All Things Seen & Unseen

My uncle R was a clever man. Although, starting his working life at 14 road-making with his father, he worked out how to build a lawn-mower from scratch. That is, he made each part of the mower!! Nor did his abilities stop as he got older as shown in the fact that he built two computers before the time one could buy such things for a reasonable price at a local shop. Another major thing that left an impression were the words of his son who mentioned that he was only in the position he was today -- an oceanographer -- because of the encouragement of his father. This generous son confessed that his father was probably a lot brighter than he was but had not had the opportunities that he, the son, had had. A son-in-law at the funeral spoke of my uncle in terms of G-s; I don't remember all of them but some were gentle, generous, genius and godly. The last challenged me because I had seen this old man of 94 only a week before his death and felt, despite all his obvious inabilities at...

Seeing the Sadducees had been silenced on their question about death and resurrection, the Pharisees sent a lawyer to test Jesus concerning what was 'the great commandment' (Matthew 22.35, AV). Jesus replied by quoting the Shema (Deut 6.4). Love the Lord your God from the heart, the inner core of your being. To this commandment, Jesus added a commandment that is 'like the first': 'love your neighbour as yourself'. In the latter, Jesus was quoting Leviticus 19.18 which, one source translated as 'You are not to take-vengeance, you are not to retain-anger against the sons of your kinspeople—but be-loving to your neighbor (as one) like yourself, I am YHWH [the LORD]!' The gloss in brackets (so), which I have seen elsewhere, puts a different complexion on usual interpretations of the verse because it takes away our selfish fixation about self-love. I doubt the verse has anything to do with loving ourselves as such although it is sometimes ...

I'm often struck by the avoidance of the unpopular and awkward in bible texts by preachers and speakers. I'm sure I do it too! Recently i heard presentations on this passage above and noted how the acceptance and non-acceptance of the invitation was lost sight of and the text got turned into a social gospel apologia! 'Do good works and you will get into the feast'!! Of course, the background is Jesus' struggle with the chief priests and the Pharisees (21.45f) who perceived that Jesus' parables were about them but who couldn't arrest him because they feared the people. They are the ones who are initially invited to the marriage feast of the King's son. The point is, they refuse to come showing their disdain of the king by even killing his servants. And the king angrily destroys both them and their city. Since those who were originally invited refuse to come, the king invites all, both good and bad, as many as can be found. and of course, they respond to t...

I was at church today unexpectedly. No priest to consecrate the elements so we used the reserved sacrament. No priest to deliver the sermon so a Warden gave the sermon. The landowner and the labourers. It never ceases to amaze what God can bring out of His word when we least expect it. Whenever I had reflected on this parable on earlier occasions I had always focussed I think on the payment of the workers, or more especially, the 'unfairness' of the workers who had worked all day. But, the most wonderful word that occurs in this passage is 'generous'. God is a generous God and treats all of us generously. Not because of the level of our work or because of our status but because it is his nature to be generous with us..

The Church's year begins with Advent leading to Christmas to Epiphany. Then Lent prepares the Church to mark Easter, which leads on to Pentecost. All the Sundays following Pentecost are Ordinary Sundays. However, ordinary in this context means 'in order' or 'counted'. The Sundays after Easter are counted in order to the end of the Church's year. During this period after Pentecost, the liturgical colour is green, which denotes newness and growth. "The Sundays after Pentecost link the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to the celebration of the final Advent . . . when Christ will come in glory. This leads into a celebration of the first coming of Christ at Christmas and the cycle returns to its beginning. It is in these Sundays after Pentecost that we actually live - that is, in the period between the incarnation of God in Christ and our future life with God in heaven" ( http://www.pau...

The day of Pentecost was 50 days after Resurrection Sunday so how does John manage to speak of the coming of the Spirit in his gospel account (20: 19-23)? Are these two accounts to be harmonised somehow are just recognised as contradictory? I wouldn't accept either of these approaches. Both are concerned to bring everything in the Scriptures under the rubric of historicity when the Scriptures evidence in many instances a lack of concern for historical exactitude. The Scriptures were not primarily given to tell us about history. They are intended to "open the mind to the salvation which comes through believing in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 3:15, Phillips). To understand both St John and St Luke's differing accounts, we would have to examine their different renditions of the coming of the Spirit in the context of their gospel accounts. Despite the differences in timing, both connect the coming of the Spirit with the mission of the church. According to one writer , John's ...

