Today, tomorrow, the next day

I had been wanting to do it for a while.

And in half term we had the opportunity.

Lake had a book from school all about what goes on underground … he became really keen on coal miners and on the fact that his Great Great Grandfather, my Grandfather had been a coal miner.

We got out the Davy Lamp and he took it to school – and even drew a map of the underground working in the mine of his imagination that his grandfather had worked in.

And so it was that we went over to the Big Pit – wearing all the gear of a miner and facing the cage and the drop to the bottom of the Big Pit Lake lost his nerve only momentarily and then we were off … a wonderful explore.

A moving experience.

Then we made it to the place I wanted to visit this year.

We knocked on the door, had a chat with someone who had grown up in the house.  And then I got Felicity to take a photo of Lake and me on the step of the house where 100 years ago in May my father was born.

We explored the little village of Abersychan, found the house my grandparents lived in when I was small, and the park I used to play in … and the community centre which is all that remains of the chapel my father grew up in.

On the last occasion my father preached before his retirement, a sermon he announced would be his last … and indeed it turned out to be so, he spoke of the way his grandfather before him had taken him on one side as he was about to preach his first sermon.

Preach it as if it were your last, he had said.

And that’s what my father said he had done.

And now he had come to preach his last sermon.

He took a text that has been an inspiration to me ever since

Today, tomorrow and the next day … I must go on.

It was a wonderful text of resolve.

Today, tomorrow and the next day – that’s what’s important … even at the culmination of a life-time of preaching.  It’s the present that counts and it’s what’s immediately ahead.

Facing uncertainties, facing anxieties, unsure what the unknown morrow will  bring?

Today, tomorrow, the next day.

Resolve.

Onwards – keep going.

Powerful stuff.

That text is part of the story that leads up to Holy Week.

It’s part of a story that’s a powerful story at the heart of the gospels.

A story that needs piecing together a bit.

Today, tomorrow, the next day – is the resolve Jesus presents to those who warn him that Herod is out to kill him.  It’s one of those moments when you realise that you cannot stereotype the different people who have a part to play in the Gospel story.

It was an occasion when the Pharisees came to warn Jesus.

Luke 13:31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ 32He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.

It’s powerful stuff.

You don’t find Jesus speaking harshly of people very often, calling people names – I have a feeling this is one of if not the only occasion.  And not just calling anybody names, this is calling names of the one who is King.

This is resolve in the face of determined opposition.

This sets Jesus’ work over against what Herod stands for.

So what is it that Herod stands for?

That’s the story we can piece together in Luke’s gospel.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,

Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, and one of those who was to take control of one fourth of the kingdom Herod the Great had built up … but was to do that very much under the overall control of the Romans.

As his father before him, and as his brother beside him, so too Herod set out to build monumental cities that would express that Roman culture and that Roman power – Sepphoris only four or five miles from Nazareth up in the hills of Galilee, and Tiberias down on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

So what was this Herod like?   That becomes apparent in the words that follow.

It was when Herod was ruler in Galilee that

the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

And John had a pretty powerful message – that involved preparing the way of the Lord, raising up the valleys, bringing down the mountains, ushering in the salvation of God

It was an indictment of the society of Herod’s galilee – people needed a whole new way of thinking about the world – and that was what John had on offer.

He had steren words for ordinary people,  for those particularly involved with the state and its authority, soldiers, tax-collectors, publican.

He was convinced the time was coming when one would come to usher in the kingdom – who would be the anointed one to baptize not in water but in the very power of God.

So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

But good news to the people was also bad news for the authoritiets.  And John the Baptist reserved his most stringent crticicms for the one at the top

He rebuked him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things he had done.

It was a powerful critique.

 But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, added to them all by shutting up John in prison.

Herod thinks he has silenced John and this talk of a whole new way of thining about the world, of a new kind of kingdom, the kingdom of God under the rule of God.

But he hasn’t.

For before he imprisons John, John has baptized Jesus.

And Jesus take up where John left off.

He has the same message – what’s needed is a whole new way of thinking about the world rooted in the rule of God, the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven, the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven.

He has a powerful message – love God, love your neighbor, love your enemy too.

He matches the message with deeds.  Bringing healing to hurting people.

And he sends out the Twelve to take up exactly the same task.

From John to Jesus.

From Jeus to the Twelve – to the world.

This is a movement to change people’s lives, to change the world.

It’s at that point when the Twelve have gone out with the same message, bringing healing into people’s lives that Herod is un-nerved.  He senses that he has not just failed to silence John, but this new message is getting out of hand.

9:7 Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. 9Herod said, ‘John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ And he tried to see him.

Matthew 14 tells the story of how it was Herod had executed John …

14At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; 2and he said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 3For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4because John had been telling him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ 5Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod 7so much that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask. 8Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’ 9The king was grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he commanded it to be given; 10he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. 11The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, who brought it to her mother. 12His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus.

He deosn’t manage it, however.

And the Jesus movement really is gaining momentum.

