Knowing Jesus...the broken bread

A reflection for an Easter Evening service in Luke 24:13-35

The quiet mystery of the story of Emmaus invites us into the mystery of Easter.

'The disciples knew Jesus in the breaking of the bread'

In a journey shrouded in mystery all the way up the road,

when they talk doctrine to Jesus and he quietly shows them what is the mystery that God is unfolding

they fail to recognise

who and what he is.

It is not until they sit quietly at a table

tired, perhaps ready for bed

that they see through the haze

and Jesus is known to them in the breaking of the bed.

As we might give thanks (as we do tonight) for the Holy Communion we received today

so we are reminded of the mystery that Jesus comes to us in the breaking of the bread.

I came across a cryptic little remark the other day

which said

"If you doubt go to Holy Communion!"

It was a little tongue-in-cheek but it has about it

an element fo truth.

The disciples know Jesus

in the breaking of the bread.

It is the steadfast experience of Anglicans,

and I would suspect, but cannot speak for, other Christians

that as we gather to share Bread and Wine in the Eucharist

we encounter Jesus.

So the funny little comment is true.

If you doubt go to to Holy Communion.

There we hear in the Word of God

of the Jesus who gave himself to be broken

and poured out

so that others might live.

This mystery, so common place to all Christians

should not be taken for granted.

As we hear the words

"Take eat this is my body given for you"

"This is the blood of the new covenant which is shed for you"

It is Jesus speaking to our doubt.

But we should not also miss the mudaneness

that is also being spoken about

that it is as we share bread and wine

around our family tables

and commit ourselves

to human relationships

which the dinner table signifies

and conveys

that we are also attesting to the truth

that Jesus is made known to us

not just in the ritual of worship

but also in the ordinariness of human existence.

For Christians, too, there is an imperative

to see that no one goes hungry

either spiritually, or physically

so the sharing of food ---spiritual and physical---

is to go beyond our comfort zone

and reach out to the hungry.

Jesus reminds us Matthew 25:31–46 (NRSV): in the parable of the Sheep and the goats

that we are called to not only pay heed to the theory of the gospel

but also to put it into practice.

“Truly I tell you, just as you give food and drink to one of the least of these you did it to me.”

We know Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

So, the risen Jesus is encountered

So, if we doubt worship God in the Holy Communion

and lest we forget, worship God in the reality of our lives

-our families

-and those who God sets before us in need.

Easter 2

Readings for this week are for The Second Sunday of the Easter Season March 30, 2008 Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31
Easter is not just a one day festival
but rather a way of life
The rather good stories that tell how earlyChristians encountered
Jesus after his death
help us to assimilate our own experiences
of Jesus.
Take Peter, for example,
who stands up boldly
and reminds his listeners
"This Jesus who you crucified"...he might also
be saying...."and who I deserted at his time of need"
,,,well "This Jesus God has shown to be the Messiah,
the incarnation of God himself."

It is, a reminder of the way we take the revelation of the Godhead
for granted
and fail to see what mind-blowingly transforming stuff
we are involved in.

Thomas, too, who is a quintessential figure
in the Christian story.
Not with the disciples when Jesus appears
he does not just take at face value
the fact that they have "seen the Lord"
Why, indeed, should he?
There is perhaps a salutary reminder
that sometimes we assume that people
will take our witness
for granted.
When we tell them what our experience of the godly encounter is
we should not just assume
that is going to be the last word
in the debate.
We often mistake what is happening
we do not name it rightly
we fail to appreciate where the other person is
(all these are salutary warnings for the would-be evangelist)
but more than this we need to appreciate
that conversion
is not so much about persuasion
as about openness
to the Holy Spirit of God.
The disciples encourage Thomas to articulate
what it would take
for him to be convinced
of the truth of what God is doing in our lives.

What would it take for me to be convinced?
Perhaps more deeply convinced, or more fundamentally convinced,
can you write a short list of the doubts you have
and what God needs to do
to allay those doubts.
Thomas did....I need to see and feel the wounds...to experience the physicality
and the aliveness of Jesus.
This confrontation and naming of doubt
enabled him to respond well
when the moment came.

This is an important
statement about the integrity
of God
The God who honours our shortcomings
as well as our insights and our strengths.

The experience of resurrection
invites us to explore
both the light and dark places
where God is to be encountered
in our faith journey.

