Living Wittily

"If prayer was illegal would I be arrested, would they know I was a secret pray-er?"

This is the second part of Sunday's sermon. Quite simple observations from Daniel's story, of what it means to pray, regularly, obviously, unabashedly. 

Christian allegiance is to Jesus. Jesus is Lord is the core conviction for Christians. Christian conscience is held captive to Christ, and the values of the Kingdom of God are righteousness, peace and joy in HS. Jesus call to Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice is the priority call on our loyalty, words and actions.  When talking to God was outlawed, Daniel trusted God, prayed, put God first, suffered the consequences and went on trusting. No accommodation to Empire’s values, he prayed. What made him wise, trustworthy and trusting was that regular obedience to a holy and righteous God - exposure to holiness and justice, transforms and conforms conviction and action towards the God we believe in, trust and spend time with.

Prayer as Habit and Lifestyle. Regularity, rhythm, discipline – prayer is not occasional, but a habit of the mind and spirit. Like piano practice, a diet pattern, an exercise regime, practice and presence to the task. After years of doing tapestry on the smallest guage canvas, I can nearly always find the right pinhole from behind, first time. The disciples asked Jesus early on, "Lord teach us to pray". The lesson was the Lord’s Prayer. Amongst those who found the Paternoster an anchor point was Bonhoeffer. During his impriisonment a regular reminder of God as Father, of the Kingdom coming, the will of God for peace, reconciliation, love, mercy being done on earth as in heaven. Each of us has to find own way of praying – a gratitude diary – prayer list for intercessions – newspaper and Bible – headphones on the train, walking as rhythm opf daily obedience. Daniel was trapped by his known faithfulness in prayer.

Prayer as an Act of Witness. In a materialist culture, barcodes, self-checkouts, 3 for 2, thanks for daily bread says what we have is from God. If you’re known as a pray-er, at work, in neighbourhood, amongst friends, that's when  illness, anxiety, life gone wrong, others will find you and ask your prayers. When own life goes wrong, we default to the one place where we know we are welcome, loved and safe, even if it doesn;t feel like that. Social media from texts, FaceBook, email, phone call - our promise to pray is the gift of grace, time and thought – loving others in the presence of God. How widely known is it that we think prayer is normal, and we pray? Daniel was caught out doing what he was known to do – if prayer was illegal would I be arrested, would they know I was a secret pray-er?

Prayer and Politics. This week I prayed a lot. Torture was on the political agenda. I found myself embroiled in a Facebook exchange around the US President's public refusal to exclude its use. In thinking it through, and praying out of a deep inner resistance to torture in principle, I asked why Christians cannot ever approve torture. Briefly, this was my argument:

The Romans were experts in torture, its psychology and pathology. Crucifixion was one of the most effective instruments of torture ever used to secure political power - it silences the dissenter, executes the terrorist, uses fear as a weapon and deterrent, and dehumanises both the torturer and those deemed disposable. The Passion Story is an account of state power unleashed on a victim, all within the legal framework, and approved by the religious authorities. That's enough for me - I can't follow Jesus and consent to torture in my name, in the name of freedom, or in the name of supposed security.

Prayer and Our Relationship to God – prayer is conversation – contemplation – pouring out our heart – keeping company with God – learning to listen. Daniel was shaped and supported by time with God. For us, to love God is to know the meaning of love, we love because he first loved us. Prayer is a stewardship of friendship, sunbathing in the light of God, being rooted in the deep places of the soul where wildest hopes are born and worst fears lurk – and God is there – as in Ps 139, there is no place where God is not, even in the lion’s den, God is there.

"Prayer is the place where secular power is critiqued and rendered penultimate."

Yesterday I preached on Daniel in the lions' den. It was the first of a planned series on prayers of the Old Testament. The first half of the sermon was a running commentary on the text, the second half some reflections on what it means for secular power and prayer to God to be on a collision course. Here's the first half in note form; the second half I'll post tomorrow :

6.1-5   Daniel was a politician, and a bureaucrat. He was a cog in the gearbox of the empire. When the big problems became huge, gigantic, terrifying, Daniel was the one who fixed them. Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and now Darius all relied on Daniel to interpret dreams and run the country. How do you bring down a powerful rival who is a good person? “They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.” “unless it has something to do with the law of his God” So a collision course between the real cynical, manipulative power games of court and Government, and a person's integrity, faith and trustworthiness.

