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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

 

The Lord is king

God’s kingship is terrifying but, like Moses, we can discover God’s endless love and forgiveness (Psalm 99:1; Exodus 34:29).

 

Context

Trump declares himself a king on his social media outlet and there is concern at the widespread use of executive orders which concentrate power into the hands of the president.

What can be done to contain this power grab? 

Meanwhile, Zelensky offers to give up the presidency for peace.

Here in the UK, questions are being asked about the kind of leader we need for these unstable and dangerous times.

And as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas comes to the end of its first phase with no second stage in sight, what sort of leadership is needed to make lasting peace? 

The film about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s response to the moral dilemma of being caught between two rulers is to be released in the UK on March 7.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

It has been quite a week for reflections on leadership:

• the cost of true leadership;
• the source of a leader’s power;
• the choosing of a new leader in Germany amidst the threat from the far-right AfD;
• the need for courageous, wise and compassionate leaders in a world full of conflict.

As we ponder the issues in the news, the passage from Exodus and the story of the transfiguration take us to a different place. In the story in Exodus, Moses intercedes for the people, meets God on the mountain and the covenant is renewed. When Moses comes down from the mountain, his face is shining because he had talked with God. How can other people tell that we have been with God? Do we expect to be changed? The Psalmist describes God’s nature as full of justice, equity and forgiveness. As we are transformed into God’s image, do these qualities show in our actions and in our life together in church? 

Some people experience God’s gaze as that of a critical judge but I wonder exactly what it was that made the face of Moses shine? Perhaps it was being in the presence of wild, unbounded, forgiving love and of being transformed by the enormity and tenderness of it. Perhaps it was the intimacy of encountering not only the glory and holiness of God but also God’s desire for relationship - God’s vulnerability. Perhaps it was that Moses could in that moment see himself as God saw him. As we prepare for our journey into Lent, can we find some time and a quiet space where we can gaze on God and let him gaze on us? The transforming power of God’s love can also change the way we see others - we can begin to look on them with the eyes of love. 

In The Velveteen Rabbit (a story of love’s power to change the ordinary), the Skin Horse answers the rabbit’s questions about becoming real: “Real isn’t how you are made …it’s a thing  that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long time, not just to play with but really loves you, then you become real… It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.” (Margery Williams Bianco The Velveteen Rabbit). Being transformed by love can be challenging or even painful.

It's World Book Day on Thursday 6 March. What stories - secular and sacred - can we share that inspire us as we look to be transformed and as we go out to transform our world? What stories of God do we value that show us flawed human beings being changed and then used by God in amazing ways? In a world that seems to prize strongman leaders, what stories show us vulnerable leadership?

The work of being transformed and of transforming the world around us begins as we gaze on God. It is what we sing about in the hymn Love Divine, All Loves Excelling: “changed from glory into glory ‘til in heaven we take our place.” How can we let God transform us as a community so that we better reflect the love that flows freely in the heart of God who is relationship? And, as we become a transformed community, are we ready to be counter-cultural and to challenge the status quo?

The film about Bonhoeffer ends with Martin Niemöller’s Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, acknowledging the complicity of the church in accommodating the evil perpetrated by Hitler. It says: “we accuse ourselves for not standing for our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.” During Lent, perhaps we can pray for God’s continuing transformation of us so that we can together shine in the world as a courageous, faithful, joyous and loving community.

 

Questions for discussion

• Up there and down here: how do the glimpses of God that we experience on the mountain top change how we live day-to-day down here? 
• Several biblical encounters with God happen on mountain tops. Where else do we encounter God? 
• When Moses spoke with God, his face shone. How are we changed by our meetings with God?
• Lent will test our view of kingship. How might today’s scriptures help us to see glory in the midst of suffering in the life of Jesus?

Diane Craven is a Reader in the Church of England and is currently an Education and Spirituality consultant.

 

Check-in

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

Face to face with God

This has been a week of significant face-to-face meetings, as some of the most powerful or influential world leaders have met in a series of meetings to make decisions, pledges, offers and challenges which will impact many around the world. Across the week, the world’s media have:

• anticipated what may be said;
• reported on all pre-announcements made;
• scrutinized every action, deciphering the motivations and likely impact.

Behind the scenes, activity will have been even more frenetic with aides and analysists advising their respective parties about everything from language used, context to decisions, appropriate details to share ahead of meetings and when to hold back.

In Exodus 34:29-35 we read of another face-to-face meeting; held without an entourage of advisors, away, far away from the glaring crowds, where one man met with the Lord God Almighty and was given, once again, the keys to living life God’s way. The impact of this encounter was so great that Moses' face revealed the radiance of God.

This week, as we pray that God would be at work in the midst of current events, we pray that all those involved will seek the face of God, that they will encounter him for themselves, and that they too will remember the keys to living life God’s way.

Becky May is Children and Family Tutor at Ridley Hall, Cambridge and Founder of The Resources Cupboard 

 

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