Sanctus, Holy, Kadosh!

Readings for 3rd June, 2012,Trinity Sunday, can include Isaiah 6:1-8, Romans 8:12-17, John 3:1-17 & Psalm 29

Perhaps the most ‘doctrinal’ Sunday of the year we celebrate the Christian mystery that God is Trinity.
But we misunderstand Trinity if we think it is highly theoretical or speculative.
At the core of the Trinity is the idea that our God is the God with whom we are in relationship.
The language, Father Son and Spirit is the language of close relationships like a parent and a child
like those with a deep spiritual connection
it is not impersonal or abstract
So this week 
Take a little time to nurture your personal relationship.
Listening and talking is the way to do this

The second dimension that we encounter today
is that each member of the Trinity is there as an agent of Love.
The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Spirit is there to enable the love to deepen and grow.
This relationship or rather these relationships
are there to serve each other.
This is the nature of the Godhead
the mystery of the Trinity
each person is there for the welfare of others

• The Father loves the world so much
• that he gives his Son
• the Son loves the world so much
• that he gives his life
• the Spirit so loves us that we are filled with love for the Father and the Son.

The idea of Trinity
is that we are fulfilled in community in so far as we give our life for others.

When Isaiah get his glimmer of God’s glory
he is reacting as Godly people have done throughout the generations

“How,” we ask “are others to hear about God?”
“Who will speak? Who will tell?”

The answer is that Trinity life...God-life is about living for others
and we are challenged to say “Here am I send me!”
THIS WEEK
Where does God call me to live my life for others?

Is there someone who I am called specially to be here for this week?


As part of my call to be a worshipper of the Holy Trinity God I commit myself to this in this coming week.

Do I need to pray the prayer of Isaiah...Here am I send me?

Oh Freedom!

More thoughts for Pentecost 2012: Galatians 5:1 & 16-26

I was once asked in an interview what my guiding principle or manifesto was
I quoted Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free

It's somewhat cryptic but it stays with me
both as  what God might be saying to me
about my own life
and also about what Christian communities
could and should be about
Their own freedom
and working for the freedom of others!
At the end of that chapter St Paul exhorts us
to reject the works of the flesh
They are crucified with Christ on the Cross
 and, by contrast,
to allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us

This shouldn't be, he says,  a cause for conceit;
it's not a competition against each other
but rather a deep desire to live our lives properly and well.

This is a particularly important reflection for us at Pentecost-Whitsuntide
because Paul begins these two injunctions
with the simple command:
Live by the Spirit.
We fight the battle with sin
by the grace that God has given to us
though the gift of the Spirit
and he is telling us simply
it's obvious what is wrong

 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

(I could, but won't, observe that "homosexuality"
is not on this list...at least this time)

He contrasts this with where our proper focus should be

 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 

This, Paul says, is the fruit of the Spirit

If we are to understand what God is doing in us
it is growing the good stuff (virtue, character, Godliness) and getting rid of the bad stuff.(sin)
And I would agree with St Paul
--all this is obvious---
it may not be...indeed it is not. EASY
And it is certainly not a competition

THIS WEEK
Let this week be one of intense spiritual focus as we remember we have a Holy Spirit live and active in our lives.
So there are two focuses:

• The 'works of the flesh' are obvious...at least mine are...throw some Spirit power (prayer, fasting, energy) into dealing with the jealousy, anger, impurity, drunkenness, fornication...etc. etc   what ever it is that depletes you...and let the Spirit attend to your wholeness, forgiveness, healing, pain, weakness....this is obvious!
• Pray for the fruit of the Spirit....which one do you particularly need at this time: peace, generosity, gentleness, self-control....and always Love.  God is growing that in us

COME HOLY SPIRIT: AND MAKE ME NEW,SET ME FREE, LIVE IN ME!

Weeks, Harvest, Law, Spirit and Joy

Readings for Pentecost, 27th May 2012, can include  Acts 2:1-21; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 104:24-35; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:-4-15

The last few days of the Easter season are filled with high points.
The Ascension (on Day 40) is really a great expression of God's desire to trust humanity
to be agents of grace and goodness (see the previous post)
This week we celebrate Pentecost which is the 50th Day after Easter.
In the Jewish tradition it is called Shavuot (sometimes called the Feast of Weeks) and is essentially a great Harvest Festival
The Jewish religious tradition holds that this is the day God gave the Law (the Torah) 
to Moses
So it is a day full of possibility, optimism and hope.
The Christian events of that day are described in Acts 2. 
The early disciples would have been in the Temple for this great festival.
 What  happens at  Pentecost is of great significance 
because it prepares us for our life as Christians
the gift of the Holy Spirit to the faithful and expectant disciples
is the gift of the Father to live the life that Jesus, the Word of God calls us to live.
It is "become what you receive!"
The Body of Christ for the world and for the love and worship of God.

