The Word of Salvation

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’  (Luke 23.39-43)

We cannot look at the crucified Jesus for shame.  Instead we gaze around the landscape of Golgotha.  There are a few disciples who stand with us weeping and praying.  There are the Roman soldiers throwing dice to win his clothing, and either side of Jesus are two criminals, also dying in this hideous manner.  It reminds us that for the Jews and the Romans this was a common sight.  Crucifixion was not a special sentence designed just for Jesus, but a common death for lowly criminals…

Despite their own pain an argument now breaks out between the two men either side of Jesus.  One mocks Jesus, challenging him to save himself from this undignified end.  He echos the words of the devil to Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.  ‘Save yourself,’ he challenges.

We don’t know what wrongdoing the second man had done to deserve this fate, but tradition has named him the Good Thief, and perhaps that is right because he is about to take possession of something that was not his.  Despite his past, this man is both humble and daring.  He recognises the purity of Jesus: ‘this man has done nothing wrong,’ he says and then he pleads with Jesus to remember him.  He doesn’t demand a place in heaven, just that Christ might spare him one second of thought, of love.  His faith is rewarded with a place in Paradise.

Let us spend a few moments in silence as we think about how we can be both humble and daring.  The Good Thief  spoke up when he was in pain and fear – so too in this time of Covid-19, in our time of trial, we can risk everything at the last to stand up against those who would mock Christ and yet also acknowledge our failings.  

Then, as we stand at the foot of the cross, let us offer up our response:  Lord, remember me.

 

 

(Artwork: ‘The Crucifixion’ by Glyn Jones, and can be seen at St Bride’s Church, London)

The Word of Forgiveness

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’    (Luke 23.33-38)

One of the hardest parts of this pandemic is for those who have been denied access to their loved ones in hospital.  The reasoning is understandable, but grief is compounded when we cannot be with those we love when they are sick.

Listening for the final words of a dying loved one is a powerful experience.  We wait expectantly for the last messages they have to give us – words of comfort or love, a secret or memory shared, something to treasure in the hard days to come.

In these reflections over Holy Week, although we cannot gather together, in our imaginations we can gather together at the foot of the cross.  In this great time of waiting, let us imagine ourselves standing, waiting for the final words of God’s Word made flesh…

It is difficult for us to even raise our eyes to the cross for the pain so clearly visible is too much for us to bear.  Jesus, our Beloved teacher, Lord and Master, is covered in blood from the lashings to his back, from the crown of thorns pushed mockingly down upon his head, and from the cruel wounds of the nails in his hands and feet.  His body drips with sweat from carrying the heavy crossbeam.  It is a struggle for him even to breathe.

Jesus raises his head as if to speak.  What will he say?  We wait…and listen.  ‘Forgive them,’ Jesus says.  Is he speaking about the Roman soldiers?  Certainly if they had any understanding at all surely they wouldn’t do such dreadful acts of violence to another human being, would they?  Had their military training destroyed their humanity?  Or is he speaking to the House of Israel?  Because they had waited so long for the Messiah, but in the end they didn’t understand.  The authorities had panicked and handed Jesus over to the Romans, knowing that this would be his fate.  Or is he speaking to us?  

Let us spend a few moments in silence as we ponder this difficult question – who do we crucify? 

Who do we hurt with economic nails, environmental whippings, with the thorn crown of war and conflict, and with the heavy weight of family disagreements?

Who is being crucified by the impact of Covid-19, and we don’t even notice? 

Then, as we stand at the foot of the cross, let us offer up our response:  Lord, I am sorry.

 

 

(Artwork: ‘Christ at the Cross’ by Carl Bloch)

MYRRH – AN ADVENT REFLECTION

The gifts so far, gold and frankincense, have told us that the Magi were on a journey to see a king, the King of kings, and above all, God.

So why did they bring the third and final gift: MYRRH?

Like frankincense, it’s a resin used in perfume and incense; but much about myrrh speaks of pain.  

Its name means ‘bitter’, and even to harvest the resin, the tree must be wounded repeatedly to bleed the tree of the gum.

It can be used in medicine as an antiseptic and to numb pain, which explains why what was given to Christ at his birth, would be offered to him again on the cross.  Jesus refused the wine mixed with myrrh, feeling every second of his torture, living every moment of our salvation.

After his death, his body was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, with infinite courage and love, in the face of great suspicion and personal danger.  They brought with them ‘a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing a hundred pounds.’ (Jn 19.39). Using these spices they bound Christ’s body in the linen cloths before laying him in the tomb.

Myrrh used as an embalming oil becomes a symbol of mortality and death; and so we are shown the Magi’s final prophecy.  This tiny child, anointed and holy, this innocent baby was born to die.

At Christmas of course we want to linger in the joy and nostalgia of a family celebrating together, but our journey to the manger with the Magi reminds us that God became man for a reason.  The crib and the cross are held together.

