Looking at putting it into action

Readings for Sunday May 25 2014

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


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

What might 'renewal' be like?
It seems to me that renewal is likely to be about truth
then when the Spirit of renewal comes
it is going to be the Spirit of Truth.

It will therefore be drawing us towards God 
and showing us what God is like.
In the process of doing this
one might expect we also discover 
what we might be like.

This classic movement
leads us to say...as traditionally Christians have said...
the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin.
This is not, I think, some vindictive nasty process
but a true one.

We will know and be known.
It is  our life's work:
to understand the truth of what it means
to be made in God's image.

The truth draws us on
to move away from sin
and towards the light.

In this process, too,
we will also uncover 
the truths of God's world.

The eternal truths can often be spoken with our lips
and may take a little while 
to appropriate into our lives.
How easily we say "God loves you!" 
and yet do we believe
that God wants the best for us
and for everyone
and how do we imagine 
that might work itself out in our lives.
To me, for example, 
it means that there is here
a command to ensure that others
are going to be able 
to experience God's generosity
and share in the bounty of the creation
it will mean that I need to work to challenge
my own selfishness and greed
and to stand against the aggressive greed of individuals 
and institutions
which is the cause of so much poverty.

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

The Spirit will lead us into truth
implies that this will take time.
And we need patience and diligence and respect
for what God is doing in others
for what God is doing in me.
The way of the Spirit
LORD GRANT THAT I MAY BE OPEN
 TO THE TRUTH
GIVE ME PATIENCE, WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING
THAT I MAY BEAR THIS PRIVILEGE
WITH JOY, AND EXCITEMENT.
GIVE ME COURAGE TO SERVE YOU.
FATHER OF LIGHT, SON OF MERCY, SPIRIT OF TRUTH. AMEN

What's the question?

Fifth Sunday of Easter May 18 2014. *Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14
The writer Gertrude Stein is reputed to have asked
as she was being wheeled into the operating theatre
for what would prove to be a fatal procedure.
"What is the answer?" 
When there was no reply,
 Stein said, 
"In that case, what is the question?"
It had been a major part of her life's work
to steer people away from trying to find answers
and towards asking the right question.

It could be observed that this is wise advice
for those of us who dare to read the Scriptures
or who believe we know the mind of God.
It is not so much  the answers that we find in the Bible
that are important
But what are the questions 
I am being asked 
by my encounter with God.

Jesus says I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

These statements all ask questions of our life:

What  does it mean to follow this Way?

What is Truth?

And indeed What does it mean for me 
to live properly and well?

I am struck in this week when we have seen 
political harshness in the form of a Budget.
When we are particularly being told
that these are the answers
to problems 
that many of us don't actually think we have.

What questions does our political process 
ask of me, of our country,
of our government?
One question that occurs to me: 
and a number of people 
have articulated it both publicly and personally during the week
is:
Why do the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised
appear to be being required to carry a disproportionate 
part of the burden?

Perhaps you and I today
can only be expected to 
ask:
What questions does this pose for me?

But let's not fall into the trap
so beloved my politicians and religious people alike
of posing pat answers, 
instead of asking hard questions.

And what exactly do you want?

Fifth Sunday of Easter May 18 May *Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10John 14:1-14

The story is told of St Christopher
that he searched the world over
for the strongest king to serve.

It is almost like Game of Thrones!
Christopher rejected one after the other
even the devil or Satan
Finally he is told to serve God

and he is to do this
by helping people
across a dangerous river.
One night a small child comes
and Christopher carries him across the river.
Christopher senses the burden getting heavier and heavier
as he crosses
and it is only as he gets to the other side
that he realises he has been carrying the Christ child.

It is a very good story, and has a strong moral.
These days it is regarded as legendary
rather than an account of an actual event.
This does not make it untrue.
It rather points us to the fact 

that sometimes deeper mysteries 

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

are better revealed in story, song, poetry, art...and so on

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

It is an Easter encounter
we don't realise that Christ is alive
and already amongst us.
He surprises us
by being in the ordinary place.

The disciples have to learn this.
They are often easily distracted
and well... to no be too blunt sometimes

just plain 'thick'

Not unlike you and me really!

What is on offer by Jesus 

is not some fairy tale encounter
nor is it some pious ritual.
It is the glimpse of glory,
it is sharing of the vision of the open heaven
and God reigning in power, peace and love.
St Stephen, at his martyrdom, is able to blurt this out.
Things often become very clear to us
in the valley of the shadow of death.

