Pentecost 2017

7:37-39

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the giving of the Spirit as a result of the Ascension of the Risen Christ. This is a day of great celebration and unnerving responsibility. It is both a blessing and a challenge, a day in which we move out of the shadow of the incarnate Christ in the shape of Jesus and are left alone with the Spirit to usher in the kingdom of God.

 

It is easy to get caught up in the glorious scenes depicted in the book of Acts. It sounds almost like a scene from any major Hollywood blockbuster – big, bold and life changing. And it is, or at least can be. Here there are dramatic symbols of tongues of fire and a universal language of love and hope. All are able to hear the same voice at the same time. In the moments of revelation they stand together imbued with the power of the Ascended Christ and speak and hear as one.

 

John, as he is wont to do, editorises Jesus’s proclamation with the words “Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive..” Jesus is offering himself as the source of the water of continuing life and John clarifies that this will only happen when the Spirit comes. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and John always has great hindsight. In this case John’s hindsight brings with it the insight of cause and effect.

 

John’s Jesus says, “‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” He rightly notes that this is not a natural response of human beings to an encounter with the Mystery we call God, that this will not happen without the input of grace, of a gift we are unable to see or consciously receive but that comes to those who stand with the Cosmic Christ unconditionally, without having to seek it.

 

And the effect of such a gift is an outflowing of that same Spirit in the form of love, respect and wholeness by those who claim Christ as their own. Jesus says this flow will be life giving, life-enhancing, life-watering. It will be as water is to the human body and to all creation, the vital and necessary source of the ongoing existence. We can not live without water and we can not live into Christ without the Spirit.

 

Let us take a little time to imagine a world in which such a spirit was freely flowing from all who believed. Let us image a country or even a community where such a spirit was freely flowing from all who believed. Let us imagine a church in which such a spirit was freely flowing from all who believed.

 

Then let us take the same time to  look around us and see what is really the case. A world in which violence and selfish takes pride of place, communities and countries in which people are marginalised and excluded and churches in which bullying and violence is done daily.

 

In the last week or so I have spent time with clergy who have left their places of ministry this year because of bullying by parishioners. These are good and experienced clergy in parishes here in our city. They have been criticised without reason, bullied by those who resist change or simply want their own way and people within their parish have threatened some with violence. Another priest recounted a conversation with parish councillor who asked who we were reconciling with during National Reconciliation Week. When she said the aboriginals the person responded with, ‘That’s ok, we don’t have any of those here.” The fact that the priest is obviously indigenous in appearance and had been open about their background during the two years tenure seemed to have been completely missed by the person in question.

 

As we talked I saw broken people who have been victims of others fear and anxiety, who have been made scapegoats for others personal insecurities and who have ceased to be persons but simply priests. I have had these experiences throughout my ministry, some of these have occurred here. As I said in my paper at the Carmelite symposium on Thursday,, “In our interactions with others there is often a crucifixion, and it is not Jesus who is crucified.”

 

We know that Pentecost did not result in a problem free church. The book of Acts is full of conflict and the history of the institutional church is replete with scapegoating, inquisition and violence; innocent people have been destroyed over and over again by those who claim the Spirit of Christ. We excuse it as politics, human nature and well, that’s the way it is.

 

Jesus is definite, that is not the way it is to be. He says clearly, “‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Shall flow not may flow, on a good day will flow, when they have had a good night’s sleep or any other rider. It is “shall flow” Now we know that is not always the case for ourselves and for others and we need to ask ourselves why?

 

Are we awake to our own frailties and foibles, and our biases to stymie the flow from ourselves to others? Are we able to take our selves out onto the front veranda and have a full and open conversation with ourselves about how we speak to others, how we demand our own way, how we hold onto what we have and have come to value?

 

Self-reflection is vital to both human and, in our context, faith growth. Without the capacity to look closely at our motivations and the impact of our words and actions on others and change pour behaviour, we will continue to wreck havoc on others in our churches, communities and the world.

 

The coming of the Spirit is a gift but it is not a gift to be corralled for ourselves or recognised in major events. It is a gift that we can only receive if we allow it to flow freely through us and to do that we have to get out of the way. We are to take ourselves to task and be prepared to step away from long held prejudices, understandings, practices and opinions and make room for compassion, inclusion, welcome, mystery and not knowing if we are to be source of living water. 

