Blessing and the Shape of Reality

 Sermon for Evensong

Sunday 19^th February 2012

Numbers 22:21-23:12

LINK TO RECORDING OF THE SERMON

Blessing and the Shape of Reality

“The Righteous shall live by faith”

This morning I spoke about forgiveness being Necessary – that we needed it – but not purely in some psychological – emotional – or even spiritual sense. ‘Spiritual sense’ always sounds a little vague to me :) No, we needed forgiveness, to forgive and be forgiven in a very Real and indeed, I believe if we Saw its impact, a Very Concrete sense. That in forgiving we are restoring the broken bonds of Love, the bonds which actually hold the whole Universe together. That in forgiving we are engaged in a construction project, the like of which the world has never seen nor comprehended.

St Paul, drawing on the story of Abraham, tells us “the Righteous shall live by faith”, but I suggest we have far too narrow a conception of what faith is, or perhaps to put it better we are content with the seed or content of faith, but seldom do we allow it to flourish and bloom from a set of beliefs into that which it is intended to be, a Perception of the World in which we live and into which we walk. Moses, we are told, By faith left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger; for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible. This is the Essence of faith – walking in a new reality which God has shown to us in Christ.

As I have said several times over the past few weeks, Jesus is about restoring sight to the blind and the gift of faith is intended to be a gift of sight, to see the world as God has created it and to order our lives in the reality of that vision, one which is clouded or obscure to those amongst whom we live. So we forgive at first because we hear the command of God, but as we grow in faith we begin to see – our eyes are opened to this enthralling work which God has called us to, to Participate in the healing of the very fabric of reality, that is given Concrete expression in the Word made flesh. Love incarnate.

Well tonight I’d like to add to that theme of forgiveness, that of Blessing – That Blessing is the most appropriate of actions for the people of God who pours out his blessings in abundance. Yet how slow we are to see this.

One thing that concerns me Very greatly in contemporary Christian life is the rapidly dwindling practise of Giving thanks before eating – it concerns me because actually it is an act of faith  - we come to table and there we SEE God’s blessing – and yet we do not recognize it. Failing to give thanks is a sign that our eyes have grown dim to Reality.

Tonight’s Wonderful story from the Book of Numbers is a beautiful illustration of this practise of Blessing, and throws in a talking donkey to boot for those whose attention is slipping :). Actually it is only about a ¼ of the whole story of Balaam and Balak and Israel.

To put it quickly in context – God has rescued Israel – he has chosen them to be his people and brought them out of Egypt and into a life of Blessing. He has given them daily bread in the wilderness and sustained their life. If you like he has given them a crash course in faith and like any crash course it has been a bit painful at times, but we come to the story as they have come to the plains of moab and the blessing of God means that they are quite a crowd – and as you might imagine, the locals are more than a little nervous – so we read a little earlier on . . .

Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is on the Euphrates, in the land of Amaw, to summon him, saying, ‘A people has come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth, and they have settled next to me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are stronger than I; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land; for I know that whomsoever you bless is blessed,

 and whomsoever you curse is cursed.’ Numbers 22 vss 4-6

And that is the context of our reading tonight. Well the story lasts an entire chapter before Balaam sets off to see Balak. Balak keeps sending messengers to him, but God prevents Balaam from going. Eventually he does let him go but it is clear that this is not Plan A!!

We read from just before tonight’s reading

That night God came to Balaam and said to him, ‘If the men have come to summon you, get up and go with them; but do only what I tell you to do.’ ²¹So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the officials of Moab. 22 God’s anger was kindled because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his adversary.

Certainly there is a degree of ambiguity here and I’m not going to attempt to iron it out – God says to Balaam, OK, Go with the men, but only do what I tell you . . . but it seems clear that he does so with a degree of reluctance and the next morning puts a shot across Balaam’s bows – a warning if you like, against any sense that because this is commanded it is necessarily good – Be on your guard!!

