“Celebrating Twatness!”

Karen Sloan 14/04/2024

Readings - Luke 24:13-48

After seeing Dawn French last night I’m a twat, you could use idiot, ejit, nincompoop, all lovely names, but twat seems a pretty good description. In other words I make mistakes, actually lots, and need lots of forgiveness, mostly from me to myself, particularly when I’m trying to be perfect and realise that’s impossible.!  But of course forgiveness is needed everywhere, for it’s the basis of starting afresh, anew, and building relationships that last.

Dawn’s show was basically about her mistakes in life, her twatness, and she openly shared some of the funniest stories, where she clearly wasn’t perfect, or right, or glamorous, or amazing or anything like that.  Just very very funny.  Her show is based on her book, the twat files, which is really an autobiographic romp,. 

Let me read a little bit..

Read p2

One story that I found totally wonderful was when she was invited to an Elton John Party, a pretty amazing invite to get.  Yet she went with her hubby as Michael Jackson and his monkey bubbles, which was so bad and the costume so hot that they lasted at the party for 4 mins and with Elton John looking absolutely aghast at them both.

Or trying out for Momma Mia even though she can’t sing, and after the audition being told her singing was appalling and  go away.

Or the time she was hanging behind the stage at one of her mates plays, only to usher on to the stage for the credits and taking a bow in a play she didn’t even perform in.

So much twatness! 

I loved the show and it says so much to us today about who we are and how we are to live.  We are to drop our masks of perfection, and forgive ourselves when we stuff up, and as Dawn French says, recognise the twatness in me and the twatness in you, and celebrate it.

So how does this have any link with the bible readings.

Well it does, but let me read what I started out with earlier in the week, when I was struggling to bring it together…Before I discovered my twatness!

……

I have always wondered about the post resurrection appearance stories in the bible, and today we heard 2, the famous one about the road to Emmaus, which I have added because it was passed over this year, and the following one with the disciples.

While they appear in Luke, Matthew and John, Mark has no knowledge of them, and they used to  sit uncomfortably with me. Particularly as if you were paying attention, one minute Jesus is a spirit person they don’t recognise, although he then breaks bread, and in the other he is flesh and blood and definitely eating.

But as someone who over the years has gone from a pretty factual person to a person who sees the grey in almost everything, especially science, I have to revisit my early resistance with them.

Why, because I have heard enough from people who I have visited in hospital, as a chaplain, about that sense of God’s presence, or of Jesus’s presence which people experience sometimes as a vison, or at least a strange occurrence, to open my eyes to new possibilities.  They always  tell me their experience with slight hesitation, as though they have been dreaming but in the end what they sensed seemed real to them and I try to honour that. 

I remember a man  in the hospital, he had been in numerous times, an older man and a catholic.  The nursing staff called me in because they were worried he was sinking into depression and was losing hope.  I spent a long time with him, a man of faith who just wanted to share both his life a journey and his experience of sensing Jesus at the foot of his bed as he entered another bout of surgery for his leg.  We talked about how hat experience gave him peace and hope and a way forward.   He shared other times and other moments of clarity and how his whole life had been driven by a sense of love and compassion fuelled by his connection to Jesus, a Jesus who was as alive to him as you and I.

And he was not the only person I meet  along the way, who with shaky voices told me their deepest secrets.  It was a privilege which I did not take for granted.

….

Many of us have sensed the truth beneath the everyday, in  sunsets and incredibly moving and powerful music, but also in words of scripture and in art, and nature, when freed from thinking we  have sunk into something else, something slightly ethereal, some other  place. You may have your own story of a mysterious and crazy vision that moved you to tears, I certainly have. That has strengthened your faith. And mine

And now having explored the great mystics of our tradition who have encountered Jesus not just a historical figure, but a life force that gives them life, I realise these experiences are not just from the early gospel writers but from our rich tradition. This is the mystery of Jesus, both then and now.

But how to put it into words. Maybe that’s why we have the stories like the ones we heard today, because it’s so hard 

Yet, whatever you believe about these accounts of Jesus, and many like Marcus Borg would say that the early Christians certainly had visions and mystical appearances, their prime purpose is so much more than just a spiritual record 

Luke who we heard today is trying to tell us something about Jesus, in a parable about Jesus, rather than Jesus giving something in a parable to us.

So the stories are pointers to something bigger. 

Easter is tricky, it is an essential part of our faith, yet Jesus has risen not to some home in the planetary universe, but a home with God, the universal presence in all of us. He links being human with being divine, and shows us the path, the way to live. He points to the kingdom of God, a kingdom of love, peace, nonviolence and of forgiveness, which we so badly need.  Jesus life demonstrated it, Jesus death lived it, and what we have here is the truth as those who knew best understood it. Jesus lives on. It’s what the whole gospel when cut to the chase is on about

The last few lines of our second reading says a lot.  Let me read what Bill loader says about them..