Nicodemus and Progress In Faith

Fritz von Uhde - Christus und Nikodemus (ca.1886)

John 3.1-17 

The Gospel today has many themes in it, but I want to concentrate on both Nicodemus’ questions to Jesus and his growth in faith.

Initially Nicodemus is simply on another wavelength to Jesus and he is asking the wrong questions – indeed he could have dispensed with the questions altogether and just listened to Jesus.  But he, like many of us, has questions.

We are often looking for something.  Something fresh, something true.  In our faith, we search for meaning, for a sense of purpose. And sometimes we don’t find it.  What we find are our empty phrases heaped up in a pile for us to sift through.  Questions without answers that satisfy.  Or answers from Jesus that confuse.

God calls us over and over and we are often deaf to God’s cries.  The pleas of Jesus to know and understand him, go unanswered.  Our egos remove us from knowing Jesus because we often ask too many questions and even then, we ask the wrong questions.  Often we are caught in a rational and cerebral pursuit of faith.

Nicodemus’ search is certainly confused by him asking questions.

He comes with several questions and Jesus has answers, but they are cryptic to Nicodemus.  They are not answers for the feeble mind.  Perhaps this is sometimes our pattern:  we come with questions, intellectualising – but we are so intent on getting our questions out, that we are not hearing.

Nicodemus is certainly left floundering.

But his search is not in vain.  He appears again twice, later in John’s Gospel.  In chapter 7, he offers a hesitant defense of Jesus – he says of Jesus when the Temple police want to arrest him that: ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing…’  So, gladly the faith of Nicodemus is growing and he is prepared to take a risk and defend Jesus against his accusers.

And importantly, very late in the Gospel - Chapter 19 - Nicodemus accompanies Joseph of Arimathea, bringing a hundred pounds of spices for Jesus' burial.  A hundred pounds is an enormous amount – but perhaps there is a symbol here - Nicodemus bringing so much spice shows his deep devotion to Jesus.  Finally, only after Jesus’ death, he has deepened his faith from his early questioning in today’s Gospel.

But this development of faith over time does not take away from the fact that initially Nicodemus just doesn’t get it.  His mind is not so much shut as it is clouded.  He is looking for rational answers to the most complex of problems – who is Jesus.  Nicodemus is confused.

He interprets what Jesus says literally and Jesus keeps trying to get him to see his words as symbols pointing towards something heavenly. 

Maybe we can identify with Nicodemus – perhaps we sometimes wonder if our faith is lacking and it may be because either we are asking the wrong questions or indeed that we are asking questions at all.  For example, from the Gospel today, we too might want to know, like Nicodemus, how it is that we can ACTUALLY be born from above, or as some translations have it ‘born again’, when really Jesus is talking of the spiritual realm and how our faith comes from somewhere other than from earthly things.

Jesus says that no-one can enter the Kingdom without being born again.  Nicodemus dimly wants to know how anyone can be born after having grown old.  And he asks: ‘Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’  Jesus is not getting through to Nicodemus’ fragile sense of faith.  They’re like ships in the night.

And this being born into life in Christ is at the heart of our Christian faith in different ways.  If you asked an Evangelical Christian what it means to be born again they might well say that it is to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  If you asked a Pentecostal Christian they might say that it is being baptised into the Spirit.

So, when trying to understand Nicodemus and his role in the Gospel, it is not the words ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ that are so important, but rather that here is a man who SEEKS.  He has a fledging quest for understanding and faith.  And in seeking, his life changes forever – from misguided questions, to defender of Jesus, to finally being the man who anoints Jesus after his death.

In a way, it is not even Nicodemus’ questions that are the problem, it is that he is caught up in them – he is stuck on another plain to Jesus.  Suspended in his own sense of logic.  Perhaps we too come to faith with our logic to the fore – waiting for faith to emerge through the many trials of life.  I suspect that we don’t get Jesus up front and that we simply can’t find deep faith by being ‘in our head’.  It is human to come with many questions, only to find there are few answers. 

As we grow older perhaps our questions are not helpful anymore and when we finally come to see Jesus for who he is, by quietly worshipping, we come with our hundred pounds of spices to lavish on him.  Not with our helpless questions, but with our devotion.  Our faith CAN develop beyond our questioning.

One theory about the development of faith has it that it comes to us in three stages: the first stage is childish faith – one that believes everything without question.  It might be seen as a magical stage.  A stage when faith is built on the literal truth. 

Then comes the second stage - a period of questioning – that is also a stage Nicodemus is at in today’s Gospel. 

