A Last after Trinity 2008

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my word shall never pass away.

How do you think of the novel, Mrs Fitzgerald?
Long silence. I suppose I think of the novel... as something oblong.

Vincent Taylor, The Text of the New Testament, second edition, 1963, 18 shillings net, second-hand copy, according to the flyleaf once the property of Illegible McGoughlin:
the original autographs of the New Testament which it has pleased God not to protect from the accidents and fortunes of scribal transmission.

The solidity of the book: the fluidity of the text. Books are solid, oblong, portable, can prop up tables, stop bullets (allegedly), in political or personal extremity can light fires. They can get lost. They can be rediscovered during building work: 2 Kings 22. The people return from exile to a book. One of the reasons why books are oblong in the first place, and not cylindrical, is the way Christians spread round the Mediterranean in the first century.

At the same time, the fluidity of the text: manuscripts, battles over hand-copied bibles (to every cow its calf, to every copy its book), misreadings, well-meaning emendments, untranslatable verses, and ordinary misprints (‘printers have persecuted me without a cause’, Ps 119, 1702). Whereas ‘Now Barabbas was a publisher’ is not a misprint but an exasperated remark by a Scottish poet.

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my word shall never pass away.

Non-endings. Mark: women running. Matthew: the Great Commission. Luke: waiting for the Spirit. John: the world could not hold the books that would be written.

‘... in the interests of truth.’
The word made its mark. Broadcasting House was in fact dedicated to the strangest project of the war, or of any war, that is, telling the truth. Without prompting, the BBC had decided that truth was more important than consolation, and, in the long run, would be more effective. And yet there was no guarantee of this. Truth ensures trust, but not victory, or even happiness. But the BBC had clung tenaciously to its first notion, droning quietly on, at intervals from dawn to midnight, telling, as far as possible, exactly what happened. An idea so unfamiliar was bound to upset many of the other authorities, but they had got used to it little by little, and the listeners had always expected it.

Lost Books

Nehemiah's talking about a book that had been lost. This is the rediscovery of the book. Coming home to the book (look at how important it is that everyone understands) is coming back from exile.

There was a lost book that was discovered when Josiah was rebuilding the Temple. 2 Kings 22.

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴‘Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; ⁵let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the Lord; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house, ⁶that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷But no account shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.’

8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.’ When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. ⁹Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, ‘Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord.’ ¹⁰Shaphan the secretary informed the king, ‘The priest Hilkiah has given me a book.’ Shaphan then read it aloud to the king.

11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. ¹²Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah, saying, ¹³‘Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’

That was before the exile. Nehemiah is about returning from exile. During the exile, when the land was lost, the exiles remembered their story and again rediscovered the book. Bits of books they already had, bits they put together, bits that were their own history.

Lost books. The library of Alexandria. Books you lend to people. Books you once had and books you can't quite remember. Books out there propping up tables, left on trains, adrift in the world.

the original autographs of the New Testament which it has pleased God not to protect from the accidents and fortunes of scribal transmission

(Vincent Taylor, preface, The Text of the New Testament, 1963, second-hand copy, 18s net, formerly the property of Illegible O'Loughlin, 1969)

A Last after Trinity; Bible Sunday: readings

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 8-12
all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose;
and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen’, lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places.

[omitted in the passage as set by the lectionary - because of the names?]

So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, ‘Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Colossians 3:12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


Matthew 24: 30-35
Jesus said:
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Creation 5

