Voices in the Crowd: Part II

A couple of years ago I posted a bit of raw biblical analysis and a hymn, relating to Palm Sunday. The following is the sermon that went with those two items...

I think that we often miss the point with Palm Sunday, we think of it as a story for the children, we think of it as a simple story, a story of celebration, a story with humility, a happy story before the tough times leading up to the crucifixion. It is a moment of affirmation before the trouble starts, but it is perhaps not quite the story we think it is.

There is politics and complexity in the mix of this story.

There are four versions of this story in the four Gospels, but more than 4 voices being heard within those stories. The four gospel versions aren't simply four different people's accounts of the events. There are places where the versions cross over, places where they are identical and places where they are completely different. And in these variations perhaps we may be hearing echoes of the voices from the crowd who were there on that day.

These days we get used to the idea that even if you weren't at a particular event you will hear about it. It will be on the television, in the news paper, it will be posted on the internet, and someone will have taken photographs. If it was a big enough event, then there will be a record of the event somewhere, there will have been live coverage so you can probably buy the DVD. But back in the days of Jesus the only people who experienced that event, were the ones who were there. So the versions of the story that we have are very interesting. And they are interesting as much for how they differ as how they are similar.

 

Luke and John start their versions with a little introduction, but unlike all the others, John starts with the crowd and not with the disciples. John is interested in the public viewpoint.

Matthew, Mark and Luke spend a fair amount of time talking about Jesus sending the disciples off to find the donkey, they seem particularly interested in the fact that Jesus knew where to find the donkey, this is one of several slides that would have covered that aspect of the story had I included them all.

John doesn't talk about how the disciples are involved in this elaborate plot of finding the donkey, he is more interested in the quote from Zechariah 9:9, which is also quoted slightly differently by Matthew, who for some reason that I don't know about is set on there being both a donkey and a colt, but Matthew always wants to root his account in Jewish history and the inclusion of the prophetic words make sense in that light. I suspect that John was less interested in the idea that Jesus knew where the donkey was, and more interested in the thought that he would have known that quote before he chose to enter the city in this way, and the crowd would have known that too - and the temple priests would definitely have known that quote and the implications of these actions. This may have been a humble entry to the city, but it wasn't a naïve one. It was a calculated and dangerous move by Jesus, the eventual outcome was inevitable.


As for the bit about the palms, the reason why we call this Palm Sunday, the strange thing is that with four accounts we only have one mention of the palm branches. Matthew mark and Luke give us the spreading of cloaks on the road, Matthew and Mark also give us the branches, but only John mentions palm trees. None of that is particularly significant in itself, but this section in particular shows us the diversity of voices that seem to have contributed to this story and what that tells us about what draws those voices together.
 

It is Luke alone concentrates on the disciples praising God for the miracles, which is interesting because it is Luke who later picks up the political thread and runs with it.

 

And so we then turn to psalm 118 that we heard earlier. Matthew, Mark and John quote the Hosanna from verse 25, which translates as 'save us' or 'save please' and it is the only place in the Old Testament that the word is spoken. It is a cry for help but it is followed by the words blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and so over the years between the writing of the psalm and its being quoted in the accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the meaning has shifted from 'save please' to something more like - 'salvation has come'.

Matthew of course wants to put Jesus into the context of the Old Testament narrative, so we have the hosanna to the son of David, whereas Luke interestingly offers no hosannas at all, perhaps because its meaning would have been obscure to his non Jewish readers.

 

They all follow with the next line of psalm 118 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. John's opening line about the crowd suggests that they were at least partly aware of the political impact that this arrival might have. When we realise that the crowd is quoting Psalm 118 we cannot avoid the probability that all four writers are believe the crowd was all too aware of the political overtones to this event, and Luke further emphasises that here by putting 'the King' in the place of the 'he' from the psalm.

Mark keeps the politics slightly more ambiguous by talking about the Kingdom of our father, David, whereas John sticks to the 'he', but then hits that nail with a sledgehammer and follows up with 'blessed is the king of Israel'.


Matthew and Mark give us more hosannas, this time 'hosannas in the highest heaven', but Luke replaces the hosanna with peace and glory, emphasising again his mission to gentiles who would have been unfamiliar with much of the meaning of the psalm.

 

 

Interestingly - each gospel arrives at a different conclusion.

Matthew is interested in the effect this event has had on the crowd, and the idea that they want to know who he is.

Mark - is not interested in reflection, he's onto the next thing. As if to say, you can reflect in your own time - I've got a story to tell.

