Nurturing, resisting, breaking through
INTRODUCTION
There is an old story, perhaps less told now than it used to be, of a young curate who was invited to stay at the Bishop’s house.[i] Being new to the ministry and rather timid, he took great care to be as polite and reverent as possible to the Bishop. At breakfast time, the Bishop noticed that the curate pulled a face when he tried eating the boiled egg on his plate, “Dear me,” said the Bishop, “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones!” The curate, desperate not to offend his host and superior, replied, ” Oh no, my Lord, I assure you parts of it are excellent!”
I will be referring to this story later on, but it got me thinking along other lines. Who likes Scotch eggs? I’ll be exploring what this can teach us about the Christian life, not forgetting of course what we read in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, and Jesus’ words to his disciples. I want to make three points as we look at these Bible passages: nurturing new life, resisting pressure, and breaking through. But first, let’s cut open the egg…
We’ve been thinking for the last six weeks about the Thessalonian church, its blessings and its difficulties. Our overall theme has been ‘holiness and hope in a hostile world’. I would like to suggest that we see the egg here as representing our life together in Christ, while the surrounding meat might represent the world around us, sometimes hostile, but at least a barrier to effective Christian living.
1 – NURTURING NEW LIFE
I liked the image of the scotch egg, because eggs remind us of Easter when they symbolise new life in the risen Christ, or the stone that was rolled away from the tomb. When someone becomes a Christian, there is, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, a new creation![ii] This new life might not be very visible at first. Looking from the outside the egg is hidden. Our new faith, which might start as nothing more than a vague wish to find out more about Jesus, or a need for forgiveness, has to be nurtured, strengthened and matured before we can reach our full potential for Christ.
Nurturing our spiritual life is something that we can do to some extent in private. Regular Bible reading, personal prayer, listening to worship songs or other Christian music, going on retreat or study days. All these help us to understand the faith and get in the habit of ‘thinking like a Christian’. Most of us here, I’m sure, are well along that journey, but maybe there are some aspects where we could each do more.
However, it is often said that there is no such thing as an individual Christian. God made us for fellowship with other people. Jesus called twelve men to form a very close learning community around him, and beyond that many other men and women who followed him and supported the apostles.
Perhaps we can repurpose the image of the scotch egg here: Jesus the bright yolk at the centre, his closest followers in white around him, and a wider group of followers beyond them, who perhaps regard themselves as ‘occasional’ Christians. Consider, for a moment, where you are in that image. Are you close to Jesus, part of that committed community of believers worshiping and praying together regularly? Or a little further out, attracted by the Christian message but not yet committed? Or perhaps some here are first time or occasional visitors just wanting to see what we’re about. Wherever you are, I would encourage you to think about coming closer in, becoming more a part of the Christian community – here in Bramley or wherever you live.
The fact you are in church this morning shows that you understand this: that the new life can only really be nurtured fully in the context of Christian fellowship. We know that worship together is far more uplifting than just listening to a CD or podcast and builds a sense of community. Praying together builds a sense of common purpose. Listening to the experience of others, whether through a sermon or just talking over coffee, helps us to understand all aspects of the Christian life, and see it from the perspective of other believers. Acting together through the ministries of the local church – Bramley’s families, the foodbank, West Leeds Youth and others – not only helps us develop and use our gifts but also deepens that sense of common purpose, of being the family of God.
2 – RESISTING PRESSURE
Gone are the days when most people in western Europe identified as Christians and belonged to a local church. We are now the minority. About a million people in England attend a Church of England service regularly.[iii] That figure may double if you include other denominations, but still fewer than five percent of the population.
Take that alongside the growth of other religions and humanism, the recognised problems that the church as a whole is facing, and the way that social media creates and magnifies division. It’s perhaps not surprising that we as committed Christians can come in for criticism from our friends or in social and mainstream media. The pressure to conform to worldly standards that are incompatible with Christian ones will only continue to grow. To that extent, we do indeed live in a hostile world.
But the scotch egg is a sphere, which is the strongest and most stable of shapes, able to resist enormous pressure from without. And we are strongest together, especially when we pray together. Remember Jesus’ words: “if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven”. You will find that the closer to the centre you are, the easier it is to resist the pressures from outside and follow the way of Christ.
I need to say something about the difficult words in verse 12 about those who “have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you”. In the story I started with, the curate saw himself as in a fairly low position in a strict hierarchy of church leadership, addressing the bishop as ‘Lord’ and fearful of offending him. Some people may still have that idea of Christian ministry – the bishop or priest being there to admonish people whenever they sin or even speak out of turn.
