Let the celebration and dancing begin!

John 8: 12 – 30

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’                                                                 

Jesus is still at the Feast of Tabernacles and uses a metaphor regarding Himself that everybody would understand. There was a ‘water pouring’ ceremony (John7: 37-39) and a ‘lighting of the lamps’ ceremony conducted at this feast. You can imagine that when the lamps are being prepared or even lit to allow the dancing and celebration of the reign of God among His people for anyone to claim to be the light of the world could only mean one thing; the coming of the reign of God among His people has been inaugurated by that person. This is exactly the personal claim of Jesus. It is another ‘I AM’ claim of Jesus. Jesus is the One who is the light that allows the celebration of the reign of God, the liberation of God’s people from all that enslaves them, the coming together of the community to walk together towards the promised home and to experience the ongoing forgiveness, reconciliation and care of an ever creating, redeeming and sustaining God. Here Jesus, in the midst of the ritual symbolism of the ancient people of God identifies Himself as the source of liberation and renewal for the whole world. In recent times we have experienced the extreme darkness of this world, globally, nationally and personally. The world is in a crises of fundamentalism, nationally we have competing identities and the striving to meet our own needs our own way and personally the securities that we once placed our trust in appear under attack through austerity measures and leaders that seem out of touch with ordinary people. But in this darkness a light shines; we could allow ourselves to be drawn towards this light of hope, reconciliation, interdependence, inclusion and the serving of others before ourselves. This light is powerful enough to light the whole world. This light is the teachings and practices of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. If we would follow, the celebration of the recovery of our true identity could begin. We are made in the image of God and can meet our needs individually and collectively in the way we were created to do so; simply hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice. Let the celebration and dancing begin!   

Neither do I condemn you....

John 7: 53 – 8: 11

John 8: 11

And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’

This passage and the story it contains may not have been in the original manuscripts of John’s Gospel, but it is still worth considering; why? Because if a community of disciples thought it was necessary to include it perhaps there was slippage away from what Jesus of the Nazareth sermon actually taught regarding the social actors and issues contained in this story. In this story there are questions being asked and answered through a story that is mobilising certain key personal and social identities within a wider community that is debating essential characteristics of social cohesion and justice. The teacher is Jesus and He is portrayed as a threat to the ruling religious elite who are attempting to entrap Him. It is interesting that they choose two very significant social identities namely gender and sexuality and the social constructs of law, authority and justice. What should happen to a woman (where is the man caught in the alleged adultery? The woman is sexualised as a deceptive Eve) law breaker? Jesus will have none of this stereotyping of women or indeed stereo typing of sexuality. Jesus knows these people are intent on killing the woman and they are intent on dragging Jesus into their misogynistic, murderous schemes. Ah ‘guilt and innocence?’ It is suggested by the writer that the teachings and practices of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon are clear.  If anybody has only met their needs God’s way and never their own way they can land the first blow, otherwise, what right have you to condemn to death?  It is clearly being taught that we have all met our needs our own way; on this basis we are all condemned.  The writer is appealing through Jesus to the readers of John’s gospel to reject the old misogynistic sexualised view of women and embrace a new inclusive, mutually empowering and life giving approach of inclusion and equality. The accusers walk away one by one not wanting to be claiming to be sinless; that would be blasphemy and yes you’ve guessed it; this would result in their own death penalty. Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you….’ Jesus offers a new way of life, a life which rejects meeting our needs our own self-centred way. Jesus offers us all the opportunity to hear His words and put them into practice; He offers us a new view of each other free from the old stereotypes and misogynistic views. These are very contemporary concerns for our time and place in history. They were obviously concerns of those early disciples who felt they had to include this story in the story of Jesus as it revealed his teaching and practice; the practice of inclusion, equality and restorative justice.               

Justice for all...

