What do we want to know?

This is a reflection on a week of great floods in Australia and will be the substance of my Sunday sermon. A reflection on the Lectionary readings for this Sunday, 16th January 2011 is below..What are you looking for?

As I began to think about what we want to know at a time of great human catastrophe

I started to draw a mind map (above)

to give some framework to what I might even begin to say

it quickly became apparent that we have a lot of questions

and all sorts of things are flying around our minds

at this time.

So I won't even attempt to address all the questions.

Simple answers to difficult questions

There are many difficult questions aren't there?

Why do some people survive and other people die?

Why does a once-in-a-100 year flood happen two years in a row?

Where, we as people of faith might ask, is God in all this?

One of the problems is that these questions are difficult questions

so we wouldn't and shouldn't expect that the answers are any less difficult.

Indeed, in the book of Job, where this whole question is teased out

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Part of the answer that is given there

is that we cannot fathom the complexity of such situations

and that we do not know the mind of God.

This does not mean that we should not seek understanding

but we should proceed with caution

and with the humility

that we may not comprehend everything

and indeed we will never know all the answers.

Important versus impotent

I wrote also to someone who is involved in the CFS

that I spent my wakeful night hours praying for this disaster

and often as I have thought of this young man

I pray for him when he is out fighting fires.

I also made the observation:

that this often seem impotent

Though I am a firm believer in prayer

it doesn't often seem to do what we want.

(Often we want far less than God wants to give)

But I also observed that feeling powerless, impotent

is an important understanding about how people must be feeling at this time.

And maybe prayer is not so much an exercise in

getting God to do our bidding and fix things up

as it is a statement of solidarity

with those for whom we pray.

Be they the sick, or the needy

or even those who celebrate and when we give thanks

Prayer opens up a way to stand alongside others

and this, it would seem to me,

is probably the most important thing we can do.

As we look at what God is doing in Jesus

when he dies on the Cross

he does not take suffering away

so much as stand alongside us

in solidarity.

When we are praying for others

we need also to recognise this solidarity is an important stance

and so alongside the important prayers we offer

there is another question to answer

and how might I act in solidarity with my neighbour

Solidarity

Most of us will struggle with that one.

We will often know that solidarity

is about giving of ourselves

Jesus gives himself

That may mean time, energy, an ear

Sometimes all we can do is give money.

I urge you to be generous.

In the weeks to come there will also be the need for us as the Church

to think about how we can help our sister churches in these affected areas.

We don't need to solve that today

but I flag it for the future.

This is an important and sad time for our nation.

There are no simple answers to the difficult questions

There is a call to stand in solidarity with those those in need

-- through prayer

-- through practical action

There is a call to be generous.

May we respond well to these challenges.

Two different approaches

Readings for Sunday 24th october 2010 Proper 24 of Year C the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost. Joel 2:23-32 and Psalm 65 [or[Sirach 35:12-17 or Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22] ]and Psalm 84:1-7
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14

One of the great delights of being an Anglican is the permission we have to be different!

This may seem strange to those who are not of this stock, but is probably fairly familiar to the modern person. We treasure the right to be different and to have our say.

The gospel story this week tells of two men who are worshipping and praying at the same time.

Though they are engaged in the same activity, the story highlights that they are coming at it from radically different standpoints.

One is well-schooled in the language and practice of prayer and stands boldly and, I suspect, thankfully, in the presence of God giving thanks for all that he has been able to receive at God's hand.

This is not usually the way that we view this man..who we generically and almost always disparagingly refer to as The Pharisee.....we are inclined to say that this man is pompous, and a poor representative of what true faith is supposed to be. And he is. Well we all are.

But he is, unfortunately, a typical product of the faith machine...he is rather like you and me

He has, no doubt, struggled for many years to make his faith work and to get it right. he then is able to stand up and say....I know something about what it means to be a person of faith and he slides into

'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'

He may indeed have understood something of what it means. But we all see that he has actually missed the essence. He has not understood about: humility, about not being judgmental, about recognising the need for dependence on God, even about being cautious in self-assessment, and even more cautious in ascribing motives to other people. He has not understood about learning gently from others

We get this because it is contrasted with the desperation of a man in real trouble. And we see in the heartfelt prayer something authentic, that is lacking in the prayer of the Pharisee. His fault is not so much that he is harsh, but that he is blind.

