Call me Lazarus, the Mirror

In reading for the week, and in particular considering the Gospel of John and the account of the raising of Lazarus (John 11), I have had some questions rolling around in my head that I am going to write down and see where we might go with them.

So here we are:

·         Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?

·         Do you believe in death?

·         Do you believe you are free?

Let me start this exploration and adventure with some self-disclosure. I have had the experience of being left for dead and was expected to die by those who were carrying for me. I was ill and the sickness I had (meningitis and meningoencephalitis) could not be traced to its origins so treating me in the hospital was difficult. There was lots of pain and medication. There were many painful tests angry doctors, lab techs and lots of needles. And because I was in a teaching hospital and I was an inexplicable case, I was often a teaching case for students.  When I was released to go home, people started calling me ‘Lazarus’.

I share this with you so that you understand that this particular piece of John’s Gospel has a significant meaning for me.

One of the first things that I notice about this chapter is that Jesus after the confrontation that has lasted since chapter eight is that Jesus waited two more days before he set out for the trek to Bethany and back into Judea. Everyone around Jesus was wondering what he was waiting for because Lazarus, Martha, and Mary were close to him and Lazarus was near death. But Jesus kept reassuring the people around him, “This will not end in death”. Even when it came time to go, those around him still did not get it. Jesus is going to wake him from death not sleep.

Thomas announces that they should go with Jesus so that they can follow him, even if it means their own ends. It is both very fatalistic and at the same time very noble and true. The Twelve choose to go with Jesus and to be with him. I find it true also that there are different kinds of servants where God is concerned. Some are as bold as brass like Thomas and Martha while others like Mary are quietly called, led and sent.

Martha, unlike Mary in this story, is the one who is confident in Jesus and makes a bold statement of faith in acknowledging Jesus as the Sent One and that her brother will rise again on the last day. Mary is quieter and shares some of the same faith. When Mary comes to Jesus, adopts a position of contrition and worship. I find it interesting that Mary, after encountering Jesus falls into the tears and despair of the rest of the group that when with them to the tomb.

To me, it is powerful that in spite of the fact that no one seemed to understand what was coming, Jesus went ahead with his plan and started with praying to the Father.  And when I think about it, what else are you going to do when you are intentionally going to the cemetery to raise a dead man. Something tells me that you had better come with something more than a little bit of doctrine if we are going to raise the dead. And let’s keep in mind this is one man. Jesus could have raised the whole community cemetery. He raised one man. Can we? Can the Church raise one man from the dead?

This thought brings me back to my questions at the start of this blog. Do I believe and trust in God? I can tell you that during the illness I described to you, there was a point when I finally prayed to be taken rather than remain in this world. The pain and the suffering were too much and I had enough. I put myself in the hands of God... and he delivered me. It took 22 days for the healing to take effect but I remember that moment when I was healed.

One afternoon Nova and a friend (the priest who married us) laid hands on me and prayed for me. I could feel this heat and the print of someone’s palm on my back. As hot as the hand was, it did not hurt. My wife left not knowing if she would see me alive again. I was blind, photophobic, unable to eat or walk. I lived in darkness for 3 weeks that way. The following morning my wife came into my hospital room to see me sitting in the day chair, with the blinds wide open, eating my breakfast. God did that. God did that and I have been blessed over the years to lay hands on others and to pray with them. Some have died but done so with grace and with boatloads of hope. Others, by the grace and care of God, have come back and gone on to lead lives that defy the human imagination. The important thing is not that I was healed but that God showed himself to so many people, and people were healed and they believed in God. I was only the mirror to reflect the light of God’s glory.

Like Lazarus, we might need some assistance to take off the grave clothes so that we can be truly free but we are capable of living as the free people we are, for Christ and in Christ.

Jason+

Does God hear the Law breaker?

As miracles go, giving sight to the blind was perhaps the one Jesus did most often. It was a way of signing the presence of the coming kingdom and of telling us who Jesus is. The Old Testament made us aware that the blind receiving their sight would be a way to tell that the person was the Messiah or God’s anointed one.

