1 Peter 3.18-22; Mark 1.9-15
Today was originally, the first day of Lent, before Ash Wednesday was introduced in the middle ages. That's why it's today that we hear the reading about Jesus in the wilderness, which is the reading that sets the tone or the theme for Lent.
I've always thought that it's an extraordinary thing that as soon as Jesus is baptised and he hears that wonderful affirmation of who he is, he finds himself in the desert, alone, hungry and thirsty. It's as if he's been commissioned for the great work ahead of him and then suddenly he's asking himself 'what's it all about?' Many of you will have had that feeling, after looking forward to a job or task or adventure, that when it's got under way, suddenly you are hit by the reality of what it means to actually be engaged with whatever it was you so longed for or looked forward to.
But I think this that happens to Jesus is rather more than that if it is similar at all. What is really extraordinary about this event is that the same Spirit that comes upon Jesus at his baptism, the Spirit of God actually drives Jesus into the wilderness, St. Mark says. I read somewhere that the actual translation of the Greek words in St. Mark's gospel at that point say that the Spirit 'ejected' or 'threw out' Jesus into the wilderness, which have much the same 'force' about them as the word 'drove', if not more. So God had an intention for Jesus's time in the wilderness and that God put him there. We need to realise that it was not something Jesus chose for himself in the way that we might choose what to give up in this special season as part of our Lenten discipline.
Unlike St. Matthew and St. Luke, St. Mark tells us nothing of what happened to Jesus in the wilderness except that he was there for '40 days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.' But our passage today concludes with Jesus coming to Galilee 'proclaiming the good news of God, and saying 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.' And so maybe we are left thinking that during the time in the wilderness Jesus had been working out what the vision, mission and purpose was of his ministry; what in fact God had called him to be and do in this world. And when we look at the difference between what St. John the Baptist said and whatJesus said , John called people to repent so their sins were forgiven; but Jesus had something more to offer the people following their repentance, none other than the Kingdom of God. And that for him and his followers was truly Good News.
If we look at what is happening here with Jesus and think about our own life and our life through Lent in particular, we can get a good idea of what Lent is meant to be for us. Lent isn't something we choose to do ourselves. I think that if we feel we are dedicating ourselves to a good observance of the season we might do well to remember that it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to do it, that maybe drives us to it as it drove Jesus into the wilderness. In talking about the grace of God, theologians will talk about God's 'prevenient' grace. That refers to God going in front of us on our journey with him just as he went before the Hebrews in their wandering in the desert in the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Our choir, before they process into church pray that ancient prayer which begins, 'Go before us O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help...' Originally the prayer, in older English began 'Prevent us O Lord,,,,' meaning, 'Come before us....' However it is worded, there is the idea of God treading the way in front of us. For the idea or the prayer to be of any value to us, we have to first acknowledge that God will go before us in all we do. And then maybe we will be open to his grace at every step. And then we realise that we are not alone in our journey through our wilderness and maybe can see that in actual fact Jesus was not alone in his wilderness with the wild beasts. We are told that angels ministered to him, so God was with him even having put him there in the first place. And for him to be put there by God, there must have been something for him to learn. And as we apply ourselves to Lent there is much for us to learn too.
Lent is a time for learning, mainly, I think, for learning about ourselves. Who is this person that God has made, that God had commissioned to be one of his people in the world? What is our task as individuals, what is our task as the Church? On each Ash Wednesday we have that reading from St. Matthew's gospel which end 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' I think that our treasure is what is really important to us in this life, what it is that we value the most. We often forget that in our frantic daily pursuit of a livelihood and lifestyle. We are often drawn away from what we value most by alluring temptations of one form or another; and temptations come in many, many subtle and not so subtle forms; people and things and places that draw us right away from what we hold to as most of value, of greatest importance, if we let them. And then they can become like the wild beasts, ready to devour us, body, mind and spirit.
