Sue Lepp | The Irreverent Reverend

Passiontide: Knowing and Seeing

17/3/24
Lent 5

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

O God, we give you thanks because,
in the carnation of the Word,
a new light has dawned upon the world,
that all the nations and peoples may be brought out of darkness to see the radiance of your glory.

How has Lent been treating you? Has it been a time of learning new things about yourself and God? At this point in Lent, I think that many people get tempted to give up on the whole thing. Others may think it does not make any difference so carry on as normal.

Whichever way we are marking it (or not) this season of Lent is moving on rapidly. If we take a brief look back at the Gospel readings of the last few Sundays we can see how far we have come.

We began on Ash Wednesday with Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery and the offer to those without sin to cast the first stone. Then Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness immediately after his baptism. The third Sunday saw Jesus beginning to teach his disciples that he was to undergo great suffering, be killed and rise again in three days. This was followed by Jesus’ rant in the temple and the turning over of tables. We lightened up a bit last week for Mothering Sunday!

This Sunday, the fifth Sunday, begins the final push towards Easter. The churchy name is Passiontide and it runs these next two weeks until Easter Sunday. There is a turning in the Gospel reading this morning as Jesus narrows down the time frame with ‘the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’. In the previous Gospel readings there has been no time specified. This threw the disciples and the Jewish authorities into confusion over when things were to happen.

In these last hours there are two serious questions to be considered in the prophecy of Jeremiah and in the Gospel of John. The first question from Jeremiah is: Do you know God?

Jeremiah is speaking to a group of broken, disillusioned people who are far from home and suffering. This happened in the sixth century when the Israelites (God’s chosen people) had been run out of Judah and Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. Jeremiah had faithfully and persistently spoken to the people and they would not listen.

The exile largely resulted from the Israelites disobedience to God. This in turn made God angry and out they went. A fair follow up question is why would I want to know a God like that?

Knowing God is a choice that each of us have to make and something that needs to be worked out. Like any relationship, it does not just happen. Nor can it be done on our behalf by another person. Sadly many people disregard God completely when He does not act in the way they/we think He should.

God requires very little from those who choose not to follow or believe in Him. There are of course consequences. The ultimate consequence is separation from God when this life is over. This is what Jesus came to save us from.

Life is difficult for many people, too many people. Hardship, war, famine, financial and relationship troubles, health issues, poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of love. Name your own difficulty. It is hard to comprehend that change or improvement will come.

Jeremiah was telling the exiled Israelites that better times were coming; the Lord will make a new covenant with them. God will put his law within them and they will be his people. The new covenant was needed because the old had been broken. The previous law had been written on stone tablets when Moses was on the mountain with God as written in the book of Exodus.

Rather than on stone tablets, the new law would be written in people’s hearts. They would not be compelled to follow that law; but would desire to follow the law. The Israelites were to become a community that knows God intimately and shared the knowledge of him together. This leads to them becoming a faithful community and the Lord will put the former sins behind them. This is the God that I want to know. This is the kind of community I want to be a part of. We have to desire it and want to stay around long enough to see it through.

The second question is: Do you want to see Jesus? The Greeks that appeared at the festival asked to see Jesus; there is no indication of why. Are they curious about his message and his parables? Are they chasing spectacle and hoping to see Jesus walk on water or heal a blind man? Maybe they are sceptics or troublemakers, looking to pick a fight. There is no way to know. All we can do is guess. I believe that one day everyone will meet him face to face.

Do you want to see Jesus?

If yes, which Jesus do we wish to see? The teacher? The healer? The peacemaker? The troublemaker? Why are we interested? Or if we are not asking and seeking, then the question shifts, and we have to ask it differently: why do I not want to see Jesus? What has been lost?

Many people may not want his presence, his guidance, his example or his companionship but still want things from him. Like safety, health, wealth, immunity from suffering or a life of ease. If we want to see Jesus then we have to see it all. The death, the suffering, the difficult teaching, the call to die to ourselves, to love Him first and everything else second. Those who serve him must follow him.

