Tag: Discipleship

Salt and Light

~ Mel Eyeons ~ 1 Comment

Isaiah 58.1-9a / Matthew 5.13-20

Introduction

A story is told about a church that was having a special Saturday night service.

Towards the end of the service a thunderstorm unleashed a bolt of lightning that plunged the building into darkness.

So, the minister carefully felt his way through the church to find some candles and then handed them out.

Everyone lit their candles, passing the light from one to another.

Then, when all the candles were lit, the congregation made their way to the door of the church.

Looking out, they could see rain coming down in sheets. All the traffic had stopped, and people were running for shelter.

Looking around, the congregation could see that the whole city was in darkness.

So, there they stood, a little band of Christians, each clutching a light, not sure whether to venture out into the storm or stay inside the church in the hope that the storm would soon blow over.

A disciple in the world

Today’s gospel reading is part of the Sermon on the Mount, where we learn what it means to be a disciple in the world.

We learn that being a disciple is not an easy ride.

We may be poor in spirit, we may mourn, we may long to see a righteousness that seems far off, and we may feel unimportant – yet we are blessed.

And in the light of that blessing we are charged to be merciful, to be pure, to work for peace, and to stay faithful whatever the consequences.

Now, continuing the theme of what it means to be disciples in the world, Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and so I want to talk about each of these things in turn this morning.

Salt of the earth

Firstly, salt.

This has different uses.

It can be a preservative, it can purify by killing off bacteria, it can be used as a fertiliser, it has a vital role in keeping us healthy, and it makes our food taste better.

But when Jesus described us as the salt of the earth he focused on its taste; pushing the point home by talking about the uselessness of salt that loses its saltiness.

This reference to salt losing its saltiness can be puzzling because modern table salt doesn’t ever do this, but in the ancient world salt was a slightly different thing.

The salt that Jesus was talking about was collected from the shores of the Dead Sea and could contain many impurities that looked like salt but weren’t.

As salt dissolves in water it was quite common for it all to be washed away and for only the impurities to remain, leaving behind something that looked like the real thing but wasn’t.

So, it’s important for us to be true salt, not just an imitation that looks real but is actually not doing anything.

But how can we do this?

Well we can find an answer if we go back to our first reading, from Isaiah.

Here, the prophet describes a people who are very outwardly religious, who observe all the feasts and fasts and say the right words, but as soon as they get out of the temple, they’re fighting with one another because it only goes skin-deep.

God rejects this empty ritual in favour of making a positive difference in the world, saying, 

Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin.

God doesn’t reject religious observance per se but he’s not in favour of religious observance that doesn’t go hand-in-hand with making a positive difference to the world around us.

And we’re all called to make a difference – whoever we are, if we have a paid job or not, if we’re at school or retired, if we’re a parent or grandparent or neither, and in line with our gifts, talents, strengths and weakness.

We’re called to flavour the world – to make it better, richer, deeper, through our presence, our actions and our words, and not to huddle together out of the storm keeping our blessings to ourselves and reluctant to be involved in everyday life.

We’re called to season and transform human activity in a way that reveals God in the world.

This might sound a bit beyond us, but all it really means is living faithfully in accordance with our faith and what we believe God wants us to do.

In my own small way, I try to do this kind of thing at work.

When I do my proofreading job, which often involves working with people who are worried and vulnerable because of a learning disability, I try to make sure I treat people with care, compassion and respect, as well as working hard and honestly for them.

I’m not saying I’m perfect at all this, but I try because to me this is part of living out my calling as a Christian, and at least as important as dressing up and preaching on a Sunday.

Light of the world

Then, secondly, we’re described as the light of the world.

When I hear the phrase “light of the world” I immediately imagine the famous painting of Jesus by Holman Hunt.

I don’t generally think of myself as the light of the world, and indeed in the Bible it’s usually God who’s described in such terms.

But we’ve been given God’s light and now we’re called to share it with others, to help spread God’s truth, goodness and holiness in the world.

We are to help people see God’s life in theirs by showing them how God is working in our lives.

We are to enlighten the dark places of the world with the light we’ve received.

We are to let people see hope where there seemed no hope, and a new path when they feel all is lost.

We’re called to reveal truth, mercy, justice and love by displaying them in our own lives.

The light of God that fills us is meant to shine out to others as well.

After all, light is meant to be shared, it’s meant to have an effect; it’s not meant to hide away when people are in need out there in the dark and the storm, and what we do and say is seen by the world.

Our witness

It’s our witness, whether good or bad.