This is what is called in literature a cautionary tale designed to warn us about what might happen to us if we are not careful.
We can become well-pleased with our own efforts.
In our affluence and ease, We can be blind to the pain in others life caused by poverty and abuse.
In our comfortability we mistake an easy life for God's blessing and sink into apathy and mediocrity.

How do we heed this in our life today?
How do we heed this as church?

THIS WEEK

• Try to identify a situation where we are tempted to be judgmental, and ask how it also invites us to view things differently
• Where have we sunk into apathy and self righteousness, and miustaken this for faithfulness and blessing?
• Where is God inviting us to change and to be more compassionate?
  

Disturb us gracious God when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, gracious God, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, gracious God, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. Attributed to Sir Francis Drake, 1577

YOU TUBE PRESENTATION

Here's praying at you!

Readings for this Sunday (Proper 29...21st Sunday after Pentecost) - 17th October 2010. Jeremiah 31:27-34 and Psalm 119:97-104 or[Genesis 32:22-31 and Psalm 121]; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 ;Luke 18:1-8(-15)

This week many of Australia's Roman Catholics will be focussing on Rome

as Mother Mary MacKillop is 'canonised'

or added to the list of official saints.

One of the good things about being an Anglican has been that we have been freed from the bizarre process which seems almost impossible to endure.

Instead Anglicans have in, say, the last 50 years promoted local calendars

helping us to focus on individuals

who have led good Christian lives

without the need to be scrupulous about declaring them perfect

or, more controversially, without seeing the need to locate their sainthood

in a couple of impossible 'miracles'.

One RC sister commented on TV last week that she thought the process had gone a bit overboard

in focussing on miracles

surely a saintly life was more than just this.

What then do we imagine saints do?

Clearly a lot of popular focus and discussion

has gone into getting the saints to "answer" prayers.

Let's be clear that no church teaches that anyone other than God

answers prayer.

The idea that is being proposed

is that we invite the Saint to pray with us

to God for a particular cause.

So many people are asking Mary MacKillop just at this time

to pray to God for them.

This is a thoroughly Christian idea!

we say in the Apostles' Creed

I believe in the communion of saints (see another homily here)

To be blunt, the word 'saint'

is not an extraordinary word at all.

It is the word the New Testament uses

to refer to the members of the church

that is, all those who are baptised into Christ;

God's holy people (saint means a 'holy person')

It's you and me....so it is really close in meaning

to the Anglican idea of the local saint

rather than the almost supernatural figure .

Now saints, you and I, pray for each other

and for the world, and for the church.

It is our job, our duty, our core business!

Some of us are possibly quite good at this

I guess we notice some of these and they become larger than life!

When I want help I ask people to pray for me.

I am pleased when you do!

Some of us who are part of the communion of saints

have died, it doesn't mean that we have stopped living in Christ.

My mother, for example, and dear Alder Hall who we buried only last week

and certainly Mary Mackillop continue to live in Christ.

Our prayer is that their prayer joins ours!

Don't starve yourself of prayer support.

We join our prayers with the saints, and they with us.

In special times we are drawn to particular saints,

this is our human way

It is also the way of the Holy Spirit

encouraging us to pray and to be prayed for.

I don't care, just as long as we pray

and then pray

and then pray a little bit more.

The ovine tendency

Post for Sunday 25th April 2010 John 10:22-30

John 10:22-30

10:22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,10:23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.

10:24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
10:25 Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me;
10:26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.
10:27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
10:29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.10:30 The Father and I are one."

No image is fonder to traditional Christians than that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Yet it is a foreign image which bears little relevance to most of us urban city dwellers. Even in this country (Australia) the intimacy of the image...one shepherd caring for a small flock of sheep...is not the way we look after sheep. They are in hundreds and thousands, largely left to their own devices until the time comes for them to be killed or shorn. So we need to look beyond the image and translate it to our modern times. A couple of pointers

being a sheep is about belonging It's only as we belong to Christ that we understand and believe

• This would suggest that the Good News is about the decision we make to be Christ's
• And not so much about intellectual knowledge.

