The Parable of the Wedding Feast – Matthew 22.1-14
It’s been a long week, and a long day, and I’m too tired for any serious reflection.
So here, instead, is a link to a fun musical lego version of this parable. Enjoy!
I hope to have my brain functioning properly again in time for tomorrow’s post.
The Parable of Clean and Unclean – Matthew 15.10-20
It is not what goes in that matters, but what comes out. It is not the keeping of the rules that counts, but a heart tuned in to what is right.
I’ve been thinking about this in relation to the several hundred school children I have seen this week, and the hundreds more I will see next week (it’s the school carol service season!). What is it that makes a ‘good’ education? Is it learning information, is it learning to play by the rules, or is it learning to be who God created you to be?
I think I know, and I hope my answer is reflected in the way I lead my school as Chair of Governors, and also in the way I serve many local schools as part of my ministry.
It is, as Jesus says, what proceeds from the heart that really counts. As an educationalist, I am less interested in “what are we teaching the children?” and more interested in “what sort of people are we teaching the children to be?” I think that is part of the gift which church schools have to offer – a focus on the ‘who’ and the ‘how’, rather than just the ‘what’. A vision of education which sees the whole child as being made in the image of God, uniquely precious and loved.
Jesus condemns the cities – Matthew 15.10-20
I find this passage strangely comforting. Even that great prophet John the Baptist, even Jesus himself, was criticised for the way he behaved, the way he spoke, the way he lived, by those who simply didn’t want to hear his message. With those examples before me, perhaps I’m not doing so badly at this ministry thing!
The gospel is good news, but it isn’t necessarily easy news. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, but not always comfortable. Jesus saves, but he also disturbs. We are not called to preach what people want to hear, but what they need to hear – the truth that will set us free. God was never supposed to be nice. God is, after all, far greater than that.
The kingdom Jesus proclaims sometimes seems anything but reassuring. “The last shall be first” doesn’t sound like such great news if you’re near the front of the queue. “Sell all you have and give to the poor” is a tall order when you’re trying to secure your family’s financial future. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” doesn’t always sound like such a blessing.
But if the kingdom doesn’t always sound cosy and comfortable, perhaps that is because we have become too comfortable with the ways of the world we live in, too accepting of things as “inevitable” which fly in the face of God’s kingdom values, of peace, justice, freedom, hope, love.
And that acceptance, that willingness to live with a non-kingdom world view, makes us lazy about doing God’s kingdom work. Perhaps we know something isn’t right, isn’t part of God’s way of living, but challenging or changing it seems too hard or too dangerous.
But, in the words of the song, “nobody said it was easy”, and God’s kingdom is always worth the effort and worth the risk. Only if we are willing to work for God’s kingdom as well as to preach it can we honestly pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Announcing the Kingdom – Matthew 4.12-17
“The kingdom of heaven is like…..”
What is the kingdom of heaven like? I do not for a minute believe that it is a place in any physical sense, or even in any temporal sense: the-place-we-go-when-we-die. I do not believe in a place of perfect green rolling hills, gemstone-encrusted walls, floating angels, bright lights and celestial choirs. That sort of pseudo-folk-religion seems to me to have nothing to do with the Kingdom which Jesus proclaims.
So what is the kingdom of heaven?
It is the place where justice rolls down like waters.
It is the place where the light shines and the darkness cannot overcome it.
It is the place where we are led into all truth.
It is the place where we truly do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.
It is the place where perfect love at last casts out fear, and with it death and tears, sorrow and suffering. A place of peace and hope, justice and unity, and – above all – love.
And wherever and wherever and however those things are found, that is the kingdom of heaven. That is the kingdom Jesus proclaims, and the kingdom he commands us to pray for, on earth as in heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is so unimaginably different, such an upside-down world, such a radical vision, that Jesus knew it would be difficult for his followers to understand. And so he said, so many times, “the kingdom of heaven is like…..”, and he set out in parables what we could not understand more literally. He used the power of stories and images to convey something to great to be understood any other way.
And still we use images and parables and stories to try to understand the kingdom of heaven. Recently a child handed me a piece of paper on which she had drawn a picture of interlocking puzzle pieces, and written these words: “The kingdom of heaven is like a puzzle. If it goes wrong you try again, and soon it will be perfect.”
The more I have thought about it, the more I have realised how apt this is as a parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a puzzle. You need all the pieces to make it work. You can’t see what the picture is like until it is made whole. It reveals what is hidden and creates a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.
I wonder what images, stories and parables can help us understand more about the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus’ Baptism – Matthew 3.11-17
For me, the message of this passage seems to be: “expect the unexpected”. Look for Jesus in the least likely places and the least likely people.
