July 27, 2025 – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
(Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:6-15; Luke 11:1-13)
The Big Discipleship Sermon.
Well, I couldn’t start my last sermon to you in any other way than a story about Dewi! Poor wee Dewi is unfortunate enough to have a mother who is a bit obsessive compulsive, particularly about muddy pawprints on the kitchen floor. Consequently, when it rains when he comes in from being out and about in the garden he gets trapped in the little hallway beside the laundry and has his paws wiped down before he can enter the rest of the house. He is okay about his front paws being done, but does not like in the least his back paws being wiped down. And yet he continues to want to go outside when it is wet knowing it will cost him the price of having his paws dried. If Dewi was a person I’d like to think this determination would make him a good disciple.
Here’s why. Did anyone see the recent biopic of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? I missed it, but it reminded me of his, if not greatest then certainly best known, work – the cost of discipleship. If Dewi will accept the cost of going outside in having his paws wiped down, just maybe he would be up for the cost of discipleship.
Today’s sermon is all about discipleship. The last message I leave with you is about the absolute necessity of being disciples of Jesus who make disciples and what this means for the survival of this parish. If you focus on being disciples who make disciples and nothing else in the coming months and years you will be doing very well and giving this community an amazing gift. You will be doing the will of God at the most basic level of the church.
Because what is it that the Gospels are full of stories of? Jesus making disciples who then made disciples of all the nations. It is central to the Gospel and to the Kingdom. Jesus’ form of discipleship takes three forms: to put it crudely, they are calling, training and sending out. As with the first disciples, Jesus calls us to be disciples.
In disciple making we start by starting where Jesus did – calling. Granted, we live in a very different time and a very different world, but discipleship then and now share the same DNA just under different skins.
Being called by Jesus is the beginning of something new. It means losing one’s old life and finding new life in the family of God through obeying the will of God. An important word there is family because we do not exist in isolation as disciples of Jesus Christ: we exist as disciples in community. We are only ever true disciples in the family of God when we are disciples who make disciples.
Discipleship is about exercising the same servanthood of Jesus as well as the same suffering. This brings us to, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, the cost of discipleship. Daily, we count the cost of following Jesus: of deny ourselves, taking up our cross and following him. And so, daily we grow in our discipleship. Discipleship is a lifelong journey of learning – of opening our heart, mind and hands to Jesus daily. To be a disciple is also to be sent by Jesus. The importance of discipleship, and disciples being sent through the ages, is seen in the great commission (Matthew 28: 16-20). Jesus calls us to be disciples and sends us to make disciples of others. Jesus calls, trains and sends disciples.
To be a church community that is rich in disciples making disciples you need to change. What we have been doing is clearly not making disciples who make disciples. It is not growing this parish. What is needed – if you dare – is a change. Any church focused on discipleship needs to be – building a discipling culture.
This takes completely reorienting yourselves, your parish and your mission. It sounds big and scary and it is. But what has been learnt is that any church can become a church of disciples who make disciples. It is all about the accumulation of incremental change. Whatever you do needs to be repeatable and relatable. And what ever you do – subtly or overtly – needs to be intentional.
A discipling culture is about who you are versus what you do. In building a discipling culture who we are matters most. This informs our behaviour and this is what the people and community around us will see. It may seem counter to all the things we have been taught in the past, but in a growing discipling culture you lead with culture and follow with strategy. It is good to remember that discipleship is something internal whilst disciple making is external.
Unsurprisingly, building this discipling culture and sharing the Good News works best if you work where God is already at work. You will all have had interactions with people, inside the church and out, and a little bell in your heads tells you that God is at work here. Here is someone you can gently disciple and grow on their faith journey.
These people are often called people of peace – they like you, they listen to you and they serve you. And from there you take it slowly – remember the culture of discipling grows through the accumulation of incremental change. For example, it may be a long time before the person you are discipling wants to join a study group or even come to church. You are trying to work where God is already at work and He doesn’t always rush things!
This new culture is of course about multiplying just as Jesus did. One on one relationships grow into small multiplying discipleship groups who then start other discipling groups, who identify people of peace to help join the path to becoming a disciple who makes disciples. At the heart of building a discipling culture is the call to follow the words and ways of Jesus. Jesus started with one, then twelve the hundreds and so on and so on.
There is one method of making disciples, in getting a discipling culture going and that is the Discovery Bible Method. It is very simple – relatable and repeatable. You simply ask someone in your life who you see as a person of peace to read the Bible. They are the people around you who are ready, receptive and responsive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ even if they don’t know it yet! You ask this person, “Hey, I’ve been looking for some one to read the Bible with, would that be of interest to you?” You then aim to meet once a fortnight at a café or a library or the church or in their home if that is a safe option.
The two of you then read your Bibles. You can read anything in the New Testament, but it is suggested you read stories or start with the Gospel of Mark. You both read out loud the passage, then retell it (not explain it) in your own words, then reflect on this in your life and the respond by setting goals of what to do before you next meet – something you will do because of what you have discussed and some thing you will share because of the same. It is about bringing Jesus into that person’s everyday life.
The key here is that you are a disciple making a disciple so that they may make disciples. That whole multiplying thing again. It is not enough for any of us to simply be disciples. We all need to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples…you get the idea.
Remember too that you’re all in this together – it takes a village to make a disciple. Just remember to make building this culture of disciple making simple, repeatable and sustainable – just like Jesus did. We remember too that when we commit to being a disciple who makes disciples we are not alone. Far from it. Jesus as Master is always present. So, whilst the Father holds us and the Holy Spirit strengthens us, it is Jesus who walks with us as disciples making disciples day by day.
Thanks be to God.
July 20, 2025 – 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
(Col 1:15-28; Luke 10: 38-42)
The openness of true hospitality.
Before the stupendious Dewi, before the wonderful Lorelai I had a little cat called Meecho (which means kitty in Italian). She was not the most sociable of animals. Dewi will warm to you eventually. Lorelai would gooeily love anyone who fed her or might feed her or looks like they’d recently been near food, but not Meecho. I once as a Curate hosted a confirmation group meeting in my home and Meecho made her thoughts on people being in her house very well known. As soon as people arrived she asked to be let out. Sometime later she meowed at the front door to be let in again. When she walked in she stalked past the lounge with a glare and then meowed fiercely at me as if to say, “Why are they still here? And why was I not consulted about this invasion of my realm???” Meecho and I had lots of cuddles and pats every day, but she would not let anybody else touch her. In our old flat, the back one of four, she was known, when I had left for work, to jump over three fences for a saucer of milk and a lie on the couch of the lovely retired couple in the front flat. But she wouldn’t let them touch her. In sum, sadly, Meecho was not hospitable and not actually not a very good Christian.
In essence the story of Martha and Mary is one of hospitality and our expectations around it. I have to say that I have always felt a great deal of sympathy for Martha and had it been me in the story I probably would have been in her role. There were after all guests in the house and they did have to be fed and cared for! Martha is only doing the best that she can and faithfully filling the role her society had laid out for her. But together, as Jesus points out, Mary and Martha show us two different kinds of hospitality. While Martha opens her home to Christ, Mary opens her heart.
Hospitality is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests or strangers. Biblically it is about the responsibility of caring for travellers and those in need. To show hospitality was a demonstration of faithfulness to God, especially when shown for one’s family or God’s servants. This is why Jesus was shown such hospitality as he travelled the land with his good news. In fact, in Luke’s Gospel giving or refusing hospitality to Jesus equates to the acceptance or rejection of his gospel. The epistles regard hospitality as Christians’ duty to be offered freely and without grudging as a demonstration of gratitude for the gifts of God. The practice of hospitality is also linked to friendship and I would suggest to what we call fellowship. How we open ourselves, as individuals and collectively as a community of faith, is an important step in welcoming people into the Church and our faith as fellow children of God.
Opening ourselves to others is what hospitality is about. When we invite someone to our home we are opening our home to them and trusting that they will act in way that respects the beliefs and boundaries in our home. The story of Abraham and the angels is regarded as a description of ideal hospitality and was significant to Jews living in Greco-Roman times. It was a story they drew heavily on for their model of hospitality. In this visit, and as host, Abraham opens himself up to the unknown. The text moves smoothly between discussion of three persons, the singular Lord and three angels. Whether or not Abraham realises just who his guests are he trustingly opens his home and life to them.
As I’ve mentioned, Mary and Martha are about two kinds of hospitality: that which requires us to open our homes to others and that which requires us to open our hearts and minds to others, or more specifically to the Word of God. Jesus affirms Mary in her priority of listening to his word – a fundamental requirement of discipleship. For Luke only when you open yourself to listening to the Lord can you then follow on the Way. Furthermore, through the affirmation of Mary’s wisdom and right to listen to his teaching Jesus displays that his hospitality is open to all. Jesus’ valuation of each person is based on the overflowing love of God. He shook the society he lived in by placing few boundaries around his hospitality to those in need. He constantly shared in fellowship, worship or healing with sinners, the dispossessed and the marginalized.
The reading from Colossians is reminding new Christians about the openness of Christ’s hospitality and the consequent inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom of God. For Christians with a Jewish background this aspect of hospitality was very challenging. We too can be severely challenged by the expectations of hospitality in our faith. Some of us are introverts or shy and find it difficult to share of ourselves, others grapple with the financial implications of hospitality and still others are bruised by hospitality that was abused in the past. But like God as the angels with whom Abraham breaks bread, we reveal ourselves – the good and the bad – in our hospitality. And because of God’s endless grace we can learn to love and host each other in our flawed totality. We are blessed to be incarnational of Christ in our hospitality and should reflect this in the generosity of that hospitality. Christ was after all the ultimate host who laid down his life to redeem his guests.
When I think of how God encourages us to be hospitable I think of the Jerusalem Bible reading of Ephesians chapter 3 verses 16 to 19, “Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.”
To me this passage is the epitome of how and why God shapes us to open our minds, hearts and homes to be incarnational of the hospitality of Christ. God strengthens us in ourselves so that we may reveal ourselves as filled with the Holy Spirit and true to God’s word when we show hospitality. It is God’s glory and light that shines in us, and through us, as we are hospitable to the people we meet: the people with whom we share fellowship and the love of God. Our prayers, our reflections, our study and our time spent in the presence and knowledge of God shape us into being good hosts.
They shape us to reflect the openness of both Mary and Martha in our efforts to share and to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this day and age it is vitally important that we open both our hearts and minds, and our homes. The refugee crisis in Europe or persecution of migrants in America are an excellent example of this. Christians and non-Christians alike are being called on to physically open their homes and communities to a people in great need. And because these people generally believe different things to their hosts their hospitality also calls for open hearts and minds. Like the people of Ancient Israel we are called as children of God to give rest to the weary travellers whether they are from up the road or across the ocean.
So unlike Meecho, and actually quite a few cats around, we are called as disciples of Christ to welcome people into our home to share God’s love and life with them. The story of Martha and Mary tells us the different ways this can happen. Martha reminds us to physically care for the needs of those in our homes even if – unfairly I think – Jesus does not prioritise this in his visit. Mary, on the other hand, is praised for opening her being to who her guest was and what he could share. And lastly Jesus’ inclusion of women in his journey of sharing the Gospel reminds us of the inclusivity our hospitality is called to embrace.
What risks you are taking for your faith and hospitality? Maybe one of the things you might risk is to invite someone into your home that you don’t know well or who is quite different to you. Maybe your risk is to accept that invitation to share in food and conversation in a home you’ve never been to before. Either way in the world we live in, with the issues it is facing, it is our duty as Christians to open our hearts, homes and minds to the weary and to those seeking to find God’s shining light.
Thanks be to God.
June 15, 2025 – Trinity Sunday (Year C)
(Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15)
The Trinity – life and relationship
Trinity Sunday is regarded as the hardest day to preach on. As with last year, I looked at the readings for today and I studied them, but they spoke only lightly to me of the Trinity and the relationship that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit form. So, forgive me, but today’s sermon is once again quite theological and perhaps a bit academic and perhaps similar to last year. It is based on the thousands of years of study and reflection on scripture and the entity of the Trinity. I hope it’s not too dry, but I truly believe it will offer you insight and prompts for your reflections this Trinity Sunday.
To me one of the most powerful times I feel the presence of God is when I see a beautiful sunset. I understand the physics behind what I am seeing and about light rays and the earth turning, but I am always moved that there is something in our world so beautiful for absolutely no reason. It exists only for its beauty and time in the night sky. I think it represents the power of God because it is beauty and joy that is mysterious and without explanation.
So too, can we look on the definition of the Christian God as the Trinity. We can study the Trinity and discuss it and debate it, but in the end we must surrender to the fact that in the world as it stands there is still a mysterious, unexplained essence to the Trinity.
But as far as we can understand it, what is the Trinity that we Christians refer to our God as? Theologians assert that the Trinity, traditionally named the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has been in existence together since ‘time’ began. It is understood to be three equal Persons who are conscious, free and relational. One metaphor used to describe the Trinity – the three Persons who are separate and yet one, who are distinct and yet share an essence – is to describe it as water, ice and steam. It is always the same essence or elements, but can be found in three different ways. Each Person of the Trinity is all powerful in their own right, yet it is indistinguishable as to where one becomes the other.
The understanding of the Trinity developed early in the Church’s history in answer to competing Christological claims, that is, debate about whether Jesus Christ was divine. Athanasius argued for the divinity of Jesus because he was the giver of the Spirit and because he provided salvation for humanity. Once figures like Athanasius had established Jesus’ divinity there was room for others to focus on the divinity of the Spirit. Due to the work of these Patristic fathers of the Church, by 381 the Council of Constantinople was able to devise a full statement of the doctrine of the Trinity. It can all seem a bit confusing, but take heart, because one of the Patristics was cautious to point to the mystery of God, that is the divine Trinity, as beyond human understanding.
As Christians we believe that the Trinitarian God created us (Gen 1:26-27) and, as distinct from other religions, gives us our identity. We pray to the Father through Jesus Christ and we wait on the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and guide us. Part of this identity is our baptism. We are baptised in the name of the Trinity. Baptism was central and important to the early Christian communities and continues to be so.
As the Trinity, God is the source, the mediator and the power of new life as seen in the Father, the Son and the Spirit or in the words of one theologian God, Word and Breath. The Holy Spirit is often associated with creating life. Some theologians have written about the presence of the Holy Spirit in the creation of the universe and, as mentioned last week, many take the wind sweeping over the face of the waters in Genesis (1:2) to be the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that creates life in Mary (Matt 1:18), who gives birth to the Son who creates new life for humanity by his death on the cross. When Jesus returns to the Father after his resurrection it is the Spirit’s role, as sent by Jesus and the Father, to sustain new life, such as at the birth of the Church at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). We would not exist physically, spiritually, religiously or eternally if not for the Trinity.
Another of the most significant and relevant aspects of the Trinity is the positive and gracious model of social relationships it offers us. In becoming aware of, and trying to understand, the mysterious communion that is the Trinity we can begin to understand our own social relationships better. In an age of individualism, the benefits and ‘ideal’ of unity and community may be hard for some to fathom, but whether we like it or not, “God is not far from us but lives among us in a communion of Persons.” John Calvin is often cited as stating that our knowledge of God and our knowledge of ourselves are always inextricably linked.
The Trinity is described as essentially a community of Persons in love, that is, “the divine life is social and is thus the source and power of inclusive community among [humans].” Others point out that if we are created in the image of God then we are made for unity and communion. The model of social relationship we are offered by the Trinity is that being-a-person means being-in-relationship. O’Collins notes, “Authentic personhood does not spring out of one’s private experience, but is given and received within relationships.”
When we are alone, afraid, sad or in pain it can be hard to see any good or hope. As Christians, we are able to have that expectant desire of hope, and offer hope, in the Trinity. We are not created alone, either from each other or God. The Trinity forms through themselves a unique, incomparable and complete fellowship, which we are invited to be in communion with through the Holy Spirit. Some discuss how the unity of the Trinity precedes the ‘threeness’ of the Persons. This suggests we need to seek unity and inclusion before we define our connections, exclusions, commonalities, differences and boundaries in relation to others. It has been pointed out that the integral community created by the Trinity has room for the whole world in it.
Given the tone of the media today and the popularity of television shows that hinge on the manipulation and humiliation of others, such as The Bachelor or anything with Simon Cowell in it, it seems society is ripe for a positive model of social community and relationship. The unity of the Trinity modelled to us is not about domination. Reaching for an ideal of social relations benefits not only the group, but us as individuals as well – the more we are in relation the more we are our selves.
Some authors contend that to aspire to the perfect communal love of the Trinity is unrealistic. I agree that we should never make the mistake of thinking of ourselves as equal to God, but we can observe and learn from the perfect unity of the Trinity in itself and participate in communion with it through its out pouring of love. One theologian notes that, “Problems can be solved, but divine (and human) mysteries are to be pondered.” It may be that we learn more in pondering the mystery of the Trinity and its perfect unity than we do from trying to ‘solve’ it.
Where does this leave us with the Trinity today? While seeking to understand and learn from the Trinity can seem arduous I believe it can also be simple. The Gospel of John, referring to the origin of Jesus as the Word of God, commences with, “In the beginning was the Word” (1:1). We may catch a glimpse of what the Trinity has to offer if we think of this opening as, “In the beginning was Love” and seek to evolve with and from this love. Perhaps, like the beauty of the sunset, we should simply accept the gracious, united, perfect glow of that which created, saved and sustains us. We may need to learn to accept the beauty offered for beauty’s sake and accept that while it is significant and relevant to our lives in society and in Church, we cannot, and perhaps should not, fully understand the mystery that is the beauty.
Thanks be to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
June 8, 2025 – Pentecost (Year A)
(Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b; Acts 2: 1-21; John 3: 2b-8)
Ruah.
So, please all hold your streamer in front of your face. Now take a deep breath and hold it in as long as you can without getting dizzy and then let your breath out aimed at the streamer…. Okay, so– what did this show us about our breath? It also showed us that breathing is how we stay alive. It is one of, if not the, most basic things our bodies do to live. And that breath we have comes from God. At the creation of people God breathed his breath or spirit into people to make them come alive. And what happened when we breathed out on our streamers? Yep, it moved our pieces of paper and showed how the power of that breath or spirit can work. Pentecost was a time when the disciples saw how strong and amazing the spirit or breath of God can be. It is a story that reminds us that we have been given this spirit ourselves to help us take Jesus’ Gospel into the world to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples…
The spirit of Pentecost that rushed in and rested on the disciples was, and is, powerful. This is the spirit, the breath, the wind of God. In the Pentecost story when we hear about the roaring wind it captures our imagination. And there are lots of stories in the Bible when we know God and God’s spirit are with us or in the story because of the wind. The Hebrew word ruah, means breath, wind or spirit. It is this word ruah or wind that takes us from Pentecost all the way back to Genesis to remind us of creation and of that wind which swept over the face of the waters – that ruah rushing across the deep darkness. And it reminds us of our creation in Genesis where the formation of people was in two parts – the physical creation from dust, but then the defining creation, the true imaging of God, with the breath or spirit – the ruah – of God animating and fully bringing to life his creation. That same spirit that made creation is still part of our world – it is still all around us and with us and in us. It still gives us life.
Pentecost reminded the disciples, and it reminds us, that we have life and that in this life we are not alone. God is with us – God’s Spirit is guiding us. We are living and moving and having our being through God’s Spirit. And there are two parts of the Pentecost story that we can really relate to in Canterbury. In the beginning the disciples hear a sound from heaven like the rush of a violent wind. I think the disciples were maybe a bit sacred to start with. Have we had loud noises in the last decade or so that have scared us? Of course we have and we know it. We have heard not only the terrifying rumble of earthquakes, but also the horror of malicious gunshots. Like the disciples the world around has moved, and shifted, and has done so loudly and frighteningly. So, we can really imagine how the disciples may have felt at that first loud arrival of the ruah.
And there is another thing that we share with the Pentecost experience in our province today because of the earthquakes and the massacre. Hands up who knows what liquefaction is? Who knows what magnitude means? Who knows what munted means? Who knows what an Iman is? Who knows what a headscarf looks like? Who here knows the phrase. “They are us”? The earthquakes and massacre we have survived have given us as a province a common language. Just like all the disciples on Pentecost who could suddenly understand each other’s languages – in Canterbury we suddenly have a common language when we talk to our neighbour and our community, when we talk about our city and our pain. When we share our stories, sadness, happiness, despair, relief and experience we all use the same kind of words and we can understand what people talking to us are meaning. The Holy Spirit is still helping us to be able to share together and have common language.
This common language we have found has in part contributed to the biggest positive to come out of our earthquakes and massacre – an amazing, wonderful, heartening, touching community spirit. We have looked out for one another like never before and the whole world has stood up and taken notice. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that the phrase most often heard in positive talk of post-quake, post-massacre Christchurch is that of community spirit. Some people are asking where is God in the midst of these events? My answer is that he is in each of us as we struggle bravely through each day and he is vividly in this spirit of community that has arisen. We are all – Christian or not – created in the image of God and there is something inside of us I believe – Christian or not – that yearns to be close to the Spirit of that which created us and is within us. It’s God’s ruah – God’s breath or wind or spirit – that resurrects life in that which has died physically, emotionally or spiritually.
And we all have this spirit to share with each other and our community. Moses in Numbers says to the Hebrew people when they are getting fussy about who can work with the spirit, Oh I wish all of you would have God’s spirit upon you! And now because of Jesus and because of the Holy Spirit we do. We are all ministers of Christ and so we are all responsible for our Church and our community. Put up your hand if you are a minister of Christ? So then who carries the spirit into the world and is responsible for using it to build our community and spread the Gospel in word and deed? Us. And if we work together it means God’s spirit is taken into the world as strongly and as loudly as the rushing wind of Pentecost.
Around this time a few years ago our previous Bishop, Bishop Victoria, asked two simple things of us. She asked us to be prayerful and to image God – to talk with God and to represent him in our world. What she asked of us is echoed by Bishop Peter in his call to be prayerful, biblical children of God spreading the good news. And our Bishops ask us to be salt and light – to bring life and healing to our communities. Like Peter’s words in Acts we are being called to dream dreams and have vision. We are called to remember the words of the psalmist, “When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” You renew the face of the ground. We are being asked as a community of faith to make sure there is breath and spirit and life in our community. When we do this – when we are salt and light in our world through prayer and action we are bringing the gift of the spirit into the world. John in his Gospel retold Jesus’ words that what is born of the spirit is spirit. If we take that spirit out into the world we cannot begin to imagine how much it will grow and blossom there with God’s help.
Finally, just as the psalmist tells us where to go and what to take with us, he also reminds us of what to do when we get there. At the end of the day what we are striving for, what Jesus looked to and what the spirit empowers us to do is to ensure that all of creation – all of God’s children – one day stand together and sing praise to our God,
Bless the Lord, O my soul and Praise the Lord!
Thanks be to God.
May 11, 2025 – 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
(Acts 9:36-43; John 10: 22-30)
Expectations
I’ve told you before that I have learnt that I say the word “okay” a lot. I know this because when it is time to feed Dewi in the morning or evening I will sit and stand up and say, “okay” and then proceed to the kitchen and feed him. How I know that I actually say “okay” a lot is because every single time I say it, whether I am heading to the kitchen or not, Dewi leaps to attention and looks pleadingly at me. From the number of pleading looks I get in a day I think I must say “okay” quite a few times. There are two things going on in this scenario. One is that I have actually just learnt that my little boy has quite the appetite. The second more interesting thing going on is about expectation.
Dewi has learnt to associate food with the word okay. At the moment when he hears okay he has an expectation of food. To him the sound of one word prompts him to believe he knows what will happen next and so to expect that thing to happen.
Dewi is not alone in having big or strong expectations in his life. We all have them. When the traffic light turns green we expect the person in front of us to drive forward. When we cook a lamb chop in the oven we expect to then enjoy a hot dinner. There are many, many expectations we have in the day and in our lives big and small that we are not even aware of, but we do live lives of expectation. And expectations, when not met, can be incredibly frustrating. I imagine I am not alone in the great annoyance I get when my expectation of civil and professional service in a shop is not met, as seems to be the norm these days.
Our Gospel reading today alludes to a great expectation of the early first century Jewish people that was not met and caused great discord. In fact, what they were waiting for did actually occur, but because it was not in the manner they were expecting they did not recognise or did not accept it. I am talking, of course, about the coming of the Messiah.
These Second Temple Jews had a rich history of the expectancy of a messiah to come and save them. We can see and we often reference a wealth of predictions of the messiah in old testament scripture. Isaiah is a good example of a book that foretells strongly that a saviour will return to save the Jewish people – will return to save God’s people.
In Isaiah there is a lot of talk about the saving of Jerusalem from invading forces. Because of passages like these and others in scripture for many Jews the image of the messiah who would come to save them was one of a mighty soldier who would defeat those oppressing Israel. This is why talk of the coming messiah is often linked to David – the great battle hero of the old testament. This is why at the start of Matthew’s gospel it is so important to tie Jesus’ genealogy to David.
So by the time Jesus was born there was a clear and strong expectation of a messiah who would save the chosen people from their oppressors – at that time the Romans. If we think back to the nativity stories we remember how terrified Herod is of this little baby to born in Bethlem. He is terrified because it is prophesied that this child will be the messiah to end the Jewish oppression he is enacting. In terms of this Jewish messiah the people thought they knew what they would see happen next – their expectation fulfilled.
Then Jesus comes along and everything gets thrown on its head. Jesus spoke not of a nation for the Jewish people, but of a kingdom in heaven. He spoke not of a mighty military battle and defeating the enemy, but of love and the power it had to change the world. Jesus spoke of saving the children of God through peace and acceptance, he talked of a kingdom beyond what the Jewish people had been led to expect.
This is why so many of the Jewish people could not accept that Jesus was the messiah – because he clearly stated he had not come to conquer a kingdom for them on earth, but to conquer death and enact the kingdom of God. The Jewish people were, quite rightly, desperate for their messiah who would with military might save them from the oppressive Romans. When Jesus makes it known that it is not an earthly kingdom he comes to claim for his people the expectations that are not met are so strong that most simply will not believe he is any kind of messiah at all. Added to this is the fact that beyond old testament prophesy Jesus came to save not only the Jewish people, but all people. For a nation and race fighting to survive and stay true to their God this was inconceivable. This is why throughout the Gospels we hear story after story, such as today’s gospel, of people surrounding Jesus and not being able to recognise or accept him as the messiah. These frustrated expectations led to Jesus being called out for blasphemy and the road to the cross was set.
