Last Sunday's thought: Why Jesus sets the bar so high for us

In his study on Jesus, subtitled uncovering the life, teachings and relevance of a religious revolutionary, Marcus J. Borg distinguishes between what he calls the ‘broad way’ and the ‘narrow way’ of following Jesus. The ‘broad way’ is the way of the world; the ‘narrow way’ is Jesus' way, which is much more demanding. It is the way of the cross: ‘Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’ We are called to participate in the task of building up God’s kingdom here on earth. Brittle, frail and imperfect we may be; but God wants us to be the agents of change for this world.

It might be argued that Jesus sets the bar so high for us that it serves as a discouragement rather than an incentive to do better. We sometimes find the disciples themselves reflecting this viewpoint after Jesus’ teaching. See Luke 18:26-7, after Jesus’ teaching on wealth: ‘And they that heard it said, Then who can be saved? Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’ Jesus knows our nature, that if we can we seek to find ways of eluding the severest of tests and challenges. He knows that we will seek to ‘cop out’. That’s why he sets the bar so high. But on the other hand, there’s no discouragement. ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’ We have God to help us on our journey. We ourselves may be broken and unable to achieve perfection. But with God’s help we can do much better. And we have Jesus’ promise as the reward for the endeavour: ‘those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’

Last Sunday's Thought: on self-evaluation in the eyes of God

In today's epistle, Paul in Romans 12 invites us to undertake self-evaluation as an exercise. It’s not a sign of weakness, but of true strength, if after prayerful reflection with God we recognize that there are some things we are better at, and some things that we are really not much good at all. In so doing, we have to avoid the two traps of vanity and false humility. Healthy churches, it has been said, are filled with healthy Christians who have a healthy sense of their own limitations. In chapter 18 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (tax-collector) tells us how to arrive at a true self-evaluation. The Pharisee prays incorrectly in the eyes of God because he pronounces: ‘Thank you Lord that I am not like the Publican’, whereas the Publican prays in true humility, saying ‘Lord have mercy on me, a sinner’. This has come to be known as the Jesus prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ It is our starting point in any honest evaluation of ourselves.

Awareness Sunday 11 September 2011

Awareness Sunday, on the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11 is a unique opportunity for people of all faiths and worldviews to come together in a global movement of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, who is patron of the Awareness Foundation and who was in New York at the time of the attacks has said: ‘Awareness Sunday is acknowledging through education, the urgent need to dispel ignorance and the urgent need to help each one of us to build a path for peace in our diverse, ever-changing world.’ The Awareness Sunday website has a downloadable resource for 9 days of prayers preceding the commemorations on Sunday 11 September, i.e. beginning on 2 September. The Most Revd Dr Desmond Tutu Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town comments: ‘This is a wonderful initiative. We need to make each other more aware of our God-given humanity. We need to celebrate our rainbow diversity. That is how God will help us to build a world of peace and justice.’

Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue (PCID) have worked for five years to consult on and agree a ‘code of conduct’ on the ethics of Christian mission called Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct. The text concludes with six recommendations to all Christians, church bodies, mission organisations and agencies. These recommendations are: study the document; build respect and trust with people of all religions; strengthen religious identity and faith while at the same time deepening knowledge and understanding of different religions; advocate justice and respect for the common good; call on governments and representatives to ensure religious freedom for all people; pray for the well-being of neighbours, recognizing prayer is integral to the Christian life and of Christian mission.

Last Sunday's Thought: on walking humbly but persistently with the Lord

Two features of the Canaanite woman’s faith in her encounter with Jesus (Matt. 15:27) are particularly relevant to us today: humility and persistence. I found both these Christian virtues in Nancy and John Eckersley, the parents of the parish’s own Tanya Willis, when I had the privilege of interviewing them at St Mary Magdalen on 22 May in the ten o’clock service. They had set out from Land’s End on April Fools’ Day on a sponsored walk to John O’Groats for a Christian Aid project in Sierra Leone. They have kept a blog of their journey in faith. At the outset, the target of raising £10,000 must have seemed an enormous challenge. But their humility and persistence has in the best possible way disarmed everyone they have met on their 1,280-mile walk. Donations have come pouring in from folk they have met on their journey. It therefore came as little surprise that by the time they reached the West Highland Way in Scotland they had surpassed the £10,000 target for the farming and water project in Sierra Leone (which means that with matched funding from the EU, £45,000 is now guaranteed). They have been in touch with Christian Aid about exceeding the target and CA has said that they can go on receiving money for Sierra Leone: it will be sent (still match funded) to aid a medical project there. Nancy and John, in Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman as he resolved to heal her daughter, ‘great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ What an example for the rest of us, as we step forward, rather more timidly, in our own acts of faith, remembering that the Lord requires of us ‘to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God’ (Micah 6:8).

For the Prayer for Peace in our communities on the Church of England website follow the link.

Last Sunday's Thought: on getting out of the boat to follow Jesus

Of the three gospel accounts of Jesus walking on the water, only Matthew (14:29) has the story of Peter getting out of the boat to join his master. It all ends badly: Peter sinks and has to be rescued by Jesus. The traditional argument is that Peter's enthusiastic love is accompanied by insufficient faith. In his intriguingly titled If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat, John Ortberg suggests to us that the real failure in the story is not Peter, but the eleven disciples who remain behind huddled in the boat, still wondering if they are seeing a ghost. Peter at least takes the first steps to meet Jesus. Jesus is not in the boat; we have to leave our boat of comfort, our place of security, to follow him. This story could just as well be a parable on our adventure off as a self-governing church in a Conventional District. Peter walks on the water momentarily until he feels the strong wind and his attention wavers. He walks on the water, in other words, as long as he remains focused on Jesus and reaching his Master, as long as he keeps the end in view. Our focus is to strengthen our church numerically and to deepen our discipleship. As long as we keep to our main focus we will be doing what God calls us to do and we will not fail.