“The key aspects of the testimony in this reading are the name and the forgiveness. The name is the person and his power. Forgiveness is the primary benefit.

For Luke, to fulfil the hope of the resurrection is to tell the story of Jesus, his testimony. That means telling what he did, how he was rejected and then vindicated; and it is at the same time to live it by the power of the same Spirit, by doing good and bringing liberation for all. This includes forgiveness of sins. It is radically simple. The canon of scripture offers us much more than this, but this is a model which continues to speak to people. Its inspiration is in the parables, like those of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son - ultimately in Jesus, himself.”

…

So again I say, regardless of what you think about the stories, they are incredible pointers to the way of Jesus.  And one of those ways is the way of forgiveness.

A radical idea!

One thing I have realised, particularly in my time as a chaplain, and after hearing about peoples illness and how good or bad the nursing staff were, is that forgiveness is the ultimate life giving force in the world, and one that is sadly lacking. So many people shared their stories of broken relationships, regret for things said and not said, for things done or not done, partly because they could not accept imperfection whether in themselves or in others.  And I’m not saying it’s easy to forgive somethings, only that by forgiving  a wall is brought down and a light shone in the darkness.  Often lots of work is needed, but at least the heart is open. Not only forgiveness of each other but of ourselves, and the ability to be truly ourselves, loved and worthy, a gift to the world, if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open.

In a world that so often expects perfection, celebrates perfection and only gives one chance to stuff up and then you are out on your ear, ostracised and alone, it is truly a radical stance.

Which is why Dawn French was so refreshing. 

Let’s celebrate our twatness with joy for it frees us to live not only with love but to love others by not expecting them to be perfect.

Because no one is perfect. 

…….

So what to say to end this slightly disjointed and crazy sermon.

Jesus the Christ has not gone away, even though Jesus the man has.  And even though the disciples initially thought just that… That they were left alone to fight it out with the Romans, and with the religious authorities, and with those that wanted a violent, unforgiving, unloving and unjust world.… What Jesus and what he taught and how he lived has not gone away. And neither has the divine spirit of God.

Jesu is not finished because Jesus and his message lies with in all of us. He calls us to be his hands and feet and heart. In this world 

Because whenever we love one another, when we help one another, when we laugh and cry with one another, when we support and include all those who are excluded, when we forgive ourselves and others, we are encountering the Christ contained in the human Jesus of Nazareth.  Once he was crucified, the reality, the truth and the beauty of all that was his way in the world came alive. 

When we do that Jesus is with us, is present, because God is present, the divine  life giving power of the universe is present.

This is what the early writers of the gospel and those mystics who have come after have tried to tell us.  And if we stop and listen maybe we too can feel this different reality in our lives.  And even though we may not recognise him, he travels with us anyway. The spirit that was in Jesus is in us, comes to us, again and again and again, stays with us, lives in us and gives us life and love.

Amen

I played this John Denver song as the call to worship. You may like it…

The Gift You Are

John Denver

Imagine a month of Sundays
Each one a cloudy day
Imagine the moment the sun came shining through
Imagine that ray of sunshine as you
Remember your darkest hour
With dawn still far away
Remember the way that you longed for morning's light
And think of yourself as a candle in the night
Make believe this is the first day
Everything all brand new
Make believe that the sun is your own lucky star
And then understand the kind of gift you are

[Chorus:]
The gift you are
Like the very first breath of Spring
The gift you are
All the joy that love can bring
The gift you are
All of our dreams come true
The gift you are
The gift of you

Remember your darkest hour with dawn still far away.

Remember the way that you longed for morning’s light.

And think of yourself as a candle in the night.

Make believe this is the first day,

Everything all brand new.

Make believe that the sun is your own lucky star,

And then understand the kind of gift you are.

Chorus:]
The gift you are
Like the very first breath of Spring
The gift you are
All the joy that love can bring
The gift you are
All of our dreams come true
The gift you are
The gift of you

You are the promise of all the ages
You are the Prodigal Son
You are the vision of prophets and sages
You are the only one
Dream of a bright tomorrow
Know that your dream will come true
Carry your dream in a sparkling crystal jar
Then you will know the kind of gift you are

[Chorus]
The gift you are
Like the very first breath of Springtime
The gift you are
All the joy that love can bring
The gift you are
All of our dreams come true, yes they do
The gift you are
The gift of you
The gift you are
The gift of you