  As important as doctrine and learning are, life in Christ is actually about being in touch with the person of the Risen Christ

• How might we be in touch?

  We need to maintain a deep commitment to personal and regular prayer. We will meet Jesus in so far as we encounter him in the early morning, and in the evening, this is a figurative way of looking at prayer of course. but we need to do it

  We will meet Jesus in the shared life of the Christian community. There are no solitary Christians...we are the Body of Christ, members of one another.

  in so far as we struggle with one another (difficult as we are) we are exploring the depth of relationship in Christ and coming to know Jesus in depth

• The spirit of obedience

  Jesus could not be blunter..We hear his voice, and we do what he tells us. What is Christ saying to me in my life? Do I respond by doing what he tells me to do?

  What does the life of the Body of Christ say to me about what Jesus invites me to be and do? Do I do it?

THIS WEEK

• Take some time to reflect on what I hear Jesus saying, through my prayer, through my life, through experience of community
• What 2 or 3 things do I seem to hear Jesus saying to me about how to faithfully follow
• What resistance do I have to obedience? What do I need to do about it?

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.

Also Matthew 1, and John 1 give us the perspective of the other evangelists

One of the popular books doing the rounds is Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray,Love"

It is the story of how a woman attempts to put her life back together after a particularly messy relationship breakdown

And she identifies these three components

Eat, Pray, and Love

as key components of the healing

she was able to gain.

It strikes me that this is also something we can think about as we approach Christmas

Because it is a time when we are drawn

To eat, to pray and to love.

These are part of the fundamental invitations to life

that Christmas seems to be about.

EAT

Thrown back on her own resources, Gilbert discovers

that it is in sharing time with other people

over food

that she is able to regain the balance of her life.

Most of us will spend a special time today eating with family and friends.

But we have come to live in a world

that seems to have forgotten that this is not just a convenience

it is a necessity.

To take time to eat together

is an important, restorative and human thing to do.

It is no surprise that as we come to worship

we are reminded of Jesus's eating with us his disciples.

We not only satisfy our bodies but we encounter God

and are fed spiritually.

PRAY

Gilbert also realises that there is a need to take time

to attend to the spirit

to be with God

for her she uses the word "pray"

as a sort of shorthand.

What she is getting at is that each of us needs to attend to

the Spirit of God within us.

To take time each day to be in touch with God.

Some of us find this easy

some of us find this hard or foreign.

Gilbert's advice is good advice...

...I am not sure about this but if I have a need

then let me just put it out there before God...

I have faith enough to know that this sort of process works

not because we pray

but because God is faithful.

As we come to Church today

for a whole range of reasons

can I invite you to "put it out there before God"

As the shepherds come to the stable

they do not really know what is going to happen

the wise men think they know

but they don't fully understand

what we all encounter as we come to God

is that we are moved on

Deepened, changed.

LOVE

What we, like Gilbert, go on to discover

is that if we pay attention to the ordinary stuff of life

(like eating)

if we put it out there before God

(called praying)

then the transformation come through the third possibility

which is Love.

That in the ordinary we find we can love and are loved.

It is what parents, like Joseph and Mary, very quickly discover

they can love their children in a way they never imagined.

We discover that we are capable of taking risks

and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable

and rather than avoiding each other

by fast food with no possibility of human encounter;

or by paying no attention to our inner life

through prayer and drawing close to God.

That if we allow ourselves to challenge those shallownesses

we discover a new depth and meaning of life

called LOVE.

This Christian sacrament, a simple meal

reminds us that

Christ's broken body is shared

not sadistically

but so that we might also be encouraged to break ourselves open

to Eat together and share our lives,

to "put it out there" before God

and allow the possibility of a deeper spirit

through prayer

or however we name it.

And at Christmas to name the possibility of love.

Love which will enliven, strengthen and change us.

May we all eat well, pray well, and love well

this and every day.