Jesus now sets his face to go to Jerusalem … and his journey takes him from Galilee through Samaria on the way to Jerusalem.

The message is clear, the hearlings are too.

And Herod’s patience runs out.

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ 32He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.

What resolve!

But that begs the question what is the work Jesus is about.

What he goes on to say shows what that work is.

33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.”

His work is to be the prophet John had been, challenging the powers that be to have a whole new way of thinking about the world rooted in the Kingdom of God, the rule of God on earth as it is in heaven, the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven.

Today, tomorrow the next day

Resolve.

But in that resolve is something else as well.

Compassion.

34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’

It is the gentlest of pictures – of the shelter jesus offers, the shelter of a mother hen, taking her chicks under her wing.

And  indeed it is on that Palm Sunday Jesus comes into the city on the donkey, the foal of an ass, modelling his way of being Messiah on that vision of Zechariah.

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

And the war horse from Jerusalem

And the battle-bow shall be cut off

And he shall command peace to the nations.

And so it on Palm Sunday he makes that entry into Jerusalem.

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

And he makes a bee line for the monumental work that Herod’s father had initiatied and still wasn’t completed – a total rebuilding of the temple – clad in what appeared gold, a statement of power if ever there was one

And he began to drive out those who were selling there, and he said, It is written,

My house shall be a house of prayer,

And you have made it a den of robbers.

Then the arrest, a trial before the council … and then before Pilate, the  Roman Procurator, and then Pilate realizes Jesus is from Galilee and comes under Herod’s jurisdiction …

6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign. 9He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. 12That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; before this they had been enemies.

And the very thing that Herod does cuts to the quick.

Herod treats him with contempt and mocks him … dresses him mockingly in an elegant robe, hands him over to Pilate.

And the two become friends.

They both recognize that their way of looking at the world is challenged by Jesus.

Today, tomorrow, the next day.

A real resolve – to stand for this way of looking at the world,

And a genuince compassion – to care and love in that world.

Personal things.

AT the start of an election campaign.

What is the vision we have for a world shaped the Jesus way?  These are the questions to ask of those who offer themselves in power.

The Bishops’ letter.   The project group manifesto.  2020 vision from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Interesting intitiaves wanting to have a bigger picture of what the world looks like under God’s rule.

In Triumph and in Sorrow - a Devotion for Passion Sunday

For many years Diana Adams has put together a service of words and music for a Passion Tide service led by Highbury Choir.   Following her sudden death only a couple of weeks ago we put together a service for this year using material Diana had used in recent services.

We have been reading through Luke's Gospel on Sunday evenings this year and had just arrived at Luke 9, when Jesus steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

In Luke's gospel that journey lasts ten chapters.  Our service took us from that verse straight to the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem.

As we shared the words of the passion and especially as we shared Diana's prayers we were remembering her and her family in our thoughts and prayers.