For most of the time it is a struggle, like Christopher,
to not insist that God does things 

in the way that we want them done
and rather to open ourselves
to the mystery of what God might be offering us.
Not what we vainly want
but what God might be trying to invite us into.

In the halting passage in John 14
 often read at funerals,
Jesus promises a prepared-place.
He is of course speaking imaginallywe are not talking about the Legian Beach Hotel
or some Georgian mansion
But rather of the fact that there is a place.
This is a comfort to the dying and the bereaved, I suggest,
to know that whether we live or whether we die
God has a place for us.
But as we read on we discover that the place is not so much a location
as a relationship....How can we know the way?
and Jesus says to you and me

I am the way and the truth and the lifeI think once we grasp this we are on the way.This is what Christopher found.It is not discovery of the answer it is by entering into relationship with Jesus.

This is the relationship
which will reveal to us
the life of God himself
We Christians believe
that this shepherd
this Jesus
this way, this truth, this life
uniquely draws us into the life of God.

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

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

This week

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

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

A difficult concept I am a sheep

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter May 11 2014  Acts 2:42-47 ;Psalm 23; I Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
This is an extraordinarily clear picture of a good shepherd, don't you think? 
A priest said to to me during the week that she hated Good Shepherd Sunday..This 4th Sunday of Easter.
 I understand what she meant. It is an image that has become very passé, taken for granted, ordinary. And most of what is said is trite and, perhaps, irrelevant . Out of touch with the 21st century world. My brother in law, now not far from his 70s used to be a shepherd like the sort of shepherds Jesus was talking about in rural Italy. Those who cared for small flocks, in quiet, remote, and occasionally dangerous environments. But it is a long time ago.

---------

At least Australians, 
unlike most city dwellers, 
are probably
quite used to sheep
No image is fonder to traditional Christians than that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Yet it is a foreign image 
which bears little relevance to most of us
Even in this country (Australia) 
the intimacy of the image...
one shepherd caring for a small flock of sheep...
is not the way we look after sheep.
They are in hundreds and thousands, largely left to their own devices
until the time comes for them to be killed or shorn.
So we need to look beyond the image and translate it to our modern times.

A couple of pointers
being a sheep is about belonging
It's only as we belong to Christ
that we understand and believe
This would suggest that the Good News 
is about the decision we make to be Christ's
And not so much about intellectual knowledge.
[As important as doctrine and learning are],
life in Christ is actually about being in touch with the person of the Risen Christ

How might we be in touch?
We need to maintain a deep commitment to personal and regular prayer.
We will meet Jesus 
in so far as we encounter him in the early morning,
and in the evening,
this is a figurative way of looking at prayer of course. 
but we need to do it
We will meet Jesus in the shared life of the Christian community.
There are no solitary Christians...
we are the Body of Christ, 
members of one another.
We belong to a flock.
It may be big.It may be small.
in so far as we struggle with one another (difficult as we are)
we are exploring the depth of relationship in Christ
and coming to know Jesus in depth
Relationships require struggle.
Jesus himself shows this as he journeys to the Cross

The spirit of obedience
Jesus could not be blunter..
We hear his voice, and we do what he tells us!

• What, then, is Christ saying to me in my life?

• Do I respond by doing what he tells me to do?

• What does the life of the Body of Christ say to me about what Jesus invites me to be and do?

• Do I do it?

THIS WEEK

Take some time to reflect on what I hear Jesus saying, through my prayer,

through my life, through experience of community

What 2 or 3 things do I seem to hear Jesus saying to me about how to faithfully follow

What resistance do I have to obedience? What do I need to do about it?

Different ways of knowing Jesus

A reflection on The Emmaus story, for Sunday 4 May, 2014. The 3rd Sunday of Easter. 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 bread.
for the Holy Communion we receive 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 of 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 some how  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 mundaneness
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 also embraces
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.

Making way for Jesus

Readings for this week, of Sunday 27 April 2014 are for The Second Sunday of the Easter Season Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Psalm 16 I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31

Easter is not just a one day festivalbut rather a way of lifeThe rather good stories that tell how early Christians 
encountered Jesus after his deathhelp 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 grantedand fail to seewhat 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 appearshe does not just take at face valuethe fact that they have "seen the Lord"

Why, indeed, should he?

