Saint Swithun's Blog

The television was not great in ancient Palestine – in fact there wasn’t any.  Once supper was over and the chores of the day done – there was not much to do apart from sit and talk. So a knock on the door by and interesting traveller was one of the most welcome sounds in the world!

The hospitality of the Jewish household meant that every so often, and frequently, there would be that knock on the door and a stranger would for a short while engage the household in conversation, bring stories from far away places, bring spiritual insights and challenges.

The readings today made me think of our parish system and how different we are from ancient Palestine and how easy it would be for us to dismiss this story as irrelevant to the way we live now.

In the tiny area that is contained in the parish boundaries of St Swithun’s church, there are 9,000 people.  In Ancient Palestine, the population was between 200 and 300 thousand -0 depending on who you ask.  The population of London in March 2010 was 7,556,900.

This is the context in which we work.  There is no need to pack up our sandals, fill our rucksacks and set off to the next village to find people to tell about the kingdom of God.

A wander over the road and 50 yards along will pick up several hundred!  As Jesus says to the disciples:

Ch 10.2 ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.

And

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.

What’s new?  And the sense of urgency is becoming greater.

Ch 9 51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Jesus is running out of time – his face is set towards Jerusalem.

Earlier in Luke’s gospel Jesus does a similar thing with a smaller number:

9.1Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, ²and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. ³He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. ⁴Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. ⁵Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ ⁶They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

The instructions for the disciples are clear:

Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”¹⁰But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”

There is no time for dallying: the 12 become 70.  Each household speaks to its neighbour.  The 70 plus become 3000 on the day of Pentecost and those people go back to their countries and tell their neighbours the good news.

So let us not dismiss the gospel this morning as something that is not relevant to us – that is only relevant to those special people who are able to go out on missions to foreign countries – those with some special calling.

Exponential growth can happen in the church when one person shares with another person what it means to be a Christian.

And there is no witness so powerful as a person sharing their personal experience of God in their own lives.  The most powerful witnesses are those who have experienced the healing, forgiveness and salvation of God in their own lives.  Otherwise it is just a story!

And Jesus says – if they do not listen – move on – there are plenty who will.

And that is why the disciples go out in pairs to support each other.  They protect each other on the road but also they build each other up when they get demoralised and depressed that no-one is listening!

And that is what the church family does for us. We come together on a Sunday so that we can be God’s people during the week.  We come together to allow God to comfort us and feed us, to energise and encourage us.  And this happens through each other.

When the church loses a sense of her responsibility to the parish – she begins to turn inwards on herself.

There are 9000 people in our parish – probably 8,500 of them do not know the saving power of Jesus Christ.  When and how are we going to begin to minister to them?

So let’s set ourselves an achievable challenge for this week.  Let’s tell one person – just one – how God has worked in our lives to heal us and forgive us.

If we do, we will begin to feel the excitement that the disciples felt when they realised the power that they had to make a difference to people’s lives.

Wouldn’t that be worth the effort?

Isaiah 66.10-14; Galatians 6.1-16; Luke 10.1-11.16-20

In the Church of England our liturgical year is divided into distinct periods which are accompanied by particular colours of vestments and altar frontals.  Purple for Lent and Advent, White for Christmas and Easter, Red for Pentecost and Green for Ordinary Time.

Green is also the colour of nature and growth – so Ordinary Time can be seen as a time of reflection and growth in the church and in our lives.  Especially after Easter we are looking at what it means to be church and we follow the adventures and misadventures of the early church in parallel with Jesus’ teaching.

It seems to me that the weeks after Trinity have been encouraging us to stop thinking about “us and them” and apply Jesus’ teaching to ourselves; to recognise ourselves in the mistakes and glory of the early church; and to realign ourselves with the message of the gospel in our lives.

And in particular we have explored in the last two sermons the idea that if we exaggerate the sins enough we can make them irrelevant to our lives.  O, this teaching of Jesus is about really bad or unfortunate people – prostitutes, mad men – not about me – phew!

