I cannot breathe .....
This weeks Lection calls us to reach out in faith with the disciples, to hope with St Paul, to shout out with Psalm 100 and to hear the cry of suffering, 'I cannot breathe'.
Being unable to breathe is symptomatic of Covid 19, 'I cannot breathe'. For this reason there was an urgent need for ventilators. But the phrase 'I cannot breathe' conjures another imagine of a police officer, kneeling on a mans neck where there was an urgent need for respect, and restraint which was sadly and tragically missing.
This action has resulted in a dramatic and powerful question being asked. This one death in America contrasts with the 40,000 deaths so far recorded in the UK and suddenly any fear of the virus has ebbed away such is the anger and thirst for justice, despite the government bracketing the Church with non essential shops and entertainment I am constantly hearing the question asked, 'Where is God in all this'?
Clearly the disciples are on a mission. They are called by God. They are commissioned by Jesus. They are named. They bring their message to the Jewish community. This is Matthew after all.
I am particularly taken with the names. We know the names because Matthew reminds us:
first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
As the disciples are named so are we. We are named as disciples and we are called to share in the mission of those disciples 2000 years ago as Jesus commands:
As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Of course now with social isolation we are discouraged from leaving home so we are finding new ways of reaching out, new ways of proclaiming Good News, our own service on Sundays appears to be holding our community together, the weekly newsletter also, I have been posting prayers each day on social media which has resulted in some positive responses, the Sunday School has reached out and is growing.
With these kind of positive responses we find that we are answering the question 'Where is God in all this'?
As always God is with us in the heart of our pain, in the heart of our grief, loving and faithful, offering his Son as a sacrifice, restoring broken relationships, proclaiming good news, storing the kingdom, curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, casting out demons, giving us as individuals and as a community the opportunity to breathe.
So we reach out in faith.
In our Bible study we have been exploring St Paul's letter to the christian congregation in Rome.
We looked at Chapter 5 a couple of weeks ago.
Paul's remarkable text written in Corinth fifty years after Jesus death continues to have an impact on all who read it.
Paul argues that we cannot boast in our own actions, our own status or our own privileges, only in the glory of God which has justified and redeemed us through the death and resurrection of Jesus which is the Gospel and which allows us to affirm that God is in this with us.
But Paul illustrates his belief as he addresses the Roman christians by building an argument in which the key elements of our human experience combine to point toward the possibility that even in the midst of a pandemic, even as we watch a man being killed on TV crying out that he cannot breathe under the weight of a policeman's knee on his neck that it is possible that we can, indeed must, still hope.
For Paul, suffering produces patience, patience produces character and character produces hope. It seems that for many in the BAME community patience has evaporated but for those of us still in lockdown, still awaiting a response from Government, still reaching out tentatively, still social distancing then we remain hopeful and encouraged:
'endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us'.
Giving expression to that hope may well be difficult in the coming months. With Churches unable to accommodate their congregations as before. With singing discouraged Church may well feel to be a very different experience.
My favourite Hymn, How Great Thou Art, with its back story of faith lost and refound, as with last weeks doubt and worship, is a hymn I always enjoy singing and which just the singing restores my belief that God is in this with us.
Psalm 100 challenges us this week:
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
Being unable to breathe is symptomatic of Covid 19, 'I cannot breathe'. For this reason there was an urgent need for ventilators. But the phrase 'I cannot breathe' conjures another imagine of a police officer, kneeling on a mans neck where there was an urgent need for respect, and restraint which was sadly and tragically missing.
This action has resulted in a dramatic and powerful question being asked. This one death in America contrasts with the 40,000 deaths so far recorded in the UK and suddenly any fear of the virus has ebbed away such is the anger and thirst for justice, despite the government bracketing the Church with non essential shops and entertainment I am constantly hearing the question asked, 'Where is God in all this'?
I am particularly taken with the names. We know the names because Matthew reminds us:
first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
As the disciples are named so are we. We are named as disciples and we are called to share in the mission of those disciples 2000 years ago as Jesus commands:
As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Of course now with social isolation we are discouraged from leaving home so we are finding new ways of reaching out, new ways of proclaiming Good News, our own service on Sundays appears to be holding our community together, the weekly newsletter also, I have been posting prayers each day on social media which has resulted in some positive responses, the Sunday School has reached out and is growing.
With these kind of positive responses we find that we are answering the question 'Where is God in all this'?
As always God is with us in the heart of our pain, in the heart of our grief, loving and faithful, offering his Son as a sacrifice, restoring broken relationships, proclaiming good news, storing the kingdom, curing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, casting out demons, giving us as individuals and as a community the opportunity to breathe.
So we reach out in faith.
In our Bible study we have been exploring St Paul's letter to the christian congregation in Rome.
We looked at Chapter 5 a couple of weeks ago.
Paul's remarkable text written in Corinth fifty years after Jesus death continues to have an impact on all who read it.
Paul argues that we cannot boast in our own actions, our own status or our own privileges, only in the glory of God which has justified and redeemed us through the death and resurrection of Jesus which is the Gospel and which allows us to affirm that God is in this with us.
But Paul illustrates his belief as he addresses the Roman christians by building an argument in which the key elements of our human experience combine to point toward the possibility that even in the midst of a pandemic, even as we watch a man being killed on TV crying out that he cannot breathe under the weight of a policeman's knee on his neck that it is possible that we can, indeed must, still hope.
For Paul, suffering produces patience, patience produces character and character produces hope. It seems that for many in the BAME community patience has evaporated but for those of us still in lockdown, still awaiting a response from Government, still reaching out tentatively, still social distancing then we remain hopeful and encouraged:
'endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us'.
Giving expression to that hope may well be difficult in the coming months. With Churches unable to accommodate their congregations as before. With singing discouraged Church may well feel to be a very different experience.
My favourite Hymn, How Great Thou Art, with its back story of faith lost and refound, as with last weeks doubt and worship, is a hymn I always enjoy singing and which just the singing restores my belief that God is in this with us.
Psalm 100 challenges us this week:
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
This is a psalm of joyful acclamation, it is a psalm of high praise which encourages us to make a noise. There is nothing here of children being seen and not heard, hopefully we can sing in the quietude of our hearts, hopefully we can imagine the choirs of angels, recall a favourite hymn or Anthem and continue to rejoice, however meditative our worship is required to be.
In the Spinney I hear the birdsong sounding like angel voices, ever singing as they make a joyful noise to the lord.
To imagine or to say I cannot breathe is to enter into the experience of so many in these challenging and difficult times. But as Matthew reminds us for first century disciples the times were no less oppressive, people were being killed all day long, Jesus warned his disciples that they will be rejected, arrested, flogged they will be held down and feel that they cannot breathe.
What we know in our hearts and rehearse in our creeds is that the transforming work of Jesus heals, restores and reconciles.
So we must reach out in faith with the disciples, we must hope with St Paul, and shout out with Psalm 100 responding to the cry of the suffering, 'I cannot breathe'.
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