6 Seek theLordwhile he may be found, call upon him while he is near;
Taking responsibility for our life and for the lives of those committed to our care is a responsibility that is being eroded in our culture causing a dependency on external agencies that can, and often do let us down when we most need them. The people I come across express a dissatisfaction with the level of wages in relation to the cost of living as well as with the ‘social wage’ of health, housing, education and welfare provision. People feel they have provided the wealth they have created via increasing taxes but are experiencing a diminishing return. People feel poorer.
Family and community care are the primary scenes of the care and nurturance that ensures our individual and family well-being.
The creation of healthy, nurturing and enriching environments in the family, in schools and in the wider community depends on each member of the community looking after their own health and well-being as best they can. This ‘self-care’ is a form of wealth creation. It creates a ‘surplus’ of well-being that can be shared with others. This establishes and promotes an ‘economy of well-being’. It provides resources for all its members. Self-care is not a selfish radical individualism that disregards those with fewer well-being resources. An economy of well-being is based on individual self-care in order to be able to care for people with whom we are intimately linked, namely our family and functionally linked with, namely the wider community.
The starting point is the individual, family and community forming interdependent not dependent relationships. It’s based on the principle of maximising and maintaining individual freedoms while minimising interference with that freedom from external authority or the State. The State becomes a ‘facilitator ‘of family and community resources, not the director or indeed the dictator over individuals, families and their communities.
The Judeo-Christian principle of the Love of G-d and love of neighbour underlines these principles with the care for others built on the foundation of care for the self, family and wider community. We can make a start on the rebuilding of the self-care / care of neighbour pathway by having a review of our Faith and Feelings, Family and Finances, Friends and Food and Fitness for the Future balance in our lives.
Some folks need to begin by reducing stress and anxiety and getting into the position where they have enough energy to make a start. Some need to escape the endless distractions of life so they can concentrate long enough to make some progress. Others of us need to cultivate some positive feelings for ourselves and others and develop the skill of simply sitting long enough to experience the space to recover the person we were created to be and rebuild our families and community.
A few years ago a small group of disciples asked me to explore such a process of creating the energy, concentration, positive regard and space to begin to recognise the persons G-d created us to be. I have been asked to provide some of the materials used by that group. The materials work through the skills that group found helpful in beginning the ‘self-care’ pathway that leads to healthy families and community. They are drawn from the tradition of Christian meditation and contemplation. I have personally found them helpful. I hope you find them useful.
In our home, here, in the UK (and indeed throughout the West), we feel we are living in an increasingly precarious world. The issues and dilemmas that face us feel uniquely complex to our generation. We feel as if we are entering uncharted territory. Old friends feel more distant, less involved than they have been in the past. Feelings of increasing vulnerability are making us doubt the wisdom of long-standing decisions and commitments of our forebears. Our world feels occupied. Those people and practices that we have traditionally turned to for security seem to us much less confident that they can help in our dilemma.
On Ash Wednesday the imposition of ashes is a Judeo-Christian practice (see Job 42:6; Jonah 3:6; Daniel 9:3; Esther 4:1; Matthew 11:21) symbolising a profound acknowledgment and questioning of the way things are and our role in them. This questioning leads us to a change of mind and heart characterised by humility, sorrow, prayer, fasting and almsgiving as a sign of our turning back to God’s way of being in the world. These practices embody the Lenten season. Lent leads us through Holy Week, Good Friday and the commemoration of the crucifixion and death of Jesus and then on to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday.
The pathway of Lent is a pathway of taking responsibility of our part in a life of meeting our needs our own way. It is a pathway that recognises that we have in our ‘self-centred’ way turned our back on the most important aspects of life. It is a path that allows us to recognise the price that is paid for meeting our own needs our own way regardless of others. It culminates, not in guilt, but a turning towards renewed life, the power of resurrection and a new community of cooperation, peace and the rule of God. Those who through the self-sacrifice of destructive ego, recommit to the care of others find what it truly means to be human.
Joel 2 (NRSV)
12 Yet even now, says theLord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to theLord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.