We sit back today and look at these first century Jews – and Gentiles – and think, “My goodness! How could you be so blind? How could you not see the grace and divinity standing among you?” But for those people their expectation of who and what the messiah would be was so strong they could not understand this new model and shape of salvation that Jesus offered them.
So we can see the power of expectation in the life and death of Jesus Christ. Because he was proclaimed to be the Messiah by those who had witnessed his acts and power he was expected to deliver Israel out of a certain situation and in a certain way. When he didn’t fill these expectations he was hung on a cross to die, ironically thereby becoming the saviour of all that no one expected.
This then leaves us with the question of what expectations do we have of the Messiah in the second coming? What are we expecting the return to be that may actually blind us to its occurrence? And further, what expectations do we have of God that are unrealistic and frustrate us when not met?
A wise woman once said to me, “Don’t limit the power of God by deciding how he should fulfil your dreams.” Very powerful words when you think about it. How often and how much do we limit God by what we expect of Him? Do our ideas of how and when prayers are answered blind us to the beauty of prayer in ways we wouldn’t dream about? What do we expect of God, ourselves, others, the world and life that is actually limiting the potential for grace and love and peace?
And of course, what are our expectations of the return of the Messiah Jesus? Of that expectation we can be assured. Jesus the Christ will return to bring the kingdom of God to earth. But how and when? What are our expectations about that? Walk into twelve different churches on a Sunday morning and you will hear twelve different answers. Yes, we have scripture to direct us, but as we study and discern further, how and what we understand these scriptures to say and be matures. And we must remember that many of the texts proclaiming the return of Jesus were not written for us. Revelation is a great example. The wild weirdness and fantasy of it seems abstract and extreme metaphor to us, but to the people of John’s day it all very clearly represented what was happening around them.
At least we know that in our expectations of the times to come we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. That light, that breathe of God within us helps us to temper or excite our expectations and prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. It is the Holy Spirit that will rest on Harrison as he is baptised today and welcomed into the family of God. His family and he then carry another set of expectations about raising a child in the faith and honouring the vows made at his baptism.
Expectation is a powerful thing in our lives and in our faith. It had real consequences for the first century Jews and for Jesus. It can be our friend, but also our enemy. So, be mindful of your expectations lest they lead you to crucify the truth in your life.
Thanks be to God.
20 April 2025 – Easter Sunday (Year C)
(Isaiah 65: 17-25; John 20: 1-18)
Knowing and Faith
Hallelujah! Christ is risen! (Hallelujah! He has risen indeed).
Lorelai the cat – may she rest in peace – was sitting on the arm of my chair once when we had another of our now rare aftershocks. I sat there thinking, “Oh here we are again, I wonder how big this one will be.” Lorelai on the other hand jumped immediately and darted under the dining table behind us. I found this interesting because she was a red zone cat – lost or abandoned in the east of Christchurch after the quakes. As such, I expected her to be pretty au fait with quakes and used to taking them in her stride. And for some of our shocks she was utterly chilled, but this day she was not. It occurred to me that no matter how many quakes she had been through, as far as I know, she had no understanding of them. She experienced something completely beyond her realm of comprehension.
There are those of us in Canterbury now who are still, understandably, very unsettled by earthquakes or aftershocks, but for the main part they have become a rare part and parcel of our lives. We have been able to become more tolerant of the quakes because we have understanding and knowledge. We may not like it, but we now know what is happening when the earth shakes, we have an understanding of what a quake means and we have learnt, through years of painful lessons, how to secure our homes and valuables as much as possible. We now have faith that we will probably be alright because we have knowledge about what is happening.
At the end of 2010 and then again in February 2011 we did not understand what was happening. The September quake was quite beyond anything we had experienced or knew. We had been told to expect it, but we did not. And then the following February everything we thought we knew about quakes and Christchurch was turned on its head when a new larger and more devastating fault line erupted. For a while we lost our faith. We lost all kinds of faith – faith in the land we live and move and have our being on, faith in the stability of our city and its buildings and faith, at times, in one another.
We lacked faith because we lacked understanding. We could not understand how this had happened to us. Most of us took a long time to understand what the geologists, scientists and politicians were telling us. How could we renew our faith in what we did not understand?
The same is true of the ultimate faith – faith in God and his revelations. As John teaches us through his gospel, faith comes from knowledge and understanding. We all sit here this morning as sisters and brothers in Christ come to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and saviour Jesus the Christ. We do this because we have faith. We have faith because we have the knowledge that Jesus died for us and was on this day resurrected from death. What we are celebrating today is the knowledge of God we have through the revelation of Christ. This knowledge points us towards faith – faith in Jesus and in God almighty. This knowledge points us to the ultimate revelation of God – love.
The gospel we heard from today – from John – is a great example of the relationship between knowing and faith. John’s gospel works to show us who and what Christ was, so that we may believe. The main purpose of John’s Gospel, as we heard it this morning, is to have people come to believe in Jesus the Christ as the Son of God and have faith. And it is clear throughout John that faith comes from understanding. If to believe is the key to eternal life, so also is it to know.
John is telling us that this is the work of God, that you should believe in the one whom he sent. John wanted us to have faith because in having faith we might have life in Jesus’ name. This is as true for us today as it was for the people whom John was writing. Faith in Jesus gives us life and purpose as Christians and saved children of God. It directs us to share this knowledge, this truth, this reality of the love of God.
The relationship between faith and knowing is displayed in today’s account of the empty tomb. In the reading we heard today the beloved disciple – though it is debated academically let’s call him John – John shows the greatest faith in that he shows the greatest understanding. He saw and he believed. He saw and he believed. Only did John see and believe and only John understood and deciphered the significance of the empty tomb. Peter was confused and Mary was distraught, but John understood and therefore showed the greatest faith. He realised the meaning of the burial linen remaining in the tomb. It’s not about the risen Jesus leaving behind that which encased him in death, it is about the fact that if Jesus body had been taken by grave robbers the linen would have been removed too – for it to remain it is clear no ordinary act of vandalism has occurred here.
This highlights a point John often makes – that faith based on Jesus works or miracles is legitimate, but inferior to a faith based on understanding the revelation of Jesus Christ. For John believing is the appropriate response to revelation. Miracles may produce awe and wonder and may initiate faith, but it the knowledge of Jesus as God’s revelation of love that grows faith. What we gain from revelation and knowing is that we understand the truth. We see beyond the actions and the sayings, we see beyond to know the truth they tell. The truth of the power of Jesus as the Son of God. There is no point in being amazed by Jesus’ miracles if we do not know what they mean, if we do not know the truth they reveal, if we do not embrace the love they encapture. The object of believing in the end is Jesus himself because of the truth we know of him.
I want to make it clear that I believe that to have faith also involves a degree and acceptance of not knowing – of not having knowledge, not understanding and yet believing anyway. Earthquakes, massacres, COVID and war challenge our faith because following John’s logic how can we understand it? But we haven’t lost faith – we grew it. And we grew it because we did know – we did understand. We know and we showed that no matter what colour or creed what binds us together is love and mercy and compassion and we knew it and we did it and we have prevailed and our faith is stronger. God is love. Jesus is love and light. The darkness did not and will not overcome the light.
This is part of the ultimate test of our Christian faith – that we have the world around us telling us our Gospel is a fairy tale, and then horrible, horrible things happen and still we are unable to produce any definitive proof of what we believe and yet we believe. We cannot explain everything about God and we cannot explain or justify everything that happens on his earth. But still we believe and have faith because we have been gifted the Gospel, like John, that gives us knowledge and understanding of who Jesus was and what his ministry and life meant. We heard and we believed. Our faith may be based on trust and what the Spirit stirs deep within our souls, but it springs from the knowledge of the revelation of Jesus the Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ as the pure love of God.
So, we give thanks today. We give thanks because, as Isaiah told us, our God is not a God of death and darkness. Our God is a creator and in Jesus’ death and resurrection God re-created the world. We give thanks that we have been given the knowledge of the Gospel so that we may believe, so that we may have faith and so that we too may have new life. We thank God for his revelation of love in Jesus Christ, for the faith that revelation evokes in us and for the light within us that tells us to keep believing when the world around would have us lose faith and embrace darkness or despair because we cannot prove what we know.
We give thanks that Christ is risen – he is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Thanks be to God.
April 13, 2025 – Palm Sunday (Year C)
(Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29; Luke 19: 28-40)
Juxtaposing tradition and new life
I am enacting something of an Easter tradition for me at the moment that won’t surprise you. In the car I am listening to the soundtrack to the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. I find it is a good way to get my head and heart in the Easter space. I love the music, but I am also always impressed by how strongly based on biblical text the story Tim Rice tells is. It also holds true to many of our biblical traditions, such as Jesus being anointed by Mary. It is a part of my Easter build up that I look forward to, but I will say there is something missing. The musical Jesus Christ Superstar omits, or merely brushes over, the resurrection. I can understand why this is as the musical focuses very much on Jesus’ and his followers and persecutors humanity. But for me it isn’t really the story of Easter or tradition of Jesus without the resurrection and the new life that brings.
Today, this Sunday, is a day full of the juxtaposition of tradition and new life. Our Gospel reading this Palm Sunday is all about Jesus bringing royal traditions of the past into his present to once again proclaim his kingly status. This is Jesus’ moment where finally the disciples openly and loudly proclaim his glory and his true nature as king is openly displayed in front of the Pharisees. The new king who will bring new life is symbolised as such by several things. The first is by riding a donkey that has not been ridden by anyone else. This privilege was one given only to a king. And as we commemorate today with palm crosses, when Jesus entered Jerusalem – though not in Luke’s account – the people or the disciples laid palms and cloaks to line his path. This was a symbol of an act of homage for royalty.
Like the many layers of the rest of the Gospel, so too does this week’s reading contain many signs and symbols clearly pointing to the people of Jesus’ day and to us that this entry into Jerusalem was openly declaring Jesus to be the king and the messiah the people had been waiting for.
But within one short week he would be hanging on a cross dying calling out to his Father and enduring the agony of our sins. Holy week – which starts today – is quite a juxtaposed time. We have all the symbolism and meaning of Christ as King today, but how quickly that will be stripped away and he will be treated like a common criminal. It is perplexing as to how the old and new clashed so violently in Jerusalem in the coming week. It is a reminder to us today to be careful of what traditions we hold onto and what new practices we take up.
Our places of worship have, in the last decade or so, become a juxtaposition of tradition and new life. We have been through a time of change and dislocation as we moved each Sunday into and out of lockdowns and mandates and passes; zooms and online services. We travelled together to where God provided for us. Here sits side by side the new life of a new world, a new church – safer, sanitised, spread out, sanctioned – ready to worship as a community to bring us all together, and then the old life of the traditions of our church building and church life even if they are slightly altered. We may be in a different era and place of personal freedom, but we will still have central in our worship a Bible, a lectern, an altar, a baptismal font, candles and of course the cross.
On a deeper and perhaps more significant scale we are trying to find our way through the juxtaposition of being Christ’s disciples in a modern world that is rapidly evolving. It is no surprise to you to hear that church attendance all over the country is declining even aside from COVID pandemics and the such. Obviously what previous generations have held as precious and vital to live out lives as Christians is not so important to the younger generations of today.
But what do we do with this juxtaposition? How hard do we hold onto our traditions in church life if it repels newcomers? Scripture is vital in this journey, but perhaps we need to look at how we convey it to younger generations. The old and the new – churches, practices and peoples – are a real challenge to us at this time of the church’s journey with so much potential for growth before us – if we hit the right notes all juxtaposed together.
So today speaks to us in many ways of the bringing together in our lives as Christians of that which is traditional and that which is new life. It is a curious combination that has endured through the centuries. And the coming Holy Week and Easter are no exception, in fact they are the rule. We are about to embark on a week of remembrance and celebration, mourning and joy, prayer and silence that is all about tying together the traditions we have from the Bible and from our history as Christians with acts and symbols of the wondrous and essential new life Jesus brings us on Easter day.
As you step into the coming week and however you will remember and celebrate this Holy week remember the thousands of years of history that guide our actions and shape the words that we say all in order to celebrate the almighty gift of new life. Do this well and do this with Christ.
Thanks be to God.
April 6, 2025 – Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year C)
(Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3: 4b-14; John 8: 1-11)
The unconditional love of God – ours to receive and ours to share.
The phrase unconditional love is one that is tossed around a lot in our world. Parents are said to love their children unconditionally. Wedding vows often refer to or encompass the idea of unconditional love. It is a phrase that is used perhaps a little too loosely or without real thought of the implications of utterly unconditional love. Honest, full and integral unconditional love is an extremely challenging task. Despite what personality tests and psychological theories try to tell us about ourselves, as people we are all individuals who enter relationships and situations with utterly different priorities or expectations or abilities. The utter uniqueness of people is what makes each of us an individual beautiful creation of God and is what makes relating to each other so difficult at times. We may love with free abandon or with all our heart, but to love totally unconditionally requires effort and grace.
Truly unconditional love is what Jesus displays in today’s Gospel reading of the adulterous woman. The scene described in the Temple does not relate all that first century listeners of the story would have heard. Neither does it give us a full picture of the consequences of the actions of both the Pharisees and of Jesus. To begin with Jesus, in being in the Temple, is on the Pharisees turf. He is not on the neutral ground of the Mount of Olives or even the dubious ground of a tax-collectors house. He is challenging the Pharisees and their position in the very place where their authority is unquestioned. Furthermore, in being in the Temple Jesus is closer to the harsh recriminations of the occupying Romans. The Romans had watchtowers positioned around the Temple so that they could keep an eye on the crowds and any disturbance or rioting was dealt with swiftly and severely.
Given this situation the Pharisees probably felt sure in their ability to trap Jesus and provoke action from him that would likely result in his death. Jesus’ presence in the Temple was making the crowds and the authorities increasingly interested in who he was and what he was about – a potentially dangerous diversion from the Temple hierarchy and order. So the Pharisees generate a situation in order to provoke Jesus by producing a woman who has supposedly committed adultery. It is interesting to note that in this “set up” the witness to the woman’s adultery required by Mosaic law is not produced or mentioned. In bringing before Jesus a woman who has committed a sin addressed by the law of Moses the Pharisees are sure that either of his possible reactions will result in Jesus instigating a disturbance or riot for which the Romans will have him killed. The Pharisees expect Jesus to stick with this forgiveness thing he has going. As such, if Jesus denies the fulfilment of the law of Moses in granting forgiveness a riot is sure to ensue. Alternatively, if he forgoes forgiveness and demands the law be fulfilled a stoning will ensue that will cause a disturbance in the Temple for which Jesus can also be blamed and killed.
But Jesus responds in way the Pharisees have not predicted. He neither denies the Mosaic law nor does he call for its rigid fulfilment. Instead he questions those gathered in the Temple as to who is sure enough of their own pure sinlessness to judge and punish the sinful woman. Jesus highlights that his fellow Jews – the Pharisees in particular – have become steeped in their own patterns of thinking and how, as Tom Wright puts it, this is devastatingly unlike God’s patterns of thinking. Jesus does not dispute the law of Moses, but infers that if they are to be serious about it then serious consideration of ones own guilt is also needed. And the realisation of the widespread guilt of sin of those gathered around is just the reason Jesus has come to display the unconditional love of God in forgiveness of our sins.
In standing alongside the adulterous woman Jesus was putting his already at risk life in greater danger.
In standing alongside the adulterous woman Jesus was saying – you are a sinner, but my love, the love of God, is so utterly unconditional that I will stand with you the sinner even though it will put my life in danger and even though I know it will lead to my death. This is an act of incredible bravery as well as love. While Jesus’ clever thinking has calmed a situation that was almost certain to become a disturbance, he has only delayed the inevitable and antagonised his enemies even more. The price of his moving and considerable lesson on unconditional love is to step closer to his own death.
What Jesus displays in this passage is that fulfilling the law of God through mechanical adherence to judgement is not what the law was intended to inspire. Jesus is not denying the sin of adultery. What he is saying is that sin does matter, but that in the unconditional love of God shown in forgiveness, God is choosing to set aside our sin to love us. The law must be interpreted in light of God’s mercy for sinners. As the readings from Isaiah and Philippians indicate, God wants to restore and redeem us. Forgiveness is about accepting the love and salvation of God in order to let go of the past and move forward with Jesus. The forgiveness of our sin calls for us to respond in kind and with Christ’s strength show unconditional love in our forgiveness of, and relationships with, others.
Unconditional love then is a gift from God – a gift God hopes we will share with those we encounter, even those who are in a state of sin. And Jesus’ words in the passage from John clearly remind us that we are all in a state of sin. Furthermore, Jesus words to the woman to “go and sin no more” are an affirmation that the forgiven must live by forgiveness – through sinning no more and in forgiving the sins of others whatever the circumstance. Philippians reminds us that the ultimate goal is to leave our sin behind and move forward with Christ. The gift of our Church is that we are able to enact and participate in this process of repentance and forgiveness each week in our Eucharistic liturgy.
As we approach Holy Week and Easter we approach God’s greatest act and display of unconditional love – the death of His Son for our sins on the cross. These final weeks of Lent offer us time to reflect on the enormity of that act of unconditional love and what it means for our lives as people in the world and of the Church. The love we receive from God is unconditional. Our challenge is to contemplate on the unconditional love we receive and then reflect into the world around us and into the relationships in our lives. The challenge is to continue to reflect unconditional love in situations and in conditions where it is not our first or preferred action. In doing so we reflect the light of Christ and honour the act of his death on the cross for our sins.
Thanks be to God.
23 March 2025 – Lent 3 (Year C)
(Isaiah 55: 1-9; 1 Cor 10: 1-13; Luke 13: 1-9)
Is our agenda God’s agenda?
For many years for Lent I have given up chocolate candy – and let me be clear that after a lengthy theological debate with my fellow clergy I do draw a distinction between chocolate candy and chocolate biscuits or cake. Anyway, on the last Ash Wednesday I was intending to fast chocolate for Lent, on the FIRST day of Lent I went to the supermarket to buy some porridge and walked out with a chocolate bar and some peanut M&Ms. One might say I was easing myself into my Lenten fast. Or more accurately one should probably say I had yet to grasp the act of adopting a new agenda for the season and turning away from chocolate. That was the last year I gave up chocolate. Since then its Facebook I pleasantly fast from or something like it.
And that is the emphasis in today’s gospel. Continuing the theme of repentance we started Lent with on Ash Wednesday Jesus is telling his followers it is to their own peril if they do not repent – do not turn away – and set a new agenda.
Using the examples of two sets of Jews who recently died accidently or were killed Jesus points out to his followers that if they do not turn away from their current ways and towards the kingdom Jesus has initiated they will perish. What Jesus is referring to particularly is the movement amongst the Jews to rebel against Rome and gain back an earthly kingdom. Jesus is telling them that where their hearts and minds should really be turned is towards the kingdom of God – there they will find forgiveness and salvation.
He is calling for a national repentance and questioning what the agenda of the Jews’ is and what it should be. Through his examples and words Jesus is showing the Jews that they need to repent their nationalistic ways – they need to change direction. They need to change direction from producing the withered fruit of nationalism and tend their tree so that it produces the fruits of the kingdom and therefore will endure. Luke saw the fall of the Temple in 70AD as a direct consequence of the Jewish people refusing to follow the way of peace that Jesus urged throughout his ministry.
Because that’s what repentance is – it is the turning away from that which hinders our relationship with God or our trust in him and a turning towards what helps it. When we turn away from something we correspondingly turn toward something. So, as we turn away from sin or darkness we turn toward God and light. Anything that prevents us from being in right relationship with God – that is, righteousness – is something that we should turn away from – something we should repent. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul highlights for us some of the things they and we should be wary of least they cause us to not repent, especially the mistake of arrogance in our faith. Our turning toward God should be in love and obedience.
Repentance is about a change of direction in our thoughts and behaviour, but also referred to an entire bodily shift away from that which distances us from God. In today’s gospel Jesus deals specifically with moving in a different direction to the agenda we may have set for ourselves that does not fit with or grow the kingdom of God. In our reading from Isaiah too we hear words reminding us that it is God’s agenda that is the priority – For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah is reminding us that God’s way, Jesus, is THE way, he is reminding us of God’s omnipotence and glory. God’s awesome power should always be on our minds when we plot and plan for ourselves, our nation and our church.
We’ve all done things certain ways for many years and maybe now – when we are living in a new world where the new normal is far from normal or what we love – it is time to turn away from, or at least reconsider, the present agenda. It is a good time to be asking are we really being good stewards of God’s gifts? Are we bearing the fruits for God’s kingdom?
Where on our agenda are the gifts we have been given to be stewards over? Not just money and whether are we rebuilding responsibly and with the whole of God’s kingdom in mind and not just our faith community, but other gifts too. Are we seeking to care for God’s kingdom in growing disciples by using our various gifts of music or hospitality or teaching? What is our agenda in regard to our stewardship over our and the kingdom’s time? Wherever we are children of God and caretakers of his kingdom we must seriously look to our agendas and consider whether they reflect our ways or God’s ways.
A change of direction – indeed change of any sort – is scary, but Paul assures in first Corinthians that God will not test us past our endurance and in testing us will actually offer us the way forward. So, the question is will we, like the Corinthians were challenged to do, take up the route God offers us even with the inconvenience it may bring to our minds and lives?
Thanks be to God.
March 9, 2025 – Lent 1 (Year C)
(Deut 26:1-11; Rom 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13)
Waiting.
Waiting. (long pause) We are not very good at it are we? None of us particularly enjoys waiting and it seems that each new generation has less and less patience. I am amazed at the new gadgets being produced every year that are designed to save us time – even if it is only a few seconds – to save us time, not money or space, but just time. And for what? What precious and wonderful thing do we then do with these saved up seconds of time? Why do we not want to wait for anything anymore?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines to wait as to defer action or departure for a specified time or until some expected event occurs; and also to be expectant or on the watch. Perhaps as Christians we focus too much on the first meaning and are inactive waiting for Jesus. In addition to Lent we wait for the end of this age of darkness as the early Christians saw it and the arrival of God’s Kingdom, whatever we understand that to be. If you want an interesting perspective on this do read NT Wright’s Surprised by Hope. It can be tempting to stop progress and the advancement of our lives and simply spend all our time waiting for the return of the Messiah. But we need to consider the other meaning of to wait and to be expectant and on the watch – to be ready and being ready means being active.
And so we come to Lent in the Christian calendar – a time of waiting. Lent is the time that we take to spiritually prepare for worthy celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the time when we try to emphasise with Jesus and his 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. We take time to understand what it is to wait on God – to truly participate in waiting for God to unfold his glory and grace.
When we think about it we are blessed. How long did the world wait for Jesus to come the first time and how long did the first Christians live fervently waiting for the second coming? We are blessed to have the knowledge, love and salvation of Jesus Christ already to keep us warm as we wait. How impatient society and Christians are now – we don’t wait well. We often look on the season of Lent with a tiny bit of loathing because we are called to wait and to be disciplined in our waiting.
Generally, psychologists tell us, most people do not like change or the unexpected. It is our human nature to feel safer and more secure with what we know and understand. Perhaps this is why so many are falling away from the Church and Christianity because in being Christians we are called to be a people of faith and faith is all about trusting in something or someone that you don’t see, you can’t prove and sometimes you do not understand. Faith is a conviction that God can and a hope that He will. It is built on the unknown and the unexpected. And the unknown and unexpected is where we are as a community and world at the moment. Some scary, surprising things are happening.
So then as Christians we are asked to deal regularly in Lent with two things that go against our human nature and are less and less valued or tolerated in our wider society – waiting and the unexpected. When we take time to think about it or take a look at that scary world outside our church doors we find that so much of the world calls us as Christians to be and do things that are hard and uncomfortable. Not only are we told we don’t need to wait or deal with the unexpected, we are also told that the values and morals that God teaches us through His word are no longer relevant or pertinent. Really?
Are faith, love, kindness, consideration and self-restraint really outdated or merely just really hard to live with and by? I think that in our day and society it is even more vital than ever to look after one another and call upon those morals and ethics the Bible teaches us to care for ourselves, our neighbours and our world.
Another meaning of to wait that the Oxford Dictionary lists is to refrain from going so fast that a person is left behind. In waiting for Jesus symbolically and really at this time of Lent let us not leave Him behind: let us not leave each other behind. Our waiting can be a time to pull us closer together.
Our waiting can be a time of intercession and trust and we can be in this place of intercession and trust because we know that at the end of Lent we will remember again the story not only of Jesus’ death, but also of his resurrection.
And our Deuteronomy reading similarly reminds us of the hope we have in God. The passage we heard is the first covenant described as such in the Bible and it encompasses all humanity – it is about the inauguration of a new era and a renewed humanity. And through our periods of waiting we must have faith that God’s spirit – with the hope we have in Jesus Christ – is leading us to a new era of renewal.
It might feel a little at the moment like we are being tested – like we are Jesus in our Gospel reading. We probably feel like we are in a bit of a wilderness. But also like Jesus in the wilderness we have the Holy Spirit with us to guide and protect us. And as Jesus proclaims God will always re-establish his graceful will for the people. All we need is to have patience and to wait for it to happen.
And so we have come full circle – to waiting. We’ve got a lot of waiting ahead of us – waiting through the season of Lent, waiting with Jesus in Lenten discipline through the time in the wilderness and waiting for the world to make sense again and not be so terrifying.
So, a lot of waiting lies ahead of us and waiting as we have seen can be hard. But we have also seen that God gives us gifts to deal with waiting: he offers the outlet of prayer of petition as well as thanksgiving; he offers us the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit; and most of all he offers us the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and in our salvation. Waiting may be hard, but as Christians it is our duty, and Jesus and the apostles have all assured us that our reward will be more than we can even imagine.
Thanks be to God.
March 2, 2025 – Ordinary 8 (Year C)
(Isa 55:10-13; 1 Cor 15:51-58; Luke 6:39-49)
The Jesus movement in summary.
I think it is fair to say that God has a sense of humour. As you know I have been doing a series of sermons leading up to Lent on the Jesus Movement. When I started preparing these sermons some time ago, I came across a book call, “After Jesus Before Christianity.” Brilliant! I thought to myself. Exactly what I am wanting to talk about. Lent is for preparing to journey to the cross and to resurrection, but here is the gap between when Jesus was born and when he died and the Jesus Movement before it became the Christianity we recognise today.