The word Jesus uses for ‘perfect’, in the alarming teaching ‘Be perfect as God is perfect’, is τέλειος, and it means complete, finished, something that has done what is was supposed to do or become what it is supposed to be. If I go home today and pick apples and make the perfect apple crumble, that is a teleios apple crumble and the apples are teleioi. They have become completely what they are supposed to be, at least from my point of view. Which makes it interesting that from the apples’ point of view they aren’t perfect, they aren’t even apples any more in any way that an apple might recognise, because I’ve eaten them.
So Jesus is not saying to the crowds Be nice or Be nicer or Go further or Do more or even Be different. He is saying Be everything. Be everything you are supposed to be. Find everything you are, do it all, get there, finish the race. Be perfect.
And to illustrate this - as a model - he points them towards God. God is perfect. That doesn’t mean God is exceptionally good at everything or always keeps his room tidy. It means God is completely God, is everything God can be. I am that I am, says God, introducing himself to Moses. God is perfectly God, God is completely God: God is.
That’s one thing we know about God. God is. The other thing we know is the whole story that says that for God, being God means loving us. And not just us here but also the apples in my crumble and the planet Jupiter and the centipedes in my compost heap and all the people I particularly dislike. That’s what the first reading is about. Something perfect might be something complete in itself, something that didn’t need anything else. But God is perfectly God, and it’s not that sort of perfect. God pours himself out in love; being God means doing that. This is not the perfect calm of a lake: this is a torrent, a waterfall, Niagara.
Jesus is talking to the crowd about other people. How they could be towards other people. He is saying Be towards other people the way God is to other people. Don’t be nice to the nice ones and disapproving to the nasty ones. Love them. Not because that will do them a lot of good, but because you need to be perfect. You need to be everything that you are, the way God is everything God is, and you cannot do that by closing up inside yourself and being perfectly cut off; or by judging other people and being perfectly right; you have to do it by loving people. You may end up unrecognisable to yourself or your friends, the way the apples ended up unrecognisable as apples. But you will have become the person God is pouring himself out to make.

I moved my current account in May out of what we will call Bank X, after more than 25 years, not for reasons of high finance but because:

1. Bank X had a policy of investing heavily in oil and gas exploration, regardless of what that did to the environment or whether that meant they were propping up governments like the Burmese junta;
2. (and this was the last straw) Bank X was paying its London cleaners less than the minimum wage.

I moved the account to Bank Y, which is not a big flashy bank at all but does have a policy of not behaving like that. Bank X is one of the ones that has just collapsed spectacularly. Nobody has mentioned its behaviour towards its cleaners in the analysis of the last few weeks, but I think it is not entirely a coincidence, and I think that is to do with relationships and trust.

Rainbows. Signs.

Relationships in creation. God, Noah, creatures. NB animal sacrifice - Noah has just taken

of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar

which appears to be why God has decided not to send another flood. First mention of animal sacrifice in Genesis, and thus in the Bible, but there's no account establishing it. (It takes until Leviticus 11 before there's any explanation of which animals are clean or unclean.) What is going on here? What are the relationships implied in the covenant? What is God's motivation in sending the flood and not sending another?

Relationships again. Peter: Jesus is the Lord and the one anointed, and you crucified him. Everyone: what should we do? Peter: repent and receive the Spirit.

The Spirit more or less is a relationship. Not a very personal Person of the Trinity.

Even more relationships. Neighbours, enemies, brothers, sisters, the good, the evil, tax-collectors, gentiles. And rain.

What does 'perfect' mean?

Readings for Creation 5

HC (T) Holy Trinity, HC Curbridge, HC St Mary's

Genesis 9.8 - 17
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

Acts 2:36b-39
Peter said: ‘Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.’
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’

Matthew 5.43 – 48
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Creation 3; Harvest

