Category: Uncategorized

The Word This Week:

• Acts 16:16-34 
• Psalm 97 
• Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 
• John 17:20-26

Thoughts on the Word:

John 17:20-26 (NRSV)

 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

In today’s Gospel reading we are looking at what is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer. It is a prayer of intercession, where Jesus calls for the unity of believers, unity with each other and unity with God.  He prays for a unity of believers which will be a beacon to the world – to show the love of God, and draw the world into belief also.  Today we will look at what this prayer means for us, as members of the church – a church that in many respects is far from united.

Since I first became a Christian, around 11 years ago, I have continually puzzled over one thing.  It is not any matter of doctrine or dogma, rather it is a behaviour.  There is among many Christians a striking hypocrisy in how we behave.  We as a group of believers preach tolerance, we preach love, and yet all too often we display high levels of intolerance – not just to those who are outside our faith, but to those within it who we have disagreements with over doctrinal or structural matters. 

Throughout the history of Christianity the church has often been its own worst enemy. There were splits and arguments raging in the church within 100 years of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, indeed even the apostles argued amongst themselves about who was greater,  and this has been going on ever since. 



Most of us will be familiar with the big moments of schism in the church – the great schism was the first large scale one, when the Eastern Orthodox Churches split away from Rome in the 11th Century, and then of course we had the reformation in the 16th century, which while started for noble and worthwhile reasons, has led to more and more splits, more and more infighting. So much so that we now have the Eucharist – the central form of Christian worship and fellowship since the beginning of the church 2000 years ago – being refused to, or not being accepted by,  people who are a part of the same denomination.

This is not the faith community that Jesus prayed for in our Gospel reading today.  It is not a community that is one, that is united in its faith, ministry and love.  So what are we to do then? Should we declare the church a failure? Should we walk away from our faith and hope in Jesus because of what the world sees as our failure as a corporate group to live according to Jesus’ prayer?

Or should we rather look ever closer at his words, and seek all the more to follow him? You see our inability to date to live as one, united undivided Christian community is not a reason to doubt our faith in Christ, rather it is a clear sign of the fallen and weak human nature.  That fallen and weak human nature that leads us to rebel against our creator through sin, also leads us to rebel against each other.  Our failure and our weakness is the reason that Jesus came in the first place, and he gives us a model in his high priestly prayer, for how we can move ever closer to the unity of faith, hope and love that he so desires for all of us.

Central to Jesus’ prayer is the idea that we as the faithful will be one with God.  Jesus prays that we might be one ‘As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us’.  These are striking words, what does Jesus mean that we should be in him? He means brothers and sisters that we are called to complete faith and obedience.  We are called to become one with the Trinity – we are called into its glory, its majesty and its love.  However to become one with the Trinity, we must lose ourselves. 

The Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is not three separate Gods, but rather one God, made up of three persons, who share one substance.  They are interdependent, the Trinity is one because it is always and at all times one in mind, in purpose and will.  Jesus’ prayer was that we too would enter into this relationship – that we too would become one in mind, purpose and will with God.   That, brothers and sisters is the first and only step to the church being united, we must each hand over our own desires, and be prepared to become one with the will of God.  

We have seen this love, and submission to the will of God displayed in the church over the millennia, and we still see it displayed today.  We see it in the church’s unity with the poor, through our outreach bodies such as Anglicare, Vinnies, and the Salvos.  We see it through those who strive for ecumenism, who seek a re-unified Christian faith.   We see it exemplified for us through the lives of saints and martyrs past and present.  We inside the church see the good, we see the love, we know the gift to the world that the church is and can be.   However, our unity remains incomplete, we so often still focus on our own lives, and on our own egos.  What we must do is seek to build on that unity with the Trinity that we see in our welfare groups, we need to build on the unity and support we provide each other in our small groups, bible studies and pastoral care groups.

It sounds simple enough, after all we all proclaim to have faith in Jesus as the living son of God, who was raised from the dead.  Yet I fear, we fail to take this truly into our hearts.  Jesus was scourged, he was beaten, he was spat on, and mocked.  He had nails driven through his hands and feet, and was hung on a cross.  At any time he could have called on a legion of Angels to rescue him from this painful humiliating death, and yet he did not. 

So great is his love for us that he endured it all; so great is his love that he died on that cross;  So great is his love that he rose again, and conquered the grave for all of us.  Through his death and resurrection we are set free, and are invited to receive eternal life.  We are invited to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and  experience the love of God first hand by entering a relationship of unity with Jesus. 

Yet so often we continue to live as citizens of this world, we continue to focus on our own desires, rather than seeking to live in unity with the will of God.  We are called by the will of God to live out the same love displayed by Jesus on that cross.   A selfless, sacrificial love for each other.  Through this oneness with Jesus’ love we can display to the whole world God’s love for them.  We can be the ambassadors of the hope, love and peace of God to a world that is hurting.  All we need to do is live as Jesus prayed we would.  All we need to do is say to the father, Just as Jesus did that night in Gethsemane, ‘not my will, but yours’. 

All who place themselves at the will of God, and become united in this way with the trinity, also become united with each other.  All who seek only to serve the creator, and not their own desires are one – and the world will see this also.  When we are doing the will of God, there is no infighting, there is no bickering and bigotry.  If we each turn to the will of God, we cease to be seen by the world as hypocrites that preach tolerance and love, but fight amongst ourselves, and we are seen instead as those who have a genuine love, for God, for each other and for the world. 

So brothers and sisters, we are faced with a decision.  Do we as the church continue as we have for two thousand years, as a home of the love of God on earth, which is tarnished through the pursuit of our own desires? Do we continue to allow the world see us as hypocrites who are busy fighting amongst ourselves over trivialities?

