Reflection on readings for the 29th January 2010 4th Sunday after Epiphany Year B

Year B Fourth Sunday after Epiphany 29 January 2012
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalm 111 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Mark 1:21-28

I’ve just come across a saying on facebook that did the email rounds sometime ago and in a back to front way it fits in with our readings for this week...... will tell you what it is... but not yet.

Our readings this week talk about accountability and responsibility. At first glance these words look like they could be the same thing, but they are not.
Both are rather serious sounding words and each requires some kind of action.

As Christians we are accountable.

Our second reading tells us that we are not to cause our weaker brothers and sisters to sin by exercising our freedom.


You see, we do have an amazing freedom. Very few of us live in the joy of that freedom and most often church communities develop their own very strict set of “dos” and “don’ts”. Often these are put in place for the very reason of our accountability, but unfortunately we sometime miss the “Good News” of the freedom we have in Christ when we enforce these things.

St. Paul wrote about this to the Corinthians who so truly understood their freedom that they forgot to be mindful of the weaker brothers and sisters.
1 Corinthians 8:9-11 “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.”

In our experience it is not the meat offered to idols that is an exercise of our freedom, but the various other things that the world has to offer which may seem to others as sinful.

For a long time there was a joke among some churches that kissing should not be allowed, because it leads to dancing!! The meaning was that some thought dancing was sinful.

In a similar way I’ve noticed many Christians, who dismissed the Christian authenticity of individuals because of how they dressed, spoke and the places they were comfortable going... eg. Nightclubs.

We often forget that we become Christian by the Holy Spirit that brings us to spiritual birth when we accept Christ as our saviour. The authenticity of our Christianity is this Holy Spirit living within us and thankfully, NOT the things we do.

Strangely enough it is often those who do not have the Spirit who can recognise it in a person. What I’m saying is, that we in the church will often look for actions of “holiness” to prove this thing that we can’t physically see. The proof of a real Christian is not in these acts, but in something way less tangible and we need the Holy Spirit gift of discernment to really see it.

In demanding a “look of Christianity” we sometimes kill the freedom that we have in Christ and actually quench the Spirit.

An example of this is something I’ve heard happening often..... A minister will sometimes advise their youth not to attend a regional or state Christian conference. They seem to fear that the youth might learn something wrong. It is similar with adult conferences. I’ve attended many ecumenical conferences and there are always some churches who won’t promote the international speakers’ visit, due to an irrational fear of the unknown. We need to let the Holy Spirit work.... and he works through our freedom. This is not what St. Paul is talking about when he tells us to be mindful of others.

The Corinthian Christians were not quenching the Spirit, but they were grieving the spirit because new believers didn’t understand the difference between what was helpful for their Christian walk and what was harmful.

We are free. I am free to eat chocolate and I like it a lot. If I want it for dinner I can have it, but it would not set a good example for small children, who don’t understand the nutritional needs of our bodies.

My children are now older. I have a rule – no girl/boy sleep-overs. In our contemporary culture this has become acceptable and is in fact hard to explain that you have are in a relationship but live separately..... it is not helpful for our Christian growth to live in the way that society accepts. I set the same rule for myself as for my children.... if they choose not to live by this rule, they choose to live elsewhere and as young adults, that becomes their responsibility.

Sometimes it is hard as a parent to do what we need to for the sake of our children’s understanding of what is helpful and what is harmful. We need to put aside the freedom we have as adults and show our children what it is to be a “responsible” adult.... and we are “accountable” for teaching them this. And so, this can mean not drinking to the point of becoming drunk.... driving in the way that you want them to drive when they are new learners. Etc.

I was told some time ago, “you can’t tell your kids what to do once they become adults”..... Well, just watch me! While I tell them, I unconditionally love them and let them know this, but I will always tell my children if I think they are doing the wrong thing because that is my job.... I am accountable for that – how they respond is up to them and is their responsibility.

Although I’ve gone a bit aside talking about Children and parents, it is important to understand, because it is the perfect parable for what the message of our readings are this week.

Deuteronomy 18:17-20 “The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

In this passage God was speaking to Moses about the prophet he would send. In the way of God, this referred both to the prophets God would send and then especially it is referring to Jesus.

We have a responsibility to heed the words of Jesus and we will be held accountable if we do not listen. All of us have heard the words of Jesus, but have we “listened” – or are we lying to ourselves, convincing ourselves that we will not be held accountable?
Mark 1:21-28 describes the scene of Jesus teaching in the synagogue. The people were amazed at the authority with which he taught. And then, to add further proof to his authority, a man possess by a demon (unclean spirit) throws himself at Jesus. Jesus commands the spirit and the people are once more convinced of the authority of Jesus.

