The Reign of Christ---give us a break

 

We call this day Pentecost 23, but more importantly (being the last Sunday of the Church's year) it is the Feast of Christ the KingReadings for Sunday 20 November 2011 can be taken from Ezekiel 34, Psalms 95, & 100, Ephesians 1 & Matthew 25:31-46

As time goes on I become increasingly more republican!

So, the feast of Christ the King, (strangely promoted, perhaps even invented, in that most republican of countries, the USA.)
rather goes against the grain

But it has important themes for us to attend to
Even if we do have demythologise the language of monarchy!!

We get the idea...Christ is to us 
like the King is to his subjects
We need to not see this in a brutal way
but rather to embrace the idea
that we are the willing/contented subjects
of King Jesus.
The Lord of the Cross.
We probably only need
to consider the Gospel (here)
which is pretty direct.
"In so far as you cared for the needy
you are caring for me!"
and then the converse
(perhaps more chastening)
"Ignore the needy,
and you ignore me"
More specific
We are directed to the hungry
the thirsty
the stranger
the naked
the sick
the prisoner.
This list might seem almost arbitrary
but it bears some consideration.


THE HUNGRY...there are indeed people who just don't have food
How can we respond to them
Is it through Anglicare, or World Vision
or simply by bringing food to church each Sunday for St Mary Magdalene's and Beacon
THE THIRSTY...thirst is is often an allegory for those 
who have deep spiritual thirst
Are you attending to your own spiritual thirst?
Are you helping those who come to find an answer to their deep spiritual questions ( why is this happening to me?, Where is God? I feel purposeless!)  Do we take these questions seriously?
THE STRANGER
Do we miss the miss "the stranger" in our midst?
Those who are lonely, those who have no friends
those who need to be connected to other people?
THE NAKED
It would be easy to think of the naked ...sexually
But I suspect there is something more important here.
Those who have absolutely no protection
against the the pressures of the world
(just as the naked have no clothes).
Can you think of anyone who is so vulnerable?
THE SICK
Christians have deep concern for the sick
I want them to be well
and I want to pray really hard for them.
This is the work of the kingdom
Fervent prayer and care for the sick
THE PRISONER
It is perhaps the prisoner who interests me
We are, I think, talking about those who are
actually in jail
But also those who are in jails of their own making
or who have been trapped by circumstances
..the jails of addiction, poverty, or accident
We don't have to think terribly figuratively 
to realise that many of the world's people
live in jails that are not actually prisons


What then we hear is the simple message of Christ the King
Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty,
welcome the stranger,
clothe the naked,
release the prisoner.
Easy said
our faith commitment .....
...attend to this important stuff

For whom did God vote?

A sermon preached at Evensong Sunday 29th August 2010.

1 Kings 21 & 1Tim 2

As we await the outcome of our recent election

there is opportunity for us to reflect

on how a Christian should vote.

There is no doubt that Christians are political.

One only has to cursorily read the Old Testament

to discover that God is the God of a nation

and that the affairs of the nation

are God's affairs.

He cares for them in difficulty and travail,

he admonishes them when they fail in their work.

As when, for example, the rich and powerful exploit

the poor and vulnerable (The Story of Naboth's Vineyard)

A tale familiar to us even today, of compulsory land acquisition by Government!

Of course, as we often say, history is written by the victors.

It may be true to say also that the Old Testament

was written by the victors, God's victors!

St Paul adjures the early Christians

I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

1 Tim 2:1-2

This is for the good of all society.

I make the observation that even though our Prime Minister

may declare herself to be an atheist

this does not absolve us of the responsibility

of holding our leader befo0re God.

Just because she does not believe does not mean

that we should stop believing!

So, lest we think that Christians are to look upon the body politick

with disdain

or to live in a realm other than this world;

we are reminded that this is not the case.

Indeed, at this service of Evensong

we heed as the centrepiece

the canticle Magnificat

which reminds us that

God, regards lowliness rather than power and influence

as the key characteristics of Godly life,

that God moves to strike the arrogant and those who think that they, not God,

rule all things

It is for the hungry that he cares

and he turns the rich away empty

as he exalts the lowly.

This is truly a radical policy!

Indeed, some commentators observe that this statement

is Jesus's political manifesto.

One that deeply threatened the established order.

When we wonder ...who God voted for?

It is likely that we should look not for those

who promised to make us rich and successful

but rather for the ones who sought to care for the poor and lowly

(we might differ about which side ....if any...was promising that)

A real question for us who call ourselves

Christian

is whether we critiques the bribes and policies

that were thrown at us

by such criteria as...will this advance the cause of the poor, will this care for the weak

It is more likely that you and I said...what's in it for me?

And we wonder why we are in a bit of a mess.!!

May God help our country

to be truly Godly.

caring for the poor and lowly

Rejecting the greed of rich, and the ambition o0f the powerful.

May God bless Australia, and make us truly Godly. Amen

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

reviewing the situation

Readings for 30th September 2007 Proper 21

can be taken from:

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 and Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 (or Amos 6:1a, 4-7 and Psalm 146) &

1 Timothy 6:6-19 & Luke 16:19-31

What sort of heart do you want to have?