It has always been my experience that that is where Jesus most often turns up – in the very places and people where I least look for him. And it constantly challenges me. Where do I not expect to find Jesus? (And why on earth not?!) Those are probably the places I should be looking for him.
If I don’t see Jesus in someone, maybe I’m not looking hard enough. Maybe that person doesn’t measure up to my expectations, just as Jesus probably didn’t measure up to the expectations of the crowd who had gathered around John the Baptist. Or maybe I just don’t want to think that Jesus can be found in “that sort of person” (whoever that sort of person might be.
It’s a constant challenge. A constant call to repentance, to turn again, to look again, to find Christ in the most surprising places.
I am reminded of one of my favourite songs: “Fierce Love” by Adrian Snell. This song was inspired by his work as a music therapist with people with learning disabilities, and speaks powerfully of his experience of finding Jesus in unexpected, un-obvious people and places.
“This is where I find you
Seated at the table
With the hurt, unstable
In a place of pain.”
The video that goes with this song is truly beautiful. Have the tissues ready… and be ready to see Christ where you least expect:
The Preaching of John the Baptist – Matthew 3.1-10
I have long been fascinated by the phrase used about John the Baptist “preaching a gospel of repentance”. This is not “repent or else”, this is repentance which is – and sounds like – good news, which is is what ‘gospel’ means.
What is such good news about being called to repent? I think for me the good news is that there is another way, there is the chance to change, to do things differently, to turn away from the darkness and towards the light. And, of course, to go on turning and turning again to Christ, which is what ‘repentance’ means.
It is easy to think of repentance in terms of what we turn away from, and the things we may have felt threatened with. It can feel like a real hell-and-damnation sort of word. But true repentance is not about ‘behaving’ out of fear of punishment.
It is about joyfully turning to Jesus and embracing his way of doing things – the unconventional, disruptive, upside-down ways of God’s Kingdom. It is about committing, and recommitting, ourselves to live differently in order to show in our lives the Good News we believe.
So with the question “what do I need to repent of, to turn away from?” comes its counterpart “what to I need to turn towards?” And when we find that, when we really start to long and pray and work for that, we begin to learn more about what Advent waiting – Advent longing – is about.
Gethsemane – Matthew 26.36-46
Not much time to write today – Christmas Craft Fayre at church, a different kind of waiting!
But today’s reading reminds me of the Taize chant:
“Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.”
And I wonder: With whom am I called to watch, wait, pray this Advent? Who do I know who is in Gethsemane now? And how will I watch with them?
The Wise and Foolish Girls – Matthew 25.1-13
Perhaps we tend to think of this parable in terms of its implications for the end times – will we be ready for Jesus when he comes?
But of course Jesus comes to us in many ways, not just at the final judgement. He comes to us in the beggar in the street, in the needy person in our church, in the prisoner or former prisoner whose crimes make us shudder. Jesus comes to us in each of “the least of these”.
And when he does, are we ready? What do we need to do, how do we need to think and to pray, in order to be ready?
I know there are many times when I have not been ready, when I have missed the chance to see Jesus in someone else. I know I have let those chances go by. But Jesus will come again – in the final day, and in the everyday. Will I be ready this time?
Lord, make me ready to see you, however and wherever and whenever – and in whomever – you come.
The Wise and Wicked Slaves – Matthew 24.45-51
This passage reminds me of the moment as a teacher when you have to step out of the classroom for a moment, for whatever reason. “And I want to see you all working quietly when I get back.”
And, in most classes, when you step back in some will be and some won’t be, and many will be somewhere in between, and some will be trying (unsuccessfully) to pretend they were working all along, honest, when you know full well they’ve picked up their pen as you walked through the door.
So, I suspect, it will be with the followers of Jesus when he returns. Some will be working at the tasks he has given them, and some won’t be, and some will be giving every appearance of doing so without actually having got anything done.
But what interests me more is the motivation of those who work – or don’t. I once saw in a colleague’s study a poster with the caption “quick, look busy, Jesus is coming”. But of course, that rather misses the point.
Like the teacher returning to the classroom, Jesus wants us to do the tasks he has left us not in order to impress him or show how busy we’ve been, but because they are important tasks and beneficial, to us and to others.
At my school, we aim for every child to become a self-motivated learner. That is, they want to complete the task not because they want to please me, but because they want to learn. I wonder if we need to become self-motivated disciples – following Jesus’ commands not because we want to look good or gain his approval when he returns, but because we want to grow in faith and holiness.
... because God is love 