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Thought for the Week 7 February –2nd Sunday before Lent
One
of the first things I discovered when I first came to live in France was that
one could not buy chicken stock at the Supermarket. My next door neighbor said to me, ‘well, we
usually make our own.’ Then with a little twinkle in her eye added ‘but
sometimes we use those little cubes’. I
agree, of course, that home-made chicken stock is best but still, I’m used to
keeping a box or tin of good store-bought stock on hand as well. So that I
can make chicken soup, among other things! Our
Jewish cousins put great store on the healthful and curative values of
Chicken soup. A Jewish mother will
always have some on hand to fix anything from the blues to a twinge of
sciatica – from the first signs of a cold to a nervous breakdown. If you’re
pregnant and live anywhere near your mother, prepare for nine months of
chicken soup. If you break your arm and you live anywhere near your mother,
prepare for daily chicken soup until the cast comes off. All
the clichés, and the supposed benefits of chicken soup have spilled over into
the rest of our culture as well, so much so that two authors, Jack Canfield
and Mark Hansen wrote a book called ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.’ It became a
New York Times Bestseller, and a
number of ‘Chicken Soup for…… ‘ books have followed it. An
illustration in ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ shows two birds sitting on a branch.
One of them is wearing a tiny parachute. The other bird says “The trouble
with you, Shelton, is you lack self-confidence”. There
are loads of implications about people and everyday life in the two concepts
of chicken soup for the body, and chicken soup for the soul. Some of them point
to minor afflictions, perhaps just a malaise, or “feeling poorly” when a warm
broth is comforting and settles the patient down for some restorative
sleep. Sometimes that warm and “good
for you” liquid can do no good at all for a serious illness, but gives
comfort anyway, and conveys the care and concern of the person who has made
it. In
the main we can’t help catching colds, contracting ailments, having accidents
or becoming seriously ill. But
what of our bird that lacks self-confidence?
What of people who, by contrast, are over confident? What of our many
fears, phobias, exaggerated concerns, and imagined hazards? What of those who feel immortal, the risk
takers, the daredevils, the amateur
backyard stuntmen? And what of those whose active imaginations can either
depress or elate them? Usually we can’t help having some of those
characteristics either. Our
two readings for today have something to say about us, as humans, and
something to say about chicken soup as well. The
story from Genesis is the second creation account. There are clearly two creation accounts and
by inference, there are actually three. This
one is really all about Adam – and Adam is the Hebrew word for “man” so the
story concerns “mankind” – or as we prefer to say these days,
“humankind”. This passage does not go
as far as the celebrated fall from grace, but as in every good novel there is
a set-up. When God says “You may eat freely of every tree in the garden; but
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” we all know
what is eventually going to happen. Knowing what will happen is a window into
our own lives, for we know that what Adam and Eve do, we would not be able to
resist doing ourselves. Every child
learns to passionately desire the very thing that it is not allowed to have,
not because it is so attractive, but because it is not allowed. What
happens is not Eve’s fault. Both
entities have a part to play in the development of the plot, but both are
equally to blame for the important theological truth that is at the core of
the Creation story. That truth is that, although we are all God’s creatures,
we have fallen. Something has gone badly wrong. God’s intentions were not
fulfilled. It is this failure to
fulfill the trust that God places on humankind that leads to the redemption
of all through Christ’s death and resurrection. In
the story, Adam is in charge. He has control over the birds and animals and
is the one who gives them names. God’s intention is that Adam – or “everyman”
enjoy innocence and harmony forever, being constrained by only one
thing. Being denied that one thing
however, leads to the fall from grace that we have all inherited. It
is a case of needing chicken soup to help ease and comfort the ailment we
have brought upon ourselves. God’s disappointment in Adam and Eve does not
mean that they are abandoned, but changed in the sight of God. A sad new
characteristic has descended upon humankind, and we call it “The Fall”. The
cure and comfort we desperately need is found in the Life, Death,
resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. It is the redemption provided by
God as the antidote for our fallen state. Now,
looking at our short and familiar Gospel story we find Jesus taking a
peaceful nap while a nasty storm blows up. This can happen suddenly on
shallow lakes. The waves are short and very choppy and the wind comes in
gusts from several directions, making a sailing boat very hard to control. As
in the Genesis story, the disciples are in charge of their own decisions. They
are caught in a storm – that much they could not help. But they were
experienced at sailing, they knew how to bail out excess water and they
probably knew how to make a dash for the nearest shelter. For whatever reason, they let the situation
get out of control. But
it is Luke telling the story, and what do we know about Luke’s particular
perspective on Jesus Christ? We
will hear much from Luke in the months ahead, so perhaps we should know a
little more about him before suggesting that this miracle of Jesus is just
chicken soup for some frightened followers. Luke’s
gospel, combined with his Acts of the Apostles, comprise the largest single
body of work in the New Testament. His accounts are enormously influential
for several reasons: First, he is a fine writer and his stories are logical
and well-developed. He is clearly an
author who intended to be published, and who intended his work to have a wide
and varied audience. Next,
he includes a number of illustrations as to who Jesus is, that are not
mentioned anywhere else: The stories of the Prodigal son, the Pharisee and
the publican, the Good Samaritan, the rich fool, the rich man and Lazarus,
the healing of the two lepers, and others. Third,
he introduces his gospel with a preface. This indicates that he wanted his
work to be considered as literature, rather than a personal memorial. Threading
through his whole work is an understanding of Jesus that puts the Lord firmly
in charge of every aspect of his own life – a characteristic that does not
come through in the other gospels. In Luke, nothing “just happens”. Every
situation provides Jesus with a chance to demonstrate the two characteristics
that Luke sees in him – a kind of regal poise, and a depth of human
compassion. Time
and again Luke shows how Jesus is always in control of situations: when the residents of Nazareth try to run
him off a cliff, he passes through their ranks and walks away: he sends a
message to Herod that he will not be rushed. Balancing this control with his
usual compassion, he turns aside to heal the slave’s ear while calmly
debating his accusers in the garden. These
are the same calm and deliberate actions we see in the story today. The
disciples panic, but Jesus does not. In fact, he sleeps right through the
worst of the storm and has to be woken up. But why? What did the disciples
expect by shouting to him that they were perishing. Perhaps they needed
another pair of hands to try to control the rigging, perhaps they thought he
should be awake when the boat actually sank. They certainly did not expect
what happened next, for the text says that they were afraid and amazed. We
don’t often think of Jesus as being having a sense of humor. Yet a number of
writers have claimed that he did indeed. Humor is always hard to translate
from language to another, and again, there are many kinds of humor. Yet his
remark to those disciples could be both serious and sardonic – “where is your
faith?” he asks, having demonstrated the he is in charge by quelling the
storm, and having demonstrated his compassion by saving the men in the boat.
It sounds as if he might have been having a bit of fun at their expense. I
wonder what they thought about when it was all over and when they were safe
on the shore again. Pondering
it might be good for us, too. One might say, a little Chicken Soup for the
soul. Revd
Tony Jewiss: Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude To return to main Thought for the Week page, click X |