There is perhaps a salutary reminderthat sometimes we assume 
that people will take our witness for granted.When we tell them what our experience of the Godly encounter iswe should not just assume 
that is going to be the last word in the debate.We often mistake what is happeningwe do not name it rightlywe may fail to appreciate where the other person is(all these are warnings 
for the would-be evangelist)but more than this we need to appreciatethat conversion is not so much about persuasion
as about openness 
to the Holy Spirit of God.The disciples encourage Thomasto articulate 
what it would take for himto be convinced of the truthof what God is doing in our lives.What,indeed, would it take for me to be convinced?

Perhaps more deeply convinced, or more fundamentally convinced,

can we  write a short list of the doubts you haveand 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 wellwhen the moment came.This is an important statement about the integrity of GodThe God who honours our shortcomingsas well as our insights and our strengths.Indeed the story seems to suggestthat doubt is not necessarily a "shortcoming"The experience of resurrectioninvites us to exploreboth the light and dark placeswhere 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 can I allow that process to take place in God's good time?

The litter of the Cross Reflections for the Holy Days GOOD FRIDAY

Good Friday

There is an awful lot of litter around the Cross

some suggest that Golgotha 

was a sort of rubbish dump.

But as we look around the Church on Good Friday

we see palms from Sunday, 

towels and bowls from Thursday's meal

snuffed candles from the altar of repose

where we watched begrudgingly 

with Jesus

for barely an hour (in the end I sat before the exposed Blessed Sacrament and finished my sermons for the devotional hour    ....it was a good thing to do even though last minute...but I had more than enough material; and maybe it had some cogency which I had been struggling with for a week)

But the litter!

Well the litter is the past.
If we read nothing else into the Passion story we read that it has left the litter behind.
It is very immediate ...it is today.
This is the only place we live.
And in this place we hear Jesus speaking.
He speaks to his Mother, he speaks to his closest friend
Intimate powerful words:
"Mum look after John"
"John look after my Mum!"
there is not much casuistry
to the thief alongside, worried about his eternal destiny
He speaks about Today.
"This day you will be with me in Paradise"
And to his God he speaks the profoundest words
that in the face of total and utter desolation
he can still say
"My God! My God!"

What is Jesus saying to me TODAY (not yesterday or tomorrow)?
As intimate as the words to John and his mother,
as death confronting as the words to his fellow victim
As profoundly faithful as his own words to our God!

We won't hear if we don't listen

Why all the fuss? Reflections for the Holy Days MAUNDY THURSDAY

Maundy Thursday

Why all this fuss about the Eucharist?

It has become a language

Perhaps a poetry of the way we talk about God.

We celebrate that Jesus calls us to serve

That is the washing of the feet.

Itself an act of humility, not a neutral act at all.

It is at once confronting.

Do I really want to touch someone’s feet?

Can I allow someone to touch my feet?

It is a challenge about the way we deal with people.

Do we withhold ourselves?

Christ Jesus was in the form of God, but he did not cling to equality with God.

Do we withhold ourselves?

We share a ritual meal.

Frederic Buechner says “We take the profane and make it holy”

It is the pattern of our whole life.

In this body will be broken and blood will be shed.

We say words that remind us of death.

This is my broken Body, and this is my shed Blood.

Our society tries not to talk about death

But is often very careless about life.

It is a reminder that someone we love is no longer with us

Probably all of us feel that from time to time.

Christmas, anniversaries, Easter…my grandmother died on Good Friday.

And then we talk about a mystery.

About how Jesus is present.

After 60 years of Eucharist I have had plenty of experience of this.

Sometimes this Real Presence is totally tangible.

{This is not theological point-scoring about how Jesus might or might not be present}

it is the lived experience of the Christian

Sometimes it is the fact that we are just giving ourselves up to worship

Sometimes it is because we can see the rightness of our service, either as individuals ort as a church or as a community

Sometimes the worship is ordinary, and the footwashing is poor. But we know Jesus as we gather together. We are the Body of Christ

(It is not an unwounded or perfect body necessarily}

Sometimes it is simple remembrance

But I suggest that what keeps bringing us back is that somehow we encounter Jesus.

So we say those words.

The disciples knew Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

It’s, as I say, a mystery

To which we can open ourselves.

As we begin these Three Holy Days

Do what you can to open yourself to this mystery.

Jesus, made known in the service of others

and in the breaking of the bread

be with us this night and through these days