Whose side are you on?

This is a different way of looking at Mark 3:20-35 (cf: https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/a-difficult-reading-prejudice-mark-320-35) – variations of it were used in St. Martin, Droylsden, St. James’ and St. Peter’s, Ashton-under-Lyne on 7th June 2015, the first Sunday after Trinity. ….

So, ….. whose side are you on?

In our house over the last fortnight, there have been very different emotions experienced by my wife Jo and I.  Jo supports Wycombe Wanderers, the local team from where she grew up in High Wycombe.  They’ve had their highs and lows as a team, and this season spent most of it in the automatic promotion spots at the top of league two.  But at the end, they ended up 4^th and had to face the play offs.  They reached Wembley where they played Southend. They played well, but sadly for Jo, they were defeated in a penalty shoot out 7-6.

On the other hand, I support Arsenal! So last Saturday was wonderful! A 4-0 win in the FA Cup Final! Many of you will know that I was born in Manchester, lived in Hull, Essex and Norfolk as a child before moving back to Manchester when I was 18. So why support Arsenal? It was about saving my bacon. A large group of boys in the school made it very clear to me in a school playground in Braintree in Essex, that unless I shed my allegiance to Hull City and started supporting Arsenal, there would be serious consequences! So reluctantly I agreed, and that year Arsenal won the league and cup double! It was 1971!

For many, choosing who you support is a serious thing. So who do you support?  Man City?  Man United?  Chelsea?  Liverpool?  ………………………..

How did you decide who to support?

Now, you might not think that the Bible has much in common with football, but the Gospel reading for the first Sunday after Trinity is all about choosing sides and about people trying to score against one another!

In the story, the scribes are the religious experts from Jerusalem and they want to know whose side Jesus is on:  God’s or the devil’s?  Jesus argues that everything he does is good:  he’s curing sickness and getting rid of evil spirits so if he were on the devil’s side he’d be scoring own goals!  It’s surely obvious that he’s on God’s side.

What about us?  Are we on the same side as Jesus? Check out what he says at the end of the reading: ‘Whoever does God’s will is my mother, my brother, my sister – you are my family?  So what does this mean?  What do we need to do to be on Jesus’ side and belong to his family?

If I just start wearing the football kit and the team scarf of my football team and if I know the rules of football – does this make me a good supporter of my football team?

Of course not!  What do I have to do?

It’s about staying loyal, even if my team loses or is relegated.  It means actively supporting my team by watching matches and cheering them on.m I’m sure there is more as well that makes someone a loyal supporter.

If I wear a cross, own a Bible and watch Songs of Praise, does that make me a Christian, on God’s side?

No!  To be on God’s side, we need to believe in him, even when things are not going well. It means doing what God wants by behaving in a loving, caring, forgiving way towards others.

So, are you on God’s side, on Jesus’ side?  Jesus invites us all to be on his side.  Whoever we are and whatever we have done, he calls us to come and join him – all we have to do is choose to start following him and living in the way that he shows us.

On 1st Sunday after Trinity this year the lectionary asks churches to read Mark 3:20-35 as the Gospel reading. This is a difficult reading, full of quite strange concepts and ideas. How should we read a passage like this?

How are we to understand the accusation of the pharisees/scribes? What on earth is a sin against the Holy Spirit? Why do Jesus family think that he has gone mad? Why does Jesus seem to reject his family in favour of his followers?

I’m not sure that a direct answer to some of these questions is possible. Trying to answer them all would mean a very lengthy post. However, I think we can engage with some of the issues raised. To help, please read the following passage from Bishop Tom Wright in his book ‘Mark for Everyone’ published by SPCK in 2001 (ISBN: 0-281-05300-6), p36-38:

“From the safety of my armchair, I watched the mass demonstration on the TV news. It started peacefully, at least on the surface. Banners and placards gave out a strong message, but the crowd seemed relaxed enough. The police were standing well back, watching for trouble but quite cheerful. Some even joked with the marchers as they went by. … Suddenly everything changed. A whole section of the crowd stopped marching and started shouting at the police. Some threw bottles. The police charged the demonstrators swinging batons at random. The battle quickly spread up and down the street, shops were smashed and hundreds were arrested.

Close up TV shots and recordings made at the time, made it clear what had happened. The police had decided that the demonstrators were ‘scum’. The demonstrators had decided that the police were ‘pigs’. Once they had labelled them like that, they could do what they liked. They were no longer dealing with humans, but with animals and dirty ones at that Raise the stakes, stick a label on people and then it does not matter what you do or who you hurt.

That’s what seems to be going on as word about Jesus spreads to Jerusalem. …… This passage is a powerful witness to the remarkable things Jesus was doing. The early church certainly didn’t make up the story about people thinking Jesus was mad or in league with the devil. People only say that kind of thing when the stakes are raised, when something is happening for which there is no other explanation. ….The scribes don’t like what Jesus is doing because it does not fit into their categories. Jesus isn’t accredited. He must therefore be sidelined. He must be labelled in such a way that people will no longer take him seriously.. He must, they say be in league with the archdemon Beelzebul. … That would explain it; and it would also justify them doing anything they wanted to control him, to contain him, perhaps to silence him for ever.

