Monday An act of Love
Reading for the day John 12:1-8
We came to a table where Jesus was to be thanked over a meal with friends who had been overwhelmed by Lazarus resurrected from the dead. Awesome! We reflected on the responses at the table to this, to Jesus especially on Mary’s audacious, precious act of love towards Jesus in contrast to Judas’ politically correct piety. (so to speak). Sometimes in church we come up with such replies to acts of passionate loving in response to Jesus. And so we miss the blessing.
Invitation was made to take some oil and sign the Cross on our hand.
Tuesday At Home.
Reading for the day Mark 11 v15-19:
A sudden jolt with Jesus in the Temple.
Does it surprise us? Does it shock us?
It asks questions about ‘home’ for us.
We contrasted something of all the Temple stood for and became, we refelcted upon the desire of God to’dwell’ with his people Tabernacle - people in exile, on the move, tent (somewhat borrowed from Maggi Dawn in recent blog) A turangawaewae… a ”Bield"( is an old Scottish word rich in meaning.)
It may describe a physical place of shelter and refuge, a pleasant environment of protection and rest.
It can also express such activities as: 'to nurture' and 'succour','to embolden' and 'encourage'.Each of these meanings suggests a facet of life at ’home’ in God’s place, a place of intimate prayerful worship.
We sang: Psalm 91
Whoever lives beside the Lord
Sheltering in your mighty shade;
Shall say ‘My God in you I trust,
my safety, my defender.‘
From unseen danger and disease,
God will keep you safe and sure.
Beneath these wings
a place you’ll find
a refuge from all danger.
You will not dread what darkness brings,
hidden danger, deadly plague.
Nor will you fear in daylight hours
the evil that surrounds you.
A thousand may die at your side.
Thousands more fall close at hand.
But with his truth for Strength and shield,
no threat will ever touch you.
God says ‘I’ll save from every harm,
those who know and love my name.
In trouble I will honour them
and show them my salvation.’
Wednesday They looked at one another
Reading for the day John 13 v21-32
Reactions to Jesus’ love vary; pushed away, rejected,
not understood or accepted or entered into.
Some strange things said at table about ‘betrayal’ and the disciples look around at one another in uncertainty, wondering and
increasingly insecure. We considered the looking around that night, the emotions that would have charged the air at that Table
Amidst the looks around at one another,
There is another look too— from Jesus. We looked into this icon The Peacemaker; the face required time of us, indeed the look stopped us in our tracks and caused us to consider the looks of Jesus as he washed their feet, as they ate, later even as Peter denied Jesus and looked. These are knowing eyes that look deep into us rebuking, yet without malice; piercing so as to forgive. This face looks at us fully from the human pain and frailty, brokenness, shattered hopes, yet it is the face of God to us also and so it lifts us into peace.
The Peacemaker, Andrei Rublev.
Thursday Together at the Table.
Reading for the day John 17
We gather at the Table remembering Jesus invitation to share in this bread and cup. We come to be bound together in unity in Christ and to witness to the hope set before us in anticipation that Christ shall come again and the banquet will be fully spread and shared.
Reflections on our relationship with God that should affect our relationship with one another in the church – oneness. We took time at the Table tonight, not a fast-food meal or rushed, but time together. We heard words from Athenagoras of Constantinople ‘
I have waged war against myself for many years. It was terrible. But now I am
disarmed. I am no longer frightened of anything because love banishes fear. I am
disarmed of the need to be right and to justify myself by disqualifying others.
I am no longer on the defensive, holding onto my riches. I just want to welcome
and to share. I don’t hold on to my ideas and projects. If someone shows me
something better – no, I shouldn’t say better but good – I accept them without
any regrets. I no longer seek to compare. What is good, true, and real is always
for me the best.
That is why I have no fear. When we are disarmed and
dispossessed of self, if we open our hearts to the God-Man who makes all things
new, then He takes away past hurts and reveals a new world where everything is
possible.’
And so we came as One to the table laying aside and entering into healing, restoration, reconciliation. But we also were aware of the words of John Chrysostom who spoke of 2 altars, that in the Church and that in the public space (the one we can ignore – the poor, the suffering, those in need, the homeless and all in distress).
He said ‘
Do you wish to honour the body of the Saviour? Do not despise it when it is
naked. Do not honour it in the church with silk vestments while outside it is
naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body”, and made it so by his
word, is the same who said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you
did it not to the least of these, you did not do it to me.” Honour him then by
sharing your property with the poor, for what God needs is not the Golden
chalice, but golden souls.’
At this Table we are brought into unity with Christ as we partake, but in doing so we are also brought into union with each other in the community of faith and beyond.
And so…. The people came and sat around the table on benches, on the steps, dipping the bread and sharing with friend, family. Together we sat at table and joined the feast. THEN… into this came someone unexpected angry… the guide leader, irrate at waiting to get their car stuck in the car park. Someone headed to deal with that and returned and so some went to move cars… it was a curious thing and a reminder to us too perhaps that the world awaits… but we sang ‘Night has fallen’, shared a blessing and people just sat around and began to move and greet one another and gradually we all drifted to our homes.
Good Friday Invitation to keep company in His sufferings
Reading for the day JOHN 18 v1-19
Arrest, peter’s denial Jesus ‘I AM he’ contrast with Peter’s (ours) ‘I am not…’ and so we come to the Cross.
The awesome silence of this image to reflect upon; the whole world seeming to have come to a standstill, yet the Cross now becomes its turning point. Here we see a restrained expression of grief, Mary stands in dignified lament; her hand to her lip as she stands, but the spiritual strain and anguish of the event is accented in her fragile figure. Opposite is John, the beloved disciple’. He too mourns, clasping a tearful face, more overt sadness, and highlights the human trauma of this event. Although separate , each is united in sorrow under the figure of Jesus himself who is curved and stretched in the cross, his arm span thinning to extremity, head slumped onto his shoulder eyes closed.. He is about spent. Above him reads ‘The King Jesus Christ. The Crucifixion” His figure and Mary give us a sense of suspended time, as there is sparse detail in the rest of the frame. The pain here stretches out through every generation and creation John 12.32 “And when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Golgotha outside the city wall Place of the skull. The cross is central and fills the frame reaching from heaven to depths of the earth. Gold symbolises the divine light – Athanasius taught that on the Cross Christ literally ‘cleared the air between God and human kind.” The footstool on the cross is slightly tipped towards us as onlookers, it offers us space for us to sand along with Mary and John. Christ is lifted up to draw us to himself, we are invited to keep company in the place of his sufferings. To be a disciple is to stand with Mary and John where Jesus pours out his life for the world. (Isaiah 53:12. Romans 8:38,39 – “nothing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.”
No blessing today, only now a waiting at the Cross for a while to ponder these things and then scatter… a reading of Psalm 22 and then we rush out away, off into the day awaiting the resurrection day. As we did so all were invited to take a purple ribbon and put it on the postbox or front door handle as witness to this day and the hope that we have on this Friday in our waiting -
“nothing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.”