So, I ordered the book to help prepare my sermons. Pause. It arrived this last Monday as I was preparing the final sermon in my series. Yep, God would appear to have a good chuckle now and then! Better luck next time.
Well, here we are at the last Sunday before Lent and the final Jesus Movement sermon. We have followed mainly Luke and seen the who, what and how of the Jesus Movement in past weeks. To summarise, we began by seeing the movement was one that was inclusive; our focus should encompass who Jesus was, what Jesus said and what Jesus did; the Jesus Movement is seen and perpetuated in modern movements around injustice and abuse, movements we are called to support when they go by kingdom values; the Jesus Movement calls us to let go of a lot we have or do in our lives; and finally and most importantly it comes down to love.
Fittingly we have a great summary to the series today in the words of the Word made flesh himself. Jesus says, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.” We have studied who Jesus was, what he was teaching, the community he was forming, the reverberations for movements of today and now comes the crunch – do what you know, walk the talk so to speak.
Do what I tell you. That is the message we take with us into the future towards Lent and Easter and every other day. Do. Take action. The Jesus Movement was never stagnant, it never settled. It was – and is – in motion. Jesus’ ministry was one that was on foot all over Israel. He told people what to expect of the kingdom of God (and what the kingdom of God expected of them), but he also showed them in action. In his healings, in his resurrections, in who he lived and ate with he was showing us the action that comes from doing the work of the Jesus Movement. He was showing us the action of being a disciple who makes disciples.
We are blessed with this beautiful church and a beautiful liturgy on a Sunday morning as well as during the week. We are very blessed to be continually nourished through the days by the sacraments of the body and blood of Jesus. But if we stay in here, if the only action we take is to receive communion, then we are not fulfilling Jesus’ call to act on what he has taught us and showed us. We must think about how we take the kingdom of God – the Jesus Movement of today – outside these walls and to the world. We have already started with the places, people or things we support, but we are called to do more. We are called to clearly and opening live a Jesus shaped life of action.
We need, as the Gospel tells us this morning, to be wary when we take what we know of Jesus and his mission and act. We must be sure we are prepared, so that we don’t go about telling people about the specks in their eyes whilst ignoring the plank in our own. This takes time and reflection. This takes silence and contemplation before action. As Archbishop Cottrell says, “Hit the road kneeling”.
Jesus says this morning, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good.” To ensure good hearts and minds full of God’s treasure it takes a little time sitting with this treasure to see its true brilliance, light, peace and joy. Then we are truly ready to do as we are called and act on what Jesus has told us.
Another way to look at this is to ensure we are grounded as we carry the Gospel and the Word forward. Jesus is to be our foundation stone upon which we build our lives. Here again we see the words and lessons of Jesus being utilised to spur us take action – to take good action from a good foundation, the solid foundation of the Son of God and the Son of man. I repeat Jesus’ words, “I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.” What someone who works hard to get to the rock – the foundation of Jesus – can accomplish. How blessed and blessing a disciple they can be.
So, we know in detail what the Jesus Movement was – we may know a little more when I read my new book! And we have learnt that what we do with all this knowledge – with this firm foundation is act. Take action. Move.
Where does this leave us as we look to Lent in a few days time? Well, we could regard what we have heard about the Jesus Movement in past weeks with fresh or new eyes and dig ourselves a new foundation from which to launch into Lent, which in turns digs our foundation for Holy Week and Easter.
Most people give up something for Lent be it chocolate or coffee and Facebook. A few years ago someone suggested – a Bishop I think, apologies that I can’t remember who – that instead of taking away at Lent, we add. We could add prayer, we could add scripture reading, we could add meditation etc., etc., etc. Maybe even see Lent as offering us a chance to hit the road kneeling in preparation for Easter?
Maybe we commit to reflective or contemplative prayer on something you have heard in these sermons in past weeks and dwell with it. Work out how to make it a foundation for your life whilst keeping the log out of your eye.
So, here we leave the Jesus Movement on the path to the death and resurrection of Jesus. We’ve re-examined what we know and are now called to take action. As simple as the message of the Jesus Movement comes down to love, so too the call of the Jesus Movement comes down to this – do what I tell.
Thanks be to God.
February 23, 2025 – Ordinary 7 (Year C)
(1 Cor 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38)
The Jesus movement is happening – what’s the central message: love.
I have taken to a habit of when a favourite author puts out a new book or I just hear a book title highly recommended from somewhere I acquire a copy of the book with out even glancing at the back and the plot intro. This is because I have found that in recent years publishers seem to have started this habit of putting at least half the plot on the back. So, its only when you get halfway into the novel do things begin to happen you didn’t know were coming.
At the moment this practice is not working very well for me. I’m reading a book called Normal People by Sally Rooney solely because Mum heard it reviewed as a secret gem of a book on National Radio. It’s excellent and I love her writing and the story is interesting to date. But, I have to admit to being a bit confused. I’m not quite sure where we are going or what the main point of everything is. Most books I read without looking at the back you pretty quickly pick up the gist or genre, excepting of course shocking plot twists. With Normal People, sure I know the main characters and places and there is a clear story, but I’m not sure of – and little frightened to know – what the main theme or point is about.
Well that too is where we have arrived in our journey towards Lent with Luke and the Jesus movement. We’ve got our main characters, Luke has nicely laid out the plot for us pretty early on and as I talked about in my lastest sermons, and as was where we were in the Gospel, the Jesus Movement has truly begun. Everything is underway, we know where we’re headed, but actually are we particularly clear on the point of it all yet?
Of course our, and any new reader of the bible’s, understanding of the story and the immensity and awesomeness of it’s climax and outcome won’t be known until the last few pages. However, today in Luke’s account of the story of the Jesus Movement we are clearly told the point of it all for those listening or reading. Today we hear Jesus telling Luke’s version of the sermon on the mount. There are a lot of similarities to Matthew, but some differences. The main differences come in what the words of Jesus mean to the people listening to him on the day and latterly for us.
To give you a little bit of setting and background. Jesus has just spent the night in prayer – remember that point. He too has also just picked the twelve disciples – or apostles as Luke prefers to call them. For Luke they represent not so much a chosen special few, but a representation of the twelve tribes of Israel. And so, like Moses before him, prior to this sermon he gives, he has gone to the mountain and taken with him the new “leaders” of Israel and now he comes down to form the new people of God. We should also note that opposition to the Jesus Movement is forming and confrontation is seemingly becoming inevitable.
Luke’s view of the community of the people of God – that Jesus was bringing or shaping into being was to be a community that very much saw themselves as the eschatological people of God who were to have lives out of grace and in hope of God’s redemption. This end of times community was to be a sign of hope to all people.
What we hear today is that the demands made of these people and who they are to be and how they are to be, are different to the demands in Matthew, but equally radical. Luke and his upside-down world turning Gospel continues. The focus here, the main point we are learning in the story, perhaps more than in Matthew, is recognising the nature of the community Jesus is calling into being. This nature revolves around the necessity of its members responding to each other – and that increasingly hostile world around them – with mutual love, toleration and acceptance. This message seems timely with confrontation growing for the Jesus Movement, but will speak to Christians for millennia to come.
These radical demands of love and forgiveness are seen not as some superior high moral tone, but an overriding concern Jesus has for a non-judgemental attitude, a life of integrity, a concern for love and a total response to Jesus’ call and to leading a Jesus shaped life. Radical demands made of the crowds on the day and of us in our day and age. Luke’s Jesus calls for the priority of mercy because it is mercy that for him lies at the heart of God. Bishop Peter has a tremendous sermon with the overall message that mercy trumps judgement.
Luke pictures a community formed by a response to the grace of God revealed in Jesus and one which is lived out in the life of the kingdom, which Jesus is establishing on earth and the more heavenly kingdom which the community’s life itself anticipates. God’s kingdom – that ever confusing place or time for us of now but not yet – is for Luke, Jesus and God a place of grace and mercy above all else.
Hence Jesus’ call to love our enemies, be kind to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you – basically to do above and beyond all else what most of our human instinct goes against. Certainly, this was not the teaching of the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time, so much so that Jesus was of course shown no mercy, hated, badly treated, cursed, abused and killed. He was calling to the community he was forming to build the kingdom of God to do exactly the opposite of what would be done to him. We struggle today to love as Jesus calls us to do. Imagine this new community – persecuted and frightened – who had watched their messiah tortured to death. How hard was it for them to put aside their more human instincts and forgive – as Jesus had done – those who ended his life?
Pause.
To be frankly honest I found our epistle reading from Paul quite difficult to understand and also tie into today’s theme – the whole point of the Jesus Movement: mercy and love.
I think what I can offer you from it this morning is just to say Paul picks up this development of the Christian community in becoming a people of love not from their physical being, but from their eternal spiritual being. We are human when we believe in Jesus and follow his way: when we are disciples who make disciples. We become beings of the Spirit in our capacity to answer the call to love. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says we should remember we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
We can relate the main point of the Jesus Movement – for our Christianity today – to a talk I have heard from a man who spoke of about being a missionary in the Middle East. Julian now lives with his wife Lorenza in Egypt. We had just been reading Romans and Paul’s elevation of love when he spoke. Julian spoke about how even as a Christian missionary he struggles to love those around him. He talked about when you visit the Pyramids you are literally swarmed by hawkers and how in his prison ministry it takes 3 hours to get through prison security for 45 minutes with the actual prisoners. But even as he spoke he reminded himself that those hawkers have families at home to feed and are doing the best or perhaps only thing they can to support them and so as annoying as they are, they too deserve his love.
Further, Egyptian Christians struggle to love – more precisely related to this morning’s Gospel – their enemies. Some Egyptian Muslims are taking the opportunity or timing or freedom or whatever is prompting them by being in a secular society that let’s them chose their religion and some are choosing Christianity. Their Egyptians brothers and sisters who are already the established church are struggling with showing mercy and love for their enemies because as much as they want to welcome these newcomers in, at the same time they are thinking, “Are you just here, like so many others before you, to bomb us?” A real, frighteningly factual challenge to love your enemy.
So where does that leave us with Jesus and his movement and our Christianity as we step toward Lent? It leaves us where it, well at least where I, always does – at love. Today though, we are not challenged to love those deserving of it or easily capable of being loved, but face the challenge of mercy and loving those we hate or fear. Today’s call to love is the hardest of all and it reminds us of the complexities of the height and depth, breadth and length of God’s love and the love we are called to live out in our lives. And here’s a little help – remember I asked you to remember something? Remember that before Jesus came down from the mountain to form his new community of love and mercy…he prayed.
Thanks be to God
February 9, 2025 – Ordinary 5 (Year C)
(1 Cor 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11)
What is our movement? Do we really understand our mission?
In a past sermon I quoted the line from Jesus Christ Superstar, “Why’d you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?” And that quote is relevant for my sermon today too – don’t worry it isn’t another one based on Jesus Christ Superstar.
This morning we have heard witness of the beginnings of the Jesus Movement as I have been talking about this year. And so, as we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem things really start to get rolling. No longer just John and Jesus, now we have followers and eventually disciples. This is important for us to remember as we move towards Lent. The story of Holy Week and of Easter all take place within one week. One radical amazing, terrifying, sorrowful and awesome week. But Jesus – and his followers – were on the road, all around Israel, for three years before we get to that earth changing week.
What we hear this morning is Luke’s account of the beginning of the Jesus movement. His call to the disciples comes later than in other Gospels. Luke also centres his account around Peter and his interaction with Jesus. For Luke, Peter had a very specific role determined not only by what is traditionally said of him in the Gospels, but also by the part he plays in Acts both in the incorporation of the gentiles into the movement and also his role in the maintenance of the unity of the movement. Less accurately, perhaps, Luke also portrays Peter as the first to witness the risen Christ.
Peter is a good reminder to us about ourselves and our leaders. He certainly achieved a great deal for the Jesus movement and was central to its inception and growth. He did however have his flaws and failings that cannot be denied. It is a comfort to know that even the great names of our Church Fathers were as human as we are.
But inclusivity and unity are also something we should be looking to our church leaders for and we see no better example of this than Peter’s direct successor Pope Francis and his real and tangible reaching out to the poor and oppressed and those who have been held down or held back for too long in the Catholic Church and churches all around the world.
Pause.
Whoever the first disciples to be called were it cannot be denied that in this account of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the movement has begun. And as the haul of fish the fisherman slash/ disciples bring in indicates this movement is going to be big, perhaps beyond the capacity of the early Christians to cope with.
This brings us to Paul’s letter today, which is taken as perhaps the first creed for the early Christians struggling in their faith. “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”
Paul is reassuring the Jesus movement, that is not only growing rapidly, but also facing opposition and in fighting, that the basis – the essence, the truth, the way, the life of their faith is very real and well witnessed as well as foretold in scripture.
We simply can’t imagine what it must have felt to be an early Jewish or Gentile Christian. We have had 2000 years to process the beginnings, the growth and consequences – not to mention the reality – of the Jesus movement. We have a whole season in our church calendar to ponder not Easter itself, but the end of the journey for the Jesus movement that led to Jerusalem, the cross and resurrection. We have had centuries and great saints and scholars to fully unfold the who, what and how of the Jesus movement.
Or once again, as with the early church creeds, has all our scholarship done us a disservice? We have broken apart and studied under microscopes the Gospels and rest of the new testament so much that we now miss the big picture? Have we once again humanised the divine? Food for thought.
And how then does this relate to us today? Perhaps it offers us a word of caution. Coming back to Judas’ comment about the age Jesus came in we need to acknowledge that Jesus’ was not of an age of social media, cell phones, phone cameras, 24/7 news cycles and the rest of the information age that bombards us today. All Jesus had were his truth, his feet and his voice. And that’s what makes the Jesus movement – ok let’s start calling it what it is, Christianity – so remarkable. Despite the lack of solid scientific or visual proof we still believe. We still know in our hearts, souls and minds that Jesus the Christ existed, that he taught us to love one another and that he died for our sins and rose to life again to triumph over death and evil for all eternity. This is what Paul is attesting to in his early creed in this morning’s letter.
I believe our Christian faith and our humanity can actually cause us great stress at times. For one thing the onus on us to provide indisputable proof of the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ can be quite overwhelming and even crushing at times. But returning to the contrast of Jesus’ age and our own multimedia one we can now become overwhelmed with the movements that exist today. Christianity took centuries to take hold, grow and be grounded. A new movement today can have 1000 followers in ten seconds thanks to twitter or tictoc.
In the world today movements and causes and campaigns surround us on all sides in all kinds of ways. There are so many movements in the world today – movements working to better the world as Jesus would have us do. Movements around refugees, women’s equality, the rights of the poor, provision of food and water for all humanity equally, education for the betterment of lives and on and on and on and on and on.
It can be seriously overwhelming and stressful to see all the pain and horror of this world, see so many movements working to alleviate the suffering and know we can only do so much. Survivors or affluent guilt if you will.
What do we do? We do all that we can with the resources at our disposal, but most important of all we return to Paul’s creed and remember the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ that overcame death and evil. It offers little comfort for some in this age, but if we stop for a moment and hold a view of time in God’s eyes – that of eternity – this suffering is a stage that will end with the return of Jesus and the renewal of God’s kingdom. THAT is the hope we must keep in the forefront of our minds as we despair at the suffering around us. The world is in chaos now, but not for eternity. I think we forget to take that into account in our angst. No, it won’t feed the starving child in Africa. No, it won’t stop the Ukraine and Russia bombing each other. And we must join movements to stop those things. But we must not stop keeping in mind that the greatest battle humanity will face has already been won by the lamb on the cross.
I think I may be saying this poorly. I am not denying the suffering in the world today and that as Christians we are called to join movements to help ease or cease that pain. Movements mostly born of the values and actions of the Jesus movement. But as Christians we are also called to have HOPE. Hope in the return of our Lord and the coming of his kingdom. So be overwhelmed, overwhelmed enough to act in love, but hold fast too to the knowledge that the greatest victory is already won.
Thanks be to God.
February 2, 2025 – Candlemas (Year C)
(Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40)
Recognising the light that dwelt and dwells among us.
I have vivid and fond memories of a tramp I went on with a big group of my friends to Lake Daniel a many years ago. One of the highlights was that as night fell we made a big bonfire down by the lake and when it was completely dark – dark as you only find in the middle of the bush away from any towns or cities – we lay on our backs and looked at God’s amazing creation in the stars. But sometimes the stars we gazed upon would actually be slowly moving and then one of us realised that there were satellites up in the sky that we could now see inching their way through the cosmos. It became a game to see how many satellites we could pick out from among the stars.
Today I depart from my series on the Jesus Movement as we are celebrating Candlemas and recognising Jesus Christ as the Light of the World. Our reading from Luke highlights that the light of Christ can sometimes be as difficult to discern as the difference between a satellite and a star. It is Simeon who recognises the true light in the boy Jesus and the full implications for that in terms of our salvation through the grace of God. Mary and Joseph have not yet recognised those full implications in the child they are raising. From Luke’s infant narrative we assume that Mary, and probably Joseph, had some understanding of the specialness and significance of the child Jesus. However, they, like so many other Jews in Jesus’ life, may still have been seeing their child as a Messiah as foretold in Jewish wisdom – one associated with military victory and the overthrow of the Roman occupiers – not the Messiah of grace of the new covenant.
Indeed, earlier in this chapter Luke notes Mary, “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” Nothing about Jesus from his humble birth to his message to his death and resurrection was what anyone was expecting and he was a sign that was opposed. And so, it takes the words of Simeon, and of Anna, to open their eyes a little further to the true nature of Jesus as saviour.
And if Jesus’ own parents, parents who had received messages from God regarding the extra-ordinary nature of their child, could not fully understand the light that had come into the world, is it any wonder that so many others around Jesus did not see the light for who he was and sought to extinguish what light they did see? And if the people who knew and spoke to and ate with the light could not recognise it, is it any wonder that now, two millennium later, we still have difficulty seeing the light? Humanity’s recognition of the light that dwelt, and dwells, among us has always been hampered and fully recognised by precious few.
Salvation is a tricky thing or utterly simple depending on your theology. Many were shocked by Jesus’ provision of salvation not through power or might, but through surrender. There is a fine balance between accepting God’s grace in our salvation and continuing to mindfully search for, and seek to understand, that light of salvation after our baptism. We cannot say, “Well that’s done. I’m for heaven now” and then either ignore God or refuse to allow God to shape our lives and thus prevent Christ’s light from shining in our hearts for those around us.
In Luke Anna reminds us that Jesus was the light of salvation for all those looking for redemption. Our redemption and ensuing salvation are a gift from God. Through our baptism, alongside offering salvation, each and every one of us is called to be disciples of Jesus who are ministers of God and spread the good news of God’s gracious salvation. The place where we must start is in recognising the light of Christ first within ourselves and then within the world around us. But like differentiating satellites and stars, discerning the light of God can be hard.
In essence the light of God is all around us and within us every moment of every day. Every single molecule and atom contains the light of Christ – not just in Churches or individual Christians or as a community or in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, but in all of God’s creation. When you are walking through the park and stop in amazement in the middle of flowers and trees and grass you are stopping in the middle of God’s creation. In recent years scientists have even found at the moment that sperm joins an egg there is a microscopic flash of light! God’s light and the light of Christ – the light from light – are all around us. Our job is to open our hearts and minds to the love of God, the love of others and the love of the fellowship of the Church so that our eyes may be opened and we are better able to discern this wonderful, amazing light in the world and within us without judgement.
There is no denying that some circumstances and people make it difficult to discern that light, especially those we struggle to love, but to discern the light of Christ in ourselves and in others is our baptismal call. When we take time to discern the light of Christ we are fulfilling our ministry and call as disciples to spread the gospel. It can be difficult. But take heart. When we look to God’s word we are shown the way. The message from Malachi identifies redemption and salvation with righteousness or right relationship. And Malachi was not speaking to those outside the community of God, but those who had lapsed within the community. He was reminding the Jewish people of their covenant with God and that through God’s grace they were the chosen people who should reflect God’s love.
God still wants us to hear Malachi’s message that was reminding God’s people about the response to the salvation we have, not through our own action, but through the grace of God. Salvation is the work of God, but with this salvation established, God then calls us to a deeper self-examination and to be in relationship with one another. He calls us to be prayerful and intentional in our relationships as we strive to be disciples who make disciples. The first letter of John reminds us, “Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life.”
This is where we can start our journey to discern the light of Christ, by ensuring that we, and those around us, are in right relationship. That we have tika, pono and aroha. That is, are in just, fair and loving relationship – with God, with ourselves, with others, with the Church and with creation.
We can take comfort in the knowledge that the light can already be found within ourselves. Many churches will process this morning holding the pascal candle and perhaps other candles too. This is symbolic of the entry of Christ, who is the light of the world, into the Temple of Jerusalem. And further to the new covenant, Paul explains to us in Ephesians that our own bodies have replaced the Temple in Jerusalem. You and I, individual members making up the Body of Christ – the fellowship of the Church – are the new living Temple where Christ’s light is dwelling. Our task is to discern and reflect the Light of the World as disciples of Jesus.
The old Temple in Jerusalem sat on a hill and had perpetual lights burning it. As such, it must have stood out as a beacon of light and hope in Jerusalem, the city of God. Today we mark the light of the Jerusalem Temple being replaced by the light and hope of Christ, the light that we can discern within ourselves. Today, through right relationship and grace and through discernment of the light of Christ, we can be beacons of hope, alongside the Church, through which God spreads his message of salvation.
Finally, and most importantly, Hebrews reminds us that through all difficulties and tensions our hope is in the Lord Jesus. He too was tested through suffering and as such is fully able to compassionately and sympathetically help us through testing times, thoughts, actions and decisions. Furthermore, the experience of Simeon reminds us that at all times we have the advocate of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit Jesus assured us would come to guide and strengthen us after his time on earth was over. In seeking the light in the world and within ourselves we are not alone – we have the light itself as well as the Holy Spirit to guide us through our own salvation and as we take the gospel of light and salvation to a world that still dwells in darkness.
Thanks be to God.
January 26, 2025 – Epiphany 3 (Year C)
(1 Cor 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21)
What’s the buzz?
A few years ago the Court Theatre’s summer production was of Jesus Christ Superstar. I thought it was very well done. The second half in particular was very powerful and had me in tears twice. The main thing I didn’t like – and I feel really badly about this – is that we had understudy Jesus, not the usual lead. He was a great actor and had a wonderful voice, but he was really little and everyone – Judas, Mary, most of the apostles – towered over him and that just didn’t seem right. Totally unfair to the actor, but how I and all my family felt.
My parents bought a programme and I read it through after the show. I wasn’t so much interested in the actors or director as much as the story of the musical itself. If you are a Christian you cannot help but be offended by part or all of the musical depending on how you approach it. I was fascinated by the opposition the musical faced when first conceived. The UK would have nothing to do with it, while in America they would only make a record of the soundtrack. Once that record took off the musical was developed and the rest is history. Interesting side note – one of the earliest supporters of Jesus Christ Superstar who saw the theological value of the musical’s portrayals and questions, and played the entire soundtrack on its radio channel, was the Vatican City.
However, the most intriguing thing to me, which I’ve known for years, but was written up very well in the programme, is that the show is of course from the perspective of Judas. Not just his betrayal and remorse, but his genuine concern for Jesus and what was happening to Christ’s movement – the Jesus Movement.
The Court Theatre’s write up notes that he is at most times coming from a place of love for Jesus. His is frightened of the crowds. He is frightened for Jesus’ life. He warns and berates and ultimately betrays Jesus because he believes in doing so he is saving him from destroying himself AND destroying the message Jesus has been preaching. And that’s the key. As the musical itself says, “You’ve begun to matter more than the things you say.” And that’s the question – what matters more who Jesus was or what he said? What about the Jesus movement was the most significant?
As we progress into this new year to date in our readings Jesus has been baptised by John and the disciples have been called and we have heard about Jesus’ first miracle in John. The Jesus Movement has its players and the action has begun. The miracle at Cana calls us to question how and when we act as Christians and how we are inclusive.
Where I’d like to take this series of sermons today is to focus on who we are following, who we are disciples of, with reference to the creeds of the catholic church (and that’s catholic with a little c meaning universal not Roman). I’d like to take up Judas’ concerns. That is, as Christians what should our main focus be – who Jesus was, what Jesus said or what Jesus did? And I’m not going to give you an answer. Some of you will have answered the question for yourself already, but I’m hoping today, and in the weeks to come, we all closely examine just what it is we are focusing on as followers of Christ. And this is where we circle back to Judas – he was in the end trying to protect both the man and the message, so what can we learn from that?
The creeds that were written early after Jesus’ death and resurrection and developed through the early centuries of the life of the church have perhaps done us a disservice. The creeds were written because in the early days of Christianity – as is still the case today – there was disagreement on who Jesus actually was and what this new Christian sect that arose from the Jesus Movement was to believe. So as ever we put aside the mystery of God and defined Him in manmade words, but that’s a whole other sermon.
It’s a seemingly a small point, but has great influence and impact on how we see Jesus and how those outside our faith see Jesus. But, the problem is that the creeds focus on who Jesus was and the facts of his life, death and resurrection with no reference to his teaching or message. Take the Apostles creed for example. It goes straight from, “born of the virgin Mary” to “suffered under Pontius Pilate”. Where’s Jesus life? Where’s his ministry, miracles, healing, transfiguration, development of a movement, disciple making? Our creeds in one way do us disfavour by focusing the attention of the early church fathers and patriarchs on clearing up the confusion of who Jesus was – most specifically his relationship to God or as God. Don’t get me wrong these were and are very, very important questions for us to have grappled with and we would not have survived as a church if we had not. But sometime go back and read the Apostles creed or listen to the Nicene creed– do the words grace or love appear anywhere? It is no wonder we perhaps at times narrow our focus too much around Jesus the Christ.
If we look to scripture – as we always must – today’s readings offer some insight to this question on what we should focus on. In Luke Jesus stands up and reads from the scroll of Isaiah a passage associated with the coming of the messiah. It’s interesting that the reaction to Jesus reading and then stating, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”, moves from awe and wonder to rage and the attempt to kill Jesus. It seems he could proclaim some hope, but not total salvation. I cannot help but think of Judas’ again and his famous lines in Jesus Christ Superstar, “Why’d you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?” Why did God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit come to the world at the time they did?
