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'Journey to Freedom' - by Bishop Philip

A course to help you explore the Book of Exodus

Trailer and introduction

Bishop Philip North

Please watch the video above to hear Bishop speak about his Lent Course. The course will draw on some of the big themes of Exodus and explore how they speak to us and challenge us in living the Christian life today. Each session will encourage both deeper commitment to Christ and a greater enthusiasm in applying that faith to our daily lives in practical ways. For each of the five weeks there is a fifteen minute video set in different locations around Lancaster and Morecambe and downloadable guidance notes for the session including prayer, scripture and a format for discussion. Created to be used for a Lent group or individually - the material is designed to be as easy to use as possible so that it can be led by a priest or a lay person without too much advance preparation.

Session 1: Slavery

Bishop Philip North • Exodus 1:8–14

Hello and welcome to the first session of our Lent Course, Journey to Freedom. Some of you watching may be using the Diocese of Blackburn’s Lent Devotional which takes us through the first part of the Book of Exodus. In this Lent course, I am going to pick out some of the big themes of that amazing book and think what they might mean for us as we live out the Christian life in 2024. And the first theme I want to explore is slavery. I am speaking to you from a very cold church. It’s cold not because the heating has broken down, but because it’s closed. Normally a closed church would bring me a great deal of sadness. I love to see churches opened and new ones planted. But for once, I am very glad that this church is closed. You see this is St John’s Church in the very centre of Lancaster. It was built in the mid-eighteenth century when this city lay at the centre of the transatlantic slave trade. And this church was built on the proceeds of slavery. These box pews and the organ were donated by a man called Abraham Rawlinson who was a slave trader. In a grotesque irony, the altar rails, where people once knelt to receive the bread and wine of freedom, are made from mahogany produced by slaves. There are numerous slave traders buried in the grounds, notably a group who many think owned a notorious slave ship called The Johns. It's interesting that we remember the names of those who owned and traded in slaves. But the names of the slaves themselves are forgotten. Simply because most of them were black, these men and women were stripped of their freedom, forcibly removed from their homes, made to work in appalling conditions and were little more than marketable commodities. Their names and stories are mostly lost. I suppose some people might object that I am digging up events from so long ago. Yes of course, they’d argue, slavery was terrible, but surely it’s all history. If only that were so. Not only do we live today with the legacy of slavery, we also live with the reality of it. The Clewer Initiative, a Christian charity that helps people notice and address modern day slavery, has calculated that there are 122,000 people living in slavery in the United Kingdom today, most of them trafficked from abroad. They may be working in nail bars or car washes or hotels. They may be harvesting crops in our rural areas. They may have been forced into the sex trade or into transporting drugs through county lines. This is not history. This is in 2024. It could well be that today you have been served by a slave. The Book of Exodus begins with the experience of slavery. And just like the slavery that funded this church building, at its heart lay racial discrimination. The Israelites, once welcome guests of the Egyptians because of Joseph, have grown in number and prosperity, and the native Egyptian population feels threatened and jealous. So what do they do? They enslave them. Chapter 1 verse 11 could be a definition of slavery where we read, ‘They set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour.’ This is cruel and bitter slavery and the level of oppression rises the more the Israelites cry out for freedom. They have to build mighty supply cities. They have to work harder and harder as ruthless tasks are imposed on them. Their right to reproduce is attacked when Pharaoh tries unsuccessfully to bully the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, into killing male children. Their babies are thrown into the river. The tasks they are given grow more and more unreasonable until they are forced to make bricks without straw. This is hard and desperate suffering, an attempt to break and oppress an entire people. But God does not abandon them. In the Book of Exodus we read of a God who hears the cry of the enslaved. He sends Moses as their leader. He rescues them. He leads them from slavery to freedom. This is the story of a God who leads his people on a journey to freedom. From the very earliest days of the Church, Christians have studied the book of Exodus in the forty days of Lent as part of their preparation for the great Feast of Easter. That’s because the mighty work that God does in setting free the Israelite slaves in Egypt points us to the even greater work that God will do in Jesus to free you and me through the power of the cross. To see what I mean, let’s for a moment turn to St Paul. He was writing into a culture where slavery was the norm and where the distinction between slave and free person was an extremely important one. But in his letter to the Romans, at chapter 6 and verse 20, he writes ‘ You were slaves to sin.’ His readers thought they were free. In fact they were enslaved. Think what that means. I am someone who treasures and values my freedom. I am not under a taskmaster. No one can ship me from one part of the world to another against my will. I can make my own decisions and go where I like and do what I like. But all the time I am still a slave. That’s what Paul is saying. I may be free physically. But I am a slave spiritually. A slave to sin. I was talking to a friend recently who is in a Weight Watchers’ class and he tells me that he is allowed ten sins a day. That may be helping him to lose weight but it’s not doing much for his theology. Sin is not about doing naughty things. It is the word that describes a breakdown in the relationship between us and the God who made us. It springs from the decision to live in our own way rather than God’s way. And sin leads to death. That’s why even though we think we are free, we are slaves. But remember what Paul wrote to the Romans. ‘You were slaves to sin.’ Then he says ‘Now you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God.’ How are they free? Because of Jesus. In Exodus God sent Moses to join the enslaved Israelites and lead them to freedom. In the Gospel God goes much further than that. He sends his own Son. As Paul writes, Jesus ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.’ By becoming a slave like us, Jesus sets us free. We were slaves to sin and sin leads to death. But on the cross Jesus dies that death on our behalf. So through his death, we are free. The language the Bible uses is redemption. In the time of Jesus the price of redemption was the money that would have to be paid to buy a slave’s freedom. Jesus has paid that price by dying for us. In him we have been set free from slavery to sin to delight in the freedom and joy of his eternal presence. So we’re free! That’s the good news. Powerfully good news. Or is it? You see for me, the good news of our freedom in Christ is only good news for us if it’s good news for everybody. There is a danger for the Christian that our own freedom in Christ becomes a purely personal and privatised matter. I’m alright. I’ve found freedom in Christ. The rest of the world can go hang. But we cannot fully rejoice in the freedom we find in Christ whilst others are still captive. We cannot fully rejoice in our freedom whilst others are still slaves to sin because they do not know Jesus Christ or the power of his cross. Equally, we cannot fully rejoice in our freedom whilst a legacy of slavery goes unaddressed, whilst many are victims of racial prejudice, whilst modern day slaves are oppressed and abused, whilst many struggle because of low pay or economic captivity. If we are free, we must long with all our hearts for others to be free. Perhaps that’s what Paul meant when in Galatians 5, 1 he writes ‘For freedom Christ has set you free.’ So what does that mean in practice? During this talk I have spoken about freedom in two ways. The spiritual freedom we find in relationship with Jesus Christ. The physical freedom we find when we address slavery and oppression and work for a world where justice prevails. If we truly know freedom in Christ, we will want to work equally to achieve both of those freedoms. Because it’s hard to hear the good news of the freedom we find in Christ if you are a victim of oppression. And likewise there is little point in being freed from oppression if you are still a slave to sin. So if we really know freedom in Christ, we’re going to want to do two things. On the one hand, we will want to share the good news of the spiritual freedom we find in the Gospel as we tell others about Jesus Christ. I will come back to how we do that in the third session of this course. On the other hand, we will want to work for physical freedom for the enslaved and oppressed. Because when we set the oppressed free from physical captivity, hearts are opened to the saving work of Jesus. Here are some ways we can do that. First, we can address the legacy of slavery. Let me tell you about how Christians are doing that in Lancaster. A wonderful project called Facing the Past has unearthed Lancaster’s hidden history as the fourth largest slaving port in the country. It has enabled people to address complex issues around disputed heritage and memorials. It has brought to life hidden people, for example Sophia Fileen, a once forgotten slave girl who is now, in sculpture form, dancing joyfully in the Priory. And all of this has helped those involved in the project to understand and confront the racism which so often lies behind slavery. Maybe there is some learning here for you or for your own church. Is there perhaps a slavery legacy or some disputed memorial to a former slaver in your church? Can you do more to give space and voice to those we often inadvertently silence, especially those from minority ethnic groups? Second, we can become aware of modern day slavery and campaign against it. The Clewer Initiative is incredibly helpful in doing this. It enables people to spot the signs of modern day slavery in their daily lives, for example when they are visiting the nail bar or having their car washed. And it then provides a mechanism for reporting it. Very few of us are equipped to notice modern day slavery. We often assume it is something that happens in big cities, not in rural Lancashire. But if we could all be alert to this form of oppression happening now on a doorsteps, many could be set free. But then third, we can all be aware of those in our lives who are held captive by circumstances beyond their control. I remember one Christmas celebrating the Eucharist with a Church in the Diocese and meeting a woman who was really struggling. She was living in appalling privately rented accommodation. Her cooker had broken down so she was unable to cook Christmas dinner for her children. She was run down and depressed because life had got on top of her. It was beautiful to see that church gather around that sad family. They were invited for Christmas Dinner. The children were given presents. Once Christmas was over, the churchwarden went to the rental agency to ensure that the issues in the flat were addressed. Through those simple gestures, someone who felt captive experienced some small sense of the freedom we find in Jesus. Maybe you know people like that in your life. Maybe there are simple, everyday ways you can bear witness to the freedom that Jesus came to give. For freedom Christ has set us free. We who once were slaves to sin have been set free by Christ. Let’s rejoice in that freedom. And let’s reflect on what it means to share that freedom with others.

