A Little Acolyte Verve

World-Wide Mission (Lent Study Week 2, 2013)

Peter Baptising Cornelius by Francesco Trevisani

A. Mission and Missionaries

Some passages you could check out in Luke-Acts

• Luke 3:4-6 all flesh
• 4:18-20 the Spirit of the Lord, justice
• Luke 10 the harvest is plentiful but labourers are few
• Luke 15 lost sheep, lost coin
• 19:10  to seek out and save the lost
• 24:44-49 repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations
• Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses .. to the ends of the earth
• Acts 10 conversion of Cornelius, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.
• Acts 15 the Council of Jerusalem (compare with Galatians 2:11-14)
• Acts 28 gospel has reached even Rome

When you think of the mission of Jesus/the church/you yourself what do you think of?

B. Acts 10: The Ins and Outs of Community

Acts 10:9-16

10:28 God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean

10:34-35 God shows no partiality

10:36 Israel, peace by Jesus Christ, Lord of all

10:37 that message spread

10:39 we are witnesses

10:43 everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name

10:44 the indiscriminate Spirit! And baptism

1.We are tempted to think that it is relatively easy for a community to remain faithful to its identity (current and historical) and let in new people. But how easy is it really? (Think about the functions of a ‘tribe’ psychologically and sociologically, both positive and negative.) It is easy for members of a community to mask an attitude of assimilation into the existing ‘culture’ of a community with the belief that we are open to new people in our community. When people join an existing community change happens - for the community and for those who join.

How well do we negotiate this tricky boundary at the local church? 

 Where are the points where we need to grow or change? And how might we do that?

2.We take the freedom of the gospel  and its call to break down the barriers separating people for granted after centuries of its inner dynamic shaping Western culture. Some now wonder how it was that people didn’t see this freedom before and act on it. Some wonder if the gospel is now superfluous given that the ethnic and discriminatory barriers between people can be rationally unmasked and dismantled. But is it really that simple? Is it that simple in your life? Without the gospel working over the millennia, would our freedoms have been possible? And what about the future?

Some Study Notes and Questions on the Temptations of Jesus

Some notes and questions on Luke 4:1-13 that I will be using in the Lenten study this week.

1. The temptations of Jesus in the desert are not a chance meeting between Jesus and the devil, and they are not at the instigation of the devil. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert.
Q: Why are the temptations instigated by the Spirit? Why is it necessary for Jesus to be tempted?

2. Forty days recalls the forty years of the desert wanderings of the people of Israel after their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Unlike the people of Israel, Jesus renounces the temptation to idolatry and lack of trust in the faithfulness of God.  

Q: How has your trust in and faithfulness to God gone in the desert times or places of your life? 

 3. Jesus refutes the promptings of the devil by citing Scripture. The devil gets the hang of this and uses Scripture to justify the third and final temptation.
Q: How do you feel about the devil’s ability to use scripture? How do we stop the misuse of scripture? What does this tell us about how to use scripture?

Temptation of Jesus by Michael Hudak

 4. “... until an opportune time.” (4:13) The opportune time will be the Passion of Jesus. (See Lk 22:3) The Passion will be the final proving ground of the Son; in the cross the true sonship of Jesus will be revealed.

Q: Opportune in what way?

5. Commentators like to call the temptations of Jesus programmatic. By this they mean that the temptations reveal something about the whole ministry of Jesus, his death and resurrection.
Q: If you were to write a similar account of the three programmatic temptations of your life, what would they be? (One will do if you can’t think of three.)

Quote for Reflection

Crucifixion by Richard Wallace

The Roman captain asks Lavinia, a young Christian, why she is willing to die as a martyr.

THE CAPTAIN: Are you then going to die for nothing?

LAVINIA: Yes, that is the wonderful thing. It is since all the stories and dreams have gone that I have now no doubt at all that I must die for something greater than dreams or stories.

THE CAPTAIN: But for what?

LAVINIA: I don’t know. If it were for anything small enough to know, it would be too small to die for. I think I’m going to die for God. Nothing else is real enough to die for.

George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion (Act II)

Quoted in Paul Harris, (ed.), The Fire of Silence and Stillness,  p. 168.

Temptations of Jesus Luke 4:1-13

Jesus Tempted, by Chris Cook

"If you are the Son of God..." Luke has just emphasised for the reader the sonship of Jesus. (Lk 3:22; 3:23-38) Not so much trying to sow doubt in the mind of Jesus. More like, "Because you are the Son of God, think of the possibilities ... "  So what's wrong with making some bread out of stones? A bit showy, granted, but nothing like jumping off a tall building (the last temptation). If resisting this first temptation is to be programmatic, as commentators like to call the temptations, then I would like to suggest that the temptation itself must be more serious than unnecessary (private) showmanship, and more serious than Jesus listening to his belly too much. There is something else going on here.  When our needs aren't met as usual, all sorts of fears and aggravations appear within us. Jesus' reply shows that he resists the temptation by recommitting to God's care for him, more than only his usual needs (like food). God's care will be disclosed to Jesus by being fed(/led) by more than these usual desires. Without overcoming the temptations, it is difficult to imagine Jesus being able to say on the cross: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." (Lk 23:46) 

Twenty years ago I prayed the Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld every day for a year. 