6-9   The greatest threat to genuine faith for Daniel, in exile in an alien culture, is idolatry, to worship what is not God. To give total allegiance of heart, mind, conscience and body is to sell our soul. Politicians and power players know that, they’ve always known that. Daniel is a man of faith, public faith. He prays – every day, they know that. The connection between prayer and his trustworthiness, integrity, compassion, mercy, wisdom - they either don;t get it, or get it too well. Never say politics and prayer don’t mix; or that being a Chrstian isn’t political. Prayer is to lift holy hands against the disorder of the world.

10-12 When there’s a law against praying, you pray against it! When someone demands your worship you say no by worshipping God. Sometimes faith is defiant, an act of uprising, a conscience in rebellion. Daniel was in the habit of praying, 3 times – facing Jerusalem. Prayer was the daily orientation of the heart, guiding of conscience, his values and ethics grew out of a heart and mind given to God. Christian response to power is prayer; to political oppression is prayer; to corruption and injustice is prayer. Revolution tries to replace one power with another; prayer is more than revolution, it bypasses empire to the higher power of almighty God, creator and Lord. 

13-16 Policies and laws are instruments of power, so must be shaped and considered, and consequences measured. Darius had issued an executive order. Now caught in his own trap, bound by his own law, he is victim of own policies. His pride, trusting the wrong advisers, habits of power, results in edicts and decrees once written which can’t be rescinded. Prayer has become a political crime; allegiance to God breaks the totalitarian claims of the state. Tyrranny cannot survive unpunished defiance, or self-determining freedom.

17-24 Lions are the  symbol of strength, ferocity. the have big appetites and teeth to match.The miracle is that Daniel “ had no wound because he trusted in God”. While Darius had a bad night, Daniel was safe with the lions. Collision of power between God of Israel and the Emperor who is to be worshipped. Daniel’s vindication as trustworthy and one who trusts God; in the right order he serves God, then the Emperor, and is faultless in both. Prayer is place where we learn trust, and are shaped towards trustworthiness; it is also the place where secular power is critiqued, and rendered penultimate.

25-28 – This is a conversion story. Pagan emperor bows before God of Israel; the God of the exiles is made the God of the people; the God of the captives is made the God of the conquerors. The empire wide decree “God rescues and he saves”. This story makes connection between secular power, trusting prayer, the God who saves, and human powerlessness. Prayer is an act of defiance and trust; an unravelling of the structures of power; an act of defiant faith that questions the totality of all other claims. This is a story for our time. Who is God? Who has the final claim on our conscience, minds and souls? When choices must be made to what, or to whom, do we give obedience and trust?

I'll post the second half of this sermon later - for now the passage (Daniel ch 6) is worth reading as a telling critique of Executive Orders, imagining of unforeseen consequences, manipulative malevolence in the places of power, and the sense throughout this strange book of Daniel that, God is at work, unseen except by outcomes.

The painting is by Rubens, as is the detail of the lion's head.

 

Why a Christian Cannot Approve Torture and Follow Jesus.

I was proud of the BBC Correspondent and Political Editor Laura Kussenberg when she questioned Theresa May and Donald Trump at the Press Conference in the White House. She asked such a direct question, and asked it so pointedly that despite the evasions and characteristic deflections, there was no hiding place for the British Prime Minister. President Trump doesn't know what a hiding place looks like, and if he saw one he would avoid it as interfering with his lust for showmanship. In her question Kussenberg included the issue of torture, and the US President's uncompromising approval of its efficacy and use, if that's what the Generals think will work. It was a pragmatic justification of brutality and dehumanising cruelty that lacked the slightest hint of moral seriousness or ethical awareness. And when he responded, he spoke with the matter of fact confidence of someone discussing a change in parking regulations, rather than giving notice to the world that America is ready to torture, to inflict cruel and inhumane treatment on suspects, in order to allow for enhanced interrogation techniques and so aid homeland security. Really? And is this what putting America first means? Is this what America voted for?

