What Have You Got to Share?

•March 8, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I’m sure we’ve all been to ‘Bring and Share’ meals that have produced an interesting array of food.  It’s amazing sometimes what the collective sharing of food brings.  It can be an opportunity to try new things, or share your favourites with others – if you’re really lucky, you come away with some new recipes.

Mark 6:30-44

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

30After the apostles returned to Jesus, they told him everything they had done and taught. 31But so many people were coming and going that Jesus and the apostles did not even have a chance to eat. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go to a place where we can be alone and get some rest.” 32They left in a boat for a place where they could be alone. 33But many people saw them leave and figured out where they were going. So people from every town ran on ahead and got there first.

34When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd that was like sheep without a shepherd. He felt sorry for the people and started teaching them many things.

35That evening the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This place is like a desert, and it is already late. 36Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the farms and villages near here and buy something to eat.”

37Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.”

But they asked him, “Don’t you know that it would take almost a year’s wages to buy all of these people something to eat?”

38Then Jesus said, “How much bread do you have? Go and see!”

They found out and answered, “We have five small loaves of bread and two fish.” 39Jesus told his disciples to have the people sit down on the green grass. 40They sat down in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.

41Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and handed it to his disciples to give to the people. He also divided the two fish, so that everyone could have some.

42After everyone had eaten all they wanted, 43Jesus’ disciples picked up twelve large baskets of leftover bread and fish.

44There were five thousand men who ate the food.

I love this story.  All those people, all coming to hear Jesus and what he had to say.  Hungry to know more of him, yet conversely seeming to forget about bringing food.

The disciples get themselves in a flap, then they think it’s going to cost them money!  Then Jesus points them to seeing what people have, what is already there in the crowd.  Never mind panicking, go and see, perhaps among you is already what you need.  It doesn’t seem much, it can’t be enough – but in the hands of Jesus it is more than enough as he transforms it.

Oh how we love to flap (well I do anyway!).  Have we got enough?  What about?  I can’t see what we need.  It will never work.  Woe is us…

Are we like that in the church?  Do we overlook God’s provision?  Do we fail to see what people have to bring to the party?  As we scout around for resources, is it really panic stations, or are there gifts and talents that we are missing in others?  Are we failing to spot the obvious in our panic to sort things?  Who are we overlooking, with all that they have to offer?

Or, do we hold tightly to what we have, rather than handing it over to God and letting him use it for his purposes and multiply it in the process?

God has given you something very special and very particular that you can use, something he needs you to share for the benefit of others.  Do you know what it is?  Are you willing to hand it to him, so he can feed you and others through it?  Perhaps that is something to think about in our Lenten reflections?  What am I holding on to, that God can use?

Five loaves and two fish didn’t seem like enough, so why bother?  But in the hands of Jesus they were just what was needed.

Thank you Lord

for all that you have given to me –

what I realise I have,

and what I never knew.

Help me to place what I have

at your disposal,

to share with everyone,

that you may multiply and bless.

And may I never miss what others have to offer,

and encourage them to share

and feed me.

 

 

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

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Guilty?

•March 7, 2012 • 4 Comments

The pin-prick of guilt can make you behave in the strangest ways, to react most inappropriately.

Here one man pays for someone else’s guilt with his life…

Mark 6:14-29

The Death of John the Baptist

14Jesus became so well-known that Herod the ruler heard about him. Some people thought he was John the Baptist, who had come back to life with the power to work miracles. 15Others thought he was Elijah or some other prophet who had lived long ago. 16But when Herod heard about Jesus, he said, “This must be John! I had his head cut off, and now he has come back to life.”

17-18Herod had earlier married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. But John had told him, “It isn’t right for you to take your brother’s wife!” So, in order to please Herodias, Herod arrested John and put him in prison.

19Herodias had a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she could not do it 20because Herod was afraid of John and protected him. He knew that John was a good and holy man. Even though Herod was confused by what John said, he was glad to listen to him. And he often did.

21Finally, Herodias got her chance when Herod gave a great birthday celebration for himself and invited his officials, his army officers, and the leaders of Galilee. 22The daughter of Herodias came in and danced for Herod and his guests. She pleased them so much that Herod said, “Ask for anything, and it’s yours! 23I swear that I will give you as much as half of my kingdom, if you want it.”

24The girl left and asked her mother, “What do you think I should ask for?”

Her mother answered, “The head of John the Baptist!”

25The girl hurried back and told Herod, “Right now on a platter I want the head of John the Baptist!”

26The king was very sorry for what he had said. But he did not want to break the promise he had made in front of his guests. 27At once he ordered a guard to cut off John’s head there in prison. 28The guard put the head on a platter and took it to the girl. Then she gave it to her mother.

29When John’s followers learned that he had been killed, they took his body and put it in a tomb.

Herod has married his brother’s wife.  John pulls them up for it, telling that they are wrong.  I have a hunch that Herod might actually have realised this, because it seems to be Herodias who leads the persecution, and ultimately execution of John.  She wants rid of the voice that is going to point out the wrong they have done.  Herod however, realised that John was a holy man – and so begins in their lives a classic pull between good and evil, right and wrong.