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father. 

I had to stop eventually because I couldn't commit to it; I didn't want to trust God like that, I really wanted my life to be fulfilled by 'bread', health, family, children, wealth, career. Oh dear.

Twenty years later some of the usual desires for my life (listed above) are lost. I have to admit I wouldn't protest if they were magically restored to me.  But the truth is I know I want to live by more than bread alone. (I am not so sure about the cross bit with, "Father, into your hands ..." A bit of a way to go yet. At least I hope so!!)

The Virtue of Patience and the Traditional Church

Do we live in a particularly impatient age? Probably not, patience is a virtue that must be learned, meaning that impatience has not suddenly appeared in the last few years. But do we have the opportunity or necessity of learning to be patient as perhaps people did a thousand years ago? I suspect we do. All technological break-throughs shift the 'locality' where people have to show patience. We don't have to show patience in the same areas of life as did people in 1813, but we still have to show patience. So, for example, I have access to enormous amounts of information in a very short space of time. I don't need to patiently send a letter asking for a document; instead I can pull it up on the internet.    Perhaps - because of the pace of change and technological innovation - in comparison to former generations we are more tempted to think we shouldn't need to be patient, leading to higher levels of impatience. However,  it still takes the same disciplines to be patient now as it did a thousand years ago, and in some areas of our lives nothing has changed, and we must learn patience in exactly the same way as did our forebears.

The seemingly slow pace of personal transformation is one of those areas. There are no shortcuts in the daily dying and rising with Christ. Technology hasn't made this dying and rising any easier than it was a thousand years ago. We still have to learn the same degree of patience with those we live with and love as did people in 1013. We still have to learn that we are not God and therefore we must exercise patience when praying and looking for the kingdom of God.  We still need patience in worship, learning the rhythms of worship and not to manufacture the kingdom now. Welcome to the traditional church.

Transcending Friendship To Be Friendly

Friendship circles are a two edged sword. Friendship builds relations of warmth and intimacy, encourages community and builds a sense of self worth. All good. But friendship can easily exclude. I can't be friends with everyone, and to maintain friendships I spend time with friends more than strangers for our friends, and in conflict take their side rather than the side of a stranger. Friends can make me feel included, but by definition can make others feel excluded. So I can reinforce and strengthen my sense of belonging by excluding others from my friendship circle. But not always of course, and probably rarely consciously. Most of the time I like spending time with my friends: I see them, I go over and talk to them missing the 'other' I walk past to get to the friend. This happens in any group meeting. The meeting closes and we congregate to those we know and enjoy.

A strange paradox for a Christian church is that to be friendly the congregation must transcend friendship. When the liturgy finishes a friendly congregation includes those who might not yet have friends in the congregation. Churches reliant on friendship circles break into groups and have the smell of cliques. Sure, there is nothing wrong with having friends wherever we are. And when we join a new church we might stay because we have made a couple of friends, but at some point we are called beyond friendship to truly include others and break down barriers that might be mirrored in the lines between groups in the church.

I can't think of anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus says we should be friends. He says that he calls us friends and that we should mimic his love for us by loving one another. (John 15:12-17) Our love for one another is found in our unity with Christ. Indeed, the passage just cited follows that great teaching on the vine and its branches where Jesus commands us to abide in him. (See especially John 15:1-11)

Elsewhere Jesus tells us to love our enemies. (Matt 5:43-48) Imagine if your enemy attended the same church as you! What a great opportunity to obey Jesus' command to love as he loved us (see Rom 5:6-11) And what a better picture of the kingdom such a church would be than a church of friends. It would of course be harder work at times, and there would be times when we would prefer the company of our friends at church. But a church that has enemies within it would be a great place to practice one's discipleship.

Introduction to Girard

If you are looking for an introduction to Girard you could catch Brian McLaren's PPT at a recent conference here.

Jonah and Self-Righteousness

In a recent message from Inward/Outward Anne Lamott is quoted, "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." Idolatry and hatred, and idolatry and hatred and self-righteousness work together. Girardian Reflections has some useful comments on tomorrow's readings from the RCL, in particular the thread running through the Jonah story and Jesus' call to repent and believe in the good news.  (Mk 1:15) Jonah, we remember, has fled from the presence of God because he knows God is a God of mercy (4:2) God has relented from judgement against the pagan, idolatrous Nineveh because the Ninevites repented. Jonah's idol is not so merciful. And Jonah would prefer to keep his idol rather than be at the service of the real God. But forced into reluctant service of God's mercy all Jonah can manage is a sulky child's half-hearted effort.

It is interesting to note that Jonah is the one who does not repent by the end of the story; the idolatrous Ninevites do repent. The Book of Jonah is warning us of the idolatry that refuses to allow God's mercy to go where God wishes it to go, and the wilful disobedience that refuses to be a messenger of this mercy. We can read the conflict between Jesus and his opponents in the light of the Book of Jonah. Jesus calls people to repent and believe in the good news of the kingdom, the kingdom of lost sheep, forgiving fathers, good Samaritans, etc. A call to repent of our idolatry that keeps us from embracing the mercy offered to us and spreading the word of that mercy to any who have the ears to listen.

The enemy of faith in the real God has always been idolatry.