Advent Wreath (Kids' Talk)

[Advent 1]

Focusing on one of the symbolic elements of the Advent Wreath, this week the candles. Start off noticing the elements of the wreath: circular, greenery, 4/5 candles.

Light a candle: what could it mean?
How many weeks until Christmas? We light an extra one each week
Why? As we get closer to Christmas.
Why? Jesus as the light of the world. Or, lighting our way to the Christ child is an alternative explanation.

Suspicious Minds

It is a feature of our world to be suspicious. Some might say overly suspicious. In particular, we are suspicious of motives and what lies behind the facade of human behaviour and intention. And in this schema of suspicion it is power and coercion - ultimately violence - that is assumed to be behind all human activity. (Nietzsche casts a long shadow here.) From a traditional Christian point of view, this is not as far off the mark as it may at first seem. The universality of sin means that all human behaviour and intention is mired in a cul-de-sac of failure. We too are suspicious of all discourses (although this does not mean human goodness is absent, but just that it is never pristine). But Christian theology also claims a uniqueness for Christ: he is not impeded by original sin. Here we meet one of the points of conflict between traditional belief and a more post-modern version of Christianity. I don't think the doctrine of the Incarnation is about power and coercion, but many lump it with all the other ideologies of the world. I think Christ was truly for us, just as God is for us, and only for us. Christ has opened up for us a new and living way within history that leads beyond it (but never deserting it), and overcomes all violence. And this is spelt out (amongst other doctrines) in the Incarnation.

[See David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite, pp. 1-2. The picture above is of Nietzsche. It is easier to see here.]

Surrender

Dear God,
We loosen our grip.
We open our hand.
We are accepting.
In our empty hand
We feel the shape
Of simple eternity.
It nestles there.
We hold it gently.
We are accepting.
Amen.

Salvation In Time, Not an Escape From It

The pagan corollary to a "spiritual salvation" is salvation as an escape from history, indeed, from the rest of creation. If Christianity means anything its meaning must be present in history. This is why the Bible is so material and historical. God's goodness comes to us in history, from creation, through covenant and finally in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is material, historical, and a legitimate Christian theology will never disavow this. This means that the salvation won in Christ is not an escape from history, but takes creation and its history into God. Herein lies the transformation of resurrection, and this for everything that is.

Seven Stanzas at Easter

Make no mistake: If He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that - pierced - died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.


John Updike

You Meet Jesus When You Meet ...?

This is the kids' talk I used for Matt 25:31-46.

I had 7 slides: a bishop, a baby, prisoner, church congregation, refugee camp, big, happy family, Mother Teresa.

The gist of the sermon: scrolled through the slides asking if you met these people, would you be meeting Jesus? i.e. Jesus present in them. The kids got it easily, the answer to all of them, yes.

Then we went through each one, and they had to decide which one especially was Jesus present in. The kids here went for baby/family. I reiterated the point that Jesus is with all of them, but that Jesus thought he was especially present to the prisoner, the refugee, etc.

Resurrection of the Body

One of the first sermons I delivered at Holy Innocents touched on the resurrection of the body. A theme I have continued in preaching and teaching since because of the dominance of a spiritualized (and essentially pagan) understanding of eternal life. Whatever the bodily resurrection of Jesus means for us (and I don't mean this in an agnostic way - there is much we can say about the resurrection of Jesus and its implications) it doesn't mean that souls zoom off to heaven permanently. The immediate response to this traditional claim is often one of two:

• But I don't want to live for ever in this old broken body! or
• So where is my deceased loved one now?

My initial response to each is:

• The resurrection of the body is not the continuation of this life but its transformation. It is not just a continuation of this life after the interruption of death is overturned by God in eternal life.
• The death of a loved one is a time of grief and hope. This is a good place to do some theological work, but this work must be done in the light of revelation if it is to be a Christian grappling with the intensity of life (and death). The bodily resurrection of Jesus is part of this original revelation.

If we dispense with the resurrection of the body, the doctrine of the Incarnation and sacramental theology become superfluous, bordering on nonsensical. There is a thread of continuity and coherence strung from creation, Incarnation, resurrection of the body and sacraments.