And yes, that first paragraph is combative, because torture has no place in a civilised society. It is for me a glaring and chilling example of why I am prepared to be outspoken about the US President now, and not prepared to be told to wait and judge his actions and achievements. Words are actions; words do things; speech has consequences; powerful people are listened to and their words borrow the authority of their office; out of the mouth comes what is within. That our own Prime Minister refused to condemn those green light words of President Trump brings shame on our nation, and is rooted in fear of offending the powerful and disregarding the powerless who will be the victims of such gratuitous callousness. 

Torture is indeed effective - in dehumanising perpetrator and victim; it is effective in mirroring back to (in this case) ISIS the moral nihilism of their cause; it is effective in brutalising a human being; and it is often used against suspects who have no recourse to a judicial system and who are denied human rights. Information may well be obtained by torture, but that renders use of such information illegal in this country, and therefore reversion to such procedures would make it illegal for this country to collaborate and co-oprate with intelligence agencies they know use torture. That however is a practical difficulty - my contention is that state sponsored torture is wrong, regardless of its effectiveness; it is evil, therefore its effectiveness is irrelevant.

As a Christian I abhor torture, oppose torture in principle and would resist it in practice. That comes from my commitment to the way of Jesus, to the teaching of Jesus, and to my calling as a minister of reconciliation, an ambassador for Christ, and one who actually believes it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christianss know about torture. It is embedded at the core and emblazoned on the surface of our faith.

The Romans were experts in torture, its psychology and pathology. Crucifixion was one of the most effective instruments of torture ever used to secure political power - it silences the dissenter, executes the terrorist, uses fear as a weapon and deterrent, and dehumanises both the torturer and those deemed disposable. The Passion Story is an account of state power unleashed on a victim, all within the legal framework, and approved by the religious authorities. That's enough for me - I can't follow Jesus and consent to torture in my name, in the name of freedom, or in the name of supposed security.

The Transforming Light of Two Words That Shape Our World

Yesterday morning I was sitting in the car park around 8.30, just as the sun was rising enough to shine with an orange horizontal light across the landscape.

I've had a bad week. The reason is both obvious and difficult to fix. In five days Donald Trump has demonstrated beyond all doubt that he believes the ludicrous promises he made in his campaign, and believes he can impose them by will and wile on his country, with serious repercussions for the rest of us.

As I sat looking out of the car window at the sun, rising yet again, transforming dull green and grey and winter beige into the promise of Spring, I felt that irrational stirring somewhere between hope and anger that gives energy to two of the most important words we ever speak.

The first word is "No!" The exclamation mark is essential. I don't merely want to say no, I want to exclaim it, and to allow that "no" to grow within me into a spirit of resistance.  My mind says no to the nonsense of alternative facts, post truth, unabashed lying. My heart says no to the heartlessness and arrogant ruthlessness of executive orders which will wreck lives, written with the posturing and flourish of a potentate from the book of Daniel. My conscience says no to policies which have grown out of a rhetoric that demeans and diminishes others, which has legitimated racism, hate speech and demonising of those who are 'other'.

And my soul says no, because I happen to believe that Jesus writes my executive orders, and they are to be found in the four Gospels, and explicated into a way of Chhristian  existence in the New Testament, and written into the story of Israel in the Hebrew Bible. Amongst these executive orders are: Love your neighbour, love your enemy, Blessed are the merciful, the peacemaker and those hungry for justice, you are ambassadors for Christ and ministers of reconciliation. My soul says no when acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly, and such ethical imperatives of the Hebrew Christian tradition are caricatured in a theatre of illusion and delusion where the main character and his supporters claim the blessing and support of God who in Jesus was redconciling - get that word - reconciling the world to himself.

The second important word is "Yes". The inner assent of mind, heart, conscience and soul to the executive orders of the Prince of Peace, the Word made flesh, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the reconciler par exellence, crucified and risen. It is that Yes, that makes it imperative I say No, and do so from that morally decisive place, between anger and hope. As the sun rose yesterday, and the dull grey-green-beige landscape lit up, I realised yet again that anger and hope require those two words; and the wisdom and faith to use them informed by the values of Jesus.

