Not just a decoration

•January 11, 2011 • Leave a Comment

At this time of year we need our lights, unless we want to take to our beds for the hours of darkness (though actually that would suit me just fine!).

There is such a choice out there, depending on what you want the light to do.  Last week we spent a while in the lighting department of a certain Swedish furniture store, whilst Mr Pamsperambulation found just the kind he wanted.  But beautiful as some light fittings are, what is really important is the light that it gives, the help that it gives in being able to see what you need to.

This reading from Isaiah reminds us that the role of the Lord’s servant is to be a Light for the world – so that the world may be saved.  The Lord’s servant has a purpose.  God has chosen him to lead the people who have gone astray back to him – and to be able to do that they will need to be able to see clearly.  They will need to see where they are, where they should be, and the way between the two.

But this is not just a task for that one light.  1 Corinthians reminds us that we too are called to be a holy people.  We belong to him, and are united to him.  If we are in union with Christ, then his call is our call.  We receive his blessings, and we receive his challenge.  We are not just for decoration – but to lead a holy life shining in the world.

 

Jesus invites us to “Come and See”.  And having seen we can go and fetch others, that they might see too.  We are to enable others to see, that they might discover him too.

Good lighting is not just for decoration, it’s for illumination.  Jesus is the Light of the World, and he invites us to be a light too.  That others may see him and know him, and the light may burn brighter.

 

Thank you Jesus

That you come into our world.

That you bring light in the dark,

That you come to lead us home,

To illuminate our path day by day.

Help us to walk with you,

To join with you,

That our flickering light

may become part of your eternal flame.

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You do something

•January 8, 2011 • 1 Comment

This year I’m following the reading scheme in the centre of The Methodist Prayer Handbook, which is based on the Common Lectionary.

 

Today bring us to perhaps one of the well-known stories in the bible – the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  It can be easy to get very blasé about the passages we think we know very well. But there is always something new to see and challenge.  Indeed earlier in the week I was hit by something new in Bryony’s blog about once you’ve met Jesus you have to go back another way.  How many times have I read about the Magi, and never thought of that!

But I digress, back to feeding the five thousand.  What struck me in this was the disciples wanting to send the hungry people away to get themselves some food.  Jesus answer is not, “What a fabulous idea, get them going”, but

“You give them something to eat”

The disciples have a responsibility.  They have seen the need, and they have to do something about it.  Jesus isn’t going to do it by himself either, he’ll help, but the disciples themselves have to take the initiative.

When we see a need, we should seek to do something about it.  Not tell people to help themselves – often they can’t.  We see the need for a reason, it’s up to us to help.  God gets on board – but we need to do something too.  Jesus doesn’t tell them to go and throw money at the problem – that would be a relatively easy way out.  He challenges them to get among the people, see what’s already there, and bring that to him.

And what a blessing God gives to their work.

What needs do we see?  What can we do about them – with God?  What are we going to do?

Posted in Jesus, Lectionary
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You don’t want to do that

•January 6, 2011 • Leave a Comment

 

“You don’t wanna do that” became the catch phrase of Harry Enfield’s character on his show, Harry Enfield’s Television Programme.  But it’s pretty much the phrase John uses to Jesus in this reading.

 

John has been bringing the message of forgiveness, and baptising those who wanted to receive that forgiveness.  He has just finished telling them that someone more powerful is coming – and here he is.

Jesus comes to John to be baptised.  But John will have none of it – ‘You don’t want to do that Jesus’.

John knows who Jesus is, he has known it since before he was born.  So he also knows that Jesus has nothing to seek forgiveness for.  He is God’s son, born of Mary who gave us so much to bring him into the world, and his is living God’s life now.  John feels unworthy, and he thinks it is inappropriate.

 

But Jesus knows it is important.  If he was coming to identify with humanity, he had to start where they were, and where they were was in the river being baptised.  Jesus came to enter fully into human life.  He didn’t have to, but he chose to.  He wanted to be where we would be, to feel what we would feel, to know how it was to live a human life – and to live God’s life in it.

Jesus came to be with ordinary people.  That is what pleased God.  He was not with those sat in the Temple thinking they had it all right, but with the ordinary man and woman who knew where they were and what they’d got wrong.

Today he still walks with the ordinary man and woman.  He comes where he is needed.  He’ll get in the water with us, and not shy away.  And he wants to do it.

The river at Yardent, “close to where Jesus was baptised”

Thank you Jesus

that you came into the world.

Thank you that you didn’t sit in palaces or places that others deemed “holy”,

but that you came to the reality of life.

Thank you for being willing to do that,

to go against what people expected of you,

to do the thing that needed doing.

May I make room for you

in my ordinary life.

Posted in forgiveness, Jesus
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