Manifesting the manifesto

The readings for this Sunday 30th January, the 4th Sunday after Epiphany are from Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1Corinthians 1:18-31 and Matthew 5:1-12

A manifesto is a grand idea

A statement of beliefs and principles

which undergird what we are trying to do.

One such is alongside

it is a conservationist manifesto

And it's about repairing instead of throwing away.

It has a number of interesting points, 11 in all

2. Things should be designed so that they can be repaired

10. Repairing is about independence

What we have this morning is three manifesto like readings and a psalm manifesto

Micah says

What does the Lord require of you:

but to do justice, and to love kindness

and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)

This is a powerful manifesto.

If you want to know what God's person does

it is not about being smart, powerful, rich or succesful

It is to be an agent of justice,

to live life with kindness

and to always walk remembering that we are creaturesnot the creator

Justice, kindness and humility....if you want three buzz words to check

the quality of your actions then they work

Is what I am doing just?

Is it kind?

Does it reflect my ultimate submission to God?

Paul reminds his fellow Christians in Corinth

with this manifesto:

We proclaim Christ crucified

God's way is not the way of the world he says God chose what is foolish to shame the strong

and the source of your life is Christ Jesus

an important manifesto. The Cross, the strength of God and Jesus

Jesus

In the passage so often seen as Jesus's manifesto...the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)

Jesus points us to various places where we might find God's holiness and transformation of our lives

Places where we might look to see the work of God

and, it needs to be remarked,

places where we might often miss the powerful presence.

Not in the life of the expert: but those who are poor in spirit

Not with the proud and the successful, but the meek and lowly

Where we mourn

where we hunger and thirst for what is right

where peace is being proclaimed and worked at

the need for purity of heart

at places where good is being tested, and even persecuted

and never to forget

that it is when we are being ridiculed, picked on and victimised

for doing what is right that we are blessed.

So there is a comprehensive manifesto to follow

if that's what engages us

The Comprehensive Manifesto

*Justice, kindness and mercy

*The Cross, God's wisdom, focus on Jesus

* poverty of spirit, comfort in the face of death, humility and meekness, the thirst for what is right, mercy, purity of heart, peace making, fighting for what is right, and being prepared to suffer for what is right

It rather makes our minds reel

but let it not do that

let us see it as the standard that we hold

to keep ourselves connected to Christ.

THIS WEEK

Perhaps take one of those items from the manifesto

and ask yourself

What does this mean for me?

What can I do this week to deliberately implement the Christian manifesto?

And then

Do it!

Eternal gifts

Two images of Jesus help us think about what it means to call him Christ the King.
They are at different ends of the spectrum.
The first is the king born in the stable at Bethlehem,
and the second is the king enthroned on the throne of Calvary.
The stable and the cross.

Readings for Sunday 21st November 2010 Proper 29-The Feast of Christ the King (Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 1:68-79) or Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Psalm 46 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43

Two images of Jesus help us think about what it means to call him Christ the King.

They are at different ends of the spectrum.

The first is the king born in the stable at Bethlehem,

and the second is the king enthroned on the throne of Calvary.

The stable and the cross.

To be a king in the tradition of Jesus

is to embrace a fundamental contradiction

That we bring nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world.

That true wealth and power

is born out of poverty and humility,

that in order to live as a king

you must first learn how to die.

It is a deep mystery,

It is the mystery of what it means to be a Christian.

Because both stories are rich and profound in content, meaning and symbolism

I won't attempt to cover all bases

but perhaps suggest one idea

and then a couple of thoughts

about how we might understand this.

The idea

The idea is that we should allow the stable and the cross

to speak for themselves.

When you look into the stable

and there see the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus

what does that cause you to see about your life

about the state of the world

and about what God is calling us to do.

Where do you stand as you witness the event of

The Word becoming flesh?

Are you detached, are you an observer,

or are you a participant?

Are you shepherd, wise man, Jospeh or inn keeper?

