John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

No sacrifice necessary - The Lord will provide

... In the present predicament our world is in, it’s not inappropriate to say that we need to lose our grasp of the idol of sacrifice which we still hold onto, all Abraham’s descendants in our different ways, and to be open to recognising that our God - Abraham’s God - demands no sacrifices from us: no sacrifices from Zionist freedom-fighters, no sacrifices from Christian boy soldiers, no sacrifices from jihadist suicide-bombers. We need to open our eyes to the revelation that comes from the cross of Calvary: that the rhetoric of sacrifice is a form of abuse.

Recognising that our God - Abraham’s God - asks only that we offer the the holy gift of humble hearts and lives dedicated to his Way of love: this is not provide direct answers to the terrible - and increasingly hardening - conflicts between the three world faiths who each have roots in Abraham; but it does offer us a different direction in which, like Abraham and Isaac, we can choose to walk. ...

Or as Leonard Cohen puts it, 

You who build these altars now

to sacrifice these children,

you must not do it anymore.

 - from No sacrifice necessary - The Lord will provide, my talk today

The Baptised are not a family

... Family loyalty was at the cultural and religious heart of the society to which Jesus belonged. Family was seen as holding society together - but scripture revealed the unpalatable reality, that in the normal way of things, families have a habit of falling apart. 

Looking at today’s world, does that sound familiar? You will each know of stories about families at war internally, families fighting other families, people cast out of families for stepping out of line. In poor inner-city parishes and in compact rural villages I’ve seen clan conflicts at work first hand, tearing communities apart. We all know the image of the vicious gangster who would in an instant mercilessly beat anyone who crossed him, paradoxically in awe of his beloved old Mum, to whom he is devoted, it’s a stereotype based on many real-life figures. And to those stories of people being forever excluded when they marry someone of whom their family disapproves, we may add the more subtle and gradual exclusion experienced by people with creeping dementia, finding as the affliction develops and their memories of the family fade, so the family forgets to include them, fails to visit, leaves them - in their neediest time - alone.

So Jesus distanced himself from society’s so-called Family Values. He would not make an idol of the family, as the rest of society had. ...

- from today's talk, The Baptised are not a family.

Trinity Sunday: Things Come in Threes

... There's The Andrews Sisters; 

There's ITV, Sky and the BBC; 

There's the Three Bears who met with Goldilocks: 

Things come in threes. 

 

There's the triple jump, 

There's the stumps on a cricket wicket, 

There's the lines on a bingo card: 

Things come in threes.

 

Notice how poor England face three in Football’s World Cup: Italy, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.

And God comes in threes, as we well know by now. And today on Trinity Sunday we celebrate the way that our lives are blessed by the Father, our creator, the Son, our Saviour, and the Spirit, who is with us now connecting us to God. ...

- from one of my favourite sermons, which changes a little every time: Trinity Sunday: Things Come in Threes.

 

On 'being one' in a world of religious hostility

... The strong-hostile identity, and the weak-benign identity - both forms of unity we can recognise, perhaps especially the latter, which is sometines celebrated as being one of the attractions of the Church of England - that we’re all-embracing, self-effacing, polite and restrained in the way we express our faith. But as we know, politeness only goes so far. In the US sitcom The Big Bang Theory this week the agnostic scientist Sheldon has an argument with his bible-believing mother about a wrong she committed. His mother asks Sheldon if he can forgive her, and after giving it some thought he replies, “I’ll condemn you internally while maintaining an outward appearance of acceptance.” “That’s very Christian of you,” is her response.

Unity based on a weak-benign identity doesn’t go too deep. And unity based on a strong-hostile identity just perpetuates hostility. In fact, in either camp it’s not just outsiders who suffer hostility - insiders who break ranks soon feel the force of the group’s disapproval or condemnation. 

I’ve thrilled to read the theologian Brian D. McLaren on this subject, for he proposes a radical, third way in which we can find unity - in a strong and benevolent identity. Strong - meaning firm in our faith, rooted in scripture and confident in God; and benevolent - meaning open to others, insiders of our group or outsiders, in unaffected generosity of spirit. He is clear that this is God’s intention for us. ...

From today's talk, Being One 'as we are one'. With a great deal of thanks to Brian D. McLaren.