God's promises for today

Readings for this Sunday July 3, 2011, 14th Sunday of the Year, Gen. 24:34-38,42-49,58-67. Ps. 45:10-17 or Song 2:8-13. Rom. 7:15-25a. Matt. 11:16-19,25-30.

A few years ago

I went to see the film "Mongol"

which is about the emergence of Genghis Khan the great conquering ruler of the Mongolians

It is a wonderful, but bloodthirsty film,

the film is held together by the story of the marriage relationship
between Temudgin (who became known as Genghis Khan) and the girl Borte who he chooses as his wife (when he is 12!!)
It is a literary device that we encounter in these reading as we read the beginnings of the story of how Isaac and Rebecca, the second of the line of patriarchs and matriarchs,
meet and begin phase two.
They are (like the Mongolian stories) legendary in scope.
You are left wondering just how it could all come together
in such an ordered and fruitful way.
We see in the narratives, the 'hand of God'
and it is named as such.
It is of course a reflection written after the fact
and we often observe that 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful;
What we do see in hindsight
is that God's care, comfort and guidance
are available when we open ourselves to them.

There is perhaps the hope that
what we come to see clearly looking back
we also begin to appreciate in the present moment
This is about what we might learn and understand
as we mature spiritually
and how we might then live our lives confident
that God supports and sustains us.
Equally well Romans reminds us of the nature of the struggle with sin
that it is serious, hard and needs attention
when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand
Paul says, and today's Gospel reminds us that another spiritual reality is that God is there to be with us when the going gets tough.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
These insights are all reflections on how God deals with us.
As we look back we see with 20-20 hindsight
the truth of God's promises.
Our day to day vision is not always that good,
partly because we don't take time to look.

Each day we are invited to understand more of what God promises us.
And to live out of that promise.

This week

As you look back where have you been aware of God's plan for your lief?
What is God doing for you?
How is the struggle with sin going? Are there particular things you need to address?
Where do you seek God's comfort and support? Are you also being invited to be part of that support for other people?

God of our future, God of our past
give us the eyes of faith to see
that you are dynamic and active in our life
give us wills that trust your promise
and comfort us when we find things difficult.

Balancing act

The Holy Trinity by Azrael Nekhbet

Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 13 (Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18) Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Propers for the Thirteenth Sunday of the Year which is celebrated on 26th June 2011

These readings invite me to a focus .
Or perhaps to focus.
We know that one of the seductive things about sin
is that it presents itself
as an answer.
The sin answer is....if I have piles of stuff then I will be happy
or - If I can only force people to do what I want then everyone will be happy
And Even....if I stick to the rules is a seduction.

The story of Abraham
is that we are not to trust in stuff
or our own view of the world
even (if we can identify the rules) we are not to trust what we take to be the absolutes.

There is only one absolute.

God the LORD
So when I wake in the morning
my prayer should not be :
- give me lots of wealth
- make my enemies do what I want
- or even, let me be good

It should be that I am seeking, always seeking
to be in God's presence
and to allow God to be present in my life.

I will not (even cannot) always understand all that God might be doing
This is what is happening to Abraham.
So I need to focus
not nearly so much
on keeping the rules
or playing what ever games I have invented
as to be making sure I am closely related to God all the time.

This is not always easy.
We may not even want it
But it is the only and the best way to go.

This week
Two things that I can do every day that I believe draws me closer to God....critique this...
is this because I want God to be like this...or is it because I am responding to God's Spirit in me...doing what God wants.-

• What if we just say...each day I will deliberately commend myself to God...and when I need to make a decision I will try and stop and listen to how God might be speaking to me.

• Can I also hold one person before God this week? Perhaps even someone difficult.....and carry them in my heart and journey with them, as Abraham does.

We do not need to make up a road for ourself. We need rather to trust the relationship.

Doing the impossible

Genesis 22:1-14 Psalm 13 (Jeremiah 28:5-9; Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18) Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Propers for the Thirteenth Sunday of the Year which is celebrated on 26th June 2011

Can God do the impossible?
Even more, does God delight in making things more difficult than they already are?
The story of Genesis 22 is a key narrative

in the story of God's relationship with humanity.
Will we trust God

even when it seems

that there is nothing to suggest

that God can be trusted?

