It is holiday time and things are calm. Even those of us who are not away are enjoying a time of the year when things slow down a bit and there is more opportunity for quiet times and enjoying friends and family. Holidays are holy days of peace and refreshment; times when we can relax and let the pressure of every day life fall away. C’est les vacances; a time which leaves enough vacant space for us to be refreshed and perhaps to experience the peace and knowledge of God in our lives.
I hope that we will all make the very best of this time because we all know that life is not always calm and peaceful. On the contrary we know all too well that life is often like a battle to be fought. It’s rather like a symphony; there are slow, gentle and peaceful movements which can lead into frenzied, loud and tormented movements. The change can be startling and it makes us sit up with a jolt.
In the Gospel it is the same. There is a great deal about the peace of Christ, the Prince of peace who brings healing, reconciliation, love and forgiveness and fellowship. In this service, we meet in the name of Christ and share his peace. Blessings are for peace; peace to the nations, peace in our hearts, peace between Christian brothers and sisters. And yet in our reading today Jesus is talking about division; not just petty squabbles but real division between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. All of a sudden the Prince of peace has disappeared.
Non believers sometimes say that Christian people are lucky because their faith must be a great comfort to them and this is true, but being people of faith means that we will also be caught up in conflictual situations.
Some of us might have members of our families, either brothers or sisters, sons or daughters who do not believe. This can be very difficult for us but we cannot put aside our faith to please them. We have to put our faith in Jesus first and this can lead to an unpleasant feeling of no longer standing on common ground with our loved ones. They might think that we are mad but we have to follow our calling.
In the wider world, being people of faith will mean sticking our necks out and taking the risk that our words and actions may not be well received even if they are ( we hope) in the name of Christ’s justice and peace.
In Hebrews we read that if faith can enable us to do great things, it can also lead into great suffering. It can mean torture, flogging, imprisonment, death through stoning or by being sawn in two. This may seem far fetched to us but we need to remember that there are many today who are tortures and killed for their faith in Pakistan for example. Our passage from Hebrews is a testimony to the faithful who were not afraid of the fact that great perseverance, a sense of competiveness and of sacrifice was needed to remain faithful to God’s Word. So being a Christian is not always a comfortable thing.
Our texts from the Prophet Jeremiah and from the gospel refer to times of great upheaval and crisis in which the people of Israel are asked to remain faithful to God whatever the cost.
The writer of Jeremiah is writing at the time when Israel’s life was in chaos. Prophets and Priest were giving false and deceitful teaching in the general panic and chaos which is the result of the power struggles between the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in which Israel was caught up. These power struggles had lead to the invasion of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple and the exile of Israel’s elite to Babylon.Jeremiah is fully engaged in a realconflict against these false prophets and is insisting on true faithfulness to God which is the only means of survival for the people of Israel who had been called to be a light to the world. It is hard work which calls for strength of character and determination.
In the Gospel, Jesus andall the people of Israel are again facing a crisis. They are not in exile this time, but live under the Roman invader and the reign of terror of King Herod. It is a dangerous world to be living in and on top of that the Jewish leaders are not much use. The High Priests are wealthy and arrogant, often working hand in hand with the Roman authorities and the over religious Pharisees are defending a false agenda which Jesus never ceases to condemn. Israel is meant to be the light of the world and yet, in this political and religious chaos this seems to be quite impossible.
Today, we are the people who have been called to be the light of the world and we too are facing a crisis.
There seems to be no faith in the politics of today whether in the west or elsewhere.
Poverty continues in the third world while it grows in the West for a growing number of people.
Violence is rife in the midst of great social unrest and more and more punitive measures are the only solution on offer.
The Christian faith is in decline (at least in the traditional Churches) and idolatry is everywhere. Wealth, success, power and personal gratification have been put in the place of God.
We face an ecological disaster and God’s creation is being seriously threatened by human mismanagement and greed.
So this story of remaining faithful in a crisis is a contemporary reality. Jesus says to us today “I come not come to bring peace to the earth but division”. He turns the whole world upside down. Just when we thought we were getting to grips with the Gospel of love and peace, he shakes us up and tells us something very different.
