PRAYER MOMENT                                                                                    

A time to choose

A soldier, wounded in the First World War wrote to his family from his hospital bed, “war is aptly described by a young officer in the Coldstreams as ‘a month’s intensive boredom punctuated by moments of abject terror.’ It is a really good description …” Those of us who have never been in war can nod our heads and say it must indeed be like that, but we have no experience of such moments of abject terror.  Except, that is, for the moments we face where we have to make a decision. To decide on a major change in our life – or to have one thrust upon us against our will – can indeed be frightening.

Decisions can be about straining for victory or accepting defeat. To suddenly lose our health or our money or our skill takes some handling. Maybe the great tennis player Roger Federer is losing his hold over the game. We cheered him on his way up. It would be nice if we could support him on his way down. But whatever the situation, we all face times of decision. I am always moved by the words in Luke’s gospel where we are told ‘Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem’ (9:51). Here was defeat - and victory.  There is an on-going pattern in his ministry and then suddenly he decides to take the road to the city where he knows rejection and death await him.

It was not the first time he had made a dramatic move: he had no doubt been getting along nicely in Nazareth working as a craftsman, and then suddenly he decides to leave the security of his family and home and set out for the Jordan and all that followed.  Now he is making an even tougher decision – to go to Jerusalem. As we think of these moments we can also reflect on our own decisions, the ones we make and maybe the ones we avoid. There is no doubt that the peak experience for a human being is to make choices.

Countless people can’t make free choices. They are forced by circumstances to follow the only path life offers them; on the land, in a factory or even in who they marry and in what they believe. Insofar as choice is denied life is less human. If you listen to young people anywhere in the world they will tell you they want to be able to choose their life. But most can’t. Slavery is no longer openly practiced but it is still very real.

This Sunday in many churches we will hear those words, ‘he set his face towards Jerusalem.’ We will also read of Elisha leaving his oxen and following Elijah. Every time someone makes a tough choice he or she opens the door for others to do the same. History has been changed by individuals making choices, sometimes terrifying ones, and whole peoples benefit. We are all at the bedside of Nelson Mandela this week-end. What we revere in this man is his resolution, made at a moment in history and lived out over decades.

But when is the favourable time to make a decision? Perhaps the time is now.

30 June 2013   13^th Sunday of year C

I Kings 19:16-21         Gal 5:1, 13-18             Luke 9:51-62         

WHO AM I?

PRAYER MOMENT

Saturday 29 June 2013, feast of SS Peter and Paul

WHO AM I?

Pause. Take a moment to be still.

Reading. “Who do people say the Son of Man is? Who do you say I am?” (Matt 16:13-19)

Reflection. At certain points in his ministry Jesus leads his close followers to a deeper level of relationship with him. Like a football coach he pushes them to greater levels of achievement. For the moment the crowds have wild ideas about him but it is essential that those to whom he would give the mission of proclaiming God’s reign would know who he really is. From knowledge comes love and from love service.

Prayer. Lord, thank you for the great founders of your community, Peter and Paul. Help me too to know you so that I may love you more and so come to serve you in your people. Amen.

OF COURSE I WANT TO CURE YOU

PRAYER MOMENT

Friday 28 June 2013

OF COURSE I WANT TO CURE YOU

Pause. Take a moment to be still in the presence of God.

Reading. “If you want to you can cure me … of course I want to! Be cured.” (Matt 8:1-4)

Reflection. The whole thrust of the mission of Jesus is to announce the reign of God. Of course he wants o heal and raise us up. It is St Irenaeus’ feast today and he wrote in about 180, “He who did this is the Word of God, who dwelt in man and became son of man in order to accustom man to receive God and accustom God to dwell in man.”

Prayer. Lord, help me to “grow accustomed” each day to your presence in my life so that I can believe that, “of course” you want to raise all your people and all creation to share your life. Amen.

DOING THE WILL OF MY FATHER

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday, 27 June 2013

DOING THE WILL OF MY FATHER

Pause. You are in the presence of the Father.

