I’m using the readings in the Daily Lectionary for Holy Communion.

Today is
Ezekiel 37:21-28 – extract below

‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land ….
I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 

Jeremiah 31:10-13 – extract below

‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
    and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’

 Gospel of John 11:45-end – extract below

The high priests and pharisees said “Here is this Jesus performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Caiaphas (The Chief Priest) replied – “Don’t you know anything? Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?” He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation, and not for the nation alone, but so that he might gather into one the scattered children of God.

The common themes that run through these scriptures passages are – Land + Nation, and Temple. 

 The desire to have and own land is very strong. In the Old Testament (around 600 B.C.), the people are taken into exile and scattered – and the hope of once again returning to their land is a regular theme of the later books of the Old Testament.

We see the power of the land and nation in the return to Israel of Jews after WW2, with the particular history of persecution and the Holocaust in the Jewish memory.

But in the Gospel passage there is the promise that the mission of Jesus goes beyond the boundaries of Nation and Temple, ‘not for the nation alone, but to gather into one the scattered children of God.’

 My question is – what are the equivalent things that motivate us today.  I would suggest it’s often the same.  Nationalism and Religion.  These are two of the biggest things that divide people today.

And, how might Jesus break those boundaries today ?

In the current situation of Covid-19, we need people of all faiths to work together – not just for their own communities but for all.  And we need leaders of all the nations to put aside their differences and competitiveness to seek a solution in the form of vaccine and a common approach that will eliminate this disease.

At the same time, we need to be asking questions about what after ?  What can we learn about working together as one.

There’s a verse in the hymn “All my hope on God is founded” that sums this up:

Human pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray his trust;
what with care and toil he buildeth,
tower and temple, fall to dust.
But God’s power,
hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

 Plagues.

I’m reading about the experience of the Hebrew people living in Egypt around The time of the pharaohs. It’s a central story in the old Testament of deliverance from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. Moses is told by the Lord to go to Pharaoh and announce that unless  Pharaoh lets the Hebrews go, God will visit on the Egyptians a plague. Time and time again, pharaoh relents when each successive plague comes along, and says that the people may go into the wilderness to worship their God. But time and time again he changes his mind once the plague stops.

It’s always risky to draw parallels between an ancient text like this and our current situation, but I do see some thing very contemporary here in the struggle between the people of Israel who are poor, enslaved in Egypt and the wealthy and powerful Egyptians who have everything.

 It seems to me that we, who are  the wealthy, secure and powerful in today’s world are being challenged as the planet cries out in pain over the way we have mistreated and abused our world and the poor of this world. Will we like pharaoh go back to our old ways once the plague goes away, Or can we learn a lesson and change in order to care for this fragile world and the poorest of the world.

I like this.  It comes from Paul Langham’s translation of the New Testament.

From the book of Titus.

God has commissioned me (Paul) to tell everyone the wonderful truth that because of Jesus Christ, there is hope for life after death and power to live God’s way here and now.  God made this promise before time began, and he always keeps his word.

N.T. Wright says a similar thing when he sums up the good news of the Christian hope with something along these lines … In the resurrection of Jesus, God has declared that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the Lord of the universe.

Frederick Buechner in ‘Now and Then’ talks about the terrible responsibility that comes with being a preacher.  To have the audacity to get up, week after week, in front of a group of people hungry for God and presume to feed them !!

He also says that in the end the preacher must be clear about their task …. which is not about people believing in the preacher or even the words that they say – the result of preaching must be that people are drawn to a deeper faith in God

Amen to that !

About a year ago, I had to do a review as part of my work.  As is usual these days, I had to set some targets for the year ahead.

At the time, I knew that we would be moving south to Hoddesdon, which is on the River Lea – which goes all the way to London.  I decided that one of my targets would be to walk the footpath to London.  Not an amazing feat, but a longer walk than I’ve done for a long time.

So – today was the day.  We had planned to do the 21 miles in two days, and today we did 15 miles to Tottenham Hale Station.

15 was enough for today.  Tomorrow we catch the train to Tottenham Hale and then walk the rest of the way, past the Olympic Park and to Limehouse Basin where the River Lea meets the Thames.