Richard	Welcome When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, He came to the place called the Mount of Olives. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,  saying, ‘Blessed is the king    who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven,    and glory in the highest heaven!’  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’  He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’
Martin	He comes in triumph, to a city where people are gathered in festival
Sue	He comes to challenge power and vested interests, To overturn status and wealth Come, Christ …
Congregation	Come, Christ in triumph and sorrow, Hosanna in the name of the living God
Martin	He comes in celebration with a royal welcome, Declaring God’s reign of love
Sue	He comes to rejection, to the fearful and proud Who sacrifice him to preserve their power Come, Christ …
Congregation	Come, Christ in triumph and sorrow, Hosanna in the name of the living God
Martin	He comes to acclamation, to people waving and Shouting praises, a procession of joy
Sue	He comes to abuse, to shouts of crucifixion, False trial and the way of the cross. Come, Christ …
Congregation	Come, Christ in triumph and sorrow, Hosanna in the name of the living God
Hymn	Hosanna, loud hosanna
Mary C	As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying,  ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.  They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’
Shirley	Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer Loving God, your Son called his disciples to go forth with him on the way to the cross. Since he first walked that road countless millions have followed him. In all that we do, as disciples, save us from false familiarity with that journey. May we never presume to step into his shoes, but make us small enough to fit our own, and to walk in love and wonder behind him.           In this world where goodness and evil continue to clash with each other, instill in us, and in all your people, discernment to see what is right, faith to believe what is right, and courage to do what is right. Forgive us for what has gone wrong, repair in us what is wasted, reveal in us what is good. Nourish us with better food than we could ever purchase: your word, your love, your inspiration, your daily bread for our life’s journey, in the company of Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us when we pray to say… Our Father, who art in heaven ….
David	Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there;  and he said,  ‘It is written, “My house shall be a house of prayer”;    but you have made it a den of robbers.’  Every day he was teaching in the temple.
Mary B	The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
David	And so the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept questioning him.
Mary B	Who is it that gave you this authority?
David	What’s all this about resurrection?
Mary B	And so he told them a story, he told them a parable …
David	‘A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time.  When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard;
Mary B	but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
David	Next he sent another slave;
Mary B	that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed.
David	And he sent yet a third;
Mary B	this one also they wounded and threw out.
David	Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.”
Mary B	But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, “This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.” So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
David	What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
Mary B	He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’
David	When they heard this, they said, ‘Heaven forbid!’
Mary B	But he looked at them and said, ‘What then does this text mean: “The stone that the builders rejected    has become the cornerstone”? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’
David	When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.
Mary B	They no longer dared to ask him another question.
Hymn	MTS 15 Meekness and Majesty
Alison	Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called.  And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple. Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near.  The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people.  Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve;  he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them.  They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money.  So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.
Anne	Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.  So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’  So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
Alison	A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.  But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors.  But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials;  and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom,  so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Anne	He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him.  When he reached the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’
Alison	Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’
Anne	Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength
Alison	In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Anne	When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief,  and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’
Hymn	Thy will be done
Mary C	Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. Pilate asked whether the man was a Galilean.  And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
Martin	When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had been wanting to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and was hoping to see him perform some sign.  He questioned him at some length, but Jesus gave him no answer.  The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.  Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate.  That same day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other;  before this they had been enemies.  Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people Then they all shouted out together, ‘Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!’  (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)  Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again;  but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’  A third time he said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’  But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.  So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.
Hymn	Go to dark Gethsemane
Martin	As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.  A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.  But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.  When they came to the place that is called The Skull,  they crucified Jesus there
Hymn	My song is love unknown
Sue	When they came to the place that is called The Skull,  they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’
Shirley	After a Pause for Silence, a Prayer Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us. Take from our lives, from our souls, from our consciences all that has offended you, all that has hurt others, and  our blindness to the needs of others. On this day, at this time, we accept deeply in our hearts the only words that can set us free: the words ‘your sins are forgiven’.
David	One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’  But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’  Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’
Sue	After a Pause for Silence a Prayer Lord, remember us when you come into your kingdom. Remember us, not for the things which we hope will appear in our obituaries; nor for the virtues we occasionally display. Remember us, as one of the guilty community who hung at your side, and if life will not let us be in paradise with you today, keep a place for us, we pray.
Hymn	This is your coronation
Sue	It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.
Martin	After a Pause for Silence … a Prayer Go … God who before birth called you into being, now calls you back … and we let you go. Go to heaven, where you will welcome those who die in your faith, whose death, with your death, we remember. Cheered by the prospect of the day when there will be no more death or parting, and all shall be well, and all shall be one, may they who have died before us be among the first to welcome us to heaven, where, with you enthroned in glory, we shall share the everlasting feast of your family. Till then, keep us in faith, fill us with hope, deepen us through love, to the glory of your holy name …. Amen.
Alison	As water to the thirsty, As beauty to the eyes, As strength that follows weakenss, As truth instead of lies, As songtime and springtime And summertime to be So is my Lord, my living Lord, So is my Lord, to me.
Anthem	As water to the thirsty
Mary C	The Offering and Dedication Lord, you are worthy of honour and power, Yet you come to us in humility and meekness. You deserve worship and glory, Yet it is the least thing you ask for. Accept our praises this day; May they be accompanied by lives of obedience And deeds of service in your name. As we offer ourselves in service, We also offer our gifts of money. As we remember the events of our Lord’s Passion The gift of his life which he gave, We ask your blessing on our gifts now. Amen.
Shirley	By the time of his death in 1748 Isaac Watts had written about 750 hymns, but the hymn pronounced by nineteenth century hymn writer and critic, Matthew Arnold,, to be the greatest hymn ever written in English, was the hymn with which we are going to close our worship this evening. The persona or speaker in this beloved hymn focuses on his own unworthiness in contrast to the holiness and worthiness of Christ in His death on the cross, a reflection of Galatians 6:14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I  to the world. Witnessing the crucifixion of Christ, the speaker joins the apostle Paul in rejecting any worldly possessions, status or personal pride (Paul called it ‘rubbish) desiring only His saving blood (verses 1 and 2) He marvels at the blend or sorrow and love in that blood (verse 3) and, in response, he declares himself dead to the world (verse 4) The simile in the line ‘His dying crimson like a robe, spreads o’er His body on the tree’ is among the finest in English poetry. Realising the incomparable gift that  Christ has made for him, the speaker recognizes that, even if he possessed all of nature, it would  be ‘far too small’ a present to offer in return (verse 5). Rather, the ‘amazing’ love of Christ demands, not a gift from himself, but the gift of himself – ‘my soul, my life, my all’.
Hymn	When I survey the wondrous cross
Richard	The Blessing May the Father, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, bring us by faith to his eternal life. May Christ, who accepted the cup of sacrifice in obedience to the Father’s will, keep us steadfast as we walk with him the way of his cross. May the Spirit, who strengthens us to suffer with Christ that we may share his glory, set our minds on life and peace. And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among us and remain with us always.                                                           Amen.