Thursday, February 04, 2010
A quiet period
Saturday, January 30, 2010
And the greatest!
St Paul tells us that the greatest gift is love. But it is not an airy fairy sort of love.It is a love which is immensely practical .
Reading s for January 31st– the gift of love
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Cor 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30
The Christian message is not particularly difficult to understand
it is that God loves us
and that God want us to love each other
We do however seem to be resistant
to the implementation of this simple and straightforward message
There is a warning early on in Jesus’ ministry
that the Gospel message may be heard
but it will not always be received.
Even by those, like our friends, and people who know us
you might think would be the first to take up the precepts.
Growing into maturity
St Paul reminds us that the message of love
whilst being rich and poetic
is also immensely practical
It is about patience, kindness, goodness
working against irritability, resentments, rudeness and arrogance
This may be what some people find difficult to take
It is easy to dismiss an airy-fairy gospel (so heavenly that it is no earthly use)
not so easy to dismiss something that really connects with out day to day life
THIS WEEK
Take a little time to ask God where you have heard the message but not been
terribly interested in responding, where you have even been resistant to any
sense of the Gospel requiring a response
Is there somewhere where God is
asking me to implement the Gospel practically?? Do I need to be kind, patient,
forgiving, open?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Here's your present!
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 24, 2010 Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19 I Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21
There is an inference in Luke 4 (and beyond)that God might actually have something in store for us
We read how Jesus is revealed not just as a nice chap
but who we are invite us to understand as the fulfillment of God’s promise.
The Lord is planning to use him, because the Lord God
has given him the Holy Spirit
and that Spirit is there for purpose
not just for decoration!
Now is the time
and the Lord is beginning a “new thing”.
We too are given the Holy Spirit.
Paul reminds us (1 Cor 12)
that we are not all called to be bishops, teachers, or apostles
healers or prophets.
What do you think you might be called to be and do
Two clues: Not all are called to be the Bishop, or the organist
or the healer
Second clue: We are all called to be and do something
There is no free lunch or free ride..
This implies so much for us.
Don't do or dumb yourslef down.
Perhaps others see in us what we do not see ourselves.
But not one of us is not gifted.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
January 24th- Jesus’s Ministry
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 24, 2010 Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 Psalm 19 I Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21
In Luke 4 we read how Jesus invites us to understand him as the fulfillment of God’s promise.Now is the time that Lord is beginning a “new thing”.
What part do we play in that? How does God call you and me to make a contribution ?
What concrete actions can I put into place to enable God’s peace, healing and wholeness to be available to those I encounter in my life?
January 31st Dealing with rejection
readings for this Sunday: particularly Luke 4
January 31,2010
Jesus is not welcomed with universal acceptance. We often experience rejection from those who are closest to us. We are reminded however that our sense of purpose, like Jesus, comes from the fact that we are called by God “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; “This tremendous affirmation can also remind us at this time when we think about our National Day, that as a nation we would do well to seek after God
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
So you are the Christ...the great Jesus Christ

Readings this week (SundayJanuary 17 2010 ) are for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 62:1-5 Psalm 36:5-10 I Corinthians 12:1-11 John 2:1-11
No miracle attracts attention like the turning of water into wine. It is the butt of all the jokes that cynics and non-Christians throw at believers in Jesus.
Be that as it may.
We are fixated on getting our water turned into wine
whereas it seems the holy God
might be intent on something else.
A couple of points
Jesus is with us in the ordinary.
Although we think this story is about a magic trick of changing water into wine
it speaks volumes more
it is not the extraordinary
that is the key
but the ordinary.
Here we have Jesus at an ordinary,
a marriage
and being bothered about an ordinary,
the wine has run out.
If we hear nothing else in this story
we need to recognise that it speaks to us about how Jesus
lives with us in the ordinary world.
The world of weddings and bad catering!
We often confine God to "religious" areas
but this story, like much of John's Gospel,
reminds us that Jesus does not take us out of the ordinary
but rather transforms it.