Healthy, wealthy and wise

The Church, these days, takes very seriously the need to pray
for those who are sick
This is certainly about those are seriously ill
it is also about how we attend to our own needs
and realise health
both spiritual and physical and psychological
for ourselves and our community

Sunday 27th September 2009 . Readings for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost (proper 26)

Some of the readings for today include: Esther 7:1-6,9-10;9:20-22;Psalm 124; James 5:12-20; Mark 9:38-50

There is no doubt that we will look back at the last century and see that a most significant part of ministry has been a more dynamic approach to praying with and for those who are sick

With this, I think, has gone an increased expectation that healing will occur.

Before that it was no doubt the case prayer for healing had about it

a certain sense of resignation to fate or perhaps "God's will" or to "the inevitable"

So we can give thanks that there has been a recapturing of "the prayer of faith" that we read about in the letter of James

We can give thanks that the church is more fervent in believing

the promise of Jesus that his disciples will do what he can do and this includes healing.

This last century of course has also seen wonderful advancement in modern medicine

which itself is more optimistic

and, dare we say it, successful

The two things go hand in hand

and this is an important insight into how God works in our world

God is not "above and beyond" our experience

but "with and in"

It is instructive to talk to Christian doctors

they are under no illusions about how their pragmatic ministry is undergirded

not only by the natural ministry of health science

but also by the supernatural support of the angels.

Chaplains and other ministers in hospitals, too,

see themselves not apart or spiritually superior from the scientific care of people

but an integrated part oif a healing whole.

Health, you see, is a community pursuit

it is complex and comprehensive

and goes awry when it is dragged to one pole of experience or another

be that either the coldly clinical or the widly supernatural

A couple of points

The key insight for this period as we reflect on our life together is that

wholeness and health are not (only or even) individual pursuits they are community issues.

This has two facets

One is that it is the responsibility of the community to care for the well being of individuals

and the second is that the individual's health affects the body as a whole.

James, in his oft quoted passage says how when we are sick we should call for the elders to pray and lay hands on us and anoint us.

It has been my joy to do this many times

sometimes I am a bit sad when people keep their sickness to themselves

I suggest it is as silly as not going to the doctor.

Also our key insight is that health is both individual and communal

and bringing in the community is an important spiritual dynamic.

James reminds us, too, that we need to confess our sins to one another.

This is not easy.

Again it reminds us that sin is not a private affair,

even if we are the only one who might be hurt or betrayed

the damage done is both individual and communal.

I am not here suggesting the sort of public exposure of sin

and humiliation of indviduals that is the caricature of some Christian communities;

but rather to see that when one hurts we all hurt

and that the road to reconciliation

may well not be the road of trying to hide

but of trying to allow ourselves to be helped to know healing and forgiveness.

The gospel reminds us that we need to take sin seriously

as it potentially destroys us.,

If your eye offend pluck it out is the hyperbole which our Lord uses

we neglect sin at our peril. ]

We who are the body of Christ

are called to be just that a BODY.

Our healing our forgiveness is not just individual it is also corporate.

What might God be saying to me today about that insight?

Who are you?

This Sunday the Anglican Church is inviting people Back to Church. A reflection for the day based on the Gospel Mark 8 27-38 is found below.

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

Mark 8:27-38 (The text is taken from The New Revised Standard Version of The Holy Bible)

In some ways this is a very straight forward passage and in others it is not!
This is not very surprising.
Any relationship question reveals to us
that relationships are both
straight forward
and complex.
Straight forward in that we should just get on with it
Complex in that relationships are deep rather than shallow
Inter-related rather than staright up and down!

So we see both of these things in this conversation:
What sorts of things are people saying me? asks Jesus
And some pretty confusing and conflicting things
get said.
There has been a flurry of letters to the paper this week
which indicate just that
People have some whacky ideas
about what God, Jesus and the Bible
are all about.
These range from:
the angry God who demands conformity to a strict set of rules
the warm fuzzy God who is all love and light
and the moral compass type of God who gives us slight hints about how to behave.

But this question doesn't actually become electrified
until Jesus says:
But who do you say that I am?

This is the Christian way of doing things.
If we want to know what God is like
our focus is on Jesus.
He is the human face of God,
He is God saying to you and me
I want to relate to you
as a son, a dauhter, a friend a brother.
I want to RELATE to you.

