Eternal Echoes

Sermon Blogging Mark 1: 9-15. Something New!

Let's set the scene for today's reading; something wild was happening out in the desert, people were flocking to see a wild man with a wild message, and he was challenging them and rebuking them and calling them to repent, to turn away from their old ways and to follow God. His message, "get ready, God is about to do something new!!!"

 

"Get ready, God is about to do something new!!!

 

The crowds' responded, ordinary men and women hungry for God pouring into the desert to be baptised by John, getting ready, preparing themselves; John's message continued….

 

…another one is coming after me, and I am not worthy enough to tie his shoe laces, he won't just baptise you with water, he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit!

 

We must get ready; God is about to do something new!

 

It was into this scene that Jesus walked; Marks short description of the event tells us that Jesus presented himself to be baptised, other gospels tell us of Johns recognition of Jesus and his reluctance to baptise him, of Jesus insistence, and John's acquiescence….

 

What ever happened, whatever the conversation, Mark makes it clear that as Jesus came out of the water something amazing happened, the heavens were ripped open and the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove…. and God spoke!

 

How easy it is for us to read those words, can we really imagine the impact that this event had on the gathered crowds….

 

Somehow the sky above there heads opened up and the power and glory of heaven poured through…. the Holy Spirit took on visible form, and God spoke, was it a whisper, was it like thunder, we don't really know… but something totally unforgettable happened and I can't imagine being filled with anything but holy awe… there aren't the words to express it…. perhaps only a deep and irrevocable knowledge that God really was about to do something new!

 

I wonder sometimes if our familiarity with the gospel deadens our imaginations to the wonder and power of the story that is being unfolded for us. For this truly is a story of wonder and power. It is also a story of choices. The people chose to come out into the desert to find John. Jesus chose baptism as a sign of his obedience and commitment, Jesus then empowered by God chose God's ways again and again during his forty days in the desert.

 

Overcoming temptation was not easy for Jesus, but overcome he did, choosing again and again to turn to God, trusting God and resisting evil, emerging at the end of the trial filled with confidence and power, ready to call people to open their eyes and see that the kingdom of God had surely drawn near.

 

God was doing something new…..

 

God is doing something new, for his kingdom remains near, and he calls us to dare to enter into it….

 

The season of Lent has just begun; traditionally Lent is a season of repentance, often observed by a choice to give something up in order to concentrate more fully upon God….

 

The season holds an invitation for us to choose to see what God is doing, to draw near and to draw close, to leave behind the things that tempt and distract us and to seek God for the new thing that he wants to do in our lives and in our communities!

 

The gospel reading today contains a message of power and of hope, of God the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus and reassuring him with words of affirmation:

 

"You are my son the beloved; with you I am well pleased."

 

In doing something new, by inviting us into a new life in Christ God longs for us to hear those words spoken into our lives…

 

You are my son, you are my daughter, you are my beloved and I am pleased with you!

 

In doing something new, by inviting us into a new life in Christ God longs to pour himself into our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit to equip and strengthen us to live his way!

 

In doing something new, by inviting us into a new life in Christ God longs to hear us his church announcing the good news….

 

God is here, he is with us, this message is not a children's story, not a comfortable tale to cheer us on dark days; it is a message of wild possibilities! A message of power and glory!

 

We live in a world where there is a great hunger for spirituality, a great hunger for belonging, and a great lost-ness as society becomes increasingly fragmented. It is up to us God's Church to proclaim his message of love and power to today's generation.

 

This Lenten season let us dare to draw aside, to turn form our busyness to listen to God, to gain a fresh vision for the mission he has called us to. To hear his words of love for us, so that filled to overflowing with that love we can reach out to a world in need, for this is why Christ came, and this is what he calls us to.

Let's use this time to get ready… for God is calling us on, into something new.

 

Let us pray….

 

 

 

 

 

Fork in the road Friday Five

Over at Revgals Singing Owl says:

 

I am at a life-changing juncture. I do not know which way I will go, but I have been thinking about the times, people and events that changed my life (for good or ill) in significant ways. For today's Friday Five, share with us five "fork-in-the-road" events, or persons, or choices. And how did life change after these forks in the road?

 

 

 

1. When my parents took the decision to move from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia back to the UK. I was 11 years old at the time, it meant a move of culture and of school, it meant leaving friends and everything I had known. This was a very difficult time for me, and was quickly followed by my parents divorce. I can't say whether it was the wrong decision looking back, but it has certainly taught me something about putting my family first, and this is something I try to do.