The opening of Joel the prophet is unusual insofar that it's difficult to date his work and place it in a specific time. I think this is the point. Joel is writing to all of us across time. He could mention this leader or that leader or mention some demonstration of power or some event from his time and place, like other prophets do, but he does not. Why? Because Joel’s message is for all time and for all of us. Joel knows that political and religious leaders come and go but the values of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, remain forever. Joel’s message is of the importance of taking responsibility for our values, attitudes and beliefs that define and direct our behaviour both individually and collectively; Now! It’s not too late!
So, will we take the path, the ‘Narrow Path’ that leads to life? Will we return to the values, attitudes and beliefs that lead to Jesus the source of life? These Judeo- Christian values are alive and we can find them in the person and work of Messiah Jesus the focus of our meditations during lent.
In humility, will you take the imposition of ashes on your forehead and tell your world that you acknowledge your part in the way things are and that things need to change? Will you tell the story of your sorrow and that you commit yourself to change, prayer and meditation for yourself, others and indeed the whole world? Will you accept these ashes to tell your world that you have begun a fast, a giving up of a costly practice or resource as a symbol of the seriousness of how you view your current situation? Will you accept these ashes as a commitment to live under the authority of the cross of the Messiah Jesus our Higher Power for the benefit of others. Will you accept these ashes as a symbol of your commitment that will be demonstrated by conscious acts of kindness and generosity through Lent. Finally, will you commit to putting into practice in your everyday life what you learn throughout this time after the Lenten period has passed?
Will you remember today and everyday, from now on, that you are ashes and to ashes you will return?
Hello and welcome to the Open Space podcast: I’m Reg Bartlett and in the chair today. You can contact Open Space at openspacescotland@gmail.com.
‘Help and Harm’, ‘Authority and Insubordination’, ‘Truth and Perjury’
Often the good we attempt to do can be accepted without any gratitude and at times rejected. On other occasions harm that is done brings some unintended good. Healing for some can bring harm to others. Our actions can be well intentioned but seen as meddling and undermining. We can act congruently by our own values, attitudes and beliefs and yet these be portrayed as harmful and oppressive ‘untruths’.
The culture we live in today is trapped in this conundrum of intended and unintended consequences. Caring for a minority and prioritising their rights can be somehow seen by others as undermining their ‘social position’. The ‘Culture Wars’ of our contemporary period are the perfect example. Rights for some are expressed as domination for others. Concepts and reasoning that used to fit and provide predictability to life are now changing before we have time to think things through and come to our conclusions. For some we are moving too fast, while for others the long road to freedom is far too long.
Reform or revolution? If not now, then when? Relentless march of progress or the ‘the same old song, sung to a new melody’? Our position as disciples of Jesus demands that we do no harm, in fact, we should do good to those who would harm us! We are to bring healing to ‘hurts, habits and hang ups’. But how does it work out? Listen to the story …
Story in John 5 about a healing, authority to heal and witnesses to healing.
Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
5 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew[a] Beth-zatha,[b]which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.[c]5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 7 The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ 8 Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ 11 But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.”’ 12 They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in[d] the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ 18 For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
The Authority of the Son
19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father[e] does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. 21 Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22 The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, 23 so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.
25 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Witnesses to Jesus
30 ‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
31 ‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 I do not accept glory from human beings. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God in[f]you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’
If our actions do not bring healing can our values, attitudes and beliefs expressed by our reasoning be of any importance with what it means to be authentically human? Is there a pattern, a discernible order to things or are we simply the products of chance. Can we manage the future, manipulate it even, by our current actions or is the presence of complexity in the world such that we are all in the end the outcome of unintended consequences and chance?
Let’s be upfront and open here. Our world needs to heal, it needs healing. World poverty, hunger, war, social and religious conflict, individual human rights violation, the environmental disaster looming in front of us, the care crisis, the mental health crisis and the pessimism of ordinary people as to the possibility of a better way than their traditional roots dictate all suggest that we need to heal.
This is not new. This struggle for life has been going on since the beginning when we decided to meet our needs, mostly our own way. The occasional act of ‘altruism’ punctuates a story of mostly the survival of the fittest. We have found it difficult to think outside our own paradigms, our own biographies where we cast the participants in our own likeness and demonise others. This gives us potential allies to meet our needs and objects to blame when it doesn’t quite work the way we want, and the unintentional consequences come to visit.
At times we sit helpless at pools of hope longing for someone to help us into the troubled yet healing water and at other times we walk on by while others wait for healing and justice.
