Takeley Chapel

This is life

Posted on Apr 24, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Acts 5:32 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.5.32.NRSV

It makes a difference. Coming to believe in Jesus brings about a transformation; it’s not head knowledge but a new heart. The promise is that hearts of stone become hearts of flesh. And from this encounter a life is built, a life of hope.

The divine is named in this reading as the person of God, Holy Spirit. Other readings imply an agency of God; an action producing a certain outcome, power to obey.

The consequence is that what is received by the believer is the reassurance of Jesus resurrection, their lives built on receiving the witness of the spirit to the truth.

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
John 20:29 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/jhn.20.29.NRSV

This was addressed by Jesus to Thomas who refused to believe in the resurrection because he had not seen his body for himself.

Jesus adds a post resurrection blessing for his followers, the power to believe, a foundation for faith.

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Followers of the Way.

Posted on Apr 17, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Acts 10:34‭-‬35 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.34-35.NRSV

An Easter cake graced our time this morning

So why not come and meet with us. You are so welcome.

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Telling the story.

Posted on Apr 10, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
Luke 19:28 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/luk.19.28.NRSV

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_upon_the_Donkey_for_the_Palm_Procession,_Cologne,_c._1520,_limewood_and_softwood,_polychrome_-_Museum_Schn%C3%BCtgen_-_Cologne,_Germany_-_DSC00072.jpg

And the story continues with the mysterious and improbable fetching of a donkey, the extoling of Jesus by the disciples, the laying down of cloaks and the waving of palms, and ends with the possibility of the rocks crying out praise.

The significance of each part of the story can be explained and obviously draws on the cultural knowledge of the community it was written for. What are we to do with this account today?

Maybe it speaks to you of the lifting up and honouring of Jesus, maybe the fickleness of the crowd of disciples who were later to desert Jesus or maybe the oneness of creation where the very rocks cry out and groan.

The story demands a response and we need to just sit and listen to the reactions.

It is good to know the significance of each part of the story but then we need to be prepared for a conclusion we might not expect. The intracacy of the story, when it is explained, how it weaves prophecy into the facts, could make you think, it probably didn’t happen. Could the story be conveying a truth about Jesus not a truth of history? It’s too clever. Has the literal event been embelished to convey a deeper truth?

The fact is, we are not the community this story was written down for. We Christians in the West, inherit the tradition that speaks a meaning to us from our past that is different to the original hearers’. We are not though in a culture where this is true anymore.

Today we need to realise that this tradition has lost its grip and need to listen to how God is speaking to people today, and where this story finds traction today. I suspect the drama still speaks and we need to let the drama speak, not explained it away. There is a time and place for this, but today I suspect it is likely to turn Jo Normal off. Let the drama speak.

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Perfection.

Posted on Apr 3, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. https://bible.com/bible/2016/php.3.8-11.NRSV
Philippians 3:8‭-‬11 NRSV

Paul’s drive is towards perfection based in a trust in the faithfulness of Jesus, not his own efforts. NT Wright renders verse 9 as, …a status that comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness. Which rings true to me as else Paul is setting up a new law based on our own faithfulness, our own efforts. And then he renders the end of verse 11, …so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection of the dead. The Jerusalem Bible renders it, …That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead.

We need to take on board all these readings. I don’t know the Greek but I do know that translators try to iron out problems with the text and present a uniform voice where one does not exist. I really see Paul wrestling here with the extremes of his experience of life, and I hear someone who has been tested to the limit grasping at the reality of being in Christ as his only hope. Somehow…

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Who are you?

Posted on Mar 27, 2022 by M Emlyn Humphries

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
2 Corinthians 5:18‭-‬19 NRSV
https://bible.com/bible/2016/2co.5.18-19.NRSV

This is where my mind landed today in the readings. How inclusive are we prepared to be… where does reconciliation end?

We love Jesus and the simple message is; the righteousness we carry is: you are forgiven, and we get the privilege of speaking this out and living it out.

Our closest relationships, our deepest loves, can be the most difficult to be reconciled to. Yet God shows us the way. The people we are closest to sometimes bear the brunt of our unforgiveness and are our nearest and dearest enemies. Be reconciled, is not out there, but here and now.

Forain, Jean Louis, 1852-1931. Prodigal Son, from **Art in the Christian Tradition**, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58924 [retrieved March 27, 2022]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edithosb

The other readings were Psalm 32 and Luke 15, the story of the father and two sons. To imagine which of the two sons we identify with can be a spiritual exercise, but I am finding myself wondering which of the characters could be Jesus. If you imagine Jesus to be the father, the younger son or the older son the story starts to pulse. Now I need to add, just incase, I am seeing the failings of each, but imagining what it would be like if you saw Jesus as each… were the Pharisees seeing Jesus as the younger son… We see Jesus bound up in the heart of the father but do we relate to Jesus as if he were the older son? Blowing my own mind here.