John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

Bartimaeus - Believing is seeing

Believing is seeing.

Approaching life through the eyes of faith gives a very different, privileged perspective.

Believing is seeing.

The believer is one whose eyes are opened to the world in a whole new way.

Believing is seeing.

You don’t even need the use of your eyes to know this.

For the blind beggar Bartimaeus, believing was seeing. 

By faith, Bartimaeus ‘saw’ that Jesus would have mercy on him, he believed that Jesus would restore his vision, he believed he would be healed....

 

- from my talk today, Bartimaeus - Believing is seeing.

 

The High Priest of Melchizedek - hero for our times?

... Steve Kloves, one of the films’ screenwriters, discussed why the Harry Potter films appeal so much to their vast worldwide audiences, and surprisingly he did not mention the wondrous sets and fantastic visuals, he spoke about their deeper appeal: ‘The thing about Potter is that it’s very earnest about expressions of things like loyalty, courage and redemption. Audiences were hungry for that’

Which suggests that beneath the thrill of fantasy films and games, those who take part in them and consume them are hoping to find something deeper in the scenarios they engage in, the characters they embrace. Values which they can take from the stories and develop in their ordinary lives, away from the screen.

Maybe some will find their search for deeper values met by Jesus the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, if we tell them about him. They will certainly find something unique. For of all the heroes of scripture, Jesus plays to a different set of rules. Though the writer of Hebrews pronounced him the future King of kings or Messiah, in the line of David, Jesus didn’t come as a king or rule as a messiah. 

The High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek  is not a cleric militant, not a crusader advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and magic. Mark’s gospel makes clear to us that though Jesus has these powers he uses them in a unique way. He is the king who came ‘not to be served but to serve’; he is the messiah who ‘gave his life a ransom for many’. 

Jesus breaks the mold. He breaks the rules. If he was a character in an online game he would melt the computer down because he just would not co-operate with the rules of engagement. This is the great appeal of Jesus the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, not so much his absolute holy power, but the way he refuses to use it in violence on others. His self-giving love breaks the cycle of death. Only he can do this. This is very good news in a world of violence, whose online games, TV dramas and big-screen fantasies catch us all in a web from which it seems there is no escape - where we are consigned to play out endless battles, over and over again, to gain and regain power of different sorts. 

- a sermon about interpreting Jesus to people engaged in the world of fantasy: The High Priest of Melchizedek - hero for our times?

Living in an age of Job

... I suggest that the age we are living in is an age of Job. For in this age we struggle between the idea of a God who imposes suffering as a punishment or a test, and the intuition is that there is another sort of God altogether. Or if not a God, then at least another way of being human. 

Our enquiring minds and intuitive faith are healing the sores of Job. If humans had persevered in the belief of Job's friends, if they had continued to persecute victims each time someone suffered misfortune among them or each time they themselves suffered misfortune, then our enlightened sciences, technologies, judicial, political and social systems would not have flourished. René Girard says, ‘They would never have invented medicine if, faced with the sores of Job, they had persevered in the idea that he was justly punished and that it would thwart God to try to heal him.’ 

The age of Job we live in, is an age in tension, between primitive and enlightened ideas about suffering. Endless tabloid debates about the pros and cons of the welfare benefit system illustrate this tension clearly. And the forthcoming inquiry into the policing of the Hillsborough tragedy means an end to the victimisation of those who suffered - the families and friends of those who died, who for 23 years have been scapegoated for those events. Now those who were responsible for that suffering are being called on to make amends.

Which brings us back to Jesus, calling on the rich man to make amends for the suffering he has brought on others, as justified by his persecuting God. ...

With help from René Girard, at last, a sermon towards making some sense of the suffering of the Hillsborough families, and the mechanics and theology which underlay it: The rich man's God or the God of the victims?

Touching the suffering

We tend to avoid the thorny questions which surface when we encounter people are suffering. Perhaps because on an intellectual level we really can’t find the answers. And on an emotional level the questions that surface disturb us. 

In our hearts, when we encounter suffering, we find ourselves questioning God - feeling the weight of the sort of questions which the story of Job raises. Why should a good man suffer? Where is God when it hurts? Would God let a person struggle just to test them? Has God really got any power to heal or to save? How can he let Satan manipulate him? Why does he seem to hide?

We’re uncomfortable with these sort of questions because they shake our faith to the core. We struggle to find answers to them. But be encouraged by the way that Jesus turned his back on the intellectual, theological debate of the moment to embrace those who brought their children to him - the struggling ones, the suffering ones. Jesus was touched by these people, and he touched them. Not with answers to satisfy the troubled mind, but with an embrace and a blessing to soothe the troubled heart.

And that is what society’s suffering ones most want - someone to embrace them, to take them in their arms, to offer them a blessing. When we make ourselves available to someone who is suffering we realise that their terrifying questions remain - and so they should - but we also find that they find blessing through our acceptance of them and though our listening to the cries of their hearts. 

So please be encouraged in your care for those who are suffering - don’t fear their questions, don’t worry about finding the right answers to satisfy them. Just embrace them, knowing that Jesus will always be with you in that moment of embrace, saying, "the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." 

From today's talk, Touching the suffering.