Prayers 22nd May 2022, Easter 6, John 5v1-9.

The world belongs to God

The earth and all its people

How good and lovely it is

To live together in unity

Love and faith come together

Justice and peace join hands

God open our lips 

And our mouths shall proclaim your praise.

 

Song “He came down that we may have love”

https://youtu.be/SpjCB5V6Juk

 

For the things that divides us

Christ forgive us

For our greed that hurts others 

Christ forgive us

For our jealousy of others, our hardness and bitterness

Christ forgive us

For our indifference and apathy

Christ forgive us

For our lust which uses and abuses

Christ forgive us

 

Silence

 

May God forgive us, Christ renew us and the Spirit enable us to grow 

in love. Amen.

 

We say the Lord’s Prayer in our own language

 

Song “Peace like a river”

https://youtu.be/z5JY18JjtuY

 

Reflection on John 5v1-9. A Sabbath sign - a lame man is healed.

Jesus has left Galilee to attend a festival in Jerusalem and while there he comes across a weak man (literally) lying beside a pool which the locals believe has healing powers. In Aramaic it is called Bethesda. The gate is probably where St. Stephen's gate is today. During a 1930's excavation, some 100 meters North of the Temple mount, a pool 95 by 60 meters was discovered with foundations for five covered colonnades.   It was rumoured that the waters were stirred from time by the visit of an angel. The man had been ill for 38 years.

 

After assessing the mans predicament, Jesus asks him if he wants to be well/whole again. He answers that he cant get into the pool soon enough after it has been stirred and has no one to help him. Jesus then says to him "Get up, take up your bed/ roll (a straw-filled mattress used by the poor and sick) and walk." 

 

The man is immediately healed, but because it is the Sabbath Jesus gets the man into trouble from the religious authorities for breaking the Sabbath law by carrying his bed-matting. When quizzed, he can't identify who told him to do it, but later, when Jesus reminds him to strive to sin no more, he is able to report that it was Jesus who told him what to do. Confronted by the religious authorities, Jesus defends himself, but this only fires up their anger. (Gaslighting by political leaders is very prevalent today!)

 

This Sabbath healing is the first example of a growing opposition to the ministry of Jesus recorded in 5:1-7:52. This is outright and official opposition.

 

This is a new phase of Jesus ministry. Jesus is ministering with John the Baptist. His ministry is accompanied by signs and particular weight is given to the Exodus sign of manna in the wilderness. 

  

Jewish pietists concluded that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was a direct result of a failure to keep the Mosaic Law. By the first century the Pharisees had laid down a detailed minutia of regulations which allowed a godly person to keep the Law in its entirety for the full appropriation of the blessings of the covenant. It was this thinking that allowed a young man to respond to Jesus’ summary of the Law saying "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth", Mk.10:20. When it came to work on the Sabbath, Pharisaic minutia included regulations on such things as harvesting, an issue that got the disciples into hot water when they plucked grain on the Sabbath, Matt.12:1-7.

 

Addressing the charge levelled against his disciples, Jesus reminds the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath, Mk.2:27. The Jewish religious authorities, the Pharisees, should have applied a similar reasoning to the healing of the sick and disabled man by the Sheep Pool. rejoicing with joy at his healing rather than picking on him for breaking one of their traditional interpretations of the Law. 

 

The dialogue goes on to develop the absurdity of the charge made against Jesus. Jesus defends his messianic credentials by pointing out that he is doing Gods work on the Sabbath. Jesus defends his action not by discussing the law but by placing himself and his work on the same level as God. Breaking Sabbath law is one thing, but claiming equal status with God is another. The conflict continues and sides are chosen. We must make sure we choose the right side to follow too. Amen

  

Song “He will hold me fast”

https://youtu.be/BsA_UPXnluw

 

Prayers for our world our countries, our families and friends and ourselves

The Peace of God

Be upon everything our eyes see

Be upon all we hear

Be on our bodies that come from the earth

Be on our souls that come from heaven

For ever and ever. Amen

 

Zimbabwe blessing

https://youtu.be/OA1tVs7VNcY

 

Easter 6 2014, John 14:15-21

In this passage Jesus links truth, keeping his commandments and the Holy Spirit together. I think its a difficult passage to understand. Greek's were obsessed with the search for truth and more recently evangelicals have become obsessed with truth and therefore epistimology. Johns gospel is written probably in about 90AD and in the context of Greek and Roman philosophy and preoccupation of truth so John includes this important discussion to answer questions of his day. 

I remember looking for truth and meaning in my life at 14 years old which is why I took myself off to the Congregational Church of my infancy (Streatham) and started to individuate between what I was seeking for and my parents who had taken on a post Christian capitalist ethic devoid of spiritual roots.

By the time I was 17 I had started confirmation classes at the local Anglican church (St Stephens Norbury) and met Dame Cicely Saunders who started the hospice movement in this country and for me epitomised the truth and life I was seeking. For some reason we lose this passion for meaning as we get older. My truth involved a dissatisfaction with an understanding of life linked to materialism and the Conservatives and being part of the status quo of suburban Southern Britain.

Some people look for truth in academic research. I think they will be sadly disenchanted! Long ago I realised that even scientific truth is based on a series of hypothesis which can change. The understanding of the atom is a simple, classic example as we move from static models to wave and energy form.

Truth is not found in aesthetics nor ethics nor in religious rites and doctrine.

Pilate said to Jesus "What is truth?" People can be seduced into false truths with devastating consequences. Look at Fascism or Communism. State truth becomes oppressive.

The Jews in John's gospel represent the orthodoxy of truth of the day. Their tradition gives them a divine right, much like Anglicans in the UK or Roman Catholics in Italy. But this is not truth and anybody who says they have and know the truth is to be avoided like the plague!

Most people dont bother with truth, like my parents they just bumble on through life and manage to avoid asking serious questions even in the face of crisis.

Jesus answer is that he himself is the truth, not a religion or a philosophy. A living reality. He embodied the truth. Not Christian doctrine or rites but Jesus himself! Not semantics about who Jesus was or how you recieve the Holy Spirit or become a Christian, but Jesus himself! Religion and strict adherence often supplants the search for truth, undermines it.

And the way we access this truth is by doing it. Living it out in our own lives, by keeping "in"with Jesus, with God as far as we understand God. This is discipleship. My sheep hear my voice. We recognize truth as we bump into it in life. It is not religious dogmatics and arrives in unexpected places at unexpected times to build the patchwork tapestry of your life and mine on our journey to follow truth. And that truth will lead you to love. 

(with thanks to Paul Tillich)