Sermons

Massacres & Disasters Isaiah 55: 1 – 9;  Luke 13: 1 – 9   What we value shapes our life and death. A murderous massacre and a natural disaster feature in our readings this week. The massacre is all about politics. The second is about a faulty building. In each many meaningless deaths take place. I read these readings before dawn last Monday, which is my usual custom. But my own context was so strange by comparison. I had spent Friday to Sunday enjoying the sport I fell in love with at the age of 14. The Grand Prix is a bit of a circus and for the motoring enthusiast there is plenty to see including classic racing and sports cars that brought back memories of my first car race and grand prix. For your information I wonder how many of you realise that today F1 racing cars are hybrids combining electric and petrol engines with the ability to harvest extra electricity from the energy generated when breaking. Anyway the point I want to make is this: there I was enjoying the luxury of the GP circus and at that time 50 people had been massacred in Christ Church, NZ.  Then on Monday night we sat and watched Q&A, which was all about the natural disaster of the recent Queensland flood in which 650,000 head of cattle died. The stories of devastation in the natural disaster and the massacre were over whelming. How can one be enjoying some indulgence when such things have happened?  When such sad occasions occur it is not surprising to hear the question, ‘What is God doing?’  Of course we don’t hear that question so much in our society today because we are such atheists or agnostics and our secularism excludes such questioning. Hearing the words of Luke’s account of the Gospel we can sense that question was alive.  It must have been posed. Jesus’ response to the questions about the deaths of those Galilean zealots suggests some were using that wonky theological framework that bad things happen to bad people. Jesus makes it quite clear that the tragic deaths of those massacred and those killed by a falling building had nothing to do with how sinful they were. God does not punish us in this way.  Jesus is saying something far more serious. When we read this text in its political context we see that Jesus is warning his hearers about their response to their political reality. The Galileans were known for their fierce military resistance to the Roman Empire.  So Jesus’ warns his hearers that unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did [Lk 13:3]. Jesus is saying that unless they turn away from violence they too will die violently. ‘Repent’ means turn around and face another way. Likewise the comment about the tower of Siloam falling and crushing people is a reference to Jerusalem’s inability to hear the Gospel of Jesus. And Jesus is saying to Jerusalemites that their hardness of heart towards the Gospel will mean that they will be crushed by the destruction of this city. In fact some 37 years or so later that is exactly what happened. Jerusalem took up arms against the Empire and the city and temple were raised to the ground. The message is that violence is not God’s way. Take up violence and you will die by it. The message is also that what we treasure will shape our life and death. This teaching is relevant for us today. It contains a deep truth. It goes like this. If your focus is away from God and on other things then you will live and die by those things. For example, if our focus is on material things it is by those things you will live and die. The material will take up all your energy and time. The material will become the measure of your worth or un-worth. In other words life and death are defined and judged by the material. Great acquisitions will be a blessing to you. Shopping will be your therapy. The sadness of material acquisitions is that they never satisfy and so you must strive for more. Our increased acquisitions also come at the expense of others. However when your acquisitions fall away so does the meaning of your life. The end of your life will be measured by what you have or have not. Furthermore when you die you leave your acquisitions behind and you are nothing. You are nothing because your life has been about acquiring things and they, as Jesus has said, will rust and perish.  They have no eternal value and meaning. They have little relevance to others.  This truth applies to everything other than God. If I was talking to people who are not believers in God I would be saying that this truth means your spiritual life is shallow and of little meaning. I would argue that a shallow spiritual life does not prepare us for the hard times that life brings.  It is not surprising that those who shun God turn to therapies like mindfulness and meditation for strength to deal with life’s offerings. Whether we live solely for our children or for education or independence this truth applies. These things fall away and we are left with the ‘me’ that is largely empty. The true irony of life is that when we give ourselves to God we see this world differently. We find a lasting meaning. We gain a new purpose in life that rescues us from the self.  We discover a new appreciation of life. And our happiness turns to a deeper sense of well-being – what the Bible refers to as joy.  It is a good thing to audit our lives if for no other reason than that we may come to the sunset years of our lives full of regrets. We may enter our sunset years realising that we have put too much energy here and there

Foxes & Fowls (Psalm 27) Luke 13: 31 – 35 Foxes and fowls don’t go together as the one preys and the other lays. The fox is seen guileful and the fowl is guileless. Two very contrasting animals and Jesus speaks of Herod as a fox and he likens himself to a mother hen.  This passage is most helpful to us as it goes behind the scenes. We are used to stories about Jesus calling disciples, teaching, healing and exorcising demons. But here we encounter some off stage remarks and hear of Jesus’ personal feelings.  This passage corrects our one sided picture of the Pharisees. Reading through the Gospel accounts we can easily conclude that all the Pharisees were against Jesus.  However Luke tells us that some Pharisees warned Jesus about Herod’s desire to kill him.  These little statements remind us that Jesus’ world cannot be described in a few black and white statements such as ‘the Pharisees were against Jesus’.  They were not all against him. Some like Nicodemus came and listened [Jn 3] and some of those who listened respected Jesus and a few like Joseph of Arimathea possibly followed Jesus.  Joseph we are told was a respected member of the Council who had not consented to Jesus’ death [Jn 19:38; Mark 15:43; Lk 23: 50f].  