Tag: humility

Sunday 3rd January 2021

This week’s reflection for The Epiphany comes from our Assistant Priest.

Reflection

One of the things I really appreciate about living where I do is how clear the sky can be at night. Towards the end of this past year people’s attention was drawn to the night sky because of the possibility of witnessing the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on 21st December. Unfortunately, for us that evening was overcast and wet with no chance of seeing the event. However, people in other parts of the world did witness the single bright object that was created by these planets passing close together in the night sky. Because it happened so close to Christmas it has been called the Christmas or Bethlehem star. In fact, some scholars have theorized that the original Christmas star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, might also have been a great conjunction although other theories say it may have been a supernova explosion or comet. Whatever it was, it was so spectacular that it led the wise men to leave their homes and make what must have been a treacherous journey to where it led – a simple manger in Bethlehem and the Christ child.

Who were these people who abandoned everything to follow a star not knowing where it would lead?

Matthew tells us very little about them. We don’t actually know their names – it was the Venerable Bede who named them Caspar, Melchior & Balthasar. They are most usually described as wise men or Magi, the Magi being the Zoroastrian priests of the ancient Medes and Persians; men who studied the heavens and explored astrology.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the Magi but what it does tell us is important. It tells us that they were from foreign lands – Gentiles. Jesus came to save not just Israel but the world and here is the first evidence of that. We don’t even know how many Magi there actually were, Matthew only states that ‘wise men from the east came to Jerusalem’, but we know exactly what they gave to Jesus – gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Why does Matthew go to the trouble of identifying these specific gifts? One possibility is to demonstrate that this event fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy:   

A multitude of camels shall cover you,

the young camels of Midian and Ephah;

all those from Sheba shall come.

They shall bring gold and frankincense,

and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

However, if this was Matthew’s only reason for mentioning the gifts, why include myrrh? It’s not mentioned in any prophecy so why didn’t he just say gold, frankincense and other gifts?

Each is mentioned because each of these gifts has a very special significance.

Each of the gifts the wise men brought revealed something about who Jesus was and what he came to do. The gold shows that Jesus came to rule the hearts of people as the King of kings. The frankincense speaks of Jesus’ role as our great high priest making offerings for the faithful and that Jesus came as God in the flesh – the object of our worship. The myrrh reminds us that Jesus came to die for the sins of the world. All three of the gifts foreshadowed both Jesus’ life and death.

But this was not all that the wise sages brought to the manger, for they came to give, not just their treasures to the infant Christ, but to give of themselves. They made no requests, plied him with no questions, and bombarded him with no woes, troubles or complaints. They asked nothing of him – nothing that a child couldn’t give. Yet they left content. Their journey, harsh though it must have been, had been everything for which they had hoped.

Christina Rossetti, in that beautiful hymn, In the Bleak Midwinter, wrote:

What can I give him poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb

If I were a wise man I would do my part

Yet what can I give him, give my heart.

How often do we simply bring our love and our treasures to God? Part of our spiritual maturing is to learn to relax in God’s presence, to enjoy the company and fellowship he gives and to experience the intimate joy of silence that exists between really close friends. That’s when he will speak and we’ll be able to hear because we won’t be cluttering up the airwaves with an interminable monologue of petitions and pleas.

God is present to support and guide all those who listen to his word and who look for the light he gives in the lives of his saints and in the stars of the heavens themselves.

The challenge in front of each of us is to make each breathing moment a gift worth giving to the King.

The Magi have shown in what spirit we must take up our own personal pilgrimage. By their humility, their willing obedience, they encourage us all to worship in spirit and in truth.

God gave himself to us because he loves us. May his love be reflected in our lives as we worship him with all that we have and in all that we say and do; that’s our gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Amen.

Sunday 18th October 2020

A reflection for the Feast of St Luke & Health Care Sunday from Jane, our curate.

Reflection

If I said to you, what do Sean Connery, Pam Ayres and Bugs Bunny have in common?…………….