The Theo(il)logical Gospel

The gospel of Jesus stands out against all the 'logics' of the world. In this sense, the gospel is illogical. For example, a king born amongst the dung; a local king (Herod) willing to kill the children of a whole area to snuff out a nobody; the Christ who is a refugee; a Christ who calls sinners to be his disciples; the crucified Christ; and the unity of cross and resurrection, a gospel that never leaves behind the cross of Jesus in favour of his resurrection; a messiah known most easily in history in the form of the hungry and imprisoned. The gospel just doesn't fit our usual perceptions. And this alerts us to the perennial danger for disciples and churches, the temptation to domesticate the gospel (by making it more 'logical' and 'reasonable') because of the discomfort the mismatch provides. The temptation is to either change/ignore bits of the gospel or fib about our humanity (in all its glory and depravity). So how do we prevent this, as much as possible anyway? A couple of points:

• Be suspicious of glib or simplistic answers. Seek the simplicity on the other side of complexity, which means we will have to spend time working the issue, content to keep working it until it yields.
  
• Be suspicious of glib theology. The kind of thing that slices off aspects of the gospel that don't 'fit'. Examples abound, but the usual targets of this trimming are the bits about peace and justice (in favour of an evangelism exclusively), and the traditional parts that make Jesus Lord, messiah, Son of God, etc (in favour of the social activist Jesus who is only a role model of social justice or teacher of wisdom).
  
• Be honest about our humanity, and our common experience of humanity as we currently experience it. Let's not hide the brokenness, but not wallow in it. This is important, because our actual humanity was made for the full gospel. Lose one and the other won't make sense.
  

[For Christ the King, Matt 25:31-46, and Holy Innocents Patronal Festival. It happens to fit into our parish calendar well at the moment, but theologically contrasts the two styles of kingship: violence and peace.]

Ministered To By Angels

My Year 7 RE class saw the contrast between the desolation of the cross, and the artist's depiciton of God's presence during the dying.

The Beginning of the Doctrine of the Trinity

I asked my Year 7 RE class if they knew any of the words Jesus spoke on the cross. A few answers, and then I mentioned, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And one student asked, "But wasn't Jesus God?" Ah, indeed he was. And this 12 year old made the first step along the path that leads to the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Shock of the Incarnation

My Year 7 RE class were shocked by this. Silent. I said that when God became human this is the result. A God who joins the millions of the tortured. And when Jesus is resurrected this is God's 'No' to the violence, and a 'Yes' of life to all the tortured.

Contemplating the Descent to Hell

Jesus Came To Save (Kids' Talk)

[I'm using some model dinosaurs my brother and I made when we were kids.]

The point of the sermon is to make the connection between how I have looked after the models all these years because I made them, and how God intends to keep everything that God has made as well. Not lose any of it. That's the point of Jesus.

Points to emphasise: I made the models, a lot of time and effort, painted them etc., and I have carefully kept them in this box all these years. As I have moved from house to house, carefully they have been moved as well.

Parallel: God made everything, carefully, loves everything, and does not intend to lose any of it. In fact, God wants to bring it all home, back to God. That is why God sent Jesus.

Jesus, the Source of Salvation

Now, this is perhaps going to sound a little underwhelming, but Jesus is meant to be the source of salvation. "For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1Thess 5:9) The logical obverse of this is the possibility of 'wrath', but Christianity does not present salvation and 'wrath' as two equal pathways, one of which must be chosen when you get to the fork in the road. Christianity's hope is that all will be saved. (Rom 5:12-21; 1Tim 2:4) And if we think of this in terms of 'the fork in the road', the two possibilities are not equally weighted. Jesus Christ makes the path to salvation heavily weighted in our favour. The superabundance of God's love in Christ overshadows the estrangement of creation. Could God even save me? Yes, in Christ, even me. (This is the point to start reflection upon sin and salvation, and the possibility of either.) Christ forgave sinners, and, as he pointed out, all sin. (John 8:1-11)

However, this is our hope. It is not a tenet of belief. There is just too much in Scripture (much of it straight from Jesus) and the experience of our own perversity that must leave open the possibility of damnation. For those who pay lip service to Christianity's hope of universal salvation while emphasizing judgment and 'wrath', the shock of the Jesus who calls sinners as disciples (Lk 5:27-28), ate with them (Lk 5:29-31), forgave them (Lk 7:36-50), and told parables about them (Lk 15), needs to sink into the bones once again. And by this I mean deep into ourselves, to know our perversity and the grace that heals, and from there reacquaint ourselves with grace. The superabundance of grace. For those who have forgotten that there remains a fork in the road, it is important to remember Bonhoeffer's teaching about cheap and costly grace.

