The Christmas Prayer

Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Christmas can include the following:

• Jeremiah 31:7-14 or Sirach 24:1-12 •
• Psalm 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 •
• Ephesians 1:3-14 •
• John 1:(1-9), 10-18

• We don't always get a 2nd Sunday after Christmas

• so our reflections about Christmas an be curtailed

• which is rather a pity because the readings for today are terrific.

• They tell us about the wonder of what God is doing

• in the birth of Jesus

• Through Jeremiah he says:

• I am bringing my people home

• those who are weeping will know true consolation

• We shall be filled with rejoicing

• and everything will be brought to a wonderful completion.

• This message is for you and me

• it is for all God's people

• All will be well, and all will be well

• and all manner of things will be well

• to quote Mother Julian of Norwich

• And St Paul reminds us that God's work in our life is not accidental

• we are chosen in Christ

• not just today

• but before the foundation of the world.

• We are called into the closest relationship with God

• like children and parents.

• This is lavished upon us.

• We are part of God's plan for abundant life

• for eternal life

• this God pledges to us

• as free gift.

• 
  

A gift fit for kings

• What often supplants this 2nd Sunday of Christmas

• is the feast of the Epiphany

• when we particularly recall the visit of the Wise Men

• The lavish gifts that they bring

• remind us that what God is giving to us

• is of great value

• it is abundant life, it is of spiritual depth;

• and it traverses the grave

• This is not very different from what we are celebrating today.

• The free gift of abundant life

• Grace upon grace

• which comes when we know Jesus.

• Our prayer today

• is the same as it was on Christmas Day

• Open yourself to the gift of God

• let this be your prayer this Christmas (and indeed every day)

• Christ I receive this gift

• Christ I want this gift

• Christ you are the gift.

The sacrament of Holy Communion

we call it the Real Present

is the outward and visible sign of what God is offering you and me

as you make your communion today

pray to receive this gift with grace

not reluctantly, or embarrassedly

but gladly.

As God gives us freely

...an act of grace...

Receive that gift graciously

and well.

Recommit yourself to Jesus today

• 
  

• • Christ I receive this gift

  • Christ I want this gift

  • Christ you are the gift

• 
  

• 
  

• s

And grace upon grace....

The Funeral of Molly Carvosso

All Hallows’ Blackwood, 31^st December 2010

1Peter 1:3-6; John 6:35-40

A lot of careless words are spoken at funerals

Often, and almost always, this is done with the best of intentions

We could be pardoned for thinking

that our beloved Molly

will soon rival Mary MacKillop as Australia’s chief saint!

I certainly have something in me that thinks of Molly like this today!

I suspect she would be the first to think this was hilarious

There is a serious side to this

It is not authentically Christian

to try and whitewash a person

at their funeral

so that we can believe

with confidence

that they are going to be with Jesus

in heaven

We must resist at all costs

the temptation to paint Molly in such a light

that God should consider himself lucky

that such a high quality candidate

is deigning to enter heaven.

Yet we often talk like this.

Molly, as I say, would find this hilarious!

With her wry smile and impish look

she would say to me when I would be pulling her leg

“Ahh go on with you, don’t be so silly”

Molly knew, as we should be glad to know.

If we have to be perfect to get into heaven

then none of us ever gets there.

We hear Peter tell us today that it’s not what we have done, but what we believe

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

It is as the hungry we come to Christ,

and find that he feeds us with the bread of life.

That as we believe in him

so we may have eternal life.

Earlier in John’s Gospel

(which we recall at this Christmas time)

We hear God saves us not because we deserve it

but because God wants it

not because we are so good that we earn merit

but by God’s grace.

Grace is the word of Christmas

it means FREE GIFT

all these gifts that we get at Christmas

are not because it is jesus’s birthday

but to celebrate that our God is the god who gives.

And John says it’s not just “grace”

It’s “grace upon grace”

Today, Molly would laugh

at being good enough to get into heaven.

But she also knew

that God loves her

because God wants to love her.

She wants each one of us to know that today.

God wants to love you.

It’s grace…and not just grace…but grace upon grace upon grace.

Not just Molly, but each one of us. Today is a good day to turn and receive that free gift

Dreaming of Easter

The Churches looks terrific at Christmas

Chief amongst our decorations at All Hallows this year

is a stark wooden treetop

with bright red balls decorating its austerity.

Not being the instigator or creator of this artistic expression

My first reaction was to wonder what the symbolism might be.