Session 2: Call

Bishop Philip North • Exodus 3:1–12

Hello and welcome to the second session of our Lent Course Journey to Freedom in which we are exploring some of the themes from the Book of Exodus. Last time we thought about slavery. In this session we are going to think about call. To do that I’ve come to a church on the Skerton estate in Lancaster. This is St Chad’s church. It may be a modern building, but it is dedicated in honour of a man who lived nearly 1400 years ago. Chad was a monk, a bishop and above all an evangelist. In other words he was called by God to declare the freedom we find in Christ and also helped many others hear their own call. So I want us to think about how God might be calling you to declare freedom in Christ. I used to play cricket for a team made up entirely of priests. We had all the kit, we talked a great game, we were dead keen. The only thing we couldn’t do was win. In ten years we lost every game except one, and in that single triumph the opposition turned up with just five players, one of whom was on crutches. After one especially humiliating slaughter when we had been bowled out for 18, we had a clear the air session and sat down in the pub to analyse what was going wrong. And after lots of argument and lots of beer we reached an important conclusion. The reason we never won any cricket matches was because we were no good at cricket. No one could bat, no one could bowl, no one could catch. And from that initial conclusion, we realised something else. If you want to win a cricket match, find some people who can play cricket. That’s a principle can be applied to many areas of life. If you want hot water, find someone who’s good at plumbing. If you want nice teeth find someone with skills in dentistry. It’s obvious, isn’t it? Well it’s obvious to us. The thing is, it doesn’t seem to be all that obvious to God. In the Book of Exodus, God had a job he needed doing, one that was critically important in his whole plan for the world. He needed someone with the gifts to lead an enslaved Israelite nation to freedom in the promised land. This person would need to motivate an oppressed people into believing that freedom was a possibility. He would need the courage to stand up to the most powerful tyrant in the world. He would need the skills to build a new nation. He would need the cunning to lead troops into battle. God needed someone truly exceptional. So who did God choose? A criminal on the run. A murderer. That’s who Moses was. He had murdered an Egyptian and rather than facing up to the crime, had fled Egypt for Midian. Hardly the courage required to lead Israel to freedom. In fact the more you dig down the more you begin to think it was hard to find a person less suited than Moses to this task. He was anxious and unsure of himself, constantly questioning God. He could barely speak and needed Aaron to be with him all the time to be his mouthpiece. And he was an old man, already in his 80s. Hardly the age, you might think, to take on such an extraordinary new challenge. But God chose Moses. He chose him not because he was good at things, but simply because he was the one God wanted. He chose Moses not because he was worthy of that choice. Rather God made him worthy by virtue of choosing him. If we look at the way God called Moses in Exodus, I think we can see three distinct stages. And by looking at those we can work out something of how God calls us. Because be sure of this, God is calling you. You might be 19 or 90. You might have left school at 14 or have more degrees than limbs. You might be a success in the eyes of the world or your life might be a mess. You might be as rich as Croesus or not have two pennies to rub together. It doesn’t matter. Right now God is calling you. He has a plan for your life, one that is ever new and ever changing. He wants you to play your part in leading men and women to freedom in Christ. So the first stage is this. God prepared Moses. It is funny how all the disasters and catastrophes in Moses’ life left him uniquely prepared for the task that God would give him. Remember how we was brought up by an Israelite nurse in Pharaoh’s house? That meant he was able to speak both Egyptian and Hebrew which would be essential as he negotiated with Pharoah and led the Israelites. Remember how he had to flee to the desert after the murder? That meant he learnt how to survive in desert conditions, skills he would need as he led his people through the wilderness. God used all these incidents to ensure that Moses was prepared and had the gifts he would need for the part he would play in His plan. Then second, God called Moses. He called him through the medium of fire. Moses was on Mount Horeb, probably the same mountain as Sinai which we will return to in session 5, when he saw the bush that was burning but which was not consumed and he needed to explore. And what is so striking here is that, having called, God will not take any excuses. Moses is afraid. God still calls him. Moses feels unworthy. God still calls him. Moses casts doubt on this being God at all. God still calls him. Moses questions his own ability to achieve the task set before him. God still calls him. Moses wants proof. God gives the proof and, despite all of Moses’ doubts and fears, still calls him. God’s call is his initiative, not ours. And he doesn’t get it wrong. And