One of the keys to enabling this transformation to happen
is to hear the words of Mary to his disciples
"Do what ever he tells you!"
So two key principles so far in this story are:
- allow Jesus into the ordinary
- and listen to what he is telling you to do and do itt.
This simple advice might stand us in good stead.
It requires simply that we open our ordinary life to God
And that we listen to what he is saying
We are not always good at this.
Do we take time each day, each week
to even think about what we are doing
in our ordinary life, at work, at school
at home
with our family, in our duties,
in our recreation
do we submit that to God
and allow God to add to our experience of it.
NOTE that Jesus does not cane the wedding guests!
He does not say "You are a mob of drunks! and it serves you right."
but rather
and have it more abundantly.
This is one of the great themes of this Gospel.
There will be times when God tells us to draw back
that we have got it wrong
and there will equally be times
when we are invited to throw ourselves in with zest and flare.
Dare we do this.
This is not so much a story of wayward drunkenness
but an invitation
and live it
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
But I see Jesus
Today, January 10, 2010, is often called the Baptism of the Lord (First Sunday after the Epiphany)Readings suggested for today are: Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
If you were to draw a picture of God
what would you draw?
Some of our fellow monotheists (that is believers in one God)...the Jews and the Moslems
find this idea of representing God
to be so slippery an idea
that they forbid it all together.
If you go into a mosque or a synagogue
although you will find elaborate decoration
(Islamic art represents some of the highest forms of decorative art the world has ever seen)
But you will find no human form, or even animal form represented
we call this idolatry.
We are profoundly aware that any attempt to represent God will fall far short.
Any picture we draw will be some how inadequate
and contentious.
It will cause offence because of this.
This is of course true not only of visual art
but also of the written word.
We only have to start talking about our experience of God
to realise that the words fail us.
It is easy and tempting to be simplistic and paint or write about God.
But we should always be aware that our words will fail
our pictures will be inadequate
they are only like a calculus which draws close to the ultimate expression
but they never quite get there.
I don't think this should prevent us from trying
but there is a serious warning here.
The warning is not about what might happen to us if we should somehow stumble across the face of God
The warning is about making God in our own image.
Some current reflections about this include:
We need to recognise that language is only an approximation of our understanding about God
when we call God HE and even FATHER
we are using the approximations of finite language
to describe the infinite.
God is not a man, nor even a superman!
God is not male or female at all.
We use our limited language
to try and express what we cannot fully understand.
Some of us think this doesn't matter,
but others of us find this deeply alienating.
We do need to respect other people
and not just brush their reservations aside.
What this reminds us of is that one of the attitudes that we have to adopt towards God
is one of openness.
recognising that we are limited and God is infinite.
This should warn us against being dogmatic about what God is like
and challenge us rather to always be open to the challenge that God presents to you and me
These are some more intellectual reflections for us in this Epiphany season
when we focus on how God is made known to us.
But we need also to be in touch with the emotional and spiritual understandings,
which is perhaps more where you and I are situated
in the realm of EXPERIENCE.
The same warnings apply;
we need to be critical of our experience
and recognise that ours is not the only experience.
Nor do we always understand it properly.
When, for example, we are sad when someone dies
we could suggest that that is because "God has let us down"
or even that "God doesn't work"
if we are more open and positive we might say "We do not understand God's will".
You don't have to think very hard to realise that all of these statements are not complete.
They do express something, but they are attempting to express the unknowable.
St Paul reminds us in that famous passage....now we only see through a glass dimly,
but then we shall see face to face, with understanding.
So again we need to be cautious to not jump too quickly
and say God is like this or God is like that.
We want it to be simple, but it is not.
We want, all the time to be able to define God.
But in so doing all we succeed in doing is limiting our understanding.
Now we see only dimly.
What is God inviting us to understand:
By being born as a baby?
By dying as a man?
By being really present in this sacrament?
By sometimes seeming totally absent?
By saying that we are made in God's image-male and female?
