Something greater than the temple is here

Here's the sermon I shared at St Andrew’s Basildon this evening:

When his disciples were criticised by the Pharisees, Jesus responded by saying “something greater than the temple is here” and “the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” (Matthew 12: 1-21). What did he mean?

The Temple in Jerusalem was the dwelling of God with his people. Biblical Scholar Margaret Barker writes that: “A temple stood in Jerusalem for over a thousand years. According to the biblical account, the first temple was built by Solomon about 950 BCE and was severely damaged by the Babylonians about 350 years later. It was rebuilt towards the end of the sixth century BCE by people who returned from exile in Babylon, and was rebuilt again by Herod the Great at the end of the first century BCE. The structure was finally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, but the influence of the temple and its world has far outlasted its physical existence.”

Barker says that: “The Temple was a model of the creation, and the liturgy of the temple preserved the creation. Genesis 1 was not an account of the historical process of creation, but a record of the great vision granted to Moses and others of how the world is made. In the six days when Moses was on Sinai, before the LORD called to him (Exod. 24.16), he saw the six days of creation, and was then told to replicate these when he built the tabernacle …

The holy of holies represented Day One, the state of the angels … The veil of the temple represented the second day, and the table with bread, wine and incense was the third day, when the plants were created. The seven branched lamp represented the lights of heaven created on the fourth day, the altar of sacrifice represented the non human creatures, and the High Priest was the human, male and female as the image of God … The Second Adam [Jesus] was the Great High Priest, and if we are the body of Christ, we all have this high priestly role.”

What happens with the birth of Jesus is that God himself lives with us in our world. God moves into our neighbourhood and, as a result, the Temple is no longer God’s principal dwelling on earth and the meaning of the Temple is comes to be expressed through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Barker explains it like this: “… the world of the temple was the world of the first Christians, and they expressed their faith in terms drawn almost exclusively from the temple. Jesus and his followers opposed what the temple had become; they identified themselves as the true temple, with Jesus as the great high priest.

When Jesus was arrested by the temple authorities, one of the charges brought against him was threatening to destroy the temple and to rebuild it in three days (Mark 14. 58). Another was claiming to be the Messiah (Matt. 26. 63-64). These were two aspects of the same charge, as can be deduced from the Book of Enoch, a text which the early Christians regarded as Scripture. The Book of Enoch described the judgement of the fallen angels, and then how the Lord of the sheep would carry away the old temple and set up something greater in its place (1 Enoch 90. 28-29). This is the reason for the two questions at Jesus’ trial: Did you claim that you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? This same passage accounts for the exchange between Jesus and the Jews recorded in John 2. 19-21: ‘Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”’ Later reflection led the evangelist to add, ‘But he spoke of the temple of his body’. Jesus was claiming the prophecy of Enoch, that he was the Lord of the sheep who would destroy and rebuild the temple …”

“Jesus was … [the] great high priest (Heb. 4.14) … raised up by the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7.16) who had offered the final atonement sacrifice to fulfil and supersede the temple rites (Heb. 9.1-14).” Atonement was the ritual self offering of the Lord to renew the eternal covenant and thus heal the creation. This is what Jesus’ death achieved and is the covenant renewed at the Last Supper.

In this way the New Testament reverses the story of Eden and brings Christians back to the original Temple meaning that the “kingdom of which Jesus spoke was the state of the holy of holies, the unity at the heart of all things which secured the eternal covenant … This must be the original context for ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ and for ‘This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the putting away of sins’ (Matt. 26. 28).”

It is for this reason that Jesus is able to call himself the Lord of the Sabbath because at his death the veil of the Temple was torn in two opening the holy of holies to all people everywhere. Meaning that, through his death and resurrection we can enter into the unity at the heart of all things and the rest that God experienced on the seventh day, which the Book of Hebrews tells us, we are still to enter and which is symbolised for us in this life by the sabbath.

Jesus speaks of something greater than the temple being here and the Son of Man being lord of the sabbath almost as asides in his response to the Pharisees. It is easy to overlook the significance of what he says as a result. I hope, in sharing these brief thoughts, I have wetted your appetite to go away and discover more. Amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neal Morse - Inside His Presence.

Addressing prestige and privilege

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning:

In 2019 a TUC report showed that graduates with parents in ‘professional and routine’ jobs were more than twice as likely as working-class graduates to start on a high salary, no matter what degree level they attain. The TUC’s General Secretary Frances O’Grady commented: ‘Everyone knows that getting that dream job is too often a case of who you know, not what you know.’