What is God speaking to you

as you witness the birth of the eternal Word?

As we do the same thing at the foot of the Cross

what is the king saying to us from his throne?

Does he speak to me as to his mother, am I a soldier ignoring the demands of justice and cooperating in the torture of an innocent man?

Am I the thief who is speaking to Jesus?

How does the king, whether in stable or on the Cross, speak to your life?

Because that is what is important.

It is not just what these very key ideas and stories are meant to say

It is how they speak to your life, to your hopes, desires and dreams

how the mother of Jesus holds your brokenness in her arms,

or how the love of God enfolds you and nurtures you at the breast?

A couple of thoughts

So, for me, I see the invitation to look beyond the values of the world

and recognise that being born a king is not about the trappings

it is about the transformation and change that the good king will bring to the world

and his subjects

it is not about economic growth

but about quality of life

that the king strives to bring about for his subjects.

Is this how we live our lives?

Is this how our new kings will exercise their government?

But let's not just blame them

because is this, also, how we will live our lives?

If the stable reveals such depth

how much more the mystery of the Cross

which says that it is in dying we are born again.

Where do I need to die to self, to embrace the suffering,

to see that kingship is not about fame and fortune

but about character, leadership and sacrifice.

They are the same story.

Contradictory in a way.

But both invite us to see beyond the outward guise of kingship

and embrace the challenge

of humility, service, and sacrifice.

Where does this speak to your life today?

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 king

written by Stephen Clark , November 2006

You Tube (click below...or at side)

Beginning the journey again

There is more than abundance of Scripture to read during this season.We begin Holy Week on 28th March with Palm Sunday. The Liturgy of the Palms which is a prelude to the main liturgy of the day ( Luke 19:28-40;Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29) and read as part of a procession before the service begins. The Liturgy of the Passion involves the reading of the Passion Story according to Luke (Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49) Just take it slowly and read what you can /what you feel moved to but try to allow yourself to be drawn into the personal mystery of what God is doing for the world and in your life
Another Palm Sunday Homily is here

Is God so demanding that he will not stop until we are totally destroyed.
Sometimes it feels like that.
As Sunday begins with a "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem
we can spend time wondering what the nature of this event was
It is good to be accurate, but not good to nit-pick.
The truth is that the Gospels offer us variety in the accounts and insights of the last few days.
The Palm Sunday story is one full of hope and expectation
The Good Friday is one of confusion and desolation
The Easter story is one of excitement, uncertainty and expectation.

It is a journey to be travelled
we do not stand still
we are engaged powerfully
because this journey of hopeful expectation, of desolation and confusion
is exactly what our lives our like.
Whether it be our excitement at the birth of a child,
or our desolation when a child is miscarried.
Or a job that is exactly what we hoped for
but is cut short by a cancer diagnosis, or a debilitating car accident.
Even if it is only the hope that we have when we are young
that fails to be realised
when we are old

This is a journey that we all make

We are invited, too, by the Easter experience
to realise that dashed hopes, desolation and confusion
are only a step along the way
They are not the climax or the conclusion.
These stories fill us with a sense of excitement, challenge and expectation
that we are entering uncharted waters.

scrutiny
as we look at our life
where is the sense of hopefulness.
What do we long for, what fulfillment do we seek?
This is Palm Sunday.
We don't need to anticipate Good Friday yet.
What do we believe God is trying to do in our life
what do we want God to do?
What sense of excitement, hope, fear
do we note as we sense what God might have in store for us?
What encourages us forward,
what holds us back.

Allow this week to be a time of challenge and exploration
as we permit God to show us more of what there is in store for us
and pray for grace to respond.