My heart for Jesus expands and constricts; my desire to see him waxes and wanes, and my motives for seeking him grow purer and coarser by turns.
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” On its face, it is such a simple request, but it cuts to the heart of so many kinds of spiritual growth, stagnation, and defeat. If we, like the Greek Gentiles, want to see Jesus, the place to look is to the cross. Jesus was and is many things: teacher, healer, companion, and Lord, and it is essential that we experience him in all of these ways.

The centre, the heart of who he is, is revealed at the cross. The cross makes true sight possible. Jesus is the one who draws and gathers all people to himself. He is the one who allows himself to be lifted up, so that what is unclear or overwhelming or frightening becomes visible. Jesus wishes to see us far more urgently than we will ever wish to see him. This is not a rebuke. We love because he loves first. We love because the cross draws us towards love; its power is as compelling as it is mysterious.

The cross pulls us towards God and towards each other. Whether or not I want to see Jesus, here he is, drawing me. Whether or not you want to see Jesus too.
In the next two weeks of Passiontide, we are drawn into the drama of the final days of Jesus’ life. We should be drawn to Him; we should want to be drawn to Him. We can be drawn in by reading the accounts of what happened and paying attention to the details and praying. The Hebrews reading this morning tells us that Jesus prayed. Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, the messy, snotty kind. No stiff upper lip here. Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for all who listen and follow him. This is worth saying a few prayers for and some messy crying.

The waiting of Lent is speeding up; the hour is coming. Those who love their life will lose it. Fruit is born through death. This waiting will come to an end on the cross when Jesus is lifted up. The time is coming when we will see him face to face. Better days are coming to those who follow. Let’s be ready.

Lent 3: Health & Safety

17th Century Ethiopian found in the British Library.
Jesus cleansing of the temple –

3/3/24
Lent 3

Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

O God, we give you thanks because,
in the carnation of the Word,
a new light has dawned upon the world,
that all the nations and peoples may be brought out of darkness to see the radiance of your glory.

Disorder, disruption and chaos! How do you cope with it? It is everywhere at the moment and it always has been. Take your pick; the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, climate change and its consequences, the Northern Runway Project examination hearings happening in Crawley, the state of the UK government with huge amounts of uncertainty and mistrust in politicians. These are of course the public issues. Many people have health issues (physical and mental), family problems, relationship breakdown and financial worries that never make the headlines or even the village gossip.

In any of the above events there are times when we may want to turnover the tables and upend everything. We want to cause disorder and disrupt and bring chaos; maybe to change things, to vent our own anger and acknowledge a sense of powerlessness or injustice. Try to make things right again.

There can also be temptation to harken back to the days of old, the good old days to find some comfort or at least distraction from the worries of the day. Some people may look to their faith to find guidance or encouragement to carry on. Today’s readings remind us that the world is not as it should be and has not really ever been. They also nudge us to look towards God, Jesus, be mindful of the stumbling blocks and the foolishness of ourselves and the world.

Jesus’ cleansing of the temple appears in all four Gospels, indicating that this is a significant moment. Matthew, Mark and Luke place this event much later in the life of Jesus as he enters Jerusalem for the last time. John places it right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In John’s timeline, Jesus and the disciples have left Cana after the wedding and have arrived in Jerusalem, they go directly to the Temple and Jesus turns over the tables. Miracles to mayhem.

The Temple was the beating heart of Judaism. For those of you who have been to Jerusalem, you can appreciate the size and scale of the Temple in the centre of Jerusalem. It was the centre of worship, music, the focal point of politics and Jewish society, a place of national celebration and mourning. Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral are somewhat a parallel in terms of significance to the people. The Temple was the place where YHWH, God has promised to live in the midst of his people.

What was so wrong with it that an unknown prophet from Galilee disrupts and disorders the Temple?