John 7 : 37-52

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. ………

We often think that how someone lives and speaks tells a lot about that person. But does it? When people live under oppressive regimes or in oppressive relationships they may have to hide their true identity and values to remain personally safe.  In Jesus time people were thirsty for justice. They lived under a range of oppressive social and religious forces that meant they had to be very careful what they said and how they acted. On the one hand the empire of Rome guaranteed a peace for taxes and submission to Roman authority; on the other hand the religious fanatics insisted that their ritual laws and practices of homage be observed or the full weight of their religious intolerance would fall upon any dissenter. The craving for justice was a raging fire in the throat of ordinary people. Jesus came to satisfy that thirst. We often think that it is only the oppressed that thirst for justice but this is not so. In our story today, undercover cops and some of the religious leaders who are clearly identified with the oppression of the people find ways of preventing Jesus being arrested. They appeal for the teachings of Jesus to be heard as a form of justice because He promises liberation for them also. Jesus offers peace and reconciliation between the oppressed and the oppressor. Jesus is seen as identifying with and standing by the oppressed but at the same time He is offering reconciliation and Justice as inclusion and change for all.  In our day and time the forces of oppression and abuse, segregate and kill: physically, socially, psychologically and environmentally. As Christian disciples we must stand on the side of the oppressed and at the same time appeal to the oppressor to be reconciled and participate in mutually changing and empowering processes of justice for all.          

The transforming power of peace-making

John 7: 11-36

19 ‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’

If there is one revelation that we need more than any other, especially those of us who live by the words of Jesus as revealed in scripture it’s this:  Jesus came and pointed out that the law of Moses, the law of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob fulfilled by Jesus and the law by which disciples of Jesus frame their entire life, this law of life, has been hijacked by the forces that rage against God and us and turned into a law to justify murder. ‘Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ asked Jesus. This destiny of death has been the destiny of many prophets of peace. Jesus, proclaimed in the prophets as the ‘Prince of Peace’ was the target for the killers. Peace is always the target that has to be destroyed by those who may be experts in the law but are ignorant of the One who gave us the law. Jesus claimed that His words were life and His followers experienced them as such. The giving of life meant the laying down of arms and the taking up of a cross this is participating in the transforming power of peace-making.  Peace-makers are transformed into such through participation in the Kingdom of peace-making. Granting the gift of life to another rejuvenates, renews and reasserts life in the giver. This is the revelation; this is the recognition of the power of the cross of the gospel and the power of the resurrection.  The revelation of the God of Peace is in Jesus, in and through His life and voluntary death of Jesus. Jesus refuses to call to arms the tens of thousands of ‘messengers of war’ at His command and reveals Himself as an offering of peace. The end result was the renewing of life, resurrection life and life which has no end. The resurrection teaches us that the power of love and life cannot be destroyed by the powers of hate, murder and violence. The cross may be our lived experience but in the end life wins life for all. Here we must be radical, as radical as the self-offering of Jesus; the gospel of peace is offered to those so dedicated to the crucifixion of their enemies that they have become blind even to their own reasoning.  Jesus is reported to have said at His cross: ‘Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.’  They don’t know they are killing their only hope for peace. A centurion soldier in charge of the crucifixion recognises for the first time how peace is made.  It is the same today. Men of violence do not know that in all their striving to save their own lives they are in fact killing their only hope of life by their violence. The men of violence may be convinced that they have a divine right and are invincible but they are simply delusional; mad on the narcotics of self-destructive murder. Some say Armageddon will be the final battle of conflicting armies whose destiny is self-destructive violence; but Jesus of the Nazareth sermon; the One who offered His life for the lives of the many at the cross will be there, and He will turn that battlefield into a peace rally. The battle will not be won through yet more righteous violence but through Jesus irresistible call to eternal peace already won at the cross. The call to peace will finally be heard and all the blood shed down through the millennia will not drown any of us in a flood of hate but will be restored and renewed for its life giving purpose. We can participate in this renewal process today; simply hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice. The eternal peace-maker is with us and will never leave us; this is the law of Christ the fulfilment of the law of Moses; what will we do with it?        

No excuses!

Matthew 8: 19-22; Luke 9: 51-62

Luke 9: 51-53

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem.

Not everyone accepts the teachings and practices of the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus. For those of us who have thrown our lot in with Jesus this can be a hard fact to accept; we struggle to understand why.  Jesus is quite clear on what our attitude should be in such circumstances; live in peace and respect.  The gospel is a peace-making approach to understanding life not a war making approach. Without dissent or the possibility of dissent there can be no genuine discipleship; let’s face it discipleship and especially Anabaptist discipleship is form of dissent. We have decided not to live by the ethics of contemporary culture but instead we have adopted the radical alternative way of life taught by Jesus. We have decided to take the words of Jesus seriously and put them into practice. Others and indeed the majority of our culture have decided not to do this. As a minority, this will mean that we will benefit from our culture extending to us understanding and acceptance and we are taught by Jesus to have the grace to extend the same respect and kindness to our neighbours who do not accept Jesus as Lord. This is of great importance to any hope of peace-making being successful; pluralism may not be perfect but it’s the best option in a diverse culture where interdependence can be cultivated based on mutual respect and positive regard. There is a cost to being a disciple of Jesus; the cost is taking the words of Jesus seriously and applying them to our lives. Loving our neighbours as much as we love ourselves seems to be a great place to start. No excuses!  