And it’s a wonderful opportunity to show God to the world by shining our light in a way that isn’t about us boasting or feeling superior or coming across as holier than thou, but which is instead about glorifying him.

So, my prayer today is that God will give us all grace to step out with confidence, faith and love into the world to serve him in others. May we be light and salt in all the places we go, the words we say and the things we do, so that we may give glory to our Father in heaven.

Amen.

What are your priorities?

~ Mel Eyeons ~ 2 Comments

Deuteronomy 30.15-20 / Luke 14.25-33

Good news and context

When I was training to be an LLM I was given lots of good advice about preaching but two things in particular have stayed in my mind.

One is, always look for the good news as that’s what the gospel is all about.

The other is, always consider the context.

Now, when I first looked at today’s readings I had some trouble with spotting what the good news could be in the reading from Luke so I turned to the context to see if that would help.

So, we start our reading by noting that large crowds were following Jesus.

He was popular, this Jesus.

Of course he was: he spoke with authority, he performed miracles, he radiated compassion and love.

Yet he also shocked people with his teaching and his strong demands.

Hard things

The crowds following him were confronted with three hard things:

One, you must hate your family in order to be my disciple.

Two, you must be prepared to die a painful and humiliating death to be my disciple.

Three, you must give up everything you have to be my disciple.

It seems a strange way to gain followers and not an approach that’s likely to feature in any modern-day mission strategies.

But perhaps Jesus was just issuing a reality check to these crowds, which probably included large numbers of people who just wanted to be in on the latest thing, or who were high on excitement about someone they thought would solve all their problems for them.

They hadn’t yet realised that Jesus was heading into trouble, and his followers could head into trouble as well.

He wanted them to think it over before they got in too deep and faced trouble they weren’t prepared for and hadn’t signed up to.

Jesus wasn’t the kind of person we’re all too familiar with now who makes false promises to lure people in and then just shrugs or passes the buck when things became difficult.

So that’s one piece of good news: Jesus may say tough things but we can trust him not to lie to us or lure us in with empty promises.

But now let’s look at his three demands.

Hating our families

First, we must hate our families.

This sounds shocking, even if you happen to have some difficult family relationships, because blood is thicker than water, right?

It also sounds shocking to us because for so long in the west we’ve treated the idea of getting married and having a family as a Christian ideal, whereas in fact over the centuries there have been many different approaches to marriage and family and singleness within the Church.

However, that aside, this isn’t really as bad as it sounds but is more of a translation problem.

Jesus was speaking in Aramaic, and the word he used which is translated into ‘hate’ in English was used to talk about liking something less than something else.

So, if I was magically able to speak Aramaic I might say that I loved chocolate ice cream and hated vanilla ice cream in order to explain that I liked chocolate ice cream more than I liked vanilla ice cream.

This is about priorities: nothing must come between us and Jesus, however dear it is to our hearts.

Loyal to death

Second, we must be prepared to die a painful and humiliating death.

The people listening to Jesus would’ve seen many people going to their deaths on crosses.

It was a punishment reserved for the worst criminals and a particularly cruel way to die.

Dying because of our faith isn’t really a danger for us now, although it is for many other Christians across the world, but the principle remains: as Christians we are choosing to live in a way that other people won’t like and they may turn against us, even if it’s only in mockery or dismissive attitudes, and we need to be prepared to deal with it.

Again, this is about prioritising Jesus above everything else, even our own reputations or safety.

Third, we must give up everything we have.

Giving it all up

This can make us feel very vulnerable.

Must we give up all financial security, the things we’ve worked hard for, the things that make us feel safe and comfortable?

Must we give up on all our ambitions and dreams for a more financially secure life?

Well, some may be called to do this but for the majority perhaps what’s more important is that we’re prepared to hold our possessions and comforts lightly enough that we can give them up if asked, and not hold on to them selfishly when others need our help.

It’s about loyalty and God’s priorities and our willingness to freely obey, not forcing ourselves into misery.

It’s about prioritising Jesus so that what we have is freely available to him and others, not held onto tightly with a sense of entitlement.

Running through all of these demands is a call to us to realise the cost of discipleship.

It means putting God first whatever this costs us in terms of relationships, reputations, material goods, or even our lives if necessary.

And we need to make sure we can cope with the commitment.

But, and this is where we get some good news again, this isn’t just a list of demands from on high.

God’s part

Rather, it’s a set of 2-way commitments between us and our God.

For the call to commitment in our gospel reading is matched by God’s commitment to us.

We heard that commitment set out in the Deuteronomy reading, where it says that if we keep faith with God he will bless us.

