Mustardseed Talks 2019

Jesus promises those who believe in him that they will have ‘rivers of living water bubbling forth from them’. What on earth might this mean?! This was a looking forward to the coming and impact of the Holy Spirit. A spirit not of humanity but from beyond us. A unique and other spirit. This Spirit changes everything for disciples of Jesus. We are transformed from being consumers to being a resource for those around us and the whole world.

Well established expectations take a long time to die. When we have held a particular hope in our hearts for a meaningful duration of time, letting go of that hope - even in the face of overwhelming evidence that holding on to such a particular hope will certainly end in disappointment - is not straightforward for us! When the disciples meet the risen Christ, and begin to come to terms with the fact that he has come through death, they default to their well established hope of kicking out their Roman overlords and establishing an independent Israel. But this was never what Messiah was going to be about. The risen Christ allows space for the disciples to reflect a little longer on the revelation of salvation history. Even as Christ bids them farewell and is taken up away from their sight, he sends them forth to infiltrate the whole world.

In this excerpt from Peter’s pastoral letter to the churches in Asia Minor there are some very particular concepts and images.
 It seems likely that letters like this one from Peter were deliberately coded messages. They used images and ideas that the church would know how to interpret.
 They wrote using code because the church was engaged in something that was considered profoundly subversive to the authority of the empire. This meant it was risky business! Letters could easily be intercepted by Roman authorities. But the encoded messages meant the uninitiated would not be able to get what they were actually saying.
 I believe this is what we have before us today.

So many things about the Jesus story have the potential to mess with our sense of justice. Perhaps that is the point?! Could it be that our sense of justice has not been much like justice from the beginning?! The gospel story offers an alternative approach to seeing and weighing everything.

The church has always championed the resurrection as the key moment in the story of salvation - as it surely is. Too often this has found expression in a kind of misguided attempt to exert a form of authority over people who were not sure they wanted to come under that authority. But the resurrection is the pivot point of the meaning of everything. It is the point that turns conventional structures on their head and subverts our most effective survival strategies and motives. The resurrection effectively says the point you all thought was the end... that's not the end!

St Paul takes up an ancient hymn to highlight the self-giving nature of Christ. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect for disciples of the call to follow Christ.

It is common to develop a sense of who we are, based on where we have come from. Our roots often set our course through life and remain an unconscious guide for us as we proceed. However, where we have come from cannot tell us all of who we are. Neither does it contain all the resources required for us to fulfill our calling. Jesus offers us a new source. A living source that is not simply past history but ongoing discovery and engagement. This new source is Jesus himself. Jesus’ way of engaging with us becomes for us as living water that not only nourishes our life, but also becomes a resource of nourishment for all who we share with.

As if it were not enough that Jesus places exacting expectations on his followers with regard to their words and behaviours… in today’s reading (Matt 5:21-37) Jesus goes still deeper with concern for intent, desire and integrity in his followers. It might be easy to hear these words as a kind of judgement over parts of our life that we often seem to have limited control over. It is better to understand that Jesus wants the liberating grace of the Kingdom of God to be not simply about behaviour modification, but also heart transformation. As we give ourselves to the Grace of God… our intent and desire does shift. We have opportunity to be more fully integrated and to be people of integrity. This has the power to deeply impact the world around us for good!

Temptation is a feature of human existence. Life is an running stream of choices that are sometimes straightforward for us. But sometimes our choices are nuanced with a sense of clarity regarding the ’right’ thing to do that is undermined by an overwhelming desire to do something else. What is going on when we are tempted? What mechanisms are activated around and within us? Are all temptations equally injurious to our wellbeing, or are their particular things to beware of? The devil’s tempting of Jesus focused on three key areas... * Wherein is life? * What does it mean to trust God? * How does authority function? There is much to be gained in seeing these issues clearly.

Jesus made extensive use of metaphor when he taught and preached. He found word pictures the most useful way to convey his meaning. These are deliberately imprecise and open to variable interpretations. Almost as though the wresting conversation that would ensue down through history was a design feature of this approach. This morning we are presented with the call to be salt and light, and to fulfil the Law by surpassing the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees. As with so many of Jesus’ sayings, there is no comfortable way to hear this call. It cuts to the core of our natural desire to simply ‘fit in’. Even when we think about being different, we prefer to be different in the same ways as everyone else!

Nearly everything about the Good News that Jesus brought to first century Palestine was different to the expectations of the people at the time. Truth is, it is different to the expectations of every generation. The Good News is not found in the main stream or in the default approach of society in general. Jesus' Good News comes from the unexpected places and comes in unexpected ways to lead us to unexpected places... just as we should expect!

For quite some time, it has been a common place understanding that the Good News is for all people. Even when we have been unsure about the best or most appropriate ways to share it, we generally have known it is a good thing to share. This was not so much the case in Isaiah’s day. Israel was caught in a sense of struggle for survival that meant surrounding peoples were viewed as rivals. The existence of a powerful neighbouring nation was perceived not as a blessing but as a threat! And not for no reason - history tells the story of the threat neighbouring nations had posed to Israel. So it is all the more remarkable that Isaiah comes to understand that the calling of the people of God is to become a blessing to the nations.

