Christ’s Presence in Storms of Chaos

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 

We now move to the next generation and begin the Joseph story.  We need to remember that Jacob had been renamed Israel at the wrestling incident because both names are used in this reading that begins in the household enterprise of ‘Jacob and Sons.’^[1]

The family dysfunction that is being passed on from generation to generation now takes a deadly turn with the suggestion to kill Joseph.  This is mediated by one of the brothers and when the chance to profit by Joseph’s demise presents itself his life is saved by selling him into slavery.  Of interest is that it is the descendants of the other branch of Abraham’s family, the Ishmaelites, that save Joseph and save the divine promise.    Maurice Andrew notes that the promise is put in danger by family conflict but Joseph has the ability to channel the conflict into survival for them all because he understands God acting through the events.^[2]

Matthew 14:22-33

At this point the gospel has moved from teaching through parables to the feeding episode. To get there the disciples cross over the lake and in today’s episode they cross back.  These crossing episodes are a feature of Mark and Matthew’s Gospels where one section is joined to another by a crossing episode.

Jesus is shown to have control of the sea and the storm which is a divine creative action.  In Canaanite mythology God creates the world by pushing back the waters of chaos and there are hints of this in the Genesis creation accounts as well as in Proverbs.

We should also remember that God saved the people by pushing back the waters of the sea when they were escaping from Egypt, a new creation of a new people, and this chapter of Matthew contained the wilderness feeding so Matthew is continuing the new people of God through a new Moses theme.

Warren Carter points out that there is an instruction here to rely on Jesus in tough times and the rough sea symbolises the power of evil and chaos that rebel against God. ^[3]  This is an episode in which Jesus does God acts in front of the disciples and they affirm his divinity.

Sermon

I am an only child, so I did not experience sibling rivalry.  However, although our two boys get on well together their journey to adulthood had its sibling rivalries.

One of the incidents I still remember is a time when they and the neighbour’s children built a fort between the garage and the fence.  I heard my eldest declare that they would need some rules for their fort.  To which the younger responded ‘Yea and the first rule is don’t think your smart.’

Certainly, we get the impression that Joseph thought he was smart.  However, he was the youngest of the family and learned the hard lesson that he didn’t walk on water.

Sent out to find his brothers he was separated from parental protection and his brothers took action to rid themselves of his taunting presence.

Initially the brothers had murderous intent. But, although neoliberalism hadn’t been invented, they finally adopted a strategy of asset sales.  So, Joseph was traded to wandering Ishmaelite traders.  Continue reading Sunday 13th August →

A dream of peace.

Peace Sunday

Dr Barbara A Peddie.

Today is Peace Sunday. And as this year has ground on, with one disaster following another, the notion of peace seems more and more like an impossible dream. Outside our islands there is war and destruction in many countries. Here in Aotearoa the violence between groups of people who think differently, never mind what the issue is,  seems to be growing more and more dangerous. What good can we do, sitting here on a Sunday morning, and asking God for peace?

Of course, we turn our attention, and our hopes and dreams, to what’s happening in the world around us every Sunday. It’s our duty – our calling – to turn our thoughts to the world around us and pray for the good of all creation. It just seems, on a day like today, that whatever we do hasn’t had much of an impact – if any. Maybe we should stick to the lectionary and forget about this special Sunday?

Peace in our world is a very rare gift. Of course, some governments say: ‘we will have peace’ without putting anything in place to achieve it. And what they are really saying is, our nation will go about its daily life in safety, never mind what’s happening out there. What they don’t acknowledge is that unilateral peace comes at a high price.  Consider the reaction to terrorist outrages. Governments say: ‘We will root out terrorism.’ They don’t usually add: – ‘and we won’t necessarily be too dainty in the methods we use for doing so’, but in practice, that’s what often happens. As a result, a climate of fear builds up, and fear breeds violence, and violence breeds revenge – and so the cycles of war continue.

‘For heaven’s sake, let’s have peace at any price!’ How often have you heard that phrase or something very much like it? And how often do you stop and think about what it really means? How high a price are we prepared to pay? And for whose sake? Usually, if we’re honest, for our own sake. Most of us, given a choice, would avoid conflict if we possibly could. There are a few rare people whose outlook on life is such that they choose to sail into an argument with all banners flying – but they’re a minority. Continue reading Sunday 6th August →

                                                                 Blessed

Prayer of Illumination

Me inoi tatou, Let us pray;

Eternal God,

in the reading of the Scripture, let your Word be heard;

in the meditations of our hearts, may your Word be known;

and in the faithfulness of our lives, may your Word be shown.

Amine/Amen

 Introduction to the Bible Reading 1

The lectionary readings continue the story of Jacob, who has already extorted his twin brother Esau’s birthright for a bowl of soup or stew. The story devolves from there. With his mother Rebekah’s help (remember, Rebekah favoured Jacob while Isaac favoured Esau), Jacob next intentionally deceives his father to receive the blessing Isaac intended for his elder son, Esau. As a result, Esau plans to kill his brother.

And Jacob? Jacob has fled for his life. His scheming to obtain birthright and blessing has left him homeless and on the run. But the irony is, the destination of his flight was Haran – the place where his grandparents Abraham and Sarah first demonstrated their trust in God by setting out on their promise-driven journey. For Jacob, it is as if he, too, needs to go back to the beginning – and learn what it means not to scheme but to trust.

Listen now to the story of Jacob as it is woven into the words of Psalm 139 and its acknowledgment of living in the mystery of God’s presence.

Bible Reading 1 Genesis 28:10-19 and Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

(divide congregation in half)

A: Genesis 28:10–11 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

 B: Psalm 139:1–4

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.

