Nicodemus’ Journey to Easter

We are now in Holy week as we move with Jesus towards Jerusalem and the Day of Resurrection next Sunday. One of the most poignant parts of story for me is often overlooked.  I am always moved when I remember the part played by Nicodemus.  He is what could be described as a minor character only appearing in the Gospel of John and only making three appearances in that Gospel.

What always grabs me in this story is the journey which Nicodemus makes in his relationship with and to Jesus.  Initially we encounter him as a visitor who has come to see Jesus and talk with him.  We are told that he is a Pharisee and has come at night.  In effect, he is a leader of the Jewish people who perhaps does not want it to be known what he is associating with someone form Nazareth―after all we hear just before this that nothing good can come out of Nazareth.   In any case, Nicodemus is revealed to us as someone who is a seeker.  He has questions about God and his relationship with God and hopes that Jesus can supply the answers to his questions. He is also someone who seems to be obtuse.  He doesn’t get what Jesus is telling him.  He is a concrete thinker who has a hard time thinking symbolically:

 “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

We aren’t told if Nicodemus does get what Jesus is telling him.  However, the next time we encounter Nicodemus he is with the Temple authorities who are planning to have Jesus arrested.  Nicodemus is arguing that Jesus should receive a trial as their law requires.  He is summarily dismissed on the same basis i.e. nothing good can come out of Galilee,

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51“Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” 52They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.” 53Then each of them went home,

As anyone who has been a lone voice in a group knows, it took great courage for Nicodemus to stand up to the other leaders and defend Jesus from the arbitrary decision of the other leaders.  Where before he had Jesus visit him in the night and was afraid of being associated with Jesus, now he is a lone voice against the injustice.  We can see from this that is initial encounter with Jesus did have a profound affect on him and he is well on his journey with Jesus.

The final scene of our play, which I could tentatively entitle Nicodemus’ Journey to Easter, comes on Good Friday.  Nicodemus comes with Joseph of Arimathea bringing 100 pounds of spices to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.  This extravagant amount is reminiscent of the woman anointing Jesus feet with ointment which could have been sold for 300 denarii. 

As we continue our Journey to Easter Sunday let follow the example of Nicodemus and respond to the Good News of Easter by an extravagant response for what Jesus has done for us.

Blessings on your journey. 

Circumcision of the Heart part 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the idea of the circumcision of the heart, the sign of the new covenant which Paul addressed in his letter to the Romans:

Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God. (Romans 2:29)

In the Old Testament reading from last Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant which God promises for the Jewish people, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  Jeremiah goes on to identify the sign of the new covenant as one that will be written in the heart, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  

It is quite likely that Paul had this in mind when he spoke of the new covenant.  As a good Jew and a good Pharisee, he would have been very aware of Jeremiah’s prophetic declarations.  It is unfortunate that this has not become a more prevalent symbol in Christianity today.  It is spoken of in some parts of our religion but it is not as prevalent as many symbols.  The heart if a very powerful symbol which does resonate as a symbol of love even in our scientific materialistic world today. 

The heart traditionally represented the feeling world of human existence at the deepest level and going back to ancient times.  Indeed, as noted by theologian Marcus Borg:

the heart in biblical tradition is an image of the self at its deepest level.  For the ancient Hebrews, the heart was not simply associated with feelings or courage or courage or love, as in common usage.  Rather, the heart was associated with the totality of the human psyche: not only emotion but also intellect, volition, and even perception.

What does it mean then to have this new covenant written on the heart?  I propose that this means that Paul is calling Christians to have heart that are not written in stone, as the old covenant was written on those stone tablets.  Rather we are called to be open hearted to and with others.  That is easier said than done as I can attest from my experience.  When you are interacting with someone who has caused you pain or is even difficult and annoying the natural reaction seems to be to have a heart of stone which sets up protective barriers around the soft core of the heart we were born with.

The key to relating to someone who does not act in a loving way to you is not react in kind.  It is to turn the other cheek and to go the second mile as we are told elsewhere.  For me the only way that this has the possibility of working is to recognize that the other person is not “the other”.  They are someone who is a flawed, imperfect child of God just as you are a flawed, imperfect child of God.  Perhaps their flaws are more obvious to you but it may be that your inner vision is not 20/20.  What you have in common is that we are all sinful and in need of redemption. 

Unfortunately, it is very easy and seems to satisfy us on a deep level when we can feel righteous indignation or even good old-fashioned revenge and hope the other person will get what they deserve in this world rather than the next.  However, the new covenant we have as Christians calls us to be open hearted.  Jesus told us that his yoke is easy.  Hmm, why then does this seem so difficult?  Perhaps it gets easier with practice.  I guess all we sinful children of God can do is keep trying.

Blessing on you journey to Easter.

Holy Boredom

Last week I listened to the C.B.C. Ideas program, The Tedium is the Message, http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-tedium-is-the-message-1.3862159.   

There were a number of “ideas” in the program which I found interesting.  Some were surprizing and some were not.   One of the not-surprizing ideas presented was that boredom is becoming all pervasive in society.  Ironically, this is happening when we have more and more ways of avoiding it with the availability of social media and media in general.  Our smart phones are always with us with ever more functions and apps to catch our attention and distract us.  However, boredom does seem to be inevitable and the more we try to avoid it the more we are subject to it.  The question that this poses for me is, “what we are being distracted from?”