Christ was born to save us, to show us the way to God, to make us right with God, and ultimately to die for us.

So what can we possibly bring our King, our God, this innocent person, who would die for us?

In the carol ‘We Three Kings’, myrrh speaks of “sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying”, but it is not the end of the hymn, nor of the story. 

Christ died to rise from the dead, to bring us new life, new hope.  This is the Christmas message of the Magi; “Glorious now behold him arise, King and God and Sacrifice.”

After all he has done for us, this Christmas we can bring Jesus something very precious indeed.

Our sincere thanks.

Our repentant hearts.

Our changed lives.

We bring ourselves.

Frankincense – an Advent Reflection

All the parables and teachings, do they simply boil down to Jesus being one of those wise people, the sort of person who just says the right thing at the right time? Was he the zeitgeist of a new way of seeing the world?

Maybe he was a rebel, counter-cultural with his talk of love, pushing people to examine what they were doing with their lives? He certainly made a difference because he made people think a little differently about the world.

But someone who was just a good man, a clever man, a revolutionary thinker, is that the sort of person the Magi would have searched for in the stars, and travelled hundreds of miles to find?

What might the second gift tell us to answer the question – who is Jesus?

FRANKINCENSE.

Franc is an old French word meaning noble or pure, so frankincense simply means high-quality incense. Being the best of its type this was clearly another costly gift like the gold It was a gift for someone very special.

However, as an aromatic resin used in incense and perfume, unlike the gold, frankincense had a specific purpose to fulfil. For thousands of years it had been used in religious rites, and its value meant it was often given as a gift to a king. So Christ’s kingship is underscored again – but is that all?

Incense was said to take the prayers of the faithful up to God, and in visions of heaven received by Isaiah and John the Divine, the presence of God was surrounded by the smoke of incense.

Frankincense therefore speaks of prayers, of liturgy, of heaven and so it points to more than kingship – it points to Christ’s identity as our great high priest.

For some Christ’s priesthood wasn’t obvious – he wasn’t from the family of Levi, the traditional priestly line, but of Judah; he was a new, other type of priest, one in the same form as the Old Testament priest of Melchizedek. As we hear the stories of Christ’s life, we can look his priesthood, especially as Easter draws near.

The theologian Origen takes us deeper into the mystery of the frankincense, pointing out that it was used in the Temple, in the very presence of God. He wrote, “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.”

If this true, it surely changes everything – for at Christmas we come to bow before a baby, but also before our Emmanuel, our ‘God with us’.

What can we possibly bring God?

Trite gifts half-heartedly meant will not do.

This is God. The Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end of everything.

Did the Magi truly know who they were bringing their gifts? If so, what was that moment like, to kneel before God?

And if you accept this, what will you bring Jesus Christ, God Incarnate?

What is the frankincense of your life?
Your prayers?
Your hopes and dreams and fears and worries?
Your faith, an open heart, a willingness to believe?

Because this changes everything:
“Frankincense to offer have I, 
Incense owns a Deity nigh”

Gold – An Advent Reflection

Do you find that Christmas begins earlier each year? When did your Christmas preparations start? Do you wait until the beginning of December, or begin immediately in the January sales?

Think about the Magi – their preparations did not begin when they set out on their journey, nor when they packed their bags. They didn’t even begin when the star rose in the sky.

The Christmas preparations of the Magi began many years before. They prepared in ways perhaps they didn’t even realise the importance of: they learned the stars in the heaven, they learned to interpret holy documents and prophesies. And they practised steadfastness – year after year watching the skies, reading the scriptures.

And only then, when the time was right, did all those skills and talents show their worth. Their journey to the manager was a lifelong pilgrimage, just as ours is.

When the star arose the Magi were watching and waiting.
They knew what it was…
and what it meant…
so that when they packed for the journey, they knew what to take…
because they knew who they were going to see.

They gathered amongst their belongings three special items to give.  As John Henry Hopkins’ carol ‘We Three Kings’ alludes to, each gift of the Magi had value and symbolism.

The first gift is GOLD.

Perhaps the most straightforward present. Gold is valuable. It would have an obvious worth, even to a king, especially to a poor family.

I wonder, what exactly did they bring? Coins, a solid bar, jewellery? What do you imagine was laid before the Christ-child?

Hopkins’ carol gives us the image of a gold crown. As Jesus lay in the manger, we are shown both a symbol of his poverty and his coronation.   At his birth Christ is crowned with gold. At his death, he will be crowned with thorns.  This crown reminds us of his beginning and his mortal end, but most of all it reminds us Jesus is the King of kings.

And if this is true – what difference does it make to the way we treat Jesus in our lives? What do you bring your King? What is the gold of your life?

