Readings for today: Jeremiah 20:7-13 Psalm 69:7-18 Romans 6:1b-11 Matthew 10:24-39
A prayer
God of all power and truth and grace, you call your church to love and praise. inspire us with zeal for your Gospel, and grant us boldness to proclaim your word, that we and all the world may praise your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
I’ve been reading Walter Brueggemann’s Disruptive Grace, a collection of addresses reflecting on God, Scripture and the Church. https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334043997/disruptive-grace
Amongst the matters discussed are the more customary items of prophecy, lament and prayer. But what specifically caught my attention were two little phrases – ‘faithful imagination’ and ‘holy economics’. It is the first phrase that I want to concentrate on, because so much more flows out of this, including holy economics.
As a mother of two very artistic daughters (one is a dancer, the other a musician) I asked them what they thought of this statement by Brueggemann:
The vocation of an artist is to provide a sub-version of reality that insistently subverts the ordinary.
Walter Brueggemann, Disruptive Grace: Reflections on God, Scripture and the Church. (London: SCM, 2011), 296
They both gave a knowing smile and replied, ‘of course it is!’ Creativity always requires a good amount of imagination, and the artist – whatever the medium, be it visual or performative – is one who uses imagination all the time. So, let’s follow up on ‘faithful imagination’ within the life of the church, with a second quote from Brueggemann. Describing of the affirmation of the church, Brueggemann says that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus ‘constitute an act of immense imagination that intends to subvert all settled social arrangements and power structures.’ (p 297)
Faithful imagination that subverts
It is at this point that many genteel Methodists, in England’s green and pleasant land might start to feel uncomfortable. ‘Subversive’ does not seem to sit so well with our self-perception. But the more I read scripture, the more I discern a call to the kind of radical holiness that Wesley invited to be spread through the land.
This is easy to describe in terms of the MHA’s pioneering work in dementia care, the support of the Notting Hill Methodist Church to their neighbours at Grenfell Tower, and our own members of staff engaging in prison chaplaincy, and in Witney Community Fridge. But what about us in everyday life? This is of course, just another way of asking that age-old question, what does it really mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
Challenging team-talk
The team-talk given to the first disciples is hardly the inspirational, uplifting message that we might feel Jesus should have given. Instead, he warns in stark uncompromising terms of the difficulties and dangers ahead. This is not the ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ of Sunday school, but a militant Saviour who says, ‘do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.’ Matthew 10:34
Did we really sign up for this? Personally, I abhor violence in any form, whether of the kind that fatally pins a person to the ground, or the subsequent rioting witnessed around the world. So, I tend to believe that Jesus was speaking metaphorically. After all, he was not so keen on real swords being drawn in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:51-52, Luke 22:50-51). Instead, I believe it is a message about the relationships of power.
Some people assume that peaceful people are weak, submissive and easy targets, because their own idea of power is based on domination and invulnerability. Jesus argues that truly powerful people are strong, decisive, subversive and vulnerable. They know how to stand up for what they believe, because they live it out daily, and they know the risks they take in doing so.
Don’t shoot the messenger
Look at the story of Jeremiah, a most reluctant prophet, who strongly felt that he was under divine compulsion. He stood where all divinely-appointed prophets stand: in the breach between God and the people. It was a time of great social upheaval and Jeremiah’s message was not easy to hear; even his closest friends mocked him, but Jeremiah felt compelled to speak God’s word. This came at huge personal cost and it grieved him, so Jeremiah lamented:
7O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot. Jeremiah 20:7-9
In the hymn, God of my faith (in Singing the Faith 629), Colin Ferguson, offers to God, doubt, fear and anxiety, grief and despair, pain and rejection, and finally hopes and dreams. It is a hymn that carefully reflects much of the pain seen in Jeremiah’s lament. And may be, it reflects pain felt by so many at present. Jeremiah spoke of the wearying pain of trying to hold on to the message of God (ultimately he could not, of course.) But instead of carrying those emotions, or even allowing them to take hold, Ferguson offers them to God instead; a good model to emulate.
Inverted priorities
When Jesus ushered in a new world order, he was well aware that the new values might cause disruption. After all, if Jeremiah’s social circle didn’t understand him, this too could be true of others who are faithful to God’s leading. Where the prominent values in a person’s life focus on social status, nice home, good car and comfortable salary, Jesus invites reflection on what it might mean to have a different religious, social and economic viewpoint. Try the Methodist Covenant prayer and you may see what this could mean:
I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.’
from the Methodist Worship Book © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church in Britain.
I love this prayer very much, but I will confess that occasionally, it has not been recited with joyous abandon, so much as whispered through gritted teeth!
Turning the world upside down
Perhaps what we really need to hear is Jesus saying to us, ’I have come to separate you from your security, from your comfortable lifestyle, from your cultural ignorance, from your privilege, from your justifications.
From your defence of systems supporting sexism, racism, ageism, and any other form of discrimination*. I have come to call you to radical inclusiveness – come and meet and eat with those outside your social circle (Mark 2:16). I have come to build a welcome-space where everyone is welcome – even those who seem disqualified because they don’t share your understanding of religious or social merit (Luke 19:1-10). Where strangers are friends we have yet to meet, and all people-groups become stakeholders in the kingdom of new possibilities (Mark 7:24-30). Stop being so anxious but instead learn to be generous’ (Luke 10:25-37).
(*Under the Equality Act 2010, UK, the following characteristics are protected characteristics— age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.)
This is a radical form of discipleship in which ‘follow me’, will take precedence over family and friends, tradition, religious and political authorities (Mark 10:17-23). And just to clarify the issues around Jesus’ view of family life, his words are almost a verbatim quote from Micah 7:5-7, where we are invited to notice the contrast between family and friends who might just sometimes let you down, and the steadfastness of God.
There is a cost to following Jesus, which many find distasteful; and there is a challenge, because it is all too easy to settle into a comfortable rut and lose the sense of divine perspective.
John Bell and Graham Maule disturb the rut, in the hymn ‘Will you come and follow me’. This is often sung with carefree abandon – after all it has a good tune. But it also has thought-provoking words which should come as a challenge:
A prayer
Disrupt our cosy lives with your grace, O Lord, disrupt our lazy habits with your love, so that we may pray, and live, and work for your praise and glory.
O God, save all those who are overwhelmed with the troubles of life, who are bogged down, and weary with the demands placed upon them; who feel deserted and cannot see the way ahead. LORD hear the cry of the needy, and come to all who are overwhelmed.
For all who are oppressed for those who struggle at home, because they are isolated or because of their treatment by family members. LORD hear the cry of the needy, and come to all who are oppressed or isolated.
We pray for the people of Brazil, and for many parts of Africa, the Middle East, India and Pakistan where health-care systems are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers requiring help. LORD hear the cry of the needy, and come to all who are overwhelmed.
Help us to be faithful trusting you will come to our rescue in steadfast love and abounding grace, - but in ways that are undreamed.
Support and strengthen us as we seek to rebuild our towns and cities, support our communities, and protect our countryside. LORD hear the cry of the needy, and come to our rescue. Amen
And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ challenge us, the love of God embrace us, and companionship in the Holy Spirit keep us safe until we meet again. Amen
Worship at home 