You might guess it’s that they all have strong regional accents that make them distinctive. Sean Connery was apparently advised to ditch his Edinburgh accent early on in his career, but wisely refused. Pam Ayres has become known for her warm self-mocking Berkshire accent. Something important would be lost if she lost her accent. And as for the thought of Bugs Bunny saying ‘What’s up doc?’ without his Brooklyn, New York accent! Unthinkable!

Do you have an accent? Is it the accent of where you originated or where you live now? Or perhaps a mixture? Are there certain words you say that reveal where you are from?

Our accents reveal that there are differences between us. We have different cultures and we sound different, based on where we have lived and where our family has lived. In today’s gospel passage Jesus sends out 70 disciples to those who are different to them.

He has been in the area of Galilee in the north and he is headed for Judea in the south. To people who have not yet heard his message. And he sends the seventy disciples on ahead of him. To a people who are different in many ways. Racially, culturally, economically, politically, and linguistically different. The people in Judea spoke Aramaic differently to those in Galilee.                                                               

Jesus says they are to stay in the houses of those they meet. Remaining there, not flitting from one house to another. The direction to eat whatever is put in front of them is particularly telling.

Perhaps you were told as a child, ‘I expect you to finish everything on your plate’ or if you went to a friend’s house, told before you went that you must ‘eat whatever they give you’?

I must admit that going to friend’s houses when I was a child often seemed like an indulgence. My Mum was determined we would eat healthily. It was rather frustrating for us children. Rarely did a can of coke or a bag of crisps cross our threshold. Whereas some of my friend’s parents were much more relaxed about this. I remember going to one friend’s for tea. Her Mum warming up a tin of spaghetti alphabet letters in tomato sauce and giving us that on toast. I thought it was delicious.

On returning home I declared that all that fussing about with fresh vegetables was not necessary as you could get a perfectly tasty meal out of a tin and save yourself lots of bother! Needless to say, no tins of spaghetti letters appeared in our larder.

By Jesus encouraging them to eat what is put in front of them, he is saying building relationships with those who are different is much more important than maintaining purity codes. Jews had strict rules about what they were to eat and not to eat but Jesus looks beyond these. He sends out the disciples to proclaim that the ‘kingdom of God has come near’ to those they encounter. He sends them to show what the kingdom of God is like and not to enforce purity laws. The kingdom of God is not about keeping laws to be pure enough to please God. It’s about God’s love and justice flourishing in the lives of all. With all of our differences and despite all our flaws.

What must it have been like for the disciples to go empty handed and rely on the hospitality of others? No bag, no purse, no sandals. They are sent to serve, yet they are to be supported by those they serve. They are to rely on those they stay with. This requires humility. There is to be mutuality in their relationships.

Are our relationships with those we serve marked by mutuality? Jesus’s disciples are to receive as well as give, to build relationships of mutuality and respect and this requires humility. 

The disciples are to go to those who are different, not to stay in their huddle. They are to go with humility and what are they to do? Jesus sends them to cure the sick and to bring peace.                           These are the actions of those who go to proclaim the Kingdom of God has come near. They remind us that God cares for the physical and mental wellbeing of all.

God cares about our bodies and minds. God calls us to care about the bodies and minds of others. Sometimes we can be overly focused on our minds. Or we may think that God is only concerned about souls. Our faith is an embodied faith. Jesus gave his body and his blood. We take communion with our hands and eat the body of Christ which then becomes part of us and we part of Christ. God cares about bodies and we are called to care about them too.                                       

This Sunday, we are marking the feast day of St Luke, believed to be the author the gospel of Luke and of the book of Acts. As I’m sure you know well, Luke was a physician as well as a companion of Paul who worked alongside Paul in his missions. Luke brings a unique perspective to gospel writing. His gospel reveals that outcasts, the poor, those rejected by society are precious to God. His is the only gospel to include two of our best-known parables, the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. He knows we can walk by on the other side as religious leaders do in the parable of the good Samaritan when a man’s body is wounded and needs care and healing. And he knows that like the prodigal son we can wander far from God and expect that God won’t want us close.