By which I mean how do you honour Jesus in your lifelong journey?
With your treasure – your actual gold…
With your talents – your golden skills…
With your respect and love and service.
With every part of your life and every fibre of your being?

“Gold, I bring to crown Him again.”

Receiving – An Advent Reflection

‘They shall receive a blessing from the Lord,
a just reward from the God of their salvation.’
Such is the company of those who seek him,
of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.    (Ps 24)

Receiving.

Not the moment after you’ve  been given something, a gift or an invitation, when you’re already trying to think how to say ‘thank you’ or look surprised or grateful, but the moment before, the moment just as you are given something.

What is the state of your heart?

Are you ready to receive?

At Christmas we rightly think a lot about giving – to the people we love, and those in need.  But Christmas is also an opportunity to practise an open heart in receiving; when we receive gifts, when we receive the company of others, our family and friends.

This isn’t always easy.  Christmas can be a time of stress, of expectations and of relationship tensions.  All this can pinch on our hearts, and make us close down, so that receiving can feel painful.

Receiving can make us feel vulnerable.

Think of St Peter’s reticence to receive Christ’s service of the washing of his feet.  For many people it is difficult to comprehend how much God loves us, wants to give to us.  But receiving of others with an open heart is a good habit that will lead us to receiving God Himself.

For a good example we can look to Mary, to her gentle and open heart, full of grace, ready and willing to accept the message of Angel Gabriel, that she was to be the bearer of the Father’s own Son, Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.

We should not be under any delusion that Mary was some sort of emotional superhero, or that she had any forewarning, of what the angel’s message was to be.  The wonder of Mary is her openness in receiving the message.

Nor was she forewarned of what her willingness to receive would cost her personally.  There was the immediate issue of what it might do to her relationship with Joseph, and though she was not to know it, there was to be deep sorrow as well as great joy from being the mother of Jesus.

When we want to accept Jesus into our lives, are we really willing to receive him?

Are we willing and ready to open our hearts to all that might meant?

In doing so, then we truly find that the greatest present of all is His presence in all we are and do.

How might you receive Christ this Christmas?

Waiting – An Advent Reflection

I waited patiently for the Lord;
          he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He brought me out of the roaring pit,
          out of the mire and clay;
he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure.
He has put a new song in my mouth,
          a song of praise to our God                       (Ps 40)

 

Waiting.

On the whole we’re not very good at waiting.  After all, if you have the choice between having something immediately, or having to wait, why wouldn’t you take the instant option?

Of course, sometimes we have no choice.  A baby takes nine months from conception to birth, a plant takes a season to sprout and grow, and the anxious wait for a letter to arrive with news of exam results or a response to a job interview means waiting on someone else.  As much as we’d like to speed things up, we just can’t.

But when was the last time you waited voluntarily?

I wonder if the wise men came today, whether they would even have been able to follow the star.  We are in such a rush to celebrate Christmas that our streets, and homes, and churches, are already full of sparkling lights.  Would the star have stood out?  How can we follow it if we can’t even see it?

If we hold ourselves back, what can we find in the waiting?

When we practice waiting at Advent we prepare ourselves for the times in life when we have no choice to wait; when the wait is difficult, painful, unbearable.

The times when we are waiting for the three days to pass, for the tombstone to be rolled back.

Waiting teaches us endurance and patience, Christian virtues.  But they are not passive virtues.  A gardener caring for a plant doesn’t keep digging the seed up to see how it is progressing, but they do keep tending the soil, clearing it of weeds, watering it, feeding it, so that in God’s own time it will bring forth fruit.

Let us wait.  Wait for the coming of Christ, the Christ of Christmas and the king of glory.

What are you waiting for?

 

Promising – An Advent reflection

‘With the faithful you show yourself faithful;
with the true you show yourself true;
with the pure you show yourself pure,
but with the crooked you show yourself perverse.’   (Psalm 18)

 

Promises.

We all make them.

We give our word that we will hold to a course of action: that we will be faithful, that we will complete a piece of work, that we’ll turn up when we say we will.

A promise made by a sincere heart is made with the right intentions, but…truthfully, from time to time, we all break our promises.

We don’t mean to.  But our circumstances change: our heart once steadfast and true grows weary, it gets too difficult to see it through, other things get in the way, and somehow our promise slips through our fingers.  It is then that we see how fragile and easily broken promises are.

Advent can be the space when we reflect on the promises we’ve made.  It is the season of preparation and repentance, which means a time when we can ask for forgiveness for any promises we’ve broken, or offer forgiveness to anyone who has broken their promise to us.

It’s not easy, but it is what God calls us to do.  The Prince of Peace continues to bring peace to all through the very actions of His followers.

For it is to the Holy One that we look for an example of what a promise truly is:

God is faithful.

God is steadfast.

God is perfect.

And God gives us His Word.

 

Do you trust Him?

It’s not a trick question.