In the Jewish harvest festival, Sukkot, the Feast of Booths - the week after next - people build shelters out of branches (olive, pine, myrtle, palm) outside and go and live in them for the seven days of the festival. (unless it’s raining or your booth is full of wasps or you’ve just got married) And they dance with the law. A pilgrimage festival. Why booths? because of the shelters they lived in in the wilderness. Or because of the huts the harvesters made in the fields. More shade than sun, but not so much that you can’t see the stars.
We do that in reverse. We bring the fields inside. But it would be good also to go outside - bareheaded, barefoot even - and go on a journey, or stand getting wet for five minutes in the garden. Because harvest is not, after all, a time to sit contentedly on your heap. Harvest is when you remember that you’re on the edge. Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy: the copy of the law. A tendency to tell you things again. A wish to make things absolutely clear. A mission to explain. Who is the explanation for? A people on the edge of the promised land. A pilgrim people. A people in exile. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ That is false security. Pilgrimage is deliberate insecurity, the antidote.
The people looking for Jesus wanted bread and certainty. What is the sign? Where is the bread?
- work for the food that endures for eternal life
- believe in the one whom God has sent
- the bread is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world
A conversation at cross purposes. Where is God definitely guaranteed? God is here now. But you can’t take possession of God: you can only join in. Do not try to gather everything up and sit on it, it will not work. Even the promised land didn’t work, because they forgot they were on the edge. Seek first the kingdom of God, and live in that. You’re not on the edge of that. You’re in it.
A pilgrimage story. Galicia. Cowsheds, rain, spring flowers, green hills, tiny villages, no bread. Out of nowhere, the bread van.

Readings for Creation 3; Harvest

Deuteronomy 26.1 - 11
When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

John 6.25 – 35
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

Anonymous apostles

Bartholomew is one of the ones we don't know anything about. Named in lists of the 12. Named as a witness to the Ascension. Tends to be mentioned alongside Philip. Tradition from about the 9th century associates him with Nathanael, who's mentioned only in John's Gospel and not in the others. Maybe Nathanael was also called Bartholomew - Bartholomew's a patronymic anyway, meaning 'son of Tolmay/Ptolemy'. Nathanael is the one Jesus sees sitting under the fig tree in chapter 1 of John.

Why do we assume that we should know anything about him? If we're not to know anything about him, what is he in the story for?

He's a witness.

Invisible church. Augustine. Anonymous Christians. Rahner. But that's about people not visibly part of the church. What about people visibly part of the church whom we don't know anything about?

Iona Community, WWB evening liturgy B:

Here in the company
of the neighbour whom we know
and the stranger in our midst,
and the self from whom we turn,
we ask to love as Jesus loved.
Make this the and time, good Lord,
when heaven and earth merge into one,
and we in word and flesh can grasp
that in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither male nor female:
all are one in Jesus Christ
and for this we praise you.
Amen.

Witness. Apostle. Person sent. Person called.

Discovering the depths of ourselves
the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 1 Cor. 2.10

Not talking to people in buzz groups

Bartholomew: readings

HC (BCP) St Mary's

Acts 5:12-16

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

Luke 22:24-30

A dispute also arose among the disciples as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But Jesus said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'

Pickers-up of Unconsidered Trifles

The dogs under the table, eating the scraps.

This week I was in the Chilterns, where you see red kites. Another scavenger. Kites eat carrion and they also take rags and scraps of material to build their nests. From the way Shakespeare mentions them, they were a kind of urban nuisance, behaving a bit like seagulls around a pier diving in to steal your fish and chips.

On the other hand, red kites very nearly became extinct in Britain. Now that they've been successfully re-introduced, the way people think about them has changed. They're something special that people look out for. Their value has changed completely. As if the dogs got out from under the table and had their own cushion, and fillet steak instead of scraps.

And yet, as far as the kites are concerned, nothing has changed. They're still just being kites.

The other thing about this story - well, another thing - Jesus and the woman are talking about what he does, his ministry, and they talk about it as something that nourishes. Like the parables of the seed that grows into wheat.

Trinity 13 2008: readings

HC Curbridge

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.
And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant - these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.

Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.