Whether you have come Back to Church
or whether you are here every day
this is what the Spirit is saying to us today.
I want to relate to You

What then happens is important!
Jesus tells his disciples
This relationship is going to have its difficult side
there will be times when it will seem as though
it's not working
or people are against you.

Jesus is reminding his disciples that
this is what relationships are like.
And if we are serious about having a good relationship
with God
then parts of it will be hard.

Just as surely as being a friend, a husband or a wife
a parent or a child
will have difficult times.

We can be like Peter,who says
"But I don't want it to be like this"
and Jesus really has to say
"Grow up!"
In the real world
the worthwhile things are worth working towards.

Some of us, coming Back to Church or not,
will know that this relationship with God
has at times been difficult
even impossible.

This doesn't alter the fact
that Jesus is still saying to you and me.
I want you to be in a relationship with me.

If you can grasp that sometimes it is hard
but it is always worth it
....if you want save your life then sometimes you will have to struggle
and maybe even lose it...
then maybe that's where we are today.

This week

• Take time to explore this offer of a relationship


• However strange it might seem, what about talking to Jesus about who and what you think he is and what you want him to be for a little time each day


• Is Jesus saying to you and me If you will put your life and concerns aside, and give yourself to me (lose your life) then I will be able to give myself to you (save your life)

Reflecting deeply

Readings for Sunday 2nd August 2009, Ninth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 18) 2 Sam 11:26-12.13; Psalm 51:1-12; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35 Choose a reading to reflect on for this week

There are times when we feel very close to God
and times when we feel far away.
Sometimes we understand why this is so
and sometimes we just don't get it!

This theme can be explored a little by the reading we get for this week.
In the reading from John (chapter 6:24-35) we are led on a little journey of questions
which, in a way, characterises our relationship with God

They asked Jesus: Rabbi, when did you come here?’ ... Then
they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ and then they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

These seemingly innocent questions are more telling than at first they seem.
Jesus is questioned about his miraculous powers (How did you get across the lake?)
Then he is asked how can we respond ...what must we do? .... and finally he is once again asked about signs? How will we know that what you are doing is the real thing?
God grabs our attention
We well-meaning Christian folk do well to bear this in mind
God is working outside the religious parameters that we set.
It is clear that people are drawn to the life of God above and beyond the truth of what the church (or any religious system for that matter) teaches
This does not invalidate the revelation that Christians have come to understand about the mystery of God in Christ
that in Christ, God is revealed as he has never been before,
that the truth of God is made known through the mystery of suffering, death and resurrection
that God's love and peace transcends everything in the universe and will not be overcome
but we are reminded that we do not have the only keys that open the box of experience of God!
So, there is abundant Godly activity in the world
and people are drawn to God irrespective of what we do.
God's activity in people's lives is already drawing them towards his love
and into relationship with him.
This is evident in Jesus himself
the signs that Jesus did were powerful drawcards
they grabbed people's attention
and brought them into the place where they might be able to hear what God was speaking to them in their life
This is an important thing to note.
It is not the signs themselves...the feeding of the 5000, the miracles of healing even,
but the relationship of faith and trust in Christ
that is important.

What then must we do?
The signs prompt these people to ask how they can do do the works of God.
Jesus's response is not....learn some mystical techniques, or buy some magical talismans...it is rather that you should believe and trust in the one whom God has sent
If we are to be like God, and do what God wants of us
then we need to commit ourselves to his way.
Paul puts it like this

I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. (Ephesians 4:1)

What is striking about this passage is that it is a simple statement of faithfulness to the practice of the gospel
Paul is echoing what Jesus is saying: nurture the God-life within you not by supernatural excess or crazy religious practice, but by humility,gentleness and patience.
Believe, John says, in God's Son and nurture that relationship.
This is perhaps, almost certainly, less attractive than performing miracles
but it is the sure way forward.
We can expect that we will grow in Christ in so far as we take time to nurture the relationship that we have with him.

But can we still have a sign?
It is not surprising that the listeners don't get this...they never do
Or I should say we never do!
We still want a sign.
But there is a little hope in this account!

‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

Wanting to believe what Jesus says about the close, faithful, trusting relationship with God
these people want a sign to prove that what is is being said is true
Maybe this is understandable,
and it gives Jesus the opportunity to say again what needs to be said...
..this bread, this living relationship with the Son...is what gives life to the world.
And some of them are able to cry out....Sir give us this bread always
Sometimes we glimpse what God is offering us
and long for it.
And we desperately want...not miracles or signs...but life

Get the focus right
If we want this thriving relationship then we need to throw our energies into it
rather than the superficiality of religion.
It is not the signs and wonders that will draw us to God
it is the Jesus relationship.
This relationship will be nurtured through prayer

• so pray a bit more

1. Try to spend a little time each day being quiet and listening to God


2. Read a short piece of the Bible and listen to what it is saying to say you


3. Have two or three people who you specially pray for each day
   

it will be nurtured through caring for Jesus in the lives of the poor and suffering

• so care a bit more

1. We probably don't have to look far to find someone we can care for.
   


2. This caring need not be onerous but should begin to expand our comfort zone


3. Let it be a quiet unassuming work...let not the right hand know what the left hand is doing
   

but can't we have miracles.......we are so fickle
We want living bread, we need to feed on the life of Jesus.
Spend your time and energy on that.

Those of us who week by week share in the sacrament of Christ's Holy Communion
need to see this sign ....the bread and the wine.....
as the reminder that we are not seekers of miracles, or lookers for signs
but we are feeders on Christ.
He is the living bread, who God has given us to feed and nurture us.
Look to him the food of all our life

Sex food and prayer!!!

Readings for Sunday 26th July 2009 (8th Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 17) 2 Sam 11:1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21
Sex, food and prayer
The title for this week may surprise some! But these are themes from these readings.
Though they don't neatly 'click' together, they speak of some really fundamental things that drive us.
David who we continue to read about, is at once both heroic and flawed
It was ever so!
Here we read about how the successful King
successful because he has been responsive to God's promise
can still get it wrong.
He commits adultery and fathers a child.
More than this, he weaves a web of intrigue and deceit
ultimately climaxing in the murder of the innocent man he has wronged.
For this he will come to know God's wrath
and he will live with this serious failure for the rest of his life.

I reflect that we should all be careful of being judgmental
There but for the grace of God go you and I?
But how does David lose the plot so fundamentally.
Like you and me he does it because he forgets that it is God who is is charge, not David!
David thinks that it is his life plan that he is implementing
and so that he is invincible.
It is the fall of the proud... hubris ... in classical terms

Paul's prayer this week is for his fellow Christians that they may freely acknowledge God's love and greatness
It is a mystery which lies outside our understanding
and is part of of our growth and learning as humans.
David's fault, like us so often,
is that when things are going well
we can easily be seduced into thinking it is we who are responsble.
And we can act as if we are God
and give ourselves permission to do anything.
Even sin.
This requires some subtlety and care
issues are not always, indeed never,
Black and white
and so Paul's prayer

"that (we) may have the
power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so
that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God"

is a good and necessary prayer for caution and humility.

God's abundance
The wonderful story of the feeding of the 5000
reminds us that we have no need to panic (as David did)
and that God will always act with abundance in our lives.
At times we will even see Jesus walking on the water and inviting us to join him!

So today, our prayer is to remain faithful to the Spirit of God
who has blessed us time and time again
to not presume, as David did,
that God does and will sanction everything and anything we choose to do.
God requires more of us than that.
Pray, as Paul urges us, that we all may understand the mystery of God's love
ever deeper and deeper in our lives
And let this be our prayer for each other.

God pours out his abundant love,
spiritually and materially
we don't need to panic.
We can trust his control of our lives.
Can we trust ourselves.

What God requires of us...and what we need to do!

Reflections for the week beginning Sunday 19th July (Proper 16) 2 Sam 7:1-14; Psalm 89:21-38; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Read one or more of these readings when you wish to be quiet with God.

(This is probably three-in-one sermons)

This week's readings point us to a range of ways we can respond to the call of God in our lives.