Or do we build on the unity of faith and love that Jesus calls us to? That unity and faith that we know exists in the Christian community, but which is hidden from the world when we place our own egos first.   All it takes to find the full unity that Jesus prays for in today’s Gospel, is for each of us as individuals to make the decision to place ALL of our faith in Jesus.  We can build a church of unity one person at a time, we can each make the decision to place our own self under the mind, will and purpose of God.

For everyone who makes that choice the love and will of God will manifest all the stronger on this earth.  For everyone who makes that choice the love of God will be displayed, and the World will come to know the love of God, displayed through us and our faith in the one he sent.  

‘I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’

The Word This Week:

• 1 Samuel 1:4-20 and 1 Samuel 2:1-10  • 
• Daniel 12:1-3 and Psalm 16  • 
• Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25  • 
• Mark 13:1-8

Thoughts on The Word:

Mark 13:1-8

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

This week’s Gospel gives us a warning and also gives us comfort.  Firstly we should never be so caught up in the beauty or grandeur of our surroundings that we forget that they are all temporary.  Everything on this planet will one day pass away – all of the great architecture, all of the great art and literature, it is all temporary.  While we can enjoy these things, and use them – our focus should always be on the Kingdom.  We see linked to this warning the danger of false prophets and messiahs who promise much but can deliver nothing.

Our message of hope as funny as it may sound comes from the second part of our reading where Jesus explains to us that we will hear of wars, famines and earthquakes.  Where you may ask is the hope in this? The hope is found in the words of our saviour – he tells us not to be alarmed at these things, indeed he tells us that these things must happen.  This is important, It gives us a message that even through these sorts of calamity God will remain faithful.  Why must these things happen?  Well God knows the answer to that question – I postulate that these things must happen because God is giving us time. Time to grow the Kingdom, time to preach the Good News to all nations (Mark 13:10).  The thing is when you give humanity time, given its fallen sinful nature, with the influence of Satan to stir things along, evil will happen.  I have faith that the Lord will only allow these things to go on for as long as it takes to save as many people as can be saved – indeed we are told that he cuts short the days of suffering(Mark 13: 19-20).

The key throughout all of this is that we have a faithful God – He will not desert us, we are the only ones who can take our salvation away from us through rejecting Him for the ‘good’ things of this world, the temporary things that will all pass away.

This week I pray that your focus will be on the Kingdom of God, and that you will not be alarmed as we hear of yet more war.  I also hope that you join me in praying for those in the Israel and Gaza during this time, as well as all those around the world facing war and famine.  Let us pray that these conflicts and suffering will be short and that the Peace of God might reign.

God bless you this week,
Daryl.

The Word This Week:

• Isaiah 60:1-6 
• Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 
• Ephesians 3:1-12 
• Matthew 2:1-12

Thoughts on the Word:



Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.


This week has been one of highs and disappointments for me in this ministry.  In the highlight reel is that we are now approaching 200 likes on our facebook page (facebook.com/thewordthisweek).  One of the low moments however was being left with no choice but to ban a user from that very same page, after repeated requests to cease their attacks, and inflammatory and insulting language.  It was something I didn’t want to do, but I made the choice to ban this particular person because after prayer, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t allow the page to be hijacked and turned into some sort of debate forum for atheists and others to vent their frustrations with Christianity. 

This experience has however had me thinking a lot on how we are to interact with the world, how are we to maintain our faith, and interact harmoniously with a world which is becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel message.  The feast of Epiphany is something which has for us at least some hints of answers.  Today we celebrate the Epiphany of Jesus – An epiphany is a theophany,  a manifestation of the divine, an appearance of God that may be unexpected,  unnerving and almost always unsettling. The wise men experienced what was an Epiphany when they found the baby Jesus (not in a manger as we often think, for the wise men apparently come later – our text tells us that they entered a house) – they experieced a supernatural event which not only changed their lives but the entire world, when God was made incarnate as a human being – a helpless babe.  The thing I want us to focus on though, is what is often overlooked in this story of the wise men, how they reached that house, so that they could experience this theophany – this manifestation of God in their midst.

Firstly, when this story is retold it is often overlooked that the wise men first go to Jerusalem, and not to Bethlehem.  What is the significance of this you may wonder.  Many would state that these men would of course go to Jerusalem as it was the capital, and where you would expect to find a King – and this is correct.  What is also often protrayed however is that the wise men followed the star the whole way from their home in the East – our story doesn’t bear witness to that though. 

If our wise men were following the star for the whole journey, why did it lead them to Jerusalem? Why not directly to Bethlehem where their Epiphany awaited? No, the wise men were not following a star the whole way – our Gospel account tells us that they came to Jerusalem because they saw the star ‘at its rising’ .  You see these men saw something, that to them indicated something special was happening – they then took a journey – on faith – to Jersalem, because they believed that what they had seen indicated the coming of a King.  Only when they had reached Jerusalem, and sought council from Herod, and the Jewish chief priests and scribes, were they provided with the knowledge to take them to where they needed to be.  Then, only once they had that knowledge,  were they guided  by the star to the house in Bethlehem, where they had their Epiphany – their experiece of the divine.

So let’s recap – Step 1 The wise men see something, and thinking there might be something to it they take a journey of faith to Jerusalem. 

Step 2: They don’t find what they were looking for in Jerusalem, but they seek more knowledge to enable them to continue on their journey of faith.

Step 3, their persistent faith pays off and they are guided on their journey, to a place where they can experience the divine.

Now how does this all relate back to my encounter with this young fellow on the facebook page? Well it showed me something important that this young man lacked.  Faith.  For him there has been no star rising which calls him on a journey of faith, or if there has been he has chosen to ignore it.  You see in order to find the divine you need faith, persistance, and a will to seek God.  The wise men had these things, sadly the young man didn’t.