The Pharisees themselves like all groups had their own sub-groups. We might think of some Pharisees as conservative others more liberal; some strictly traditional others more flexible; others would be protective while others would be adventurous. Some were respectful and supportive of Jesus. They warned him. This passage tells us what Jesus thought of Herod – he was seen as a fox by Jesus. That was no compliment. William Barclay says that the Jews of Jesus’ time regarded the fox as the sliest of animals, the most destructive of animals and finally as worthless. So to call a person a fox was a grave insult. It was a brave thing to insult a king. There is the story of Hugh Latimer, a leader of the reformation in England, preaching in Westminster Abbey and King Henry VIII was present. Latimer was an outspoken critic of King Henry’s marriages. It is said that Latimer on this occasion soliloquized in the pulpit saying; “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say.  The King of England is here!”  Then he went on, “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say. The King of Kings is here.”  The courage of such people mimics the courage of Jesus who took his orders solely from God, not from the wisdom and fears of this world. So too are we to do.  Did Herod deserve Jesus’ insult? Well Herod’s father, known as Herod the Great was a ruthless vassal king for the Romans maintaining peace and his position ruthlessly executing people who threatened or stood in his way. He had 10 wives and 15 children. His son Herod Antipas is the Herod in Jesus’ time who had John the Baptist beheaded and questioned Jesus before the crucifixion. This Herod was educated in Rome and Caesar Augustus appointed him Tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea after his father’s death. He claimed to be Jewish and celebrated the Jewish festivals but he was seen not to be genuine. His conduct possibly justly earned him the insult ‘a fox’ who pretended to be Jewish but supported Rome enjoying the Emperor’s favour. Herod reportedly had built the new capital over a Jewish cemetery naming it Tiberius after the Emperor. This tells us so much about Jesus.  It tells us what he feels and thinks, not what he does and teaches. In the first place he thinks that Herod Antipas is a fox. Herod is the cunning political manipulator obtaining his purposes at all costs even when it means the head of a preacher and the death of another. This passage tells us what Jesus thinks of his work. He has come to cast out demons and heal the sick.  Casting out demons is about liberating people from the evil spirits that bind them. I have mentioned before evil is not about little demons running around trying to enter our lives. Evil arises when we sanction a little wrong-doing then allowing it accumulate. The accumulative power gained then demonizes us. It controls us. Evil about a force far greater than us that drives and ensnares us in practices that under different circumstances we would not accept.  The national socialism of Germany in the late thirties led good people to sanction the holocaust. The fear enshrined in the philosophy of Apartheid drove people to mindlessly ignore the injustice of the system. The fear of being swamped by hundreds of thousands of refugees has led this nation to sanction the incarceration of families and children causing great despair. Jesus died for our sins not because we were unkind or told a little lie, but because the awesome nature of sin became an evil that only complete and utter love could confront and destroy. Only Jesus could conquer the power of evil. And it is only through union with Christ Jesus that we become truly free to love. This passage tells us that Jesus came to heal us. The healing is not merely a release from pain but a restoration to a life of love, peace, joy and goodness.  Jesus’ mysterious answer about working ‘today and tomorrow, and the third day I must finish my work’ tells us that he understood the full significance of his work. The third day alludes to two instances in the life of Jesus. When he was lost his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, found him on the third day in the temple discussing God with the religious leaders. And the other obvious occasion is the day of the Resurrection – the third day after the crucifixion when he rose from the dead having conquered evil and set us free to be what God wants us to be. Jesus reveals more in his

The Life Giving Screen. Exodus 34: 29 – 35;  2 Corinthians 3: 12 – 4: 2; Luke 9: 28-36 Our readings present Moses and Jesus in the presence of God. Both of them radiate with the light of God. When Moses came down from the mountain his face shone with the presence of God. The people couldn’t cope with Moses’ radiant face. Jesus’ disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration struggled with the change in Jesus’ appearance when his face and clothes became dazzling white [Lk 9:29].  A cloud came and covered Jesus, Peter, James and John. Let us also remember that the cloud is a metaphor for God’s presence. In the Exodus Moses and the people follow the cloud by day because this is the way God leads them through the wilderness to freedom [Exodus 13:21,22; 40: 36-38]. When they stopped the cloud hangs over the Tent of worship symbolising that God is present [Numbers 9: 15 -17; Lev 16:2]. The cloud symbolises the presence of God and simultaneously provides protection from the radiance of God. There is a sense that we cannot see God because the full presence of God is overwhelming. So the presence of Christ can be like a blinding light as it was for Paul on the road to Damascus. There is something unnerving about being in the presence of God. Glory and light are descriptors of God’s presence. It is said that one cannot endure the fullness of God for it overwhelms us. We might gain some understanding through our physical experience of gazing into a very bright light. The abundance of light rays strike the retina, which holds the rods and cons that are filled with light sensitive pigment. Normally when particles of light strike the retina the light sensitive pigment changes into a different form sending electrical impulses to the brain. When the retina is bombarded by a strong light or by looking directly into the sun, the retina becomes overly stimulated resulting in our eyes developing temporary black spots or blindness.   Today I want to focus on the use of a veil and the cloud as a screen.  A screen hides and protects. E.g. we use sunscreen to protect us from the harmful rays of the sun and simultaneously it helps us enjoy the warmth of the sun. I’m suggesting that Moses’ veil and the cloud both act as protectant and means of participation in the Presence of God.  We read that when Moses came back with the Ten Commandments after communing with God on the mountain his face was radiant. The Hebrew suggests ‘horns of light’ came from his face.  So bright was Moses’ appearance that the people were afraid to come near. They had to be encouraged to draw near to hear what Moses had to say. Moses chose to wear a veil to shield the people from this radiance. The Cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration acts in a similar way to the veil. The disciples go up the mountain to pray. During their prayers Peter, James and John see Jesus Transfigured before them.  