Abraham has only one son,

and has been promised

that he will be the father of a great nation
He then comes to the belief

that God wants him to sacrifice his only son
What is going on here?
This story is so dramatic

that we can be easily distracted by its force.
It is about the requirement for God's people

to have faith in God

and God alone.
Abraham has already done that,

he set out from his father's house

in Ur

to follow where ever the Lord would lead him.

It is a paradigm story

of each human being.

Will we go where the Lord chooses to lead us?

or puddle along on the merely meaningless meanders

we mindlessly pursue.

For Abraham the story reveals

he is not now at liberty even to have faith in himself,

or in this great blessing of his son Isaac.
Having put faith in God,

we are not then at liberty to put our faith instead

in the means that God has given us
to fulfill the promise.
This may seem a subtlety,
but it is also a truth.

For example,

God uses our family
our marriage, our children,
our church.
Education, work and country
to provide for us.
But we are not allowed then to put our faith in them.

These are the means

not the ends


....more coming

Holy, Holy, Holy!

Trinity Sunday June 19 2011 Genesis 1:1-2:4a Psalm 8 II Corinthians 13:11-13 Matthew 28:16-20 in the APBA lectionary Exodus 34:1-8 can also be used

In the embarrassment of riches that this season affords
we move from the great story of Easter, Ascension
and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
to today being invited to put all this into context
with a focus on the community of God
The community that we call the Trinity.
In an idea that I quite like, Archbishop William Temple
says that we need the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
it helps us not fall into the trap of having an idea of God
that is too small.

Temple also says, reminding us that The Trinity is about the worship of God,

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.

And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.

from his Readings in St John's Gospel

While we often think that this doctrine is hard to understand
At the heart of it is the idea that God is love
that love is about community
and that God is constantly seeking to embrace us
and bring us into this community of love

Temple, a most striking figure of the 20th Century search,

reminds us that love in this community will be about justice

for all humanity

and of creating a society which cares for the most vulnerable

So the language that is used to talk about God
is relational
We talk (after St Augustine) of a Father, a Son
and of a Spirit which flows out from them
their relationship being so profound
that the Spirit issues as a different persona
empowering us and always seeking to draw us into the circle of life
(the circle, or three interlocking circles is often used to symbolise the Trinity)
This idea is not without difficulty
but it does serve to give us the sense
that God is relational
that God is community
that God is love.

It is the same God who is the Father of Jesus
who declares himself to be our Father
It is the same God who is the Son of the Father
who says to us you too are the sons and daughters of my Father
you are my sisters and brothers
It is the same God who is the Holy Spirit
who says my love for you is so real
that I am always drawing you into community with me.

God is calling to be part of the same community
That Father-Son and -Spirit share
It is not a closed shop
Our fulness of life
comes from being in communion with God.
God is sharing his life with us
God is sharing his love with us.

Does this make a difference?
The Trinity initiates us into the idea
that God is actually in relationship with us
that God loves us
and that we are invited into community with God.
When Jesus speaks to his disciples (as we read today)
and suggests that they should spread the Good News
he is saying that all people can be drawn into the life of God
and this will liberate and enliven them

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

The invitation is to be drawn into the life of God
the responsibility is to live in the Spirit of God's life
and the promise is that God will be with us for ever

We might go on to say that the expectation is that this will change our life
We are after all being drawn into the circle if God's life
So transforming is this experience
that we will want to share it with others.

This is NOT some difficult doctrine
this is the centre of our faith experience

If you want your life changed, enriched, transformed
then it is done by allowing yourself to become a daughter, a son
a sister and a brother
In relationship with God.
Our Christian understanding is that the Trinity is always
seeking to draw us into closer and more personal relationship.
This is perhaps rather different from Judaism and Islam.

This week

1. Pray each day to be aware that God wants me to be drawn into the community of love and service which is the Holy Trinity
2. Dedicate yourself each day to seek to more fervently to be close to God
3. Is there one person who you can tell this week that God desires them to be close to their life also? Why not tell them or discuss this with them?

O Holy Trinity
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Your love for me overflows
and draws me in
I seek to be in the circle of love
may I share this love with others too.
O Gracious Holy Trinity

Moving on up! Life in the Spirit

Readings for Whitsunday or Pentecost, June 12, 2011; Numbers 11:24-30; *Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:24-34,I Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23

Anglicans like candles!

In fact people like candles;
they are such a warm symbol
and so multi-layered in imaginal links
that we readily warm to them.

