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1101002 Pent 16 the Decalogue Trusty, loyal and helpful, sisterly, courteous, kind, obedient, smiling and thrifty, and as fresh as the rustling wind. Anyone else know those? Ten words. They are the short form of the Girl Guide law that I learnt in my youth. Moses is leading the Hebrew people through the wilderness of Sinai to God’s land of promise. Today’s story is at Mt Sinai where God affirms Moses as God’s spokesperson, and the 10 commandments are delivered – the 10 commandments, the Law, the Decalogue, the 10 words - are delivered. “God spoke all these words” it says. Indeed these 10 words encapsulate all the words, or laws, which follow in the rest of Exodus and Deuteronomy. The ten words represent the rest. Law. What do we mean by Law? What does our faith mean by the Law? The Law in the Jewish context means all the cultural knowledge that one generation passes on to another generation. We get caught up in thinking of the Old Testament Law, which Jesus knew so well, was legalistic, was a list of dos and don’ts. Not so. The law was wisdom passed down, was about living life well. In that way, we Anglicans use the term Tradition. Tradition to us means all of the experiences and wisdom of the people of the church before us down the ages and right up to the present day. The word Tradition doesn’t something stuffy and old fashioned. Rather it is organic, always changing. In other ancient societies of ancient times as well as for the Hebrews, the Law was always thought of as being of divine origin and was intended to order human society so that it functioned in a way consistent with the divine will and indeed consistent with the ordering of the whole cosmos. In other words, law was seen as part of creation itself. Just as there were ‘natural’ limits and behaviours set within the cosmos, so law set these limits within human society. And just as creation was intended to offer life to all, so law was given that people may prosper in a long life. So the law or torah is about a mutual relationship in which God’s people respond to the love and grace of God. So the commandments are ten ways we express love for God. Both the Old Testament and Jesus express this in the great Love commandment – you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength. And secondly we express our love for God through loving our neighbour as ourselves. It would be easy to think that the first verses of the Decalogue are about loving God and the second half about loving our neighbour. But it is through all of them that we love God and it is through all of them that we love our neighbour. For example – “You shall have no other gods before me.” It is not just good for God, it is an act of love for my neighbour. Why do I say that? Because it is good for my neighbour for me not to make money or power my god; it is good for my neighbour for me to maintain the gracious, forgiving Yahweh as my God; it is good for my neighbour that my God is the Creator of all people, all nations, both genders, people of all ages. Another example: “You shall not kill.” Certainly it is loving to my neighbour that I not kill him or her; but the sixth command is certainly about loving God as well. I must not kill my neighbour, not just because my neighbour wouldn’t like it, but because God is the giver of my neighbour’s life. I cannot be loving God if I kill those who belong to God. But on a deeper level, one of the most basic of theological and biblical affirmations is that we are made in the image of God. We are like God. We have a will to create, have a desire for relationship, we value beauty, as well as usefulness, and so on. So when we learn about loving God, we are also learning about loving our neighbour who is made in the image of God. In some ways, what God wants, we also want. There are many other profound things about the ten commandments. There is much theological writing on them. But perhaps what I’d like you to take away from today is that they are ten principles of life and freedom. The scriptures do not say IF you obey my commandments I will be your god and deliver you into freedom. The people were freed from slavery way before the commandments were given. The people were adopted as God’s people by grace and by God’s initiative way before the commandments were given. Later, the Law was given to help people to stay free and to live out a life of justice and love in relationship with each other and with God. The 10 words keep us from moving back into slavery – the slavery to the idols of selfishness, material wealth, image, workaholism, and so on. In the New Testament, the Christian Scriptures, Jesus shows us similarly. When we know ourselves to be showered in grace and love, bringing freedom to our souls, it is then that we can begin to obey his commands for a deeply satisfying life with one another and with God. As the psalm reminds us:
INTERCESSIONS Let these single words lead you in your prayer as together we bring before the God of our hearts, ourselves and our world. Distance, separation, division, broken-hearted Attend, share, compassion, love May these words take root within us and become the living reality among and through us.
110925 Soc Justice Sunday – PRISONS Mtt 26: 34-46 The National Council of Churches has designated today, Social Justice Sunday, to be focussed on prisoners. As I sat ready to write today’s sermon, I was thinking about the men and women I see each week either in Loddon or Tarrengower prisons. I felt a deep heaviness as I focussed on the individuals I know and on our so-called Criminal Justice System. Whenever I focus on the situations of these children of God I feel like weeping at the injustice of their lives, and at what we in civilised society do to these our most disadvantaged of citizens. Even the word justice has come to mean a system of punishment Jesus said, I was in prison and you visited me. Until the bishop required that I become a prison chaplain I had not spent much of my energy thinking about prisons and prisoners. Oh I listened to debates on sentencing and to researchers’ conclusions about the rehabilitation of those who have committed crimes. I also listened to researchers about the illicit drug scene and how society is trying to curb it. So I knew that mostly our community’s response to these things is the opposite of what research shows us works. And when I was listening, I felt passion about how wrong we are, and shock that an educated society can perpetuate doing the opposite of what works for these people who are hooked on drugs or who commit crime. But on the whole, I just went on with my life. After all, prisoners are hidden behind the wall – out of sight and out of mind. Now, each week I meet with young men, and we have church together, and discuss the readings set down for the week. Some of them I get to know. Some come and talk with me. Most are nice kids. Almost all of their crimes were committed while they were drunk or full of drugs. There are some there for white collar crime, but by far the majority are kids whose formal education has not gone far enough for them to be able to read easily, whose families have been broken many times over, who have suffered abuse at the hands of their fathers and others, and who are very likely to have had some form of brain damage either from concussion injury of some type or from substance abuse. Many are nudging mild intellectual disability. Jesus said, I was in prison and you visited me. Each week I visit the women at Tarrengower. Many would see me as their friend now, or at least someone who consistently visits them, not one of the officers, but an independent person, there just for them. The vast majority have had drug problems. Almost all have experienced multiple abuse. Very few were employed when they committed their crime. Some are there because they or their partners had gambling problems and used up all the money so they went illegally onto welfare payments, or began to steal to get food on the table for themselves and their kids. Some have their babies and preschool children with them. Most have their kids on the outside being cared for by ex-partners or their mothers or by the older children of the family. Prison means separation from loved ones; not having any power; frustration; boredom; fear of being stood over; abuse of power from those who hold it: staff, or other prisoners; being treated as a number, regardless of specific important individual needs such as mental health issues; sharing a cell made for one person with someone else you do not know and of whom you may be very frightened; no privacy; poor mental health care yet high incidence of mental health problems; difficulty in keeping relationships with those on the outside; being part of a routine and structure for so long that when it is nearly time for release, it is hard to face the prospect of being free in society. Why was Jesus interested in his followers visiting people in prison? He put them in the same sentence as those who are hungry and thirsty and ill. He also said that they are him – these people whom society shuts away are Christ. So these prisoners, they are the Lord to us. Suspended sentences, home detention and other programs aimed at rehabilitation back into society are progressively being abolished. There are calls continually for tougher sentences. Our prisons are growing fast and new ones needed to be built even as the rates of crime per capita are almost all reducing. What is the purpose of our system? Is it punishment? Is it retribution or revenge for the victims of crime? Is it to make our society safer? I don’t think we as a society has decided why we have prisons. It’s a relatively small proportion of prisoners who have done anything so bad as to make it into the headlines of the papers. But it’s easy to think that they are all the same. Because we don’t come in contact with them generally, it’s unlikely you will know much about them, other than what you read in the press or see on TV. These accounts tend to focus on the most sensational aspects of what terrible crime they committed and whether the punishment was sufficient retribution to satisfy the victim’s and society’s sense of what’s fair. Jesus calls us to love – a love which is about generous inclusion of even the unlovely, which forgives, and keeps on giving – even in the face of rejection.