King of the Cross

The strongest Christian image is that no doubt that of Christ on the Cross. On this feast of Christ the King one of our key insights is that the crucified Jesus wears a crown, and has a sign on his cross...The King of the Jews

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

Reviewing the meaning of life

Suffering is the great mystery. We struggle to understand it but don't find it easy. Maybe there is not an answer in the narrow way we often think of such things

there
Readings for Sunday 18 October 2009, Pentecost 20, (Proper 29) Job 38:1-24; Psalm 104:1-26; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:32-45. These readings can be read progressively through the week to prepare you for Sunday

Is the "mystery of suffering" revealed this week? (See Job 38)
I don't pretend that the "answer" that the book of Job gives to the purpose, cause and meaning of suffering
is ultimately satisfying.
It does however point us to an ultimate reality or two!
Mystery
We do not comprehend everything.
We live under the misapprehension
that everything is ultimately knowable.
If only we can get enough information
or if we can gain enough experience
then we will utimately arrive at the answer.
The story of Job suggests to us that this is not entirely true.
We will never understand the mystery of God
how he creates, renews, restores
The best we can hope for is, like some sort of calculus,
to draw close to the absolute limit of our understanding
but we never reach the complete finality.
Entering into the mystery
The gospel passage though gives us another way in
To James and John who quite miss the point of what life with Christ might be like
and seem to think that it is about some sort of power play
Jesus says "Can you be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?"
When this question is asked they glibly say "Of course!"
But one must wonder if they would have spoken so boldly on Good Friday
or 20 or more years later.
What Jesus is reminding us in this passage is that there is a cost involved
and we might say we understand the mystery of life
as we engage with it.
It is necessary to enter into the mystery
it is not an idea
it is an experience.
It is not a series of theologies
it is relationship.
This is evident to me when ministering to those at great points of difficulty
like grief, or relationship breakdown
or depression
I am sometimes led to say that this sort of experience
is an extraordinary opportunity as well as an enormous difficulty.
Quite often people affirm this insight after the event.
It is, after all, another way of stating the mystery of the cross.
If we are to look at how God operates then we should turn to the powerful events of our faith
We will be brought to the point
where our life might be extinguished
and we can choose to encounter this
as Jesus does
and in so doing
we pass through it and are transformed
or we can play religious, theological, or philosophical games about God
when we are actually being called to encounter the reality of God.

THIS WEEK
Where is Jesus calling you to respond to challenge and the Cross?
What are the practical demands that this places on my life?
Pray for the courage to accept this challenge.

A present far too small

Reflection for Good Friday, April 10 2009. Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Hebrews 10:16-25; John 18:1-19:42

The great hymn of Isaac Watts often sung on Good Friday, When I survey the wondrous cross says in its final verse

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

I am often struck how some "religiously correct" versions change the original word
present to the more religiously correct word
offering
The two words don't mean the same thing, do they?
An offering is something that is required of us
it is our duty, our reponsibility
A present is an expression of love
and is given rather than exacted as a tribute.

Watts, I suspect, deliberately used the word present
and we should not use the word "offering" any more.

What this points us to
is that the story of the life and death of Jesus Christ
is not a remote religious tale
it is about the way we live our life.
It is in the world of 'presents' rather than 'offerings'

It is about how we live outside church
not inside
It is about present rather than offering

So Watts continues not with religious sentiment
but rather with the total commitment of life

love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all

thus all the things we know about Good Friday
and all the challenge that it extends to you and me
is not about what we do here
in this holy building
it is about what we do at work.
The forgiveness that we seek
is about the sins we have committed in our job.
It is about how we live in our families.
The amazing love that we are called to exercise
is to our wives and husbands, our sons and daughters,
our brothers and sisters.

Being religious is a good way of distancing ourselves
from the realities of our life.
It is an offerng rather than a present.

This year, let us go beyond that narrow formal duty...the offering
and instead be a present to God
committed in our life, where we are, where we live.

Love, so amazing so divine, demands nothing less.

A Moment of Truth

During Lent we will be following a local series of lections.If you are looking for the Common Lectionary References try here Revised Common Lectionary

March Chagall's White Crucifixion

This week is Palm Sunday , 4th April 2009. While there are many readings on which we could focus we will look particularly at Mark 15:16-39.