And R, the artist's wife, said to me..."It's the drops of blood"

This seems far removed from Christmas

and more fitting for Good Friday and Easter

but there is an ancient and venerable tradition

of linking or foreshadowing Easter at Christmas

Often in paintings of the stable at Bethlehem

you look into the distance

and there you see

three crosses on a distant hill.

It is like "Love and Marriage"

You can't have one without the other.

I don't expect the world to get this.

But Christians should readily understand

that true love

is not just about parties and celebration

not just about tinsel and presents.

True love, which we celebrate

at Christmas

is also about passion, sacrifice and, often, pain

which we focus on at Easter.

If we are to truly open ourselves to love

then we will be opening ourselves to the possibility

even the likelihood

that we will be hurt.

Love is a risky business.

It is so often why people hold themselves back.

And so often why our love is shallow or non-existence.

Every parent knows that the child they love so much

can also be the source of the greatest pain.

And every lover

knows that it is the person who they love

who can hurt them the most.

We do not need to bemoan this at Christmas

but rather to recognise

that Christmas

is on the road to Easter.

That the Christmas Tree

prefigures the Cross.

That the manger is also the wood

of the tree where Christ is crucified.

Christmas is beginning, the birth.

Easter is the climax. And the fulfilment.

May we look forward with joy

to true love.

And pray that we may have the grace to endure it.

Strange encounters of the Godly kind!

The Archbishop of Canterbury writing in The Radio Times says about Christmas

the story says that something is happening that will break boundaries and cross frontiers, so that the most unlikely people will find they are looking for the same thing and recognise each other instead of fearing each other.

He is particularly reflecting about the curious situations

we find ourselves in at Christmas time

He tells the story of being invited whilst recently in India

to bless the Christmas pudding mixture

as the staff of a local hotel prepare to make the first batch

which he does to the blaring sounds of Jingle Bells

We probably all have little stories to tell (perhaps not quite so glaring)

of strange encounters.

• People we only see once a year
• Some people who we know will not be with us for another Christmas
• Strange incidents that happen when we get together...sometimes for good and for ill

Christmas is full of these and like Rowan Williams

we will recognise

hat the most unlikely people will find they are looking for the same thing and recognise each other instead of fearing each other.

There is a group of shepherds, rough men who sleep out in the open.

Who have to drink to keep warm at night

Who see some blinding lights in the sky

and rush to witness

the birth of a baby.

There is a woman who gets pregnant before she is married

and her fiance who knows he is not the father.

There are three dignified gentleman

who are dark and mysterious

who have come from a long way away

in search of something

and carrying rich treasure.

There is another king

who is so fearful

that, we are told, he orders the slaughter of many children

in order to try and prevent a rival claim to his throne.

What is it that they seek?

What, we might ask, do we seek at Christmas time?

It is, of course, God

We may not always name it as such.

But we seek that which will satisfy our deepest longings and needs.

It is unlikely therefore to be a new bicycle

a diamond ring, or even an iPad.

We all know

that as as desirable as these things are they are fleeting

and will break, or wear out.

We can damage or lose them

just as easily as we get them.

We can have the biggest and best

and there can still be an empty void inside us.

We find it rather frightening

that we can have lots of stuff

and yet we are still not fulfilled.

So at Christmas we see some pointers

Chiefly, we see a person Jesus Christ.

Our ultimate fulfilment will come about

when we know Jesus

as friend and brother.

As you come to receive Communion today

pray that you may know Jesus anew.

John tells us that this knowledge

is not earned or even deserved

but that it is a gift...it is grace, free, grace upon grace.

Chiefly, too, we find Jesus revealed as a child

reminding us that for many, probably most of us

this grace will be experienced through our human relationships

and perhaps we need to note

that it is not the bitter and twisted relationships of the adult

that we sometimes presume to call sophisticated

but rather the open trusting relationship of the child

that better reveals how we might experience God.

Some of us find our family and human relationships really hard.

Christmas gives us an opportunity to begin again

to try a little harder

This doesn't so much make it easy

as make it possible to try again.

Don't miss the opportunity.

And so we find

the most unlikely people, you and me, will find we are looking for the same thing

Jesus Christ, God made man,

and then we recognise each other instead of fearing

O what a gift! Emmanuel! God with us!

Reading for Sunday 19th December 2010: Advent 4 (also known as O Root of Jesse-O Radix!!) Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

I like young kids

It is perhaps a politically incorrect thing to say.

I am now the oldest male in my generation of my family

So when we gather at Christmas and other times

that I have become a patriarch!

Each of these last few days has a special title

or antiphon which is sung.