The Beatitudes Are a Checklist of Resistance Strategies to Dominant Cultures

The Beatitudes are often described as promises. True as far as it goes. But they are not promises without strings attached, quite far reaching strings. In each of them there is an assumption of God at work. And God isn't into reinforcing our comfort zones, approving our complacencies, defending our interests or preserving our standard of living. In fact the Beatitudes are an invitation, a dare even, for us to look at the world, ourselves, other people and God, through a different lense.

The Kingdom of God is not like any other kingdom; the culture of the Kingdom of God is counter cultural to all other transient and timebound expressions of human shared activity, work and creativity. The Beatitudes are revolutionary statements of God's intent. The Beatitudes are a checklist of resistance to dominant cultures that diminish human flourishing through the power plays of injustice.

There is a temptation to hear the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus' manifesto of the Kingdom of God, but with our backs turned on that other mount on which Jesus was crucified. The Beatitudes were precisely the kind of teaching that, to the powerful, merited silencing by force and contradiction by crucifixion. Lived faithfully, the Beatitudes are an invitation to follow Jesus from one hillside to another, from Galilee to Calvary.

The world watched, and heard, as the Beatitudes were read on Capitol Hill in Washingtoin at the inauguration of the 45th President. They were then rubbished by the content of the inaugural speech. The clash of cultural values was classic theatre, lacking only the voice of the child telling the blindingly obvious alternative truth that the President wasn't properly dressed for the occasion.

My friend Simon Woodman is one of the ministers at Bloomsbury Baptist Church. He has written the following glosses on the Beatitudes. Such writing articulates the serious collisons between the love of power and the power of love. Yes that is a cliche, but sometimes it takes one cliche to trump another cliche. We now look at a global future in which such collisions are inevitable. Followers of the crucified Lord have a long tradition of resistance through revolutionary love, bridge-building hope, perseverance in peace, and joy in trumping injustice.

Blessed are those who refuse the lie that one life is worth more than any other,
for theirs is the future of humanity.

Blessed are those who have stared long into the abyss,
for theirs is honesty beyond grief.

Blessed are those who resist retaliation,
for the earth will never be won by force.

Blessed are those who would rather die for truth than live with compromise,
for the truth will outlive all lies.

Blessed are those who forgive the unforgivable,
for they have seen the darkness of their own souls.

Blessed are those who know themselves truly,
for they have seen themselves as God sees them.

Blessed are those who are provocatively nonviolent,
for they are following the path of the son of God.

Blessed are those who choose to receive violence but not to give it,
for the future is born out of such choices.

Blessed are you when you stand up for truth
and hell itself decides to try and destroy you.
You're not the first and you won't be the last.

I'm telling you now, nothing makes any sense unless you learn see it differently,
and then choose to live that alternative into being.

And here are the originals

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Subversive Simplicity of Jesus' Words

Every year I choose words of Jesus to read every day for a year,

words which in their subversive simplicity

destabilise our assumptions with the rumble of new truth

open our eyes to look at the world and other people differently

silence our complaints by contradicting our anxieties

question our easy answers by posing harder questions 

enlarge our ideas about God's love, justice and grace

disturb our complacency with constructive discontent

undermine our despair by resurrection hope

refresh our barren acres with streams in the desert

words which

call to The Way of the cross

compel embodied performance of The Truth

commit us to be, and do, and share Jesus The Life.

 

This year the words of Jesus I am reading/praying every day are the Beatitudes from Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 5.1-11.

Slow reading of the increasingly familiar, prayerful committing to heart and memory, cumulative study of the text so that exegesis becomes the Gospel interpreted in life, and a tapestry as a way of giving visual reality to words that are transformative. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A guest sitting talking holy words is the last thing a chief cook needs when her kitchen is in full swing.

Martha should be the patron saint of the distracted, the overworked and perhaps the misunderstood. Think of Masterchef, and the competitors pushed to their limits serving sophisticated meals they've never prepared before, in a tight time line, and with VIP guests. Luke uses a rare word to describe Martha being "pulled in several directions at once". Being distracted means trying to do too much; sometimes multi-tasking leads to nothing being done well, or exhaustion. Excessive activity is either the sign or the cause of overanxiety, trying too hard to please, having too high expectations of ourselves, or even misreading other people's expectations of us. All of this helps to understand Martha who is "worried and distracted by many things".