As we look for understanding
What does God also invite us to do and be in our lives?
These are the Epiphany questions,
we get the answers wrong if we think they are easy.
We become idolaters, when we mistake the wrong answers for the truth.
Pray that the Holy Spirit of God will open our hearts to see and believe
the truth of God
and to live with the courage that we do not and cannot know everything
Friday, January 01, 2010
Singing the gospel overture
We often don't have a 2nd Sunday after Christmas but this year on January 3rd 2009 we do, readings are from Sirach 24:1-12, Ephesians 1. and John 1. In structured writing what happens in the opening chapters
is an important statement of intent.
Just as in a musical the composer
makes an opening statement in the overture
which draws the audience in.
So John gives us an overture to his gospel
"In the beginning was the Word" he strikes up
he reminds us in what is really
a great trumpet blast
that the presence of Christ in the world
has changed the very way
that the universe operates.
From the very beginning of time
God has been working his will in the world
and the fullness of this has been revealed
in human form.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Aulder Acquaintances!

There are many readings for the Sunday after Christmas which today falls on 27th December. This is also the day of the beloved patron of this parish of St John Coromandel. Readings for today can include: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Psalm 148;Colossians 3:12-17;Luke 2:41-52
I hope you have been enjoying this rich time of year.
All of these have about them the sense of new beginnings.
So we naturally are drawn to reflect on how we respond.
What might be our resolutions?
Most of us are not particularly good at keeping these,
so much so that they are often the cause for laughter.
What if we were to take our reading today from Colossians 3
and see that here there are a whole series of new beginnings being set our for us to act upon
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This agenda is almost as challenging as Copenhagen!
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other;
The image of putting on new clothing is a popular one that Paul uses.
It is about the outward appearance that we project to others
and also about the way we keep ourselves secure and intact!
Paul sees
- kindness,
- humility, gentleness
- and patience
I had a very intellectual friend once who was really too smart for his own good.
But he also had a great sense of priority
and he would say...if it was a choice between being intellectual and being kind
then being kind was the way to go
We often forget that.
We justify unkindness, impatience, intolerance
in all sorts of rationalistic ways but we hear the Gospel point us elsewhere.
This year can we we see that it is kindness, humility, and patience
that are meant to draw us and lead us on
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
New beginning will also need to be about forgiveness
We all carry a burden of the unforgiving heart
of those who have hurt us recently or a long time ago,
the Gospel tells us that in order to be free ourselves
we need to forgive
where are you being called to forgive at this new beginning?
And will you do it?
Above all, clothe yourselves with love,
It comes as no suprise to us that the Gospel points us towards love as the key.
Not the mushy sort of slush,
and may even steer us to sinfulness
but rather the self-giving love
of parents towards a child
of one who gives themself for another
We see in Jesus the ideal of love that we are called to.
it binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Finally Paul reminds us
The fruit of this will be peace, stability, harmony...who of us does not want this?
let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
and Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
Here Paul would appear to be talking both about that word that we read
which teaches and admonishes us in all wisdom;
and fills our hearts with praise
but it is also about whatever you do, in word or deed,
we are to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
All this might seem a tall order
the way we are called to follow.
It is not so much...new resolutions
as ongoing resolutions
The character of the life of faith
that we seek to form in ourselves and in each other.
- kindness and humility
- forgiveness
- love and peace
- relationship with Christ
In a stable in Bethlehem, Lord, you show us a humility that we find overwhelming and wonderful
In the gift and mystery of human life togetther, you show us kindness, love and peace
And you invite us to live creatively in harmony with you and with each other.
Let this year be the year when we will dwell richly with Christ
and Christ will be born anew in our lives. Amen
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Eat, Pray, Love- some reflections for Christmas
There are many readings for the services of Christmas have a look for example at Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2.Monday, December 21, 2009
Christmas Meditation
I like to call this picture "The Miraculous Icon of Coromandel".