This week’s Gospel (John 9.1-41) is part of a larger story that talks about Jesus and his dealings with the Pharisees. In Chapter Eight, there is a discussion about the identities of Jesus and the Pharisees and who is telling the truth. Jesus points out that the reason the Pharisees do not accept Jesus’ testimony about who he is, is because they cannot hear God and thus do not belong to God. In turn, the Pharisees claim their heritage as children of Abraham can tell Jesus he is nothing better that a Samaritan and that he is demon possessed (Jn. 8.48).

It is in the context of this argument about truth, obedience, and life, that Jesus heals the man born blind. And it raises a simple question, “If Jesus is sinful and a law breaker, why does God listen to him?”

The 12 and other disciples have a question about sin – whose fault was it that this man was born blind. Did he sin before he was born or did his parent's sin, causing him to be blind? If I understand Jesus’ reply to the question, it went something like this: every person is responsible for the sins that they commit. But, this man was born blind. God knew that this man would be born blind and chose to seek him out so that he could come to glorify God in his healed state.  

It starts out innocent enough. Jesus makes some mud with his spit. Puts the mud on the man’s eyes and then sends him to Siloam to be washed. The man responds by going (with help I suspect), washes, returns and is now a sighted person.  Immediately there is a discussion that erupts about where this is the man that was formerly blind amongst those that know him. The interesting thing about this story is that the man accepted the word of Jesus and found his physical sight and then, found spiritual sight. It took faith in Christ and his word to make that happen. It was not the act of going or the contact with the water that made the man see, but faith in Christ.

At the same time, there were people, including the Pharisees and the man’s parents who could not or would not accept that this was the same man. They are shown to be blind to the wonders of God’s works in the world and deaf to what God is saying to them through Christ. It is as if they have turned both ‘a blind ear and a deaf eye’ to all that was going on. All the while, continuing to insist that they were correct and that Jesus was the one in the wrong – that Jesus was the sinner for not follow Moses, Abraham and the traditions.

The presence of the healed beggar caused a schism amongst his neighbours and friends rather that leading to praising God for the gift of this man’s sight. The people argue about where this is the man and they refuse to believe him when he identifies himself, “I am the man!” He cannot explain why these things have happened to him. He does not know the man that did this for him and cannot even identify him because he has not seen him. He can only reply it was the man they called ‘Jesus’. When questioned as to where Jesus when he could only proclaim his ignorance: “I do not know.”

The healed beggar’s encounter with the Pharisees shows that when the religious hear that Jesus has broken the Sabbath law, it is all that they can focus on. They believe that they have the evidence that Jesus cannot be from God because he broke the sanctity of the Sabbath by making mud and doing a healing. This is a common argument between Jesus and the Pharisees. Doing work of some kind on the Sabbath breaks the rules. The Messiah would never break the rules, dishonour the tradition of the nation! But as they continue to question the truth, they discover that the man who was healed now considers Jesus to be a prophet.

The only way the Pharisees can think to debunk this miracle then becomes the idea that the beggar was not blind from birth. They draw in the man’s parents. These folks are well aware of what happens to people who go against the religious leaders. They do not want to be blackballed and thrown out of the religious life, so they refuse to answer how they think that their son received his sight. “He is old enough to answer for himself – ask him” they reply to the questions of how he might have his sight. In the constant telling and retelling of the miracle, faith in Jesus moves from being in possession of the facts; from “He did this” to who Jesus is as the giver of eternal life and as the Light of the world.

Not everyone is ready or willing to confess who Jesus is for them. I can see the parents being excited for their son – he has his sight. They understood that if they told the Pharisees what they believed, there would be consequences and that would be too much for them to bear. And at the same time,  I cannot help but think of this man who has had his world turned over and upset by the actions of a man he only knew by the name he was told. He had gained his sight but lost his profession. He gained the help and support of people around him while his parents had to turn their backs on him. He was thrown out and treated as a liar and an imposture for telling the truth.  

This unnamed beggar underwent an amazing journey. He went from believing that Jesus was a man to thinking Jesus was a prophet to discovering that Jesus is the Sent One from God and falling down in worship before him.

