Month: April 2022

Apologies for lateness today. Held up by beautiful canal walk.

In Sunday’s lectionary, we read in Revelation that God announces, “I am the Alpha and the Omega” … the beginning and end.

It wasn’t until the Omicron Variant came along a few months ago that I realised that Omicron and Omega in the Greek alphabet mean ‘little O’ and ‘big O’ – which just shows my ignorance of Greek!! Also it means that the people of Hatfield Broadoak in Essex could sign their village walks with Greek letters if they wanted to.

Anyway, God is the beginning and end. May we know God in the bits in between as well, although that is sometimes more challenging. When we find it hard, we can call on Jesus, the Risen One, who once cried out ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ He is with us if we ask.

In Sunday’s lectionary, Peter and the apostles are before the High Priest and Council. They say, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” There may be times when this is easy. But for the Priest and council, living under a brutal Roman empire, this must have been much harder. Some sort of compromise is almost inevitable. So it is that Peter accuses them of having Jesus put to death, even though it was the Romans that did it. The council were complicit in this.

Sometimes I retreat from obeying God and just go with the flow. Sometimes I find it hard to know what God is asking me to do.
Sometimes I’m pretty sure that others have got God wrong: is God really an antivaxer?

Nevertheless, remember the apostles’ courageous words.

In Sunday’s lectionary passage from John, the risen Jesus is seen to be wounded. Lots of people, pehaps all people, carry wounds of one kind or another.

Despite our wounds, God,
give us grace to live with love,
to strive for justice,
to make peace,
to follow Christ.

Next Sunday’s lectionary tells of Thomas, who didn’t believe in the risen Jesus until he saw the evidence for himself. I admire him for that. He is the hero for a scientific age.

But when he did see, and believe, his commitment was total. And I admire him for that too.

In Longdendale, at sunrise, there was some light in the sky. But it was a while before the sun became visible in the valley.

The story of Jesus’ resurrection is messy. Some people believed that Jesus was alive, some didn’t. Many didn’t really understand. It took time (and Pentecost) before a nucleus of disciples really got going.

We pray and pray, but the world still seems consumed by darkness. Christians all over the world pray, but what MAGA Christians and the Russian Orthodox hierarchy pray for are very different things from what I pray for.

Nevertheless I will pray.

I will pray for the love of Christ. I will pray for a world of peace and justice. I will pray to be given more understanding of what that even means.

Christ is alive: may that be so in this world of pain and brutality.

In today’s lectionary, we read about Jesus’ burial. Some of Jesus’ hidden disciples (not from the Twelve) come out of the woodwork and do what they can, which is to deal with his body.

There will be a time when Jesus’ disciples can do much more, but for the time being they do what they can.

…a time to remember who Jesus is for each of us.

…a time to remember everyone who meets their death at the hands of a brutal empire.

In today’s lectionary, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.

Washing their feet is leadership.

Breaking the laws that you yourself made is not leadership.

In the lectionary for Wednesday of Holy Week, we read about Jesus being betrayed by Judas. “And it was night.” But the writer of John’s gospel also tells us, “Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified…”” It’s hard to see ‘glory’ in such a time, just as it’s hard to see glory in the deeds of darkness and times of suffering reflected in the News.

Present-day brutality and suffering don’t seem glorious to me. The Gospel is about a particular person at a unique time in history, though … Jesus, who can offer us a different way to conduct our lives.

The word ‘betray’ might well have been appropriate then. But for our age, it rings alarm bells with me. The language of betrayal is used too often by despotic narcissists who believe, “l’état, c’est moi.”

Also, actual nights can be glorious. The night sky, the sounds of night creatures – these are things to celebrate.