he doesn’t change his mind. And then third, God sent Moses. Having been with God and been strengthened by God, Moses is sent by God back to Egypt, back the country he had run away from and still feared, back to his own people whom he had left behind. Moses is sent to the place where God wants him to go in order to lead his people to freedom. So those are the three stages in the way God deals with Moses. Prepared. Called. Sent. Let’s think what those three stages might mean in your life. And before we go on, don’t think for one second that you have not been called or that all this talk of call is only for people like priests and lay ministers. If you’ve been baptised, you’ve been called. And if you’ve not been baptised, well it’s nearly Easter Day and that’s a lovely day for a baptism so ring your vicar now! First, God has prepared you. I was speaking to someone who was exploring Ordination a few weeks ago and she had had a really hard life. Family breakdown. Massive struggles with mental health. An abusive relationship. Hardly any qualifications. But then she had met with Jesus and was exploring his call. At first she struggled because she felt that all her negative experiences rendered her unworthy. But over time, she came to see that through all those difficult experiences, God was preparing her and she now has an amazing ministry precisely because the negative things she went through give her an empathy for others and an ability to listen. Now of course it was not God’s plan that she should have endured such hard times. But as Christians we know there is no such things as wasted experience. In the grace of God everything we do and endure contributes to the person God is making us into. So in every experience you have had, positive or negative, God has been preparing you for whatever work he wants you to do. Maybe your previous experiences mean you can cook, or pray, or teach, or organise, or listen, or care, or make people laugh, or offer hospitality. Well God has been preparing you through all of that for whatever work he has for you next. And don’t think that age gets in the way here or that God stops calling you when the pension begins. Moses was over 80 when God called him to something new. All those years of experience meant he was even better prepared. Then second, God has called you. Remember how so much of what we see in Exodus is fulfilled in the New Testament? Well it’s true of that burning bush which is pointing us to the ever-burning fire of the Holy Spirit of God. When you were baptised, you were baptised into the Holy Spirit. When you were Confirmed, that gift was stirred up in you as the Spirit was poured out upon you in the laying-on of hands. Just like Moses, you have met God in the fire. That is where he called you. So don’t think you are unworthy of that call. How can you be? It’s God who does the calling not you, and he doesn’t got it wrong. Don’t try and run away from the call. Because God will get you in the end. Don’t be afraid of the call. Because this is how God is saving you and preparing you for a life of joy. Don’t think you haven’t got the gifts, because of course you haven’t. God’s spirit will give you those gifts once you say yes. And then third, God sends you. For Moses, that sending was very dramatic and extreme. For many of you, the sending may be closer to home or rather more domestic. But the heart of the sending is the same. God wants you to lead people to freedom. The freedom we find only in Jesus. So maybe he’s sending you to share your faith with a family member or a friend and issue an invitation. Maybe he’s sending you to be more confident about speaking up for what you believe in your workplace or in your family. Maybe he’s sending you to be much more determined in prayer for those you know, that they may come to know Jesus. Maybe he is sending you to serve the vulnerable or challenge injustice. Or it could be that he wants you to declare that freedom through a different ministry in the Church. He could be sending you to be a Lay Minister, perhaps ministering to the young or vulnerable or teaching or leading worship. He could be sending you to be a deacon or a priest and declare that freedom in ordained public ministry. Maybe he is sending you to a different place, a different country, to different people who need to hear the freedom song of Jesus Christ. What if you are confused at this point? What if you are not sure where God might be sending you? Well first of all, pray and pray with determination. Then speak to someone, perhaps to your priest or to Christian friends because it as part of the Church that we are called. Then think about what excites you and challenges, you because every call comes with a buzz of excitement. But in your heart you probably know where Jesus is sending you to proclaim freedom. Often the issue is naming it to yourself and to others. I’m told it is a proven fact that Christians live longer lives than those who profess no faith. On one level I suppose that’s obvious as, in Jesus Christ, the life we live is eternal. But we also live to an older age. Maybe that’s because the Christian life is never dull. We have a God who, whatever our age, shakes us up, challenges us, moves us on and gives us a job. He’s prepared you, called you and wants to send you. Listen to his voice, and then go to sing his song of freedom.