A radiance emerges that can only be described as dazzling white. Peter says something that misses the point and the others are speechless.  At this point a cloud overshadows them. The cloud screens them from the radiance of Jesus and allows them to hear the voice of God.  The cloud in the Transfiguration of Jesus both conceals and reveals Jesus as God’s beloved.  We cannot escape the fact that this experience on the mountain is exceptional and confronting. Neither can we escape the conclusion that the disciples needed some screening from the dazzling revelation. God never exposes us to the full force of God’s presence, unless we are prepared for it. If we were simply to be exposed to the full measure of God we either would be overwhelmed or so mixed up that we might reject what we have experienced. The screens that God provide – the veil and cloud – speak of the graciousness of God who deals with us thoughtfully. Now screens are there to help us, but they can be used in a way that is harmful.  We can either end up with over or under exposure. Too much screening may prevent us from seeing or enjoying the benefits of the object. Too little may lead to over exposure. Both are unhelpful and unproductive.    Let us consider some of the over-screening or negative screening that happens in our lives. Our busy lives unintentionally prevent us from giving the necessary time to the important things in our lives – family, friends, self and of course God.  Our church attendance can often slide into one business meeting after another. We arrive at worship only to end up talking about business matters rather than matters of faith and mission.  There is the psychological factor of losing control. We don’t want to lose control over our lives; otherwise we might become vulnerable to God. We think that if we come too close to God we will lose our independence.  So we hold back. Ironically the further we stay away from God the more dependent we become on this world’s agenda; and vice versa the closer we come to God the more independence we have.  Intellectualism is a way of staying in control and avoiding the personal. By intellectualism I mean we keep the faith conversation to matters about God rather than matters of God. We avoid speaking of God in a personal way. That is one way we can keep God at bay. I listen to the conversations in the corridors of the Church’s buildings and most often they’re about God and the Church, not about our relationship with God. I sometimes think the emphasis of our ‘Joys-n-Concerns’ – our sharing time – is an example of that. We share things that are easy to share, not the matters of the heart and matters of the faith. Very seldom do we hear

A’dam-eve: Humanity and Living   Genesis 2: 8-9, 16 – 22, 3: 1 – 13, 20 – 24;  Psalm 8 Is  The Children’s Story sets our sermon theme today. The story of Adam and Eve has greatly influenced Christian thinking.   It was formed to help us understand our relationship to God the Creator. Traditionally it is taken to mean that God Created two people, a man and a woman, and placed them in a garden that met all their needs. But God gave them one command – not eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. Encourage by a serpent they disobeyed and God punished them by banning them from this garden. We go on to say that through our disobedience we have earned God’s anger and we need forgiveness, but we cannot really change our ways so Jesus came to die for our sins and save us. There are a few problems with this traditional interpretation.  Firstly, God is portrayed as a pernickety and punitive God.  I say pernickety because God sets up a rule, which inevitably will be broken.  And it follows that God is punitive because humanity broke a rule and consequently they were driven out of the garden. No forgiveness was offered, which contradicts the rest of the Bible story. Secondly, sin is reduced to an act of disobedience.  Thirdly, we need someone to take our punishment. This traditional understanding is essentially simplistic. The notion that God is pernickety and punitive flies in the face of the grace of God revealed in Jesus.  Defining sin as disobedience misses the depth of sin. Sin is much more than an act of disobedience. Now scholars have come up with many different interpretations of the Adam and Eve story. I wish to share with you an interpretation which I understand to be close to the mark.  I understand Jerome Berryman’s interpretation, which was expressed in our children’s story time, to be most helpful. I met Jerome in 1992 at the Banff seminar on religious education and values. There I saw him introduce his Montessori method of teaching the Bible to students, which he called Godly Play. I use his materials in Children’s Time on a Sunday. Jerome presented such a story to a bunch of international grey haired professors and leading educators. I was caught up in the method and I saw all these learned men and women equally enraptured.  My relationship with Jerome was renewed in Goslar, Germany and Carmarthen, Wales.  We got on well together. He certainly gave me an invaluable gift, which I hope is passed on to our children. Today’s lesson introduced another way of understanding this story, which he calls the a’dam- eve story. Permit me to enlarge on this interpretation of Genesis chapters 2 and 3.  Remember that when this inspired story came to the people of God they wrote in a language and a culture giving rise to a completely different understand from ours. We are Westerners. Our culture is dominated by a scientific way of knowing. We are wholly enmeshed in a view that fact is truth and truth is fact. We read things like this story with a type of literalism. We read it as if it was an historical narrative; hence some want to know where Eden was. We take Adam and Eve to be names of people, but they are not. They have become names of people. They weren’t then.  The name Adam is a literal taking of the Hebrew word a’dam, which means humankind. Wherever else the word is used in the OT it is translated humankind. Secondly, eve, means ‘mother of all living’. Let’s be clear about some of the facts included in this story. We are told that God created humankind in God’s image, male and female [Gen 1: 27].  Then God put humankind, a’dam, in a garden.  We are given the most general description of its location, which would be in northeastern Middle East. That’s hardly a location. The location of the garden is irrelevant to the story. What is relevant is that humankind is given responsibility to care for the garden and that the garden meets all their needs. They lived in harmony and peace with all their needs met. The point of having eve come from humankind’s ribs, is to show that male and female are essentially one. This story wants us to understand how disharmony, discord, dissension and division entered humanity. The two trees represent life that is living forever and life’s differences.  The knowing of good and evil is about coming to understand the differences in life. Good and evil are mentioned but they represent all differences such as high and low, close and far, male and female. The first lesson concerning humankind in this story is that humankind is created and has a Creator. It is telling us that our creation was good.  