The opposite is true. God’s infinite unconditional love reaches out to us and to all. Including to those who are different to us. To those who look, sound, and behave differently. We are called to reflect that changeless compassionate love. To care for the minds and bodies of others in whatever way we can in our times.                                                

This healthcare Sunday we are filled with gratitude for the many healthcare workers in the NHS and other organisations who have worked with skill, courage and compassion in recent months and continue to do so. And we are reminded that God cares for minds and bodies and we are called to play our part in promoting the wellbeing of others. We may not be healthcare workers but we can offer kindness, friendship, a listening ear, a thoughtful act, a practical kind of love that blesses those we encounter. And as we offer this in humility, we may find that it is us who are blessed.

This morning, let us thank God for Luke, for all who work for our health and wellbeing.  And let us pray for the grace to play our part in the wellbeing of all the people God loves. Amen.                                                     

Sunday 27th September

Simon’s reflection for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost

What do you find encouraging in today’s readings? I invite you just for a moment to reread the verses of the letter to the Philippians, verses 5 – 11; the ones that begin: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus….” There, have you read them? Good, then I’ll continue.

Now, I’m no biblical scholar and I don’t know enough to assess the different arguments among scholars about biblical texts. I do however believe that understanding the bible properly and with the help of good scholarship can strengthen our faith rather than weaken it, but what I want to say is what I know of that passage deepens my faith and is something that really encourages me. I’ll tell you why but first a bit of background.

The letter to the Philippians may consist of 3 letters put together. The letter or letters were written around the mid-50s AD, around 20 odd years after the death and resurrection of our Lord. Paul is writing them from prison, probably in Ephesus, and his purpose is partly to encourage the Christians of Philippi to bear with the sufferings they face and to see God at work through them, just as Paul, as a prisoner, is doing.

Many people think that the verses you read at the beginning were part of a hymn that was known by Christians at the time. There is a theory that this hymn was written in Aramaic, the language Jesus would have spoken. Paul of course wrote in Greek. Whether the words were written in Aramaic or whether St Paul composed it, I do not know, but, here’s what I’m trying to write about, what I find amazing is the things those Christians believed about the man, Jesus of Nazareth, so soon after his death!

Of what human being would anyone say that they were in the form of God and had some sort of equality with God; that they “emptied themselves” first by being born, which implies that they existed with God before birth and secondly by dying on a cross? To what human being would God give all power and authority? How did these first Christians come to believe such remarkable things about a human being? What had happened to make them believe such things?

Now some may say that people believed all sorts of things in those days. Well yes that is true. Other ancient cultures were inclined to call their ceasars or their pharoahs or their emperors  “gods” but I don’t know of an example from antiquity of anyone describing a convicted criminal as a god, do you? After all, one of the main things that is corroborated about Jesus’ life outside the bible is that he died on a cross. Jesus suffered a humiliating and degrading criminal’s death; the ancient equivalent of the scaffold or the electric chair!  I suspect those who died in such a way in those times would normally be thought of as life’s losers rather than “gods.”

Moreover, the people who first started thinking these things about Jesus were not Greeks or Egyptians or Babylonians but Jews. They were steeped in a culture which didn’t accept that men or women were “gods.” They had a strong history of opposing idolatry. Their own kings, even the greatest ones like David and Solomon, were not described as gods in the bible but, rather as very fallible human beings.

So, I still find it amazing. Something must have happened which made those people believe such things and I believe that something was the resurrection.

Paul says that the power that was in Christ can be in us. So while he is asking the Phillipians to imitate Christ’s humility and self-sacrifice, he is also saying more than that. “Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus” He speaks of the sharing of the Holy Spirit among Christians. He is saying that God can form us into more Christ-like people and a more Christ-like community, if we let Him.

Now perhaps in a way that can sometimes be even more difficult to believe, that God can be at work within us especially when we get things wrong so often.

But it does say that Christian discipleship is about more than simply being loving and kind to one another. It is definitely about that, but in order to do that we need to believe and trust in the one who emptied Himself out of love for us. We need to work at loving our neighbour and loving God at the same time as they both feed into each other. We need to let Jesus teach us what genuine love and genuine authority are and we need to learn from him.

Maybe discipleship is a bit like learning to dance. To do it well we need to learn and practice the steps but who wants to dance without music? Our relationship with God is the music. Amen.