As noted in the introduction to the program on the website, “Boredom is really about that connection between me and the world. But when we're bored we're disengaged. That connection between us and the world breaks down” (John Eastwood).  It almost seems as if there is some force at work which is attempting to get our attention. 

Another idea presented in the program is that boredom functions as a mechanism for creativity.  If we are bored we are more likely to be encouraged to be creative.  If creativity is one of the God-given gifts which is part of what it means to be created in the image of God―which I believe it is―then I would suggest that God is behind, or perhaps in front of, the force at work attempting to get our attention.  I like the idea of God standing in front of us and desperately waving His/Her/Its arms at us to get our attention. 

The program demonstrated the lengths that humans will go to, to avoid boredom.  It cited an experiment which placed the subjects in a state of boredom i.e. they were put by themselves with nothing to do for fifteen minutes.  They were given the facility to shock themselves with a painful but not harmful electric shock.  As reported a “large percentage” of subject chose to shock themselves to relieve the boredom.  One subject even shocked himself over one hundred times―but perhaps there was something else going on with that person than boredom. 

In the Boredom Lab at York University people were given repetitive tasks to induce boredom.  The key to these tasks was that they were meaningless.  The implication from this is that boredom will be lead to the impetus to find meaning in our lives.  Again, this seems to be the force at work behind boredom.  

If we go back to the quote above, boredom seems to be an impetus to connect us to the world.  I propose that the ultimate connection is with God; after all, connections with the world are a way of connecting with God’s creation.  Perhaps that is why we were created with the capacity for boredom―to find the ultimate meaning in life; connection with the divine.

A Lenten practice which you could consider (it not too late), would be to live with boredom when it occurs―even for a short period like fifteen minutes―and see where that takes you.  You may be surprized. 

Blessings on your Lenten journey.

Manumission

Manumission; from Latin manumittere, literally ‘send forth from the hand’.

This past week, Lorna and I had one of our discussions that landed on the issue of the history of slavery in Upper Canada (Ontario).  We realized neither of us were really aware of the details of that history.  After some exploration by Lorna, what we found out was very interesting.  As significant as the issue is to our history, that is not primarily what I want to talk about this morning―at least not directly.

To review briefly what we discovered The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire (with the exceptions "of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company").  This was the result of a movement lead by such worthies as William Wilberforce.  However, Canada, which was a colony of England, led the way in this area. In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe, signed the Act Against Slavery. Passed by the local Legislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire.

In the course of our investigation we came across the word “manumission” and, being unfamiliar with the word, I was interested in its meaning.  I was only aware of the concept of emancipation in relation to slavery i.e. the abolition of slavery by a country as in the case of the Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada.  However, manumission deals with the setting free of an individual slave by his or her owner.  The root of the word is Latin; manumittere, literally ‘send forth from the hand’.

It stuck me that this is a very apt term to consider in the season of Lent.  If we consider that in Lent our journey is to be more intentionally the people that God intends us to be, then what God does is to set us free from the bonds of sin i.e. those things which keep us separated from God.  If that is the case what are we to do with this new-found freedom?

Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidence), at my new parish we are using the video series, “Thy Kingdom Come” for our Lenten reflections.  This series is produced by the Church of England and features a discussion led by with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.  The topic of Sunday’s video was evangelism

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At St. John the Evangelist in Strathroy we had technical difficulties in trying to access the series.  The first week the video series could not be downloaded from the website as it crashed.  The second week was more successful but not entirely as the sound quality of the speakers on our parish hall did not provide a very clear sound (complicated by the English accents of the participants).  That was overcome (at least from the perspective of sound quality) this week with the addition of a blue-tooth speaker.  I mentioned to Rev. Karen Nelles, the Rector, that these days theological training should include training in electronics.  She noted that the evaluation form currently used for clergy in the diocese has a section on competence with electronics.  It makes me very happy I am retired and don’t have to worry about that being an honourary assistant. 

However, I digress; to get back to my topic for today, if we are set free from the slavery of sin and sent forth from the hand of God, that is exactly what evangelism is about.  To evangelize is literally to follow the example of the disciples who were sent forth to spread the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This Good News is perhaps not great news for most Anglicans, at least in this part of the world, who are not raised in a tradition of evangelism―at least in the traditional sense. Evangelism is not something that Anglicans are comfortable with.  The Church of England and the Anglican Church in Canada have been the established church and the church of the establishment.   Traditionally Anglicans didn’t need go out and convert the non-churched around us because most people were already churched. 

However, I take comfort in the words of one of the participants in the video discussion that we can never convert someone, whatever that may mean for the person; that is God’s work.  What then is left for us to do?  It is, I believe, sharing with people what it means for us to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.  It also means living lives that reflect what that means for each of us and to show that to the world.  To do that we need to know it for ourselves and be clear about it; or at least to have questions which we are seeking answers for.  That is the challenge for Anglicans and all people of God. 

Blessings on your Lenten journey,