• We should do what God requires not what we think God requires
• There are some fundamental movements that the Gospel will always seek to draw out of us
• God desires healing and wholeness for each one of us and this is a profound dynamic which naturally draws people to Jesus

What does the Lord require?
There is no doubt that David was responsive to God's will, but as we read his story
we also discover that he is sometimes willful and disobedient.

We are all rather like this.
While we may seek to be God's people and to do his will
our understanding of what that will might be is often slippery.
I, for example, sometimes say that my problem with hearing the voice of God
is that I need to be clear when I am hearing God's voice
and when I am hearing Stephen's voice!

I am more than occasionally capable of deceiving myself.

If nothing else when we are tempted to say "The Lord says to me...."
we should have at least a mild suspicion that we may not be quite as clear about this as we think we are.
We should at least test this.
David, for example, says...The Lord says build me a house...
this would seem to be a logical conclusion of his work in establishing Jerusalem
He has fought long and hard to get here
The Ark of the Covenant, the focus of Israel's ambitions
has finally been brought into the city
now there is one thing only to do. Build a temple.
But it is not to be.
This is a salutary lesson....
The Lord's voice is more than the logical conclusion of our thought processes.
At times we act as though that is all it is.
Or even that we are so fully aware of our own thought processes

that we are always open and upfront about them

God's unremitting work
Ephesians 2 reminds us that the work of God
is dependent on God and not on our efforts.
This is often a hard lesson for us to learn
We are so focussed on being good and getting it right
that we often ignore completely
the profound dynamic which undergirds the basis of our faith.
God has already acted
and achieved in Christ
all that needs to be done
to perfect his work in creation.
We, often seduced by the notion that salvation depends on our personal goodness or holiness,
need to learn this lesson.
It is God's desire to bring the whole of creation together.
Our common humanity is signified by God's own unity.
Though different and able to be appreciated in many different ways
we are drawn back time and time again to the fact that God is UNITY
In the example Paul gives he is referring to those "who are far off...and those who are near"
those who are inside the covenant (the Jews) and those wo are outside(the Gentiles).
Note that Paul does not say we should work tirelesssly to bring those who are far off closer
he actually says that Christ
has already made both groups into one, and broken down the dividing wall.
We are already one!!
We simply have to reach out and take that
We, like David, don't readily get this
so locked are we into our own egotistical way of seeing things
So Paul reminds us that our efforts need to be directed
not to reinventing the wheel
but to building on Christ
who is already in place as the foundation and cornerstone.
Our work is not invention of new ideas
it is building on the firm foundation.
To do this we need to nurture our own relationship with Christ
through prayer, through worship through service and ministry.
Each time we pray, each time we share in the Eucharist
we are saying I want to be built up
We affirm the fact that this work
established and complete as it is already in Christ
will be worked out in me
and in the world.
It is already established and seeks its fulfillment
Our focus is building on Christ
what ever else we think we might be and do
we only succeed
in so far as we are built on that sure foundation.

Take time
There is a sense in which this is a tireless work
we all know the truth
of what Jesus says
There is an enormous harvest to bring in and all too few labourers!
As we read the Gospel today we recognise that even Jesus struggles to make time to renew himself
for this heavy and taxing work.
We busy folk know the dynamic of this story,
we like to take time to prepare
but we have competing demands
and they crash in all too readily.
Jesus habitually used to find himself overwhelmed by the demands of his ministry
So he would take time to step aside and be quiet.
But today we read, as we do quite often,
that the demands of life run wild
and do not respect Jesus's own personal needs.
We all know something of this.

This does not stop Jesus
from trying day after day to capture this time.
Even, we see, right at the very end of his life
when he could be excused for trying to flee
or to protect himself
Jesus goes out into the garden of Gethsemane to pray.
How easily we forget this!
We often, usually, even habitually
put our prayers to one side.
And then we wonder why we get a bit lost.
It is not only, I think, because we lack faith.
It is because we lack discipline!!
It takes discipline
to continue to build on the foundation.
But that is actually the only thing that will work.
David learns that when you get distracted
and think you are the foundation
then you are heading off in the wrong diretion.
Paul reminds us that
Christ is our foundation
and that we build on him.
Prayer, The Bible, Service, Worship, Eucharist...
these are the places we experience
building and the establishment of Christ's kingdom.
Jesus's experience shows us
that to do this we need discipline,
commitment,
decision to act.
There are lots of competing interests
Christ is the true foundation
already established,
we need to commit ourselves to him
through the disciplined life.