Today we need to read the signs of what is going on in our world. It is not enough just to know when it will rain or when it will be fine. We need to interpret the present time, to really understand what is going on. It means reading the news, looking around us to see where the suffering is, where the idolatry is, where the pain of the world is. We need to look at where the needs are in Strasbourg and we need to look at all of this with the eyes of Jesus and act within the love of Jesus. But we also need to act with courage; the courage of Jeremiah who speaks out and condemns false prophets, the courage of the host of faithful witnesses that have gone before us and with thecourage of Jesus who, in speaking out and causing division between Jews, goes to his death in faithful service.
And so, as we come together to worship, we come to know and share Christ’s peace which is indeed a comfort to us. But our Christian faith cannot be simply turned towards ourselves; our personal lives of faith and our own inner peace and comfort or even our own community of faith here at Saint Albans. Our mission is to be faithful to God whatever the cost or discomfort. We must be outward looking and understanding of a world in crisis and we must take risks. Jesus came to turn the world on its head and to bring in God’s Kingdom. If the Kingdom of God is to come on earth as it is in heaven, then we cannot be a cosy, comfortable and complacent Christian community, but must be one which is prepared to get involved in a world with very real needs. We must go out in faith to love and serve the Lord taking the good news of the gospel of Christ to the world.
This might mean talking about our faith with others, feeding the hungry, helping the refugee, comforting the lonely, speaking out against injustice or fighting for peace and working for reconciliation in the world. It is up to this community to think about how we can proclaim God’s Kingdom to the world and how we can proclaim Christ risen from the dead. None of this can be done without some sort of risk and we need to be prepared to come up against opposition but this shouldn’t discourage us.The words of our last hymn should inspire us:
“And we, shall we be faithless? Shall hearts fail, hands hang down? Shall we evade the conflict, and cast away our crown? Thy mercy shall not fail us, nor leave thy work undone; with thy right hand to help us, the victory shall be won.” Amen
Trinity 11. Jeremiah 23.23-29; Psalm 82; Hebrews 11.29-12.2; Luke 12.49-56.
Saint Alban’s Anglican Church, Strasbourg15th August, 2010
Rev’d Christine Bloomfield, Assistant Curate
All is not Vanity
“Vanity of vanities, says the teacher! All is vanity”.
The teacher is named Qoheleth and he is a Davidic king of Israel . He associates himself with the wise and wealthy Solomon, and we imagine him as having the resources and the power to carry out his experiments. These are to try and understand everything that is under the sun, or, as our text says:
“to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven”.
He is more than pessimistic about his findings and they make him deeply depressed. What is this life all about? Is there something beautiful, wise and wonderful about it? Is there a reason for living? Can humanity change the unjust world of the time? Can humanity actually do something about suffering?
He sees the world as changeless, with humanity unable to understand its workings or to make any lasting impact on the world. There is no means by which injustice and suffering can be relieved and in his world. There is no way of understanding very much at all. He grows to hate his work, his research. He even grows to hate his own efforts to understand: the pain and vexation which it brings him and the sleepless anxious nights of worrying. He hates the idea of dying and leaving his knowledge to others who might or might not appreciate it. He gives himself up to a deep despair.
Sometimes we might feel the same. There is so much that we just don’t seem to be able to grasp, understand or accept. All is vanity and a chasing after wind.
The Hebrew for this word means “a breath of wind”. When vanity is used metaphorically, it implies transience, impermanence, uselessness and deceptiveness or even chasing the wind which can never be caught; It evokes a sense of frustration at not being able to catch up with it. trying to achieve the impossible. Qoheleth tries to catch up with the wind, tries to understand what life is all about, but it is an impossible task which leads to frustration and helplessness. And so, for him, life has no joy; he hates life and everything that he has striven to do and appears to be doomed to oblivion. His conclusion in verse 24, which is not in our text, is to say that it is better simply to enjoy life for what it offers.