And so Lent gives us the opportunity to let the Spirit of God go before us through our own wilderness of looking once again for our treasure, looking for what it is that is most of value to us and then realigning ourselves once again with it. And hopefully, just as God has gone before us in our wilderness wandering, so we will find him right in the heart of our treasure, right at the heart of what it is we do most value in this life and for eternity, those things that make you most real, most yourself, most the person God has made, both for himself and for others.
Friday, 27 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Sunday Next Before Lent
2 Corinthians 4.3-6; Mark 9.2-9
These few weeks between the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent can be seen as a short preparation for Lent. The readings help us to re-orientate our mind and heart away from Christmas (if we haven't already done that) towards the next and most important festival in our Christian year, the resurrection of Jesus.
Last week we considered how Jesus is God and the consequences of that for our day to day life. And this week we have that wonderful reading in St. Mark's gospel this year of Jesus's Transfiguration. There's some very significant symbolism in the account of the Transfiguration that it's interesting to take note of. The dazzling whiteness of Jesus's garments represent the light and the glory of God in Jesus, God's uncreated energy, showing that Jesus is God. The voice from heaven is heard to say that 'this is my Son, the Beloved'. This is affirmation that Jesus is of God and is eternal. In the cloud that comes and overshadows them all, we see a reference to the cloud that hid the glory of God in the Old Testament, that went before the people of Israel in their wanderings. Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets and Jesus amongst them is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. And the presence of Moses and Elijah shows us the reality of the communion of saints.
This symbolic, and actual at the time, representation of Jesus as God is important for the Church and for our own sense of who Jesus is and where he fits into our history as God's people. And the revelation of him as God in this way to the three disciples makes it possible for us to believe in him as such. But having said all that, what can we make of this event as recorded in the gospels that takes us further than simply the underlining of what we say we believe about Jesus, that he is in fact God?
The three disciples, Peter, James and John, seemingly those closest to Jesus in some way, were invited by Jesus up the mountain, apparently for this revelation. However it worked, the event must have been a moment of deep insight, one of breathtaking proportions. And it would have been unexpected by the disciples. There will have been times in our lives when we have been, as it were, overwhelmed by some event or happening that transports us out of our present, mundane reality into another dimension of experience. It could be at one of those great life events, a birth or a death for example, or in listening to music or poetry or watching a film. And usually these events would take us by surprise, they sort of reach out to us rather than us going to look for them. In fact, it's usually impossible to have some transcendent event happen to you if you go seeking it. The disciples see Jesus in this sort of way, see that he is much more than they have experienced up to now. They see his holiness in fact, which up to now they may have, as it were, suspected because of what he'd said and done, but not seen in its depth and ultimate reality. This is Jesus in his essence, the real Jesus, if you like.
But still, what does that mean for us beyond confirming for us who Jesus is? Well, we are made in the image of God, or so we are told, by the Bible, by our Christian tradition, by the Church. We have something of God in us, because he created us. We are not him but we have something of him, and we reflect him in some respects. And because of that, we are holy, each one of us. And if we are like God in some respects, we have a likeness of Jesus Christ too. So, I wonder what you see when you look at other people? I wonder what other people see when they look at you? As I was thinking of this the time came to mind when Jesus asked the man possessed by many devils what their name was and they replied 'Legion'. And that came to mind because it occurred to me that there are as many of you as the people who look at you. Because you appear different through different pairs of eyes. And I don't mean from an optical point of view, I mean what people see of you 'under the skin', what they make of your character and personality, because of what you say and do. But God made only one of you. You are unique. So we can ask the question, when people look at you do they see the person who God made, in all your glory? Do they see the depth of you, do they see your holiness?
And you, when you look at someone else, do you see their glory? Do you see the depth of them, do you see their holiness? Do you see what God sees? Do you see what he created, or only what you've made your mind up he created?
