Giving

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>Miroslav Volf refers to a story written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his book Free of Charge. That’s Solzhenitsyn’s picture.

In the story Matryona’s House an old woman “never tried to acquire things for herself. She wouldn’t struggle to buy things which would mean more to her than life itself. All her life she never tried to dress smartly in the kind of clothes which embellish cripples and disguise evildoers.” As the story unfolds she is misunderstood and abandoned, even by her husband. Six of her children die but she carries on giving.

“We all lived beside her”, Solzhenitsyn put in mouth of one of her fellow villagers, “and never understood that she was the righteous one without whom, according to the proverb, no village can stand. Nor any city. Nor our whole land.”

Volf comments a gift is an “event between people. Gifts serve “to create, nourish or re-create” social bonds.

I don’t think I am a good giver. According to Volf “ungracious and reluctant givers inspect the causes of a need and dole out the benefits in proportion to its legitimacy.” He refers to Nathan the Wise , a play by Lessing written in 1779, in which Sultan Saladin enlists a beggar to be his treasurer. The Sultan wanted to end begging by ensuring that beggars could afford not to beg. He wanted a beggar as his treasurer “because only a beggar knows how to give to beggars appropriately”. Of his previous treasurer Saladin said:”He gave so ungraciously when he gave; first inquired so vehemently into the situation of the receiver; never satisfied that he wa slacking, also wanted to know the cause of the lack, in order to measure the cause stingily against the offering.”

I wonder whether Christian teaching about giving has helped. Most sermons seem to be about persuading worshippers to hand over their cash to keep the show on the road. On the drain/radiator test, this sounds more like a drain and a far cry from God giving life to the world. (radiator!)

>The Curious Incident of the Painted Cows

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For some reason local p**s artists painted local cows! Their work shows a distinct lack of imagination using only white paint (will it be magnolia next time?) and showing nothing of the flair of Banksy’s work. An advertising slogan could be “Milk is good for you” – but then, on the other flank (as suggested by friend Ceri) – “but Guinness is better”.

The Empty Hands of Faith

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“And so we put out empty hands and bread and wine are put into them which we eat and drink in communion with his body and blood, for we have no other offering with which to draw near to God but that one offering which is identical with Jesus Christ himself, through whom, with whom, and in whom we glorify the Father” (T.F. Torrance)
Thanks to Two Empty Hands for this quote.javascript:void(0)

Faith

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Miroslav Volf in Free of Charge (subtitled “Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace” expands on the theme of God the Giver who continues to give in a world inclining towards “gracelessness”. He speaks of faith:

Faith is not something we give to God. In that case, faith would be a work, and a silly kind of work because it would be work we do even though it deosn’t benefit anyone. But exactly the opposite is true. To have faith in God is to be “without works” before God (Romans 4:5). Faith is the way we as receivers relate appropriately to God as the giver. It is empty hands held open for God to fill…. In contrast good works offered to God dishonour God; they tell a lie about God and our relation to the divine Giver, and they take away God’s due.

I remember David Lunn, on hearing of his appointment to be Bishop of Sheffield speaking of his surprise because he felt “he didn’t believe enough”. Who hasn’t thought that?
The faith that expresses itself with hands outstretched trustung God’s gifts is something of the heart. When I say something like “I’m not sure what I believe” part of that is to do with my head and perhaps is saying “there are loads of things I don’t understand”.
Being empty handed before God suddenly makes that not matter. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing more we can say which will make him love us less. All we can give to God is delight or pain.
Rowan Williams likened the giving of God to the Niagara Falls. Love cascades to us – that’t the empty hands bit – but it’s only living water if we release the gifts to others. If we don’t the water stagnates and becomes poisonous.

>Awards

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>For a bit of fun, every month we publish the “Editor’s Award” in our parish magazine. I am puzzled this month and can’t decide. I think I will spray the awards round.
So – drum roll –

The prize goes to all those who are highly regarded in their communities – for all the integrity and service of their lives, because rarely is such regard given for nothing.