So what is the message for us? Well firstly if you are someone who has not come to faith, the three wise men tell you what you must do in order to have your own epiphany – take a leap of faith, seek knowlegdge and help when you need it, and be prepaired to let God lead you to your very own epiphany, where you can experience your own divine moment in receiving the gift of forgiveness and salvation through Christ.

For those of us who have already placed our faith and hope in Christ, what do we learn – presumably we have had our own journey, to our own epiphany, so what now? Well firstly our journey is not over, and there are many many more chances for us to experience the presence of God in our midst – we too must continue our faith journey following the model of the wise men.  We have another important role though – we are to be stars rising which call people to seek the King, we are to be the scribes and chief priests as we guide those who seek, and pass on our knowledge of the divine – and then we hand it over to God so that he might guide those who yearn for him the last steps on the journey – until they too experience their own epiphany.

May almighty God bless you and yours in the coming week.

Daryl.

The Word This Week:

• Zephaniah 3:14-20  • 
• Isaiah 12:2-6  • 
• Philippians 4:4-7  • 
• Luke 3:7-18

Thoughts on the Word:

Luke 3:7-18 (NRSV)

7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

10 And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ 11 In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ 12 Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ 13 He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ 14 Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

I have often been involved in conversations with people over the course of my life and particularly over the last several years who have this idea that Christianity teaches that in order to get to heaven all they have to do is be baptised and be ‘good’.  It is especially frustrating when the person expressing this view is someone who claims to be a Christian.  Now I am not saying these people are insincere in their belief, I have found most are very sincere – they are however dead wrong.  Another favourite often extolled by atheist evangelists is that people only believe in the Christian concept of God because they are afraid of going to hell – that Christianity’s main recruiting strategy is to scare people into the Kingdom.

John the Baptist certainly didn’t believe that fear was an acceptable reason to come to repentance and enter God’s good graces… Lets examine what John has to say to this crowd who had come – apparently to repent and be baptised.  John opens his address to the crowd rather scathingly… ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits worthy of repentance.  John knows that those who have come to him are not there out of a genuine will to repent and come closer to God – they are there to simply avoid ‘ the wrath to come’. This is simply not good enough, and John demands genuine repentance, and a genuine changing of the heart which will bear the fruit of repentance.  John demands not that they simply go through the ritual and be ‘good’, he demands that they genuinely turn away from their sin and display their new found faith in the way that they live.  John’s warning is clear, you can go through the ritual if you want, but if you aren’t living your faith genuinely then… Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.  Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’  You see John is warning them that if they repent to save themselves only, and don’t live a life of faith, that they are wasting their time – they will end up in the same place.  It is similar is it not to the message that James gives us in his letter – faith without works is dead.

Now like James, John isn’t preaching that we can earn our way to salvation, rather he teaches us that when our motivation is right – when we are focused on God and not on ourselves, then we will bear fruit in our lives.  When we are focused on God, we will share our spare shirt with the one with none, we will provide food for the needy, we will not extort and rob from those around us in order to serve our own needs.  No, when we are focused on God and His Kingdom we see the futility of storing up wealth for ourselves at the expense of others, after all when we understand God’s purpose and goal for humanity we also begin to understand his love for us, his forgiveness, and his generosity. 

We are called by our creator and our saviour to live our lives in relationship with him.  We cannot be in relationship with him if we are not living lives in alignment with his nature.  We cannot be in relationship with God if we ignore the needy, for God teaches us to care for them.  We cannot be in relationship with God if we ignore injustice – for God is just.  John as he prepares the way for the Lord, is telling us something very very important about our salvation.  Our salvation cannot be bought, and it cannot be earned.  We will not be saved by being baptised if we don’t have faith to accompany it.  We will not be saved through turning up to church each week, or as so many do now by turning up at Christmas.  We are saved by the grace of God through faith.  Faith that is genuine (not a get out of jail free card) and which has its focus on God – and not on us. 

John exemplifies this kind of faith, in all he does he takes no glory for himself, John understands that it is not about him.  When the people begin to wonder at John’s teaching and question whether he might be the messiah, John does not think to himself ‘oh I must be doing a good job – I’m sure to get my ticket to heaven now!’ … No, John when the people begin to place their focus on him, to praise him, rather does what he always did – what he and all of us are called to do – he pointed to God.  He even went so far as to say he is not worthy to untie the sandal of the one who is coming after him… this may seem a small thing in our eyes, but to John and his audience it had big implications.  John was saying that he was not even worthy to be treated as a lowest ranking servant.  Rather than thinking he should be rewarded for his work, John acknowledged that he was not worthy of the gift that was coming.

As we approach Christmas, it is a time for all of us to examine our own faith.  Are we living out our faith in such a way as to bear fruit? Do others look at us and see people of faith or just ‘nice people’? If John the Baptist were standing in front of you and you asked him what must I do?… what would he say to you?

John taught us that our focus, our lives and our faith must always be directed to God – and not to ourselves.  We cannot earn our way to heaven through rituals and being ‘good people’, we must live a genuine faith, we must walk in accordance to the will of God and bear fruit for the kingdom. So as we approach this time of Christmas let us keep our focus on God and the coming of his Kingdom.

I pray that you will be richly blessed in the coming week,

Daryl.

The Word This Week:

• Proverbs 1:20-33 and Psalm 19 or Wisdom of Solomon 7:26 – 8:1  OR
• Isaiah 50:4-9a and Psalm 116:1-9  AND
• James 3:1-12 
• Mark 8:27-38

Thoughts on the Word:

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

This week I want us to continue our focus from last week on the idea of faith as an active and living thing.  Last Sunday we focused on the words of James and his warning that faith without works is dead. We learnt in our reflection on these words that James wasn’t claiming that works in and of themselves are able to save us – we are not justified by works – rather what James is trying to teach us is that Jesus in calling us to faith is not asking us simply to ‘believe’.  We are called to a living and active faith, and in this week’s readings (especially those from Isaiah, James and Mark) we see what active and living faith looks like.
For this short reflection however I will focus on Mark.  