Scotland's Climate Action Story

Social Justice and Social Inclusion....

Matthew 18: 15-35

21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ ²²Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

Have you ever wondered what would make a new community and society work?  I’m sure if we asked for suggestions we would get a plethora of responses: economic prosperity, jobs, military security, a welfare state, human rights, a written constitution, a sound currency and so on and on we would go…. Jesus of the Nazareth sermon inaugurated a new community, a Kingdom and for three years He taught through His words and practices what that new community is like. It is a diverse community made up of people from all walks of life. It has a law that is shared by all (Matthew 5-7) and it is a society that meets the holistic needs of its people in an ethical way where peacemaking, care and compassion promote social cohesion and wellbeing. There is one other characteristic and practice that all of this depends on; forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there can be no reconciliation, no new start, no new community and no life transforming Kingdom. Forgiveness is not just an individual act it’s a mechanism for social cohesion and building of a joint future based on peace and mutual respect. Forgiveness is a social construct as well as an individual one. Lack of individual forgiveness undermines social wellbeing. There are people who put themselves outside the mainstream of society; their situation requires the most serious of consideration, monitoring and where possible reconciliation and restoration must come quickly. But perhaps it is worth considering that we all exclude too readily?  An inclusive society has to explore ways to live alongside those it finds difficult and challenging or it will descend into a culture where incarceration and exclusion replaces inclusion. Incarceration and exclusion is more complex and diverse than a physical prison for law breakers; incarceration includes the incarceration and exclusion of: poverty, homelessness, joblessness, fuel poverty, addiction, misogyny, homophobia and so the list goes on and on. Here the victims are the ones incarcerated and justice is denied to those the law claims to protect.   Forgiveness and reconciliation is a process of inclusion, of hearing competing voices and seeking out restorative socially just processes; it is not a one off act. It is so powerful because it acknowledges the offence and exploitation but sets the victim free to get on with their life while the perpetrator is given the opportunity and invitation to participate in making amends through promoting the wellbeing of the victim and the wider community. The justice system of any new community will have to radically rethink how it dispenses justice if any transformation is to be realised. As for disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon the approach and practice is clear; forgiveness and restorative reconciliation is the bases of the new community of social inclusion. Our community participates in the Celebrate Recovery Programme as a vehicle for exploring and implementing these challenging changes to how we can live together. You will be made welcome should you choose to explore forgiveness as the road to reconciliation and justice further. Tuesday 7pm The Fountain Lesmahagow and  The Coffee Cup, Stonehouse, 7pm Thursdays.   

Be at peace with one another

Mark 9:40

⁴⁰Whoever is not against us is for us. 

The primary identity of the disciple is that of a person who changes themselves and the world that they come into contact with through the life transforming power of caring. We tell others what we value, our attitudes and beliefs through what we directly care for. Jesus teaches His disciples that they are to be characterised by promoting the health and wellbeing of others not as a profession but as a way of life. When we come across others who also practice this way of life, but we do not know them personally, we are not to discourage them and treat them as outsiders; if they act in the interest of the poor, the marginalised and disenfranchised then they should be encouraged. There is a saying: ‘If you can’t help? Don’t get in the way!’ Sometimes we let things like denominational differences and differences over religion get in the way of helping people; we can become a hindrance not a help and people can lose out and their situation be made worse than it need be. I have seen this in the locality where I live. The fracturing of efforts to provide care and help for the vulnerable through safeguarding differences and distinctiveness in preference to united action results in the marginalised being deprived again of yet another opportunity to change their lives. We seem to forget so easily that Jesus came to set the captives free and once free to serve in helping other experience freedom from life controlling issues also. Do we remember being captives to our life controlling issues? To forget what has been done for us, to fail in sharing the promise and possibility of freedom with others, to undermine the efforts of others and to prevent others from caring is to become the source of the problem. We become the life controlling issue! Jesus gives stern advice that we should cut ourselves off from sectarianism and divisiveness and encourage interdependence and mutual respect.  Encouraging caring relationships is not an optional extra, it is fundamental to promoting peace and reconciliation in a world torn apart by divisiveness. Mark 9: 49-50 reminds us of the transformative teaching of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘⁴⁹ ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’’ 

Do we really care?

