Hoping against hope

Genesis 18: 1-14;

 18 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.

 Romans 4: 18-22

 ¹⁸ Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’

 ‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’

 This Genesis story, explained by Paul writing to the disciples in Rome is one of my favourite of the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s about two elderly people who have a long frustrated heart felt desire. One day when both were going about the ordinary things of life, doing all they could to keep their minds from the subject that no doubt fuelled no little conflict between them, an unexpected guest arrives. The Lord appears in the midst of their life’s difficulty. We see difficulty in personal relationships; they live in a contested land holding on to promises perceived to be long forgotten or misunderstood while time is running out for both of them.  It is into these hurts of life that God appears. The Lord appears as three men ready to share a meal and a message of hope. A hope that the promises of God are not delayed but scheduled. ‘Hoping against hope he believed’, God reveals Himself in faith and trust. The gift of God is not just the promise but the faith to trust in the promise. God visits us, eats with us and reminds us that we are an indispensable part of His story of freedom and justice. There will be times when the fulfilment of the promise of God feels distant and out of reach and that our time may have gone. But time does not run out on God’s promises and time does not run out on us. The Lord promises to return to this elderly couple and He does; in the fulfilment of the promise and the faith to keep going until that day arrives. God continues to make Himself known to us, He reveals Himself to us with the promise of a soon return and the strength to believe that He is faithful and will establish His peaceful Kingdom based on love, justice and freedom for all the peoples of this troubled world.

Maranatha                    

All my hope is in Jesus. You?

Open Doors .... Keep Hope Alive

Jesus as the liberator from oppression and injustice

Genesis 12:1-7

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’^[a]] (NRSVA)

Galatians 3:6-14

⁶ Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, ⁷ so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. ⁸ And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.’ ⁹ For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. (NRSVA)

‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’ For the disciple of Jesus of the Nazareth discourse (Luke 4:14-41), God is revealed in Jesus as the liberator from oppression and the injustice of Sin in all its expressions. The Jesus we follow is revealed in His teachings and His practices (Luke 4:14-41, John 14: 9, Acts 1:1). Over the centuries there have been many portrayals of Jesus, characterisations and indeed the creation of many stereotypes. A brief look at some Hollywood productions will soon let us see how Jesus is variously represented ranging from a blond blue eyed European to that of a dark skinned dusky eyed Palestinian.  Walk into a church building and Jesus may be represented as a cross or crucifix on a wall or in stained glass or standing on an altar. Perhaps His name will be engraved on a communion table or drawn in the shape of a fish. In some church buildings there is no representation of Him at all as ‘images of God are forbidden’. Some see Him in bread and wine as a symbol while others have a revelation of Him as really present through Transubstantiation others through Consubstantiation. The range of representations of Jesus reveals the complementary understandings and revelations of who Jesus is within diverse contexts and communities.

In the unfolding story of the bible, complementary images reveal God in the story of creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, the present time and the time to come. God is progressively revealed through a range of images and symbols. The revelation of God is of the creator God, maker of all that is and the rejected God who provides clothing, food and shelter for His very good creation that have rejected Him. God is revealed as the God of Israel who is working actively in history to reconcile all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-7, Galatians 3:6-14). God is revealed in Jesus, as the Son of Man and as the God who has come at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9: 26). God is revealed as the One making all things new in Christ as the mediator God (Hebrews 9: 24) and the ever present and participating presence among us as God the Saviour of all creation (Hebrews 9:28). So how does God reveal Himself? He is revealed in and through a compassionate liberation story using the diverse language, diverse imagery and diverse genres of scripture to reveal the diverse beauty of creation and the insatiable love of the Creator Redeemer for His very good creation. God is revealed and that is the most profound wonderful truth. We can know Him and we are known by Him. His purpose is to bless all the families of the earth and that deep and beautiful truth includes you and me.  

Father God, by your tender mercy, be our dawn from on high, break upon us,  give light to those of us who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and in your compassion guide our feet into the way of peace; through Jesus Christ your Son, Amen

If? Then!

