Spirit is non-negotiable! It is Jesus Himself who creates that Atmosphere of ‘One-ness’ for us & among us.

Brian

Afterthought: If we’ve developed any habit of praying to our ‘favourite’ Member of the Holy Three-some, we’re nevertheless praying to The One-ness of God. Whether we realise it, or not, we’re being embraced by the Atmosphere of the total Holiness of One God.

JOHN 21:1- 19

Jottings on John…Easter 3…New 2019

Trains of thought that occur to me & invite imaginative exploration are, in order: I’m going fishing…Have you caught any fish?…Throw the net out to the right side of your boat…Peter jumped into the water…&, Bring some of the fish you’ve caught. 

When Peter tells the others, “I’m going fishing”, has a restlessness, or, an uncertainty, crept back into his life since the Jesus events that have unfolded thus far? When we don’t know what to do next, do we, too, ’Go fishing’ in a manner appropriate to us? Settle back into an old status quo, rather than risk venturing into God’s future for us?

When some ‘interfering stranger’ on the shore of our life asks us, “Have you caught any fish?” & then, “throw your net out on the right side”, are we likely to respond, “Mind your own business & I’ll mind mine!”? When we obey, though, we may find our ‘Interfering Stranger’ knows what He’s doing making it His business! Grasping God-Opportunities lead to grasping Faith-windfalls & sharing them with others. 

Instead of letting our ‘superior’ experience hold us back, go for the un-expected & un-known! You never know….! Remember how Jesus once talked of His fishermen followers becoming ‘fishers of human beings’. How’s our ‘human fishing’ been going lately? The ‘Stranger on the Shore’ could be much more the Promise of a good ‘catch’ than any threat we may fear!

Peter’s ‘diving into the water’ encourages us, too, to ‘dive in at the deep end’! I know it can be easier, though, to postpone taking any real action. (Can a church sometimes do that by setting up committees, rather than prayerfully discerning it’s time to take the plunge & dive in?) Where are we personally in this discerning process?

Last, but by no means least, Christian Faith has always been about sharing.  Sharing God-self with us firstly through the Prophets, & then in the Person of Jesus, & by His Spirit.  Sharing God with each other as ‘small p’ prophets, again by Holy Spirit, is the next step from the Jesus shore into the Jesus boat.  Let’s not avoid another issue that concerned Jesus (& JB); that of sharing the tangibles of daily life with one another.  

Brian

Afterthought: Easter is all about our jumping out from our ‘old old stories’ & into God’s new future for us. What Easter is all about isn’t simply Jesus being raised to new life, but His raising us to new life with Him. When God-in-Christ calls us from the beaches of our lives, let’s ‘do a Peter’ & jump to it; jump to Him. There’s no Easter for us in staying on an old shore, or returning to the safety of our old boats.