On the way we saw barges, rowing boats, cyclists, walkers, (many of them with dogs), anglers (all men apart from two women), as well as thousands of swans and geese and ducks.

I noticed that there were numerous men on their own – walking, barge-ing, (?) and cycling.  So I decided to put barge-ing in with ‘men with sheds’ and also river fishermen.  Men who just like being on their own.

I wonder if this is (probably this is well known to everyone apart from me) because men are hard wired from an evolutionary point of view to be solitary – hunting, gathering food, looking after sheep and goats etc ….  while women were back at home with the children – much more social as a way of life.

Apparently women are more likely to use social media than men, so maybe there’s something in it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about mission.  Since Easter, we have had a reading from the book of Acts every Sunday.  These readings have brought home to me two things –  the missionary activity of the church; the guiding hand of God.

Emil Brunner said ‘The church exists by mission as a fire does by burning’ – no mission, no church.

I imagine a church that has seen no growth from new Christians for a long time … eventually all its members will die … and the church will have to close.

But that church actually died long before it closed.  It died when it ceased to be a missionary church.

Recently someone was recounting to me an experience that they had one Christmas – the church had some great services, with many visitors.  At the end of the Christmas services, they were feeling really great that so many visitors had come.  However, the response from one person was this “You Have ruined my Christmas this year, because we had so many strangers in church”

A came across a great illustration for the centrality of mission to the church.

Think about a game of football – why do people play … well, most people play because they enjoy it. (Some play for money) But the heart of football is the competitive element – winning games.

And you don’t win games without scoring goals.  It’s as simple as that.  No goals, no results.  And in the end if there were never any goals scored, it would be a pretty boring and pointless game.

The youtube clip here gives me a sense of the joy of being a Christian, and being part of a church in mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSR001CaB7w

I’m reading a book by Alan and Eleanor Kreider, “Worship and mission after Christendom.”  Also listening to Stuart Murray Williams talking about mission in a post Christendom era.

It was probably back in the 90s that we started thinking more carefully about moving from maintenance to mission, but I wonder whether we have really got to grips with this.

Stuart Williams uses a phrase that I find very powerful, probably not his own phrase but I don’t know where it comes from. It comes out of his understanding that God is primarily a missional God.

He challenges us to move from ‘the Church of God has an mission’ to ‘The God of mission has a church’

He also talks about worship being the goal of mission.  This reminds me of Moses talking To Pharoah. ‘God says, let my people go that they may worship me in the wilderness.’

Just looking at this passage from Acts Chapter 8 in the New Testament of the Bible.

This book (Acts) is a narrative of the experience of the first Christians.  It’s personal.  We don’t get the Ethiopian’s name, but even so, this account  is located in time and space – it’s not vague, it’s specific.

Our service for God is acted out in these (mostly small, occasionally amazing) acts of obedience that take us to be with particular people.

My tendency is to want to do the planning myself – to plan a course, or a programme, or a sermon series.  And maybe there’s nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes.  But it seems that God is more random than that.  God isn’t bound by our lectionaries and time tables, although he graciously works through them.

My prayer today is that I am open to what God is doing, and saying.

Season 6 of Mad Men started in the USA last Sunday – 7th April 2013.

It’s a great series, probably the best thing around at the moment, but this isn’t an advert for Mad Men.

What I’ve noticed is that the ad men spend a lot of time just sitting around, or throwing ideas around – There’s a lot of waiting going on.  Eventually there comes the punch line, or the idea for an ad campaign.  It’s work, but it’s a different kind of work that is maybe more inspiration than perspiration.

I’m currently trying to write a sermon for this coming Sunday.  It’s just not there at the moment. Maybe it’s because I had some time off after Easter – and I’m just not back into the flow yet … I’m waiting for some inspiration.

I feel like the ad men in Mad Men – except that I don’t drink whiskey all the time I’m thinking.

I’m still working / waiting …

Reading Psalm 49 today.

Amazing words about wisdom and mortality:

“We can never ransom ourselves, or deliver to God the price of our life”

then verse 15 – “But God will ransom my life; he will snatch me from the grasp of death”

Eugene Peterson on these verses: We recognise the limitations of human life – not to despair, but in order to our our hope in God.