Most of us think that people who are soft-hearted are weak,

yet we don't want to be thought 'hard hearted'.

When we look at the way God deals with his people in the Old Testament

we see both of these sides

he is sometimes hard because the people constantly turn away from him.

But I don't think that is the predominant way we see him,

rather time and time again

God is persuaded to NOT punish his faithless people.,

Here this morning right at the end of Jeremiah remonstrations we read quiet words,

sealed by a notary and stored in a vault

thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

that is, God promises after almost a whole book of despair and disillusionment

that he will re-establish his covenant promise.

God will be tender-hearted towards his people

and not cruel and vindictive.

The curious story of the Gospel reminds us that

unlike God

we are often not tender or soft hearted at all

we are often hard hearted

Worse than that

we just don't care.

It is role-reversal story of Lazarus and the Rich man

( one of the seven familiar stories to us from literary tradition)

A poor man, Lazarus, who has been ignored and brutalised

during his lifetime

is called upon to be kind

to a rich man who has simply ignored him.

[This is not, I would suggest

a commentary on what happens to us after we die.]

It is, like all the parables of Jesus,

an invitation for us today.

To change

to stop being hard-hearted

and start being tender-hearted.

The tragedy of the way this rich man (now cast out) has treated Lazarus

is not that he has been particularly harsh

it is that he has ignored him

which is a different sort of harshness.

He has stepped over his suffering

every time he has driven out of the house.

This is what gets us too.

It is not that habitually we are unkind or uncaring (by and large)

it is that we choose to ignore.

This is more subtle and more serious,

to combat it

it requires

that we actually choose to act differently

to not just step over the problem

and/or pretend it is not there.

We have to choose to be people

who are not disengaged

who will try and make a difference

visiting Churchman Steve Chalke said this week

somehow over the course of the 20th century, post-Wilberforce and friends, the church began to shrink and it began to shrink back from active public service into its own buildings and as I often say, has spent, in the UK at least, the last kind of 80 years singing itself to death. I've nothing against singing and songs and I think music and art is a part of the richness of what the church is, but we moved indoors and we've been entertaining ourselves to death,

I think he has a point

one of my major concerns for us,

for the church

is that we have ceased to be a vibrant, caring, world changing community

and chosen to be inward looking & self-indulgent

"singing ourself to death".

The warning of this parable

is that this is exactly what this rich man chose to do

and it is the wrong choice.

It is the choice of apathy and carelessness

In the end it is hard-hearted and cruel.

We do not have to do everything

We do have to do something

At the very least we have to respond to what is lying at our doorstep.

What is the need that God is asking you to respond to,

what is the need that God asks us to do something about?

This week

• We ask ourselves the brutal question--where have I become hardhearted?
• Where can I respond to genuine need?
• Pray for courage to do it!

And was made flesh

There are many readings which are used over the Christmas services; a selection of some is below:
Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96-98; Titus 2:11-14; Titus 3:4-8; Hebrews 1:1-4; Luke 2; John 1:1-14

Christmas greetings to all!
Christmas bears so many themes about God that it is almost difficult to make head or tail of it.
Theologically we say Christmas is the festival of the incarnation.
This is not a word that we use very much,
it means that Christ was made FLESH
(the CARN part of the word is linked to other words we use a bit more like carnivore-flesh eating, or carnal-the fleshly appetites of the body)
It is inviting us to say more than the fact
that the great God of heaven came down to earth in human form....
it is reminding us that this was not just a game
but it is a total identification of God
with each man and woman, in their body, soul and spirit.
God is concerned with the fleshly nature of our human existence.
This is why the songs and readings (and sermons!) remind us
of such things as love and peace, of justice and an end to oppression,
...because these are the realities of the flesh
This is what incarnation is all about.
It is easy to think that God is remote
and really unconcerned with humanity
inCARNation reminds us that this is not so.

Perversely
We almost want God to be remote
we often don't want God to be concerned with the realities of our life.
If for a moment we suggest that God might be concerned that some people are poor, or that some are lonely;
that while we have peace and stability here the very place where Jesus was born is most unstable andf dangerous

The incarnation reminds us that these concerns are God's concerns and they they are to be our concerns also.

THIS CHRISTMAS
What is God saying to you about responding to the need of the poor?
Will we give even 1% of what we spend on ourselves and frivolity to the poor?
(This might be about $8-$20/family)

What is God saying to you about the lonely?
Are we so self-centred that we cannot even see a lonely person, or that we cannot be bothered to do antyhing about anyone? Try to relieve someone's loneliness this Christmas.

It is hard to address the issues of peace and war mongering, but do we stand up against those who glibly seem to promote war-mongering in our midst? Or are we so busy with our small world that the whole world seems of little concern.
Look for some way to suppoort the efforts of peace in these 12 days of Christmas, perhaps by supporting doctors, aid agencies, the UN and others as they seek to address issues which affect world peace.

The INCARNATION not only reminds us that God is concerned for our world
it invites you and me to be involved too.
As we celebrate Christmas, hear the invitation of God to us
to be incarnate, to be flesh, too.