 A: Genesis 28:12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

 B: Psalm 139:5

You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

 A: Genesis 28:13–14 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

B: Psalm 139:6

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

 A: Genesis 28:15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

 B: Psalm 139:7–12

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

 A: Genesis 28:16–17 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

 B: Psalm 139:23–24

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

 ALL: Genesis 28:18–19 EARLY THE NEXT MORNING JACOB TOOK THE STONE HE HAD PLACED UNDER HIS HEAD AND SET IT UP AS A PILLAR AND POURED OIL ON TOP OF IT. HE CALLED THAT PLACE BETHEL.

Introduction to Bible Reading 2

Today’s reading from the book of Matthew has one of Jesus’ many parables. This one, that tells of the wheat and weeds, provides a vision of the world now and the one to come.

As you listen ponder these questions – What does it mean for the world to have both wheat and weeds in it? How do we feel if we  hear it as wheat and weeds dwelling within each one of us?

 Bible Reading 2 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (rostered reader – any version)

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

³⁶ Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷ He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Sermon “Blessed”

Blessed. (Or ‘bless-ed” as I often find myself saying from years of hearing the King James version.) To be blessed is seen as such a good thing, a thing to aspire to, and yet do we really understand it?

In the book of Job, he is called blessed by God. But is only when he starts loses things that we discover why he is considered blessed. He was blessed with many crops and fields, animals and slaves, houses and land. Therefore, he is no longer blessed when he loses them. When his children die, he is told they were a blessing that he no longer has. And when he loses his health and is reduced to sitting in the dirt scraping his sores in agony he is told to curse God and die.

Job is one of the oldest biblical writings and shows us how little human nature has changed. So many people, even Christians, believe that they are blessed by God when we have material wealth, or health or many children or are seen as successful and famous. Conversely, if we do not have these things we feel cursed, or at least not blessed. Continue reading Sunday 23rd July →

Readings

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Abraham didn’t want Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman so he sent his servant back to where he had come from to find a wife for Isaac.

The servant did that and met Rebekah at the well, who was the daughter of Abraham’s brother, and he tells her of his mission and she goes back to her mother and her brothers.  Her brother Laban comes and meets Abraham’s brother and we pick up the story as the negotiations begin.

Chapter 24 is the longest of the stories in this part of the Bible and different because, instead of acting directly, or through angels, God is seen acting though everyday events.^[1]

Susan Niditch notes that in this story ‘women are valuable commodities as precious as the water with which they are associated, but commodities nevertheless’^[2]

Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

The children in the market place might represent a court setting at the centre of a city or town just as a market is the centre or children playing make-believe courts.

We are reminded that the courts condemn John and Jesus but they marginalise themselves by excluding themselves from God’s purpose.^[3]

God’s purpose is hidden from the traditional leadership but revealed to the small band of ordinary people who are Jesus’ disciples.

Sermon

Our Gospel reading begins by Jesus comparing his generation with children playing in the marketplace and complaining that other children won’t play with them.

We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:17)

When I was a kid we never had a section less than half an acre and other kids were allowed to come and play.  Raewyn and I never had a section quite that big but we continued the ‘everyone welcome’ rule and were quite surprised that one of the neighbours was not allowed to play with friends at his place because it spoiled the lawn.

We did however observe a frustration we remembered from our own childhood.  To play in harmony children have to reach a consensus on what they choose to play.  They might not call to each other as highlighted in the gospel reading.  ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:17)

But the words ‘I don’t like this game so I’m going to take my ball and go home’ frustrated my childhood as well as the group my kids grew up with.  My grandson plays computer games with a kid in Australia which just frustrates his father and step mum who are both outdoor adventure junkies.

However, the main point of this small passage is that Jesus is using the squabbles that erupt in children’s games as a metaphor for the way he saw the society that they lived in.  Verse 16 begins ‘But to what will I compare this generation?’ (Matthew 11:16a) In other words, what is the way this community functions like?

Jesus then expounds on his children’s games metaphor by expressing his frustration about the contrasting reception people had given to both John the Baptist and himself. Continue reading Sunday 9th July →

There’s no pleasing everyone! Proper 9A 20230

There are some people you just can’t please! They’re never satisfied. I’m sure you’ve heard that – many times. I’ve said it myself, but the unspoken bit is always “ I’m not one of those people.” The saying reflects a very common human trait– and one that we seem to be able to see more easily in others than in ourselves. We often make judgements about other people who grumble about what we see as perfectly acceptable. We’re also inclined to think that our opinions about what makes a good environment to live in are reasonable – everyone should be able to see that! And when someone bursts onto our horizon making off the wall statements or suggestions about how we could do, or be, better, our hackles go up.

Take our city of Christchurch. I’m sure we’re not unique in having a thousand different opinions about every project that impacts on the public. In my lifetime we’ve had protracted arguments about roads encroaching on Hagley Park; about where the art gallery should go, and then about what its design should be, about what shape the museum windows should have; about whether you should fish off Brighton pier. Post- earthquake phase we had views about the future shape of the city (and the schools) –we were all sure that ours were the right ones. Even though we know, underneath, that we weren’t thinking about the public good, not really – we expressed our own preferences! I, for instance, think the covered stadium is a total waste of money – but then I haven’t watched a rugby match since I was in the Fourth Form. And I’m really perfectly well aware that my desire to hear orchestra concerts in a truly adequate venue is a minority view!