The magnitude of Isaiah’s vision of God, and his sense of the calling of God’s people, is exceptional. In Isaiah’s own day this understanding was quantum leap from any other conception. Even today, many of those who count themselves among the people of God struggle to grasp and/or believe such an all encompassing vision. In the midst of a tribal-oriented people who were under the intense strain - politically, socially, theologically and spiritually - of the exile, Isaiah offered the most audacious of visions to the people of God. Not only were this defeated and broken people still belonging to God. They were also to be instrumental in God’s salvation of the whole world!

How was 2019 for you? At the close of the year, what were you grateful for? What have you learnt? What do you feel as though you have survived? What will you take with you as you look to the year ahead? The prophets are good at reminding the people of both the promises of God and the valuable lessons of past experience rightly understood. It is useful to re-collect the past and re-member it... put it back together and make sense of it in a way that is not possible at the time when the events are taking place. How is your 2019 spurring you on? What is God saying to you from the events of the year past?

Isaiah imagines an ideal future in which the reign of God comes in full flower. There is judgement. But not as we generally understand judgement. This judgement attends to the needs of the most vulnerable. There is righteousness. But this sounds like a practical and relational rather than religious righteousness. There is peace. But this is a peace that is beyond our imagining. It is a wholly unnatural peace. Things not functioning the way we have always known them to! This is a vision of a renewed heaven and earth under the lordship of Good’s anointed.

The startling vision Isaiah offers is notable because it sees a time in history when nations will decide against war. Not as a temporary tactic. But as a permanent and thorough going strategy for relations with other nations. The history of humanity suggests such a strategy would be foolish at best... and should be considered completely irresponsible. The only thing that makes this non-violent strategy a realistic option is that all the nations of the world have come to learn of the ways of God. This represents an ultimate human phase - not of evolution - but of transformation (conversion). When Jesus came to save the world, part of that saving is from the instinctual behavior we tend to react with. We are saved to share the love of God. To be transformed to the nature of God.

There are three key pieces of speech that occur in Luke’s account of the crucifixion. Jesus prays: ‘Father forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.’ The rulers mock: ‘You saved others. Save yourself!’ One of the criminals next to Jesus pleads: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’ These three utterances tell us a lot about the drama that is unfolding. Jesus continues to behave consistent with love toward others… even the others who are at that moment crucifying him. The rulers refuse see what they are doing (ref Jesus’ prayer) and demand that Jesus ‘save himself’ - which is the very antithesis of Jesus’ mission. One person has his eyes opened. The second criminal acknowledges he personally deserves to be on his cross… but Jesus does not deserve to be. He then essentially says: ‘I am with you, Jesus.’ What do you imagine you might have said if you had been caught up in this drama?

There are a number of things that we might prefer were not written in scripture. Surely Jesus’ warnings about what is coming are in that category. If they were not in scripture, it would be easier to pretend to ourselves that such things would never (could never) happen. These things are not only likely to occur, but already have many many times in all manner of places. Each time they happen, we assure ourselves they must not be allowed to happen again. They do happen again. We can be wilfully naïve about the realities of our shared human nature. Or we can consider ourselves appropriately warned. Warned not so as to create fear. Warned so as to enable resolve. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be aware of the realities and yet to resolve to be faithful to our calling. Naïvety might seem more comfortable. But it will crumble as surely as the temple did. Better to trust in the truth that will never crumble.

Resurrection is something that stretches the credulity of most people. There is so little evidence in our world today to support the possibility of resurrection. Yet, resurrection is right at the heart of Christian faith. Perhaps there is more evidence for resurrection than we might have first considered. Not simply evidence regarding the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection - which might be considered unique. But closer indicators in our everyday experience of life that point squarely at the essential nature of the hope of resurrection. Resurrection is inherently imprecise... precisely because we have no experience of the fullness of what it will yet mean. If we look carefully, we can see its contours shaping the last 2000 years of world history. If we look even more closely, we might be able to discern the hope of resurrection shaping our own lives.

The story of Jesus’ encounter with Zaccheus is not just a great redemption tale. It also highlights the deeply problematic nature of a grace as profound as the grace Jesus offers. This grace is problematic precisely because it effectively dissolves the barriers we all use to separate ourselves from ’them’ (whoever our particular ‘them’ might be). Jesus’ acceptance of those who are the least acceptable, challenges our natural reflex of ‘othering’ - the process we instinctually use that makes us feel safer and more acceptable. If we are all equally as un/acceptable as each other, what is the basis on which we decide who is in and who is out? How can we work out how to treat people if we no longer have the categories of ’my people’ and ‘not my people’? How has Jesus’ grace changed the way you are with others?