All dressed up with no story to tell?

Exodus 28: 1-43

The priest in the Mosaic covenant had to be dressed in a specific way, not only  symbolising his role as mediator, a representative of the people and his total dedication as the servant of the people before God but as a vehicle to actualise his role. He had to wear the robes of the office.  Today some of us still get dressed up before God and the community of disciples.  We gather together symbols that tell the story of the reconciliation of humanity with God and our true purpose of peace-making and prosperity sharing in Jesus.  As baptists (small b is deliberate) we generally go more for the simple approach but we should not devalue the multi-sensory process of storytelling. Many disciples tell the story of God revealed in Jesus through the use dramatic wardrobe, creation of sacred storytelling space, use of light shining through picturesque and coloured windows and the sound of silence, music and word not to mention the use of the  ‘olfactory worship’ of incense.  The important point is this.  Are we telling the Jesus story in a language that communicates with the people we live among? Or, does the story of Jesus get lost in the overwhelming noise of symbolism and ritual that most of us have long forgotten the meaning of?  Telling the story of Jesus and His reconciling, transformative and sacrificial love is too important in a world gone mad to allow it to be silenced by tokenism of any form. The lived life of the disciple remains the most powerful storytelling medium in our repertoire. Let us hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice and watch the dramatic change in ourselves and the communities we act out our faith among.

Mourning and Celebration

Exodus 23: 14-25:40

Mourning and Celebration are part of our lives.  Those of us in and out recovery know what it is like to mourn the devastating effect of life controlling issues and the powerlessness of a life of chaos.  In Recovery, we individually and as a gathered people celebrate our initial liberation from the life controlling cycle, we celebrate the first signs that we are indeed living a different life and we celebrate the character formation and revelation of who God has created us to be. Three celebrations: salvation from the penalty, power and perpetual practice of life controlling issues. This is indeed the living out the life of recovery.  The people of God in the Mosaic covenant celebrated their liberation and new life experiences using the three feasts described in our passage today.  It is characteristic of a recovered people to remember the devastation of life controlling problems, how God has set us free to be part of a His Kingdom and to celebrate new values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that develop over time.

Its time to get practical....

John 5:39


³⁹ “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.

 I think it was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary who once wrote ‘all through life mind limps after reality’. It’s a phrase that has stuck with me all my adult life. A bit pessimistic perhaps but I think in essence he was right. Let’s face it polling organisations have recently taught us this entire lesson in the UK!  However, we need to have an understanding of why things are the way they are or alternatively we cynically turn our backs on the possibility of positive meaning and transformation in life. At the time Jesus spoke the words recorded in the scriptural passage above the people of Israel had a long and complex story to tell. It was story of origins, disaster, call, family politics, homelessness , wandering with only temporary homes, slavery,  liberation, establishing law and justice, journeying, establishing a home, war and conflict, unfaithfulness and betrayal,  exile, homecoming, occupation and much much more. It is a story of a journey towards a final place called home and the making of a home for all peoples no matter their background story.  By the time of Jesus, this story was being told in ways that actively wrote inclusiveness, redistribution of wealth, liberation for all and good news for poor people out the story. The story of progressive and inclusive life was replaced by a narrow and mean religious story of legalism and institutionalised oppression of the very people the story of scripture was meant to liberate. This sounds very similar to our own day and time. We have a distinct advantage in our generation in that we have the whole narrative of scripture while in the 1^st century the story of the ‘liberation society’ Jesus came to inaugurate was partially incomplete. Indeed Jesus came to fulfil the story that is to say, ‘fill out’ and bring to life the Hebrew Scriptures.  We can take the words and practices of Jesus and look to the story of scripture and see Him as the fulfilment of the promises to humanity for liberation and freedom under the Kingdom rules of love, compassion and mercy.  This approach of seeking the true story of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures is endorsed by Jesus Himself. In Luke 24 Jesus shares a journey and a meal with two disciples during which time He told them His own story contained in the scriptures:  Luke 24:27 states: ‘ ²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.’ All through the life of these disciples their minds were limping after reality but this day they got the opportunity run right into the story of Jesus and experience reality for the first time in their lives. This day they were shown how the story of Jesus is the story that answers the questions of: how did we get here, how did it all go wrong, are there ways of living together in peace and progress, who reveals this new way of being in the world, are there any examples of it working, what does the future hold and how can we all be a part of this liberation story? These two people recognised this was their story too! They were included in the narrative, given the right to have a voice and their needs addressed.  Jesus told the story of Moses and all the prophets in a particular way, as the prophecy about Jesus Himself.  The Gospels which follow then become His incarnate history, the Acts of the Apostles the history of His first followers and their life transforming communities, the letters go on to reveal the community advice to His inaugurated community and its leaders and the Revelation the promise of a future consummated Kingdom with a total end to violence, discrimination, exploitation and death.  The reason our minds as disciples of Jesus limp towards reality and never really get there is because we have no practical commitment to Jesus and putting into practice His teaching as revealed in whole of scripture as the love of God and our neighbours as ourselves.  The danger for all of us is simply believing in a personal Jesus of our own making like the two people in the Luke 24 story.  This will trap us in the apparent hopelessness and futility of life as opposed to responding personally, socially and that includes politically to the liberation story contained in Luke 4: 16-30 and fulfilled in the life of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon.   