Our rather odd gospel text picks up some aspects of this quirk of human nature – this desire for something other than what we have, that isn’t necessarily what someone else – some person of status – proposes. Theoretically, Israel desired to be in communication with God through the prophets. Theoretically, Israel desired to hear that the Messiah was about to come. Times were hard. A foreign power had oversight of the land – and a stranglehold on its economy, and the ruler favoured by the Romans was hardly satisfactory. Israel mourned lost greatness- although whether in fact there had ever been a golden age is a moot question. And yet – when John came proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, the people turned away. John was too harsh and too judgmental. Nobody likes being harangued. Nobody likes being called ‘a brood of vipers’ – that’s hardly the way to win hearts. Moreover John didn’t even seem to be talking about good times. He wasn’t going to sing and dance and have fun. Also, he wasn’t respectable! He was interesting, maybe. OK as an afternoon’s entertainment down by the Jordan, but that man wasn’t really ‘one of us’. No need, then to take him seriously.

And then, along came Jesus. He welcomed people. He was gentle with them – mostly. He was ready to sing and dance. He was happy to join in celebrations, like wedding parties – why, he’ even been known to provide the wine! He liked good company, especially at the meal table. He had friends. But then, what about those friends and followers? They weren’t very impressive, some of them –not even respectable. What about those dinners when everyone was welcome on equal terms. Who would want to sit down with some of those people? Inclusiveness is an interesting idea, but let’s not take it too much to heart. We have standards to maintain after all. Continue reading Sunday 2nd July →

Introduction
Whenever we come to the Bible, we will be interpreters. And all those before
us were interpreters also. We try to discern what the message is. We have to
understand the situation and the context we have to determine what is the
message particularly for us – in this time of ours.
Genesis 21 is set in several chapters that tell of Abraham, Sarah Hagar and
the both of two sons. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are in the
previous chapters. These series of events give little guidance to our dealing
with homosexuality today or gender preferences in loving relationships.
At that time as recorded in these chapters women and girls were accorded
no protection or value in the exchanges of everyday life. Abraham at one
point pretends Sarah is his sister to give her to be the wife of a powerful and
threatening chief. Lot has strangers turning up and hosts them as custom
dictated – but his neighbours hating strangers and aliens want to do harm
and rape them The same behaviour we witness in the course of wars today.
Boys were not protected and commonly used for sex by the powerful. The
prohibitions that appear in Leviticus seem to be a protection of the the boys
– ‘tamariki’. We have seen this week in New Zealand that 2 staff in ‘Oranga
Tamariki’ have abused their role with children. We need to be protective of
the young.
The verses we read are focused on the slave girl of Sarah. She had given her
slave to be a second wife to Abraham in order to bear him a son. When she
has a son herself she wants no competition and sends Hagar and her son
away. One will be the father of Arabs the other the father of the nation of
Israel. Both are blessed.
In the mess of life what is the
essential message. I think it is that
in those early times the major
concern was dealing with Holiness
that they felt awe at. The challenge
was to find a way of living that
matched their apprehension of
Holiness in their world.
The psalm has a sense of holiness
somehow touching our lives with
beneficence and compassion and
in response an awareness of God’s
magnificence which is wondrous.
In Matthew, the Jewish traditionalist with a care for the Jews who had
followed Jesus into a new way for their people, we find awareness of
needing to choose and the divisions even in families that choice of the Jesus
way will mean. Holiness has stringent expectations.
Then in Roman’s Paul put it dramatically with all the power and awe ablaze.
They are surrounded with danger because they have chosen this way. Paul
says we who choose to follow Jesus have
died and will rise again with him.
Reflection on Holiness, Awe, Wonder and
The Way
Holiness evokes awe and
wonder. I think that as a
baby we gaze out in awe.
When confronted by
mountains, oceans or a
single rose, begonia or
frangipani we have our
breath taken away and we
are filled with wonder.
Living in a world of nature
– travelling as nomad through deserts finding water and
pasture the people of the genesis time are close to the earth.
The earth demands awe, respect and the sense of the holy. The other, the
intensely powerful and awful. What is this power how do we negotiate our
relationship with this presence.
Even our name for this – what ever it is – we must make un-pronounceable.
We dare not pretend to be able to define it or name it. We dare not say it. The
four letters placed together cant be spoken together. If we try we have a
guttural sounding Y Ah W Eh “Yahweh” in the translation we Europeans boldly
write “Jehovah” – without regard for Jewish sensitivities and awe.
These nomadic families were as close to the natural world as the nomadic
small nation groups wandering their familiar routes across Australia for
60,000 years. Continue reading Sunday 25th June →

Sermon

Bible Readings

Genesis 18:1-15

The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day, he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground, he said, “Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you. Let me bring some water for you to wash your feet; you can rest here beneath this tree, I will also bring a bit of food; it will give you strength to continue your journey. You have honoured me by coming to my home, so let me serve you.”

They replied, “Thank you; we accept.”

Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick, take a sack of your best flour, and bake some bread.” Then he ran to the herd and picked out a calf that was tender and fat, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to get it ready. He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.

Then they asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?”

“She is there in the tent.” he answered.

One of them said, “Nine months from now I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening. Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”

Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she said.

“Yes you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”

Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 (paraphrase)

I love you, God, because you listen to my prayers every single time I call out to you.

What can I ever offer you for all you have done for me? I know: I’ll bring an offering of wine to thank you for saving me. I’ll bring it into the assembly of the people, so everyone can see that I appreciate what you have done.

How painful it must be for you, God, when one of your people dies.

But you have saved me from death. I will serve you just as my mother served you. I will give you my sacrifice of thanksgiving and offer you my prayers and praise. In front of all the people, in the midst of the Jerusalem temple, I will give you all I have promised, for you have been so good to me.

With all my being, I offer you my praise!

Romans 5:1-8

(divide congregation into four groups)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

All: And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that –

Group One: Suffering produces endurance.

Group Two: Endurance produces character.

Group Three: Character produces hope.

Group Four: Hope does not disappoint us.

All: because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But God’s great love is demonstrated in this:

All: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 9:35-10:10

Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness. As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were without a shepherd. So he said to his disciples, “The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest.”

Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles; first Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Patriot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

These twelve men were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions; “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. Instead, you are to go to those lost sheep, the people of Israel. Go and preach, ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; do not carry a beggar’s bag for the journey or a spare shirt or shoes or a walking stick. Workers should be given what they need.

Sermon ‘Compassion’

The Mathew reading tells us – “Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness. As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were without a shepherd.”

The phrase “his heart was filled with pity (or compassion) for them” can also be translated from the Greek as “his guts were twisted in pain by his compassion for them.” While a bit rougher than the first I like thus version as it saves us from some of the baggage the word ‘pity’ holds and emphasises how deeply moved Jesus was by the plight of the people around him.

And notice two things; Jesus is concerned not just about people believing his good news but in their physical and mental well-being. And secondly he immediately does something about it. After commenting that there are few workers for the harvest he doesn’t despair and say it’s all too hard. He looks at what he has and organises the twelve men he has to add to what he is doing.

In the Genesis reading which we only referred to today, we also meet a compassionate God. In this story we hear about Sarah’s infertility. She believes it is now impossible for her to have children, as both she and Abraham are just too old. But God has different ideas. And he promises a child, in fact a son, something that would wipe away all the years of shame at not producing an heir for Abraham. Finally. And Sarah laughs in disbelief.

And here we have the worm in the apple, especially on this day that has been designated Disability Sunday. Why does a compassionate God not cure every disease and sickness? Why does he let bad things happen to good people, or even just okay people, or to totally innocent children? Why?

Honestly I’m not sure if there is a simple answer. But what I do know is that often disability is not the problem, it is the way we use labels to categorise people. And that is ridiculous when you think about it because all of us are disabled in some way. Because really ‘disabled’ means ‘not able to do (something)’. And that is true for all of us. I am unable to sail an America’s Cup boat. I am unable to understand, build and launch a rocket. I am unable to keep most plants alive. I suspect you too may be able to come up with a list too. And yet the fact that I am unable to do lots of things results in me being rarely called ‘disabled’.

No, we tend to keep that label for the disabilities that are easy to see. And yet even then we are selective. I obviously wear glasses. Without them I am unable to see this sermon, your faces and probably how to get out of the building. Without my glasses I would be in truth be disabled, unable to cope in this modern world.

And that is often the criteria. You have a disability if you don’t fit in, if you face barriers when you try to live your life. Now when you use that as your disability criteria; that there are barriers to living life as you wish it – all of us are disabled. Some are unable to do what they want to do because of the colour of their skin. Some face barriers because of their gender. Some are unable to be who they could be because their brain does not work like other people’s and they are labelled strange or difficult or mad. Still others have physical characteristics that don’t fit the ‘norm’ (whatever that is) and so they struggle to go places or to do what is expected. And the list goes on. Continue reading Sunday 18th June – Disability Sun Compassion →

Readings

Genesis 12: 1-9

Writing of this passage Maurice Andrew reminds us of Colin Gibson’s hymn in which Gibson uses the image of the God of Abraham sending us on our way and ‘has called forth a response from many New Zealanders for whom ‘the road runs out.’

We can see plausibility in this saga as we reflect on our own migratory history of island hopping or migration across the globe.

We are told that God told Abram to leave Haran and, if we relate that to our own experience, the fact that migration was divinely inspired is often a hindsight revelation rather than a certainty when the decision is being made.

Furthermore, the journeys we make are often short trips strung together over a lifetime, like my grandfather who said he went to Canada because he was sick of washing his stepmother’s dishes.  If he knew he would end up in Auckland, he might have persevered with the dishes.

Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26

Matthew the tax collector did not work for our IRD and the tax he collected was a toll on transported goods.  He would have contracted to collect a certain amount with any surplus belonging to him.

That system encouraged greed and exploited poor peasants and other producers, like fishermen, who transported goods to urban markets.  Such taxes served the empire’s ruling elite and secured the infrastructure in conquered areas to consolidate and extend Rome’s power.

To not collect tax was to undermine the empire’s way of life and control.  Therefore, the story of Matthew offers the suggestion that even despised tax collectors, can walk away from the oppressive imperial system to find God’s saving presence in Jesus and an empire that is life giving and merciful.[1]

More excluded people are repatriated in the next section we read where Matthew has condensed Mark’s sandwich of the healing of two women.

Sermon

Both our readings are about journeys, one across ancient lands to become a people of God and the other is part of the metaphorical Gospel journey towards becoming a new people of God.

Our Genesis reading is the beginning of the Abraham Saga that moves into the Exodus Saga which is all part of the Hebrew Journey to becoming the People of God.

The journey was started by Abram’s father in the previous chapter where it says that Abram had set out with his father and the rest of family from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan but had stopped at Haran. (Genesis 11:31-32).

These stories are narrowly focussed on the Abraham’s family but like all our own journeys they happen within the ongoing journey of humanity spreading throughout the globe as layer upon layer of peoples and culture evolve into the people of our world.  The inclusive challenge the Gospels present is to accept that all those people are potentially the whole people of God.

The Bible doesn’t tell us why Abram and his father left Ur of the Chaldeans or why after settling in Haran with his father Abram decided to continue the journey.

Likewise, my family know that the Perrys came to New Zealand from Plymouth to New Plymouth on the ‘Amelia Thompson’ because they thought they could smelt the Taranaki iron sands.  But we can only guess what motivated them to leave a smelting business in England and risk Split Enz’ ‘six months in a leaky boat.’ Continue reading Sunday 11th June – Our Journeys are also Faith Journeys →

Today is Trinity Sunday. We’ve just emerged from Pentecost- that hugely significant, challenging, and exciting celebration. We’re just getting our heads round the metaphor of the Spirit coming in fire and wind, and opening us to the experience of God in Christ present with us, and now we’re asked to take on board the whole Trinitarian package. It’s no wonder, that in many churches this is the Sunday when the regular preacher finds a substitute to deal with Trinity!