Mark sets the scene for us in this reading, he recounts Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Messiah, and then moves directly into Jesus explaining what must happen to him.  We shouldn’t miss the importance of this framing of the story – the Jews were (and still are) expecting a messiah who would be a conquering king, who would rule the Jewish nation in the world.  Jesus, though after establishing that the disciples knew that he was the promised messiah, begins to explain to them that he will be rejected by the religious leaders, and killed – how then could he be the messiah? Can you understand Peter’s frustration and fear? He had given up everything, to follow this Jesus character in the firm belief that he was the promised Jewish Messiah – and now, this guy was declaring not that he was going to rule over Israel, and restore the nation, and faith of the people – rather he was going to be rejected by the very people who in Peter’s mind would be the ones to endorse the messiah.  Then of course there was the fact this bloke was carrying on about rising from the dead as well – what would people think? No this had to stop! So Peter takes Jesus to task for his claims that he would be rejected, be killed and rise again. 

Jesus, calls Peter out for what he is doing – he has his focus not on heavenly things, but on human things – Peter is concerned about what Jesus says not because he has his focus on God, but because he is concerned about how this will reflect on him.  Jesus then speaks to the crowd and his disciples after his rebuke of Peter – he declares where people who would be his followers must put their faith, and how they are to live. 

We who would be followers of Jesus must do exactly that –  follow him – we are to ‘take up our cross’.  Now lets be clear here, Jesus isn’t asking all of us to volunteer for crucifixion – nor is he asking us to cart around a lump of wood for the rest of our lives.  However what he is saying is that being a Christian will mean that you are looked down on, you are ridiculed and judged for your beliefs and your behaviour.  When this happens your response though isn’t to retaliate, rather we are to respond with love and compassion, we are to follow Jesus and emulate him to the best of our ability.  WHen we are ridiculed or condemned for our faith we are to proclaim it all the more, for if we are ashamed of it, if we hide from the persecution we only show ourselves to be believers, and not followers – and Jesus will be ashamed us – just as we were ashamed of Him and the Gospel.

Be strong in your faith, be a beacon of love, of compassion and hope.  I know I fail at this every day, but my failure doesn’t dishearten me, when I see my failings I look to Jesus and give thanks that those failures are forgiven and that I can move on with courage to the next day, and try again to be the best follower I can be. I pray that you can do likewise.

I pray that God will richly bless you and yours this week.
Daryl.

If you would like to learn more about Jesus and why I and so many others are so keen to talk about him please shoot me an email using the Contact Us page.

The Word This Week

• 1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13 and Psalm 20  OR
• Ezekiel 17:22-24 and Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15 
• 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17  • 
• Mark 4:26-34

Thoughts on the Word:

It has been another of those weeks for me! I haven’t had a chance to write a sermon or reflection for this week, so I have provided below a fantastic reflection on this week’s readings from Dr. Bruce Epperly, which was originally posted here.  In big news though I will be moving into full time theological study in July as I discern a calling to ordained ministry – your prayers during this time would be greatly appreciated!

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This Sunday’s lectionary readings describe the surprising and unexpected revelations of God.  God is not a homogenous force, evenly distributing revelation across the universe.  Rather, divine revelation and inspiration are contextual, historical, and personal.  God has a vision just as we do.  While no one is left out in the interplay of call and response, God’s revelation is always personal and variable.  A shepherd boy is chosen as king; a mustard seed grows into a great plant; and a small child grows into the Christ.  God takes initiative, but our response and a supportive environment help God’s dreams come to fruition and new dreams emerge.  Where is God moving uniquely and intimately in your life?  What is God’s dream for you, right now and over the long haul?  Moreover, what are God’s dreams for you and for your congregation, and loved ones?  How can we open to God’s dream for ourselves and God’s dream for others?

The reading from I Samuel describes Samuel’s covert operation to choose a new king.  Saul has lost the spirit and the people need a new spiritual-political leader.  The choice will come from one of Jesse’s sons.  The most likely candidates are passed over until Samuel comes upon the youngest and least equipped, David, who becomes God’s choice for king.  God sees deeper into the heart than humans do.  Beyond appearances, there are deeper gifts and possibilities, hidden to the untrained eye.  God uses small and unexpected events – and unlikely people – to be great agents of revelation.  Where might you discover God’s hidden work in your life in your community, and among your acquaintances?  Could you be “chosen” or “called” for a particular divine task?  What great calling are you hiding, even from yourself?

Psalm 20 is a hymn of protection and affirmation of the king.  God chooses, supports, protects, and guides the nation’s leader.  While we no longer live in a monarchy or theocracy, we can honor our leaders, praying that they are guided by divine wisdom.  Yet, in light of the universalism of revelation, is it possible that this Psalm relates to everyone?  Is everyone anointed in some way?  If so, this has profound spiritual and ethical consequences?   On the one hand, we need to awaken to God’s anointing of our lives – where is the King David or Queen Esther hidden in our lives?  Further, we need to care for all whom God has anointed.  That means doing the impossible – seeking the well-being and spiritual growth of all of God’s anointed ones – that is everyone, friend and foe?  Where are leaders, teachers, mentors, healers hidden – in the generosity of revelation, everywhere!

The passage from II Corinthians is complex and can be problematic, if taken literally and, frankly, as Paul may have intended it!  The good news in this passage is that we walk by faith and not by sight: we are called to awaken prayerfully to a deeper realism, undergirding the obvious.  God is at work – seeking in all things, God’s vision – despite appearances.  No one is God-forsaken.  Possibility is present even in the most dire circumstances, but we need to open to it and to cultivate a deeper vision and, then, faithful action to bring forth divine possibilities in unexpected and adverse contexts.

