Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10:24-39

Should we pull down the statue of Christ the redeemer in Rio because Jesus doesn’t condemn slavery?

There is a lot in our bible passages but the references to slavery seem to particularly stand out in light of recent events. The passages don’t make for comfortable reading. The casual way in which Hagar and her child are disposed of and the reference by Jesus in the gospel about the slave not being above the master is clearly not a refutation of slavery. Indeed, such passages have been used over the centuries to justify slavery by those claiming to be part of the Christian community. If nothing else, this reminds us of our capacity as human beings to deceive and justify ourselves.

Statues are less important than what they represent and the statue of Edward Colston, pulled down in Bristol, represented something vile, the buying and selling of people for huge profit. It should have been pulled down years ago as many people in Bristol had long campaigned for. The world changes and we adapt as we go along. At a different level the people of Glasgow learnt how to deal with pompous statues years back by simply placing a road cone on the Duke of Wellington. Was this an act of vandalism or perhaps something that has transformed the way people look at things? Such transformations are to be welcomed. And to be clear it would be foolish, an act of huge vandalism and a waste of money to pull down the statue of Christ the redeemer (even if it is questionable whether Jesus would have ever wanted such a thing).

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear it is obvious from the gospels where Jesus stood in the context of his time. He stands alongside those who are on the outside, who are judged and oppressed by those with power and control. And just as Jesus didn’t challenge the system of slavery of his day, nor does he set out to Rome to challenge the political authority there. In the gospel of Matthew we see Jesus among his own – ‘the lost sheep of Israel’, challenging and asking questions.

Jesus is, as the hymn has it, ‘working his purpose out’. Here we see him in uncompromising mood. He is making it abundantly clear that all have to make a basic choice. A choice that shapes everything else in life. A choice Jesus makes which costs him dear. What is the lens through which we will look? Family, life, relationships, the world are all viewed through are basic beliefs and understandings. What are the foundations on which we base our decisions, our choices? Jesus urges us to choose positively.

Jesus also makes it clear this is not going to be easy. It will be divisive standing up to authority and power. Jesus not only says this in the passage but shows in his ministry, and pays for it with his life. Our choices really matter! In this context today we say Black lives matter, climate change matters, the injustice of systems that treat others as less important matters and are a focus for the church going forward.

As we look at the next steps, what it means to be Methodists, to be church, are we rooting gospel values at the heart of who we are and what we do. Like me, if you don’t know your Bible off by heart, we have to keep going back to it, checking, listening to one another and God (praying) and working our purpose out.

The Methodist Conference meeting via Zoom beginning next week is helping Methodists to connect and to reflect on this together, asking questions of ourselves, one another and God and urging us to act. Jesus didn’t overthrow the system of slavery, or the Roman occupation but did turn the world upside down through love and service. And began something which has far outlasted those systems of his time and continues to grow in the lives of millions of disciples in the world.

There is much to challenge us, much that we get wrong, but I am encouraged by God’s response to Hagar. Despite petty jealousy, human frailty, getting it wrong, giving up hope, God somehow works through this and redeems the situation, redeems life. New understanding and new life come. I am choosing to be encouraged by this and I hope you will also.

Peace be with you.

Much love, Nick

Genesis 18:1-15; Matthew 9:35-10:8

Whatever you do don’t laugh! Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you know you’re not supposed to laugh but you just can’t help it? In a scene reminiscent of countless school assemblies where the headteacher calls out the names of people who are laughing, Sarah denies she was laughing. “It wasn’t me!” “Oh, yes it was,” comes the reply.

It was funny, but like school humour can be, also cruel. Promising Sarah a baby when she and Abraham are ‘old, advanced in age.’ Something Sarah had been longing for. The idea was ridiculous even when she shouldn’t have been listening in. It must have seen an impossibility for Sarah, and I wonder if the disciple/apostles offered a similar response when Jesus said to them: ‘Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.’ Yeah right, Jesus. Matthew does not record the disciples’ response but at the very least they must have wondered whether such a thing was possible for them. Fine for Jesus, but for them?