Lest we forget and think that we are the Messiah.
Lest we find our ourselves
building in the wrong place.
Lest we find that our necessary needs are
crowded out.

Pray and act this week
to do one fresh thing to re-establish God's building program
in Christ, on the sure foundation
in a firm, committed and disciplined way.

Just round the corner

Readings for Sunday 22nd February. 2009: 2 Ki 2:1-12; Ps 50:1-6; 2 Cor 4:3-12; Mark 9:2-9. The Last Sunday After Epiphany - The Transfiguration of Jesus

Well we have got to that point
where Lent is just around the corner
almost, but not quite, as late as it could be.
For most of the world, of course,
Lent means little or nothing.
Although in some ways like the great Moslem fast of Ramadan
Lent is probably less well known.
It is for Christians a time when we get our act together
There are many traditional ways of doing this
and they are not without merit
But let me draw yoiu attention to three of the more obvious ways
for Christians to "get their act together".
Prayer
At the heart of any Christian's life
is our relationship with God
so we will want during these 40 days
to try and strengthen that relationship .
like any relationship it is strengthened
through quality time.
If we want our relationship to get better then we need to commit to it.
Lent gives us a focus time...less than 6 weeks
so it is not a long commitment
and we find each year that it is worth it.
I suggest...three E's
Each day-make a commitment to pray at least once each day
The Lord's Prayer, a time of quiet or a short time to pray for someone special
Each week- as part of our commitment to build up each other
let's endeavour to make each of the Sundays in Lent
a time when we will be there
Extra- I do not think prayer is about volume or length of time
It is about "quality" time not "quantity"
So what I need to give during Lent
is extra quality.
This might mean making sure that we give proper attention and not pray on the run
It might mean keeping a little Lenten journal
or setting aside a deliberate time each week to just be together with God.

Giving
The one thing people often do know about Lent is "giving things up"
this giving things up...lollies, alcohol, meat, bread or what ever
breeds a little space and a little discipline.
It allows us to be more conscious of those who have not
and also to redirect some of our resources through giving

Certain 'traditional' support has often been highlighted

and they are worthy of our consideration.

Not so much 'what takes your fancy' as where do I feel the Spirit challenges me to be generous and give

• Charity


• The Poor


• Mission


• Jerusalem


• The Church

What appeals to you? Make it a special 6 week project.

Service
Our relationship with God is fostered through our care and service of others
Lest we think that Lent is a narrowly religious exercise
or even that Christianity is "narrowly religious"
we balance our spiritual exercises with our service and ministry.
This is the mistake that Peter makes on the mountain today
Seeing Jesus for who he really is ...the glorified one of God....
he doesn't know what to do.
We could think of a thousand things
let's tell others
let's inspire each other
let's commit to follow him to the end
But Peter says "No!! Let's build a shrine"
And Jesus has to say No!
There is suffering to be shared
there is work to be done.
So where will you serve this Lent.
I suggest that the words we need to guide us are these:

Personal
Responsive
& Unconditional

We need to respond in such a way that we are caring for a real person
and not an idea, or a bureaucracy
It will in a practical sense involve us with another person.
We need to be responding to real needs
That is doing what God want us to do
and not what we think we should do.
So often what we choose to do
serves our own needs
instead of those of others,
we do what makes us look good and successful
instead of what attends to the needs of another.
Finally our service should be unconditional.
We help a sick person go the doctor
so that they might get well
Not so that they might come to church.
We take food round to the family who have lost their father
because they need food
not so that they will do it to us in return.

Prayer Giving and Service.
Do not think you can do everything or the impossible.
Have a think about what you can do,
write it down
so you can promise yourself
and promise God

Do not be deceived into thinking Lent

is a pious few weeks, rather accept it as a challenge

to become mroe deply in love with God.