ISHMAEL

PRAYER MOMENT      (Note: Much load shedding at the moment. This may be late in appearing!) 

Wednesday 1 July  2015

ISHMAEL

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “What is wrong, Hagar?” the angel of God asked, “Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s cry where he lives. Come, pick up the boy and hold him safe, for I will make him into great nation.” (Genesis  21:8-20)

Reflection. The persisitent mention of Ishmael is curious. One might expect him to be forgotten once Isaac appears. But Hagar and her child Ishamael keep appearing until the boy grows up and becomes the father of twelve chiefs. It is as though the writers are conscious of the Arab world that surrounds Israel and they want to acknowledge them even if the promise comes through Isaac. We often recall how Abraham is the common ancestor of Jews, Christians and Muslims but, regretfully, what divides us has always dominated over what unites us. In the stressful present we can hold on to the vision of a future when we may come to celebrate Abraham together and listen to what God calls us to as his people.

Prayer. Lord, help us to open our hearts to our brothers and sisters of Abraham’s faith and show us the way to live together as sisters and brothers. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE

PRAYER MOMENT      (Note: Much load shedding at the moment. This may be late in appearing!) 

Tuesday 30 June 2015

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire. He overthrew these towns and the whole plain, with all the inhabitants of the towns and everything that grew there.” (Geneis 19:15-29)

Reflection. God never destroyed anything but this is an Old Testament device often used to explain disasters which happen through human choices or natural causes. Just yesterday Robert Redford, a well known American actor, spoke in the US Congress of “our last chance” to save our planet. There is a gathering consensus that human induced climate change is now threatening us with a new but equally devastating variant of fire and burning stone. We are all urged, and most recently by Pope Francis in Laudato Si, to do what we can to prevent this looming disaster while there is still time. Most people today have more pressing issues but this OT reading does call us to review our attitudes and our habits.

Prayer. Lord, we join Pope Francis in giving praise for all creation. Help us to nurture our planet and save it for generations yet to be born. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

A BIBLE SANDWICH

A BIBLE SANDWICH

Mark has a great gift for laying on the drama. There is a whole section in chapter five where “great crowds” are pressing on us as at a political rally or a football match. At the heart of the story is a fearful woman, tortured for twelve years by a haemorrhage, who draws on every scrap of courage in her being to push her way forward just to touch the garment of Jesus in the belief that it would be enough to heal her. It was like striking a match and causing an explosion. Jesus reacts forcefully, the disciples complain and the crowd hasn’t a clue what is going on. But the woman is transformed, not just in body but in her whole life. She is Mark’s hero. This is what it is all about.

To wrap the story round and make a tasty sandwich of it, Mark gives us the story of Jairus. The crowds are still there, the number twelve is still there (Jairus’ daughter is twelve years old) and the disciples are still not awake to what is going on. Jairus’ passionate plea for his daughter is heard even though she has died. But can we say that, in the mind of Mark, the interior healing of the woman ranks higher, is more central, than the “exterior” healing – even though a resurrection from the dead - of the little girl? It is “respectable” to pray for others. But to have the courage to look at oneself and see maybe something private and shameful and to sense that my life is emptily draining away and then to go forward and do something about it – that is something else. The little girl rose up but one day she would die again. But the woman? Something permanent happened not just to her health but to her whole being. She would never “die” again.

We celebrate the wonderful efforts of people to bring new life, peace and development to our world. So much is being done to fight poverty, ignorance and disease. We see these efforts everywhere if we take a look. Yet we also know that the exterior bits are easier. The hardest battle is within the human heart. It would have been “easier” for the woman to do nothing – to just suffer on and say “that’s life.” “That’s how it is!” But, no! She makes a move. She takes her life in her own hands – and wins something beyond measure. It is often said that Mark was trying to strengthen faint hearts during the persecution under Nero. Maybe! But his drama is for all time and all places. Real change will only come when we change our way of thinking. The word we use is “conversion.”

