Sermon

100627 Pent 5

This week has been marked as Refugee week.

Last week we heard the story of Elijah encountering God in the deep stillness at Horeb. After that, if you read 1 Kings some more, you'll find that he passed through the area of Abel-meholah, and that's where Elijah saw Elisha plowing a field with twelve teams of oxen. While there, Elijah throws his cloak – or mantle – on Elisha. This action was an act of commissioning, of commissioning Elisha to the work of God's prophet. Now a person's cloak, their outer garment, was a symbol of their authority. And so Elisha begins to follow Elijah, though we don't hear about him again until 2 Kings 2, which is the passage we heard today.

As the prophet Elijah nears the end of his ministry, he and Elisha travel to shrines at Gilgal and Bethel, and then make their way to the Jordan River. Elijah's action of striking the water of the Jordan River with his rolled-up mantle of course recalls the action of Moses when the waters divided to allow Israel to escape slavery in Egypt. This is one way that we are to recognise that Elijah, along with Moses, are seen as the two great figures in Israel's history. Also of course, we are to see that eh prophets also can bring people to freedom; the freedom of living the way of God.

Elisha courageously asks for a double share of Elijah's spirit. The words a double share are important. A “double share” was the portion of the inheritance normally given to the firstborn and heir. In asking for a double share, Elisha wants this affirmation of leadership so that he can carry on Elijah's work.

A chariot of fire and horses of fire appear, and Elijah is carried “to heaven” in a whirlwind. Elisha bravely picks up Elijah's mantle, and journeys forward into his life as God's prophet.

Elisha is able to part the Jordan River, a sign that he has inherited Elijah's spirit. And we know that Elisha served as a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel for about 50 years, working at the national level and also in the lives of individuals, seeking always to bring people back to honouring God's reign.

The story of Elijah and Elisha is one we can understand. There is Elisha, making sure he didn't leave Elijah's side in case he was left without him. And then, blow me down, it happened. Elijah was taken away. I can feel Elisha's fear and dread at being alone, and having to take on the work of Elijah, can't you? Have you ever felt like that? When you had to take on something alone that someone older and wiser had done previously? I remember my first job as a therapist. I was no longer the student who could hide behind the other practitioners. I had to do it all myself. I felt it again when I began work in Britain. This time I felt that I was representing all of the other Australian therapists to the British ones. And when I had babies: suddenly it was I who was the mother, for goodness' sake! When my parents died, I felt it again. This time it was becoming the one who was the matriarch of the family. It was now me who was the keeper of the story.

Wouldn't we all like to have a double share of wisdom at times like that? We feel inadequate. And we probably are in most circumstances when we are new to the whole thing. What does it cost Elisha to pick up Elijah's mantle? What does it cost us when it happens to us? Do we acknowledge our fear?

It is us who have the mantle of the forbears of the church to pass on the faith. How does that feel to you? How was the story and faith of Christianity passed on to you? What was going on in society at that time? It is different now, isn't it? Who are you passing it on to? How are you passing it on? How are we as a parish passing it on?

Just as Elijah summoned Elisha to leave his farm behind, Jesus called would-be disciples to commit to follow him without looking back. In the passage from Luke today, Jesus and the disciples are on the journey to Jerusalem and Jesus' murder. Jesus addresses the cost of picking up the mantle of discipleship in his name. Other loyalties are to be set aside; there is no turning back. It's not an easy ride.

And in Galatians, Paul spells out what it means to pick up the mantle of discipleship. For Paul, this was far more than claiming a set of beliefs or following a set of laws. Christians are called to live by the Spirit, opening ourselves to letting God's love speak through us in our care for our neighbours.

Yes, there is a cost to being a disciple. There is a cost to taking up the mantle. That 20 th century Christian martyr Bonhoeffer spoke of costly and cheap grace. Cheap grace is when we decide that we are The Saved because we have taken Jesus as Lord and Saviour. We think that we then are fine. We are part of the chosen few, through God's grace and Jesus' death and resurrection. Pity those who are not saved, but, heh, I'm all right! God loves me. I'm cool! Even if I sin, Jesus is OK with me. Anyway, it's all about heaven, not here on earth!

Costly grace is the deep grace we receive when we live lives where we truly and deeply endeavour to follow Jesus. We reflect on all aspects of our lives and hold them against Jesus' way. It means being self aware, especially of when we fail in our attitudes or deeds. It means being willing to speak up when necessary if God's people are not being loved and respected. It means being willing to stand up and be counted if necessary, against the ills in society. For Bonhoeffer it meant working against Hitler in Germany, and eventually being executed for it. Costly grace. Jesus showed us costly grace. He was killed for it. The cost of taking up the mantle.

But how could you decide not to try to live this way? What richness we have! Yes, we stumble, but we live deep and meaningful lives if we can take up the mantle. As Paul says in Galations:

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery – (that's the slavery of self-centredness and where it leads us.) For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself.". For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Live by the Spirit. (and listen to this- )The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That's the mantle we are taking up, however imperfectly. That's what we are aiming for. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness. Stand up and be counted. It is worth it!

