Sharing a meal together can be eye opening. In it we get to see one another and witness if there is the caring and sharing that marks the presence of God. It is a moment for transfiguration, even revealing who we are.
Maybe we don’t feel worthy, noticed or considered. Maybe food is a problem or eating together too intimate. Maybe we sense ourselves to be on the margin.
In Christ all are welcome and together form his body, all can break bread and hear the blessing. In all our vulnerability or pushing and shoving, let the voice of God speak and recognise his presence and sense his gentle welcome.
It is people who build walls, people who should know better, and fail to see what they have. Jesus will cut through people’s perversion of his person.
Luke 9…Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen… Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? …” Luke 9:35-36, 41 NRSV
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:27-36 NRSV
There is blessing and there is cursing; a sense of wellbeing and a search for something to fill the emptiness. We all want harmony- a flourishing.
We live in a broken world where the collateral of time and chance wreak havoc. In the heat of the day, we are called to be like trees in the desert planted next to a river whose leaves, despite the heat, are green.
That flowing river is the ever-flowing message of the risen Christ- the hope of all peoples. His gift is peace and in him is joy.
People may laugh and scoff, but God is ever loving, and his heart is to forgive. This is the good news revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
In Christ we know heaven brought to the earth. Yes, we fail. Yes, we have troubles. The still small voice speaks in the midst of the storm, and all are gifted with the light within. God is faithful in all circumstances to bring flourishing; in all troubles, anxieties and disappointments, God is present and can only act in love.
It might look like hunger and poverty. It might look like oppression and rejection but for those who abide there is abundance. In our being present in the presence of God, Christ lives within us, and we are healed and bring healing. God does miracles as we stand before the mystery of the one true God.
Let us be active in doing good.
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8 NRSV
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. Luke 6:20-23 NRSV
When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:6-8 NRSV
They heard Jesus but it was that catch of fish that convinced Peter.
In Corinthians we hear…
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NRSV
The phrase, in accordance with the scriptures , stands out; which scriptures? Jesus speaks of himself as the fulfilling of the scriptures (Luke 4). I see in Christ the embodiment of Israel; the enfleshing of the temple. The resurrected one is the one on the cross, the one who brings all people into the promises of the Law and the Prophets. In Jesus, God’s kingdom comes and in Jesus sin is forgiven: the promise of the scriptures.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump. Isaiah 6:8-13 NRSV
This scripture, quoted by Jesus, points to the coming of the new resurrection age Paul speaks of. Isaiah does not plead with God in the way Abraham and Moses pleaded for mercy for the people. He accepts the commission to do nothing, to not save the kingdom. Jesus does the same.
Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. Matthew 13:10, 13, 16-17 NRSV
So how are people to be saved? Paul has taught that in those gathered to Christ we find his body. The work of the Spirit in the church is the witness that is good news to the poor, releases the bound, opens the eyes of the blind and frees the oppressed.
Where this is evident, Jesus is present; Jesus is working; Jesus is embodied, and true worship happens.
Over the past weeks we have been considering kindness as a practice. Love is actioned in kindness and kindness teaches us to love. Jesus walks with us in every circumstance and his abiding with us means that we carry his presence into every situation good or bad; we carry hope. We have to trust love and that in our weakness we are fully known yet Jesus chooses to work in and through us. It’s alright to not understand. It is alright to fail. If we practise kindness, God’s promise is, he knows us and he will reveal to us the way of truth, never abandoning us or deserting us.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 NRSV
Takeley Chapel 