Luke 2 ~ Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Simeon and Anna welcome Mary, Joseph and Jesus to the Temple. They have been waiting for this moment. What kind of Messiah were they expecting? Simeon welcomes this family who must have seemed ‘ordinary’ and poor. He can see that this child will be ‘a light…for the glory of your people’. Already there is a note of reversal; of boundaries being stretched. Mary is told that this child ‘is destined for the fall and the rising of many’. There will be trouble ahead; there will be challenges for many. Simeon knows that many thoughts will be exposed, what people really think will be revealed, who they welcome and who they exclude will be challenged; for God’s invitation and welcome has no boundaries. This will be uncomfortable for some. 

Anna rejoices for all those who were looking for a change, for hope, she knows that this child will overturn systems of oppression and exclusion. Luke is interested in how humanity responds to the Gospel. If Jesus’ message is really good news, then this requires a shakeup; a shakeup which challenges comfortable assumptions about the way God works. God’s abundant invitation to all may not sit comfortably with many. While Anna prays and fasts for a change of heart in the way Jerusalem operates, Simeon warns Mary that this will not be an easy road. 

What situations in our own society and in our church require a shake-up, an uncomfortable but necessary change so that God’s love and welcome can shine through?

25th September: Luke 16:19-31 ‘Rich Man & Lazarus’.

Last Sunday’s Gospel reminded us of what economics according to God looks like – it spoke of a redistribution of wealth by a manager who realised that material wealth is only temporary; what we do with that wealth and how we distribute it is more important. Today’s parable is on a similar theme. The rich man is sorry but it is too late for him. He had not come to his senses as the manager last week had done. The rich man is unwilling to change; even in the afterlife he wants Lazarus sent, ordered, to go to his brothers to warn them. It is not proof or special signs that they need. Their vision has been blinded by wealth. They need to ‘see’ the poor who are at their gates.

God’s economics means striving for a world where the poor man Lazarus can sit down at the same table as the rich man. It is not simply enough to comfort the poor and say to them that they will be rewarded in heaven. This misses the point. Luke is pointing us to a great reversal that is so central to this Gospel, a call to turn the world as we know it upside down.

 ‘It is not God’s will for some to have everything and others to have nothing’. Oscar Romero

Break for the Border (4th Sunday of Lent ~ The Lost Son)

The problem with some stories is that we are so familiar with them we tend to switch off after the first few sentences and that would be a shame, especially when this is one of the great blockbuster parables. The Pharisees were a group obsessed with ritual purity and Jesus’ parables of things lost and found is his response to these barriers which excluded people from community and from God. The real challenge in this parable is what happens after the lost son returns. We can probably see more of the elder brother in ourselves than the younger brother. This loyal son deserves the best, he has worked hard, he has never asked for anything in return and would like to see some justice.
God forgives us even after our most stupid mistakes yet we often behave like the elder son: holding grudges, not willing or able to forgive one another. The hard part for the elder brother, for the Pharisees and for us, is recognising that when people seem to be outside of what we think is ‘right’ we need to reach out to them and forget our own petty judgements. God returns the lost to the community, regardless of the boundaries that we have put in place. Luke tells the story well as we are left wondering whether the elder brother joined the celebrations or stayed sulking in the corner.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and realise that the prisoner was you” ~ Lewis B. Smedes