So let me ask you: who is Jesus to you? Will you let us know or will you continue to turn a blind eye and a deaf hear to what God is telling you?

Jason+

He did choose. What will you choose?

Nicodemus came after supper to Jesus, to have a conversation and see if he could not understand what Jesus was teaching and how he, as a teacher had gotten it wrong (John 3.1-18). The Gospel this week, introduces some themes that are important to the Faith and asks a question that every person needs to answer at some point. The question? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?

In this section of John’s Gospel, ideas and themes like salvation and condemnation, being sent, the Son of Man being lifted up, rebirth and the gift that God has given humanity (all flesh) in sending his Son to us are just some of them.

But first, let’s deal with who or what a disciple is. In a recent conversation, I pointed out to someone that a disciple is not someone who gets to flaunt their own opinion and do whatever they feel is right and forget the consequences. As Jesus demanded of Peter when Peter insisted that Jesus was going to be the Messiah that the people thought he should be, that Peter get behind him and get back in line as a follower. Peter needed to hear this and to get his mind on the same agenda as Jesus. This is something that Peter struggled with throughout the rest of his ministry, including in the Garden of Gethsemane when he pulls out a sword and cuts off the High Priest’s servant. He is still right to the last, trying to build a different kingdom from what Jesus was working on.

A disciple is a person, who first and foremost, is a person who has been given a rebirth, a spiritual birth, a new life by God. A disciple is a person who has been birthed through the physical (water) and the spiritual (the Spirit). A follower of Jesus has been rescued from death and given life (birth) from above. Such a life comes from seeing and recognising Jesus for who and what he is: the Son of God and God’s messiah.

This means that each and all of us have a simple choice to make when we see Jesus for who and what he is – do we believe it or not? Will we participate and trust God in this faith or not? Because as it is pointed elsewhere in Scripture, “There is no other name given under heaven to men (flesh) by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.12-13) Either you accept what God has done for you in Christ or you choose to reject it. The choice belongs to each of us.

And as we make that consideration of what to do and to believe, we need to remember that God sent Jesus to us because he loves us and desires us to be with him. God reaches out to this God hating empire by sending his one and only Son so that those who choose him should have to perish but have eternal life. The purpose of the Incarnation was for people to have a choice because apart from God there is no life; only death. It is only in Christ that we begin to truly live. You cannot have a relationship with a dead person, only a memory whether it is Christ or someone else.

Followers of the Lord Jesus are not perfect. What they ought to be is repentant and they know where to seek forgiveness. Disciples are people who are on their way to being made perfect in their relationship with God and then with creation. There is no health, no help, no rescue that we can accomplish in our own flesh that can do what Jesus has done for us; not just on the cross and in the grave, but even more so in the life that he lives towards the Father in the here and now. Seeing Jesus and participating in his risen life, gives us life; eternal life, his life.

Like Nicodemus, we have a choice to make: we can live with the status quo and hope that we get enough things right to be good enough for God or we can choose to accept and participate in the life and community Christ is building which will lead to eternal life. And if it is consolation, Nicodemus is not recorded here as having an answer, but he is shown to be with Joseph of Arimathea when the Church needed them most on Good Friday. He did choose.

What do you choose?

Jason+

Are you dead enough yet?

Last week there was a baptism in the Parish and a little fellow named Logan was welcomed into the Christian faith and into the fellowship of the Church. This week we begin our observance of Lent has begun and we are undoubtedly asking each other, “So, what are you giving up for Lent?” This is what go me to thinking about being tested and tempted by things and wondering if giving something up for Lent is actually a productive thing for most of us. I was thinking about giving up caffeine. But the thing with caffeine in our society is that it is incredibly hard to get away from. And what is the point of giving it up for Lent if we are going to take it up again on Easter Day or just thereafter? What do we actually get from it but maybe some self-satisfaction?