At Easter the principal symbol in many Churches
is the Paschal or Easter candle
which is marked in various ways at the Great Vigil.
With Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) , the number of the year, the sign of the cross,
and often including five nails.
It burns for the great 50 days which conclude today with today's feast of Pentecost

when we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples

What, then, to do with with this very rich symbolic candle at the end of this season?
Well of course the logical thing to do is extinguish it!
though we do not want to give the impression that everything is now over and done with,
because of course it isn't!
In a way it has only just begun.

So in our churches today as the large candle is extinguished
individual worshipers are invited to light a personal candle of their own.
The simple idea is that the Easter Commission
to proclaim the risen Christ

is deliberately transmitted
to each individual as part of their baptismal responsibility.
This is, indeed, the movement that we trace in the readings today.
God pours out the Holy Spirit to renew the world
and to encourage and bless the community of faith
in order that they may bring the hope of Christ to the world.
The way this Spirit works is that it is given to individuals
whether it be (as in Numbers) the elders of the Church
or as in Acts and I Corinthians on the individual baptised;

We are invited to appreciate that the gift of the Spirit
apart from being a numinous spiritual blessing
to the world or community of faith in general
is also, in practice, worked out

in the individual giftedness of each of the baptised.

So, St Paul's idea is that
the Holy Spirit gives to each of the baptised an outpouring of the Spirit
which manifests itself in particular gifts
He cites a number of gifts..teaching, hospitality, prophecy, prayer, deep faith
and so on (some number these as many as 75 specific gifts)
His implication is that every baptised Christian
is gifted in some way
and that we are to use those gifts
for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.

That is, the presence of the risen Christ
is committed to you and me
and we are gifted by the Holy Spirit
to carry on Christ's work.

We are not expected to pass an exam
or do a whole pile of learning
in order to do this work
we are rather required to use the gift that has been given.

This may cause us to think about
how the Spirit has lit our personal candle!!!

Far from the work being over when Easter is finished
and we extinguish the candle
it is not so much over as transferred
to each of us individually.

So what we might ask ask,
is my particular gift?
and how am I to use it to further the kingdom of God?

We are given gifts, our candle is lit,
not to hide (Jesus uses this sort of image)
but for a purpose.
We do not have to get a qualification
it is more that we need to take the gift out of the box and use it.

So there are two questions for each of us
the second more important than the first,
First, what is my gift
and the second important question how might I use it?
The kingdom is weakened in so far
as we hide our light
or ignore it.
Our gift, be it prayer, teaching, almsgiving, hospitality
prophecy or what ever is to be used.

Paul is clear that not everyone has the same gift
we are not all teachers or prophets,
but we are all gifted as individuals and as community
with all the gifts necessary to do what God wants us to do
and to be what God wants us to be.

This week

• Give thanks to God for the Easter mystery, and the promise that Christ has given to be with us always
• Ask the Spirit to show you how you ahve been gifted by God, and what you are to do with that gift?
• Pray for imagination, opportunity and courage to use the giftedness that God has given me.

We pray, this today and every day:

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us

Making sense of it all

Readings for the Sunday after the Ascension (Seventh Sunday of Easter) June 5th, 2011. Acts 1:6-14 Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35 I Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 John 17:1-11

Now this can either be hard or easy!
Because, either the point of the physical removal of Jesus
is an insurmountable obstacle to 21st century rational-scientific minds
or it is as easy as recognising
that in order to mature
we cannot go on having others
doing for us what we need to do for ourselves!
I opt to think, today, about the Ascension
in this latter way!

In the most obvious sense
if God wants mature men and women.
People who will have depth and understanding
then that is not achieved
by always stepping in making up for our inadequacies.
Any parent knows the truth of this.
Indeed anyone in any relationship whatsoever
needs to understand this,
we are not called to step in and make up
for the inadequacies, mistakes and failures
of others.
However well-intentioned,
this breeds immaturity and over-dependence,
rather than freedom, initiative
and sophisticated maturity.

There is a difference between supporting people in difficulty
and in not allowing people the opportunity to make their own mistakes!