There is a touch of otherworldliness in the passage that can tempt the listener to turn away from the responsibilities of embodiment and earthiness.  Our true home is elsewhere, Paul claims.  We would rather be away from the body than alive in this world.  Perhaps, like Socrates in Plato’s Phaedo, Paul is yearning to escape the burdens of aging, imprisonment, or the infirmities that have come as a result of previous beatings.  Yet, if taken literally, this “Gnosticism” is not helpful in a world of mass starvation, political conflict, economic inequality, and global climate change.  While it is true that we live by ideals, by a vision of Shalom and personal and planetary healing, experiencing God begins right where we are as concrete persons in concrete situations with concrete responsibilities.

We do not need to flee the world but transform it! Our calling is to be spiritual explorers, looking for more than meets the eye, discovering treasures in unlikely places.  We are called to be new creations, and to bring together old and new, tradition and novelty, heaven and earth for the transformation of ourselves and the world.  As theologian John Cobb says, Christ is the principle and source of creative transformation.  Christ is already here working within us, but if anyone is “in Christ,” that is, aligns her or himself with Christ’s constantly living and evolving vision, he or she is a new creation.  “New things have arrived,” as the Common English Bible proclaims.  Keep awake for the new things coming!

Serendipity and synchronicity abound in the parables of the scattered seed and the mustard seed. (Mark 4:26-34)  Seed is scattered and its sprouts, growing into a great harvest.  Beneath the randomness of life, there is a gentle providence seeking growth, new creation, wholeness, and transformation.  Possibilities appear to emerge from nowhere – a way is made where is no way forward -and chance encounters change lives.  This is the often unseen and subtle of God who works for good in all things.  Even the least obvious, the mustard seed, can grow into great things, bringing sustenance and comfort to all around.

There is a quiet movement of grace in our lives. Unheralded, and mostly unobserved, changing the world not by bravado or coercion, or even celebrity status or miraculous demonstrations, but by constantly growing grace and emerging presence.  The miracle is in the moment – every moment.  Mustard seeds abound, seeds of grace are scattered broadly, children grow into leaders, and new creation bursts forth out of ashes.  Look deeply, feel sensitively, and pray constantly.  Awaken your heart, train your senses.  God is moving providentially in subtle moments of growth and surprise.

Bruce Epperly is a theologian, spiritual guide, pastor, and author of twenty two books, including Process Theology: A Guide to the Perplexed, Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living,  Philippians: An Interactive Bible Study, and The Center is Everywhere: Celtic Spirituality for the Postmodern Age.  His most recent text is Emerging Process: Adventurous Theology for a Missional Church. He also writes regularly for the Process and Faith lectionary. He may be reached at drbruceepperly@aol.com for lectures, workshops, and retreats.

This reflection was originally posted at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure/2012/06/the-adventurous-lectionary-the-third-sunday-after-pentecost/

The Word This Week:

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19

Thoughts on the Word:

John 17:6-19

”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Todays Gospel reading is a prayer.  It is not just any prayer either, it is a prayer said by Jesus himself.  So lets take a journey through this prayer – the last one we have recorded that all of his disciples would have heard.  After all they were asleep in the Garden when he prayed for the cup to pass from him, and all but the beloved disciple St John had abandoned him at the cross for fear of their own lives when he prayed to the father to ‘forgive them, they know not what they do’ and asked ‘why have you forsaken me?’   This then is something of a last will and testament of Jesus, where he puts forward his wishes for his ‘estate’ the treasures that he has built in his life on earth (His followers!).

So what does Jesus include in his last will and testament? He calls on His Father to fortify us and protect us.  He makes the great statement that as His followers we are in the world but we don’t belong to the world.  We belong to something much greater, we belong to the eternal kingdom.  It is important however that we take the time to understand Jesus’ prayer.  He didn’t ask the Father to take us out of the world, he didn’t say protect them from pain and suffering, or defeat their enemies.  No, what Jesus said was very much the opposite, the only thing that he asks His Father to protect us from is the evil one.  So how do we interpret that?  Well we need to interpret it in the context of the rest of the passage. 

Jesus says “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.” So when we read Jesus’ words asking the Father for our protection – from the evil one – we can understand that the protection he seeks from the Father is protection for our salvation.  Judas, was one of the 12, he was assured his salvation if he held true to his faith in Christ.  However that was not to be, and Judas having forsaken his faith in order to gain materially, was lost.  It is both a sad story and a warning to us that we too can fall into the trap of Judas if we take our eyes off of God.  In that instant that we turn away the evil one is in waiting and eager to prevent us from turning back to Jesus, just as he did with Judas.

However that is not all that Jesus prays for.  He also asks that we be one with each other, just as He and the Father are one.  He prays for a unified body of Christ, a Church of believers who are united and strong.  Sadly this payer is not yet fulfilled.  The Church of Christ has been separated since the Great Schism of the 11th century, when the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church separated.  Then around 500 years later, the Church split again, however this second fracture has been much more catastrophic for the body of Christ in terms of harmonious Christian ‘oneness’.

Some sources now suggest that there are over 30,000 different Christian denominations or faith groups.  Now of course we could probably group these into broader theological groups, such as Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Anglican, ‘non-denominational’ etc. however the very fact that this large amount of different church groups exist – often with groups of the same theological persuasion in the same town we have to concede that they exist because of disagreement.  After all if they all agreed, they wouldn’t need to be a separate group – they would merge, they would become one!

