LUKE 9: 28-36

Laterally Luke…The Transfiguration…New in 2019

May I begin with a plea that we don’t try to explain the inexplicable or explain away the unbelievable? The Celt in me comes to the fore in not drawing too firm a line between heaven & earth, the seen & the unseen. Keep that line ‘thin’.

I can’t think of a more appropriate or effective way to preach the Transfiguration than to approach it as + Rowan does in his great little book, ‘The Dwelling of the Light’¹ where he explores a Russian Icon of the Transfiguration from the 15th C.

Rather than look at Our Lord’s Transfiguration as kind of tableau - as I suspect we often do - why not explore the ‘sheer energy of the portrayal’ as + Rowan puts it.

Whereas Christmas tableaux & Palm Sunday processions can become pretty much ‘ho hum’ if we’re not careful, the only energy being when someone fluffs their lines in the former, or waves their palm too exuberantly in the latter.

What’s going on up there is that all God’s energy of Light & Life & Love are being revealed & brought to bear on & in Jesus. He’s so ‘filled with God’ that He connects His people’s past with their present & their future. Not just back on that mountain top but now, too. Pin it all down to ‘back then’ & we’re missing all the possibilities of Now. God is always God of our now, built out of our pasts in every sense. 

Traditionally we link Moses with the Law, & Elijah with the Prophets, & why not? But up there Jesus is being revealed as the summation of both, & everything else God provides for our present & our futures. The Apostles up there with Jesus don’t so much grasp this as are grasped by it. The icon + Rowan brings to life for us shows them, as he puts it, ‘sprawling helplessly; they face a tidal wave’. I’d put it as facing the upheaval of life as it’s been, & a sweeping into new & uncharted waters of life as Jesus’ successors. Peter has yet to grasp that the only way to prolong this experience of life, as it is in Jesus, is to submit ourselves - today - to the tide of Divine Light & Life & Love the Spirit ‘unleashes’ up on that mountain & everywhere else God calls us to be.

Brian

Afterthought: There’s a lot of talk today about what needs to happen to the Church to give it a future. Might the answer lie in us allowing God’s Spirit to energise us on the depression we’re living in, as Jesus & His Apostles are energised on that mountain? Not to grasp that energy, but allow ourselves to be grasped by it so we find ourselves over- whelmed by, swept along by God’s Light & Life & Love. 

¹ John Garratt, Mulgrave, Australia, 2003

Luke 6: 27-38

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 7…New in 2019

What a treasure trove! Action packed! As last week, LK has Jesus emphasising the personal impacts more than generalising them. We need to encourage each other to do the same if we’re to be true disciples. The sermon I’ve just heard today (Epiphany6) on the passage immediately before this one, highlighted Jesus as proclaiming a ‘counter-culture’. A good point, it seems to me, to ponder as we move on.

Rather, though, than giving Hebrew names to those we imagine listening to Jesus & considering where they come into what He’s saying back then, let’s give them ‘today’ names & ask ourselves where we come into the picture today.

As we look from our pulpit or lectern, are our eyes drawn to Tom glaring towards his enemy Jim. We’re not sure what lies behind this, but let’s be alert to it as we listen to Jesus. Why does Betty hate Jane? We’ve heard rumours that Betty suspects Jane is too close for comfort to her own husband Paul. Whether or not that’s true, it doesn’t exempt either of them from what Jesus is proclaiming here. Someone told us the other day they’d heard Bob cursing Phillip over the state he’d returned his lawn-mower in! How busily is our flock, those mentioned above, & everyone else, praying for each other as well as other concerns that interest or involve us?  

Do we love our enemies enough to be actually praying for those we do think of as enemies? What are we praying for them? Where does it fit into what Jesus says here? 

How well are we treating those who hate us? Are we blessing them / blessing God for them - despite the feelings that flow between us? Are we praying for those who are insulting us? What are we blessing God for them / praying for them?

It’s really demanding of Jesus to tell us: ‘Offer the other cheek to someone who physically attacks us…’ There’s so much violence in our community these days! ‘Let them take your shirt as well as your coat…’ Do we really need to be bothered & upset that Frank hasn’t returned that coat he borrowed a month ago. Why not consider it his if he needs it? ‘Give to those who beg…’ How do we feel inside us when someone actually begs from us in the street? Do we toss them a coin or two, pretend not to see them, or do something more constructive if we’re able?  ‘When someone steals from you don’t ask for it back….’ These days, this often a police matter. Does it have to be in every case? Let’s be honest & ask ourselves whether Jesus’ counter-culture is in the ‘too hard basket’?  

Brian

Afterthought: In vv. 32-35 the words used for thanks or ‘not thanks’ is the word used elsewhere for ‘grace’. Do we need to rediscover the connection between Grace, the all-embracing gift of God, & how it applies to what Jesus is teaching us here?

