The Rectory Window

To be with him (3:14) Have you noticed how people naturally imitate others? We pick up strong accents, copy body language, and imitate mannerisms. When I worked for a London church as a toilet cleaner, I noticed how all the senior staff started to sound just like the church's famous preacher. At the time I found it amusing but now it just seems natural. When Jesus draws his disciples to himself it is with a similar intention. As he travels, speaks, heals, and suffers and dies he wants them with him so they have an example to follow. When we read these stories we often focus on the people Jesus meets, forgetting those he always has with him, who are his main concern. Is it wrong to imitate another? Well, if it involves pretending to be someone you're not I'm not sure it's at all wise. But to imitate Christ is to become more yourself, not less. I'm not sure quite how that works but there's something about gazing on the likeness of God that sets us free to be the p

Those he wanted (3:13) We all want to get selected for the team. It goes back to lining up on the school playground wall while the captains choose. Oh not to be last! I was last once - new school and me skinny and shy. It didn't feel nice and I cannot imagine what it is like to be always the unpicked one. With Jesus it wasn't anything like this bad. He chose a few out of many, so the unselected were in a significant majority. Still, it must have been nice to be chosen. That is until you realised quite what you were chosen for. To lead the future church, for sure, but also, with a lone exception, to die a martyr's death. That's why it was a high mountain. No wonder Judas opted out. You see, to go up a high mountain is to make the ascent to God - to chose to put God above all else. As the Psalmist writes, 'lead me to the mountain that is higher than I', take me to the place where my own concerns disappear in the face of the call of God. This is the test for all vo

Strict orders (3:12) Am I alone in being attracted to the flouting of petty rules? Those sad little 'no turning in the drive' notices make me itch for a reason to do a u-turn. And those seemingly endless 'do not touch', 'do not walk', 'do not park' 'do not look' (?) notices you get in city parks and streets produce new ambitions I never knew I had. It makes me realise that, when it comes to rules, most of us need to know the why in order to keep them properly. That's why the 70 mph motorway speed limit is so often flouted. On some motorways it is too fast for safety, but on an empty road in a modern car it is too restrictive. The why is arbitrary and deep down we all know it. So why does Jesus silence those he heals. Is it to avoid even bigger crowds? Possibly but the secret seems to be out. It is more likely to be who they would tell and how those people would use it. He does not want the authorities to have a reason to destroy him, or to mi

They fell down (3:11) Here we seem to have what is called possession in modern mythology: an evil spirit has full control of a person's body. We know this because Mark describes the unclean spirit as falling down, when it must have been a human being actually grazing their knees on the ground.  I cannot pretend to find this an easy read and I have not come across anything like this myself. However I do have friends I trust who could tell a story or two, so I am loathe to reject it out of hand. I have read those learnėd commentaries that try and filter out all the less believable stuff in the gospels, but they are even less believable than the stuff they filter out, being founded on the 'we know better now' principle that would see Jesus turned into a rather pale imitation of Gandhi. No, I'm pretty sure we must deal with the text as it is, and either accept it or reject it wholesale, not cherry-pick the bits we like or find acceptable or fit our preferred reconstruction.

Pushing forward (3:10) I wonder if you have been following all the arguments about who gets the vaccine first. I can't say I've been meticulous about keeping up with it all but practically every time I turn on the radio or click on Facebook some group or other is arguing that they should push to the front of the queue. Now it seems to me that each and every one of them has a good reason to be getting the jab first, but that no one has tried to answer the obvious question: who should get it later? When you push to the front of a queue someone has to wait longer. Indeed in a queue for limited tickets, someone has to miss out altogether. That may not be much of a problem when it comes to a Duran Duran concert, but it's a bit more serious if it means someone misses out on life.  Now, it's not a time to sit in judgement. When food is offered to a starving crowd it is not surprising if everyone finds a good reason to get it first. We all long to get that vaccination soon, esp

Have a small boat ready (3:9) Jesus seems to have chosen a small boat so that only his inner circle could fit in. Now that's fascinating from a leadership perspective. Our tendency to gather as teams is easy to undervalue. It is how Jesus did it. Whenever the PCC or the elders, the board or the cabinet, get together on their own, we are following the example of Jesus. Gather your group, close the doors, and do together the hard work of learning, growing, deciding and planning.  Recognise the value of the close-knit inner circle in setting the pace for a whole community. Provided it is not a clique or coterie, provided it looks out and not in, it is part of God's plan for leading us into blessing.  Thank you!