Reading. “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 7:21-29)

Reflection. There you have it. It is that clear. There is really nothing else. We say it every day, ‘they will be done.’ The pot has to reflect the potter (Jer. 18). It has to show the intention and creativity of the one who makes it. The joy of our life is to proclaim at every moment the goodness and kindness of the One who made us and calls us to intimacy.

Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...  Amen

FIGS FROM THISTLES

PRAYER MOMENT

FIGS FROM THISTLES

Pause. “Be still and know that I am God.”

Reading. “Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?” (Matt 7:15-20)

Reflection. These are not metaphors city people would think of. But Jesus was rooted in the countryside of Galilee and he knew about grapes and figs, thorns and thistles. They provided simple sayings of everyday. Good people are incapable of bad actions. They make mistakes. But if their heart is right thy will never do lasting harm.

Prayer. Lord, give us a pure heart so that all our thoughts, words and actions will begin with you, draw life from you and bear fruit in you. Amen

TREATING OTHERS

PRAYER MOMENT

TREATING OTHERS

Pause. Be still.

Reading. “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you.” (Matt 7:6, 12-14)

Reflection. Jesus goes on to say, “this is the meaning of the law and the prophets.” But he came to fulfill the law and the prophets. He went far beyond them. He gave his life for us that we might have life to the full. He “emptied” himself and became one like us that he might lead us to become like him. “I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek.” (Hos 11:4)

Prayer. Teach us, Lord, to be generous and not to count the cost; to give without thinking what we will receive.  Help us to have a heart like yours. You emptied yourself so that you could be like us and so raise us up to share in your life. We praise and thank you. Amen.

FILLED WITH AWE

PRAYER MOMENT

FILLED WITH AWE

Pause. Be still for a moment.

Reading. “All their neighbours were filled with awe.” (Luke 1:57-66)

Reflection. “Awesome” is a word that is pushing its way into everyday use. Books, films and even a performance in sport is describe as awesome. That is fine. But the word “awe” used to be reserved for the transcendent, the beyond. Medieval churches sometimes had these words over the door as you entered: “this is an awful place.” It is a place full of awe and wonder. As we read of the events describing John the Baptist’s birthday we are invited to ponder the sudden entrance of God into his world “when the times had run their course.” (Eph 1:10)

Prayer. God, our Father, you raised up John the Baptist to prepare your people for the coming of  the Messiah. Help us to welcome his coming every moment. “Have you not heard his silent steps? He comes, comes, ever comes. Every moment and every age, every day and every night he comes, comes, ever comes. Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mind but all their notes have always proclaimed, ‘He comes, comes, ever comes.’ (Tagore). Amen. 

T Junctions

T Junctions

In recent times we have seen a number of demonstrations in squares. Curiously their names all start with T. We had the protest in Tainanmen Square in Beijing in 1992 with the drama of one civilian holding up the progress of a tank by simply standing in front of it. We had the crowds in Tahrir Square in Cairo last year calling for the Arab spring to touch Egypt. And now we have the demonstration in Taksim Square in Istanbul protesting about the plans to build a shopping complex in a green park. There is also Trafalgar Square in London, a scene of many protests, and maybe Times square in New York.

But what catches the imagination is this German pianist, David Martello, who wheels a grand piano half way across Europe and plays for 14 hours at a stretch in the midst of the demonstrators in Taksim Square. The crowds cheered him on. He brought a new dimension, a note of lightness and celebration, into what otherwise would have been a “heavy” confrontation between the police and the people. It was an action that recalls the nuns in Manila who pushed roses down the barrels of the guns of Marcos.

And talking about T squares reminds me of T junctions. When you come to one you have to make a decision. You can go either way. Jesus says, yes, I am the Messiah but don’t tell anyone. They won’t understand and they’ll just mess things up. They won’t have a clue what I am really doing until they understand this “reign” I am announcing costs them something. They think I am going to “restore the kingdom of Israel” as in King David’s day but I am not going to do that. My purpose is much deeper. It is to announce a new world which will happen when people change their way of thinking (the real meaning of the word ‘repent’).