Now if we are honest we must admit that the biggest reason that there are 30 thousand or more denominations is our own pride and self importance.  A lot of groups are founded on nothing more than a relatively minor disagreement over the interpretation of scripture (and sometimes just one passage!) which if we were honest wouldn’t affect our salvation anyway! The truth is that the vast majority of groups calling themselves Christian can agree on all the very basics of the faith such as:

1. God is a Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus is the Son of God, begotten by God in his humanity, but eternally existent with the Father in the Godhead.
3. Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, but did not have sexual intercourse with him prior to the birth of Jesus.
4. All humans are in a fallen sinful state, and cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ.
5. Through putting faith in Jesus we receive the grace of God by which we are forgiven our sins, and are thus able to enter eternal life with God.

It is when we delve deeper that we run into disagreements – for instance.  One of the biggest disagreements within the Christian faith lies with the idea of the predestination of Christians to salvation – some interpret it as meaning that God only calls those he has predestined to save to be a Christian, we cannot resist that call and we will be saved, and of course once we are saved we are always saved.  The other view is that God calls all people, and gives us the opportunity to respond to that call of our own free will. This view of predestination also allows for people to choose to turn away from God and thus lose their salvation.   The two major proponents of these opposing views were John Calvin (hence the term Calvinist) and a man named Jacobus Arminius.  A more well know figure from the Arminian camp is John Wesley who of course founded the (original) Methodist denomination.

The most disappointing thing though is that whether you are Calvinist in your theology or Arminian/Wesleyan will never have any affect on your salvation.  As long as you have put your faith in Jesus you are saved.  You may have however picked up a hint of which side of the fence I sit in this debate from my comments on Judas forsaking his salvation in Jesus’ prayer a moment ago.

Of course the point of my rambling on about different theological positions and denominations is to point out the foolishness of it all.  We are all believers in the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross, and as a result Jesus says that we don’t belong to this world… and yet we have allowed the world, to separate us.  For this desire to break apart and form separate groups on matters that do not affect our salvation is certainly not something that comes from God, but is rooted in our own worldly views.

So let us focus on this prayer of Jesus in our reading today.  Let  us put aside the animosity we bear our fellow Christians, and seek to find common ground with each other.  Even a devout Roman Catholic and an ultra fundamentalist evangelical agree on the most impotant issue in our faith, that faith in Jesus is what saves us – let us focus on that key to our common faith (Jesus) and seek to rebuild and unite the body of Christ.

I am going to ask that you do something this week – some homework! I want you to think of the Christian denomination or group that you or you branch of Christianity believe to be most flawed or flat out wrong.  What I want you to do is to seek out some information on that denomination and in particular the beliefs you most believe to be wrong, and decide for yourself if these things that separate us are things that really matter, or whether they are simply disagreements over the ‘extras’ that we add to the core of the Christian faith. I want to add one rule to this though – you must seek your information from a source within that other denomination, and not simply go and discuss with your current minister or friends all the horrible things those ‘others’ do.  You can contact a minister in the other group, or source the information from official web sites or books from that group, but it is very important for you to understand the beliefs of others from their perspective as well as your own and you can’t do that if you only source information from people you know agree with your current views!

From now on I am also going to be praying a blessing for all of you that read my ramblings! I pray this blessing on you directly from the Word of God and ask that you would all pray this or a similar blessing for all who read here and for the growth of this ministry.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace (Numbers 6:23-26 NRSV)

Today’s post is a hijack of another blog.  I stumbled across it today on Pinterest.  Oh how I love Pinterest!  This post is not the last time you’re going to hear me mention Pinterest!!

The image below is one I found on Keeping It Personal.  It’s a site I haven’t come across before, but I look forward to spending time checking them out more thoroughly.  You can download a printable copy, and read the original post here.

If you’re anything like me, prayers are mostly inserted in between business.  Arrow prayers.  Shoot one up quickly when the thought is there.  Some days I slow down and make the time to really spend time talking with God, but honestly, it doesn’t happen nearly enough. 

In an effort to begin a new habit, I’m going to schedule prayer time for the next 31 days, and I’m challenging you to join me.  I’ll be using the image below to give me a starting point.  My prayers often revolve around my children, but rarely this sort of intentional praying.  I’m also going to share this with my family and discuss what each of these virtues means.  I know they won’t understand it all, but they’re smart kids and I don’t want to under estimate them!

It doesn’t matter how old your children are, or even if they’re not your children, you can pray for any child you love and care, even one’s who haven’t been born yet.  You can be praying for their future spouse as well.  It is NEVER too early to be praying for anyone, even people you haven’t met yet.

So will you join me?  Will you pray for the children in your life and see how God reveals himself?

Please let me know if you’re in on this challenge by way of a comment below.  Lets encourage each other.

The Word This Week:

• Isaiah 55:1-9  • 
• Psalm 63:1-8  • 
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-13  • 
• Luke 13:1-9

Thoughts on the Word:

Unfortunately I didn’t get to write you a sermon this week, so I have provided one on today’s Gospel written by Samuel D. Zumwalt, which I sourced HERE.

I apologise for my lack of writing, and will seek to not disappoint again next week! I do hope you get something out of the sermon below though.
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Sermon on Luke 13:1-9, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree 6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”

GROWING THROUGH PAIN

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We were back for the first day of classes after our seminary internship (or vicarage, as we called it back then). Old friendships were being renewed, and our first war stories from vicarage were being shared. That’s when Professor Robert Werberig, an artist, poet, and pastor, walked into the classroom to teach a course entitled “Pastoral Theology.” It was one of the most valuable classes future pastors would take although we didn’t know it at the time. He sat closest to us on top of his desk, lighted a cigarette, inhaled and exhaled a drag, looked deeply into our eyes, and said in his native New Yorker accent: “Everything bad that has ever happened to you is a blessing!”

There was a collective gasp from among this group of upperclassmen. We were stunned, and some of us looked at each other as if to ask, “He didn’t really just say that, did he?” Doubtless the next thought by each student was immediately to recall the worst thing that had ever happened to us. And you could sense this rising cloud of anger.