As Holy Week begins our hearts turn to the Cross
We have made a pilgrimage this Lent
as we have worked through Mark's Gospel
The flow of the Gospel is unremitting

• God's kingdom is here and now
• We are challenged to identify completely with Jesus
• We come to understand that in discovering who Jesus really is for us, we also discover who we really are
• It is in listening to his call, and trying to respond that we open ourselves to God's transforming power
• This journey requires, work, commitment, seriousness

Here, now on the Cross we see the climax of all this challenge
Jesus says to us:
I am an invitation to all people
to submit to the willof God
Knowing that there is no assurance of

• what the circumstances might be
• the troubles are that might emerge
• Indeed, we recognise that it might be quite hard.
• Perhaps even dangerous, certainly profoundly challenging

We trust that in the working out of this

All will be well....not all will be EASY

and that the fundamental reality of life

that in knowing Jesus we encounter God

• Listen to him
• Take up your Cross
• One thing more you need to yield to God

It is not that we are rewarded for being good, compliant
It is that at this place...Calvary
destiny. meaning, purpose and truth
are revealed

This week is Palm Sunday , 4th April 2009. While there are many readings on which we could focus we will look particularly at Mark 15:16-39.


As Holy Week begins our hearts turn to the Cross
We have made a pilgrimage this Lent
as we have worked through Mark's Gospel
The flow of the Gospel is unremitting
God's kingdom is here and now
We are challenged to identify completely with Jesus
We come to understand that in discovering who Jesus really is for us, we also discover who we really are
It is in listening to his call, and trying to respond that we open ourselves to God's transforming power
This journey requires, work, commitment, seriousness


Here, now on the Cross we see the climax of all this challenge
Jesus says to us:
I am an invitation to all people
to submit to the will of God
Knowing that there is no assurance of
what the circumstances might be
the troubles are that might emerge
Indeed, we recognise that it might be quite hard.
Perhaps even dangerous, certainly profoundly challenging
We trust that in the working out of this
All will be well....not all will be EASY
and that the fundamental reality of life
that in knowing Jesus we encounter God
Listen to him
Take up your Cross
One thing more you need to yield to God
It is not that we are rewarded for being good, or compliant
It is that at this place…
CALVARY
destiny. meaning, purpose and truth
are revealed

• THIS WEEK
  May this week be full of meaning Lord
  May I commit more fervently
  May I love you more
  

What must I do?

During Lent we will be following a local series of lections.If you are looking for the Common Lectionary References try here Revised Common Lectionary

The principle reading for this 29th March, 2009 the 5th Sunday in Lent is Mark 10:17-31, other readings include Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 119:9-16, Hebrews 5:5-14

It seems that there is both a universal and a particular message
in this story of Jesus 's encounter with a rich young man
The particular message for this man
is that there is one area in which he hold himself back
from God.
That he may do all sorts of other things right
but there is still
one thing more
he will not surrender his fondness
for this world's wealth and security
The general message is that for each one of us
is there is always
"one thing more"
it may not be money, or security
(it may...it is very seductive)
but we are not to hold anything back.

What is it that we are reluctant to hand over to God?

The young man, and the disciples have rightly identified
that this is hard.
Let us not be seduced by the image....how then can it happen?
What is beiong said here is that
WE cannot effect our own salvation
It is indeed impossible for us.
We will always be compromised
always seduced by some other thing.
Our faith must be and can only be in God alone.

We can have faith that all this will work out
but we may not quite understand how.
We are not called to understand.
Weare called to have faith!