The readings talk of many things:

    Renewal

    Life being breathed into what looks as though it is dead

    Truth

    Peace 

    Joy 

And each of these deserves its own individual treatment.

Indeed this demonstrates to us that the Holy Spirit is not a quick fix...

but is about God dealing with us comprehensively and completely.

Why would we expect anything else?

This is about the whole of our life and the whole of the world.

Indeed a prayer we often pray is 

Come Holy Sprit and renew your whole creation

So often we seem to think that God is just dealing with my little patch

It is about "the whole creation"

It is also about God dealing with us deeply

and not just tinkering in a titillating or superficial way.

This JOY that the Spirit brings

which is so evident in the Acts of the Apostles 

each time the Holy Spirit is encountered

is not merely an amusement or an entertainment 

it is about the absolute delight and sense of privilege 

that we know in being caught up in the mystery of what God has been doing 

since before the foundation of the world.

It is perhaps the surest sign of the Spirit’s activity in our lives.

Where do you experience the deepest joy in your life?

It is a challenging question.

So often we mistake amusement for joy

yet often joy is about difficult stuff

about working through the challenging issues of life

and realising that although we are often confronted with danger, struggle, weakness

that the Joy that the Spirit brings transforms our life

This week

●Where has God given you the greatest JOY

●How can I nurture this?

●What is God inviting me to be, know and do, by this active power and presence of the Spirit?

Getting to the guts of it

Thoughts for Sunday 20th May ...easter 7 or the Sunday after the Ascenbsion  (this is a rejigging of some of my previous blog material and I will be adding more material later in the week about thoughts I have been having recently)
Readings can be from Acts 1:1-11, 15-26; Psalm 1, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-23; 1 John 5:9-13; Luke 24:44-53; & John 17:6-19

Now this can either be hard or easy!
Because, either the point of the physical removal of Jesus
that we call The Ascension
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
God wants mature men and women.
People who will have depth and understanding
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
This is something about the very nature of what relationship
with God is all about
We are not passive observers
of a world in which God is active
but we are ministers of God's presence to the world.

Now what does a minister do?
A minister acts on behalf of someone
So, a Minister of the Crown exercises authority of behalf of the Queen and the Government.
A minister of the Church
acts on behalf of God.
And we understand that Baptism
confers upon you and me
the responsibility
to be Minister of Jesus
We will say We are the Body of Christ
So Jesus can say to the Father...

I am no longer in the world but they are in the world.

Now this 'they' who he is talking about is you and me


We may feel as though this is too hard sometimes
Jesus prays for our protection
he prays that we may be united to each other
and that we may be filled with joy

He does not pray
that we should be relieved of responsibility
or taken out of the world.
But rather that we should exercise this responsibility

It is a great statement of the trust that God put in you and me
as ministers
to act with confidence in the name of the God who equips us for ministry.

May this be ours too

This week

• Can we look for opportunity to a faithful minister and commit ourself deliberately to God's care and protection as you seek to be more faithful
• Look at the circumstances in which we live and see where God is calling us to serve others.
  Pray deliberately for joy where ever we find ourselves to be

What do we want? when do we want it?

Readings for Sunday May 13 2012 include Psalm 98, Acts 10:44-48, 1John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

St John in the section of the first letter that we read today

reminds us that we come to understand 

what life is about

and how things fall into place

by faith.

This is the victory that conquers the world,

our faith.

This is a seemingly innocent, even predictable, statement

which we may gloss over.

But it is also in a real sense the key.

We proceed to live life in a different way because of faith.

This is about a decision that we make to choose to live life in a deeper

more authentic way.

John hammers home Jesus’s bold assertion that everything flows out of the reality that God loves us.

It is not the declaration of rules and laws, but the reality of a commitment to live life in a radical and deep way

(Perhaps what Scott Peck called  “The Road Less Travelled”)

So we are confronted again by the challenge to go out and bear fruit

and we hear the promise

that this fruitfulness will be undergirded by God’s provision of whatever we ask for 

and need to be fruitful.