In one sense, it is true: within the Church of England, ministers such as Julia and I have had to “declare our obedience to the Lord Bishop of Leeds and his successors”. But the phrase ‘those over you in the Lord’ means not only priests but mentors, teachers, and leaders of smaller groups within the church. Anyone who has a role in helping to nurture the faith of others, in fact.
In practice, I find very few leaders relish the prospect of criticising those in their care. We know very well that we in turn are answerable, not just to the Bishop, but to God. Furthermore, our calling is as pastors – shepherds of the flock, whose desire is not to hurt or lose those in our care but to tend you and prevent you from straying.
For no community is perfect, even that of the local church. And the better we get to know one another, the more scope there is for disagreement and at least giving unintended offence. Linda and I know this from our experience of living on the Scargill community, thirty or more Christians spending six days a week in each other’s company, at work, rest and prayer. There were definitely times when I, or others, needed that admonition, being reminded of the standards the community expects of its members. It falls to the leaders of the community to take others to task when difficulties arise, but always in love and always with the intention of building back better.
Both Paul and Jesus give advice on dealing with the difficulties that always arise in relationships within a close community. Paul suggests to the Thessalonians how to behave towards brothers and sisters who are new or less strong in their faith, those perhaps further from the centre who haven’t made a commitment yet or haven’t yet understood what Christian standards of behaviour might be. To quote Tom Wright’s translation of verse 14: ‘warn those who step out of line, console the downcast, help the weak, be warm-hearted and patient towards everybody’.[iv]
St Matthew, more than the other Gospel writers, was writing for a newly established Christian community, so he brings together Jesus’ sayings on the subject. At first there looks to be a contradiction here: do we simply ‘forgive seventy-seven times’ when someone causes offence, or follow a formal disciplinary procedure that starts with a private word, then a meeting with the elders, and finally a congregational meeting? The explanation, I suggest, is this: behaviour that disrupts the communal life needs to be dealt with by the community; but at the same time, it’s important that the person who has been hurt tries not to take it personally, rather let the community deal with the matter and forgive the offender at a one-to-one level. Not easy, but it’s the best way in such situations.
3 – BREAKING THROUGH
Most of Paul’s words to the Thessalonian church are aimed at relations within the community. But some of them can be seen in a wider context. “Do good to one another and to all” (v.15) seems to imply a duty to do good first within the church, and also beyond it. Jesus said that we will be known as Christians by our love for each other[v] – that is, by our ability to live as a close community without being broken apart by arguments and slander. But that love then has to extend to all our neighbours, the and way we spread the good news of Christ’s love to the wider community around us.
Returning to the egg model, the outer layers might represent the barriers to us doing this. What prevents us from breaking through the walls of the church, so to speak, to proclaim to the world the new life within us which is there for anyone to experience? The barriers are many: natural shyness, fear of ridicule, a feeling of inadequacy, or simply being too busy with all life’s other activities.
But what took Jesus’ first disciples from their fearful retreat in the upper room to proclaiming Christ crucified and risen in the streets of Jerusalem? Nothing more or less than the Holy Spirit. It is in the Spirit’s power, and not in our own strength, that we find ourselves enabled and emboldened to break through these reservations and take the love of Christ and his good news out into our community.
What opens us up to the work of the Holy Spirit in the first place? I suggest the answer is in verses 16 to 18 of the Thessalonians reading: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances”. As we do these things: rejoicing, praying and giving thanks, we will be open to the Spirit within us enabling us to break through the layers of reluctance, timidity and the world’s hostility, and be the people Jesus wants us to be.
So there you have it. The scotch egg with its surprising centre can represent the new life within us that needs to be nurtured. The strength of the sphere represents the community helping each other to grow in love and resist pressure from without. And with the Holy Spirit within us we can break through whatever is holding us back to reveal the new life in Christ to the world around. This egg is not merely ‘good in parts’, it is God’s perfect and precious gift to his Church. With apologies, of course, to vegans. Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we give you thanks:
for the new life to be nurtured within us,
for the church that you established to bind your people together in love,
and for the gift of the Holy Spirit to equip us for service
and break through the barriers around us.
So make us joyful in your service,
both in private and when we meet together.
Let us persevere in prayer, both at home and in public worship.
And let us be thankful to our heavenly Father
for all that he has done and continues to do for us.
Amen.
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate%27s_egg accessed 16 October 2024
[ii] 2 Corinthians 5.17
[iii] https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/church-attendance-rises-second-year-running accessed 17 October 2024
[iv] Tom Wright, ‘Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians’, SPCK 2002, p.130
[v] John 13:35