Trinity 12 2008

Ordination retreat. The first one: the piece of jigsaw. The second one: the man who kept talking about Peter. Loud voice. Not a still small voice at all. Loud voice, florid sentence structure, more and more about Peter. “Imagine you are a man...” Limits to my ability to imagine I am a man.
Peter again. Patronal festival, united service in tiny village church, outdoors. Looking for fish in the church, making a church out of stones, making paper boats by the stream, looking after sheep in the orchard, and of course walking on water. I’ll come back to that. By the end of the service people had done all sorts of things, and they were pleased with themselves - especially the man who walked on water - and I had lots of stories about Peter in my head instead of just a voice saying “Imagine you are a man...”.
Some things speak to us, and some things don’t, and different things speak to different people, and to the same people at different times. You don’t need me to tell you that. But I don’t always remember it when I should. When things aren’t making sense to me. When other people aren’t behaving the way I think anyone would. There’s nothing wrong with imagining, I am all for it, but there are limits to how far we can get out of ourselves (‘imagine you are a man...’) unless we listen.
If the Bible is nothing else it is an education in listening and difference. It tells us one story in thousands of different stories over and over again. These are stories, today, of speaking and listening. And of storms, and in one case also of earthquakes and fire. The one about Elijah is one of a lot of stories about Elijah and a lot of those are about listening. (With the priests of Baal. Is your God not there? Maybe he’s asleep.) The whole story of Elijah is one of a lot of stories about prophets, and those, likewise, are about speaking and listening: the prophet speaking to God, and to the people. There isn’t just one story. The Bible tells you one way, and then it has another go, and then another go. There are any number of prophets. There are four Gospels. There are lots of stories, told four different ways, about boats and storms (Jesus asleep in the boat); being alone and crowds; being secure and being afloat.; recognition (and wonder and fear); strangeness and trust.
And what is the one story? Meeting God. The story of our encounter with God. (Not ‘imagine you are God...’) Strangeness and trust. A voice of silence. ‘Come’. Peter and Elijah, called completely out of themselves.
How to walk on water.

1 Kings 19:9-18
At that place Elijah came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.’

Matthew 14:22-33
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’
Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

The pub quiz question: Which Biblical character plays in the Scottish First Division? Queen of the South. vs Airdrie yesterday: a disappointing 0-0. (But in the UEFA cup this season.)
Queen of the South: what Matthew and Luke call the Queen of Sheba.
The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! Jesus, rather energetically replying to the scribes and Pharisees who want to be shown a sign.
Two stories about signs; about signals, about something that tells us what to do. What direction to go in. What to do next. Arrows, lists, maps, unexamined assumptions. What everyone knows. Those deep tectonic shifts of general opinion: smoking, politics, climate change, tectonic theory.
I like the Queen of Sheba. She has style, she has camels, and she takes ‘what everyone knows’ and asks questions about it. Everyone says Solomon is wise, but she goes to see for herself. She asks questions. Hard questions. Solomon is a byword for wisdom; maybe he is a sign of what wisdom is. She goes to have a look.
1 Kings > Deuteronomic > God is universal and ethical and obvious. Solomon is a good king, wise, just, Temple-building, therefore he is rewarded with gold and spices. The Queen of Sheba, who is a foreigner, tests his wisdom and brings some of his reward.
But the other story is in Acts. God is out there and live and never obvious. God in Deuteronomy is something like a mountain. God in Acts is more like electricity. The Spirit says: Go here. Don’t go there. Send these two people. The second half of Acts is essentially the story of Paul and whoever else could stand the pace (they seem to take it in turns) trying to keep up with the Spirit. Learning to see, learning not to make assumptions about God, finding God ahead of them.
This story, the magician, is another case of testing. Again, we don’t have the questions or the criteria or the answers. Again, we have the foreigner, but this time he’s listening. He is astonished.
We can learn to ask questions. Hard questions, obvious ones, questions to other people, to ourselves, questions for God.
Maybe, as well, we could remember to be astonished.

The Queen of Sheba arrives in Scotland

Poem by Kathleen Jamie. You can read it here.