In the readings this morning there are yet more opportunities to apply the teaching to anyone but me.

On the face of it the gospel is about a journey – but when we look more closely it is and it isn’t – it is certainly not about arrival – there are 10 more chapters to go in Luke’s gospel before we get to his entry into Jerusalem.  In today’s gospel Jesus, “sets his face to Jerusalem.”  He focuses on the journey – he is heading in that direction – but there is much more water to flow under the bridge before he arrives.

You might remember a book published in the 1970’s called, ‘Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance’   The book describes, in first person, a 17-day motorcycle journey across the United States by the author and his son Chris, and is a series of conversations and reflections.  One significant realisation by the author is the difference between the way adults go on a journey – they want to arrive; and the way children want to experience the trip.  It is about the journey not the arrival.

The first bit of teaching is that the journey has to begin: A journey of a thousand miles starts from the first step – Laotzi – Chinese philosopher.  We have to leave to arrive.  The journey may not be physical, it may be spiritual – a time of growth – emotionally, spiritually and in wisdom.

Given that we leave something or somewhere, the readings give us a number of examples of excuses not to leave – my work, my security, my responsibilities, my status and so on – all excuses not to take that first step.

So let’s go to Galatians to for the teaching for the journey.  And we find another example of a reading where we can avoid making it personally relevant.  The works of the flesh are fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatory, sorcery – by the time we get to this point in the list we are applying this to someone else – phew, there you go – what a lot of bad people in the world needing to be saved – makes me look good!

But carry on and we find – enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, – perhaps even drunkenness and carousing.

The thing about the works of the flesh is that, by and large, they are self centred and damaging to other people – we might be better to call them the works of the ego.  At least that removes the sexual connotation that the church misguidedly attributes to the word “flesh”.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The fruits of the Spirit are the way we walk through the world.  It is the way we do stuff not what we do.

And the thing about fruit is that it is obvious.  If a tree is bearing fruit it can be seen by all.  If the tree is wizened and mean this will be obvious too.

Now the point is that none of us is perfect – we are all growing.  The growing time of ordinary time is time to think about these things.

Jesus said that the people who do the works of the flesh – the ego – will not inherit the kingdom of God – that is not a judgement it is an observation.  People who are focussed on self indulgence and self pity cannot perceive the kingdom – they miss it.  Elijah heard the still small voice of God when he got off his prophetic backside and stopped feeling sorry for himself – I am the only one left who works for you Lord – all the rest have deserted you.  I don’t think so, Elijah, I am in charge.

Robert Pirsig in the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance says: “The place to improve the world is first in one’s heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”

It seems to me that the kingdom of God is about giving up the arrival and concentrating on the journey.  In the words of an old song – It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.  Or in the words of another famous passage of Scripture:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,^* but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13,1-3

Now here is an earth shattering truth – God wants us to be happy – he wants us to be fulfilled and complete and joyful.   God does not want us to be doing things that exhaust or annoy us.  God is in control.    That takes a huge burden from our shoulders.

We should measure how we walk in the world against the fruits of the Spirit.  How loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled? There is no law against these things – these are the fruits of freedom in the Spirit.

If we evaluate all that we do against these simple measures it might cause us to give up things that exhaust or annoy and encourage someone to whom the task might be a joy and delight.  We need to see our brothers and sisters in the light of the kingdom of God and let God be the judge

You see, we do not have to worry about the end of the journey.  All we have to do is concentrate on how we walk through the world.  We change the world one step at a time.

So today let us reflect in this green growing time – do I walk as a child of God, free in the Spirit and sharing the abundant fruit of the kingdom?  If not, Father, please show me clearly what is holding me back and  help me to take the first step away from that and into your kingdom.

So the sound of booing filled the stadium in Cape Town as the fans protested about the lack of excitement in the football.  There will be a lot for the fans to be angry about during this World Cup.  They have spent a lot of money going to South Africa. They will have met high prices for foods and drink.  The weather in Cape Town is cold and wet in the winter.  After quantities of alcohol there will be uncontrolled anger and punch ups.  That is the nature of frustration fuelled by drinking.