What would you name as your doubts?
What would it and does it take to be more firmly and deeply committed?
and allow that process to take place in God's good time

Enter the tomb

Easter Day . For a selection of readings see here Isaiah 25:6-9;Acts 10:34-43;Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; 1 Cor 15:1-11; John 20:1-18; Mark 16:1-8

Easter is not about avoiding death

It is about choosing to not be defeated by it

Today, as every Easter Day, we are given the opportunity

to reaffirm our Christian commitment.

We are asked:

Do you turn to Christ? and we will gladly reply

I turn to Christ.

We are asked also three questions

about what we will do

to put this into practice

Do you repent of your sins?

We choose to admit our past failing

and today, on this day of new beginning,

Easter Day

we promise to live our life differently.

Do you reject selfish living?

When we reject selfishness

we must find ways to be kind, to be generous, to share

We cannot combat selfishness and not share.

Finally we are asked a serious question

Do you reject evil?

We might ask ourselves: but what is evil?

And it is not an easy question.

But it revolves around the way we view other people.

Each one of us is made in the image of God,

and therefore we should treat all other people

with equal dignity and respect,

but do we do that?

When we see people as commodities rather than individuals,

when we think only of people as sexual objects

when we see anyone as disposable

we are assenting to evil in the profoundest way.

When we are silent, when we should speak out,

or when we trivialise the lives of others

and say that they, their problems, their aspirations

are not worthwhile

we diminish ourselves, and each other.

This is serious stuff

But it is a choice we make

When we ask ourselves 

What is it that makes Christian experience of death

Of sin, of selfishness and of  evil 

Different from that of others

It is that we choose to enter the tomb.

We do not escape death, pain or sin.

Rather we believe that those things ]

Are not the last word

And we choose to live our life differently.

It is as we choose

As we exercise our freedom

As we decide

To follow Christ

To repent

To reject selfishness

And to renounce evil

 This is not passive

We do nto stand pn the edge of the death experience

And peer in.

Each of us who has grieved

Knows that the mystery of death

Is that it is as we get into it

That we discover

That we pass through it

And are transformed.

The little deaths, 

Sin, selfishness and evil

All have the same dynamic.

We are not to sit passively  by and do nothing

But we decide to reject them as a way of life

This is not always easy

We often get it wrong

We sometimes fail

That, in a way, doesn’t matter

It is not as we get it right that matters so much

As that we choose to live free from sin, selfishness and evil

We go into the tomb

We do not seek to avoid the death

And we discover that we are set free.

This is a key mystery of life

It is the invitation of Easter.

Choose life, not death

But choose it knowing that it is not an easy way

It requires us to struggle with sin, selfishness and evil.

But it is the only way that is worthwhile.

 

Reflections for the final hour

This is a series of smaller meditative reflexions for Good FridayIsaiah 53 particularly for reflection during the afternoon

Isaiah53:1 The suffering servant
1 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering* and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces*
he was despised, and we held him of no account.

It was said of Clyde Cameron who died in the last fortnight
that he was a great "hater".
Most of us are!
We tend to reject the experience of others unless it is forced upon us.
In our tendency to 'lionise' the Lord Jesus
we forget that he was largely despised.
It was the people who we are so fond of
...the powerful, rich and influential...
who despised him.
This might give you and me cauise for some heart!

Though we need to also note that part of the problem is that we despise him too.
Because we all to readily want to identify ourselves
with the very ones who do the despising.
How little we often regard Jesus.
We hold his teaching and example of no account.
And we are slow to allow
his counter cultural message to take root and grow
in our lives

We allow ourselves to be seduced by the idea that
being Christian
following Christ
is about being respectable
or doing "the right thing"
Could there be something more to what he is doing and saying to us
than just "Be good!"?

In his suffering is revealed more about the nature of God
than rules and regulations ever permit.
This is a message that a world
crazed with appearance and prestige
does not hear, and does not want to hear.