Who's Who

If I were telling these stories in a school assembly, with the People of God, then any of the figures could be Paul or Barnabas. But I have a feeling that the only figures who could be Solomon or the Queen of Sheba are the ones with gold and silver heads. That makes me slightly uneasy about this story - the more so as the gold and silver figures are recent additions, and I find I don't use them much.
Is the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba a story of the People of God? Because if it is, then in some sense it's a story about us. Not in the sense that we're like the people in the story, or that we might know someone like them, or that we can find a contemporary parallel to the story. Just in the sense that the People of God are people encountering God, and so are we, and our story is continuous with theirs even though it's thousands of years later and all sorts of things about the way we live are different.
I started thinking about the People of God because I find it a good way in to a story, to think about how I'd tell it with them. Thinking about it, I've remembered another good way in to a story, which is a question to ask of it: the question is 'What is God like in this story?'
What is God like, in the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?
Another question would be why I appear not to be thinking about Paul and Barnabas. But the answer to that's easy, it's because I don't have this sort of unease about them. They're the People of God. I can see what God's like in their story.

The People of God

These are the People of God. (Godly Play-speak.) They're used in telling stories from the Bible. One of the important things about them, in Godly Play, is that the same figures are used in all the stories, whether it's Abraham at Bethel or Paul in Athens. Another thing is that any of the figures can be anyone in the stories; I remember Peter Privett, who is a Godly Play teacher, saying that he liked to make sure that they all got a turn to be Abraham. A third thing is that the story-teller will always refer to them as the People of God, not the Hebrews or the Israelites or the apostles. All of this is because it makes it easier to see a continuity in the stories of how the people are encountering God, and it also makes it easier to see that continuity between the people in the stories and us.
The People of God are actually supposed to be plain wooden silhouettes about half an inch thick. I had to improvise some quickly once, which is why mine are wine corks with coloured paper heads. But I find that means I can say things like 'This is a story about Jesus. Which one would you like to be Jesus?', and that's another little bit of involvement in the story. Also, corks are readily available.
In the background you can just make out a bicycle in pieces. It has no religious significance at all.

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

The music, the piece by Handel that quite often gets used at weddings. I wondered why he was writing about her. It's from an oratorio called Solomon, first performed in 1749 in London. The cast is as follows:
Solomon (alto)
Solomon's Queen (soprano)
Nicaule, Queen of Sheba (soprano)
First Harlot (soprano)
Second Harlot (mezzo-soprano)
Zadok, the High Priest (tenor)
A Levite (bass)
Attendant (tenor)
Chorus of Priests
Chorus of Israelites
Not just one Harlot, ladies and gentlemen, two Harlots.

1 Kings 10: 1-13
When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
What was on her mind? What did she want to know? What was hard about the questions?
Did she want to test Solomon (i.e. did she know the answers to her questions) or did she want answers that no-one else had been able to give?
Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had observed all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his valets, and his burnt-offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
that sounds more as if she was testing Solomon - whereas, with the questions, it sounded more as if she was looking for answers
So she said to the king, ‘The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. Not even half had been told me; your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually attend you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel for ever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.’ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again did spices come in such quantity as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great quantity of almug wood and precious stones. From the almug wood the king made supports for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
Meanwhile, King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba every desire that she expressed, as well as what he gave her out of Solomon’s royal bounty. Then she returned to her own land, with her servants.
Diplomatic missions. Trade deputations. Summit meetings.
Barack Obama. (Is he Solomon or the one asking the questions?)

Acts 13: 1-13
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
another mission
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.
another one who wants answers
But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen—the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.’ Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
words about sight. Looked intently. blind. unable to see the sun. saw what had happened.
Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem.

According to WIkipedia...

Sheba was in the south of the Arabian peninsula, a bit east of Ophir. Present-day Yemen, roughly. Alternatively, it was the other side of the Red Sea in what is now Ethiopia. We do not know.
As for the Queen, there was a tradition that up until the time of Solomon, Sheba had had a succession of sixty female rulers. In the Quran, the queen who visits Solomon is called Bilqis.
Matthew and Luke refer to her as Queen of the South. She is the only Scottish First Division football club to appear in the New Testament.
If that isn't enough for you, try Michael Wood, writing for the BBC.