LK 6: 17-26 

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 6… Revised 2019 

We’re long past times when we could assume church people & many others could say the ‘Lord’s prayer’ & recite the ‘Beatitudes’ (in MT’s version). A warning against making assumptions as we prepare to preach LK’s version! Was it William Barclay who said we should think of  ‘beatitudes’ as ‘congratulations on a present state of blessedness, not hopefulness of some future blessing’? I’m all for enjoying my blessedness now, rather than having to wait for later! LK though, has Jesus going on to teach being hated, ostracised, denounced, & scorned for His sake as another kind of blessedness. What to make of this? 

Being a disciple doesn’t remove us from ‘the world’, but beds us more firmly in the world, though not of it. I suggest it’s worth exploring whether LK is really transform -ing Jesus’ ‘Blesseds’ as they appear in MT from generalisations, to being a matter of personal experience. Not just ‘the poor in spirit’ but you & I when we’re poor now! Not simply ‘the hungry’ but when you & I are hungry now! Not simply ‘those who weep’ but you & I when we’re weeping now! When we’re hated now. Excluded now. Reviled now. Defamed now! Mind you, any / all of this ‘on account of the Son of Humanity’! “For my sake!”

What can it mean that Jesus says, “Rejoice, Jump for joy!”? Are there depths in how LK reports what Jesus says here that need to be sounded before we can discern what it means? How to explore these depths without explaining Jesus away in the process?     

How can we best explore what it might mean to discern the depths of ‘un-comfort-able words’? Not the ‘comfortable’ ones we might prefer, & that once graced our liturgies. 

 To preach this passage in the Spirit in which Jesus does, we need people to be un-comfortably on the very edge of their pews rather than relaxing back into any cushioning they may be fortunate to have! Jesus preaches words comfortable only in the best biblical sense - which involves discerning their uncomfortable edges in real life & in real time as LK, not to mention Jesus Himself, proclaims them.

Of course people need comforting now. The poor need to get a life; the hungry need bread (at least); the sad need hope for a future without a loved one. If God is Alpha & Omega, it's logical God is also the God of the in-between time, the God of Now. When & where you & I minister. What's going on in our congregation, our district, our nation that we need to explore in relation to Jesus' hard sayings rather than His nicer & easier ones? 

Brian

Afterthought: Can any of what LK reports Jesus as saying become true; any of us be blessed, congratulated, right now, rather than in some later life? Except when the rest of us, Christ's Body here on earth, make it happen in His Name & by His Spirit; tough going as it will inevitably be. And no excuses will be found acceptable! 

LK 5: 1-11 

Laterally Luke…Epiphany 5…Revised 2019

I can’t approach this passage without remembering the day when, long ago, & in a new parish, I wandered at random into a Sunday School class. Only to hear the teacher explaining that when Jesus tells Simon to 'put out a little from the land’, He means they need to break off some more land into the water because fish needed more room to swim in! A warning to me & to us all: don’t assume everyone ‘gets’ even what we believe are seemingly obvious bits of Scripture. (Needless to say, we instituted training soon after for S.S. teachers & would-be teachers!)

LK tells us the crowd ‘presses upon Jesus’ to hear the word of God. How can we encourage people to ‘press upon Jesus’ in our endeavour to discern the Truth in Him Who Is the Word of God? (The God I've come to recognize during life's journey doesn't fit the One some preachers peddle to keep their particular hobby-horse galloping!)

That I am acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ, is evidence that what Jesus teaches when we 'press upon him' in the right Spirit may be hard going, but it's always lovingly & acceptingly inclusive. (Remember Nazareth from the last two Sundays!)  

The scene by the lake is idyllic, but when Jesus teaches, someone is always going to be disturbed. Our apple cart - or fishing boat - may well be over-turned. Rather than being comforted (except in IS’s sense in Ch.40) & sustaining the status quo, Jesus’ Gospel is always challenging, re-shaping, re-directing. What we must discern here is that Jesus’ teaching & call will inevitably begin to bite into lives. It's easy enough for Simon to humour Jesus by 'putting out a little from the land’, in itself not all that  demanding an exercise. Are we, though, too easily settling for undemanding forms of discipleship’? If so, isn’t it time to fall down on our knees & move on like Simon? 

Whatever Jesus tells us when He teaches, it’s sure to invite us outside our comfort zone. Once He starts telling people who know all about fishing where the fish are shoaling, He's moving the goal posts.Yet it's Simon & his fellow fishers who’re out of their depth, not Jesus! Must we admit we’re out of our depth, too, before we can progress our discipleship? Simon's falling down at Jesus' knees is not only a first step but also a sign of what lies ahead for those who will follow Him.

Brian

Afterthought: Simon's admission that he has 'missed the mark' (Gk.) is a good first step for any of us to take. But, what to do next? Instead of digging out more land for fishes, let’s try, instead, launching out into the deep-ness of YHWH God.