With Sarah the birth didn’t happen immediately – it took, I assume, nine months. Matthew’s record of Jesus talking to the disciples is a remembering set down for the early church (We hear Judas listed as one of the 12 apostles and described as the one who betrayed him – the ‘audience’ of the gospel already know the story). Perhaps then this account from Matthew is a remembering that sets out something like a manifesto for the early church. They are to carry on the mission of Christ. They are to proclaim the kingdom is present (at hand/near/within). Like Sarah, this takes time and the seemingly impossible is not accomplished overnight.

Worshipping together in a church building, singing hymns is an impossibility for us at the present time but that will change – even if it takes 9 months. The impossible, unlikely might seem laughable or even cruel at times. Yet God sits in the midst of all of this. The mission of the church has grown – starting out with the lost sheep of the house of Israel – the mission, our understanding and context has grown and changed. We are still called to point out the kingdom, to be healers, challengers of evil, and to do so freely with hope recognising the grace and hope we have received in Christ.

The blessing of a child for Abraham and Sarah comes after their generous hospitality to the strangers. One of the consequences of the global pandemic is that we have all been chucked out of our church buildings, but we are finding different ways to meet, to be church. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is nudging us. We have tended to think of mission in terms of getting people (especially young people) to come to ‘our church.’ We can’t do that. This is an opportunity to ask about our calling. Rather than asking questions like ‘what are the barriers that stop people coming to church’ perhaps we need to be asking questions like ‘what are the barriers to the mission of the church?’ Consider where Jesus spends his time and focus. It is those on the ‘outside’, those in need.

We need to learn from the ‘black lives matter’ movement. The kingdom is at hand amongst those who are experiencing oppression, those who are beset by the evils of racism rooted in our structures, those who are struggling to put food on the table because of the way society is organised. For the church to be truly church, we need to seek out the help of such people, to listen and act. The barriers that exist in our society not only bar people from fair access to education, healthcare, jobs, justice etc but are also barriers to the ‘privileged’ joining in the kingdom – look where Jesus meets conflict in the gospels. In churches we have often seen ourselves as the host inviting others in, but in Christ we see the kingdom revealed in those whoare on the ‘margins’ and perhaps we need to think of ourselves as guests amongst those on the margins. In so doing we begin to discover the kingdom afresh, pointing it out, and will be enriched.

Freely offered hospitality, free giving shapes the church and in our suffering of not being able to meet together there is an opportunity to remember our calling. We cannot go back from here, only forward. There is a huge task ahead for the church – impossible? I don’t mind if you laugh because I certainly do, but do also remember God’s response ‘Is anything to wonderful for the Lord?’

Peace be with you

With love, Nick

Trinity Sunday (Genesis 1:1-2:4, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20)

George Floyd was a human being, not perfect, but human, like you and me. Part of God’s creation. His unjust, untimely death has once again caused anger, sadness, questions about individuals and society. There is something here that feels so fundamentally wrong; yet, perhaps we feel somewhat distant from it all. We are not. Bias, perceptions, assumptions rest within all of us. Like an iceberg much of this is hidden even from ourselves. Jesus was excellent at sifting through and highlighting assumptions and bias. The privileged who sought to keep others at arms length, the assumption that somehow others were different, less human. Jesus met this head on and paid with his life.

In Christ, God plunges headlong into this messy, broken world not to condemn the world but that all might have life and have it in abundance. Jesus shows us what it is to be truly human. Through the Spirit we are gifted the invitation and opportunity to join in with this divine humanity, to live in Christ.

In the Church’s calendar it is Trinity Sunday. The idea of Trinity can lead us into the convulsions of Greek philosophy and vain attempts to illustrate what we mean – not easy when we are trying to say something about infinite mystery! Living in Scotland I have now discovered the ideal phrase that is a suitable response to the entanglement of Greek philosophers: ‘Dinnae fash yersel!’

Having said that I note another helpful phrase contained in the Methodist Worship Book: ‘In faith let us pray to God our Father, in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.’ These are the opening words for the prayers of intercession (Holy Communion, third order, ordinary seasons). In the preceding service we use the phrase ‘God our Father and our Mother’ in the prayer of thanksgiving before sharing the bread and wine. Addressing God as Father and Mother is something, as Methodists, we affirm.