Matthew 18: 1-5; Mark 9: 33-37; Luke 9: 46-48

Matthew 18: 3

…  ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We have been reflecting on how Jesus invites His disciples to participate in the Kingdom He has inaugurated and in the participating they are transformed through meeting their holistic needs the way the creating, sustaining and redeeming God always planned. There is one sure way to measure if the transformation is taking place in our lives and if we are living as Kingdom people. Have we become as vulnerable and dependent on each other (interdependent) as children are on their carers? Do we serve each other with the care and diligence we would use to care for a vulnerable child?  Care is primary; it comes first because people matter, places matter and nurturing human institutions matter. Jesus calls us as disciples not just to care in the form of an emotional attachment but to actively care for and serve each other. This is not a fashionable way of being in the world. We live in a very self-centred culture where individualism and pulling yourself up by the closest set of boot straps is applauded.  It’s as if we are trying to live out the fantasy ‘X Factor’ question from Mr C: ‘How badly do you want X Factor success?’ The depressing reply comes quickly:  ‘I’ll do anything it takes for success!’   But it’s the wrong objective and a therefore the wrong answer. Success is not defined by power, popularity and living out a celebrity lifestyle. The disciples of Jesus thought that’s what the inaugurated Kingdom of God was going to give them. They thought they were taking over from the religious leaders, the Romans and the puppet kings. Wrong objective!  The people who lead are no worse than the people who are led. They are both people with the wrong objective of meeting their needs their own way and they won’t let anybody get in the way. Jesus sets a new objective: Care. Care must come first and being carers must be the transformed identity of the member of Jesus Kingdom.   Will you do anything it takes to become a caring, interdependent member of a community of disciples? Ah thought so; the answer does not rip of the lips so easily! Serving others is not so glamourous and not so sought after. Peace-making is more difficult than war mongering. Showing mercy, grace and love more costly and often goes unseen; except in the lives of thriving children and families in all their rich diversity.  A nation at peace with God and itself chooses to say YES to becoming vulnerable, caring and having the care of people including the stranger the primary purpose for being in existence. There is an invitation to make ‘care and the service of others’ our primary way of being in the world. This is a vulnerable way of life of having children and their carers, you and me, the stranger who comes to live in a shared land and the institutions that nurture our common life together matter and be of first importance. It is the transformation Jesus is calling for.  Jesus said: ‘⁵Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’  I think it was John McGee, one of the founders of the Gentle Teaching movement who wrote: ‘Caregiving is an act of social justice it is the entering of a journey towards home….’ As disciples of Jesus He calls on us to be practitioners of caregiving and invite other on that journey towards home, dignity and safety and security. 

Speak Truth to power....

Matthew 17: 24-27

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’ 25He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free. 27However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.’