 

2. When I fell pregnant with my eldest son Paul I was under a lot of pressure to have an abortion, at nineteen and unmarried I guess this would have been the easy option.  I chose against it and also against all advice to marry his Dad. Tim and I have been married for 27 years now, and Paul is a wonderful son, one to be proud of, he has fought through some difficulties in life, but is getting married to Louise this summer, and together they will bring up her 3 lovely girls! The picture is of Paul, Louise, Ollie, Georgia, and Ellie at Christmas time. Paul is studying to become a teacher.

 

 

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3. Christopher changed my life, many people who read this blog are familiar with this story, but for those who aren't you can find it here by me, and here by Chris. Chris has a congenital heart condition that has required several major surgeries. He is a fighter and has an extraordinary faith. One night in particular when Chris was 2 stands out in my memory as an important turning point. He was recovering in Intensive Care from a major surgery, it seemed that he would hit huge setbacks every night, and we would be called in to see him ( perhaps for the last time). After prayer I decided to sit vigil with him over night. The nursing staff thought I was crazy, but I was determined. I did, and Chris turned a corner that night. He is now in his second year at Cliff College and wants to train for Hospital Chaplaincy. Picture- Chris with friends at Cliff College.

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4. Moving with our whole family to Katy, Texas was a huge decision, but a good one for all of us. Our horizons were expanded, and we enjoyed the experience despite the frustrations of speaking almost the same language and still not understanding the system! One real bonus from our move there was that Joanne and Emma both started playing srtings there. Emma is now a professional Musician and Music teacher, and Joanne is studying music at Sheffield University, for them this fork in the road was a life changing one!

 

Joanne tuning up to play with Sheffield University Ochestra.

 

  Emma is the Cellist, this si from a set of publicity shots for a quartet formed by some of the younger members of Durham Sinfonia.

 

5. Following a move back to the UK, and several problems, the big decision for Tim and I to enter into full time Christian Ministry. This took us to rural Norfolk and Downham Market where we currently live and work, and lead me into training for Ordained Ministry. I am due to be Stationed as a Probationary Minister( Methodist terms) in a Circuit in September this year. So far there have been a few hiccups along the way, but I am praying that God will reveal the right fork in the road and that I will have the courage to take it.

 

While I am busy bragging about my family by posting photos, I'd better not leave Jon out, our move to Downham Market introduced him to Drama. He is currently at Lancaster University reading Theatre Studies. He will be performing at the Edinburugh Fringe Festival for the second time this summer. Last year we watched him tackle the demanding role of Othello!

 

Jon in Revengers Tragedy at the Fringe last Summer, they gained a four star review from the Sctosman and a great write up in the Independent.

 

 

 

 

Blessed be your name.....

Sometimes there is nothing else to say.....

Dust to dust ( invitation to poetry)

Dry and dead now,
her season past,
and yet
in a supreme act
of self giving
this one frail leaf
will nourish the earth,
and her gift
will bring forth new life.
Dare we learn her lesson,
through the seasons
of our lives?

 

 

With thanks to Christine for the image and the inspiration. She invites us to poetry over at Abbey of the Arts.

Fresh ashes, holy longings

I want to dance

to your unforced rhythms,

to catch the beat of your heart

in my heart…

 

I want to be clothed

in garments of praise,

to lift my hands and my voice

in worship….

 

But today fresh ashes

remind me of my frailty,

of my failure

to hear your song…

 

Holy dove, come gently,

unstop my ears,

free my hands,

help me to dance again…

 

 

 

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In defense of Liberation Theology

I've been mulling over the duscussion that took place in my Hermeneutics Class yesterday and wondering why I came awayfeeling a little uneasy. We had been looking at some pieces of Liberation Theology and critiquing them, bring a hermeneutic of suspicion to the hermeneutic of liberation if you like.

One of the pieces looked at the text of  Mark 5: 21-43, and asked whether this text was not primarily about women. The consensus of the group mainly white middle class middle aged men was that it was not, and that although women were a part of it that issues of what it meant to be unclean were as central to the text as the nameless women!

