DAILY REFLECTION
Thursday 25th
But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord. After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. (Acts 15.35-41)
What became of Mark, the failed missionary, who was the cause of the split between Barnabas and Paul? His connection with the church went right back to the earliest days, for his mother, yet another Mary, owned the house in Jerusalem, almost certainly the house of the Last Supper, where the apostles and the first Christians met (Acts 12.12). Indeed some have speculated that Mark himself was the mysterious young man, only mentioned in Mark’s gospel, who followed Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and ran away naked when the guards tore his linen robe off him (Mark 14.51). Mark accompanied his cousin Barnabas on the first missionary journey but for some reason felt unable to complete the task. After he returned to Cyprus with Barnabas we catch three glimpses of him, two in Scripture and one in tradition.
It is good to know that he made peace with Paul and was one of those who visited him during his last imprisonment (2 Timothy 4.11). We also find him working with Peter in Rome (1 Peter 5.13) and it is here, according to tradition, that he wrote his gospel, basing it on the memories of Peter. The book was written in about 68 A.D. shortly after the death of Peter and is usually regarded as the earliest of the four Gospels.
After this Mark is supposed to have travelled to Alexandria, in Egypt, one of the greatest cities in the Roman Empire, where he was one of the founders of the Christian church there, and where he was martyred and buried. When the city fell to the Muslims, centuries later, Mark’s bones were rescued and brought to Venice, where they now rest in the Basilica which bears his name.
(from Christopher Loveless ‘A Strange Eventful History: The Story of the Saints of the Church of England’)
Mark’s gospel is his lasting gift to the church. The shortest gospel, it has a sharpness and immediacy about it. The sense of awe at the mighty things God was doing in Jesus dominates the gospel. Mark does not spare the apostles in noting their weakness and lack of understanding that Jesus the Christ would suffer for the world’s redemption. Sharing in the glory of the resurrection means sharing in the giving of self, both in body and spirit, even to death ‘but the one who endures to the end will be saved’ (Mark 13.13).
Gracious God you never give up on us even when we give up on you.
Thank you for using St Mark so powerfully to spread the good news of forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ.
Help us to be faithful to his teaching
both in word and deed
to the end of our lives.
Amen
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Wednesday 24th
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5.14-15)
Today the Church of England remembers St Mellitus, first Bishop at St Paul’s who died on this day in 624. He's probably best known nowadays for having a theological college named after him!
Born of a noble family, Mellitus became first a monk, and then abbot of a monastic community at Rome. He led the second group of monks sent by Pope Gregory the Great to evangelize Britain in 601.This group was sent to support the work of Augustine of Canterbury, who had been given responsibility for the mission to the Anglo-Saxons earlier in 597. Mellitus was consecrated by Augustine in 604/5 as the first Bishop of the East Saxons and was based in London at a church dedicated to St Paul.
Things didn’t go too well to begin with for Augustine and Mellitus until their missionary activity was modified by Gregory the Great. He instructed Mellitus to use the old Saxon temples as places of Christian worship. He was only to cleanse the temples and to remove the Saxon idols, not completely destroy them. As a result the Saxon temples became Christian places of worship, and old Saxon feast days were re-directed towards Christian celebrations. Bede reports that the Pope declared ‘If the people are allowed some worldly pleasures . . . they will more readily come to desire the joys of the Spirit’.
