IT WAS AIMED AT THEM

PRAYER MOMENT 

Monday 1 June 2015, St Justin

IT WAS AIMED AT THEM

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “And they would like to have arrested him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds.” (Mark 12:1-12)

Reflection. We are more direct today but the ancients like to go round a point in order to make it. That is what Jesus does. He tries to get the Jews to see they are missing the opportunity before their eyes. But he does not do it bluntly. He tells a story about a vineyard and the tenants rejecting the overtures of the owner. The Jews have enough wit to realise he is aiming the story at them but not enough courage to examine their hearts and welcome his challenge. Ironically, “the crowds,” who were said to know nothing, posed a threat to the leaders because the clearly thought differently. Given a chance they would have believed in Jesus. But they were afraid in their turn to go againist their leaders. What a climate of fear! 

Prayer. Lord, we help us to have the courage to look at a situation honestly and have the courage to change if we see it is the right way forward. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES

PUT THIS QUESTION TO THE AGES

There is a moment in the Bible when Moses is astonished by what has been happening. He stands back and says, “Put this question to the ages that are past. Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other?  Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God and remain alive?” It is a moment of amazement, a moment of discovery in the ancient search for meaning. Humankind had proposed all sorts of deities and religions in their desire to reach beyond the concrete data of ordinary life, but none had satisfied them.

Then suddenly Moses senses a breakthrough. God is alive and has advanced towards his people with a desire to build a personal relationship with them. Moses can’t get over it.

Pope Francis visited Korea recently and while everyone was trying to see him and get close to him, a little boy who had a mental disability put his finger in this mouth and resolutely looked the other way. Francis noticed him, came towards him and gently removed his finger from his mouth and put his own finger in his own mouth and smiled at him. The little boy gaped at him and smiled. Everyone saw it. The TVs captured it. It was a breakthrough. 

A lady I know agreed with her husband some years ago that they would go their separate ways. Neither of them entered into a new relationship and each got on with her or his life. Then a moment came when the encumbrances, that had kept them apart, fell away and they looked at each other in a new way and began to re-approach one another. It was another breakthrough.

The spice of life is really about these moments, when we move from where we are to somewhere new. Even Jesus did it. It was when the centurion said, “Do not trouble to come to my house! Just say the word. I have people under me, and I say to one, ‘do this thing and he does it.’” Jesus was astonished. “Nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this.”

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Trinity. Our secular world has some idea what Christmas and Holy Week are about. But the Trinity? I doubt if they give it a thought. But for Christians this is a celebration of breakthrough. For millennia humans have wondered about the deity but now God has made himself known to us.

The implication has to be that there are all sorts of breakthroughs waiting to happen. Our world has need of them.

31 May 2015                                       The Trinity B

Deuteronomy 4:32 …40                     Romans 8;14-17                     Matthew 28:16-20

NEITHER WILL I TELL YOU

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 30 May 2015

NEITHER WILL I TELL YOU

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “So their reply to Jesus was, ‘we do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’” (Mark 11:27-33)

Reflection. The Jews questioned Jesus’ authority for driving out the sellers from the temple. He knew that they were not seeking truth and wisdom but simply a means to trap him and avoid facing up to the challenge of his mission. So, because their minds were closed, they would receive no answer. The enigmatic saying of Jesus elsewhere in the gospel – ‘to those who have will be given more, to those who have not even what they have will be taken away’ – fits in here. And it is a frightening thing: to close off, though prejudice and jealousy, any hope of advancing on the way of wisdom. But it is fairly common.

 

Prayer. Lord, we pray for ourselves and for all who though their hardness of heart, deliberately or imconsciously, close the door to your coming. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Friday 29 May 2015

NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus felt hungry. Seeing a fig tree in leaf some distance away he went to see if he could find any fruit on it, but when he came up to it he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.” (Mark 11:11-26)

Reflection. If it was not the season for figs why did Jesus expect to see fruit? Like the ancient prophets he taught in actions as well as words. True it was not the usual time for figs. But then nothing about Jsus was “usual.” He came to interrupt the ordinary expected flow of life with a stark message that the kingdom, the rule, of God had come. He was going to the temple where the “usual” thing was buying and selling and the leaders making a profit on all transactions. This now had to stop. The beautiful temple would be no more. Something new, something totally out of the ordinary was happening. The disciples were being alerted to this.

 

Prayer. Lord, teach me to be alert to your unexpected coming into my life. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

HE SHOUTED ALL THE LOUDER

PRAYER MOMENT 

Thursday 28 May 2015

HE SHOUTED ALL THE LOUDER

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “Many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me!’” (Mark 10:46-52)

Reflection. If the disciples in Mark were “in a daze” there were some people who knew exactly what they were looking for. Bartimaeus pleaded three times for healing of his sight but, as with the man born blind in John 9, he got far more than physical healing. He receieved the courage and faith to “follow him along the way.” Mark seems to tease us by saying those who should have known what Jesus was doing didn’t know, while those who might be expected not to know were the very ones who did know. Jesus of Nazareth, for Bartimaeus, was the  “son of David.” In other words, he was the promised Messiah, or, in Greek, the Christ. Bartimaeus goes straight to the heart of the matter while the discipples dither on the outside, worrying about places on his left hand and on his right.   

Prayer. Lord, may we come close to your heart and know you who are the Way; a way that leads to Golgotha and to glory. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

THEY WERE IN A DAZE

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wedesday 27 May 2015

THEY WERE IN A DAZE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze and those who followed were apprehensive.” (Mark 10:32-45)

Reflection. Mark, more than the other writers, brings out the incomprehension of the disciples while highlighting the faith of the ordinary people like Bartimaeus and the woman who touched his garment. The disciples had been given more and more was expected of them. They were not expected to brush aside three warnings of the passion and instead compete for places in Jesus’ “cabinet” when he came to power. Yet that is what they did. They ignored talk of the cross and focused on what was in for them. ‘What do I get out of it?’ We need not labour the similarity between them and us. We know this touches a raw nerve in us. It is natural. But having said that, what do we, as followers of Jesus, see in this that can help us?.

Prayer. Lord, help us to see in our day the presence of the cross. Let us not panic but calmly face the challenges with faith and patience. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 26 May 2015

NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You will be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecution – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:28-31)

Reflection. Jesus promises those who leave everything – either literally or in poverty of spirit, that is, they are not absorbed by them – many blessings but he adds ‘you will have persecution in this present time.’ Yet we are often surprised by persecution as if it just shouldn’t happen. By persecution I mean big things, like what is happeninig in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq, and little tings such as is caused by jealousy in our own circle of family or friends. God has given us this beautiful world but it is a provisional world, there to get us accustomed to the real and permanent beauty that he will reveal one day. We are on the vital threshold of that beauty and like a rough diamond we have to have the impurities removed in the tosser. So persecution in one form or another is bound to be there.   

Prayer. Lord, help us not to lose heart when we are agitated by events. Help us to see how you are purifying us in preparation for life with you forever. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com