Where Jesus Attends A Wedding

17th Jan 2022 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

So, we have this group called BUNS – where we look at a Bible passage, play Uno and eat NibbleS ….

last time, we were looking at John chapter 2, where Jesus goes to a wedding and turns water into wine.
Whatever you think about the miracle as recorded, it’s important to think about the context, and ask if there might be something going on under the surface.

I think I read somewhere that ‘context is everything.’

Whether it’s everything or not, it’s definitely important, as is our own context.
I’m listening to a podcast at the moment called the Bartcast, specifically some talk by Ched Myers on the Gospel of Mark. He’s opening up some interesting lines of thought about what might be going on in the Gospel that is related to the social and policital setting at the time of Jesus. It’s got me thinking more about the possible sub texts in gospel passages, and I had some thoughts about the ‘water into wine’ incident.

In the account, they have run out of wine at the wedding – the bar has run dry. There’s a major panic, and Jesus’ mother tries to get him to do something. (What did she think he was going to do ….?).
He’s not keen intially, but his mother seems to have an inkling that he might do something, so she tells the servants to be prepared for action.

Jesus seems to change his mind and sees these water jars, six of them, each one holding over 100 litres of water. (The water is used for ceremonial washing). Jesus tells the servants to fill them right up to the brim and then draw some off to take to the master of ceremonies. Of course, it’s become wine, and the wedding party is saved.

Now I’ve heard quite a few sermons on this passage and preached on it a few times myself. But I’ve never had this thought before. Obviously everyone is very happy to drink the wine … but actually are they happy to drink it, or would some of them be a bit unsure if they knew where it had come from – holy water jars ?

Because these water jars aren’t just any old water jars. They’re used for a religious ceremony. And now they’re being used to help a party get into the swing again after and embarassing lull in the proceedings.

What if there’s something going on here that is a bit naughty. A bit of a dig at the people who control the religious side of life. And an encouragement to the general crowd to drink the holy water (that is now beaujolais, or equivalent). I think what Jesus has done is pretty subversive. He’s taken what is set aside for a religious purpose and made it common property. He’s punctured the sacred balloon. He’s driven a coach and horses through … sorry, I’m getting a bit carried away with metaphors here, but I hope you get the idea.

Religious people sometimes set up what we might call a sacred / secular divide, where a part of life is for religion (like Church on a Sunday) and the rest of the time, life is for living. But isn’t everything sacred, isn’t everything holy ?

In the subtext of Marks’ Gospel, there are things going on that are more about the political setting, probably to do with the plight of the poorest people, and who has the power, and how that dynamic needs to change. Maybe this incident in John’s Gospel is more about who has the power in the religious world, and Jesus taking an axe to that particular tree. I don’t know, I’m just asking.

Grace and peace anyway …

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What could we hold onto ?

27th May 2020 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

This question is posed to us – a church community in the middle of the coronovirus lockdown.

What might we hold onto from the experience of the last 9 weeks or so ?

I think that is such a big question. For me the bigger question that it leads to is

How can we learn from both the inherited church, and the emerging ‘new ways of being church’ to enable us to be a church fit for a post Christendom world ?

But for now, I’ll focus on what have I learned from lockdown, especially with regard to worship.

So – for the last two weeks, our ‘zoom church’ has been like this:

Short ‘hellos’ and a prayer

* Brief reading of and introduction to one of the Bible passages for the day. (Usually, but not always the Gospel).

This has been done in a way that is accessible to all ages from pre-schoolers up. E.G Godly Play.

* Some open questions to think about what might emerge from the introduction.

* Break out groups of 4/5 people. This for me has been great, because I have ‘met’ people who I have known a little bit before, but got to know them much better through these small zoom groups.

* Come back together for some prayers.

* Close and further chat over coffee etc.

I would like to hold on to this much simpler approach to worship. I like the way it has given us something to reflect on, rather than a sermon with a possibly complicated train of thought.

It’s very ‘word light’ in the sense that we don’t have a lot of the quite wordy prayers and responses typical of Anglican worship. This is good for inclusivity. Some prayers that we all can learn off by heart would be good to give structure and stability. (But not too many, or prayers that are too long)

I like the way that it invites everyone to contribute. This makes it more empowering and engaging.

Maybe there are some principles to draw that can be adapted back in a church setting. In fact this is something we were beginning to experiment with before lockdown, with the time to break up in the middle of the service to respond to the opening introduction in a variety of ways.

The drawback is that it’s harder to be a bystander, which can be quite threatening/challenging, so there should always be the option of using this time for personal reflection.

Church

Work Of Love And Grace

26th May 202025th Dec 2020 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Today’s question – What could be different about church ?

I came across a verse today in psalm 68 – I’m reading the New Revised Standard Version

verse 9:

Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad;
you restored your heritage when it languished;

I’m taking God’s heritage here as the Church of God. And in this country and in so many secular, Post Christendon societies, the Church of God has lost its edge.

So the hope held out here is that God will restore the Church.

Rain in abundance: this reminds us that this restoration will be a work of God. We do not send the rain, this is not something that we can control.

You showered abroad: I realise that translations vary enormously, but the word that came to me today through this phrase was another hope – that God’s renewal would be widespread.

In the latter half of the 20th century, there was a widespread renewal in worship, with greater openness to the work of the Holy Spirit.

What I am praying for is a greater openness now to the Holy Spirit breaking down the walls of the church to spread God’s goodness and grace.

There’s a story in the Gospel about the woman who brought a jar of precious perfume to Jesus – she broke it open and poured it over Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

What I pray for is for the world to filled with the gracious works of the Holy Spirit through God’s church. Of course those works of love and grace are not absent now, but we long for more.

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The Scribes Mark 2:6-12

13th May 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Mark 2:6-12

‘The Scribes and the Pharisees’ will appear more and more as Mark’s Gospel continues. But this is their first appearance, and it’s the first sign of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. We had a hint in an earlier incident, when the people in the synangogue comment that Jesus is not like the scribes (the scribes were the acknowledged experts in the religious law).

In this exchange, the scribes object to Jesus telling a paralysed man that his sins are forgiven. (Only God can forgive sin) Jesus responds by healing the man, as if to say – ‘You want to know if I have authority to forgive sin, well yes I do!’

The scribes thought that they knew what religion was all about. Thier job was to know the scriptures and to interpret them. But for them it had become a set of rules to follow rather than a relationship to grow in. When religion has become just a set of rules or rituals, rather than a relationship, then we have lost it.

It happens in all areas of life, not just religion. And some people stick to rules not just for themselves, but so that they can control others. But it is especially dangerous when people use God, or rules about religion, to exercise control over others.