More importantly from Luke, for our purposes today, what Jesus does is provide a template of what matters about him. In reading from Isaiah and proclaiming the words of the prophet to have been fulfilled Jesus tells us that it matters who he is, what he says and what he will do.
At this point in the story it is of course not widely known or acknowledged that Jesus is not only the messiah, but more importantly the Son of God and God Himself. By proclaiming that he is the one who has come to save Jesus tells us that who he is matters and because of who he is what he says and does will matter too. Well, that might be the answer I promised not to give!
Finally, once again my friends, we can so simply understand the answer to the question – as Christians what should our main focus be – who Jesus was, what Jesus said or what Jesus did? – by looking to scripture in Paul’s letter. Today’s reading focuses on the Christian community as one body and that is a very important message. But I want to look at what Paul’s last line of this passage is and what he says next. He ends chapter 12 by saying, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” He then moves onto his message of chapter 13, which we all know is about love. In the end only three things remain, faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.
I would suggest that perhaps – as I have done and will continue to do – the answer to our question is love. Who was Jesus? Love and grace personified. What did Jesus say? Love God and love each other. What did Jesus do? Love the least and the lost, the oppressed and the outcasts unto the point of his death.
What should our main focus as Christians be? Love. In all its delicacy, power, interpretations, acts, words and more. Jesus was and is love and that is what we should focus on when we look to him as our Lord and Saviour, as the first disciple maker. We look to the words he left us with and we look to how he was as well as showed us the truth, the way and the life.
Thanks be to God.
January 19, 2025 – Epiphany 2 (Year C)
(Isa 62:1-5; 1 Cor 12:1-11; John 2:1-11)
The Jesus movement begins – action and inclusion.
Some of you know that I have recently restarted to try and do yoga. I lay a mat down in the lounge, turn on Apple TV and follow the YouTube video. Well. As far as Dewi the cat is concerned you would think I was doing pole dancing lessons. He gets so upset. He paces around me, stares down at me from upon high on the chair or couch and, if the door is open, leaves within minutes of me starting. It’s as if he finds it outrageous. For whatever reason he is scandalised by this new behaviour of mine.
Jesus was no stranger to scandal either. We are well aware how scandalous his association with prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners was to the people of his day, especially the religious authorities. And in today’s gospel reading there are whiffs of scandal again – though more for us than the people of his time. Some commentators describe Jesus’ reluctance to perform his first miracle in John’s gospel as a scandal of divine reluctance and this is added to by the further scandal of his mother being the one to prompt him into action – to prod God into working.
Leading up to Lent I am planning to preach a series of sermons on the road to the cross. That would seem to be a Lenten theme, but what I am referring to is the journey with Jesus before he gets anywhere near to entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. A preparation for the preparation of Lent if you will. Forgive me the time it takes to set up this series in today’s sermon. Much of these sermons will focus on what I am calling – as others have – the Jesus Movement, because that was what it was in the time of Jesus and for many decades afterwards. The word Christian is first found recorded in Acts, which was written sometime about 70-90 AD. The first disciples were part of this Jesus Movement.
Today I want us to look at what, in John’s gospel anyway, is the Jesus Movement coming into being at the wedding in Cana. Jesus has been baptised by John and the disciples have been intentionally and prayerfully called, using language that meant something to them – to fish for people – and now we hear about Jesus’ first miracle in John. It is a miracle that calls us to question how and when we are called to action as Christians and how we are inclusive as those same Christians. Throughout this series of sermons, I want us to keep asking ourselves – how are we playing our part in the “Jesus Movement” today?
One commentator has written about how uncomfortable today’s gospel can be for us – we witness Jesus being called to meet a need and we watch as, at first, he refuses to act. We witness divine reluctance. It is only after prodding from his mother that Jesus acts and makes wine of water thus ensuring the wedding feast is able to continue unhindered. And this divine reluctance is scandalous and unsettling for us.
The fact remains that reluctant or not Jesus does perform a miracle and performs it with extravagance. There are many jars, large in volume and the wine produced is of the best quality. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape of its day if you will.
So, Jesus has taken action. We will look in a moment at one of the influences on him in taking that action, but let’s focus on – for whatever reason – the fact that he in essence begins his movement with a miracle at a wedding. The Jesus Movement has its players but now, now it has begun in reality. Jesus has initiated his ministry of miracles and healing – his ministry of acting as well as speaking.
We Christians are good at speaking the gospel. We proclaim it beautifully and richly in this service on a Sunday morning and you indulge those of us with enough folly to stand up and preach to you about the words of the gospel in yet more words. But when do we act? We act in our giving and in our service. We act as disciples who make disciples. We act in our calling to serve God and to serve Jesus’ church.
We do this in many, many different ways, from being an acolyte, to preparing sermons, to washing the church linen, to giving the last rites, to playing the organ, to serving on vestry, to providing meals and fellowship, to visiting with our brothers and sisters in Christ and our brothers and sisters not in Christ.
My question for you this morning is this – do you truly believe you are acting in the manner Jesus has called you to in order to proclaim the Gospel and build the kingdom of heaven in being a church community of disciples? Are you acting out of a place of comfort or – like the reluctantly divine Jesus – are you heeding a call even though it may feel strange or ill timed to you? Because if Jesus thought his time to act had not come and yet acted, who are we to question the calls upon our lives feeling unsettling timed or even invasive?
I would suggest that it would do each and every one of us good to think about how we act as Christians, especially how we act as disciples. Do our actions reflect the Gospel? Do our actions reflect Jesus’ kingdom values? Even, do our actions reflect God? Because if they don’t, we need to take time to consider our being as children of God and servants of Jesus and ask what we should be doing. The choice of when and how to act is not actually ours to make. It is God’s. It is from the divine. How we are called is unique and special to each of us, but nevertheless we are all called to action in the name of Jesus Christ beyond our service and praise on a Sunday morning. It may not be comfortable, but it is our reality as members of the Jesus Movement here and now. To be a disciple of the Jesus movement is about invitation and challenge.
The second scandal in this morning’s reading is another challenge to us as active Christians. As a consequence of the divine reluctance of Jesus we hear the divine being prodded by human compassion. That is, Jesus performs this extravagant miracle because of the catalyst of Mary. In essence he does what his mother says! How scandalous of a human to being pushing the divine into action!
And how scandalous that who compels Jesus is not only his mother, but a woman. If we read our scripture carefully, we rapidly become aware that women were always a part of the Jesus Movement. They financed it and, in the end, when all but one (according to John) of the disciples have scurried away, it is the women in the Jesus Movement who stand at the foot of the cross and witness the horror of Jesus’ death.
There is much we could take away from Mary compelling her son to act, but perhaps something we often miss is that, in this gospel at least, it is Mary the woman who is one of the first to be a part of the Jesus Movement starting in action. What does this say to us here and now? It says that – given the social expectations of Jesus’ time – from the very beginning the Jesus Movement was intentional and inclusive.
The Jesus Movement was inclusive. We see this in scripture in not only women, but also slaves, sinners, tax collectors and foreigners being included in the Jesus Movement as it began and grew. Often to the horror of those in religious authority. The Jesus Movement was inclusive. So…as the modern day Jesus Movement, as Christians, we too are called to be inclusive. Jesus himself commanded it – love your neighbour. Jesus told us to love our neighbour with absolutely no definitions about who our neighbour was, but with plenty of parables about that neighbour not being who you expect. And if that was not enough to make us open our eyes to inclusion, he plainly told us to love our enemy – it doesn’t get more inclusive than that.
Once again, the Lord has blessed us. In a passage seemingly so simple and benign we are called to be as scandalous as Jesus was. We are called to act as Christians even if the timing does not sit well with our plans. We are called as Christians to be inclusive in whom we love and who we serve. It may not be as disturbing as Dewi seems to find me doing yoga, but, as Christians, we are called to be disturbed out of our comfort to make sure we are acting and we are inclusive.
Thanks be to God.
January 12, 2025 – Baptism of the Lord (Year C)
(Isaiah 43: 1-7; Acts 8: 14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)
What is the story of our baptism?
My father was in the army and trained to be a pilot. As such, I was baptised at Whanuapai Airforce Base in Auckland. I was one year old at the time and so don’t remember anything of the occasion. However, there is a family story that gets pulled out now and then. It seems that my mother was utterly horrified, as she gently made her way up the path to the Church, to see the priest who was about to baptise me around the side of the Church at the rusty garden tap filling up a jug with the water I was to be baptised with! I’m not sure where my mother thought baptismal water originated, but it was certainly not an old garden tap.
Today we hear about and celebrate the story of the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke is a great story teller and paints a very vivid picture for us of the life and ministry of Jesus. This morning I would like to explore what the story of Jesus’ baptism means to us and then what our own story of baptism means. Stories are powerful. They stay in our memories. They teach us. Stories are our guide and our comforter. A good story – in all senses of the word – we will carry in our souls forever. And stories are made up of words. I love words – I won’t deny I am a total and utter nerd and very happy with that. Words create stories by painting a picture. They are the base and flavour of a story.
When we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism there are some key words for us to dwell on. One word is Messiah. Even as he is baptising the masses John points to Jesus who will come to baptise us with water and with fire – a promise or prophecy fulfilled at Pentecost. Jesus was here to make disciples and making disciples starts with relationship. In his own baptism Jesus unites himself with the people of God so that he can incorporate them into the age of the spirit. So there are a few further important words in the story of Jesus – people of God.
Another vital word in the baptism story is prayer. It is important to note that Jesus’ baptism is embedded in the practice of prayer. Prayer was a regular activity of Jesus’ and is a prominent theme in Luke’s portrait of him. Jesus is often seen in very intentional prayer – another important part of making disciples. At his baptism Jesus prays in an act of surrender and dedication to what his baptism signified. He is responding to what he has recognised as God’s call. More words in the story – God’s call. This arises for us because they speak to what our baptism should be – that is, a response to a call from God to be part of his family and kingdom. Here again are those essential words – the people of God.
Following Jesus’ baptism we hear one of the most significant words associated with Jesus’ story – son. While many had been identified as the Messiah, no one before had been affirmed as the Son of God. This was a confirmation of Jesus’ divinity and saving grace. The genealogy following Jesus’ baptism sanctions Jesus not only as the Messiah, but as the Son of the Creator, the Son of God. That word told the people of the day, and us today, that Jesus was more than the Messiah and more than simply the holder of a title. Together the words of the baptism story and the family tree tell us where Jesus has come from, who he is, what he does and where he is going.
So, the story of Jesus’ baptism heralds him as the Messiah, points to Jesus being united with God’s own people who are awaiting redemption, emphasises the role of prayer in Jesus’ life, discipleship and this sacrament, reminds us of Jesus’ call from God, and confirms Jesus place as not only the Messiah, but the Son of God. In short, for us today, Jesus’ baptism points to our own baptism as being a call from God to become part of his kingdom in a life of prayer. This we do in relationship and very intentionally by being disciples who make disciples – each and every one of us.
So then, what story does or will your baptism tell? Do you remember your baptism? Many of us followed the tradition of the Church and were baptised as infants, so remember little of the occasion.
Some, however, were adults when the call to be baptised into the Christian faith came and can fully remember the event. Whatever your experience the key words from Jesus’ story echo down to us today – Messiah, people of God, prayer, disciple, God’s call and Son of God.
What then does our baptism mean? Christians have come to understand our baptism in Christ is a onetime occurrence and an initiation into the Christian faith and the faith community – the joining with the people of God. Baptism is a sacrament of the Church in which we connect with God and receive his grace – the saving grace of our Messiah the Son of God. It is about cleansing and renewal in the answer to a call. It is a bodily expression of faith and change – the inner person prayerfully responding to the outer sacrament.
We see the first Christians making disciples in baptism in our story from Acts today, where the apostles Peter and John go to Samaria to complete the baptism of the people who have accepted God’s word there. The important word for us as we think about our baptism is Holy Spirit because it points to the dual role of water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. The story implies that the reception of the Holy Spirit could not occur without the laying on of hands. This is where our rite of confirmation arose from when infant baptism was introduced.
For the first Christians, however, the words of the story of baptism were a lot simpler. As a grown person you accepted the risen Christ as your saviour, prayerfully turned away from sin and repented, and were baptised to become a member of the Christian community of faith. Baptism only started to get complicated as time went by and the rituals and meaning around baptism developed. Whereas baptism began as an act of repentance, change and new life it later came to also be understood to be a requirement for salvation. How then did infants too young to be baptised gain salvation? And that’s where infant baptism starts to develop. But then if we baptise babies how are they meant to have accepted Jesus as their saviour? And on and on it goes. The words of the story have now become many and complex.
Really baptism is simply about accepting God into our lives and being accepted into God’s community of faith as well as cementing us on a path to intentionally and prayerfully be disciples. Our prayer book tells us that Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which we are made children of God, members of Christ’s body the Church, and heirs of the kingdom of God. How and when we respond to the call our baptism places on our story, whenever that baptism took or takes place, depends on us. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism the people being baptised are committing themselves to the light of the world. This is what we are called to also do 2000 years later. The Church’s requirement for those seeking baptism is that they renounce evil and turn from sin to Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is these important words, this truth, way and life, that we are called to respond to when we are baptised whether it was unknowingly as a child or consciously as an adult.
Okay, so that’s all the history or dogma of baptism, but we are left with the question of what does your baptism mean to your story? Were you baptised as a baby? If so, what does it mean to you today to accept your baptism and the consequences of it? Have you affirmed your faith and acceptance of Christ in conformation? I don’t know the answers to these questions, only you do. What I can offer you is perspective and a prompting to explore that which you have participated in young or old and how that relates to your call to be a disciple of Jesus who makes disciples.
I believe we would do well to follow the example of the Jews who did not isolate what happened to the body from what happened to the soul. When we think like this we begin to see that our baptism is more than just being sprinkled or dunked in water or receiving the Holy Spirit. It is too easy to think of different words as not being connected. It is about what happens inside our souls when we turn away from that which is dark in our world and face God and in doing so join with fellow Christians to form a family of faith, a family of disciples. Part of the inward and spiritual grace of baptism is new life in the Holy Spirit. Whenever we decide to respond to our baptism, or call to baptism, we are responding to the Holy Spirit and the changes that will come about in our lives and souls when we participate in God’s kingdom.
In the end what your baptism means to you is entirely your story. The only thing I can say is to remember our reading from Isaiah, which is a message of reassurance and a reminder of the loving and wonderful grace of God. That is what our story as children of God is about. In the end, in all our stories, however they are written and however they are told, one word stands above all others. That word is love – the greatest word that is a thousand stories all on its own.
Thanks be to God.
January 5, 2025 – Epiphany (Year C)
(Eph 3:1-12; Matt 2:1-12 )
Upside down world of Luke’s Gospel.
When I was a child one of the favourite things my Mum made was Pineapple Upside Down cake. I’d like to tell you that I was intrigued with how the top cooked on the bottom and loved watching the dough raise from the fry pan and marvelled at the usualness of it all, but I can’t. I just really like the way the cake tasted when it was done. And now as a grown woman having cooked it myself and experienced the fiddlyness of it, I can see why my mother saved it for a treat.
So where am I going with this? Well this liturgical year – the year that is based around the church cycle and from which we derive our readings in the lectionary – we are in year C (the other years being A and B). Now I know you will be all sitting there thinking, “Oh wow, year C already! That has some good readings in it.” But just in case Year C means nothing at all to you, the main point about being in Year C is that the Gospel we will follow and hear the most from is Luke. And Luke was intent on portraying Jesus and his kingdom as turning the world upside down. This is a theme or idea we see again and again as we progress through the year – the least and the last being the most important and the first.
We’ve already seen it in the nativity scene. Jesus was born in a backwater town, to two teenagers who came from nothing even if their family lines were pure. And the first people on earth to be told of the birth of the Messiah – of God’s Son – are lowly outcast shepherds. No castle or fortress, no golden crib, no pandering handmaids. This was not how the great Messiah was to be born.
And so, from the very beginning Luke turns the world on its head about what was expected of the birth of the Messiah and what was the reality. It was, of course, a reality that would go on to characterise Jesus, his Kingdom and the kingdom values he came to share. And it was a reality that would go on even to – especially to – Jesus’ tortured and brutal death at the hands of his enemies.
And now once again there are vestiges of it at Epiphany. Now this, this is more like it. Three or more distinguished and noble travellers from afar come to pay homage to a king with gifts of frankincense and gold as foretold in Isaiah and a little myrrh thrown in for good measure. These were great and wise men who had come a long way to seek out a new king. A new king few were even aware had been born. They came and they were overwhelmed with joy.
Hold up? Why would three magi from the East be filled with joy over the birth of Jewish king? Certainly wise men or magi from the courts of Parthia, Armenia or regions of east Judea were often sent as emissaries to greet and give gifts to new kings or rulers. But why do they take such joy? Because, perhaps not turning the world upside down, but certainly changing its course forever, these three men recognised the reality of who they were gazing upon. More than a king. As their gifts suggest they were gazing at a king, a priest, a healer – they were gazing at the messiah.
Luke’s portrayal of Jesus and his kingdom values working to turn the world upside down are there from the very beginning. So too is Luke’s very clear message that God the Father had a clear plan for the life, death and resurrection of his only Son. The least and the last have been the first ones chosen to lay eyes on the messiah born in a manger and now court officials are paying homage and finding joy. Jesus was to bring us a new way of being and seeing in the world that better reflected the values of God and he was to exhibit the power of God’s love in the most powerful way – by dying for all humanity in pain on a cross. The wise men’s gifts of gold and frankincense, as I’ve said, can be found referred to in Isaiah, but not the myrrh and it has been speculated that the myrrh was there to represent the herbs one was buried with and thus point to Jesus’ all too soon death.
God always had a plan of salvation for all peoples. Initially it seemed – and certainly the Old Testament points us in this direction – that those to be saved were only the tribes of Israel, but by the end of each Gospel it is clear that alongside salvation for the Jews was salvation for all nations. This is backed up by the fact that writings about the birth of the Jewish messiah were in the far-off library of the magi. If the message of grace and love and salvation had been only for the Jewish people why would God place its prophesy outside Israel? And the fact that these were actual events happening through and told throughout the world is seen in that other Roman writers such as, Dio and Suetonius also wrote accounts of the magi.
The point of what I am saying to you today is to prepare yourselves for this year – prepare yourselves for hearing from a Gospel where Jesus turns the world and its expectations on its head. A Gospel where God’s plan of salvation, grace and love are very, very clear. It’s a story we know well – or we should, but perhaps this year take special time to listen when Luke speaks and hear the undercurrents he was called by God to tell all the world.
Undercurrents we are already seeing in the humble birth of the messiah and the joy three gentile men found in the birth of the Son of God.
Thanks be to God.
December 24/25, 2024 – Christmas (Year C)
(Heb 1: 1-4; Luke 2: 1-14)
Christmas.
“Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, all is bright.”
Don’t those two lines from the beloved hymn we sing at this time of year perfectly sum up what this day is about? All and at once time as ordinary and holy.
We come together at this Christmas time to share the story of Christ’s birth and to ponder the mystery of it. Luke’s narration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Saviour to us all, brings us to a moment in space and time when heaven and earth touch. What has been ordinary – Chronos – for a moment, for a night becomes holy – Kairos – as the heavenly realm breaks through at an earthly moment of birth to celebrate what is actually the birth of God, of the Messiah. Silent night’s lyrics reflect that moment in time. On one hand a quiet, ordinary, silent if you will, birth takes place bothering no one much around, certainly not the authorities or the emperor whose timeline this story is placed in, and yet on the other hand it is the most holy of nights.
The manger was calm, no one there for the labour, the sweat and the strains, but Joseph and Mary, but then the countryside is flooded with the bright light of the glory of God in his angel announcing that this quiet, silent birth is the birth of His Son, whose birth, death and resurrection is good news because of the forgiveness, hope and love it has and will bring into the world.
Today we have heard the story of the journey of Mary and Joseph from their home town down to Bethlehem. It is a fraught journey. Mary is nine months pregnant. Can you imagine sitting on a donkey on rough stone roads for 157 km whilst nine months pregnant? Not for the faint hearted.
We have all journeyed here today ourselves, whether it was from up the road or further afar involving trains, planes and automobiles. After airport security, COVID checks or road works to negotiate, babysitters to be found or children rallied we can perhaps relate to Mary and Joseph and the tiring journey they endured. Actually, we have all journeyed a long time to get to this place – our moment in space and time. We as humans cannot but be on the journey of life. A universal yearning across time. We all journey through life seeking meaning, purpose and perhaps, most of all, love.
On this day God offers us a moment in space and time where we can find meaning, purpose and most definitely of all love. Some of our journeys here may have been tiring and stressful, like Mary and Joseph, but we all live each day in a world that is more and more chaotic. The world around us moves ever faster and faster and the technology we rely on develops so fast we may reach a time when we cannot keep with it whatever our age. Even the most mundane of lives is filled with family and friends, jobs, children, housework, gardening, grocery shopping and making sure we are current in our knowledge about what is happening on any number of TV shows. It is distracting. It is exhausting.
But once, 2000 or so years ago, God offered us a moment in space and time when heaven and earth met and the ordinary became holy. A moment we now celebrate and remember each year at Christmas. A moment when our fear is turned to hope, a lesson we seemingly need to learn over and over. A moment of complete historical clarity and total spiritual mystery. We are offered a moment to reflect on the birth of a baby who would grow into a man, who was also God himself, who would offer his life on a cross to save us from our sins. A man who is God, who through his resurrection defeated death and evil through the power of love.
If you take nothing else home from this sermon take this – God is love. We love because God first loved us. And God loves us so much he sent his son to be our Messiah, our Saviour. All of this – all the words we say and sing, all the sermons we hear, all the scripture we read come down to one thing and one thing alone – love. Jesus himself as a grown man would sum it all up so simply for us; love God; love each other.
Perhaps, strangely, one of our strongest messages of God’s love on this holy and mysterious night is in the words of the angel who appeared to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid.” Constantly through the bible we hear the words from God or his messengers, “Do not be afraid.” We live in, at times, what is a rough, hard and hurtful world. We often have reason to be afraid, especially if a giant white, shining angel suddenly appears in front of us. But what God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit assures us of time and time again is that we do not need to be afraid of Him or the good news he brings.
The apostle John tells us that perfect love casts out fear. John is saying that when we fear we do so because we think we will be punished or hurt in some way. He is saying that when we try to embrace and live out the love of God we will not be punished. We will be loved and held and treasured. With the birth of Jesus came a time characterised not by fear, but by the freedom and joy of the announcement, “Do not be afraid.”
Will we as humanity ever feel or achieve that perfect love that will cast away all our fears? I think not. I think that it is another mystery that is holy and bright held for us in heaven. But it doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t try to achieve it. Or that maybe at certain moments in space and time that are Kairos – are of the Lord – we will see glimpses of it. Like the love that overwhelms us as we gaze at the face of a new born child. As Mary must have felt as she gazed at her new born son, the son of God, the Saviour of God’s people born this Christmas day.
Thanks be to God.
22 December, 2024 – 4th Sunday in Advent (Year C)
(The Magnificat as Psalm; Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45)
Waiting in faith.
The Church, especially at this time of year (and rightly so), is good at remembering the faithfulness and patience of Jesus’ mother Mary as she prepared to bring Him into the world. What we sometimes forget is that Mary was an example of faith and patience throughout Jesus’ life.
Speaking of a day between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension songwriter Patty Griffin writes:
“Mary. You cast aside the shroud of another man, who served the world proud. You greet another son, you lose another one, on some sunny day. And always you stay. Jesus said “Mother I couldn’t stay another day longer”. He flies right by and leaves a kiss upon her face. While the angels are singing his praises in a blaze of glory, Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place.”
Those are powerful words speaking of a day when Mary regains and then once again loses a son. The son she raised with her faith in God to guide her. We are poignantly reminded of one mother’s experience of seeing her Son die, recapturing him for a moment in resurrection and then losing him once more in ascension. Those powerful words remind us of one woman’s special journey of faith. This morning’s Gospel reading focuses us on the beginning of Mary’s journey of a very special and unique motherhood.
In my life before entering the Church one of my jobs was as a psychology researcher in a Child Development Lab. One task we did with young children was to test if they could delay gratification. We put two chocolate fish in front of them and told them they could have one now or if they waited until I had left the room to get something and came back then they could have two. And then being clinical cold-hearted researchers we left the room and watched the child through a one-way mirror to see what they did. Some peed their pants, but most ate a chocolate fish straight away. Very few waited to get two fish.
Mary would have been one of those little girls who sat quietly and alone and waited and got two chocolate fish. Mary was a girl (or a woman depending on whether we look on the young teenager from modern or Biblical eyes)…Mary was a girl of amazing patience. And her patience was founded in faith. What today’s Gospel and The Magnificat show us are a young girl who must have been afraid and confused, who whole heartedly places her faith in God’s messenger the angel Gabriel and in God himself.
And then in faith she waits. She waits for the fallout with her family, she waits for Joseph to decide what he will do, she waits for the birth of her child – the Messiah. She waits in faith for God’s will and God’s word to come to her and guide her in bringing this Lord into the world and raising him to be not only a man of God, but the Son of God. Mary waits with faith to give to humanity the most precious gift she could ever offer – Jesus the Christ.
Mary’s story doesn’t end with a crying newborn. Her faith carried her through Jesus’ largely undocumented childhood right through to the foot of the cross. Mary is held up as the obedient and faithful servant and the ideal disciple by varying Gospel writers. Indeed, Luke’s infancy narrative includes three women: Mary, Elizabeth and Anna who all show great faith in waiting on God.
Not many of the children in our experiment had enough faith in our return to wait for two chocolate fish. I think this is a mark of the society we live in and the direction we are headed. Not only children, but tweens and teens and young adults and the rest of us are less and less able to delay gratification. The media and advertisers make it their business to teach us we don’t have to wait, we don’t have to delay gratification. We are being trained to not have patience, to not wait and especially not to wait in faith.
And so now, one of the important things we learn as Christians is how to stop, how to have patience, how to wait and how to wait in faith. So what is it to wait in faith? Faith is a conviction that God can and hope that He will. It is built on belief in the unknown and the unexpected. It is built on beliefs that do not sit comfortably with our human natures. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘to wait’ as to defer action or departure for a specified time or until some expected event occurs; and also to be expectant or on the watch. Therefore, as Christians to wait in faith is to defer our actions or departure until God makes clear it is the time. As Christians to wait in faith is to remain in prayer, to remain watchful for God’s Word and will.