One of the biggest difficulties we have when we’re faced with mysteries beyond our experience, is to find words to describe them to ourselves. I think I’ve told you this story before but it’s worth repeating it. It’s a true story of a group of five-year-olds from Wainoni School who were taken to the beach. They had never been to the beach – it’s only 1km away from where they lived, but their families had nothing extra to cover the cost of picnics at the beach! They had no word for sand. They had never seen it, or experienced the feeling of it – they had no words. It’s hardly surprising that we struggle to find words to describe the mysteries of our faith. Even when we experience them, they’re so big that the words we use never seem satisfactory – there’s always something more.

After all, it took the early church centuries to hammer out a concept of Three-in-One, and One-in-Three that was helpful to them in building their faith. And the formula the Church came up with after 300 years worked for their time and knowledge, but, in the end, it wasn’t a glue strong enough to hold the Church together! The early Christians were passionate about their theology. There were riots in the streets over different interpretations about the nature of God. The arguments spilled out into the markets and the barbers’ shops, and ordinary people came to blows in the streets over the different formulae proposed. Our ancestors really cared about the doctrines of their faith. Continue reading Sunday 4th June, Trinity Sunday – Dangerous Images →

Teaching ‘Ascension’

You’ve just heard about an event the modern church seems to ignore – the Ascension. Perhaps that’s why I bring it up every year because I think it is important.

And yet the events described actually seem quite low key. Jesus spends time teaching the disciples, explaining what has happened and preparing them for the future and then he leaves. You have to sympathise with the early Christians because this was a period when they are overwhelmed with unexplainable happenings. The ascension was just one more to add to jaw-dropping moments like the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And yet despite having to do some major re-shuffling of previously-held beliefs, by the next week when Pentecost happens Peter is able to explain these events in a few sentences. He says; “This Jesus, God raised up.  And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received.”

There, right from the beginning was one of the basic understandings of the Ascension – Jesus went up to heaven to sit on the throne at the right hand of God. In other words, Jesus took the most honoured place in the court after God. Continue reading Sunday 21st May Eastertide/Ascension →

Readings

Acts 17:22-31

Our Reading from Acts is Paul’s speech at the Areopagus.

William Barclay highlights some of the main points of Paul’s sermon beginning with Paul stressing that, in contrast to images in precious metal and stone, God is not made, but the maker.  People like to worship what they have made but the true God has guided history. Furthermore, humanity has an instinctive longing for God and, as Christians, we believe the way to meet with God is to be inspired by Jesus Christ.  The proof of the pre-eminence of Christ is the resurrection.^[1]

John 14: 15-21

Today’s reading is the part of Jesus’ farewell discourse that promises the disciples will not be left on their own when Jesus has gone because God will send ‘The Spirit of Truth’ or the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.

We are also informed that the Paraclete is not a separate presence to Jesus but the same presence.

Furthermore, this presence is not about Jesus’ presence being experienced by a few selected mystics or ascetical elite but a promise that Christ will be encountered by all Christians.^[2]

Sermon

In my younger years I quite often met people, or read about people, who said that God had called them to do something or go somewhere.  Usually, these things were exciting and often in some exotic location.  That  always registered strongly in the cynical part of my brain.  I have also met people who were disappointed that they had not done something because they had not had the call to do so.

So how do we know when the Spirit of Truth that John’s Gospel promises abides with us, calls us, or even just nudges us in a particular direction.

I have plunged, tumbled, or stumbled into most of the major changes in my life and it is only in hindsight that I can say that the Divine Spirit was in the move.  Often other people have been involved.   One I will never forget was a discussion with the convenor of the committee that finds positions for new ministers.  I desperately wanted to stay in Christchurch, and he was determined that I was going elsewhere.  At one point I flippantly said, ‘Well it’s up to the Holy Spirit.’  To which he equally flippantly replied, ‘Yes that me!’.

I learned so much, met so many interesting and fabulous people and made special friends as minister of St Stephens in Hamilton that I am convinced that he was right.  However, neither of us believed so at the time.

It is certainly true that God moves in mysterious ways and I was one of the few teenagers in my circle of friends who didn’t attend church or belong to a church youth group.  Furthermore, I also saw the small group of Baptist young people who mostly kept to themselves as reasonably weird. Continue reading Sunday 14th May 2023 →

Easter 5A 2023 -7th May

We’re still working through the season of Easter. After the first few weeks of fizz and celebration, the lectionary is taking us into times of doubt and questioning. That’s probably exactly where the first followers of the Way were in the days and weeks after the Easter happenings. If we think our lives were turned upside down by earthquake, mass murder in our city and pandemic,  however do you imagine they felt? Their leader was dead. No he wasn’t. Some of the first group of followers had seen him. Some hadn’t. Some found themselves fronting up to the scholars and teachers they’d been used to listening to, and arguing with them in public. Some of the women were finding themselves in an entirely new way of being part of a community – they were finding public voices. And these upheavals went on and on.

Today’s reading from Acts was about the first martyrdom. Stephen a Jew killed by fellow Jews, not by foreign rulers. There was uproar in the synagogues. The psalm for today is a good one for people at the end of their endurance. And overall, the readings are still engaging in the challenges of finding a new way of being, a new community, a new faith.