Luke draws our attention to the inevitable friction that is now building up between the religious leaders and the crowd - at this moment, it looks as if a political revolution might be in the air. But John has moved his attention from the crowd, to the disciples and the fact that they didn't understand what was going on until after the resurrection.

John highlights the fact that the disciples didn't get what was happening, even though the crowd seems to get it, and the Pharisees, from a very different angle, also seem to get it. Matthew Mark and Luke concentrate on the inside story of the disciples and they get caught up in the tale of the finding of the donkey. Luke hones in on the political unrest but it's only John who begins with the crowd and it's only John who realises how much the disciples have missed the point.

This story is full of complexity, politics and it paints a picture of a potentially really dangerous situation. And what we see in this moment is Jesus laying his cards on the table. He is saying I am not here to be subordinate to the system, I'm not ignoring the system nor am I throwing it out, I am taking heed of the scripture, the tradition and the power structures, but I'm also declaring myself as leader, as bringer of salvation - humble, yes, but in charge.

Yet the thing he does next is to allow himself to be arrested. He doesn't take on that leadership, not in the way that our earthly political structures would expect him to do. There is no revolution, there is no political uprising - what comes next is something for us to reflect upon in holy week, but for now I want us to reflect on the way that the disciples eyes were fixed inwards on the activities within their group. They lacked the understanding of the politics, the way that the scriptures interacted with the political powder keg of 1st Century Jerusalem. They didn't get the way that the tensions between the Roman Empire, the Jewish religious leaders and the crowds in Jerusalem were likely to explode at any moment. They didn't see that the world was changing around them and the at Jesus was giving them salvation not just for eternity but also for now, not just salvation for the next world but also a plan of how God's people ought to move through the complex changes that were happening around them.

I wonder how much that might be our problem today, are we so focussed in on our churches and the way we do things, that we are unable to see what God is teaching us through what is happening out there in the world. Are we concentrating on how we get the donkey and missing why the donkey was there in the first place. Do we come and celebrate our God but fail to see what our God is doing? Do we see the miraculous wonders that God has done for us, but miss how those things fit into the bigger more volatile and complex picture of the world around us?

This is God's world, and we are God's people. We should perhaps from time to time, just like John did, look first to the crowd outside in the streets, to listen to the voices in the crowd, to find out what it is that God is doing and plans to do with us.

An Alternative Covenant Service with Small Groups

Covenant Service With Communion and Small Groups

With small groups - based on the sending out of the 72 (Luke 10)

First used at Thornbury Methodist Church 11am on 15th Jan 2017

Introduction

This service combines covenant, communion and small groups.

It wraps the communion elements around the service and seeks to weave the biblical text, the liturgy, the singing of hymns, our conversations about faith and the story of the last supper, into one coherent narrative.

The room is set with a communion table in the centre, surrounded by chairs in six petal like groups. Each group has an opening towards the centre of the room to give access to the table. There is also a gap for people to enter and exit the space.  

Each petal has one of six focus themes;

A&P:    Assets & Presence group

D&L:    Discipleship & Learning group

E&E:    Engagement & Evangelism group

R:         Resourcing group

S&C:    Service & Care group

W:       Worship group

The above colour coded abbreviations will be helpful later in the service where each group will have the opportunity to make different contributions to the covenant liturgy.

People may select their focus group based on their interests in specific aspects of church life. This choice may be made prior to the service or on arrival. It is more important to have a balance of people in the different groups than to worry too much about being in the right group. No doubt we all have at least some interest in all of the six focus themes.

The bread is in the form of three rolls and the wine is in small cups set in bowls that can be handed to the six groups to share.

 

The Covenant Communion Small Group Service

Welcome to this covenant service, communion and exploration of our new vision.

Hymn: StF 401 Come Sinners to the Gospel Feast - Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Presider: This is our covenant service - A covenant is a promise, a binding together, a commitment to the work of God's eternal kingdom. It is a contract without clauses.

Reader 1: With Noah the rainbow served as a sign of a covenant that God made with all life on Earth

Reader 2: With Abraham God made a covenant to make him a father of nations and make his descendants as numerous as the stars.

Reader 3: With Moses that covenant was upheld in the exodus from slavery and the sharing of God's law on Mt Sinai - Moses marked the renewing of that covenant in the offering of a sacrifice. He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” And seventy or so Elders went back up the mountain to meet with God.

Presider: In the years that followed, many prophets spoke of a time when God's law would no longer be in a book, but in the hearts of God's people and of a time when the sacrifice of God's creatures would no longer be required. A time when a new covenant would be made between God and God's people.