During Advent in this secular world of which we are a part so often our lives turn into the exact opposite of what God calls us to be doing – waiting in faith. Parties, rehearsals, functions, shopping, endings, hustle and bustle include celebration of the season, but too easily distract us from taking time out (other than an hour on a Sunday morning) to wait in faith.
Waiting in faith during Advent is a season the Church sets aside for us to take time to reflect, to anticipate, to savour not only the birth of our Saviour Jesus, but also to focus on and make present our anticipation of Christ’s second coming and the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Too often we forget the anticipation of the second coming of Christ, not only in the time of Advent, but also in our daily year long lives.
The faithful wait for a Messiah has been long. The reading from Micah reminds us that the Jewish people long waited for, anticipated and had expectations of who and when the Messiah would be and come. And of course for many Jews around the world the Messiah is yet to appear. For us, Christmas trees and presents and turkey and ham and sparkly tinsel can too often take us out of our faithful waiting for the Messiah now and in the future. As much as we do celebrate God’s gift, the distractions of this season can take us out of our faithful waiting and make us forget about who we are waiting for, the enormity of what He did for us, and the love He called us to show God and each other.
Another meaning of ‘to wait’ that the Oxford Dictionary lists is to refrain from going so fast that a person is left behind. In waiting for Christmas in this season of Advent let us not leave behind Jesus and his place as Messiah now and to come. Let us not leave each other behind. Let us take a lesson from His mother and learn to wait for God, and each other, in faith.
Hail Mary full of grace, full of faith and full of patience.
Thanks be to God.
December 15, 2024 – 3rd Sunday in Advent (Year C)
(Zeph 3:14-20; Isa 12:2-6; Phil 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18)
Looking for the signs; preparing for the journey.
For better or for worse we are all on our own journeys through life. Each individual journey brings ups and downs, hardships and joys and great learning as we progress. Lorelai, my old cat, was also on her own little life journey with her own priorities and plans. For Lorelai her journey was about – indeed her entire universe revolved around – food. They say that a cat has the intelligence of a two or three-year-old human child, but when it came to food Lorelai showed genius levels in seeking and obtaining her food.
She learnt – alongside manipulating her devoted mother – every little sign that she would or might be fed and actually Dewi is pretty good at this too. She knew the squeak of the cupboard door her food was kept in, she knew when I said “okay”, it was often just before I feed her and she had worked out the signs that I was leaving the house and about to give her a treat as she was left inside. Accordingly, her life journey was prepared and carried out to fulfil these signs. She made sure she was always present between 5pm and 6pm because dinner was at 5:45pm and she couldn’t miss that. And if I said, “Okay” she would follow me for five to ten minutes just in case it was an “Okay I’ll feed the cat” okay.
So, on your life journey, indeed on your journey of faith, your journey as a disciple of Jesus, how good are you at watching for the signs and being prepared for the journey? Are you as dedicated, vigilant and eager with the signs of the kingdom of God as Lorelai was with her food? This mornings readings are a mixture of signs of the messiah to come and celebration of the day that he does.
They are in a sense about faith or spiritual journeys. John the Baptist is on a journey as the last Jewish prophet – though he seems unsure of this at times. And Philippians is writing to early Christians who were on a journey waiting for Jesus’ Parousia or second coming – just as we are. We are on our own faith journeys as disciples of Christ waiting for his return whilst trying to live out his commandments.
John the Baptist was all abouts signs. We often don’t hear expansively about John during Advent. He is often reduced to a charicature who wears a sack and eats bugs. He offered so much more though. Right from his conception he is special and tightly woven with Israel’s story of the messiah to come. To an ancient audience he was clearly some kind of prophet, perhaps even the prophet, even the messiah, which is maybe why he speaks so forcibly about the one to come after him. About the fact that he himself is a sign of the coming messiah.
We will soon be joyously celebrating the birth of Jesus the Christ and recalling the signs that the messiah who would redeem us had been born. We think of magi or wise men fulfilling a prophecy by following the sign of a star. We will take time to remember all the things that told us how special and unique this new little baby was. For the moment though we are still in Advent – the season of preparation and focusing on our faith journeys as children of God awaiting the birth of God.
So, to return to my earlier question – what signs are you waiting for? Certainly, we have a list of things – rightly or wrongly, accurately or not – that have been divined from our New Testament readings as signs of God’s kingdom. Revelation is famous or perhaps infamous for supposedly giving us the signs that the end of times is near – that the new kingdom of God is about to be fulfilled. I always look cautiously on seeking signs of the future from Revelation however. When Saint John wrote of his vision he had very specific ancient communities in mind to interpret his message and not the twenty-first century world we live in.
So, what are the modern signs we should look for? If we expand the story of the John the Baptist, in Matthew Jesus tells John that the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, the deaf hearing and the dead being raised are signs that the He the messiah of God has arrived. Are we to look for these signs today too? What if we do? Medical science has developed astronomically over the last two thousand years and doctors perform daily what we – let alone first century Christians – would call miracles. What does that say or tell us? Is there something about doctors and scientists we should be paying attention to? What of that science which is used for unkind, inhumane or even dark purposes? As we – created by God and recreated through Christ – grow and develop, how and do the signs of God and his kingdom grow too? Do we need to update or expand our knowledge or understanding of the signs of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
How we regard the signs of God’s kingdom around us and of Jesus’ return will affect the other part of our readings today – being prepared for wherever our journey of faith and waiting takes us. What signs are to come and what celebration there will be. We are all on a journey with God that composes the events of our life, our faith, our discipleship. How we progress on that journey and how we experience it will be affected by how we prepare for it – how do we prepare for God in our lives? In James he not only encourages his readers to look for signs, but also, on the way to them, to prepare. He tells us two key things about our preparation – that we should look to the prophets, such as John the Baptist, as examples of preparing and journeying with God and that especially important in looking at those other journeys are the patience and suffering. While most commentators agree that patience is indeed a virtue, some would point to the word suffering as perhaps being better interpreted as enduring.
Again, however, in the modern western world acts of patience and endurance may seem outdated or not in step with the modern world and way of living. Personally, I think they still have great relevance to our journeys as children of God and disciples of Jesus, but sadly those people outside these walls very often don’t want to hear about the ways our two thousand year old Bible tells us to journey in faith.
So then in speaking to the wider world of God and sharing the good news and the true joy that Christmas brings what do we say? What do people want to hear that will start them on their journey to turn towards the light of God and embrace the good news and the kingdom of God?
Love. Pause. I think one of the things our world is craving in this day of isolating and separating technological developments is connection and deep connection. Love. The answer is love. The answer as to what signs we are to look for and how we are to prepare for the faith journey ahead of us is love. We cannot begin to fathom the enormity of the idea, concept or practice of love and how far and deep it can reach. It gives us signs beyond any expectation or understanding and prepares us heartily for the lives and faith we lead. It gives us a language every man, woman and child on earth can understand and connect to. It empowers us in our place as disciples who need to be relational in making other disciples.
If we return to Jesus and consider his wider message we find love. James was convinced that the Christian faith must express itself in works of love and this comes straight from Jesus mouth. Here we have our answer as to the signs to look for and how to prepare for our continuing journey AND how to welcome others on that journey with us. Where we see love we are seeing the light of Jesus Christ shining to show us the way. When we think and act with love we are following Jesus’ commandments precisely and fully.
Our faith journey and life journey both centre around our relationship with God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some of us are blessed to have had strong faith, clear direction and minimal upheaval in life and with God. Others of us have seen more than our fair share of dark days and at times struggled to hear or perceive or understand God. But what we all have in common is that there are signs out there waiting for us to guide us and our expectations in the right direction.
And if we follow these signs we will be preparing ourselves well for the journey ahead. John the Baptist is a great model of looking for and living out the signs of the kingdom of God. And these signs and this preparation are centred around love – love of God, love of each other and even love of who we ourselves are. And if we can feel in our journey to this Christmas, and through our lives, just one tenth of the love Lorelai had for her food we will be doing well indeed.
Thanks be to God.
November 24, 2024 – Christ the King (Year B)
(Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Rev 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37)
Enthronement on a cross.
As I prepared for this Sunday as we celebrate Christ as the King, it seemed strange to me that our gospel reading – while about Jesus’ claims to kingship – was part of the passion and death narrative of Jesus story. I wondered at our focus on his brutal death as we move towards preparing during Advent to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas. But then Jesus had already upended all expectations of what was righteous and to be expected, so why not continue to. Today, on the last Sunday before Advent we focus on Christ the King. But the title Christ the king was, and is, in many ways misleading. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1:20-25) Paul tells us that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Understanding Christ as a king is just one such occasion where what we see as weakness is actually a gracious and reconciling strength. Another example of Jesus’ upending.
When we talk about Christology in the church we are talking about the study or the understanding of who and what Jesus the Christ was. Part of the reason there are entire university courses devoted to Christology is that Jesus was, and is, not what we instinctively expect of a ruler, a king, a Christ or messiah. The person the Jewish people of the first century were waiting for as a messiah to save them was not who they saw Jesus to be.
The title Christ comes from the Greek christos, which means to anoint or the anointed. In first century Israel it was kings and priests who were anointed and so it was a powerful leader the Jews expected to come and free them. The Jewish equivalent of the Greek christos is the Hebrew māšiah, which designated the future agent – the messiah – to be sent by God to restore Israel’s independence and righteousness. Many Jews thought this freedom was to be obtained through the military might of a king descended from the great soldier David who would overthrow the Roman oppressors.
This line of thought was especially strong in the post-exile era. Exact understandings or interpretations of the messiah varied. But in no Jewish thought did the messianic king ever lay down his life for his sheep. And in the reading from John today the kind of royal dignity Jesus is accepting is similar to that of a shepherd to whom the sheep listen. Pilate, not being one of these sheep, then is sceptical of the truth of which Jesus speaks. And for Luke the Jewish rejection of Jesus was a failure to embrace Israel’s true king sent by God and the freedom he gave.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus the meanings of messiah, Christ and heavenly king were redefined. And there is no better place to see this new definition than in the hymn to the supremacy of Christ from Colossians 1:11-20. This passage from Colossians is the basis of much of our early Christology or understanding of Jesus the Christ. It was also a very significant passage in the formation of our creeds. This Christological hymn reminds us that Jesus is the key to understanding reality. It places Jesus as the first born of all creation and proclaims him as our redeemer. It reminds us not only of his priority, but also of his leadership and status as head of the Church. It says,
“[The Father] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
The passage from Colossians is key in describing the human and divine natures of Christ. It is key in seeing what kingship was in Jesus’ eyes as given to him through the Father. It is key in teaching us how Jesus fits into the divine Trinity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is our beginning in more ways than one. He is the first born of creation and the first born from the dead and it is his strength that sustains us. When our faith wavers or our hearts are led to questioning Jesus should again be the beginning point for our search for answers or for peace. He is the beginning, the way, the truth and the light.
Yet even with this clear description of Jesus and who he was and the place he held in creation, we as Christians continue to debate the details of his being. We debate because we find it so confusing and inexplicable as to how this man became Christ the king. The messiah God sent, and will send again, is one who was with and against all expectation. He was everything and nothing like the man Jeremiah prophesied about. Yes he was descended from the tree of David, but he was no military leader. Yes Jesus was a righteous man who came to restore Israel, but the justice and righteousness he brought was for all creation not a chosen few.
Yes God sent his people their longed for king, but not a king as they would recognise it. God sent a king, who as Jeremiah described, and John alludes to, was a shepherd for his people, a king who was happier to serve than to be served. The exultation of Christ as king was not a triumph: the enthronement of Jesus the Christ as king was on the bloody and painful cross at Golgotha. And while there was no overthrow of Roman oppressors there was redemption, forgiveness and freedom from sin.
We mere humans can often find it beyond our understanding or comprehension that one man chose to give up his life and all that he had so that we may live. A man born two thousand years before us ensured our salvation and freedom from sin through the loving gracious act of his death. That loving grace surrounds us still and renews us through sacrament in the Eucharist and through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But if you are like me you still struggle with the majestic reality and mystery of it all.
I often wonder, then, how long it will take us to recognise Jesus when his second coming arrives. I think I have told this story before, so bear with me. My mother was a physiotherapist and when we first came to Christchurch she worked at what was then Sunnyside Mental Hospital. Occasionally she would sit in on observations where she and others observed a patient through one-way glass. And on more than one occasion Mum would be observing a patient, who was claiming to be the resurrected Jesus Christ. And on more than one occasion Mum thought to herself, pause “What if he is?”
And so today as we look toward the celebration of Christ the king’s birth, we also wait for our messiah to return and we wonder what great folly God’s wisdom will manifest itself as this time.
Thanks be to God.
November 17, 2024 – Ordinary 33 (Year B)
(Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25; Mark 13:1-8)
Eschatology, pandemics, and inner peace.
A Vicar I once worked under, Father Chris, advised me that I was only allowed to mention Lorelai the cat once a month, so following those past instructions, no cat story today. Instead, let’s talk moving pictures. In the past ten years or so there has been a growing trend for end of the world or apocalyptic movies. Favourite causes of the end of the world seem to be the Incan calendar in 2012, asteroids, zombies and even the odd pandemic or two. These movies advise us of the horrors that await and show us the worst of humanity when push comes to shove – literally.
Well, in case you were unaware, a pandemic has indeed descended upon the earth. It was/is tough and there is no denying life has been irrevocably and massively changed. But. But, we are getting through. We adjusted our thinking about world travel, we learned to pay attention to washing our hands, hand sanitzer has become a part of every day life and we even adjusted – mostly – to having to wear masks much of the time. In short, we are getting through it.
When we listen to the Gospel this morning all those eschatological movies, and the pandemic we have endured, seem a little more scary and a little more real. Jesus and Daniel do not hold back on the harsh realities of the end of the world before the kingdom of heaven is realised on earth. In this day and age it is reassuring that Jesus tells us not to be alarmed by wars or rumours of wars because it seems at times like half the world is at war one way or another. We are told this must take place, but the end is still to come – a bitter truth to have to swallow.
Between the Gospel and Daniel you could walk out of church this morning feeling pretty glum about the days to come. Especially when on top of the temples falling, earthquakes and famines we also have to be on the look out for false prophets. For those wrongly proclaiming they are the messiah returned.
That is why it is such a relief to have the letter to the Hebrews sandwiched in there today. Because here we are reminded that we are not without hope. There is reason to be optimistic. We are blessed to have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore faith in his sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world and assures us of eternal life. A number of books in the Bible – probably most relevant to us being Revelation – talk about what we should, in this faith, expect to see happening before the old heaven and earth will pass away and the new ones descend from upon us.
The writer of Hebrews notes, “we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way…[we have this in the] full assurance of faith.” And there is the key word – faith. There we find – in our faith – salvation and redemption, there we find hope. That is what we have been gifted by our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour – that no matter how bad things get, no matter how this world falls apart and humanity behaves, we will know peace and eternal rest. With a loud secular world out there blaring all the faults of the age we must remember to hold fast to our faith. Hold fast to hope.
And helpfully Hebrews goes on this morning to tell us part of how we are to hang onto our faith. The writer calls for us to keep each other accountable and moving in the right direction. We are called to provoke one another to love and good deeds. Provoke here is used in a positive way, encouraging us to encourage each other so that we do, “not neglect to meet together and encourage one another…all the more as [we] see the [final] Day approaching.”
Hebrews is a letter that we understand was written to a group of Jewish Christians. Interestingly, when I studied theology one essay question asked were the first Christians Jewish Christians or Christian Jews? That’s something for you to mull over at your leisure. Anyway! This letter is to a group who are predominantly Jewish and adopting Christianity. It is why the writer takes such time to lay out how Jesus is the new prophet (after Moses), the new High Priest (after the Levites) and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. They are showing these people how Jesus comes from the tradition they live by, but has superseded it in a new covenant.
This new covenant is a relational one with God. A relationship characterised as God-centred, relational, inward and with a forgiveness that frees the person to move forward. Here we see the, much needed, theme of peace. Peace has in the past cost humanity in many ways. We remember the lives lost in the search of peace. For the writer of Hebrews the cost of peace is the willingness to be forgiven and to forgive.
Forgiveness is quite an internal state of being. Yes, we can make gestures that ask for or grant forgiveness – if you are like me and your love language is gifts you may often mark forgiveness with a present. But most of the mechanics and acceptance of forgiveness is internal. It is with our hearts and minds that we seek, accept and offer forgiveness. Sometimes this internal struggle is easier than we imagine. Sometimes – even if we are seeking to be forgiven – it is much, much harder to process.
The writer of Hebrews notes that the inner being of our faith has its origins and prompting in the inner being of Christ’s own ministry – the sacrifice of his will to the will of God and his delight in doing God’s will. Our inner peace is strengthened when we look to Jesus and his inner peace.
It is from this inner place of peace and faith that we will be able to, as the writer of Hebrews calls us to do, provoke each other to love and good works. It is from this inner place that we find forgiveness, that we seek and offer the peace found in forgiveness. And we do all this together. We gather together – be it on a Sunday morning or some other time – in order to strengthen the peace inside each of us so that we may have the capacity to love and do good works. Because let’s be honest it’s not always a walk in the park.
Life right now is not a walk in the park. Some of those scary end of the world movies might feel a little too real just at the moment. But, as I said at the start, we are getting through. It takes some adjustment of our expectations, but we are making it through this time and place despite what Hollywood has forecast. Some days are still pretty scary, but more and more there is also hope. Hope in new medicines and technology. Hope in humanity working as one for the benefit of all.
And that is exactly what Hebrews teaches us this morning. Mark and Daniel may sober us up with their descriptions of what is to come before we see a new heaven and a new earth, but Hebrews reminds us of the hope we have been blessed with through faith in Jesus the Christ. Because of his sacrifice – once and for all – we can rest assured that we will know eternal life and – perhaps most saliently in this day and age – we will know eternal peace.
Thanks be to God.
November 10, 2024 – Ordinary 32 (Year B)
(Ruth 3:1-5, 13-17; Herb 9:24-28; Mark 12:39-44)
Notice.
Well. Here we are again on a blessed Sunday morning. And it wouldn’t be a sermon from me if we didn’t start with a story about one of the three cats that have shaped my life. Today it is Lorelai the cat. So, when I first got Lorelai she was very, very overweight and very, very attached to food. Like mother, like daughter! She would even wake me in the night to feed her. I quickly got her into a routine of being fed twice a day – at 6am and 6pm. She was very quick to pick up the routine and as I think I’ve told you she would appear just before 6pm every night to make sure I remembered her food. Now, she did that even when there was plenty of food in her bowl. She couldn’t seem to process that she had food available to her even at her usual feeding time.
For Lorelai life was what was happening inside her not focused on what may or may not actually be appearing in her food bowl. It should be the same for us – though perhaps not focused on food. This is where the scribes story in today’s Gospel comes in. The scribes’ story is one that does make us uncomfortable and perhaps think about what our exterior – our public – life is like. In fact, both stories in the Gospel this morning – the scribes and the poor woman – are a little uncomfortable for us. Us in particular in an Anglican church, which can have a lot of exterior focus in our church and in our worship. But mainly I want to focus on what the story of the poor woman says to us.
This story is about calling us to notice how we give out of our poverty. Jesus sits quietly observing the life of the Temple, in particular the treasury. Nowhere are the wealthy criticised for the amount they have given. In fact, Jesus doesn’t actually say learn from the poor woman, only notice her. Notice how she gives then…Jesus says no more of her.
Nevertheless, Jesus’ point is that the old woman gave out of poverty not abundance. Her giving made her – and makes us – uncomfortable. She is giving with her heart and spirit not with her head.
For the old woman her poverty to give was financial, but we are called today to give out of poverty that may be physical, mental, emotional and spiritual instead. We are called to notice what we give to God in our church and our lives keeping in mind that we don’t necessarily have to give from wealth – of any kind. When we are broken, tired, poor, struggling, we still have something to give. For each of us this will depend on who we are and what our particular poverty is.
Thinking of the Gospel and Hebrews, today’s readings show us that God cannot be outdone in generosity and the call for us is to match this generosity from wherever we are. All is surrendered, nothing is held back. The total giving of the widow prefaces the total self-giving of Jesus on the cross in Mark’s Gospel. Just as the writer of Hebrews reminds us this morning.
Easy to say. Easy to ask that we give out of the poverty of our lives. How do we do this? We do so when our inner life and values are aligned with what we find is already in us – the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Like Lorelai, we should be driven in life and in giving by the presence within us – for us the presence of God. It is this presence that moves us in the right direction to find true meaning in how we live, how our exterior matches a spirit filled interior, and how we give. It comes down to being the best God has made us, for example, remember the days when we literally wore our Sunday best to church on Sunday? Why? Most in the most noble sense, though perhaps not always the truth, to be our best for God. To show respect and honour the holy we were entering and beholding and partaking in.
So, it comes down to meaning. This is where we bring the scribes back in. We are being called to take time to move our eyes from the flashy robes of our day to our inner selves. When we show meaning we strip away the facade of life and see what actually matters. This can be jarring especially in our consumerist world. Here we need to be careful as Anglicans to hold things as holy not just because of tradition and aesthetics.
When we are in tune with our inner being – with the true meaning of life, with the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit – we are better prepared to give out of poverty in a way that sheds the marks of our consumerist society – marks like those of the scribes robes or seats of honour.
You may be thinking or even looking around at all the stuff around in the church and in this service. There is an argument for keeping tradition, keeping up that which shows us where we come from, honouring those before us. Most importantly of all we need to remember that much of what we do and have and see in church – incense for example – is to mark things as holy, remind us that we are dealing with something beyond our being, remind us that there are things in life that are sacred in the purest form of the word. It means our attention refocuses during the service, and generally, to what is holy and good and Godly and deserving of our attention.
So, today’s Gospel calls us to give out of our poverty, be that what it may. It calls us to look for meaning inside of us where we find Jesus and the Spirit and not to external forces or objects. It reminds us that what is in our heart is more important to God than what we wear or where we sit. I think if there is one word I want you to take away today it is this – notice. Notice how you give. Notice where you give from. Notice how much your giving costs you. Notice the light of Christ within and give, act…live, by that light and not the shiny lights of the consumerist world around us.
Thanks be to God.
27 October 2024 – 30th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B)
(Psalm 34:1-8; Job 42:1-6, 10-17; Hebrews 7: 23-28; Mark 10: 46-52)
I used to have a cat called Meecho, which is Italian for kitty. Each night Meecho the cat sat on my knee as we watched TV. When it was time, I looked down at her and said, “Time for bed now.” She followed me into my bedroom as I turned on the light and then she followed me down the hall to the bathroom as I did my ablutions. Then I turned out the bathroom and hall lights and walked back to my bedroom. And this is where our problem arose because Meecho was keen to follow every step of the way in this journey. The problem is that Meecho was mainly black and I was walking back to my room in darkness. I was like someone walking over an unstable volcano carefully put each foot down checking there was no cat underneath it! Our problem was that we were in the dark – we couldn’t see – and so we didn’t know the way.
Having our eyes wide open and being able to follow the way is what this morning’s Gospel is all about. From our Gospel this morning, “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” For the past few weeks we have been reading and thinking about Mark 10 – a chapter in which Jesus’ frustration with his disciples is clear and we hear example after example of the way to follow, which baffles the disciples. Here at the end of the chapter the blind man shows how simple it is – open your eyes and follow the way. The Bible passage is very clear, and succinct ,that as soon as the man can see the way he follows Jesus on it. And that is what we are called to do too. There are two parts to this call for us – opening our eyes is the first and following the way is the second.
There are many things that can keep eyes closed to what is really around us. Jesus has in this chapter spent some time alluding to things that may block our sight – like having material possessions that matter more to us than the kingdom or people. Life itself can blind us quickly and easily. The daily grind, bills, commitments, family needs, job demands, expectations and exhaustion can all combine to blind us. How many times have you said, “I don’t have the time or the energy to do that.” I say it all the time – even or perhaps especially when it comes to my role in the Church.
So what do we do about this blindness? The answer that pops into my head is to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It can be amazingly overwhelming to overcome all those things that keep us blind to God or the way. But we have been left a guide – an advocate – to help us find and follow the way and this is the Holy Spirit. God works in mysterious ways and so too then will the Holy Spirit. We may feel like we are drowning in our blindness, but the Holy Spirit is there to pluck us up and open our eyes again to the world and the kingdom around us. The Holy Spirit is always with us, as Jesus promised, so even just acknowledging the presence of that Holy Spirit can be the first step in redirecting our lives to live with eyes wide open and to cope with everything around us that causes blindness.
And it’s important to remember in Mark’s Gospel healing occurs after faith has been found. So we need that guidance of the Holy Spirit to renew/regain/discover our faith and then have our blindness healed. For Mark it was people’s willingness to believe in Jesus that allowed them to be healed. We too must open our hearts and minds in blind trust to God and the Holy Spirit before we can expect healing for whatever blindness hinders us.
And once our eyes are open we see a new world around us. It is wonderful: we can see God in a child’s smile, in the blossom in the trees or in the face of a friend. But we also see a world that is not so wonderful. A world of war, terror, abuse, poverty and violence. And this is why it is so important that when we open our eyes to see the world around us, we also open our eyes to see the way – the way to follow Jesus Christ.
This is because as Hebrews said, “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” So our eyes are opened to see the way through Jesus to God’s kingdom and our role in it. Seeing the good and the bad of the world around us helps show us where God’s kingdom is growing and where it is being overcome by darkness.
So our eyes are open and we can see the world and need to see the way to make it right with God to bring ourselves and all of creation closer to God. So what is the way? The way is Jesus Christ our Lord and all that he taught us. We’ve had the examples in recent weeks of not getting tied up in the here and now, in material possessions, in wealth, but to concentrate on God’s communion and relationship. We started this month talking about the importance of bonding with God and with each other to bring us closer to the new heaven and the new earth. Here is part of the way. The beatitudes show us the way. The new commandment to love thy neighbour shows us the way. All through the Gospels we are taught to see the way in kindness, inclusiveness, truth and following a tough road to be disciples of Jesus.