The withdrawal of the physical presence of Jesus
rather than being an expression
of God's disappointment and heartbreak with the world
can and should actually be seen
as a statement of faith by God in you and me.
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective people
God believes that we have within us
the means to be effective church
God believes that we have within us
the capacity to fail and to know that failure is not the end

This is what is going on

Two encouragements
We may feel as though this is too hard sometimes
Can we hear two things today:
That Jesus prays to the Father for our protection.
He is not assuming that it is going to be easy,
indeed the reverse would seem to be the case.
So he prays for our protection.
In the midst of difficulty
our faith requires that we bring that 'big gun' into play.
Let us not forget that God is on our side,
this is not some sort of crude lining up allies
during war
but rather seeking to draw out of you and me
Faith in God.
Perhaps we need to pray that prayer that one of the rulers prays
Lord I DO believe
but also help my unbelief.
feeling undersiege
is not necessarily a sign of spiritual weakness
but rather an invitation
to strengthen our faith
As we rely on faith
we learn to be faithful.

Second, Jesus's key promise
in this time
is that he will not leave us friendless.
He promises the Holy Spirit.
We are not called to do this alone,
but rather to realise that we act out of God's power.
there is something important
about being able to ask for help.
As we seek to move and grow
we pray that God's Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit of Jesus himself
will cause us to move as God wants us to
and to understand as God wants us to.

And we discover what the first Christians dicovered
that in acting out of faith
their faith is increased.
In that exercising their God-given independence
they find a new sense of freedom
which opens them up to the gracious life of Spirit of Jesus.

More mysteriously, then, though Jesus is no longer
physically with them
they have a deeper, profounder sense of His abiding love.

May this be ours too

This week

• Remember to commit yourself deliberately to God's care and protection as you seek to be more faithful
• Pray deliberately for the Holy Spirit to guide, encourage and lead you
  

Making prayer work

Readings for Sunday May 29 2011, Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 17:22-31 Psalm 66:8-20, I Peter 3:13-22, John 14:15-21,


I sometimes jokingly say that we should be careful about what we ask for in our prayers
and particularly when we pray for God to send the Holy Spirit
or to renew us, or something similar.
Because my experience is that that is exactly the sort of prayer---for the Holy Spirit---
that God is likely to answer!
So, don't pray for renewal unless you want to be renewed.

What might 'renewal' be like?
It seems to me that renewal is likely to be about truth
that when the Spirit of renewal comes
it is going to be the Spirit of Truth.
It will therefore be drawing us towards God and showing us what God is like.
In the process of doing this
one might expect we also discover what we might be like.
This classic sort of movement
leads us to say...as traditionally Christians have said...
the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin.
This is not, I think, some vindictive nasty process
but true one.
We will know and be known.
it is in a sense our life's work:
to understand the truth of what it means
to be made in God's image.
The truth draws us on
to move away from sin
and towards the light.
In this process, too,
we will also uncover the truths of God's world.
The eternal truths can often be spoken with our lips
and may take a little while to appropriate into our lives.
How easily we say "God loves you!" and yet do we believe
that God wants the best for us
and for everyone
and how do we imagine that might work itself otu in our lives.
To me, for example, it means that there is here
a command to ensure that others
are goign to be able to experience God generosity
and share in the bounty of the creation
it will mean, maybe, that I need to work to challenge
my own selfishness and greed
and to stand against the aggressive greed of individuals and institutions
which is the cause of so much poverty.

Truth will mean that I try to conduct myself
with honesty, openness and integrity.
That I value these things about myself
and I treasure the vulnerable gifts that others
may choose to share.

The Spirit will lead us into truth
implies that this will take time.
And we need patience and diligence.


The way of the Spirit
LORD GRANT THAT I MAY BE OPEN TO THE TRUTH
GIVE ME PATIENCE, WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING
THAT I MAY BEAR THIS PRIVILEGE
WITH JOY, AND EXCITEMENT.
GIVE ME COURAGE TO SERVE YOU.
FATHER OF LIGHT, SON OF MERCY, SPIRIT OF TRUTH. AMEN

Belonging

Fifth Sunday of Easter , May 22 2011, Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14

The story is told of St Christopher

that he searched the world over

for the strongest king to serve

he rejected one after the other

even the devil

and finally he is told to serve God

and to do this by helping people across a dangerous river.

One night a small child comes

and Christopher carries him across the river

he senses the burden getting heavier as he crosses

and it is only as he gets to the other side

that he realises he has been carrying the Christ child.

It is a nice story, and has a good moral.

These days it is regarded as legendary

rather than an account of an actual event.

This does not make it untrue.

It rather points us to the fact

that we are called to serve Christ in the work we do in this world

and that we often don't realise that Christ is there.

It is an Easter encounter

we don't realise at first that Christ is alive and there amongst us.

He surprises us by being in the ordinary place.

The disciples have to learn this.