But what if we were to hang onto our hope that all will be saved, but through costly grace? It seems to me that those who hold to the hope of universal salvation have a tendency toward cheap grace. Let's put our hope in God's power through Christ and the Spirit to change the human heart, and even when the human heart remains cold, let us hope in the Christ who has harrowed hell itself. And in this hope preach and live a costly grace, and still hang onto the hope of St Paul himself.

Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:18-19)

Taking the Sting Out of Apocalyptic (and the Meaning From Christianity)

Taking my previous post a little further, it would seem to me that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to extract the message from apocalyptic and retain the important stuff embedded in it. I would like to suggest that whether we like it or not, we have to remain in contact with the apocalyptic form in which we have received the Christian faith. Indeed, the relationship betwen Jesus and apocalyptic is not just receptacle to content, but is, in places, so close to make the distinction void.

The urgent preparation of apocalyptic is a case in point. I mentioned in the previous post that those who rid themselves of the second coming of Christ seem less urgent than the texts assume. Indeed, without the second coming we start to ask what exactly we are meant to be ready for. And that's when some people say death. True enough, but on its own hardly the gospel. Apocalyptic is a cosmic vision of God's completion of history, and is not an individualistic cry for immortality. We might struggle with the sun falling out of the sky type apocalyptic, but it is easy to see that the vision is cosmic in stretch. Preparing for one's own death, laudable as it is, and even necessary, is not the comprehensive vision of the end we see in the resurrection of Jesus.

So, in the same way we are not meant to read off some kind of 'wisdom' from the story of Jesus, such that we no longer need the original story, some kind of spiritual insight is not to be drawn out of apocalyptic such that we no longer need keep in contact with the original texts and their apocalypticism.

[The picture is the grotto of John of Patmos.]

Being Ready (Kids' Talk)

[Matthew 25:1-13.]

What are some things you have to be ready for?

Possible answers if they don't come up with many:

• catching the bus: be at the bus stop waiting for it
• the thief who might steal the car (have a steering lock)
• birthday party (balloons, hats, games, food and drink)

How do we get ready for these things?

There is something else we have to be ready for. Jesus bringing in the kingdom. How are we meant to be ready?

Finish with the Prayer Book, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again" if you like.

On Remaining Apocalyptic (somehow)

It is easy to dismiss apocalyptic in the Bible. Just as easy as it is to think it applies literally. Perhaps there is another way. Take Matt 25:1-13. (This parable, while not necessarily all that apocalyptic, occurs within the apocalyptic discourse of the Matthean Jesus. See Matt Cc 24-25.) The parable is, at the very least, enjoining readiness upon the disciples. Be ready for the Son of Man's return. The readiness referred to here is living the life of discipleship. (There is a parallel here between the wise and foolish virgins and the wise and foolish men of Matt 7:24-27, especially vs 24 - "hears and acts on them".) Be a disciple who hears and acts now. It seems to me that it is very easy in life to forget the urgency of the call to obedient discipleship. Apocalyptic, for all its problems, retains this, and it seems to me that those who take apocalyptic seriously, no matter how repugnant some other aspects of apocalyptic, are much more urgent than the more 'progressive' view of the life of discipleship. The progressives (of which I am one) have a tendency to look at the life of discipleship over an anticipated lifetime. Hardly urgent.

So what is it that we find problematic in apocalyptic? It is bit on the black and white side, over the top interventionist, and bound up in a three tiered universe. The destruction wrought seems a bit excessive to say the least, and the events that bring the End seem so perfectly timed and coordinated. However, let us not mistake the form (the features above) for the content. Some of what I might label the content includes: readiness (as above), God's plan for salvation, the need for evil (yes, evil) to be dealt with, and perhaps most importantly, the coming of God's kingdom is not a nice, smooth development from history to kingdom, but brings with it a massive interruption of things as they are and the usual expectations of the future. It is God's kingdom that comes, and while God may use us and our work now as building blocks of this kingdom, it is entirely new and surprising. The question is, however, can we retain all this content in a new form? (That is, in a non-apocalyptic form?) I remain unconvinced.

All Souls (Kids' Talk)

Where do people go when they die? To heaven? Where is that? ....

Better way to think of it: when people die, who are they going to be with? (Possible answers: God, Jesus, a loved one)

Jesus. And where Jesus is, that's where God is. Those who die are with Jesus and with God. Joining Jesus with God. Like they are brothers and sisters with Jesus.