Many year later Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover festival - where they remembered the time when, through God's guidance, Moses brought them out of captivity in Egypt. The sacrificial lambs were brought to the temple in memory of the Exodus.

As part of the celebration Jesus and his disciples joined together in a traditional meal in an upper room that they had hired for the occasion; a meal of thanksgiving for their freedom.

Raising a cup, the presider says;

And so today we proclaim good news to the poor;
Freedom for prisoners
A vision for those who have not seen,
And a lifting of the burdens of the oppressed

Amen - thanks be to God

The Israelites celebrated their freedom, but their freedom was not complete; it was temporary and rooted in earthly promises.

A new covenant was to be made there in that room by Jesus. Moses, was a man, speaking the words of God. But Jesus was God in human form;

Here in this [upper] room, just as Jesus did there in that upper room on the night before he died, we break bread together.

Jesus said "This is my body which is... (The bread is broken) ...for you"

This is said three times as the three rolls are broken into six halves.
The bread is received by one person from each of the six groups and shared to each person.

In the breaking of this bread; we are broken;
Like the body of Christ; we are broken
And as we share in his self sacrifice; so we are remade in the image of God Amen

We eat the bread together

As we submit to be broken and remade as a community in the image of God, so we find ourselves more deeply rooted in Christ than we were before.

Jesus said  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

These were more than just interesting words, or disconnected theory. This connectedness was a central part of how Jesus worked out his ministry.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke we hear that;

Reader 1: First Jesus went around teaching from village to village calling the twelve to him. After this he appointed seventy-two others and sent them ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He sent them out two by two  and he gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases,

These were his instructions:

Reader2: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.

Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. First say, ‘Peace to this house.'  If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

Reader 1: So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Presider: We seek to echo that pattern of discipleship in the way we  share in worship today.

A prayer is said, leading into conversations within the groups

The following or another topic is discussed in the groups;

'What does covenant mean to you?'

·       Is there a line or section of the covenant service you find particularly important/challenging?

·       How might you relate the covenant to your group focus?

Presider: As we enter into our renewal of the covenant, let's first share together in our prayers of confession;

Lord we make our confession and we ask for your forgiveness

A&P:    For when we have squandered the gifts you have given us and hidden our light from the world - forgive us

D&L:    For when we have been reluctant to learn more of you and allow you deeper into our hearts - Forgive us

E&E:    For when we have been hesitant to share your Gospel and afraid to hear your truth in the context of people's real lives - forgive us

R:         For when we have held our ownership of things above our love for you - forgive us

S&C:    For when we have been slow to carry and lighten the burdens of our fellow human beings - Forgive us

W:       For when we have been resistant to come to you and rest or have lost the passion of our worship in the busy work of ritual - forgive us.

Forgive us lord and show us mercy.
Re-graft us into your vine
that we may be truly one with you.
As we have broken bread and received its nourishment,
so we have been broken
and are ready to receive your forgiveness.
Amen. Thanks be to God.

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

let us renew our commitment to this covenant which God has made with us and with all who are called to be Christ's disciples.

We are valued as individuals and part of the body of Christ.
Each of us have God given gifts which we are called to put to use.
We are called to celebrate and nurture each other's gifts
without jealousy or the expectation
for any one person to be the same as another.
We are called to bear the burdens of each other's weaknesses,
as well as to live with and learn from our own.
Some parts of God's mission call us to work at the rock face
of our own fears, failures and limitations;
to work against the current of our own river.
Some call us to go with the flow, to be carried like a leaf on the wind. Some call us to go with the flow of the ways of life that surrounds us, others call us to stand defiantly like a dam across the water or to wade upstream against  the flow.

And all this can be done if we are rooted in God through Christ, the true vine and nourished by God's holy spirit.

So let's make this covenant with God our own.
Let's give ourselves to God
as individuals and as a community of faith,

A&P:    As good stewards of God's earth and representatives of God's kingdom.
D&L:    As lifelong learners about God's ways.
E&E:    As bearers of Christ's message and people who listen with prophetic ears.
R:         As people who know that all good things come from God.
S&C:    As servants to those who are in need.
W:       As the people who long to gather in your name.

trusting in God's promises and relying on God's grace.

All who feel able, stand

Eternal God,
in your faithful and enduring love
you call us to share in your new covenant
made through Jesus Christ.
In love we seek to do your will;
We are no longer our own but yours.