We need to see that it is likely
that we will not find God
in the places where the world demands our attention,
but something is discovered in suffering,
in sadness and death
that is so profoundly connected with the life of God
that we will miss it
if we do not seek it
in the places that we are afraid of

Isaiah 53:4
4Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

In what sense do we understand that Jesus has "borne our infirmities"
A good retreat conductor said some years ago to a group of us
"Don't waste your suffering!"
This is not the same thing as saying that we should create suffering
either for ourselves,
or worse still for others.
But the suffering of Christ reminds us
that not everything can and will be avoided.
This much should be evident for anyone who has lived more than a couple of decades.
At the very least when we suffer

• from depression
• from bereavement
• from disappointment
• from betrayal
• from abuse
  

we can be asking ourselves
what might this draw out of me.
This is not the same thing as saying
that this is morally right or good
and that everything is OK
as long as we can get in touch with the upside.
...abuse can never have this sort of justification
it is rather saying
that we will not allow these DEATH experiences
to speak the last word.
If we do not pass through them
then we remain in death.

Isaiah 53:8
8By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
9They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb* with the rich,*
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.*
When you make his life an offering for sin,*
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
11 Out of his anguish he shall see light;*
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one,* my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What looks like death is the way to life
This is not easy to live with
and we must avoid being glib.
it is cold comfort
to say to those in pain
"Everything will be all right"
Part of dealing with grief
may mean that we have to confront
the fact that things will not be OK
but rather that they will be changed
and they and we will be different

Can we on this Good Friday
allow ourselves to what God
may be saying to us
about ta new way of living?
Can we examine our dark places
and invite God to lead us into and through them?
Can we pray for faith and trust in God?
The sort of faith and trust
that is not partial
but that is complete.
Which is transforming and will transform.

Holy Week

In this week we encounter a whole range of fascinating people

Jesus, whose total identification with humanity brings about a change in the way weare able to live in communion with God.

Peter, Thomas, John and the other disciples who show how difficult it is to be a good disciple

Mary, who must watch with horror as her son is threatened and dies.

Joseph of Arimathea who seeks the body of Jesus to ensure that despite the indignity our respect for him as a person is not glossed over.

And there is Judas and Pilate, perhaps too much to gather them together.

What do we make of all this? Where do we place ourselves in the story?

What is God trying to draw out of us in the mystery of Good Friday and Easter? How will I change, choose, grow, decide as I encounter God this week?

Place yourself in the Passsion

This struck me in my morning reading as a strong invitation to place ourselves within the mystery of the Passion
From the Second Easter Oration of Gregory of Nazianzus ..
Ch. XXIV.

If you are a Simon of Cyrene,take up the Cross and
follow.
If you are crucified with Him as a robber,acknowledge God as a
penitent robber. If even He was numbered among the transgressors for you and
your sin, do you become law-abiding for His sake. Worship Him Who was hanged for
you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness;
purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into Paradise, Luke xxiii. 43.
and if you be a Joseph of Arimathæa,Luke xxiii. 52.
beg the Body from him that
crucified Him, make thine own that which cleanses the world. 1 John i. 7.
If you be a Nicodemus, the worshipper of God by night, bury Him with
spices. John xix. 39.
If you be a Mary,
or another Mary, or a Salome, or a Joanna, weep in the early morning. Be
first to see the stone taken away,and perhaps you will see the Angels and Jesus
Himself. Say something; hear His Voice. If He say to you, Touch Me not, stand
afar off; reverence the Word, but grieve not; for He knoweth those to whom He
appeareth first. Keep the feast of the Resurrection; come to the aid of Eve who
was first to fall, of Her who first embraced the Christ, and made Him known to
the disciples.
Be a Peter or a John; hasten to
the Sepulchre, running together, running against one another, vying in the noble
race. And even if you be beaten in speed, win the victory of zeal; not Looking
into the tomb, but Going in.
And if, like a Thomas, you were left out when the disciples were assembled
to whom Christ shews Himself, when you do see Him be not faithless; and if you
do not believe, then believe those who tell you; and if you cannot believe them
either, then have confidence in the print of the nails.
If He descend into
Hell, descend with Him. Learn to know the mysteries of Christ there also, what
is the providential purpose of the twofold descent, to save all men absolutely
by His manifestation, or there too only them that believe.

Palm Sunday-The journey continues

Sixth Sunday in Lent _ commonly called Palm Sunday. March 16, 2008 Readings of the Eucharist are: Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 and the Passion according to Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

Journeys require tenacity

they need planning

and they change us

As Holy Week begins we take something of a journey

it is undergirded by the story of Jesus last days before his death.

We have also been taking a journey through Lent,

in these weeks we have been thinking about what it means to be Christian

and how do we live faithfully in the spirit of the promises we made

or which were made for us at Baptism.