Grant us, Lord God, a vision of your world as your love would have it:

a world where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor;

a world where the riches of creation are shared, and everyone can enjoy them;

a world where different races and cultures live in harmony and mutual respect;

a world where peace is built with justice, and justice is guided by love.

Give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen .

A Prayer for Refugees

Your Son became a refugee
and had no place to call his own;

look with mercy on those who today
are fleeing from danger,
homeless and hungry.

Bless those who work to bring them relief;
inspire generosity and compassion in all our hearts;
and guide the nations of the world towards that day
when all will rejoice in your Kingdom of justice and of peace;

WE pray for those we know who are in trouble, distress or illness, and for those whom no-one knows are in difficulty. Bless those who minister to them.

We give thanks for all who have taken on the mantle of Christ down the ages, remembering today those whose lives showed us the fruits of the Spirit, and all who have prayed in this place. We give thanks for the freedom you give through your Spirit, as we put our hand to the plough, setting our sight to your heavenly kingdom where all live in true freedom.

100620 Pent 4

Our first reading is part of the story of Elijah the prophet. Elijah on behalf of his God YAHWEH, is in conflict with the rain god, Baal. There is drought, and Baal is not bringing relief. YAHWEH's prophet Elijah and Baal's prophets hold a contest. Elijah shows God's power by bringing fire down onto the sacrificial altar and, as a side effect, killing Baal's prophets. King Ahab and Jezebel now hold Elijah responsible.

After the reading, we respond with the psalm. Although it has two numbers, 42 and 43, it is actually the one psalm. It is a song of lament, a beautiful lament, so take it gently. Notice that there are three stanzas and refrains. It is a wonderful psalm to pray.

So Elijah flees for his life to get as far away as he can from Jezebel's anger. Elijah is in conflict with the rain god, Baal. There is drought, and Baal is not bringing relief. The prophet Elijah and Baal's prophets have held a contest. Elijah shows God's power by bringing fire down onto the sacrificial altar and, as a side effect, killing Baal's prophets. King Ahab and Jezebel now hold Elijah responsible, Jezebel threatening to kill him. And so Elijah flees, with his tail between his legs.

Elijah has had enough. How he feels could be expressed in the psalm we had today. Why am I all alone? Where is my God? Has God forgotten me? In despair he prays to die. But instead of letting him die, God's angel feeds him in the desolate desert and we read that he makes his way to Horeb – the mountain on which Moses received the law and the covenant from Yahweh.

Yahweh questions him, “What are you doing here ?” Elijah pours out his frustrations: I'm the only prophet left. I've done my best. Now they want to kill me. In reply, Yahweh tells him to stand before him, on the mountain, like a prophet, and that he would come by. And we find that YAHWEH was not revealed in the traditional ways which people were familiar with. Yahweh wasn't in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor in the fire. Where was God? In the deep silence.

God asks him again what is he doing here, and he answers. I think we can assume that he responds with more power this time, and with acceptance of his responsibilities. And sure enough, God commissions him to return. He is renewed. God nourishes and sustains Elijah, even when he is unaware. God is present with him in his times of despair, when he was ready to give up. And we notice that God speaks to him in the depths of his aloneness.

The tale gives us a poignant picture of Elijah standing waiting on the holy mountain, for God was going to pass by. And there is a great wind, a fierce storm such that pieces of rock were being split off the mountain! Surely a display of God and God's power, surely in the wind storm God would be found! But no. Next came the earthquake – well known to be a display of God's power! God would be found in the earthquake! But no. Then the fire! Surely in the fire! But no, again no. God's power is shown not where Elijah expected it at all, but in the sound of sheer silence, or as some translators render it – in the still small voice. And God strengthens Elijah for the work he is called to do.

The psalm could be Elijah's prayer in the wilderness. It is a moving song of lament, of despair, of longing for God. There are many times when I could have sung or spoken the same way. I imagine you probably have had times like that too. The psalm describes the pain of what it is to be human, really human. And in that pain we ask, is there a God? If so, where? But like Elijah, we don't always find our answer in the ways we might expect.

The tale of Elijah, and the psalmist, tell us that through all of our difficulties, God is there, God the rock. That we can find hope and trust when resting in God's presence.

Yes, there are times when life overwhelms us and we despair. We have fear-filled moments of insecurity, or of risk. They can stop us from living courageously and faithfully in the way of God. We may lose faith.

But these rich stories remind us that when we ask for the power to see the way forward, to the truth and the Light, God responds. When we turn ourselves, body, mind and spirit, towards God, we are enveloped by grace, nourished and sustained, no longer alone.

“Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I shall go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.” And the refrain is:

Why are you downcast O my soul and why do you sigh within me? Put your trust in God, for I shall praise him yet, my saviour and my God.