 As we set out on the journey of faith God in Christ comes with us and sticks with us all the way, giving us power, helping us up when we stumble, offering constant love, companionship and forgiveness, and above all assuring us that if we persevere in love and faith we will make it because he has made it possible.

So, as Deuteronomy puts it, “Choose life so that you … may live”.

The Good Shepherd: And Being Sheep

~ Mel Eyeons ~ Leave a comment

4th Sunday of Easter / Year B

John 10.11-18

 

Every year, in the summer, I go to the Lake District with my husband, where we like to go walking and climbing the hills.

They are usually long and hard climbs, but the views at the top are worth it.

What does rather unreasonably annoy me though is that often I’m just about at the top and I’ll come across a sheep calmly looking down at me and chewing away in a relaxed fashion.

I may be paranoid, but this comes across as rather smug when I’ve just spent a couple of hours struggling up to this point.

However, apart from that, I rather like sheep.

In this country they don’t really have too much to worry about.

There are a few animals that might attack them, especially when they’re lambs, but they don’t have to worry about wolves, big cats or bears.

Neither do they generally struggle to find food or water.

This is lucky for them because sheep are pretty defenceless animals.

So they need a leader, someone to take care of them who they can trust and follow.

When Jesus talked about being a shepherd he was talking about a very tough job.

I’m sure being a shepherd is a hard, physical job at any time or place but what Jesus had in mind was a bit different from shepherding in this country.

Here sheep have plenty of grass to graze on, water to drink, fields to be penned up in, shelter at night if needed, and no predators that a human would be scared to face.

But in Israel shepherds had to prepared to stay with their sheep day and night, always ready to fight off wolves, bears and lions, sleeping in front of the sheepfolds in case of trouble.

During the day they had to lead their sheep across miles of barren land to find enough grazing and water for the flock.

And they had to know each member of the flock personally.

This was because with no fields to separate one person’s flock from another, sheep belonging to different people would become mixed up during the day.

Then at night, when they needed to be put in their own sheepfolds, their shepherds would call them by name to come and follow him – or her, incidentally, as women could also be shepherds in Jesus’ time.

For this to work the sheep really did have to know and trust their shepherd.

They had to recognise the shepherd as their leader, defender and guide to food and water.

They had to know that this was someone with the authority, power, ability and willingness to look after them.

If they were faced with a stranger or a shepherd who mistreated them they might well run away or refuse to go with that person, so the relationship between shepherd and sheep was vital.

It’s said, by the way, that sheep can recognise up to about 50 different people and other sheep, and distinguish between different sheep and human voices, so this way of shepherding was entirely possible.

So when Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd he’s saying, ‘I am the person you can trust to provide you with what you need, defend you in times of danger, to look out for your needs, and to bring you home at the end of the day’.

Jesus is the one who goes out looking for us when we’re lost in the dark, scared by storms or have fallen down a hole because we weren’t paying proper attention.

He defends us from the things that try to take us away from him and destroy us.

And although we still face difficulties and sorrows, and must still eventually face death, he stays with us and helps us through everything.

Jesus is also saying that he knows every one of us by name, with all our quirks, flaws, gifts and talents.

He knows who will run and hide when things are hard and who will stand and fight – and loves us all equally.

He knows who will be the life and soul of any gathering and who would rather stay at home with a book – and rejoices in and works with our variety.

He knows who can do what, the things that make us laugh or cry, our likes and dislikes, and our secret hopes and fears.

And he wants only those things will help us flourish and grow in the best way for us and his kingdom – even if they look very different from what the world or even the Church calls good, useful or successful.

Of course, if we follow a shepherd then we also need to remember that in some ways we are sheep.

This doesn’t mean we need to follow blindly and not think for ourselves, although sheep are known to be able to solve problems and so are not quite as stupid as people think.

What it does mean is that we’re meant to be Christians with others.

Sheep are highly social flock animals who become stressed if left alone.

When threatened they draw together for defence, not leaving anyone out to face the danger alone.

From the very beginning God said that it is not good for man to be alone, and the same holds true today.

As Christians we’re called into a new family, a new community, a new kingdom, in which all have a known and cherished place, we’re accepted as we are, and no-one is to be left out in the cold to fend for themselves.

We may be very different from one another, and we may find Jesus bringing people to join us who we find it hard to understand, get on with or agree with.

But they, like us, are beloved sheep belonging to our shepherd – the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

And our job is to be his flock together, to listen, trust, follow and play our part in it, and to welcome in all his sheep as he has welcomed us.

What’s Your Passion?