For those of us who value the separation of Church and State, a position in our generation which is a bit easier to live out within Post Christendom Scotland, any words from Jesus on our relationship with the State are welcome.  In our story today Jesus is enlightening us about a tax gathered by the religious authorities called the ‘Temple Tax’. Jesus teaches on the Roman tax in another place (Matthew 22: 15-22). In the time of Jesus the religious authorities had real political power. They could lodge charges and they conducted trials but their power was restrained by Rome and for example they were not allowed to carry out the death penalty. That was a reserved power to Rome. Wise Rome! The people of Israel / Palestine had a form of ‘Home Rule’ or ‘Devolution’ in the form of the Religious elite and they formed a very powerful vested interest group in the socio-political life of the people. To offend them meant serious trouble; exclusions and stigmatising treatment. There are many stories in the bible revealing this. Jesus always taught that these exclusions imposed by the religious powers of His day were not part of the Story of God. Jesus of the Nazareth sermon taught the social inclusion of diverse personal and social identities, participation, reconciliation, restorative justice and ethical practice. There is an ethical way to live, so why pay tax to a corrupt group that Jesus Himself described in Mark 12: 40 in the words ‘40They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers….’? Jesus is quite clear; disciples do not forfeit their freedom to live out the radical alternative to current political circumstances by paying tax. Paying the Temple Tax does not make you a follower of the Temple elite!  Disciples compromise their way of life of peace-making and announcing that the Kingdom of Peace is inaugurated in Jesus Christ by getting caught up in diversionary political debates that simply cause offence and needless division.  If there is a choice to whom a disciple can pay tax (a choice not open to disciples in the first century but is available to us who have the blessing of living in democracies however limited) then it must be to the authority that gives the opportunity to be; peacemakers, reconcilers, who offer a preferential option for the poor, the sick and vulnerable, the care of children, the end of violence and prejudice towards women and the end of prejudice and injus-tice towards minorities. If we had a choice we would choose to implement and be the practical expression of the teachings of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. We claim to live this out in our communities of disciples; why would we not vote for it in neighbourhood councils and the governance of the country in which we live given the opportunity? The community of disciples don’t seek power or office to change things from the top down; the Church is separate and independent of the State; it is simply wrong for the Church or any other religious group to exercise institutional political power. Disciples of Jesus believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and therefore Caesar or any other religious or secular power is NOT!  As disciples and as a community we offer our taxes to the state authorities willingly but never our worship because that would be idolatry.  Disciples of Jesus seek to live out the teachings and practices of Jesus in our everyday lives and communities. Things change more radically and more inclusively from the inside out and from the bottom up. This is how the communities of Jesus must speak Truth to power; the truth and universal benefit of peace-making and inclusion where we can all, yes, every last one of us, can belong even if we don’t believe, no matter our religion, colour, gender or sexual orientation, we can live together in interdependence and peace. This is the Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated. Not long after this story takes place Jesus will come face to face with authorities for the final time and will non-violently refuse and will resist their legitimacy to rule with their brutal oppression; it will cost Him His life at the cross. 

In the Scottish Referendum vote in the interest of the most vulnerable….

This is God's year to act...

As we approach the historic day of September 18^th and the referendum on Scottish independence we are all bombarded with promises for our ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. For the followers of the Jesus of the Nazareth sermon the good news is that the manifesto for personal and social change is already written. We are all invited to be transformed by participation in a new way of living together.  In Luke 4 it’s recorded about Jesus that …

^16-21 He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God’s Spirit is on me;
    he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
    recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
    to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”

So it’s simple really; as followers of Jesus we must say ‘yes’ to strategies and policies that work towards eradicating poverty, promote social reconciliation, enlighten the mind and remove the back breaking burden of:  weapons of mass destruction,  low pay, poor housing and poverty promoting social policy like the ‘bedroom tax’. We must act now and continue to act! Any other approach is to say ‘no’ to the participative transformation that is on offer through putting into practice the teachings of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. On Friday morning we must be as enthusiastic for this radical personal and social change no matter if ‘our side’ in the referendum has won or lost?  The call to dedicate our lives to the eradication of poverty is not up for a referendum; these are the basic principles by which the followers of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon will live no matter the referendum outcome. When we vote on Thursday we should vote for the best possible outcome for the most vulnerable in our society.  

Micah 6 

⁸ But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.

It’s time to say ‘yes’ to ‘Interdependence’ seen in community development, community reconciliation and social transformation in favour of the poor and the vulnerable; this alone will be to the ultimate benefit of us all.  

The importance of Jesus words...

Matthew 17: 1-13; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36; 2 Peter 1: 16-21.