110918 Mtt 20:1-16 – Give us our daily bread. generous employer Give us our daily bread. Once more, the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is a foundational one for our Christian faith. The people are complaining bitterly about being on the journey through the wilderness without obvious food and drink. In this portion, God provides manna, a flaky type of bread, which arrives with the dew six out of the seven mornings of the week. Again, I suggest you read it because we can only have part of the story read here in church. It is interesting that the people’s first response is to gather up as much as they can and to save it up. But overnight, the worms infest it. They have to learn that God provides just as much as they need, day in and day out. But it is once more a portrait of humanity isn’t it – greed and lack of trust on show. But God provides enough for everyone. Give us our daily bread. On looking back at my childhood I realise I was jealous. I was the eldest daughter. And as I said last week, I was the child who always did the right thing, as many of us elder daughters did. Boring! In Mum’s absence, I tried to take on her role with the other 3 children. Funny – they didn’t like that much! It was especially my youngest sibling, my sister, of whom I was jealous. She was 4 years my junior and the youngest in the family. She had blond curly hair and dimples. She went brown in the sun, and played up to her cute looks, learning easily how to manipulate the situations to her advantage. I, on the other hand, saw myself as plain. I even chose to see that the dresses Mum made for her were always prettier than the ones she made for me. Childhood I think is often not as happy as many like to see it! Anyway, as a result of my jealousy early developed, I intensely dislike this reading from the gospel of Matthew about God’s shocking generosity. I suppose I assume that I would be amongst the first of the labourers, since I would ALWAYS have arrived on time! I have never seen it from the point of view of the late arrivals. Interesting in itself! Which labourers do you relate to, the first, the middle or the last? So as one of the first arrivals, my cry is, “It’s not fair!!! They shouldn’t get as much as me!!” What if I were the one who arrived last? How would I feel then? What would my first response to this story of God’s shocking generosity be then? I imagine I would be thrilled that even though I was not first in, I too am fully catered for. I would feel some wonder that I am counted as much as the first. Wow, God! Give us our daily bread. Australia is a FIRST world nation. White settlers occupied it with scant notice of the first peoples of the land. It is now a thriving wealthy state. Aren’t we lucky to have happened to have been born here, or to have been able to settle here! Just by the fact of our birth, we are the recipients of good food, high quality shelter, good government, great education, safety and peace. We are first. We have everything. And not through earning it either. In Somalia people have been born onto a nation without good government as we would judge it, very little wealth, little or no education, not much scientific knowledge and industry, not much safety. And the country is experiencing a long and hard drought caused by global warming and poor education. People are travelling, walking through the dust and heat for weeks trying to get to the biggest United Nations refugee camps ever - in Kenya and Ethiopia, where food might be found. Yet first world nations have only so far pledged 200 million of the billion dollars conservatively needed. We are talking about 11.3 million people affected. Give us our daily bread. Who is us? who did Jesus mean by us? In our country, today’s stories from our sacred book we would scarcely take note of, after all, we have all we need. It is a non issue for us. We forget that for a large proportion of the people of the world, food, shelter, and safety are significant daily issues. Today’s stories paint an incredibly powerful picture of the kingdom of God. In God’s world, when God reigns fully, each person has enough. God provides enough. In God’s world, under God’s reign, each person is paid equally, regardless. They are welcomed equally, is equal to each and every other person. No one is last. No one is first. How is your jealousy? Mine can be green as green sometimes. How is our nation’s jealousy? Apart from America, we are the lowest taxing nation in the western world. Is that because we want to keep everything for ourselves? I am glad that Australia is one of the few nations which has responded to the famine in Somalia. It is a different story about how we respond to people who legally flee incredible danger and persecution in their own nations who are legally seeking asylum here. Our jealousy is well and truly on show. It’s MINE! Australia and all its wealth is MINE! We respond like two year olds. Give us our daily bread. What is our shockingly generous God asking of us when we pray this? It is easy to forget about those others. Mostly we are not called upon to remember them. And we have lots to occupy ourselves in our everyday lives. We may ask what difference could we make anyway? Well firstly our Christian response is that we keep ourselves informed. We can all make sure we know what is happening both in our nation and around the world. All people of God’s earth are our brothers and sisters. We can make sure we notice the background or education of the people who make claims, for example, so that we can be sure what they say is accurate, what sources they are using for the information they are giving. We can also have conversations with those around us. We can insert questions into conversations about the reality of others’ situations rather than joining in on vilifying groups who are already having difficulty. For example, about those seeking asylum, we could say, “I wonder what I would do if my family were in constant danger.” We can use our voices, and our votes, and our money. Give us our daily bread. There is enough for all. But rich nations, multinational companies, are raping poorer nations. As a first nation, as educated and wealthy people, we cannot stand by silent. Being Christian, being a follower of Jesus, is a costly business. It is not about helping us feel satisfied and comfortable while there is injustice. What can YOU do?
Lord, teach us how to respond. Help us reign in our jealousy as we guard what we mistakenly think of as ours alone. Help us find ways of sharing our common wealth so that all may have food, education, the things we take for granted. Help us always to be vigilant in seeking the truth under political spin. Help us keep before our eyes the story of your generosity in the giving of the manna, and the equal payment of the last workers to the first. In the light of these stories help us to see our neighbours, here and around the world, as equal to us in your sight and treat them so. Help us recognise with gratitude our great wealth in all areas of our lives, and help us to be responsible in how we use our education, our safety, our peace for our brothers and sisters around the globe until your kingdom us fulfilled.
