Convocation of Episcopalians in Nigeria

Henceforth from this date, Jonathan, formerly MadPriest at large and priest at St. Francis, Anglican Church in Newcastle Upon Tyne, is officially the CEN Bishop to Nigeria, and shall be known on this blog to be “MadBishop”.

All other offers null and void, except in the states of Nevada, New Jersey, and Iowa.

Our prayers are with you, MadBishop!

Have fun storming the castle!

The text of the Archbishop’s letter is below:

dear bishop madbishop

the dates of the conference are 16 july-4 august 2008

don’t even think about it

we shall have our dogs out after you if you even set foot on the grounds during that time and we shall press charges against you, make no mistake about it

you have been warned

love and kisses
archy

Jake fails to mention that CEN also failed to receive an invitation for Bishop MadPriest.

Those fecking bastards!

John 13: 31 - 35

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Who watches Doctor Who?

Of course, I know who the real Doctor Who fans are. They’re the ones hiding behind the pews.

We’re good at time travel, us English what with the good Doctor and H.G. Wells. And that’s useful, because today I want us to go back in time. Back to the first Holy Week Maundy Thursday to be precise.

Actually, have you noticed how, although Doctor Who goes backwards and forwards in time like a yo-yo, he never drops in on any major religious event. It would be interesting if he landed the Tardis on the Temple Mount on the day Mohammed was spirited from Mecca to Jerusalem. Or he could pop in on the Buddha on the day he gained enlightenment. The crossing of the Red Sea would make an interesting episode but the best would have to be a trip to a certain cemetery on the Sunday after a certain Jewish man was nailed to a cross. I expect the writers of the programme may feel it is best to avoid such controversy. But we’re not scared of boldly going where no man has gone before, so we’re off to Jerusalem in about 28 A.D. and it’s a Thursday night - nothing on telly. So we go for a walk and end up on a little hill, away from the centre of town, which is dotted here and there with olive trees.

There’s a man up on the brow of the hill, he’s just getting up off the ground and we see him walk over to a group of men. They all appear to be asleep. I don’t think our man is happy about that. He wakes them up. They look a little “sheepish.” But you can see he’s not that cross with them.

A crowd of people come up behind us. They see our man and head up towards him. We follow on behind so we can better see what’s going down. The group at the top of the hill see the crowd and begin to get quite agitated. But not our man. He remains calm.

Just as the two groups are about to come face to face with each other, a man from the front of our group runs forward towards our man, who is obviously the leader of the other group - and this is weird, he’s trying to kiss him But our man is having none of it. He says to the other man, who we now find out is called Judas, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?”

Then all hell breaks. One of the men in the Son of Man’s gang goes and attacks one of the men at the front of our group with a sword and, yuk, cuts one of his ears off. He screams - well you would - At which point the Son of Man walks forward and touches the side of the injured man’s head where there should have been an ear, and when he takes his hand away , there is an ear. there on his head, where there wasn’t an ear just a moment ago. Perhaps we didn’t see it right, perhaps he just nicked the bloke’s ear with his sword. But no. There’s his original ear lying on the ground next to him. Well, at least he’s got a spare now, I suppose, should he ever need it.

Then it just goes very quiet. Everything is very calm. A couple of men grab hold of the Son of Man and start leading him away. They don’t have to hold on very tight. He seems resigned. Very calm. Completely peaceful.

As we watch them take him away a group of Daleks, dressed up as Roman soldiers come over the hill and we have to leg it as fast as we can to the Tardis to escape back - or should that be forward - to the 21st. Century.

Credits, and a preview of next week’s episode.

What we’ve just witnessed is a story about Jesus that is recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke, chapter 22. You know, the whole incident probably only took about ten minutes, but within this story we see the truth about life, the universe and everything. We see that there are two things, two emotions, two ways of living that form the very core of our existence, and those two things are love and hate.

Judas betrays Jesus. Betrayal is right up there at the top of the list of hateful things you can do. But notice, Judas betrays with a kiss, the universal symbol of love. Love and hate in the same moment of time.

One of the disciples physically harms a slave. Disables him for life. He’s probably killed him, there were no antibiotics in those days. A hateful action, and the disciple struck first, he wasn’t even defending himself. However, Jesus tells his disciples to put their swords away - and he doesn’t stop there. Miraculously he then restores the slave’s ear. Jesus redeems the hateful situation with love. It’s a small resurrection. A pointer to the greater resurrection that lies ahead.

The next day we see this juxtaposition of love and hate again as the God of Love hangs from the Tree of Hate. Two days later, we see the most exquisite contrast of all. On the one hand, death, the ultimate hater of humankind. On the other hand a true resurrection, a true redemption as Jesus is raised from the dead, and the whole game finishes with the result: Love 1 - Hate 0.

Jesus came to earth to tell people one thing: “God loves you.”

That was the gospel of Jesus. It was the good news that he, himself, while he was with us, preached. Not the good news that later Christians would see in the Christ event, but the good news that Jesus wanted everyone of us to hear. “God loves you.”

The reading we heard this morning, from the Gospel of Saint John, told us about another scene involving Jesus and his disciples that took place just a few hours before the incident on the Mount of Olives. It’s the Last Supper. Jesus only has hours left with his friends and he used that precious time to tell them that they must love. They must love each other. Of course, that message was for all those who would follow who would call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ. So the message is for us.

“As I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Simple, eh?

No. Very difficult.

Heck, it’s difficult enough loving the people you love. It’s even more difficult loving the people that you know you’re supposed to love. Loving people you don’t want to be on the same planet as - surely that is impossible. But that is what our Lord tells us to do. But how do we do it?

Well, first things first. Love is not about never getting angry. It is not about letting people walk all over you. It is not about sitting on the fence and saying that “of course, both sides have a point.” Jesus often got angry. He often fought back, and usually won the arguments and he always believed that his point of view was the right point of you. You show me the place in the Bible where Jesus says to the pharisee, “Oh, you’re right. I see what you mean.”

Secondly, when it comes to putting the love thing into practice, I have a simple suggestion. Now, it is only a start. It’s not the real thing. But it so often leads on to the real thing.

I expect you remember Allison Kaye, the lady who started the Peoples’ Kitchen in Newcastle to provide food for our homeless. She died some years ago, but I was speaking to her shortly before she died and she told me about a meeting she’d been invited to speak at in Gateshead, where they wanted her to talk about her work. Afterwards she agreed to answer questions and somebody said that Allison had called herself a rebel and they wanted to know what she meant by “rebel”. After thinking for a while Allison replied that “being a rebel meant always taking the loving option.”

Look, I’ll be honest with you. There are some people in this church who I don’t “lurve.” In fact, some people annoy me a little bit at times. I am certain that some of you feel the same about me. That’s life. But, I’ll tell you something. If any of you are ever in trouble or sick or dying or feeling that your world is so awful that death would be a release, then I will take the loving option and I will be there beside you. It won’t be perfect - I’m only human - but it will be the best that I can do.

Choosing the loving option is not a lie, even if we don’t like the person we’re loving, because, as disciples of Christ, we are doing it on behalf of God and God loves without exception. So the integrity of the act is underwritten by the nature of the God we’re working for and not by ourselves.

So, don’t beat yourself up about this love thing. Of course, you can’t love everybody. But you can act as if you love everybody and when you do so, hating every minute of it, then that is sacrificial love. And in this life that is probably the closest we will ever get to loving others the way that God loves us.

Posted by the Most Very Right Reverend MadPriest, First Bishop of CEN, Convocation of Episcopalians in Nigeria

Hello, we have come to tell you of a God so big that everyone is loved and cherished!
(Better?)