Wednesday, September 3, 2014
John 8:47-59 (Gregory the Great)
The occasion of marking the feast day of Gregory the Great is a special moment for those of us who are part of the Anglican experience of the Christian faith. Around the year 600 Gregory was in the midst of a lengthy tenure as the Pope. His sense of mission and ministry was not limited to the community of faith that he knew, but he had a sense of what lay outside the known and familiar.
The traditional story is told that while walking through Rome’s slave market he glimpsed some Saxon slaves who were for sale. His comment was that although they were Angles, they might also be seen as angels, and so worked to ensure that a Roman missionary ministry would have a focus on England. Under his sponsorship St. Augustine of Canterbury led a group of forty monks off to England. Anglicans are those who have that story as a part of our heritage.
In the words of John’s Gospel that is the focus of our reflection today, we hear Jesus in the Temple precinct speaking to a group of people who are engaged in sacrificial worship and prayer. Theirs is a mindset which is closed and limited to the history, heritage and traditions which shaped them through the generations.
There are some who looked at Jesus and saw him as a prophet. Other people thought that Jesus was mentally unhinged. Then some, after listening to him, regarded him as the Messiah. Finally, unable to grasp the teaching that he is offering, there are those who pick up stones to throw at him.
In our world today there are many whose approach to the power of God is to attempt to harness it to achieve, not great things for God, but to further their own individual agendas. The world in which we live is often a world which is disquieting and restless. The world in which Jesus lived was a world filled with political turmoil, military strife and social unrest. People, not unlike us, lived with a sense of hope and expectation that God’s will would be a transformative power, which would bring a new peace and a new order into being.
The message of Jesus was a message of transformation. He called people who trusted in the traditions of the past to look to a new pattern of life as a means of faithful service offered to God. Gregory saw an opportunity to serve God through the experience of sharing the Good News of the Gospel. Each of us, in our way, is called to be guided by the Spirit moving in our own lives and to follow the example of Jesus, who says to those who listened to him,”…I know him ( God the Father) and obey his word” ( John 8:55).
May all of us, seek to know God and to be guided by the Spirit in the mission and ministry to which we have been called.
- The Reverend Canon Christopher Pratt
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