This instruction to Mellitus radically altered the way the early Roman missionaries operated throughout the Saxon regions and had a profound effect on the spread of the gospel. At the end of the sixth century Britain was a collection of independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms – the Heptarchy. The southern parts of Britain were receptive to the particular form of Christianity spread by the Church of Rome. The rest of the country was more responsive to Celtic Christian influence. In spite of their similarities, political emphasis and difficult relationships led to division [you may say this story has been repeated in the Church of England ever since]. Two key areas of Britain, Kent and East Anglia, proved to be a stronghold for the Roman interpretation of Christianity, yet it was with these areas that Mellitus was to encounter difficulty. In 604 Mellitus was involved in a dispute with new kings of both Kent and the East Saxons. (From Saints on Earth: a biographical companion to Common Worship)
‘[The new kings] were adamant in not wishing to be baptised, but they did wish, very strongly, to receive the “white bread” of holy Communion. Did they shrink from the full commitment of baptism while believing that they could appropriate some of the good magic of the new religion on their own terms? Not for the last time, members of the English upper-class were infuriated by the pedantry of a priest who insisted on keeping the rules rather than giving them what they wanted. Mellitus was driven out of London and retired to Kent where he ended his days as third Archbishop of Canterbury. In his old age he was bedridden, but when a fire arose in Canterbury, he insisted on being carried out into the street to quench it by his prayers and his presence.’ (from Christopher Loveless ‘A Strange Eventful History: The Story of the Saints of the Church of England’)
Everlasting God,
whose servant Mellitus carried the good news of your Son
to the people of this country
grant that we who commemorate his service
may know the hope of the gospel in our hearts
and manifest its light in all our ways;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
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Tuesday 23rd
St George was probably a soldier living in Palestine at the beginning of the fourth century. By the fifth-century his existence is certainly recorded. The known facts of his life state that George was an officer in the Roman Army, who resigned his commission on his conversion, ‘gave his goods to the poor, and openly confessed Christianity before the court’. In 303 the emperor Diocletian had embarked on the most devastating and sustained persecution of the Early Church. George was executed for his faith at Lydda in about the year 304 and became known throughout the East as “The Great Martyr”.
The more popular stories of the life and death of George started around the eighth century and it’s not until the twelfth century he’s connected with slaying a dragon. It’s possibly a case of mistaken identity. Images of St Michael usually show him wearing armour and killing a dragon; or it might be George got mixed up with Perseus’s slaying of the sea monster, a myth also associated with the area of Lydda. In 1260 George’s story was included in the ‘Golden Legend’ which became very popular in the Middle Ages.
The story was that there was a dragon, which lived in a lake in Libya and was appeased by a daily gift of sheep. When the local people ran out of sheep, a girl was chosen by lot for the daily sacrifice and, at last, it was the turn of the king’s daughter to die. The Princess was tied to a stake near the dragon’s lair but George, passing at just the right moment, saved her by piercing the dragon with his spear. It then became as meek as a lamb, so that the Princess was able to lead it into the market square bound by her girdle. There St George (rather unnecessarily it would seem) killed it and proceeded to baptise the entire population.
There were churches in England dedicated to St George before the Norman conquest but his popularity as a saint grew with the Crusades. He was seen as the ideal knight becoming the patron saint of soldiers. Richard I called upon him for protection before the third Crusade in 1187, and a red cross on a white background became the ‘uniform’ of his crusaders and, in time, England’s national flag. But it wasn’t until 1347 that he became patron saint of England. Until then we’d had King Edward the Confessor, the founder of Westminster Abbey. Edward had a reputation for being deeply religious and caring for the poor and sick. But as a saint he'd obviously begun to seem a bit insipid compared to George.
However, the real St George wasn’t remembered for military victories but martyrdom. He refused to fight for an unjust regime that was persecuting his fellow Christians and paid with his life. I wonder if we’re quite so keen to be represented by that sort of saint. The word martyr literally means witness. None of the saints point to themselves. All of them look to Jesus and encouraged others to look to him.
God of hosts, who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
(Collect for St George’s Day from Common Worship)
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Monday 22 April
Reading: John 10
1 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Reflection
This well known picture Jesus tells is drawn from seeing shepherds out on the hillside as he went from village to village.
Rereading this, first I thanked God for calling to be part of his flock - hearing him calling me into his safe place. Then it came to me that the thief is in disguise and I don’t always realise what before me is a thief who wants to steal, kill and destroy.
What is he trying to steal.
Jesus has life, and have it abundantly in times of comfort or suffering.
We don’t have it. The thief says we can have it by getting eating, drinking and TV. It is self medication not turning to Jesus.
The only resource we have is time.
Can the thief get us to just waste time rather than use it usefully.
How can I use my time to bless people around me. After all that is what we are called to do if we are following Jesus.
Prayer
Lord, help us to to see the thief that is tying to steal from the life you made us to live. Amen