And the message of today is...

Always be ready to be surprised!

Recent days have taken in visits to Nazareth, Cana (a drive through, twice) and Tzipori. Today our visits were to Megiddo (Armageddon) and Bet She’an.

As you might imagine, visiting a site known as Armageddon (from the Hebrew Ha-Magaddon) conjures up in the mind a vast plain upon which battles will have been fought and lives lost. In the Book of Revelation, we read that the final battle between good and evil will take place here.

The site itself is one that comes under the auspices of Israel Nature and Parks Authority. In addition it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – along with the tells of Hazor and Beer Sheva. Megiddo rises 60 metres above the surrounding area, with archaeological findings to be seen that date back to the Neolithic period (seventh-sixth millennia BCE). The impressive archaeological work that has taken place here has revealed layer upon layer of building, with each succeeding community (often incomers following the defeat of the residents of the place) building on/over the existing structures. The most amazing feat of engineering at Armageddon has to be the water system. With fresh water springs that lay outside the city perimeter, the residents had to find a way of ensuring a constant water supply even if the city was under siege. To do this, a 36 metre deep shaft was dug, in addition to a 70 metre horizontal tunnel – down and along which residents would journey to collect fresh water. If under attack, the residents of the city would be completely unseen by opposing forces as the entrance to the tunnel had been covered up with stone, earth and planting so that it was ‘invisible’. Walking down the shaft and along the tunnel by virtue of both modern metal steps and a wooden walkway made one realise just how inventive and ingenious the people who lived here were. The planning and physical taken to design this essential supply was simply amazing. The first of the surprises of the day!

Following the visit to Megiddo came the visit to another Nature and Parks Authority site – Bet She’an. What an amazing place – the second surprise of the day.

None of the guidebooks make very much of Bet She’an but, I have to tell you, it seriously rivals Ephesus in terms of scale, fullness of excavation and uncovered remains – not to mention the immediate ‘wow factor’ upon passing through the entrance gate. Our plan was to take it in en route as we made our way back to Tiberius with perhaps an hour’s visit… We spent at least two and a half hours there – in glorious sunshine – taking in the vast array buildings and areas of the city that had been uncovered. A two hundred step climb took us up to the highest point of the site – overlooking the city itself, as well as the stunning mountains that could be seen in the near distance. Whilst the earliest settlements on Megiddo can be dated back to the seventh millennia BCE, Bet She’an comes in at only the fifth millennia BCE. What a stunning place to visit though – completely beyond anything we had expected. An absolute surprise!

And then on to Church this evening: St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church – right in the heart of Tiberius. The Priest who celebrated Communion welcomed us in Hebrew and English, telling us that this Church was the place where all the teachings and miracles of Jesus were remembered in this area before Capernaum and then Tabgha were discovered. The Service continued in Hebrew – which was such a strange experience for me as I have only ever read the Hebrew Bible (what many Christians call the Old Testament) in Hebrew. To hear the readings, prayers, Creed – everything – in Hebrew was really thought-provoking. (I have to confess that when I say above, “I have only read… “ this is in relation to my studying Hebrew at Theological College. I was pretty okay at reading it but my grasp of vocab and grammar was hopeless!) The warmth of welcome from the priest, the simplicity and calm of the service and the sermon, first in Hebrew and then, more briefly, in English gave a chance for a reflective close to the day with a really important message to take away to think about: Jesus is always with us, but we are not always with him. I mentioned in a previous entry the desire to be ‘tethered’ by attending Church on a Sunday. This Saturday Evening Mass was such a gift at the close of a full and busy week – and it was such a gift to be able to sit and pray and worship – even though for the most part I had no idea of what was being said… due to it all being in Hebrew! (I did recognise Baruch Adonai and Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh and Hoshanna – and a few other words – so it wasn’t all Greek to me!) And the surprise here? Following the administration of Communion a song was sung – known to very, very few of us present (I am not certain how many of the congregation were actually locals… I suspect a good number of us were visitors). The chorus of this song was repeated a number of times and then the words stopped and the gentle sound of singing in tongues began, for just a few moments and then there was stillness. It wasn’t silence, it was stillness and calm as we held the space of prayer together. It was simply lovely, and the surprise was that I didn’t know that there were Roman Catholics who sing in tongues. With all my ecumenical past from my teenage years upwards, you would think I would have encountered it before now, but no. What a delight it was to be present for this moment of a gentle outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Following the Service we went for supper at a restaurant called Big Ben. We had gone there the evening before and on this, our second evening, were welcomed like old friends. We were served far more food for the first course than we ordered and enjoyed the most delicious meal. The waiter was attentive and gracious and I got to practice my newly learned Arabic for Good Evening (except I said, Good Morning!), Thank you and You’re welcome. To find a restaurant called Big Ben in any part of the world except except London is one surprise, but to find one that was so welcoming and friendly – to the point of being remembered the following evening, given how many customers must be seen over any 24 hour period is a lovely surprise indeed.

