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All James oakley's Meditations

A new tenancy agreement in God's vineyard

Mon, 2007-07-16 19:30 — James Oakley

In Luke 20, Jesus was being criticised by the religious leaders of Jerusalem. Physical violence can't get rid of Jesus, because of the adoring crowds (19:47-48), so he is plied with trick questions - first in the personal arena (1-8), then the political arena (19-26) and finally in the theological arena (27-39). By 20:40, each interested group has asked a question and every avenue has been explored. They've failed to expose Jesus; instead their own spiritual bankruptcy has become transparent whilst Jesus' authority is established more vividly than ever.

This attempt to unseat Jesus is a fulfilment of the dramatic conclusion of Palm Sunday recorded in 19:41-46. Jesus is cheered by the crowds into Jerusalem, but then he stops to make the very public gesture of weeping. He weeps because he can see the devestation to befall the city and the temple in 40 years time, devestation that will come as God's judgement because this city did not recognise her Lord when he visited. After weeping, he symbolically drives the profiteering merchants out of the temple, as a symbol of the judgement to come. The rejection he weeps over is all too apparent in the deceitful questioning of chapter 20.

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Take this holy sacrament to your comfort

Wed, 2007-02-28 15:33 — James Oakley

"... and take this holy sacrament to your comfort, meekly kneeling upon your knees" wrote Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer.

Mark 14:17-31 is not, on the surface, a particularly comforting section of Mark. It is, in fact, a profoundly disturbing portion of his gospel. Mark sets Judas and Peter alongside one another as two examples for us. Judas is the one failure - yet what he does in betraying his Lord is so serious that non-existence would be a better prospect than what awaits him.

Jesus then predicts that all his disciples will disown him. This is a far less dramatic form of letting down Jesus, but it is to let him down nonetheless. This time it is not one disciple who will do it - they all will. If Judas was earlier the one spectacular failure, here Peter thinks he will be the one success story. He will be the one who does not disown. But not even the Rock is immune from letting down the Lord Jesus.

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What does the Lord's fire consume?

Sun, 2007-02-18 10:05 — James Oakley

Lev 9:24: "And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces."

Aaron offers the prescribed sacrifices. God signifies his acceptance of the sacrifice by eating it - fire comes out and consumes the sacrifice.

Lev 10:1-2: "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord."

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Glory to God and peace on earth among men. Luke 2:14

Wed, 2007-01-03 17:15 — James Oakley

I wonder how you feel at this stage on Christmas morning. Some of you may be thinking about the turkey that is on timer, and wondering how you'll ever get all the trimmings ready at the same time. Others of you may be excited at the thought of the day ahead. Others of you may be feeling slightly left out, not having made many plans for Christmas this year. And others of you may dread today, because it's been a difficult year and everyone is going to expect you to be happy.

What that passage from Luke's gospel tells us how is how heaven felt on the first Christmas day.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests."

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Passover: Exodus 12-13

Sat, 2006-12-16 17:28 — James Oakley

Those of you who have had children, or who know children, will know that they go through various stages in their early years. There's learning to crawl. Then learning to walk. Learning to talk comes some time around then, although that doesn't happen all at once. First, there are noises that vaguely resemble certain words we use every day, but you can't be sure if you've heard correctly. Then there are single words: mummy, daddy, pudding, bath. Then those words get strung together in twos and threes: more pudding. Then you get short sentences. And at some point, most children go through the stage of asking: "Why?" To everything. And the chances are that your answers will be replied to with another why, and another one, until you get pushed back so far you just don't know the answers any more.

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