Pavlos Joseph, lost on his way to the toilet, bumps into David Beckham – “I looked David straight in the eye and said, ‘David, we’ve spent a lot of money getting here. This is a disgrace. What are you going to do about it?’”  Pavlos will be dining out on that for years!

A more serious cause for anger were the events of Bloody Sunday – the results of the investigation  – 28 years after the event.  People were angry that injustice had been done.  And it now turns out that people did lie in court to present a different view of events.

One of the main triggers of mental illness in our society is a sense of injustice – a frustration with institutions and organisations that are supposedly there to help us but end up failing to improve our lives.

We don’t know what happened to the man living in the tombs.  But I fear that we could misunderstand for similar reasons to our misunderstanding of the woman in the gospel last week.  In other words – if we imagine the man to be wild and mad and out of control we can remove him so far away from our own experience that the gospel becomes good news for other people but not for me.

The man was a man from the city.  We do not know what happened to cause him to leave his house and live in the tombs.  What I do know is that there are many chefs, bankers, accountants and soldiers living on the streets of our city.  These people are driven to despair by one thing or another – or many things.

The uncontrollable rage of a homeless person on drink or drugs is something we have all experienced.  But we need to know that it is only a matter of degree.

Now that is not to deny the existence of demons and try to explain it away in clever language.  I am sure there are evil spirits in this world.  But focusing on the demons is another way to remove this message from our experience – to make it irrelevant.

So let us assume that this man from the city is a man who has lost contol for some reason – nervous breakdown or demons – who cares – the fact is that he is lost and in despair?

28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— 29for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

Who is speaking?  The man is speaking but why say “do not torment me”.  Perhaps the man is afraid that without the protection of his demons he would not be able to survive whatever it is he is running from.

This man’s demons are destructive.  When they enter the pigs they destroy them.  I am not too bothered about the deeper meaning of the pigs – it may just be that they are expedient and convenient because they are useless to the Jews who do not eat them.  What is important is that when they enter the herd, the pigs have an uncontrollable urge to destroy themselves.  A self destruct button.

And the thing is that we all have a self destruct button.  We adopt behaviours that are destructive.  We take positions that are destructive.  Our rage may take the form of destructive gossip or criticism but it is only a question of degree.

Now – the response to the healing is interesting.  We go to Isaiah briefly and see what God is saying through his prophets.

Isaiah 65 1 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,    to be found by those who did not seek me.

The people of the town try to contain the violence to subdue the man – but this does not work – the destructive urge is too great. The chains and shackles and guards that the people used to protect the man from his destructive behaviour were no good the desire was too strong – the demons too insistent.

Jesus says:  “What is your name?”  He answers  – “Legion” – because there are many demons controlling him.  In a moment of lucidity, he realises he is possessed.  The demons have entered him – and he wants to be free.

The others in the places around the Gerasenes are not ready.

Luke 8 37Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.

But 38The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Now let’s go back to our woman in the story last week – Jesus said to her – your faith has healed you – she is sent out with her great gift of love to spread the message.

This man who has been healed of many demons has a great gift of knowledge of the power of God.  He sees Jesus for what he is and knows he has the power to set him free.

So where do we sit now with this story?

Call it what you will – we can all be trapped by destructive behaviour.  We can run away from our lives and hide in dead places – shouting and railing at the injustice of it all.

But like the people of the Gerasene area – perhaps we are not ready – perhaps we are comfortable with our demons – perhaps we are afraid that we do not know who we are without them.  We are afraid of what it might mean to be healed.

The Lord sees the things that destroy us – and he waits.  The Gerasene people asked him to leave and he did.  Jesus will wait until we are ready.  But when we are ready there is a whole new freedom in the Spirit – a whole new life waiting for us to live it.

Are you ready to be healed?