The one we know best is ...O Emmanuel! God with us

But today is called O Root of Jesse (in latin..O Radix)

It sings of how Jesus has his foundation and roots

deep within the human family. The tree of Jesse.

It is about how God is God, deep within the human condition and purpose.

But let me go back to O Emmanuel-God with us

A few years ago I had a wonderful encounter with a class

of 5-7 year olds from St Peter's School, Blackwood

as we sat in the church

and talked about what we could see.

Chief amongst these things was a bird which had flown into the church.

We had a most alive conversation about what you do when a bird flies into your house!

One little girl told me "I can speak to birds"

and after they had left she offered to stay and tell the bird to leave.

There is something alive and fresh about these naive conversations

So it is not surprsing to encounter at the heart of the discourses

about God's salvation of the world

That the prophet Isaiah should remind us that the surest sign

that God is with us -Emmanuel-

(this is the word of Christmas)

and the sign is: that a woman will bear a child.

Not the most spectacular of signs

not a volcano, a burning bush, or an ark or a transfiguration

But perhaps the most alive sign

a human being has

is the birth of a child

The Christmas Bowl reminds us that

the aid that we give to communities overseas

will secure the future of children

pure water, economic security

is about the world we need to establish for children

We are challenged by Anglicare

and our own local Beacon

to offer small offerings of food

and gifts

for people right in our midst

who are at risk.

God's work...the Emmanuel work..

of Christmas,

will be about the realities of our life.

These realities are most sharply focussed

through the lens of our children.

The surest sign that God is with us

is that a young woman will give birth.

How does this speak to your life?

What have you made of Christmas so far....

do you hear the voice of the child speaking to you?

What is he saying?

What does she tell you

about the birdsong that she can utter?

About the dreams that they hold

about what we need to do

to nurture them

and create a world fit for children.

O Radix Jesse,
qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos,
jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse,
standing as an ensign before the peoples,
before whom all kings are mute,
to whom the nations will do homage;
Come quickly to deliver us.

Here comes the bride

A sermon preached at Sarah and Dénes Wedding, Saturday December 11^th, 2010 at St Augustine’s Church, Unley

Colossians 3:12-17 & Mark 10:6-9

Families are curious.

…but I will save that for later

I have had some difficulty

separating my priestly role

from my fatherly role.

This is the role of the preacher!

We have had a busy couple of weeks

preparing for this important day.

When we gather for a marriage

we are celebrating

one of God’s mysteries

and the mystery is this:

God made us male and female

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two but one flesh.

The mystery, as Jesus tells us, is that two human beings

are so closely united together when they marry

that they become one.

The products of wildly different and very curious families

are called to be one.

Not by one of them being diminished

and trying to become like the other.

But both, by giving themselves to each other,

become part of something new.

And far from their person being diminished

they are actually increased.

That’s what we call the theology, or theory, of marriage.

St Paul tells Christians about how to engage with this practically.

He uses the language of surrender and submission,

a husband and wife are called

not to selfishly pursue their own ends

but, rather, to see as their first duty

the love, care and nurture of their spouse.

Paul says, we hear today…you must bear with another

(not bully the other into submission)

You must forgive as God forgives you

totally and without game-playing.

And you must express your thankfulness

for each other and to God.

And you must sing….this is likely to happen Dénes

Ohh this is likely to happen,,,but I am slipping into my fatherly role.

it will be a sign of great joy

it will also be a sign of warning

that attention needs to be paid

and you will have to learn Dénes how to sing

and Sarah how to hear Dénes’s singing

which may be different from yours

less in tune,

it may perhaps look like drawing or writing

This may seem like an impossible task

but let us rather see it as a gift and a challenge

from God

to enable you, Dénes Nagy

and you, Sarah Clark

not particularly by our own efforts

though we are to try our hardest

and be at our best (not always possible)

(this is where …bearing with one another and forgiving comes in)

but by recognising that God is working something new in you

So St Paul gives his key advice

what ever you do

Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus

If you allow the Spirit of Jesus to dwell in you

and in your family

then we can be sure that together we will sing.

May God bless your life together.

Absolutely magnificent

Readings for this Sunday, 12th December 2010 Advent 3. Isaiah 35:1-10, Magnificat Luke 1:47-55; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

The prophet Isaiah says...Thus says the Lord

My ways are not your ways, and your ways are not my ways(Is 55:8-10)

This theme is particularly apparent in the great seasons like Advent.