Is that well-known saying true? It seems that it might well be! In 2022 a paper entitled “A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties,” appeared in Science magazine and appeared to confirm its truth. The paper detailed the results of a study which involved millions of users of LinkedIn, the social networking site that helps users connect with colleagues, find jobs, and advance their careers.

The research upheld an idea first posited nearly 50 years ago; that weak ties to other people have a value that strong ties do not. The people you know best may have social networks that closely resemble your own and thus may not add much new job-seeking value for you. Your more casual acquaintances, on the other hand, have social networks that overlap less with yours and may provide connections or information you would not otherwise be able to access. As a result, tapping the knowledge and contacts of people in our networks who we know less well than our core friends is more likely to help us find a new job.

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 35-45) suggests that 'in-crowds' and 'favours' were also a part of thinking and practices in Jesus' time. James and John asked Jesus for a favour in the way that Frances O’Grady alleges favours can be granted in work today. They wanted to be privileged over and above the others in the group and used a private conversation to make their request.

What James and John were after was another perennial temptation for us as human beings; the desire for prestige, in this case, the request to sit on the right and left of Jesus in glory. Similarly, within the kind of networks we noted at the beginning of this sermon, it is suggested that there may be pathways to prestige which are essentially open on the basis of birth, wealth or power.

Jesus calls this whole approach into question with his response to James and John. Today we would characterise what he says in relation to discussions of rights and responsibilities.

Jesus says firstly that places of prestige are not available without sacrifice (i.e. no rights without responsibilities), in other words there is no entitlement because of birth, schooling, friendships, networks. What matters in the kingdom of God is service and sacrifice and these not for the sake of future prestige and glory, but for their own sake and for the love of others: ‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus turns the search for prestige on its head. Instead of the prestige of being first being the goal and the reward, those who are great in the kingdom of God are those who make themselves the least; those who are prepared to serve in same way as Jesus, by laying down their life for others.

Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, in his statement on the coronavirus outbreak and how we might live in and through it, drew on just this thinking. He said that: ‘Jesus came among us in the first place, to show us … how to live not simply as collections of individual self-interest, but how to live as the human family of God. That’s why he said love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. Because in that is hope for all of us to be the human family of God … So look out for your neighbors, look out for each other. Look out for yourselves. Listen to those who have knowledge that can help to guide us medically and help to guide us socially. Do everything that we can to do this together, to respond to each other’s needs and to respond to our own needs.’

James and John say they are prepared to do this but it is ultimately about deeds, not words, and their action in asking for a favour on their behalf clearly shows that they hadn't understood his teaching and practice at this stage in their relationship with him.

Where are we in relation to these issues? Are we chasing after worldly rewards and prestige; seeking it through favours or paying for prestige? Maybe, like James and John, we have brought the values of the world into the kingdom of God and are trying to follow Jesus for some form of personal gain?

Let’s take the opportunity that this passage provides for self-reflection on these issues and consider the possibility of aligning our thinking, values and deeds with those of Jesus as we become the servants or slaves of others in order that we serve instead of being served and give our lives for the sake of others. Amen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big Star - The Ballad Of El Goodo.

Windows on the world (488)

Wolverhampton, 2024

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Joy.

 

Church Times - Book review: The Everyday God: Encountering the divine in the works of mercy by Jonathan Arnold

My latest book review for Church Times is on 'The Everyday God: Encountering the divine in the works of mercy' by Jonathan Arnold:

'In each chapter, a different musical approach is used to introduce the theme, stories — drawn from a lecture series organised by Canterbury Cathedral and the Social Justice Network that Arnold leads — give apposite examples of the seven works of mercy in practice, while the theological concepts of “being with” (Samuel Wells) and “being interrupted” (Al Barrett and Ruth Harley) inform much of the practice described.

Arnold weaves these strands and themes together in compelling ways which are ultimately based in the Wellsian insight that our fundamental issue is isolation rather than limitation, and the reversal found in the story of St Martin and the Beggar, in which an act of mercy leads to a deeper vison of Christ for the one acting mercifully.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Martyn Joseph - One Of Us.

Jesus - the burden-bearer

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Andrew’s Wickford:

Woe to you, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.

Jesus is critical of those who load burdens on others, whether that is through greed and wickedness, the neglect of justice, a love of pride and prestige, or a multiplication of rules and regulations (Luke 11.42-46). Elsewhere he utters similar woes on any who put stumbling-blocks before the little ones who believe in him, saying it would be better to have a great millstone were fastened around your neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea than to do so. Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks, he says, and woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes (Matthew 18.6 & 7).