We are praying to God who is infinite, beyond our understanding, creator. We address God in terms of a relationship (Mother/Father) which draws deeper into God – the trinity is relationship. We pray in the name of his son (relationship), Jesus Christ. Jesus is the tangible, the knowable, the example, the beginning and end. Through the gospels we can see Jesus and get to know him even as we are fully known. This becomes the lens through which we relate to God, scripture, the world, one another, ourselves. When we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, we are immersing ourselves in the Jesus story, in the life of Christ. We are able to pray (and live and move and have our being) through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the life of God breathing within us and all people, all creation.

We don’t need to be able to explain but simply in faith, pray. As we pray, we immerse ourselves in relationship with God, with one another (church), with the world, with those in particular need. In the grace of this relationship we are able to face our own shortcomings and challenge the privilege, the assumptions that seek to work against creation. The police officer who kneeled on the neck of George Floyd for 9 minutes somehow thought that was ok (as did the others watching). Such actions and the attitudes that underlie them must be called out as Jesus did in his day. There is a righteous anger that is appalled that such a thing has happened (again!), anger at an attitude that allows the dehumanising of one by another because of the colour of skin. But we cannot allow our anger to become hatred recognising the Police Officers are also human beings, imperfect like you and me, part of God’s creation. It is immensely sad that in perceiving another as somehow less human, it is actually the police officers who, in their destruction, attack their own humanity. Justice is necessary, redemption is possible.

We have been created in the image of a beautiful God. When that creation is attacked and destroyed, Jesus shows us the way, demanding justice tempered by mercy. The gracious act of resurrection offers new life and hope. Flowing from that, God breathes in our lives and the life of the world strengthening us to confront ourselves and our communities as we seek divine humanity for all.

May the blessing of God disturb and encourage us, the justice and mercy of Christ reign in our hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit send us out with energy and peace to live and work in the world.

With love, Nick

CALL TO PRAYER: SUNDAY 7th June (Trinity Sunday) Prayer @ 7pm

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We are familiar with the words of Scripture that remind us that ‘now we see in a mirror dimly’ and we might think that these words are especially applicable to our present times. As our society continues in the journey out of Lockdown, there are many things that we know only in part. We trust that greater clarity will be given in times to come. That said, there are some things that are clear and which our faith affirms to be so. In the Gospel of Matthew (28: 16-20), the disciples gather in the presence of the Risen Lord who assures them that in all they now face: ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’. The Gospel affirms that the life of God has been shared with us in the revelation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that our lives are to be lived out in the enduring presence of God.

Knowing this to be so, we pray:

God whose name is Love,
You make yourself known to us
As the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sustain us in the knowledge of your love through the times in which we live.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God whose love endures,
May we hear the words of your Son
That echo down the ages:
I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God whose love is generous,
You gift to us your Holy Spirit,
The very giver of Life.
Renew our lives and the life of the community in which we share.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God whose love is steadfast,
You know us as we are for you have made us.
In your compassion, be with all who struggle and grieve at this time.
Remember them and hold them safe in your keeping.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God whose love is from everlasting to everlasting,
Give strength to the weary and power to the weak,
That we might renew our strength
And soar on wings like eagles.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God whose love inspires,
May we love you with all that we are
And love our neighbour in response to your love.
Through our service of others, may your love be revealed.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Signed by:

•  Rt. Rev. Dr Martin Fair, Moderator of the General Assembly, Church of Scotland
•  Most Rev. Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Roman Catholic Church
•  Most Rev. Mark Strange, Primus, on behalf of the College of Bishops, Scottish Episcopal Church
•  Rev. John Fulton, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland
•  Rev. Dr David Pickering, Moderator, United Reformed Church (Scotland)
•  Rev. Martin Hodson, General Director, Baptist Union of Scotland
•  Rev. Mark Slaney, District Chair, Methodist Church (Scotland)
•  Rev. May-Kane Logan, Chair, Congregational Federation in Scotland
•  Lt. Col. Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army
•  Adwoa Bittle, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
•  Rev. Jim Ritchie, District Superintendent, British Isles North District, Church of the Nazarene
•  Pastor Chris Gbenle, Provincial Pastor, Province of Scotland, Redeemed Christian Church of God
•  Bishop Francis Alao, Church of God (Scotland)/Minority Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland (MECTIS)
•  Rev Fred Drummond, Director, Evangelical Alliance (Scotland)