25th August 2024
Reflection with readings below
Many fashion chains that originally began by selling women’s clothes, have gone on to sell men’s and children’s wear, and household goods. They aim to sell you a whole Life Style look. You can be a Next household, an M and S household, a Zara household. Next month Oxfam has its Second Hand September promotion, so maybe you could also be a second hand household – now there’s a challenge that could reduce our environmental footprint.
When I was church warden I worked through the Ecclesiastical Insurance health and safety proforma to create a health and safety policy for our church. The policy focused on the simple principle of accessing and then mitigating risks. It is an approach that has become for me second nature: I need a jar a from the top shelf. Can the stool take my weight? Is the floor flat and the stool stable? Is there a support I can hold into? Risks assessed and minimised: jar safely retrieved.
What else can shape our lifestyle choices? Our politics. Our culture. Our religious faith.
So it is in the first of today’s readings we hear Joshua asking the people if they will choose to follow the God of Israel. This has to be a very clear and definite choice. To follow the God of Israel has to be an absolute commitment – a surrendering of all aspects of their lifestyle choices to that one God. There is no option for a ‘yes but also’ approach, no option for a ‘pick and mix’ approach. On the other hand it is a commitment that is undergirded by their experience that God is the God who cares for them, stands by and protects them.
Jesus is laying out the same challenge, the same invitation in his address to the people in the synagogue. But it is an invitation that offers an even deeper connection with God. It is not just to live a life absolutely committed to do things God’s way, but to live a life in which one internalises God, in which you live eat and breathe God through Jesus, the living – the eternal – word of God.
If we live, breathe and ‘eat’ Jesus, then our lives – our lifestyle – will be shaped completely by that relationship. But that is not to say that we won’t be challenged by alternative or competing choices – by rulers, authorities and cosmic forces as the letter to the Ephesians describes them. We might talk about these distractions as the lure of money, of popularity, of fashion, or as feelings of failure, inadequacy or despondency. Prayer, study, worship, learning, community and fellowship, are in opposition to these, all important ways of maintaining a visceral relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
From psalm 86: 11 “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; knit my heart to you, that I may fear your name.”
Post script – I write about what I believe to be true but I find it hard to act upon it.
Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:
“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
Psalm 34:15-22
15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, *
and his ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, *
to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them *
and delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted *
and will save those whose spirits are crushed.
19 Many are the troubles of the righteous, *
but the Lord will deliver him out of them all.
20 He will keep safe all his bones; *
not one of them shall be broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked, *
and those who hate the righteous will be punished.
22 The Lord ransoms the life of his servants, *
and none will be punished who trust in him.
Ephesians 6:10-20
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
John 6:56-69
Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
The Green Tau 