When I think of Jesus being led by the Spirit (Matthew 4.1-13) out into the Wilderness (please note I did not call it the Desert, because it does not have cactus, sand, endless roads, Wylie E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness (Jeshimmon). He was led there as he was with what little he might have had at his own Baptism. The Wilderness was also known as “the Devastation” It was an area of Israel 35 miles long by 15 miles wide. It stands between the inhabited plateau of Judea and the Dead Sea. The hills were like dust heaps. The limestone looked like it had blistered and flaked. It felt like a glowing crucible. Jesus went here intentionally to be tested concerning his ideas about ministry and how he would serve God. He was to be tested as he considered how to win the hearts of men and women so that he could draw them into the kingdom of God. It was a battle would not end until his last breath on the Cross at Calvary.

Think of it this way: before you actually begin a project of any kind, it is important to think about and carefully choose the methods that you are going to use to get to your goal. And if I understand things correctly, Jesus is treating salvation like air conditioning. It is great to be in and even better to be shared. But in order for it to be a blessing, you have to choose to walk into it. It is free to all who would come into but it is not free to provide it.

Jesus, by going to the Wilderness, left behind the world. By not resorting to the uses of divine grace and power, chose to leave behind the easier path of riches, power and fame to get people to salvation. Instead, he chose the path of suffering, humiliation and death – the harder road by far. Jesus was tested in every way that we are. He was given the opportunity to use power for himself, to call upon his relationship with his Father and to compromise his way into things by offering his worship to someone else. He was tested in every way, as we are, but did not sin.

As I look at the Church today, I often here the grumbles and stumbles of those people who were led on that first Exodus out of slavery in Egypt and into the Wilderness. I wonder who often Moses and Joshua heard the same question, “Are we there yet?” How many times did Moses have to put up with the people asking, “Were there no graves in Egypt, that you had to bring us out here? It is better to go back and serve the Egyptians and die there.” It is easier perhaps to live the thing one has always done. But if there is going to be real change in the life of the Church, if there is going to be real life, true faith and deepening trust in God and in each other, then we are going to need to take some risks to make things different and better for those who are going to follow behind us into the future, into eternity. We are not here to preserve the past to make us comfortable with ourselves, but rather to serve and make sacrifices for family, friends and neighbours in the present so that those who would walk into eternity and into God’s kingdom with us, can do so.

We need to move away from counting the number of heads that are in Church on a Sunday morning and start considering how many times between each hour of prayer we manage to impact another person for the kingdom of God because Jesus would. We need to start considering how we can impact the lives of people around us and then bring that to worship so that we can invigorate our worship. We need to go and do then come and pray so that we are learning how to do for God and then learn how to ask for what’s next.

Are we more committed to God and to each other than we were 5 years ago? Are we more involved? Where have we grown and what have we learned in the last 5 years? Are we a more compassionate people? Are we closer to becoming the worshipping community that we want to be? How are we fulfilling the mission we believe that God has called us to?

It is easy to look around and think that this kind of talk is pointless... there is only hope for the church building to be around for a little while longer and then everything is going to come crashing down. Only thing is that is the kind of idolatry that satan wants – self-idolatry. We can become our own worst idols through thinking only of ourselves. We have been experiencing all that God can give us – do we expect him to stop giving?

Is God done with us yet? Are you dead enough yet, that God can raise you up to new life? Will you live out your baptism and mission according to what God asked of you? This is the test. How did you study?

Jason+

Living into the transfigured life

I have been this week thinking about how we as faithful followers of the Lord Jesus, might work and walk to live the transfigured life. The Gospel this week is the account of the Transfiguration as told by Matthew (17.1-13). So what is the point of this story? What is it trying to teach and what can we learn from it?

First, we need to consider what happen just before this story of the Transfiguration. In Caesarea Philippi, Peter announced that the 12 believed that Jesus is the Christ. The place is important because Peter’s confession was done in the presence of most of the rest of the world’s religions and many idols. They continue on from there and Jesus teaches them about what is to come in terms of Jerusalem, his death and his resurrection. The 12 don’t get what he is saying and after listen for a bit, Peter challenges Jesus and demands that Jesus stops destroying their dream of the ultimate Jewish state and their prominent place in it as ministers of his government. The will swept out the Romans and the rest of the undesirables and untouchables and get back the glory of David and Solomon. Jesus responses with a deliberate and pointed rebuke and demands that Peter get back in line and follow along as he should.