Matthew 17: 1-2

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Jesus promised that there would be some that would see Him in His glory before their death (Matthew 16: 28). In today’s reading the writer of Matthew tells of a day when Jesus took a few of His inner group of disciples up a mountain and there Jesus was transformed in front of them in a blaze of light. They saw Jesus in a very different way; they saw a glimpse of Him in His pre-incarnational form. Two men appeared with Him and writers appear to know them with certainty; they were Moses and Elijah. Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is presented to the readers of the gospels and of 2 Peter as Divine and in conversation with two of the major characters from the story of ancient Israel. No wonder the disciples thought they would capture the moment and stay up the mountain and provide shelters for everybody present.  Let’s face it they wanted to hear what the two unexpected and very important characters from the story of Israel had to say. However, it was Jesus who was to inform them of what they needed to know and what Moses and Elijah were saying and meant. Jesus was to be heard; it was Jesus who was to reveal the part in the story of the revelation of God that Moses and Elijah actually plays. The early Christians clearly accepted that Jesus of the Nazareth sermon was the continuation and fulfilment of the story of Israel and that Jesus reveals the true meaning of the Law (Ethical and Ceremonial) and the Prophets. The glory revealed that day was not just the transfiguration glory of Jesus in overwhelming physical light but the transfiguration importance of hearing the words of Jesus and listening so closely that these words become our very life for living. Jesus is to be transfigured for all in His words and practices. The eternal Glory of God is revealed in the very words of Jesus and our participation in the story they reveal. Again we are being asked to be transformed in our thinking, relationships and practices by participation in the prophetic fulfilment of the story of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. Jesus the Son of God is the pleasure of God the Father and is His revelation of Himself to you and me through the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). Truly, we as His disciples have seen Him in His glory also if we hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice!   

The transformative Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus

Matthew 16: 21-28; Mark 8: 27-9:1; Luke 9: 22-27:

Part 2

Matthew 16: 24-28

 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. ²⁸Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

Do we want to participate in the transformative Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus?  The opportunity is provided for us on the basis that we step out of one denial, that is, that we have life controlling issues and that we step into another denial namely, we must fast our life controlling issues. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus described the life long process of recovery; the life of following Him as being characterised by: modestly using our resources to meet the needs of those who cannot meet their own needs, prayer, forgiveness and fasting. These are the transformative practices in the lives of the followers of Jesus. Jesus now names this fulfilment of His prophetic description of His followers the ‘denial of self’. We must step out of the denial that we have: hurts, habits and hang-ups, this is the beginning of the process of recovery and step into the denial of meeting our needs our own way; this is ‘self-denial’. If we are merely looking for some management systems to hold on to the same old life style pattern and make life a bit more comfortable we will end up losing our life completely. If we would hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice our old life controlling patterns will die away and we will experience transformation of life.  We have to face up to the fact that on the surface we can appear to others to have gained the whole world: fame, wealth, power, health, houses and jobs. In reality, we can, in the midst of apparent plenty have lost our God given life because we simply meet our needs our own way.  The end of the story of the revelation of God in Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is eternal life in His Kingdom in the eternal presence of Jesus.  The end of our story is written by us here and now through the means of life lived out in the present. Jesus makes it clear that the means of salvation is His life, death and resurrection; this life, death and resurrection will be the pattern of life experienced by His disciples. Therefore, we too must take up our cross, die to our life controlling issues and seek resurrection life in Jesus alone. The life of following Jesus is of ever closer participative and transformational living out of the teachings of  Jesus until we find ourselves in His very presence.  

Interesting.... You decide ... Vote YES In 2014 - Scottish Independence Referendum

Christian Peacemaker Teams: An Introduction... An example of followers of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon

Forgiveness and non violence....

The crossroads of despair and deliverance....

Matthew 16: 21-28; Mark 8: 27-9:1; Luke 9: 22-27:

Part 1

Matthew 16:

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ ²³But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