Thomas Merton, who we have talked about
in recent weeks
reminds us that this is serious business
we are not playing games with God
(so often we do!)
we are trying to bring our real self before God
because it is the only self
that is known by God.
This young man comes to Jesus
he presents not his real self
but what he wants the world to think he is like.
"All these commandments I keep,
I am a good person"
But Jesus sees right through this,
as he does so often with people who seek healing.
"You need forgiveness!" he might say
"You have go to sort out your relationships".
No game playing.
It is not a reward exercise
in which we get a prize for being good
It is that when we are known by God
that our life is fulfilled, right, good.
Anything less is a game.
It is (as Merton says) a false self.
God only knows our real self,
the pursuit and promotion of the false sself
leaves us sad and unsatisfied.
This young man grieves
the disciples are profounbdly shocked.
But the affirmation is this:
This is God's work, and with God nothing is impossible.
Anything else is false,
at best a game, and at worst the road to hell.
Can Easter be for you and me,
this time of presenting the real-self to God?
Of commitment to Christ, that we know is right.
But we may be too frightened to let go
of one (or maybe more than one ) thing?
THIS WEEK
What 'one thing' is God inviting me to yield to him?
How can I do it?
Pray each day: LORD HELP ME TO BE REAL

Jesus-His Crucifixion

During this season we are thinking about Jesus and his life and meaning today's theme is about the crucifixion. Some readings are here:Isaiah 53:3–6Psalm 89:39–461 Peter 2:22–25Mark 15:33–39
If you want to follow the Revised Common Lectionary then readings can be found here

How might it be if we lived without the burden of sin?
What would our world be like?
So often we excuse our bad behaviour by suggesting we have no other choice,
because we are just like that
Sinful.
But what if we were not.

We present a mask, often,
because we don't like what we believe we are;
and we certainly don't want others to encounter it

What we need to realise about the Crucifixion,
is that it is about God seeing us as we really are.
We may not like it but
There is nothing about us that Jesus does not love
We often find this difficult to believe.

What we see on the cross is that
God loves us
in a way that often we cannot love ourselves.
Often our greed, our sensuality,
our passion, our self-centredness
disgust us.
We often don't love or like ourselves.
We are embarrassed and ashamed by our mistakes and our frailty
So we are often self-deceptive,
we think of ourselves as different from what we really are.
We certainly try to present an image to the world
that is not what we are.

The message of the Cross is that there is nothing about us
that God does not love.
He loves us so much
that he will not allow us
to be destroyed
by the sin and corruption
that would seek to separate us from God,
or cause us to think and believe
that we can be separated from the love of God.

This is what is happening
on the Cross
everything about is laid upon Jesus.
God's love for us is so great
that we are totally identified
with his own Son.
The net effect for us
is that everything that would separate us from God
is destroyed in the Body of Christ.
Lies, hurtfulness, shame, mistakes...
St Paul tells the Corinthian Church
that it was for this purpose that he who is without sin
Became as sin, and put sin to death in his own body.
What ever power sin might have held
before the Cross
it no longer holds.
He himself bears our sins
in his body on the cross.
so that free from sin we might live for righteousness.

What is asked us of us
is to have faith in this sacrifice.
We are free from our sin.
Put aside the self-indulgence
that we cannot escape sin
We can...through faith in Jesus.
Nothing too big, nothing too small!

God loves us so much
that we do not have to live with the burden of sin.

So let us live that way

We adore you O Christ

Sunday 14th September is kept as Holy Cross Day. A Day when we reflect on the significance of the Cross and the life and death of Jesus. readings can include. Isaiah 45:21-25 Psalm 98 or 98:1-4 Philippians 2:5-11 or Galatians 6:14-18 John 12:31-36a

St Paul makes the curious comment:

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world (Gal 6:14)

This is at once curious, and yet fully understandable
When we invite people, as we will next month
To come and hear what the Christian Gospel is all about
We have to tell them about the fact that Jesus was crucified
And that we believe that by that act the world has been transformed.
At some point we understand that it as at the point of intense suffering, when we are broken
When we recognise failure and sin
That we encounter the depth of ourselves and God.
This is, of course, a mystery
There are theories (a link which is of interest here, but it is not comprehensive) which seek to explain it, they do not sit easily with our understanding.