Every now then an opportunity for healing comes along. Mostly we don’t recognise it. In fact, we can see it as a threat. Gay marriage comes to mind. It is often portrayed as a threat to heterosexual marriage. This is interesting, because if for example we look at the reasons for divorce cited in divorce proceedings then I am confident that the overwhelming threat to marriage is not gay marriage at all. Similarly, with Trans rights. It is often portrayed as threat to women’s rights. Yet, if we had to survey the threat to women in our culture, I suspect that it would be ‘Toxic Masculinity’ that would be top of the abuse chart.
Why is this? Why indeed. The first century story that we read together pints in two ways at the same time.
Firstly, to authority. Where does authority lie? And secondly what we cite as witnesses to the validity of our conclusions.
In first century Israel / Palestine among Jews it was the TaNaK that was the sole source of authority or at least that was what was claimed yet Jesus states its His Father who has given Him authority and that the evidence of the TaNaK points to Jesus.
The data is not contested (The TaNaK) it’s the interpretation of the data. The simple conclusion from the so-called facts that ignores the complexity of the real world of lived experience. Simply applying data with no situated biography and an acknowledged paradigm for interpretation leads to ignoring complexity and drawing wrong, oppressive conclusions. Acknowledging this leads us into a state of perplexity. What interpretation can we trust? We find ourselves in the in-between state of faith and doubt the uncertainty space where we have to plot a new course with new information and paradigms of understanding. (For further reflection on ‘Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity and Harmony please see the Work of Brian McLaren in ‘Faith After Doubt’).
Ah yes, Harmony. That ever-elusive state for me but that some claim to have experienced. I’m going to suggest that Harmony is a process and that it is rooted in a commitment to the biography of the other. How does the other experience me? What is their lived experience of my presence? We can reflect on ancient texts and biographies if we like, but in the end I will need awareness of the other and my effect on their lived experience to act in valuing ways.
To interpret stories of identity in ways that creates insiders and outsiders is what happens in first century Israel / Palestine. In the end Jesus is murdered because He is seen as threat to the dominance of Rome and the Theocracy of Israel. There was no room for an alternative paradigm, and it leads to violence. It’s the same today. Making room for alterative paradigms, negotiation, reconciling, forgiving and accepting diversity is peace-making. This is the most urgent need we face today.
Where to begin? Values; a commitment to do no harm and positively value all human beings: This is need is to Listen. Attitudes; a developing propensity to act mutually, together, in mutually valuing ways: We need to Reflect. Beliefs; perpetually question beliefs and interpretations that undermine the expressed experience of solidarity and community: Conclusions are temporary. Behaviour; The expression of values, attitudes and beliefs: Peace-making is always the final judge.
The iterative interpretation of the biographies affecting our lives; this is the vehicle that we all have for saying that the divine community is in us and among us. We are all image bearers. What will be the image you see in me?
May your experience this day be a valued one, may our ways of action be characterised not by just what we are seen to deserve, but by grace a unilateral gift of love; may we come to know that beautiful mind who’s first and last act is for the preferential option for the oppressed. Amen
Hello and welcome to the Open Space podcast: I’m Reg Bartlett and in the chair today. You can contact Open Space at openspacescotland@gmail.com.
Proof, we feel the benefit of proof, we all need to know what we think we know is valid, trustworthy, reliable and works in diverse circumstances.
I need to know that the brakes in my car will work. I know that brakes have failed in certain circumstances but that doesn’t affect my trust in my brakes. Mostly brakes work, they don’t fail and if they do, accident investigators will search for why they have failed so it doesn’t happen again or at least the likelihood and consequence is so affected that the risk is reduced to acceptable levels. Ahh the dreaded risk assessment!