Trinity 11 2008: readings (Evening Prayer)

[Evensong, Hailey]

1 Kings 10: 1-13
When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had observed all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his valets, and his burnt-offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
So she said to the king, ‘The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. Not even half had been told me; your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard. Happy are your wives! Happy are these your servants, who continually attend you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel for ever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.’ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again did spices come in such quantity as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great quantity of almug wood and precious stones. From the almug wood the king made supports for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
Meanwhile, King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba every desire that she expressed, as well as what he gave her out of Solomon’s royal bounty. Then she returned to her own land, with her servants.

Acts 13: 1-13
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen—the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.’ Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem.

This morning I would like you to think about everything.
But because we only have about seven minutes just now to think about everything, let me suggest a way to start. Imagine a leaf. It might be a leaf from the tree that grew from the mustard seed. A green leaf. Imagine looking more closely so that it fills your field of vision. You might see little bugs and caterpillars and hairs on the surface of the leaf. Now more closely still, with a microscope. You can see the veins of the leaf, and the sap. Turn up the magnification and you can see the cells. Turn it up further. And eventually - but no microscope could do it - there are the atoms of the molecules of the chlorophyll that makes the leaf green, and the phloem that extracts sugar out of the sunlight, and the xylem that stops the leaf falling apart. And within the atoms, spinning round like planets, there are invisible particles like a whole unimaginably tiny galaxy; those are quarks: there are six sorts of quarks, and the sorts are called flavours, and the flavours are up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom.
Now zoom out. Zoom out until it looks like a leaf again. And further out until it’s a little speck. You can see the tree. And the forest. And the horizon beyond the forest. And the curve of the planet the forest is on. And the continents and the seas of the planet. And the other planets, and the star they orbit, and the neighbouring stars that are thousands of lifetimes away, spinning round each other like the tiny invisible particles of the atoms of the leaf.
And that was just a leaf. You must think of the rest of everything by yourselves later. You may become very wise, like Solomon, or you may find that you have to stop and lie down in a darkened room.
Why should you try to think about everything? Because these are the parables of everything. A great tree. The whole of three measures of flour. The whole field. Everything the merchant had. A net full of all kinds of everything - Matthew doesn’t even say ‘all kinds of fish’, just ‘all kinds’. Everything in the sea. And Paul is also talking about everything: He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
What happens to everything? What is the mystery, the hiddenness, of everything?
It is given up, like the merchant’s possessions. It is utterly transformed, like the leavened flour. It is buried, like the seed and the pearl and the treasure. It is given life. Something is hidden in it. Something shines out of it. It isn’t the kingdom and the kingdom is in all of it. All of it is mixed together and it is all gathered for the fisher-angels to sort out.
Maybe you draw the line at going home to think about the entire universe. So try this other way of thinking about everything. God’s call to us is to the whole of what we are; God’s gift to us is of everything God is.

Bread Sunday

A sidelight on the parable of the leaven.

Trinity 10 2008: readings

HC (BCP) St Mary's; HC St Mary's

Romans 8:26-end

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

'The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’

Trinity 9 2008: readings

HC Curbridge
HC Holy Trinity

Isaiah 44:6-8
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
⁷Who is like me? Let them proclaim it,
let them declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?
Let them tell uswhat is yet to be.
⁸Do not fear, or be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
You are my witnesses!
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other rock; I know not one.

Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43
[The bit in italics is 13:31-35, some of which is next week's Gospel reading]
Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” ²⁸He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” ²⁹But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’
³²He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
³⁵Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ ³⁷He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

Welcome to Work in Progress

Hello. Hello especially if you have come here because you saw this in the church notices and are having a look to see what's going on. You will find a couple of week's sermons below, and a couple of notes to the right which give a brief explanation of what this is about.
There won't be much happening here for a few days, because I am going off to spend a week with a Christian community caring for the temporarily destitute. That is, I am going to work in the church tent at the Glastonbury Festival, where all preaching is improvised and people spend most of their time providing other people (who have lost their tents or fallen out with their friends or been washed away by rain) with blankets. You will be pleased to hear that the blankets are Witney blankets. The church tent is run by Somerset Churches Together and there's more about it here.
Back soon. Be good.