It really was a delightful day, full of wonderful surprises.

 

A Prayer to the Trinity

To you, O God, I sing my praise, 
full three - yet one, complete always. 
Create, redeem my heart anew, 
and sanctify my soul for you.

To you, all glorious Three-in-One 
may honour full and right be done.  
Release the joy and praise that ‘tis mine, 
and let me to your dance incline.

 
Deborah Snowball, Trinity Sunday 2013

Dancing with the Trinity

There are many preachers who try to avoid preaching on Trinity Sunday like the plague. Personally I love this day as it brings together all of the Feast Days of the past six months: all the way back to Advent and Christmas– through to Pentecost last week. God incarnate in Jesus Christ, God as Lord of creation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and God paradoxically at once immanent and transcendent in the Holy Spirit that both hovered over the face of the earth at the birth of creation and hovers in creation still as it inspires and guides each one of us. God, recognised in different times and places – altogether other, different and separate within itself yet altogether the same, similar and co-joined in intention and life, all that we understand of God, have experienced of God, hope and believe about God, is gathered into and expressed in this day as we prepare to journey through the next six months – towards celebrating the great Feast Days and Festivals again.

We speak about the Holy Trinity and use the term Persons to describe the three ‘parts’ that make up the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Over time, and through God’s revelation to us in different ways, we have come to understand God in these three different ways: God who creates – Mother/Father; God who redeems – the beloved Son; God who sanctifies – the Holy Spirit, Wisdom, in Hebrew – ruach, the breath and being of life. We name each of facet of the Trinity as ‘Person’ because each facet of the Trinity is unique and individual. In their uniqueness and individuality though there is no conflict, division or isolation. The Persons of the Trinity are intertwined, they dance around each other, supporting and complementing each other. Within the dance, difference is released also though, similarity of intent and state is gathered – and celebrated too.

The person of the Trinity who creates, named as Father and also Mother, the one who gave life to the whole of creation at its beginning – the Creator continues to pour out love in the on-going way of the world and the universe. We are so very small, yet the Creator knows our name – yours and mine – this person of the Trinity counts the hairs on our head as well as the number of the stars in the sky. This person of the Trinity suffuses the world with light and love – and continues to pour out love now. All time is as of a moment for God – there is no beginning and no end and nothing is beyond the reach of God’s creative love.

The person of Trinity who redeems – named as Jesus the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the World – the Saviour continues the task of redemption even now. As we have celebrated over these recent weeks and months, God broke through the heavens, took human form and walked and lived as we do, taught the disciples and peoples about the love that he carried within him, the love of the Creator, and how this love would take him to the cross in the ultimate self-sacrifice whereby we would know understand how much God loves us. No longer should our waywardness separate us from the one who created us. No longer should the disobedience of our forebears characterise the relationship that we have with God whereby we are cast out for their forgetting God’s love – rather a new way is opened to us. This new way is one that takes us into heaven – through the forgiveness won for us by Jesus on the cross, and even more so through the conquering of death – as we celebrated on Easter Day. The love of the Saviour that redeems and that also brought creation to birth – continues today – offering to each person who turns to Christ the promise of life eternal.