Then if you are lucky enough, you come to the third and final stage – the faith of the child-like.  Not the childish, the child-like.  It is at this stage that there is a synthesis - mature faith questions AND believes.  It can open itself fully to Jesus.  To me, it is not enough to intellectualise faith as Nicodemus does initially.  Our intellect can sometimes tear us apart.  Perhaps even our constant questioning wreaks havoc.  Child likeness probably has quiet worship at its core.  The people that reach this stage are probably not asking questions of intellect.  They seem to be beyond that and somehow accept their faith as a given and deepen their awareness of God by BEING.  For Nicodemus the prayerful embalming of Jesus – simply BEING with Jesus - must have been a deeply profound experience for him, in the presence of God.

Perhaps the child likeness stage of faith is exemplified by an uneducated peasant who simply worships and praises God from deep within - without any University developed intellectual ability to question.  Further, it is like a person who sits and gazes on God and God gazes on them.  In a childlike way, they are happy just with that exchange.

If nothing else the picture presented in John’s Gospel of Nicodemus can help us see that for all our questioning, we CAN go through a transformation.  From questioner to worshipper.

Because I don’t think we can reduce the Son of God to a few questions and hope to get a clear and concise answer, or develop our faith instantly.

Again, Nicodemus’ problem, probably like many of us, is that he is stuck in his head and this prevents a deepening of faith.  The great theologian Schleiermacher once said – we all have a feeling for God.  This feeling he speaks of is not an intellectual thing, it is something in our gut.  It is devoid of logic.  Maybe we need to revisit Jesus with more of our emotion and less of our questions – to take us away from being ‘in our heads’ and rather take us into creative orbit with Jesus where we sit at his feet and worship – not ask questions, but just be with him.

We live in a world where everything is explained, understood, dissected, probed, questioned, rationalised, intellectualised.  Our lives are about ‘doing’, achieving, about goal setting, meeting key performance indicators.  We seek meaning through reading, writing, enquiring - and I admit, that has its place too.  But it is a question of degree and priority.

Still some want answers that can be added and subtracted till the result is a prime number, or something else that fits neatly in their ordered minds.  As we can see, Nicodemus initially wanted answers - and he may be more like us than we know.

When our questions are all done and when our intellectualising does not satisfy us, I believe THAT is the time, when through our deep emotional response to Jesus, he becomes plain and obvious.  This is essentially a response from our gut, from the core of our emotional selves.  A kind of ‘being’, rather than doing – suspending our search for God by our frenzied pursuits.  Maybe we can reach a quiet state of unquestioning bliss without questions, without complex intellectual rigour.  A state, a place, where we can let go and let God.

Be awake, Jesus is back!

Matthew 24:36-44

Today is Advent Sunday beginning the count down to the coming of Christ in to the world. It is the count down to the beginning of the end to the ruthless power of violence, persecution and isolation presently deemed to be in charge of the world. The coming of Christ into the world is to usher in the reign of God and to bring about a change of orientation and the end of the ego self as the reigning image of power and entitlement.

Today is also the beginning of the year of Matthew, a writer with an end-time or apocalyptic orientation. Matthew believes history is divided into two ages -- a present, evil age that God would soon replace with a new age, the reign or kingdom of God. The old age is marked by idolatry, sin, injustice, exploitation, sickness, enmity between nature and humankind, violence, and death. The new age will be characterized by the complete rule of God and by authentic worship, forgiveness, mutual support, health, blessing between nature and humankind, and eternal life.

For Matthew, God is acting through Jesus Christ to effect the change. The birth, life, and resurrection are the first phase of the transformation, with the complete manifestation arriving with the second coming. Meanwhile, Matthew’s community lives in a conflict zone between the ages. God calls the Matthean community to follow the instruction and model of the Matthean Jesus.

Some scholars affirm that many in Matthew’s congregation were losing confidence in the coming of the Realm. The apocalypse was delayed. Their witness was fading. Matthew wrote to encourage them to continue. (Ron Allen)

For a community enthused by the hope of regime change and the possibility of freedom from both the tranny of the Romans and the seeming assault on their values and beliefs, the return of Christ and his Kingdom couldn’t come to soon. It hadn’t, it didn’t or hasn’t.

Or did it?

Many cartoonists have commented on this desire to find Jesus and to find Jesus in his return to the world. It is often a comment on those who knock on our door with the desire to convert us to their vision of faith with the question, ‘Have you found Jesus?