Amen

Who would you not want to be this morning?  Who would the last person be?  Well Robert Green might be a good guess!  I watched the match last night between America and England and saw that goal – too little too late and the ball slipped past – and Green curled up on the ground in disbelief and dismay.

Now the people at the dinner party at Simon the Pharisee’s house were very glad that they weren’t the woman who behaved in such an embarrassing way.  They were very glad that they were all better than her – better lives, better manners – a sense of propriety and order.

39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’

The woman in the story is untidy – she disrupts the sophisticated flow of the dinner party conversation and the presentation of courses.  She is embarrassing – such an outpouring of affection and worship at the dinner table – whatever next.

What kind of woman is she?  We have no idea. We assume that she is a prostitute because sexual sin is so much more interesting.  We know she is a sinner – but under Jewish laws, anyone who has disobeyed the rules of the Pharisees is an outsider, a sinner.

She may simply be running a dodgy business.

But we like the idea of this woman performing an act of outrageous intimacy at the dinner table to Jesus the great celibate Messiah.  We also like to imagine her as very beautiful.  I know that the majority of people in this church will have an image of a young woman with long flowing hair, possibly scantily dressed and rather exotically sexy.  The scene becomes increasingly titillating as our imaginations play with it.

The woman could be very ugly and very old – now where do we go with that thought.  We know she is a sinner – that is all.

But of course the story is not about the woman – it is about Simon.  The story that Jesus tells is for Simon.

Jesus neutralizes the sexual connotations by changing the focus to money.  The truth begins to dawn on Simon when Jesus asks him who loves the creditor more – the debtor who is forgiven little or the debtor who is forgiven much.

Simon says, perhaps a little reluctantly  – of course the debtor who is forgiven the greater debt will love him more – that is obvious.

Ah, Jesus says, here is a woman who has sinned much – unlike you Simon, is the subtext.  Simon saves face in front of his guests.  The point is made.  The teaching will land where the ground is fertile and ready to receive it.

In the Old Testament story – Nathan the priest does a similar thing to David.  He tells the story of a little lamb.  The story is full of pathos and sentimentality.  David is outraged – that man must pay he says in a self righteous moment.

Nathan is not as subtle as Jesus.  “You are that man, David”, says Nathan. You have abused your power to take what is not yours.  The kingship has gone to your head – you believe you can have anything you want.

In both stories there is misguided sense of moral outrage.  Simon is outraged at the inappropriateness of a woman worshipping Jesus at the dinner table; David is outraged at the abuse of power of a man stealing a little lamb.

The people at the dinner table are saying – I am not a sinner like this woman; I would certainly not make such a spectacle of myself – I am ok;

David is saying – I would never steal a lamb from a man who has nothing else – I would never do anything so cruel and selfish – I am ok.  Other people have greater sins than I – thank God!

After Simon has given Jesus the right answer he draws Simon’s attention to the loving acts of the woman – the tears, the kissing and the ointment and compares them with the lack of loving acts of Simon.

47Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’ 48Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

This is really important.  Jesus is NOT saying that the woman’s sins are greater than Simon’s sins.  He is saying that she has greater awareness of her sins than Simon.  Jesus is gently pointing to Simon’s hypocrisy and through the story to ours.

The story speaks of love not gratitude.  This woman, confronted with the truth of her sins,  is overwhelmed with love for the man who has the power to forgive and cleanse her. All she can do is fall down and worship.

Jesus is saying to all of us – look at me and see the extent of your sinfulness –  you cannot be forgiven until you do – while you live in your self-righteousness there can be no forgiveness.  Look at me and see the truth – see yourself as God sees you.

And then, and this is the glory of the gospel – turn away from your sin and be forgiven, healed and renewed.

Only then you will know how much I love you and you will be free to love me!

2 Samuel 11.26-12.10.13-15; Galatians 2.15-21; Luke 7.36-8.3

It seems to me that there is an interesting theme running in the readings after Trinity – something to do with exagerating a sinner in order to avoid making a connection with our lives.  It starts with the Prostitute at the dinner table – but of course she isn’t at all!