Amen

Recently I was watching some of the programmes showing compilations of Paul McCartney performing and the following quote was put up on screen:

“I’m not particularly religious, but I do believe in the idea that there is some sort of higher power that can help us,” says McCartney. “So, this song becomes a prayer, or mini – prayer. And the word ‘Amen’ itself means ‘so be it’ – or ‘let it be'”
Paul McCartney speaking about his song “Let It Be”

This got me thinking about the word ‘Amen’ and all the different ways we use it. For me, the main use of ‘Amen’ is to conclude a prayer or as a response to a prayer but having started to think about the word and its other uses I looked at this word in more depth.

So, next came the English definitions of the word (just because that is the language I speak – no other reason) and these were listed as:

let it be
verily
truly
it is true
let it be so

The word is thought to be of Biblical Hebrew origin and appears many times in the Hebrew Bible as a confirmatory response and especially following blessings.

However, its root word is now common to a number of languages with the meaning:

to be firm
confirmed
reliable
dependable
to have faith
to believe

Having been imported into Greek from the Judaism of the Early Church, the word ‘Amen’ continued to spread becoming part of many other European languages, thence to Latin and then English. It can also be found in Arabic translations of the Bible and also other texts, for example after recitation of the Quran.

Sometimes ‘Amen’ is translated from the Hebrew word as ‘so be it’.

The phrase “Amen to that” can seem quite familiar but what do we actually mean when we say that. We use this to express strong agreement with something, as a declaration of affirmation, to say “that’s sorted then”. We also use it in the same way we might say “fine” or “just leave it there”.

I mentioned earlier about it being a concluding word in, or a response word to, prayer. Jesus’s response when asked to teach us how to pray was “The Lord’s Prayer” in which is included the line “Your will be done”. He teaches us to recognise and acknowledge God’s will. He teaches us (as He prayed at Gethsemane) “yet not my will but Yours”. How apt then that Amen also means “your will be done”. So when we pray we are confirming that whilst we ask God, we acknowledge that He can see the big picture that we cannot and He knows what is best even if we cannot see it at the time and therefore we are praying “if it is your will let it be done”.

As such, “Amen” is a prayer all by itself. If you are ever stuck and thinking that you don’t know what to pray, don’t worry, God knows what is in your heart. A sincere Amen is sufficient.

Be Born Again

(John 3:1-17)

Nicodemus was a pharisee well educated and well versed in the scriptures. He recognised and acknowledged that Jesus was from God and that God was with him. Yet he came to see Jesus at night, being at the beginning of his belief in Jesus, not wanting his fellow pharisees to know that he had sought out Jesus.

Later, once Nicodemus’s faith and believe had grown he defended Jesus in front of the council and annointed Jesus’s body after the crucifixion.

Jesus responded to Nicodemus’s greeting by starting to teach him how the Kingdom of Heaven can be reached. As is a common factor in conversations today, we are given the impression that Nicodemus has taken Jesus’s answer literally. Nicodemus is an intelligent man and some question whether he was merely stalling for time. However, whether he took Jesus’s answer literally or whether he was questioning it to allow him time to think, it is beneficial to us because this questioning opened up a further response from Jesus and the conversation that followed.

What does lend credence to the idea that Nicodemus was stalling for thinking time is that the Jews were not unfamiliar with the idea of rebirth and considered those converted to Judaism to have been reborn – just as we take those who have turned to Christ to have been reborn in Christ. As usual, like with the parables, Jesus was using metaphors and terminology the Jews were very familiar with.

So, being born again does not, thankfully, mean that Mothers are giving birth to the same person twice. In fact the actual rebirth is not even done by us but by God. What we must do is believe, believe and be baptised in water and in the Holy Spirit. We must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and, with Jesus as our root, let it be fruitful so that we live with love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

Aptly, this reading this year fell on Trinity Sunday when we celebrate that God is Three in One – the Father (Presence of God), the Son (Voice of God) and the Holy Spirit (Breath of God). As we who believe are born of man, water and the Spirit. Three in One and One in Three.

“Don’t You Think She Looks Tired?”

Those Doctor Who aficionados in the room will recognise that quote. There is a point! The Doctor brings down the Prime Minister with just those words because she made one mistake. But, and here’s the thing, when the Earth was moved and was out of phase and they needed The Doctor to save them, it was that same person who gathered his old companions and helpers and found a way to show how to find the Earth and who then sacrificed herself.

The Doctor had judged her on one mistake and didn’t see past that to what she was capable of and who she really was.

The Jews in the Gospel reading (John 6:41–58) knew Jesus as Mary and Joseph’s son, as a man in their small community. They rejected Him. They did not believe. Pride prevented them from seeing Him as anything other than a poor lowly man and stopped them seeing who He really was – the Son of God – the one from God.

We likewise make assumptions about others. We put them in little boxes instead of seeing them with open hearts and minds, instead of seeing who they really are and what they will achieve.

So do we see Jesus as the Bread of Life? As the one who will sustain us?

Jesus said “I AM the Bread of Life”.

“I AM”.

These two words tell us precisely who Jesus is. We don’t need anything else. We are left in no doubt about who Jesus is.

“I AM” – the covenant name for God (Yahweh) in the Old Testament, a name for God that the Jews were very familiar with. The Jews, well versed in the Scriptures, knew precisely who Jesus was claiming to be.

But Jesus is also taking His miracle of the day before, providing actual bread, to the next level – the spiritual level. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven…The bread I will give to you is my flesh which I give so the world might live”.

Jesus is the incarnation of God who came down from heaven. He, like bread, is essential to life. Our Spiritual life, our Spiritual nourishment, renewed in our sacrament of Holy Communion.

Dying on the cross to save and forgive us and rising to new life. Just as, when we believe, our old life dies and we are raised to new life with Christ.

A repeated thread throughout the Scriptures is man’s desire for righteousness with God, a desire for eternity and to earn our way to heaven.

Jesus says those who believe in Him will never hunger or thirst. He is referring to our spiritual hunger.

By believing in Him and having faith in Him and His sacrifice for us on the cross, where He takes our sins and atones for them, He does what no one else can and feeds our spiritual hunger allowing us to be right with God.

The very moment a sinner believes in Jesus he is justified, welcomed, loved and accepted with no condemnation. He has peace with God instantly.

However, knowledge is nothing if you don’t believe! Knowing that Jesus died on the cross for us is not enough to save us. We have nothing if we do not believe in Him. The point now to be considered is whether we do actually believe.

“He that believes has everlasting life but he that does not believe will not see life” (John 3:36).

So let us believe and allow Jesus to be in our hearts, sustaining us as our Bread of Life.