June 28, 2015                                      Sunday 13 B

Wisdom 1;13-15, 2:23-24                  2 Cor 8:7 …15                        Mark5:21-43  

THE OAK OF MAMRE

PRAYER MOMENT      (Note: Much load shedding at the moment) 

Saturday 27 June 2015

THE OAK OF MAMRE

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “The Lord appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent at the hottest time of he day.” (Genesis 18:1-15)

Reflection. This is one of the peak moments in the bible, echoing the Annunciation to Mary. There is the announcement of a child to be born in extraordinary circumstances and there are questions of, ‘How can this be?’ It is the visit of the mysterious “three men” which Rublev painted in his icon and opened for us a host of meditations. As with the Annunciation the event calls for that stretch of humanity we call faith. How easily that five letter word falls off our lips. Yet it is literally the peak of human capacity. It calls on me to accept and “know” what is beyond knowledge as we usually define it. The more we are battered by our own desire for “normality” the more our “faith” knocks on our door and says, “This is not enough.”  

Prayer. Lord, as we ponder the faith of Abraham and Mary, help us to see how faith calls us out of ourselves to something new we do not yet know. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

THIS IS MY COVENANT

PRAYER MOMENT      (Note: Much load shedding at the moment)  

Friday 26 June 2015

THIS IS MY COVENANT

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “This is my covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendents after you; all your males must be circumcised.” (Genesis 17:1…22)

Reflection. Circumcision, hardly an original practice to the Jews, was adopted as a physical sign and commitment for the people of their belonging to the covenant with God. It was to prepare people for another physical sign – baptism with water – which would make no physical difference to the person, and was not for males only. This new sign would transform the person into a child of God. The bible pushes hard on us to realise the meaning of belonging. The more physical, the more legal, the less life-changing. The more interion, the more in the Spirit, the more life-giving and healing. I have just started a course of anti-biotics which have transformed me overnight from a pain-filled wreck to a new person! That too is a sign of the direction we are going.

Prayer. Lord, help us to welcome your ever deepening relationship with us, healing and transforming us. Help men of violence to realise the fruitlessness of the way they are choosing. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

MANY WILL SAY, ‘LORD, LORD.’

PRAYER MOMENT

Thursday 25 June 2015

MANY WILL SAY, ‘LORD, LORD.’

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “When the day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name? … Then I will say to them, ‘I have never known yoou.’” (Matt.7:21-29)

Reflection. It seems Jesus is pointing to that terrible emptiness where people use the Church and her teachings as a convenient part of the furniture of their life. You often see it in the papers where the Church is praised for this or that, or is invoked and quoted. But you have the feeling that the church is being used to fit into a preconceived way of seeing the world. When tamed in this way the Church loses her vigour and challenge. She is reduced to a public asset whose building is used for concerts and exhibitions and is simply part of the urban landscape like the public library and the railway station. This is all far from the witness to proclaiming the truth “in season and out of season” which is the whole reason for the Church’s existence.

Prayer. Teach us, Lord, to know that there is a cost in being your disciple; that we are called to be with you as you struggle to bring the world to a sense of its destiny. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com  

SPECKS OF DUST

PRAYER MOMENT

Tuesday 23 June 2015

SPECKS OF DUST

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “I will make your descendants like dust on the ground; when men succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground then they will be able to count your descendasnts.” (Genesis 13: 2…18)

Reflection. There was a delightful Chinese family at our celebration last Saturday and the thought cross my mind that there are billions like them living and dead who have passed through this earth. And here are billions of others so that when you think of all the people there have ever been your mind cannot hold on to the thought. We are all chidren of God even if most of us have a fuzzy idea what that means. From the time of Abraham God has been building a people within this people who will act as leaven to transform “the whole batch.” And even this number is beyond counting. Some acknowledge Him and belong through baptism to his church but many do not. These others are also touched by light and beauty and truth and they too transform our world.   

Prayer. We give thanks, Lord, when we contemplate your creation, your sharing of life with countless people. Help us to reverence your work and respect our planet so tht it continues to be home for millions yet to be born. Amen.

davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com