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17.3). I have always been attracted to this passage for some unknown reason. One cannot argue that it is even the burden of the passage (vv1-5). Rather, it is explanatory as C. K. Barrett says of the 'eternal life' mentioned in verse 2. It is also a text that is a battleground between Trinitarian and non-Trinitarian views with some arguing that Jesus Christ cannot be God because Jesus says that the Father is the 'only true God'. However, this position avoids the embarrassment found in considering that eternal life is found in knowledge of God the Father and in Jesus Christ. The simple but powerfully evocative bracketting of the two speaks volumes re the status of the Son (quite apart from many other passages of scripture). Knowledge of the Father and the Son is eternal life; in this, St John is stating what every Jew knew about God. To acknowledge...

Why is the Ascension of Christ so important? Significantly, Psalm 110 (particularly verse 1) is the most quoted passage in the NT and typically it is referred to the Ascension. 'The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool". St Peter applied this verse to the Ascension of Christ in Acts 2 (vv34-35) noting that the verses could not be definitively applied to David because he did not ascend into the heavens! The full meaning of Psalm 110 is found in the Ascension to (and present Session of Christ at) the Father's right hand. The Ascension concerns authority, Christ's authority; for Jesus Christ ascended after the resurrection to where He is at the right hand of God "with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him" (1 Peter 3. 22). Significantly again, Hebrews 1, which also quotes Psalm 110 (v1), speaks of Christ's ascension by implication (1.3) but adds that Jesus the Son, sat down 'at the right hand ...

I saw this marvellous little piece on a blog today ( http://illuminations.blogs.com/illuminations/) and share it in the light of the church's focus on the Holy Spirit as we lead up to Pentecost: "We live in an age when all of the marketing and focus of the media is about ME and what I want. As a pastor, I too am regularly tempted to try to do all I can to make our church comfortable and pleasing to those who might attend. While I think it is OK to be a little "SEEKER FRIENDLY" , we must fight to truly make our churches more Holy Spirit friendly, and be a place that is welcoming to God and his Presence. We must also contend to do all we can to not feed the selfish tendencies of fallen human nature."

John 14, is overshadowed by Jesus', "where I am going you cannot come" (13: 33) and then with the issue of Peter's predicted denial. The chapter begins with the promise of Jesus' preparation of a new home in heaven for them, of his coming to take them to himself and of his being himself the very Road to the Father's house. He moves to the idea that the Father is in him and he in the Father. The works of the Son are the works of the Father but then the works of the disciples are going to be greater 'because I go to my Father.' Then comes the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit, the other Counsellor/ Comforter/ Advocate, who is another, 'just like' (so the Greek) Jesus. This Counsellor will strengthen them when they are brought before tribunals to bear witness to the Resurrection and will be not only with but in them. Jesus then said that he and the Father would love the one who has and keeps Jesus' commandments, which is equated with lovin...

St John 14 (1-14) among other things is Jesus' preparing of his disciples for his going away both at Calvary but also post-Calvary. With regard to the first, they have just heard the distressing news that Peter will betray the Lord three times before the cock crows. No wonder their hearts are troubled! However, St John, by the Holy Spirit, is also telling his readers more about the uniqueness of Jesus, the 'road' to God. In a sense, this theme has dominated his work from chapter 1. "No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (v 18). Our Lord directs their faith, not to Peter's predicted failure but to God and himself, to the road He will travel in order to go and prepare a place for them. Beautifully the writer transitions from this going with the theme of Himself as the Road, the unique Road to God. First, Jesus tells them to their consternation I suspect that they know this way he is about...

I found it interesting that in Eastertide we have Shepherd Sunday (John 10. 1-18). One compelling reason is that the Shepherd discourse brings to the fore the qualities of our Saviour as the One who suffers for his sheep and lays down his life for his sheep. This is the Easter message in the context of the middle-eastern shepherd who lies across the doorway of the sheepfold, who puts his body 'on the line'. By being the One who lies in the doorway, He is able to say, 'I am the door to the sheepfold' and 'I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture'. But more than that, St John wants to impress upon us that Jesus is unique as the door in that this shepherd not only lays down his life for the sheep but then is able by the authority vested in Him by the Father to take that life up again. No one took his life away from him. He voluntarily laid it down so that he might take it up again for all his sheep. Was t...

Hearing the Emmaus story read again today, I became aware of the graphic picture it presents of the Christ ministering to us in all our troubles, griefs, sicknesses and problems: the Christ we see but do not recognise!! And the fact that we do not recognise Him does not make his ministry to us any less potent. The Lord seemed content to minister to Cleopas and his companion without their knowing who He was. So often in life, we only realise much later that it was the Lord serving us, upholding us, supporting us and teaching us at a particularly dark time. Perhaps the Emmaus story, along with many other of its facets, reminds us that our Lord is always with us because He has purposes to perform in our lives that will be achieved despite our spiritual blindness and sometime lack of zeal.