The person of the Trinity that sanctifies – named as the Holy Spirit, ruach, Wisdom – this person of the Trinity, present at the creation of the world and poured anew on the disciples at Pentecost, and present too at the baptism of Christ – this person of the Trinity continues to inspire, to equip and to guide even now. As we celebrated last week, and as we pray each Sunday and each day, the Holy Spirit comes upon us and fills us anew each moment with the grace of God, allowing us to live by God’s grace and in God’s love. The Holy Spirit equips us with the Gifts of the Spirit, and these in turn give life to us, to the church and to the world. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, self-control – these fruits of the spirit allow life and love to flow throughout our community of faith and into the world. It is the Holy Spirit that has inspired us to take ‘Serving the whole community’ as our strapline – for it is the whole of humanity that we are called to serve – our church community, our local community and the community that is humanity across the world. Nowhere is beyond the reach of God’s love, and nowhere is beyond our love either. The Holy Spirit, invisible and mysterious, leads us on a journey that is exciting and challenging and wonderful. Just as the ways and wonders of each of the persons of the Trinity are intertwined with one another, unique and yet indivisible, so they are intertwined with each one of us. We are made holy, as we hear in the words of Jesus today: When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

These things have been declared to us through the grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, and thus we share in the work of creating, redeeming and sanctifying the world around us. We do not do this by our own power, but by the power of God. We are made holy, set apart for God’s will, by God’s will. The Trinitarian God of Creation, of Redemption and of Sanctification speaks into the heart of each one of us and, if we listen, we will hear words that invite us to join in the work of the Trinity too. God created the world in love, redeemed each one of us in love and sanctified each one of us love. God as creator continues to create – and invites us to do so too. God as Saviour continues to redeem – and invites us to do so too – by sharing this truth as possibility. God as Spirit continues to sanctify – and invites us to do so too, by sharing this truth as possibility for ourselves and for those around us.

I said earlier, that the Persons of the Trinity are intertwined, they dance around each other, supporting and complementing each other and that within the dance difference is released and similarity of intent and state is gathered and celebrated. I also said that I love this today – this Feast Day of the Church. It is about all that God is and all that God does – for each one of us and for the world. We are invited to join the dance, to join the work and to live the wonderful truth that God reveals herself to us in these different ways and that God invites us to join him in his work and will for the world.

Come and join the dance. Amen.

A Prayer for Ascensiontide

Lord God,

show me where you want me to be
and give me courage to go there;

show me what you want me to do
and give me strength to fulfil the task you have assigned;

show me who will help me
and give me grace to receive your guidance through them;

show me your will
and give me humility to accept the gifts you give to me.

Amen.

You might like to read the sermon for Ascension Day related to this prayer. 

Being in the right place at the right time

Some of you will know the saying, the devil is in the detail: possibly not the most appropriate saying with which to open a sermon in a church… but you know me!

The detail on which my eye has settled when reading the passages for this evening is on the question: “Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?” It takes me back to Easter Day, when we heard the men in dazzling white addressing the women who had come to anoint Jesus’ body, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Now those of you who know your bible inside out, or at least the relationship between writers and particular books, may already be ahead of me when recalling that scholars hold it to be that the same author wrote the Gospel of Luke from which the account of the resurrection I have quoted comes, as well as book of Acts. No wonder then there is similarity of sentence construction: Why do you… stand looking… Why do you… look for the living… continuing on to say what has either happened or what will happen.

