Month: March 2017

… JESUS got his friends to spread the word that

AT the same time as PILATE was PROCESSING into the other side of town,

THEY WOULD WELCOME THEIR OWN KING,

in their own way.

And so here they came, the poorest, the lamest, the daftest, the  lostest PEOPLE,

carrying branches of trees and whatever else they could find to wave,

and WAITED for JESUS to make his way in through the EAST GATE,

past the people taking out the RUBBISH,

and when HE arrived, they THREW their BRANCHES to the ground, and threw their ARMS in the air and shouted ‘Hosanna to the King!’

AND of course, while PILATE was making his way into town in the brightest and best chariot of all, how was Jesus travelling?

ON A DONKEY! …

– from my school Easter Service talk, The king who always gave people something good.

Countess Gytha Primary School, Queen Camel 

Easter Service, 30 March 2017

 

1.

Jerusalem – PASSOVER festival.

As exciting as Glastonbury – but far far BIGGER

(it was free) – more like our CHRISTMAS 

everyone got involved and 

people came from EVERYWHERE to join in.

 

2. 

Every PASSOVER,

Roman Governor PILATE brought in TROOPS

to keep order…

 

3. 

At the WEST GATE (the biggest grandest entrance to the city)

came COLUMNS of SOLDIERS (bright coloured uniforms, shining swords),

led by shining silver CHARIOTS pulled by the most powerful and wonderful-looking HORSES;

and at the front – PILATE in all his glory in the brightest and best chariot of all.

The crowd was full of celebrities – ANYONE WHO WAS ANYONE in Jerusalem turned out to shout and wave and sing; 

Especially those who MADE the rules, like the High Priest CAIAPHAS,

And those who IMPOSED the rules, like the Jewish King HEROD.

 

4.

One year, at THE OTHER END of Jerusalem, 

at the EAST GATE, the back entrance to the city

only ever used by the POOREST people 

and those taking out the RUBBISH,

 

5. 

A tatty-looking teacher from out in the country

organised a FLASH MOB.

 

6.

JESUS got his friends to spread the word that

AT the same time as PILATE was PROCESSING into the other side of town,

THEY WOULD WELCOME THEIR OWN KING,

in their own way.

 

7.

And so here they came, the poorest, the lamest, the daftest, the  lostest PEOPLE,

carrying branches of trees and whatever else they could find to wave,

and WAITED for JESUS to make his way in through the EAST GATE,

past the people taking out the RUBBISH,

and when HE arrived, they THREW their BRANCHES to the ground, and threw their ARMS in the air and shouted ‘Hosanna to the King!’

AND of course, while PILATE was making his way into town in the brightest and best chariot of all, how was Jesus travelling?

ON A DONKEY!

 

8.

Why did JESUS organise that FLASH MOB?

What was he trying to say?

 

9.

He was sending out the MESSAGE that

HE WAS A DIFFERENT KIND OF ruler, a different kind of KING:

One who treated the poorest people with dignity and love;

One who went around HEALING the sick and giving BLIND PEOPLE their sight back.

 

10.

While every other ruler, like PILATE and CAIAPHAS and HEROD, spent their time MAKING life difficult for the people,

TAKING THINGS AWAY from them – like TAXES…

… JESUS always GAVE PEOPLE SOMETHING GOOD to take away;

… JESUS always TURNED PEOPLE’s lives around.

 

11.

And that is really WHY WE CELEBRATE EASTER:

It’s a time of NEW LIFE in nature

And as we remember JESUS and the way he treated people,

We give thanks for the NEW LIFE he offers to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US – even PILATE.

 

12. 

PILATE, you see, got interested in Jesus.

And when they met, PILATE wanted to know THE TRUTH about him.

 

 

13.

Now, we know that PILATE was under pressure from CAIAPHAS and HEROD and all the other people who enforced the rules, to have Jesus executed, and so he did.

 

14. 

But not before asking JESUS who he was, and what was the TRUTH about HIM.

 

15.

So let EASTER invite us to ask the same questions:

Who REALLY is this JESUS?

What REALLY has he done?

And – because he CAME ALIVE AGAIN and lives on today – 

WHAT can he do for US?