Things will not change in my life – or in anyone else’s – unless I make them change. Things don’t just happen. They have to be made to happen. Jesus pushed for a change in people’s attitudes until the effort crushed him. And he said “if anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.”  He was crushed but it did not end there. He overcame everything they threw at him: a mock trial, torture, death, the lot. He asks us to be with him in this journey. Maybe we don’t have to wheel a piano across half a continent but in one way or another we have to decide at the T junction.

23 June 2013   12 Sunday Year C    

Zech 12: 10-11            Gal 3:26-29                 Luke 9:18-24

WHAT DO I WANT?

PRAYER MOMENT

WHAT DO I WANT?

Pause. Be still for a moment.

Reading. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt 6:19-23)

Reflection. We could also say, where your heart is there also will be your treasure. When Jesus said to his friends, what do you want, what are you looking for, he was probing into their hearts. I watched a video on the Kennedys recently where, on learning of the death of his eldest son in the war the father seems to curse God while the mother calls for prayers. The father was thinking of his own ambitions, the mother of her dead son. What do I really want? .

Prayer. Lord, you know my heart. You know how confused I can be. I want something but I know my motives for wanting it are partly selfish. Teach me to really harmonise my heart with yours so that “your will is done in me as it is in heaven.” Amen.  

PRAYER MOMENT

YOUR KINGDOM COME

Pause. The birds or the traffic will always be there but enter into your own stillness.

Reading. “Your kingdom come!” (Matt 6:7-15)

Reflection. Scholars of the bible today see the whole mission of Jesus summed up in the phrase “the irruption of the reign of God in the world.” An eruption, which we associate with volcanoes, is something that happens “out there,” outside of us. But this is an irruption: it happens within. It happens when people “change their way of thinking” – the real meaning of “repent.” So Jesus calls us to pray: may we all change our way of thinking. Everything else will follow.

Prayer. Lord, you know how used we are to our own ways and our own way of seeing things. Open our eyes and hearts to new ways of seeing things, ways more in harmony with your message in the gospels, even if it costs us something of what it cost you. Amen  

IN SECRET

PRAYER MOMENT

Wednesday 19 June 2013

IN SECRET

Pause. Be still and enter into your own depths.

Reading. “Be careful not to parade your good deeds. Your left hand must not know what your right is doing.” (Matt 6:1-6, 16-18)    

Reflection. Yesterday I saw billboard for the latest mobile phone announcing: I LIVE IN THE MOMENT. I CONNECT WITH THE WORLD. I drove on wondering, “whose moment? Whose world?” The pressure is on to draw us out of ourselves into a race to conform to the latest fashion “out there.” It is a compulsion that robs me of my inner space, my sense of ownership of who I am and my joy of living in the present.

Prayer. Lord Jesus, you called me to act, pray and give alms in secret. You know how I’d love people to know what a great guy I am. Help me to let go of all that garbage and enter into the joy of my own being where you are. Amen.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 18 June 2013

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Pause. Be still.

Reading. “But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good.” (Matt 5:43-48)        

Reflection. We see Jesus as swept up in enthusiasm for the reign of God which is now irrupting into the world. Like a hurricane, it is natural for this new life to carry all before it, even enemies. His words are a huge shock to Galileans oppressed by the Romans and their own priestly class. President Obama told the people of Northern Ireland yesterday, “you have taken down the walls that divided you. Now it is time to take down the mental barriers that still remain.”

Prayer. Father, may we be one. May we learn to see we are all your people – different from one another, yes, but united in our common humanity and common destiny. We will get on together in heaven. Let is also try it out here. Amen.

I would add as much again

I would add as much again

The late Fr Raymond Kapito, whose grandmother in Mutoko once attacked a lion and whose grandson could have done the same, used to hammer the message of forgiveness. He sensed that people have a hard time in letting go of hurts and hang on to resentments as though they were precious property. God isn’t like that. He just loves to forgive. When the ‘prodigal’ – or lost – son returns with his speech prepared about how he had sinned and wasn’t “worthy to be called your son” his father interrupts him and calls for the fatted calf to be slaughtered; “we are going to celebrate.”