13th Sunday after Pentecost Mark 2: 13-17; Romans 14: 1-14 Today’s part of the gospel is where Jesus is calling his special group of followers, who become his disciples. He begins with the fishermen. But what’s happening here? He calls Levi, or Matthew – but he’s a tax collector!! No one wants to have anything to do with HIM! The tax collectors were people of the Jewish community who collected taxes from the Jewish people, for the Roman occupying force. You can imagine how they were hated by their own people, the Jews. They were known to extract more than the tax – indeed the extra was how they made their own income. Most tax collectors were rich. But the down side was that they were shunned. In their wealth, they could have held banquets and invited crowds to them – but no one would come. They certainly were excluded from society, and were vilified. So what’s Jesus up to? He actually went into Levi’s house and ATE WITH HIM!! and with the other tax collectors and SINNERS! I wonder what impact that action, that choice Jesus made, had on Levi and the others at the table. Jesus was honouring Levi by eating at his table. Unless we have experienced being excluded and vilified, we may not know. But I think the experience of being treated as a worthwhile human being would have the potential of transforming Levi, in his soul, of giving him back some self-respect, of bringing healing. Perhaps he was then able to draw out of himself some courage – courage enough to change how he lived in the world. And we know that that did happen because he left his tax booth and followed Jesus. When I was a child I thought the church was all about SIN! It seemed to me that I was required to think of all the things I had done wrong and confess them to God. To be honest, I struggled to find naughty things I had done. I was a good girl – probably too scared to do anything wrong! I left the church at the time most of us did – as a young teen. As well as thinking I had to feel guilty all the time, I struggled with miracles, with Jesus being the Son of God, and who or what was God anyway? So I left the church with my childish Sunday School understanding of faith, as most of us did. I thank God that 20 years later I was introduced to a more grown-up faith: a faith where questioning is not just welcome, but essential, where stories of the bible are used on many levels, not just on face value. A faith which is about life – as Jesus said, I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. It’s about living life deeply and to the full, whatever joys or sorrows come my way, and however imperfectly I live. And I do live imperfectly. And we’re back to sin. The word in the Koine Greek is hamarteno and it’s a word used also in archery. It has a meaning of missing the mark. Missing the mark. Well I miss the mark often enough, almost always not deliberately. I miss the mark when I am too tied up with what I think I have to do, get done; when I’m not pausing enough to let the still small voice, God, come up to consciousness; when I’m too preoccupied to truly see or hear the other. I also miss the mark when I don’t respect myself enough as a child of God and rush around thinking I have to earn Brownie points, and run myself ragged. Or when I get bound up with how others might judge me – ego. What happens when you miss the mark? There’s a song by Leonard Cohen that I think speaks into this business of sin. Its chorus is Forget your perfect offering. We are not perfect. The world is not perfect. The song speaks of marriage, government, life, every heart. Not perfect. Yes we are imperfect. We do miss the mark. But that crack, that imperfection, is where the light gets in. The light shines and shows us what is really happening. That light showing us, perhaps for the first time, where we are missing the mark, can cause us pain. But that light, the light of all that is good and holy and true, Christ’s light, also brings healing. We are a work in progress. God loves us and welcomes us anyway, just as Jesus did Levi. With the light, the light of Christ, comes healing as well as welcome, acceptance and joy. We don’t have to be perfect. We are welcomed and accepted and loved, just as we are. We, the church, are a peculiar lot: we choose to gather and see ourselves as Christ’s Body in the world. We choose to use each other to help us grow deeper into wholeness, as a community and as individuals. We choose to respect one another, even love one another, so that we can each grow and develop. It means hard work. It means facing up to things. It means being willing to forgive. It means trusting. It means respecting each other’s differences. The part of the letter Paul wrote to the Romans that we heard today is about working through how to be that church, that Body of Christ, in the hard reality of true life. It says some will eat meat and some will not. It doesn’t matter! Accept one another’s differences. Each one is doing what they are doing to honour God the best way they know how. In our society we seem to value one person climbing on top of others to get to the top. The slanging matches of politicians are seen as entertainment. We choose to vilify one group of people, usually those of the Muslim faith, to help us feel superior, or as a scapegoat for all of our troubles. No. That is not the way to life. Jesus showed us that all are welcome at his table. He showed us that choosing to love is the way to joy, even if it causes us some grief along the way. When we welcome and love one another we not only transform ourselves, we can transform the world. When we choose to love one another, respecting ourselves as children of God, we come into communion – communion with God, and communion with all people, just as Jesus called us.
110904 Pent 12 Passover We continue the story of the foundational story of the Exodus today as the Hebrews prepare to leave Egypt at long last. Just prior to this part of the story nine plagues have struck Egypt but Pharaoh continues stubbornly to refuse to let the Hebrews or Israelites go. But the story tells us that now the people are preparing to leave finally. As they eat their last meal of roast lamb and unleavened bread, they smear blood on the doorposts so that the last and final plague will pass over the Hebrews’ homes and they will be safe. In distress over the death of his son, Pharaoh finally orders the Hebrews to leave his country and they will set out on the road to a new life, the road which takes them away from slavery and into freedom. This story is important for us to know because it undergirds the understanding of God and our life in God. It is part of the background that helps us understand Jesus’ teachings and Paul’s teachings, and even our own worship practices. So again, if you haven’t yet read it, do go to the book of Exodus and read it. The portions of the epistle and the gospel set down for today speak of how we are called to behave as Christian people. The gospel reminds us that each and every person is of utmost importance! Even one sheep lost or in danger is important. The shepherd would even leave the 99 sheep to go after that one! It’s quite fanciful isn’t it. In reality, a shepherd would not leave the 99 in danger. The 99 would have been so much more valuable and important than the one which is lost. But Jesus is telling us once again that in his world, values are often topsy-turvy. The one person is of great value. Each one of us is important to God. Then he goes on to speak of when there is discord among us, discord in the church. Discord in the church? Surely we know how to behave! We are Christian – all our teaching and worship helps us know how we should behave towards one another. Well I’m not so sure that it is as easy as that. Yes, as Paul says, we are to love. To love is the fulfilment of the law. Many Sundays we have the two great commandments read, to love God with our whole selves and our neighbour as ourselves, the two commandments given by Jesus as the summary of all of the laws of God. But I think we might each have different ways of interpreting these things. Our backgrounds and personalities mean we read the same passages with different interpretation. We understand the choice to love differently from each other. And we do experience discord between one another. All of that is not a bad thing. Indeed to choose to be church means that we do rub against each other. To be church means that we are drawn by God’s grace into this communal life learning through our life together to grow deeper into Christ. Our salvation, our freedom through Christ is worked out with others by our call to unity as church. By being church we receive such joy and grace. By choosing to be church we also have responsibilities. Our responsibilities include being intentional about how we behave, especially in how we behave towards one another. Yes, we treat each other with respect and dignity. We need to presume goodwill as the basis for the action of the other. And each person also needs to seek the common good and health of the whole community, not just their own interests or agenda. So we need to respect confidences, and refrain from gossip. And commit ourselves to the building up of the Body of Christ and its purpose of spreading the message of Jesus. Sometimes people think that to love someone in the Christian way means to tolerate even bad behaviour. That is not love. In the past people have left churches because of thinking they must put up with behaviour which is selfish or disrespectful, or even coercive or abusive. When these sorts of behaviour occur the whole community is compromised. I am not speaking about differences of opinion. Each person is entitled to voice differences in a respectful way. But if behaviour of one member is compromising another or effecting the life of the community, it needs to be addressed. In the first instance, the person who is offended should be able to speak to the other, again according them dignity and respect and in a spirit of reconciliation, recognising that we all fall short of the glory of God. If this is insufficient, help must be found through a third person. And if a resolution is not found, professional assistance could be sought. Yes, professional help – such is the importance we need to place on these things in our life together. You see, how we live together is essential to our faith, essential to our growth as Christians, essential to God’s purposes. Respect and love for each individual and for the whole community is how we journey into God’s freedom. It is how we become truly alive as we travel on our faith journey together. Being open to face up to and work through disagreement leads to deeper love and new life. With God’s help and the support of one another we travel on the road to new life together, for the sake of God’s world. The responsibilities bring with them the great joys of being in Christian community.