Christian groups 'dress to impress' these days with their song words on walls. We usually don't stop to think about this development but go along with it as the latest thing. However, may I just point out some aspects of this development that should give us pause for thought? With every use of newer technologies our lives are being subtly and sometimes not so subtly changed leaving us forgetting that 'the medium is the message'.* First, the medium of data projection means that words cannot be meditated on or scanned before viewing by a congregation. Nor can an arresting phrase in any already sung verse be looked at again because the congregation is now onto the next verse. The simple use of hymn books allows those activities to be done. Second, the congregational worship is always controlled by the click of the controller of the data projector. One could say that congregational worship in song moves according to the rhythm of the person with the mouse! I wonder whe...

Thomas wanted to see as the fellow disciples of Jesus had seen. I don't think we can blame Thomas for his wish and in so wishing/acting he demonstrated the true bodiliness of the crucified, now risen Jesus. (An important theme for the Spirit speaking through St John.) However, Thomas missed out on something less tangible but most important for all who would come later. Thomas missed out on being the one of the disciples who would believe without having seen and hence become -even if for the short time - one of the fathers (St John being the other) of all those that have not seen and yet have believed. This not-seeing state of faith is the one we live within for this time as expressed by J. R. Peacey (1896-1971) in these words: O Lord, we long to see your face, to know you risen from the grave; But we have missed the joy and grace of seeing you, as others have. Yet in your company we'll wait, ...

During this Easter week , among other stories of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, we have heard the account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-27). For me, this drama-narrative can be understood in two acts. Act 1, Sorrowfully Not Seeing and Act 11, Ardently Coming To See . The two disciples are walking along conversing and debating about what had happened to Jesus animated by a spirit of defeat, crushed hopes and puzzlement. "We had thought that our Lord would be the redemption of Israel but he was crucified, dead and buried. Now some who visited his tomb say they found it empty and saw angels declaring that Jesus is alive. But, these women didn't actually see him." Jesus joins these sorrowing disciples who are mourning the loss of their Lord but their eyes 'are holden [held or restrained] that they should not know him' (KJV). T hey cannot see what is before their eyes. Their eyes are prevented from seeing and knowing Jesus. I'm s...

Charles Wesley, a genius for expressing a heart-deep Anglicanism, wrote over six and a half thousand hymns that cover the Christian year. This verse below is a typical Wesley stanza for Easter, Resurrection Day. Come, let us with our Lord arise, our Lord who made both earth and skies, who died to save the world he made and rose triumphant from the dead; he rose, the prince of life and peace, and stamped the day for ever his. What struck me on hearing this hymn was the first and last lines. I love the force of the word 'stamped' because it conveys the power of His Resurrection to set aside that first day of the week as a regular Resurrection Day for the church and the world. This day, this time has His seal, his imprimaturial ownership upon it. The stamp upon this day pervades all time, which has become redemptive time, the Day that the Lord has ma...

Good Friday service centred around the seven sayings from the Cross. The saying that struck me with great force was Jesus' words, 'I thirst' recorded in St John's account. Jesus gives his mother into John's care and following this action it is recorded: And Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), 'I thirst'. The ordeal of crucifixion tries every tortured body to this place of thirst. Painful seconds have turned into minutes into hours and the throats of the hanged are dry and without moisture. And like any man, Jesus is thirsty. We see now the great humility of our Lord who submits himself to great thirst when he is the giver of the Water of Life, the very Water of Life itself! However, it has also been suggested that our Lord's cry is a thirst for God Himself as in Psalm 63. O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. If that be so...

Isa 50:4-9a; Ps 70; Heb 12:1-3; John 13:21-32 These passages are a study in shame and glory! Jesus, our Lord, 'endured the cross, despising the shame' because of 'the joy set before him', the glory of being the vindicated One exalted at the right hand of the Father and thereby bringing glory to the Father by bringing many sons and daughters into glory too! St John's account of Jesus' dismissal of Judas precipitates a Satan-inspired betrayal which will be a means of bringing shame upon Jesus for death by Roman crucifixion is death in shame. Yet, Jesus, after the dismissal, immediately speaks of glory for both himself and God. The shame accompanying the finishing of his mission --'It is finished' -- lifts up the name of God! But, how can such evil glorify God? We only know by faith that it does. Just as the man born blind was not a result of immediate sin, said Jesus, but an occasion for the manifestation of the 'works of God' so the shame of Me...