Well, one of my favourite t-shirts is this one – “I have found Jesus-he was behind the sofa the whole time”.

I have been accused of being heretical for wearing it, but I suspect it captures something of the apocalyptic message of this passage. Be awake, Jesus is already here, have you missed him?

If we are always looking west we will never see the sun rise in the east. Until 1697 all swans were believed to be white. No one had seen a black swan until Dutch explorers led by Willem de Vlamingh became the first Europeans to see black swans, in Western Australia. It has become a way to describe events we are unable to predict because there is no precedence, experience and awareness on which to base our judgement. The election of Donald Trump could be a black swan event.

We do know the coming of Jesus was one such event and the second coming of Jesus through the coming of his spirit in the world after his resurrection is another such event. Matthew is often read to speak of that time when his kingdom will come in power and turn on its head the world in which we live, ushering respect, justice and compassion – the with-ness of relational wholeness empowered by love.

Do we still live waiting for that event, for if we do I fear we short change the gift of the spirit and the capacity we have to live in the kingdom which is to come, now.

My t-shirt is a reminder to me to:

·      Be awake to the now, to the spirit of Christ at work in the ordinariness of material being. Jesus may not be physically behind the sofa but he is to be found in all those places where the structures of power and tyranny, capitalism and false democracy are challenged by those who represent equality, compassion, justice and inclusion. What is more apocalyptic than that? The Anglican churches with prayer rooms for their Muslim friends or including LGBTI within the leadership of their church or making space for those who are different and deemed less than us, and more. Those who stand against the systemic violence of war, winners and losers, banned for life and builders of walls and barriers to freedom.

·      Be awake to the opportunities I never expect to have, the black swan experiences which open up possibilities for my voice to be heard, my love as a verb to be experienced or my simple presence next to someone who is being excluded, oppressed or avoided to be felt.

·      Be awake to the truth that Christ has already returned through the power of his spirit and it is my responsibility to be ready to act, speak and be the prophet of the reign of Christ, now. This is not something coming from above or in the future, this is to come from within and now; from within this material existence and from within me and it is now, this very moment I am being called to love – to be the action of love in this world.

I witness this amazing second coming everyday.

·      I see it here in this parish. When someone gets sick, faces  the loss of someone they love or the possibility of their own death, I witness Christs spirit at work in this congregation – the kingdom of God acts. People visit, ring, prayer, cook, wash and are just present. People tell me when I ring offering assistance, ‘Not to worry Vicar, I am being well cared for by my friends here.” I have had others say how much their ‘St Oswald’s family” have done in their time of need.

This is an example of turning the power of oppression upside down and acting out the second coming of Christ in this place.

·      I also see it in the efforts people make to support refugees, homeless, unemployed; to go to rallies and marches; to advocate on those who are excluded.

This is another example of turning the power of oppression upside down and acting out the second coming of Christ in this place.

·      I see it in the capacity of people to continue to live as joy and hope for others when the odds are stacked against them. For example:

o   ARtlifting is a US program using art to engage homeless people. It is not therapy or feel good helping. Homeless people explore their artistic talents and the folk at ArtLifting  run exhibitions, art shows and auctions, selling the art and lifting people from dependency to independence.

o   I see it the work of Slingshot which has launched Australia’s first ever Indigenous start-up accelerator program called Barayamal. The accelerator aims to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs build successful business ideas into worldclass products.

o   I see it in a record for the University of Western Australia where six Aboriginal medical students will graduate this weekend, including Vinka Barunga who wishes to become Derby’s first indigenous doctor.

o   I see it in the many ways, places and people who are embodying the spirit of Christ and revolutionising the world, we just have to be awake.

Matthew does have a focus on the second coming, we do live in the in-between times, not as a place of being in limbo, but as a place where the second coming is ours to institute. Be ready, be awake, and act as if Jesus has already come. Amen

Living The Way To The Cross

Luke 14:25-33 

I have always wondered what it would be like to be a celebrity and be pursued 24/7, to have an entourage of devoted followers at your heels waiting to catch a drop of wisdom, a look or even a touch. I guess when fame and fortune first hits one may think, “Wow, how wonderful it is to be so popular, to have so many people hanging on my every word, watching my every move and checking out my figure for signs of over indulgence!” 

By about day three I think the novelty would wear off. Get these people out of here! Can’t I have one moment alone? 

