2 Corinthians 8.7-15; Mark 5.21-43
As we make our way through the chapters of St. Mark's gospel in these Sundays after Trinity, we are looking at what it means for us to be followers of Jesus, for us to be his disciples, for us to be called Christians. From Advent to Pentecost we were looking at the great events of Jesus life and the impact he had on those around him and how they responded to all he said and did. And now we turn the searchlight, as it were, upon ourselves. We look at ourselves, with reference to Jesus and ask ourselves what it means for each of us to be a follower, a disciple, a Christian.
St. Mark's gospel opens with Jesus' proclamation of the Good News - 'Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.' The Kingdom of God is, for Jesus, the Good News he has come to bring, and he shows what the Kingdom means in his life and his teaching. He shows what it means for himself and for the people. And immediately we see him ministering many healings amongst the people. And throughout the gospels we see healings of body, mind and spirit both by the teaching and by the actions of Jesus. And as we read all of that, which in St. Mark's gospel happens very quickly indeed, one miracle after another, we might begin to ask ourselves why we don't see much of it today, why it all seems so improbable, why it's not something in our own experience.
Well, in actual fact, we do see healings, almost every day; but we put them down to medical science, to the pills and potions we are given by the doctor. And I think we mostly forget the miracle that is our own mind and body and spirit that actually does the healing, aided by the pills and potions. But more than that, it is commonly accepted these days that there is a link between a persons will, faith and belief and the ability to recover from illness; that much healing begins in the thoughts a person has about their ability to recover. And so our own state of mind and heart and soul is crucial in the healing process.
Now that's just at the level of the everyday, at the level of what goes on in the world around us. But it's not unconnected with what Jesus shows us in this gospel reading today and is reflected somewhat in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians, which is about how things happen in the Kingdom of God, or should I say how I believe things to happen. We've been shown two miracles of healing today which are wonderful things for Jairus's daughter and the woman. But the healings are not just the important things here. The lessons we learn from what surrounds them are more important for us, today, as we go about our business, trying to be followers of Jesus.
As you ask yourself why we don't see these healing miracles in the same way today, you might also, as you think about you and yours, why your prayers don't seem to be answered very powerfully either. And I think we have the answer here in what Jesus says to Jairus and the woman. And it's all to do with this thing we call faith, for we've heard in the gospels before what Jesus said about faith and it's seeming ability to overcome every obstacle, to move mountains. And how to have faith then, seems to be key. When you look at these two individuals closely, first of all you see that they take a great risk. Jairus was a leader of the synagogue, one who would be very wary of being seen to go to Jesus for help. He could have had a lot to lose if his colleagues had seen him. The woman, well, she was a woman who with the condition she had would have been regarded as ritually unclean and had to stay outside of what you might call polite society until she was better. But she'd been in that condition for 12 years so probably felt she hadn't much to lose anyway. In any case, they both took a huge risk. Nobody said that faith wasn't risky.
Now these stories are placed by St. Mark, one inside the other, for whatever reason, and they both have similar elements. When Jesus felt the power go out of him and asked who touched him, the woman, it's said, came to him 'in fear and trembling'. Likewise, when Jairus heard his daughter had died, Jesus said to him 'do not fear, only believe'. The woman had already been physically healed but it was after that, after she'd told Jesus it was her who touched him, had told him the truth, that he said to her 'go in peace and be healed of your disease.' So fear in the woman and in Jairus is a central element in the stories. And maybe that's because it's fear that is the opposite of faith. We usually see doubt as being the opposite of faith, but it isn't, it's fear. Faith cannot exist where there is fear, and fear has no place where there is faith. And that's because fear robs us of every opportunity to do anything at all about our condition. It's the one thing, the one emotion that stops us dead in our tracks and keeps us pinned down and paralysed.