When they heard (3:8) Have you heard about debt? Money is created in our society by debt. Every time a bank lends money for a mortgage, that money is created out of nothing. Every time money is leant to a business or an individual, that money is created out of nothing. By such means between 1960 and 2010 total debt has risen in the UK by nearly 24,000%, from £10 million to £2.4 trillion. In the UK people are paying nearly £200 million per day in debt repayment. And that was before the pandemic. It is not only banks that rely on debt to make a profit, but our whole society is founded on debt as a means of creating money.  Those of us not in debt are in an extremely privileged position. We may feel it is due to our wisdom or care, but it is more likely that it is merely a matter of when we were born. We bought a house that cost twice one normal wage and not six times a good wage. We went to university when we got a grant that covered all our costs, and not when the £9,000 fee was just th

Jesus withdrew (3:7) Rarely do Bishops get much praise, but I cannot keep quiet about the way our Bishop Karen has encouraged her clergy to follow the example of Jesus, and give themselves permission to withdraw.  Rest has for a long time seemed to me an essential test of faith. Only when we withdraw do we create a culture of believing in a God who acts in our world. Too often his people have lived as if God is a weakling that needs our efforts to keep going. When it comes to money we put programs above prayer. When it comes to mission we put work above faith. Jesus of course was hardly lazy, but he knew the value of stepping back and letting his heavenly father take the strain. Do we?

The Pharisees...began to plot (3:6) 'Why do the nations conspire against...the Messiah?' asks the psalmist, and here we have the answer: they plot against Jesus  because they hate what is good. They have every appearance of being upright, meticulously observing religious laws, and yet inside they love evil. And it only comes out when confronted by Jesus. I've occasionally found something similar. A person has seemed perfectly jolly and pleasant until they find out I'm a Christian and then a streak of nastiness has appeared from nowhere. The most revolting of stories, the most destructive of personal attacks, or the most anti-Christian sentiments all rise to the surface.  This has left me with the strong conviction that, as Paul puts it, 'our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against...all the powers of this dark world'. It seems that, just occasionally, this heavenly battle touches down into our everyday human experience, but that doesn't mean it is

Deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts (3:5) Caring hurts. It bends you and breaks you in ways you never thought possible. Sometimes we try and cover this up with too much work. Vicars fly around doing everything, trying to put salve on every cut, to give succour to every sorrow. Teachers spend every waking hour marking, preparing, educating. Managers lie awake at night worrying about redundancy, about low pay, about work-related stress. In this angst, we have a good example in Christ. He too is deeply distressed by others, but he deals with it differently. He feels just as strongly, nay more strongly, than us, yet remains at peace with his Father and at ease with his work. He does not avoid the challenge of confronting the stubborn, healing with a word, but there is no sign it overwhelms him as it can us.  How does he manage this? Well, I'd be interested to hear your answer, but I suggest three possible ways. First, he knows that his Father is in charge and trusts every step t

To save life, or to kill (3:4) 'Which is lawful' Jesus asks, 'to do good or to do evil?'. In their response it's clear the Pharisees haven't had any political training. Rather than answering a different question at great length, they simply remain silent. I came across this phenomenon of 'enhanced hypocrisy' quite recently in a brilliant podcast called Americast. The interviewers were asking an American Republican politician about the disputed election and whether he now accepted that Joe Biden had won the election. His reply commented that a large number of the electorate remained concerned about the reliability of the election. When the interviewer noted this was not an answer to the question, that there had been 60 failed court cases, and there was no evidence whatsoever of fraud, and pointed out his responsibility as a leader to guide a mistaken electorate, he noted that there had been disputes about how the election was run. When the interviewer not