And when we open our eyes and see the way and follow it good things will come. Our faces can, like the Psalm for today says, “be radiant”, meaning an external manifestation of happiness or in non-theological commentary wording – a bright smile. And the Psalm says our faces will become like this when we look to God. Now it’s all well and good to have seen the way and have radiant faces because we are working to approach God, but our radiant faces have a wonderful ministry too. Our radiant faces shine to all those around us, a witness to the joy and grace we have found and so in a small way our radiant faces are missional. They may help others to recover their sight and see the way and follow it. We must not be like the blind disciples trying to block a person’s way to Jesus. We must take that precious knowledge of the way and help others to it too. We must aim for all the faces of God’s children to be radiant.
Having our eyes opened or losing the scales over them like Paul and having our blindness healed may be for some a simple task and for others a long road. To then find the way to God through Jesus Christ our Lord may be equally easy or difficult. But the rewards are great and the responsibility is great too. Having gained sight and the true way it is our calling to then not only pass on that knowledge, but to make sure all God’s creation is helped to be on the way. For some this means hearing the words of scripture or sermons. For others it may first mean having enough food, not living with guns and bombs or not living a life of abuse. Seeing the way is missional. It brings us closer to God, it deepens the bonds we have with God and those around us, but it also calls us to bring people on to the way with us, however that may need to happen.
So don’t be like me in the dark, not seeing the way and trying not to step on the cat! Open your eyes and the eyes of those around you to see the way to approach our God so that all God’s children know the joy of the salvation and grace found in Jesus Christ – the truth, the way and the life.
Thanks be to God.
6 October 2024 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B)
(Psalm 26; Job 1:1, 2: 1-10; Hebrews 1: 1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16)
“It is not good for the man to be alone,” writes the author of Genesis. Nor is it good for the woman or the child. Our fundamental human need to bond with another is beyond question. We are told that new-borns can die if they do not experience human touch. And even if they do not die, they may be psychologically scarred for life. Our identity, our sense of worth and the character of our maturity are all shaped by the quality of our deep bonds with significant others.
The creation story from which today’s Gospel reading is taken, as poetic in form as it may be, to show that the ancient Israelites were clearly aware of the importance of being joined one to another. The woman is made of the very substance of the man, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Contrary to what some have believed, being made from a part of him does not make her inferior to him, any more than the man, formed from the substance of the earth, is considered to be inferior to the earth. Rather, the character of her origin makes her one with him. They are bonded. She is a suitable partner (a much better rendering of the Hebrew word ezer than is the common translation, “helper”).
The man and the woman are bonded on several levels. They are of the same bone and flesh. In other words, they are equally human beings. But bone and flesh can be understood figuratively as well. “Bone” stands for strength and “flesh” stands for weakness; together they encompass the entire range of human characteristics (much like “A to Z” includes all the letters of the alphabet). It is because of this more comprehensive bonding that they are suitable partners.
The most obvious expression of this bonding is marriage and the creation of a new family unit, although in this day and age we bond in many ways as humans and – you knew I would bring this in somewhere – to all God’s creatures, especially cute little gray and white cats. And actually I don’t take the bond we have with the animals in our lives lightly. I grieve terribly with death of each cat I have owned. A bond is been broken and it affects who I am and what I do in years to come.
But to return to humans…Marital bonding is a theme in today’s Gospel. Jewish law allowed divorce, and so the Pharisees’ questioning of Jesus was not a search for information. They were trying to trick him, to see if he would criticize the Mosaic tradition and thus place himself at odds with the people. Jesus was not caught in their trap; he did not find fault with Moses. Instead he acknowledged the tenuous nature of human bonding, and he pointed to divorce as a concession. He then reminded his hearers of the bond established between man and woman as found in the Genesis account.
Whatever your opinion of divorce, one cannot but be saddened at the high instance of its occurrence and the sadness and pain that can accompany it. In some cases of divorce, the marital bond is severed; in others it may never really have been forged. Too often the bond does not even seem to be a serious consideration. This is tragic, because divorce lays bare the absence of a form of bonding that is can be so important for human fulfilment and happiness.
Our Gospel reading holds up marriage as the greatest fulfilment of human bonding, but we should not forget or perhaps not even belittle the other forms of human bonding that occur because it is these bonds with the Holy Spirit that make us a community in the world and in Christ. We may not become one flesh, but our family and our friends are at the core of our world. They influence us greatly and we them.
As Christians we gain strength from one another when we bond and the deeper the bonds we form the greater the strength we are able to share together. A community of faith is a community of bonded people – bonded in many different ways and on different levels.
And our communities and our bonding as part of the good news of the Kingdom of God are to be held with all God’s children. Today’s Gospel’s picture of Jesus surrounded by children is so familiar to us that we may not realize how extraordinary it really is. In ancient Near Eastern cultures, children belonged to the world of women, not that of men. In the Bible, along with women and resident aliens, children generally represented vulnerability. Thus Jesus is depicted as welcoming them not only because they are endearing but also because they are vulnerable and in need of the protection of others. As throughout his ministry Jesus is talking about the inclusion of all in his Father’s kingdom. Then, as so often happens, he turns our perceptions inside out. The child, dependent on others for nurture and protection, is set before us as an example of how we are to stand before God—open and trusting.
The final – and in my eyes really the ultimate – example of bonding can be seen in the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus became one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. As one of us, he “tasted death for everyone.” He was not only the sacrifice, but also the high priest. Thus the writer could say: “He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin.” We are now his brothers and sisters, bonded with him, and through him bonded with God. Pause. We are really not alone.
And so now together bonded as a community let us pray,
King of all the earth, Creator of the universe, Holy Triune God,
From everlasting to everlasting, you are Lord.
You are good, O Lord, and your ways bring life;
You are generous with us and bring fruitfulness to our lives;
You uphold the universe by the power of your word.
You have purified us from our sins and dwell with the Majesty on high.
This is our God. Praise him, all you people, for he is our help and our salvation.
God of all love and peace, we come to you in faith, offering you access into every area of our lives.
Lord Christ, you are a merciful and faithful high priest;
We pray for all men and women. You have created us male and female to reflect your image. Teach us to glorify you in who we are.
We pray for those who are married. Steady their hearts and kindle their affections that they might serve one another in your love.
We pray for those touched by the brokenness of divorce. Pour your refreshing spirit on wounded hearts.
We pray for those who are dating or engaged. Grant them guidance and loving respect for one another.
We pray for those who are single. Firmly establish them in the family of your kingdom.
We pray for those with family and friends around them. May they know and appreciate the richness and comfort that comes from these bonds with others.
We pray for those without the bonds of family and friends. Give them hope and guide them to your family and your children who surround them in their lives.
We look to you, Lord of all, mindful of our helplessness;
We believe in you, Lord Christ.
We cry out to you, Father God.
We receive your witness, Holy Spirit.
Bond us together in your kingdom. Abide with us as we abide in you now and always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thanks be to God.
September 22, 2024 – Ordinary 25 (Year B) (Mark 9:30-37; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a)
Serving and humility – the world doesn’t set us up for it and neither does the church.
This week I had quite the discussion with some fellow Christians. One of the main themes we talked about was humility and how hard it is to foster not only in ourselves, but also in our children. It is quite a counter cultural idea – as indeed the whole of Christianity is becoming, which really should be no surprise to us. Jesus was a revolutionary and a disestablishmentarist.
Encompassing the idea of humility and humbleness and waiting, today in Mark Jesus reminds us about being last and serving others. He reminds us of the essence of being a disciple of Jesus. And helpfully what we heard from the letter of James or Jacob is part of his message of an appeal to be courageous in our faith to help us cope with the trials of life, produce a heightened moral integrity and most importantly of all adopt loving actions. Because that is where serving and being the least and the last starts and ends – with loving service. With love.
It is with love and joy that we will baptise Scarlett in a few minutes. Sam and Becky have shown courage in coming forward to have their daughter welcomed into the kingdom and family of God. As she grows Scarlett too will be challenged to live a life of faith, hope and love; a life that reflects the humility and love of Jesus.
So, what are some of the definitions around humility, courage and serving? First and foremost, it is important for us to remember that we are called to be a servant of all. In the wider world to serve is the act of helping or doing for another. There are so many roles in the world that outright serve, such as a waiter or waitress, and roles that we assume will be regarded as serving the community or country, such as mayors or members of parliament. I’m afraid I have to emphasise that those roles should be underlined by a sense of service.
Biblically, to serve is the essence of Jesus ministry and nature of discipleship. We read, hear and sing about Jesus as the servant king. This idea was more radical than we may be aware of today. The messiah who was predicted in the Old Testament was not one who serves, but one who would be served. He was to be great and mighty, not a servant king and this, in the end, contributed to his death.
In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus talks about welcoming a child. He clarifies that when we welcome a child, we welcome Jesus, and thus we welcome He whom sent Jesus. In being welcoming we are serving. These words from Jesus build on his radical view of serving. A child was the member of the household with the least status in Roman society and was much less well regarded than today. They were lowly and it is the lowly that we are called to serve. We must lower ourselves, which sounds scary and painful and it is.
Servanthood comes down to humility and acts of love. It is about swallowing our pride and tempering our ego. It is about the mindset of humbling and lovingly putting others, and their needs and wants, before ourselves, our wants and our needs. Jesus was a radical, he led in a radical way and we too are called to be radical in our service. Of course, as we all know well, Jesus’ most radical act of service was the ultimate act of service in dying on the cross for us.
What this kind of radical serving means for our reality in this day and age, in this time and place, is the call to be counter cultural. Jesus was advocating a total reversal of the values of his and contemporary society. Our following of his lead and call is not helped by the way our society is structured in pretty much every country. Radical service is also not helped by the way the church is structured. The church has had hierarchy and status since the second it was founded. Hierarchy and structure challenge the ability to be radical servants.
With this in mind, where do we get the strength or understanding to be servants and to be humble? Of course, the Holy Spirit is present to help us forget ourselves, release us from ourselves and societal expectation to serve and love in humility. It is also important to remember that humility, or being humble, is having or showing a low estimate of one’s own importance. Note that this speaks of one’s own importance, not of one’s own self as a creation of God.
The anxieties and worries the world pushes on us can quickly turn into problems in partaking in humility and service. What is the line between being a servant to all and self care? We have a wealth of literature now that tells us we will better serve the Lord and the world if we also take time to care for ourselves. How do we decide what constitutes self-care and where we draw the line? That is something you need to decide for yourself.
Finally, and obviously, the strength or understanding to be servants and to be humble can arise from scripture. We need only look scripture that reminds us that Love is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Michael Timmis says, “The way I define love is by using the fruit of the Spirit, which starts with love. I believe that joy is love rejoicing, peace is love at rest, patience is love waiting, kindness is love interacting, goodness is love initiating, faithfulness is love keeping its word, gentleness is love emphasising, and self-control is love resisting temptation.” I would add that wisdom is love as service.
To service is simple and yet too a delicate balance. It is the most natural thing in God’s kingdom and yet often, if not always, hard. What it comes down to it, it is a submission to God and God’s will. God’s will is that every man, woman and child – including dear Scarlett – be loved and this love is best seen in how we treat each other. We are at our best when we humble ourselves to serve each other in love and so experience what is at the heart of God’s will for others and for ourselves in that love.
Or as James says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”
Thanks be to God.
8 September 2024 – 23rd Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B)
(Psalm 125; Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23; James 2: 1-10. 14-17; Mark 7: 24-37)
In the days following Christchurch’s first major earthquake in September 2010 and then again after the devastating February 2011 quake or after shock or whatever you want to call it we heard a lot of predictions of what the future of Christchurch would be. They said that it would be 10 or 20 years before we fully recovered from the quakes. Personally, once I had power back and could use my toilet and saw most of Christchurch in the same position I thought telling us our recovery would be 20 years was a bit much. Yes certainly it would be 2 or 3 years before life was fairly normal again, but 20?
Now I – and I think anyone who thought like me – can see why they say it will be 10 or 20 years to a FULL recovery. Our situation in the Church alone has shown us that for every after effect there is another after effect from that and one from that and one from that. I can now see how decisions and actions made immediately following the quakes in the years since will affect us for decades. It can be scary – it can be paralysing. And we are no longer a society that is good at the delay of gratification or patiently letting things take their course.
That is why the story of the Syrophoencian woman is such a good one for us to hear today. It does two things for us as a community of faith who continue to face challenge and change. It tells us to have kia kaha – to be strong – and it also reminds us to keep our focus on looking outwards and at mission. If the predictions are true then we need to have strength and courage for not just the days ahead, but the years. And we need to focus our energy and strength on what Christ calls us to do – to have a missional heart that cares for others and spreads, through these tough times, the message of hope found in Jesus Christ.
I have always loved the Syrophoencian woman. She is about the only person in the Bible who corrects Jesus – an amazing act in itself, but even more so because she was a woman in a patriarchal world. She is one of the few people to challenge Jesus and his agenda for the kingdom of God with some merit and validity. As such she showed the most amazing courage. Can you imagine what it took to not only approach Jesus as a first century woman, but to also approach him as a non-Jew and then to not just scamper away when he denies her request, but to stand up to this great Messiah figure and state that you and your people needed to be included in God’s kingdom – with all its benefits – too! I am not the most courageous woman – this is the lady that cried when she dropped the cat at the cattery for her one month stay during EQC repairs! I cannot imagine the faith and courage and determination this woman must have had.
And her example of courage is one we need to hold onto in these times. She is an amazing and inspiring example to us of what we can achieve when we have courage and don’t placidly accept what is thrust upon us. She trusted in God and that Jesus would hear her plea for inclusion and for healing and she managed to refocus the Messiah’s attention! She shows us what great faith and trust in God can achieve. Our psalm today, Psalm 125, is a psalm of trust and in it we are told that if we trust in God we can do great things and he will protect us. The Syrophoencian woman teaches us that as Christians we need to have courage for what we are called to be and do. This courage is very pertinent to us in Canterbury today and in the days to come. We have much change ahead of us and the Syrophoencian woman shows us how life is malleable – even Jesus changed his mind about healing her daughter. We must have the courage to trust in God and adjust to the changes that will continue to affect our lives as Cantabrians and as Christians.
But almost more importantly than the courage the Syrophoencian woman encourages us to have is the example of mission she proves to be too. This story is one of the first and clearest tales of mission in the New Testament.
If it were not for people like the Syrophoencian woman and her call to be included in the kingdom of God – however that may be – we may not be here today. She opened Jesus’ eyes to the validity of God’s kingdom being for all, for all time. Immediately following her encounter with Jesus where she opens his heart to including non-Jews in the mission of the kingdom of God we have the tale of the deaf mute being healed. This story is a symbol of the restoration of hearing and speech for Jews and Gentiles alike. It confirms that the kingdom of God and the movement of renewal has been extended to the peoples around about Israel – Jesus primary focus of mission early in Mark’s Gospel.
Hearing and speech are the tools we have been gifted with to spread the good news of the kingdom of God. The Syrophoencian woman and the deaf mute teach us the basics of mission – that all God’s creation is to be included in the Kingdom of God and that we have a voice to proclaim this message. And remember back to our psalm – in God we trust and he will protect: as we continue forward with our missional work we need to trust in God with our decisions and actions and then know that he will protect us in our endeavours.
And our reading from James this morning further emphasises the inclusion of all in our missional work. He continues the theme of the message of God – the kingdom of God – being for all. Here he focuses on the early Christian community not discriminating between the rich and the poor (a theme Paul talks about in Corinthians too). Proverbs this morning told us that “The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is maker of them all.” James reminds us that the gift of faith is to be used to help others – is to be used for mission. And James gives the golden rule by which we can shape our lives to be missional in every way – “Love your neighbour as yourself”.
Which in a way brings us back round to the courageous Syrophoencian woman – she asked of Jesus that he love his neighbour the Gentile as he loved himself the Jew. The Syrophoencian woman’s story seems on the surface a simple one of request for healing, but in reality it teaches us so much on so many levels. She shows us what courage can achieve and she reminds us that the kingdom of God was meant for all God’s children. We learn through her story, our psalm, proverbs and James that God is creator and provider for all and that God does not discriminate. Our mission is to be true to God’s will and words and to ensure equality and justice and the spread of the Gospel message to all of creation.
Thanks be to God.
11 August, 2024 – Ordinary 19 (Year B)
(1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:25-5:2; John 6:35, 41-51)
What is our butter for the living bread of Jesus?
If you have ever done even the slightest bit of study in psychology you will have come across Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…
Some people have reviewed this hierarchy to better represent the needs of today…
Today’s Gospel has the clear message that Jesus is the living bread that will sustain us, that he is the complete answer to our needs. He likens himself to the manna his ancestors ate in the wilderness. He tells his disciples – this is bread from heaven, so eat and live.
That is a truth we hold dear, but perhaps that is not the end of it for our spiritual hierarchy of needs. What else should we think about in our spiritual hierarchy of needs today? This is not to say Jesus needs augmenting, but that there are other things to consider to be the best we can be. That is to say, what kind of butter should we have on our bread to do it justice? So, as Christians, as a Church, as disciples what do we need to be our best? What butter makes the bread so much more flavoursome?
First of all, I will say that we are not going to dwell on Jesus as the bread of life. The disciples are being called to allow themselves to hear God’s call through Jesus. This is fundamental to being disciples and we talk about it a lot, so today, I won’t dwell on knowing, listening to, learning from and following Jesus. That is self-evident and you have heard about in many previous sermons or in Home Group.
So, what do we need?
Prayer. Simply and plainly we need to be a people of prayer. All through scripture – Old Testament and New are examples on God’s call for us to pray, Jesus’ instruction and example of how to pray and many, many prayers themselves such as in the Psalms. More and more Christianity around the world is returning to a fundamental life of prayer as was seen in past centuries and in the early church. Formal, set prayers are giving way (though not being replaced) to dedicated prayer for particular situations, places, people, problems.
Being a people who pray regularly – let’s face it, theoretically daily – makes sure that all we do and say has a firm foundation. The butter of prayer on our daily bread makes sure our bread stays together and doesn’t crumble in our hands. At the end of the day prayer is just talking to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created to be in relationship with God. How healthy is a relationship if those in it don’t talk to each other often? And with heart and honesty?
And speaking of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, here is our next kind of butter – the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit – his peace he left with us. It is from Jesus and the Father that we have the butter of the Holy Spirit to smear on our life-giving bread in our spiritual journey and our life journey. The Spirit has been sent to be our advocate and our help. To warn and to revive. It is through the gifts of the Spirit that we are able to live our lives as disciples – through wisdom, knowledge, and faith to heal, perform miracles, speak prophecy, discern spirits, and sometimes speak in tongues, and interpret tongues.
Anyone who was on our Holy Spirit day for the Alpha course can attest to how powerful the manifestation of the Holy Spirit can be. The Holy Spirit is alongside us to equip us to be the most faithful and fruitful disciples we can be. And let’s not forget the fruits that come from welcoming the Holy Spirit into our faith and into our lives – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Scripture tells us that against these there is no law! That’s some pretty flavoursome butter!
Further, very handily, Paul in Ephesians this morning provides us with a nice little list of some ingredients in other butters, of what not to do as a church family, but more importantly, what to do as Christians. The no’s are pretty obvious – don’t let anger get the better of you and allow evil in, don’t steal, don’t speak evilly and don’t grieve the Holy Spirit – pointing us again to the value and importance of the Holy Spirit being a very real part of our faith and lives. He also encourages the Ephesians to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice.
Then, as Paul often does, he balances out his list for living in fellowship with the positives we should strive for. He encourages us to be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving. Most important of all he returns to his favourite topic and mine – that we should live in love. Here again we come back, as we do time after time in scripture and theology, to love. Our love for God shaping our lives and who we are and what we need, but also God’s love for us and all the riches that come from that. In loving others we are called to be imitators of God as his beloved children.
Having considered all this in our lives as disciples and what to make of the bread of life as well as the butter, finally, Debie Thomas has written about the readings for this Sunday and she makes some very good points about what Elijah’s story tells us about God, about our needs, about God providing and about needing God’s honest provision.
Debie Thomas notes, “In this week’s Old Testament reading, the prophet Elijah finds himself on a journey of his own — an arduous journey filled with peril and terror. We find him in the wilderness at the end of his strength, literally asking God to kill him so that he won’t have to face the hardships of another day.”
Debie words it wonderfully in what this passage means, “What follows is one of the most gentle and tender passages in the Old Testament. Elijah awakens to the touch of an angel, who says to him, “Get up and eat.” When Elijah looks around, he sees that the angel has prepared “a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water,” for him to eat and drink. Elijah, still sleepy and despondent, nibbles and sips. But not to the angel’s satisfaction. She rouses him again, this time with these words: “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” At her second invitation, Elijah obeys in earnest, and his strength is renewed.”
Debie helpfully points out what Elijah’s story can tell us about the reality of being human and how and when God will provide. She says, “ I love that the angel never minimizes or dismisses the difficulties of Elijah’s journey. She never says, “Buck up, Elijah; your situation isn’t so bad.” Or, “You’ve survived the worst of it, I promise; it’ll all be downhill from now on.” Or, “Once you eat what I’ve prepared for you, things will be smooth and easy.” Or, “What has happened to your faith? Your doubt is grieving God!” No. She says, “Eat.” “Eat because the journey is hard. Eat because you won’t ever make it on your own. Eat because God longs to nourish you with food that will save your life.” The angel doesn’t spiritualize Elijah’s exhaustion, or deny his difficult reality. She doesn’t offer him a shortcut; the journey is his to make, and it can’t be sidestepped. But, she says, he can choose how he makes the journey. He can decide what condition he’ll be in when he embarks. Famished or fed. Strengthened or weak. Accompanied or alone. He gets to choose. And so do we.”
God is good and God knows we struggle in our very human existence. Neither his angels nor he dismiss the difficulty in being human. Neither do they force anything on us. We have free will – for better or worse. For better or worse we have a choice in how to be disciples of Jesus.
So, Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus feeds us with his living body that we may live and spread the good news. This is the basis of being a disciple. But, we shouldn’t stop there. We need to make sure we have butter for our bread to make it hail and hearty. Butter such as prayer, the Holy Spirit, and God’s loving provision and guidance. Bread can and will sustain us, but it does go down a little better when it has some nice creamy, salty butter on it.
Thanks be to God.
4 August, 2024 – Ordinary 18 Sunday (Year B)
(Exod 16:2-4,9-15; Ps 78:23-29; Eph 4:1-16; John 6:24-35)
Adapting to family – growing in Christ as community
Family is a funny thing isn’t it? Due to some disappointing circumstances I moved back into my parents house just before I moved out here. There was of course all the usual quirks of being a family with a child in their 40s living with their parents. Most notably for me I could see how much my parents have really aged and how they are not able to do a lot of what they used to do. They decided I have obsessive compulsive disorder and use too much toilet paper!
But, alongside this, quite a lovely family emerged because I brought my previous cat Lorelai with me. An aging tabby, who was cute as can be. Both my parents are dog people, my father greatly and my mother mostly. We had two golden retrievers when I was growing up. I am a cat person, as you well know!
At first Lorelai was tolerated and I went about taking care of her needs. However, right from the beginning my father made a special effort to bond with Lorelai. Lorelai was a rescue cat and it was pretty clear she was abused by a man in her past. She ran away from even the kindest man and would have nothing to do with them. When we moved in Dad had only to appear at a door and Lorelai was running in the other direction. But slowly, slowly he showed he wasn’t that bad and after months and months she would let him pat her head and was happy to hang around him. Lorelai’s health was in decline and she lost too much weight. The vet nurse said she would have muscle atrophy and needed to exercise. She recommended a laser pointer with a red dot. Well. Dad and Lorelai spent hours playing together with it.
Our nice normal household of three had grown to four and we become a new family. One where parents and their adult daughter navigate the waters of how to live together – how to be bound together and live in unity. And at the end I barely get a word in with Lorelai. My mother talked to her all day narrating what she is doing and asking what Lorelai was doing and where she was going – indeed she followed her to check where she was. Dad chatted to her and waited patiently by open doors and of course played with the red dot with her. They helped feed her and clean up after her and I have to say were besotted with her.
And we here at Holy Innocents are a family too. Perhaps some of us are getting a lot older too and are sensibly staying home from church on Sunday mornings in winter. Some of us are just old enough to need a pair of progressive glasses! You will of course see where I am going with this. The church is a family. And I want to look at the letter to the Ephesians and how they were no longer strangers. The letter shows the keys to living as a community of faith.
So, normally I wouldn’t spend half my sermon telling you about my home life (just a good long paragraph!!) – but it occurred to me it is a perfect example, on a micro level, of a community – a family – of different ages and temperaments and stubborn habits coming to work to live together and even embrace a new and different member to the unit. I thought it was a great example of the things the letter to the Ephesians encourages in us as a community of faith.
This walk through the letter to the Ephesians teaches the church how to be a community worthy of the gospel. In the midst of familiar interpersonal conflicts, the writer of Ephesians reminds them that they are “now in Christ Jesus“, no longer strangers to God and importantly, no longer alienated from each other. Because of this new life in Christ they are experiencing a radical transformation of their identity, as individuals and as a community. These next few weeks will explore what it looks like to be rooted in reconciliation – vertical and horizontal – with God and with neighbours. How do we practice it in radical ways?
My story of the present evolution of my family (well those of us living together) eerily, and kinda sillily, reflects what Paul calls for in Ephesians. He begs us to, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Sadly, I was the only Christian in our household, but even so we have been using Paul’s suggestions to foster harmony and unity with each other. We were all trying to live up to being a good family and we were doing so by being gentle and humble and patient and loving with each other to maintain peace in the house. Like church, it didn’t always work, but we tried.
You know by now that I’m a story teller. I never get straight to the point or the answer to a question directly – you have to get the whole story. That is why I want to share another theologian’s story, not about a church, but which shows us how to be community in church.
She has endured a muddy trail run, gotten lost and she and her running buddies have found they have another huge hill still to climb. She says, “Yet I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun. I’m smiling the entire time. I’m laughing, talking, and making jokes. We are cheering each other on, we are waiting for each other, we are all covered in mud and grime, struggling along the path together, and I’m thinking, why isn’t church more like this?”
Again! Here out in the big wide world are people coming together in community in the way we are called to do so as Christians!
