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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

A disarming breakfast invitation

Our imperfect offerings, added to Jesus’ gifts, may be enough to bring peace (John 21.10).

Context

• Putin vies with the West to control the narrative of conflict, adopting righteous tones and concealing the reality of his senseless, resentful violence.
• Musk wants to hold the ring for public discourse on Twitter.
• French presidential elections seem more about image and association than about policy.

 

Reflection and ideas for a sermon, talk or conversation

Our world view is shaped by many conflicting influences. Trying to discern any meaningful pattern can be quite bewildering. I wonder how many in our congregation feel lame and inadequate in prayer at the moment. War can leave us all feeling helpless and a bit embarrassed to be praying at all, but what else can we do?

If we are feeling inadequate, John 21 is enormously encouraging, Jesus calls to the disciples during their failed fishing trip and encourages them to keep at it. They pull in an unimaginable haul, so abundant that John takes it to be a vision of the future church: 153 fish pointing to all the nations of the world; all known kinds of fish jumbled together; a wondrously diverse community of resurrection. The net (the church) will hold together against all the odds.

Then, drawing out Peter’s failure, the charcoal fire and three-fold questioning echoing so strongly his Thursday night betrayal, Jesus bestows on him a huge and loving task: caring for that church. We, as ministers, preachers and public pray-ers, continue that ministry to this day, encouraged that Peter’s offer to Jesus was still imperfect. Their dance with two different words for love is telling:

Do you (agape) love me? ... You know I (philo) love you.
Do you (agape) love me? ... You know I (philo) love you.
Do you (philo) love me? ... You know I (philo) love you.

Jesus accepts Peter’s lesser offer and yet then, unbearably poignantly, predicts that Peter will indeed have courage one day to give his life for Jesus. Jesus does not wait for perfection, but knows we are capable of more than we think. He brings some fish and asks us to bring some and, eating together with us, shapes a fellowship that is strong enough to bear news of his peaceable grace across the world. It may seem feeble but, if as ministers, we can offer people some hooks, some phrases that give traction to prayer at times like this when war, illness, climate change and economic crisis dominate, we have done a good thing. We have fed and tended each other.

Praying about violence should always leave us queasy, to say the least. What does it mean to pray for military success? What do we pray about the weapons we supply to Ukraine? This week, in ambulances and fire engines, perhaps, we are given a focus for prayer that we may be able to pursue more confidently.

Going deeper, we may find it very hard indeed to believe there could be resurrection, reconciliation, healing between Ukraine and Russia. We are very emphatically called by Jesus and St Paul to pray for enemies. Even if we can’t imagine it, we must hold on enough to create the conditions in which resurrection might be imagined. Listen to Ananias’ anxious prayer about Saul when asked to minister to him. ‘But Lord, he’s deadly.’ Yet Ananias goes. We may be startled by Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road and his blindness, in which he ironically learns to see properly the catastrophic error of his violence. We might pray for scales to fall from Russian eyes. But the real miracle, the truly astonishing moment that proves the power of Jesus’ resurrection to transform our world view is this:

Before Saul says a word, or expresses any penitence, Ananias lays gentle healing hands on the man who has spread hate speech about Christians and conspired in their murder and Ananias calls him ‘brother’ (Acts 9.17).

We struggle to believe such a thing could happen today, but it has. Only last month, two hugely moving clips showed what is possible. Ukranians gave food to a young Russian soldier and put him in touch with his mother. Another was able to speak to his mother from captivity, allowing us a glimpse of the vulnerability and humanity of those caught up in enacting Putin’s aggression (see Romans 12.20.) We should watch them carefully, ensuring we are neither triumphalist nor voyeuristic. Rather, we should honour the humanity of all involved and treasuring male tears amid the violence. Perhaps these give us things to pray for people grieving and embroiled on both sides of the conflict.

As for Saul becoming Paul, prospective Twitter owner Elon Musk says he is ‘a free speech absolutist.’ I wonder if Saul would have used Twitter to incite violence against people on the Christian Way. Musk compares twitter to the ‘town square.’ With his new world vision would Paul, who loved to speak in public (Acts 9.20), have used twitter to spread the Gospel? Free speech is not a straightforward matter; nor is image crafting. If you find Marine le Pen’s new calmer presentation un-trustworthy, suspecting she still harbours poisonous racism in her heart, it helps us wonder how hard it must have been for fellow Christians to come to trust Saul’s change of heart. It highlights the risk and power of Ananias’ prayer for Saul’s healing.

Suggested action:

Young people are likely to be most active on social media, including Twitter. Again it is an area where we can feel small and powerless. Opinions will vary about whether Twitter’s new ownership makes for a freer or a more dangerous space for conversation. We can, if uncomfortable, withdraw from any given platform. It is always entirely within our power, though, to govern the tone and quality of our posts. We could invite everyone using social media to ensure every post they make is positive, encouraging and life-giving to someone and, if critical, that it be generously so.

How different the world looks through the lens of resurrection. Our readings lead us:

• from the earliest days of the disciples apprehending the enormity and new reality of resurrection life;
• to the startlingly swift spread of their new world view, even to Damascus a few months afterwards;
• on to a vision of heaven where a new song celebrates eternity at peace with God who has entered time and withdrawn the sting of death.

We must hold this relentlessly hopeful world-view and search for the same resurrection pattern in our equally troubled, image conscious, divided, yet potentially gracious world.

 

Questions for discussion

• Responding to Jesus’ commission to Peter, can you share some examples of where failure has been turned into opportunity, wisdom or calling?
• Saul thought he was doing a righteous thing as he set about imprisoning Christians. Consider contemporary examples of policy where claims of righteousness are made with tragic results. How might they be challenged?
• With hindsight, trusting Saul’s change of heart was genuine. How might you judge whether political apologies or changes of heart are genuine?

David Warbrick is Vicar of All Saints Kings Heath, Birmingham. Like the clumsy disciples, though Jesus has changed the world, David always thinks it must be time to prepare a meal.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

We awoke on Monday morning to the news that Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected as the French president. Mr Macron beat the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, by a greater margin than expected to secure a further five years in power. France has been sharply divided between the two candidates; and many people chose not to vote, or to spoil their ballots as an objection against both candidates, neither of whom were felt to represent the needs of France. The far-left leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, claimed that Macron’s extended presidency ‘floats in an ocean of abstentions, and blank and spoiled ballots.’ Meanwhile, Macron promised to bring the French people back together, saying, ‘An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right… it will be my responsibility and that of those around me.’ It would be nice to think that such words would lead to the uniting of hearts and minds across the French nation, but of course words come more easily than actions.

In the passage, we see Peter given a second chance. Peter, one of Jesus’ right-hand men has made a mess of things. In the world we live in, he would have been ‘cancelled’ and found himself unelectable for a second term, yet Jesus continues to see the potential in him and offers him a fresh start. Peter will be the rock on which Jesus builds the church.

What would it be like to live in a world where you could own your mistakes and start afresh? Clearly our politicians make mistakes because they are, after all, only human – and Macron is probably no exception. Is it unrealistic to think that he could turn things round and really bring his people together? Perhaps. But wouldn’t it be good?! As we approach exam season, it might be helpful to hold onto the idea that it is possible to learn from our mistakes, starting again or having a second go at something where needed. We know that the Kingdom operates on such a basis.

Where would you like to have a second chance?

What would your second chance look like?

JENNY CHEUNG is a choir leader, writer and missionary pioneer with a side hustle of Jesus-centred yoga.

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