Some commentators have suggested that the "many things" refers to Martha preparing an elaborate menu, when a simple meal would have done. Back to Masterchef again. But Jesus is not a demanding guest in relation to cuisine; he is a demanding guest whose word is to be heard, whose presence is to be attended to, because the words he speak are God's word. Earlier Luke told of the Transfiguration, and the voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." Mary is doing that, while Martha makes food to feed Jesus. Mary is being nourished by Jesus, Martha wants to nourish Jesus after his long journey. Mary hears what Jesus wants to say; Martha tells Jesus what to say, to her sister. Attentive listening and preparing food are both aspects of hospitality. But more than hospitality is going on here.

One lesser known painting shows how Jesus words to Martha, "you are distracted and worried by many things" suggest she was far too extravagant and ambitious in her menu. The culinary energy and expertise required to make a banquet was simply over the top. The painting is by Georg Friedrich Stettner, (d.1639) and the foreground is of a kitchen with enough food to feed an entire village. And of course it is food for the rich 17th Century German nobility rather than the food available in a first century Palestinian village.There is a good, clear image of this painting over here

However, this painting is about more than the food in the foreground, and much more is going on than a display of supermarket scale meal ingredients. Mary sits in her finery reading a text of scripture in her lap, while looking at Jesus. The light from the window falls on the pages, and on her face; Martha's colour is dull by comparison, and her apron is soiled, her sleeves rolled up and she is on her knees, not praying, but plucking various poultry. In the background three disciples are talking; further back still, other men are sitting at a table talking. In other words, Jesus is sitting in the kitchen! The last place it is reasonable to expect peace and quiet; and a guest sitting talking about holy things is the last thing a chief cook needs when her kitchen is in full swing.

But behind Jesus is the cover of the book on Mary's lap, and behind it another text; the kitchen table is also a place for holy things. In this picture Martha is a busy hostess exasperated by Mary's total disregard of the kirchen and the jobs needing done, while Mary is dressed for visitors not for the kitchen and she is clearly familiar with the book on her lap. Jesus has a hand on the table and another extended towards Mary but is looking at Martha. The dynamics are intense, and the picture viewed in the light of a careful reading of Luke's text is a powerful representation of the central tension between contemplative listening and energy consuming busyness. And I wonder about the window at the very back of the painting with its cruciform frame, and Jesus clothed in a red robe. These are familiar codes in artistic interpretations of biblical scenes.

It's interesting to ponder this picture, read the story again a couple of times, and look again at the picture. The contrast of busyness and overprovision and domestic activity, with the two people at the centre is a clever illustration of the contrast between being worried and distracted by many things, and the one thing necessary, and choosing the good part.

I am a citizen of the world. No Prime Minister has the right to dictate my worldview.

I confess I was troubled by Theresa May's Party pleasing speech at the Tory Party Conference last Autumn. Amongst the more concerning statements was her contention that to be a citizen of the world was to be a citizen of nowhere. In my view this is ignorance verging on arrogance, and privileges narrowness over breadth in matters of personal, social and national identities.

First, that which every human being holds in common is humanity, not nationality and not even citizenship. Our common humanity is the starting point for understanding togetherness and otherness, sameness and difference. Yes indeed, as human beings our personal and national histories, our cultural formation, social and economic context and experience, life opportunities and life limitations, create rich and at times confusing and colliding diversities. But basic to human sociality, and indeed fundamental to human flourishing, is that recognition of, respect for, and concern to protect and enhance, our common humanity.

Only then am I prepared to think of national identity in a globalised world, social identity in a multicultural and pluralist culture, and personal identity formed and developed in a changing continuity within the overall context of my life. So when the Prime Minister tells me I cannot be a citizen of the world, that to claim such makes me a citizern of nowhere, she is wrong. What is more her own say so does not, thankfully, deprive anyone of their self-identity of belonging to this richly textured, multi-cultural diversity we call the world.

There is therefore some irony in the same Prime Minister, a few months later, insisting Britain wishes to be global, to be a global trader, enaged in trade and commerical relationships on a worldwide scale, but only so far as it furthers our nation's interests. Well, yes, trade is conducted for the very purposes of furthering a nation's interests. But usually to the mutual benefit of trading partners, and within the recognised protocols of treaties and agreements, which preserve the principles of fairness, mutual concessions and accepting that in those compromises there may be pluses and minuses, but overall a relationship that benefits all particpants.

