Skip to main content

Abraham, Sarah, Jesus and the Cheshire Cat

Genesis 17.1-7,15-16 and Mark 8.31-38
The passages we read today tell us about important moments of decision for Abraham, Sarah and the disciples of Jesus. God invites Abraham ‘to walk before him’ and it certainly does matter which way he decides to go at this point. If Abraham and Sarah listen to God’s call their direction of travel will take them from being a minor clan chieftain and his childless wife to becoming the ancestors of a great nation. It’s a choice between lifelong obscurity and - as the Bible says - ‘everlasting’ renown.
Could that be the choice for our churches in the Aire and Calder Circuit? A choice between a daring decision to walk before God and become a new type of church for the Twenty-first Century and beyond or a safer, but less glorious decision perhaps, to fade into obscurity, before becoming - if we’re lucky - a blue plaque on the wall that says, ‘Such-and-such Methodist Church once met here,’ and - if we’re not so lucky - a carpet warehouse!
Jesus leaves his disciples in no doubt that it certainly is a decision filled with risk that does require great daring. When they come to the parting of the ways at Caesarea Philippi he challenges Peter to choose the right path. There are three choices - those who think Jesus is a reincarnation of one of the great men of history, those who think he’s just a charismatic religious teacher and those who think he is the chosen representative of God - the Messiah, the ‘anointed one’. Peter makes the right choice, but without realising what the implications will be. For, just as it had been with Abraham and Sarah, this is a decision which really does matter.
Believing that Jesus is God’s chosen representative takes his disciples down a very particular path which leads to suffering, rejection and death. Immediately he realises this, Peter regrets his choice and tries to take it back. But to turn back is to choose the human way out, not the divine path. And this is not a decision for Peter only. Jesus calls the crowd and his disciples and offers the same uncompromising choice to them. How far are we, as individuals and as a church, prepared to accept the challenge to take up our cross and follow him?
Someone once said, 'Following Jesus and the way of the cross begins with small steps. Later we'll look up and discover where he's led us.' Someone else said, 'Being a disciple means embarking on a lifelong journey of allowing Jesus' identity to gradually shape our own [identity].' And, finally, John Wesley said, 'Embrace the will of God, however painful, daily, hourly, continually. Thus only can we follow him in holiness to glory.'
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' Alice asked.
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
Alice didn't much care where-- but that's not an option for followers of Jesus.
It does matter which way we go, because we have somewhere to which we need to get. We want to follow Jesus to holiness in glory, and that means travelling the way of the cross. And, with the Spirit of Jesus to guide us, we're sure to get to glory if we walk for long enough and keep on going on the risky adventure that the way of the cross entails.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don't believe in an interventionist God

Matthew 28.1-10, 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 I like Nick Cave’s song because of its audacious first line: ‘I don’t believe in an interventionist God’. What an unlikely way to begin a love song! He once explained that he wrote the song while sitting at the back of an Anglican church where he had gone with his wife Susie, who presumably does believe in an interventionist God - at least that’s what the song says. Actually Cave has always been very interested in religion. Sometimes he calls himself a Christian, sometimes he doesn’t, depending on how the mood takes him. He once said, ‘I believe in God in spite of religion, not because of it.’ But his lyrics often include religious themes and he has also said that any true love song is a song for God. So maybe it’s no coincidence that he began this song in such an unlikely way, although he says the inspiration came to him during the sermon. The vicar was droning on about something when the first line of the song just popped into his ...
14 comments
Read more

Giotto’s Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds

John 1.10-18 In the week before Christmas the BBC broadcast a modern version of The Nativity which attempted to retell the story with as much psychological realism as possible. So, for instance, viewers saw how Mary, and Joseph especially, struggled with their feelings. But telling the story of Jesus with psychological realism is not a new idea. It has a long tradition going back seven hundred years to the time of the Italian artist Giotto di Bondone. This nativity scene was painted in a church in Padua in about 1305. Much imitated it is one of the first attempts at psychological realism in Christian art. And what a wonderful first attempt it is - a work of genius, in fact! Whereas previously Mary and the Baby Jesus had been depicted facing outwards, or looking at their visitors, with beatific expressions fixed on their faces, Giotto dares to show them staring intently into one another’s eyes, bonding like any mother and newborn baby. Joseph, in contrast, is not looking on with quiet a...
1 comment
Read more

Overcoming separation

1 Peter 1.3-9, John 20.19-31 This year our eldest son will turn 40, but back in the day - when he was five or six perhaps - he was a master at delaying bedtime. Just as we were trying to tuck him into bed he would come up with a range of intriguing and important questions which he felt we wouldn't be able to resist.  For instance one of his questions that I remember is, ‘Where is God?’ When we counteted with something like, ‘God is everywhere,’ he was ready with his next question, ‘If God is everywhere, why can't we see him?’  It's a good question, and it takes us straight to the heart of today's lectionary readings. That was exactly the question which Thomas posed to the other disciples about the risen Jesus on the First Easter Day, and which the writer of the First letter of Peter addresses too. At Meriden we have been using a Lent liturgy which was written by the awarding winning poet and children's author Jan Dean. In her spare time she’s also a Church of Englan...
Post a Comment
Read more