Professor Werberig said it again: “Everything bad that has ever happened to you is a blessing. If you were attacked by a large dog when you were a child, it was a blessing. If you were jilted and betrayed by someone you loved, it was a blessing. If you had a serious illness, it was a blessing. If you experienced the painful death of a loved one, it was a blessing.” And he paused to take another drag off his cigarette. (People actually could smoke in classrooms in those days.) And one person after another was ready to explode at him with seething anger. “I’m not listening to this” was in the air.

Professor Werberig said: “The blessing is not that something terrible happened. The blessing is that because you had those terrible things happen to you, you will better be able to minister to others in their suffering and their losses!” That last sentence probably kept us from throwing him out the window to fall eleven stories to the street below, but we were not convinced that he wasn’t being mean and insensitive.

During the remainder of that session, our professor began to teach us how to reflect on our lives and on our interactions with others. He led us in what could be called a Socratic dialogue in which he allowed people to offer their objections and then asked engaging questions. By the end of the class, we were not happy with Professor Werberig but he had led us through some of Paul’s teaching in Romans 5 and 2nd Corinthians 4-5. My three roommates and I spent the rest of the evening talking about that class. It was a conversation that continued for the next three weeks as we reflected together on our year of internship and, of course, on the bad things that had happened in our lives.

Two years later, Professor Werberig had returned to parish ministry, and I was a clinical resident at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and his part-time pastoral assistant in a parish in Irving TX. The year after that I began to serve as pastor of an LCA mission congregation on the south side of Dallas, and Robert Werberig continued to be my mentor, confessor, and friend for many more years to come. He died two years ago, but I think of him often with fondness and with gratitude to God for Pastor Werberig. When I was 25, I wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say, but I learned more about pastoral ministry from Bob Werberig than I did from most of my professors before or since.

NARCISSISM AND THE OLD ADAM OR EVE

We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We confess that every week as we begin worship. From our first parents right on down to us today, our root sin (in Luther’s words) is we do not fear, love, and trust God above all else. This is our age-old rebellion. We didn’t fall, as if it were an accident. We rebelled, and we still rebel.

Professor Werberig exposed this truth about his students when he challenged us to think about someone other than ourselves. We were (at least metaphorically) ready to stone him for suggesting that our own painful experiences could somehow work for good. Instead we went immediately to our own sense of loss and hurt and heartache as if ours were worse than anyone else’s because, well, they were ours!

Let’s think for a moment about these queries of the crowd to Jesus in Luke 13 concerning terrible events in that day’s news. Roman governor Pilate had mixed the blood of Galileans with that of their sacrifices. Jesus, why did that happen? A tower fell in Siloam killing 18. Jesus, why did that happen? Notice how Jesus answers. Essentially He says this life is short, fragile, and not all there is. Therefore repent, because it could be you! You can almost hear the words of Psalm 90:12 on His lips: “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

When bad things happen to strangers, we often get cold chills a little later as we think about how that could have been us. We say, “I passed through that very intersection not more than a minute before that terrible wreck.” We say, “That tornado came within six blocks of my house.” We say, “I know somebody that used to work with her, and she was five years younger than me!” We say, “I can’t help but think how that could happen to anybody.”

Now when bad things happen to us, it is entirely different. We feel the loss in a deeply personal way, because our relationships are irreplaceable. The statute of limitations on grief does not run out. How could it? We are the sum of our relationships (Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote “I am I and my circumstance”). It takes time to come to a place of acceptance about the new and not better circumstance. Our losses can, in time, become occasions for growth as empathetic and caring persons. Yet the narcissist in each of us can also become so wrapped up in these personal tragedies that we can become embittered and destructive, trying to throw God out of our world.

The old Adam or Eve in us is a born narcissist. He or she is the center of the universe, and that makes it God’s responsibility to explain Himself to us. One often overhears people talking about their loss of faith because of the terrible things that happened to others or to themselves. Instead of recognizing that God is God and we are not, the old Adam or Eve builds a rather childish case for why he or she is not a believer or not a worshiper. Only a narcissist looks at her or his own tragedies and losses as if they were weightier than all those that happen or happened to others. A walk through an old cemetery can be an eye-opener for the person who is willing to become a recovering narcissist. The older the cemetery the more stories one finds of inexplicable losses. Hang out in a hospital waiting room, and you will always find people with painful stories.

Jesus’ parable in Luke 13:6-9 is, of course, a judgment parable. It is, again, not an explanation of why bad things happen to people (good, bad, or otherwise). Jesus’ parable challenges God’s people then and now to look at their (our!) lives through God’s eyes. Is God the center? Am I seeking to do His good and gracious will? Am I ready to learn from and grow through the pain in my life? Or will my end game simply be to live and to die unto myself as if this were all there is? Jesus’ parable is a call to repentance, to turn from the old narcissistic life to the new God-centered life! The point of God’s Word of judgment is always, in this life, to drive us out of ourselves to His mercy in Jesus Christ!

IT MAKES THINGS GROW

Manure is still a popular fertilizer even for people far removed from the farming world. Doubtless there are farm folks having a good laugh as each townie or suburbanite pays for those bags of manure at the home improvement store. Work it into the soil at the right time, and manure puts fruit and vegetables in the garden and gorgeous blooms in the flowerbed. Small wonder, then, that Jesus uses such an obvious example to teach us about how the bad things in our lives can become blessings as the Holy Spirit helps us to grow and deepen in faith, hope, and love.

God’s best answer to the narcissist in me and in others is the innocent suffering and death of His beloved Son Jesus. Through His saving work on the cross, God’s Son Jesus has destroyed the ultimate power of sin, death, and evil. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, “now we see through a mirror dimly but then face to face.” Our capacity for grasping the Master’s plan is always limited by our mortality. On this side, death always seems to be the worst thing imaginable because it cuts off lives far sooner than most of us are ready and separates us from our most treasured earthly relationships.

