A time to turn our lives around

‘unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’ ((Luke 4:5)

Luke 13:1-9 (Year C: The Third Sunday in Lent 24^th March, 2019)

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A NOTE ABOUT TODAY’S READINGS

For this coming Sunday the appointed readings in the Church of Ireland are as follows:

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

And the readings in the Roman Catholic church are as follows:

Exodus 3:1-15

Psalm 103 (102)

And 1 Corinthians and Luke as above.

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SERMON NOTES (1,064 words)

When Jesus was confronted with stories of what happened in the massacre of the Galileans where the Roman soldiers ran amuck or ‘those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them’ he had to be honest with those listening.  Those listening including not a few listening today in parts of the world and the church will have notions of a fierce, vengeful and detached God who enforces cruel justice and punishes those who sin.  For these folk, wars, epidemics and various sufferings were and are the price of sin.  We are reminded of the question posed to Jesus in John 9:2 ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’.  But, in the gospel of Luke we are not told that Jesus assigned responsibility for this suffering to the victims who had broken God’s law. We know enough from reading all of the gospels and not least that of Luke that God, in Jesus Christ, came not to condemn, not to punish, not to afflict but to save, to heal and to restore.  However, suffering is the reality for all human beings and some much more than others.

The point is that Jesus knew how to draw from his suffering the very power that would not deliver us from suffering here and now but lead us to a place of acceptance and conquest. ‘Bearing with it’ was not the message for those who were poor, excluded and despised as a result but rather ‘woe to you rich’ (Luke 6:24) who deprive others of goods, power and respect.

In other words we are responsible in our ways, whether we like it or not, for needless suffering as a result of things we have said and done and things we failed to say and do that we should have done. Put another way, we are individually responsible for some degree of injustice and damage in our personal relationships whether at home or at work or somewhere else.  But, the story does not end there. There is ‘structural sin’ embedded in the way that societies and polities are constructed and in the way that relationships of power and dominance operate in this world.  In a way, we can be part of, and responsible for, that too. Perhaps the saddest aspect of this type of ‘structural sin’ is that we may do it in the name of God or some other cause because we have never engaged with an alternative story or possibility. We can sit in armchairs observing the world and pontificating on how others should live not really knowing anything of their sufferings or never having faced the difficult question of how one would think or feel if this or that happened to oneself or one’s family. The saying ‘don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it’ could be rephrased ‘don’t knock it unless you have been through it yourself’. Indeed.

To say all of this is not to avoid one of the key messages in this text and which is built on a separate question of ‘why do good people suffer?’, namely: if we do not turn from lies, selfishness and cruelty towards others then we, too, will experience huge suffering and destruction. For ‘unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did’ Jesus tells us (verse 5). Life is short and eternity is long as one saying goes.  In this life, we have an amazing opportunity to live by truth, goodness and beauty. The passing of years and the experience of bereavement involving one’s parents or even the next generation – our generation – brings home the reality that life is precious and to be embraced in the here and now. The question of ‘life after death’ needs to be matched with the question of ‘life before death’.  On the latter question, we can, hopefully, agree with people who do not hope beyond death. Ours is not to force our values and views on others but rather live in such a way that these same values and beliefs we say we stand by are curious, attractive, meaningful and life-giving for others – including those who have given up believing and hoping a long time ago.

In hearing this gospel we are reminded that our lives are precious, that there is no room for complacency and that time is constantly getting shorter. This is not a reason for gloom or neurotic anxiety about this sin or that sin, about this broken relationship or that broken relationship or about this omission and that omission. There are remedies for failure. These include a stubborn trusting in God’s mercy and help no matter what. They also include recourse to those means of grace that God puts in our way: a walk in the mountains, sharing a cup of tea with someone, a book, a project. Add to this times of grace spent in reflection, prayerful reading of the great poetry and stories of the Bible and confession.  Confession?  The Irish took the blame for inventing individual auricular confession to an ordained ministry but the practice has biblical roots (John 20:23 and James 5:16).  Leave it like this:

• All may
• Some should
• None have to

In the story or parable of the fig tree we are told, figuratively, that following three years of trial the vines were given another year to bear fruit or face being ‘cut down’. In three year’s time from this Sunday a few of us may not be around to hear this particular Gospel reading on the 3^rd Sunday of Lent (Year C) on 20^th March 2022.  Most of us will be around but of one thing we can be sure – if we live we will be three years closer to death.  The time for repentance or metanoia in Greek – is now. A metanoia of heart, mind, attitude and behaviour is meaningful only in the now.  That is the key message in this week’s reading from Luke. It is the now of the Gospel.

