Passion Sunday

St Barnabas Anglican Church, Warrington 

Passion Sunday, 30 March 2020 

Dear Sisters and Brothers, 

Grace and peace to you from God. Today is Passion Sunday, the 5th Sunday in Lent. The 1st Sunday of Pandemic Level 4. The Gospel lesson is John 11:1-45. 11

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” ²⁸ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” ⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 

This is the Gospel of Christ. 

As a child in Scotland I was a great fan of Dr Who. Such was the power of the story telling that I was completely engaged, we waited eagerly each week for the next episode which came at Saturday teatime. I was fascinated, but also terrified. The monsters, Daleks or whatever, were so scary. I used to stand behind the sofa to watch. If it got too scary, I could duck down out of sight and pretend to play with my toys. Each story lasted 6 episodes. 6 weeks. And the reason the monsters were so scary was that you never saw them till, maybe the end of the 4th episode. Before that each episode would end with the glimpse of an eye, or a claw, or in the case of the Daleks, a sucker. The baddies were menacing because they were hidden.

If I’d read this story when I was hiding behind the sofa, I’d have thought “Just another miracle.” As I grew older, I thought Jesus was using his powers to correct a mistake. He had been careless, dithered too long before going to cure his friend and Lazarus had died. So Jesus had just brought him back to life.  

But over the years this story has become more gripping, and more terrifying. It shows Jesus at his most human, and most courageous. He sees what this is, and where it is going. He gathers his strength, conquers His fear, and goes to Lazarus. Some of the words used are unique. Look at v33 Jesus, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He knows this is not just a miraculous sign, this is a trade. 

And he knows what he is trading. One life for another. Maybe he can’t discern the whole monster, the cross, but surely he sees the nails and knows what is ahead is unspeakable. But He commits. In this story Jesus chooses to give His life for His friend. It is as personal as that.

Christ died for me. He died for you. And that trade was just as personal. As God, His vision encompassed all time, and all people. He knew I needed Him. He knew you needed Him.  

Amen. So be it. 

Blessings 

Jeremy Rev Dr JJ Nicoll, 

0274 361 481 

Priest-in-Charge St Barnabas, Warrington, NZ

Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

God of hope, 

in you we see a life that never dies. 

Surrounded by death and violence may 

we never give in to despair. 

But rest in you our resurrection and our life. 

For you are alive and reign with the Father 

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God, now and for ever. 

Amen

A letter from Rev Dr JJ Nicoll

St Barnabas Anglican Church, Warrington

22 March 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Grace and peace to you from God.

This is a pastoral letter.

Who’d have thought it?  That we would communicate by letter: electronic or paper.

In Jesus’ time he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.  “Proper” worship was in the Temple, in not very handy Jerusalem, and I think people went to the synagogue partly to share the scrolls of the Torah, for I doubt that any of them would have had that at home, but also to share their faith stories and the spiritual experiences of the week.  Also no doubt to complain about the size of the fish being sold, the carpenter being behind with his orders and what a pain the Romans were.

In the 2000y since, our faith has developed and we have seen ages when hermits living in the desert were considered the most holy, then there were whole communities of Monks and Nuns who lived in convents, out of the world so that they were not distracted from their spiritual journeys by the necessities of living.  But that changed.  The realisation grew that being in the world was part of the journey to Christ.  Retreats are good for us as individuals, to clear and strengthen our spirits but knowing Jesus is about accepting others and sharing our lives.  We meet Christ when we share bread and wine, but there he is again when we have a cup of tea and see how Christ reveals himself in others’ lives.  Funny how he is there in other people who are full of human flaws and weakness:  When we behave badly, that is behave like a human being, and we look down on others, we find ourselves looking down on Christ.  We look down on others, yet we find that they live with pain and trials which flatten us.

We are not the first generation to live with pandemics and epidemics.  We should think of the middle ages when bubonic plague and other diseases swept through the world in waves, sometimes killing 80% of populations.  During the English civil war plague combined with the fighting to kill 30% of the people.  (Without apparently denting the stubborn faith of either the puritans or the traditional Anglicans).

Do you remember:

            Elsie Loudon?             Jessie McRae?            Eva Cooper?   &         Mary Watson

Also    Evelyn E Elliot?         Mary M Newman?      Janet Logan?               Ivy Mitchell?

These women, nursed in the hospitals of Otago & Southland just over a hundred years ago, during the Spanish influenza epidemic that followed World War 1.

In the course of their duties they caught Spanish flu from their patients, and they died from it.

If you are in Dunedin Hospital, (when they start letting people in again), stop in the chapel and have a look at the memorial.  It starts remembering local nurses who died in the war, but they are outnumbered by the flu victims.

If we are frightened by Covid-19, we should remember their example.

Although 1919 and 2020 lends to easy comparison, the flu they treated was much worse and their resources much less.  In Italy the Covid death toll now exceeds 4,000, but 58,000 have died of flu this winter.  Covid-19 is bad, worse than the winter flu, but less deadly than measles.  It is different from the flu in that countries like Singapore, have shown that it can be contained by swift action, if people endure the inconvenience to protect others.

We should conduct ourselves                         in service to those around us

To mediate the spread of Covid         to minimise its impact.

            I am shocked and hurt by the suspension of services here.  But it is part of our service to others to endure this.

Bishop Steven has found many inspiring prayers, psalms, poems.

The prayer at the end of this is from the Book of Common Prayer, because epidemics were parts of our forbearers’ lives and an ever present source of fear and tragic loss.  The theology seems a little dated to us but we should never forget that God gave us freedom, which has led to much pain, selfishness and evil.  But also leaves us open to love.  

Blessings

Jeremy

Rev Dr JJ Nicoll,                    0274 361 481

Priest-in-Charge

St Barnabas, Warrington, NZ

The Book of Common Prayer,

Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several occasions

In the time of any common Plague or Sickness.

O Almighty God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also, in the time of king David, didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembering thy mercy didst save the rest:  Have pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality; that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying Angel to cease from punishing, so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.