No wonder the disciples were confused and found it hard to understand. Human instinct is to preserve life, to keep institutions going, to survive. Jesus recognized the mystery of transformation which produces a head of corn from a single grain, and it spoke to him of his own path:
‘A grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains.’ John 12:24 GNB
He could have stayed in the hills around Capernaum, or along the shores of Lake Tiberias, but instead he chose to go to the seat of power; to Jerusalem. He entered the city in procession, but on a donkey rather than a war horse. At roughly the same time, Pontius Pilate and his legionnaries entered from the opposite side in a public display of force at the tense time of Passover. The Romans didn’t want the Exodus stories of ancient liberation to give anyone any ideas.
Then Jesus went to the other seat of power in Jerusalem: the Temple. There he literally upset the order of things, overturning money changers’ tables and setting free sacrificial doves, calling for renewal in religious life.
John talks of Christ’s Passion as his Glory. When truth will be seen and God will be glorified. Jesus is prepared to embody the Truth and submit to death, even death on a cross.
This is a time of endings and beginnings in many ways: of aging and loss, of relocation and new challenges, of change in the Church of Scotland, and in the congregation I love and have served. May the sign of the fallen grain transformed encourage and give hope.
The house was filled with the fragrance. She’d given him her dowry and in an intimate gesture of devotion she wiped his feet with her hair.
Those around were scandalized but Jesus accepted it. Mary, whose brother Lazarus was raised from death by Jesus, was now anointing him for his own death.
Mary’s gift of the ointment and the anointing was generous, extravagant even.
It seems the more wealth folks possess the more minded they are to hold on to it. The poor can be far more generous, sharing from their little while the rich preserve their plenty. I can’t get my head around the fact that 8 people ‘own’ half the world’s wealth.
Perhaps we are in the mess we’re in because of the way the world is commodified. We know the price of everything and the cost of nothing.
Jesus and Mary both knew the cost. Jesus accepted her devotion and the house was filled with fragrance.
Anointed Saviour
Who accepted Mary’s devotion with infinite grace
May the fragrance of love surround us this Holy Week
And transform our poverty into riches beyond price
I try to draw a congregation into the drama of Holy Week, recognising that many there on Palm Sunday will not engage until Easter Sunday and Resurrection. This Sunday I adapted a piece I wrote in 2017. In the light of all the woes of the world the choice exemplified by Jesus between closed fist and open hand resonate as much as ever.
I shared a very short poem by Carl Sandberg called Choose.
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.
Choose:
For we meet by one or the other.
The contrast was made between Judas, who chose the closed fist and Jesus: ‘hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered.’
Things are tense in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories this April 2022 because of the coincidence of Ramadan, Pesach (the Jewish Passover) and Easter. Over the past days there have been some shocking terror attacks met with overwhelming force. At a time when families of all traditions should be celebrating their faith and culture each tradition is nervous.
Today, a gunman who murdered and injured in Tel Aviv yesterday was tracked to Jaffa where in a standoff he was killed.
I have been in Jaffa all week with members of the Board of Tabeetha School, the Church of Scotland’s only educational establishment. Again and again students, teachers and staff and parents told us how much they value the unique opportunity Tabeetha provides for adults and children from all backgrounds to create ‘a safe space’ where diversity is not only tolerated but celebrated.
I’m sure I’ll write often about Tabeetha because it is going to be an important part of my life here, but for now I simply share a quote from a former student who says, ‘Education, multicultural education, is the only answer to racism. It is what eliminates gaps and inequality.’
A commitment to justice and to seeking real peace is at the heart of Tabeetha School. As students and staff learn and grow together, the Christian values of the school underpin their experience.
Injustice and intolerance and the divisions in this beautiful country cannot be ignored. While the inequality continues violence and horror will too. But there is hope. And more hope is needed. Let the children lead the way.
Wall display showing nationalities of past and present students at Tabeetha School, Jaffa.
Before I set off on Tuesday to relocate to Israel (‘You are travelling alone? All these bags for you?’ marvels the taxi driver at Tel Aviv airport) my friend Carolyn sent me this blessing for travellers by John O’Donohue. O’Donohue had a wonderful gift for finding the right words; and this prayer speaks to me. I particularly like the prompt not to ‘waste the invitations’ and the reminder that the encounters with people of all sorts ‘transform’.