Jesus has a beef with any who, by their words and actions, make faith more difficult for others to accept and practice.

As we reflect on these statements, it is important to remember that the people Jesus criticised were the religious leaders of his day. So, we need to respond to passages like these by asking ourselves what are some of the stumbling blocks to faith put before people today by the Church and what are the burdens that the Church loads on those who seek to follow?

Such things are not that hard to find and identify because they are main issues that those who don’t come to church commonly raise when speaking about the church: hypocrisy - that those who go to church say one thing but do another; a lack of hospitability – that a welcome is not genuinely extended to all; and bigotry – that certain groups of people are excluded simply because of who they are.

Jesus was so critical of those who load burdens on others and place stumbling blocks before others, because he was the great burden-bearer and the great remover of stumbling blocks.

‘Come to me,’ Jesus famously said, ‘all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11.28-30)

Then, on the cross, he takes the weight of the world onto his own shoulders and bears our sins and troubles – our burdens – that we might no longer do so.

As a result, we can go to him with any burden and ask that he bear with us and for us. There are some wonderful songs based on just that realisation:

“A rocky road, a heavy load
Got you wonderin' if you'll ever get over
Your journey's slow, your faith is low
And you wonder who will take the time
To get you back on your feet, turn your bitter to sweet
Jesus knows all the burdens you must bear
He will take time to care

Anybody got a heart that will not mend
Are you tryin' to live a life you can't defend
Are you in a battle that you just can't win
Bring it to Jesus
Anybody got a problem they can't solve
Anybody got a hole in their resolve
Remember in His hand the world revolves
Bring it to Jesus”

“What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!”

“Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

“Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer”

Let us avail ourselves constantly of the support that Jesus offers and so go to the Lord in prayer. But let us also remember that just as he calls for us not to load burdens on others or to place stumbling blocks in their way, so he also calls us to join him in bearing the burdens of others, as our own burdens are themselves borne by him. Amen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Philip Bailey - Bring It To Jesus.

Church Times - Art review: Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look (National Gallery)

 My latest review for Church Times is on “Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look” at the National Gallery:

'ROUGHLY one third of the paintings in the National Gallery’s collection of Western European art are of religious subjects and nearly all of these are Christian. These images, originally made for churches or domestic settings, are now displayed in an entirely different context in the Gallery, which has the task of both exploring what they might have meant to their original viewers and discovering what they might mean to beholders today.

The National Gallery does an excellent job of exploring both aspects of these works, often bringing them into dialogue with other works of art in ways that are engaging and challenging. This small but fascinating exhibition aims to explore what one of the most famous Christian images from the collection means to an artist who isn’t interested in its Christian content. As a result, this is an exhibition offering ways in to the art of Christendom for those who are not believers.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Moody Blues - Eyes Of A Child I.

A transformation of character

Here's the sermon this morning at St Catherine's Wickford and St Mary’s Runwell:

‘In the 1953 film, The Million Pound Note, Gregory Peck is a poor sailor given a £1 million note. Whenever he tries to spend it, people treat him like a king and give him everything for free. Yet in the end the £1million almost costs him his dignity and the woman he loves.

We don’t know why the rich ruler asked about eternal life (Mark 10.17-31). Unhappiness? After all industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie noted long ago that millionaires seldom smile! One of the problems of rising affluence is that ‘enough’ always means just a little more – TV and advertising make sure of that! And money can get in the way of the relationships which are so essential to our happiness.

Whatever the reason Jesus challenges him to give his money to the poor but the price is too high. The rich man walks away, broken-hearted, knowing what he leaves behind. We think of money as opening doors but here it closes the door to life, not just eternal life but to the life of this new community of disciples who put Jesus before their financial choices. He is invited to let go of his money because we can’t travel light with heavy baggage, or engage with others when we are full of ourselves.

This story challenges us about how we live with money, the choices that we make. And the challenge to generosity is one that we cannot duck. A generous heart and a generous lifestyle will open doors for other people in need. It will also open doors for us to new life in Christ and in relationship with his people, his disciples. But following Jesus with our money is not easy. It has to cash out in our day to day living and attitudes. Some years ago Fr John Dresko, an orthodox priest, wrote the following which has not been translated from the original American:

“My gift to God is a genuine reflection of my heart. If I give $400 per month to the bank on my car loan, but think the church is fleecing me for $20 per month, I have a heart problem. If I do my grocery shopping and write a check when I leave for $100 so my family can be fed, but think $20 per month is too much for the Bread of Life, I have a heart problem. If I can go to the package store and drop $20 for a bottle of liquor but gripe about the costs of sharing the Blood of Christ, I have a heart problem. If I cheat the church out of regular giving by pleading about my ‘cash flow’ while ignoring the fact that the church has the same bills and the same ‘cash flow’, I have a heart problem.”’ (Sermon Reflections by Peter Howell-Jones, Vice Dean Chester Cathedral)

The New Testament scholar Tom Wright identifies this heart problem with a call to a transformation of character. He writes that ‘Jesus is challenging the young man to a transformation of character.’ It is worth our while staying with this idea and the way Tom Wright unpacks it in relation to this encounter:

‘The young man has come wanting fulfilment. He wants his life to be complete—complete in the present, so it can be complete in the future. He knows he is still “lacking” something, and he is looking for a goal, a completion. Jesus suggests he needs turning inside out. His life is to become part of a larger, outward-looking purpose: he is to put God’s Kingdom first, and put his neighbour (especially his poor neighbour) before his own fulfilment and prospects. Here is the real challenge: not just to add one or two more commandments, to set the moral bar a little higher, but to become a different sort of person altogether.

Jesus is challenging the young man to a transformation of character.

And the young man isn’t up for it. He turns and goes away, sad. Here is the gap between theory and reality, between command and performance. Jesus has told him how to behave, but the young man doesn’t know how to do it. The question hangs, disturbingly, over the rest of the Gospel story. What is the path to God’s new age, to the new time when God’s Kingdom will flood the world with justice and peace? How are we to be the sort of people who not only inherit that world but actually join in right now to help make it happen?

But what we notice in Mark 10 is something which seems to operate in a different dimension. For a start, it is a call, not to specific acts of behaviour, but to a type of character. For another thing, it is a call to see oneself as having a role to play within a story—and a story where there is one supreme Character whose life is to be followed. And that Character seems to have His eye on a goal, and to be shaping His own life, and those of His followers, in relation to that goal.

All of this suggests that Mark’s gospel, with Jesus Himself as the great Character who stands behind it, is inviting us to something not so much like rule-keeping on the one hand or following our own dreams on the other, but a way of being human to which philosophers ancient and modern have given a particular name. My contention is that the New Testament invites its readers to learn how to be human in this particular way, which will both inform our moral judgments and form our characters so we can live by their guidance. The name for this way of being human, this kind of transformation of character, is virtue.

What does it mean to be virtuous?

The dynamic of “virtue,” in this sense—practicing the habits of heart and life that point toward the true goal of human existence—lies at the heart of the challenge of Christian behaviour, as set out in the New Testament itself. This is what it means to develop “character.” This is what we need—and what the Christian faith offers—for the time, “after you believe.”

When we approach things from this angle, we are in for some surprises. A great many Christians, in my experience, never think of things this way, and so get themselves in all kinds of confusion. Virtue, to put it bluntly, is a revolutionary idea in today’s world—and today’s church. But the revolution is one we badly need. And it is right at the core of the answer to the questions with which we began. After you believe, you need to develop Christian character by practicing the specifically Christian “virtues.” To make wise moral decisions, you need not just to “know the rules” or “discover who you really are,” but to develop Christian virtue. And to give wise leadership in our wider society in the confusing times we live in, we urgently need people whose characters have been formed in much the same way. We’ve had enough of pragmatists and self-seeking risk-takers. We need people of character.’

The fundamental answer to the question what is supposed to happen “after you believe” is that ‘what we’re “here for” is to become genuine human beings, reflecting the God in whose image we’re made, and doing so in worship on the one hand and in mission, in its full and large sense, on the other; and that we do this not least by “following Jesus.” The way this works out is that it produces, through the work of the Holy Spirit, a transformation of character.

This transformation will mean that we do indeed “keep the rules”—though not out of a sense of externally imposed “duty,” but out of the character that has been formed within us. And it will mean that we do indeed “follow our hearts” and live “authentically”—but only when, with that transformed character fully operative, the hard work up front bears fruit in spontaneous decisions and actions that reflect what has been formed deep within. And, in the wider world, the challenge we face is to grow and develop a fresh generation of leaders, in all walks of life, whose character has been formed in wisdom and public service, not in greed for money or power.’

So, Jesus’ challenge here is not simply about our use of money or about our own stewardship - should we give five per cent, ten per cent, or twenty per cent or everything (as with the Rich Young Ruler) – but about developing a generous heart and a generous lifestyle that will open doors for other people in need. It is about becoming like Jesus, who laid down his own life that others might truly live. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pink Floyd - Money.