A tough passage

"This is a tough passage, and its not easy for us to hear Jesus speaking like this, and I don’t think it was so easy for the disciples either. If you look at the context in v41 – Peter is asking – um – all this stuff about being ready when the Son of Man comes – is that for us, or just for others –‘them’, the hoi polloi? And in answer Jesus tells another tough story about slacking on the job and getting a beating for it…. And you can imagine the look of horror on the disciples faces….. and I can just sense Jesus tearing his hair out, and losing it with them

 

“Look you morons, here am I, terrified of the baptism of death that faces me and all you can think about is whether or not you’ll get special privileges and dispensations! This isn’t a picnic you’ve chosen. Following me is hard. Its costly. Its not all sweetness and light and choosing the good bits, and the safe options – its about fire roaring through this world – cleansing and purging. Its about division and the sword. This life with me is a crisis point for you and for the world. It is so significant that it will cause major divisions within families and communities. Read the signs! Get real and stop playing!”

.....There was a popular book in business circles a few years back called “Surfing the Edge of Chaos”. It was written by a group of business people who observed nature as a way of understanding how best we can learn to organise ourselves. One of the key things they saw was that in nature – equilibrium – ie a stable state, is the precursor of death.

Only a system that maintains significant internal variety can withstand the threat of external variety. So the inter-tidal zone is the most fertile context for spontaneous mutation. This is a region swept by extremes – inundation and flood followed by drought and desiccation, and this amazing variety forces the system to the edge of chaos, and  demands that organisms adapt or die.  It is here that fish grew legs, and roots learnt to breathe. It is in the place of extremes that life comes forth.

 

Businesses and churches have to learn that equilibrium is life–threatening.  If we do not embrace risk and change, if we do not encourage extremes of experience and ideas, we will die. The birthing of peace, and all good things, is forged in the crucible of life lived on the edge of chaos; life that is open to risk and to new possibilities.  

 

And I think that this is what Jesus is talking about in this passage.

 

No wonder that churches are struggling to survive. We do not welcome change. We don’t like hearing people we disagree with. We don’t move much beyond our comfort zones, so we don’t nurture much internal variety, and then we are surprised that we are threatened by changes all around us!"

Nathan Nettleton - http://laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html

A prayer that asks for change

"Unfortunately for us, we are stuck with the irony that this is a prayer where we are asking God for change.
          After beginning with acknowledging God as the source of all goodness we move on to, “Your Kingdom come.” May the day come when you, loving God, reign over everything and everybody and every place in justice and love and peace. Rather than a specific request, this is an expression of a general longing; a longing for the new and for change. When faced with all that is corrupt and brutalized about the world, we long for the tide of God's goodness to wash over the earth and renew it all. When faced with the atrocities of Bosnia, the hypocrisies of the response to East Timor, the tragedies of abused kids selling their bodies on the streets, the obscenities of injustice, hatred and the abuse of political power, we don't know where to start in our prayers so with deep sighs of longing we capture it all up in our plea for God to come and renew the face of the whole earth. Your kingdom come.
          If you like we are putting ourselves on God's side and at God's disposal. We are aligning ourselves with God's purposes in the world. We are adding ourselves to God's movement for change. And it is in the context of that renewed orientation that we bring the specific requests. These could be summed up as “God give us the sustenance to help us through the change” and “God help us to change and to forgive others.”
          That then is Jesus' basic lesson in prayer. Acknowledge the goodness of the God to whom you pray, then be prepared for God to use you as an agent for change and to be changed yourself."

http://www.laughingbird.net/SermonTexts/0213.html

change

How many evangelists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the bulb must repent of its darkness and be willing to be changed

When Jesus was baptised

They say that when Jesus was baptized,

the heavens opened,

and the Holy Spirit, however she is conceived,

flew between the realms

hitherto designated as either divine or human.

At this moment the previously exclusive distinction

began to fade and dissolve into an irrelevance,

that, millennia later, continues to disturb and frighten.

Then, by all accounts, celestial dove-like descending flutterances

became enmeshed with the swirling uncertainties

of earth’s dust;

beginning with the man from Nazareth.

Amidst the resigned dreariness of mortal fears and struggles,

he began to live flashes of love and other-worldly light

that caused many to gasp.

Some drew breath deeply with joyous hope and wonder,

released their dreams,

and went searching for the teacher so they might hear more.

Others groaned with fear, and shook.

Seeking only that he should go away, they resolved

to build their walls higher and their vaults stronger.

But the divine affirmation of this beloved son

was already spoken,

and the thing would not be undone.

© Ken Rookes 2013