And that's the point you see. Jesus was, in a way, saying to Peter, James and John, 'This is me, this is who you should be seeing.' And from that moment on, you can be sure that those disciples never spoke to or met with Jesus in the same way ever again, or if they did, they will surely have realised the consequences of that soon enough afterwards, as Peter did when the cock crowed. And so when we ask ourselves who it is we are speaking to, who are we dealing with, when we meet with another person, do we recognise the fact that that person is made in the image of God? Do we recognise that person's holiness? Do we see them in that transfigured way when we encounter them or do we forget all of that and treat them as though none of that is real or exists?
I suspect that if we did see people in such a 'transfigured' way, our dealings would be much more peaceable to say the very least.
These few weeks between the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent can be seen as a short preparation for Lent. The readings help us to re-orientate our mind and heart away from Christmas (if we haven't already done that) towards the next and most important festival in our Christian year, the resurrection of Jesus.
Last week we considered how Jesus is God and the consequences of that for our day to day life. And this week we have that wonderful reading in St. Mark's gospel this year of Jesus's Transfiguration. There's some very significant symbolism in the account of the Transfiguration that it's interesting to take note of. The dazzling whiteness of Jesus's garments represent the light and the glory of God in Jesus, God's uncreated energy, showing that Jesus is God. The voice from heaven is heard to say that 'this is my Son, the Beloved'. This is affirmation that Jesus is of God and is eternal. In the cloud that comes and overshadows them all, we see a reference to the cloud that hid the glory of God in the Old Testament, that went before the people of Israel in their wanderings. Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets and Jesus amongst them is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. And the presence of Moses and Elijah shows us the reality of the communion of saints.
This symbolic, and actual at the time, representation of Jesus as God is important for the Church and for our own sense of who Jesus is and where he fits into our history as God's people. And the revelation of him as God in this way to the three disciples makes it possible for us to believe in him as such. But having said all that, what can we make of this event as recorded in the gospels that takes us further than simply the underlining of what we say we believe about Jesus, that he is in fact God?
The three disciples, Peter, James and John, seemingly those closest to Jesus in some way, were invited by Jesus up the mountain, apparently for this revelation. However it worked, the event must have been a moment of deep insight, one of breathtaking proportions. And it would have been unexpected by the disciples. There will have been times in our lives when we have been, as it were, overwhelmed by some event or happening that transports us out of our present, mundane reality into another dimension of experience. It could be at one of those great life events, a birth or a death for example, or in listening to music or poetry or watching a film. And usually these events would take us by surprise, they sort of reach out to us rather than us going to look for them. In fact, it's usually impossible to have some transcendent event happen to you if you go seeking it. The disciples see Jesus in this sort of way, see that he is much more than they have experienced up to now. They see his holiness in fact, which up to now they may have, as it were, suspected because of what he'd said and done, but not seen in its depth and ultimate reality. This is Jesus in his essence, the real Jesus, if you like.
But still, what does that mean for us beyond confirming for us who Jesus is? Well, we are made in the image of God, or so we are told, by the Bible, by our Christian tradition, by the Church. We have something of God in us, because he created us. We are not him but we have something of him, and we reflect him in some respects. And because of that, we are holy, each one of us. And if we are like God in some respects, we have a likeness of Jesus Christ too. So, I wonder what you see when you look at other people? I wonder what other people see when they look at you? As I was thinking of this the time came to mind when Jesus asked the man possessed by many devils what their name was and they replied 'Legion'. And that came to mind because it occurred to me that there are as many of you as the people who look at you. Because you appear different through different pairs of eyes. And I don't mean from an optical point of view, I mean what people see of you 'under the skin', what they make of your character and personality, because of what you say and do. But God made only one of you. You are unique. So we can ask the question, when people look at you do they see the person who God made, in all your glory? Do they see the depth of you, do they see your holiness?
And you, when you look at someone else, do you see their glory? Do you see the depth of them, do you see their holiness? Do you see what God sees? Do you see what he created, or only what you've made your mind up he created?