Good is a better word than perfect. Remember that the Bible uses ‘good’ not perfect. Perfect suggests no flaws and no need for improvement. Something is just perfect. Good means it meets God’s approval and is entirely satisfactory. Perfect means that we don’t need to change anything. Good implies there is room for change and growth.  God created a good world and gave humankind responsibility for it. That implies the dynamic of change and growth. The second lesson of this story is that humankind was created with freedom to choose. We often misunderstand the wonder of our Creator God, who made us in ‘his’ image and set us free to be creative and relate to God. One cannot have a relationship that is meaningful with someone who is not free to be themselves. I don’t think I need to explain that truth. How frustrating it is when we encounter people so tied to someone, or a set of conventions, that they can’t do anything without seeking permission. They seem to have no freedom to be themselves. The third lesson takes

HOMILY; 17 FEB 19 LEIGHMOOR UC “CULTURE CLASH” There is a fundamental culture clash between those who put their trust in God and those who pursue, fame wealth and fortune!  What differentiates between those of us who profess a belief in Christianity and those who don’t? We mostly all have the same sort of jobs with the same pay. We live in similar sorts of houses with the same sort of mortgages. WE all drive similar looking cars and send our kids to the same sort of schools while we go to the same sort of holidays as each other. We have similar spending habits too, buying the various consumer goods as each other. Our Bible references speak of there being two significantly different ways of living, a way that is blessed, but at odds with the world around us and a way that goes with the majority but leads to ruin. Down through the ages, I guess that Jesus’ words about ‘blessed are you who are poor’ and ‘woe to you who are rich’ has been causing his followers to look for loopholes ever since he spoke them. We have Luke’s words in front of us today but the better known Matthew’s Gospel version has some softening of the blow of these words. Matthew says :’Blessed are the poor in spirit’ and ‘Blessed are you who hunger for righteousness’. It is still hard to explain how one can be poor in spirit while focussing a lot of time and energy on trying to be at least as well off as those around us. We may not feel wealthy and there is a huge industry that keeps suggesting that we are not there yet. The Friendship Book 2014, for January 2 has this to say of relevance to us. “If you have never been in war, imprisoned or suffered from starvation, then you are better off than five hundred million other people. If you can read, then you are better off than the two billion who are unable to do so. If you can attend a church without fear of harassment, or worse, then you are better off than three billion people in the world. If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, then you are richer than three-quarters of your fellow human beings. If you have money in the bank or your wallet or purse, then you are among the top eight per cent of the world’s wealthy” When it comes to counting your blessings, there is no ‘but’ about it, we in Australia are mostly rich. Rev Nathan Nettleton from the Baptist church, South Melbourne says that If we take the words of Jesus simply at face value then he is saying “it is spiritually good to be in the bottom half of the spectrum and spiritually disastrous to be in the top half”. What do we make of this when the likes of me and suppose many of you too are in the top half of the top half of the top half? If we are comfortable in the top half of the top half why do so many of us often feel anxious about keeping our heads above water and act like we are struggling to make ends meet?  My impression is that most congregations today in the long standing denominations are in situations more like Luke’s world who had wealth, were full, and laughing, and were in good social standing according to the standards of the old age. Only a few contemporary Christians and congregations are hated. A bomb or two were recently thrown in to a worshipping church service in the Philippines. It does happen. Those pursuing wealth and comfort have put their faith in something other than what Jesus calls us to put our faith in. We are also told ‘We cannot serve two masters”. There is just so much greed and dishonesty out in the business jungle, worldwide. When the Iraq Gulf war erupted it was a British newspaper asked: “Where to invest our money if it’s war in the Gulf?” [Which war was among the oil wells]. When the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred , the USA leaders implored New Yorkers to shop, shop, shop so to power up their economy. We in Victoria have noted the report received from the Royal Commission into banking practises. Why did the Bank shares then increase? It seems that the expected penalties will be light on. The accumulation of possessions is an insidious addiction making it impossible for us to embrace things that are the way to salvation. Jesus invited the rich and poor to follow him. His message is one of reconciliation of all to all but he is also being very realistic about the fact that some have the inside running and some don’t. ”Blessed are you.. Woe to you..”. At Leighmoor we have some challenging times ahead. Our Minister and his wife are retiring at year end. At present levels of giving we will run through the cash reserves too quickly if we want a full time replacement. If we don’t adequately maintain our buildings they will end up not being usable. WE are short of sufficient volunteers to carry all the tasks of running the Parish. There is much need of services in our community where Leighmoor may be able to host, like some floor space when the Men’s shed make their move. What as individuals are we able to offer to allow our welcoming friendly Parish have an increased outreach to our community? I cannot answer that but let me finally give you an example:-“There was a mailman, John Hand, who drove his mail truck through some hills in California some 80 kilometres each day. The route was plain, all brown and virtually no colour. One day he began to throw out wild flower seeds out his window as he drove. Today you’ll find beautiful patches