How do we continue the journey begun at our baptism

when we were asked :

Do you turn to Christ?
Do you repent of sin?

Do you reject selfishness?

Do you renounce evil?

These promises are reaffirmed on Easter Day

We have also reflected on the mystery of life and death
and hear that there is a great overshadowing promise of Jesus:
"I am the Resurrection and the Life!"
It is the promise which breathes life back into our deadness.
And which open the eyes of the blind heart.

The reading from the letter to the Phillipians addresses this journey, this transition, this growth,
in a more poetic and philisophical way

St Paul writes

Philippians 2:5-11

2:5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,

2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,

2:8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

2:9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,

2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

2:11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The purpose of the journey is that we may become like Christ.
Not presuming on our Godly nature but acting out of it.
It is a journey of suffering
a journey of challenge
which will transform us that we may be like him

Such journeys require tenacity

they need planning

and they change us

Holy Week with the prophets

Some short reflections  from the prophets for Holy Week

Palm Sunday

Amos 5: ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;

   I will not listen to the melody of your harps. 
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream 

It is not as if God's people do not know that justice is the preferred way.

Amos 9: ¹⁴I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

   and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

   and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.  

God will restore, and restore properly. Not without pain, but through the very gift of his holy Son

Holy Monday

Obadiah 1: ²I will surely make you least among the nations;

   you shall be utterly despised. 
³Your proud heart has deceived you,
   you that live in the clefts of the rock, ">
   whose dwelling is in the heights.
You say in your heart,
   ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ 
⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
   though your nest is set among the stars,
   from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.  

How easily we misplace our trust.

Jonah 2: ⁷As my life was ebbing away,

   I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you,
   into your holy temple. 
⁸Those who worship vain idols
   forsake their true loyalty. 
⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving
   will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.

   Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’ 

I make a mistake when I think I am the source of justice and holiness.

Holy Tuesday

Micah 1: ³For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place,

   and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 
⁴Then the mountains will melt under him
   and the valleys will burst open,
like wax near the fire,
   like waters poured down a steep place. 
⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

   and for the sins of the house of Israel.  

The Lord's will to deal with my sin is unremitting and determined. He will forgive me. He will have me, even if I am slow and unwilling to respond. 

Holy Wednesday

Micah 4

In days to come
   the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
   and shall be raised up above the hills.
Peoples shall stream to it, 
²   and many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
   to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
   and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

   and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  

In hope, not desperation; in faith not in decline. I come to the Lord because he draws me to himself.

Maundy Thursday

Habbakuk 3

His glory covered the heavens,
   and the earth was full of his praise. 
⁴The brightness was like the sun;
   rays came forth from his hand,

   where his power lay hidden.  

There is no way to overlook the glory of the Lord

Good Friday

Zephaniah 2

¹¹The Lord will be terrible against them;
   he will shrivel all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
   each in its place,

   all the coasts and islands of the nations.  

Everything that would wrongly demand our attention and our worship will be destroyed before Jesus, that we his sisters and brothers may live with the freedom and dignity that God destined us to share.

Holy Saturday-Easter Eve

Zephaniah 3

¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
   he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;

   you shall fear disaster no more. .  

The Lord completes all that he sets out to complete

Easter Poems 2008

These poems written by Coromandel Valley Parishioner may be used with attribution please notify the blog owner (coro35@bigpond.net.au) if you do so.

Author's details are: Sue Cook. Hawthorndene, South Australia, 2008

Sue is a gifted poet and a retired teacher of English.

Easter Poems 2008

 

The Arrest 

Words, words, words.

How much depends upon words. 

People chattering, agitating, politicizing, 

gabble, gabble – traitor – gabble, gabble –pretender. 

With swords and clubs they press in 

to arrest Jesus, the teacher. 

Judas says, “ Peace be with you teacher,” 

betrays him with a kiss. 

The high priest accuses him of false promises 

but Jesus is silent. 

“Are you the Messiah, the son of God?” 

“You will see the Son of Man sitting 

at the right hand of the Almighty.” 

Blasphemous words seal Jesus’ fate. 

More words – Peter denies knowing Jesus – 

no, no, no – and the rooster crows. 

Pilate demands more words from Jesus and gets none. 

He asks the rabble what to do with the Messiah – 

gabble, gabble – crucify him – gabble, gabble. 

Words, words, words. 

