Lent Reflections from The Mission to Seafarers

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Maximilian Waters
5 years ago
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Week 1: Mark 4: 1-11 The Revd Canon Huw Mosford is the Mission s director of chaplaincy. Lent is a time when Christians reflect on the priorities in their lives and their relationship with God.

1 Week 1: Mark 4: 1-11 The Revd Canon Huw Mosford is the Mission s director of chaplaincy. Lent is a time when Christians reflect on the priorities in their lives and their relationship with God. The scripture readings set for each week teach us to reflect on an aspect on life s pilgrimage. This week the theme is Temptation. Jesus had been fasting for forty days. He was famished. He really wanted to eat. And so the devil said: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. If you are the Son of God Here, Jesus, is a chance to prove yourself. Here, Jesus, is a chance to make yourself known. Just turn these stones into loaves of bread. Nobody will miss a few rocks, will they? No harm done! People will be amazed. You will get something to eat. Better yet, you can feed the poor people of the world with the leftovers. But Jesus responded: It is written, One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the highest pinnacle of the temple. He said: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. If you are the Son of God Prove yourself, Jesus! Begin your ministry with a spectacular stunt! Make people believe you! He could have jumped from the pinnacle of the temple. Both would have accomplished good things. But both would have substituted Satan s design for God s design. And so Jesus said: Again it is written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. And so the devil took Jesus to a high mountain where they could see all the kingdoms of the world. He said to Jesus: All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. And Jesus replied: Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. Many years ago, I heard a sermon that I have always remembered. The preacher said: Satan tempted Jesus three times, and Jesus stood firm against the temptations three times. How did Jesus do it? What was his secret? What can we learn from Jesus? And then the preacher went on to give the answer. He said: Note that Jesus responded to all three temptations in the same way. He said, It is written It is written It is written Jesus used his knowledge of the scriptures to thwart the devil s most tempting wiles. We can do the same. But we must learn the scriptures now before the temptations come. Once the temptations come, it is too late to start getting ready! No Captain waits to learn to steer the ship until he gets to the bridge. No paramedic waits to learn CPR until he or she needs it. We, Christ s disciples, need to prepare ourselves and our children now. We must prepare ourselves by constant worship, prayer and Bible study. Otherwise, the temptation will entrap us before we ever recognize that it is there. Matthew tells us: Then the devil left (Jesus), and suddenly angels came and waited on him. That is the good news! Each time we resist temptation, God makes it easier for us to resist next time. Finally, the devil gives up, at least for a while, and God sends his angels to bless us (it may be in the form of a Mission to Seafarers chaplain!). Many of us feel it is time for God s angels to bless us. We have endured more than our share of trials and temptations. Let us pray for God s help. Let us be faithful to do God s will. When the devil sees that he can t have his way with us, he will leave us, at least for a while. And then God will send his angels to bless us. /lent

2 Week 2: Mark 4: 1-11 The Revd Ben Humphries in Mombasa, Kenya. The bar and lounge are at the centre of The Mission to Seafarers in Mombasa, Kenya. They seat around sixty people and there are a couple of pool tables. Conversations between seafarers, Mission staff, port workers and the chaplain soon get started. Our centre is something like an airport transit lounge. Seafarers are from many nationalities and are always on the move, only in East Africa for a day or two. Tomorrow they will be on their way to the Gulf or the Suez Canal, or towards the far East. One of the first questions that inevitably gets asked is Where are you from?. One of the themes of our Bible passage this week is about our origins. The origins of Jesus are an important aspect of John s Gospel. We, the readers, know from Chapter that One Jesus the Word was with God and was from God. Nathaniel, in contrast, only sees the obvious that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee. But the superficial is not sufficient, and when John writes his Gospel he wants us to see that the deeper answer of faith is that Jesus is from God, the One descended from Heaven, the One from above. Nicodemus recognizes this, for he knows that Jesus teaching is from God. But he comes by night and he comes in darkness. His ignorance and misunderstanding keeps him in the dark as to his relationship with Jesus. Nicodemus is told that God gives us a second birth, with the symbols of water and the spirit which are God s gifts from above. Being born the first time was not something that we consciously did in our infant state. Rather, our physical birth was caused by natural, developmental and hormonal processes beyond our own means. If we take this imagery seriously then we see that our second birth is something that God does to or for us, taking us out of our spiritual darkness and into the light. All those who have been born again have the same honour ascribed to them as children of God. Their earthly status has been altered in a fundamental way. When seafarers mix and meet in our Mission bar, they are welcomed and served equally without regard to rank, rating, origin or status. Could our answer to the question Where are you from? be that I have come from the darkness to the light? /lent

3 Week 3: John 4: 5-42 The Revd Dr Paul Burt in Dubai, UAE. To live authentically is to live in response to personal encounter. The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar is a story about the dynamics of personal encounter in a particular case, and a setting forth of how the truth about ourselves and about God is to be known through our own personal encounter with Him. The gospel writer allows us to eavesdrop on a theological sparring session. Jesus apparently innocent request for a drink (v7) opens up pathways to understanding that in the early stages of the encounter the woman is unable to see. By the end of it, however, she has glimpsed an awesome possibility; that this stranger, this Jewish prophet (v19) might in fact be Messiah (v25, v26 and v29). The discussion, if we can call it that, has at its heart a striking example of what in inter-religious debate is sometimes called the scandal of particularity. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews (v22). Here is a blunt reminder that truth is not, as our postmodern Western culture would have it, a matter for private preference, in which the varied contents of our beliefs (as long as they are sincerely held) can be true for me. As far as the gospel is concerned truth is particular because it is a particular Person (14: 6). Our postmodern devotee of spirituality as a desirable lifestyle component might think that there is refuge in Jesus declaration that God is spirit (v24). But God as spirit is simply a way of saying that God is not a static essence but, rather, the active, living, creating energy who launches, sustains and perfects all that is, through the Person of his Son (1: 2-3) who is Truth. The working lives of The Mission to Seafarers chaplains are punctuated by personal encounter. It is tempting for chaplains to think that they, as professional Christians, represent a model of authenticity to which a humble Filipino able seaman might look up. It is perhaps more likely that the courage, perseverance and faith of that Filipino seaman signifies that in their personal encounter Jesus is speaking more clearly through him than through the chaplain. /lent

Week 4: John 9 The Revd Adam Boulter in Aqaba, Jordan. The man who is blind from birth knows he cannot see, but he also knows he cannot see God, nor clearly see God s will for him.