And that's the point you see. Jesus was, in a way, saying to Peter, James and John, 'This is me, this is who you should be seeing.' And from that moment on, you can be sure that those disciples never spoke to or met with Jesus in the same way ever again, or if they did, they will surely have realised the consequences of that soon enough afterwards, as Peter did when the cock crowed. And so when we ask ourselves who it is we are speaking to, who are we dealing with, when we meet with another person, do we recognise the fact that that person is made in the image of God? Do we recognise that person's holiness? Do we see them in that transfigured way when we encounter them or do we forget all of that and treat them as though none of that is real or exists?
I suspect that if we did see people in such a 'transfigured' way, our dealings would be much more peaceable to say the very least.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
2nd Sunday Before Lent
Colossians 1.15-20; John 1.1-14
We are at the very heart of Christian theology today with these readings. The writer to the Colossians, presumably St. Paul and the writer of St. John's gospel are both telling us, as best they can, with the language they have, that Jesus is God. This is what marks out those who believe it, as Christians. Anything less of a belief means that you are not a Christian in the true, orthodox sense. And it's from this belief that the whole of Christian theology has been built. The musings, meanderings and meditations of every Christian theologian from the 4th century have started at this point. And it is on this belief that the Creed we recite every Sunday is built. It's important though that this isn't simply an intellectual exercise. We have to find some way of making our belief that Jesus is God relevant to our daily life. Indeed, we could say that it's more important to view it the other way around, that because this belief that Jesus is God is essential to our daily life that we can then build our theological thinking on that.
We say that Jesus is fully God and what that then means for us is that God is no longer remote from us. God is with us is what is meant by Jesus being born amongst the people. Jesus called God 'Father', an expression of a relationship with God, similar but more intimate than the relationship that Moses had with God, to whom he 'spoke as a man with his friend'. And Jesus calling God 'Father' is an acknowledgement by Jesus that he is from God, or 'out of' God. St. John records Jesus praying for his disciples that they might be one and be one with him as he is one with God, his heavenly Father. Here again, that connection and intimacy of God with his people is underlined. So Jesus prays for our relationship with God to be as his relationship is with God.
So, we are at one with God simply because that's how it is with this God of Jesus who is our God too. And God drives the point home to us in Jesus crucifixion and his resurrection. Again, St. John tells us 'God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish but might have everlasting life.' That everlasting life or eternal life is our life with God, our life in God which we are experiencing now. All it needs is our acknowlegment of God and our faith in God for it to become real. Just as Jesus' whole life, every second of it was lived by faith in God, so that's what eternal life means for us, every second of it being lived by faith in God.
So we really need to look at what faith means to understand how this teaching about Jesus being God can be real in our everyday life. Well having faith in someone means trusting them in all they are and do. And it's not necessarily an easy thing. People let us down all the time, simply because we are human and fallen and not perfect, as God is. God is always faithful but we are not. All throughout the Bible we read of God bewailing the fact that his people are faithless. But he goes on forgiving them time after time after time for their faithlessness. And he goes on showing how he is faithful time after time after time, by answering their prayers, meeting their needs. He answers our prayers too, always, and so keeps faith with us always. But again we have to remember that he answers our prayers in his way not ours. And so when our prayers seem not to be answered that's the time for trust, that in God's wisdom and in God's time the answer will be made known to us. And we remember that God's time isn't our time, God's time is eternity and the answer might lie on the other side of the dimensions of this life that we can see and can understand. There's so much of life that we don't understand but that we take on trust and we have to take on trust that our prayers will be answered, always by God.
And as we pray, as we worship, we can pray and look for the answers now, trusting, because God is Father to us as he was to Jesus. And God is here amongst us through his Spirit, all pervading given after the man Jesus was no longer here. So we can still pray as Jesus prayed and have faith as Jesus had faith. Jesus is that bridge between the almighty God and us, being God for us and to us and is that through his Spirit now. That's why we pray our prayers to and through Jesus Christ. He is the bridge, the connection between us and God, but also God himself, the bridge, the connection is God in his humanity, Jesus. He shows how close we are to God and reassures us that we can trust God for each day, each second of each day.