So if we put these things together we can see how faith works. First of all it means taking a risk. It means betting all upon God, so to speak, putting all in the hands of God, all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do. We take the risk that God has the answer. The woman St. Mark says, told Jesus the truth and we have to as well for faith to work. We have to come before God, in truth, without trying to deceive ourselves or deny anything about ourselves or our condition. Then as we do that, we put our trust in God, we put away our fear and we have faith that God will answer our prayer. When we trust then we put away fear.
And it's really as simple as that; but oh so hard at the same time, because it cuts right across our natural, fallen inclination which is to try and have the answer and work out the answer for ourself. And if you've been with this up to this point now you might see that in actual fact what it means is that we are being asked, by faith, to give ourselves to God in this whole hearted way. And we all know and not just because we are told but because we have personal experience that you have to give before you can receive. Faith is giving yourself to God in your entirety that you might receive the fullness of his blessings. That's what these two people we've read about today, did and look what it meant for them. And if it can happen for them, it can happen for us.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Trinity Sunday
Romans 8.12-17; John 3.1-17
Today is an important day in our calendar because on this day we call to mind, not our Lord or one of the saints, but a teaching of the Church that is foundational to calling ourselves 'Christian.' Because in this teaching we have received since the early days of the Church, not simply the idea or the opinion, but the belief that Jesus is fully God, just as the Father is fully God; and also that the Holy Spirit is, likewise, fully God. And furthermore that there isn't as a consequence, three Gods, but they are one God. To put it very simply we could say that 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1. This teaching of the Holy Trinity is handed down since the beginning of the Church as Truth we are to both accept and believe as true and in doing so we can call ourselves Christians and members of the Church. Belief in this teaching is what marks us out as Christian and is what distinguishes us as such from others who hold that Jesus was merely a prophet or a teacher or wise man, someone less than God himself.
The teaching arose out of fierce dispute in those early years of the Church about who Jesus was. And the argument was whether or not Jesus was both fully man and fully God at one and the same time. The belief prevailed that he was indeed such and it was settled at the great Ecumenical Council of Nicea in the year 325. The one who fought most ardently for its acceptance was St. Athanasius, and to this day we profess such a belief in the creed each Sunday which is referred to as the Nicene Creed.
The teaching of the Holy Trinity, it has to be said, is difficult to understand and rationalise for lay people like ourselves, although we might have academic theologians in our midst who have a better grasp. The remainder of us have to take it on trust, in faith. Indeed, in the end it can't be rationalised at all. It has to be believed. It is a mystery, and it's right that it should be because we are talking about God here and if he was no longer a mystery to us we would God. And mystery though it is, the whole of Christian theology and belief is based upon it and as such we live our Christian lives on the basis of it too.
Here's a couple of things that Athanasius said about the Holy Trinity, in a letter to a man named Serapion. "It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, they would no longer be Christian either in fact or in name. We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.....in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is 'above all things' as Father, for he is principle and source; he is 'through all things' through the Word; and he is 'in all things' in the Holy Spirit....all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: 'My Father and I will come to him and make our home with him'. This is also Paul's teaching in his second Letter to the Corinthians: 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.' For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit."
If I'm honest I used to think this teaching, this belief mattered not very much at all. The reality was that it was too difficult for me to understand and so I would put it to one side, preferring to see Jesus as merely human and indeed in some respects super human, being endowed with special Godly powers. My joy and my suffering and indeed that of the whole of humanity I could see in Jesus and so it was comforting to know that God's Son had the same sort of experience. But that's all it remained - comforting, and nothing else. And God was still 'up there' and me 'down here' and there was such a great divide.
As I've come to think of this teaching more and more recently too, and to accept and believe it that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the fullness of each resides in the other, and put that together with the belief that we humans are made in the image and likeness of God and that in our baptism we have the Holy Spirit given to us, it's made me see that it is in our reach to have what Jesus said he came to give us, and that is 'life in all its fullness', that we can 'do that things that he did and more'. It's made me see that we are indeed, literally 'children of God' and that the Church does indeed 'embody' Jesus himself, that we his eyes and hands and feet.
