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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

Tell no one

Tell no one, says Jesus (Mark 9:9). What shall we tell, to whom and when?

  

Context

• In the midst of war and rumour of war across the world (Israel/Palestine, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan, Myanmar), our newspapers are full of the news of a single diagnosis of an unspecified cancer. Apparently half of us will receive such a diagnosis at least once in our lives; I certainly have (and am still alive 15 years later!). But I can remember when such a diagnosis was thought to be a death sentence. One of my earliest memories is of coming home from primary school at lunchtime 71 years ago and telling my mother (who initially did not believe me) that King George VI was dead. It seems that he was not told that he had lung cancer; and certainly there was no public announcement of that fact back in 1952.

• Other stories in our recent news raise questions about who said what and when. For example, was there some advance warning of the Hamas raids on Israel that was ignored? The public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal is asking when Post Office senior staff knew that the claim that no-one else could access a postmaster’s account was untrue and why they kept quiet about it.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• Who do we tell? And when and why? The three disciples were told to ‘tell no one . . until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead’ (Mark 9:9). Much has been written about the way in which Mark repeatedly insists that people should keep the ‘messianic secret’. But what are the circumstances in which we keep secrets? A surprise holiday or present may be kept secret; but when else? For over 30 years as a civil servant, I was bound by the Official Secrets Act (indeed, strictly speaking, I still am!). It is sometimes said that most of us have things we wish to keep secret. Is there a legitimate expectation that in everyday life, as in court, we should tell ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’?

• Clearly, the three disciples were not expecting this encounter on the mountain and were unsure how to handle it. They were, we read, ‘terrified’ (Mark 9:6). Peter seems to have blurted out the idea of ‘making three dwellings’ in response to the unexpected and puzzling nature of the experience. Since this story can only have come down to us from at least one of the three (presumably speaking after the resurrection), it must be they who said that they were ‘terrified’. Have you ever witnessed something very unexpected or even terrifying? How did you go about afterwards telling other people about it? Did you find it hard to tell the story?

• There are, as often, slightly different versions of this story in Matthew and Luke. At least one reason for these differences may be different recollections of the same event, something which is not uncommon, for example, when different people give evidence to investigators or in court. There is plenty of evidence that people notice different things; some might recall the colour of, for example, a car but some might recall the make or model better.

• One of the issues we face two thousand years later is that the Gospels were written a generation or so after the events they describe. In a culture where much less was written down, they are surely based on earlier oral tradition. But the Gospel writers may not have been eye witnesses – and could not have been eye witnesses to the transfiguration – so they must have depended on what they were told. Who told what and when?

 

Questions for discussion

• How might you have felt if Jesus had told you to ‘tell no one’?

• Have you had a really unexpected or even terrifying experience? How did you respond to it?

Dudley Coates is a local preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

 

 

Check-in

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

Over the past week new research has come to light in the study of mental health. This research shows that sharing personal accounts of how people have overcome mental health struggles are effective at helping others in similar situations. Dr Stefan Rennick-Egglestone, the study coordinator, states that they kept all the narratives in – good and bad – in order to provide truth.

It is this truth that has helped the participants within the study, with one person explaining that ‘Just sharing the story, sharing the hurt, the confusion, or the fight was enough for me.’ It connected people in a truth, and within that truth came a “me too” moment, and with that came hope.

In this week’s materials we are delving deep into our call to be witnesses and realising the importance of telling others about Jesus. Dr Stefan’s study highlights the importance of keeping things real. Witnessing is sharing your experience, so let’s not wait for us to be strong theologians, or fully grown adults - young people can do it right now. By sharing our journey, including the doubts, confusion and pain, as well as the wow moments, we could help connect others to God in a powerful way that makes them exclaim “me too!” and bring hope.

 

Lindsay Wright is a freelance writer and designer from Lancashire (www.lwcreative.co.uk).

 

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