Many are the regrets of some as they enter the final third of their living years. But, one regret we will not have is that we had loved too much and that we had lovingly gave away too much whether by virtue of time, money and our very own lives. The question of human suffering is seen for what it is – a call to compassion.

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SOME IDEAS FOR INTERCESSIONS

Confident of God’s great mercy and infinite loving patience we pray for:

• Justice for those who cry out in poverty and oppression…..may we respond through help and action to address the causes of poverty and oppression.
• The people of Mozambique suffering the impact of a recent cyclone…may they find relief and support from the international governments
• All of the countries and governments of the 28 member states of the European Union at this time …
• The communities in which we live and work…may we live according to gospel values….
• The Christian churches … that we may proclaim gospel values by the way we live and the example we give to a world seeking truth, goodness and beauty…
• One another….
• Other named persons ….
• Remembering with thanks those who have gone before us….
• … praying in silence….

Loving God gather up our prayers – those spoken and those unspoken in the depths of our hearts. In the places we live, work and communicate, may we be channels of peace, healing and reconciliation in a divided and sick society.

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A PRAYERFUL WALK THROUGH LUKE 13:1-9

Preliminaries

We are somewhere around the year 80 A.D. or a little later. Luke is writing for Christians mainly in Greece. Most of them are not Jews but converts to this new movement centred on the figure of Jesus of Nazareth and fast becoming a clearly different and separate movement to Judaism. Break-ups are never easy. And when we consider the traumatic events following the final destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the bloody siege at Masada rock to the south as well as the dispersal of the Jewish people from the holy land we are in exceptionally troubled times.

v.1-5   Tragic news

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

This passage opens up with a possible reference to a massacre that took place where pagan sacrifices were made and where Pilate directly provokes and punishes Galilean rebels by mixing their blood with that of the pagan sacrifice. Jesus takes two examples from contemporary society to illustrate that human tragedies do not signal an angry God punishing particular groups of people. Rather, he uses the example to make a different point: unless we turn back to God we end up harming ourselves and others. This warning remains as true today as it did two thousand years ago.

v.6-9   A personal and community warning – a parable from a barren fig tree

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’

The key point, here, is that every day and every moment is an opportunity. Over to you.

What does it mean to be a Christian in Ireland today?

“…I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour” (John 4:38)

John 4:31-38 (Year C: St Patrick’s Day / The Second Sunday in Lent 17^th March, 2019)

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A NOTE ABOUT TODAY’S READINGS

I have chosen to work, here, with the suggested readings for the Festival of St Patrick from the Church of Ireland. These are: John 4:31-38, Tobit 13:1-7, Psalm 145 and 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

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SERMON NOTES (1,580 words)

Go raibh briathra uile mo bhéil agus smaointe mo chroí taithneamhach leatsa a Thiarna, a charraig liom, is a shlánaitheoir (Sailm 19:14) 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14)

These opening words sometimes said by one about to preach are taken from Psalm 19. However, in the verses just read and taken from the same Book of Common Prayer there is a small but significant difference as between the Irish and English language versions. The Irish version refers to the Lord God as a ‘carraig’ or ‘rock’. As it turns out this is closer to the original Hebrew ṣūrî which also means rock. In the English translation, the term ‘strength’ is used instead. For sure, the Lord God is both our rock and our strength; but I suggest that rock is more graphic and meaningful in this context. In the ‘Confessions’ attributed to Saint Patrick whose feast day we mark on this second Sunday of Lent the author writes:

So I am first of all a simple country person, a refugee, and unlearned. I do not know how to provide for the future. But this I know for certain, that before I was brought low, I was like a stone lying deep in the mud. Then he who is powerful came and in his mercy pulled me out, and lifted me up and placed me on the very top of the wall

Patrick, an exile and a foreigner, was raised up like a stone and placed on a rock foundation and that foundation was Christ. But where and how did he find his rock?

