The main thing 2012
Every 3 or 4 years all the clergy in the Diocese go on clergy school, and this last week Coventry was invaded by the clergy of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, eager to learn. In one of the sessions we had an afternoon out to the Church of St Martin in the Bullring in Birmingham – that church is centred as the name suggests in the Bullring surrounded by a huge shopping centre and also the big and famous Rag Market. The position that church is in is, in many ways, a perfect merging of the world and God.
And that balance or meeting of the spiritual and secular is one that, as Christians living in a modern society, we constantly have to be aware of. And this conflict is one that has gone back to the times of Jesus himself, as we have seen in the gospel reading today (Mark 8:27-38). Jesus, travelling with his disciples, asks them who people say that he is – and Peter replies, ‘You are the Messiah’.
But then, as Jesus moves on to speak of the suffering that he must undergo – of the abuse, trial and persecution he must face – Peter argues, and says this won’t be the way... Abraham Lincoln once said, “I would rather remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt,” and this is surely how Peter must have felt.
Jesus reacts angrily as he says to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan ! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things’. He explains that to follow him means to put others first and to take up a cross that will mean suffering. In some of the clearest words he ever offered about discipleship and commitment to him, Jesus says that to follow him means to change our lives, and to live not according to the standards and expectations of the world but to live according to his standards, and his expectations.
There is a story told about the great psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. After giving an address in Melbourne, he was given a boomerang as a gift. He commented that the boomerang reminded him of our human existence. People assume that the function of the boomerang is to return to the thrower, he said. But it is the real function of the boomerang to hit the target and to return to the thrower only if it misses the target. The same is true for life.
We return to ourselves, to become self-absorbed and preoccupied, only if we have failed to find meaning in life. The meaning of life is to move out beyond ourselves, beyond our own meaning, and therefore find new meaning. If we live only to ourselves, spending money only for ourselves, squandering our time and our strength only on ourselves, focusing chiefly on ourselves, life boomerangs and comes back to us with only ourselves to show for it.
Jesus understood all of this and he foresaw all the problems and difficulties that his followers would face. Throughout every generation Christians have faced problems – in the early Church there was the persecution and the risk of death, later there was the corruption of some Church leaders which withheld the gospel message from ordinary people… I heard once of some Churchwardens entries going back to 1578 – nearly all of them involved some moans about not having a Vicar, or at least having an absent Vicar, and about problems with their buildings and lack of attendance in Church, and in generations since there have been times when the Church has flourished, but times also of struggle…
Today we often think we have things harder than members of Churches in the past – with constant distractions turning people away from the Church – with Sunday shopping, sports events, with so many split families and so on. We have things tough because we’re supposed to be so polite that we can’t argue as the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – that is how polite and ordered the Church has become – political correctness has quietly worked its way in to our sub consciousness…
But the fact is that Jesus didn’t say that life would be easy, nor suggest it should be – the way of resurrection is a way that involves death first – it involves struggle, it involves pain and hardship.
But what Jesus did offer for all people was a message of hope – of a hope that can overcome any of the problems in life, of a hope that endures through difficult times and circumstances, of a joy that is endless – literally! - as we share eternal life with a Saviour who loves us enough that he was willing to die for us.
Another quote I heard this week was, ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing !’ It’s a pretty important one to remember I think in church life as we sometimes worry about buildings and money and all kinds of other things…
The main thing as a Church that we must be sharing is not a beautiful building, it’s not wonderful social events or coffee shops that welcome anyone, it’s not fellowship groups, but it is the love of Jesus – and those things may all help us to do that – but that’s what they are – helps ! And they must never become the main thing – the main thing is Jesus, and the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing ! AMEN
And that balance or meeting of the spiritual and secular is one that, as Christians living in a modern society, we constantly have to be aware of. And this conflict is one that has gone back to the times of Jesus himself, as we have seen in the gospel reading today (Mark 8:27-38). Jesus, travelling with his disciples, asks them who people say that he is – and Peter replies, ‘You are the Messiah’.
But then, as Jesus moves on to speak of the suffering that he must undergo – of the abuse, trial and persecution he must face – Peter argues, and says this won’t be the way... Abraham Lincoln once said, “I would rather remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt,” and this is surely how Peter must have felt.
Jesus reacts angrily as he says to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan ! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things’. He explains that to follow him means to put others first and to take up a cross that will mean suffering. In some of the clearest words he ever offered about discipleship and commitment to him, Jesus says that to follow him means to change our lives, and to live not according to the standards and expectations of the world but to live according to his standards, and his expectations.
There is a story told about the great psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. After giving an address in Melbourne, he was given a boomerang as a gift. He commented that the boomerang reminded him of our human existence. People assume that the function of the boomerang is to return to the thrower, he said. But it is the real function of the boomerang to hit the target and to return to the thrower only if it misses the target. The same is true for life.
We return to ourselves, to become self-absorbed and preoccupied, only if we have failed to find meaning in life. The meaning of life is to move out beyond ourselves, beyond our own meaning, and therefore find new meaning. If we live only to ourselves, spending money only for ourselves, squandering our time and our strength only on ourselves, focusing chiefly on ourselves, life boomerangs and comes back to us with only ourselves to show for it.
Jesus understood all of this and he foresaw all the problems and difficulties that his followers would face. Throughout every generation Christians have faced problems – in the early Church there was the persecution and the risk of death, later there was the corruption of some Church leaders which withheld the gospel message from ordinary people… I heard once of some Churchwardens entries going back to 1578 – nearly all of them involved some moans about not having a Vicar, or at least having an absent Vicar, and about problems with their buildings and lack of attendance in Church, and in generations since there have been times when the Church has flourished, but times also of struggle…
Today we often think we have things harder than members of Churches in the past – with constant distractions turning people away from the Church – with Sunday shopping, sports events, with so many split families and so on. We have things tough because we’re supposed to be so polite that we can’t argue as the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – that is how polite and ordered the Church has become – political correctness has quietly worked its way in to our sub consciousness…
But the fact is that Jesus didn’t say that life would be easy, nor suggest it should be – the way of resurrection is a way that involves death first – it involves struggle, it involves pain and hardship.
But what Jesus did offer for all people was a message of hope – of a hope that can overcome any of the problems in life, of a hope that endures through difficult times and circumstances, of a joy that is endless – literally! - as we share eternal life with a Saviour who loves us enough that he was willing to die for us.
Another quote I heard this week was, ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing !’ It’s a pretty important one to remember I think in church life as we sometimes worry about buildings and money and all kinds of other things…
The main thing as a Church that we must be sharing is not a beautiful building, it’s not wonderful social events or coffee shops that welcome anyone, it’s not fellowship groups, but it is the love of Jesus – and those things may all help us to do that – but that’s what they are – helps ! And they must never become the main thing – the main thing is Jesus, and the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing ! AMEN
Comments