 

Prayer

Thank JESUS for the NEW LIFE of Easter;

Ask JESUS to teach us more of who HE is

and what he LONGS to do in our world today.

 

Note

For a fuller version of this talk, see my Palm Sunday sermon, The donkey-king is coming! Jesus Crowd is a Flash Mob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camels Magazine (Queen Camel, West Camel), Corton Denham News, Village Magazine (Sparkford and surrounding villages)

Editorial – Easter 2017

 

The devil met a food supplier, hungry for profits, and said to him, ‘Why don’t you substitute horsemeat for beef?’ And the supplier said, ‘That sounds like a profitable idea, I’ll give it a try’.

Then the devil showed a retail executive all the world’s kingdoms, saying, ‘I will give you all this power and glory, if you do things my way, exploiting the land and the poor to maximise your profits.’ And the executive said, ‘Show me the contract, I’ll get our lawyers to approve it straightaway’.

Then in a supermarket, the devil said to the customers, ‘If you wholeheartedly consume food full of additives, fat, sugar, and calories, fear nothing, for the angels of God will protect you from cancer, heart disease, obesity and tooth decay.’ And they said, ‘I believe you, here’s my loyalty card’.

The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness we still succumb to today: manipulating nature for our own gain, thus troubling our delicate relationship with the earth; ceaselessly pursuing power and authority, wealth and status, troubling our delicate relationship with others; and believing that however heedless our lifestyle we will flourish, troubling our delicate relationship with God.

‘Soil, soul, and society’ are the three fundamental elements in each of our lives, their interdependence intrinsic to our well being. So I think that Easter is expressed just as truly through eggs and chicks as it is through the old rugged cross. Increasingly I believe simply this: that God is like Jesus. Jesus whose protests against those gluttons for power exploiting the earth and the poor got him crucified (to the agony of his loving Father). Jesus whose life puts death in its place – as a mere element in the cycle of eternal life which he invites us all into. 

“What came first, the chicken or the egg?” and “What came first, the crucifixion or the salvation?” These questions are equivalent. The deep answer is outside their frame of reference: it is that chickens and eggs, crucifixions and salvations are each part of the life of creation, the gift of the Creator whose life, death and resurrection we celebrate at this time of year, the One whose life and teachings inspire and equip us in the ongoing work of restoring our balance between ‘soil, soul, and society’.

 

John Davies

… 'He told me everything I have ever done!' – finally, a man who knew her fully, understood her entirely, loved her wholly, accepted her as she was. No wonder she was so transformed that day. No wonder that her story made such an impression on those who heard it; because she may have been the most notorious addict for love in the city of Sychar; but everyone else in that place had just the same desires and longings, deep down, too. And the message is that just as he came to them, Jesus comes to give us something that will finally quench our thirst, satisfy our hunger, here and now. How we relate to this woman's story: for we share that deep desire to be known, listened to and understood. We share that ache to be accepted, that longing to be loved. A recent survey among young people who don't go to church revealed that they 'longed to be loved, to have authentic relationships, to experience meaningful community'. I think it’s not just young people who feel this way….

From today's talk about Jesus and the woman at the well, "He told me everything I have ever done!" : on being accepted . At Sutton Montis informal worship featuring contemplation, conversation and this song….

 

Romans 5.1-11, John 4.5-30

Third Sunday before Lent, 19 March 2017

Queen Camel, Sutton Montis

 

‘He told me everything I have ever done!’ 

The testimony of the woman who Jesus met at Jacob’s well. 

‘He told me everything I have ever done! He can’t be the Messiah, can he?’ 

Well, he could be the Messiah; and in that Samaritan village many became followers of Jesus of Nazareth, after witnessing the most unlikely events which unfolded that day. 

Why unlikely? First of all because it was highly unusual for a Jew like Jesus to even visit a place like Sychar. Jews hated Samaritans, and vice versa. Rather like in our time, in that same part of the world, where the Israelis and Palestinians have such a hard time getting along. They each have their own towns and villages, and they just don’t mix. It was the same for the Samaritans when it came to the Jews. So surprise number one was that Jesus and his disciples would even bother to come to that region and ‘give the time of day,’ to someone there. Yes, he was tired and needed something to eat and drink. But he could have satisfied those needs without mixing with anyone else. But he didn’t choose to avoid Samaria, and he didn’t choose to keep himself to himself. 

