Why "rewire" the church? Church has been at the centre of my identity. It’s formed me, frustrated me, deeply angered and hurt me, guided me, and protected me. Some of the most challenging ideas I have ever met, far more radical than the lawn meetings of my student days, have come from the theologians of the church. There has been a sense of connection to the tradition and wisdom of millennia. And, inevitably, the frustration of tradition hide-bound. I remember singing the words of a hymn one Sunday morning, “nothing changes here...” and one of the youth group muttered sotto voce to his girlfriend, “God, you can say that again!” What worked for our parent’s church doesn’t necessarily work for us. I notice it often doesn’t work for them anymore, although older people are sometimes more gracious about their frustrations! Life changes, we change, and constantly need to reassess where we are going.
This little church on the web is modelled around the metaphor of an old and treasured house. It's the house our parents lived in and inherited from someone we never knew. The house is strong and robust, but needs rewiring. Our ways of thinking and being need to change to make the house liveable and practical. Otherwise it will be a burden, not a base camp for life.
Compassion
The Lectionary readings for today include Genesis 32:22-31 and Matthew 14:13-21
"13 Now when Jesus heard this, [the murder of John the Baptist (Ed.)] he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go", away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
There is a clear reference here to the Jewish expectations of a messianic banquet in the final days. -There were 12 baskets leftover- 12 is the number of the tribes. This is just the leftovers! It is a mighty feast There were 5,000 men. Five is the number of books in the Torah, or Law.
It was the expectation of the time that a great religious leader would be a healer and miracle worker. So in one sense this is just one more miracle story to establish Jesus' credentials. Yet I am struck by one part of the story. Struggling with his grief over the death of his cousin he has gone off to be on his own. Yet when they follow him he does not complain- he "has compassion" for them. He heats their sick The miraculous feeding is done in the context of people's need. It is part of the act of compassion. And maybe the healing is done in the context of the Messianic banquet; that is, the coming of the Messiah is an act of compassion! it is not God triumphing for God's our sake. It is God having compassion for the people.
In the Genesis reading Jacob is on the way home. He has to face up to his brother Esau, who he tricked at of his birthright. I suspect Westerners like me have little concept of how serious an act of treachery that was! After many years, Jacob still fears for his life and is sending some pretty serious gifts ahead of him in an attempt to appease his brother. Esau is a powerful man; he has 400 men under his control.
In this story Jacob faces a dilemma. On the one hand, he fears for his life. In the way of the world he can expect Esau to beat the stuffing out of him- "perhaps" he will accept me. On the other hand God has promised good to him. "Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.'" So on the last might before the meeting he struggles with this huge indecision. He has clearly done all he can do to curry favour and yet he is deeply uncertain of the outcome. The story is like a parable of life, of our endless struggle between prudence, and fear, and commonsense, and the way God has called us to go. He spends the right wrestling with God. And the “man” names him Israel which means the one who strives with God. It's a prophetic statement about the people who counted Jacob as their father and understood themselves to be God's people It' s our story too. Don't we all struggle with God?
Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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