It was painted by children in the Kidsplus Group under the guidance of Jenny Poole and it sits outside St John's Coromandel Valley during the Advent and Christmas season.
Is it 'miraculous'?
Well Christmas is certainly a great spiritual gift.
You can reflect on this picture or any other for 5 or 10 minutes and allow God to miraculously give himself or herself to youSit down quietly and pray for openness to the Spirit of God
What am I most grateful for about the last day? What does this tell me about my life? How can I nurture this seed of insight?
Take some time to look at the details of this picture.
You don't need to judge whether they are good or bad, note the characters, the animals. Do you like the colours? Can you get a sense of the smell or the noise that is happening here?
How is Mary feeling? And what might Joseph be saying to her?
Is there something as you sit and take this scene in that particularly speaks to your life at this moment?
Take a few moments to share with God what you are thinking, feeling, hoping about Christmas
Talk with God, or Mary or Joseph.
Say quietly as you end this reflection:
AS I LOOK FOR GIFTS TO SHARE WITH OTHERS
I ASK YOU, O GOD, WHAT CAN I GIVE
I DO NOT HAVE A SHEEP, OR GOLD
POOR AS I AM, I GIVE YOU MY LIFE
AND AS POOR AS THAT IS
I KNOW IT IS WHAT YOU WANT.
If you find this meditation style helpful and need more assistance please email me
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Through the magnifying glass
In this final week of Advent we hear the words of Magnificat...Luke 1:39-55...which Mary is recorded as saying when she came to understand what God was asking of her. This is a particular reflection on those words- Can we hear a call to give thanks to God for what is happening day to day?
- Can we find a way to be an agent of caring for those for whom God cares?Not the rich and famous but the weak and downcast
This is not difficult to understand
It is sometimes difficult to implement because we have our own agenda
and we do not hear God’s radical manifesto
and call on our lives
WE are not required to turn the world upside down
But God is acting differently and we choose to be God’s people.
On being full of grace
In all this comes a message that God deals graciously with us.
Some Readings for this fourth and last week of Advent...some readings are: Micah 5:2-5; Luke 2; Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55 For me this season, whilst not being easy. has been one that is rich in experience
and encounters.
We often have to dialogue with death and dying,
we all have to engage with the complexity of our human relationships
and there is a richness of imagery that abounds
and of course all the wonderful words, spoken and sung.
This is necessary, but not always positive;
some people (research tells us) find Christmas very stressful.
One of the recurring themes of Advent is GRACE
This is a "buzz word", of course,
and easily glossed over.
Grace is about the free gift of God
of life itself.
God gives himself, his life to us
in these and many other ways
all the time
powerfully, intimately, gently, abundantly.
The readings point us to a number of different aspects of this.
God gives his grace to the world
We live in a gift of a world.
As our eyes turn to Bethlehem
we are also reminded how human beings
sometimes are hell-bent [advised use of words!] on destroying the giftedness
we have received from God.
Pray for peace in Bethlehem
that they may know the peace that Jesus bring.
Not easy work
The writer of Hebrews reminds us
that the era of grace in which we now live
is a new era
In theological terms, we are in a new era
because the death and resurrection of Jesus
have put us in a new place.
What this might remind us of is that
grace does not just happen accidently
it is as a response of God's deliberate action
While God's grace is abundant and plentiful
we need to open ourselves to it
and also be responsive to it.
That is; Grace is given, freely given
do we accept this free gift of God's love.
As you reflect on these last 3 or 4 weeks and the richness of experience
what is God calling you to respond to.
Have you responded? Will you respond?
It is likely that we see the gracious gift of people.
Have we taken time to think on this?
How is God calling us to respond to those who he gives us.
Not always easy, but part of the way that we are called to grow into the personhood that God has in store for us.
The theme character for this week is Mary
It is interesting to hear the classical words
that often refer to her.
They are contained in the angel's greeting to her in that house in Nazareth
as she goes about her daily business.
"Hail Mary full of grace"
Don't let anti-Catholic prejudice blind us to the fact that these words come straight from the Bible themselves.