We need expalnations that are faithful to the truth...

2 Timothy 2:15 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA

 

¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. 

Have you ever noticed when people get together they begin to exchange stories? Or when we have some time to sit and reflect we tell and retell stories to ourselves? It seems that it is how we are made.  Often we begin with a question or statement; ‘good to see you’, ‘how are you?’ or ‘alone at last!’  It’s the invitation to share a story, an invitation to bring ourselves or indeed each other into a mutual exchange of stories.  Even those people or events we don’t want in our story are invited to depart the narrative at some offered exit point. But at the same time, they remain for eternity part of our story.  We cannot escape the fact that they have in some way been part of our shaping; part of our history; part of the shaping of our identity, great or small. We tell stories about stories, we reflect, attribute roles and characters, offer evidence, attribute praise and blame and draw conclusions to form the meaning of our lives.  Some of the meanings of our life story actively hang around in our consciousness and bring us happiness or unhappiness when brought to mind.

 

Sometimes we are aware we are part of a story, that it has meaning for us, but we just can’t put a finger on why. These memories can pester us until we ‘place that face’ or ‘recall when we last felt a particular way’. Stories flood our senses with sounds, smells, tastes, touches, sights and feelings.  These become symbolised and are used by us to shape our values, attitudes and beliefs which in turn directs, defines and shapes our behaviour.  

 

It can all seem a bit overwhelming when we try and make sense of all this. That’s exactly why we turn to stories to explain stories.  Take for an example a sore head. ‘Why have I got a sore head and what can be done about it?’ The story maybe a story of lack of sleep, too much food, too much noise, too much alcohol or indeed all of the above and it’s the story of the office party! In this circumstance we would not expect to be referred by the GP for a brain scan; wrong story! We would perhaps learn the story of moderation? Perhaps not!  To make sense of the story of the ‘whole of life’ as well as its individual bits we use bigger stories called ‘Grand Narratives’  which are built up of a series of smaller stories related and interrelated with other stories circulating around us.  These larger more holistic stories that we use to explain our own story are based on values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that are called paradigms. Basically these are the fundamental principles used to build consistent meaning over time, providing the knowledge of ourselves and the worlds that we inhabit. When stories meet at common crossroads diverse and novel solutions to life questions arise. This facilitates for us the opportunity to creatively change our values, attitudes, beliefs and practices and allows us to build more congruent stories that make sense of our lived experiences and aspirations. 

The power of the story is the power to change life and our lived experience. For the disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon this story is basis of the re-examination and meaning making process of our lives.  Paul writing to a close friend Timothy urged him to work at using the story of scripture called the ‘Word of Truth’ to make sense of life and the world around him. This was the story and method that will rid his life of what the Greek word ‘anepaischuntos’ collectively puts under heading ‘shame and disgrace’. It’s a word that is only used once here in scripture. Reading the word more positively suggests that positive, progressive and transformative outcomes are achieved by accurately discerning, teaching and applying all the story of scripture. This is our task as disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon.

 

Faithful in a little

Luke 16: 1-13

10 ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 

Today’s story is a bit of a brain teaser. Jesus is challenging us to think things through regarding wealth, its production and distribution. He is urging us to act as members of His inaugurated Kingdom. How should we treat wealth? There is a danger in all this talk of standing in solidarity with the poor and sharing in their struggle for justice and freedom as claimed by Jesus in His Nazareth sermon (Luke 4) that we fall into the trap of glamorising poverty and using it for making ourselves look religious. Poverty is the result of collectively meeting our needs our own way; it’s an assault on God’s good creation.  The fulfilled prophecy that Jesus represents is the abolition of poverty not wealth.  The teachings of Jesus when put into practice transforms those who know they are poor into those who are rich. There must therefore be a ‘righteous wealth’ that represents the fulfilment of the prophecy of the creating, redeeming and sustaining God.  Wealth that is created and used to promote the interdependent interests of people is righteous wealth. Simply loving money and the individual privilege that avarice brings results in suffering of all kinds.  Health, education, work that pays a life promoting wage, housing and social care represent the use of wealth that offers people the hope that another way of life is possible; disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon surely must advocate and practice such principles. Meeting our needs our own way for individual gain creates victims of us all; we all in the end lose. Wealth that is used to end the evils of: ignorance, disease, destitution, squalor and social alienation promote the Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated and promotes the personal and social identity that is God given in His creative and re-creative acts. Disciples need to be shrewd in how they use the wealth that God has entrusted them with as stewards; we can so easily be duped into thinking that wealth is the blessing rather than the test for how we will use that wealth. We are participant builders of a new way of life; surely our wealth producing and distribution acts must be easily seen as acts that promote the Kingdom we claim to be part of. 