Herodias excels herself though by getting her daughter caught up in it all.  She doesn’t mind who she uses to get what she wants in the end – John, and his voice of truth, gone.  Though even though heavily led by Herodias, Herod gets caught out by his own stupid showing off – and he ends up making the decision to go through with the request for John’s head.

Herod loses his head metaphorically speaking, and John loses his literally (Tom Wright p 49)

We all have those times when we hear the voice of truth in our lives, either the voice in our head, or someone who is brave enough to point out to us something that is going wrong.  Part of the Lenten discipline of taking time apart is to listen to that voice, to hear the truth of what is wrong in our lives; to face up to it – and do something about it.

It can be so tempting to want rid of it.  To try to drown out the voice, to steer clear of someone who dares to tell us what we need to hear, to try to avoid hearing what God is saying to us.  We may not go as far as cutting anybody’s head off, but we certainly try to cut voices out.

So, this Lent, how are we going to respond to the voice of truth, the niggle of guilt?

We do have something we can do with our guilt, as the story unfolds, we learn that part of God’s new thing that he has come to do, is that Jesus can deal with that for us.  If we find ourselves pulled up short, realise what we have got wrong and where, we don’t need to be held by guilt, but can know the freedom that Jesus brings.  He exchanges it for the things we have got wrong, that we can start again.

Lord,

when I hear that voice,

feel that niggle

that something is not right in my life;

may I not try to run from it,

or bury it –

but face it in you.

I hand to you today

the things that I have got wrong.

I may not be a murderer, or a wife-stealer,

but there are things there

that should not be.

I give them to you.

Thank you that you deal with them,

and allow me to start again

in your New Way

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

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Falling Over the Pile

•March 6, 2012 • 8 Comments

On Sunday, over on the Big Read 2012 Facebook page, Bex and I were having a conversation about suffering, and how much people’s real stories can help. Me and my big mouth!

25In the crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26She had gone to many doctors, and they had not done anything except cause her a lot of pain. She had paid them all the money she had. But instead of getting better, she only got worse.

27The woman had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him in the crowd and barely touched his clothes. 28She had said to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will get well.” 29As soon as she touched them, her bleeding stopped, and she knew she was well.

30At that moment Jesus felt power go out from him. He turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

31His disciples said to him, “Look at all these people crowding around you! How can you ask who touched you?” 32But Jesus turned to see who had touched him.

33The woman knew what had happened to her. She came shaking with fear and knelt down in front of Jesus. Then she told him the whole story.

34Jesus said to the woman, “You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace! You are healed, and you will no longer be in pain.”

 

If I am perfectly honest, this passage freaks me out. It was hearing this passage read that caused me to finally trip over the pile that I had been sweeping under the carpet.  It came to me that I was that women.  Passed from pillar to post by doctors, some sympathetic, some less so; who could see the problem, but either passed it off as of little consequence, or admitted there was little they could do to help with the intrinsic problem.

And so, I am left with chronic illness.  I have touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak – and I have not been made well…

But does that mean I have not been healed?  I would say not.

We have considered during reading Tom Wright’s book, the new thing that God is going to do.  To me, healing is about God doing a new thing.

During my training for Ministry, I had to face up to the illness I had already suffered – at a time when I was well again.  How amazing that I was able to have that opportunity, truly awful as it was at the time, because when chronic illness struck, I has a foundation on which to build.

God has not taken my chronic illness from me, but he has I believe helped me to live with it.  Once upon I time I would not have coped.  Now I have some kind of understanding.  I am not the person I was, I have to live with limitations, I cannot exercise ministry in the way I once did. Yet… yet in all that, I feel that God has done something new in me.  From a place of vulnerability, I have something different to offer, a new way of being that I didn’t have before.  God is with me, continues to touch me, and still has a use for me – though at the moment it may not be what I might have wanted.  And perhaps most important of all, I am able to live with myself – even my limited self, something I would never have though possible.

This is the conclusion I wrote in an essay after a long summer of struggle and wilderness, for me the place of peace I was able to come to:

So for me, both personally, and as a basis for pastoral care, there has to be the offer of healing and wholeness, whatever the state of our mind and body.  We can lay our pain with the one who took our pain upon himself, and receive Life in its true fullness.  If we do not believe that what else have we to offer to a hurting world?  My very practical definition of healing has to be, accepting all that we are, and all that we will never be, and incorporating that into all that we are.

So don’t be afraid to reach out and touch the hem of Jesus’ robe, for he will touch you in return – but it may not be in the way you imagined!  God is doing a new thing – in me, in you, in the world – let’s work with him.

Thank you Lord

that as I reach out to touch you,

you reach out to me too.

Let me allow you to touch me,

my heart, mind, soul –

my life.

May I allow you to do the new work in me that you long to,

that I might be truly whole

I’ll go and read what Tom Wright has to say about this passage now!

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
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