There are a range of ‘ways of knowing’. We know things because we think things through. We try and take bits of data and turn it into information, meaningful data if you like. We try and deduce; we create a working hypothesis and see if our information supports it. Sounds good but there is a problem. Does it work in the real world? Do ideas and combination of ideas that seem sound or at least ‘sound enough’ work when we try and put them to work in the real world of life. If not, why not? Could I be biased in my thinking. Have you ever thought something was a good idea simply to find out it was the worst decision you have ever made when you put it into practice? Unintended outcomes, the situation was more complex than I first thought. Ok, let’s think about it in another way. How about trying to understand an issue the other way round. What do I observe in the real world? Can I accept what I see? If I can’t see, hear, touch, taste or smell can I create a tool that does it for me, a tool that will demonstrate what’s happening beyond my direct senses? Can I rely on knowledge by Induction? How does the real world give up its hidden complexity? Can something be truly known, can we prove anything and if a theory is disproven once is that it, all over, back to the beginning and start again? Can I really know anything with any sense of certainty? Well, we know we can. Paracetamol helps reduce the pain of a headache or an inflamed joint, but it doesn’t work all the time in all circumstances. It works within parameters, doses, frequency and individual characteristics of the person. We even influence the effect of a medicine by what we believe about it, who prescribes it and what we are told to expect. Amazing!
In what do I put my faith and trust as ways of knowing? It’s important; can I rely simply on the world of ideas or do I need to experience these ideas in the material world as valid. Data is not information, which is not a hypothesis, which is not a theory which is not a fact, which is not a trial or double-blind trial. But they are all needed, all part of process of what makes knowing and life possible. We are not even consciously aware of all these complex processes at work all at the same time to make life in our world possible. We turn up at the G.P. tell them a story about ourselves and we expect, even demand they have a solution to the questions of our health. We are totally unaware of the complexity of the process we are involved in.
It's much the same in matters of ‘Faith”. For example, am I basing my faith on simply data, information, a working hypothesis, a theory or piece of research using double blind trials and experiments. Am I basing my trust simply on ideas or practice or some kind of mixture of both.
What we value, how we tend to act, what we believe, how we change how we live and behave over time is complex. Simply reducing it to one element of the knowledge process will affect the outcome of living our lives. Singular bits of data are less reliable and generalisable than a field trial.
In John 4
Jesus Returns to Galilee
43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee 44 (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). 45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you[g] see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ 49 The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ 50 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ 53 The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus makes his way back to Galilee to Cana; in fact to where some claimed Jesus turned water into wine. He was also now known through what happened in Jerusalem at the ‘Festival’. The clearing of the Temple got Jesus a reputation. But for what? ‘A wine making social and religious radicle?’. The people seem to know what they have seen and they welcomed Jesus. They seem to have eyes to see but what exactly are they seeing? Who are they welcoming?
I have met many people who identify as Christian. It never ceases to amaze me why they call themselves Christian. They seem to welcome Jesus but what they see in him is very varied. What data, information, hypothesis, theory is circulating about Jesus? How can we know? There appears to be two strands of evidence circulating now: wine making and Temple clearing. And then something strange happens at lease strange for us in the 21st century.
A Royal Official, a Senior Civil Servant if you like comes to Jesus and asks him to come and heal his sick son. Jesus mind seems to on other things he says to the man, ‘Unless you[g] see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ Mnnn, is that what the man was asking for a ‘sign and wonder’. Is this man simply seeking some evidence of Jesus true identity, is he not truly having a last-ditch attempt to save his son, is Jesus perhaps looking and talking at the man but actually speaking to a wider audience? The man believes Jesus when he says his son will live. A word only statement, but the man believes and goes on his way; he meets up with his staff the next day and they tell him, all is well, and that his son got better at the time Jesus said he would the previous day. The outcome was that whole household is told the story and they believe; but believe what? What have they got evidence for? What is their lived experience confirming for them?
Now we have three incidents and two signs. Wine making from water, clearing a temple and healing a very sick child. The is some narrative between these stories about purity laws, ethnic identity and gender identity and now a healing. What is John the author telling us. Are we expected to know something?
The answer is yes. To even remotely see what’s going on here John is making a big assumption and its this. He assumes we know at least the outline of the story of the Hebrew scriptures. The gospel of John is continuation of the meditative literature tradition of the Hebrew people known as the TaNak or as Christendom renamed this literature the Old Testament.
John is continuing a way of formulating knowledge. It’s quite different from how we do it today. As we have considered a bit earlier modern western natural science and social science are the main player in our culture for at least official knowledge. There are many other ways to know things and explore truth statements: poetry, art, music, literature, philosophy, history, archaeology family stories, gossip, superstition, tradition, institutions, religion, conspiracy theory and direct experience. The list goes on! These are all used in our culture. The next time you are being told something by someone ask yourself how they know what they telling you is true. How do you know you can trust what I’m telling you? What are my sources? You may surprise yourself and end up more than a little cautious about what you believe as ‘True’.
