Last Sunday’s thought: The gospel preached to all the peoples of the (known) world

‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come’ (Matt. 24:14). In 1998 Richard Bauckham challenged the prevailing view that Matthew’s gospel was written for a specific Christian community (‘the Matthean community’), arguing instead that for all four evangelists a much more general audience was probable.

Nevertheless, in Matthew ch 24 there seem to have been multiple challenges faced by one particular Christian community – whether we call it the Matthean community or not – from false prophets, and others, who have led some sections of the community astray. The picture is of a much more vulnerable young Church than the self-confident Church depicted in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) at the end of the Gospel. Which is the true picture?

In Matthew ch 10, Jesus commands the twelve disciples to ‘go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt. 10: 5-6).  In the Great Commission, it is quite explicitly Jesus’ authority in heaven and earth that will enable his followers to make disciples, not the authority or power of the followers themselves. The authority of the disciples is always contingent, and they may need to perform their tasks in vulnerability and suffering. There is an undercurrent of adversity and vulnerability in Matt. 28:16-20 that is in continuity with the depiction of the Matthean community’s – or the young church’s  – experience found in Matt. 24. Certain actions are required of those who participate in God’s mission. According to Matt. 28:16-20, it is primarily to ‘make disciples’.  In Matt. 24:1-31 it is watchfulness and discernment, so as not to be led astray, and endurance. ‘In his name the nations (or Gentiles) will hope’ (Matt. 12:21).

The fate of the Gentiles is shown to be integral to God’s purposes, faithfully carried out through his servant, Jesus Christ. By drawing on Isaiah and other scriptures, Matthew emphasizes that this is part of Israelite tradition. Matt. 24 gives us the sense that the programme laid out is God’s mission, and that human actions are subject to this mission, working either with God, or against God. God’s mission had been, and continues to be, carried out through his faithful servants in the past, present and future, and most significantly, through his only son, Jesus Christ, to whom all authority has been given. The implications for us today are far-reaching. We need only be obedient servants to carry this mission forward.

Last Sunday’s thought (Bible Sunday): how might Christians read the Hebrew Scriptures? One suggested view.

Where does the term ‘Bible’ come from?
‘Do you remember how our hearts were burning inside us, as he talked to us on the road, as he opened up the Bible for us?’ Instead of translating the Greek Graphe with  the usual phrase ‘the Scriptures’, Tom Wright’s translation of Luke 24:32 in The New Testament for Everyone alludes to the Greek phrase ta biblia, ‘the books’, an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books several centuries before the time of Jesus. This is the origin of the English word ‘Bible’. (The Christian scriptures were referred to in Greek as Ta Biblia as early as c. 223 AD.)

Three big stories
In The Heart of Christianity. Rediscovering a Life of Faith (at p. 177), Marcus J. Borg writes: ‘strikingly, but not surprisingly, the New Testament understandings of Jesus correlate with the macro-stories of the Hebrew Bible. The story of Jesus thus becomes a story of salvation.’  This is only one way, among many others, of reading the Bible holistically, but it is worth seeing how this might work. What are the the big stories of the Hebrew Scriptures that are echoed in the New Testament? Borg describes three of the big stories as a ‘pastoral tool kit’, each one addressing a different dimension of the human condition.


1. For some of us the need is liberation. 
The story of the exodus from Egypt is seminal to the Hebrew people and is echoed throughout the Psalms. The human problem is akin to the bondage and slavery suffered by the Israelites in Egypt.  Pharoah was a real historical figure but is also a metaphor for what keeps us in bondage. It is a life of powerlessness and victimization. Exodus, liberation, the way out of Egypt is the solution, but not the end of the story, because the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
     
