St Luke 10: 15 – 37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’  He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’  And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’  Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”  Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’  He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Reflection

“And who is my neighbour?” is a question which haunts down the years.  We know that those clinging on to dangerous boats in the Channel are our neighbours, as are the women in Afghanistan denied education, employment, and agency about their own lives.  Neighbours include the women left to bleed out as doctors, in some US states, are too fearful to medically intervene due to new abortion laws.  They include those on death row. 

More, the point of the story is not just that our neighbours are those in need (though they are) but that the neighbour is likely to be someone we are suspicious and afraid of.  For some that might be the imam at the local mosque, for others it might be the politician whose views we despise, for another it might be a fellow Christian with views we find unacceptable.  

Jesus’ parable was difficult and dangerous as the Jews despised the Samaritans.  The parable was designed to broaden both our understanding and our horizons in an age where these are being narrowed.  Bipartisan politics are increasingly difficult in America where moderates have been hounded out of office.  Whilst three of the four UK nations are used to coalition governments we’ve only had one at UK level – and the after effects of that for the junior party might put them off joining another one!  Our world is ever more complex; people yearn for simplistic, yet divisive, answers from strong leaders.  Such clear divisions are attractive in our age but Jesus reminds us that our neighbour is often someone we’d rather not know yet alone love as ourselves.  

And remember, Jesus’ example was not of some distant person his crowd had never heard of, but a near neighbour, an estranged co-religionist, someone close enough to know and hate.  Yet this was one to love and value.

Prayer

When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour, were you there?

And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter,
were you there?

Acts 2: 1 – 13

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’  But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

Reflection

Pentecost completes Babel.  At Babel God empowered a multiplicity of languages as a weapon against empire.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit allowed the, probably monoglot, disciples to speak a range of other languages.  She could have empowered all those visitors to understand Aramaic but, instead, that motley band of tax collectors, zealots, and fishers were enabled to speak a range of other languages.  Pentecost is the start of the Church and offers a foretaste of a catholic Church working in all cultures, with all peoples, in all languages. 

The Church, however, has not always been good at recognising this diversity; for over a thousand years most Catholic Christians could only worship in Latin (often impeding mission) and even now many Orthodox churches use ancient languages (Church Slavonic or Koine Greek) instead of the languages that most people they minister to speak.  Using the vernacular is important not just because it means people can understand but because language is the way into a culture. Learning another language enables understanding because it frames and encapsulates the world.

When the Church embeds itself in a culture it shows it values, appreciates, and wishes to learn; when the Church imposes its own ideology on a culture it does not offer good news; missionaries with Native peoples often made that tragic mistake.  

Where diversity is seen as a threat, and where certain cultures are prized more highly, we should rejoice in the variety of languages and cultures around us.  We can embody that diversity in worship with hymns from the “world Church” and by encouraging people to pray in their own languages when a variety of languages are present.  A congregation I served in Manchester made a huge difference in its ministry of welcome by printing its liturgies in English and French, and by encouraging Francophone members of the congregation to lead parts of worship.  It all helped to expand our ideas of the catholicity of the Church and of the diversity of humanity.

Prayer

Bring the hopes of ev’ry nation; 
bring the art of ev’ry race. 
Weave a song of peace and justice; 
let it sound through time and space. 

Let us bring the gifts that differ 
and, in splendid, varied ways, 
sing a new church into being 
one in faith and love and praise.

Genesis 11: 1 – 9

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.  And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.  And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.  Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’  The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.  And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’  So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.  Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Reflection

Empires usually insist on one language to be used throughout their lands – it’s why so much of the world speaks English.  Other languages are, at best, tolerated but are often left to wither on the vine. Just as Latin (and Greek) were needed to get on in the ancient world, so English came to be seen as a mark of progress and its imposition on place names in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland serves to hide earlier histories, languages, and perspectives; we come to realise that maps aren’t neutral documents.

We don’t know much about the background context of today’s story.  Clearly there’s a fear about enforced uniformity; overreaching isn’t just about the building of the tower but about the people wanting a name for themselves.  The people feared being scattered over the earth as all imperial leaders worried about their dreams and projects being scattered to the winds.  God, however, frustrates these imperial designs and frees the people to speak their own languages again.  One might read this as God as liberator frustrating the designs of the rich and powerful who wanted to build the city and free those enslaved builders.  

In various places around the world there are political moves to impose uniformity; in India Hindu nationalism seeks to marginalise other traditions and to cast, in particular, Muslims as somehow being other than Indian.  In America the debates about undocumented people (relied on, and exploited by, business) underscore an anxiety by some white people that they will soon no longer be the largest grouping in the US and may lose their power.  In much of Europe disquiet about the mass migration of people (often due to the politics and selfishness of those of us in the West) has led to political movements seeking to restrict immigration, civil rights, and opportunity.  

Babel reminds us that God rejoices in diversity and does not desire linguistic nor cultural uniformity – and neither should we.  