They remained silent (3:3) In London, a young curate wrote a very ill-considered tweet. It appeared to be an attack on the nation's favourite son, Captain Tom, and drew vicious and malicious criticism. Read with a little more care, it was more an attack on the way such figures as Captain Tom can be used to bolster a very one-sided view of English culture. Indeed it was rather endearing about Captain Tom himself, though, being a tweet, it was distinctly lacking in the necessary nuance such a comment requires.  It received a stinging and public rebuke from his pastoral overseers, which lacked the nuance essential to bringing calm and left him entirely exposed to the trolls, both public and private. While his friends rallied round, it has left others of us gasping as to what to do. Do we speak or do we remain silent? To speak is to risk exposure to the worst elements of our culture, as well as putting us on the wrong side of our own legitimate authority figures. But to remain silent l

Stand up in front of everyone (3:3) Does anyone else find this strange? Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, Jesus says about good deeds, and then goes and does one in about as public a place as possible. Well, I guess if you dig a bit deeper, Jesus was talking about the good deed of giving money, so the parallel is not exact, but it still feels odd. It is almost like he is showing off, and no one likes a show off, do they? Well, Jesus is showing off. He's showing off the man's healing. This is important for the man's well-being. He is trying to appeal to their compassion, so that they will not take their anger with Jesus out on him. But he is also showing off their hard-heartedness to all. They are like whitewashed graves. Attractive on the outside, with their careful keeping if the law, but inside full of putrefaction, of rotting flesh, happy to see someone suffer just to make a point. Sometimes we need our true selves revealed, 'shown off'

Looking for a reason to accuse (3:2) The ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness, is often translated as 'do not lie', with good reason. Jesus is particularly hot on not lying, calling the devil the father of lies. Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, uses the concept of absolute honesty to explain his idea of an essence or foundation to morality. However, absolute honesty is also the subject of simple humour, such as Jim Carrey's film Liar, Liar, which suggests there is some element of nuancing when it comes to telling the truth, and the ninth commandment is no exception. It is set within the context of a court of law, so the truth-telling here is connected to its consequence. If it - not telling the truth - gets you out of trouble or, more significantly, someone else into trouble, then don't do it. It is a ban on 'it wasn't me' not on 'that's a beautiful dress'.  So when the Pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, even if t

A  man with a shrivelled hand was there (3:1) John Wimber once said  'Don't trust a leader who doesn't walk with a limp'. He was referring to the story of Jacob's wrestling with God, where, after an all-night struggle, God touches the tendon on Jacob's hip, so that from that time onward he always walked with a limp. Jacob, now Israel, is humbled by his encounter with God, changed, and made ready to lead not just a family but a tribe.  I think we can often see our visible scars of suffering as a weakness, but it is clear God sees them as a strength - 'my strength is made perfect in weakness' as Paul hears Jesus say. Even Paul, until then, had not fully grasped that God's grace was sufficient. And this is why anyone who wishes to lead in God's church must walk with a limp, for only then do they and those they serve know that they are not trying to do things on their own. In the aftermath of their struggle they know that God's grace is enough to

The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (2:28) I glibly read this as Jesus claiming authority over the sabbath day of rest, which of course it is, and miss the importance its relation to the verse before. Jesus states that 'the sabbath came out of human beings (ανθρωπον) not human beings out of the sabbath so the son of human beings is Lord also of the sabbath'. Thus hidden in a rather subtle play on words is a deeper claim, to be the source of the sabbath, to be its creator, to be God. At school, a rather smart friend of mine tried to undermine my faith by telling me that Jesus never claimed to be God. I was flummoxed for a while, but, in my own typical fashion, the unanswered question sat in the back of my mind for years. Later it helped me to read the Gospels with great care, and I discovered to my great encouragement that Jesus claimed to be God everywhere: the forgiver of all sins (God), the calmer of chaotic waters (God), the great I Am (God) and here, Lord of the Sabb