Today’s Gospel opens with the recurring words ‘large crowds’ were travelling with him’. Large crowds are a stock feature of the synoptic Gospels, by the lake, at the synagogues, on the mountains and wherever Jesus seemed to be. Even when he is seeking silence and stillness for a little time out they turn up, 5,000 in the sermon on the mount and 4,000 at the sermon on the plain. 

So I am not surprised that this time he turns around and gives them a serve, not a get lost you lot serve but a reality check. Ok folks, the school excursion is over, now down to real business. If you keep following what I say this won’t end well, are you up for it? Families, villages, careers, relationships and ordinary everyday living will be disrupted and turned around if you go where what I say will take you. 

D Mark Davis comments "…… this call to discipleship is radical, implying that those who follow Jesus are not going to be making decisions based on 'what’s best for me,' or even 'what’s best for our marriage/family/children.'" There is no clear indication that there is such a decision for, if one looks at the examples Jesus gives, an outnumbered army or an over committed builder, the decision seems simple, no. In the case of the army, negotiate; the house builder, rent; the other option in both cases most likely won’t end well. 

Jesus then says "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” This is not a reference to the cross of Calvary but is not the act of a later editor putting words into Jesus’s mouth it appears in Mark, Matthew and the Gospel of Thomas as well as here. 

Also Epictetus a Greek speaking scholar is quoted in the Discourses by his pupil Arrian as having said the following: 

If you want to be crucified, just wait.  

The cross will come. 

If it seems reasonable to comply, and the circumstances are right, 

then it's to be carried through, and your integrity maintained.  

The inference being a certain way of life will lead, inevitably to conflict and if such a life is to have integrity one is to follow that life to its predictable end. Epictetus and Jesus both are saying, if your live outside the accepted norms of society and value what is at odds with such a society you will, in a Roman occupied country and a modern democracy, arrive at the cross. 

Now that may not be what the ‘large crowds’ wanted to hear. They were looking for peace and freedom from the oppressors not more violence and angst, especially from those they know and love. A counter-cultural philosophy of love your enemy, give help to the despised and reprimand to those in power is not the way one goes about making friends and influencing people. Yet the teaching of Jesus stood at odds with society then and still does today. 

Emerson Powery writes, "Today's contemporary Church has to wrestle with the reality of following a radical, counter-cultural prophet." 

Now this is not only a social justice question, it is a spiritual and religious question: what religion do you follow? The religion of the ego self and narcissism where I do everything for myself and those within my immediate purvey? Or is it the religion of capitalism, which says to the rich there will always be more, to the rest the leftovers. Or is it the religion of consumerism where enough is not enough and more is insufficient? Or is it the religion of self preservation, save our own bacon, call the lawyers and hard luck to the rest (a position often taken by the churches in reference to child abuse claims). 

Powery poses the challenge in just the way Jesus did, it is not a foregone conclusion that the large crowd or the contemporary church will indeed take up the religion of Jesus and live a radical, counter-cultural, prophetic role in the modern world. There is too much to lose. Our place in the power structures, our hard fought for exemptions and options, our buildings and our money, not to mention the fancy dress and valuable silver ware. To live a life of sacrificial compassion for others, including the whole of creation of which we as human animals are but one of many will mean a radical rethink for the church and for each of us individually. 

• It will mean preferencing justice in all our actions and our words, not just saying what is right but doing what is right, despite the cost. It will involve speaking prophetically into the public space and challenging long  held views or those opinions we described last week as being like haircuts, everyone has one but not all are worth considering. Integrity in word and action takes great courage but is the task we face. 

• It will mean preferencing the poor and not just the poor in terms of other human beings but the poor meaning the birds of the air, the flowers of the fields, the animals of the forests and fish in the sea. These make up the world along with humanity that God so loved. This will challenge how we consume, how we find ourselves entwined in the economic devaluation of resources and how we hoard up riches for ourselves at the expense of others. It is indeed very challenging and may well be too much on either an individual or a societal level for all of us. 

• It will mean preferencing a life built on enough – our daily bread – our ordinary job – our enough house. Simplicity in being without the urge to always seek more. Science tells us that there is a default point for happiness. Despite the lure of more, once one arrives there and gets over the excitement, science tells us we fall back to our default level of happiness. As happy as your are now is probably how happy you will be regardless of more. 

• It will mean preferencing a different God than the one we learnt about in Sunday School and came popular in response to the Enlightenment.This is a God is beyond all definitions yet knowable, beyond all boundaries yet personal, outside our world yet fully engaged in the experiences of our world, a God with a preference for all of Creation and not just human beings. Here is Mystery sitting in our muddle, our pain and our despair bringing hope to brighten our darkness. 

