Showing posts with label #bigread12. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 April 2012

The Sabbath #Bigread12 Blog Post

Easter Tuesday Mark 2.23-27 #BigRead12 with @minidvr

APRIL 10, 2012 BY BIGBIBLE LEAVE A COMMENT

The Sabbath:

In this passage Jesus and his disciples are seen to be picking ears of corn [1]and eating them on the Sabbath. Something which those who hated them, criticised them for it being illegal. Jesus makes the point very clearly that David, who was God’s annointed, had entered the temple with his soldiers while on the run from Saul, and had eaten the ‘Bread of thePresence’, which even the priests were forbidden to eat. Jesus is drawing our attention to his authority as the Son of God, who the rules of man should not be applied to. His quoted text says it all ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

Genisis 2:1-3 describes how God made the seventh day Holy, as a memorial to his creation which was ‘good’ and rested on the seventh day. We are commanded (as were the Jews) in Exodus 20:8 to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. But surely we should consider every day holy in the service of God, marking the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship of God. Which seems to me to be my interpretation of God’s intention and the reason behind the commandment.

Pondering on this, I think back to my childhood in the UK in the 1950s. In those days, Sunday was kept as the Sabbath, quite strictly. For many working people, it was the only day that they got relief from work for the week. Many attended worship in churches, shops were closed and only essential public services worked. Even those who didn’t go to church took advantage of the Sabbath and pursued leisure activities and sport. Sunday was time for rest, family and prayer, not always in that order. Public transport ran to a Sunday timetable, and pubs and entertainment establishments had very restricted hours. If you lived in a remote community, Sunday was definitely not the day to have a mini-crisis to run out of milk, to break down. Nothing would happen until Monday morning. It was slightly different in more urban communitities, but even here things were closed and the Sabbath was observed to a great extent.

Now, some 60 years later, an enormous transformation has happened. The Sabbath is only observed by those who practice a religious faith. Sunday has been swallowed up in the busyness of life lived in a 24/7 economy. This way of life is common to both rural and urban communities. Shops are free to open for restricted, but fairly long hours. Pubs and entertainment establishments can operate 24 hours in some places and secular work is a norm. Even those who observe the Sabbath, are expected to work if thier employer requires it, or risk losing their job. It seems that society has bowed down the mammon and has allowed secular past times and activities to become more important than those who observe the Sabbath.

I remember in the last 2 years of my working life, I became a Christian. I had quite happily worked innumerable Sabbath’s, but something had changed. Jesus had become my Saviour and I had a new set of rules to live out and to live by. All of a sudden, Sunday became precious. It was the time that I could dedicate to worship, family and leisure. In that last two years, I only worked on 2 Sundays, where it could not be avoided, but only if a dispensation was made that I could have time off to attend worship. Conflict could have ensued, others who had to work, could have said that I was given preferential treatment. But somehow God’s grace didn’t allow this to happen. Those who I worked with having been surprised by my conversion, graciously allowed me the time and space to grow and to develop as a Christian and to practice my faith, which I had proclaimed openly in the work place.

I wonder how often that would happen in other work places? I’m not sure, because I continually read of employers not being ‘faith’ friendly and that reasonable accommodation is not being made for people of any faith to practice their religion freely and in accordance with their conscience.

I don’t blame those employers or people who refuse to contemplate that Christianity or any other faith should be a special case, they after all, are as entitled to their views as we are in ours. But it just seems that something has been lost in the transformation and change of the last 50 years or so. That sense of graciousness, of consideration and compassion for others, displayed by my work colleagues towards me, has been lost in many places. It has been subborned to the busyness of life, of the individual and their rights and the pursuit of wealth and personal happiness, not matter what the cost to our souls.

I wonder if it will ever be regained without a wholesale infusion of the Holy Spirit into people’s lives. I pray for it daily.

[1]Image Ear of Corn http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/ear-corn.html

FILED UNDER: BIGREAD TAGGED WITH: #BIGREAD12, GOSPEL OF MARK, REFLECTION

Thursday, 22 March 2012

#digidisciple post 10 Mar 2010

Originally posted at the The Big Bible Project on 10 Mar 2010

http://bigbible.org.uk/2012/03/week-2-saturday-10th-march-2012-john-213-22-bigread12/#comments

Week 2 Saturday 10th March 2012 : John 2:13-22 #bigread12

MARCH 10, 2012 BY ERNIE FEASEY 3 COMMENTS

Jesus Clears the Temple

Jesus Clears the Temple.[1]

Reading these passage today, I can imagine the scene as Jesus strides through the temple frontage, knocking over tables, whirling the whip around his head and flailing around with it. Haranging those who had brought his ‘Fathers House’ down from a sacred space to a market place. Reading between the lines, it wasn’t just usary and moneychanging that was going on, possibly other, less salubrious transactions also took place in this central meeting place for the people of Jerusalem, Pilgrims and Visitors alike. I have a vision of a wild eyed, longhaired, bearded, man shouting and flailing around with the whip at all and sundry. Nobody escaping his wrath. Putting it into context, if this happened today, say at the entrance of St Paul’s Cathedral, imagine the response. Consternation, panic and rapid calls to the Police to come and round up this unruly interloper. I wonder if anyone would take the time to stop and ask him why he was so angy? The common cockney response would perhaps be “e’s got a bee under his bonnet, lets get out of his way”. There’s a more serious underlying message as Jesus goes onto answer his challengers by telling them to “Knock this temple down and I will rebuild it in three days”(John 2:13-20). He was of course alluding to his own death on the cross and the resurrection to come, his disciples listened and remembered this later.

I have pondered this in the light of the recent events concerning the Occupy London Stock Exchange Movement (@OccupyLSX) and the relatively peaceful occupation of the churchyard at the front of St Paul’s Cathedral. They came in peace, they came to protest. Jesus came to pray and was driven to protest by what he saw going on in the temple. The occupy protesters were seeking change in how our whole financial system is managed, at how unfair and immoral some of their business practices are considered to be. Jesus protested against the defilement of ‘His Father’s House’ by what was going on. Two seemingly different agenda’s, but linked. In the eyes of the occupy protesters (and many others) the whole financial services industry has defiled our culture and society. They’ve brought great hardship and suffering to many, not just their industry, but world wide, where the ‘credit crunch’ and its after effects will be felt for many years to come. The financial institutions meanwhile seem in denial and carry on regardless, even continuing to pay obscene bonuses, metaphorically, spitting in the face of anyone who dares to criticise them.

Ultimately, Jesus was crucified by those who hated him. He died, but rose again with the promise of new life and hope for us all. This promise and hope which we hold to, provides the inspiration for change of heart, mind, transformation of lives. In some way, the motives of the occupy protesters were aligned with this. They wanted change, transformation of a system unfit for purpose. They wanted new hope for everyone, that fairness and transparency and ethical behaviour would be introduced either by government or through their highlighting the shame of those responsible for the mess they created.

Now, Jesus is alive again, he lives in and with us all of the time. His name is called on and blessed. The Holy Spirit works in us and in the wider world. Occupy has been challenged, sued, moved on, but their spirt is unbowed. They will keep on campaigning for the things contained in the Gospel stories, New hope, new life and doing what we do for the greater benefit of all, not for a narrow minority.

Jesus and @OccupyLSX have much in common.

[1]Image of Christ in the Templehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Driving_the_Money_Changers_from_the_Temple_(El_Greco,_Washington)