Reflection on Mark 10:2-16

Reflection on Mark 10:2-16

Given 07 October 2021 at St. Alban’s Church, Coventry

‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you’

Every three years, this reading comes round in the lectionary. I’ve heard people avoid it completely and instead preach on the epistle reading. I’ve heard people focus on the final verses, reminding us that Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me.’ And on a few, very rare occasions, I’ve heard people explicitly condemn me because I am not only divorced, but also remarried. For me, this has historically been a text of terror, a passage that shames and attacks me. It also was a main reason for staying too long in an unhealthy marriage. I didn’t want to be responsible for tearing apart what I had been taught that God had joined together. 

But over the years and through my theological studies, I have discovered two things I can say with certainty about this reading. Firstly, there were layers and context to all Jesus said, and secondly, there is absolutely nothing I could do that would ever stop God from loving me.

Looking at the context of this passage, the Pharisees were trying to test Jesus. They wanted to catch him off guard. He had already proven himself to be dangerous because of his large following, so they were desperate to find a reason to arrest and kill Jesus. So Jesus simply stated the official teaching on divorce, but with a caveat. It was because of our hard hearts that this Mosaic law was created. It could be argued that the majority of Mosaic law was created because of our hard hearts.

When God created humans, God said let’s make humans like us. There is some debate about what that ‘us’ means, but I believe this shows God was in relationship, not just one person. This, for me, is an illustration of the Holy Trinity – three unique persons in one God. God made us to be like God, to be in loving relationship with each other, with humanity. But our hard hearts broke that perfect creation.

For me, this passage isn’t about our modern understanding of marriage and divorce. It’s about the hardness of our hearts in all relationships. When someone is abusive in any way toward another human, be that mentally, emotionally, verbally, financially, or physically, then that relationship is no longer the perfection of God’s creation. That relationship is not blessed or holy. And God would never want any of us to be hurt, because God loves every single one of us perfectly. And because of that unconditional love, I know nothing I do will ever stop God from loving me, or you. 

And this is the Gospel I know and preach: the Good News is that God loves every single one of us. Despite our hard hearts, despite our imperfections, despite our not loving each other. Nothing can ever separate us from the all-encompassing love of God. Because God is love.

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 and Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 and Matthew 5:13-20
Given 09 February 2020 at Mappleborough Green Church

May the God of imagination inspire my lips and open our hearts to receive an understanding that comes from the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I must say, as a preacher perhaps the most comforting verses while preparing my sermon are found in the reading today from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

“I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

So basically, Paul spewed absolute rubbish, and the Holy Spirit translated for him. Phew, I’m off the hook! That being said, I don’t think we’re here to talk rubbish, so in the hope that you will find some inspiration from my words, today we’ll use the readings to talk about prayer, Christian action, and our shared history.

Going back to the reading from 1 Corinthians, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” So the question is: how can we understand the Spirit of God, or rather, how can we have an understanding of God? The answer is the same for having an understanding of anyone’s spirit, which comes from relationship. And for relationship to happen, we have to communicate. It may seem obvious for some, but the best way to communicate with God is through prayer.

Quite often, people struggle with prayer because it can be viewed as a one-way street, just from us to God. I came across a story about Corrie Ten Boom last week, that shows prayer is in fact a two-way street, and sometimes there are even multiple lanes. Once when Corrie and her sister Betsie were in the concentration camp in Ravensbrück, she had this terrible cold. She told her sister Betsie how much she just wished she had a handkerchief and Betsie suggested that Corrie pray for one, and Corrie just laughed at that ridiculous idea.

So, Betsie prayed. She said, “Lord, you see my sister, Corrie, here, has a very bad cold, and in Jesus’ name, I ask you TODAY for a handkerchief for her. Amen.”

Shortly after her sister’s prayer, a friend of hers who was also a prisoner who worked in the hospital in Ravensbrück called out Corrie’s name and gave her a little present – a handkerchief. Corrie was astounded and perplexed and asked her friend how she knew Corrie needed one. Her friend said she was sewing handkerchiefs from an old piece of sheet, and there was a voice in her heart that said, ‘Bring a handkerchief to Corrie Ten Boom!’”

When we pray, we are not just screaming into a vast, empty void. We are building our relationship with a God who loves every single one of us. If you aren’t sure where to get started in your prayer life, I can refer you to the Everyday Faith booklet that will guide you in prayer over the next few weeks.

Now that we’ve covered prayer, I want to turn to the Gospel reading and talk about Christian action. Jennie was kind enough to indulge me and include the hymn “Christ Be Our Light” before the reading. I wanted us to sing together ‘Make us Your own, Your holy people, light for the world to see’. Even though we sing out for Christ to be our Light, what we mean is for Christ to make us light. In Matthew 5.14 Jesus tells those gathered before him at the Sermon on the Mount ‘You are the light of the world’. Then, in verse 16 he continues, saying ‘let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’.

Talking about being light is a bit abstract, but the hymn “Christ Be Our Light” expands on its meaning saying we are the living voice, the bread to feed all, the building to shelter others, the servants to each other. Jesus exclaims in Matthew 25:35-36, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Jesus commanded us to be the light to the world, the whole world, not only the parts that we are familiar with, or the people with whom we agree, or the issues that have a direct impact on us. The Zulu use the term ‘Ubuntu’, which is understood as ‘I am because we are’ and emphasizes the universal connection of all humanity. Jesus did not come for some of us, he came for all of us. And it is our joint responsibility to take action and shine the light of Jesus for the whole world.