God does not do things in the way that we seem to think

they should be done

The king is not only not born in a palace

he is also conceived out of wedlock

and his mother is in danger of not actually being able to marry at all

and provide the necessary security for her son.

It almost seems a rule

that what ever way we expect things to be done

God's way will be different

This is not because of some sort of perversity

on the part of God

who is just being contrary.

It is rather a fundamental statement

about how poorly we succeed

at understanding the will of God at all.

Magnificat

So it is hardly surprising that the words we hear

being spoken

are challenging

our very established and unimaginative ways of thinking

about life and about God.

This may often escape our attention

as we hear words that we have heard many times before.

Such are those words (well-known to Anglicans)

we hear spoken by Mary

as she commits herself to cooperate with the the will of God.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour

There are a few shocks in the song that she sings

....from this day all generations will call me blessed.

Women are often perceived by society

as secondary people

this much is known to us

Not so in God's world.

God says to each woman you are holy!

If I say nothing else to each of you here today

it is that

But can we also say

that God does not make the sort of judgment on the umnarried pregnant girl

that we so often rush to make!

...this day God says to women, and to those with child

You are blessed.

My ways, are not your ways

If we think that pride, arrogance and self-promotion

are the way to go

then Mary's song reminds us that

God is on the side of the humble and meek

he has an option for the poor

and we who are rich need to be particularly cautious.

The world's ways are about reputation, power and influence

God's are about humility, compassion and concern.

The world is totally seduced by greed

and the need to be rich

But God's promise is to stand alongisde those who are poor.

Great encouragement

We need to hear these words for what they are.

Great encouragement.

They are revealing to us truths that the world does not readily appreciate.

John says to the people who went out to see him.

Did you come out into the desert execyting to be told that you had got it right

What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.

No he says, you went out looking for God.

You come to church (presumably)

Or you read these words

Not to be told that you have got it right

But to be confronted by God

to hear what God says to your heart.

He says....my ways are not yours

You need some education in my will.

Those who you tend to reject...the poor, women, the illegitimate

They are the ones I take and bless.

My understanding rather turns the world upside down.

Many heard John and Jesus

and turned away

because they did not want hear the message

that confronted their lifestyle.

Others found that their life was transformed.

Which are you?

This week

• Pray for insight to seeGod where God is least likely to be found
• Ask the Spirit to show you where you need to change and affirm God in the unexpected place.

We praise you Lord

as we see you confront our popular misconceptions.

As you turn aside from injustice and greed and

bless the cause of the powerless and poor.

Give us the courage of Christmas to do that too.

Giving peace a chance

Reflections for Sunday 5th December, 2010. Advent 2 Is 11:1-10, Ps 72: 1-7, 18-19;Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

One of the great themes of Christmas and Advent is the reign of peace that is to be ushered in by this new king

Peace is not a difficult concept to grasp though we need to be careful to do it justice

In the Hebrew Scriptures the word we use is "shalom"

it speaks of a peace which is not just the absence of war

but a time of harmony, justice and prosperity

for all people

We would hardly say that we live in a time of peace

because if harmony, justice and prosperity are the measures

then none of these seem to fully exist at this point in history.

At most what we seem to be able to achieve

is a closed world in which we shut ourselves in.

But this shallow view of peace

is not the shalom

that is being talked about here.

It is not the peace with which we greet each other when we say

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

Peace at all times and in all ways

A couple of ideas that may help us think of peace-shalom

Because we are overwhelmed by how to bring about peace in Afghanistan or Iraq or Pakistan

we seem to think that we cannot do anything at all, ever.

But of course the very fact that biblical peace is about how life is lived

must bear fruit in the way we actually live.

As the song puts it

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me

It is easy to invite someone else to do the hard yards;

but the call of the gospel

first by John the Baptist and then by Jesus himself

is to lay into it ourselves.

We are to be righteous, holy and active in living our life.

And not leave it up to someone else.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me

How to begin

Paul talks in Ephesians (picking up Isaiah) about

peace to those who are far off

and peace to those are near

most of us will need to focus on the near rather than the far.

It is those who are near who affect our shalom.

Yes we need to forgive and seek to be forgiven

in Advent in order that there may be genuine peace!

Do not let this week go without paying some attention to that!

But we also thought last week about one of the major contributing factors

to the lack of peace

and that is poverty.

It is often noted

that what underlies the East-West bitterness

is not so much the Muslim-Christian-Hindu-Jewish-Buddhist division

but the rich-poor divide

Iran and Iraq and anti-Western hatreds are fuelled by the great inequalities

We HAVE and they HAVE-NOT.