I am no longer my own but yours.
Your will, not mine, be done in all things,
wherever you may place me,
in all that I do and in all that I may endure;
when there is work for me and when there is none;
when I am troubled and when I am at peace.
Your will be done
when I am valued and when I am disregarded;
when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking;
when I have all things and when I have nothing.

 I willingly offer all I have and am
to serve you, as and where you choose.

Glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
May it be so forever.
Let this covenant now made on earth
be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.

all sit

As we have entered this covenant not for ourselves alone,
but as part of God's witness throughout the world, let's pray for the
Church and for the world.
Loving God, hear us as we pray for your Church throughout the world:

make us all one, that the world may believe.

Inspire and lead all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world:

establish justice and peace among all people.

Have compassion on all who suffer from any sickness, grief or trouble:

deliver them from their distress.

We praise you for all your saints who have entered your eternal glory:

bring us all to share in your heavenly kingdom.

Let us pray in silence for our own needs and for those of others...

Silence

Lord our God,
We have made our promises and you have made yours,
you know when we will uphold our part
and when we will fall down.
We have made our prayers and you have heard us.
Only you know how best to answer these prayers,
but grant that we may know what our part should be
in putting into action your answers to our prayers.
And may we remain in you through all eternity,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Presider: From the days of Leviticus right up to the time of Jesus, when the priests made sacrifices, they said that no one should drink the blood, because it contained the spirit of the animal, which was poured out for the sins of the people. It was thought that the life force from the fire on the altar would carry the spirit of the creature back to God.

When Jesus offered himself as sacrifice on the cross, he declared an end to this kind of sacrifice because his spirit was to be poured out for the forgiveness of all sins for all time. This was not the spirit of one of God's creatures, but the spirit of God himself being poured out for all people

The wine is poured from the central cup into a Kiddush cup

and there in that upper room he poured out the wine as his spirit would be poured out to all people.

The wine is received by one person from each of the six groups and shared to each person

Knowing what was about to happen, at the end of the meal he took the cup gave thanks and gave it to his disciples, asking them to drink from it, as he asks us to drink from it today - and as we do, let's imagine that this is his life force which is about to be poured out for us, to seal the new covenant which God is continuing to make with all people.

This is God's spirit poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins. Amen

We all drink from the cups.

Jesus told his disciples to do this whenever they meet to remember him.

John's Gospel tells us that after the meal Jesus washed their feet, and insisted that they washed each other's feet, a humble act of service. It is above all things our call to serve each other as Christ has served us and to serve those who have not yet known Christ, just as once we did not know Christ.

We can serve each other and the world in the breaking down of things in our lives, churches and communities that have become stuck in wrong ways, or become unable to move and grow as they should. And in that breaking down, God's spirit is once again free to be poured out to all people.

This is what we are called to do in remembrance of Jesus.

Prayer

We say together

Lord God we are bound together in you and with each other;
we have been fed by you and are ready to take this life giving sustenance out into the streets.
As Christ sent out the twelve and the seventy two,
so send us out today, broken and remade in your image.
May your spirit which has been poured out to us,
flow through us that she may be present to those we encounter.

Amen

The offering is taken up during the following hymn

Hymn: StF 415 The Church of Christ - Fred Pratt Green (1903–2000)

Presider: It may well have been customary to end such a meal with the agreement to meet again in Jerusalem next year at the Passover, but having previously told them that he was the vine and they were his branches, Jesus said 'I won't share in the fruits of this vine until I see you again in the Kingdom.'

So, until we meet again, we do this in remembrance of Jesus who awaits the opportunity to share this meal with us in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen

Go with God's blessing out into the world which God created

We share the grace;

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with us all evermore.
Amen.

 

Main Bible passages referenced in this service:

Genesis 9:8-17

Genesis 17:1-5

Genesis 26:1

Exodus 2:23-25

Exodus 24:3-11
Leviticus 17:10-12

Deuteronomy 29:9-15

Matthew 10:1-16

Matt 26:17-30

Mark 6:6b-13

Mark 14:12-26

Luke 9:1-6

Luke 10:1-3

Luke 10:1-12

Luke 22:7-38

John 13:1-17

John15:9-101

Corinthians 11:17-33

Remembrance 2016 - A warning about what it really means to say 'never again'

Remembrance 2016; A warning about what it really means to say 'never again'.

Based on my Remembrance Sunday sermon for that year.