What the angel says to Mary, Gid says to all of us.
Hail full of grace!!
Each one of us has a life full of grace.
It is not the easy cheap grace that titillates us, or makes us feel tipsy
Sometimes it is deeply sad and confronting,
ALWAYS it is drawing us closer to God
and making us more fully human.
What has God been saying to you this season?
Where are you called to respond more freely to God's giftedness
is God saying, perhaps, ....there is someone you need to forgive, or someone whose forgiveness you need to seek
Does God set before you a lonely person to whom you can be a grace?
Is there a situation that you need to resolve?
Is there a freedom that is summoning you?
Will you take this gift, this offer of freedom and embrace it?
As Mary is confronted by the Angel...Hail full of grace!
and as she responds...saying be it done to me according to your word
so the angel says to her this new promise, The Lord be with you
The gift, the grace, the promise of Christmas
as we open ourselves to the sometimes, often, maybe even usually difficult of grace
we encounter Immanuel- God with us
The gift is here, accept it...full of grace
And May the Lord be with you.

Saturday, December 05, 2009
Some people rail against the proliferation of religious self-help groups.
As one who encourages people to be introspective I hear them say
"What are these people looking at? What are they trying to find?...Looking at themselves!! As far as I can see"
They may have a point.
Many of us religious people get sidetracked looking only at ourselves.
The genuine religious pursuit, when we encounter it, must inevitably turn us outwards.
I am struck, for example, by two or three great figures of the last 50 years
who have striven to encourage people to turn inward and learn to pray deeply.
Some such are Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, I think also of Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, and Jean Vanier.
There are many others who have perhaps not caught the public imagination in quite the same way.
All of these people advocate a strong internal, reflective life.
And yet all of them were pushed increasingly outside their cocoon towards an active, converting ministry which many people (myself included) find profoundly attractive.
Nouwen, for example, ( perhaps the most popular of these) gave the final years of his life to looking after a profoundly disabled man on a one to one basis.
Many thought this was a waste of a brilliant intellect and a gifted author.
Nouwen, however, saw it as the climax of his life in God, and you detect in his writing about this young man he cared for, Adam, a much profounder encounter with God and life than any of his other masterly writings were able to convey.
The movement
This is precisely the direction that we are moved in at this point in Advent.
not towards a fanciful introspection
or a sort of namby pamby Christmas card view of life
in which "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world" as Browning penned
Rather we hear Zephaniah
talking about the establishment of a real earthly kingdom in which the marginalised,
the poor, disabled, weak and outcast
will be cared for and will be secure (hardly a view of our present world)
We hear John the Baptist in inviting people to prepare for the coming of a Messiah
telling them that it is not just about a narrow religious practice
rather it is about practical expressions
...We should share, we should be honest, we should not cheat
This is a far cry from the sort of introspection that the self righteous agnostics often quite rightly condemn, which is inward looking and self-obsessed
Likewise in one of the the purple passages we hear Paul saying to us that we need to orientate ourselves in the right way
and he uses the word rejoice to describe that orientation.
It is worth reflecting about the absolute nature of this practice of "rejoicing"
Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication
and the fruit of this is that Lord will become near
and we will discover this profound peace...which passes understanding...
that we long for.
So, misericordiae mea, I have to admit that the angry old agnostics may have got it right.
They are right to rail about the self indulgent, inward looking that passes for a lot of genuine faith today.
It is shallow, and to be despised.
But it is not what the Gospel advocates either!
The true life of faith will indeed seek to pray seriously anbd carefully
But that commitment will orientate towards others in a spirit of compassion and hope.

This week in Advent
Try to find a time to be quiet to God and make a commitment to try to pray better
In that time look not only at how God leads you in, but also where God is drawing you out. What act of service, care of compassion (plenty of opportunity in this week prior to Christmas) is being set before you? Why not try to do it?