Prayer

Confusing and confounding God,
shake us when we seek to reject your diversities,
when we wish others spoke like us,
and when we assert we know best.
Shake us awake, O God,
that we may see the world as it is,
and learn to understand what it could become.
Amen.

Genesis 1: 26 – 27

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

So God created humankind in his image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Reflection

The Biblical authors who crafted the creation narratives in Genesis embedded deep truths in the text.   Often, however,  we have argued over literary devices not about these deep truths.  Much ink has been spilled through the years about the literalness, or otherwise, of the seven days of creation whilst today’s verses are often skipped over.  Yet imagine what our world, and the Church, would be like if we really took the truth of being made in God’s image seriously.  How might we
 

• treat those we don’t like if we recognised the image of God within them?  
• view those desperate souls coming over the channel on dangerous boats if we recognised within them the very image of God?  
• respond to those who turn to crime or terrorism if we saw within them God’s image?  
• feel about ourselves if we truly realised we are made in God’s image?  
• find ways to reach those whose views, politics, and faith are different to our own?

Those of us who have traditionally, or currently, been told to think badly of ourselves because of gender, love, skin colour, or body size, shape or ability, might find this more of a challenge than others who assume society is made in their image.

For Christians, the ultimate revelation of God’s image is Jesus.  In him we see our model for life and deep truths about how we should view ourselves and others.   Many forces in our contemporary world seek to divide us, sow division and hatred; as Christians we need always to remember that we are all created in God’s image and that image is good.  This makes siblings of us all.

Of course God’s image can be marred within us and we can refuse to see God’s image in others but at the heart of our faith is this simple truth: humanity is made in God’s image.  The challenge for us is to see that image even in those we find unlovely.

Prayer

Eternal God,
You revealed Yourself of old
in fire, storm, and precious law,
in prophets’ warnings and ancient poetry.
You reveal Yourself again and again in Jesus Christ,
showing us how to live and love, 
reminding us that first, 
You reveal yourself in humanity,
precious and created in Your image,
charged with the awesome responsibility to reflect Your love and life.  
Help us, O God, to live as You intended.  Amen.

Monday 7 October 2024 
Reflections on Difficult Times 1 – Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear 

Reflections on Difficult Times

Dear Friends,

I hope you enjoyed John Matthews’ reflections on Bonhoeffer over the last week.  Bonhoeffer is a theologian whose ideas seem very attractive to the contemporary Church.

Over the next two weeks we are going to be looking at Biblical ideas (some of which inspired Bonhoeffer) as we think about the times in which we live.  These are difficult times for those who are concerned with democracy (as we have understood it in the West), the rule of law, and inclusive politics. It can be hard to work out what the Church may say in such times.  

When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved there were some who saw this as a triumph of Western values – one thinker even wrote, rather arrogantly, it was the end of history.  Meaning, I think, that he saw human history as finding its summit in the liberal values of the West.  Yet in the years that followed we’ve endured a lot of painful history.  Ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda shocked the world.  Hopes for a new Western style democratic order in Russia have proved unfounded, and even in the United States, which sees itself as the champion of the democratic order, the previous president tried to cheat the voters and cling on to power and, even now, refuses to admit he lost.  If Mr Trump  wins in November he has promised to be a dictator from day one.  The liberal reforms in Hungary following its transition to democracy have now morphed into something rather different with the Reformed Christian Viktor Orbán dominating political life there.  Trigger issues seem to include fears about migration in both the US and Europe, a sense of people being left behind by elites who are the ruling classes, and a realisation that wealth generated by the super rich doesn’t trickle down to the rest of us.  Add into this stretched public finances where people demand Scandinavian levels of public services with American levels of taxation and we end up with politicians forever urging us to understand their difficult choices.  Riots in England and Northern Ireland in the Summer, the surge in support of Reform and the attraction of some figures on the far right here all add to a sense of gloom about the way things are.  There’s a profound lack of trust in our institutions and in the outlets where we get our news from.

Sometimes this is all set in the context of a rise in Nationalism in both Europe and the US and, in some countries the growth of something called Christian Nationalism.  Nationalism itself can be a tricky term to define – it is basically the idea that the state should be the same as the nation and that no other state should rule over a different nation.  The nation or state can be defined by borders (civic nationalism) or by racial and ethnic groups (blood and soil nationalism).  In a UK context we are often suspicious of nationalism overseas but three of the constituent nations of the UK have strong nationalist movements arising from the idea the country next door shouldn’t run them (the country next door might point out that it too was subsumed into the Union).  This nationalistic idea also appealed to many who voted Leave in the Brexit referendum believing that the UK itself, not the EU, should be the ultimate decider of our laws. (The EU might have pointed out that sovereignty pooled made everyone stronger.)   Christian Nationalism adds the particular power of the Church into the mix.  In Russia, Orthodoxy, which was nearly extinguished in the early Soviet era, has grown in wealth and prestige and Patriarch Kirill has supported Mr Putin’s war in Ukraine.  In Hungary Orbán has used his new found Reformed faith to forge alliances with the churches who then often support his political agenda.  Many, but by no means all, evangelicals in America see the serial adulterer, and non Church-going, Mr Trump as divinely ordained to bring many of their political agendas to fruition – most notably a ban on abortion.  This view ignores the fact that each of Mr Trump’s opponents have been more regular attenders at church than him!  When the Church is close to the state there is potential for the state to use the Church to push its own agendas.