                                                 Sue Cook 2008

Crucifixion

 A black day indeed 

the day they came to Golgotha, 

the place of the skull. 

Blackness inside people’s hearts 

as they watched the crucifixion unfold. 

Soon, shrouded in darkness 

Jesus was isolated, suffocating. 

There was no light, no enlightenment, 

the blackness was impenetrable. 

Abandoned by man and God, 

“My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” 

Jesus died on the cross. 

But the women looked on from a distance, 

illuminated by his life. 

 

              Sue Cook 2008

Resurrection

 

As Sunday morning dawns 

and rosy light dissipates darkness 

the women approach Jesus’ tomb, 

mourning their inconsolable loss. 

Suddenly, they are bedazzled 

for a bright angel irradiates the tomb 

where Jesus was, but is not now, entombed. 

He is risen, elevated, raised from death, 

and the women rejoice. 

Angel or hallucination? 

Mary Magdalene plucks a white feather 

from the ground and wonders. 

But Jesus appears to the women, 

preaching peace and lack of fear, 

and meets the disciples, too, in Galilee. 

 

Out of the darkness into the light 

so also are we illuminated 

by his death and resurrection. 

 

                          Sue Cook 2008

Come out!

Sunday 9th March (formerly known as Passion Sunday) you could read from the selection of readings which includes Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45 - The Fifth Sunday of Lent

Perhaps one of the hardest stories for modern Christians to come to grips with

because this story of the resurrection of Lazarus confronts us with a dead person

who is brought back to life

But when I think about it

I have had a number of resurrection experiences where a dead person has been revived.

We live, for example,  in an era where the miracle of modern medicine 

means life for any number of people

who a generation ago would have died prematurely.

I don't want to belittle what Jesus did for Lazarus;

that we don't fully understand it 

is obvious.

Most of us would find that as our lives go on 

our encounter with 

the 'death event'

is a curious and mixed-bag

and is not easily described

either physically, spiritually or emotionally.

If we try to get straight just what happened

and to focus solely on the mechanics of the event

This is, I suspect, rather to miss the point of this narrative

that we read  today.

Change of focus

The commentators on John's Gospel

often make the point

that this chapter 11 marks a point of transition

in the Gospel

it moves away from the miraculous signs 

to the engagement with the resurrection

...what one writer says is 'the end of the Book of Signs

and the beginning of the Book of Glory'...

the two are connected of course

But we are reminded that the greatest sign of Christ's glory

is his death and resurrection.

Death is  at least one of, and probably,  the most important things

that happen to us

This almost seems trite to say.

Yet we can be in danger of not getting it right

and missing what is important.

We do this because we are fearful, sad, angry, guilty....and any other range of things

The Christian mystery  is that

Death is the gate to eternal life.

This doesn't just happen

even for Martha and Mary

it has to be carefully teased out.

And the key insight that this passage reveals 

is that death is transformed

when Jesus is brought to bear.

If we do nothing else 

when confronted 

with death

we need to be with Jesus.

I do not pretend this is easy.

It does not make the pain go away.

This is not what is on offer.

What is on offer is the transfromation of death

into resurrection and life.

We all have sneaking glimmers of what this might be like.

Not always someone standing outside a tomb

and shouting "Come Out!"

but the transformation is as profound.

We are to come to faith in Jesus

and hear Jesus says what he says to Martha

11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. 

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live"

This is not, I suggest, a formula

but rather an experience

How does Jesus speak LIFE

into your experience of DEATH?

If we do not listen

if we do not ask 

if we do not allow Jesus to breathe life into the dry bones

then we are missing out 

on the key transformation.

Death is, I suggest, 

the most wonderful experience of life.

In it we encounter the fulness of Jesus.

It is, as we enter into it,

not without pain.

But also with the possibility of great hope.

Jesus stands at the door of our life

and shouts "Come Out"

We do not, and will not

fully understand what is going on.

There is not the promise of no pain

or no sadness

rather that the gate of death will become 

the way to a new way of living.

This only happens 

when we allow Jesus to transform it.

 in the related story in Ezekiel 37 that we read today

the prophet speaks God's word

over a valley of dead bones

(It is almost a bizarre experience...but we are dealing in highly imaginal language here)

The idea is the same 

God transforms what is dead

to a new way of living.

This week

Where am I beseiged by death? My own, someone else's or...?