And then it's for us to live each day with that trust in God. That's how it works you see. Although God prompts us we have to respond, positively, in faith and then we get to know him, then we get to understand more of how God is with us and and how we must be with him to have that relationship with him that he wanted with his creation, before Adam and Eve fell from grace. Because it's the man Jesus, God incarnate that restores that relationship, that means we can have that relationship with God again as not just creator and created but as Father and child and Father and child in the best sense, Father and child in the sense of God and his Son Jesus.
So we see how Jesus is God simply through our trust that all of this works. And although it's not easy to live that way by any means, that's what we have to do before we can begin to understand God at all. And it's when we can live that way, and begin to understand because we live that way that we can begin to talk about it and have the authority to talk about it, so that Jesus might continue to be Good News to all.
We are at the very heart of Christian theology today with these readings. The writer to the Colossians, presumably St. Paul and the writer of St. John's gospel are both telling us, as best they can, with the language they have, that Jesus is God. This is what marks out those who believe it, as Christians. Anything less of a belief means that you are not a Christian in the true, orthodox sense. And it's from this belief that the whole of Christian theology has been built. The musings, meanderings and meditations of every Christian theologian from the 4th century have started at this point. And it is on this belief that the Creed we recite every Sunday is built. It's important though that this isn't simply an intellectual exercise. We have to find some way of making our belief that Jesus is God relevant to our daily life. Indeed, we could say that it's more important to view it the other way around, that because this belief that Jesus is God is essential to our daily life that we can then build our theological thinking on that.
We say that Jesus is fully God and what that then means for us is that God is no longer remote from us. God is with us is what is meant by Jesus being born amongst the people. Jesus called God 'Father', an expression of a relationship with God, similar but more intimate than the relationship that Moses had with God, to whom he 'spoke as a man with his friend'. And Jesus calling God 'Father' is an acknowledgement by Jesus that he is from God, or 'out of' God. St. John records Jesus praying for his disciples that they might be one and be one with him as he is one with God, his heavenly Father. Here again, that connection and intimacy of God with his people is underlined. So Jesus prays for our relationship with God to be as his relationship is with God.
So, we are at one with God simply because that's how it is with this God of Jesus who is our God too. And God drives the point home to us in Jesus crucifixion and his resurrection. Again, St. John tells us 'God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish but might have everlasting life.' That everlasting life or eternal life is our life with God, our life in God which we are experiencing now. All it needs is our acknowlegment of God and our faith in God for it to become real. Just as Jesus' whole life, every second of it was lived by faith in God, so that's what eternal life means for us, every second of it being lived by faith in God.
So we really need to look at what faith means to understand how this teaching about Jesus being God can be real in our everyday life. Well having faith in someone means trusting them in all they are and do. And it's not necessarily an easy thing. People let us down all the time, simply because we are human and fallen and not perfect, as God is. God is always faithful but we are not. All throughout the Bible we read of God bewailing the fact that his people are faithless. But he goes on forgiving them time after time after time for their faithlessness. And he goes on showing how he is faithful time after time after time, by answering their prayers, meeting their needs. He answers our prayers too, always, and so keeps faith with us always. But again we have to remember that he answers our prayers in his way not ours. And so when our prayers seem not to be answered that's the time for trust, that in God's wisdom and in God's time the answer will be made known to us. And we remember that God's time isn't our time, God's time is eternity and the answer might lie on the other side of the dimensions of this life that we can see and can understand. There's so much of life that we don't understand but that we take on trust and we have to take on trust that our prayers will be answered, always by God.