And here we begin to see how there is a greater reality – perhaps Balaam really doesn’t know with whom he is dealing – he is portrayed as blind – unlike the poor donkey!! The donkey sees how things really are. He sees the angel stood in his path with a drawn sword. The donkey’s no ass! He knows what is and isn’t good for him and desperately tries to avoid the Angel.

This story sounds to our ears most fanciful – yet how many of us not only have heard but believe thoroughly in the ability of animals to See far more than we do. Certainly here in New Zealand we know of how they seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to earthquakes – why do we understand ourselves so wise and the animals so foolish? All of Creation suffers through the sin of human kind, but only humans become totally blind, and in our fury lash out, like a frustrated child who cannot have his own way

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam; and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. ²⁸Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’ ²⁹Balaam said to the donkey, ‘Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!’ ³⁰But the donkey said to Balaam, ‘Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you in this way?’ And he said, ‘No.’ 31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed down, falling on his face.

Cursing and anger flow form the mouth of Balaam and it is Wrong!! As James tells us :- no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters,^* this ought not to be so.

[A brief aside at this point, just to note that I think it mistaken to remove the cursing Psalms from the prayer book – the fact it that at times we are full of anger and cursing and it needs a safe outlet and that is directed towards God who can handle it, rather than the Creation, which it destroys. We are not yet made perfect. We are given these Psalms as a release valve and a place where we might safely reveal our hearts and find them healed in doing so.]

Balak, The King of Moab understands the power of the prophetic word – he knows that Words can build up or destroy and he is afraid of the hoard of Israel, and so calls Balaam to Curse them – over the next two chapters there is an almost comedic battle between the King who has called for cursing to destroy and the prophet who Knows that he must Not curse, he can only bless to build up.
We are more than aware of the power of sin to destroy, but we are slow to believe in the Greater power forgiveness which restores the broken bonds of love. We are so aware of how Cursing and false words destroy, we know this. But we are all to blind of the Greater power of Blessing to build up. 

Do we have any idea of the Concrete power of Blessing in the Name of the Lord?? As some of you know, I belong to a New monastic order whose mother house is in South Wales, Old South Wales, that is :) One of our disciplines is that of Blessing, not so much Being a blessing, but pronouncing blessing. It comes out of the expereince as a good friend of mine who was called to the place that became the mother house of our order. He went in faith, but VERY reluctantly. He had NO idea of what the call was about and over time became incredibly frustrated with God – and one day made an ultimatum!! ‘I cannot stay here unless you do something!!’

Later that day, as often happened, some folk turned up at the centre, curious to know what it was – Roy took them round and talked about how it was a place where the Living God changed lives – this was more an expression of what he wanted than what he had seen to that point. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the idea came to him to bless them before they left. They responded positively and Roy said to them ‘I bless you in the name of Jesus, to know God, his purpose for your life, and his blessings on you, and you family and the situations of your life. Amen’ – they were immediately overcome with the most profound sense of the presence of God they had never known, with them. 

This became a very regular practise – and lives have been changed, healed and restored in many many ways through this. Every Friday, the folk who are resident at the centre stand on the high place overlooking the valley and pronounce blessing upon the whole valley – the life of the whole area has been transformed. Cows give more milk, even in a time of economic hardship, all the local bed and breakfasts are almost continually fully booked, the tiny country school thrives and people’s lives are being dramatically changed for the good.

We are called to a life of blessing – restoring through forgiveness and giving life through blessing. Paul reminds us ‘Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse’ 

I began reminding by reminding us that The Righteous will live by faith. Abraham is given to us as an example, that he reveals in his life the Blessing that comes through faith ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

If forgiveness is the way in which we heal the bonds of Love that hold the universe together, Blessing is I think the way in which we are called to Breathe the Life of God into those bonds. This is the Reality We are called to inhabit in Faith. Speak Blessing.