Session 3: Rescue

Bishop Philip North • Exodus 14:5—15:1

Welcome to the third session of our Lent Course, Journey to Freedom. Today we have come to Lancaster Priory where we are standing by this ancient and wonderful font. It’s so old that you can see the marks where medieval warriors sharpened their swords. And today our theme is rescue. I wouldn’t be here today without a rescue. When I was a boy, I was with a school group swimming in a lake in Austria. I decided to swim out to a nearby island. Unfortunately I hadn’t quite yet learnt to swim, and the distance was far greater than I imagined. I realised I could go no further and was sinking. Panic was starting to set in. But fortunately one of the older boys noticed, he swam out powerfully and hauled me to the shallow water. Without him, I dread to think what would have happened. Few things are quite as inspiring as a good rescue story. You may have seen that amazing film One Life that follows the story of Nicholas Winton, an ordinary stockbroker whose attention to detail led to 669 Jewish children being rescued from Prague at the start of the war. It is a very simple film but overwhelmingly moving because of the self-giving love that is necessary to a rescue. In a rescue the people in danger are by definition powerless. There is nothing they can do about their plight. They are wholly dependent on the courage and compassion of their rescuer. That’s why rescuers are so precious. That’s why many of us would love the chance to be rescuers. Today we focus on one of the greatest rescue stories of all time. And just like my own, it is a rescue through water. The text of Exodus may be thousands of years old, but the scene could be lifted straight out of Hollywood. The Israelite slaves are feeling Egypt as fast as they can but they are held back by their cattle and their children. The armies of Pharaoh, the mightiest in the known world, are pursuing them by chariot. And then disaster falls. They meet the sea. Water before them. Pharaoh’s bloodthirsty troops behind them. They don’t have a chance. All is lost! But then in the nick of time, God sends Moses to be the rescuer! He holds his staff over the water and the wind drives it back. The sea, we are told, is like a wall on the left and on the right and the Israelites pass dry-shod through the sea. Then, when they have passed, the waters return to their normal place and the army of Pharaoh is destroyed. Not one of them remained. A mighty rescue. So how do the Israelites react? They sing. They declare God’s praises for all to hear. They shout out to all who will hear the wonder of the God who is a rescuer. ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously: horse and rider has thrown into the sea.’ And still today the Jewish people sing God’s praises for this mighty rescue. What a drama! What a story! But listen to John Chrysostom who was Archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth century. He is talking to those who wish they had been at the Red Sea to witness the miracle for themselves: You did not see Pharaoh drowned with his armies, but you have seen the devil with his weapons overcome by the waters of https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/category/topics/sacraments/baptism-sacraments/. The Israelites passed through the sea; you have passed from death to life. They were delivered from the Egyptians; you have been delivered from the powers of darkness. The Israelites were freed from slavery to a pagan people; you have been freed from the much greater slavery to sin. Do you need another argument to show that the gifts you have received are greater than theirs? The Israelites could not look on the face of Moses in glory, though he was their fellow servant and kinsman. But you have seen the face of Christ in his glory. That was a pretty stunning rescue by the Red Sea John Chrysostom is saying. But there’s been an even greater rescue that that, and you are the one who has been rescued. What’s more, you too have been rescued through water. What does that all mean? Well let’s get back to the scriptures. Because there we see that the rescue at the Red Sea is merely pointing to the even greater rescue that Jesus offers us through the cross. Paul talks about the way in which that saving work becomes a reality in our lives which is through water. As the Israelites found freedom through the water of the Red Sea, so we find an eternal freedom in the water of Baptism. Here is what St Paul writes: ‘Do you not know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?’ The Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea to find freedom in the Promised Land. That was an amazing rescue. But even better, those who have been baptised have passed through the waters of death to find freedom in the Lord. That’s why very soon this font will be busy, because in many churches the highlight of the ceremonies of Easter will be when Christians gather to renew the promises of their baptism. In speaking those words of faith, they will remember that through this water they have been rescued by Jesus and have passed from death to the eternal freedom of life in him. We have been rescued. That’s good news. But there is even better news than that. When that boy rescued me in the lake in Austria, I was very grateful to him. But I was also very jealous. I didn’t want to be the one who was rescued. I wanted to be the rescuer. And the great