In the dark, in the cold, in the pain, in the long wait, we can lose faith.

In Advent we look again at the promises God has made us, and how time and time again He has kept them.

When we do this, Advent gives us hope, renewed faith, a deeper understanding of the big worldwide promise of the Messiah that God has already fulfilled, and also of all the continuing promises He makes each of us:

To love you.

To see through his saving work for you.

To show up for you when you need Him.

Promises.  They matter because in them we give our word, our heart to another.  This and every Advent God reminds us how He gives us His heart, His Word, Jesus Christ.

Our love song to God – The Creed

This coming week, at our harvest service, our local church will be collecting food for the local food-bank, and taking a collection for the Nkoke water project in Malawi.  Harvest is a service where it is easy to fall into British nostalgia about the days when we were all connected more intensely to the land, and memories of school festivals.  However, the giving aspect of the harvest festival is a reminder that all we have comes from God, and when we give to others in need, we do so not out of our own bounty, but that which God has blessed us.  We are commanded by Jesus to help others, and it reminds us of our own weaknesses and fragilities.  We stand with those in need, not far off.

To draw us closer to our African brothers and sisters in Christ, we are using an African Creed.  It is not a gimmick, but rather a signpost.  Like all Christian creeds it points to what we jointly believe – it draws us together into the Body of Christ.  Creeds are the boundaries of orthodoxy, and along with the Great Commandments (to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, AND to love our neighbour as ourselves – Matthew 22.35-40 and Mark 12.28-34) are what the Church believe in when everything else is stripped away.  At the heart of Christianity, behind the vestments, the mission action plans, the hymns and worship songs, and the visions – lies a very simple faith: We believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I recommend a slow reading of the Nicene Creed, and then read the African Creed.  At its core it is the same, but it has been written reflecting the people who say it, week in, week out, every Sunday.  As I read it aloud the first time, I found myself reflecting upon my core faith.  It is easy for the words of the Creed to be said unthinkingly by rote.  A different text brings new things to light.

For example, what does it mean to say:
“He lay buried in the grave,
but the hyenas did not touch him”?

From a purely practical point of view we could say, ‘Of course the hyenas didn’t touch him.  There weren’t any hyenas in 1^st century Israel.’  But for people living in a country where a dead body would be easy pickings for a scavenging animal, the implication is more obvious.  There is wonder here – Christ’s body was left alone for three days, and yet it was undefiled, even uncorrupted.

Why do we skip so quickly, so lightly, from the dark despair of Good Friday to the glorious joy of Easter Sunday?  We, who know how the story ends, still can’t seem to bear to re-live the waiting in that place of unknowing, to reflect upon the endless sorrow that the disciples had known.  No – we fill out Easter Saturday busying ourselves with cleaning the church and arranging the flowers.  There is no time for Jesus to be dead and gone, thus leaving us alone, whilst unbeknownst to us He is harrowing hell.

What else is hiding in the Creed, waiting for me to spend some serious time reflecting upon it?  How will I know unless I give it the space to talk to me?  In changing the hermeneutic, the lens through which we read the Creed, by trying to see through the eyes of other Christians, it is possible to find new aspects to our faith we haven’t seen before, and take them into our lives of faith.

I once heard the Creed described by Fr Robert Mackley as “the love song of the Church to God”.  In the Mass we hear God’s gift of the Word, in scripture and then expanded in the sermon.  The first thing that we then do is respond to this gift; we say or sing together the Creed.  It should be a moment of communion, as we raise our voices to affirm joyfully our collective faith, part of our gift back to God as we give praise and thanks for all that has been done for us.

If it is our love song to God, how is it reflecting that love?  It is mournful, bored, reluctant, or passionate, enthusiastic and full of wonder?  If it comes out as a dirge, then we need to examine how we present it, for it reflects our hearts.

There is only good here – to know God better.  So let us sing our love song to the Lord, with all our heart, and soul, and mind.

 

An African Creed

We believe in the one High God,
who out of love
created the beautiful world
and everything good in it.

He created man
and wanted man to be happy in the world.

God loves the world
and every nation and tribe on the earth.

We have known this High God in darkness,
and now we know him in the light.

God promised in the book of his word, the Bible,
that he would save the world
and all the nations and tribes.

We believe that God made good his promise
by sending his son, Jesus Christ,
a man in the flesh,
a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village,

who left his home and was always on safari doing good,
curing people by the power of God,
teaching people about God and man,
and showing the meaning of religion is love.

He was rejected by his people, tortured
and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died.
He lay buried in the grave,
but the hyenas did not touch him,
and on the third day, he rose from the grave.

He ascended to the skies.
He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him.
All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins,
be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God,
live the rules of love
and share the bread together in love,
to announce the Good News to others
until Jesus comes again.

We are waiting for him.
He is alive.
He lives.
This we believe. Amen.