They might find someone has already claimed that function. On a well-noted occasion, it resulted in clear sight and clarity of mind for someone unintended by those who believed themselves in charge.
Those ruling held an inquiry, calling forth witnesses, including the now sighted man’s parents, who felt the weight of the inquisition and deflected the questions that were being asked – unfounded questions based on faulty suppositions, seeking scapegoats and blame.
When you throw the light into dark places, one cannot “un-see” what is seen. Be careful when you shine the light into those shadowy corners.
The story is in John 9:1-23. It’s the Gospel set for this Sunday in all churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary. More tomorrow.
Agape Feast – the Eucharist models mutual submission for the sake of Christ – image from Wikimedia Commons
Ephesians 5:21-32 is one of the most manipulated texts for those misguided enough to champion male domination in marriage. Many camels swallowed here while straining at gnats. The kernel of Paul’s argument is mutual submission to one another out of respect for the Way of Christ. No room for misogyny and domestic oneupmanship here. The principle can be extrapolated into our whole network of human relationships.
This week’s parliamentary debate around “freedom of speech ” would be a non-event if mutual submission to one another was to the fore. The discussion wouldn’t even be necessary!
What are the marks of mutual submission?
Let’s try:
preparedness to really listen to the other
readiness to speak our mind clearly, honestly and respectfully
willingness to seek mutual goals and solutions
a heart for the well-being of the other
That would be a good start in any setting – be it family, work, or politics.
The national discourse does not currently inspire much hope. Hope is to be found in the values espoused by such passages as Ephesians 5:1-14, today’s Lenten text. If one is patient enough to sift the ancient language and thought forms, one discovers some evocative phrases.
For example, the exhortations to live as “a fragrant offering” and as “children of light.” These call to the fore some senses that are often secondary to the way we habitually process thought, but now the senses of sight and smell become primary as we imagine our way through the confusion and cacophony of the claims of contemporary life.
How might followers of the Way sniff their way through the multiplicity of aromas and stink of daily life. Even more, how might they allow the all subsuming aroma of self-giving to the greater vision of God’s all-consuming love to affect daily conversation and action?
How might followers of the Way reveal themselves as offspring of Light in the dark corners of our community conversation?
While our contemporary politicians fight to enhance the right to insult and offend, the writer to the Ephesians appeals to those practices and behaviours that enhance our life together. If there’s a handle to grab, in this wall of text, you can do no worse with this one: Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. (v29 NRSV)
Imagine if Hansard was remarkable for this fact alone!
What happens when a popular and influential leader loses his/her way? The MSM (MainStream Media) and alternative sources are forever keen to assist our views – either manipulatively or informatively!
Powerbrokers know when to make their move, no less the prophet/king-maker Samuel. King Saul was on the nose, and secret arrangements for his succession became necessary. It all sounds too familiar given events in our national parliament over recent years. There is nothing new under the sun.
Yet Samuel now takes on the guise of our Lenten guide. Even in the murky world of politics, he invites us to see through different eyes as he selects the next candidate for Israel’s monarchy. Through Samuel’s selection process,we first hear the well known words, “…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. ”
David, Samuel’s secret candidate, was by no means unflawed, but he became the epitome of the aspirations of his people, so much so that the messianic dream was built around his reign. It only needed Jesus of Nazareth to give it complete expression.
But for now, Samuel invites us to look beyond popular wisdom and convention and to see as he sees.
Today’s Psalm 95 begins on a high note but descends into minor chords of melancholy.
How odd!
Songs of praise are traditionally upbeat, giving expression to high emotions associated with relief and exuberance, assured of the benevolence of a Creator who has offered provision and protection even in tough times.
The composer of this Psalm however, remembers that the Holy One is not impressed with such gestures. Lives, attitudes and actions in the world need to be consistent with praises in the Temple.
His sombre plea as his song closes is that the people do not repeat the bitter mean-spiritedness of their ancestors who complained in the desert, even though God’s provision and protection were daily evident.
Strive to live an attitude of gratitude could well be his meaning.