The Worship, Faith, and Order Committee is looking at these ideas and, in due course, we hope a paper will be issued exploring what a Christian response might be to these troubled times.  Over the next two weeks I will explore some Biblical passages which might offer hope and resources to respond to the state we’re in.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship
 

Mark 10.45 

The Son of Man came not to be serve but to serve…

Philippians 2:5  

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

Reflection

Bonhoeffer did a great deal of writing during his two years in prison, much of it published as ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’. It includes an ‘Outline for a Book’ of no more than a hundred pages, from July/August 1944. In the proposed third chapter he focuses on the role of the Church and says, 

“The church is only the church when it exists for others…(it) must share in the secular problems of ordinary, human life, not  dominating, but helping and serving…It must not under-estimate the importance of human example (which has its origin in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching); it is not abstract argument but example which gives its word emphasis and power.” 

At a time when church attendance and church membership are declining, and many churches closing, not least in the URC, it is tempting to focus on our own survival and to devote much time, energy and money to this end. Like all temptations, this one is to be resisted. Similarly, fellowship is an important aspect of the life of any church, but churches are not intended to be religious clubs. The Church is the Body of Christ, who was “the man for others”, to use Bonhoeffer’s phrase, and we are called to serve others as he did; showing the love of God, which was seen supremely in him, through our words, our deeds and our example, in the hope that people will both experience it and respond to it. 

In the words of the hymn writer, F Pratt Green,
 
Then let the servant Church arise, 
a caring Church that longs to be
a partner in Christ’s sacrifice,
and clothed in Christ’s humanity.

We have no mission but to serve
in full obedience to our Lord:
to care for all, without reserve,
and spread his liberating word. 
(Rejoice & Sing 636)

Prayer

Loving God, we pray for the help of your Holy Spirit, that we may live Christ-like lives as individuals and that our churches may be Christ-like communities. Separately and together may we serve people, not only in the name of Christ but also in the spirit of Christ. Amen.

4 October 2024
 

Bonhoeffer 4  Wisdom

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.  For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

Reflection

I read that human knowledge is doubling every twelve hours. Where did I read this? On the internet, of course, the fount of all knowledge these days! But has this huge increase in knowledge given us any more wisdom or are we, to quote a phrase, ‘none the wiser’?

A poet once wrote ‘Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? / Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?’ These words, which sound strikingly relevant to our situation today, were actually written in 1934 by T S Eliot. 

Not many years later Bonhoeffer began work on what would have been his ‘magnum opus’. He made several starts but never finished it. The material he wrote has been edited and published under the title ‘Ethics’. (The German word ‘Ethik’ has a broader meaning than the English translation.)  In it Bonhoeffer writes this concerning wisdom:

“Only that person is wise who sees reality in God. Knowledge of reality is not just knowing external events, but seeing into the essence of things. The best informed person is not the most intelligent…the best informed people are in danger of missing the essential amid the variety…the wise person will seek to obtain the best possible information about the course of events without becoming dependent on it. Wisdom is recognizing the significant in the factual.”

Bonhoeffer’s relating wisdom and God may remind us of the words ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Proverbs 9.10), remembering that ‘the fear of the Lord’ means ‘reverence for the Lord’ not ‘being afraid of the Lord’.  

The words from the letter of James quoted above suggest that wisdom has an ethical dimension; it is ‘peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy’. James also suggests that if we lack wisdom we should ask God for it, and God will give it to us (1.5). Is this something you pray for?

Prayer

Loving God, help to recognize what is significant in all the information and knowledge which confronts us and sometimes overwhelms us. May your Holy Spirit so mould our lives that wisdom is seen in the kind of people we are and the kind of things we say and do. Amen. 

Booklets for October and November

Dear Friends,

After Sunday’s Psalm we start a two week series I have written looking at how our faith has a variety of resources to sustain us in the difficult times in which we live.  

The large print version is here.
The A5 version is here.

We then move into the Epistle to James which is divided over two booklets

James 1 large print is here
James 1 A5 Booklet is here.

James 2 large print is here.
James 2 A5 Booklet is here.

Then, to mark Safeguarding Sunday on 17th November I have written 8 reflections on Safeguarding.

Safeguarding large print is here
Safeguarding A5 booklet is here.

Finally we read through St Luke’s Gospel between mid November and Easter next year.

Luke part 1 large print is here
Luke part 1 A5 booklet is here.

I’ll send December’s material as soon as I have it all in.

With every good wish

Andy

The Rev’d Andy Braunston
Minister for Digital Worship