In these times we’re in danger of ‘information overload’! We get more and more opinions and more and more theories about what’s happening, and more and more questions:  what should we do next, who’s right, who’s wrong. And in the age of social media there’s less and less substance, and more and more hype and headlining. And, unfortunately, rather more sloppy research and lack of thought before rushing into print or on line. Continue reading Sunday 7th May -Starting Points →

Sunday 16th April

Reflection/Teaching “Resurrection Witness”

“Seeing and believing” is an ongoing theme in the book of John, and it is a key part of the Thomas and Jesus encounter.

At the opening of this gospel, Jesus asks Nathaniel, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?” When two of John’s disciples begin to follow Jesus he says, “Come and see.” And the story of the man born blind in John 9 is also filled with nuances about sight and belief.

In this passage, the only blessing spoken by Jesus and recorded in John falls on those who have not seen but believe. That blessing reflects the life situation of the original community addressed by this gospel. Most, if not all, of John’s first readers would not have seen Jesus. And yet they believed. And Jesus’ blessing of them is Jesus’ blessing of us as well.

This story about Thomas is often used to berate doubt, based on verse 27, where Thomas wants to touch and see. But the word translated as “doubt” is not one of the common Greek words for doubt. It is ‘apistos’, whose literal meaning would be closer to “without faith” or “unbelief.” So what Jesus is actually doing is graciously providing Thomas with what he needs to move from unbelief to belief.

As we know now people learn in many different ways. Thomas, like many of us, needed to see, to touch in order to move from his previous thinking to knowing that Jesus was alive.

Touch,” writes well-known author Margaret Atwood, “comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last and it always tells the truth.”

Again, recent research has proven the importance of touch. During the many Covid lockdowns physical isolation was one of concerns of mental health professions. We could use on-line or distant interactions to feed our need for sight and sound interactions but we couldn’t touch. People found it physically painful when couldn’t hug the grieving friend or hold the hand of the dying relative.

Thomas needing to touch Jesus was part of his letting go of grieving and truly believing in the living. And it worked. Thomas become one of the most well-travelled apostle. His story didn’t get into our bible and so like many I thought his journey to India and the subsequent Christian community there a myth. But I now have a neighbour who comes from that tradition. And it the evidence is compelling that there has been a Christian presence in India for over 2000 years.

Continue reading Sunday 16th April- Resurrection Witness →

12 March 2023

Readings

Exodus 17:1-7

Writing of this Exodus reading Maurice Andrew suggests that:

Creation does not of itself liberate an oppressed people, but a liberated people must also be able to live from creation, as we see when, after only three days in the wilderness, they find no water.  After liberation, people become migratory and their wandering is characterised, not by the will to go forward for life, but by the desire to return to security.  In the difficult period between liberation and the gaining of land, which the wilderness wandering represents, the limitations of the people are witheringly exposed. ^[1]   We could call this episode ‘the whinging in the wilderness’ and there is a lot of it about.

John 4: 5-42

We often get long readings from John’s Gospel because, in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes long complicated theological speeches and the teaching is in those speeches rather than in the description of events.  In this episode we get the vision of the inclusive Christ who will accept a drink from a woman who is of a race considered unclean. Jesus also teaches this woman and sends her out on mission and she in turn brings people to Christ.

Sermon

Through the magic of Facebook, I recently saw a picture of the Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, with the Ministry of Education interns who were finishing their 12 week paid internship.  What initially stuck me about the group of smiling young people about to return to their studies was that we are obviously a nation of immigrants.  If you took a DNA swab from everybody in the group and sent it off to Ancestry Dot Com the results would pretty much cover the globe. Continue reading Liberating Christ Into our world →

26 February 2023

In the scripture version of the Matthew reading, unlike the paraphrase we just had, it opens with this phrase “the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness”

Wilderness implies a place that is not tamed by human occupation. In the physical world, it might be a desert, mountain, forest, or ocean. Within our own lives, it may involve times of uncertainty, experiencing the unknown, or having to make choices with no clear outcomes. Even urban areas can produce wilderness times as the high incidents of modern loneliness shows. Continue reading “Into the Wilderness” →

Sunday February 19t^h 2023 : Transfiguration Sunday

Musings: The Passing of Time (Note merging introduction to Exodus reading)

 Time has slipped by since I last stood in front of this congregation. People have come and gone, you have known bereavement and joy, health and sickness, pandemic, lockdowns, change, as have I. We could draw a timeline of the past three and a half years since I left St Ninians and mark off the events for this congregation, not least the movement around the buildings and now back here in the church, but also in your own personal lives.  I for one have become a grandmother of two delightful little boys in Australia. Such a timeline would be Chronos time.

There’s another kind of time – Kairos time – or deep time. Something that Robert Macfarlane conveys so well in his book, Underland. He writes that deep time goes below the surface – in his case, literally as he explores various underground locations from a burial ground in Somerset, UK; to the catacombs in Paris, to under the ice in Finland and various other sites in between – sites where eras and epochs put human time in perspective and where he feels deeply the interconnection of life on this constantly evolving and changing planet. When viewed in deep time, that which appears inert, becomes vibrant. Our ‘flat perspective’ deepens. I highly recommend. Continue reading We Wait Upon the Mountain →

REFLECTION:                                                                                                        

We are very familiar with the Call stories from  the gospels, stories which also signal  the beginning of Jesus’ Ministry.  Here we are again, this time from Matthew,

In reading the early chapters of Matthew we learn that by chapter 4 Jesus has a new hometown for a  third time – each  in fulfilment of  various prophecies. Have you realised just how transient Jesus’ whole life was, even from the beginning?

Born in Bethlehem,  the family’s first move tells of Joseph and Mary and Jesus  fleeing Bethlehem and Herod’s fury, before  arriving in Egypt – another prophecy fulfilled. We can start to see Jesus’ life following a similar pattern to Moses’ journeys. Continue reading Called →

15 January 2023

Introduction to the Bible Readings

There are many call stories in scripture – to older couples, to teenagers, to people involved in their work, to those opposed to God’s hopes for them. Yet, we rarely hear stories from those with whom we worship about the calls they have heard.