Luke 24 1-11

⁵ …. ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. (NRSVA)

Colossians 3: 1-4

⁴ When Christ who is your ^[a] life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (NRSVA)

Those of us who follow such things are well into Epiphany (a time of reflection when some of us consider ‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’). The small group of disciples that I share my life with do this in a structured way until Ash Wednesday when the season of Lent begins. Perhaps the presence of the word ‘If’ puzzles some on the basis that disciples’ of Jesus must be totally question free about God’s existence and His revelation. However, this is simply not the case. The disciples in the New Testament are always asking questions, puzzling, pondering and doubting. Jesus Himself challenges His disciples to consider the questions they have through the lens of His own teaching and example. When arguments and assertions (stories) are deployed in scripture, the bible, the beginning of the story of our discipleship, they are done so in response to the circulating questions of the time. These stories can be seen as the product of the interaction of the contextual understanding of the story of God and the cultural developments in knowledge and the social, political, economic, environmental challenges of their time. So it is with us. We take the story of the bible read it and apply it in our own personal, social, political and economic context. We live in a time that has undergone industrial, scientific, digital, social, religious and economic revolutions among many others. Indeed we are undergoing these revolutions again and again. The practical application of the story of God in the contemporary lives of disciples is the product of the contemporary challenges and the story of scripture. In our day and time we accept the presence of unseen power and influences on our lives in very different ways than those of the disciples of the first century.  We know about nuclear power and the great benefits this knowledge brings to us but we also know about the horrors of nuclear war.  For the disciple of Jesus His story is always used to interrogate current knowledge and cultural contexts to arrive at how to live practically. The presence of the word ‘If’ is always present and active. If the story of Jesus is true how should we use nuclear power? If the story of Jesus is true how should we conduct debate about Brexit?  If the story of Jesus offers any truth to live by how should we treat asylum seekers, workers and / or people who have a different personal and social identity to ours?     

‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’ Challenges us as disciples to apply the living Jesus and His teachings to our lives.  If He and His teaching is dead what is the point? We need to do the hard work of applying Jesus teachings in a very different context than that of the first century when they were first written down.  His revelation to us will be contemporary, situated and practical.  As Paul put it, ‘When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.’ Jesus is our life and in Him we become the people and community we were always intended to be.

May the Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious to us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace.

Grace and peace to you

In these last days God has spoken

1.      Matthew 2: 1-12

¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. NRSV

2.      Matthew 3: 13-17; Mark 1: 9-11; Luke 3: 21-23; John 1: 15-18

Matthew 3:

 ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved,^[a] with whom I am well pleased.’

3.      Hebrews 1

 1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,^[a] whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. ³ He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains^[b] all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. NRSVA

 ‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’ This is a central question for people of faith and of no faith. At this time of year in the Church calendar the question is addressed in the Eastern and Western traditions through two different stories:  The visit of the Magi and the Baptism of Jesus.  

According to the writer of Matthew the Magi have been granted a revelation (an Epiphany), through a story of a young child, a King (Gold), a Priest (Frankincense) and a Prophet, in particular his death (Myrrh).  To John the Baptist and presumably the onlookers in the story, the revelation is of the obedient One, the Son of God, and the Beloved, the one who brings God pleasure. Jesus is presented as the Revelation, the unveiling of God in the lives of people who encounter Him. The writer raises the same question for us in our day and time.  We have much more of the story available to us and the effect the story has had down the centuries. Perhaps we can reword the question / answer, perhaps like the writer of the story recorded in the introduction to the book of Hebrews.   

‘… in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,^[a] whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. ³ He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains^[b] all things by his powerful word.’ NRSVA

The writers of these Epiphany stories and indeed all the stories of scripture invite us to make a response to the revelation of God in the story. This is done from within the text that they present us. The text is a situated text within the lives of the readers that is within our own lives. We are being asked to cast ourselves within the story. As we know more of the story, its characters and plot, our response will be formed and expressed. We will have become characters within the plot of scripture.  The task before us is to get to know more and more of the story of Jesus revealed in scripture and this will empower us to experience our own Epiphany moments about whom He is and who we are in relation to Him.