Jesus and the disciples arrived in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. Passover is a time to remember what God had done in the past when he saved the Jewish . It was also a celebration of liberation, freedom and rescue from slavery. John has already told us that Jesus is the new Passover Lamb. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, the people in the Temple that day would not have known that. The Temple had over time become more of a market-place and a corrupt one. It is now under God’s judgement. Those who were selling the animals for sacrifice and the money-changers did need to be there. Jewish law required the right sacrifices to be offered. Yet unfair, dodgy practices had corrupted the Temple. People were being cheated out of money by their own people. This is what Jesus was raging against.

The idea of Jesus getting angry and violent can be hard to picture. According to John, he took the time to stop and make a whip of cords. Imagine Jesus sitting down, getting the materials together and then making it all while watching the goings on. Instead of calming down in the pause, Jesus gets more worked up. We do not know if any one was injured, impossible to imagine Jesus whipping anyone but He certainly disrupted their livelihoods and work.

We see Jesus on the side of those being cheated, devalued and treated badly. Jesus certainly had zeal; both for the Temple as his Father’s house and for people. The Temple had been made into something it was never supposed to be. Jesus is correcting a serious wrong by showing that He will restore things to the way they should be and not in a predictable way.

Jesus is doing two things: He is reminding the Jews of the Ten Commandments. There were a few being broken: the making of idols (money) and stealing. He is also referring to himself in the remark about the destroyed Temple rising up in three days. Jesus is the true temple, the word made flesh and cannot be corrupted.

So which is it?!

The Ten Commandments and all Jewish laws were given to the Israelities to be followed. They believed that by following the law to its letter the Messiah would come. Obedience would make God happy and inclined to do things for them. Jesus, the Messiah, appears and seems to be breaking all the laws and disrupting the Temple. Paul is writing to the new church at Corinth about a God who is incomprehensible and seems to want everyone to know God through the cross of Jesus.

Many of the new Corinthian converts considered themselves wise and intelligent. Paul is talking about God as unpredictable, one who overturns convention and includes everyone; the wise and the fools together. God who loves the least, the lost and the last, who prefers to the poor and the powerless. The God who demands loyalty and worship, not for His sake but for ours.

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis reminds us that the meaning of Jesus is neither tidy nor tame but that it is nonetheless one that we can embrace with confidence. Susan and Lucy ask Mr. and Mrs. Beaver to describe Aslan (Lewis’s representation of Jesus). They ask if Aslan is a man. Mr. Beaver replies.

“Aslan a man? Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion — the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he — quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

We are left with Jesus whose cleansing of the temple should warn us of every false sense of security and belief. We can hold a lot of them alongside misplaced allegiances, presumptions and assumptions, spiritual complacency, political idolatry and financial greed. These are some of the tables Jesus would overturn today. We may not understand, in fact Jesus does not call us to understand him, He calls us to follow him.

To follow Jesus is a far more radical thing to do. He will feed us in the desert, tend to our wounded souls. He will lead and guide us and upend the stalls we have set up. Jesus will dismantle our false routines and comforts to show us what true and abundant life is. We can find our safety in the one who is not safe but good.

Lent 2: Pick it up!

25/2/24

Psalm 22:23-end
Romans 4:13-end
Mark 8:31-38

This morning’s gospel reading is at the centre point of Mark. You may have noticed that it contains some of Jesus’ most well-known sayings. Many of these sayings often come up independently of each other in modern usage; here we have them all together in a few verses of Mark. ‘Get behind me Satan!’; ‘Take up your cross and follow me’; ‘What is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?’. There is often great temptation to take these verses out of context and apply to any situation we find ourselves in. Much like taking Churchill quotes or lines of Shakespeare and reducing them to coffee mugs and tea towels.