Waiting. Waiting is a decided feature of everyday life, however, much we try to avoid it. We wait to get results from medical tests, from academic examinations, from appeals against various rulings. We wait for courts to decide on certain matters, for the cabinet of government ministers to make decisions affecting our lives. We wait in queues, in peak traffic, in doctors' surgeries, in hospital corridors and schools. We wait for the evening meal to cook and be served. Waiting. Waiting is also very important in our walk with God. It can often be construed as passive but it is also active according to scripture. The idea of waiting on God is an active process where we are desiring to know what God wants of us next. In Psalm 130 the writer talks of waiting for God more than watchmen who wait for the morning (repeated). I imagine these watchmen staying up all night for their shift and eagerly scanning the heavens for the first signs of light so that they can finish for the night! The p...

Our four bible readings for Lent 5 had many themes binding them together but the one that first came to me was waiting in the midst of suffering . In Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones vision, the people of God have been waiting for salvation for 70 years and now the Lord purposes to rebuild the nation. In Psalm 130, the lines 'I wait for the Lord' is announced 'out of the depths'. Romans 8 (vv5-11) contrasts those with their inner hearts captive to the 'flesh', human nature that remains in rebellion to God to those living according to the Spirit. Verse 11 may suggest the present or the future or perhaps both. The Spirit dwelling in the Christian means life now and in the future; but in the now, we wait while the Spirit and the flesh struggle within and cause us to suffer (vv 18-25). And the gospel is according to St John 11, the raising of Lazarus. We note that first Jesus waits two days more after he hears the news that the man whom he loves is dying!! By the...

When the Orwellian 1984 arrived, said Neil Postman, people breathed a sigh of relief thinking all is well because we were not oppressed by any 'Big Brother'. But, the earlier prophetic voice of Aldous Huxley had argued in Brave New World (1932) that people would finally choose to be anaesthetised rather than face reality. And, one of our great modern methods of anaesthetising ourselves against reality is entertainment or in Blaise Pascal's word, diversions. For Pascal, diversions were one way mankind avoids thinking about the reality facing it at death. And the most pervasive entertainment diversion of this age is television.   Neil Postman said in Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) , It is my object in the rest of this book to make the epistemology of television visible again. I will try to demonstrate by concrete example ... that television's conversations promote incoherence and triviality ... and that television speaks in only one persistent voice — the voice of...

Interesting modern phrase is expressed in the desire 'to make a difference'. Being somewhat skeptical of all catch phrases, I have regarded this one as something akin to human hubris. We put huff and puff into our work imagining that it matters a damn in the total scheme of things. When we really subject our vaunted imaginings to the rule of sober judgement do we imagine that our dust-like temporality makes a difference in a world beset with the problems this world experiences? And, what type of difference are we talking about? Is it a difference that we imagine will establish an 'immortality project' that will mean we deny death as the lawful end of this mortal life? I was at a funeral today and realised again how the liturgical tradition to which I belong stemming from the old catholic faith mentions repeatedly the certainty of death for this present life. Yet, modern man does all it can to avoid this unpalatable fact and instead seeks 'to make a difference in thi...

The readings for the 4th Sunday in Lent, the morning Eucharist, were focussed on light and sight. From the Old Testament reading in 1 Samuel, we see the choosing of David as the next king to replace Saul, how 'man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart'. The reading from St John's gospel account (ch 9) tells of the healing of the man born blind. The blind man receives his sight but he becomes enlightened over and above the ecclesiastical leaders of the day who are revealed as truly blind as to whom Jesus is. But, to be enlightened costs the once blind man his place in the synagogue. To be enlightened is not to enter a suffering-free zone but to enter into suffering with one's eyes open. At Evensong, we hear the cries of pain of the Hebrews in Egypt as their burdens are increased because of the promise of deliverance! Later in Matthew 27 we watch the betrayed and abandoned Jesus arraigned before Pilate. Pilate's wife suffers in her dreams. J...

Many levels are evident in this account. Unfortunately, the story is very often imagined to be just a personal conversion incident. However, much more lies within its lineaments. Too often we focus on the woman. What if we rather look at Jesus, see what he is doing for a change, see what the Father is doing, and understand the significance of what they are doing. Jesus 'must needs go through Samaria'. A strange statement because most Jews must needs never go through Samaria. If you were a pious Jewish Rabbi, you went the long way around Samaria and avoided going through the accursed place. Samaritans were heretics and accursed! Jesus waits in the heat of the day for a woman, this woman who is going to be bear testimony to his character in the city of Sychar, a ritually unclean place. But, this Rabbi, was concerned always to be doing the will of the One who sent him (v 34). Jesus asks for a drink, which on the surface of things seems so pedestrian and trivial. However, with St ...