Notice (as last week) this is not 

wish-fulfilment (the new bike syndrome)

this is purpose-driven   

God makes provision 

out of his love

for everything we need

to live the kingdom life

which brings us the promise of abundance

—–let’s not play games with God

thinking God is a slot-machine

—–we are trying to live the life of faith

so we are likely to need:

—–forgiveness, love, reconciliation, patience, generosity

much more important than 

a new bike, or even wealth

Abundant, eternal life

will in the end seek to draw out of us

a life of faith 

This is the victory that conquers the world...our faith

THIS WEEK

What do we want  and need  to live a life of faith?

What is to stop us asking for it?

True life, true vine!

Readings for today (6th May 2012...Easter 5) might include Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8

South Australians in particular appreciate this image of the vine that Jesus uses in John 15
Because we live in the premier wine state of Australia
and one of the greatest vine growing areras in the world.
I am proudly South Australian!

It is a sumptuous and engaging image

and bears much thinking about, with reflection and prayer.

God wants us to be fruitful

he wants us not to have meagre lives

but abundant lives.

Some times we need to understand that fruitfulness comes about by a process of pruning

that is by cutting back

by curtailing ourselves

This process is for long-term fruitfulness

even though in the short term 

it may limit or even seem like it hurts

The passage from 1John reminds us that God’s sole motivation is  love for us

We are not the puppets of a dictator

we are the lovers of a God

who wants only our welfare.

DEEPER RATHER THAN SHALLOWER

All this prompts us to think that what is being suggested here

is deeper rather than shallower.

It is long-term transformation

rather than short- term titillation.

So when we read (as we do twice in this chapter) 

“ask what ever you wish and it will be done for you” 

we should realise that this is more than just wish-fulfillment.

God is seeking to respond to our deepest need.

I suspect that our deepest need is not to have more stuff or money

It is about attending to this, our need to be loved

and to love

In the end ...this will always be what we want
it certainly is what we need

However we name it, even if we have to begin with 

               “But I really want a new car!”

God is offering more than just to be Fr Christmas.

We know this because of John’s assertion over and over again

               God loves me! God loves you! God loves us!

So much so that he is prepared to confront death for us.

There is more being offered here than a new bike, a big house or a pile of cash.

THIS WEEK

Can you sit with the question...what do I really want?

Can we wrestle about that with God? (Why do I want more? Why do I need trouble to disappear)

What, God, are you offering?

Probably much more than we think!

Baaa! Baaa! Black Sheep

Readings for Sunday 29th April 2012 include Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18

This metaphor of The Good Shepherd

has appealed to countless generations of people.

Even those of us who don’t have a rural bone in our bodies

find it strangely comforting.

St John tells us in the Gospel

that the difference between a Good Shepherd and the hired help

is that the good shepherd puts his life on the line for the sheep.

And the Cross is the clearest image we have of this

we know Jesus’s care, love and sacrifice for us

in that he laid down his life .

And the moral point is (John tells us in his 1st letter) 

that seeing how the Good Shepherd lay down his life

We ought to lay down our lives for one another

The Character of our relationships 

Is this how our relationships are characterised?

By the fact that we put our lives out there for those we love.

We don’t always get this right.

When we are in a relationship for example

we may make the mistake of thinking 

that the other person is there to fulfil us.

This Good Shepherd idea would be 

that it is rather the other way around!

We are there to see that the other person is fulfilled

our life is at the service of those who we are called to love.

Not a recipe for being exploited

But an important insight

(indeed there is to be a mutuality about this...it should go both ways)

THIS WEEK

we could give some constructive thought to where 

the Spirit invites us to ‘lay down our life’.

Is there someone whose life is ours to care for?

How do we serve the other?

Interesting probably to think about those who we feel we don’t want to serve. 

What might that be telling us?

      Jesus, let me not a hired hand

      show me 

      how to truly care for others

      as you do

      that I may truly 

      lay down my life

Being who you are

April 22^nd  2012 is  the Third Sunday of Easter: Thinking about Psalm 4, 1 John 3:1-6, & Luke 24:36-48

One of the themes that strikes us about Psalm 4 is about being right.

Indeed the Psalm begins:

Answer me when I call O God of my right!

But the passage of 1 John  3 also ends with the quirky little  statement

“Let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous”

The Psalmist, who may indeed have been David but we have no way of knowing for certain,

lives in what Walter Brueggeman calls ‘a culture of shame’

That is, he has been humiliated by lies, gossip and slander.

We all know what this is like.

I still remember how hurt I was when I heard that another priest had slandered me behind my back and called me a fool.

I don’t know why he did it (I could suspect!)

but we are never really sure of what other people’s motivations actually are.

The Psalm suggests that the solution to this

is not madcap defence

but trust in God

If we are right with God then we can stand firm.

Not always easy to do. But it has the ring of truth about it.