If we threw the energies and money into addressing inequalities

rather than in waging war at the cost of billions upon billions of dollars,

if we took seriously the addressing of poverty;

then the fomenting of hatred becomes harder

because most people long

not for domination

but that there may be peace on earth.

So we are invited to give some of what we HAVE

which seems like little

and place it in the Christmas Bowl

or wherever we want to help

We can lament that governments can give millions and billions

(and maybe we need to be articulating this more strongly

and advocating for more overseas aid)

and we only give tens and hundreds but we hear that refrain

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

We are called to be signs and sacraments of what God wants to happen.

We are struck as we read of the John the Baptist in Matthew that he is strident

he says Do this!

the Lord requires that an axe be laid into the situation

that we not just water it

but allow the Spirit to consume it like a ferocious fire.

Wherever else we can strive for peace,

we should!

Do not be seduced by the shallow Christmas

but hear the call for real and genuine peace.

It has some sense of rigour about it.

We should look both close and far off

but let us hear that song....

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

O come, o come Emmanuel!

Readings for November 28 2010 : The First Sunday in Advent.Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44 (please note that this is the start of Year A in the Three Year Cycle )

There is a renewed sense of purpose and focus today as we begin the formal preparation for the celebration of Christmas

These four weeks of Advent are often marked by candle-lighting ceremonies.

Each week an extra candle is lit so that by the time we pass through the four weeks there is a wreath of four purple candles alight

which are finally crowned with a white or gold Christmas candle

So it's a funny little series of ceremonies, perhaps indicating to us that there is more to this bizarre little season than just random trinkets and the clash of ideas.

It moves on and draws us in, first a little way and then a little further....we are being invited to not just sit back and play games

That is the the substance of the readings today.

To remind us that we are in the middle of God's work

that it invites us to full participation

and we should not just sit back and be detached.

Don't spend your cash on all sorts trash

In our family, like most I suppose,

the giving of gifts is not without its problems

(this is rather ironic but fairly universal)

but in the spirit of Advent

as we are caught up in God's work

the challenge to us is to make response

and to get that response right

The Gospel (in particular) invites us to respond

and respond NOW!

Who knows, the image goes, this may be the day when everything will be brought to conclusion

and there will be some sifting

some will be chosen

and some will be left.

We are not to get too literal about this,

but rather to understand the principle

that with this sense of urgency

we are to live our lives

in the present

and strive to get it right today.

To, as it were, live this day as if it were our last.

How, therefore, we might ask in this busy little season

might this impact on us?

we might in general, I suggest,

strive to get things right the first time.

We might not procrastinate.

We might seek to act now, rather than wait until next year.

In a more bold sense, perhaps we may be prepared to risk a little more.

I want only to think about giving this morning

but there may be other more urgent dimensions of your life

that need attention.

Christmas Bowl

Traditionally, we set before ourselves the at home and overseas work of the Christmas Bowl at this time

Christian World Service, of the National Council of Churches

invites us to support the work that we do as Christians together

This is us saying that one of the clear messages we hear at Christmas

is care for the poor, reach out to the stranger and the destitute.

This is not an unfamiliar message

and I urge you to support that generously.

Once a guide was given to us to consider giving in the Christmas Bowl

as much as it would cost for a person at your Christmas Dinner table.

Maybe we are too frightened to work out the cost of our Christmas diunner!

The Local Church

For us this year, we have already talked about the need to support our local church community.

We face a challenge just to pay our way here

our life together is supported by a commitment to give generously.

Put simply, we exist financially as a parish

because we commit to give.

Each of us must examine our commitment to give

and do what we believe God requires of us.

for us at this time, our estimate is that we need to do something about our local giving

pretty urgently.

It is certainly one of those areas

where assuming there is a tomorrow

is a mistake

and where we need to challenge ourselves

to do as much as we can

not as little as we can.

Presents

It is, as I was alluding before in the area of presents,

where we become fixated.

We can be generous, we can be mean

we can be thoughtful, or thoughtless

We can mistake value for cost,

and we can make the mistake of thinking that giving

is about the gift

instead of the person.

What if we were to ask ourselves some key questions

as we wrap our presents?

like...what will this present say to this person about how I really feel about them

and..what will this gift communicate to the one who receives it about God and the meaning of Christmas?

We have time....maybe...

in this season as we give thanks for all that God is doing

To take care to do Christmas right.

Can we respond with generosity...to the Christmas Bowl, to the local church

and can our gifts truly express the spirit of Christmas