They are often easily distracted and, well,...just plain 'thick'

Not unlike you and me really!

What is on offer by Jesus is not some fairy tale encounter

nor is it some pious ritual.

It is a glimpse of glory,

it is sharing of the vision of the open heaven and God reigning in power, peace and love.

St Stephen, at his martyrdom, is able to blurt this out.

Things often become very clear to us in the valley of the shadow of death.

For most of the time it is a struggle, like Christopher,

to not insist that God does things in the way that we want them done

and rather to open ourselves to the mystery of what God might be offering us.

Not what we vainly want but what God might be trying to invite us into.

In the halting passage in John 14 again, often read at funerals, Jesus promises a prepared-place.

He is of course speaking imaginally

we are not talking about the Legian Beach Hotel or some Georgian mansion

But rather of the fact that there is a place.

This is a comfort to the dying and the bereaved, I suggest, to know that whether we live or whether we die God has a place for us.

But as we read on we discover that the place is not so much a location as a relationship....

How can we know the way? and Jesus says to you and me

I am the way and the truth and the life

I think once we grasp this we are, indeed, on the way.

This is what Christopher found.

It is not discovery of the answer it is by entering into relationship with Jesus.

This is the relationship which will reveal to us the life of God himself

We Christians believe that this shepherd, this Jesus,

this way, this truth, this life

uniquely draws us into the life of God.

This is not an exclusivist claim it is the promise and hope of relationship.

I will know God, and God will know me.

I will know and be known. It is a glimpse of glory.

This week

• Where is Jesus telling me about himself?
• What do I tell Jesus about myself?
• How does this mutual revelation change us both?
• How do I change my life to better live that experience
• What will I do this week as I live out of this relationship

• .......love.....forgiveness...reconciliation all seek resolution in practice

Good Shepherd

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter May 15, 2011 Acts 2:42-47 ;Psalm 23; I Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

At least Australians, unlike most city dwellers, are probably
quite used to sheep
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
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, then, 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?

Knowing Jesus

Readings for Easter 3, May 8^th 2011 include: Acts 2:36-41, Ps 116, 1Pe 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35

What’s happening?

Nearly all of us will have told someone this week

about things that have happened to us.

The Gospel story relates one of these sorts of conversations

In so doing we are reminded some what of the importance of reflecting on our experience

That is, trying to discern how God might be doing in our lives.

Two disciples going down a road

take the opportunity of time together

to talk about recent events.

In so doing, they are joined by a third person

who we later discover is Jesus.

And the result is that they are able to say

“Did not our hearts burn within us?”

As they understood the mystery which was unfolding

they found all sorts of doors and understanding opening up before them.

Then finally they are able to say Easter words that we repeat at each Eucharist

The disciples knew Jesus

in the breaking of the bread

Learning from experience

It’s not really true to say that we learn from experience

(it’s apparent that some people don’t!)

We learn from reflecting on experience

That is we listen to our experience

think about it

and then decide how we need to change and grow

Mere experience alone won’t do it.

So these disciples model for us something important.

They remind us how important it might be to share

what happens to us

and indeed to allow ourselves top be shared with!

This seems important for people in relationships

husbands & wives, parents and children,

friends, colleagues and so on.

Maybe we (as people committed to community) need to particularly look round for those who don’t have people to share stuff with.

The isolated, the lonely

the bereaved, the friendless.

And can we jump to the end of the story

and also realize the importance of what it says about

meals

It is as they sat down to eat and drink

that they came to understand

Let’s not over think the Eucharistic symbolism (it’s certainly there)

but so also is the simple reality

that meals are important times for us.

What does that say about eating in from of the telly,

or fast food?

Do we also need to be mindful of those who habitually live and eat alone?

Learning from Jesus

But as Christians we see something else in this story

our experience comes to life

our understanding takes great leaps forward

when we allow Jesus to speak into it.

I often think my role as a priest is not to dole out advice

but rather to help people let Jesus speak into their lives.

What is Jesus saying to you

about what is on your current plate?

We are so often self-satisfied, or smug

that even though we are people of faith

we don’t let Jesus speak into our lives.

It is potentially the difference between

confusion

and “our hearts burning within us”

This week then

Take time (perhaps with someone else) to think about what is going on in your life

Don’t just stick with that

but also ask

“What, Jesus,are you speaking into that situation?”

How might God be inviting me to respond, grow change as I reflect on my experience and hear Jesus speaking?