Everything is really too new to say much at all about it. The staff at the Scots Hotel have been open and welcoming. ‘We are your family here,’ they say. ‘Ask us anything.’ And the learning is that before having anything to give I need to receive, and so the journey continues.
The ashes of an illusion of peace mark us this Lent. The stain of war in Ukraine marks us, as do the consequences of conflict seen in many places around the world, including in the Holy Land.
This Lent, in our online Sacred Space, we explore a new Lenten book River through the Desert by Richard Sewell.(Published by St George’s College , Jerusalem)
Lent Study Guide
This Sunday, Lent 1, we enter the Judean desert, seeking the presence of God.
In her foreword the Rev Dr Susan Lukens says:
‘Sewell reveals that the apparently arid landscape of our own lives can yield surprising nourishment when we take time for prayer, Scripture and meditation.’
Sacred Space takes place on Zoom at 6pm Jerusalem time (4pm UK time). If you’d like to join us please email mpearson@churchofscotland.org.uk and I’ll send the Zoom codes.
I was asked to contribute to ALTERnativity’s Advent calendar this year, on 24th December. (https://www.alternativity.org.uk/) Every month, Christian Aid prays for Israel/Palestine on 24th, and I made that the basis of my reflection, which you can view below.
The charity nominated for particular support by the Friends of St Andrew’s Jerusalem this year is Physicians for Human Rights- Israel. I was able to introduce their work at yesterday’s St Andrew’s day service because of their very helpful website. I particularly recommend you watch the short film about their work.
I don’t know the work of PHRI personally yet, but from what I have read, including the extract from their website which you will find in the order of service, it seems to me they exemplify non-violent resistance and how as individuals and communities of folk who share commitment to human rights and peace with justice we can do what we can, and how that little is multiplied and gives hope and new opportunity to so many.
Instead of busying themselves with practicing medicine in comfort, as they easily could, these Israeli volunteers challenge injustice in the courts, recently successfully overturning a new rule that said only people at end of life could leave Gaza for treatment, reverting to the status quo where cancer patients and others could, with difficulty, leave Gaza for treatment that may extend life or cure them.
They refuse to ignore the inequalities within the boundaries of Israel, where migrant workers, Bedouin, Arab Israelis, prisoners and detainees and people with no status would not have access to full medical care without their work.
They take their mobile clinics into the West Bank, bringing expertise and treatment to many who languish without it.
When I watched their video I was moved by the story of Iman Yassin whose deafness was diagnosed and a hearing aid fitted, and her young son, aged about 8 who wept as he told of the difference this made.
And then also there is the story of Issa Awad, wage earner for his family of 8, who had a leg amputated following gangrene but whose recovery really began when PHRI supplied a prosthetic limb for him.
The situation which was bad before has worsened because of the pandemic. In my first telephone conversation with the woman who is now my Arabic teacher, who lives in Bethlehem, she told me about how her husband, a lawyer has had to close his office and about her parents, both on many medications, who cannot afford what they need. Vaccine inequalities and lockdown and the lack of international observers has made a bad situation much worse.
Many of you know the importance of a sympathetic witness, who holds the plumbline of justice. PHRI, in their commitment to human rights, medical ethics and social equality spotlight the reality of life under occupation. And you know that because of COVID the international witness has been greatly depleted over the past 2 years, making PHRI’s work more vital than ever.
I would invite you not only to make a personal donation to their work today, but to share their stories in all the forums you have, and to be inspired, wherever we find ourselves, by their courage and commitment to an alternative reality of justice and equality in the face of awful horror (a reference to the bible reading Mark 13: 1-11), of self-interested politicians and growing inequality and the increasingly obvious effects of climate injustice. PHRI challenge us to be ready to speak truth to power and to live out of an ethic of nonviolence, justice and peace for all.
Thank you.
Donations can be made to the Church of Scotland, account number 00134859, sort code 83-06-08 with Friends of St A as indicator of where the money is to go.
