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~ She walks, she talks, she administers the sacraments

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Monthly Archives: April 2015

Here is your King

03 Friday Apr 2015

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#GoodFriday #HereisyourKing

Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is taken from there to the religious leaders, who question him vigorously. They do not have the power to execute Jesus, so they send him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

The way John tells the story, the first question Pilate asks Jesus is “Are you the king of the Jews?”

We need the back story here. As I said, Pilate was the Roman governor. The Romans had conquered Israel in 63BC, and this was bitterly resented by the Jewish people. For the Jews, God was king, ruling them through King David and his sons and grandsons. To have foreigners in charge, Gentiles, non-Jews, was absolute anathema. In the Roman system, the Emperor was king. The Emperor was also divine, god – which was an appalling concept for Jews. But politics was politics and the Jewish religious leaders learnt to work alongside their Roman masters, so much so that Caiaphas was able to remain as High Priest for 18 years. He didn’t manage that without a good deal of compromise with the Roman authorities.

When Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” he is checking out whether Jesus is setting himself up as a political rival to the Emperor. The Emperor is king. The Emperor is god.

And no, that’s not the kind of king that Jesus is. But Jesus is king, another kind of king.

Time for another back story. In the story of Samuel, in the Old Testament, the people asked for a king. The prophet Samuel told them – you don’t really want a king! A king will oppress you and take from you goods and horses and your children to serve him. But the people said – Yes, we do want a king, so that we can be like the other nations. So God told Samuel how to choose and anoint the man who would be king – and that was Saul. However, the downside that Samuel had predicted soon came about and Saul was not a good king and disobeyed God. So Samuel anointed David, and when Saul died, David became king and his sons and grandsons after him. David had his flaws and imperfections, but he was remembered as the ideal king. And centuries later when Israel was overcome by enemies and the monarchy suppressed and sent into exile, the people of Israel waited for the time when God would raise up for them a king in David’s line, who would put down all their enemies and restore the glorious kingdom. This was the Messiah, the anointed one, God’s chosen one, the true king.

But that’s not the kind of king that Jesus is. Jesus is king, but another kind of king.

So when Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”, Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And he’s not saying: mine is a spiritual kingdom, I don’t care about politics. He is saying, my kingdom is different – it’s not about power politics and oppressing people. In my Kingdom, God is in charge, not power-hungry politicians and emperors who play at being god.

Pilate goes back to the Jewish leaders and their crowd of followers and offers to release a prisoner in honour of the Passover festival. “Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?” he asks. He is mocking them. He is the one who has the power of life and death. Jesus may be the king of the Jews, but whether he lives or dies is in Pilate’s hands. Pilate is playing the crowd. And when the crowd call for Jesus to be crucified, they are acknowledging the power of the Roman state over them. They say, “We have a law and by that law he ought to die, because he claims to be the Son of God.” So they put themselves in the hands of the Roman Emperor who also claims to be the son of god.

Pilate has Jesus flogged. The soldiers dress Jesus in purple as for an emperor and put a crown of thorns upon his head. They mock him, humiliate him, beat him, flog him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” What kind of king is this?

Pilate brings Jesus out again before the Jewish leaders. and then brings him out into public view. “Here is your king!” he proclaims, a king who is bruised and bloodied from the beating. “Shall I crucify your king?” And they answer, “We have no king but Caesar”.

So they take Jesus away and they nail him to a cross and hang him high. And Pilate adds one more touch: he has a notice made and placed above Jesus on the cross, a caption. It reads “The King of the Jews” in 3 languages, so you couldn’t make any mistake about it. Pilate’s message to the Jews is – this is the kind of king you have, dying on the cross like a terrorist. Rome has proper kings. Rome has the power to put down your petty so-called king.

But in the end, Pilate’s mocking sign is a prophecy. This is the king of the Jews. This is the king of the whole world. This is a king who dies on the cross because God loves the world so much. As someone said on Twitter recently: This is God who would rather die than risk eternity without you.

This is your King!

Last Supper Blessing

02 Thursday Apr 2015

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#MaundyThursday #Blessing

Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and shared it with the disciples. Then he took the cup of wine and blessed it and shared it with the disciples.

I want to talk to you tonight about blessing.

It’s a word that is used in different ways. When someone sneezes we say, “bless you”. When something sweet happens, we say, “Aw, bless!” I often say it when I am shaking hands with people as they come out of the Crem. It is a prayer, asking God to bless the other person. It is about referencing the person to God, making a connection between God and the other person.

Stories of blessing are found throughout the Bible, when God promises to bless Abraham in the Covenant and also in the stories when inheritance from one generation to the next comes in the form of blessing.

On Sunday, Palm Sunday, above all, but also every Sunday, we proclaim, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”. Jesus’ ministry is a ministry of blessing, and the key element of that is salvation. Tomorrow, as we mark Good Friday and enter into the drama of Jesus dying on the cross, we remember how costly was the blessing that he brought us. He paid not less than everything that we might be blessed.

And when we come to the Eucharist, blessing becomes something very special. When Jesus blessed the bread and the wine, he was holding it before God, giving thanks and praise, and also inviting God’s presence, inviting God’s blessing on the elements, calling God’s blessing on us. Blessing becomes a two-way thing. We ask God to bless the bread and wine, and through the bread and wine, God blesses us.

In God’s household, ordinary things: bread, wine, oil, water, are blessed and they become the means of grace, the means of bringing God’s blessing to us and sharing God’s blessing with other people.  Today in Durham Cathedral, the Bishop of Durham blessed the holy oil which we use in all the churches to bless the children who come for baptism with the sign of the cross, to anoint the children of God for service, to anoint those who are seriously ill and dying that they may have the blessing of God’s healing and peace.

And at the end of every service – except for tonight and tomorrow – I proclaim God’s blessing on those who have come to worship God and hear his Word and receive his Sacraments. The words of blessing confirm the actions we have done together before God, seeking and receiving blessing.

God is so very gracious, so very good, so very kind, that he blesses us when we come before him. And for some people, that blessing is what keeps them going when life is difficult, gives them the stamina to keep going, the patience, the strength and the peace to hold it all together.

But God doesn’t just give us blessing through the Eucharist or the other means of grace just to fill up the spiritual tank and make us feel good. God blesses us so that we might bless others. Let me say that again: God blesses us so that we might bless others. The blessing has to flow through us. When we receive God’s blessing, we also receive the obligation to share that blessing and pass it on.

Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us about Jesus blessing and sharing the bread and wine. John tells us about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Tonight in this service, we are remembering both those stories, remembering and re-enacting. They are two sides of the same coin. Because it is by washing the feet of others that we bring blessing to them. It is an acted-out parable. Washing other peoples’ feet is not something we do every day, generally speaking, but we do have opportunities to serve others, to be kind and caring in how we treat others. And when we do that, we share the blessing onwards. Washing feet becomes a metaphor, a word picture. We “wash feet” when we help with the foodbank. We “wash feet” when we support projects in far away places where people really are poor. We “wash feet” when we fight for social justice and try to change political systems – and that includes voting in the General Election next month. When we do those things, we are sharing the blessing.

Tonight we come together to be with Jesus at the Last Supper. We are there in the upper room. Jesus blesses bread and wine, and through the bread and wine, Jesus blesses us. Jesus washes our feet to show us what blessing looks like. Jesus serves us, and Jesus calls on us to serve others, to bless others, especially the poor, the marginalized, the weak and the fragile.

Where are you going to take the blessing? How will you bring blessing to others?

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