So, what are we to make of this passage in Mark?

Jesus does not lash back in anger against the scribes and Pharisees. He doe not stigmatise them or label them. Rather, he points out the error in their thinking. Jesus claims that in what he is doing, God’s kingdom is arriving.

It is so easy to stereotype and to categorise. It is so easy to be prejudiced.

When we stigmatise others for living in a particular place, or for the colour of their skin, or for their faith, our society has crossed a rubicon. The same rubicon crossed by Hitler and the Nazi party when it stigmatised Jews. The same rubicon we cross if we lump people from the Indian subcontinent into one group and start calling them names or blaming them for the ills around us.

Once the Pharisees/scribes had demonised Jesus, they were free to do anything, even to kill him. They could justify murder or collusion in murder. Jesus says that this is the worst of sins, unforgiveable in a way that nothing else is, because it takes what is good and calls it evil. Its ultimate end is what happened to Jesus – his death at the jealous hands of the authorities. This demonising, categorising, stereotyping is a sin against the Holy Spirit.

Jesus actions were good, but because he had been given a category and a name, those good actions were only seen through prejudiced eyes. So he was killed by those he came to save.

We need to beware our own prejudices. They are the most destructive and evil of our instincts. When we persist in them, and choose to continue to think within them, we cannot be forgiven. To receive forgiveness, however, all we need to do is repent. We need to turn away fromour prejudices and ask God’s help to begin to relate to all people as human beings.

Today is often a day when clergy seek to try to explain the Trinity. Usually we end up struggling to avoid heresy as we look for images which aid understanding. It seems to me that perhaps the most important part of the doctrine of the Trinity is that the Godhead is made up of three persons in eternal relationship. A relationship that has been broken only once, at the cross. Three persons, one God, eternally united by love. So it seems good that one of the readings set for today is the quintessential passage about the love of God explained by Jesus to Nicodemus – John 3:1-17.

What would your favourite phrase about love be?

What about……. ‘Love covers a multitude of sins’. ‘Love changes everything’? …  Any suggestions? ………….

I came across this story sometime ago now:

A technician was preparing a photograph of a beautiful woman for a reprint. He found this inscription on the back of the original:

“My dearest Tommy: I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you for ever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.” …………………. PS: “If we should ever break up, I want this picture back.”

This story, while it might make us smile, is actually quite sad – for in our society today ‘Love’ sometimes  seems to be something temporary. We talk of ‘romance’; about falling in love, and falling out of love. Love is – taking her out for dinner, love is  – bringing him chocolates. Love is – about red roses, and pink Valentine cards; about moonlit walks, and about good feelings. But broken relationships seem now to be almost normal, and so many of us need healing from the pain that relationships cause.

We long for relationships where we are accepted just as we are. No questions asked. Yet, it’s really hard work to stay with someone whose habits annoy you; when at times arguments seem to be the norm. Love inevitably has to move beyond romance – it has to be about commitment. We need to be able to learn to say: “I promised to love you and cherish you, and I really do – despite the difficulties we sometimes face.”

Christians talk about ‘fellowship’ or ‘brotherly/sisterly love’. And when we experience that love from other Christians it is special. But even Christian love is never perfect – and we can still be demanding and self-serving.

The truth is, that whether we talk of fellowship, or of romantic love – however good our relationships are – we are often left hurt and disappointed in our relationships.

John 3:16 says:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This verse tells us that it was God’s love that caused God the Father to send hGod the Son into the world, to live alongside us and ultimately to die for us. It tells us something of the depth and the scope of God’s love. It finishes by emphasising the need for us to respond:

“Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The depth and breadth of God’s love cannot but provoke a response. It is the Cross that provides the central focus of that love. The death of God’s Son. The place where the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is torn apart for love of us. The place where God takes into God’s very self all the pain and evil of our world.

It is the Cross which defines our faith. For at the Cross, the God we believe in chose vulnerability over invincibility. At the Cross, God the Son emptied himself of all power and authority – as St. Paul writes in Philippians:

‘Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.’

Our salvation, our relationship with God was secured not by an exercise of power, but by an exercise of submission. Christ first identified with our humanity and by doing so hallowed this world and all human existence and then submitted himself to destruction through human jealousy and rage. Love which suffered everything so that we might be drawn back within God=s loving arms of mercy. The mystery of the Cross is that there Love died so that love might live and triumph.  And it is also the image of the Love that we are called to show – where we are prepared to be vulnerable rather than seeking power and control in our relationships.

At the Cross, God’s self giving love is expressed more clearly than anywhere else. ‘This is love’, says the Bible, ‘not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to die for us’. This is love that has sacrificed all for us, love that holds us fast and sure when we struggle with doubt and fear. But more than that, this is love that gently calls us to love, that encourages us to give of ourselves vulnerably to others, love which calls us to identify with the world around us, love which gently suggests that no sacrifice that we can make is too great. For the true measure of sacrificial love is not that shown by our neighbour, but that shown at the Cross.

So when we share Communion together we take the opportunity again to identify with Christ’s suffering. We take into ourselves the symbols of his love, the bread – his body broken, the wine – his blood shed. And we recognise that at the Cross we find love in its fullness, love beyond description:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”