Can I give a little time to allow Jesus to speak to this...what does he say?

Can I believe this.....pray for belief (Lord I believe...but help my unbelief?)

Can we prophesy over the death that surrounds us on every side..."I am the Resurrection and the Life says the Lord"

In the valley of darkness
surrounded by bones
speak the words I need to hear
I am the resurrection and the life.
Lord I want to believe
let my unbelief crumble in the face of your Word

This season's drought

One parched leaf upon the tree

Is all that breathes

The remaining life

That has been 

Drawn, sapped, racked

From the being

It flickers, faint,

Fearless and flagrant.

Crackling as the wind

Threatens its very stand .

Defiant in the face of summer

Defiant, yes!

And doomed

By the onset 

of the season’s march

Ineffable, inevitable

As summer turns to autumn,

The life already drained

Will stand no more.

And then, one night,

Or day

Or afternoon

Will tumble and will fall

Faultless, breathless

To land, who knows where,

Or when will rise.

Silence is consent!

This Fourth Sunday in Lent March 2, 2008; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41 often called Refreshment, Laetare or Mothering Sunday

The demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, often had as their catch-cry
"Silence is consent!"
In the face of injustice, dishonesty, illegality
when confronted with evil
to remain silent is to consent to the evil.
We hear penetrating critique about acting morally such as
English philosopher Edmund Burke who said,

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote a reflection on the inevitable decline into the Holocaust

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time 

there was no one left to speak up for me.

This week we move on in thinking about the Christian life and living out our baptismal promises

Do you renounce evil?

The first of the  two promises: Do you repent of sin?

invites us to step away from the wrong that we have done.

The second: Do you reject selfishness?

invites us to craft our lives

by a spirit of openness and self-giving

unselfishnes, which is counter-cultural

and stands against much of what our greedy world promotes.

The renunciation of evil invites a stronger stand again

not only will we craft our own lives selflessly

but we will stand against evil.

The image Paul uses is to step out of the darkness

and live in the light.

Jesus, in the story of the man born blind,

reminds us that true blindness

is not a disease

but a choice

we choose not to see

we choose not to act

we choose darkness over light.

This choice may be the passive one

of choosing to do nothing

or to remain silent

--Silence is consent--

 it is still a choice.

• You might reflect where you have chosen to be silent
  in the face of injustice, is there some way you can be courageous, more
  honest more open?
• Where does God call us to speak out against
  injustice? Why do we choose to ignore obvious evil? What is the
  consequence of this?
• Pray for yourself and your friends that you may
  keep your baptismal promise to renounce evil.

Rejecting selfishness

Readings for the Third Sunday in Lent, February 24, 2008. Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42. As part of your prepararation for Sunday take one of the reading for each day

We live in a selfish world...this much is self-evident

Some would say that selfishness is a necessary human characteristic

others would say that it is a destructive attribute.

The "necessary human characteristic" argument

says we need to be able to survive

and so we should be able to feel free to assert our own need

and to look after our own interests.

This bland sort of statement is rather deceptive

because what is the problem

with selfishness

is not, so much, the looking after one's own interests

but rather the fact that most selfishness

looks after one's own interests at the expense of other people.

When, at baptism, people are invited to reject selfishness

we are moving beyond the repentance of things we have done wrong

saying sorry, making restitution and so on....

to actually taking positive steps to live our lives in a way

that is counter cultural.

We are being asked to move beyond

the idea that we need to be able to look after our own self-interests in order to survive

to saying that we also choose a way of life

that is more than just pursuit of self-interest.

How, we might ask, are we to do this?

The Baptismal Liturgy for Children addresses this several times

the sponsors/godparents are asked if they are prepared to show those they are sponsoring how to live the unselfish life.

This is an important point to grasp

unselfishness can be taught....or perhaps caught.

We catch it from others who set us the example

of what might be possible if we choose to live our lives differently.

This is clearly demonstrated for Christians on the Cross.

Apart from what ever mystical and theological process may be taking place

there is something being lived out.

It is that we are unselfish when we give, not only of our stuff

but also of our life.

Jesus says, greater love has no one than this

that they lay down their lives for their friend

This is most unusual in our self-oriented world.

A couple of points

The readings point us to a number of interesting points

1. In the confusion that is the time in the wilderness after the flight from Egypt, the people of Israel constantly miss the point of their call.