Patrick O’Brian. Ships, storms, battles, expeditions, people marooned on islands, giant tortoises, guns, shipwrecks, mutiny, revolution, ropes and rigging, tropics and icebergs, and the dead sewn up in their hammocks with a couple of roundshot at their feet. And sealed orders.
Sealed Orders are the orders given the commanding officer of a ship or squadron that are sealed up, which he is not allowed to open until he has proceeded a certain length into the high seas; an arrangement in order to ensure secrecy in a time of war. So that you might send a squadron out to suppress the slave trade off the Ivory Coast, and nobody knows until they reach a particular point of latitude and longitude that the squadron is also ordered to intercept a French invasion of Ireland.
In the gospel, there are no sealed orders.

what I say to you in the dark, tell in the light
what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops

But we tend to assume there must be. (Gnostics.) We write our own, and open the envelope whenever it suits us. (Christian Family Values.) There aren’t. This is worth noticing. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
These are not sealed orders, then, but they are orders. Marching orders. Jesus is talking to his disciples, sending them out. He does what it’s natural to do in that situation. He tells them who they are and how they will be known. They’re going out, and there will be trouble. People are not going to like this at all. Things will happen that are wholly unpredictable except that they can be relied on to be bad. For more on that, read Jeremiah.
Jesus can’t give them instructions for everything that will happen to them; again, they have no sealed orders; he tells them who they are and how they will be known. He talks about integrity, which is about sticking to who you are and where you belong.

those who acknowledge me, I will acknowledge
those who deny me, I will deny

He talks about identity, which is about knowing where you belong and who you are.
Where do they belong? In a company, a household, a family.
Who are they? Recognised. Recognisable.
They haven’t got sealed orders. They have news for people instead. They haven’t got a checklist or targets or a set of ideas. They are a people with a history and a hope.

what I say to you in the dark, tell in the light
what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops

There are not two truths. There are not two versions of the good news, two gospels. There is not a secret knowledge for an inner group.

Integrity. A red thread.
Ariadne's thread in logic. (Ariadne helped Theseus escape from the labyrinth by giving him a ball of red thread to trace his path.) Back up to the last thing that worked and try again.
Slightly different image. A red thread running through material. In legend, the red thread running through the length of the rope. Consistency.

recognition. Recognising the truth, the thread, the danger.

those who acknowledge me, I will acknowledge
those who deny me, I will deny

do not be afraid
not peace but a sword

What makes people afraid?

Taize assembly. What red means.

have no fear of them

nothing is secret that will not become known

tell in the light proclaim from the housetops

do not be afraid;

who acknowledges me I will acknowledge
whoever denies me I will deny

not peace, but a sword

those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus is still talking to his disciples. They're being sent out.

Col. Tim Collins' speech to his men before they were sent out, March 2003.

Swords

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Death's sword (sword or scythe?) in Discworld. Blue light.

Excalibur. The sword in the stone. The sword in the lake. Throwing it back in.
(> Lord of the Rings.)

The sword that was broken.

Captured officers in the Aubrey/Maturin novels. Giving up and handing back their swords.

Swords with names. Durendal (Roland). Excalibur. Joyeuse (Charlemagne).

Lightsabres.

Sting. The Wee Free Men's swords that glow blue in the presence of lawyers.

Making swords. Japanese craftsmen. Tempering steel.

Trinity 5 2008: readings

22 June 2008
HC (BCP) St Mary's, HC St Mary's

Jeremiah 20:7-13

O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughing-stock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering: ‘Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. ‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.’
But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.

Matthew 10:24-39

‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.'

The people of God camped in the wilderness, in front of the mountain.
Worthy Farm. The fields, the fence, the green hills turning blue as the tents spread over them.
People on a journey together. People coming together from different directions to one place. And the disciples, people setting out on a journey, in different directions, not with tents, not even with a bag or a spare shirt. Labourers to the harvest. People setting out into the fields.