Yesterday I took part in the service at St Cuthbert’s in Edinburgh for St Andrew’s day with Friends of St Andrew’s Jerusalem. This is the prayer, including ‘Cry with us’ by Professor Johanna Katanacho of Nazareth Evangelical College.
Cry with Us
This is a season of weeping and mourning, but it is not void of hope. Our tears are the bridge between brutality and humanity. Our tears are the salty gates for seeing a different reality. Our tears are facing soulless nations and a parched mentality. Our tears are the dam preventing rivers of animosity. For the sake of the mourning men, cry with us to reflect your amity. For the sake of the poor children, cry with us demanding sanity. For the sake of lamenting mothers, refuse violence and stupidity. Love your enemies and cry with them is the advice of divinity. Blessing those who curse is the path to genuine spirituality. Pouring tears of mercy and compassion is true piety. Pray with tears, for the sake of spreading equity. Followers of Jesus: crying is now our responsibility. But don’t cry for your friends only; but also for your Enemy.
Andrew was there when John pointed out the Lamb of God
He stayed with Jesus and learned from him.
Lord, we pray for all who point to you and all who seek you
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
Andrew was there when Jesus had compassion on the hungry masses.
He brought what they had – little though it was- to be miraculously multiplied.
Lord, we pray for all who hunger and thirst, for food and for justice, and for those who bring what they have to be blessed and shared.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
Andrew was there, on the road with Jesus, witness to the pressing crowd and to Jesus’ compassion.
Even when he was frightened and did not understand, he stayed with Jesus.
Lord, we pray for all who persevere in face of overwhelming injustice and seeming international indifference to press for peace with justice.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
Andrew was there in a small boat on Lake Tiberias tossed by the wind and waves.
He heard Jesus speak words of peace and felt the storm die down.
Lord, we pray for all who take to small boats either to make a living or to seek a better life, and we pray for all who seek to make shalom, peace, following Jesus’ example.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
Andrew was there, as the disciples marvelled at the shining grandeur of the temple in Jerusalem
And Jesus predicted the tribulations to come.
He heard Jesus promise the help of the Holy Spirit in the face of trial and persecution and tribulation.
Lord, we pray for all who do not put their own safety first, but stand up for what is right, and care compassionately and share good news.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
Andrew was there as Jesus was arrested and taken away. He was there in Jerusalem as Jesus died. He was there on the lakeside when his brother Peter was forgiven for his faithlessness and tasked with leading the embryo church.
Lord we pray for all who are there, who are witnesses, who are steadfast, and who, like Andrew are willing to do their part.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done.
We pray for all associated with St Andrew’s Jerusalem and Tiberias, for members of the congregation, for staff at the guest house and hotel and those involved in Tabeetha School, and for our partners who spend themselves in seeking peace. We remember especially John McCulloch and his family at this time of transition.
And we pray for ourselves, that in the face of awful horrors all around the world and at home we may remain vigilant and open-eyed and compassionate, able to hold fast to what is good and noble and true because we have seen Jesus and have promised to follow, and we pray that we would rely on God alone to strengthen us and renew our zeal.
In the name of God, the maker and lover of all,
Of Jesus, our friend and saviour
And the Holy Spirit, promised power of God present with us now and always.
Waiting is difficult. There are a lot of things to do, but only so many times you can say ‘Goodbye!’ Having been commissioned in a moving service in Stepps Parish Church on 26th October it would be ideal to get my things together, pack my suitcases and get on a plane. But I don’t yet have a visa.
Obtaining a visa to travel to Israel has several steps at the best of times, but in a time of Covid it seems even more difficult. The visa will be issued for a month, and I’ll then need to renew annually.
My paperwork was accepted in Jerusalem on 26th October and a receipt issued, but the okay to travel to London with original documents has been slow coming. I am trying to wait patiently.
Every time I meet someone they ask, ‘When are you travelling?’ and I have to explain I don’t yet know.
I think of all the people I’ve known over the years waiting for different sorts of papers: leave to remain, leave to travel, leave to work or to study. I have new empathy. It is hard to start anything or finish anything. It is hard to concentrate. It is impossible not to try to second guess what might be going on.
I am sure permission will come soon enough. And when it does I will gather my papers carefully and travel hopefully. But in the meantime, I wait.
Stepping out of the boat... 