And as we pray, as we worship, we can pray and look for the answers now, trusting, because God is Father to us as he was to Jesus. And God is here amongst us through his Spirit, all pervading given after the man Jesus was no longer here. So we can still pray as Jesus prayed and have faith as Jesus had faith. Jesus is that bridge between the almighty God and us, being God for us and to us and is that through his Spirit now. That's why we pray our prayers to and through Jesus Christ. He is the bridge, the connection between us and God, but also God himself, the bridge, the connection is God in his humanity, Jesus. He shows how close we are to God and reassures us that we can trust God for each day, each second of each day.
And then it's for us to live each day with that trust in God. That's how it works you see. Although God prompts us we have to respond, positively, in faith and then we get to know him, then we get to understand more of how God is with us and and how we must be with him to have that relationship with him that he wanted with his creation, before Adam and Eve fell from grace. Because it's the man Jesus, God incarnate that restores that relationship, that means we can have that relationship with God again as not just creator and created but as Father and child and Father and child in the best sense, Father and child in the sense of God and his Son Jesus.
So we see how Jesus is God simply through our trust that all of this works. And although it's not easy to live that way by any means, that's what we have to do before we can begin to understand God at all. And it's when we can live that way, and begin to understand because we live that way that we can begin to talk about it and have the authority to talk about it, so that Jesus might continue to be Good News to all.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
3rd Sunday before Lent
1 Corinthians 9.16-23; Mark 1.29-39
As with every set of readings, there's many a theme embedded in them and very often, a number of ways of interpreting them. If there's a link between the two readings today, and one that we can get something from, it seems to me that it might be something to do with Jesus and Paul's ministry; one in evangelism and the other in healing. And the way these two go about their respective ministries gives us something to think about in how we relate to other people.
St. Paul is talking about how he preaches the gospel and the terms on which he preaches it. He preaches for free, he says. But the point is, he reminds his readers, that he feels an obligation to preach. He feels it is his commission. He feels the burden to do it. He does it of his own will, and the reward he gets is when people are converted, when they are 'won over.' I suppose that's a very natural reaction. Anyone of us is delighted when someone sees our point of view and even more delighted when they change their point of view to ours. So St. Paul feels rewarded.
What's more interesting though, and what seems to link in with how Jesus works is what St. Paul says next about how he goes about his preaching. He says that he is 'all things to all people.' 'To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law so that I might win those under the law....to those outside the law... I became as one outside the law to win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so I might win the weak....I have become all things to all people, that I might be all means save some.'
At first sight this might seem that St. Paul could be compromising himself. But he is too committed to the gospel for that. I prefer to think that what he means is that he is first trying to see the other person's point of view so that he can put over his point in a way that the other person will warm to. He tries to see the world as the other sees it. That way he can be sure that the risk of offending the other person will be minimal. I don't think he's trying to 'trick' anyone here. He's not trying to pull a fast one on anybody. He's simply doing his best to step into someone else's shoes. From there he'll see all the difficulties they'll have in taking on this new way of thinking about God and about the man Jesus. Having done that he'll understand the size of the task and realise how great the grace of God when someone turns to Christ and has their life changed because of it. But as well as that, it means that St. Paul has a greater understanding of his fellow human beings anyway, and in that learn to honour, respect and value God's children all the more.
When we come to the gospel reading we see Jesus in HIS dealings with other people, especially those who are sick. And just as an aside before I say any more, I noticed for the first time that St. Mark says 'they brought to him ALL who were sick or possessed with demons.......And he cured MANY with various diseases, and cast out many demons...' I think we tend to get the impression that Jesus cured everybody but here quite clearly, he didn't. He didn't cure them all, he cured many.