But the narrow minded pursuit of international relations on primarily economic grounds is itself problematic. What about being a net contributor to the common good of the world, and often at our own expense? And that expense borne willingly in order to underwrite our commitment to those other people and peoples beyond our own increasingly grudging borders? Four brief points sharpen this question.

• The well known hostility of the Prime Minister to the European Convention on Human Rights is a threat to an institution and instrument that goes to the very heart of what we believe about citizenship, power and humanity in its vulnerability to abuse of that power. This negativity towards the European Convention is darkened by an equal ambivalence towards the European Court of Justice.
• Second, we have a political future post Brexit that is heading towards tighter borders, intolerance of immigrant people, economic reconfiguration around self-interest and significantly distanced international relations, all of which make any claim that our country is interested in global relations at best self-serving, and at worst deluded. 
• Third, the Prime Minister's insistence that she alone has the right to trigger the Brexit clause would mean that my own current status as a citizen of the European Community, can be rescinded on the say so of a Prime Minister not elected as such by General Election, without recourse to the sovereignty of Parliament, and as an act which is brought about by her own Party's inner enmities which brought about the Referendum in the first place.
• Fourth, at a time when the United States is going through a political reinvention with similar strains of isolationism, radically self-interested economics, driving forces of anti-immigration and right wing resurgence, and with overtures of encouragement to the UK to be and do the same, there is a real threat to the international political order such as has not been felt since the end of the Second World War.

So when I am told, without discussion, and from someone claiming a Christian heritage, that I cannot be a citizen of the world, that global citizenship is effectively a dangerous nonsense, I hear the drums of nationalism and exclusivism, the clang of claimed privilege and unself-critical pride, and the ignorance and arrogance of someone whose personal ambitions are made embarassingly naked. Ignorance, in the sense of lack of knowledge of what it sounds like, looks like and feels like, to have your Prime Minister tell you what you are and what you are not. Arrogance in the sense that those statements that disenfranchise and denigrate those with a global worldview are not the remit of any democratically elected leader in a country. No leader has the right to unilaterally disqualify my view of the world in favour of a narrow, exclusivist, self-interested view of our own country's place in the world.

My own understanding of a Christian view of the world is neither rose tinted nor shadowed by fear. The Christian church is trans-national, world embracing in its mission, open to sharing the good news of the Kingdom of God with every language, tribe, people and nation, made up of those who in following Jesus are ministers of reconciliation, peacemakers, members of a Kingdom of justice, joy and peace, teachers and embodiments of all that Jesus taught and commanded. Such a position does not allow me the "crabb'd and confined" view of the world currently being marketed as our future.

“Martha who tells Jesus what he must say, and Mary who listens to what Jesus wishes to say.”

This is the first of several posts on the story of Martha and Mary. Regular readers here will know my interest in this story, with its exegetical history as a contrast between the contemplative and the activist, prayer and social justice, or loving with the heart as opposed to religion of good works. None of which do justice to the rich texture of this brief, potent biblical scene of loving and serving Jesus.

For some time I've been working on a study of Luke 10.38-42, the passage which tells the story. The contrast between Mary seated at Jesus' feet, listening to his every word, and Martha worked off her feet in the kitchen seems straightforward enough. Jesus confirms the reader's first if rather hasty assumptions and instincts. Mary is the one who gives Jesus his proper place and who has the right demeanour towards him; Martha is so busy doing the hospitality duties that she misses the opportunity to spend time with Jesus. Read the passage, and hear the background clattering of the dishes and the softer murmur of two people talking; and imagine the inner turmoil of Martha and the inner focus of Mary; the anxious worry of the one and the unconcerned calm of the other. 

But is that a fair reading of the text, and does it do justice to the emotional and relational undercurrents that swirl beneath this story? Reading a lot of the commentaries of the past 50 years, many writers draw the same contrast between Mary who got it right and Martha who got it wrong. John Nolland is steeped in the study of the Gospels compares “Martha who tells Jesus what he must say, and Mary who listens to what Jesus wishes to say.”