The great good news of Jesus Christ our Savior moves from the objective to the subjective. This Gospel gets applied to each person who is baptized when Christ’s work is declared for this one! Let’s be clear. Baptism is not our work. Baptism is God’s gracious work of choosing us sinners for the sake of His Son Jesus. It is what Augustine called a visible Word, God’s Word joined to the earthly stuff of water to declare a new child of God where there was none (John 3:5). This one is marked with Christ’s holy cross and sealed with the Holy Spirit. This one has been buried and raised with Jesus to share in the life and love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This one is set apart and joined to the people of God of every time and place. As Peter says, “Once you were no people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

So then what is our response to God’s work for us and in us? Repent and believe this good news is for you! Trust the promise made to you in your Baptism. Of course, the old narcissist in me and you won’t leave us alone until he or she is finally dead and buried. The old narcissist still tries to turn faith into something we do, when, in fact, faith is the trust God the Holy Spirit calls forth from us as we hear this Good News of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. Jesus has lived the life none of us can live and died the innocent death none of us can die. All this, says Luther, God’s Son has done that I may be His and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness (Small Catechism, 2nd Article of the Creed).

This life is short, fragile, and not all there is. That’s the point of today’s story and parable in Luke 13:1-9. The old narcissist in us fights going into the waters of Baptism and into the grave, because he or she doesn’t want to let God be God. How stupid is that?

When the new child of God in us faces the pain and suffering of this life, he or she knows that her or his suffering has been joined to that of Christ Jesus. Our pain and suffering stinks just like manure; Christians are not masochists. But with God’s help, we can grow and deepen as children of God who, in turn, become blessings to those we serve.

This is why Paul can write: “…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

Yes, Robert Werberig was right. I hated it then, and I still don’t much like it.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Word This Week:

• Jeremiah 1:4-10  • 
• Psalm 71:1-6  • 
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-13  • 
• Luke 4:21-30

Thoughts on The Word:

Luke 4:21-30

Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Today we look to Jesus the outsider.  In today’s Gospel account Jesus returns to his home town, he reads to the congregation, from the prophet Isaiah, and declares that the scripture which he read has been fulfilled.  A clear implication that He is the fulfillment of the scriptures.  Now we may well expect that Jesus would be preaching to the converted, that here in Israel, and especially in his home town the message of the messiah would be understood and welcomed.  However Jesus is not well received at all, in fact the crowd looks to him with disbelief.  Jesus sees this failure of faith in them and turns the conversation on its head – he says what they are all thinking – ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town.  You see the congregation in the synagogue at Nazareth figured that they had this God business sorted, they had been coming to synagogue every week for their whole lives, they were a part of the chosen people, it was all good for them! So who is this Jesus character – the carpenter’s son no less – to come in and start preaching to them? What is he declaring about himself – he couldn’t be who they say he is – we know how all this works!

Jesus then rams home a point that the congregation really doesn’t like – he tells them ‘… there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’  You see Jesus is letting this congregation know something important – Just because you turn up to church each week, just because you believe in God doesn’t mean that you will recognise Him or his message – even when it is right in front of you! We see in the recounting of stories of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, that God will work through and give his blessing to whoever he pleases – even to the outsiders, those who aren’t a part of the special group. 

When we look at the Church today, I wonder if we have not become a little like the congregants at the synagogue in Nazareth.  What I see increasingly around the world in all but a few branches of the church is a level of comfort that has led to arrogance.  The church is so confident that it has this God thing sorted that it has even begun to reject the parts of God’s revelation that it doesn’t like – after all, we are exceedingly clever and if we don’t like that God’s word says marriage is between a man and a woman, then we will just ignore that.  Likewise that part about Jesus being the ONLY way to salvation doesn’t fly to well with the masses, so we’ll alter that to say he is our way – but you might have another.  Then of course there is that word ‘sin’, scripture tells us that we are to reject sin, that we are to turn away from it and seek to live according to the will of God – but that doesn’t seem to go down well with the world… so why don’t we just focus on the ‘love’ parts, God loves us so it doesn’t matter what we do, or how we choose to live.  Just forget about Jesus message to the woman caught in adultery – I’m sure he meant to say ‘get up and go back to your adulterous love affair, its OK because I love you’… The bible must be wrong where it records his words as ‘Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’…

I hope you will forgive my sarcasm.  What I also pray though is that you will see that we cannot continue on the path that so much of the church is treading,we must be prepared to see God and accept His revelation to us – We cannot continue to reject it in favour of our own.  It might not sit well with the world, and it may not sit well with the Christians around you either, but we must return to a model of Christian faith that is founded upon the revelation of God.  Yes it means we will be outcasts, yes it means we will be considered to be fringe dwellers – maybe we might even be tanned with the fundamentalist brush – but the fact is that God has revealed to us the way we are to live in His word, and through the traditions and interpretations of the church, established over two millenia. Some of those will make us the object of ridicule, some will cause us to lose friends, to be rejected by family…

Remember though there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’

There are many who claim allegiance to God today, just as there were many widows and lepers in Israel.  How many of us who claim to be followers of Christ are prepared to follow Him fully though? How many are prepared to declare that sin is not OK and that we should not merely accept it but seek to turn away from it, how many of us are prepared to become the object of ridicule, to be considered the fringe dweller – the outsider like the widow at Zarephath, or Namaan the Syrian?  Let us not fall into the trap of the congregation at the synagogue in Nazareth, because if we reject the Word of God as they did, if we are determined to throw Jesus from the cliff, He will pass through our midst, and we will be lost.

God bless you this week,
Daryl.