4 Week 4: John 9 The Revd Adam Boulter in Aqaba, Jordan. The man who is blind from birth knows he cannot see, but he also knows he cannot see God, nor clearly see God s will for him. He knows he needs grace, and so when Jesus offers him sight he takes it, and more than that, he starts to learn who Jesus is. By the end of this story he is following Jesus because he can see who Jesus is. He is starting to learn that God, who loves us all, has been made a man. That changes the nature of creation and us, because it means that God is present, here and now. We only have to keep noticing him and return his gaze of love. The Pharisees are not blind, they can see. They are sure that they can see God s will for them and everyone else, they think they have understood God. So when Jesus stands before them they cannot see who he is. When God tries to show them, they think they don t need his healing love. They, as a result, condemn themselves, by refusing to accept that they don t know what God is. We all like to think we can see who we are and what God is, and none of us can. Not without God showing us, not without giving up our certainties, not without seeing through our false identities, not without accepting God s love, poured out into creation in the life of Jesus. We are being called to see. To see who we really are. To see what God is calling us to. To see God face to face. /lent

5 Week 5: John 11: 1-45 The Revd Andrew Jacobson in Gibraltar. Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were close friends of Jesus. The news of Lazarus illness reached Jesus indirectly, via a message sent by Martha and Mary. Jesus took what may appear to us to be a rather unusual decision. He didn t respond immediately but rather continued performing the work that his Father had sent him to do. As a consequence by the time Jesus eventually reached Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days. It is noteworthy that both Martha and Mary had faith to believe that the very presence of Jesus would have resulted in Lazarus s healing. For they both exclaimed: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. His death, however, probably seriously challenged their faith. What followed was an emotionally charged encounter with human grief. Jesus was deeply moved by the corporate grief that faced him. This is encapsulated by the Gospel writer John in two of the most powerful words in the New Testament - Jesus wept. However, Jesus then went on to perform what would be one of his greatest miracles - he raised Lazarus from the dead. This story powerfully reminds us that our Lord Jesus fully entered into what it means to be human including the anguish caused by the death of a loved one. Jesus was fully cognisant of the pain and separation that death brings. The miracle also provides a foretaste of his resurrection, which we celebrate on Easter Day. This Lent let us remember the incarnational ministry of Mission to Seafarers chaplains throughout the world as they likewise seek to draw alongside seafarers in their time of need: mediating the loving presence of Christ with seafarers in the midst of the pain and loneliness of separation from family and loved ones; and, in particular, through their ministry to the bereaved, in which they bring the glorious hope of the resurrection to those seafarers walking in the valley of the shadow of death. As we journey through Lent we may not be able to raise the dead but as Christians we can bring the light and presence of Christ to the people that we meet each day, wherever God has placed us. /lent

Week 6: John 27: 11-54 The Revd Simon Davies in Felixstowe, UK.

6 Week 6: John 27: The Revd Simon Davies in Felixstowe, UK. This passage, tracing the final hours of Jesus earthly life, is characterised by two distinct types of individual or group those who possessed power, and those who were effectively powerless. Pontius Pilate possessed considerable power, conferred upon him by his office as Roman Governor. He had the power to release Jesus at a word, especially since, by his own admission, he found no fault with him. The chief priests and elders in turn held considerable power. By collective pressure, they forced Pilate to disown Jesus, thereby sealing his fate. The Roman soldiers also possessed power conferred upon them by their military rank, and bolstered by the fear induced by the weapons which they carried. Their power was manifested in their mocking, and in their cruelty. In contrast with these who possessed and wielded power, Jesus was utterly powerless. He was at the mercy of others, and no longer able to control any aspect of what lay ahead. With a poignant inevitability, each moment took him closer to the cruel death of crucifixion. This contrast between the powerful and powerless is a feature of our modern world, just as it was in the time of Jesus. In complex societies, persons in authority have power conferred upon them by their rank and status Presidents, members of government, police officers and those serving in the armed forces are examples. Such power, if applied fairly and wisely, can be to the good of all in society. Yet, as we so often see in society, power can be used in a corrupt manner, and often accompanied by cruelty. It is then that the contrast between the powerful and powerless becomes more apparent. It is worth considering the level of power which we possess as individuals it is more than we might at first imagine. Parents have considerable power over their children, and a harsh word spoken too hastily to a spouse or colleague can have a powerful and lasting impact. In this season of Lent, let us be mindful of the power which we possess as individuals, and how we exercise it. Can we take Jesus as our example and guide? Power is not a word which sits easily with who we understand him to be, yet he had (and continues to have) tremendous influence upon others. His power lies in his limitless compassion, his love of the powerless, his capacity for forgiveness and in his healing touch. Let us strive to always do likewise, in his name. /lent

How did you do this past week in remembering that God loves you? Did it make any difference in your week?

How did you do this past week in remembering that God loves you? Did it make any difference in your week? TRUTH: GOD LOVES YOU His deep, passionate love for you is not based on your performance or personal sense of worthiness. You cannot influence God s love for you in any way. He loves you right now, to his