When Patrick, a Briton of possible Roman extraction, was roughly brought ashore by an Irish raiding party of thugs and slave dealers (rather like what happens in some parts of the world today), he was walking into a damp, strange land with pagan rituals, human sacrifice and constant driving rain (well some things never change!). This placed called Hibernia or ‘Winter land’ by the Romans was not a welcoming place for someone like Patrick. Indeed so inhospitable, cold and remote was this island that the Romans did not even bother to investigate it.

It is clear by Patrick’s own account that his stay, here, as a slave was a brutalising and cruel one. However, it did not break him. The seeds of faith had already been sown through his family upbringing. And when Patrick escaped back to his homeland some years later he became haunted by Glór na nGael – the voice of the Irish calling on him to come back and to walk among them and this time to tell the good news. Patrick answered that call – the call of the Irish – to come back and to undertake a most difficult and dangerous mission. We know that he met with stiff opposition and danger from the very start as his message and way of life directly challenged the existing order of things including the power of the Druids and the kings and chiefs in their various bailiwicks. It emerges that Patrick was betrayed and hounded by some of his own people and clergy in Britain

Patrick planted the seeds of Christianity on this island over 1,500 years ago. Others would reap what he had sown as it says in today’s gospel (John 4:37). In the course of the following millennium and a half invasion after invasion would ensue as various ‘visitors’ to this island like the Celts before them set up camp, put manners on the incumbents, sometimes inter-married and other times moved on. 

For sure Ireland has had a troubled history. To an outsider, it might look like a case of two main warring tribes that cannot agree about religion, or politics or history or identity or something else. The reality is more complex. There are many shifting strands to Irish society and history.

The Ireland that I knew growing up in the 1960s and 1970s bears very limited resemblance to the Ireland of today. Social norms, religious traditions, laws, customs, ways of living and economic prosperity have changed almost beyond recognition. Add to this an Ireland that has become incredibly multi-cultural with over a hundred nationalities living in a large commuter town near me.

Irish identity is indeed complex. So is Christian identity. We should not mix up the two even if Irish language, culture and is fite fuaite or inter-woven with Christian faith.  As we know, there are many ways of following Christ but there is always the one Christ. There are many ways of approaching the throne of God’s mercy but it is for us who profess Christ always through Word made flesh.

We find ourselves together in a land that has been hallowed by a line of witnesses not afraid to take a stand for Christ. The tragedy of our history is that the different expressions of being Irish and being Christian have been distorted and defaced. At the same time, it is true to say that Irish Christianity has made a precious and proud contribution to the spread of the good news across the globe. Its contribution has been very significant at various times including what some historians called the ‘dark ages’ (and it might be suggested that they still abide in our time).

Today, in Ireland, we celebrate a huge and very welcome level of diversity in the population.  Moreover, there is a much greater acceptance and welcome as people ‘cross boundaries’ to worship in traditions and communities that were not part of their childhood experience. A striking feature of church engagement in modern Ireland is the extent to which the new Irish or those living here but coming from other continents have reinvigorated Irish church life. Specifically, I am thinking of the great contribution of Nigerian Anglicans to the Church of Ireland or Polish Roman Catholics or Irish-Africans who have embraced Pentecostal forms of worship and community on our own doorsteps.

All of this is positive and welcome. But, we need to take an honest look at ourselves. Let me illustrate the point by way of example and metaphor. One hundred and fifty years ago the Irish language went from being the main spoken language of 4 million people to being the language of a mainly elderly population of a quarter of a million people in the early 20^th century in the space of two or three generations. Is religious practice and faith a bit like this? What I mean is this: look around yourself at mass or holy communion or morning prayer this Sunday. How many families are there? How many children are there in the congregation? How many persons between the ages of 15 and 45 are there?  I know from my own experience and memory that this was not so 40 years ago in the faith community with which I have been most familiar.  Today congregations tend to be a lot smaller and certainly older. Yes, it is true that there are many exceptions to this and some excellent work is being carried out by and among young people. However, in the main, we are a bit like native Irish speakers in the early 20th century.

Will there be a revival of some sort? Nobody knows. We need to name things and talk about these matters. Ireland has fast become rather like most other European countries – nominally Christian according to the census and occasionally ‘churched’ for occasions like baptism, Holy Communion, confirmation, marriage and death – typically in that order! And even that pattern is beginning to change as various alternatives to organised religion become respectable and commonplace. Just as the Irish language died a death as a living community language in all but the most remote areas of the Western seaboard, Christian faith and practice is, I suggest, in full-scale retreat. Let’s be honest about this and let’s avoid blaming this or that trend (for example I have heard people cite the rise of Sunday sports as a factor – seriously now!).