But what I want to say about this particular passage from the gospel, to link it to the passage from 1 Corinthians is about the impression we get that Jesus was someone who could so easily stand in the shoes of others. We know of his intuitive abilities when we read about the woman at the well for example and how he knew of her domestic situation. And as the nails were being hammered into his hands and feet on the cross he asked God to forgive his executioners. He could only do that if he knew what was going on in their hearts and minds. All along, in every story about Jesus, his response to people is clearly attuned to their own particular circumstance. And his response was one for the moment, whether it was something that gave them a challenge or something that met a need for greater wholeness or healing or for their greater knowledge of God and his presence in their lives. And paradoxically, because he was so attuned to other people he could make firm decisions about where he would preach and heal, which wasn't always where people expected.
So maybe the message for us from these readings today is that if we are going to make any difference to peoples' lives then we've got to first see the world how they see it, to see themselves as they see themselves. And maybe then we will be seeing them as God sees them and His grace will find a way through us, to meet their need in that moment.
As with every set of readings, there's many a theme embedded in them and very often, a number of ways of interpreting them. If there's a link between the two readings today, and one that we can get something from, it seems to me that it might be something to do with Jesus and Paul's ministry; one in evangelism and the other in healing. And the way these two go about their respective ministries gives us something to think about in how we relate to other people.
St. Paul is talking about how he preaches the gospel and the terms on which he preaches it. He preaches for free, he says. But the point is, he reminds his readers, that he feels an obligation to preach. He feels it is his commission. He feels the burden to do it. He does it of his own will, and the reward he gets is when people are converted, when they are 'won over.' I suppose that's a very natural reaction. Anyone of us is delighted when someone sees our point of view and even more delighted when they change their point of view to ours. So St. Paul feels rewarded.
What's more interesting though, and what seems to link in with how Jesus works is what St. Paul says next about how he goes about his preaching. He says that he is 'all things to all people.' 'To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law so that I might win those under the law....to those outside the law... I became as one outside the law to win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so I might win the weak....I have become all things to all people, that I might be all means save some.'
At first sight this might seem that St. Paul could be compromising himself. But he is too committed to the gospel for that. I prefer to think that what he means is that he is first trying to see the other person's point of view so that he can put over his point in a way that the other person will warm to. He tries to see the world as the other sees it. That way he can be sure that the risk of offending the other person will be minimal. I don't think he's trying to 'trick' anyone here. He's not trying to pull a fast one on anybody. He's simply doing his best to step into someone else's shoes. From there he'll see all the difficulties they'll have in taking on this new way of thinking about God and about the man Jesus. Having done that he'll understand the size of the task and realise how great the grace of God when someone turns to Christ and has their life changed because of it. But as well as that, it means that St. Paul has a greater understanding of his fellow human beings anyway, and in that learn to honour, respect and value God's children all the more.
When we come to the gospel reading we see Jesus in HIS dealings with other people, especially those who are sick. And just as an aside before I say any more, I noticed for the first time that St. Mark says 'they brought to him ALL who were sick or possessed with demons.......And he cured MANY with various diseases, and cast out many demons...' I think we tend to get the impression that Jesus cured everybody but here quite clearly, he didn't. He didn't cure them all, he cured many.
But what I want to say about this particular passage from the gospel, to link it to the passage from 1 Corinthians is about the impression we get that Jesus was someone who could so easily stand in the shoes of others. We know of his intuitive abilities when we read about the woman at the well for example and how he knew of her domestic situation. And as the nails were being hammered into his hands and feet on the cross he asked God to forgive his executioners. He could only do that if he knew what was going on in their hearts and minds. All along, in every story about Jesus, his response to people is clearly attuned to their own particular circumstance. And his response was one for the moment, whether it was something that gave them a challenge or something that met a need for greater wholeness or healing or for their greater knowledge of God and his presence in their lives. And paradoxically, because he was so attuned to other people he could make firm decisions about where he would preach and heal, which wasn't always where people expected.
So maybe the message for us from these readings today is that if we are going to make any difference to peoples' lives then we've got to first see the world how they see it, to see themselves as they see themselves. And maybe then we will be seeing them as God sees them and His grace will find a way through us, to meet their need in that moment.
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