The recognition that Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is the Messiah by Peter at Caesarea Philippi marks a turning point in the life of Jesus. Jesus has always been on His way to Jerusalem, His objective and life’s work has not changed but the disciples are as ready as they ever will be to hear how all this teaching about radical living culminates.  They are ready to hear how Jesus brings about the irreversible victory of the Kingdom of God over the powers that rage against them and their creator. Jesus speaks plainly and to the point. He has to go to Jerusalem and there He will be rejected by the ruling elites and the fickle crowd; they will kill him but He will rise from the dead. Funny isn’t it, that we hear only part of the story. Peter is upset, very upset that Jesus is not fitting into his plans and meeting Peter’s needs Peter’s way. What was it that Peter heard that caused him so much offence? Was Peter objecting to the death of Jesus, His resurrection or both? Ah! Peter is in a bit of a dilemma; he has heard something he does not like or want and this drowns out all the rest of the story. He hears only the trouble of the story and does not hear the redemption within it. Peter’s mind is consumed with a view of suffering and death based on despair while Jesus has just told him about a death and resurrection that leads to deliverance. Peter hears despair Jesus said deliverance; Peter’s mind is stuck again in the old way of thinking. Jesus is announcing the need to think and act in a new way that conquers death and suffering and brings life. The forces that rage against life do not want Jesus to go to Jerusalem and on to the cross at Calvary. At the cross the forces that rage against God and His creation along with their kingdom of oppression, poverty and violence will be defeated forever and the irreversible shift from death to life will take place in the death and resurrection of Jesus. At the cross there will be enough blood spilt to end the need of it, enough violence to end the need of it, enough oppression to end the need of it and enough of death to end the need of it. In the resurrection there is enough life giving power so that none need perish but all come to a radical change of mind resulting in resurrection life as Peter would one day write (2 Peter 3:8). Will we follow Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross? Will we follow Him to the garden tomb? Will we follow Him to Galilee and meet Him there and participate in the resurrection from death to life? Will we come to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and admit that we need to change our mind about how we meet our needs and accept the offer of forgiveness for meeting our needs our own way? Will we come and accept the gift of life that can never be taken away from us?  It’s the most important decision we will ever make; may we hear all the words of Jesus and not be diverted by the lie that there is any other way to resurrection life.

Ancient places with new opportunities

Matthew 16: 13-20; Mark 8: 27-30; Luke 9: 18-21

Matthew 16: 15-17

¹⁵He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ ¹⁶Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ ¹⁷And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

The crossroads of decision is the intersection of the contemporary culture and the biblical story of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. It’s the place where we all stand. It’s a place that we may be aware of or it may be a place we are totally oblivious to; but this is exactly where we stand. Jesus drew this to the attention of His disciples at a town called Caesarea Philippi. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ asked Jesus (Verse 13). The response is the first arm of the crossroads; it begins with the request of a response from contemporary culture to the teachings and practices of Jesus. The answer is always diverse and even bizarre. ‘But who do you say that I am?’ is the question directed to disciples; the Christ aware, Holy Spirit informed and those who are actively finding themselves in the story of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. The response by Peter: ‘‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’’ is the second arm of the crossroads.  These two arms intersect at the point of salvation: that is the point where the hope of the Nazareth Sermon that is the fulfilment of the prophetic purposes of Christ meet the needs of contemporary culture. The truth and acknowledgment of Jesus as the Messiah, that is the fulfilment of the prophetic promises results in a new social order, a Kingdom, a community called the Church.  This is not just an ordinary flesh and blood community; it is a revelation of the divine community and their plan and purpose. Jesus and His disciples are in an ancient place with a new name. Caesarea Philippi was a new name given by a puppet Herod Philip the Tetrarch in honour of Caesar Augustus. It was the site of the ancient worship of the pagan god pan. There was a cave nearby associated with the ancient cult that was thought to be gates of Hades (death).  Perhaps it all makes a bit more sense? The disciples stand at the crossroads of decision; a place of ancient cultic practices but also a place where Jesus has come to announce the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. The old sites and their practices are passing away into the realm of history; the new has come in fulfilment of a promise; it has arrived and the old ways of death being practiced around them will not stop the inevitability of the consummation of the Kingdom. The rock on which the community of disciples and the Kingdom of God is built is on the assurance that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Today you and I stand again at the crossroads of decision. We are in an ancient place surrounded by all sorts of idolatrous worship and all sorts of competing claims. We can be the intersection of the teachings and practices of Jesus in our contemporary period if we would acknowledge and accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God and turn His teachings into our practices.

Give us a sign to say yes to change?

Matthew 16:1-12; Mark 8: 11- 21

Mark 8: 11- 13

11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. ¹²And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ ¹³And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