In the spirit of Rejoicing! give thanks to God for anything that stands out as an opportunity for life rather than death.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Getting to know Jesus

Some of the Readings for Sunday 6th December, the Second Sunday of Advent: Malachi 3:1-4; Philippians 1:1-11; Luke 3:1-6
Advent work
This is Advent work! It may seem harder than it really is but there are three things that we are asked to do:He is there (of course) in the manger. But he walks along with us in our life. Can we help our loved ones to see him and know him better at this holy time?
- Who is my messenger? And what is God saying to me through that person?
- Who am I a messenger for? And what am I saying to them? Can I at least "give thanks" for those who God has given to me?
- Can I, in this Jesus-rich season, also take the opportunity to point Jesus out to those who are looking?
Monday, November 23, 2009
Making the heart bolder
Readings for the First week of Advent beginning Sunday November 29 2009: Jer 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thess 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-38 (the 3 year cycle begins Year C this week, reading through Luke's Gospel as the year goes on) Advent is heavy on themes. The Lord will raise up a righteous branch who shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.We can also ask ourselves what this calls us to do
‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’We should take the opportunity that we are given.
So some Advent questions are:
Am I in touch with what God is promising me?
Can I speak to God about what I hope for at this time in my life?
Is there some thing that I am called to do in this season which furthers God's cause of justice, peace and righteousness?
What do I need to do to put that into action, or if I can't easily latch on to this idea can I ask God for some direction. The time is short...but the time is enough
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
King of the Cross
Readings this Sunday are for the feast of the Reign of Christ. sometimes known as Christ the King. The last Sunday of the church's year. John 18:33-37 for Sunday 22nd November 2009
For we Christians there is a certain irony about this notion of kingship
which we ascribe to Jesus.
First it is old-fashioned.
Although we here in Australia do have a monarch. That monarch has only symbolical power.
If she were to choose to try and exercise the power that she allegedly has
the whole political system would explode.
At its very best it reminds us that leadership is not about being the boss
it is about being a servant.
And although Queen Elizabeth II lives an opulent and privileged lifestyle
most of us realise with even a cursory glance
that she is also tyrannised by the idea of monarchy.
In the blatant exposure that the famous are subjected to
we see that being a ruler
has not protected the things she hold most precious,
no doubt her family
from all the woes and troubles of life.
Rather the reverse.
Second, if we turn to the bible and look at the notion of kingship presented there
we see that it was an experiment that was predicted to fail.
And which did!
Samuel, seemingly against his better judgment, is persuaded to anoint Saul king
but he predicts that this change of government will end in disaster.
Though it is not without its high points
Samuel's prophecy is proved tragically true.
The kingship is a cause of pain and heartbreak,
of injustice and sorrow
to the people who God calls to follow him.
So, it is not suprising that the idea of kingship
even though it be Jesus who is our king
is not one without problem.
Christ the King
Indeed the clearest picture we have of Jesus is not enthroned on a throne of glory
but on a cross of wood
above which Pontiius Pilate has placed a sign
INRI - "Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm."
Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.
Confrontation
There is something profoundly confronting about what is being said here
which is easy to overlook or mistake
We can take the sort of 'high moral ground' lesson
Like the one I just made about her majesty the Queen.
Kingship -is -a -form - of -radical -servanthood
(and that is certainly true)
But more is being expected of us than just moralism.
Or we can take the line
that life invites us to die to ourselves
(and this too is true).
But are we also being invited to see that Jesus's way of living life
is about confronting death and not being cowed by it.
Another way of viewing the atonement.
Not that God demands some sort of appeasing sacrifice
so that He will get over his (quite rightly justified) anger.
But rather that the Cross is an act of freedom-making.
How easily we forget this.
We seem to always think that the cross invites us to be crucified again.
We don't hear (maybe don't want to hear) that the enthronement of Christ the King
has set us free so that we don't have to attempt to do the impossible.
We cannot die for our sins, or for anyone else's
and we don't need to.
Everything that need to be done has been done.
Have we thus spotted the characteristic of kingship that is displayed on the throne of Calvary.