I can't really explain what it means to me now because you can't explain a mystery. You have to believe it and know it within your own self for it to begin to make a difference. And when you come to think about what it's worth, well it's what many of the Saints died in defending, this faith of the New Testament Church, the Faith once delivered and handed down by the apostles. The Faith in which we now stand, the Tradition we hand on to the next generations. And it's important to keep this day to affirm and underline the teaching so that it never does become neglected or watered down or rationalised, but that it continues to be handed down and changes lives for all time.
Today is an important day in our calendar because on this day we call to mind, not our Lord or one of the saints, but a teaching of the Church that is foundational to calling ourselves 'Christian.' Because in this teaching we have received since the early days of the Church, not simply the idea or the opinion, but the belief that Jesus is fully God, just as the Father is fully God; and also that the Holy Spirit is, likewise, fully God. And furthermore that there isn't as a consequence, three Gods, but they are one God. To put it very simply we could say that 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1. This teaching of the Holy Trinity is handed down since the beginning of the Church as Truth we are to both accept and believe as true and in doing so we can call ourselves Christians and members of the Church. Belief in this teaching is what marks us out as Christian and is what distinguishes us as such from others who hold that Jesus was merely a prophet or a teacher or wise man, someone less than God himself.
The teaching arose out of fierce dispute in those early years of the Church about who Jesus was. And the argument was whether or not Jesus was both fully man and fully God at one and the same time. The belief prevailed that he was indeed such and it was settled at the great Ecumenical Council of Nicea in the year 325. The one who fought most ardently for its acceptance was St. Athanasius, and to this day we profess such a belief in the creed each Sunday which is referred to as the Nicene Creed.
The teaching of the Holy Trinity, it has to be said, is difficult to understand and rationalise for lay people like ourselves, although we might have academic theologians in our midst who have a better grasp. The remainder of us have to take it on trust, in faith. Indeed, in the end it can't be rationalised at all. It has to be believed. It is a mystery, and it's right that it should be because we are talking about God here and if he was no longer a mystery to us we would God. And mystery though it is, the whole of Christian theology and belief is based upon it and as such we live our Christian lives on the basis of it too.
Here's a couple of things that Athanasius said about the Holy Trinity, in a letter to a man named Serapion. "It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, they would no longer be Christian either in fact or in name. We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.....in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is 'above all things' as Father, for he is principle and source; he is 'through all things' through the Word; and he is 'in all things' in the Holy Spirit....all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: 'My Father and I will come to him and make our home with him'. This is also Paul's teaching in his second Letter to the Corinthians: 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.' For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit."
If I'm honest I used to think this teaching, this belief mattered not very much at all. The reality was that it was too difficult for me to understand and so I would put it to one side, preferring to see Jesus as merely human and indeed in some respects super human, being endowed with special Godly powers. My joy and my suffering and indeed that of the whole of humanity I could see in Jesus and so it was comforting to know that God's Son had the same sort of experience. But that's all it remained - comforting, and nothing else. And God was still 'up there' and me 'down here' and there was such a great divide.
As I've come to think of this teaching more and more recently too, and to accept and believe it that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the fullness of each resides in the other, and put that together with the belief that we humans are made in the image and likeness of God and that in our baptism we have the Holy Spirit given to us, it's made me see that it is in our reach to have what Jesus said he came to give us, and that is 'life in all its fullness', that we can 'do that things that he did and more'. It's made me see that we are indeed, literally 'children of God' and that the Church does indeed 'embody' Jesus himself, that we his eyes and hands and feet.
I can't really explain what it means to me now because you can't explain a mystery. You have to believe it and know it within your own self for it to begin to make a difference. And when you come to think about what it's worth, well it's what many of the Saints died in defending, this faith of the New Testament Church, the Faith once delivered and handed down by the apostles. The Faith in which we now stand, the Tradition we hand on to the next generations. And it's important to keep this day to affirm and underline the teaching so that it never does become neglected or watered down or rationalised, but that it continues to be handed down and changes lives for all time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)