But it is out of our experience
That we can readily discern the truth of what is being claimed here
It is when we stand in the face of death
When we seek God in our pain
When we struggle with the intense difficulties of our life
Death, depression, sadness
It is there we find that Jesus meets us having been there before us.
Perhaps as we wonder about who needs to have Christianity Explained to them
We should look for those for whom the Cross is already a reality.
And that is all of us.
This sacrament of the Cross, this Church of the Body of Christ
Is not for the strong but for the weak.
We are not vetting members to join our exclusive club,
But seeking rather to try and recognise
Who God is already calling.
This is something of the reality of the Cross.

I came, says Jesus, not to call the righteous
But the sinners to repentance
(Mark 2:17)

And He said,

"It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick".
(Matthew 9:12)

We are called to boast not in our beautiful churches, liturgy or organisation.
But that at the point of suffering
being in relationship with Jesus,
through the Cross, makes a difference to how we live our life

Counting the cost

Readings for the 31st August the 22nd Sunday of the Year can include: Exodus 3:1-15 [or Jeremiah 15:15-21] Psalm:Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c [or Psalm 26:1-8 ]; Romans 12:9-21 & Matthew 16:21-28

For all Peter's realisations that Jesus is pretty important in the scheme of things ( as we read last week) and he is rewarded with some pretty dramatic words....I will build my church on you
Words which the Church has been keen to exploit, they are not so keen to observe that moments later Jesus is berating this Prince of the Apostles and saying
"Get behind me Satan!"

And that he who was once a foundation is now a "stumbling block"
Equally strong words in the other direction.
I think we see here what is an observable phenomenon for spiritual people.
There are times when it is all pretty clear, and we can make it hang together
And then it evaporates and , once again, we lose the plot.



Equally well we have the seminal story of the burning bush.

This too is the experience of people.
God grabs our attention
and if we are attentive
we hear and receive
then we can hear what God might be saying

[I am not too worried about
how a bush might burn
or what it might mean
this is not a story about supernatural phenomena,
this is a story about how God catches out attention
how we hear God
and what we might then do]
As Christians who believe in an ever-present, and transcendent God
experienced in and through the world
we experiece "burning bushes" all the time.
Do we just take any notice?
Moses, we note, had to turn away from what he was doing
and go and take a look.
Our problem is that we may often see
but then just go on with what we are doing.
So we don't see or hear
God saying to us
I AM WHO I AM.
Instead we see the sheep going crazy.
It is when we turn aside
take off our shoes
because we realise the encounter is holy and powerful
listen
and then act out of that expereince that it all makes a difference.

This is what happened to Peter
when he recognised
what God might be doing in Jesus(here)
this changed his life fundamentally.
As did Moses.
Because he now had the choice to live out of something new.

This is how it works for us.
As we ask ourselves
where is God's grace active and alive for us today
there is also the invitation
to live rather differently.
Out of knowledge of the fact
that God is who God is
---we use the shorthand term Yahweh, Jehovah or LORD

The Question then is...what do we do with this?
The invitation
is to live out of the new encounter
the temptation is to go back to doing what we did before.

As I ask myself, where have I asked experienced God's grace today
the next step is:
And what difference does that make ?
Will I choose to live differently
because I have encountered God.
We don't always get this right.
This is Peter who was a "foundation"
becoming a "stumbling block"
Having been granted the vision of the future
do we choose to go back tot he past.

Too often yes!

This week

• Where have I experienced the presence of God at this time?
• What is God asking me to be and do? What does it reveal to me about the nature of God? What is the invitation to live differently?
• What changes do I make to the way I live because I have encountered God on holy ground?
• Will I live differently?

O God, you invite me to turn aside

and be with you.

Why on earth do you want to speak with me?

What do you want of me?

Give me not only this grace,

but also the courage to live out of your life.

In Jesus name. AMEN

Oh what a gift!