Jesus of the Nazareth sermon has revealed Himself as the source of renewal: physically, socially, psychologically and environmentally. The stories we have considered together demonstrate Jesus as being concerned with our holistic experience and the impact on our experience of wellbeing. Jesus, and the Kingdom He inaugurates is concerned with the personal, communal, the political and the economic circumstances of life. His birth story, the short encounter with the theologians at the age of twelve, His baptism and ministry narratives all point to a person engaged with life in its fullness and entirety. The gospel that Jesus preached was personal and social both at the same time. It all mattered; it was and is all spiritual. The sigh of Jesus and the exasperation that it reveals is His frustration with reductionism, that is reducing the Kingdom He is announcing to one ‘sign’. In fact this reductionist way of thinking  in our passages today is seen as dangerous and self-destructive In Mark’s account Jesus states: ‘⁵And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’’.  The Pharisees reduced life to religious ritual and separation from the contamination of the gentiles and especially Rome. The Herod party reduced everything to the compromise with the powerful elites of the day and were characterised with their enthusiasm for Hellenisation and cultural syncretism. Jesus Kingdom is neither a separation nor a compromise; it’s a new and interdependent way of being in the world based on the ethics of inclusion and the recognition of the needs of holistic human beings. It is not Greek nor is it anti Greek; it is the fulfilment of the promise of the Creating, sustaining and redemptive God. Syrophoenician women are invited to participate as are centurions, the physically sick, the economically poor, and the hungry; even some Pharisees who come at night and acknowledge that Jesus is sent from God (John 3:2) are invited.  All of them state that the signs point to inclusion; we all get the invitation to participate in the life transforming Kingdom.  The sign that is being asked for by the ruling elite is really a sign that ‘conforms’ to their authority. They are asking Jesus to ‘confirm’ He and the Kingdom He is inaugurating is no threat to them. Jesus stated that this is the need of a whole generation of people; everyone wants their needs confirmed and met their way; but this is exactly the sign that will NOT be given.  It’s time for change; the time to conform is over; it’s a new age and God is demonstrating it in the works, teachings and the places where Jesus is journeying. God’s preferential option is in favour of: the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. Jesus is proclaiming in His words and practices (the only signs that will be given) ‘the year of the Lord’s favour.’ And as for you and me, we are at the crossroads of decision again!

"You Will Remain" by All Sons & Daughters (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)

Tradition

Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7: 1-23; John 7:1

Matthew 15: 6

 ⁶So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 

As we have been reflecting upon over the past weeks the words of Jesus and their practical application to our lives provides the disciple with the holistic assessment of human need, the explanation of that need, the plan to meet need and four levels of help required to put the plan of God into practice in our lives. We have looked at explanations of need and the frustration of need by considering the Sermon on the Mount and the three part form of the teachings of Jesus: current situation, present outcome and transformative participation in the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus.  The four levels or domains of intervention given by the words and practices  of Jesus; the Word of God; can be direct in practice that is, we hear His word and obey it (the call of the disciples Mark 2: 13-14); we can receive intervention through others for example a disciple (the call of Phillip and then Nathanael in John 1), intervention in our lives can be ‘collective’ a form of advocacy ( Feeding Five Thousand Mark 6: 30-44) and intervention can be instructional (Parables with explanations for disciples Matthew 13).  The Kingdom becomes present and releases its transformative power through our willing participation on these four levels. They each represent an interdependent exchange of grace; through the faith of participative obedience to the words and practices of Jesus. In our passage today Jesus offers us the opportunity to learn how to avoid disempowering the Word of God. Avoid tradition! Religious disciples are just that; the offer discipline in a tradition of religion. This, on the surface appears to meet our needs but it’s a con, it’s the hand is quicker than the eye; it’s an appearance that all is well but the outcome is: self-reliance, pride and legalism. Religion interprets the words of Jesus but does not obey them. That’s why it’s so dangerous. Religion offers us something else in the place of obedience to Jesus; it offers ritual. The way we dress, the way speak with holy jargon, the way we put our money in the collection but not our lives; the way we defend the unborn child (and so we should) but refuse to speak out against war and the taking of human life once the child is born and in this world. Religious ritual is the ultimate addiction of humanity; it offers the perfect alternative to applying the words of Jesus: there is no need for living with ordinary people in community, no need to actively and personally read and apply the scriptures and religious ritual does not want us delving too deep in to the biblical story and hearing the words and seeing the practices of Jesus up close. Jesus was not a religious studies lecturer! Jesus taught us that our religious practices are the problem; we are the real problem and not the solution; Jesus taught us that our personal assessment of life must start with our assessment of the ‘Heart’ and the recognition that we are in a state of desperately meeting of our own needs our own way. Are we ready to give up our religion for the sake of a transformed life? As a movement there were no more religious and ritually pure than the ‘Pharisees and Scribes’ but it was from the teeth out. Jesus offers us a transformed heart, mind, body, relationships and community; but will we participate with Him in its fulfilment?