So that was the first surprise. The next was who Jesus chose to make contact with. It begins with the fact that this person was a woman. In that culture, men didn’t speak to strange women. Especially teachers with a reputation like Jesus’. Rabbis were to reserve their words for men, as  women weren’t allowed to learn from rabbis – only from their own fathers and husbands. 

There were also customs and expectations that went with speaking at a well. A man would go to a well and meet women there for the same reasons that a young man in our culture would go to a singles bar. Looking for someone to connect with at the well was very like the way that single people loiter in supermarkets today!

Many people in Israel’s history had met at wells: Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Moses and Zipporah all met at wells. 

So Jesus wasn’t supposed to be in Samaritan territory, but he was. He wasn’t supposed to talk to Samaritans when he did encounter them, but he did. Etiquette dictated that men – especially respected rabbis – shouldn’t talk to women, especially at wells, but that’s just what Jesus did. And the biggest shock of all was this: which woman Jesus chose to talk to. Only the one with the worst reputation in town! To be frank about it, this woman had the biggest reputation for sleeping around. She had been married and divorced several times. She was currently living with a man she wasn’t even married to. She may have had money, after all those divorce settlements, but if she did you can imagine how much more disapproved of she would be, by the other women of the town.  

I don’t know; would you want a woman like that in your church, or sewing club, or as your tennis partner? We imagine she would know how the other women of Sychar gossiped about her and condemned her. That’s why she came to the well at noon, at the hottest time of the day! All the other women came at daybreak when it was cool. She was least likely to bump into anyone else at noon. She whose reputation was so bad that she visited the well at the quietest time of day, this woman, of all people, was the very person that Jesus chose to speak to. And not just to have any old conversation with her – at the well, in the wilderness, Jesus had one of the longest, richest, most engaged discussions recorded in the gospels, and at the end of it he offered her the gift of salvation, no less. Can you believe that? 

And Jesus wasn’t just being naive. He wasn’t just being nice. He knew exactly what he was doing. He understood why this woman was coming for water at midday. In fact, he seemed to know everything about her. That’s why the people listened to her when she came running into town afterwards to tell them what had happened. Most of the time they turned their backs on her and she kept herself to herself around town. But this day everyone saw she was so excited, so animated, she was changed; somehow alive again! 

This woman who had been dead to them, buried under the load of shame the community had heaped on her, she boldly ran into the middle of the city with a spark of life in her eyes and a message she couldn’t help risk sharing. “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He can’t be the Messiah, can he?” 

The Messiah! Before they even thought about it, the people ran to meet this person, too. If they had thought about it, they might have wondered why she was so excited about someone telling her about her miserable life. But the woman’s enthusiasm and her testimony sparked something in the people; they went to see and hear for themselves and come to believe that this Jesus was indeed the Messiah. 

So what was so striking about what Jesus did for that woman? 

It was that in just a short time Jesus got to the very heart of her character. Jesus met her where she was, and in what he did and said to her Jesus met that woman’s most fundamental needs – to be listened to; to be known; to be understood, to be accepted as she was. 

That’s all that any of us want, deep down, isn’t it? To be listened to; to be known; to be understood, to be accepted as we are. That’s what we thirst for. That’s all that the other women of that Samaritan town thirsted for too.

The woman’s story suggests that up to that point, her life had been a relentless search for satisfaction. Her longing to be loved, her deep desire to be accepted, led her into so many dead-end relationships that could never satisfy her thirst. She was an addict. Addiction is the process of getting hooked on things that will never satisfy us. They only get us hungering and thirsting for more until we have a famished craving, until our spirits die of thirst. Addiction is the exact opposite of what Jesus came to give that woman at the well. He came to give her a living water that would forever satisfy her longings and desires. 

‘He told me everything I have ever done!’ – finally, a man who knew her fully, understood her entirely, loved her wholly, accepted her as she was. No wonder she was so transformed that day. No wonder that her story made such an impression on those who heard it; because she may have been the most notorious addict for love in the city of Sychar; but everyone else in that place had just the same desires and longings, deep down, too. 

