So, having spent my morning thinking about the dual-nature of Jesus Christ, which was fun, I am back to the lectionary for today!

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:23-31
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9

There are two things guaranteed to grab my attention when I look at the lectionary, the first is why a who set of verses has been omitted from within a specific reading, the second is why two alternative readings are offered.

So, the Genesis continues the story of Abram and Sarai, and we are given the verses where they are re-named as Abraham and Sarah (kind of amusing to me since this morning I was talking about the significance of the composite name Jesus Christ).  What it skips over is the description of circumcision... what for centuries has been there in black and white is maybe not suitable for the delicate little ears of nice 21st century Christians since it describes a ritualised medical procedure.  How twee we have become!  Well, at least on Sundays.  The passage also, very conveniently stops short of the Abram guffaws at God's promise of a natural heir via Sarah... heaven forbid we should notice that it wasn't only Sarah who chuckled on hearing of this preposterous promise.  So, less reflection on what this says, and more a reminder about how we read scripture.

So, I opted for the Mark... all of it, plus the linking verse:

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "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.  For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."  And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.  And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.  Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Mark 8: 31 - 9:9 NRSV

So, we pick up the story just after Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Christ and the command to 'tell non-one, Mark's 'Messianic Secret' and get the sharp contrast of Jesus predicting his death and resurrection, something that causes Peter to take him aside, in order to rebuke him, only to receive the most stinging rebuke possible.  Whether or not this happened as soon after the previous verses as a superficial reading suggests, clearly the writer wants to link the two, and then connect them with two more experiences.  Firstly the very public invitation to deny self and take up one's cross, followed by a promise of the Kingdom of God being experienced within that same generation.  And then the very private experience of Peter, James, John and Jesus at the top of a high mountain.

I think what strikes me most, aside from the Markan zap-pow approach to telling the story, is the constant roller-coaster ride of emotion and experience, understanding and not understanding, plain speech and theological riddles that goes on here.  Taken as read, Peter has a moment of outstanding insight swiftly followed by total failure to understand followed, within a week, by a spiritual experience that leaves him speaking gibberish.  People in the crowd are told that to follow Jesus they must deny self (kenosis of a kind maybe (ding ding if any Gatherers are reading) and accept the estate of a criminal... but they may yet live to see the Kingdom, the Messianic Age of which they have dreamed.

As I think about my own life, this pattern of peaks and troughs, highs and lows, understanding and not understanding (or being understood), spiritual insight and earthly clay-footedness has strong resonance.  Without sliding into a careless dualism, it does sometimes seem that opposites occur remarkably closely in time.

Jesus of history,

Man of mystery

Sharing the highs and lows of life

Disicples' insight

Disicples' stupidity

Seeing, then failing to see

Jesus of history

Christ of eternity

Divinity poured into our form

Forgive our stupidity

Grant us new insight

Seeing, then walking with you.

This morning some mail arrived for Holly Cat (from the vet!) Here she is reading it.

Today begins with a video clip, a song that I found coming to mind when I read today's passages:

If nothing else, the song takes me back to my early twenties (!) when it was on a tape of Hebrew inspired songs I was rather fond of playing.

Today's readings:

Psalm 22:23-31
Genesis 16:7-15
Mark 8:27-30

The Mark is the parallel to the Matthew on which I will be preaching (with two other passages) tomorrow on the doctrine of Jesus Christ.  The key in the Markan reading, over against Matthew or Luke is the 'Messianic Secret'... the 'don't tell anyone' of Jesus.

The Psalm I have already commented on, and so it is to 'Part 2' of Hagar's story that I return.  Yesterday we had Abram mating with her for the purposes of obtaining a son, and Sarai, whose idea it was, becoming bitter.  Abram seems indifferent to Hagar, now pregnant with his child, and Sarai abuses her so badly she flees.  The story continues...

The angel of the LORD found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.  And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."
The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her."
The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude."
And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin."
So she named the LORD who spoke to her, "You are El-roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?"
Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

Genesis 16: 7-15 NRSV

This is truly an astonishing story... here we have a pregnant, runaway slave-girl in an encounter with God.  She is, in her society, worthless, and yet God makes her a promise every bit as amazing as that made to Abram... her offsrping will be so many they cannot be counted.  Considering that women were, as I noted yesterday, understood as mere vessels in which babies grew, this is doubly astounding.  This is no easy promise to hear - her son will be estranged from his blood-relatives, tensions in the complex line from Abraham begin here.