Journeying and staying.

William Langland.

In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,

- he gets dressed for the road and he sets out to see wonders.

Ac on a May morwenynge on Malverne hilles
Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me thoghte.

He lies down to sleep by a stream and he dreams

That I was in a wildernesse, wiste I nevere where.

In the east, high up, near the sun, a triple tower on a hill, the home of Truth. Below, a dungeon in a deep dark valley.

A fair feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene --
Of alle manere of men, the meene and the riche,
Werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh.

Middle Earth.

The people of God in the wilderness are looking for the Land. The disciples are setting out to bring people news of a kingdom. The people at the Festival are looking for all sorts of things; for something different, away from the ordinary. A man covered in mud from head to foot, wearing nothing but a loincloth; coming back to the tent to say thanks, and not being recognised; quite likely, a few days later, back to work in a suit and tie. Temporary, muddy, but a kind of transformation. Whereas the people in Langland's field - and maybe they are most like us - aren't looking for anything in particular, they're just getting on with things. Most of them aren't expecting much.

The Land is elusive. They're on the brink, about to cross the river. Or they're in exile wondering what went wrong. Or they're back, but it's still wrong, under foreign occupation. So in Jesus' time; and Jesus, living in the Land, talks about the kingdom of God. A kingdom of fields, fish, trees, seeds, the persecuted, the poor in spirit, yeast in bread, buried treasure, children, feasts, vineyards. Some people will hear the news of this kingdom, and some will reject it, and when people reject it, he says, shake the dust of that place off your feet: but all the same tell them the kingdom has come near.

Do we live in the kingdom, or in the field full of folk? Or both?
Both.
Are we setting out, or making camp, or hoping that finally we can settle down?
On the way.
Emmaus.

A fair field full of folk

In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Wente wide in this world wondres to here.
Ac on a May morwenynge on Malverne hilles
Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me thoghte.
I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste
Under a brood bank by a bourne syde;
And as I lay and lenede and loked on the watres,
I slombred into a slepyng, it sweyed so murye.
Thanne gan I meten a merveillous swevene --
That I was in a wildernesse, wiste I nevere where.
A[c] as I biheeld into the eest an heigh to the sonne,
I seigh a tour on a toft trieliche ymaked,
A deep dale bynethe, a dongeon therinne,
With depe diches and derke and dredfulle of sighte.
A fair feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene --
Of alle manere of men, the meene and the riche,
Werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh.

Piers Plowman, the opening of the Prologue

What Jesus says about fields

- lilies grow in them, without anxiety
- wheat grows there, and people can pick ears of wheat and eat them as they walk past
- good seed can be sown, and weeds grow alongside
- someone planted a tiny mustard seed in a field
- someone sold everything to buy the field where treasure was hidden
- a field is a kind of commitment: like houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children
- someone in the field must not turn back to get a coat
- two people might be in a field: one will be taken, and the other left
- the prodigal son worked in the fields with the pigs, and his brother was working in the fields when he returned home
- the fields are ripe for harvesting

Journeys.
The people of God travelling around in the wilderness
The journey out of Egypt

and brought you to myself

Moses on the mountain
journeying towards God, encountering God
but it's only a camp, Moses can't see God's face, it's always provisional

a priestly kingdom and a holy nation

but a territorial kingdom and nation?
the Land

going about all the cities and villages (but only in Israel)

proclaiming the good news of the kingdom

kingdom
Land
harvest - field
Jesus quite often talks about a field

Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

and the words of the Lord to the people. The prophet in between, going to and fro.
whereas Jesus sees that the people are

harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd

Covenant and holiness. Making choices.

indeed the whole earth is mine
Jesus went about all the cities and villages

But

enter no town of the Samaritans

a priestly kingdom
the kingdom of heaven has come near

Trinity 4 2008: readings

15 June 2008
HC Hailey, HC St Mary's

Exodus 19:2-8a

They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.'