And the message is that just as he came to them, Jesus comes to give us something that will finally quench our thirst, satisfy our hunger, here and now. 

How we relate to this woman’s story: for we share that deep desire to be known, listened to and understood. We share that ache to be accepted, that longing to be loved. 

A recent survey among young people who don’t go to church revealed that they ‘longed to be loved, to have authentic relationships, to experience meaningful community’. [2] I think it’s not just young people who feel this way.

Sadly many give up on the church because their needs are not met, they find that they aren’t taken seriously. Recently I was talking to someone who as a young man with genuine questions about the Christian faith, found that those questions just weren’t being answered by people in the churches, who plainly demonstrated that they had no time or no interest in listening to that young man and his questions about God. It was only after decades of looking into all sorts of religions that he found a church which took seriously the questions he was asking, a community which listened to him and dialogued with him. And he has been with the Jehovah’s Witnesses ever since. 

Yet we of all people should know how deeply Christ knows us and accepts us. That should be food and drink to us – and that should strengthen us in his service, that should help us to be people who will want to bring the living water to others. 

Jesus said: ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.’ God desires us, God loves us, and it is as we accept that and respond to that, that our thirst is quenched and our hunger satisfied. This is what Jesus offered to the Samaritan woman. It is what he offered to the people of Sychar through the Samaritan woman. It is what he offers you and me today. And it is what he longs to offer through us to those who hunger and thirst in our community, to be listened to; to be understood; to be loved and accepted. 

So let us accept what he offers us, let us accept ourselves as he does; and in response let us make our churches places where people are listened to; understood, accepted and loved.

 

Notes 

[1] This sermon is a rewrite of Paul J. Nuechterlein, A Shocking Revelation, 1999, and of my version of that, He told me everything I have ever done! preached at Bridestowe, Lydford, Devon, 2011.

[2] Quoted in Nicola David, Developing the Community Habit, Church Times, 25 March 2011.

[3] Sutton Montis Informal Service with recorded music:

 

"Let us be careful not to put the cross at the heart of our faith, but the Saviour…. for Christians over the years have made an idol of the cross, revering that object rather than the Saviour who was crucified on it. Contrary to our well-intentioned but misguided beliefs, the cross is not at the heart of Christianity - the Saviour is. The necessary sacrifice of blood and flesh belongs to other idolatries – such as in our day and age, the idolatry of nationalism – Jesus stands for only life, abundant life, eternal life."

– from my talk today, Jesus the serpent: healing in a difficult place.

Genesis 12.1-4a, John 3.1-17

Second Sunday of Lent, 12 March 2017, Weston Bampfylde

 

‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’

Lance Corporal Michael ‘Doc’ McLoughlin is a medic with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He’s an infantry soldier who carries a lot of medical equipment with him, in case his skills are needed. Michael spends most of his time out on patrol. It is his job to provide the immediate lifesaving first aid to soldiers if the worst should happen. That might be applying tourniquets and field dressings and administering fluids and pain relief until the Medical Emergency Response Team arrive to take the casualty away by helicopter. But back inside the patrol base, soldiers go to Michael for routine medical problems. He says: “The lads do come to me a lot and ask for basics such as sunscreen or ask me to look at their feet, just little things. I’m also there if people need to talk things through.” [1] 

Corporal McLoughlin is a healer in a difficult place. And on the uniform which he wears as he goes about his work is the insignia of The Royal Army Medical Corps – it is a serpent lifted up on a pole. 

The serpent lifted up on a pole is known as The Rod of Asclepius. In ancient Greek mythology Asclepius, the son of Apollo, practiced medicine. And the symbol of the serpent refers to the fascinating medical fact that a drug is a poison that, taken in the right dosage, is also a remedy. Antidotes and vaccines are often made from the very thing that caused the poisoning or illness. Products made from the bodies of snakes were known to have medicinal properties in ancient times, and in ancient Greece, snake venom was ‘prescribed’ sometimes as a form of therapy. [2] 

The snake and the pole are two things in tension – after all, people use poles to beat off or kill snakes who are threatening them. But in the ancient world they put the snake and the pole together and they became a sign of healing. From the ancient Greeks to the people of Moses. [3] 

The book of Numbers describes the people of Israel following the Lord out of Egypt and into the wilderness, in search of a promised land, but struggling, suffering, and complaining about their situation along the way. So in Numbers 21 we read that the Lord, angered by the people’s complaints, sent fiery serpents among them, ‘and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.’And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. [4]

Moses brought the people healing in a difficult place. The sign of God’s healing and forgiveness was a serpent lifted up on a pole. People facing death, infected by a deadly poison, looked on the serpent and were restored to life – in the wilderness they experienced a sort of resurrection. 