The paradox in the Western business mindset, where so many things, if not everything temporal, is governed by a market mindset , is that the West is asleep in its busyness! William Law (1686-1761) wrote the classic, The spirit of prayer: or, The soul arising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity begins with man slumbering in darkness. [Pryr-1.1-1] The greatest Part of Mankind, nay of Christians, may be said to be asleep; and that particular Way of Life, which takes up each Man's Mind, Thoughts, and Actions, may be very well called his particular Dream. This Degree of Vanity is equally visible in every Form and Order of Life. The Learned and the Ignorant, the Rich and the Poor, are all in the same State of Slumber, only passing away a short Life in a different kind of Dream. But why so? It is because Man has an Eternity within him, is born into this World, not for the Sake of living here, not for any Thing this World can give him, but only to have Time and Place, t...

We are less inclined these days to repress our sexuality-consciousness but wholly given over to repressing our 'God-consciousness' (Viktor Frankl). Not that that is new in our era because mankind has always be active in the wilful suppression of the truth (St Paul). One way we avoid God and the truth of God is by busyness. Carl Jung was held to have said, 'busyness is not of the devil; it is the devil'! Even in church, congregants keep themselves busy by 'redeeming the time' (!), by doing things that keep their attention diverted from what God might be saying to them at this time. They talk and socialise before the service in such a way that God may be kept out of their conversation. Churches can be known for rushing through services and denominations once known for the ability to pause during the service, so that people may remember what they are doing, are perhaps doing this less today. We think we will be heard by God for our much talking and noise. We f...

I remember seeing a Roman churchman being assailed by a gushing, smart Alec interviewer on some issue that involved his having taken some action that would displease many Australian people. 'Aren't you afraid that doing such a thing will cause you to be seen by others outside the church in a negative light?' 'I have only one primary commitment, he said, and that is to please the One who is the divine head of the Church. I am much more concerned about His opinion of us than of any other person or group of people in Australia or anywhere else.' The reporter suddenly lost all her gush! I suspect this occurred because this churchman wasn't playing by the normal rules the media operates with: that self-presentation (Goffman) or 'impression management' is always centre stage and therefore every word and gesture is calculated to put one's self in the best light. But, what do you do with someone who has a higher calling than that? On another occasion I heard...

Church services are invariably connected with boredom. Growing up in Pentecostalist circles, the services I attended were sometimes boring because of the number of words spoken, mainly by persons other than the people of God!! And there was nothing to look at, no pictures, no symbols, no smells to enjoy as in Orthodox worship for example, little sound (except that of the preacher's voice), no colours or candles. Being partly sensory, children especially need the sights and sounds of the Faith enacted before them. We all do. Holy sensory-rich rituals arising out of living faith is most necessary and each is dead without the other. When we get bored, though, maybe we should just learn to sit with our boredom and not try to use the modern panacea of entertainment to suppress it. Sometimes, the Lord is in the midst of boredom and we may miss Him if we try to avoid it. Nowadays, it seems that churches are so overly sensitive to what outsiders think that they have to adopt the modes...

A good friend of mine recently said to me, 'see your blindness'. Paradoxical words because how can the blind see? It's like a Zen koan, an insoluble puzzle that forces discursive reason to be silent and stop its incessant chatter. Only the Holy Spirit of Truth can cause us to 'see our blindness' and then heal us. The third chapter of Jonah revealed a blindness to me : when the people of Nineveh heard that judgement was coming upon their city, they began to amend their lives! They were sorry, yes, but it was a sorrow, borne out of a change in attitude, in heart, which issued in action. The Reformers, Luther and Calvin, believed that the Christian life began in repentance and was to continue in repentance, a continual renewing of the mind or understanding; not merely an intellectual approval of interesting proposals but a divinely, initiated spiritual work involving the deep heart. 'Be not conformed to this world': I was educated early in Pentecostalism and B...

" The great lesson that our blessed Lord inculcates here...is that God is in all things, and that we are to see the Creator in the glass [mirror] of every creature; that we should use and look upon nothing as separate from God, which indeed is a kind of practical atheism; but with a true magnificence of thought survey heaven and earth and all that is therein as contained by God in the hollow of his hand, who by his intimate presence holds them all in being, who pervades and activates the whole created frame, and is in a true sense the soul of the universe." These pungent words were given to me by an overseas correspondent and come from a sermon by John Wesley (1748) on the 'Sermon on the Mount'. Part of the context for his words apparently were that Wesley originally baulked at the idea of preaching in the open air until he realised that the Lord Jesus had preached outside! But, more especially for our edification is that Wesley fixed on the truth that nothing ...