JORDAN: HUSBAND HAS REAL ISSUES SO I HAVE TO DUMP HIM

Katie Price aka Jordan

This blog provides a meditation on the revised Common Lectionary readings along with a headline from world news

FEAST OF WULFSTAN: ENGLISH BISHOP OF WORCESTER 11^th CENT.

EPHESIANS 5 1-14

1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. 4Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. 5Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. 7Therefore do not be associated with them. 8For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

‘Sleeper, awake!

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.’

The writer continues with his theme of personal and communal holiness, which was the theme of yesterday’s blog. Today I want to note the motivation the writer provides for such behaviour. Firstly there is the astonishing command, “Be imitators of God.” Imitation, (Greek mimesis) is wired into the genetic inheritance of living species: we will be inclined, for our good, to imitate each other. The idea that human beings can or should imitate God is, I think, a Christian invention. We are to imitate God’s behaviour in Christ, who offered up his life as a fragrant offering and sacrifice out of love for human beings. The implication is that we should imitate both the loving sacrifice, and its fragrance, that is, its beauty. The ethical injunctions that follow are to do with goodness and beauty of life. This kind of living, says the writer belongs in the light as it has nothing to hide. The light is identified with the risen Christ in whom dead lives are made alive. To be imitators of God is to share his light, goodness and beauty revealed in Christ.

Jordan is Katie Price a British celebrity known for her big chest. She is justifying ditching her husband after a very short marriage. He has real problems and must therefore be dumped. She may not be acquainted with the Christian story of God who does not dump humanity although demonstrably, it has real issues.

This ethical teaching roots out my tendency to compare my behaviour with that of others, rather than with God’s; and leaves me looking with regret at the ugliness of much that I do and am.

Mark 4:1-20

4Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12in order that

“they may indeed look, but not perceive,

and may indeed listen, but not understand;

so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’

13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’

Mark insists that Jesus interpreted this parable, but the interpretation given in his name is a cloth-eared travesty of the original. What are we to do?

It's springtime. The sower is sowing.

The parable, along with other seed-stories of Jesus, is a vigorous refutation of the criticism that God’s kingdom cannot have arrived in Jesus’ ministry because there’s so little evidence of it. Jesus says in effect, “Its springtime! The sower is sowing; that’s the evidence! He is carefree and confident that in spite of some seed being wasted on poor ground (Palestinian ploughing took place AFTER sowing) there will be a good harvest.”

In this version, the sower is not named. He may be God himself. In any case our job, the job of Jesus and his disciples, is to be part of the sowing rather than trying to second- guess the harvest.

This parable has profound implications for any doctrine of Christian mission.

However……

We have to note that by the time Mark wrote the parables had become “mystery stories” which only initiates could understand. Their purpose is as much to repel outsiders as to communicate the good news. Mark sees this process as part and parcel of God’s ironic salvation: it’s offered to all but hardly anyone wants it. The interpretation given is no longer of a “parable of the sower” but rather of the “allegory of the soils.” It’s a bit mechanical and worthy and doesn’t sound much like Jesus.

On the other hand, the original parable has put life back into me a number of times in forty years of ministry, especially when my work has seemed fruitless. It has told me to lift up my head and see it’s springtime and the sower is sowing.