This is the background to what happened next,

Jesus took the trio of Peter, James and John and led them off to a high mountain. The trio knew by geography at least, that something major was about to happen and they could help but murmur amongst themselves as to what was highly anticipated. As they climbed Jesus’ face and clothing began to glow and shimmer, like lightening. When they reached a plateau Jesus did what he always did in these lonely, out of the way places: he prayed. I have often wondered what it would have been like to listen to Jesus as he prayed to the Father. The sight of Jesus being transfigured while he prayed must have been something else. Jesus face and clothing, because they were in contact with the presence of the Father, radiated God’s shechinah (glory) for the trio to see and experience. In essence, Jesus let his insides, out through prayer and in the presence of the Father.

Why did he do this? I liken it to the coming attractions and previews that you get on TV and at the movies. For me, one of the things about going to see a movie is to see what else is coming to decide if I what to see another movie or not. Seeing what could be good was important. In a real way, this is what Jesus was trying to communicate to the trio of disciples. It is a coming attraction – something not only that you are going to want to see but even more so to participate in. He was showing them the future – for him and for them in the days ahead, after the resurrection. He was showing them where the transfigured life is leading. He was also telling them that the path into Jerusalem and to the cross and grave were necessary in order for this to happen. Even the conversation that he has with Moses and Elijah about the new exodus – that is Jesus’ departure (death) and the procession into the kingdom and the life beyond life after death.

What is important in the transfigured life, is to work at being and remaining in the presence of the Father. The trio was shown the reality of what is and is to come by being with Jesus in the presence of the Father. And I pray that we get to hear the voice of the Father remind us, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”

Jason+

Don't just obey, fulfill the Law

Don’t just obey, fulfil. I have spent a lot of time this week considering what that phrase means and what it might look like in my life and that of the congregation. And in doing so I was reading and re-reading the Gospel for Sunday (Matthew 5.21-37).

One of the things that stood out for me was something simple: it is all about the attitudes we carry as we go along in life. Without trying to live and working to be holy and righteous people, without having the right attitude towards both God and neighbour, faith doesn’t mean a whole lot and amounts to nothing. We need to live with the righteous attitude. We need to live in the right kinds of relationships with everyone around us, not just God. This means that we need to be radical in the ways we live and how we live within the community. We are called as followers of Jesus to deal radically with the things that would separate us from God and from one another. We do this because we cannot be holy or righteous apart from being in community, in communion with one another.

Therefore there is a real need for love, power and self-control. We need to control our hearts, minds, tongues and lives. As St. Paul pointed out to Timothy, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2nd Timothy 1.6-7 ESV) It is not enough for a follower of Jesus to simply obey the rules. It is not enough not to do murder. We as believers must work to curb our anger so that there is no possibility for murder. This means that the things we say and do, have consequences both in the here and now and in eternity. Thus a Christian must move beyond obedience into the fulfillment of the Law. And this we do not do alone. We have the help of the Holy Spirit and of the community that is the Church.

And because we are a part of a community, a communion, there is the need for accountability and responsibility for and to one another. We are accountable for how we treat and act towards each other, first to God and then to each other. Through our baptismal vows and the life of the follower, we are expected and encouraged by Scriptures and equipped by the Spirit to resist and confront the devil, principalities and powers, evil and personal sin. We are not to let such things have mastery over us because as sin escalates, life falters. It was in the doorways of our lives, waiting and watching for ways to overcome and overwhelm us.

This is why it is important to take care in what we say and do to and for each other. What we say and do matters, both now and in eternity. This is why it is important to reflect the light of God’s glory into the lives of our families, friends and neighbours. In the life of this Church, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one tribe. And if that feels like it is heavy and hard to bear it should. I have a picture, a collage of pictures from the night of my ordination to the sacred priesthood. It hangs above my desk as a reminder of being chosen to be a leader in the Church and the weight of the laying on of hands as a remembrance of the responsibility I bear where the Church is concerned. What I say and do has an impact on the life of that wonderful community.