Readings for Sunday 25th November Proper 29-The Feast of Christ the King (Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 1:68-79) or Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Psalm 46 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43

Two images of Jesus help us think about what it means to call him Christ the King.
They are at different ends of the spectrum.
The first is the king born in the stable at Bethlehem,
and the second is the king enthroned on the throne of Calvary.
The stable and the cross.

To be a king in the tradition of Jesus
is to embrace a fundamental contradiction
That we bring nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world.
That true wealth and power
is born out of poverty and humility,
that in order to live as a king
you must first learn how to die.
It is a deep mystery,
It is the mystery of what it means to be a Christian.

Because both stories are rich and profound in content, meaning and symbolism
I won't attempt to cover all bases
but perhaps suggest one idea
and then a couple of thoughts
about how we might understand this.

The idea
The idea is that we should allow the stable and the cross
to speak for themselves.
When you look into the stable
and there see the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus
what does that cause you to see about your life
about the state of the world
and about what God is calling us to do.
Where do you stand as you witness the event of
The Word becoming flesh?
Are you detached, are you an observer,
or are you a participant?
Are you shepherd, wise man, Jospeh or inn keeper?
What is God speaking to you
as you witness the birth of the eternal Word?

As we do the same thing at the foot of the Cross
what is the king saying to us from his throne?
Does he speak to me as to his mother, am I a soldier ignoring the demands of justice and cooperating in the torture of an innocent man?
Am I the thief who is speaking to Jesus?

How does the king, whether in stable or on the Cross, speak to your life?
Because that is what is important.
It is not just what these very key ideas and stories are meant to say
It is how they speak to your life, to your hopes, desires and dreams
how the mother of Jesus holds your brokenness in her arms,
or how the love of God enfolds you and nurtures you at the breast?

A couple of thoughts
So, for me, I see the invitation to look beyond the values of the world
and recognise that being born a king is not about the trappings
it is about the transformation and change that the good king will bring to the world
and his subjects
it is not about economic growth
but about quality of life
that the king strives to bring about for his subjects.
Is this how we live our lives?
Is this how our new kings will exercise their government?
But let's not just blame them
because is this, also, how we will live our lives?

If the stable reveals such depth
how much more the mystery of the Cross
which says that it is in dying we are born again.
Where do I need to die to self, to embrace the suffering,
to see that kingship is not about fame and fortune
but about character, leadership and sacrifice.

They are the same story.
Contradictory in a way.
But both invite us to see beyond the outward guise of kingship
and embrace the challenge
of humility, service, and sacrifice.

Where does this speak to your life today?

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 king

written by Stephen Clark , November 2006

You Tube (click below...or at side)

Let all things their Creator bless

This week in our parish churches we are focussing on issues to do with the Creation
caring for the environment
and looking after animals.
We will, for our penance, have a service in which we bless pets!
The principal rationale for this is the feast of St Francis of Assissi which falls each year on October 4th.
Last week (see here) I talked about whether we have allowed our worship to become 'entertainment' instead of the genuine connection with God that it is supposed to be
Rightly one of my parishioners reminded me that the forthcoming Pet Blessing looks rather like such frivolity.
I hope that we can escape that.
It is a tight rope.
On the one hand bringing our pets to church to seek a blessing for them and us
is quite different from what we normally do, isn't it?
And may seem so way out that it looks trivial,
on the other hand as we look at St Francis
who had a simple devotion to the environment and to domestic animals
we can recognise that this is also one of the key real-life issues
that faces humanity today
How do we live in harmony with our living environment?
How do we act as good stewards, TODAY, of that which God has committed to our care?
Francis saw, too, tha the simple realities of life
draws us to the service of the poorest of the poor
and it is to those that we are to direct our attention.

To say St Francis seemed 'a bit eccentric'
is to understate his story!
Probably what most of us remember
is that he used to talk to animals!
some commentators suggest that this was a device he used to attract people's attention.
It certainly did that.
Thousands flocked to see this gentle man,
and while they were there listening to him talking to birds and the sheep,
they heard him also speak of God's love and care
for the whole of the world, its creatures
and everything that makes up our environment.
While they got alongside him, they aso realised that it was possible
to love and care for those who the world often rejects
The poor and the unlovely!
For the 12th century it is a profoundly modern message!