Jesus is a radical countercultural prophet who calls us and the church to a life which place us outside the accepted social contract. We cannot do it alone. We do it together and we do it together empowered by God’s ever-present Spirit. It is the only way we can take the road to the cross. In the end it was the only way Jesus could too. 

Reading the Bible - Fact or Myth?

Ephesians 6:10-20

How do we read the Bible? A silly question you may ask, but an important one if we are to find the truth that sits beneath the surface in this book of books. Do we read it literally from the translation we have in front of us? Is it the word of God that holds true at all times and in all places? Is it a book of fact verified and proven to accurate in all ways? Or is it something more or different altogether?

 

Reading the Bible literally is like looking at a painting and only seeing the picture sitting on the surface of the canvas. We see only what we see. If we only see the picture and don’t strive to se the meaning hidden in the picture, something of the perspective of the artist, their culture and philosophy, we will only ever see a painting we either like or don’t like, judged only on what is visible.

 

The Bible is more than literal words. It is more than what we read. We now know much in the Bible no longer holds true as verifiable fact or history. It is an amalgamation of events and history brought together to tell a story.

 

The Bible is a book of poetry, a lyrical book of metaphor and mythology, not myth as fairytale, but myth in it’s classical sense. It points to meaning without describing that meaning directly. It hints at the mystery of life and calls us to get in touch with what dwells below the surface. 

 

The Bible calls us back to mythology and symbolism, something we in the western world have discarded. We no longer engage with meaning making myth and it comes at a cost. Humans need poetry and myth to make meaning of their lives. When we ignore such it reappears in negative forms – mental health issues, violence, abuse etc. We spiritualise, medicalise, rationalise and ignore dreams, visions, insight and intuition. Our literal response is to normalise behaviour, thought and action so that we produce a flat one-dimensional world of proven fact and experience. Anything outside this is does not exist.

 

The Bible requires much more of us. It requires us to dive deep into its poetic style u to discover more. It requires us to dive deep in side ourselves to hear what the spirit is saying and to engage with the very forces ebbing and flowing in us, forceswe describe as good and evil, darkness and light, positive negative. It requires us to be open to a sphere of experience not visible in a literal world.

 

It also requires us to understand much of the writers purpose, who they are writing to and what they needed to hear. Paul and John write to the Ephesians, not to give them a book of practical advice as we read it – read you Bible, pray, live a moral life and accept Jesus as Lord – but to encourage them, telling them  the struggles they face aren’t personal and these struggles are shared with others.

 

Susan Hylen writes of this passage:

"While modern Christians are likely to have a view of heaven as a paradise in which no evil dwells, the writer of Ephesians is drawing on a different set of cultural assumptions, one in which a struggle between cosmic forces occurs within the heavenly realm. Christians, who already reign with Christ in some sense, are obligated to participate in this struggle."

Paul is writing from prison to a church of new followers struggling to find their way. John writes to the same group of people in his Gospel, people facing persecution from within and without the church. They have been betrayed and abandoned by friends and family, neighbours and social acquaintances because of their new found faith in Jesus the Christ.

 

What started out as a great epiphany, a moment of great joy was now fast becoming a nightmare. What they expected, a life of joy and the coming of the kingdom of God appeared further away than ever. It was hard, painful, and full of threat. They could die for their faith or at least be cut off from their Jewish heritage. Everything they knew no longer applied and they were cast out of the synagogue and society, as they knew it.  They were alone.

 

Paul writes some words of comfort and support: (vs10-13)

 

He recognises the difficulties they are facing for their faith. He understands the struggle it is for them to remain faithful as young Christians, wondering whether they got it totally wrong. Where is God? Where is this Jesusthe Christ? Where is the solidarity and support they thought would be there? What has happened to my friends and families? Is it really worth it to be a follower of JesustheChrist or should we just abandon it and go back to where we were?

 

Paul offers encouragement:

First, this is not just about you. This is an eternal battle, an eternal ebb & flow that continues in the heavens. It finds its form in the world in the shape of the  secular and religious leaders who are persecuting you for your beliefs, ostensibly for different reasons, but in fact because you challenge their power. Heaven is not a place where you can eat as much fairy floss as you like without getting cavities! It is a place where you continue to engage in the eternal battle.