110828 Pent 11 Burning bush, take up your cross I took the DVD Prince of Egypt to the prison this week. It is a full movie length cartoon of the Moses story. I took it because it brings to life the very human Moses encountering the burning bush. Moses puts his staff and then his hand into the flame of the bush - and is perplexed by it - it doesn’t burn up the staff nor his hand. What’s going on? And then the voice calls him by name. We see his fear, his awe, and his confusion at the bush and at the voice of God speaking to him. We call the burning bush a theophany – an appearance of the divine. But it took Moses a bit before he recognised it as such, his epiphany, the recognition of God’s presence. One rabbi says of this story that whole purpose of the bush burning without consuming is so that one day when Moses passed by Moses might finally notice it! Do you notice God’s presence? When do you encounter the presence of God? when is it that YOU notice the presence of God? We encounter the Presence in different ways and at different times. Some feel the majesty of God’s presence in the great outdoors, looking over a magnificent view. Some might deeply resonate with the Holy Spirit when parliament enacts legislation that helps free people, or rights a wrong. Some find God easy to encounter in day to day tasks like when they bake, or cook, or garden, experiencing God through all of their senses, or in the joy of providing care for others. For others it is when they turn inward in a quiet place with their eyes shut. Or perhaps in the encounters between people, our connections, whether joyous or in sharing the depths of pain – the deep connection. Or in reading from the Scriptures. Or through the expression of the Arts – poetry, music, visual art. Where and when do you encounter God? Do you notice God’s Presence? Or do you need a burning bush to get your attention? I’d like you to think about this and spend some time pondering it this week. Do you give God’s Presence in your life the proper respect? Moses needed to be told to take off his shoes, that he was on holy ground. When are you on holy ground? Do you give it the respect it deserves? Or are you in too much of a hurry? Whether we FEEL God’s presence or not, God is present with us, just as Moses heard the Voice – I am with you. So. God calls Moses, and eventually Moses responds. Call and response. Isn’t this the story all through the Scriptures? God calls and humanity responds - God needs us to be in partnership with him to bring about God’s purposes. God needs us. Moses is rather scared at the prospect, but with his staff and knowing God will be with him, sets out to do God’s will. Call and response. Paul’s letter to the Romans is about HOW we respond. We respond to God’s presence in our midst, in our care for one another. Paul shows us that as we mature in our faith, we grow from self-interest towards being able to balance self-care with care of the whole: As I mature, I come to realise that what I give to another also nourishes me. The success of another contributes to my own well-being. We cannot help but be intimately connected with one another can we - constantly creating and re-creating each other in our relationships. Paul calls us also to respond to those who persecute us or harm us. And here’s a shock - our response is to practise goodness, even with them. You see, we are not victims of those who harm us because we can choose the pathway we take – the pathway of God’s peace, the pathway where we are not diminished as a person. With the Spirit’s presence, we are strong enough, like Moses, to keep our spiritual centre, despite threats or indeed temptations. We can stay strong in the Spirit. But as it tells us in today’s portion from the gospel, like it was for Jesus, there is sometimes a cost for holding onto and living out the good and the right. Faithfulness to Jesus’ and Paul’s message may mean suffering. Jesus stayed faithful to God’s call, speaking out, living what he knew to be God’s call for God’s people, against the powers of the times. Jesus was crucified, not because he was God’s puppet, but because he followed the highest good for himself and for us. We too are called to take up the cross, to take up our own crosses. This is not about self-imposed suffering for its own sake, but about taking with the consequences of living our faith. The word martyr means in the Greek to witness. Yes death in the past was sometimes the consequence of witnessing to the good and the truth, so martyr came to mean death for a cause. For us the cross we are more likely to bear will be the pain of rejection, or being thought of as weird. Regardless, we are called to witness through our lives, through lives of integrity. Lives which match what we profess to believe in - and to take the cost of that. Those who lose their lives, by looking beyond the ego and its desires, will gain their lives – will experience the beauty and joy of companionship with God. This is a different kind of self-interest. This time it is the expansion of the self to embrace the idea that the well-being of others is just as important as our own well-being. Of course this cannot help but include public issues, at a local, state, national and international level. We are to care for the neighbour and the stranger rather than to close our door to their need. God calls forth our generosity: generosity of money, generosity of energy and effort and time. Working towards communities where no one lacks food, shelter, work, inclusion, health. Martyrdom. Witnessing. At a cost. But receiving the gift of God’s grace. Encountering God, becoming aware of God’s presence in our lives, leads us to transformation – transformation of our values, of our habits, of our self-awareness. It leads us to a vocation of service to the vulnerable and the oppressed. God is encountered in the least of these as well as the greatest. By going beyond self-interest we give God a world of beauty and enable God to be more active and energetic in our lives, and in the world.
110821 Pent 10 Shiphra and Puah I wonder if you can call to mind someone who did something which had a positive impact on you, or which may have changed what you subsequently did. It might be something very small, like smiling at you and welcoming you into a particular group when you were pretty apprehensive about coming into the room. It might be something that someone said that changed your mind about something for the good, or helped you see something more clearly that turned out to be important for you. I am thinking of things that the person themselves would not think twice about and would not remember. Have a think for a moment. I think of my flute teacher. He showed me that he believed in me at a time when I certainly did not believe in myself. I had a very low self-concept, and pretty much hid from my peers as a teen. But this man drew the music out of me and expected that I could and would make beautiful sounds. He showed me that he had confidence in me. I began to stand taller. I am sure he had no idea of the impact he had on my frail ego, then and into the future. I wonder if you have heard of the butterfly effect. It is said to be how the impact of simple things can make bigger and more important things happen in succession. Here is an example. There was a scientist who developed high yield, disease resistant wheat and this wheat was credited with saving the lives of two billion people from famine. The scientist. Let’s name him John. He was the reason two billion people survived. Or was it the politician, Jim, who organised funding for the laboratory in which John worked, who should be credited with saving the 2 billion lives. Or should it be Steve who befriended the young John and took him for long walks and instilled in him his love of plants. Or should it be Jean and Peter who adopted John as a boy and lovingly brought him up. Or should it be… You get the idea. The butterfly effect points out how interconnected our actions are, creating an unforseen effect that can ripple across time and space to effect the lives of millions. Shiphrah and Puah, the Israelite midwives in our Old Testament story began a ripple effect. These two women made a decision, took a chance, and changed the course of history. They defied Pharaoh to save the lives of the Israelite baby boys. It was both a small gesture and a heroic act to disobey the oppressor. Sadly, it seems that it is part of the human condition to need to blame someone else when things are not as we’d like. We seek out scapegoats. Pharaoh decided it was the Hebrews who were the cause of all his troubles. And began to vilify them and persecute them, forgetting the long mutually beneficial history the two nations had had in the past. We see the same thing throughout history. Hitler decided it was the Jews who were causing his nation’s problems, and thus began that dreadful slaughter. Today, for political gain, we speak of “terrorists” - like those boat people, or those Muslims coming here from the Middle East, or those dangerous young unemployed men, or… and you can find many more examples of those whom the politicians, and we as a nation, like to vilify. And if we are brave we might be able to acknowledge our own personal scapegoats as well. What we do, no matter how small, has an effect, whether we are conscious of it or not. Whether we have a positive effect for God’s creation and God’s people or a negative one is a choice we have. With whom do you rub shoulders? Perhaps you are in a position to give encouragement to someone. Perhaps when you find yourself in a conversation about a justice issue like refugees you can say a truth about their situation which just might help another understand the reality. Perhaps you can state it like it is if there is a bully in your social or work circle. Our choices, our actions, our decisions have effects, mostly unseen and unknown by us. But what we do does make a difference to the world. Paul knew this very well. In the passage today from Romans he speaks of the need to be discerning about our actions, of being transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we know what is good and acceptable and perfect. The Greek word translated here as perfect has a meaning of maturity. Paul calls us to mature through using our minds. To be discerning in all we do. He says that each of us has a role to play, different though it may be from others’ roles, because we each have gifts, individualised gifts, but gifts which are for the good of the whole body, of which each of us is one part, but a part that is essential to the whole. And when we think about the impact we have on others, obviously the more we use our minds to increase our maturity, our perfection, our understanding about ourselves and the world, the more we will be able to make a difference for good, rather than bad, whether we act consciously or unconsciously. And Paul calls us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. Paul and Jesus grew up with the system of temple sacrifices – sacrifices of atonement for doing something wrong, and of thank offerings. There were grain offerings and animal sacrifices, big and small, depending on what you were able to afford. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, has a meaning of coming close to God. An offering, a sacrifice, was a way of coming closer to God, of being put right with God, of becoming holy. So Paul calls us to be a living sacrifice. What does that mean really? We bandy around those words, but they are only more religious jargon if we don’t take the trouble to discern what they really mean. Here is how Eugene Petersen paraphrases some of this passage from Romans. Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering… The butterfly effect. Shiphrah and Puah, going about being faithful servants of God, without fanfare – and changing the course of history. Paul, encouraging us to be reflective about who we are and how we live our lives. And the call to be living sacrifices, putting ourselves and our individual gifts before God as an offering, living lives of discernment and joy. The Body of Christ, going about its business, changing the world. Hymns
110814 Pent 9 Goodness! A lot is happening in our readings today! And lots of high emotions! We began in the Hebrew Testament with the commencement of reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, where Joseph’s weeping is heard throughout the palace because it was so loud, such was the depth of his emotional response! In the epistle to the Romans we can just about hear Paul’s brain trying to nut out and help people understand how it is that the good news, which comes out of the Jewish people, fits with the Gentiles among whom he is particularly called to minister. He uses the metaphor of grafting branches into an olive tree to try to clarify his thoughts. But if some of what he writes seems a bit difficult to understand, he certainly is very clear that all are saved, both Jew and Gentile, all can become free, can be reconciled with God through the gospel. Paul was a passionate man who worked tirelessly to free the people through the gospel, through restoring them to God. And in the gospel from Matthew we hear of the unusual and very provocative encounter between Jesus and the woman from Canaan. Emotions all out there. The Joseph story is a foundational epic on which the New Testament and Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings often rest. We are not reading the whole of it in our Sunday readings. There are large chunks missing from it. I’d like to suggest you read the story yourselves at home. Joseph is not squeaky clean. He is not entirely straight with his brothers. He plays games with them. We are not told why. But in today’s piece there is no doubt about his feelings. Imagine how you might be feeling in the same situation. There was a lot of bad blood between Joseph and his brothers. Hate. Jealously. Betrayal. And many years of distance. You can see Joseph prevaricating, not being sure whether he will show himself or not, whether he wants to reconcile with them or not. And yet, when he does take the risk it is so deeply moving for him, and for his brothers. It was more than worth the risk. Love was able to flow and so much was healed. The story in the gospel shows us a woman who is either very courageous or stupid! A woman would NEVER approach a man especially one not of her own social grouping. Jesus was a Jew. She is a Gentile. She goes right against all the social rules of the times in approaching Jesus. To do so risked her standing in society to the point of risking her life. Yet here she is making a direct approach to Jesus - to heal her daughter. Her need was so great that she broke through these taboos. She would do anything for the sake of her child. She crashed right through those barriers. The power that impelled her was her love for her child! And the encounter is quite confronting for us nice Christians to behold! Firstly Jesus ignores her altogether, and his disciples try to get rid of her. She is stirring things up too much with her crying out! Then Jesus does respond – but he says he was there only for the Jews, the lost tribe of Israel, and not the likes of her, a Gentile woman. But she persists, so then Jesus tells her the food he offers is for the children, not for the dogs – in other words, people like her! What an insult! Surely she would give up after that sort of talk! But no. She loves her daughter so much that she persists, and using the same metaphor as Jesus, turns it back on him. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table, she says. Give my daughter some crumbs of your healing. And Jesus responds, praising her for her faith, and curing her daughter. That’s quite a tricky passage for us to reconcile with most of our images of Jesus. We don’t like to think of him as withholding care and healing. We do not know exactly why the writer of Matthew chose to put this story into the gospel. Yes, it tells about the woman’s faith and persistence, not unlike the parable Jesus told of the neighbour who did not give up asking for food for his guests in the middle of the night. Persistence. But it is also a bit of a shock to us about Jesus as well. Perhaps we can catch a glimpse of the man Jesus, a man who is willing to learn along the way, to be open to different ways of understanding God’s world, the different sorts of God’s people, to deepen his understanding that all of us are children of God. All of these stories of our faith hold out for us the possibility of the restoration for all of creation, including our own restoration. As the people of God in this place, we too are a diverse lot, like all of the characters in the stories. We have our own issues, some with each other here, some with family, friends, people from our work or other spheres of life. We are all imperfect, just as the people in our stories are. We respond to each other and to life the best way we can, and sometimes that is far from ideal. Yet it seems God can use our bumbling as we journey through life, especially if we can see our own need for restoration. Through the story of the People of God, we see examples of people like us. They help us see our own need for restoration. In them are examples of people who were courageous enough to know their need for restoration and reconciliation. We see Joseph taking the huge risk, and being overwhelmed by the relief, joy, sorrow – and peace he felt. We see the Canaanite woman pushing through the barriers against all the odds, risking everything. The messages for me from today’s Scriptures are these. We need to be open like Jesus was to become aware of our need for reconciliation with God and with each other, to be on the lookout for where we are not in a good relationship. And that means we need to be open to seeing things a bit differently from how we might normally see things. Even Jesus was open to that. We need to be courageous in letting our feelings guide us to push through the barriers we might be making, or others might have put up, so that we take the risk and seek restoration. And, the reward is most likely to be sweet indeed, well worth the risk. Today, as every Sunday, we come to the table of Jesus. Each of us is an individual, flawed, yet within us is the image of God. Jesus calls us to share the meal with each other and with him. When you come to the table, open yourselves to each other person here. Bring in your hearts people who are not here in body but with whom you seek restoration. Come with an open heart to each other. Come also with a heart open to receive the healing love of Christ as you offer your open self, and partake of him, who is all love. And may you too feel the depths of freedom and peace, which is beyond our understanding, yet heals us as we become reconciled, and restored, loved as we are. This is how we become whole. Holy. A holy people. I will now sing TIS 692. Please stay seated. Join me if you wish, or just listen. Let us pray for the world, for ourselves, and confess that we need healing: To the bidding Loving Spirit restore us God’s desire for the Earth and all people is for sacred peace and harmony. God’s desire for the Earth and all people is for sacred peace and harmony. God’s desire for the Earth and all people is for sacred peace and harmony. Divine Spirit, bring healing where division, conflict and upset exist. Restore life, heal broken relationships, help us to renewed sharing. Use our gifts to restore and heal, and renew us in faith with one another. In the name of Jesus Christ our healer. Amen.