news is, in Jesus we can. As those who have been rescued, we can be rescuers. Remember what the Israelites did when they had been saved? They declared God’s praises to anyone who would listen. You can be a rescuer as you declare what Jesus has done to save you. You can be a rescuer as you share the new of Jesus Christ so that others, like you, might know relationship with him, become part of his Church and find new life and salvation. The trouble is, that sounds really scary. Many of us don’t like to be too demonstrative about our faith. It’s a private matter. It’s something we work out and live in the solitude of our personal lives. The thought of being rescuers and sharing it with others is all a bit cringey and embarrassing. It maybe calls to mind those irritating street preachers, or those earnest evangelists who come knocking at the door to give out literature. So let me tell you five ways in which you can become a rescuer. And I don’t think any of these are cringey. First, rejoice in your own rescue. If you are not really sure about the saving work of Jesus, if your friendship with him is distant or lukewarm, if you think faith is a bit of a take-it-or-leave it thing, you are really going to struggle as a rescuer. To be a rescuer, attend first to your own conversion. That’s why it is so great that you are joining in with this course. Because this is one of the way that you can grow in your relationship with him. It's when you love Jesus Christ with all your heart, it’s when you rejoice at what he has done to rescue you, it’s when you long for others to know Jesus as you know him, that’s when it becomes easy to share your faith. So just for a moment lose yourself in the wonder of what Jesus has done to set you free. He loves you so much he has come to share your life. He loves you so much he has died the death you deserve on your behalf. He loves you so much he has endured nails and spear and mockery. He loves you so much that he has prepared a place for you, yes for you, in his Father’s house. Just rejoice in that. Sing the praises of the God who has done so much for you, not because you deserve it bit because he loves you. Because if you want others to know Jesus as Lord, you need to know Jesus as Lord. Then second, pray for those who are yet to be rescued. How many people do you know whose life is incomplete because they have not yet met with Jesus Christ? After this talk, write down five of their names. They may be your children or your parents. They may be friends or colleagues from work. Then pray for them, by name, ever day. Bring them before Jesus in prayer just as the friends brought the paralytic before Jesus in Mark Chapter 2. Pray for them with persistence and see what happens. Then third, live the Christian life joyfully. Some Christians are so grumpy and miserable it’s amazing anyone becomes a Christian. They moan on social media, they complain about everything, they argue with the Vicar (that’s unless they are the Vicar), they shush the children and they behave as if we had a Gospel of Gloom rather than a Gospel of Joy. A simple way to be a rescuer is to live differently as one rescued by Jesus Christ. Be generous and hospitable. When someone moves into the street, be the first to take a tray of cakes. At work, be the one who offers to make the coffee. If you know someone who is alone or struggling, visit and pray with them. In a post-modern age, lifestyle matters so much more than words, and if you live differently, people will soon want to know why. The fourth way of being a rescuer is to invite. When my friends hold a party and I don’t get invited, I feel left out, hurt, excluded and unwanted. I wonder how many people don’t go to church because no one has ever invited them. I wonder how many people feel excluded from church or unwelcome because no one has ever invited them. Because even if you can’t go or don’t want to go, being invited is always lovely. No one has ever taken offence at an invitation. So is there maybe someone you could invite. Many parishes hold occasional social events or concerts and that can be a great place to start. ‘I’m going, why don’t you come too?’ Often special services around Christmas or Easter are a good time to issue an invitation. Many parishes have events and services aimed at families or children and an invitation can be a lovely way of supporting parents. And above all, you can invite people to the wonder of worship. You can invite friends to meet with Jesus himself on Sunday morning as the Bible is opened and bread and wine is made holy. And then fifth, and perhaps hardest of all, tell your story. Many people are nervous of sharing their faith because they think they have to be an ‘evangelist’ or do ‘evangelism.’ But Jesus never asks us to do that. He sends us out to be witnesses. In a court, witnesses do no more than tell what they have seen. They don’t need to persuade or win arguments. They just tell. And you have an amazing story to tell – the story of how Jesus has rescued you in the water of baptism and set you free for ever. Pray hard and the time will come when someone you know wants to hear that story. The greatest rescue of all time. And the one rescued is you. You have passed through the waters of baptism and in so doing have died with Christ to rise with him to freedom. Rejoice in that rescue. Then go and be a rescuer, that all might know the glory of freedom in Jesus Christ.