These are not flippant comments; nor are they meant as a joke or a throw away from Jesus. To fully appreciate what is being said, we need to look to the start of Mark 8. Jesus and the disciples are teaching to large crowds who are tracking them. He is feeding them with the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fishes. The Pharisees are looking for a fight with their constant testing. Jesus is healing the blind. The disciples are seemingly slow to grasp what is going on. You can, with some attention, feel the pressure building.

Jesus is surrounded by people who are questioning who he is and in whose authority he is teaching, preaching and healing. So he asks a fairly generic question: ‘who do people say that I am?’ To which he is given a range of answers, the local gossip as it were. John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the Prophets. Jesus then turns to a more pointed and direct question of ‘But who do YOU say that I am?’ No more hiding behind the answers of others!

Now I don’t think Jesus was struggling particularly with his identity but wanted to see if the disciples were clear about it. Who do you say Jesus is? If someone asked you, what answer would you give? Do you have one?

Jesus knew his time on earth was getting short. He was trying to prepare his disciples for what was to come; they needed to understand what the Messiah meant. As Jews they would have had ideas and expectations of the coming Messiah. They had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to come! However, Jesus is not and never was going to be the Messiah they had imagined.
With some irony, the place Caesarea Philippi (in modern day northern Israel), was a place where Jewish groups expected the arrival of the age to come. It was no accident that Jesus chose this place to have this conversation. Jesus the Messiah, the start of the new age is in the place where some Jewish people expected the arrival of the age to come. This is exciting news; Peter is so moved that he declares that Jesus is the Messiah.

Great!
And then… Jesus drops a bombshell. “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering,” Jesus tells his disciples quite plainly. He must “be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” The context that Jesus is teaching into was his death; this is the first time that Jesus predicts his death.

Standing on this side of resurrection history, we easily miss the utter shock these words had on Jesus’s disciples. Their great hope, cultivated over the three years they had followed Jesus, was dashed. Jesus was supposed to lead them in a military revolution and overthrow their Roman oppressors and restore Israel to former greatness. What then could be more disorienting, more ludicrous, than the news that their would-be champion was going to walk without a fight to certain death? An embarrassing death at that.

Peter, in a moment of confusion and shock, scolds Jesus for his dire prediction. Jesus, in what might be the sharpest and most surprising rebuke in all of Scripture, puts Peter in his place with one swift stroke: “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

You can hardly blame Peter, how often are our minds on human things rather than the divine? Holy living requires higher thoughts, and this takes some practice. It is easier to think holy thoughts when all is well. Much more difficult to do when faced with death, threats to security and uncertainty.

Then Jesus turns to the crowds and captures the essence of his message in two sentences: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.“

Even now, centuries removed from the context in which Jesus lived and taught, what exactly is Jesus saying? That he wants us to pursue suffering and death? That a holy life is not about living at all, but about dying? About martyrdom?
What does a holy life look like in 21st century England? Living, as we do, in a culture that does not imprison, torture, or kill Christians for our faith, how shall I deny myself so that the gospel might thrive, here and now? How shall I save my life by losing it for Jesus’s sake in the village of Charlwood or Sidlow Bridge?

‘If any want to become my followers’ would imply there is a choice to be made. Jesus is speaking to a crowd, lots of people watching and listening. The use of if suggests that not everyone decided then and there become followers of Jesus. It is not easy and no promise of an easy, pain-free, suffering avoidant life is ever offered.

‘Let them deny themselves’. This is not the body and I am not living the life of a person who denies herself very much! I am not always good at living beyond my own convenience. What would it look like to deny ourselves those things that prevent us from living a life that follows totally after Jesus?

‘And take up their cross and follow me.’ We use it as a throw-away; ‘we all have our crosses to bear’ to explain or give meaning to the circumstances of another. There are always lots of people to stand and watch others do the heavy lifting. These are the ones who think they are saving their lives by not getting involved, or staying quiet or think that all religions, God, etc. are the same and get you there in the end, just be good or a nice person. The reality is though that lives will be lost. We all have situations, issues, stuff going on that needs bearing up; we cannot ignore, dismiss or wish it away. Pick it up!