And so to Jesus, spending a very late night in conversation with a highly-placed religious leader, Nicodemus, a man impressed by the signs which Jesus was performing but struggling to get to the heart of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus encourages Nicodemus to open himself to the possibility of the new loving liberating relationship which he can have with God. Nicodemus is slow to see the reality of the new life which Jesus is offering. So Jesus takes him back to Moses to try to explain.'[For] just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’ – he said. 

And we can imagine what Nicodemus would have understood by that. He would know the story of the serpent on the pole, of how Moses brought the people healing in a difficult place, when those who looked on the serpent on the pole were restored to life; how, in the wilderness, they experienced a sort of resurrection. 

And now here Jesus was saying the same thing about himself: telling Nicodemus that he, Jesus was the new sign of healing in the difficult place where Israel was at that time – struggling under Roman occupation; that Jesus was God’s new way of bringing healing and forgiveness to the people. Nicodemus heard Jesus offering people an experience of resurrection: of eternal life.'[For] just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’

Eternal life. It doesn’t just mean something which happens to you after you die. Life everlasting: it begins right now for those who believe. That’s what being ‘born again’ means. Born again, now, to enjoy a quality of life in this world before another world to come in the future. Jesus, the unending source of life itself, invited Nicodemus into this deep relationship with him – starting there and then. And by taking this passage of scripture into our hearts today, we can hear Jesus, the unending source of life itself, inviting us into a deep and everlasting relationship with him – starting here and now. [5] 

Now commentators over the centuries have focussed on the association between the serpent on the pole and Jesus on the cross. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross. And just as the snake and the pole are two things in tension – a symbol of conflict (the pole beating off the serpent) but at the same time a sign of healing, so Jesus and the cross can be seen in that way. 

The One who loved the people so much was crucified by them; but by defeating death this One who had come healing and teaching peace was confirmed as the healer and restorer of a broken world. 

When wounded soldiers see the sign of the pole and the serpent they know that healing is at hand. When believers in Christ see the sign of the cross and the Saviour they know that resurrection is at hand. Eternal life, life everlasting. Starting now.

But Jesus was trying to help Nicodemus grasp something we too need to deeply embrace – the truth that the cross is not the most important thing. That eternal life doesn’t begin at death. It begins when you open your heart to the new loving liberating relationship which you can have with the resurrected God.

In John chapter three, Jesus tells us first and foremost that God loves the world. And this is very good news indeed. Jesus, the unending source of life itself, gives his whole life, his whole self to the world and invites us all into a deep relationship with him – starting here and now. Jesus is offering every person, and all creation, eternal life. It’s all about life, there’s no place for death. So let us be careful not to put the cross at the heart of our faith, but the Saviour.

Nicodemus would have known that by the time of King Hezekiah the people had turned the serpent on the pole into an idol, a sacrificial object to which they burned incense. The devout king Hezekiah called it, in contempt, ‘Nehushtan’, a brazen thing, a mere piece of brass; and, seeking to cause the people to return the Lord, Hezekiah had the idol destroyed. [6]

And this story of idolatry relates to the way that Christians over the years have made an idol of the cross, revering that object rather than the Saviour who was crucified on it. Contrary to our well-intentioned but misguided beliefs, the cross is not at the heart of Christianity – the Saviour is. The necessary sacrifice of blood and flesh belongs to other idolatries – such as in our day and age, the idolatry of nationalism – Jesus stands for only life, abundant life, eternal life.

This contradicts our creeds, which – check them out – jump from Jesus’ birth to Jesus’ death as if his life itself has no significance. [7] But the Saviour offered eternal life to Nicodemus there and then, well before the events which put him on the cross, and it’s living the life of Jesus and walking in the way of Jesus which will heal us, save us, in the here and now. 