And at the same time, as scary as that might be, it is also an immense joy. Being part of the Church community means that in my walk with Christ, I am not alone in my following. I am a member of the brotherhood and a part of the community of those whom Christ has called to follow. I am not in a solitary struggle that could lead to frustration and futility in my vocation. Going out and calling people into the sacred community in this society, in this day and age, is a countercultural act. It is totally against everything that this society wants and says is necessary to be successful: autonomy, independence and individual choices. The call to community is a call to giving, to self-denial and to self-sacrifice. It will not be a popular message and people will not thank you for preaching it because of the threat that comes with it.

Nevertheless, it is what the Church and wider society need to hear: Without God and community within the Church, there is no life. “God with us” means that God is with all of us and is calling us into community and communion with him and with each other. God is not just with me, or with some of us. He is with all of us. God believes in community and calls you and me to it. Don’t just obey the rules to be a dutiful person. Live your life to fulfil the love that God has or each and for all of us that we would know his community in our midst.

Jason+ 

Living like a Church on a hill

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been laid low by bronchitis – it is something I get on a rare occasion when I have been working hard and then come in contact with someone who has it or has a bad cold. But it has been a period when I have had to stop and listen again to what it is that God might be saying to me on a number of levels. As I read and re-read the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew (Matthew 5.1-20) there are a number of things that stand out to me, not the least of which is the call of Christ upon his followers to come and be more than we currently are.

The community and consequently every follower of the Lord Jesus is called to be salt of the earth and light of the world. Salt is meant to be pure. Salt is salt all the way through and does not change its nature. If it does it becomes useless and only good to be thrown away. Salt is a preservative, to keep things in good order and give it constancy. Salt is also to bring out the flavour of the life that is being lived so that it makes the life of the kingdom attractive to those who do not yet belong.

The Church is also meant to be a city on a hill – or in this case, a church on a hill in the city. Light is meant to be seen. It is used to guide people’s way in the darkness. Light is also meant to be a warning for those who can see it. People should be able to compare their life with the life they are seeing in those who are living into the kingdom and see that there is more and that this more is available to them if they would only take it on.

We need to remember why Jesus came: he came for us. He came to deliver God’s people. He did not come to make people nice but to sacrifice to make them holy. Jesus came not to teach us to be tolerant but to train us in how to genuinely love one another through giving and self-sacrifice. He preached a message of repentance and the recognition that God has come to his creation and desires to have a relationship with each and with all of us. He does not come to include us in God’s plan but to deliver us from sin, evil and death.

Jesus came that we would have more than knowledge and enlightenment. He came that we might be illumined by God the Holy Spirit that we would know and love God deeply and learn to seek him in others that we would serve him in them. There are many in the Church who want others to be “included” and to be so on their terms. There is a difficulty in this: to be included means that you are made less and need an upgrade. Inclusion does not make for equality. Only repentance and illumination can do that for those who are called to be within the Church. All of us were called to the community of the Church and some of us were chosen by God and the Church to lead with the community. But it all starts in the same place, the same way and grows from there. We start at the foot of the cross and walk on with Christ, following where he might lead.

Christ calls us to reflect the kingdom and its values of salt and light. We are expected draw the kingdom into this city and our society, not the other way around. The longer the Church waits to begin to live the life it is called to, the more the local Church drifts away from God to accommodate the culture in which it finds itself trying to exist. Drawing in the kingdom means that we live out the life that God calls us to, know that we cannot do it alone – that we are going to need the aid of the Spirit to make this happen. We are not called to build the old Christendom but rather to see the lives of the people in our community transformed and allow the structures to be reshaped and reformed by transformed people.

We are a church on a hill for the whole city to see and yet they do not know our name or what kind of church we are. What can people see in us that would attract people to us? What of the kingdom life do people see and want for themselves? Keep this in mind: I would rather be known for what I am and be alone, then be known for what I am not and be lonely. Follow where Christ may lead for he is calling you.

Jason+