But there is a minority report amongst modern exegetes of this story. One of the questions to be asked is about the tone and motivation of Jesus words to Martha. There is no uncertainty about Martha's tone and words; she is complaining to Jesus about Mary skiving while Martha is doing all the work. But Jesus' words to Martha are worth weighing for their tone and intention. It's easily missed that Jesus words of address use Martha's name twice. This is an idiom of persuasion, an affectionate and defusing of the anxiety and upset Martha is feeling; the double name is a reassurance that Martha is heard, noticed, and understood.

Only after that gentle re-focusing of a flustered friend, does Jesus then speak of Martha's complaint and point to Mary as someone who better understands the priorities of welcoming Jesus. The food and comfort are important, but his words are of first importance. Serving Jesus is indeed the heart of discipleship, but hearing and loving Jesus is what makes that service even possible. All of this, says Jesus, is the better part, the primary thing, the priority. Disciples are called to hear the word and do it, in that order.

While studying the biblical text, I also spent time studying a number of paintings of this biblical scene. Some are unsparing of Martha and take the traditional line of prayerful Mary and practical Martha, with Mary's spirituality preferred to Martha's practicality. But some portrayals offer other persepctives, and they aren't entirely negative about Martha and affirming of Mary. Somewhere in the reading and interpreting of this story some writers and artists have sensed the danger of pushing Mary the contemplative so far that she displaces and devalues Martha's work of hospitality, welcome and care for others. And that contrast, at times becoming a dichotomy, points to the pendulum swings in how some churches emphasise the spiritual prayerful activities of worship and devotion, and others focus on the importance of justice, hospitality, care for the poor and social activism on behalf of the vulnerable. There is a built in either/or in these attitudes that I'm not sure Jesus' words mean, or that Luke's story intended.

Have a look at the Vermeer painting (if you are in Edinburgh you can see the original at the National Galleries). What is Jesus demeanour and body language? What is Jesus' tone, attitude towards Martha? That loaf of bread, central in the painting along with Jesus hand? This doesn't look like someone getting a row for spending time baking when she could have been doing something more worthwhile. The idea that Jesus would be unappreciative of bread goes against the entire Gospel tradition from his refusal to magic bread rather than trust God, to his feeding the multitude, his inclusion of a loaf at the centre of the Lord's prayer, his claim "I am the bread of life", all the way to the night he took bread and broke it in Eucharist. Vermeer has chosen an image that places Martha's work at the centre of the table. And both women are looking at, and paying attention to Jesus. If Martha is in the act of complaining, Jesus' relaxed and laid back body language couldn't be further from the anger and scolding some commentators have heard in Jesus words to her.

Next time, a couple of modern paintings and the perspectives they take in portraying two strong women, each in their own way, welcoming Jesus.

When a Photo Happens and Beauty Gatecrashes the Ordinary

There is great skill in taking a good photograph. And to do it right you need a good camera and probably a lot of add on lenses, filters and a willingness to be inconvenienced, patient and sometimes just downright thrawn.

I have several friends who are very, very good photographers. I know what goes into the composition, framing and timing. For myself I use a mid priced Sony Cybershot which does most of what I want it to do.

Sometimes I don't have it with me and I have to rely on my phone if something happens and I'd like to capture the moment. So on a Sunday before Christmas, having attended the Malcolm Sargent Clic Carol Concert in the Beach Ballroom, at the Aberdeen front, we were walking back to the car when the moon appeared from the cloud cover.

The resulting photo was taken with my Iphone 5, and it is one of the loveliest, most atmospheric pictures I've ever taken. It's entirely untouched, straight from the phone, and more like a painting than a digital image. 

I have always liked the kind of blue that lingers just after dusk. Van Gogh's Starry Night, and his Cafe paintings for example. In my own imagination that same blue was in the sky the night the Psalmist poet wrote Psalm 8, about considering the night sky and being left wondering why on earth, or even why in heaven's name, God is mindful of human beings and this tiny floating planet. The soft glow from the right is from an out of camera street light, and that's part of the serendipity, the accidental intrusion, that gives uniqueness to that one moment of stopping to look, and take a chance on a picture.