In the New Testament, the metaphorical equivalent of the exodus story is Jesus’ gospel of liberation, the story of the one who has come to set the captives free. It is centred on Jesus’ announcement of the Jubilee in Luke ch. 4: ‘the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” ’  Much of this gospel of liberation is announced in Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the Mount. It is radical stuff. It is what life would be like on earth if God were king and the rulers of the world were not. In God’s kingdom, in contrast to the real kingdoms then in existence, and the real states in existence now, there would, for example, be enough bread for all.
 2. For others of us, the need is homecoming.  
The story of the Israelites’ exile in Babylon in the sixth century BCE is well known because of Psalm 137: ‘By the waters of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!’ The Babylonian captivity is a story of separation and alienation both psychological and spiritual, which is only overcome with the right of return granted by King Darius and the reconnection with God through the rebuilding of the Temple. For the early followers of Jesus, the new faith was ‘the way’. The gospel story of his life, death and resurrection is about homecoming. Our salvation is about homecoming, it is about turning to God in repentance (metanoia); it is about an open heart; we see anew with ‘the eyes of our hearts enlightened’ (Ephesians 1:18). 

Among Jesus’ stories the one that captures this transformation or homecoming most readily is the  parable of the return of the Prodigal Son, the subject of a superb extended meditation by Henri J. M. Nouwen. He writes of ‘the mystery that Jesus himself became the prodigal son for our sake. He left the house of his heavenly Father, came to a foreign country, gave away all that he had, and returned through his cross to his Father’s home. All of this he did, not as a rebellious son, but as the obedient son, sent out to bring home all the lost children of God. Jesus, who told the story to those who criticized him for associating with sinners, himself lived the long and painful journey that he describes.’    

The Importance to us of Weddings

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of presiding at the wedding of Kate and Matthew (pictured above), when they were married at St. Mary Magdalen. I was very pleased subsequently to receive a photo of the couple and I hope to hear from them in the future about their journey through life together. What an important occasion it can be for couples! Sometimes they save up for a year or two in advance for this special day in their lives. The fact that they want to make this such a priority suggests the importance of the occasion for them.

We want this important occasion to be really special for you. This means that each couple has to think carefully about what they want to include in the service. The wedding ceremony planner of the Church of England is a great help here, because it can enable couples to produce a customized service sheet for discussion with the minister. The other thing which I think is really important is for the couple to think through together the reasons why they fell in love with each other, why they want to get married, and what their expectations are of each other in married life. If this is written down and sent to me as minister, it acts both as a guide to the address that I give at the wedding ceremony itself, making it more personal; and very importantly, it helps make the couple more confident that they have joint expectations and aspirations for their married life together.

Last Sunday's thought: are there any limits to our allegiance to God?

Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church still write books about it. The relationship between Church and State has not ‘gone away’ as an issue but is still a lively subject of controversy, particularly in the USA. Or, to put another way, are there any limits to God’s kingdom here on earth? ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God’ as the New Living Translation conveys the meaning of Matt. 22:21 is deliberately ambiguous because Jesus was being tested by those who sought to entrap him. A ‘yes’ would have discredited him with those who found the imperial domination system reprehensible and unacceptable. An outright ‘no’ would have made him subject to arrest for sedition.

Everything that we know about Jesus suggests that he shared a central affirmation of the Hebrew Bible, expressed in Psalm 24:1: ‘The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.’ If this is so, what is owed to Caesar? Nothing. But the text of our gospel provides no clue as to what was meant. Even Romans 13:1-7, which has been regarded as the one point at which Paul nods in the direction of Caesar, and the nod appears quite respectful, is more ambiguous than it might at first seem. Preaching and living the gospel must always mean announcing and following Jesus, rather than Caesar, as the true Lord. The church must live as a sign of the coming complete kingdom of Jesus Christ; but since that kingdom is characterized by peace, love and joy it cannot be inaugurated in the present by chaos, hatred and anger.  

Diocesan announcement concerning the Conventional District of St Guthlac and its minister

The Diocese of Leicester has announced details of the Conventional District of St Guthlac and of the licensing of the Revd Richard Bonney as its Minister effective from 1 October 2011.

Last Sunday's thought: Do we treat every Sunday as our day of salvation?