Talking of the whole world, this leads on to our shared history, the third and final point. The Gospel reading today ends with Jesus saying he came to fulfil the Law and bad-mouthing the scribes and Pharisees. A bit of background that I’m sure many of you know, when Jesus is talking about the Law and Prophets, he’s referring to the Hebrew Scriptures, which Christians claim as the Old Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures were vitally important to Jesus because he was a devout Jew. Just last week, in our celebration of Candlemas, we remembered the Jewish tradition of Jesus being presented in the temple. Our Holy Communion which we are about to partake in is in remembrance of the final meal that Jesus had which was the Jewish Passover dinner. Yes, there are several times that Jesus calls out the Jewish Pharisees, these verses being no exception, but any good Jew would tell you that arguing is at the core of their tradition. There is more that unites us than divides us, and it is not possible for us to come into relationship with God without relationship with each other. We do believe Jesus was the Christ who fulfilled the Scriptures, but that does not make the Old Testament covenants less valid for our Jewish brothers and sisters today.

Today we’ve talked about prayer, Christian action, and our shared history – our relationship with God which moves us to help all others, remembering our commonality as humans. We sing out for Christ to shine in this church gathered today so we can go out to spread the light of faith, hope, and love. I leave you with the great quote from John Wesley that perfectly summarises what we are called to do as Christians living in this world:

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

Amen.

 

 

Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22
Given 22 October 2017 at Studley Parish Church

Have you ever lied? How can you call yourself faithful if you have lied? Because the 9th commandment says not to bear false witness against your neighbour (Exodus 20:16). Do you love your neighbour as yourself and do you pray for those who you don’t like? Because how can you call yourself Christian if you don’t love your enemies? Since Christ did say “…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) If God is all-knowing, then why did He put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden? I mean, He should have known Adam and Eve would eat from it causing the fall of Human (Genesis 3:3). And if God is all-loving, why did he let my friend Rachel die from colon cancer at the age of thirty?

I actually have my own answers for all of these questions, though these topics are a bit too deep and complicated for a ten minute sermon on a Sunday morning. So the real question I have is how many of you have confronted these types of questions when you reveal to people that you are a Christian?

The first verses of today’s reading are about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus into saying the wrong thing. Many times people will try to trap us in our faith and trick us into giving what they think to be the wrong answers. Many non-believers are so arrogant in their non-belief they want to catch us out, make us doubt, or convince us we don’t really know our faith.

But not only do we encounter personal trials of trying to justify our beliefs and evading tricky and complex topics among friends and family, we also have to navigate a world that is incessantly trying to trap us. The fact is that the world is of the flesh, and as Christians we are instructed to battle against the flesh.

See, the trickery of the world is to convince us we are not ENOUGH. Not smart enough, not slim enough, not healthy, funny, or talented enough. Just look at any newsstand and you can see that they’re selling the idea YOU are not enough, but according to the world, these people on the cover of the magazine are. You are not enough, but you can spend your money to find out how the world thinks you can become enough. Spend your money to find out how to get perfect abs, a perfect sex life, the perfect job. Spend your money to find out what perfection looks like.

But let me save you a few quid: To find perfection, simply look in a mirror. If we know that God is perfect and we know that we were created in His image (Genesis 1:27) and He doesn’t make mistakes, then it logically follows we must only look to our true selves to find perfection.

Which brings me back to today’s reading: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” I hope we all pay our taxes and follow the laws of the land, but do we know what belongs to God? If coins are made by Caesar, what is made of God? Well, obviously, the answer is everything, but especially us.

God created each one of us uniquely as individuals with our own talents and gifts. We all have different abilities that we are called to use to the glory of God. In Paul’s letter to the Romans he says:

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;  if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;  if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

To summarise, we have all been perfectly created by God with special gifts that only we can give. When Christ commands that we give to God what is God’s, the expectation is that we give ourselves; the understanding is that we are more than enough.

Each of us has a calling, something that we were quite literally made to do. Sometimes our calling is not only apparent but easy to follow. Other times the path to our calling is challenging and it may seem easier to turn away from it. But if we turn away from that which God created us to do, then we are denying ourselves and denying God. When we ignore our calling, we are not giving to God what is rightfully His, that which he made us for.

Sometimes, the trickery of the world will lead us away from our calling, but with vigilant prayer we can remind ourselves of our reason for living as Christians. That is to fulfil our God-given purpose and thereby give ourselves to God.

As we navigate the flesh of this word, we must always keep our hearts on Christ. In our daily lives as we try to model a Christian life, we will inevitably fail from time to time. As we are only human we will get caught up in the distractions of Satan. And that’s okay. As long as we come back to Jesus, all will be forgiven. We must only give to God what is God’s, which is our whole heart and soul by doing that which He uniquely created us to do.

So my challenge for you today is to make that commitment. Open your heart to the will of God. Listen to His instruction for your life. When the Lord says, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Be like Isaiah and respond, “Here am I. Send me!” With all the blessings God gives us, the only payment we must give to God is ourselves. Amen.