All Age talk - Forgiveness

LINK TO RECORDING OF THIS MORNING'S TALK

Sermon for Sunday 19th February - Epiphany 7 - Ordinary time7

 Sermon for Sunday 19^th February, 2012

Epiphany 7 / Ordinary 7

Isaiah 43:18-25

Psalm 41

2 Corinthians 1:18-22

Mark 2:1-12

LINK TO RECORDING OF THE SERMON

 

I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
   and I will not remember your sins. Is 43:25

God who is the source of all Life – who is Love in his very being – does something utterly extraordinary – something which I think should give us all pause before we say that we know what love is. In Love he inextricably binds himself to a people – he commits himself to them by unbreakable bonds. He promises Never to let them go.

God is the Centre of Everything, Everything comes from Him and to Him Everything must return. God is Love. God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all and when he takes on flesh for our sake, it is to banish the darkness, for the glory of His Name, that Love may Triumph

When I think of this Love of God, this convenant love, I am reminded of human marriage. I have to say straight away that I am comparing the Great Perfect Love of God with the far lesser, highly imperfect and at times invisible love in a human marriage – but I will deal with the Ideal (if the reality always falls short of this) 

In the Church of England liturgy the words used are these ‘I . . . take you to be my wife’, ‘I . . . take you to be my husband’. As I frequently told couples whom I was preparing for marriage – there is no ‘I will if you will’ – for you are entering into a Covenant relationship, which is the purest form of Love – a commitment to the other which is not dependent upon the Other. God’s Love is not dependent on us, He Is Love. In other words in marriage a couple you enter into a Covenant expression of Love, a Love that expresses how God love us. And of course this metaphor of marriage is used by St Paul when he is talking of the relationship between Christ and His Church.

This Love of God for His people is the theme that runs through the whole of the Old Testament and in some respects comes to its zenith, its peak in these latter chapters of the prophet Isaiah. Here God is rhetorically arguing with his unfaithful people – reminding them of their sins, of their unfaithfulness – but over and over again saying he will do something extraordinary in response – he will save them, he will protect them, he will be a life giver to them

¹⁸ Do not remember the former things,
   or consider the things of old.
¹⁹ I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.
²⁰ The wild animals will honour me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
   rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
²¹   the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.

 - These words of the love of God revealed in a time in the History of his people when they were being taken into Exile because they had abandoned the God who had Committed himself to them, Given himself to them, taken them to himself in Covenant Love . When, to use other prophetic language with its roots in marriage, they had been unfaithful – in the midst of this he declares - I am going to do something new – I am going to make life giving waters flow.

Then he re-iterates the argument

²² you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
   but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
²³ You have not brought me your sheep for burnt-offerings,
   or honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
   or wearied you with frankincense.
 ^{. . .}
But you have burdened me with your sins;
   you have wearied me with your iniquities. 

I have not been a burden to you, but you have been a burden to me. I have not wearied you, but you have wearied me . . .

BUT your unfaithfulness will not be the last word

²⁵ I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

 - I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Your unfaithfulness will not have the last word – My Love will – My foregiveness. God had bound himelf utterly to this people – they were His burden – he carried them – He was known as The God of Israel – if you like He was known as their National God – His identity was tied up with theirs – and so was His character - and Israel, the people of this God had besmirched themselves and so had taken God’s name with them into the mud.     

       

            So what does he do?? Does He cast them off?? NO! Rather he Refuses to let their Word be the Last Word – he will overcome Even Unfaithfulness, the Covenant may have meant little to Israel – but it meant everything to the God who makes Promises – He has made a Covenant – He has bound himself to these people and thus His name is being dragged through the mud? What will he do?? He will make their sins Whiter than snow!! – though they are scarlet – he will blot out their transgressions for His Names sake – He will not stoop down to their level of unfaithfulness – no He will restore them and Life them Up!!!

