Reviving?

I really struggled this week to work out what I was to say this morning. I really wanted to talk about a particular subject, but the bit of the Bible that we are looking at this morning didn’t seem to say much about it.

Let me explain. Last week, Marg spoke about one of the ways that God works in our lives, with us. We explored the idea that God refines us. She shared with us the story of the lady who went to see a silver smith to find out how silver is refined, and discovered that the silver worker has to stay and watch the silver as it is refined, and that the refiner knows when the silver is ready because she can see her reflection in the silver. And so, we know when it feels like we are going through fire that God is not absent, but is there, with us, closely attentive, and we know that we are being made more able to bear God’s image.

During the week, Keith Harding shared with me that he felt that God was saying that God refines, revives and renews. And so, with Marg having helped us to think about God’s refining last week, I thought that this week we might look at God’s reviving, and then, next week, look at God’s renewing.

But, then I looked at the Gospel for this week, the story we heard this morning of John the Baptist’s teaching to the people in the desert outside Jerusalem. And it didn’t seem to have much to do with God’s reviving. It seemed to have a lot to do with judgement and fire. In some ways, they seemed to be the opposite of reviving, they seemed to be to do with putting to death.

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Speaking into Silence

I wonder how you feel about silence. What your story of silence is.

Last week, when I went on retreat before my ordination, we spent a fair amount of time in what we called silence. But it wasn’t really. Although we weren’t speaking to each other, there was still the sound of the pipes rattling as someone got a glass of water, the birds singing and squabbling in the gardens, and the irregular rattling of a train on the neighbouring tracks. And that was just on the outside. On the inside, I was chuntering away to myself. God wasn’t quiet either. God was there, showing me more, teaching me more, loving me more.

Behind the story of the birth of John the Baptist there are two stories of silence.

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Dance or Weep?

Is it just me, or is that gospel reading a bit odd. What on earth is going on?

Jesus is teaching and some of John's disciples come and see him to find out if he is the one that John had been waiting for and pointing to. Jesus points out all the signs of the kingdom, people bring healed and released from captivity and says, “look what's going on, these things show that I am bringing the Kingdom that John announced was coming”

After the disciples go back to John, Jesus starts talking to the crowd about John and his message. The bit we just read was his summary of this discussion.

He quotes a children's rhyme. Now, the great thing is, nobody now really knows exactly what this rhyme meant.

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Suspended

Tom is very excited. His dad has been away from home for what seems like forever. But, he is coming home today. All week Tom has been counting down the number of sleeps left before it will be the day that Dad is coming home. At school Tom has been telling his friends about how great his Dad is, taller than their Dads, the best Dad in the whole world, and he's coming home. In show and tell on Friday morning Tom stood up and told the whole class about how he was going with his mum to the station to meet his Dad, his Dad who is coming home.

He woke up at five o'clock this morning and has been asking every ten minutes if it's time to go and catch the bus yet. On the bus he chatters on excitedly to his mum about all the things that he and his dad are going to do now that he's coming home. The other passengers overhear and smile to themselves.

Tom is sitting on a bench, on the platform, holding his mum's hand, his feet swinging. Suddenly the train swishes alongside the platform and it's all hustle and bustle, lots of people getting on and off. Where's Tom's dad?

There's a man coming towards them, it looks a bit like his dad, but he's shorter than Tom remembers, and he's limping a bit. Tom's mum stands up, but Tom ducks behind her legs, unsure, of the man and of himself. The man comes up to his mum and kisses her, softly and so tenderly, a kiss that Tom has not seen for a long time. His Dad is home.

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