Session 4: Hunger

Bishop Philip North • Exodus 16:1–18

Welcome to session 4. In the last session the Israelites were rescued by God and crossed the Red Sea. It must have felt like all their problems were over. Sadly many testing times were to come. And today we focus on one of them. Because the theme of this session is hunger. I am feeling pretty hungry right now on this chilly day in North Lancashire, and so I have come to a place where the hungry are fed. This is Morecambe Food Pantry, an initiative of Morecambe Parish Church. There’s some amazing stuff going on here. There’s this café where we will soon be filling our boots. And round the back there is a food pantry where those who are struggling to make ends meet can access good food for what they can afford to donate. The whole place is run with oodles of love and generosity and hospitality by volunteers, mostly Christians from local churches. What for me is so special about places like this is that there is a double feeding going on. Yes there’s physical, tangible food to fill people’s stomachs and sustain them through the winter. But in a place that is so clear about its Christian character, there is another food on offer here, food for the soul, the living bread we find in Jesus. And that makes it a great place to be as we think about the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus. Because hunger has triggered a moment of severe crisis for the Israelites and their leaders. The thing about wildernesses is that, almost by definition, there is not a great deal to eat. And there were an awful lot of Israelites, a huge number of mouths to feed. They may have escaped Pharaoh’s chariots. They cannot escape their basic human needs. The people are desperately hungry. And it’s a double hunger. They are hungry first and foremost for food. They think back to the days in Egypt when, even though they were slaves, they at least had food for their bellies; bread, cucumbers, meat. Now they have nothing. They are in danger of dying in the wilderness. But that physical hunger pointed to a much deeper and much more dangerous spiritual hunger. The Israelites have lost their trust in Moses and likewise they have lost their trust in God. Why did God lead them out into the wilderness? Was it just to kill them? What was the point of all those great miracles, that mighty rescue, if all that is going to come of it is a sad and miserable death in the dessert of Sinai? Where is God? But God does not abandon his people. He hears their cries of hunger and he feeds them. First of all he feeds them with physical food. Bread rains down from heaven. So let’s think about that first of all because the precise way in which God physically feeds the people matters. Let me pick out three features of it. First God feeds them with justice. When the bread arrives, some people simply gather enough. Others rush around taking as much as they can find and storing it up for the future. But there is no reward for their greed, because the following day that extra food is rotten and ridden with worms. Today we live in a world of inequality where some people have vast savings and massive wealth they do not need whilst others starve or struggle to make ends meet. That is not God’s way. When he feeds the people, all are fed but none can hoard more than they need. Second God feeds them enough. There is an omer of bread per person. No more, no less. Because that is what a person needs. Today we are destroying this planet with untrammelled consumption and crazy greed. We are never satisfied with enough. We crave more and more and more, even when our greed means that others suffer. That’s not God’s way either. And third, God feeds such that they have space to honour him. One day a week God provides double the bread that is required. That means that they have enough for the Sabbath. They are allowed a day of rest, a day where there is no need for work and so a day that can be offered to God. Today that balance is hard to find. For many, Sunday is just like any other day. Others have to work crazy hours or drive themselves so hard in the workplace that they endanger relationships and lose the joy of being human. That is not God’s way. He wants our lives to be balanced so that we have space for him and space for the people he has given us. So that’s the first thing that happens. God feeds the people physically with food for their stomachs. But that food points beyond itself to a double feeding. God has provided. God has fed his people. God has fulfilled his promises. They have not been abandoned by God to starve in the desert. He is still with them and they can after all trust him. So the people are fed spiritually at the same time as they are fed physically. Physical food carries the memory of the God who will provide for them always and never let them down. Bread in the wilderness demonstrates that God will indeed lead them to the promised land, that land that flows with milk and honey. That’s the double feeding. Again and again as we have studied Exodus we have seen the stories we read there fulfilled in the person of Jesus. And it is just the same here. Fast forward to John Chapter 6 because there we meet another hungry crowd. More than 5000 are gathered in a lonely place to hear the words of Jesus and when they grow hungry, there is alarm. But a boy offers his tiny packed lunch of five loaves and two fish, and from that an entire crowd is physically fed with plenty left over. That is a famous story, but let’s look at what happens next. This is a hunger culture, a time when most of people’s lives would have been spent with the back breaking work of scrabbling together enough to eat and here is a man who can produce plenty at the drop of hat. So the crowd are amazed at what Jesus has done, so amazed that they want him to do the miracle again. They want more free food. They follow him around as if he were a free kebab van. But Jesus challenges them. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, he says. What does that mean? The bread that Moses gave the Israelites in the wilderness was great but it perished. Jesus offers a better bread than that, the living bread that is himself and which offers eternal life. Again Jesus uses physical food to point beyond itself to that eternal and living food which is relationship with him. Today we too live in a time of hunger. Sadly with an ongoing cost of living crisis and a fragile global economy, many people today hunger for bread. Nearly a million people will use a foodbank this year. Most of those are in work, in fact many have several jobs but still struggle to pay the bills and feed their children. Many more are just about managing and it would only take one or two problems to force them into destitution. But even more people hunger for another sort of food. They hunger for something to make sense of their lives. They hunger for answers to their big questions. They hunger for a purpose to their lives that is worth living for. They hunger for love and for relationships that can satisfy. They hunger for forgiveness or for a fresh start. Named or unnamed they hunger for Jesus, the living bread in whom every single human hunger finds its satisfaction. We who feed on Jesus are sent to feed the world. A hungry world gives us responsibility, in fact a double responsibility. The first responsibility is to try and satisfy people’s physical hunger, because only when stomachs are filled will hearts be opened up to the mystery of Jesus. Remember those three ways in which God fed the people in the wilderness? I think that’s how we are called to feed a hungry people. First, God fed them with justice. Inequality is not part of God’s plan. It does tremendous social and physical damage to people’s lives. It lies behind so many of the problems we face as a nation. As Christians we need to be a voice for justice, calling out unfair structures that entrap people in poverty and prevent them from taking control of their own lives. Even as we meet human need we need to go upstream and ask the bigger questions. Why is the world’s fifth largest economy not able to feed its children? Why are there homeless people on the streets? Why are there workplaces where pay is so low that staff are still dependent on benefits and food handouts? Second, God fed them enough. Where we see people who are hungry we have a duty to do something. So yes, we are a voice for justice, but we also need to act practically. That’s where food pantries like this one, and food banks, and events where hospitality is offered, and warm spaces and groups and clubs for older people are all so important. We’re not just meeting a human need. We are pointing to the God who wants everyone to have enough. Third, God fed them so that they had space to honour him. Rest is a fundamental part of being human. Where people feel driven to work so hard that there is no space for family and no space for God, something of the dignity of human life is lost. That’s why Sunday really matters as a day of rest and day of worship. So as God fed the people in the wilderness, as Jesus fed the crowd on the hillside, so as Christians today we are called to feed those who are physically hungry. That the beginning, but it’s not enough. Remember the point of the physical food in Exodus and again in John. It carried the memory of the living god. It pointed beyond itself to the God who provides. In this food pantry, one night a week there is more on offer than physical food. The people here run Alpha, a course which helps people to explore deeper and get to know the God who provides. The physical food on offer in this place is therefore pointing beyond itself to Jesus the living bread, who gives us the food that endures for eternal life. As Christians we are terrific at service, at meeting the needs of our communities. The challenge is this. How can we combine our service with proclamation? How can we feed people in such a way that the food we give them points beyond itself to that living bread which is life in Christ? A double hunger requires a double feeding. We feed people with food for their stomachs. We feed them also with the living bread which is relationship with Jesus. For Christians, the events in the wilderness in Exodus 16 and the miracle on the hillside in John 6 lead us to our worship and in particular to the Eucharist. There we take physical food, real bread and real wine. And we eat it and drink so that it becomes physically part of us. That’s because we have a God who provides and who feeds the hungry. But that bread and wine points beyond itself. It carries the memory of Jesus. In that bread and wine the incarnate God is with us, sharing our life that we might share his life. In that bread and wine the power of the once-offered sacrifice on Calvary is made contemporary and we who feed on his body and blood and are saved for ever. In the Eucharist we meet the Christ who feeds us with the living bread that endures for eternity. In Christ every human hunger is satisfied. Let’s feast on him, the living bread. And then go out to feed a hungry world.