The First and Best in our Calling Malachi 3: 1 – 5;  Acts 1: 1 – 14 [This Sermon was preached on 02/02/2019 at the Gippsland Presbytery Induction Service.] You might wonder why I chose an OT reading that we usually read in Advent.  The Acts 1 reading is self-evident on this day when we induct two new Presbytery Ministers with Mission as our focus. So why Malachi?  When I was preparing for Advent 2 I was also conducting discussions regarding Presbytery Minister placements. The Malachi reading spoke to me of God’s Mission. Our Church is highly focussed on mission and it does coincide with our decline and the situation we are in. We’re heavily into writing mission statements. So what should be our motivation for mission? Declining numbers or… ?  Today I want to make three points about mission from a Biblical and Theological perspective.  And I hope they will be helpful.   Firstly, I want to say that God has established the Church’s mission. The word mission comes from the Latin missio, which means to send. God’s sending and providing the mission is found in Judaism’s beginning story.  It is in Genesis 12 and the calling and sending of Abraham and Sarah. In verse 3 God says to them;  “I will bless those who bless you, … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We are blessed to be a blessing. It is not too hard so see that the Great Commission in Matthew 28 reflects the essence of God’s sending of Abraham and Sarah and that of Isaiah 66. Secondly, the notion of being blessed to be a blessing provides us with the source of God’ s mission. The notion of ‘blessed to be a blessing’ saves us from skewing God’s Mission into personal salvation or social justice, which we have been doing for centuries. Personal salvation and justice are by products of the ‘blessing’ not the essence.   If we think of our life experiences most of us would say that our greatest blessing comes from being loved.  We may not use the term blessing, but being loved is the source of feeling good about self and life. Being loved is the power that steers us through the winding up and down road of life.  Being loved helps us love ourselves and consequently love others. I can’t imagine Abraham and Sarah not having a sense of being loved. It may not be how they would have described it. But the call and sending of this mysterious God would have made them feel worthwhile, positive, hopeful and thankful. They were energised by the call and sending. In Deuteronomy 6 we find the Shema, which instructs us to: Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. [6:4&5]  What seems a duty to love God is really a pathway to blessing. For to show love to someone usually results in love returned. That is what they experienced.  God loved them; God blessed them; God gave them a task and equipped and sustained them.  Their hearts would have pounded with gratitude.  I think we under estimate the power of gratitude – praise – thankfulness. The OT resounds with praise. And we sit here today because of love given to God resulting in loved extended to the world. That is why Paul, a Jew and scholar of the Hebrew tradition encourages us to ‘rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; …’ [1 Thess 5:16-18].   It is interesting how the wholistic health services pick up on the importance of gratitude. I read an inspirational message on the Chiropractors wall; ‘Interrupt anxiety with gratitude’. Exactly! I say. “Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.”  We read in A.A. Milne’s, Winnie the Pooh. Imagine the power of the Church if our words and actions expressed a deep gratitude. Praise is not only our duty, but it is life-giving, and in that it is the first missionary action. We cannot underestimate the power of deep gratitude in the face of death. The Church’s history tells the same story. So not surprisingly the Westminster Confession states that humankind’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever. When we love God in our worship we let God’s love overwhelm us [Source 373] and we become ‘lost in wonder love and praise’ as Charles Wesley wrote in that beautiful song, “Love Divine all loves excelling’ [TiS 217].  Through God loving us we become positive, joy-filled and thankful people. Such joy-filled people make a difference.  Thirdly, if blessing is the source of our missionary work it is also the nature of God’s Mission, as we have seen.  The teaching about worship proceeding justice is integral to the teaching found in Amos, Isaiah, the first letter of John and Jesus’ own teaching in the sermon ‘On the Mount’. Read Amos in its context and one sees that God’s disgust with the people’s worship is because it is self-serving worship.  Self-serving worship leads to self-serving living. Right worship leads to right living and vice versa. We are sent into the world to bless it. We do this through loving our neighbour.  The command to love our neighbour is mentioned once in the OT [Lev 19:18]. However again and again we are told to care for the land and to provide for the widow, the orphan and the alien.  I love the word alien. It says so strikingly that this person doesn’t belong in the land. They’re foreigners like those ‘backdoor’ refugees of ours. But God’s people are told repeatedly – take care of the alien. Provide for their daily needs.  I’m puzzled by the lack of compassion for refugees today in some quarters of the Church.  So what

United as One. Nehemiah 8: 1 – 10; Luke 4: 14 – 21; 1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 31a   The grand themes of community and God’s blessing are presented in our texts this Sunday. They remind us of the importance of community and how community works. They contain rich veins of golden truths. I hope you will see these truths afresh today and be blessed. In being blessed we will be a blessing to others.   We’ll start with Jesus in his home synagogue. Luke tells us that Jesus filled with the power of the Spirit returned home to Nazareth. Jesus must have been on a high. His ministry had started well. People had come to hear him in the synagogue, market place and hillside. Many had been healed. Demons had been cast out. People had been amazed at his authority. Naturally he attended his home synagogue where he read from the Isaiah scroll.  The Isaiah writings were as important then as now. Jesus chose to read what we know as Isaiah chapter 61.  Our chapter and verses are a modern invention established about 600 years ago. Whether Jesus chose this text specifically or whether it was set for the day we don’t know.  The point is that the book of Isaiah is filled with prophetic pictures of God’s future.  The section Jesus read describes the day of the Lord when the Christ / Messiah will bring the Goodnews that God will restore justice and peace to the earth. The people longed for God’s restoration of Israel and the establishment of justice and peace for all.  Jesus read this text and by his manner and action claimed to be the prophetic Messiah / Christ figure by saying that this word was being fulfilled in him.  I am not going to focus on the theme that God’s time of blessing and restoration includes justice, which emerges in many places in the Bible.  I am going to focus on what is implied by Jesus attending the synagogue. Jesus’ attendance affirmed the importance of God’s people gathering together.  