In today’s world, depression and hopelessness are a common thing. What is life about today? Is it about accumulating possessions and wealth? Is it about doing what we like when we want to do it? Is it about enjoying life when it brings about good things? Is it about freedom to do whatever we want if it gives us pleasure? This does seem to be the philosophy for many people today and there is a lack of curiosity to understand our world at a deeper level. As long as we have good things in our lives and can do what we like, what does the real order of things really matter? Many don’t believe in God, and feel no need to strive towards his truth.
But we, as Christians, know that there is a whole lot more to life than simply enjoying what society offers and enjoying what society conceives as being normal and acceptable. This is not to say that we are to be miserable and never enjoy life. On the contrary, Jesus enjoyed much in life especially good fellowship and good food and drink and I am sure that God doesn’t want us to not enjoy life. Life is meant to be good!
But there are things in society, both in the Bible history and today, which are not so good and money and possessions can become much too important in our lives. Today, everything revolves around money and accumulated wealth. If something makes money, then it must be good even if it means that others go without.
We are having a flea market soon to raise money for our charitable giving; Perhaps, when we go round our homes looking for things to give away we may realise how much we accumulate and how much of it we don’t really need!
The rich man in the parable that Jesus tells is very rich. Not only is he rich but he is completely self centred. Does he think of giving any of his wealth away? There is no mention of charitable giving in the story even though he has no more room to stock his crops and possessions. Instead of giving some of it away, he just builds bigger barns so that he can accumulate more and more wealth. He can then relax, eat, drink and be merry. But for what? He is such a self centred man and never sees anything beyond himself; never sees anything of the world about him in which he lives. He is no Qoheleth who tortures himself in
trying to seek deeper meaning to life. No, he will wallow in wealth and luxury and enjoy life until he dies. But what good will it do him. His pockets are certainly not big enough to take all his riches with him and even if he could it would be of no use to him.
Jesus tells this parable to talk about greed:
“Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”
Searching for gratification through the accumulation of wealth is certainly not a good recipe for us in the end.
So we must be neither like the self centred and greedy rich man, neither likeQoheleth who because he cannot find answers to his questions becomes depressed and basically just gives up searching to live for the day.
In today’s readings it is Paul who guides us. He tells us to set our minds on all that is above and not on things that are on earth. He tells us to keep our eyes on Christ who sits at God’s right hand in heaven. I don’t think that Paul means us to give up everything on this earth, withdraw from all worldly things and live a detached life in which we continually contemplate eternity. Indeed Paul gives guidelines and ethical principals by which he says Christians must live in the world. He tells us to cast off evil desire and greed; the desire to have more and more. More wealth which leads to theft of one sort or another, more prestige which leads to unhealthy ambition, more power which leads to tyranny, more sex which leads to abuse. He tells us not to be dominated by getting things and putting material things in the place of God. This is idolatry.
He tells us to be rid of idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language and lying to one another. And why?because we are baptised people. As we pass through the water of baptism our old selves die and as we emerge we are made new and different. We are washed clean and stripped of our old selves and we are reclothed with Christ. Our reference is no longer the way of the world, but the way of Christ. From now on we will judge everything in the light of Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection and in the light of such self giving love. In the light of the cross the world’s wealth, ambition and desires are seen for what they are and Christians are set free to look to Christ and set their hearts on what is above.
And so, we as Christians, can say that all is not vanity and a chasing after wind. We can strive for a better world in which our acts will make an impact on the world and change the human lot. With our lives focused on Jesus there can be no depression, no sense of helplessness, no greed, no self centred egocentricity and no abusive and harmful behaviour. We strive for the coming of God’s Kingdom here on earth, knowing that when Christ comes again, God’s judgement will overturn the judgements of this world and we will be revealed with him in glory. Amen
Understanding of God, ourselves, our relationship with God and our relationship with each other
Lent, we know is a time for growing in our faith, about a pilgrimage in which we move from our current understanding of God to a richer and deeper one; a pilgrimage in which we move from our current understanding about ourselves to a deeper one; a pilgrimage in which we move into a deeper understanding of our relationship with God and of our relationship with each other.
The parable of the prodigal son and his brother gives us an opportunity to do just this. Let us see what we can learn by putting ourselves in the shoes of the younger son.