If we pick our crosses up to follow Jesus we are not going to have to carry it by ourselves. In Matthew 11 Jesus says, ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Who can we look to for a holy life? We see an example in Abraham. All that Abraham was promised came through his righteousness and God’s faithfulness. Abraham’s great age is not to be overlooked. It took a lifetime of practice, of discipline, repentance and growth. It was certainly not an easy life, but it was worth it in the end. I think that one of the best examples in recent history is Billy Graham. Billy Graham died in February 2018, at the grand age of 99 and in his own home. He is a shining example of what it is to live a holy life of faithful service to Jesus until the end. Carrying your cross daily and faithfully. Giving up your life, your convenience for others.

We probably will not influence millions of people around the world and that is okay. How about we influence those around us in our homes, families, villages, our workplaces, schools, the stranger on the train or in the coffee shop.
Billy Graham lived a scandal free life both financially and sexually. Is that not refreshing given what is being reported in the news almost daily? Money, sex, pride and power have a death grip on so many people.

Mark is presenting us with Jesus’ idea of what real life looks like; a ‘real life’, a holy life that does not have space for the misuse and abuse of money, sex, pride and power. Mark ends this passage by making it clear that following Jesus seems the only way to go. There is some good news: the crosses that we must bear are so much lighter than the cross that Jesus had to bear.

What is the reward? From Billy Graham: “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

In the presence of God who loves us deeply, gave up everything so we can be with him, who repays us with a life spent in eternity. By losing and denying we gain much more.

Blessed are those who carry
for they shall be lifted.

Lent 1: Baptism & Temptation of Jesus

Paolo Veronese, Baptism & Temptation of Christ (1582) in the Pinoteco de Brera, Milan

Lent 1

Psalm 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-end
Mark 1: 9-15

Welcome to Lent. I wish you all a holy one. As a reminder of what the season of Lent should look like I start with the words from the Introduction to the Ash Wednesday service and invite you to observe it faithfully.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

I invite you, therefore, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.

Lent is not to be a season of misery or forsaking the delicacies of life for the sake of them. It is meant to bring us closer to God, to build up our relationships with Jesus and to deepen our understanding of the faith. Take the opportunity; we all need to.

The first Sunday of Lent Gospel is always set on the temptation of Jesus. This event happened immediately after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. It is almost as though Jesus is teleported from the banks of the Jordan to the barren landscapes of the desert.

I was in Milan last weekend for a short art & culture break. One of the paintings that caught my attention was by Paolo Veronese and is called the ‘Baptism and Temptation of Christ.’ On the left of the canvas was the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan surrounded by chubby angels and some onlookers. The dove of the Holy Spirit is radiant. Veronese paints Jesus with a slightly surprised look on his face. On the right of the canvas, walking away from the joyous scene and towards Jerusalem, is Jesus and Satan, a hooded old man.

These two stories are rarely associated other than as chronological events in the Gospel. Yet there is a link. In the waters of baptism we are made new, sins are forgiven, promises made over us and by us and we become part of the family of God. Yet temptation is waiting at every turn to distract, cause us to distrust and walk away from God.

Temptation can take many forms and comes in many guises. We have advertisers telling us to give into temptation, a quick Google search produces all sorts of interesting things: sweets, chocolate, coffee, music, movies, restaurants. Temptation can also take physical or sexual form which can be particularly destructive. While some temptations may seem innocuous, the underlying principle is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.

We are to set our minds on things above. The idea behind fasting for Lent is rooted in this Gospel story; Jesus was able to resist temptation at his weakest points. We give up things in Lent to remind ourselves of the sacrifices that Jesus made. It is not so much about the cakes, chocolates & wine as it is about the attitude of our hearts towards God and the sacrifices of Jesus.

An explanation for Jesus’ temptation is that he had to determine what kind of Messiah he was going to be. Jesus was at the very start of his public ministry; He might as well start as he means to go on.