Welcome the rejected and lost?

Luke 15: 1-10

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’3 So he told them this parable…..

Have you ever felt so unimportant and alienated that it’s as if you exist all alone in an infinite universe called solitude? It’s as if we have lost all connection with those around us even those closest to us seem remote and isolated from how we really are physically, socially and psychologically. In the story we are reading today Jesus emphasises the importance of the individual. We can have great churches, missions and ministries where all seems to be well but lose sight of the importance of the one person in their need that is frustrated to the point of alienation from all that surrounds them. The audience in this set of parables is of interest. There are those on the margins and those in power within the dominant regime of power. Jesus is noted to eat and associate with the marginal, those on the edge of society and those outside of it. This causes great offence because as we all know change comes from the powerful when they deem the time is right; when it’s in their interest. ‘We don’t have to live among the poor we just have to dole out our charity (Alms) to them; in fact they become the vehicle of our good works and thus we end up with the best here in this time and the time to come; sorted!’  Jesus rejects this view; Jesus identifies with the lost to: society, family, work, housing, intimate relationships and health and seeks them out to form a new inclusive community where everyone matters where ‘all of us come first’ through ensuring the needs of each other are met. The ‘common good’ can only be achieved by ensuring individual wellbeing of the most vulnerable; alienation to some extent affects us all and becoming aware of it gives us the opportunity to reassure each other of our worth and the need to participate in the community that reaches out to the individual: the community of followers of Jesus. In our story today Jesus is telling a parable; He is engaged in a form of care for others called ‘advocacy’. Jesus is advocating not for ‘food banks’ but for social inclusion and a new society where family in its diverse forms, work that pays, housing that’s safe, intimate relationships that are respected, old age that is secure, childhood that is played in in love and security, adolescence that can be lived out in exploration and discovery; this is ‘health’ that can be experienced by all and should be available to all according to Jesus. Nobody need be lost and left behind and if they are we need to reach out and find them. I sometimes wonder if we get the ‘repentance’ part of this story right. Who needs to repent?  Is it those of us excluded by prejudice and economic exploitation or those of us who exclude and economically exploit? We need to recognise our tendency to ‘victim blame’ and to see how ‘they need’ to change their lives; change is be required of all of us if we are to live inclusive non exploitative lives; we will all need to experience a little more precariousness if any of us are to experience security. This is the ‘interdependence’ of the Luke 15 parables.  

Follow Jesus....

Luke 14: 25-35

²⁷Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

The cost of discipleship of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon appears to be very high indeed! Jesus being a Jewish teacher uses lots of narrative devices that are ways of storytelling that are drawn from His own time and culture. These can sound bit strange to us and even off-putting at times but this is because we have been socialised and taught storytelling in different ways. We use different narrative devices but they remain narrative devices to help us make a point that is important. If a politician said ‘the evidence speaks for itself….’ We would not expect anything but counter evidence from the next politician from the opposing party; we would not actually expect research based facts; we would recognise that they were using a rhetorical device in order to make a point. If truth was so easily identified by people we would spot lies, untruths and inaccurate accounts and easily be able to identify the best course of action. As humans we seem to have built in blind spots, we can be duped; it’s simply part of the dilemma of life we find ourselves in. We need a process that can help us identify the truth and act on it. In our passage today Jesus uses story telling devices to make a point about genuine, truthful discipleship. Jesus uses a device in writing and storytelling called ‘hyperbole’ to make his point. Jesus is teaching us that we can check out our commitment to Him by comparing it to the commitment we have to the most valued aspects of our lives. To claim to be a disciple of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon we have to be so committed that an onlooker will consider our discipleship of Jesus to be the most valued part of our lives. It would appear that not even the most precious of relationships could be used against us in order to make us turn back to meeting our needs our own way. To be the very best parent, child and life partner that I can be is to live out the life of following the teachings and practices of Jesus. If you want to do the best for your family then follow Jesus.  Also, even the threat of taking our very lives will not make us turn back to meeting our needs our own way; it’s as if we were carrying a cross (a tool of state execution) every moment of the day not knowing if it will ever be used against us. To be the very best citizen in the society that I live and work within is based on my following the teachings and practices of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon. Disciples bring good to the cultures in which they live; we are not to be a threat but a blessing to those we live amongst and to those in authority over us. This level of denial of meeting needs our own way is not an optional extra it is the very basis of discipleship and recovery from our life
controlling issues. Note the words of Jesus:

 ‘²⁷Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple’.  

We simply ‘cannot’ be disciples of Jesus and continue to meet our needs our own way; it’s impossible… Let us be a blessing to our families and neighbours today; follow Jesus.