And so the story of the serpent and the pole offers an ‘in’ to all those who might be reeling from circumstances which have caused them to lose faith in their old ways of seeing things, seeing the limitations of the old religious ways which put bloody, fiery, sacrificial acts at their centre; bemused by the idea that if we make offerings on altars then God will favour us. This is good news to those who are sickened by the suggestion that God is an angry jealous deity who condemns us, and who search instead for a God who walks beside us, suffers with us, and offers healing, forgiveness, new beginnings, eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” Jesus said. [8]

Jesus invited Nicodemus to stop repeating the mistakes of the old religion and to turn to Jesus, to receive healing in a difficult place. Jesus offers eternal life right here, right now, to those who believe. There’s hope for us all, in the way that Jesus retells the story of the serpent and the pole. 

 

Notes 

Amended from The serpent and the pole – and eternity for all, preached at Bratton Clovelly and Sourton, Devon, in 2011.

[1] See video Life as a combat medic on the British Army website. Quotes here were taken from an earlier version of this web page, now removed. 

[2] Wikipedia: Rod of Asclepius. 

[3] Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Notes on Lent 4B. 

[4] Numbers 21.6-9 (English Standard Version)

[5] Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Notes on Lent 4B. 

[6] 2 Kings 18.1-6 / Wikipedia: Nehushtan.

[7] Church of England Common Worship Creeds and authorized affirmations of faith.

[8] John 3.17.

 

Genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-7, Matthew 4.1-11

First Sunday of Lent, Sunday 5th March 2017

Weston Bampfylde

 

On the evening of Pancake Day, 13th February 1945, 773 Royal Air Force Avro Lancasters bombed Dresden. During the next two days the US air force sent over 527 heavy bombers to follow up the RAF attack. Large numbers of refugees fleeing from the advancing Red Army had massively increased the population of the city above the normal 650,000. 

It was a triumph for Arthur Harris, head of RAF Bomber Command and his policy of area bombing, known in Germany as terror bombing. Dresden was nearly totally destroyed. 

Not everyone at home rejoiced at this news. Many felt very uneasy about the level of violence being unleashed on innocent civilians. Sure, it could be seen as revenge for the wartime blitz over Britain, but was revenge a fitting kind of motivation for a country which was taking the moral high ground in this war against evil? 

As a result of the Dresden firestorm it was afterwards impossible to count the number of victims. Recent research suggests that 35,000 were killed but some German sources have argued that it was over 100,000. What is certain is that more died in 24 hours in Dresden than were killed in all the attacks on London during the whole of the Second World War. 

Despite their unease, few in Britain had the nerve to speak out against the bombing. It was a churchman, George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who spoke on their behalf. [1] 

Bishop Bell argued that area bombing was an insult to Christian values, that celebrating the bombing was immoral. But his Archbishop would not back him in asking the government to account for their actions. In the House of Lords on the 9th February, Bishop Bell argued that the devastation of cities was threatening the very roots of civilisation, that this campaign disregarded the law and in so doing, undermined the Allies’ claim to be the liberators of Europe. He was heard in near-silence. 

In choosing to take this stand George Bell waved his career goodbye. The then-Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden called him “this pestilent priest.” Looking back , a recent Church Times article said, “That he became neither Archbishop of Canterbury nor Bishop of London was perhaps in part because of his views on bombing.” George Bell did not regret the choice he made, but as a consequence he knew afterwards what it felt like to walk in a wilderness. 

Bell’s story shows us that as Christians we have choices to make, and if we are to be faithful the right choices may have to be the unlikely, unpopular, or difficult ones. It is something worth reflecting on as we begin our journey through Lent. 

The familiar gospel story of Jesus in the wilderness is a story about choices. 

It tells us first of all that Jesus chose to be led up by the Spirit, into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil: 

He chose to be led by the Spirit… to open himself completely to the gracious will and mighty power of God; 

He chose to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness… to follow God into a place that was not at all like home, an uneasy place, a place of testing; 

He chose to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil… to face up to the evil in him and around him, to grapple with the demons, not ignore them. 