This young man lived a life of comfort in his wealthy father’s home with everything that he needed and yet he wanted to leave. When we are close to God’s loving embrace we have everything we can possibly need and yet we are often pulled away from this wonderful place of forgiveness and compassion. Instead of hearing God’s voice saying “you are the beloved, in you I am well pleased”, we hear other voices calling us away from the Father and our true home.
The younger son asks his father for his share in the family property which would have been one third of the property as he was the youngest son. Was he jealous of his elder brother? Was that why he wanted to go away? Perhaps he felt that he was not up to the mark. Did he want to prove that he was worth more; worth loving? In our lives we also hear these voices; a parent or a teacher saying that we haven’t done as well as we should or a friend saying “what do you want to stay here for, go and prove that you can do something different, something better”? Do we find ourselves wishing for success, fame and social recognition Do we hear voices telling us that we can be free from obligation and that we can be free to discover what “real life is all about”? It is these voices that separate us from the Father, from the place where we have everything that we need and which encourage us to leave the Father’s home for a distant country.
Perhaps we have understood something about ourselves here, but we also learn about God, because his love is not a grasping restrictive and selfish love, but a love that gives us choice and freedom to leave home, to move away from the Father who waits for our return with outstretched arms.
The younger son has no project in mind when he goes to the distant country, but he leaves home with much pride and money, determined to live his own life in his own way. I remember doing that when I was 18! He squanders his wealth in dissolute living and then things go from bad to worse until he is forced to feed the pigs. He has lost his money, his position, his friends, he is hungry and he is even refused the food that he is feeding the pigs. He has gone so far into the distant country that he has lost absolutely everything including his place in the world as a human being. He is plunged into the depth of loneliness and despair and is on the road to death. There is only one thing that he has not lost and this he now remembers. He is still his Father’s child. However far we wander into away from God we remain God’s child and we can always go back. We can turn and take the road towards life rather than death.
But the son doesn’t think that he can go back as if nothing has happened. He goes back in all humility, admitting his failures and sin and offering to take on a more lowly place in his father’s household. In his mind there is no sense of the extent of his father’s love and compassion and the possibility of true forgiveness and complete restoration. Is this something that we can relate to? Do we find it difficult to accept God’s forgiveness? Are we still trying to patch things up as best we can for ourselves when we return to God or do we experience and live the greatness of his grace? Do we accept the life which God gives us; the life of true reconciliation with the Father through the Son? It is hard to surrender all before God; we might lose control, we might lose our identity; it is hard to receive forgiveness and the love which he offers.
God the Father, knows how hard this is for us and so he meets us on the way. He has gives us our freedom through love, he suffers to see us suffer when we are far from home and on the path to death, he waits with patience for us to turn, but when we do turn to come home, he sees us when we are still far off and rushes to meet us, arms outstretched and full of compassion and love which knows no limit. He takes us in his arms and kisses us, he forgives and restores us and lavishes everything which is good on us. We are reconciled to God. We have come home. We have come home and there must be celebration:
““For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate”.
If we learn a lot about ourselves, about God and our relationship with God by taking the place of the younger son, we can learn as much from taking the place of the elder.
Here is an upright, conscientious and hard working person who has always respected his father. We might well feel some compassion for him. After all, the younger brother goes off taking the family money with him and does his own thing leaving all the responsibility behind. If we take the place of the elder son, we feel resentful, angry and even bitter. Why should he be the centre of attention and cause for celebration when I have never been celebrated like that? I have always done everything possible to be loyal and good. I have always stuck with what is right. I have done everything to please. I have kept away from sin. Or have I? There is something austere and hard about this elder brother. In trying to do everything just right, he has become hard and angry inside. He has, in fact, also left his father’s home where unconditional love is on offer. He is far from those loving arms which lead us back from death into the fullness of life. Can we see something of ourselves in this man? Have we ever refused to join the party because we feel hurt and indignant?
What is God’s response to this? The father comes out to meet the elder son, just as he went out to meet the younger. The father loves both his sons, and loves them with an equal love. He desires that both of his children celebrate this feast of reconciliation with him. The father urges the elder son to come home, to enter into his light and love reassuring him of his love:
“Son, all that I have is yours”. Nothing has ever been withheld or taken away from the elder son.