Some stories
He is also thought to be one of those people
who had a unique closeness to Jesus.
This crucifix pictured here is in St Damiano Church
and is said to have been so powerful for him
that he heard the voice of Jesus speak.
Many of us know those powerful moments from time to time.
He is characterised as receiving the stigmata...the wounds of Christ in his body...
a particular sign, gift, burden and responsibility
of blessing from God
An indication of his holiness.

These things do not sit easily with the understandings of the 21st century,
we may choose to rationalise them
or understand them more symbolically.
Nevertheless, as we juxtapose and put together some of these ideas
we get a powerful understanding of what might have been happening in Francis's life

It is, for example, in simple attention to the world in which we live
in particular to its poverty, simplicity and humility
that we will understand the mystery of the Crucified Christ.
It is as we live this out in our bodies
that we will know what it means to be like Christ
to understand his wounds
and to share in his work of redemption.

St Francis reminds us that this is not 'entertainment'
it is the opportunity that is at our very door.
As we look at the pressing issues of environment
and simply living in harmony in our world
(our pets are a nearby example of this)
we have the framework to hear Jesus speaking
and to take up our own Cross and share in that work.


Practical stuff.
Yet profoundly attractive to us who seek closeness to God.

YOU Tube presentation

Fire and hail

Reading for this Sunday 19th August can be Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 (orJeremiah 23:23-29) and Psalm 82 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56

A QUICK YOUTUBE THOUGHT HERE

Have we replaced genuine Christianity with pleasant cups of tea

Some passages of scripture don't actually encourage the faint hearted

to take up Christianity

though it is important to note that the readings this week are not so much about how hard it is going to be as attesting to the fact that there is a consequence, and indeed a cost, to identifying yourself as a Christian.

Although some people might think that the Christian Gospel is all fluffy puppy and sweetness and light
Jesus reminds us that this very message
peace, love and forgiveness
is a divisive message.
It will drive a wedge between those who thought they were inseparable
and alienate people from those who they most love.
Contemporary commentators remind us that

the price of true peace
the cost of genuine love
the expression of
genuine compassion and forgiveness
comes with a price.

It is a price that not all are prepared to pay
and indeed we seek to avoid.



Running the race
I am not a runner! Never have been,
but the image that the the writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses
captures something of this idea
of the effort that needs to be put into of faith.

This is a sort of dynamic contradiction
about faith.
Although we do not have to do good to curry God's favour
we have to believe in Jesus
Yet this believing has to be done right
There is a sense in which we have made for ourselves
a caricature of faith.
We have replaced genuine costly faith, the sort that invites you to carry a cross
with pathetic and polite expressions of belief which lack any real focus or cutting edge.
Have we, as I say, replaced the Cross with cups of tea?
There are many fine example of people who have chosen to live sacrificial lives
in the name of faith
and because they seek to follow Jesus.
We can name Maximilian Kolbe, one of the many martyrs of Auschwitz,m
William Wilberforce who lead the battle against slavery in England,
Florence Nightingale, Francis of Assissi, and of course many more
This 'great cloud of witnesses' attests to faith with a cost.
Can you think of those who you regard as most faithful,
what is the cost to them of being a faithful Christian?

Jesus himself, the writer tells us

is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his
seat at the right hand of the throne of God

His pioneering example was that faith has a cost.
Have you and I lost that,
or replaced it with a cup of tea and a biscuit?

THIS WEEK

• Ask the Spirit to show you where you have become apathetic and lustreless
• Invite the Spirit to show you a way that is more costly, more challenging, where you can respond more fervently, more faithfully to Jesus.
• Pray for the courage to do it.

YOUTUBE COMMENT HERE

King of Kings

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 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 it's 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 ake 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 if 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