All Things Seen & Unseen

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...