We don’t know if the elder son does in fact join the party. It is up to him to decide, he is, after all, free to choose, but what is clear is that God wants all of his children to join the celebration of reconciliation in which we can love each other without fear of rivalry and resentment. Here it is that we learn something about our relationship with each other. We have no need to be resentful, hurt, jealous, or to feel “not up to the mark” for in God’s house there is room for us all and his love is as great for one as for the other. In this love we can let go of all sin, or whatever takes us into the distant country and rejoice and celebrate in God’s unending and limitless love for us all. It is this that Jesus preached, it is for this that he died and for this that he was raised and glorified, that we should be reconciled to God.
Un-glory to glory Preached on 14th February 2010 at St Alban’s Anglican Church, Strasbourg, France Preacher: Sarah Hinlicky Wilson. Readings: Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:12 to 4:2; Luke 9:28-43a
Today we hear about the high point of Jesus’ life and ministry. Literally, the “high point” - he is up on the mountain. And if you are interested in a Messiah who is all about glory, the Transfiguration certainly is the high point of his career.
This is God as we’d like to see Him, if He really wants to take the trouble of putting on human flesh. This God is beautiful. This God is glorious. Jesus’ face is altered and shines with light from the inside - all the light of his divinity, his love, his majesty. He is so glorious that even his clothes are transformed, dazzling white, an outfit for a king. And he is so glorious that servants wait on him - servants who are none other than the great prophets of Israel’s past, Moses who led the people out of Egypt, and Elijah who defeated Baal and raised the dead! They also are glorious in Jesus’ presence. Together they talk about the great deed that Jesus is about to accomplish - though somehow the exact details of the deed don’t seem so important right now.
The dazzled disciples see nothing but the shining light and the glory. This is what they’ve been looking for all these years: the bright and beautiful king to lead them out of misery, into majesty.
Peter has the great idea of setting up court right there. A throne for Jesus, footstools for Moses and Elijah, the disciples could be knighted and monitor who enters the court for an audience with the king…Until… the heavenly Father interrupts Peter’s lovely dream with words that sound innocent and innocuous enough. “This is My Son, My chosen one. Listen to him!”
Of course we will listen to him, Lord. What else have we been doing all along? Why else would we be here?
But the Father’s words mean more than Peter is prepared to admit. Listen to him, the Lord says to Peter and James and John, not to the whispers in your mind that have Jesus’ future all planned out. Listen to My Son when he says - whoever would be first among you must become the servant of all. Listen to My Son when he says - if you would be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me. Listen to My Son when he says - the Son of Man must be handed over, and crucified, and die, and on the third day he will rise again.
Poor Peter. He always takes the blame for doing to the wrong thing, whether suggesting the booths for the three glorious wonder-workers or trying to stop Jesus from going to the cross or denying Jesus at the critical moment. How could he help it, after all?
How could any of us help it if we really saw, with our own eyes, the glory of the Lord? I imagine once you’ve had a taste of it everything else seems dull by comparison.
The psalms sing joyfully of the glory of the Lord. The book of Revelation forecasts the end times when the glory of the Lord will fill the new heaven and the new earth. Our Lord is glorious, and beautiful, and majestic. The problem is not the glory. The problem is that we usually want only the glory. But that is not God’s way.
God never chooses to go from glory to glory, an uninterrupted chain of ever more magnificent moments. The glory of the Lord includes moments that, to us, weak and mortal and fearful as we are, look very inglorious.
For example: The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of being betrayed by His first two human creations, yet still preserving them and promising them a way out of the evil they’d landed themselves in.
The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of singling out a band of slaves to be His own chosen people, even though they whined, complained, made false idols, and ignored His commandments.
The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of risking humiliation in front of other nations and their false gods by allowing His own people to be defeated in war, knowing that this was the only way they’d listen to His prophets and turn back to Him in faith once more.
The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of becoming a tiny helpless infant, born in a barn, to a poor and insignificant couple.
The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of healing and blessing the sick, the smelly, the impure in body and mind alike, the sinners, the outsiders.
The Lord’s glory has included the un-glory of being lifted up high, not only on the mountain of transfiguration, but also on the cross of death, and dying, and being buried.
God is all-powerful. God could have chosen the way of glory after glory after glory, without risk, without insult, without damage. But such glory would be glory without love, glory without generosity.
However it may have been, this is how it is - our Lord, the God of Israel, only gives Himself glory that comes through the danger of love.
With love there is risk - there is the possibility of rejection, betrayal, neglect, manipulation, abuse. The people that God has loved have done all these things to Him and more - just as they have done to each other.
In a way we could hardly blame God for simply wiping all of us out; sometimes in our outrage at the cruelty of this world, we secretly wish He would do just that. It would certainly prove His power and put Him back on top! But for what?
For lonely glory? For light that shines with nothing to reflect it back and no one to see it? This is not the glory desired by the Lord of love.
In fact - God’s love is so great that He doesn’t want the glory only for Himself. It’s not enough for God to be glorious on Mt. Sinai, glorious on the mountain of Transfiguration, glorious on the day of resurrection, glorious when He comes again on the last day. Part and parcel of God’s love for us is His desire to pour out His glory on us.
The transfiguration of Jesus that we celebrate today does not end with Jesus. It happens so that we may be transfigured too. That is what St. Paul wishes to tell us in the 2 Corinthians lesson. Apart from Jesus, apart from his death and resurrection for us, we cannot see God. It’s like there’s a veil covering our faces, obscuring the vision of God’s glory and love. But when the veil is taken away, through our faith in Christ, something remarkable happens to us. Not only do we see the glory of the Lord ourselves - but the glory of the Lord starts to transform us. We become once again the images of God that we were always supposed to be, just as it says in the creation story of Genesis, that human beings were made “in the image and likeness of God” before sin came and put a veil over our faces. Seeing God, and becoming images of God, we start to share in God’s glory. St. Paul tells us that this happens when we see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
And what is the gospel of the glory of Christ? It is not grasping after power and majesty and glory for their own sakes. That is not how our Lord does things. God only goes to glory through un-glory, and the gospel of God is His inglorious passage through human birth and life, hunger and sleepiness, suffering and death, before coming to the glory of resurrection and everlasting life.
This is the glorious light in a world that otherwise seems so hopeless, so overwhelmed by violence, greed, and dishonesty. It is not by escaping these things but by passing through them that we come to share in God’s glory.
Even God did not escape them but also passed through them. What were God’s first words but “Let there be light”? The same God Who said these words to a dark and chaotic nothingness says them now in us, in our hearts. Let there be light in this dark and fearful heart! Let this heart be filled with the knowledge of Jesus Christ! Let this heart be overcome with the love of the God who went to the cross on His way to glory! Let this heart take up its own cross! Let the this heart be ruled by Christ’s love! Let this heart start to shine from the inside out, just like Jesus did on the mountain of transfiguration! Let this heart be transfigured! Let this heart be a light in the darkness!
Sisters and brothers in Christ, this is truly a glorious thing. God has been transfigured so that we might be transfigured too. God has chosen the very people that were His enemies by their sin to become His allies, His messengers, His lights in the world.
This is not something that happens by our own power. This is nothing less than the power of God at work in us. It is not easy, it is not fast, and it is not painless. It wasn’t any of those things for Jesus, either. And we ourselves struggle with the conflict between our old natures and our new natures. The old nature that is selfish, fearful, and impatient battles against the new nature that is loving, brave, and generous.
St. Paul warns us of this conflict too. Do not lose heart! he says. Our outer nature is wasting away. And that hurts. But our new nature is being renewed every single day. Sometimes the pain and struggle of this conflict feel absolutely overwhelming to us. But St. Paul assures us, that in God’s grand scheme, even the worst of our struggles is nothing more than a “slight momentary affliction.” And the struggle prepares us for, again in Paul’s words, “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” This is how it is with the Lord our God.
It is not glory to glory.
It is glory through un-glory.
What God asks of us, God has already done Himself, first for us, and now in us. That is the glorious light of the gospel shining in the darkness. Amen.
Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is Assistant Research Professor at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France, which is an affiliate of the Lutheran World Federation. She is also an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