We often glide over these references to Jesus in the synagogue without considering the implication. Yes, it would have been practical to go to the synagogue because that is where the people went on the Sabbath, but Jesus also went to worship God. To worship God is our duty. It is our duty to worship God and our duty to be with each other. We come here not for ourselves and hopefully not out of pure habit, but we come to worship God and be here with each other, because God looks forward to our collective praise and worship. Turning to the Corinthian reading we read one of Paul’s famous passages on the gifts of the Spirit and also about the importance of the Church as a community. Corinthians chapters 12 – 14 are crucial to understanding the nature of the Church – God’s community.  Incidentally I did my masters on these chapters.  They’re very special to me.  They are special to all of us  Last Sunday you focused on the first few verses of chapter 12 with its emphasis on diversity and the gifts of the Spirit. The diversity we have in the Church then and now is part of God’s creative order. But diversity to be a blessing requires unity. The gifts of the Spirit are given to individuals, but not for the individual’s benefit. The gifts and talents we have are not what we have earned or created – they are gifts. Our gifts and talents are given for the benefit of others. We aren’t given all the gifts. We each have a few gifts, which are different. For us to truly benefit we need access to all the gifts.  The only way we can benefit from all gifts God provides is through the fellowship of the Church.  To put it simply my gifts bless you and yours bless me. Inherent in our humanity is the need for others. We are the person we become because of the contributions of others to us and vice versa.  Our reading of Corinthians ends with an enticement of a more excellent way [1 Cor 12:31]. Paul goes to explain that love is the most excellent way and all we do should be done in love. We find that in chapter 13. That’s the chapter that every bride and groom thinks was written for them. We call it the ‘hymn of love’.  Sorry to disillusion you, but it wasn’t written for your wedding; it was written for the Church universal. Our gifts are to be used lovingly for the whole of Christ’s body.  Paul moves from talking about the community’s diversity, unity and God’s gifts to exercising the gifts in love. This flow of theological thought indicates that Paul didn’t write in chapters and verses. He just wrote a letter. Corinthian chapter 12 uses the metaphor of a human body to describe the nature of the Church and its unity. We are one body – the body of Christ. We are one body and each individual is a part of the one body.  Paul used a Greek word, which we translate as member, which really means ‘a part of’. We should not confuse this meaning with our common use of member to describe our belonging to a club or organisation. Membership of a club or organisation is something we choose to exercise at our whim and fancy. Membership in the church is about being a part of one Christ’s body. The parts of my body form the whole of me. Each part plays and important part of who I am. When one part malfunctions it affects the whole body. So when one part of the Church is in pain we all suffer – just like our physical bodies. I don’t know about you but when I stub my little toe it makes an awfully big noise for its insignificant size. Do you pay much attention

Jesus’ Closest Companion. Isaiah 43: 1 – 7; Luke 3: 15 – 17, 21 – 22. Reading the Bible is like doing a large puzzle. Each bit of the Bible you read is a piece of the big picture. Each piece fits into another to make up the whole. It is a big task to do this jigsaw puzzle. It is bigger that a 1000 piece puzzle.  I think the Bible is a little like that. Last Epiphany Sunday I decided to put the ‘piece’ about the Gentile wise men coming to see the Christ child into the larger picture. So I built up an overview of the story of Scripture beginning with Abraham and Sarah through to Jesus and the Gentiles being welcomed into the company of Jesus and his followers. I think it helped a few of us. We have the same problem this Sunday.  We have a Biblical jigsaw piece – Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  We looked at the birth of Jesus and that is manageable. He has got to be born before he dies and is resurrected. But now we’ve jumped, it seems, to his baptism. We’ve got this piece in our hand, so to speak. Where do we put it? We’ve got Jesus being baptised by John the Baptist – Jesus’ cousin. John believed Jesus didn’t need baptism. John was popular. The people thought John was the Christ. John distinguishes between his ministry and Christ Jesus’ ministry saying that Jesus would baptise us with the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to John for baptism. John baptises him in the Jordan and afterwards the Holy Spirit falls on Jesus. The piece we’re holding right now is about the Holy Spirit. How / where does ‘she’ fit in? Today I want to respond to the Holy Spirit’s presence in the Baptism of Jesus,  by connecting this ‘piece’ about the Holy Spirit with all the other ‘pieces’ about the Holy Spirit.  All four Gospel accounts provide us with the same basic details about the Baptism of Jesus [Mt 3: 13-17; Mark: 1-9; Lk 3: 15-22; Jn 1: 28-34].   John was reluctant to baptise Jesus.  John baptised with water but the Christ would baptise with the Holy Spirit.   When Jesus was baptised the Spirit came upon Jesus.   Jesus confirmed as the Son of God.   We should note that Jesus’ baptism is an historical fact equivalent to the historical fact of the crucifixion. There is no debate that it happened. Where the discussion lies is in the reason for Jesus to be baptised by John. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, forgiveness and being made spiritually right with God.  We find it hard to work out why Jesus needed to repent, be forgiven and made right with God.   I am conscious that we can never understand perfectly the wonder of Jesus’ baptism, because we do not have every single detail before us.  However we can come to an understanding that will help us grow as Christians and fulfil God’s mission to be a blessing to others. So let’s have a go. Firstly it seems that Jesus wanted to be baptised by John because Jesus wanted to identify with humanity. In being baptised Jesus is saying I am human I need to identify with sin and experience forgiveness, because I will take on the sin of the world and confront it and break its power. That is one of the significant results of Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. That seems to be the best conclusion we can reach. We can certainly be sure that the Incarnation – the coming of God in the Christ child – is statement of God’s commitment to us and ownership of us. The presence of Christ Jesus confirms that God is for us. Secondly, we cannot avoid the obvious conclusion that the Holy Spirit is important in Jesus’ life. Here I want to return to the metaphor of the jigsaw puzzle.  Let us put some of the pieces together.  