And, yes, I do accept that Christian faith and living is much, much more than turning up at church and saying prayers. However, a life of prayer and engagement with Word and Sacrament is a vital part of being Christian.

But is our time up? Are we the last generation and children of Patrick to turn the lights off? Where do we go from here?

I suggest three points for reflection and action:

1. We need to rediscover the power of personal and community prayer just as Patrick did on the side of a mountain in county Antrim.
2. We need to return to the beauty, richness and simplicity of the Word of God in which Patrick and many who followed him were steeped.
3. We need to throw open our doors to the stranger. Who knows but it will be the Glór na nGall (the voice of the foreigner) who calls us back to Christ more than Glór na nGael.

That rock foundation of Patrick which was Christ is ours for the offering. And the following words may be on our lips as we go forth in this world and in the time that remains to us here:

…Christ with me, Christ before me,
…..Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me….

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SOME IDEAS FOR INTERCESSIONS

 Blessed be God who lives for ever, because his kingdom lasts throughout all ages (Tobit 13:1).  Together with all the whole church catholic throughout the world we pray for:

• Peace, prosperity and human rights for all people on all the island of Ireland…..
• Peace, reconciliation and understanding among all peoples throughout the world as we remember in a special way this Sunday the people of New Zealand as well as the Muslim community throughout the world.
• Peace and protection for the various Christian communities suffering violence and oppression in many parts of the world.
• The European Union and all of its 28 Member States at this time …
• The communities in which we live and work…may we extend a genuine and warm welcome to those who are strangers….May we hear the voice of the foreigner as well as the familiar
• One another….
• Other named persons ….
• Remembering and rejoicing together with thanks those who have gone before us and thanking you for the labours of those who brought and maintained the Christian faith in our land….
• … praying in silence….

Almighty and merciful God, who in days of old gave to this land the blessing of your holy Church; do not withdraw your grace from us but correct what is missing and supply what is lacking that we may more and more bring forth fruit to your glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen*

  

*this final paragraph is adapted from the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland, page 145.

Quoting scriptures

“…he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13)

Luke 4:1-13 (Year C: The First Sunday in Lent, 10^th March, 2019)

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A NOTE ABOUT TODAY’S READINGS

In addition to this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading in the Church of Ireland (Luke 4:1-13) the other readings from scripture found in the ‘paired’ Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) of the Church of Ireland for this Sunday are: Deuteronomy 26:1-11,  Psalm 91, and  Romans 10:8-13.  Directly parallel Gospel readings to this particular Gospel reading from Luke may be found in Matthew 4:1-11 and in Mark 1:12-13.  In the liturgical cycle of the Roman Catholic Church, the readings are the same in all cases.

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SERMON NOTES (839 words)

Even the devil can quote scripture is an old saying from somewhere. Today’s reading from the gospel of Luke suggests that the Devil has a good command of the scriptures; he is well able to quote it to suit his malign purposes. And, he is most convincing and plausible. After all, who could resist a big win or an easy way out of a tough corner. The Devil offers easy answers and convincing proposals. However, the scriptures do not belong to the Devil. They belong to God who gives them to us through the writings, experiences and memories of prophets, poets, martyrs and women and men of God spanning many hundreds of years up to and including the first century when Jesus Christ walked among us in a faraway land and time.

If the Devil is so clever at quoting scripture what does scripture have to say about him and is any of this relevant to us today? Let’s start from more modern times.  Ever since the age of enlightenment, men have doubted the claims of religion. In particular, the notion of a supreme actual evil personified spirit roaming the world for the ruin of souls and stirring up rebellion and strife everywhere has been dismissed as a hangover from childhood tales or medieval mythology. The ultimate fruit of this way of looking at the world is that evil is relative to time and culture and there is no ultimate and absolute wrong. The direct implication of this is that there is no ultimate good or absolute right. You can’t have one without the other – I suggest.

All of this makes for uncomfortable reading on this first Sunday of the Western churches period of Lent. The readings emphasise struggle, temptation and divine help. However, we take it (if we take scripture seriously at all), we ought to have our heads screwed on and our feet firmly planted on the ground. What I mean is this: we do not have a complete and final answer to the problem of human evil and suffering. What we do know is that there is much evil and suffering in this world. We also know – through faith and our hearing of the Word of God – that God is the source of our hope and our longing.

It is not easy.

The problem with evil is that we tend to compartmentalise it. It belongs to another place (say Yemen) or time (say the holocaust in the mid-20^th century). We might even study and watch evil from afar by means of literature or film documentaries of what happens somewhere else or what happened a long time ago. The problem with this way of thinking about evil is that we relativise it and put it away as if we do not have a responsibility to name evil.

Take the holocaust of the Jewish people in the last century. When the civilian population of Germany was compelled to walk through the concentration camps after they were liberated by the Allies many people were shocked beyond belief and distressed beyond endurance. ‘We did not know about this’, ‘we were helpless’ or ‘I had nothing to do with this’ was often uttered. The same could be said about those infamous mother and baby homes and similar type institutions not only here in Ireland about across the globe. Not very long ago women were effectively incarcerated in institutions and blamed and shamed while society turned a blind eye. And in many cases, this was done in the name of Christ. Blasphemy. How do we classify suffering on a scale of 0 to 10? It is impossible.

Might it be just possible that just as other generations turned the other way or disclaimed knowledge or responsibility of evil we are in any way complicit and silent in the practice of evil today? Even close by?

As we consider the options for what sort of foods and drinks we might do without this Lent we might consider, also, the bigger problem of suffering and evil perpetrated by people against people very close and very widespread. We have a role to play in countering evil by prayer, self-denial and acts of compassion. This is the relevance of what Jesus did for 40 days and 40 nights before he entered into his public ministry. He had to struggle with evil in the desert and against clever, cunning and malicious lines of thinking and interrogation. He had no props. He might have even uttered the words, ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’

Lent is an opportunity for a personal journey to a deeper faith and love. However, it has a social and community dimension and we need to engage with great injustices in the world about us as well as within us. Our spiritual enemy is always looking for an opportunity and he is well able to quote the scriptures for his own ends.

Let us put our trust in the true God of love. But, let us be careful as we proceed.

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SOME IDEAS FOR INTERCESSIONS

Loving God we thank you for this time of preparation for Easter. Mindful of our weakness and sinfulness we place before you are needs and the needs of others. Together we pray for:

A reversal of those trends that exclude millions from a decent standard of living…..

The peoples of India and Pakistan at this time …

The communities in which we live and work…may we encourage one another in our spiritual journey….

The Christian churches … that we may repent of unnecessary division and exclusion…

Those all among us who have undertaken to deepen our prayer in a spirit of loving sacrifice and renewed service. Keep us firm in our resolutions for this time of Lent

Remembering with thanks those who have gone before us….

… praying in silence….

Loving God, show us the way of life that leads to You. Direct our plans and choices day by day that we may find the true path. Correct anything that needs to be altered. Help us to see what needs to be changed and what needs to be embraced. Thank You.

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A PRAYERFUL WALK THROUGH LUKE 4:1-13

Preliminaries

Luke and Matthew’s account of this episode in the life of Jesus is similar. There is no direct mention of it in John while Mark’s account is very brief. The period in the desert where Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit follows the baptism of Jesus and precedes the public ministry of Jesus. We do well to reflect on the example of Jesus who devoted himself to prayer, self-denial and struggle with evil in advance of a major decision or turn in our lives.

v.1-4   The first temptation: the lust for more

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”

Never content with what we have we seek for more and different. Life is a merry go-round of sought after pleasures, projects and things and more things and different things.

v.5-8   The second temptation: the lust for group think

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God,     and serve only him.”’

The spirit of evil is abroad and is in control of much political authority for ‘it has been given over to me’ says Satan.

Worship of God is outside the realm of thinking and acting that rules this world. One of the hardest choices a follower of Jesus will make is to stand aside from the crowd (and that may include one’s own church or faith community). To think for oneself and to take responsibility for the Word that has been planted in us is a most difficult task and we cannot do it alone.

v.9-13   The third temptation: the presumption of truth and power

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’  Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

We must acknowledge that the Devil does not give up!  ‘he departed from him until an opportune time’. That time would come in the a garden on the outskirts of Jerusalem one Thursday night in spring.