~ Mel Eyeons ~ Leave a comment

Jeremiah 31.31-34 / Hebrews 5.5-10 / John 12.20-33

5th Sunday of Lent / Year B

I don’t know what sort of things you’re passionate about.

 

When I say passionate I mean that you feel gripped by them, unable to let them go – you want to spend lots of time doing them because they inspire and excite you or transport you away from everyday life.

 

Perhaps your passion is music, films, crafts, TV soaps, reading, DIY or gardening.

 

Or maybe you long to jump out of planes or trek through South America.

 

When we talk about passion these days we think about an intense desire, maybe even an irresistible force, something we really want to do or have, or a person we feel we can’t live without.

 

Often, when people don’t know what career they want to have they’re advised to follow their passion, on the grounds that if they really love something they’ll enjoy working in that area.

 

Passion, though, is one of those words that seems to have completely changed its meaning over time.

 

Its root is the Latin word patior, which means to suffer.

 

The word is also used to suggest the idea of being driven to suffer by some sort of force.

 

And it suggests the idea of being driven to take action where there is pain and suffering.

 

This is why we talk about the passion of Christ – his suffering on the Cross because of his desire to save all of us from the consequences of sin and bring us into relationship with God.

 

And today is traditionally known as Passion Sunday, the start of Passiontide, when the Church begins to look more closely at Jesus’ suffering during the last days of his earthly life and his death on the cross.

 

Yet, although it seems at first glance that the passion of Christ and what we call passion today are completely different, I think there’s still a link between the two.

 

When we’re truly and deeply passionate about something, or someone, we’ll do anything in pursuit of that passion.

 

We’ll go out of our way to follow it, even if it means working long hours or sacrificing other things, or even undergoing pain and suffering.

 

Think of ballet dancers, for example, some of whom will dance on with horrible pain and injuries in their feet in pursuit of their passion.

 

All of our Bible readings today contain passion in both the old sense of suffering and the modern sense of a strong desire.

 

In the reading from the book of Jeremiah we’re told that God’s law, the will of God as described in the Old Testament, will pass from the written word, from tablets and scrolls and paper and books, into our hearts, so that we can live it out naturally and easily, in closeness with God.

 

The promise is, says God, that he will write his law in our hearts.

 

And this promise comes from God’s suffering as he sees his people betray him again and again, and his strong desire to have a relationship with us despite all of that.

 

Then in the Hebrews reading we see Jesus described as a priest passionately praying to his Father on our behalf with tears and cries in his desire for us to be saved, and willing to accept suffering on our behalf.

 

And finally, we have our Gospel reading, in which Jesus talks passionately about his coming death, and how it will both bring about the victory of goodness and love over hatred and evil, and draw people to him.

 

Although Jesus is troubled he stands firm and faces suffering because of his love for us and his strong desire to win our salvation.

 

And it was this love, this all-consuming passion, that was the basis of Jesus’ life, and which led him to his own passion and death on that Good Friday.

 

It was this all-consuming love and passion that guided all that he said and did.

 

It drove his faith, and it led him in the will of God.

 

It wasn’t easy, and it lead to death, but his death and resurrection have made it possible for each one of us to share in the life of God.

 

And we hear in the Gospel that as disciples of Jesus we’re called to follow in his footsteps.

 

This means we too must have a passion for God that makes us willing to serve him, whatever the cost.

 

We must also have a passion for those around us that means we’re willing to love, help and serve others as Jesus would do.

 

The Bible is quite clear that, as Christians, our faith must be alive and active, and filled with passion.

 

The Christian life is not a passive thing,  but must be a passionate thing.

 

Serving and following are active, not passive – they are things we must actively pursue as Christians.

 

And we do all of this so that God’s name may be glorified, so that his Kingdom may come and his will be done.

 

So that the seed of this old world may pass away and God may bring resurrection life to all of creation.

 

So that we can oppose all that seeks to hurt and destroy and hinder the purposes of God, for although Jesus has won the war against evil there are still battles to fight.

 

So that fullness of life in Christ can come.

 

So that all people may be drawn to Christ as he’s lifted up on the cross.

 

We can play our part in this great plan, in our great hope of faith, by living our Christian lives with passion in all that we do.

 

By being willing to face the consequences and the costs, just as Jesus was, in order that God may work in us and through us and in partnership with us to usher in the new life of his Kingdom to all people.

 

May Jesus’ passion, and the way he passionately led his life, inspire the whole of our lives, and may passion for Christ and for the coming Kingdom consume us and draw us ever closer to God.

 

Amen.