Pastor Sinclair Ferguson helps us when he says; “The best way to think about the Holy Spirit is to think of ‘her’ as the closest companion of the Lord Jesus.” Not only has the Spirit been the Son’s eternal partner in the uncreated fellowship of the Trinity, but also the Spirit was there with the Father and Son at creation [Gen 1:2]. The Spirit was instrumental Jesus’s conception [Lk 1:35], there at both his baptism [Lk 3: 22] and temptation [Lk 4: 1-2].  Luke mentions the Holy Spirit many times. We can be very grateful to Luke for that. For instances Luke tells us that, Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.  15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone [Lk 4: 14-19]. But Luke is not the only one to make this point that Jesus ministered in power of the Holy Spirit. Mark makes the same statement in a different way. Mark tells us that after Jesus’ baptism when the Spirit came and affirmed him as the Son of God, the Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness [Mk 1:12].  Mark leaves out a lot of details about the temptation and other things and shows us very quickly the power of Jesus’ preaching [1:15], his call of the disciples [1:16], the authority of his teaching [1:22], his power over the demons [1:24] and his power to heal [1:31]. In the space 16 verses we are given all this information. In other words Jesus’ authority and power resided in the fact that the Holy Spirit was with him. We are left with no doubt from the four Gospel accounts that the Holy Spirit is one with Jesus.  We can easily say that the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ closest companion.  Jesus had companions. They were good companions, but they wavered in their commitment, didn’t quite understand him, let their interests

God’s Inclusive Purpose  Isaiah 60: 1 – 6; Matthew 2: 1 – 12 Did God intend to have another religion or just expand the vision?  I went into the sailing shop this past week to buy a sailing hat. When I went up to pay there was a new person at the counter. The owner, whom I know, was possibly taking a break or on the water around Hobart. As he handed my credit card back he said; “You’re having some time off after your busy season?” I realised he had noticed my title ‘Reverend’ on the card.  I replied, ‘No, just back to normal.’  He quickly responded saying that it must be the Wisemen’s soon. I commented that he was spot on as it was Epiphany this Sunday. Then he remarked how some German visitors had expressed their amazement that the Australian churches have the wise men at Christmas time, whereas in Germany they celebrate the Wisemen’s visit two months after Christmas.  I said that the Germans are right.  The wise men were nowhere near Jesus’ birthplace at ‘Christmas’ according to the Bible. Our celebration of the birth of Jesus tends to telescope everything in a short time frame. It is liturgically helpful but historically unhelpful. That doesn’t mean that magi or wise men didn’t come from the east. It just means that we have to be more reflective to understand the meaning of all these events. So what does Epiphany Sunday stand for?  This story of the wise men’s visit tells us that the Gentile world recognised the importance of Jesus’ birth.  These wise men or Magi are Gentiles. They are most likely from Iran where the study of stars and planets was a developed practice.  The study of the stars combined the physical study of planets and stars – astronomy – and the interpretation of stars and planets and their affect on humans – astrology. What the wise men had observed were actual phenomena in the night sky. About 11 BC Halley’s comet came close to earth. There were three conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC causing a single bright illumination in the night sky. Jupiter was a royal planet and Saturn sometimes represented the Jews. So this makes the Nativity star credible, although the notion of resting above the stable is mere literary licence. What most likely happened was that these men saw the phenomena in the night skies. They reflected and studied and came to the conclusion that the heavens pointed to the birth of a significant king. They concluded from their reflection that Israel was the most likely place. They then resolved to travel and search for this king to be born. They did the most obvious thing. They went to the royal house of Israel, King Herod. There they were pointed to Bethlehem. These wise men were rational and determined pursuers of truth. The heavens had shown the importance and they resolved to be part of it: a not uncommon human trait. Epiphany is the revelation or manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. The magi / wise men are the first examples of the Gentiles coming to Christ.  The coming Christ meant the inclusion of the Gentiles as we shall see. Paul sees himself as the apostle to the Gentiles saying; This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles who have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel … . [See: Eph 3: 1-12]  To understand the full significance of the Gentiles inclusion we need to start the story at the beginning. Firstly, let us remind ourselves that Jesus was a Jew, as were the disciples and the first Christians. The Jews traced their history back to God’s call of Abraham and Sarah. The Creator God called them to form a new community beginning with their family. God agreed to bless Abraham and Sarah and their offspring forever if they followed God, and that Abraham and Sarah’s children and their children would be a blessing to all peoples.  In Genesis God says to Abraham and Sarah, “Go from your country …  to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, …, so that you will be a blessing …  and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” [Gen 12: 1-3] How could that happen? Abraham and Sarah began a community that pointed to God the Creator.  Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac, who in turn had Jacob.  Jacob’s name became Israel because he wrestled with God  [Gen 32: 27-28].  Israel had 12 sons one of which was Joseph. What followed was that during a major drought the family migrated to Egypt, the breadbasket of the world. Their brother Joseph was already there and had become a high official in the Egyptian government. God’s people found it very comfortable in Egypt and over stayed their welcome. They got caught up in slavery. 400 years later under the leadership of Moses, Miriam and Aaron the children of Israel with other slaves escaped [Ex 12: 38]. That escape we call the Exodus, which is remembered each year in the Jewish Passover. These escaped slaves became part of God’s Covenanted people – the Hebrews. They entered what we generally call today Palestine and settled there. They first lived in tribal groups, which were based on the 12 sons of Israel. Their leaders were prophetic and priestly figures. In time they wanted a king and Samuel the prophet and priest finally led them into a monarchy. From then on kings ruled the Israelites, while prophets worked at keeping the people faithful to God.  King David was the stand out king. King David became the model king for the Messiah figure.  (Of course Jesus didn’t fit the model of a successful military ruler and governor.)  