 

In our modern world we think in terms of self. We perceive events and actions in terms of how they impact on or find their way out of ourselves. Paul reminds us, and the Ephesians, this is not the case. The world holds much more variety and mystery that that. It engages us in a story which is both uniquely ours and uniquely eternal and universal. We are engaged, not as the centre of the action, but as one of the many players in the eternal story.

 

Paul is encouraging them to stay engaged because they are an integral part of the biggest story possible and their struggles and difficulties with the powers active in the world has meaning and purpose. It has solidarity and belonging. It has the imprimatur of faith, hope and compassion found in faith in JesustheChrist.

 

Secondly, Paul intimates that this is not just the experience of new followers but all followers. He reminds them that he is in prison for his faith, and will probably die as a result. When John writes to the same church he holds up the example of Peter who had already been martyred for his faith.

 

Thirdly Paul is suggesting that they don’t have to be perfect. They will fail, slip, make mistakes, struggle with loyalty and get it wrong. But they are to do everything possible to maintain their faith right up to and including that terrible day, the day when their faith will be ultimately tested by the Romans or the religious leaders, the powers at work in this world. The suggestions made calls them into a deeper relationship with their faith where they will begin to understand another realm at work – the spirit realm and it is not to be feared.

 

We live in the Spirit.  Jesus was the embodiment of the spirit alive in the world – or at least that was how the man Jesus was seen. He was true, righteous, prophetic, and open to hear God in the world. He was filled with the Spirit, as we are, if we but understand that our real life is spirit not physical.

 

Reading the Bible requires us to delve below the surface of what we read, to understand it as mythology, the world of the Spirit. Like the Ephesians we are to avoid simply looking at what is happening in front of us or to us as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Our lives are lived across the material and spiritual worlds and our experience has meaning in both realms. Once we let go of the literal we begin to grapple with the forces at work within and without, the ebb flow of spirituality sapping and energising us at the same time.

Gordon Graham in a reflection upon understanding art applicable to our understanding of Bible as poetry and myth, suggests that while art, and for us the Bible, speaks of a particular event or circumstance, they also speak to the general - the universal. The Bible collects characters and events and put them together to tell a story and even though those characters and events may never have happened as it is told. Art, which the Bible most certainly is poetically, 'may be imaginary through and through, but it can still enable us to look more sensitively at people, circumstances and relationships in our own experience. the question to be asked is not, 'Does this effectively capture the scene portrayed?' But 'does this make us see this sort of event or circumstance or group of people differently?"

 

It is challenging but it is the essence of our life. Amen. 

Peter the Reluctant Learner Comes Alive!

Acts 2:1-21

Today is Pentecost Sunday, often referred to as the church's birthday, the day when God poured out the Spirit on the early church gathered in Jerusalem. It was an amazing spectacle and it is this spectacle we often get caught up in. And it would have been so easy to have been swayed by tongues of fire, roaring winds and otherwise mono-linguistic people speaking in foreign languages. This story of God breaking in on, not just the disciples though they were there, but devout Jews and people from every part of the known world is a story too good to ignore, yet we often drain it of it's power and relevance for us today.

This story is an example of experiential learning, the type of learning we search for in our teaching, parenting and living. We are called to become involved in this event which is being experienced by us and by people all throughout the world at this very moment. Jesus promised to send the Spirit to teach, to breakdown, to unify and to celebrate the creative and redeeming wonder of God, and Pentecost is that day.

The wonder of teaching is surprise, and as teachers, if we lose the capacity to be surprised by our material, our students and our selves, our teaching becomes static, lifeless and dead.  Each day we are surprised by students, students who respond with amazing insights, attention and participation  we were not expecting, not at least from 'that' particular student.  Marking Religious Education assignments I have been surprised by the students who have surprised me with the quality of their work and their insights into the world around them.  These haven't been the brightest and the best, just ordinary students who have given of themselves in a way that says, 'I am listening and I am capable of catching you off guard.'  When we are not looking something amazing happens. That is Pentecost in action, that is the Spirit of God continuing to create wonder and blessing in places we consider dead, not alive, barren and unproductive.