Why? Because, as in today's reading, they find it very difficult to get beyond their own very narrow selfish interests.

God responds to their needs time and time again

but the more they get the more they want

and the more they seem unresponsive and ungrateful for what has already been done for them.

The writers of the the Torah are setting before us a picture of wayward selfishness

which is at odds with the will fo God.

2. Paul in writing to the Roman Church urges these people on to do better than mere selfish desires.

Look to greater goals and the bigger picture. Understand at the very least that there is a challenge which will improve us as people: Paul outlines (perhaps a little too strictly) a growth process...

we also boast in our sufferings, knowing
that suffering produces endurance,
5:4 and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope,

suffering-endurance-character-hope.

His argument suggests that unselfishness opens up

a whole new range of possibility.

3. And what of this woman who meets Jesus. This is a most fascinating story.

She wants more out of life...Lord satisfy my deepest thirst

Jesus immediately points her to the area of her life where her own inward looking orientation

has betrayed her deepest integrity.

Your human relationships are up the creek

Who knows quite what a mess this woman who had had five husbands had made of her life, and why?

There is at least the suggestion that unless we are prepared to plummet the darkness of our true desires and not avoid what our lives are saying to us,

in their messiness, selfishness and deep desire

then our deep thirst will not be satisfied.

THIS WEEK

Where does God invite you to be unselfish?

is there something immediately that you can do to challenge your selfishness, what stops you?

What do you really want? What would satisfy your deepest desires?

What is the mess of your life saying to you about what you really want?

There are lots of reflections to have about "comfort zones", about whether or not we want to change. Spend some time with God talkign about this.

No condemnation

Readings for The Second Sunday in Lent, 17th February 2008 can be taken from Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17. [ Matthew 17:1-9..(if not used two weeks ago) features in the older lectionary]
NOTE: Non Australian readers may like to follow up on the Apology to Indigenous Australians offered this week by the Australian Prime Minister and Parliament (here) which is referred to in this week's homily


During this early part of Lent we focus on the need to REPENT.
Christians talk about this a lot.
Turning away from sin,
asking forgiveness
saying sorry: to God and to those we have sinned against.
It is an important idea.
More than an idea, it is something that needs to happen,
we all know this
and we have seen it played out in very public view for us this week.


We could make many observations
and no doubt will.
I want today, however,
to just put together this idea
with what the Bible readings offer us,
because today the Scriptures are filled with hope
and we have the most famous bible verse
for Anglicans, and indeed all Christians, which reminds us of this

God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but have eternal life
John 3:16

These words that we know so well
contain in a nutshell
all that is good, true, hopeful and profound
about what God is doing in our lives and the world.
At the heart of it
we are reminded that our God is the God who LOVES
that everything is done out of love, because of love
in order that we might be loved and that we might love better.

Jesus invites Nicodemus to be 'born again from above'.

This process of being "born again"
is difficult for Nicodemus (and us) to understand.
What is interesting about it
is that although we often see ourselves
as passive receivers of God's grace
of this 'being born again'
[that is, we sit back and God does it to us]
there is more force in it than that
"You must be born again", says Jesus.
We have to submit to it, to desire it, to want it!
Repentance is like that
it requires that we invite its cooperation
that we want to repent
we want to be born again.

It will not just happen.


Now we have observed the events of this week,
clear in our own minds
are like that too.
They will not just happen
we need to invite cooperation
we need to decide that we are going to make this happen.

This is not neat and tidy,
and maybe we would like it to be more so
but that is what sin, repentance, prejudice and reconciliation
are like.
They are not black and white
but grey and less grey,
grey and greyer.

And the mystery of reconciliation, being born again,
repentance
is not so much bought and sold
as entered into
and lived out.
It is this that Abram is invited into
when God says:
Set out from your country. to a new land that I will show you
I will bless you , and in you all the earth will be blessed
This great message of hope and promise
is the journey of faith
which we are called to as individuals
but now also as a nation.
But it does not
and will not
just happen.
We have to set out and invite it.
We have to be born again
We have to repent.

This week

• Where does God call you to make a new beginning
• -----by rejecting what you have done wrong in the past (repentance)
• -----by opening yourself to the Spirit of God (being born again)
• -----by embracing the new national spirit of apology (reconciliation)
• Is there one thing I can do this week to make somethign happen to unfold God's working in my life?