It is Breathtaking. To Israel’s No – he Thunders His Triumphant YES – and so one comes in whom All God’s Covenant Promises are held – In whom All His Promises are YES!! Which begins to explain what to some might be a strange puzzle in the gospel reading.

Here is Jesus – in this tightly packed house – barely room to breathe and some people bring their paralyzed friend to him – presumably to heal him?? The text is silent. So determined are they to get him to Jesus they go onto the roof and knock a hole in it. And lower him down in front of Him.

And here we see how Different is our reading of this text from those of the time of Jesus – What does Jesus do? He forgives him his sins – and his critics are thinking Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone? And we may be thinking – Hang on a minute!! He’s paralysed – can’t you see?? Why not do That First and forgive the sins later? Surely the Priority is healing him?? – and in this regard it is Very worth noting the following – Jesus heals the man to prove the point about forgiveness. Do you see??

He forgives the man. Then the scribes accuse him of blasphemy – THEN to show that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins he heals the man of his paralysis – to show that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins – Which is it easier to say ‘Son our sins are forgiven you’ Or take up your mat and walk??? Which is most important???

We look out on a world where there is So So much wrong – I used to get JWs coming to my door – I don’t know if they do the same here in NZ but in England they always began by saying- aren’t things in a terrible mess – and we LOOK OUT and have to agree with them – and so we see people with sickness – we see wars  - we see famines – we see all sorts of things. And we think that there are all these problems out there and we’re busy saying – look Here Jesus – all this forgiveness of sins stuff is . . . well of course its important but what about the Real problems . . . except the real problems all stem from sin which we do Not see because we’re all too busy looking out there. The problems are Symptoms – the root dis - ease is sin.

God is Love – he creates the world in Love, through Love, for Love – the Universe is if you like a cathedral of Love – Love holding it all together – its trellises  - its buttresses – its foundations and beautiful windows are Love -  and Sin takes a wrecking ball and smashes it up. If we go around that all that is wrong in the world today is down to sin, we might be thought idiotic – but if God is Love and Everything is an expression of Love – in other words the hard physical matter of our existence is in fact that Energy emanating from the Life of God that we call Love – then before any true healing can begin – those bonds have got to be restored. That is what holds everything together. Just what seems like a minor matter for the religiously minded becomes of literally Fundamental importance. And we might know this surely for ourselves for what is the pain we know like the pain of broken relationships – it is literally as if the fabric of our Lives is torn apart – it is that the fabric of creation is rent – love is torn.

Jesus – the Lamb of God from before all eternity offers himself to atone for the sins of the world. What is God’s Solution to the demolition of Love? More Love – Indestructable Love declared in Glory on Easter Morn and the Way for all who have found new life in Him. What he does for the paralysed man in forgiving him his sins, he literally embodies on the cross. 

Remember last week – this faith of our is bodily and material? God who is Love takes on flesh. Jesus embodies Love and forgiveness on the cross and so the New Creation begins to spring to birth  - one which we are called to step into. This New Life of Christ is one we are all called as Christians to participate in. The Scribes are right – only God can forgive sins – but we are joined to him to become one with Him and thus enter into he work he is doing as Christ was himself one with the Father and only did what he saw the father doing. Forgiving and then healing.

This last couple of weeks I have referred to Peter and John and the healing of the lame man outside the Temple. I suggested that there was something missing in a church that could no longer say ‘Silver and Gold have I none,’ nor could it say ‘In the name of Jesus of Nazareth get up and walk’ – well if that seems to hard – which is easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or ‘take up your mat and walk?’ We are given a simpler yet more Foundational starter. Peter and John having discovered the power of this love which refuses to be overcome even by death enter into this Life being renewed by forgiveness and so in that Life, in the Life of the Risen Christ, the Embodiment of the New Creation they engage in the works that that forgiveness, that restoration of the bonds of Love makes possible.

Forgiveness is the way in which the true ordering of the world is made new, that Love is restored and that Love is the healing of Everything.