110897 Pent 8 Like last week we have some wonderfully rich readings set down for today. We continue the saga of the Hebrew Patriarchs. Last week Jacob was on his way home to meet his brother Esau whose birthright he had usurped. He was very afraid, as well he might be! He withdrew by himself, and then he seemed to have a dream - of wrestling with God. During the wrestle he was named Israel, and was left with a limp. Renaming in the Hebrew texts indicates a major change in people’s lives. In the porch there is a picture and some evocative words you might like to pause before. Today’s portion is further on in the story - the tale of Israel or Jacob’s sons, and especially of Joseph the dreamer. Lots of tension in that family! Favourites!! Jealousy! Joseph, the dreamer, was lauded by his father, even though he was not the eldest son, and he gave him special clothes so that he stood out from the rest. And so we hear how the jealousy got so bad that Joseph was banished from the family by his brothers. And his father Israel mourned terribly. Eventually Joseph ends up in Egypt. Joseph the dreamer. I love the stories of the Bible. They are so true to human nature, the innocent, the wily, the beautiful – as well as portraying all of our warts! Most families have tensions. Indeed some families are just too difficult to hold together. Many times individuals need to choose to make a family from their friends rather than their birth relatives. We as church choose to become a different sort of family. And that means there are tensions too. Anywhere that people come close, there are tensions. That is not always a bad thing. It depends on what we do with the tension. As church we are called to love one another. Quite a call! We are not called perpetually to put up with bad things from each other, but we are called to accept each other for who each is. When there is discord, there are positive ways to deal with that, healthy ways to state each other’s points of view, healthy ways of listening - and of moving towards resolution. I suppose we choose to be one because of the dream we have of God’s Kingdom, God’s reign. We choose to live into that blessed state about which Jesus taught, and for which he died: the Kingdom of God, the reign of God. Now in case you think that is beautiful and restful and peaceful, forget it! It is tough! Think of the dreamer Martin Luther King. He had a dream, not too dissimilar to Jesus’ – and was assassinated for it. It is interesting that across from the place he was shot is a plaque to his memory with a quote from our OT reading today: “Behold, here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him, and we shall see what shall become of his dreams.” Living the Christian life can, and perhaps should, be full of both dreams - and of hazards. It means being willing to stick our necks out. To take risks. To speak out against injustice. To stand up for the marginalised. To walk into difficult places. Look at the story of Peter in today’s gospel reading. Remember that the water represented the watery chaos – everything that was evil and frightening. Jesus called Peter, Come! And Peter stepped out and walked over that stormy chaos towards Jesus. But when he realised what he was doing, when he realised how frightening it was, how very vulnerable he was, he began to sink. By responding to Jesus’ call, he found himself in a very insecure place. By responding to Jesus’ call, he found himself in an insecure place. And that is a picture of the life of a Christian! Vulnerably making our way through the chaos! As we do our best to live into Christ’s Kingdom, as we live into the realm of God, we see and more deeply understand the chaos, the injustices and the hurts of the world near and far. We experience them ourselves. The hurts and wrongs might be very personal, or they might be on a global scale. We do get tossed about in the storm, just like the disciples that night, just like Martin Luther King. It can be frightening, when we choose to follow the way of our Lord. But if there’s one thing from this story we must take away it is this: when, like Peter, we keep our focus on Jesus, we find the way more easily. When we keep our focus on Jesus, we know how to make the next step. It might be that we are in conflict with someone. If we keep our focus on Jesus, we will more clearly be able to see the other as a child of God. We might more easily be able to accept them and their idiosyncrasies. If we keep our focus on Jesus, we may more easily see ourselves as a child of God as well. So with that loving basis, listening and resolution is going to be more likely. And we will have more courage. Or if we disagree with, say, government policy on something, asylum seekers for example: if we keep our focus on Jesus we will more easily see them as children of God like us. We will more easily be able to see the impact of the persecution and violence on their lives, to see them as Jesus would see them. If we keep our focus on Jesus it will be easier to discern a way forward to do what we can to right injustice. But the best thing about this story of Peter and Jesus on the water is this: when Peter became frightened, and began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” and what did Jesus do? Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him. When we have Jesus as our focus, when we have Jesus walking with us, we have just so much more strength! So much more courage! We are so much more able to work for the good, and indeed be instrumental in the bringing in of God’s kingdom – bit by bit by bit.
From ‘Mega Dramas 2’ by the Open Book Publishers Stiller of Storms © 1993 Bev DickesonBIBLE REFERENCE: MATTHEW 14:22-33
Readers 1 and 2 enter and take up positions, clear throats, etc. They read with a great deal of expression and energy. The lines should flow smoothly. 1: This is a story about faith. Intercessions
Lord our God:
Faithful God, as we call to mind the stormy areas of our world,
110410 Lent 5
Another long gospel reading, and once more, wonderfully rich passages from which to choose to preach. We are drawing to the end of the season of Lent. Next week is Palm Sunday when we walk with Jesus into Jerusalem to face his accusers and be tortured to death on the gallows that we call the cross. But today in the gospel we have a foretaste of the resurrection through the story of Lazarus being brought to life. I am the resurrection and the life says Jesus. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives in me will never die. In me people have life! No matter what happens, whether they die, whether others hate them, whether they are poor, no matter what, they have life through me. ..It is very powerful statement. Through Jesus, his life, his teachings, his death and resurrection, we have the wherewithal for true life; life that fulfils, life that gives meaning, life that is eternal. As well as the picture in our minds of Lazarus staggering out of the tomb, today we have the wonderful vision from the Hebrew Scriptures, of Ezekiel's of the dry bones in the valley, all that is left of the people of God in exile, away from their homeland: dried up bones. I will cause breath to enter you and you will live, says God. These words are repeated a number of times in this passage. They remind us of the second creation story in Genesis, which uses a wonderful play on words. God fashioned from the earth adamah in the Hebrew a creature of earth adam earth creature, neither male nor female. Then God bleeeew into the earth creature adam 's nostrils and gave life to it. And you'll remember that it is the one word which has meanings of breath, wind and spirit. God's breath, God's spirit, God's wind, gave the earth creature, Adam, life. So back to Ezekiel's vision: there are all these bones, which now had sinews and flesh but still no life, there was no breath in them. Once more we have God providing breath, wind, spirit, to restore them to life. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live! What a wonderful image of hope Ezekiel offered to his people in exile, whose hearts must surely have been so dried up, hope gone, just like the bones in the valley. 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely,' they say. The psalm expresses their pain and their longing to God: Out of the depths I cry to you, O God. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to my supplications! My soul waits for the Lord, and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning. And then: Hope in the Lord! With the Lord there is steadfast love. Steadfast love. It is part of the human condition to feel like this. To be human means that at some time in our lives we each will feel like we are in exile. The prisoners on Thursday could understand the idea of exile, being apart from normal life, and their families. We feel like we are in exile when we are bereaved. Following relationship break-down. In illness. Losing a job. Disfigurement. Exiled from our normal existence. And the accompanying feelings of being alone, so alone. In exile. 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely. Using another image from our faith, we usually need to be in the dark of the tomb for some time when these things happen. Like the body of Jesus lying in the tomb for three days, like the grain that lies in the earth before becoming a new green shoot, we too need the time in the darkness. It is a time of sitting with the pain. Of withdrawal. Of needing the time for our souls to rest, and then unconsciously to process what has happened. A time of letting the spirit do its work in us. Yes, the breath of the spirit is blowing over our pain. God gently brings us life again, breathes into us new life. As we take into ourselves this new life, we might be unsteady at first, like Lazarus staggering out of the tomb. We might even need to go back inside from time to time. But we breathe the breath of life more and more. We gradually find new courage, a new way of being, new understandings. We can claim once more that we are a child of God, able to live life. We will never being the same again, may have deeper wisdom, perhaps more compassion, but knowing more deeply that with God there is indeed steadfast love, and that brings us life.