But the more than equal first prize goes to those who in spite of great integrity and service are dis-regarded and unnoticed. Their communities and families would be much the poorer without them.

 
And the prize for creative prayer goes to friend Jenny – who rarely attends public worship – for her presentation of bouquets to brothers and sisters at a recent healing service. By binding sprigs of lavender (for healing) and rosemary (for remembrance) she captured the essence of intercessory prayer with one simple twist of rafia binding.

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>Bank charge (or stampede)

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>For my son being between a rock and a hard place is very painful, especially being ricocheted from one to the other. Recently graduated he starts to make his way in the world. We will call the rock “T-Mobile” and the hard place “NatWest”. T-Mobile try to collect payment. Can’t. Why? Because bank has levied whopping charges. Pattern is set. Charges – refused payment – charges. Agreements. Terms. Conditions. But only one way.
For the rock an agreement is an agreement. At the hard place – resistance with the only give being the offer of a loan at a whopping rate of interest. First they charge, and then they charge again. They seem to know just how to make the credit crunch!
Apparently it’s a hard time for banks – but they shouldn’t be making their life easier by screwing their customers. Or is that why they “value” their customers?
I suspect the story will end happily. Either the bank which boasts a “better way” will see the absurdity and viciousness of the circle my son is in and refund the charges, or the court will have to decide. Banks seem very keen to get students to open accounts – they need to do a lot more in the transition between uni and settling in employment.

Feeding the Church

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As Christians we gather at the table and remember what Jesus did with bread on that hillside. The words used by Matthew here are familiar from the Last Supper account and from our own celebration of the Eucharist as well: the verbs–take, bless, break and give–are simple but powerful, and apply to our lives just as they apply to the bread we share with one another and with the world. In fact, this work of the church goes on in every age and every wilderness. Thomas Long writes: “the church is always in the desert, the place where it cannot rely upon its own resources, which are few. The church is hungry itself and is surrounded by a world of deep cravings….” 

from Kate Huey with reference to the Feeding of the 5000
Picture is by Eularia Clarke

>We believe in a Jam Jar God

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A bit of fun in preparing next Sunday’s sermon. With the passage being the invitation by Jesus to Peter to walk on water I looked at what it could possible mean and come to the conclusion that we believe in a Jam Jar – or should that be Yamm-Yah?
Not a lot of people know this (myself included) but Luke and Johjn in their telling of the story use the same Greek word for water as the Greek word for sea in Job who recognises God as the one who “alone stretched out the heavens and
treads on the waters of the Sea” (Job 9:8)
That word is Yam. God is Yah. So we have Yam Yah – God is a Jam Jar. Discuss.

Great video clip here of Jesus walking on water.

Job wasn’t the first to see God walking on water. In the beginning – “the earth was barren with no form of life. It was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water.” (Genesis 1:2)
And then we have the gospel story of Jesus walking on water – and, in only Matthew’s gospel, Peter walking on water proving the point that rocks do float.

Is it just a stunt? Look at me – I can walk on water!
There has to be more to it than that – and the answer to that is in the Yam.

Apparently the Hebrews didn’t believe in sea monsters, but used the image of a sea monster to symbolise evil – referred to as Leviathan. The Canaanites – early settlers of the Promised Land – had a god called Yam – deity of the primordial chaos and representing the power of the sea untamed and raging.

I wonder whether people attributed the storms of the lakes and seas to Yam – evil or whatever name evil goes by. Walking on water then becomes not some super stunt, but a sign of Jesus’s power over the force of evil. When he invites Peter to walk on water he is inviting him to trust that the Spirit of God within him has power over evil.

We translate storms and turbulence psychologically. We know when we are upset, when we are overwhelmed – and when we feel we are drowning. We say we feel “all at sea” – but then we have Jesus who knows that we can walk on water – our Yam-Yah God.

Is that why Jesus washed his disciples’ feet – because they would walk on the water. When he washes the feet of the disciples, is it to admire them. Paul writes: “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:5-15) Does Jesus admire the feet of those who by walking on water so declare the good news about the power of love?