“Ah.... how nice. Yes Jesus has amazing authority and Oh.... if only we had been there.... “

Well, here is a news flash; those same people rejected Jesus when the going got tough. And here is another news flash; God holds them accountable.

Those people were the chosen race of God. They were the religious leaders and good, law abiding citizens. They rejected Jesus and God holds them accountable. Why? Because he had told them, way back at the time of Moses, that he would send his prophet and the people must listen to him. These chosen people of God witnessed the miracles and sensed the authority of Jesus, but they ultimately rejected him.

God gives us free will. He sends us many prophets along the way to point us towards the path he wants us to take, but we have to choose to take that path.

And now that you are possibly freaked out by the severity of our accountability I have some more good news;

To fail is human! Which is why we need to be connected to the body of Christ through regular church attendance to keep on track. It is the body of Christ where the modern day prophets speak and point out some of those boundaries we may sometimes cross. But just in case you think that those prophets are perfect.... or just in case your excuse for not listening to them is because they are not perfect..... The facebook gem that I came across today is that one about how Jacob was a cheater, St. Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, St. Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Elijah was depressed, Moses was a stutterer, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old and Lazarus was dead.

These were the prophets called by God. They were not perfect and neither are we, but we have a responsibility to listen to the word of God through his people and we are accountable to then become his message of salvation.

Reflection on readings for 22nd january 2012

Year B Third Sunday after Epiphany 22 January 2012
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 Mark 1:14-20
The readings this week are short and straight to the point. They are about people being called by God and these people answering the call. At least that is how it appears at a superficial reading, but if we look further we see that there is actually more to each story.

The Gospel tells us about Jesus calling Simon Peter and Andrew and then the brothers, John and James.
Mark 1:16-20 “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.”

From the reading we get this image of Jesus calling out, “come follow me” and these men immediately acting as if hypnotised, blindly and strangely, dropping everything to follow him. We know from other Gospel accounts that these men had been followers of John the Baptist. They had witnessed John’s testimony about Jesus and had already encountered Jesus personally. The ground work had been done and these men were ready to answer the call.

One of my favourite stories from the Bible is the account of Jonah. There is so much we can learn from Jonah, but more than anything we can relate to Jonah.

Jonah was a prophet. He was relatively comfortable in this role and comfortable with his relationship with God until God calls him to go and speak to the city of Nineveh. I’m assuming we all know the story of Jonah being swallowed by the great fish.... What happened was that Jonah tried to run away from God.

Interesting...... Jonah ran away from God and straight into trouble. There is a message for us right there, but the emphasis on this week’s reading is Jonah’s second call.

Jonah had re-submitted his life into God’s hands and God had rescued him. Then it seems that God calls Jonah again.

I’m reading in between the lines, of course, but it seems to me that Jonah surely must have realized that he had failed as a prophet. In today’s world we would have sacked this preacher and left him to find other employment. I’m sure that God could have used someone else to go to the Ninevites and give them His message, but there is something very important that we need to learn about the way God operates, and we learn it through this story.

God called Jonah. Full stop!
He didn’t un-call him or decommission him or “let him go”. Jonah was called, commissioned and in that he was affirmed as being in a positive and sure relationship with God.
Sometimes I see leaders in Churches and I do wonder if God called them. Other times I have a strong sense of a person called by God, but they “fail” and the church dismisses them. One very simple example of this is a priest from when I was just a teenager. He was the most gifted priest, who really taught well from the pulpit, but also had a way of pastoral care and wisdom that meant that the parish grew in both number and activity and in spiritual maturity. Eventually the priest moved on and later left the church because he decided that he wanted to marry. The churches loss!

Stories like these we hear time and again, but sometimes the “failure” is more than a perceived failure and actual sin...... sometimes, we are the only ones who know and we feel that we can not be useful to God because we know just how bad we are.

If we have been called by God, we are called. Running away, we will find ourselves running into trouble, but in acknowledging our failure we will find that we have not forfeited the call and purpose that God has for our lives. The call of God is constant.

When we are called we know that we are forgiven. The “word of the Lord” coming a second time to Jonah, reassured him that God still had a plan and a purpose for him and it was the same plan and purpose that God had all along.

Mark 1:14-15 “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

There is also a sense of urgency about this week’s readings. “The time has come....” The time HAS come. It is time we stopped feeding our doubts and claimed back the truth, but to do this we need to know that we are also called.

It isn’t just those who are far away from God who need to repent and believe the Good News. From day to day, many of us get lost in our own world and in our own narrow perspective. To believe the Good News means to open our eyes to the bigger picture and realize that God has all of our personal “worlds” in his hands. But we need to repent. We need to realize that we have been running away from God by not fully trusting in him and not following the purpose to which he has called us.

But how do we know that God is calling us?

I remember seeing a poster many years ago with this same question. In big letters the poster said;
How can you know that God is calling you?
................................You are breathing!