John in the First Century Middle East is part of a Hebrew literary meditative tradition that is culturally situated in Roman occupied Israel and has added the lived experience of a Rabbi called Jesus of Nazareth as a lens through which to understand history, the present and what the future could hold.
To understand what John is writing we need some of his information to make sense of the story. Usually, in my experience people are not taught this or the information made available to them for them to consider, to meditate upon, to reflect on and come to a knowledge of the truth about the way things are. We have been taught to rely too much on tradition and institutions. ‘The story of Rabbi Jesus means what the Church says it means?’ Really? What church, from what part of history and what will you own and disown?
The cultural background, the language and our own forms of knowledge will shape what we conclude, or perhaps meditate on, hold lightly, gently, respectfully valuing others opinion, respecting diversity and holding disagreement peaceably.
The alternative way to consider Jesus is to be always looking for ‘Signs and Wonders’. The Heaven and Earth story of Jesus and the Hebrew people gets replaced by a Heaven and Hell story of the Romans and Greeks. Knowledge by deduction over knowledge by induction, the lived experience. The bible records the lived experience of the Hebrew people by a large number of interpreters and writers, rewriters and redactors producing a literature full of meditation potential as a vehicle for us to be part of the making of a world fit for all of us to live in free from poverty and want. Tim Mackie (there is a source) calls it a ‘minority report’. He is suggesting that the bible is attempting to speak ‘truth to power’. But is that our experience of it? The bible has often been an abused document by the powerful to kill the truth. The story of Rabbi Jesus meets us in the here and now. It does not tell us what to think but gives material to begin thinking, reflecting and meditating on what makes a good world. Surely that’s worth more than as Jesus put it; signs and wonders.
So what do you make of the story of a people who welcome a winemaker, a temple clearer, a challenger of the religious establishment and its ownership of the sacred writings, a baptiser and healer. Are any of these themes linked to anybody in the TaNaK? If so what is there identity and what are the references. Who is it that the scriptures speak of? What is John trying so say to me 2000 years down the line? Why should it be important to me?
The questions just keep on coming….. Here is some reading for you. You can use and online bible like Bible Gateway to look readings up its easy…. Go on have a go and see some of John’s sources of knowledge and what he thinks about them….
Isaiah 25: 6-10
Psalm 69
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 40
And may your mediation bring you peace as you pray…
"Blessed are you O' Lord King of the Universe Who has fulfilled all of the law through Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah and have covered us with His Righteousness.’
Hello and welcome to the Open Space podcast: I’m Reg Bartlett and in the chair today. You can contact Open Space Scotland
It’s all around us, ‘The Identity Question’ Who do we say we really are. Scots or British perhaps Trans British, Male or Trans Male or Female or Trans Female, Non-Binary, the possibilities seem never ending. To miss a defining characteristic out runs the danger of being labelled oppressive, discriminatory and as silencing that identity.
Lots of research work has and is being done on this subject; we can see this in the online document from the Scottish Government regarding question creation for the Scottish Census Survey. There are some fascinating discussions at the moment on the questions surrounding identity. These are not simple or straightforward.
I have to say right at the outset of this podcast that as far as I can see the teaching and practice of Jesus of Nazareth, situated in the 1st century is clear to me. Jesus was and is inclusive. I mean radically inclusive. He broke lots of identity taboos of His time to reach out to people. People were ‘People First’ fully human and deserving of the same respect no matter how they personally identified. According to Jesus people had a need and a right to live like and with other folks who may proclaim different personal identities as citizens. Jesus taught and practiced that human need was both personal and social. One area of life did not ‘trump’ the other; acceptance of difference, choice and ‘peaceable disagreement’ were practiced as a way of living together in a valued, developmental and progressive way.