St John  is coming at this fropm a slightly different angle.

He suggests that there is a fundamental disconnect

between God’s people and the world

and there is always a sense in which we will be misunderstood

even hated by the world.

John suggests that  what we see in Jesus is the way we ought to be and behave.

That we have an innate knowledge of what is right and also what is wrong.

That to persist in lawlessness: be it cheating, adultery, lying, theft, dishonesty, cruelty is

lawlessness and sin

This is what wreaks havoc in our lives.

But, we also know what is right

and what is good

and like the psalmist who says

“put your trust in the Lord”

so John says “do what is right”

THIS WEEK

Is there one good thing that I can do?

Is there a place where I feel besieged, yet need to trust

The living presence of Jesus-True or False?

Readings for Easter 3 22nd April,2012.  Psalm4, Acts 3:12-20; 1 John 2:15-17, 3:1-6; Luke 24:36-48

There are perhaps two ways we can approach the resurrection stories:
One extreme is that we see them as symbolical narratives of great spiritual truth,
that way we don’t have to worry about whether the nature of the events is factual
we take them for their symbolical value
The other is that we just take at face value 

what we may have always been told
and again, don’t have to think much 

about what we are encountering.
Last week’s Gospel reminds us that 

we should do more than just park our brains
We have to grapple with inconsistency and doubt.
Luke, though, is at pains to point out
the physical truth of the experience.
This passage we read tells usThis is not a ghost!
This is a fleshly body. 

you can touch,
which consumes food.
It is the resurrected body of Jesus.

THE MIDDLE WAY

Death inevitably confuses us. 

This death, no less than others, has its degree of confusion
We, ourselves, are invited to steer the middle way

and to try to understand
what it is about.
We see Peter, for example, and the other disciples having to grapple
as they come to understand
that the death of Jesus has fundamentally changed their lives
Death, of course, does that.
We are not to look at it only symbolically 

or to disregard our doubts
but rather to struggle with what it means to believe.

Peter gets to the conclusion
that this resurrection has made the
power of Jesus
available through his disciples
and not just through the body of Jesus.

We are invited in Easter 

to grapple with the life of Jesus.

How and why is Jesus alive for you and me?
And what are we to do with that.

This week:
Pray for insight and faith to believe aright
Pray for faith to grow in the resurrection
Pray for courage and insight about how to use that power

   Lord of Easter,

   show me your living presence this and every day.
   Grant me grace to know how to live

   in the power of your resurrection 

Communion, Community, Common Unity

A short reflection on Psalm 133

   How very good and pleasant it is when sisters  and brothers live together in unity!

   It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard,

   on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

   It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.

   For there the LORD ordained his blessing, life for evermore.

Let’s get together, yeah! yeah!, yeah!

Goes a pedestrian song of the 60s

This, strangely,  could be the theme for the Christian Church

Indeed it is at the heart of the Gospel

(and indeed other religions too!)

With God

So week by week we share in a sacrament called Holy Communion.

This is the outward and visible sign

that we are getting together with God.

So during Easter we are praying

Become what you receive

The Body of Christ

United with the Risen Christ

so that we are a means of his continuing presence in the world

Do you feel as though you are

a Real Presence of Christ to the world?

If not…this is why we are making this prayer and setting this goal for Easter

With each other

This lovely little Psalm (133)

talks about what happens

when we strive to live in unity with each other

It’s a great source of blessing

to ourselves,

to our sisters and brothers

to our world

he uses some luxurious imagery

It’s like a great spiritual anointing

like oil pouring down over the head and overflowing over your beard, your clothes and your whole body.

It’s like the dew on the grass

the luxurious green of the fields

and the beauty of the mountains.

We may, of course,  need to work on this

We may need to try and be open to other people

to exercise forgiveness and kindness

and to engage in community building.

Can you think of one thing you can do this week to strengthen the unity you have with someone

or perhaps to repair a break in the wall.

With the world

I think this is a message we long to hear as people.

That we are not just isolated boxes

we are inextricably linked to each other.

The Psalm is reminding us that this is how God’s blessing is poured on us, and the whole world

Things to think about and do this week

As we think about community 

we naturally reflect on the collections of groups and individuals to which we belong:

Family, work, neighbours, school, interest groups are some that spring to mind.

This week pick one of the communities to which you belong and think and pray about it by just holding the names of members before God for a few moments.

You could work through one group, or do a different group each day.

We are also broken. 

Strangely thinking about Community, Communion, and our common Unity also highlights where this might be absent.

Is there one place I could do some repair work this week…in a relationship, in a situation, in a family, at work…?