Session 5: Mountain

Bishop Philip North • Exodus 19:16–25

Welcome to the fifth and final session of our Lent Course, Journey to Freedom. And as you can see, for this final talk I have climbed a mountain. Admittedly it’s not a very big mountain. In fact it’s not a mountain at all, just a little hill called Torrisholme Barrow. But even though it’s not so high, the views here are amazing and I can see something of the wonder of the world God has made. Each year Christians from this part of Morecambe lug a great big cross up to the top of this hill on Good Friday and it becomes for a time a powerful place of worship and witness. I can see why they choose here. It’s no surprise that mountains have for so long been places of encounter with the Living God. The Book of Exodus is ram-packed with mountain encounters with God. You may remember that back in session 2 we explored the call of Moses when he heard God’s voice speaking to him through a burning bush. At that stage of his life he was living in Midian and caring for the sheep. The precise location of that burning Bush was Horeb, the mountain of God. And most experts agree that Horeb is the same mountain as Sinai. So as we reach Chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus, Moses finds himself back where it all began. God promised in Chapter 3 verse 12 that once he had rescued the people Moses would return to worship him on this mountain. So here he. And this return visit is a really important one. Moses stays on or near this mountain through most of the rest of the Book of Exodus. He hears hundreds of laws, instructions and commandments from God about how the people of Israel are to live together once they have come into the Promised Land. This mountaintop divine encounter lies at the very heart of God’s plan for his people. In fact it seems to me that we can identify three ways in which Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai, and I think all three have something to teach us about our own relationship with the God we meet in Jesus. The first strand of this encounter is communal. Moses is the point of contact between God and the people he is leading and it is through the words God speaks to Moses that Israel as a communal body learns its importance in God’s eyes. ‘You shall be my treasured possession out of all peoples,’ God says to Israel. ‘The whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom, a holy nation,’ he says. Remember. God is speaking not to an individual, but to a nation through an individual. This is a corporate identity. God builds community and relates to community. Belonging to each other and relationships we have with each other are not bolt-ons to faith. They are integral to faith. We’re not just called to be. We’re called to be with God and each other. Then the second type of encounter on Sinai is doctrinal. A covenant is made between God and his people. If they stick to their side of the bargain and lives as he directs, then they will live long in the promised land and proper and be secure. So God tells the people through Moses how they are to live out their faith in him. He reveals to them the ten commandments with its instructions that they are to worship the one true God and not make idols or worship false gods. He reveals to them laws which describe how they are to live in harmony with God and with each other. He describes how they should make the ark of the Covenant and gives long directions for worship so that they can place God right at the centre of their lives and remain ever thankful for the great things he has done in freeing them from slavery. So many chapters are given over to doctrinal instruction on how to live lives consistent with the covenant God makes with the people through Moses. But then the third encounter that Moses has on the mountain is personal. There is an extraordinary intimacy between the God of all things and his chosen servant, Moses. Moses can see God face to face like no other. He can come close to God in a way that for any other person is dangerous. He can debate with God and even argue with him. In fact they are so close that something of the glory of God is transferred to Moses such that his face shone with God’s glory. Eventually, when he is speaking to the people, Moses veils his face so that the people are not afraid. And then, when he goes up to speak with God he removes the veil and speaks to God face to face. So three ways in which God deals with Moses on the mountain. Communal. Doctrinal. Personal. Today, we may like mountains. We may feel closer to God when we climb up them. But we don’t need mountains. In John chapter 4, when the Samaritan woman asks on which mountain she should go to worship God, Jesus tells her that it does not matter where you worship God, it just matters that you worship him in spirit and in truth. Today there are countless places where we can go and worship the God we find in Jesus, from beautiful churches to the back garden. But still we meet Jesus in those three ways. So let’s apply the three ways Moses meets God on the mountain to the three ways we can meet with God in Jesus. And as we do this, I want to invite you to reflect on how your own relationship with Jesus can grow. So first, like Moses we relate to Jesus communally. This is very important for many people and doubtless for many of you watching. When I visit parishes in vacancy, one thing the people are often keen for me to hear is how close-knit their church family is and how much they value the love and the friendships and the support they find there. And there so more to this than human need for company. Jesus built community. When he gathered the disciples at the table of the Last Supper, he spent ages telling them how to belong to each other as one flock or one vine. After his resurrection, he carefully rebuilt the community that had become shattered by the cross. The church matters because it is Christ’s body. Being part of the church matters because it is a foretaste of that heavenly banquet where we shall feast for all eternity with the saints of God. It is not possible to be a Christian alone. That communal dimension is critical. Then second, like Moses we relate to Jesus doctrinally. And again many people are very strong on this. They believe in what he has come to do. They know that, through his incarnation, Jesus has come to share our life so that we can share in his. They know that, through the cross, he has destroyed death and set us free. They know that he has given the gift of the Spirit so that they can love him and serve him. They know that, in response to his saving work, he calls us to live lives of self-giving love. Those doctrinal beliefs matter. They are the heart of our salvation through faith. Of course we need to go on growing in our understanding of what Jesus has done for us. But every time we stand and say the creed we rehearse his saving work. It is more familiar to us than we often know. But what about that third, personal strand of our relationship with Jesus? The communal and the doctrinal matter massively. But sometimes we get the balance wrong. Sometimes we focus so strongly on the communal aspect of faith and are so active as part of the local church that we forget about knowing him within the depths of our own hearts. Sometimes we focus so strongly on the doctrinal side and our faith in what Jesus has done to the extent that he becomes more a theological idea than a person with whom we are called to be in contemporary relationship. The heart of every renewal movement in the history of the church, Catholic or Protestant, has been men and women finding strong, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is what Francis and Vincent de Paul and Theresa encouraged in their followers just as much as Luther and Wesley and Calvin. So how much do you really know Jesus as a person and as a friend? Remember Moses’ closeness with God, so close that something of God’s glory literally rubbed off and made his face shine. That is the closeness that Jesus offers you. Your face can shine through its closeness with Jesus Christ. So let me end this Lent Course with some ideas about how you can grow in your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There’s going to be nothing new here. Just a challenge to do in your own life what so many Christians have done. First, pray for the Holy Spirit. Pray the simple but dangerous prayer, come Holy Spirit, whenever you can. It is through the Spirit that Jesus is present in his Church and in our lives. So pray constantly for the gift of that Spirit. Second, make a rule. We know we need to be at Church each Sunday, to pray, to study the scriptures. But it’s so easy to become slap-dash and ill-disciplined in these areas of the Christian life. We pray when we feel like it and forget when we’re stressed or busy, which is of course when we need it most. So write down a simple rule of life for yourself. Weekly worship will be top of the list. Then ask, when will you pray? How will you pray, perhaps drawing on some of the amazing apps not available? How will you serve? What will you give? Write it down and stick to it. Third, use your imagination. I think very often when we approach the scriptures, we do so intellectually, looking for truth and sound teaching. That’s quite right. But there’s so much more than that. Next time you read a Gospel story, employ your imagination. Let Jesus come alive for you. See him, listen to him, look at the reactions of those around him. Imagine yourself into the story so that Jesus becomes real for you. Because it is when he becomes real that you will get to know him not just as an idea, but as a friend. Fourth, use silence. Imagine if, when you met a friend, you just talked and talked but never stopped for one second to listen. That friendship would not last long at all. Yet that’s what we do with Jesus. We bombard him with words but never stop to listen to what he is saying back to us. When you pray, for a moment stop talking and just listen. Bask and wallow in silence. Listen hard to what Jesus is saying to you. Fifth, do this in company. Earlier I said that a feature of every renewal movement has been people emphasising personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The other interesting thing is that they have done this in company with others. So is there a small group of people in whose company you can go deeper in your relationships with Jesus? Maybe you can make a rule together, maybe you can meet to pray or study the scriptures together. Maybe, if you are following this course with others, that group is the people you are with right now. I remember a key moment in my own Christian journey was when, at the age of 18, curate pointe doubt that the Gospel was not about behaviour or values or what was going on intellectually in my head. It was relationships – with Jesus and with his followers. As Lent draws to a close and as you prepare to celebrate the resurrection, why not think today how can I go deeper in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. How can Jesus come more alive for you. Because then, any place can be your mountaintop.