I want to briefly look at the temptations that Jesus faced and what they might say to us today.

“Tell This Stone to Become Bread”

There should not be any doubt that Jesus could not have done that. He was, after all, hungry. He had been fasting for forty days! He could have made himself a lovely, fresh loaf and satisfied his hunger right then and there. Served himself as he had the power to.

It was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness; this was not something he decided to do himself. He trusted his Father in heaven so to turn the stone into bread would have shown distrust in his father. Many of us have the power to look after ourselves, provide for ourselves to a standard that we see fit. I can do it myself, thank you very much!

By doing things for ourselves all the time, we too can stop exercising trust in God to provide for us. His provision is always better, remember we too are his beloved and precious children.

“Throw Yourself Down From Here”

The second temptation is also about trust in God as Satan wants Jesus to put God to the test. This never ends well! Sometimes we put God to the test too when we try to bargain with him. ‘I’ll do this, if you’ll do that.’

What’s the root here? Power. People crave power and Satan knows this. We want to be in control of our own lives, destinies, plans. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; they were tempted by the prospect of power. They believed, with no proof at all, that eating the apple would make them like God.
The serpent created doubt in their minds by convincing them that there was more to God than he was letting on. Surely just living the good life in the garden was not all that God wanted. Really? The idea that we can become our own ‘god’ is pervasive in current culture. We want to be powerful, image is everything. Is it? People are falling down as a result of giving into the temptations that indulge the short-term but destroy the long.

“If You Worship Me, It Will All Be Yours”

It is very difficult to imagine that Jesus would be tempted to worship Satan. This final temptation is more about Jesus wanting to take Satan’s authority out of his hands. This authority is temporary and limited but it still is very real; a quick read of the news and it is easy to see.

Sometimes we may find ourselves wanting to take control of a situation, overtake another person, and get our own way. We want to be the centre of attention. Adam and Eve listen to the wrong voice and it did not end well for them. The serpent cast doubt in their minds, the apple was eaten and out of the garden they went. God gave them one prohibition and a relatively small one at that.

We listen to the wrong voices! We worship the wrong things, the wrong people, the wrong stuff because we think that they hold the key to our security. It is only in God that we will ever be truly secure. Who are we worshipping today?

The time of temptation was to establish that Jesus had choices and desires of his own, like all humans do. We, following the example of Jesus, must choose to make God’s will our own will. We choose through our temptations and wilderness times what kind of Christian, what kind of person we will be.
There is hope in the wilderness; God does not abandon Jesus there. Jesus was ministered to by the angels. When we find ourselves in the wilderness we are not abandoned as it is Jesus who tends to us.

Lent can be a wilderness season of sorts as we make time (or should make time) to examine where we are at with God. Jesus was able to answer Satan at each turn with scripture from Deuteronomy. Maybe we need to brush up on what the bible says (or doesn’t)!

A wilderness season, however challenging, will never be wasted if we believe and know that God is with us. Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Our identity lies in being His beloved son or daughter. If we can hang on to that, then whatever the wilderness throws at us, whatever illusions we live under can be overcome.

Ash Wednesday: Shades of Grey

Ash Wednesday Reflection 2024
St Nicholas – 10:00 am P&P
Emmanuel – 7:30 pm P&P

Psalm 51:1-18
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
John 8:1-11

This print is going to be the focus of my reflection today. It was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565 and now hangs in the Courtauld Gallery in London. It is entitled ‘Christ and the Women Taken in Adultery.’ This Gospel story has been painted by many others but none quite like Bruegel. The most striking feature is that Bruegel painted it in different shades of grey. The greys represent the human response to sin and to point out the hypocrisy and the virtue of mercy that this Gospel story highlights so well.

At the centre of this picture and in the most amount of light is Jesus. He is kneeling and writing in Dutch. Jesus is the best lit and most exposed person in this picture.