David was the most successful king of Israel. He ruled from “Dan to Bersheba” meaning the promised land in its entirety. He had power and wealth, lands and wives. Yet all this was not enough. His head was turned by the sight of the wife of Uriah the Hittite and he used his power to get her. We know what happened next. Nathan the prophet gave him a tongue lashing. But in the midst of castigating the king he said, “I have given you so much and I would do as much again for you.” In God the urge to forgive is so strong; it is crazy.

When Jesus is dining in the house of Simon the Pharisee, Simon is shocked by the his guest’s allowing a woman “with a bad name” to approach him and weep at his feet. “If he was a real prophet” he thought, he would know what to do with this woman and send her away to join the countless rejected poor outcasts in the Galilee of the first century. But Jesus didn’t. He rejoiced in the new life this woman had discovered through the change in her way of thinking. He shared her joy at discovering life again. Simon, good man that he was, couldn’t understand it at all.  

Forgiveness is, indeed, crazy. So is compassion. So, ultimately, is love. But Jesus came to tell us that these are the brand names of God. Yesterday we had a day’s seminar on John Bradburne, a ‘crazy’ (he was far from such) Englishman who came out to this country and spent the 1970s living with and serving the people with leprosy at Mutemwa, near Mutoko. One speaker told us the people of Mutemwa ‘made’ John who he was. He was an eccentric holy loner until he met these people who suffered so much. On his first visit he was filled with horror to see a man eat his food under a sack so that the dogs would not get the food. Compassion overflowed in him and he set himself to wash their wounds and feed and care for them. He lived there – misunderstood and rejected by many - for ten years before he was taken out and shot a week before the Lancaster House talks in 1979.

God works among us, and he will do as much again when we welcome him.

16 June 2013               Sunday 11, Year C

2 Sam 12:7-10, 13       Gal 2:16, 19-21           Luke 7:36-8:3  

Procession

Procession

There was never a time when Christians were united despite Jesus’ fervent prayer that they be one. Like political parties the early Christians formed factions; the churches that came under the patronage of John forged different emphases from the ones that were founded by Paul. But there was a time, at least in the west, when there was a sense of oneness and they even had a name for it: Christendom. One way this unity showed itself was in processions.

Around the end of the thirteenth century the custom arose of people leaving the church building and walking in an orderly way through the streets and fields, singing and praising God and carrying the implements of their trade; mapadza, sickles, saws and so forth. They also solemnly carried the consecrated bread of the Eucharist. It was a potent symbol of God walking among his people, rejoicing with them in the new life their faith brought them, blessing their fields and their daily lives. The wind and the birds joined in the song of the people.

Processions also carried the idea of pilgrimage; an ancient custom of journeying to a sacred site or shrine, common in India and taken up by Islam. A journey by its nature is a temporary exercise and the pilgrims set out conscious that they were doing something that represented life’s journey, which is also temporary and whose purpose is to get us from one place to another. In times gone by people rarely moved from their homes to go long distances. To go on pilgrimage was a dramatic break in their normal routine. And processions which were short pilgrimages, also pointed to this drama.

Today, few go on pilgrimages or in processions. If they do (and the Catholic Church continues these traditions), many bystanders look on in bemusement. They would not understand what was happening as their ancestors did and the police might even intervene and suspect some sort of political rally. The symbolism and power of such experiences has greatly diminished and it seems we cannot hope to recreate them.

Yet people today are very “movious” as the Zambians say. They travel all the time but their travel has a very down to earth purpose whereas the ancient pilgrimages and processions were signs of the journey to the New Jerusalem not made of hands. Still, new forms of “procession” are emerging. The Lord still walks through our fields but he also walks through our books, our internet and all the trades that we have today. We can still go in procession with him and be conscious of his presence, a presence only visible to those with “rinsed eyes” like those of Balaam ” the man with far-seeing eyes” (Num 24:3).

Corpus Christi C         2 June 2013

Gen 14:18-20              I Cor 11:23-26                        Lk 9:11-17