Peter gets up to speak, Peter the petulant, the impulsive, the one who speaks before thinking, the one who cut off the soldiers ear with his sword, the one who denied Jesus three times, gets up to speak in the midst of this amazing moment. Peter speaks without hesitation, plainly and powerfully, no impulsive sayings, no over the top rhetoric - just good plain speaking knowledge - he speaks what he learnt when Jesus was with them. Peter becomes the archetypal student, the student we hope we teach. He gives us hope that those in our classes who mimic the 'old' Peter - Peter the student -  will become Peter, the learner who now acts on what he was taught:

• He is aware - of what is happening, of who is there, and of the importance of the occasion;
  
• He applies reason - 'These men are not drunk' - and asks those listening to take this situation seriously,
• He is contextual - he remember's the prophets words and quotes them as the reference for this moment in history.

Peters speech in it's entirety reflects the power of experiential learning.  While Peter had spent 3 years with Jesus, he had also spent a lifetime with the Torah and the Jewish traditions as well as in the world as a business, fishermen, son, husband and parent. Peter gathers together all the learning which had come his way and uses it here to teach those who were gathered from all over the known world and who had, many of them, a similar understanding of the Jewish scriptures as he.

Peter would have recognised in the diversity of languages and peoples the image of the Tower of Babel where God brought into being individual languages so that people could not communicate as before.  Now they, despite their diversity through the primacy of language, are brought together to experience the unity that comes from Spirit.  Note that no language is discarded, no difference is erased, they still have their languages and their ethnic and cultural differences, but they are united through the power of the Spirit. They are one, but different. Diversity becomes a strength not a weakness, and they are challenged to engage and learn from each other in the glow of Pentecost.

Luke has Peter dismantling the arguments of those watching, the devout Jews, who accuse the crowd of being drunk.  When the Spirit surprises, our natural reaction is to find an excuse, a way of rationalising what we have seen so that we can avoid embracing what is there.  The challenge to the conformity of the devout Jews to an ethnic Jewish religion, to the idea that they and they alone are Gods' people, and that that God only speaks to and through them, was powerfully experienced by them at this moment.  All of a sudden centuries of accepted teaching, learning and expectations have been challenged to the brink of collapse, how do we respond? Let's find reasons and excuses to trivialise and dismiss it out of hand.  That way we can go on doing what we have always done and not have to learn something new.

Students and children (even ours) do that to us each day.  We have preconceived ideas what teaching and learning looks like, what particular students or children are like and what we can expect from them and, even when they surprise us, we often simply dismiss that as a one off and fail to embrace the learning in that moment for ourselves.

Students and children (and people in general) learn and process their learning in ways that are particular to them.  They often only learn when those who teach them are no longer in the room. Peter is forced to recall his teaching, to process what he has learnt and to get up and present it without notes, powerpoint slides or a rehearsal.  He speaks off the cuff and has to rely on what is with in him, much of which he was still processing, yet here he is giving the speech which set the church up for the future and him as the leader of that church.

In my RE classes I have a number of Peter's and at least one by that name. I have been driven to distraction by these young boys and girls wondering when their disruptive, some times disrespectful, sometimes oppositional behaviour will stop and they will begin to learn. I said to a fellow teacher on Thursday after a particular difficult year class, 'Tell me again, why do we do this?"

One student hadn't submitted his assignment, and when challenged said he would do it sometime, I said 'sometime isn't good enough, tonight is'. I marked some of the others work and was surprised at both the quality and the insights into contemporary issues and the thinking of the Apostle Paul.  I met 2 boys on the stairs and told them they had done good and asked permission to publish their work for others to see. One said yes straight away, the other said no, until I told him it was for other schools and not students at our school, then he was very happy.  I learnt something about that young man right there, how he sees himself and how he wants to be seen. He was proud of his work but he didn't want to stand out amongst his peers.  Later on that night, at 6.30, an excellent assignment came through from the boy who said he would do it sometime!

As teachers we, just as Jesus did and God before him, become frustrated at the lack of obvious and visible response from the students in front of us.  The Peter, James and John's in our classrooms disrupt, interrupt and are abrupt, but they are learning and will activate and implement that learning as and when they and the moment is right. Our disappointment is just that, our disappointment, not theirs. Jesus knew Peter had it in him, that's why he told him he would be the Rock on which he would build the church. Even Peter didn't believe him!

Here at Pentecost, Peter comes of age and his learning matures and bubble forth like a new wine, empowered by the surprising breaking in of God's moment and Spirit. Pentecost is the promise of the hidden, the unseen, the previously unknown to break forth in diversity and surprise.

Our task? To stay awake and not resort to our preconceptions, ancient practices and accepted wisdom. The Spirit will surprise us, but we have to be awake to be surprised!