If we conflate these two questions for the moment into Why are you looking… I find that the asking of this question is quite fascinating. Personally, I don’t find it unreasonable that the women would be at the graveside on the third morning, having come to anoint the body of Jesus. It would have been the first day after the Sabbath that they would have been able to come and so, in love, they came. Not only in love though, but also in service, dedication – and grief too. On finding that the body of Jesus was not there, we read that they were perplexed – and this is not unreasonable either. Neither do I find it unreasonable that that the disciples, on seeing Jesus ascend into heaven just moments before, would be looking upwards towards the sky! Recall another, more child-like saying, no-one likes a smarty-pants: in the detail of clever men in white robes appearing at gravesides and on mountain tops – there is more than just a slight feeling of a pair of smarty-pants being in the building! To this I shall return!

This ‘Why are you ‘looking is not the most important part of the questioning though – it is about where and when they are looking. Neither of these places is the place to look because Jesus is no longer there. The women by the grave and the disciples on the hill top are challenged to remember and to respond.

The women are reminded to think about Jesus’ prophecy, his promise that he would rise again after three days. They do indeed remember, and go to tell the disciples that what Jesus said would happen has indeed taken place. Alas, the men did not believe them – but that’s another story! The women see, the women look, the women remember, the women respond.

As we have heard in Gospel reading this evening, just moments before the men in white robes appear, the disciples have been told what is to happen and what they are to do. Rather than standing looking up to the heavens, they are urged to remember, and to respond with alacrity. They are challenged not to just stand there and wait, but to get on and go to the city and wait there for the Spirit to come. The disciples see, the disciples look, the disciples remember, the disciples respond – just as the women at the grave did.

The women and the disciples are being told, this is not the most important part of the proceedings because Jesus told you what would happen. Believe it to be so, and move to where he will be because you know what he says is true. ‘Why do you stand looking here when…’ really means, ‘You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

As we will know, this theme runs persistently through the Gospels, of the disciples seeking to understand, seeking to do the right thing, seeking to be in the right place – but often getting it ever so slightly wrong. It’s not for want of trying though – and they do learn and they do succeed – they must have done or we wouldn’t be here today. The women at the graveside, the disciples at the top of the mountain needed someone to assist them as Jesus is no longer here to do it. The smarty-pants in white robes are, in fact, angels – doing what angels do – giving a message, reminding, prompting – sharing the words, works and purposes of God. Jesus is no longer there to remind these people, the angels cannot stay to do this either – and so they remind these people of what Jesus foretold and encourage them to move to be in the right place at the right time. The women are to be the apostles to the apostles and the disciples are to be in Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit.

People who can ask us – kindly – why are you looking here when you have already heard, or you already know, are useful people to find. Sometimes we may be stuck; we may be pausing and waiting in familiar territory, fearful of what is to come, or forgetting what we already know. In these situations, God will often send someone with the right word, a reminder that will set us on the right track that will give us courage to walk towards what is to come to us. The promises of God are many and generous and are there for us to step into.

So what of the next events – for what are we waiting? What might be for us in this period in which we, like the disciples, wait for Jesus to descend in the way he ascended? What might we be hoping for as we prepare to celebrate again the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?

Well, to begin with, what have we been promised? What has Jesus revealed to us that will change our world – even now, these two thousand or so years on? For you as an individual, what already that ‘fits’ with what you know to be God’s purposes for you, and for those around you? What has been offered to the people of God that you know could be in accord with your ‘skill set’ and therefore could be the task that is assigned for you to do? Who are the people around you in metaphorical white robes who are reminding you of what you already know and what Jesus has promised and therefore where you should be going to next.

This time from Ascension Day to Pentecost is set aside by the church as a time for praying in the Holy Spirit into our loves again. Perhaps these questions that we might ask are ones you might spend these next days praying with and pondering – thus moving yourself spiritually to the right place so that you are prepared for what is to come for you and those around you. Not using them just as questions, but rather as an invitation to God to make you ready to respond to what God wants you to do with him to change your life and the life of the world.

A prayer for these days towards Pentecost:

Lord God,

show me where you want me to be
and give me courage to go there;

show me what you want me to do
and give me strength to fulfil the task you have assigned;

show me who will help me
and give me grace to receive your guidance through them;

show me your will
and give me humility to accept the gifts you give to me.

Amen.