Services
As we head towards Advent, the beginning, our readings look to the end. Today we are treated to two apocalyptic visions of the end times, when all that had seemed secure suddenly seemed fragile.
Both Daniel 12:1-3 and Mark 13:1-8 were written for people who had witnessed the destruction of their temple and were experiencing upheaval and uncertainty. They provide hope in a bleak time that the future will be better; that what has been destroyed will be rebuilt. But hope is not passive, it is an act of radical resistance that commits to a new and better world.
This week, with the publication of the Makin report and the resignation of the Archbishop, there is great strength to be drawn from the metaphors that Jesus uses: the temple being torn down to be rebuilt; the labour pains before new birth; because they speak of renewal.
If we want a church, if we want a world, in which the weak are protected, the voiceless are given a voice, and needs of the vulnerable are not ignored to protect the powerful, we need to believe that such a world is possible but, more than this, we need to be the ones whose lives and actions bring that world into being. Our task is not to wait for the signs, it is to BE the signs.
This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday when we gather at the war memorial to honour those whose lives have been given and taken away in wars and conflicts past and present. It is a day of deep reflection, a time for sorrow and penitence.
This month, as the Christian year draws towards its celebration of the reign of Christ, the Feast of Christ the King, our readings today reflect on what it means to live under Christ’s rule. Today they focus on the need for repentance, to turn from all that is not life-giving. In Jonah 3.1-5,10 we hear Jonah call the people of Nineveh to change, to turn to God and live. In our Gospel reading, Mark 1.14-20, Jesus proclaims that ‘the kingdom of God has come near’; all we need to enter is to ‘repent, and believe in the good news’.
Our news today is filled with stories of conflict and suffering – sadly the wars of the last century did not bring the lasting peace that was hoped for. In our personal lives we are called to examine our own beliefs and actions, and repent of all that may get in the way of walking in the way of peace. What does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6.8)
Sunday 3rd November 6:30pm.
The service provides a time and place for quiet prayer and reflection, so that we can remember before God all those we have loved who have died.
There is a list at the back of church for you to add the names of the loved ones you would like to be remembered.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”, this, Jesus tells us, in Mark 12:28-34, is the greatest commandment. The words are as familiar to us as they would have been to his first listeners. They come as no surprise. What is surprising is that this is a story of resounding agreement between Jesus and those who seem to be his enemies. In the lead up to today’s encounter Jesus has been engaged in series of escalating rows with the scribes and the pharisees, deliberately provoking confrontation and causing offence, to the extent that some try to have him arrested. What is beautiful in Mark’s telling of this story is that this moment of concord is initiated, not by Jesus, but by one of the scribes. In the midst of the “dispute” with his colleagues, he listens and hears that Jesus answers well. His is not a trick question, asked to trip up an opponent, it is an attempt to uncover shared values. In our public discourse we are not used to opponents agreeing, trying to discover common ground, in fact, we are not used to opponents listening to one another. But Jesus answers him with the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.” There is a oneness, a unity, which underlines all our experiences. This unity does not mean that we all agree or that we are all the same but that we all are made by the same God for one thing and one thing only, to love. The second commandment “to love our neighbour as ourselves” flows inevitably from the first, the love of God. Today, as we welcome a new member of the family of God in baptism, we celebrate our unity, our shared kinship in God. Our identity and our purpose in life is given to us by this kindship, a kinship with God that cannot be separated from our kinship from one another. To love our neighbour as ourselves requires listening, demands genuine curiosity about their experiences and a commitment to understanding in order that we see and hear all that unites us and not just what divides us.
“Today, as we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we are offered a glimpse a future feast of all the saints in Isaiah 25:6-9. This feast will come once God has destroyed “the shroud that is cast over all peoples”, when suffering, conflict and poverty are ended and the whole of creation can celebrate together. In Isaiah’s vision, the saints of God wait for God to bring salvation but in John 11:32-44, Jesus calls to participate, inviting us to unbind the grave clothes from his friend Lazarus. Unbinding ourselves, one another and our world from all that is not life-giving is a task for the community to undertake together. In the gospel, those gathered must contend with the weight of the stone and the stench of decay to free Lazarus but most of all they must hold onto hope. Lazarus is raised on the fourth day, a symbol that all hope is lost (resurrection and salvation in scripture always comes on the third day). We are all saints, made in the image of God, set aside for God to use. Our saintly calling requires courage to speak out about all that constrains and oppresses, all that keeps us shrouded from fullness of life and to play our part in removing that shroud but most of all we are required to practise the discipline of hope, that nothing and no one is beyond redemption.