Yes, God nourishes us and sustains us, God is there even when we are unaware of God's presence. But we can find God the Rock. We can look for truth and light, and we wil l find God there. We can give ourselves stillness and silence and we will find God there. When we help ourselves become aware of God's presence, we find healing and restoration. In God's love and grace we find truth, promise and hope.

Today is Trinity Sunday. What evidence do we have of the Trinity or what in this building points to the Trinity?

The doctrine of the Trinity came about gradually. The word Trinity is not in the Bible. The word was first used in AD 180. It is the idea of God as three persons but one substance and it developed during the first centuries of the church. There were things in scripture that pointed to it, like in Mtt when the church was exhorted to go and baptise people in the name of the F, the S and the HS. And the blessing of Paul's in 2 Cor 13: 14 which we use often – the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the HS be with you all.

People were wrestling with their contemporary understanding of the spiritual world and trying to sort out how C hristian s should think of God. Of course at that time the thought of Plato and the other Greek philosophers and the other religions would have had influence.

Anyway, the different branches of the church in the known world had different ideas – not surprising really, since they were talking about God, whom we cannot define or put in a box!

Eventually the branches of the church at the time decided to get together and to nut out this idea of a Trinitarian God. They met at Nicaea in 325 AD. Not only did they discuss with the idea of God, but also they grappled with the language available to them. The language of commerce at the time was Greek, but of course for many here at the meeting it was not their first language and there were differences in the understanding of the nuance of meaning.

Well, as you know, the Nicaean creed was the document that came from this meeting. It is mainly a statement of what God is not. And it seems from the evidence we now have that it was only agreed on because of the different understandings the men had of the Greek – that different branches of the church still kept different ideas of what God the Trinity actually meant, even though they agreed on the words.

What about today then? Our readings set down for today bring in different ideas of God for us to chew over. The first reading from Proverbs I alluded to last Sunday. Here is God as Holy Wisdom, feminine, there with God from the very beginning. I wonder where this image of God fits in with the Trinity for you? She is very much creating all that is, and she delights in the human race; both ideas we have tended to fix to the idea of God the Father.

Paul of course speaks of Jesus through whom we become justified, or made right with God. Through Jesus we came to understand God in a different way from how the ancients had previously understood God. God was no longer vengeful, but a God of love and forgiveness, a God we could call Abba , or Daddy, in other words, a God we could be intimate with.

Last Sunday was Pentecost when we especially focus on God as Holy Spirit. The Pentecost story gives us a picture of the power of the Spirit. Yet we each experience the HS in many different ways. And this same Holy Spirit, the gospels say, is within us.

It would be a good exercise to sit with the Bible and note down every image of God found within it. I wonder if the Trinity is the main image it would bring forth. I doubt it. I wonder if the ancients, as they were trying to nut out the Trinity, took account of one of my favourite images – God as mother hen! I suspect it would not have been a lofty enough image for those faithful men of that time.

Each of us has a different idea of God; indeed most of us probably have many ideas of God. God remains mystery. Any image we have is only one handle to help us have a relationship with this mystery.

These various images help us at different times in our lives to access God. At some parts of our lives we might focus more on the image of God as the Father, the creator of all that is. At another we might need God as Son, the human face, while at other times we need the image of God as Spirit.

When you first thought about God, possibly when you were a child, what image was it that you had in your mind? Can you remember? Has that image changed over time as your faith developed? As life happened to you? I know someone who had to ignore the image of God as Son for a number of years as she struggled with her past where some men had had a very negative impact on her. She could not conceive of a God as male at that time. Thank goodness for the Trinity which can open us to many different images for times like that.

Sometimes people think that the church and its theology are static. Far from it. Orthodoxy is always changing, just as the example we saw today of the early church as it wrestled within its known understanding of the world and its implications for the Spirit of Truth whom we all seek. Major changes to orthodoxy for example occurred of course with the challenge of Copernicus and Galileo all those centuries ago. Today our world view continues to change rapidly. Our understanding of how our brain and psychology works, the intricacies within each cell, DNA, and much more, all have to impact on the theology of the church.

But even back when the gospels were written, the writer of the gospel of John spoke of the Spirit of Truth coming, the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. I pray that we may be open to that spirit's nudging and guidance. That we will be open to God's prompting. That we will all be able to grow deeper and deeper into faith, through all three aspects of the Trinity, and indeed through the other images of God available to us.

I am glad to have been brought up in the Christian faith. I think we are especially fortunate to have the incarnation – the concept of God in human form. We all have SOME understanding of what a human is like, even if we struggle with grasping the less tangible spirit of God. With the coming of Jesus, we were able to put a human face to God, making God more accessible to our feeble human minds.

Today's reading from the gospel of St John says - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. The Spirit will GUIDE you into all truth. Allow your minds to use their God-given powers of imagination to go on that journey of seeking the truth. Extend your images of God. Do not be afraid. You may find great riches there; life-changing riches. And don't be afraid if your ideas of God change over time either. God can cope! And it may well open you up to more beauty and joy, love and peace.

May the God of the Trinity and more, be with you.