The king dies to set his subjects free.
If we are called to live our lives in that spirit
then the question that we ask is not ...how can I make up for the things that I have done wrong
but how can I set other people free?
Does what I do set myself and others free?
How easily we put demands on people which enslave them
Expectations on our families that tyrannise rather than set free
Conditions that we place on our relationships
that in effect say ...I will only love you if you do what I want of you.
This is not true kingship that sets free
It is dictatorship that enslaves.
This week
As we look at our lives:
Do I accept the freedom that Jesus has won for me? Freedom to know forgiveness. and freedom to forgive?
Are things that I can that set people---family, friends, associates---free rather than enslave? Can I give myself so that others might be free? What small thing can I do for someone this week that will give them greater freedom?
The servants of Christ the king, we, are not cruel masters; we are freedom fighters.
Embrace that freedom
Monday, November 16, 2009
Aeterni Christi Munera
The eternal gift of Christ our king
invites me to tie my child’s sandal
and to encourage her
to leap small buildings
The eternal gift of Christ our king
invites me to dare to love
badly
but to dare to do it any way
The eternal gift of Christ our king
invites me to step into the traffic
with a body of one my friends
following in a hearse
The eternal gift of Christ our king
invites me to accept myself with love
not with indulgence
but with love, and perhaps a little care
Such is the eternal gift of Christ
who doesn’t seem to think of himself
as a kingStephen Clark
November 2006The Feast of Christ the King is kepton Sunday 22nd November 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Being faithful now
We can't really 'define' God at all!
Readings for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost (proper 33)...Sunday 15th November 2009 1 Sam 1:4-20; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-11...If we want to say anything about God
then we want to say that there is never a time when God was not,
there is never a time when God is not,
and there will never be a time God will not be
This is fine language, reassuring and affirming
and the Bible readings this week help us to appreciate it more fully.
Samuel
The story of Samuel's birth,
how every thing is seen to be in God's care right from the word "go"
so that Samuel is in the right place at the right time
and is able to do what God has set out for him to do
reminds us of a profound characteristic about God.
He has already prepared the place for us.
There is never a time when he was not.
And he draws us into this
From the very wombs into which we were born
to the moments in time and history
that we encounter
there is never a time when God's presence is not felt
and not available to those who yearn for God
Hebrews reminds us, too,
that God is a God of destiny
who has things prepared for those who love God.
There is a goal, an end, a vision.
That vision for us is realised in Christ
who we are called to emulate
and who calls us to be like him.
God calls us to share the future with him.
Our destiny is to be drawn into the fulness of ligfe with God
So whether we look to the past or whether we look to the future
we find God already there.
God's hand already active in our life
even though we maybe don't recognise it.
God's hand already preparing a way for us.
So that we may become what God wants us to be
God of now
But as we embrace this powerful sense of destiny, even predestination
we are pointed by the apocalyptic sense of the gospel
to realise that where God's kingdom is to be focussed for you and for me
is not by looking back to see where we came from.
It is not by looking forward and trying to predict when the end of al things will come.
It is by living out our lifein the present.
The God who rules history and whose mighty care and love for us
is recognised in how we have been brought to this place.
The God who will bring all things to perfection
and who is our ultimate resting place.
Calls us to live in the here and now.
We may be tempted to retreat
We may be tempted to worry about the future
But the invitation of God's Holy Spirit is
Live NOW
Preach the Gospel now
Trust God now
Practically
we are to understand not how to do things as they were once done
not to try and do it as it should be done in the future
but to live out our faith NOW
The reality of what we are called to be and do iis to be lived out in the present.
What else do we have!
This week
Where is God calling me to live out love, forgiveness and hope in what I am going to do this week?
Where am I tempted to escape form my responsibilities by looking to the past, or predicting the future?
Is there some way that I can be more genuinely present to those who God calls me to serve?
Is there a way of being Christian that invites me to be faithful now?
How can I do it? Do it!!