The body of Christ Paul write described in Ephesians four sounds a little more like that theologian’s muddy running buddies then our typical Church experience. Humility. Patient. Bearing with one another in love. Just like my family. It’s so much easier said than done. We all have a tendency to think we know best, to insist on our own way, to be intolerant of others quirks and weaknesses. But it is in the church especially that we are called to be unified as one body – quirks and all.
This is clearly not to say that with being “one body and one spirit” with “one Hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father” all of our differences fadeaway. The second half of today’s reading is devoted to the various gifts we have and functions we perform. The writer celebrates the different qualities everyone brings to the table, but emphasises that the calling of Christ requires we be mature and loving enough to work together as a unified body, “joined and knitted together… Building itself up in love.”
Paul is very clear and very on the nose when he talks about what we must do to be one body in Christ. First of all we need to grow up. Then we need to recognise that each of us brings special gifts just of our own that will fit together like jigsaw pieces to make that one, united body. Some will be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers all to equip us for the work of being the body of Christ – being a community, being a family. We need to know the truth of Jesus the Christ and live by it firmly, not being children continually searching for the next best thing. We know the next, and final, best thing – Jesus. And most important of all we must grow in love. We MUST grow in LOVE.
Like the impromptu community that theologian found on the muddy trail, like the fresh family I was living with, we disciples have our strengths and our struggles, but by humbly excepting one another (mud, fur and all) and being willing to listen and learn from one another, we can find the energy and strength to persevere toward our common goal. The goal of helping those in need and, in doing so, building the kingdom of God as well as spreading the Good News. After all, our Gospel reading this morning reminds us, “Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” and Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Thanks be to God.
July 28, 2024 – Ordinary 17 Sunday (Year B)
(Psalm 107; 2 Cor 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41)
Calming the storm of mental health
Well, here we find ourselves in ordinary time. Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday have all passed and we come to the time of the year when we muddle through the ordinary days with Mark’s Gospel. It is easy for us now, especially those of us who write sermons, to sit back and ride the smooth and easy wave of Gospel commentary and well know themes and explanations. We have weathered the storm and Jesus has brought us to a time of calm.
But, today, anyway, I would like to take this time for us to look more broadly and extrapolate more expansively than we have comfortably done in the past. Today I want to challenge all of us about what we are doing in regard to the epidemic of mental illness in our communities, society and world.
For the next few weeks, the readings from Mark will centre around proving or confirming Jesus’ kingship, his authority and where it comes from. For scholars Mark’s use alternatively of the messianic titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God” has sparked debate as to the authority of Jesus on earth. We heard today in this morning’s gospel when the disciples react to Jesus performing a miracle what they felt and what they said, “And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” You might think this is hard to relate to mental health. If we are, as Jesus’ disciples to address mental health, it is not.
Today we heard the story of Jesus calming the storm. A seemingly straight forward miracle. However, the underlying meaning and the disciples’ reaction makes this miracle more interesting. Jesus is asserting his kingship and his divinity evidenced in his Lordship of all creation. This is where it gets interesting. We’ve discussed that water was very symbolic to the Hebrew people. This storm the disciples find themselves in is reminiscent of the chaotic waters that covered the deep in creation in Genesis. Similarly, it is by divine intervention that the waters are calmed and continue the progression of creation. Jesus brings calm to the storm by copying the Father and bringing peace out of the chaos of water to then continue the progression of his ministry. We need to call on God, Jesus and the Spirit to come again and bring peace to the chaos of mental health all around us, swamping our lives.
It is easy to take the storm and chaos as a metaphor for mental illness. It is easy to then further the metaphor in believing that Jesus is able to come and calm the storm. Jesus is able to come and heal those who suffer. I have no doubt that that has and is happening. Jesus is still calling out, “Peace! Be still!” and calming the earth and its inhabitants. But he also knows that “there is nothing to be afraid of” is a very different thing from saying “do not be afraid”. Jesus rebukes the disciples this morning for being afraid, but never says they had nothing to fear. And let’s be clear, they do not, at least not on their own, discover inner resources they did not know they had. It is Jesus who calms, who heals. It is Jesus who recognises their distress and their inability to cope with it on their own. He speaks of this in terms of their faith, or lack thereof – a common theme in Mark. However, we must not take the position that if people with mental illness just had enough faith they would be fine. That is how we have gotten to where we are.
We need to acknowledge that there is so much society, communities and families do that create or worsen mental illness. This problem is too big and too significant for us to step back and wait for Jesus only to calm and heal. We can’t take Jesus words this morning, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” as the only way to deal with this epidemic.
As disciples we are called to respond to those in need. As disciples and a Church we have been good at meeting the physical and spiritual needs around us, but we have failed when it come to the needs of mental health. It is important to, again, note that this morning Jesus never says there is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be anxious about.
As we heard in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians this morning, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” We are all assured of salvation when we accept Jesus as the Messiah and part of the divine trinity. Our hope in this life is the salvation and eternal life Jesus died to give us. And we hope too to see the kingdom of God come down to earth from heaven and all God’s creation restored to the way the creator meant for it to be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t offer our sisters and brothers some sense of salvation here and now in acknowledging, accepting and caring for those with mental illness.
Paul says, “We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.” He wasn’t referring to the mental health of the first Christians. That simply was not an issue that existed in the Mediterranean in the first century. The verse, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” makes it clear there was little recognition or understanding of mental health. It was present – indeed a number of Jesus’ healings would have been of mental health problems – but it was not on the radar of anyone. It is on our radar now and we are called to address this obstacle as a church, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.
Paul goes on in this morning’s reading to list the traumas the early Christians were facing. As opposed to the epidemic we face in the world now his list is all physical. However, the list that follows of how they are coping with their afflictions is a good starting point for us and the church today in how we can start to address the epidemic of mental health problems.
Paul speaks of, “knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.” It is these virtues that can be our first step in recognising and understanding mental illness. When we learn to recognise and to understand we are equipped to help. We are equipped to use secular tools and Christian virtues to help heal this epidemic. Mental illness could be perceived as chaotic waters in our minds remembering that it is God who created and formed our brains and that just as they malfunction in very human ways, he is able to repair the damage using the tools humanity has developed with the inspiration of his Spirit.
As Jesus said this morning, “Let us go across to the other side.” Let us embrace our sisters and brothers, for whom we pray daily, that are suffering in mind. Let us wipe away stigma, learn to understand and let us sail across calm seas to a place where mental health is something we as disciples and church readily acknowledge and work to resolve.
Thanks be to God.
July 21, 2024 – Ordinary 16 Sunday (Year B)
(Jer 23:1-6; Eph 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34,53-56)
Prophets to shepherds – the continuity of God’s message of love
I will admit, and I think it is customary, that I usually base my sermon around the Gospel of the day. For some reason, just at the moment I am being drawn to our prophetic readings and what they have to tell us. Once more our full readings for today include one of the Prophets of the Old Testament. This week we come across Jeremiah and his proclamations regarding the rulers and people of Israel. In all the readings, in one description or another, we also come across shepherds.
The reading from Jeremiah 23:1-6 is:
23Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. 2Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
Then we get to the righteous branch of David:
5 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Jeremiah was born during very difficult times; it was a time when idolatry, and the pagan rituals flourished in the people of God, and God’s patience was being drained. Jeremiah ministered to this people for a period of over 40 years, and the messages that he was delivering were not all popular or encouraging. In this particular point in history, Judea was under siege.
Quite contrasted to this place and time is our Psalm today, so well-known and so well loved, Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is a beautiful picture of the psalmist recognition that the Lord offers care and provision in a way that mirrors a shepherd’s gentle yet firm guidance of sheep. It reflects the holistic care for tangible, emotional and spiritual needs. These are the marks of good shepherds.
Jeremiah 23 paints a different picture to a gentle shepherd, he condemns the Israelite leaders who have been anything but good shepherds. The passage speaks of a time of restoration after exile. We know that times of exile were a reoccurring theme in the history of the people of Israel. It seems that the scattering of the people is tied to the malpractice of the leaders, whose actions and attitudes led them astray. Again, we have an incensed prophet with a negative and frightening message from God.
Why do we need to know all of these things? These things are necessary to know so that we can be aware of the conditions and circumstances that existed at that time. We must be aware of these things so that we will realize that the messages that we receive will not always be the most popular or the best accepted. This was certainly the truth in this case, looking at it strictly from a human point of view; Jeremiah’s message was not encouraging at all, and definitively not very popular.
To grasp the full meaning of what is being said here, we must look at the meaning of the word “Branch.” This word is translated from the Hebrew word “tsemach” which means “sprouting, growth, sprout.” Therefore, with this definition in mind we can clearly see that here the prophet is not talking about just any normal person. There can be no doubt that the prophet here is talking about Jesus Christ. The Messiah. The Good Shepherd of God’s people.
Jeremiah was a strong critic of the Royal and religious authorities. His prophetic declaration is an indictment of Israel’s leadership at the highest levels. The language of shepherding is meaningful because it suggests a kind of intimacy and closeness; it is hard to be a shepherd and not smell like the sheep. In order to truly Shepherd people, you have to meet them where they are and be attentive to their needs. Jeremiah had a front row seat to the desolation and despair of the people of Israel. He would have known just how much they needed restoration. They needed Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
In verse three Jeremiah expresses God‘s message of gathering the very people whom God drove away. It is an image of a God who both punishes and restores, who disciplines and delivers. It is worth asking how this sits with our impression of the Shepherd and Psalm 23. To know God as a shepherd is to know a complex relationship. The sheep and Shepherd enjoy closeness, but that relationship is not always easy. Sheep have minds and wills of their own. Perhaps the love and care of a shepherd doesn’t always appear that way to the sheep. At times, it may feel like restriction or constraint.
The passages for this week remind me that the relationship between God and God‘s people is dynamic, not static. In a world often characterised by abuses of power and authority the prophetic challenges of the Scriptures here call us to resist business as usual and pursue the way of the good Shepherd in our everyday relationships.
Ephesians makes clear that Jesus came to bring peace to all and to be the peace giving shepherd of two flocks. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace…making peace.” And, “So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near”, that is he came to shepherd the sheep present as well as – especially – those gone astray.
The Gospel is even more clear that the days of dismaying, angry, disappointed and critical prophets has ended. By being our Saviour and Lord Jesus became the last true prophet and he did so as a shepherd of his people. He made sure his sheep rested, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” and were fed, “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves”, and in reality Jesus feeds us on so many levels. And finally, Mark states outright who Jesus can be for us, “and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”.
God is speaking to us today just as he spoke to the ancient Israelites through the prophets of old; God is calling us to listen to His voice and to be obedient to His Word. God wants us all to draw near Him. To draw near to His Son and His Spirit.
Whilst we remain a people of God in need of direction, repenting and to know what is the will of God, gone are the days where the prophets who spoke the word of God were hostile and enraged. Now we have a prophet who loves us so much he shepherds us into the right way to live – a way of living where he has already given us salvation and eternal life. He feeds us, he nurtures us, he leads us and he saves us from ourselves. Something the prophets of old were never quite able to achieve.
Thanks be to God.
July 14, 2024 – Ordinary 15 Sunday (Year B)
(Amos 7:7-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29)
Looking for modern prophets by what they do, not who they are
Last week I talked about Dewi the cat fussing to go outside. So, I opened the door and he looked outside, felt the temperature, and promptly turned around and went and curled up in his little bed. I thought he was very wise to do so. That led into some thoughts on the difficulty of being a prophetic voice both for Old Testament prophets and, as we heard last week, for Jesus. I posed the question as to whether we are truly prepared to listen for, and listen to, modern prophetic voices.
We have in our readings over the next few weeks a season of prophets before returning to the usual mix of Old Testament readings from the Torah, historical books like Kings and other prophets. Last week we heard from Ezekiel, this week Amos, next week Jeremiah and then Elisha as talked about in 2 Kings. Given this spate of prophetic voices coming to us I thought I would focus on prophetic voice for these few weeks.
Last week I talked about being open to hear modern prophets. This of course prompts the question, “Well who do we consider a modern prophet?” Today with the verses from Amos we can begin to form an answer. Amos shows us what a grounded prophet looks like, not one hired by the hierarchy, but called from the fields and the garden. We’ve heard Amos’ message many times, we know it well and hear it echoed in other prophets’ similar proclamations. This morning I wish to focus less on his message and more on Amos the prophet himself and what he tells us about contemporary prophetic voices.
What Amos – the reluctant prophet to ancient Israel – shows us is that being a prophet is about our character and identity, not grandeur or grand gestures or proclamations. Amos is a grounded example of the answer to God’s call to prophetically speak to the people – to God’s people more often than not. After all the definition of a prophet is a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. The prophet is not guided by his or her own convictions, as many presume, but is under the compulsion of the word God has sent.
We see more clearly in Amos a man grounded in his prophetic calling because he is in stark contrast to the temple prophets of the time. They were on the royal payroll and called to provide prophecy when desired – not to spontaneously speak the will of God. For Amos the work of the prophet was not based on status or talent, but on presence and availability to the call of God. Amos is a reluctant prophet and indeed rejects the title. To him, he is a herdsman and a gardener. He also rejects the ideology behind the temple prophets.
And so, we must ask ourselves, who are we looking for when we seek modern prophetic voices? Do we expect loud, confident, assured figures like John the Baptist? Or perhaps we should be on the look out for the quiet, grounded voices, like Amos, in our lives and churches and community and world.
As we listen in our churches and communities for prophetic voices – sometimes quite quiet – we should also be listening to our own heart and mind and be asking ourselves if we in fact have a prophetic voice within us be it quiet or loud. Amos shows us that we can be shaped to be prophets by our lives and roles and experience just as he was. Amos illustrates that the prophetic voice is called upon from the measure – the plumb line – of our lives. Are we present and available to hear and share the will of God? The prophetic call, as illustrated by Amos, comes from what we do day in and day out and reflects our character and identity, not our status or titles.
Feeling the call to be a prophetic voice is difficult and yet Amos illustrates that it does not change who we are, in fact who we are is why we may have a calling to the gift of prophecy. Nothing suggests Amos became a different person because of his assignment. Certainly, Amos’ life pre prophetic calling is about being a cultivator of living things as a gardener and a herdsman. He had developed life-giving habits. Israel was in need of fresh life. Amos’ skill and experience is then transferred from one role to another. This is further proof that our habits outweigh our titles when we speak with a prophetic voice. One might view the Israelites Amos was sent to, to be a living organism in need of pruning or nurture or guidance so that life grows in the healthiest and most meaningful directions.
Certainly, the world today is a living organism in need of a good and skilled guide. On a macro and micro level we are facing frightening times and could do with prophetic voices to tell us God’s will in surviving, even nurturing, the world as earth and as humanity. We are, after all, a people made for justice and formed for faithfulness.
If we consider this morning’s Gospel reading and prophecy we are reminded, as we were last week with Jesus, that a prophetic call is a hard one that has often ended in death. There are perils to being a prophet in history and now. Does this and other consequences scare us off today from hearing or being prophetic voices?
Prophets can scare us not only in their lives, but in their messages. It is not often that a prophet is welcomed with open arms and open minds. Their very being as a prophet can perturb and intrigue us all at once. I find it very interesting that in the Gospel reading we are told Herod feared John knowing he was righteous and holy. He listened to him and was perplexed, but nevertheless liked to listen to John. As we well know, he in fact tried to keep John safe and it was only Herod’s thoughtless and foolish promise to a girl that took the control over John’s life out of his hands.
Who scares us today? Who has a message or delivers a message in a manner that makes us uncomfortable even afraid? Is our uncomfortableness stopping us from hearing God’s word through the prophets of our day? I think immediately of Greta Thunberg – the young and yet loud and persistent voice about our responsibilities to the planet and the onus on all of us to end climate change. She has been heeded by many and had great influence, but she has also annoyed a lot of people. Why? Is it her youth or is it her message? She, like Amos, came out of nowhere and began to stubbornly proclaim her message (perhaps God’s message). Does she scare us with her wisdom, integrity and persistence?
And so, today we are shown what an ordinary man called to be a prophet can look like. We are shown that the way we live, how we relate to the world and modesty of our faith can all be parts of being a prophetic voice. We have learnt the important lesson in seeking modern prophets that the prophet bears witness to the Word of God, even when that Word contradicts his or her own inclinations and experience. I asked last week that we listen for modern prophetic voices, because boy do we need them. This week I hope I have shown you one type of voice, one type of prophet we might be on the lookout for.
Because we must remember that as we read in Ephesians today, God has a plan for the fullness of time. If we are to know and be part of this plan, know the word of God, then we need to heed the prophetic voices around us, loud and quiet, and we need to look for people, like John the Baptist, who are preparing the way. Preparing the way for the fullness of God’s plan now and in the times to come.
Thanks be to God.
7 July 2024 – 14th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B)
(Ezekiel 2: 1-5; 2 Cor 12: 2-10; Mark 6: 1-13)
A world in need of healing and listening to prophetic voices that ensue.
Well, we certainly are into winter now aren’t we? It’s frosty and icy and pretty darned cold. One morning recently Dewi the cat was very impatient to be let out after being locked inside all night. He was pacing and meowing by my door. So, I opened the door and he looked outside, must have felt the temperature, and promptly turned around and went and curled up in his little bed in the study. Very wise I think.
Wisdom…wisdom and prophesy. These are the things our readings today, especially if we consider the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel, dwell on. Prophetic voices and the wisdom of knowing our strength in our weakness.
The readings are about prophets and trying to understand the future, they are about faith in prophets and in God, they are about our weakness being our glory and how Christ is always with us. These are all themes that are so pertinent to us in the world we live in at the present time. It is a matter of a few years since we had unprecedented illness, death and the responses to a new virus and were unsure of where this was leading us. We knew for sure – and it has proven true – that when – if – things returned to normal, it would be a new normal and a new normal we still can’t quite grasp or imagine. In some ways it hasn’t gotten better. In the present we also face frightening wars and conflicts around us that make no sense and reek of evil.
But this morning I want us to take heart and to have hope. I want to reflect this morning – within the context we find ourselves – on the words of scripture and how things written thousands of years ago impact on us here and now.
Theologian Dianne Bergent notes that, “Today’s readings all sketch the profile of a messenger of God, someone called from the group to speak God’s word to that group. They also describe the rejection that these messengers had to endure. Those chosen by God [if we focus on the Gospel], are compelled by the force of their call; those to whom they are sent respond: Who does he think he is?”
She describes a prophet as not one who looks into the future, but one who has insight into the present. The biblical prophets were always members of the community, who were called by God to speak to that community. I find that description very interesting. It is so true and yet we have a prevailing understanding of a prophet as one who speaks of the future. Biblical prophets were of their time and when they spoke words the crowds liked they were revered and worshipped. When they spoke words the crowds didn’t agree with or had messages that challenged the status quo they were unpopular and rejected, even by those who knew them best. Bergent notes, “The prophetic mantle was, and continues to be, a heavy one to bear.”
The Israelites were in need of prophets. The reading from Ezekiel says, “And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”
We continue to be in need of prophets. The dictionary defines a prophet as a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. For, as Christians, this means that there continues to be within humanity individuals who speak boldly of the kingdom God proclaims. Of its virtues and values, of its goodness and wisdom. And we are called to hear these prophetic voices and to heed their words.
Prophets faced challenge and disagreement all through the bible and they continue to do so today. One of the simplest prophesies of our time is also an ancient one – that when we face trials, such as these days, we can always, should always, must always turn to God. This is what we can take from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians today. “My grace is sufficient for you.”
My grace is sufficient for you. Such an obvious and heart warming message and yet also one that we struggle with as fallible humans. We think we know better or we think we can handle things on our own. Even as Christians we think we must contribute to the answer or resolution. In our arrogance we forget that God has all the power – God has all that is required to meet the challenges of our lives and of the world. Just for a moment imagine what kind of world we would be living in if only the power of God was acknowledged by all and we truly understood and lived out the fact that God’s grace is sufficient for us.
And to take this further, when God send us prophets to call us back into line, as with the Israelites, or to speak to the problems of today how often do we accept the words of God from the mouth of humanity? How often do we not heed modern prophets? How often do we not even hear the prophetic voices in humanity today?
I think at the moment in the world and here too in our church family, we may feel the need for the voice of a prophet or prophets. We have so many frightening and confusing problems and questions facing us it can be hard to know where to turn. What this morning’s passages and the reflection tell us is to not be too hasty in dismissing what may be a prophetic voice among us.
I think we should focus on the need to turn to God in the face of any kind of trial. In Mark’s Gospel a strong theme is that healing follows faith – not the other way around. Think of the haemorrhaging woman of last week’s Gospel – she was healed because of her faith. She didn’t gain faith because God healed her. Alongside to listening to each other openly we need also to have faith – faith for a world in need of healing. It can be incredibly challenging to have faith when times seem so hard and problems seem beyond our abilities, but we must continue to.
And all this is so perfectly summarised in Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians. “I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul tells us that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. He boasts about weakness so that the power of Christ dwells in him. We are in exactly the same position as Paul with trials and tribulations, and in our weakness we can be strong and know the power of God and the strength of Jesus Christ among us. We shouldn’t be afraid of challenges facing ourselves and indeed the world or our weakness because in them we can find the power of God and the strength to go on with our ministry and mission.
So, I want to finish by saying be open, be heard, listen, don’t be afraid and know we are strong in our time of weakness. And finally, as our psalm for today tells us, “He will be our guide forever”.
Thanks be to God.
June 9, 2024 – Ordinary 10 Sunday (Year B)
(Gen 3:8-15; 2 Cor 4:13–5:1; Mark 3: 20-35)
Faith, Hope and Love: These three abide
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, Oh Lord.
Rules. Not something anyone particularly gets excited about I think. Some people enjoy having rules though. As you probably know by now I do!! I think if you are going to be a priest in the Anglican Church you need to have an affinity with rules or else a desire to be a rule breaker! I do feel more comfortable when there are rules in life. Perhaps this something that abides with me from being raised in the army.
This is my first sermon to you since I was on leave. I wanted to take the opportunity to talk again about the centrality and importance of the words of 1 Corinthians 13:13. In the end three things abide: Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.
Abide. The famous word from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. It refers to rules or remaining or something we act in accordance with. This is one of my favourite verses in the bible. Admittedly I have taken enough weddings that use the verses on love that immediately precede this verse as their reading that I could happily not dwell on that again, but that last verse of Paul’s ode to love is succinct and beautiful, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love”. It tells us all we need to know about being a Christian and living out our lives for Christ. It gives us a roadmap for discipleship.
Throughout the New Testament again and again what Jesus and the apostles teach and how they act comes back to these three things – faith, hope and love. It’s not immediately clear, but today’s gospel reading is no exception.
We heard this morning about Jesus being accused of being Satan, the parable of a divided kingdom and blaspheming the Holy Spirit – a verse I have to say does keep me awake some nights (not that I recall ever taking the Holy Spirit’s name in vain). We also heard about a strong man, forgiving sins and who Jesus’ sees as his family. It is these last three parts that reflect all the Christian virtues Paul speaks about. There is a message of faith, there is a inference of love and there is an offer of hope.
So, which of Paul’s abiding truths comes first in today’s gospel? I would say faith. When we listen to verse 27, “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered” faith may not be the first thing that pops into our heads. But I think this is a statement about having faith – the strength the man has is the equivalent of faith. His strength – his faith – is so mighty that he has to be bound in order for his house to be plundered. Jesus may well have been referring to the kingdom of God in this parable. The kingdom is the house and the strength is faith.
Perhaps Jesus is saying to us, reminding us, that the kingdom of God he has come to proclaim cannot be destroyed if we hold strong – if we have faith. Have faith in Jesus, the Father, the kingdom and – as we are made acutely aware of in this passage – faith in the Holy Spirit. Satan can only “plunder” the kingdom or our lives as Christians if our faith is weak. When we consider the wider passage and chapter we can see that how the crowds are reacting to Jesus and his words and actions are indicators of the growing faith in Jesus as the Christ and therefore the realisation of the kingdom of God. The Gospels go on to tell us that the word of Jesus’ deeds spreads, and infer that along with this good news, faith spreads too.
The miracles we hear earlier in this chapter inspire faith in that they reveal who Jesus is and the accompanying salvation he offers as the Messiah. Mark is confirming for his readers that Jesus was who they believed him to be. He was the awe-inspiring powerful Lord sent by God. Any faith in Jesus as the Messiah is assured and justified by his words and actions. This is why he runs into trouble with the scribes. They are scared of the faith he is gaining for himself and taking from them.
And so, we move onto hope. Jesus came to offer us hope for the future, hope of salvation, – hope of forgiveness. To the Jewish people of the first century, he was potentially the hope of relief from the oppression by the Romans. For those early Jews who became Christians he was the hope of the kingdom of God come down from heaven to earth. In this morning’s gospel we can see hope in verse 28, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins.” Yes, it is followed by a rather alarming statement concerning the Holy Spirit and forgiveness, but first come the assurance we will be forgiven – most things.
Here is our hope. Here is where our human weakness and frailty find salvation and relief. We are assured that if we believe in Jesus as the Christ all the mistakes we make, all misjudgements, all the blunders will be forgiven and we will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven. Those simple words – people will be forgiven for their sins – give us hope for our future and hope that we can know salvation and eternal life even as flawed human beings.
So, what of love? Well, it is fairly simple and fairly obvious. Right at the end of today’s passage Jesus tells us, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus loves us so much he regards us as his family. Jesus was inclusive and generous. If we walk with him, he will walk with us. If we believe in him, he will give us salvation. And…if we do nothing at all, he will love us. He will love us so fiercely that we are brothers and sisters to him. We abide with Jesus with the deepest love we can have – that of family.
So, as so often in the New Testament, we see reflected today the truths of faith, hope and love. And Paul did regard these three things as eternal truths. In 1 Corinthians he is saying that in the end, when all else is gone, after the distractions and the burdens of this world have passed away we will still have faith, hope and love. These eternal truths are the essence of the Christian commitment according to Paul and I would agree. We exist by faith, we exist in love and we exist for the hope we have in Jesus Christ. And like the Trinity, one without the others has no value. We are called and encouraged to abide in a trilogy of goodness.
And as Paul says, but the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these, as the reflection of God’s own character, is love. I stand strong when it comes to the importance of unconditional love in our world and in our lives as Christians. It is by our love that we will be known as followers of Jesus. It is love that establishes, proves and feeds our faith. It is love that is the root of our expectant desire in hope.
