Behaving well ....

I am often quite keen to admit the moments when something embarrassing has happened to me. Perhaps the most relevant or even significant was when I was seven years old and a bridesmaid at my cousins wedding. The petticoat I was wearing was very itchy and being a child I realised that I needed to sort this out. I decided to wait until people were praying as, in my thinking, they would all have their eyes closed at the time. So I took the opportunity and made life more comfortable. Of course people didn’t all have their eyes closed and noticed the bridesmaid lifting up her dress even though they were supposed to be praying! Apparently this was not the correct behaviour !! 

The readings for this Sunday spoke about correct behaviour and people trying to catch each other out. In the gospel reading Luke 14:1; 7-14 we read of Jesus being watched very closely. He had been invited to a meal by the leader of the Pharisees, who along with the other Pharisees watched Jesus closely.

Now, I often worry about etiquette and people watching me so I don’t embarrass myself. This is worse, these Pharisees were watching Jesus. They wanted to see what He would do. They wanted to make sure that they had some more evidence on Jesus and His behaviour. They seemed to be most concerned with how Jesus behaved. Jesus turned all their thoughts and plans on their heads, as He pointed out the appropriate and inappropriate behaviour that was happening. 

Firstly, to save embarrassment for others He made the point that you shouldn’t put yourself at the place of honour, after all you wouldn’t want to be moved to a lower place. It wouldn’t do your ego much good. Then Jesus gave another example, as He explained that the invitees to a dinner shouldn’t be the people you would normally expect, but rather those who are different, those in need.

I love the film ‘Amazing grace’ which tells the story of William Wilberforce who felt called to change the world by treating others as Jesus would. Wilberforce, the great social reformer, is seen in one scene of the film explaining to his cook that there would be more people at dinner. These people were rather different to the people who would normally be seen in a home such as the one Wilberforce lived in. They were people who were in need of food and friendship. The meal, when it is shown is a right mix of people. A rather motley group. They are shown to be having such a lot of fun.

I think the dinner Jesus describes, where you would invite those who normally wouldn’t be part of the expected guest list, sounds both fun and a huge challenge. After all, the unexpected can happen when we do things outside of the norm.

This all couples well with the epistle reading (Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16) where the readers of the letter are reminded, as we are, to not neglect to show hospitality. Then making a link with Abraham and the three strangers (Gen. 18:2) there was a reminder that you may be welcoming angels. 

This is a good reminder and it is also a bit of an incentive - after all you could end up hosting someone very important. This though would not be the true hospitality that Jesus was thinking of, when He said to invite those who could not repay you. 

When we do this, when we show love to others, when we reach out to those who seem to be on the edge, well, surprises can happen. Of course, we all know really that when God is involved the surprises are far outside all we could expect. The surprises may be something as simple as just knowing that you have learnt something from sharing with someone totally different to you.

Jesus wasn’t caught out by the judging of His behaviour. He caught people out with a challenge about what it is to follow Him. Social conventions are good, but breaking the mould as we preach about Jesus, His love and challenge to follow Him is much better.

Voices everywhere .....

There are lots of different voices speaking in our lives. Usually in August the world of politics is quiet. This  year is rather different. After all, we are hearing the voices of two people who are standing for election by the Conservative party as their new leader.  Our new prime minister. I wonder how real the voice will be when in power. Will views have changed ? Will there be a different focus ?

These are the questions that we can only ponder. In the readings for this Sunday Jeremiah 1:4-10; Hebrews 12:18-29;  Luke 13:10-17 we read of different voices and a response to them. In the reading from Jeremiah we read about the call of Jeremiah to speak God’s word. 

The reading begins with God calling Jeremiah and there is an exchange of words as God explains to Jeremiah that He has known him since conception. God had appointed Jeremiah in the womb. To be fair from the point of view of Jeremiah, this is the type of voice which says that you have a job to do. A job that has been set out before your birth.  Just a slight moment for Jeremiah to feel that he has been caught out, and of course perhaps in his state of almost denial he decides that it makes sense to reason with God.  

So many vocation stories since have gone this way - ‘God can’t be calling me’, ‘you made a mistake God’. Of course for Jeremiah he had to accept that God knew what Jeremiah was doing. The final voice in the passage is that of God who puts His words into the mouth of Jeremiah.

In the reading from Hebrews we can see that there is a call back to grace. By contrasting the meeting of Moses the law giver with the wonderful news of a a joyful mount Zion or to put it another way, heaven. We are reminded that we are called by grace. The grace of God means that we can live freely in the love that God gives. However, this only comes by acceptance of Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. The old way of the law was gone, now the only way to accept Jesus and experience grace is to listen to His word, to turn to Him and accept Him.

There is a theme happening with voices here. The theme is that we need to listen to the voice of God. The experience of Jeremiah and countless others who tried to reason with God shows that the voice of God always wins. This is what make the gospel reading quite such a surprise. 

In the gospel reading, we read about Jesus healing the woman who had been suffering for 18 years.   There is another exchange of voices here. Jesus tells the woman she has been healed. The leader of the synagogue trying to keep order makes the point that there are other days for healing. The sabbath is really not the appropriate day. It is a day of rest not for work. Two voices, the one signals freedom the other signals freedom but only within strict guidelines. The more reasonable voice, that of Jesus, makes the point that we can put up our own barriers in an attempt to make things better when actually what is best is listening to the voice that cuts through the barriers we create as we turn to Him.

The voice of God , bringing freedom, showing love, calling us back to Him is the only voice we need. Back to politics, well who knows what will happen but the most important bit for each of us is that we turn to God listen to His voice and put Him first, this is the voice that wins. 

And the Psalm (71:1-6) helps us with this as it reminds us that in the midst of different voices we have a refuge and a shelter who will always protect us as we turn to Him. Like the Psalmist may our prayer always be to our refuge, our God and His love, our hope. 

A bit about me ...

 To start this blog off I am going to introduce myself. My name is Helen. I am an ordained priest in the Church in Wales. I was ordained deacon in 2009 and priest in 2010. I am a tutor at St.Padarn's Theological Training Institute. I am Welsh, and I love singing, rugby, reading, spending time with my family and worshipping God. These blogs are just going to be my ramblings about the coming week's lectionary readings. They are to help me reflect on the passages and I hope that they do the same for you.