The parable of the marriage feast as told by Matthew and Luke may be seen as an allegory on God’s plan of salvation. Luke provides a slight difference of emphasis from Matthew in two respects. The first is that there are two invitations to the supper. And the second modification is in the forcefulness of the command: ‘compel them to come in’ is the expression used in Luke 14:23, whereas Matthew merely emphasises an invitation (‘invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet’). In our own time and in a different context – when thinking about the welcome to newcomers in church – Luke’s is obviously not a text on which we would wish to base our welcome strategy! Yet Matthew’s more modest ‘invitation’, rather like the use of invitation cards on ‘Back to Church Sunday’, may not in itself be sufficient.

The evidence about the welcome to newcomers – and the data on those churches which attract and retain new worshippers – stresses that it is the quality of what we offer to worshippers, and particularly the warmth of our fellowship that is the decisive factor in their choice of whether or not to stay with us. The existence of truly holistic small groups, which nurture the participants and deepen fellowship, is also another factor inducing new members to stay and become participating Christians. But above all the welcome has to be joyful. The message of Jesus’ parable may be a hard one, but there is a note of joy in the summons – in Luke’s gospel, ‘all is now ready’, and in Matthew’s gospel, ‘everything is ready’ – which is echoed in Paul’s expression ‘behold now is the day of salvation’ (2 Cor. 6:2). It is that note of joy which we need to replicate in each and every one of our services.

The importance of music in our Church services

This post is to celebrate the work together of our two choirs in the Parish over the period that the Choir at St Mary Magdalen has been without a Director of Music (since January 2011). Their collaboration, and the participation of organist Andrew Painter, resulted in a splendid Parish Choral Evensong for Harvest on Sunday evening. The fellowship shared by the two Choirs is an outstanding example to the Parish as a whole.

Their work invites further contemplation on the role of music in our worship, which draws on the thoughts of John Harper in a piece posted on the RSCM website. Underlying these detailed comments is the overwhelming issue, which is how to combine the best of the old and new so that all musical tastes – within reason! – are encompassed.

How does the music relate to the season?

Many worshippers are unaware just how much choice and selection of music has to go into a well-constructed service in terms of appropriateness of message.

Furthermore, the choice and use of music at specific points of the service can enhance the moment and its meaning.

At the Gathering.

Should the song or hymn be the very first item, or should we greet one another, and then gather in song?

Praise.

Having gathered and prepared for worship, there is an opportunity for praise – in the Eucharist, the Gloria in excelsis. How do we best express our praise for the Almighty?

Responding.

We hear the Word of God, and we want to respond. How should we use psalms or other songs to respond to the Word? How do we maintain a balance of readings and song to ensure the cohesiveness of the liturgy?

Proclaiming the Gospel.

As the Gospel is brought to be proclaimed to the people, should they welcome and acclaim the Good News in song?

Reflecting.

We hear readings and a sermon. That is a lot to take on board. How might we reflect on what we have heard, and how might we consolidate those thoughts by the use of music?

Affirming.

The affirmation of faith includes the creeds. These are texts defined by meaning, rather than by poetic effect. How might we affirm in song the underlying principles of our belief?

Praying.

We make intercession for the church, the world, all in need, and those who have died. What music enables us to deepen our collective prayer?

Offering.

We offer ourselves and our gifts to God. In this we offer back to God the fruits of his creation. How do we express the joy of our offering in song?

Thanksgiving.

We give thanks to God for the ultimate gift of his Son for our salvation. If this is in the context of the Eucharist, how do we voice our thanksgiving in the Eucharistic prayer? In other services, how do we express our heartfelt thanks in music?

Contemplation.

After the Communion at the Eucharist, or in a period of stillness at other services, we contemplate the mystery and wonders of God. What kinds of music can contribute to that contemplation? Or is this a time for the music of silence?

Sending out.

We are sent out to the mission of the church in the world. What kind of music enables and strengthens us for this task?

© John Harper, from a draft for an article related to Patterns for Worship (2001)