Monthly Archives: March 2020

A Monday Meditation

Welcome to a new week everyone. I hope you have enjoyed a good weekend with some relaxation and worship. Maybe you got some household chores done as well!

This morning I shared this meditation exercise with the staff at Vose Seminary, as we move into our first week of working-from-home because of COVID-19. Perhaps you might like to join us in this exercise.

James 1:17-18          
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all he created.

Whether you are at home this week, or at work, or perhaps do not have work at present, why not set aside fifteen to twenty minutes either first thing, or at an appropriate time in the day to read and meditate on this text. You may like to use the following guide as a small prayer exercise. Indeed I encourage you to do this every day this week, perhaps focusing in point four on a different category of grace-received each day.

  1. Begin by ‘entering into his presence with thanksgiving’ (Psalm 100:4) – what can you thank God for this morning?
  2. Read the text slowly and prayerfully, letting it seep into your mind. Be still for a minute or two, and then read it again, and perhaps even a third time.
  3. Imagine the gifts of God streaming down like bright rays of the sun enlightening and warming all that is. Imagine them streaming down upon your life.
  4. Ponder all the good gifts you have received – every natural gift, cultural gift, gifts of family and relationships, spiritual gifts, vocational gifts, opportunities . . . Imagine them coming down from above, from the Father of lights, good and generous gifts of the good and generous God.
  5. Give thanks to God, our generous Father, for all these wonderful and uniquely-you gifts!
  6. Consider: how else might I respond to all this grace? What does it mean to be the child of such a generous Father (v. 18)? What might he intend for me?
  7. If you are up for it, keep a journal of your prayer, and maybe share your insights or experience in prayer with a trusted friend or colleague.

If you would like to see my exegetical study of this passage you can see my blog here for part 1 and here for a bit more. And I have written on James 1:18 here.

Every good and perfect blessing be yours this week.

Scripture on Sunday – John 20:19-22

The disciples were behind locked doors, in self-isolation. Things were bad and could get immeasurably worse. They were afraid. Afraid of the Jews. Afraid of the Romans. Afraid they might be accused. Afraid that they might die. Jesus had been executed by the Romans for what we might call treason. They, as his followers, may be next.

Nonetheless, they were not isolated from Jesus. “Jesus came and stood among them . . . ”

He showed them his wounds, he the Crucified One. He the One who had been killed, now the Resurrected One, present with them in person,  risen . . . alive. And into their fear and isolation he speaks a word of peace. In fact, he speaks it twice:

“Peace be with you . . . Peace be with you.”

He is only repeating here something he had said just a few days before:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me . . . Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid . . . I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 14:1, 27; 16:33).

Even in isolation, even behind locked doors, they were not isolated from Jesus. Jesus came, Jesus stood with and among them, Jesus blessed them with his gifts of peace and of the Spirit.

This peace is one of the most precious gifts we receive in Christ. A true peace. A peace that keeps hearts and minds, a peace that seeps into the depths of our being. A peace by which we enter into rest, even in the midst of hardship and strife.

If you are in isolation, behind locked doors, you are not alone. Take these verses and practise a little lectio divina: read them slowly and prayerfully a few times, using your imagination to enter into the story yourself. What do you see and feel, hear and experience? Meditate and hear Jesus personally speaking to you , “Peace be with you.”

Receive his gift of peace. Share your heart with him. Sit in stillness with him, in adoration of him, and let his peace seep into very being.

Peace be with you, the gift of his peace, now, at this time.

 

A Pascalian Moment? What to Do in a Time of Quarantine

This is good and helpful advice from Bishop Robert Barron, for what to do during a time of isolation. Anyone with a copy of Bob Dylan’s Desire on his bookshelf must be okay…

His advice? Read a gospel using the method of Lectio Divina. Or read a spiritual classic whether ancient or modern. If you must be alone, find a beautiful place to meditate and pray. I don’t think that I will take up his admonition to pray the Rosary, but I might pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly and thoughtfully. Put away your iPhone…

Scripture on Sunday – John 9:39

Recently I read through the Gospel of John, reflecting on it one chapter at a time and making some notes. Of course I have read John previously, some parts of it many times. Nevertheless I found myself arrested when I arrived at John 9, the story of the man born blind.

This magnificent story refuses to draw a connection between sin and disability, as those in the ancient world were, and sometimes today are still, inclined to do. Rather Jesus does the work of God which in this case involves healing and restoration—and so indicates the kind of kingdom for which Christians hope. And John, as he does elsewhere in the Gospel, uses the story to point to Jesus’ identity, and to the necessity of appropriate human response to him and his message.

John makes this plain by his portrayal of the encounter between the religious authorities and the healed man. The Pharisees are disturbed by Jesus’ lack of orthodoxy and his popularity. He does not adhere to the standards that they believe are necessary if one claims to know and represent God. And they are infuriated by the plain though somewhat belligerent speech of this man who reasons that anyone who can miraculously heal a man born blind must have power that comes from God. They throw him out of the synagogue. Evidently Jesus heard about this and went looking for the man, and, when he found him, asked him if he believed in the Son of Man. The man did believe and confessed his faith, worshipping Jesus. On the one hand repudiation of Jesus because he does not adhere to their expectations; on the other, faith, confession, and worship.

But the wonderful drama of the story did not prepare me for what came next, where Jesus turns the tables on those who labelled the blind man a sinner:

John 9:39-41 
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” (NASB)

For judgement I came into this world.

I found the statement arresting because it is so alien to much contemporary Christian thought, discussion and proclamation which assures us that Jesus has nothing to do with judgement. And indeed John 3:17 seems to affirm this:

John 3:16-17 
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

God’s attitude toward the world is an attitude—and indeed an action—of utter self-giving love. God loves the world, and sent his Son to save rather than to judge, the world. Jesus accomplishes this salvation as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). This gift of love, this life—of the ‘Word who was with God and was God’ (John 1:1) and who became flesh and dwelt among us full of glory, grace and truth (1:14); and this saving death, are the expression of the heart of God which pulses with love for every person no matter who or what they are.

Is it possible, then, to square John 3:17 with John 9:39? Part of the answer is found in the next verses in John 3:

John 3:18-21, 36       
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. . . 

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Jesus speaks of judgement again in John 5:22-30. Here he declares that the Father has “given all judgment to the Son,” and that those who believe in him have eternal life and “shall not come into judgment,” but have passed from death to life. The judgement of which he speaks is the eschatological judgement awaiting those whose deeds are evil. These are those that God loves and sent Jesus to save. The world loved by God is in danger of perishing and so needs saving.

The climax of the first part of the gospel occurs in John 12:27-50, especially verses 44-50, and here again the theme of judgement is central to Jesus’ teaching.

John 12:46-48           
I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

Again Jesus affirms the words of John 3:17 but also insists that there is yet a judgement awaiting those who do not receive him and his words.

My sense of all this is that Jesus has not come to judge the world but his coming results in judgement, and the criterion of the judgement—which will be fully realised at ‘the last day’—is whether or not one has believed in him and kept his words.

For judgement I came into this world.

These sobering words are the words of Jesus, words that remind us of what makes the Good News good, words that warn us against cheap grace in its many manifestations and costumes, words that call us to faith in and obedience to the One who has so loved us and given himself for us.