And he also chose to fast – something which Christian people have from time to time valued and embraced, but which doesn’t seem too much in fashion at the moment. The idea of fasting is to simplify our lives, to focus down in ourselves, to recognise our dependence on God, to more readily open ourselves to God. It’s not an easy choice, to fast. But Jesus made it. 

And then came the three temptations which offered Jesus three choices: 

 – a choice about food. 

 – a choice about status. 

 – a choice about power. 

1 

‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 

This is a choice between breaking the fast and keeping it. Jesus could give in to his dependence on food to keep him going, or make the harder choice of holding on to his dependence on God: 

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

2 

‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”‘ 

This is a choice about testing his status: between doing something dramatic to show how great he was, or simply resting in the grace of God. 

‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”‘ 

3 

‘All all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ 

This is a choice between taking up or giving up power: between accepting all the power which the world can offer, or confirming his devotion to the greater power of God: 

“Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”‘ 

Now, we might wonder if these temptations of Jesus have anything to do with us. If we have choices in life at all, surely they are different than the choices Jesus had. After all, he was the Son of God and we are just children of dust. I think we do each have choices, and that the challenge for each of us is how to make sure God is involved in them. 

We have choices about food – well, if we are on a low income our choices about food are limited. But we still do face them. For some people the hard and very limited choice will be, what can I afford to buy to make sure my kids get fed right through the week? What should I not buy for myself to make sure that happens? For others it might be, can I afford to spend a little bit more on Fair Trade tea-bags, to help the poor people overseas who produce them? 

The choice for us Christians is, do we give in to our dependence on food to keep him going, or make the harder choice of holding on to our dependence on God: that’s hard when you have very little – can we, will we, trust God to provide? 

We have choices about status. Because status isn’t just to do with well-to-do people or politicians or celebrities. As the excellent writer and broadcaster Alain De Botton points out in his book Status Anxiety [2], we rarely mention this directly: but we all have an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we’re judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. 

The choice for us Christians is, do we respond to that anxiety by trying to do dramatic or showy things to impress other people, or let ourselves simply rest in the grace of God, get our status from him. 

And we have choices about power. Again, we might not think we’re very powerful, compared to the people who make decisions about our healthcare or who decide on the new route of the A303. 

But we do have power, each of us. Personal power – power which gives us choices either to help someone in need or ignore them, to forgive someone who has hurt us or let them carry on suffering by ignoring or abusing them. We all know about the power games that go on in our churches – sadly, every church suffers these. They go on in our homes too. 

We each of us have power in relation to other people. The choice for us Christians is, do we use that power as the world does, manipulatively, selfishly, greedily, or devote ourselves to the greater power of God: 

“Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”‘ 

All this about temptations and choices goes back to the very beginning, to the man and the woman in the garden of Eden, the tree, the apple, the serpent, the choice. 

The difference between us, and Adam and Eve is that we already know that we are naked; we know that we are flawed human beings, we know that we are able to choose good or evil, we even know what the consequences of our choices are likely to be before we choose. 

Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. 

Lent is about letting God to open our eyes to the reality of ourselves, aware that what we see may be painful, but then working with Jesus, to keep the eyes of our hearts fixed on him. 

 

 

Notes

First preached as Choices in the Wilderness, at Christ Church Norris Green in 2005. Slightly altered.

[1] Dresden and George Bell material from Spartacus – Schoolnet website and article by Peter Street in Church Times, 11 Feb 2005, unfortunately only available online to subscribers. 

[2] Alain De Botton: Status Anxiety 

 

… This is our challenge this Lent – though we may think that Trump is a monster, we must love him; if we believe that our Parish Council is plain wrong, we must love them; if we find our neighbour annoying, we must love her; if we’re fearful of people of other faiths, we must love them; if we know that our work colleagues are undermining us, we must love them. For this is the way of the teachings of Christ. And let us be sure to understand that this love, which is required of us, is not weak and passive; it is strong and pro-active. This love, through which we model Jesus’ way to the world, is given to us once-and-for-all as God’s generous gift; but it is also something which comes to us repeatedly as we practice it, hour by hour, day by day….

from my Ash Wednesday talk,  Lent: interrupted by God, learning to love Trump.