I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. and you shall know that I am the LORD . I am the resurrection and the life, says Jesus.
Dear God, We struggle, we grow weary, we grow tired. We are exhausted, we are distressed, we despair. We give up, we fall down, we let go. We cry. We are empty, we grow calm, we are ready. We wait quietly.
A small, shy truth arrives. Arrives without and within. Arrives and is born. Simple, steady, clear. Like a mirror, like a bell, like a flame. Like rain in the summer. A precious truth arrives and in born in us. Within our emptiness.
We accept it, we observe it, we absorb it. We surrender to our bare truth. We are nourished, we are changed. We are blessed. We rise up. Michael Leunig, used by permission.
110403 Lent 4 Mothering Sunday We are in the middle of Lent. We are well and truly on our way to Jerusalem, to the cross and the resurrection. We have been following the people of God as they journeyed first in the wilderness and now along the way, becoming God's Holy Nation, all the while tracing the story of God's saving love throughout all of these events. Today we begin the story of Israel's kings, as the unlikely youngest and smallest child is the one chosen and anointed with oil as king. And he is a shepherd. As king he becomes known as a shepherd of his people. Sheep and goats were the most important domestic animals in the biblical period. Many of Israel's leaders spent time caring for flocks and herds. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David all did. As David in particular was anointed and called the shepherd, so Jesus was anointed and written about as shepherd. The sheep depend entirely on their shepherd. The psalm today pictures God caring for people in just the same way. God leads us, defends us from danger, provides food and water to sustain us, heals by anointing with oil. We can see that the relationship of the sheep with the shepherd is an intimate one. And even in the valley of the shadow of death God the shepherd restores the people to renewed life which of course is dramatically and deeply played out in the forthcoming Great Days of Easter. And in the gospels we especially see God's restorative love in Jesus' life and ministry. Today's gospel brings a man from apparently being born in sin, because he is blind, to being transformed by Jesus' love and care, which healed and restored him. He was healed such that he could see! His eyes, seen in those times as the windows of the soul, were now opened, and the Light which is Jesus, flooded his soul. He could now see on many levels. What a contrast to the Pharisees who, though they had physically well eyes which could see, remained stubbornly blind to what was being offered by Jesus, the Light of the world. We are on our journey, particularly the Lenten journey into God. We travel with the shepherd. We travel with each other as Christ's Church, the Body of Christ. We travel with Jesus who loves and cares for us as a shepherd, as a mother. Jesus: lover, healer. Jesus: Light of the world. Jesus: Bridegroom of Mother Church. Let us say together A Song of Christ's Goodness, from Anselm of Canterbury, from the 11 th century. Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you: you are gentle with us as a mother with her children. Often you weep over our sins and our pride: tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgement. You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds: in sickness you nurse us and with pure milk you feed us. Jesus, by your dying, we are born to new life: by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy. Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness: through your gentleness, we find comfort in fear. Your warmth gives life to the dead: your touch makes sinners righteous. Lord Jesus, in your mercy, heal us: in your love and tenderness, remake us. In your compassion, bring grace and forgiveness: for the beauty of heaven, may your love prepare us110327 Lent 3 living water; woman at the well; Moses struck the rock water. You may have looked at the artwork called Desert Light. It evokes the grandeur and beauty of the rocky desert while at the same time the hostility and barrenness of it. And the dryness. I suppose we often think of the land of the bible as desert. Yet there are some wonderfully green and productive parts as well. Today's readings conjure dryness though. First the Israelites are on their life-long journeys in the wilderness and fear they are going to die of thirst. What journeys have you been on? Some journeys are planned to the last detail and are times of great joy. Other journeys are unexpected. Some are because of something going wrong like someone having an accident, or job prospects drying up. It can be useful to look at life as a journey, or as a series of journeys. Sometimes we stride out confidently into the future, while at other times we stop in our tracks in fear and trembling. Sometimes we have to take a different route from the one on which we began. Sometimes the destination is far from our expectations. Sometimes we journey in hope. Sometimes we journey in dryness and despair. Let's pause and look back for a moment on our life's journeys. Where did your courage come from? Who were your companions? How were you sustained? The Israelites journey through the Sinai Peninsula inhospitable and threatening territory. They were railing against Moses, questioning his leadership when they are thirsty. They want to know if God is with them on this journey. Is the Lord among us or not? And God tells Moses to strike the rock on which God stands - and water will come from the rock. God does care for the thirsty people and gives abundantly. Of course this story is also in people's minds when they hear the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. This story too is about broken relationships those between Jews and Samaritans, between men and women, and between community members. And Jesus tells her of the living water, a spring within them gushing up to eternal life and never ending. Water. Water in the dryness. Water quenching thirst. Water in abundance. Living water. A spring of water gushing up. Water from the rock of God. And in the epistle today God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. A lot of abundance and pouring and gushing up. There is no lack with God. There is no meanness with God. It is all abundance. I love swimming in the sea. There is nothing like the feeling all over me when I first dive under the water. I feel the cool over the whole of my body's skin from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I feel absolutely free. I can move and dive, frolic and float, without making contact with anything but water. I find myself grinning with joy. Perhaps this is something like being in the abundance of God's love, God's Spirit, God's good will, God's beauty, God's benevolence, God's bounty, for us. How transforming that is for us! How transforming for the Samaritan woman. The transforming power of love, hospitality and attention of Jesus gives her the capacity to live into a new identity; that of beloved child of God, someone to be respected and honoured. This is life! This is new life! God is at work. God is here! But do we even notice? Do we realise this abundance? Are we conscious that we are in the presence of this abundantly fertile God? Do we TRULY partake of the living water? Do we even allow ourselves to attend to the things of the soul? What does Jesus say? He says if we drink from it, we will never be thirsty again. If we drink of it, we will have eternal life gushing up from within us. It is an invitation. But WE are the ones who have to make the move on it. WE have to take the drink. So on life's journeys, especially in the dryness which we each experience from time to time, keep hold of the image of this living water gushing up which cleanses, refreshes, renews, which quenches thirst, which gives life. Jesus is offering it to you. And remember too this Lent the Presence, this benevolent and generous Presence in whom you live and move and have your being, there to draw on for courage and strength. 