Now there are different interpretations to this inclusive and diversity valuing interpretation of Jesus life. The life, words and practices of Jesus have been used as a reason to create discrimination; some argue that Jesus teaches and practices that there are a ‘chosen saved elite’ and a rejected ‘created damned’; They have a Heaven and Hell view of the gospel. But I don’t get that at all from the Jesus of the Nazareth found in the New Testament. Jesus seems to teach a Heaven and Earth story. You see, words are slippery, elusive, ambiguous stuff. In the end they mean nothing. That’s right, words mean nothing! It is people, writers and readers who mean something. People bring meaning to words. Our physical, social, psychological and environmental worlds interacting with that of others. We create new experiences and interpretations in this never ending (that’s how it feels) dynamic of life. Language, writing, ideas are communicated through symbols; we them call words. Agreement between us is possible, peace and understanding is possible, growth and development is possible but it takes the recognition, acceptance and valuing that diversity and complexity is needed and is a valuable and good thing. As Paul, the often maligned writer regarding identity wrote in 2 Corinthians 3: 8 … 8 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
The ‘Trans(ition) State’ seems to be a process we are all in? At least according to Paul.
So the question for us is; ‘Are those of us who are in a state of transition from identity to another given a voice by Jesus?’
John 4
Now when Jesus[a] learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— 2 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)[b]10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 11 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13 Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ 15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’
16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17 The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you[c] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ 25 The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ 26 Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,[d] the one who is speaking to you.’
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ 28 Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,[e] can he?’ 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ 32 But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ 33 So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ 34 Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving[f] wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’
The controversy around Jesus continues. People being baptised, coming out if you like. I like that, Baptism is a coming out statement. It causes some folks a great deal of anxiety. In publicly stating that our world is challenged and changing, other people will get anxious regarding the implication for their worlds. Sometimes we must move on to take the threat out of a crisis moment for some. Jesus moves on in the story but he does not move back. He is not on the run. He simply moves to a place that is equally controversial and finds himself through a basic human need in another ‘Transition Moment’. Jesus is thirsty, he asks for a drink from a women at a well in an avoided neighbourhood, at least avoided by some; but not Jesus.
Wells, water, thirst, have a ‘well-established’ imagery in the scriptures…. Look some up. You know how to do it? If not email for a copy of some online recourses to help. John the writer here gives us a starter for 10. We are at Jackob’s well, on a piece of land given by Jackob to Joseph. These are big characters in the Hebrew scriptures. John is asking us to get familiar with them and use them as starting point to understand what’s going on. John sets the scene for a reason but so we do not get confused he also explains. Some believe that being thirsty is not a good enough reason to ask someone from a different gender, social status and cultural background for a drink. They are who they are, and we are who we are. No crossing boundaries, no transitioning into who we know we really are. That’s not a possibility. Unless your Jesus.
Here goes the taboos again! Jesus and the woman are both human beings, one in a state of need and one in a state of plenty. Or so it seems, one thirsty, one has got a well and a water bucket. But as the story unfolds we discover that both are thirsty in one way or another and both have a plenteous supply of what the other really needs.
The implications of the story are huge then and now. We don’t need to be in a state of poverty amid plenty. We can give what we can and receive what we need. This is the ‘Spirt and Truth’ of it. Identity is not fixed but in state of flux. We are in a state of becoming and it starts by just being. Just being who we really are; just come as you are. The effect of transitioning affects the whole community when we come as we are. When we come as we are we all change to who we are meant to be.
We can be like some of the disciples and get very anxious about challenging taboo subjects and coming out as a people for whom there are no untouchables. There are no fixed identities but rather, in the flux of life, we are constantly being challenged to care and to share the wealth of good world. We are challenged to receive gifts of community and love from the hands of those we once were taught were untouchable.
Jesus has crossed the social and psychological divide. This is the radical care of meeting people where they are, listening to them and empowering them to be who they really are, fully human, valued and loved by us by supporting them to become the people they have been created to be. Jesus gives the silenced a voice. Being and becoming may not be binary opposites after all. They, in fact, are non-binary. They are one and more than one thing, both at the same time. A bit like Jesus, human and yet something more. Jesus is becoming, transitioning to something more. At least he was for the women at the well and some of her community and he is for me; anybody know where I can get a drink, I’m thirsty?
Until next time, may Jesus words become for you living water; Jesus spoke these words regarding identity formation…
So…. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”31 The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’
May these two commandments made up of our shared humanity; our physical, social and psychological values become one in our community…. Amen