I’m not going to embarrass anyone by asking for a testimony today but consider as you listen to these scripture readings who you would like to approach. Perhaps over a cuppa after the service or in the next days and weeks you could ask them to tell their stories, to share their journeys, to talk about their struggles with this thing we term a “call from God.”

Reading 1 Isaiah 49:1-7

Reading 2 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Response (you are invited to look your neighbour in the eye and like Paul say – “I give thanks for you”)

Sermon “To be called by God” Continue reading “To Be Called by God’ →

SERMON/TEACHING

St Ninians

18 December 2022

“Joseph – patron saint of step-dads”

Please turn to the picture at the front of your church bulletin. It is one of many Renaissance paintings of the Holy Family. You’ve probably seen similar pictures on Christmas cards. It is a simple family portrait; Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

But notice how old Joseph is in comparison to Mary. One of the stories that the church developed over the centuries was that Joseph was much older than his wife Mary.

This had no basis in the biblical narrative but solved a few problems for the Church. First, Joseph is not mentioned after the story of Jesus in the temple at twelve. He has no part to play in his ministry even though his mother is mentioned several times. But if Joseph has died from old age that explains it. Continue reading “Joseph – patron saint of step-dads” →

Readings

Isaiah 35:1-10

In this section the return of the exiles is expressed in terms of the transformation of the wilderness and the transformation of the environment which coincides, or perhaps is linked, with a transformation in humanity.

People transform their environment and are transformed by their environment.

Maurice Andrew remembers that his grandparents had the text ‘streams in the desert’ on their bedroom wall and he goes on to say that they lived by the Waikato River and he doubts if he could ever have imagined what a desert was like.

He thinks they had the text on the wall because everyone realises, whatever their circumstances, there are times when transformation is needed and that even people in their own country may still need to return to their land and find their way back to where they belong. ^[1] Continue reading Bring Joy To The World →

There is a television story,  Reasonable Doubts, about a woman defence lawyer representing a man convicted of brutal assaults. This man was asking the Parole Board to release him after serving a 14 year prison sentence.  The lawyer was successful and the man was  released.

A policeman who was present at the original crime scenes gave the lawyer a rough time after the hearing, telling her she shouldn’t represent such people. This man was nothing but scum.

Subsequently, the police officer discovered that the lawyer’s mother had died from cancer the day before the hearing. So, the next time he saw her he apologised.  I’m sorry, if I had known your mother had died I would have been easier on you. Continue reading If Only I Had Known →

Sunday 23 October 2022

We’re coming to the ending of the Church Year, and with this comes what we call the apocalyptic readings with their dramatic pictures of endings and calamities. That word ‘apocalyptic’ has been somewhat distorted by dramatic films about the end of the world, but that’s not the word’s meaning in the scriptures. It does include the end times, but it doesn’t stop there. The theme underlying apocalyptic scripture is that of the reversal of privilege and oppression – a message that Jesus continually hammers out. But apocalyptic scripture doesn’t stop with doom and destruction; it also sings of restoration and renewal – of God’s new creation. Today’s reading from the prophet Joel fits into this latter category very well. Continue reading Ending – or new beginning? →

16 October2022

You would think after years of women’s lib and the recent ‘Me Too’ movement there would be no more incidents of  injustice for women and yet we are now seeing a pushback from elements who justify poor treatment of women (and pretty much everyone else) as “Making America Great Again” or a part of their culture, or “just a bit of fun”. Of particular concern are the religious leaders, and their followers, who preach that certain toxic behaviours are part of their traditions and beliefs, and that to change would offend their god. And the sad thing is these religions include Christianity.

It seems like just when the persistence of previous activists’ results in some wins something else pops up. That no sooner we get comfortable with those successes that a new battle field appears and we have to fight for the same injustices, or new iterations of those injustices, all over again. It can make you despair – is God’s kingdom never going to come? is a just world ever going to happen? Continue reading ‘Never Give Up’ →

Your creation, my creation, our creation,
science’s creation, God’s creation
Whoever, whenever, whatever
One thing’s for sure
It is a marvellous creation
Full of vibration
Full of attraction
Full of energy
Full of parallels and opposites
Natural laws, manmade laws, religious laws,
spiritual laws
One thing’s for sure
It’s a wonderful mystery
slowly being unfolded
Some feel they have all the answers
Some are still searching and others are
just not interested
A magnetic equilibrium of antitheses
Life and death
Day and night
Positive and negative
Richly abundant and barrenly dry
All exist
While we wonder, why, why, why???
Rurkinder-Kaur Sidhu. Kim10@min.com

When I was growing up, the word ‘cosmos’ wasn’t part of my vocabulary. We heard ‘universe’ and ‘galaxy’ spoken of in relation to the world around us – and those ideas were challenging enough to get your head around. My particular world – and yours – has expanded in more directions than one during my lifetime. We were told in high school that electrons and protons were the smallest particles. Now we know that’s not true. And, as the known particles of creation get smaller and smaller, the cosmos gets larger and larger. Everything is constantly on the move. The stars we see in our night sky are not the stars that our first ancestors saw. I still remember an astronomer friend of mine telling me that she always quite enjoyed telling people who believed in astrology, and who rang the National Observatory to get advice from astronomers, that they were a month out of date with their star signs. That’s how far things have moved in the hundreds of years since people began to tell their fortunes from the signs of the zodiac, never mind how far they’ve moved in the thousands of years of human history. Continue reading Cosmos and Catholicity – Creation →

Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28

We read two sections from Jeremiah this morning and, the section in-between that is missed out, gives imagery to the Babylonian invasion.  In an interesting twist the blame for the invasion is placed with the invaded rather than the invaders.  This is real social comment where it is understood that bad national policy makes invasion a real possibility.  The second part of this morning’s reading is a lament over the devastation caused by the invasion. and Maurice Andrew points especially to the line in the second half of verse 25.