St Photine, as the ancient church has named her, continues to guide this part of our Lenten journey. Yesterday I was invited to conduct a house blessing on a women’s and children’s shelter. It was a multicultural context and included a smoking ceremony conducted by a Noongar elder (a smoking ceremony involves using the smoke from smouldering indigenous plants to ward off harmful spirits). Rather than conduct Christian prayers in isolation from the welcome and cleansing rites of our ancient aboriginal culture, we consulted to see whether our rites could be enacted in a visible and explicit complimentary manner. And so we did, teaching and explaining as we went. As each area was cleansed with the smoking ceremony, so Christian prayers invoked the comfort and protection of the One who creates and recreates, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“…the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…“, said Jesus to Photine, who was grappling with cultural differences about how Jews and Samaritans approached worship rites.
I think those who were gathered there entered such an experience. Not on this mountain or that – but in spirit and truth.
The nameless woman at Jacob’s Well is our Lenten guide today. Read her story at John 4:5-30
One spectrum of Christian tradition dwells on the early part of the conversation – Jesus offering “living water” to one parched by errant ways.
Another spectrum of the tradition celebrates the outcome – this woman becomes the first apostle, an announcer of good news as, refreshed by the lure of being able to worship in spirit and truth – personal, gender and cultural barriers washed away – she runs into her Samaritan village to announce the good news of One who is making all this happen.
This tradition even gives her a name – St Photini.
Can I embrace this conversation in its completeness?
Today’s sacred text is Romans 5:6-11 – often interpreted as the necessity of the sacrifice of Jesus as appeasement to an angry god to effect the salvation of us sinners! This popular characterisation is gold for preachers who wish to hold the wrath of God and the misery of sinners like a rod of chastisement over their flocks, but they miss the nuance which is Paul’s real message and is hidden in verses 10-11.
Using a verbal judo style technique, it seems that Paul cedes territory to the prescriptive but inadequate substitutionary atonement model, as if to say “Okay, if that works to your understanding of what happened at Calvary, let it be so – but consider this… Even more, eclipsing this, is how Jesus’ LIFE reconciles humanity to God … even more than his death! And even more than that, such reconciliation creates a boldness in renewed relationship with the Creator through living the Way of the Life of Christ.” Paul was a rhetorician and his technique of ceding territory in order to gain what he really wants to say is classic.
So what at the beginning looks like an antithesis to the themes of International Happiness Day, through careful analysis, becomes a pointer to how happiness through fulfilment of destiny might be addressed.
The United Nations, the birthers of today’s world day, point to a number of happiness indicators such as food security, health access, safe housing, and gainful employment. A full index can be found at such sites as the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Sounds dangerously like shalom, the reign of the love of God feted by Jesus, the fulfilment in reconciled relationship with the Creator that Paul talks about.
One way of seeing Lent is about engaging the struggle with Jesus to get there. International Happiness Day is a shared dream of fulfilled hope.
An old criticism of the Christian way is a perceived emphasis on suffering. Gaunt pictures of self-flagellating, hair-shirted, monks and nuns in cold, dank cells lend credence to the view that the Christian faith appeals to the masochistic spirit that seeks ecstasy in pain and self-degradation.
While anyone can employ a religious motif to their own end, pathological or otherwise, this is not what the Apostle Paul speaks of in Romans 5:1-5 (NRSV) where he says…we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (vv3b-5).
Anyone knows that when one’s eye is fixed on a goal, it’s going to lead to a denial of living a lifestyle to the course of least resistance. One has to dig a channel according to the desired end, whether studying for a degree, saving for a home deposit, or training for a sport qualification. Blood, sweat and tears are involved – suffering for a purpose (and not for the self-gratification that agony might satisfy!).
This is no less the case when living life according to a defined purpose. The apostle says that when that purpose commends and exemplifies the Way of Jesus, any resulting suffering pays dividends, simply reinforcing the transcendent purpose of the Way as resilience builds.
Suffering is not to be sought for its own sake, but nevertheless welcomed as a potential viable source for strengthening faith and allegiance to the end of the Good News for the world, the reign of love and its legacy at large amongst all peoples. Any suffering, it seems, is pointless unless creatively and intentionally directed towards this end, even when it takes a while for this realisation to dawn.
Wondering Pilgrim 