The Getting of Wisdom 1 Samuel 2: 18 – 20, 26;   Luke 2: 41 – 52 In a world where wisdom is scarce can I learn wisdom? The stories about Jesus’ birth and boyhood conclude with this commentary;  “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.” [Lk 2: 52] Likewise the commentator in 1 Samuel says that the boy Samuel “continued to grow in stature and in favour with the Lord and with the people.” [1 Sam 2: 26] Both Samuel and Jesus grow in stature and wisdom respectively.  Wisdom and stature are not dissimilar things. Both Jesus and Samuel grow in favour with God and humans. It is true both did not enjoy the favour of those who protected their self-interest or exploited the marginalised.  Those who sought God and longed for justice saw in both these men the promise of God.  I am not suggesting that they were of equal stature. But both Samuel and Jesus played significant roles in promoting faith in God.  Samuel helped keep the people faithful with prophetic words and wise leadership. Jesus called people into the Kingdom of God and bridged the gap between God and all humanity.  Yes, Jesus’ ministry was the greater, but both were significant leaders for God. What they had was wisdom. Wisdom is not the same as acquiring knowledge and being clever about things. Wisdom is the ability to successfully use knowledge to address the situations of life. Wisdom is not about oneself, but about others.  William Wordsworth said, “Wisdom is often times nearer when we stoop than when we soar.”   Humility is a major factor in the getting of Wisdom.   The wise person does not think of themselves as better, rather they see others as worthy of their respect.  “The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning. For by doubting we come to inquiry and by inquiry we arrive at truth.”  So said Peter Abelard, a 12th Century scholar and theologian. It is not surprising that Luke tells us Jesus was found by his parents “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding”. [Lk 2:46f] Then we read that he went back with his parents and ‘was obedient to them’.   Three important ingredients for the getting of wisdom emerge here:  Jesus’ humility and discipline, his questions and his listening.  We find some similar characteristics in Samuel. The willingness to obey, listen and learn.  Wisdom is never matter of knowing a lot of things.  Wisdom is how we apply what we know to the life situations we face and  to what extent our actions are for the benefit of all rather than the benefit of self. Wisdom is also about judging rightly. Wisdom has an ethical content. We’ve already hinted at this in talking about wise judgements being for the benefit of others. To be wise is also about knowing difference between right and wrong.  I am deeply worried when I hear significant people talk about having made a mistake, when in fact they have acted unethically. And in the next breath they speak about all of us making mistakes. The implications is that we are no different to them. True we all have a list of mistakes we have made, but we all don’t have a list of unethical actions we have made. Acting unethically, immorally and criminally is not about making a mistake it is about the ethics, morality and criminality of the situation.  The wise person understands the difference between right and wrong – the truth and the lie. There is truth in the saying that wisdom is a gift of God. But I believe the gift is something we acquire or develop as we draw closer to God. We become wise especially when we learn from the life, teachings and ministry of Jesus. Wisdom is godly in that it is god-like for there is no greater wisdom than the wisdom of God.  To be wise we must know God and ourselves. But as we seek to be wise by being humble, listening, questioning, learning we also seek the wisdom of others.   We should remember that the knife of keenest steel requires the whetstone, and the wisest person needs advice. That is why humility is so important.  How sad when people neither seek advice or listen or ask questions. Edward Hersey Richards wrote: The wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke; the less he spoke the more he heard; why aren’t we like that wise old bird? We enter another year with dramatic changes in our weather patterns;  huge challenges regarding millions of homeless people; countries still warring and perfecting the arms race; politicians remain hell bent on preserving their own brand;  technology undermining the community spirit;  and, our circuses of sport and entertainment numbing our mental awareness. Therefore we must pray for wise leaders to emerge and seek godly wisdom. And we need wisdom in the Church. It follows that when one is seen to be wise others will respect and hold you in high esteem. The story of The Richest Man in the Valley [Stories for Sharing p. 118] may help us see these truths and how they may work out in our lives.  There was a wealthy lord who lived in the Scottish Highlands. He was more than richly endowed with this world’s goods and amongst his vast possessions was a stately mansion overlooking a beautiful valley. However there was evidence that he remained unfulfilled and was uncertain about himself. He lived alone and was possessed by his possessions, as one would be. In the gate lodge at the entrance to his estate lived John, his herdsman and gatekeeper. John was man of simple faith and deep religious commitment. With his family he was a regular churchgoer. John’s faith was evident in his daily living and regular