110312 Lent 1 A Ashes. Dust. Temptation. Sin. Desert. We are in Lent. We have the story of Jesus going for 40days into the desert to prepare for his ministry. He has just been baptised by John. Jesus embraces and relives the experience of his people by undergoing a period of testing of 40 days, reminiscent of the 40 years of Israel's wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. God probed the hearts of the covenant people at that time to see whether they would be faithful to the covenant just made. Likewise, Jesus is put to the test. Is he truly able to trust God? how faithful is he? And we see that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness by choosing the way of God, despite it being a costly obedience. He places his cause into God's hands, and he does it because the Father he reveals and whose mission he serves is worthy of such trust. This story, and the other readings for today, like most in the bible is far more than the literal. There is much symbolism, for example, and linking with other stories well-known to the listeners. There is much here to base many sermons on, from each of the readings. But today, let's look at the image of the desert, which is such a powerful one. The desert story tells us that Jesus had fasted all those 40 days. He is famished. So we have a man who is at the end of his strength. He is in a very vulnerable space. Gone are his usual supports food, drink, friends, distractions, activities. He gave up the things which protected him from feeling his dependence on God and other people. We can feel pretty OK when we are busy, when we have nice clothes, when we have things to do, when we have people around. All these things help our image of ourselves as someone who is fine, is independent, someone going along well thank you very much. But Jesus has taken steps to let himself go right into his vulnerability. He gave up the things that protected him from feeling the full force of his vulnerability; he gave up the things that protected him from his dependence, that protected him from his need to deeply trust in God. What would this mean then for Jesus, or for us for that matter? He was therefore more vulnerable to the temptations offered him. And don't we see this in our own society where poverty, lack of self-worth, boredom, can cause people to be more vulnerable to alcohol, drugs, gambling, and petty crime. I see it over and over again with the people I see in prison. They are vulnerable. so yes, Jesus is more vulnerable to the temptations. But the other side of this vulnerability, is that Jesus is also more open to God with his usual props stripped away. What things prop us up, what things do we use to hide our vulnerability from ourselves? Busyness is a good one. To stop for a prolonged period strips away the distractions. It can be very challenging to allow the space for this to happen. It means being willing to sit in discomfort. To sit long enough to come to our right minds, to come to an understanding of who we really are, the positive and the negative. And then, to be so much more aware of our relationship with God and the grace so freely given. And that is what Lent is for. When we are in the desert long enough to come to that vulnerable space, it is like sitting in the ashes. This image is one familiar to a number of cultures. Even the story of Cinderella is a myth about this. Her name comes from cinder meaning ashes, and puella young girl. Her story is about the need to sit in the ashes and to taste emptiness, to feel powerless, to experience vulnerability. Through this humiliation and deprivation comes the maturity she needs to find joy and fulfilment in a transformed life. In Australian Aboriginal culture and in the indigenous cultures of other lands there are echoes of the same need the need to withdraw and sit in the ashes. In some North American Native cultures, it is accepted that, in everyone's life, there will come a season when he or she will have to spend some time sitting in the ashes. In the long houses the fire for cooking and heating was in the centre under a hole in the roof for the smoke. From time to time, individuals would withdraw from the activities of the tribe and quietly sit in the ashes which surrounded the fire. They would partake of very little food. Then one day he or she would get up, wash off the ash and resume normal communication and activity. Nobody asked why. It was understood that everyone has a need from time to time to withdraw in the ashes, to work something through, whether a depression or a crisis of some sort, and needed the space, the quiet, the withdrawal to work through the inner chaos. There are many of us at the moment who are feeling very keenly the pain of the world. There is Japan. There are many of our friends in the diocese still flooded or still trying to move on after the floods. Many of us know the city of Christchurch, or know people there. One of the prisoners, from an African nation, who is Christian, is fasting at the moment and has been since he got to Loddon prison two months ago. His discipline is to augment his prayer for his mother and family in war-torn Africa. The 40days of Lent give us the opportunity to stop and sit in the ashes. Perhaps our tears will come. Our tears deepen us, connect us to our true origins, connect us to the rest of God's people, connect us to God's creation, but most importantly, connect us to the grounding of the God of our lives. And we return renewed. At the end of the 40 days is Easter morn. New life! 110306 last after Epiphany - Transfiguration. Mtt 17:1-9; 2 Pet 1:16-21; Ps 2; Ex 24: 12-18 Today we heard the familiar story of Jesus going up the mountain with his close friends, where his clothes and face become dazzling white, where Moses and Elijah appear, and the three disciples, Peter, James and John are freaked out. What are we to make of this story? I wonder if you like murder mysteries? Or suspense movies? Or science fiction? Tales of the supernatural? I watched a couple of the new Dr Who series, but they really pushed my fear tolerance and I stopped! We respond with a mixture of fear and enjoyment when we watch or read them. Our eyes go out on stalks, the hairs on our arms rise up. We get goose-pimples, we are afraid, yet we keep watching or reading! Fear and trembling! If any of us has an attraction to the supernatural, our attention might be caught by two of today's readings Exodus and Matthew. We can be there with Joshua as he watches Moses go up into the cloud filled with fire. The flesh on our arms stand up. We are there too with Peter, James and John as they see light shining through Jesus as he stands with Elijah and Moses. The cloud overshadows us. Our skin turns clammy with fright. The voice speaks, our knees give way and we too collapse on the ground in fear and trembling. Fear and trembling. What is everyone afraid of? They are afraid because they see something they cannot explain. A cloud blazes with fire into which Moses disappears. Jesus shimmering in light from an unseen, inner source and talking with Moses and Elijah. No one sees such sights. Fear and trembling. Throughout the Scriptures those are the words which describe the meeting of humans and our God. "The Lord is King," the psalmist sings, "let the people tremble...let the earth shake." The God of fear and trembling is all-powerful. The God of fear and trembling is high and exalted. That God is a stern judge and a king whose deeds surpass human understanding. The God of fear and trembling is distant. And in a strange way people are comfortable with this God. They are comfortable because they know just how to act in his presence: they bow down in fear, knees shaking, eyes covered and with the hair raised along their arms. And, they like the thrill of the fear. They like it, because it is the fear keeps God distant. You never can approach this God of fear and trembling. And that is the trouble. We never really meet the God of fear and trembling. God remains distant and we stay bowed down, immobilized by fear, separate from God and from each other. But we were not create us to be distant. We were not create us to be separate from each other. Many times throughout our story as the people of God, the story of the Bible, we see God moving towards us. Prophets reveal God's will to us. God calls us through Noah, and Abraham, and Moses into covenants, promises, with God. Yet still, if God gets too close, we human beings fall down trembling or turn our backs in fear. Unfortunately I think this God is still alive and well in our churches. So, along comes Jesus. Jesus looks like us, he walks and talks like us, he laughs and cries like us, he bleeds and dies like we do. In Jesus, God comes among us as one of us, and Jesus reaches across the gulf of fear and trembling and touches us and says, "Get up. Do not be afraid," just as he did on the mountain. In Jesus God comes among us in our own image Jesus comes among us in our own image in order that we can see that we are God's image. We are God's likenesses in this world and it was this likeness to God that was visible, that was shining through Jesus there on the mount. What do we think it was that was shining through? Light? Or was it love. God is love, after all. Have you seen love shining? I think you probably have like in the face of someone in love. Maybe you've seen it in your own face in the mirror. The eyes are bright with a new sparkle, the smile is radiant, the cheeks glow. The same could be said of a pregnant woman. Her love for the new creation growing in her womb shines through her face. Perhaps that's how God wants to be seen by us: God as love making radiant all of God's creation, especially God's creation seen in you and me. We are being called to shine with the light of divine love because each one of us, as we walk through our lives, is a moment of Transfiguration for the people we meet. It is through us that God's love shines to fill the world with light. So now the fear and trembling is not the last word. In the midst of that fear and trembling the forgiving, the loving hand of Jesus touches us and his voice calls us to turn our faces once again to the face of love itself. "Get up," he says, "and do not be afraid." So lift up your heads. Stand up and do not be afraid. Let the light shine through your face - and through your caring hands, so that the world will see and know the love of God in Jesus Christ as it is made incarnate in you.
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