‘And all the birds of the air had fled.’ Which reminded him of a character created by the New Zealand author Owen Marshall who was ‘so tough that the birds stop singing as he passes’.  ^[1] Continue reading Lost and Found →

04 September 2022

We’ve just moved into the season of Creation. It’s a newish season of the church year, but it has rapidly become an urgently important season. It’s intended to be a time when we deliberately make connections between our interpretation of Scripture and our awareness of “creation.” This isn’t something we do easily because most of us have inherited traditional ways of reading and interpreting scripture through the lens of our humanity. This is, we focus on the personal – (what does this passage say to me) and also social justice. The Season of Creation challenges us to reconfigure our thought patterns and to ask: “How does this passage affect my attitude towards the Earth and all its inhabitants?”

The season began on September 1 – Creation Day, and today is Ocean Sunday. But I needed to start at the beginning because of those amazing images coming to us from the James Webb telescope. We are getting images that have travelled through billions of years – thousands of millions of years. From before the time when our planet first came together. It’s hard – no it’s impossible to comprehend the time scale. My brain can’t cope with more than a few millennia. I know that life began on this planet hundreds of thousands of years ago, but I can’t easily grasp these timespans, let alone the cosmic ones! Continue reading Creation’s Challenges. →

A sermon on Luke 14: 1, 7-14. . August 28 2022

Luke’s Jesus sometimes seems to be preoccupied with meals. There are more references to eating, banquets, tables and reclining at tables than in any of the other Gospels.  Luke suggests that, for Jesus, the table is a key place for teaching, and for encountering the marginalized. Jesus also uses the meal table as a focus for some of his parables. Sharing a meal, sitting round a table, is a principal site for fellowship and for teaching. So, here we go again, with a meal within a meal.

On the surface, this looks like a straightforward little story. Don’t ever assume that you have a right to the place of honour. It’s not status that counts, it’s service. You may think you are important – but that won’t necessarily be the way God sees your rȏle. That’s the obvious message of this little parable that Jesus told. It’s the upside-down kingdom again – and let’s be quite clear about this – it’s seditious stuff. In Jesus’ world, status was important and status underpinned the established authority. This is Mary’s song all over again: ‘He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts……… he has brought down the powerful from their seats, and exalted the humble and meek.’ We’re so familiar with this theme, and possibly with this story, that we can slide over the provocation, but be very sure that his fellow dinner guests would have got the point. Continue reading Open Tables →

21 August 2022

Readings

Jeremiah 1, 4-10

This morning’s reading is about God empowering Jeremiah, God puts the divine words in Jeremiah’s mouth.  This is known as word-event formula and although it is not found in earlier prophets it occurs 30 times in Jeremiah, 50 times in Ezekiel, and 12 times in the Deuteronomistic History.  Maurice Andrew suggests that it indicates that Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations, like the servant in Isaiah, and he is also a Deuteronomy prophet like Moses.

Jeremiah is the prophet most identified with doom, and this is supported by verse 10 where he is commissioned ‘to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow.’

Maurice Andrew says he often thought that Jeremiah is the journalist’s favourite prophet and he recalled a TV programme where Hamish Keith spoke of ‘the Jeremiahs of journalism.  Keith was referring to predictions of the fall of the government of the time and indeed predicted the downfall of governments as journalists still do.

Dr. Andrew goes on to suggest that Jeremiah is really inclined to be a realist who can always see the potential for disaster. Continue reading The Call to Prophecy in words and action →

Readings for 14 August 2022

Isaiah 5, 1-11

In this passage from Isaiah the people of Jerusalem are provoked into accepting judgement on themselves. The friend has done everything possible to cultivate a vineyard and would expect it to produce grapes.  At that point the people of Jerusalem are called to make a judgement between the friend and the vineyard.

Finally, the friend is identified as God and the vineyard is the people of Judah.  God expected justice but received bloodshed.^[1]

Luke 12:49-56

Fred Craddock says that Jesus is the crisis of the world and by that he does not mean an emergency but the moment of truth and decision about life.

As an image to help the understanding of that comment he suggests a gable of a house where two raindrops strike the gable and could run off either way.  If instead of a gable, we think of a ridge in a mountain range the raindrops could indeed, end up oceans apart. To turn towards one person, goal or value means turning away from another.

According to the sayings in this reading God is acting through Jesus in a way that creates a crisis that produces difference even in families.  Peace, in the sense of status quo, is disrupted and historically this has proven to be true.

Sermon

‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!’ (Luke 12:49). Continue reading Loving God by Loyalty to All Humanity →

August 7 2022

Is there anyone who doesn’t hope for peace. I don’t know of any nation that doesn’t give at least lip service to the words inscribed on the front of the UN building in New York. ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares.’ Those words have sat there for over half a century, and how many of the nations that send members to sit in UN meetings have known even one decade when their people all sit under their own vines and harvest their own crops? What do they think they’re doing, all those wise men and women who debate the ways forward for the world’s countries – including their own? We might be forgiven for thinking: very little.

We might be forgiven for thinking that, but are we then shifting the responsibility onto someone else’s shoulders. Anybody’s but mine. It’s not my job to work for world peace.  Others will do that, somewhere other than the place I sit in. Just let me go on sitting quietly in my own garden and dreaming of peace, but don’t ask me to do anything about it. Is that where we’re at?  Continue reading ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ →