Uncertain Security

Exodus 1, Psalm 124, Romans 12, Matthew 16

In the first chapter of Exodus, we hear of an oppressed people and one family’s risky, but ultimately successful way of coping with their situation. It isn’t planned as any more than the saving of one life, but it is the back-story to the liberation of an entire nation.

We could spend hours discussing the extent to which this foundation myth of Israel is genuinely historical, but the vital point is the perception of an entire people that their existence was hanging by a thread.

The gospel reading also talks about foundations, describing Peter as a rock. We know the rest of the story well enough to be aware that he could be a rather rocky rock, but there it is: our foundations are laid by Christ on a fallible human being.

The message seems to be that our security as the people of God will always be liberally mixed with insecurity: everything could fall apart, and nothing at all is guaranteed except by the grace of God. The great thing about Jesus’ words to Peter is that he recognised this and still said it. The great thing about Peter’s response is that he knew it, but never gave up.

On Not Being Exclusive

Genesis 45, Psalm 133, Romans 11, Matthew 15.

How good it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity! Today's Psalm celebrates the best of human society, but leaves out the essential question about who is accepted as family. One of the unfortunate characteristics of religious and ethnic groups is that, the stronger the sense of family, the greater sense there is that others do not belong.

In today's reading from the letter to the Romans, St. Paul continues agonising about the proper places of Jew and Gentile in God's eternal plan. A modern Christian reader might well wonder why he felt that it was such a complicated question, but our sense of ease about belonging in an ethnically diverse church is partly his gift to us. Perhaps other traditions need to identify their St. Pauls (plenty to discuss there).

Two other people are agonising about the same question in today's gospel. One of them is a gentile woman asking for Jesus' help, unable to see any sense in being categorised and treated as an outsider. The other is Jesus himself. The gospel writer clearly wants his readers to get the point that nobody is outside God's community. Perhaps this was the occasion upon which it became clear to Jesus.

Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers is a marvellous story of recognition and acceptance. What we don't know, of course, is the extent to which the Israelites were ever accepted in Egypt. My guess is that they were tolerated until employment and resources became scarce, then treated as undesirable aliens. How very contemporary.

Coats and Boats

Genesis 37.1-4, 12-29, Psalm 105.1-6, 16-22, Romans 10.5-15, Matthew 14.22-33

Joseph’s coat may have been many coloured, or it may have had long sleeves. Either way, it was a sign that he was in some way different from his brothers; possibly ‘a cut above them’. Then there was the matter of his dreams, and his possibly tactless interpretations of them.

There seem to be two major themes running through the early part of the Joseph story. One is the difficulty of growing up with an unusual talent, but having real difficulty knowing how to handle it. The other is the almost inevitable reactions to favouritism and privilege.

Nobody needs to react as Joseph’s brothers did, so there’s a third theme. Imperfect people in an imperfect situation react in a way that makes both them and the situation worse. I’ll resist the temptation to say anything about Israel/Palestine this week, except to not that at least the Joseph story has a happy ending (and a worse continuation, then a new beginning, and so on…).

This week’s other story is about twelve people who are all in the same boat, both literally and metaphorically, when the storm comes. Then, intriguingly, the hope of safety comes from somebody who isn’t in the boat at all, but approaching it from a place of even greater danger. The sign of hope isn’t recognised instantly—it takes Peter’s experiment to settle the matter.

Are there parallels between the two stories? Joseph is pushed out of the family boat before he sees any sign of hope, but he does eventually find his feet and become his family’s salvation.

Do either of these stories offer signs of hope to us or our world? We do, after all, live in a world of imperfect people reacting to various forms of favouritism and privilege. We are ‘all in the same boat’ in some ways and not others, but our real hope may be outside it...

Ascension, Pentecost and the Presence of God

The story of the Ascension can be seen as nothing more than a way to tie up one of the gospel's loose ends: if Jesus rose from the dead, then his body is no longer in the tomb, so where is it? He didn't die a second time, and he isn't keeping human company in the same way as  before his crucifixion, but the Ascension story gives a reason for this: he has not only risen from the tomb, but also ascended into heaven.

This was all very well in an age which accepted the idea that the dwelling place of God is in the heavens, but it seems a little strained in the age of space travel. People have traveled in space ships through the nearer parts of the heavens, and it seems perfectly clear that the heavens are no more the dwelling place of God than the earth is. Clearly, there is no point in trying to re-insert our minds into a world where we can really believe that Jesus rose bodily to the right hand of God.

The point of the Ascension story for us must be that questions about where the body of Jesus might be are not so much 'answered definitively' as 'completely pointless'. If we want to know where or how to find Jesus in our world, then we need to think differently.

Easter - what does it mean, and why does it matter?

What is the meaning of Easter? Is it a straightforward miracle story (if there is such a thing), or is it something more than a remarkable historical event?

According to Marcus Borg (in 'Speaking Christian'), Easter has two basic meanings: 'Jesus lives', and 'Jesus is Lord'. Is it possible to be sceptical about the empty tomb, and yet convinced of these two truths?

The Meaning of 'God'

Does the word 'God' refer to a being beyond the universe? Another being in addition to the universe?

Or does the word 'God' refer to a sacred presence all around us?

If we go for the second of these ideas, can we account for the relationship with God that Christian faith invites us to have?

The Word of the Lord

Is it helpful, or even truthful, to follow a reading from the Bible with 'This is the word of the Lord?' Clearly, it would not be any better to say 'This is not the Word of the Lord', so we're not in an argument about whether or not the Bible, or any part of it, is actually given to us by God. To re-use an analogy I first heard from Athol Gordon ( a lay reader in Dundee during the 1980s and 90s), the thing to remember about the Bible is that it's gift-wrapped. As a result, we need to know how best to unwrap it.

Last Wednesday in the Inn, we tried and failed to identify what is said after readings in the New Zealand Liturgy. I've now downloaded the relevant texts, and can reveal that the practice is as follows:-

       The appointed readings follow, the reader first saying

       A reading from … (chapter … beginning at …)

       Silence may follow each reading.

       The reader may say

       Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

       Thanks be to God.

Does that seem like an improvement? And would you prefer the silence or the response?