I do not and cannot agree with this, from a historical perspective the namelessness of these women stands out as a critisism of the patriachal society to which they belonged. Jarius was named, his daughter had no name, the woman in the crowd also remained and remains nameless. Their namelessness serves to highlight their voicelessness. That Jesus spoke to and touched both of these women challenges issues gender as much as it challenges their unclean state in the eyes of the law.

To critisise Liberation Theologies we must first examin our own position and our own power. I believe that the Bible unfolds God's plan for the release of the captives for us in many ways, that it is a living and active text and we ignore it at our peril. But we can and must ask questions of the traditional readings and interpretations. Liberation Theology does not have all of the answers sewn up neatly; the interlocutors for liberation theologies and biblical hermeneutics of liberation are not, as in dominant Western theologies, the educated nonbelievers or Schleiermacher’s cultured critics of religion, but the poor, the “non-persons,” the exploited, especially those who are excluded in terms of class, gender, and race or culture. Liberation Theology does pose difficult questions to the powerful and the comfortable, and we must hear them! 

Holy anger

I have just started reading Holy Anger by Lytta Basset, in the first few pages she raises the subject of the way we so often hide our anger towards God, often not even admitting that it exists. Basset suggests that rather than admit that God is the source of our anger and frustration that we either deny and internalise it or we find an alternative scape-goat to aim ouranger at. Sometimes she says that we make God himself our scape goat by projecting our anger onto him we make him something that he isn't - a malevolent deity, one who is against rather than for us.

So far I am challenged by this book, I can identify both the suppression and the desire to find scape-goats within myself. Basset suggests that God himself wants us to be brave enough to face him with our anger, to be real in our relationship requires us to own our feelings, and just as we can be angry with our children, our spouses/ significant others we can and sometimes are angry with God.

Why then are we afraid to stand up to God?

Why isn't anger and challenge acceptable?

Is it wrong? Is it blasphemous? Or do we need to become real in order to have a very real relationship with the one who loves us more than we can ask or imagine?

Jacob Wrestles with God by Dov Lederberg

Transfiguration questions….

Could I bear to see

you face to face,

clothed in mountain top glory?

Would I tremble in

your presence?

Would my words fall

unbidden from my tongue,

rushing to grasp

what my eyes behold in wonder?

Would I fall

to my knees?

 

You call me friend,

but I have never seen you,

never touched you….

never climbed the mountain with you…

Do I know you?

My heart says yes,

and even in the face of

my minds questions,

I know that I know,

and I am known….

 

Here is the glory

I seek.

I am known,

and that knowledge calls

me to my knees,

and sets my heart to singing.

 

 

 

Halleujah- Jeff Buckley

 

I found this while browsing you-tube; it is a procrastinating kind of day. Both the video and the following write up that came with it really touched me this afternoon;

"Disguised on the surface as the ever-familiar dichotomic foreplay of human relations, the deeper layers of this song foretell the inevitability of a much greater union of the parts into the Whole. Not merely the male with the female. Not merely the 'here' with the 'there'. But the One with the ALL."

I do hope you enjoy this one. The words are listed for you below, including a verse that is actually a part of the Leonard's poem, (it's shown as the 3rd verse, listed on pg. 347 in Leonard's book 'Stranger Music') but for some reason, didn't make it into the song. I don't know why. To me, it is one of the more important verses, and carries a very important piece for the baffled King. So, I have listed this additional verse at the bottom of the expected verses.


I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the lord
but you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall and the major lift
the baffled king composing hallelujah

Hallelujah...

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
And she tied you to her kitchen chair,
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah

Hallelujah...

Well, baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor, you know,
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah...

Well there was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below
but now you never show that to me, do you?
But remember when I moved in you
and the Holy Dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah...

Well, maybe there's a god above
but all I've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah...

Below is the "extra verse" (actually, the 3rd verse in poem):

You say I took the Name in vain;
I don't even know the name.
But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of Light in every word,
it doesn't matter which you heard,
the holy, or the broken Hallelujah!

 

I've been musing on why this song has touched my soul so deeply, I think it is the already identified multi-layered parabolic qualities it contains. My relationship with God is often reflected in my relationship with others and vice-versa, sometimes when life is tough the hallelujahs can be broken, but they are possibly more authentic when they are broken because they represent a real and tough choice to give voice to praise.

Broken hallelujahs can blaze with light just as well as loud and joyful hallelujahs, and when light breaks through transformation is possible.