And then she gives God a name!  Not God saying to her 'I will be called such-and-such' but her saying to God, you will be called 'El-Roi' the God who sees.

All of which makes me stop and think... who is it that we, in our nice upright, spiritual churches drive away with our attitudes or actions?  Where are the desert places to which they flee?  And given that El-Roi sees all and knows all, what messages does the Messenger from God (the Angel) speak to them?  Hagar went back only to experience further rejection when Ishmael was a child (Genesis 21), hers was not an easy or happy life.

The song I linked, has a line "to the outcast on her knees you are the God who really sees" and that was what promoted me to recall it as I read today's passages. 

I wonder, with whom in the story we identify most today?  Indifferent Abram?  Angry Sarai?  Rejected Hagar?  Unborn Ishamel?  Whoever it might be, God sees, and is not indifferent, is angry only at injustice and sin, and will never reject us.  Perhaps that's the message we need to hold on to today?

El Roi

All-seeing God

From whom nothing can be hidden

You see me today

Where I am

(literally and metaphorically)

How I am

And you are never indifferent

Why am I here?

Why this place, these emotions, this situation?

Yet still you promise me hope and a future

Not an easy road

Not perpetual sunshine or roses round a cottage door

Rather, your continued watchfulness

Observing my going out and my coming in

My waking and sleeping

Working and playing

Praying and thinking

Now

and

Forever

More

El Roi

Watch over me

Amen

This link from today's Baptist Times e-news sweep (aka BUGB e-news sweep) is worth a look see...

Everyone reads the Bible partially, that is, incompletely and in a biased fashion.

Everyone thinks they read the Bible authentically, that is, that they are right (or more right) than others.

Being partial is inevitable and not wrong, but it's not wholly right either.

I kinda feel if we Bappy's could really grasp this, then our unity-in-diversity would be more real and healthy.

Today the twentieth of forty 'blog posts' appeared on the BUGB beyond 400 website.  So, we are now half way, which seems a good place to reflect on how I have experienced the endeavour so far.

Firstly, I feel that, for me anyway, it has involved a lot of the 'usual suspects' in the choices of people to post the reflections.  I know a lot of effort went into trying to find a real spread of people, but I have a sneaky suspicion that had it been a self-selecting group then, thus far, it would not be so very different.  Or maybe it's just the circles I move in... maybe I'm more of a pan-BUGB-Baptist than I realise?  Whatever the reality, the vast majority of posters are people I know, and people I would happily discuss theology with, and among whom it would safe-enough to express honestly held views and agree to disagree

Secondly, I wonder how people are engaging with the conversations?  Not just how many hits, and how many comments, but more along the line of, are the people who were reading at post No 1 still reading at post No 20?  Who has given up reading because they feel unable to participate?  One or two early commenters have disappeared, why is this?  Others have posted pseudonymosly, despite the request for people to use real names, why is that?  Some have been courageous in what they've shared, others quite guarded.  What are the silent majority of readers thinking and doing with this stuff?  What is not being said? How does any of it get to grass roots, to the faithful, computer illiterate members of our churches, or to those who find words like 'blog' or 'facebook' or 'twitter' to be anathema?

I am wondering if it is significant that Post 20, because it is Post 20, not just because of its content/focus, is the place where one of BUGB's big elephants is named, that somehow now the person how named it feels the forum is safe enough or the time right to speak his questions?  How do we build up enough trust to allow diverse, even controversial, views to be expressed?

And then of course the crucial 'so what' question.  I enjoy the conversations, the playing with ideas, the questions and ponderings.  I enjoy... but so what?  Hidden in amongst the words, and hidden behind the words (what is not being said) is much that demands action.  Yes, we need strategies.  Yes we need theolgies.  Yes we need spirtualities.  Yes we need prayer.  Amen to most of what everyone is saying but... so what?  To what purpose all this expenditure of effort?  It is actually "Beyond Beyond 400" where the rubber hits the road.