I often hear the words, 'they don't write hymns like they used to.' Or 'they don't write pop song like they used to'. A friend of mine was talking about how the songs from the 60's were so much better, and the young people today listen to such terrible lyrics. I had to remind him that he grew up listening to 'She wore an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, yellow polka dot bikini.'

The truth is, we often edit the past to suit the story we want to tell. We sing the hymn 'O God our help in ages past' as a song of nostalgia, of comfort in times of change, and of God's offer of help in times of trouble. We forget that Isaac Watts, a dissenter, wrote that hymn in a time of political turmoil, when the 'stormy blast' came at least in part from the religious oppression of Queen Anne and her government. We take little notice of the verse that says;

   The busy tribes of flesh and blood,

   With all their lives and cares,

   Are carried downwards by the flood,

   And lost in following years.

And we even edit out the verse that says;

   Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,

   Return, ye sons of men:

   All nations rose from earth at first,

   And turn to earth again.

For Watts, the trust placed by people in political structures, and national powers, was false, fleeting, and ungodly. His comfort was in knowing that the present oppression was, in the eternal scale of things, just a fleeting moment.

These were the three readings for our Remembrance Sunday service this year;

Malachi 4. 1-2a, 2 Thessalonians 3.6-13, and Luke 21. 5-19

Three readings, with three warnings;

·       Malachi offers a warning for the arrogant and evil people.

·       Thessalonians gives a warning against idleness.

·       Luke's account of the words of Jesus give a warning against those who put their trust in human built structures, fancy buildings, and powerful organisations.

But in each there is hope;

·       hope for the one who revere's the name of God;

·       Hope for those who work for what is right;

·       And even eternal hope for those who

trust in God. Even though we face persecution, there is eternal hope for us, and for all, if we speak up for what is right.

We come together today to remember those who gave their lives for us in battle, for those who live with the trauma of surviving while their brothers, and sisters in arms were lost. To remember those families who made, and continue to make the sacrifice of waving farewell to loved ones who are sent around the world to fight, to defend, to break down, and to rebuild; to rebuild communities free from oppression. We remember, those families who honour the solidarity of a globally connected human race; who allow their loved ones to fight, and possibly to never come home, because they know that when one part of the human race suffers injustice and oppression, we are all damaged by it.

We remember, as we always do at this time, those who fought for good and worked for what is right. But perhaps this year, more than ever, we need to heed those warnings not to become arrogant or complaisant; not to become idle in our comfort, and not to allow ourselves to be convinced by the false stability of human power and strength over the evils of this world, or our natural human mortality.

It is a year when the debate has turned to refugees fleeing wars, to peaceful borders becoming ever so slightly less friendly, of the rich threatening to build walls to keep out the poor, of arrogant leaders declaring their greatness, and the still small voice of God's justice being lost in the cacophony of people who would claim they have earned their position; that the world owes them something, that their needs are greater than those people of other nations, and that their rights do not need to be considered in a wider context, or without responsibility to the wider human family.

We come together today to remember those who fought for what is right, but we cannot do that if we forget the right they fought for. We come to remember the people, not just of our nation, but those of the many nationalities who fought with us in the World wars. We remember not just the Christians, but also the Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and all the people of other religions who fought with us in the wars. We also remember those people, who were just as imperfect as we are today, and got caught up in the evil of oppressive regimes; who fought against us, who found themselves convinced by unscrupulous politicians that the cause they were fighting was the right one. We need to remember that it could have been us, it could still be us if, in our idleness and arrogance, in our confidence in human structures, and our blindness to evil, we forget the freedom, and justice that was the very reason for the call to sacrifice.

We remember the freedom they fought for, the peace they fought for, the justice and the love for all of God's created people, and we need to continue to fight for that today, in our day to day lives, in elections - in charitable giving and in campaigns for justice. In how we spend our money in the shops and supermarkets, that can hold national economies to ransom in order for us to have a cheaper tin of baked beans or cup of good old British tea.

We say never again, Never Again! But those words ring hollow if they mean we would become the thing we once fought against in order to avoid an argument. They ring hollow if they mean never again will we rise from our slumber to help a world in need. They ring hollow if they mean never again will we raise our voices in protest as long as the injustice is harming them over there, and we remain safe within our borders. Never again needs to mean, never again will we let injustice and oppression go so far unchecked that millions have to die to stop the machinery that we should have seen being built. Never again will we let it get that far.

We come to remember those who fell, the peace that they fought for, and to remember that the work is not yet done.

`

Beware that you are not led astray, Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right. But persevere , Because by your endurance you will save others and in saving them we will also be saving ourselves.