And how are we to take these three values and abide in our day to day lives? I would call you to take your faith, hope and love and to take a risk. Assured in the eternal truth of these three things look around you and into yourself and find out where God is calling you to be brave. With your faith you have hope that the love of God will be an eternal truth in your life and your being. So, abide in these and be brave and step out on the ledge of life for Christ knowing you have the safety net to catch you of faith, hope and love.
Thanks be to God.
5 May 2024 – Easter 6 (Year B)
(Psalm 98; Acts 10: 44-48; 1 John 5: 1-6; John 15:9-17)
The central role of water in our lives.
Fourteen years ago I think the people of Christchurch may not have appreciated the blessing of free and easy access to water quite so much as they were soon to do. Many of them, myself included, after the earthquakes that shook the city, learned what it is to be without water or what it is to have to walk or drive some distance to collect water. It taught the townies the value of readily available water and how much it impacts our lives when a significant part of our day is taken up in procuring water to wash with and to drink. But, I’m not speaking to a group of townies today am I? Of course, out here in the country we rarely take for granted the gift of water, especially if you are not on a town supply. Especially, if you are – as we are now – waiting for solid rain to water our parched land.
Even New Zealand farmers, however, may not hold the gift of water as preciously as people in place like Africa or other third world countries do. In these places procuring water can be central to the rhythm of the day. Sometimes women, and it is usually women, must walk many, many miles to reach the community’s sources of water. They often put their safety and lives at risk if they travel alone to these places. These are people who really appreciate the immense value of free and ready water in or near your home.
And water is essential in our lives and it is disheartening that so much of our world goes without a ready supply of clean water. Life without water – to drink or to grow crops – is hard if not impossible. This is why there are many charities or charitable projects around the world that focus, or work on, making sure person after person, village after village and country after country have the gift of water that we so often take for granted.
I think this is why water is used as an image – metaphorically and literally – so much in the Bible. God knows the life force that it carries and He knows it is an image of life force we can relate to. And as is referred to in today’s readings, the people of Old Testament Israel or early Christians knew water to be valuable and to be a blessing too.
There are so many significant moments in the Bible around water – Genesis begins with the Holy Spirit or God’s wind sweeping over the face of the waters. Blood and water seep from Jesus’ side when he is pierced with a spear on the cross to prove he is truly dead. Water and places of water bring communities together. Wells are a meeting place. Jesus’ lessons and talking to the crowds often takes place on or near the water. In the Bible wells are places where we hear prophesy, where lessons are taught and where romance begins. One of my Old Testament lecturers said, “if you are reading the Bible and there is a boy and a girl and a well there’s going to be some romance!”
Baptism is, of course, a time that reminds us how entwined water and the Holy Spirit are – John baptised with water and the apostles with the Holy Spirit. Our reading from Acts this morning reminds us of the intimate relationship of water and Holy Spirit in baptism. When a group of Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit Peter’s immediate reaction is that baptism through water cannot be withheld from anyone who has received baptism through the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, Peter’s words work to remind us that both baptism, and water, should be freely available to all God’s children. The scripture says, the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles – a reminder in those early days of the faith that all are welcomed and called to have faith in Jesus the Christ. The connection of the Holy Spirit and water in baptism – one of the most important sacraments we have as Christians – reminds us of how God’s power and blessings are seen through the simple, yet precious, entity of water.
And so, when we are baptised with water we receive the power of the Holy Spirit too. The gift of water and the Spirit is powerful. In 1 John we hear that whoever is born of God conquers the world, “and this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith”. Our faith, the drive of the Holy Spirit – the truth teller as Johns says – and Jesus’ commandments all encourage us to work for the good of all God’s children through the power and the victory of our baptism and our faith.
Jesus says this morning, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” So then to follow the commandment to love our neighbour in supplying precious water, that is a blessing in more ways than one, to those without, will not only help the children of God, but will bring love and joy into our lives.
Indeed, Jesus finished his discourse this morning by reminding us (or telling for the disciples for the first time) that “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” So, when we follow the commandments of Jesus we act in love for one another. This love goes on to bear fruit, as Jesus says, but let’s remember that the key to fruit being borne is plenty of water.
It is an appalling situation when every child of God does not have free and easy access to clean water. Think what our faith could help us to achieve around the world – not just with our small parish, but with big churches and organisations that are working toward clean water for all. Water is a sign of God’s power and the power of our faith in God can help to make the dream of clean water for all a reality. Working to ensure clean and accessible water for even one village may seem like a small step in a world full of problems and darkness, but it is a step forward and it is a victory. It is a victory that began with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as John refers to when he talks of the blood and water he came through.
So, we have seen that water is a gift of God that shows his power, that water is closely associated with the Holy Spirit, that water can be a means of victory through our faith against the darkness and injustice of this world. Finally, in our Gospel reading from John this morning, we can see that something simple like water can bring us together not just as servants of each other, but as friends and friends in Christ. This is how Christian charity works to support communities. When a charity ensures a supply of water to a village they are helping change and better life in that village and encourage the people to come together as a community around the source of that water.
In John’s Gospel Jesus is calling us to be a people of a resurrected faith – abide in my love he tells us. He tells us to go and bear fruit. But most important of all, as a people of the risen Christ, he calls us to follow his commandment to love one another. We have seen in our world that when we act together in faith, when we act as people of the risen Lord we can achieve wonderful things. We can achieve projects that remind us of the life force of water that God has gifted us with and that reflects his glory.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Thanks be to God.
14 April 2024 – Easter 3 (Year B)
(Psalm 4; Acts 3: 12-19; 1 John 3: 1-7; Luke 24: 36-48)
Witness and scripture as ways of the people of resurrected faith.
Theological lectures can be quite disheartening depending on who is giving them and what their beliefs are. I remember attending one lecture at Auckland university one morning where the lecturer was a very pragmatic Christian and dwelt on the fact that other than written stories we have no real proof that the resurrection occurred. I returned to St John’s College somewhat dejected and disheartened that the very people training us to be priests seemed to not fully believe the essence of our faith. I arrived in time for lunch (at St John’s all the students and staff join together each day for lunch) and sat with our then Dean David Jeans. I expressed my dismay and confusion at that morning’s lecture and David reminded me that those stories and the stories of the actions of the first disciples are real evidence of the resurrection.
What he said was that those first disciples must have been so dejected and dismayed and depressed after the death of Jesus. The great and mighty Messiah they thought they had found had been taken away from them and killed. He was no more. How would they carry on his message and his ministry when all the promises he held had disappeared. But those disciples did continue to spread the message of Jesus, they did continue his ministry and furthermore they started spreading this new good news of the resurrected Jesus and all that meant. As David pointed out, something must have happened that restored their faith and fired them up. Something happened that meant they then spent the rest of their lives – at great risk to their lives and well-being often – spreading the good news and continuing Jesus’ ministry. For David, and for me, that something was the witness of the resurrected Jesus. It was the affirmation of all that was predicted in scripture. And this Sunday of the Easter season that is what we hear about – the opening up of scripture to the disciples and the witness of the risen Christ.
But sometimes we really feel the need to see things for ourselves too. The great kiwi yearn to travel I think comes from this. We are so far away from the rest of the world that when we see image after image of some international icon we want to see it for ourselves. And there is something special in visiting a far off place – the smells, the way the light seems a different colour, the noises are all different and exciting and bring to life an image or scene we have held in our mind or heart.
This is what it must have been like for the disciples in Luke’s Gospel when they witness and see for themselves the risen Christ. Last week and this week’s Gospel readings both dwell on the witness of the disciples of Christ resurrected. In each reading Jesus says to them, “Peace be with you”. Maybe he was reassuring them as in both readings they are frightened at his appearance. And who wouldn’t be? Never before or since (not including Lazarus) has such an event occurred – someone they all knew was dead, that many of them saw die was back in front of their eyes alive and well and eating with them. They still had in their minds the ideas of the mighty Messiah they had been counting on having been slain like a criminal. They did not yet realise the unexpected and supreme way Jesus was still that mighty Messiah they had anticipated him to be.
And this is where the second vital part of our readings today comes in – the disciples have witnessed the risen Christ and then their minds are opened to the scriptures to understand who he truly is and what he has achieved in not only the forgiveness of sin, but power over death. Again, both last week and this week’s Gospel readings tell us how Jesus opened their hearts and minds to all the scriptures. Jesus tells the disciples who are witnessing him resurrected, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations…you are witnesses of these things”.
The understanding of scripture and the call to be witnesses to what scripture tells us are entwined. The disciples were able to witness to the risen faith because they had had the word of God not only appear before them, but be opened up to them in the form of scripture.
This week in Luke’s Gospel then we come full circle. After witnessing the resurrected Jesus and having him explain how the scriptures foretold and explain this resurrection and the power that comes with it, Jesus calls the disciples to be witnesses of these things. Again, we see the intertwining of witness and understanding our Bible. This is precisely what John is doing in his letter, but more vividly what is happening in our reading from Acts. The writer of Acts is retelling in more emotional terms the death and resurrection of Jesus and that they have witnessed it – “To this we are witnesses”. And they are witnesses he goes on to explain because God has fulfilled what he had foretold throughout the prophets – witness and scripture combined yet again.
So, what does this mean for us? It means that as people of a resurrection faith we too are called to be witnesses and to understand the scriptures and what they tell us about Jesus the Christ. We must become like those first disciples and be jolted out of our complacency, fear, doubt and meekness to be excited into action knowing, knowing that Jesus Christ is risen, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the promise of eternal life and that we are a people of the risen Lord. And we do this by the faithful study of the Bible and by then witnessing to all the Bible tells us.
This is why it is so important for us to study our Bibles and not just read them. There are many great resources around that help guide us through reading and studying Bible passages – you don’t have to go through the agony of a theological degree to study scripture J There are little booklets like Word for the Day or Daily Bread that take a passage for you to read and then have a commentary usually by a minister or a theologian that helps you explore that passage and gain some deeper meaning from it. You can join a home group or Bible study group. And the internet has untold resources that can guide you to a deeper understanding of the Bible – that can open your hearts and minds to the word of God.
Then we are just that little bit better equipped to follow our call as the people of a resurrection faith – our call to witness to all nations that Christ is risen. We are better prepared to witness that God foretold of this through the prophets and that we have the words, stories and events of the disciples to renew and enhance our faith and to help us tell the story of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Thanks be to God.
March 24, 2024 – Palm Sunday
(Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Mark 11:1-11)
The difference in God’s world then and now
At night time just before I go to bed I give Dewi a few biscats in his bowl in the kitchen and then the two of us trot up the hall to bed. Lately, however, Dewi hasn’t been as hungry so he has biscats leftover from dinner in his bowl last thing at night. But he cannot, for love or money, accept going up bed without having his “supper” put down for him. In a testimony to his stupidity we now play a wee game where I pick up the bowl with food in it, raise it above his head and shake it three times counting, “one, two, three”. And then after this magic trick Dewi quite happily eats his “fresh” supper and off to bed we go. Dewi wants his world and his schedule to be just what he expects it to be and it takes nothing less than magic for that to happen.
We humans are not that very different from Dewi. We want our world the way we want and expect it to be and that is that. We simply don’t learn when time after time after time God reveals to us HIS world and HIS expectations. In the gospel reading this Palm Sunday Jesus defies expectations of a messianic arrival for some and God’s world continues to defy expectation today. The immensity and power of God’s love and forgiveness continue to be underestimated and misunderstood.
Here we are at the beginning of Holy Week, the beginning of the final journey to the cross and still Jesus is defying expectation of who the saviour of Israel would be – even defying that the saviour would be for Israel alone. Already he has upended some thinking whilst fulfilling prophecy. And it only gets worse from here. How could things go so very, very wrong in such a short amount of time from the palm procession to the cross? Why? Because against human expectation and will, God willed it – God ordained the journey our sin would cost our Lord.
When will we learn? When will we fully perceive that our wisdom is God’s foolishness? Why do we continue to close our hearts to Jesus’ message of love and forgiveness for all – for ALL. Still we think we know best how to build the church, how to disciple Christians, how to build the kingdom of God. And yet time and time and time again we fail. We quit. We burnout. We simply stop. Because when we try to do things via our humanity we will fail. The human way will never win. We must rely on God’s Holy Spirit to lead us. It is God’s will that should and will prevail. The only true wisdom is God’s wisdom in the form of Jesus the Christ and the Holy Spirit.
And now, here today I am going to practice what I preach and I’m going to shut up now and I’m going to lead us in quiet reflection for a time on just what we think is God’s will and just what maybe, just maybe, is actually our own will. What of our wisdom does God find foolish? Well let’s take some time not to hear what I have ascertained on the question – though as your spiritual leader that is what I am usually called to do – no, today just for a change let’s sit in silence and call on God’s Spirit.
I know some don’t like to sit in silence and I know some don’t like to reflect surrounded by others, but this is Holy Week and there are many, many more words to be said this week. The journey is long and hard with great wonder and we will hear many, many words about the moments of the journey to the cross and resurrection. So, I think the best thing we can do for our faith and God’s kingdom right this minute is to sit in silence and ponder truly and with heart felt honesty – do we follow God’s will or do we follow our own in this crazy, scary world that defies expectation.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Quiet reflection
Thanks be to God.
March 17, 2024 – Passion Sunday
(Jer 31:31-34; Ps 119:9-16; Heb 5:5-10; John 12:20-33)
Dichotomy as Christians
When I went to choose Dewi the cat I said to the Cat Protection League – I don’t want a boy and I don’t want a kitten. Guess what I walked out with? Now, I hope and pray that Dewi will live a good long life, but every now and then I think about my next cat. I’ll see a video of a cute wee kitten and think oh that would be nice or I’ll remember how much you can form a cat to your lifestyles (in a limited sense) and to you when you get them as a kitten. Then I remember the horrors of having Dewi as a kitten – the damage, the seemingly pointless training, the finding the right diet, the noise and fuss in the night and on and on. So, when I think about my next cat (in another 16 years or so) I need to hold together in my mind the dichotomy of the wonder of having a kitten, but also the very, very hard work they can be.
We as Christians – especially in this sad, bright season of Lent – must also hold a dichotomy in our minds. We must celebrate and find hope and joy in the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, but we must also always carry in us the death of Christ. As 2 Corinthians so eloquently puts it, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”
In Lent we hear a lot about the death of Jesus in predictions and descriptions. Today’s Gospel is a prime example. Jesus is talking about the hour to come – the hour of his death. He also alludes to the pain and difficulty that lies ahead for those who believe in him and become Christians.
A quick aside –another dichotomy Christians live with. We are told that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus, but also that his yoke is light. The dichotomy of reward and effort in being a Christian. In high expectations of us, but also the promise that we will always have Jesus and the Spirit to help us with those expectations.
But back to the Gospel – Most readings of the Gospel in Lent will be a telling of Jesus’ outlining his death to come, some will refer to his resurrection too, but overall we have six weeks of readings that serve to remind us over and over about the pain and misery of the undeserving death Jesus will undergo. I think part of the reasoning or tradition behind this is that we must always, always, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, carry the death of Jesus in us as we carry too his life. We are so blessed by the resurrection and having a living Lord amongst us and for us. However, alongside this knowledge, we must carry with us the death and the manner of death Jesus underwent. We are challenged as Christians to hold the dichotomy of Jesus death and life within us all at once.
Likewise, the journey to Easter day doesn’t start at dawn on Easter Sunday. In order for us to truly appreciate and enjoy and find hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must too enter into the brutal death of Jesus Christ. We must worship and remember the Easter story on Good Friday and Easter day. Good Friday is not a public holiday, it is not an extra service around Easter. It is a vital and necessary reliving of the pain and death of Jesus.
Traditionally the church has a service on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday and named for the new commandments – the mandatum in Latin – that Jesus gives his disciples). At the end of the service there is no dismissal. And on Good Friday there is traditionally no welcome or dismissal. It is only at the end of Easter day that the dismissal is said, thus creating across the four days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter day one service that carries on in our hearts when we are not in church. One service spanning the dimming of the light of God, the total darkness of death and the bright shining hope and joy of resurrection.
And that my friends is where this sermon on this Passion Sunday will end. Partly because I preached my longest sermon ever last Sunday and so am giving you a break this Sunday 😊, but mainly because the message I want you to take away today is the simple and complete message that just as we carry the light of Jesus in us, so too we carry the darkness of the death of Jesus.
To honour this, to honour Jesus, in the coming Eastertide I beg of you come together as a parish, as Christians, not only for the joy of Easter day, but also for the pain of Good Friday because the light of Christ shines so much brighter when we have truly recognised the darkness of the journey to the cross alongside the resurrection.
Thanks be to God.
February 14, 2024 – Ash Wednesday
(Isaiah 58:1-12; 2 Cor 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21, 10)
The treasure of words
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Traditionally with the readings for Ash Wednesday – for the first day of the season of Lent – the focus is on sin or humility and piety. When I read through the readings, however, it was the last few words we heard from Matthew that touched my heart. These were words about treasure and it got me thinking about what do we as Christians treasure? What is it about or in the season of Lent that we treasure?
Certainly, we treasure the time to contemplate the upcoming events of Easter. We do extra study on a particular theme during Lent and we do rightly spend time thinking about our sins and our piety.
But it struck me that one of the treasures we have as Christians, and especially during Lent and Easter, is the gifts of words and voice. Words of scripture to tell us the painful and joyous events of Easter, the Word made flesh, and our words in prayer and supplication. We have a great, great treasure in words and our ability to voice them. Isaiah told us, “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet.”
We need these words and the ability to voice them because we are in a season that primarily is aimed at reminding us of our fallibility and fragility and thus the enormity of what Jesus took on, on the cross for our sin. Isaiah mentioned the rebellion and sins of the Jewish people, but not much has changed today. We still sin, we still do wrong, we still let God and ourselves down.
But – and what a wonderful but – we recognise our faults knowing that they are forgiven. Jesus died on the cross to forgive all the sins of all humanity. Similar to the idea of the kingdom of God being now, but yet, when we confess our sins to God – be it in church or our own minds – we are actually already forgiven. God has made it clear that nothing is beyond forgiveness when you accept Jesus as your Saviour. This is the treasure we are walking towards in Lent as we head to the cross and Jesus’ resurrection.
Words then help us to acknowledge and honour Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sin. This is a fundamental of the Christian faith, but it is one that bears repeating over and over. It is so extraordinary, so beyond our comprehension that we need to be reminded at least once a year of the value of this gift. I cannot emphasise enough how mind blowing the death and resurrection of Jesus – for us – was and is still. We are forgiven, but we must never forget that fact and how that fact came into being.
And we can acknowledge and own this treasure through the added treasure of words. Through the Word of God made flesh and acknowledging Jesus’ divinity as well as our words in praise and supplication of and to God. Isaiah again says, “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.” 2 Corinthians reminds us that with our words we are ambassadors for Christ and that we commend ourselves – as Christians – to others through truthful speech.
We have the greatest treasure of all in Jesus Christ and we need to use our words to be grateful and mindful of this gift as well as sharing this blessed treasure with the world. The rest of what Matthew said tonight reminds us to be humble with our words when we do proclaim this good news. Indeed, between the two passages of Matthew we heard tonight Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s prayer as an example of the simplicity our words can take on. So, while we have words and voices to remember and proclaim what Jesus did for us, we must remember to do so humility and concern not for what it achieves for ourselves, but for how it serves God and his kingdom and the Easter story.
Because remember, at the end of the day, it is God’s power and majesty we are saved by and that we proclaim. As psalm 33 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.” And finally, we are reminded in Philippians that we should, “not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Thanks be to God.
March 10, 2024 – Lent 4
(Eph 2:1-10; John 3:14-21)
Light versus darkness and faith versus good works today
A few years ago I gave up Facebook for Lent – which has been a bit of a failure this Lent. To be honest, when I did give it up, it wasn’t as much of a hardship as I had anticipated. I was actually even looking forward to the break, especially as it was in those days of Trump saturated news. I missed not knowing what my friends are up to and connecting with them over posts. I didn’t miss the endless ads and a lot else on Facebook. What I was aware of particularly missing, and its importance, was knowing what the world around me was doing. I “like” a number of different home and international news outlets on Facebook and it is probably where I get most of my news given I don’t watch it on TV at night and don’t always remember to look at Stuff.
This experience of fasting from Facebook and the consequences led me to think a lot about how the world around us effects our faith and faithful works. It has prompted me to think about the world around us encompassing social media and its impact on the calls of Christianity. You may ask why I am talking about this during Lent. Remember that Lent is a time of self-reflection. It is a time to examine our faith, our practices and within those two things how we are living with a world we are in, but not of. Hence, what challenges or benefits does social media bring into our experience, as Christians, in the world.
And it is timely to be looking at social media. We have seen an American President who manipulated his country through social media and indeed manipulated social media itself. Soon, with sadness, we mark the five-year anniversary of the Mosque massacres. We should remember too that social media played a role in those events. And lastly, we need to acknowledge that COVID and lockdown have pushed us, as a church, into a new realm. Who or what are we when we can’t gather together or when we can’t even give someone a hug?
We start this week with two of the most well-known and well-loved verses in the bible – the mini Gospel of John 3:16 and then Ephesians 2:4-7. That is, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” And the no less significant, but more meaty, “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”
As I studied these texts and the verses they are situated in two things struck me. The first thing was the darkness talked about in John. “And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.”
It made me think – what is the darkness that surrounds us today? The dark spirits or powers that John and Ephesians talk about were bad spiritual influences on both the Jews and the Gentiles, before Christ, that prompted them to be engaged in a lifestyle of sin and they therefore were hidden from God’s protection and blessing. When Christ rose to resurrection from the dead He had not only defeated death, but these dark spirits too. So, if they are defeated what is the darkness we are surrounded by now?
As many as there are Christians there are opinions of the presence and power of bad spirits and Satan himself at work today. But whatever you think of that, most will agree that humanity remains filled with negative impulses and drives that lead to sin. Whatever prompts, enlivens or encourages these unchristlike aspects of humanity they all lead to sin. Ephesians talks about salvation being the very opposite of human contriving or manipulation. This darkness around us can seem even more encroaching as the world we live in becomes more and more secular as well as more and more virtual.
In thinking about this darkness in combination with my past successful fast from Facebook I started to think, is the explosion of social media in our society and indeed world something of or for the light, or of and for the darkness? Is the exposure of our world and our own personal lives something working for good or bad? Because almost everything is out there on the internet, are we living more in the light or are we being fooled to think of darkness as light?
So, the big question I will ask you is does exposing our lives on social media focus us in the light or in the darkness? My first reaction when thinking about this was that we are striping away the darkness that hides our lives and so bringing them into the light and does that then prompt us to be less sinful. Then I thought well what does that say about what we don’t expose of ourselves to social media? Things like not posting a picture of you punching that really annoying shop assistant cause that’s kinda sinful. But also, things like – a number of people don’t post pictures of their children on the internet as they fear the photos getting into the wrong hands such as paedophiles. And remember that sin begets sin. Kinda hard to decide if this whole social media thing is dark or light.
However, I can think of a lot of times when social media has had significant positive effects in our world. Politically it has been used to inform the world of what is really happening around them. It has been used to shame and displace regimes. Think of the horror of the Rwanda genocide and what may have happened had it been immediately in the eye of the world because of social media. We are using the internet for good measure with our newsletter to create an online community linked to our parish.
And in recent years we have seen the power social media can have in bringing people together. Look at the women’s marches around the world after Donald Trump was elected where millions of women and men stood and marched against the inequality of women. And the #metoo campaign, through mostly twitter, that exposed the horrific levels of sexual harassment women around the world in all places and industries have silently put up with for decades and more. Here, here is the light overcoming the darkness.
And then there is the good old fashion experience of uploading to, or checking in with, social media. Isn’t it a good thing to be sharing the goodness and wealth of our lives with those we love (and probably a lot we don’t love too!). On the surface this would seem to be something of the light. When we share church or Christian posts we are perhaps in a small way furthering the news of the Gospel. Indeed, does posting what we do on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or whatever other social media encourage others to act in kindness and good will?
Or is it just prideful boasting? Are we consciously or unconsciously saying to the world, “Hey look at me, I’m a good person who does good things.” And this bring me to the second thing to strike me about our readings this morning and that was that Ephesians and John are both very clear that salvation, the grace of God, comes to us through faith and not good works. So, forgive me a quick tangent.
For centuries the church has grappled over the mixed message of scripture and as to whether salvation or God’s grace is earned by good works or given through faith. The church has disagreed and even split over this one issue. But the message we very clearly get today is that our faith in Jesus the Christ is all that is required for the immense gift of God’s grace and eternal salvation.
In Ephesians we see the old world contrasted with the new one derived from Jesus’ resurrection and God’s grace. The indescribably huge and generous gift of God’s grace is simply through faith. That such a simple thing leads to the wealth of riches that it does defies our ability to comprehend how much God must love us and how magnificent he is. We are what he has made us. Ephesians paints a picture of a world where eternal salvation does not pander to human boasting or manipulation. It is one of the most forceful statements in the bible regarding the human condition apart from God’s grace. What then prompts us to be good Christians and act in kindness and mercy if they have no impact on our salvation. That is, I’m afraid, a whole other sermon.
So where does social media fit in here? I would suggest simply it works as a reminder that what we post on social media is not going to earn us eternal salvation, so maybe, just maybe think about why it is you post to or use social media in the way that you do. We have learnt as a church through forced change the scope and power the internet can play in Christian life. We can take that to the next level too and encourage the world to use social media for good and not evil. No more revenge porn or taunting a youth to take their own life. More movements and marches about equality and equity in our world. More talk about the Gospel and the Kingdom.
At the end of the day social media is here to stay and continue to grow whether we like it or not – whether we use it or not. And I would say here that to carry out the mission of God, especially with the young, we have to engage with social media on some level because that is the language and form of communication of the next generations of Christians.
Whether it is a source of lightness or the dark remains to be seen although already we can see it being used in both ways. I guess the lesson from scripture today is to use social media wisely and for the right reasons. Without pride or boasting and with no hope of gaining salvation through it we should use this immense social power in our world to the good of the Gospel and God’s kingdom. We should share the good news perhaps in new and surprising ways for generations already jaded by exposure to the internet. We should encourage others to think about the story of Jesus Christ and what that can mean to and for them.
We should make social media a place where the love of God and the power of Jesus’ resurrection bask openly and powerfully in the warmth of the light that saved the world.
Thanks be to God.
amberleyanglican 