The woman has literally been dragged from an adulterer’s bed and her sin has been announced to all. This was an offence punishable by death according to the law of Moses. Where was the man she was adultering with? So much humiliation. Maybe you have been caught out publicly for something you did and can relate to this woman. The woman is intently watching Jesus with a slightly blank expression. She is not looking at the crowd; but she is not looking directly down either. Her left ear is slightly cocked towards the crowd; maybe listening to what people are saying to her or about her.

The crowd, according to Bruegel, are showing the human reaction to being confronted with sin. The men closer to the front are much more exposed, a lighter grey than those at the back. Some are turning away, wanting to stay hidden, unexposed. The two men on the right are very exposed but notice their hands. One has his hands hidden under his cloak and the other’s hands are darker than the rest of his body. Their faces and mouths might say one thing yet their hands are telling another story.

Every person in this picture except for Jesus is a sinner. Everyone here this morning/tonight is a sinner as well. Fortunately, this is not the end of the story for any of us! If you could place yourself in this picture where would you put yourself? Serious question!

Many people fear being ‘found out’ whether for having done something wrong or by not being the person they present to the world. Some people have a view of God as being out to get them or expose them for their sins. God is the angry Father just waiting for a mistake to be made. In this story Jesus is not who does the exposing but the scribes and Pharisees. He cares for this woman, protects her from death and puts her on a new path. Jesus does not condemn her as the crowd did. She does not get off the hook either as she is told to ‘Go and sin no more.’ She had some work to do.

Tom Wright says this about her forgiveness: “If she has been forgiven, if she’s been rescued from imminent death she must live by that forgiveness. Forgiveness is not the same as tolerance. Being forgiven doesn’t mean that sin doesn’t matter. On the contrary: forgiveness means that sin does matter but that God is choosing to set it aside.”
The same is true for us, if we have been forgiven then we must live by that forgiveness.

Psalm 51 is known as a ‘penitential psalm’; it is an extended confession of sin and an anticipation of new life grounded in divine forgiveness. It was written by David during his tragic downfall as he had yielded to temptation and committed adultery with Bathsheba. He then tried to cover up what he did with lies, deceit and eventually murder. David’s sin was exposed to him by the prophet Nathan.
Despite David’s actions, the response to the uncovering of sin is exemplary: I have sinned against the Lord. David’s first request is for mercy. He knows that God is generous, merciful and that His love is steadfast. David’s confession goes on for the first 9 verses. David comes to know that God desires truth and wisdom and this is where David begins to see a new beginning beyond his failure.

By verse 10 the psalm moves from confession to petitions addressed to the God of mercy and steadfast love. This is an act of hope for a renewed and restored relationship with God. Words like, ‘create in me, put, do not cast, do not take, restore, sustain.’ David is anticipating a clean heart, a new and right spirit.
We can all have this. A clean heart and a new and right spirit. But we have to do some work first.

Ash Wednesday is a time to reflect and pursue forgiveness of our sins. As Christians, the bigger issue is that we let things interfere in our relationship with Christ. It might seem small or insignificant but if we do not tend to these things or issues they can blow up at an exponential rate. Ash Wednesday offers the chance to sit down in the ashes in some form of repentance to address our sin and brokenness. Sit down before you fall down. As we have seen from both the Gospel and the Psalms sin gets exposed. Sometimes rather publicly.

To come to a place of repentance is no small feat and is not for the faint of heart. It takes real courage to review ourselves and our actions, to acknowledge where and when we have been wrong, and been sinful. Repentance literally means to turn in the other direction and commit to change. It is only through Christ and being in Christ that death and sin are defeated.

The beauty of Ash Wednesday is that it can lead us to both lower our gaze to that which in us needs refocusing and correcting. At the same time we can begin to raise our gaze on the dazzling beauty and light of Christ. There is no need to be ashamed of those things that need to be ashed out. Sit with them for a while and let them go. Use this season of Lent to trade them in for the generous mercy and steadfast love that God has for you.