Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 19 February 2017 Epiphany 7

Readings:  Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18     Matthew 5:38-48

Let us pray: may the words of my mouth and mediations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our sustainer. Amen.

We hear the commands for living in the way of God in the reading from Leviticus. Practical, caring, catching love to neighbour in all of them.  Then we come to the reading from the Gospel of Matthew this morning/evening, and perhaps quietly went ‘well that’s one of those ‘if only’ passages’ so we will just hold it loosely and move on.  What Jesus asks of us is problematic and can’t always be followed.  So we can’t be perfect as God is perfect.  

I want to start with a story of someone who came up against this and other teachings of Jesus in very practical way.  It sounds a bit contrived but they, lets say Joe, decided to live for a year following every tenet of Jesus teaching to the letter.  And so it was obvious what he had to do when, early in the piece, a person came to the door, telling a story of deprivation and need.  Joe gave them what they asked for and then, remembering the teaching of Jesus that if they ask for your coat, then give them your cloak as well, he gave much more that he was asked for. It was quite a few months later that there was another knock on the door, and lo and behold it was the same person with the same story and a look of expectation on their face.  Who can blame them?  I wonder what Joe did and what Joe was tempted to do?

 This is the kind of impasse that we often come to in these teachings of Jesus when we struggle to understand the context of the words and yet still try to apply them to us today.  And it often means that a very important teaching is put aside as not so relevant.  Jesus’ troublesome truths challenge us again this Sunday.

A colleague put me in touch with a paper by Walter Wink entitled ‘Jesus’ Third Way’[1] – some of you may be familiar with it – and it raises some very interesting challenges on our interpretations of this piece of scripture.

He first of all identifies the ways in which he feels Christians over the centuries have mis-interpreted this passage, where we believe that turning the other cheek means we are to allow ourselves to be beaten into submission while doing nothing.  Giving your cloak  and going the extra mile can also engender a sense of passive over indulgence in the hope that it will make a difference. 

Do we see Jesus in this submissive passive behaviour – we do not. 

Yet the only other alternative seems to be to hit back, only give what is asked for which are contrary to the teaching that we are to love, and love generously.  So in our desire to follow both the true word and to be realistic about our living in this world we have created what we call ‘just wars’ – where the need for protecting ones neighbour supersedes this impractical passivity – and we enter into the violence. 

Hence the title of the article – The Third Way.  Wink questions the interpretation and points to the similar phrase used several times in the Epistles, where we hear said ‘do not repay evil for evil’.[2]  And he says that the Scholars version of the verses in Matthew is the most helpful translation – ‘Don’t react violently against the one who is evil.’  Jesus is not saying to do nothing and be browbeaten into the ground – no, he is telling us to stand up to evil but not with the weapons of evil.

A little context here might help.  Jesus here says something quite strange and superfluous if we are talking about someone hitting you and you not hitting back.  He tells us what cheek we would be first assaulted on: the right one.  And as the left hand was, in those days, considered unclean and you could be excluded from the temple for any gesturing, then the right cheek could only be a backhanded slap.  And that was used only to insult, humiliate, degrade.  It would be used on those over whom you had control, seeking to put them in their place.  So turning the other cheek, Wink explains, was actually refusing to submit to that treatment – the backhand would no longer work.  And the fist wouldn’t be used – that kind of fighting was only between equals.  The beginning of social revolution, he suggests.

So Wink says that what Jesus is actually saying is "Stand up for yourselves, defy your masters, assert your humanity; but don't answer the oppressor in kind. Find a new, third way that is neither cowardly submission nor violent reprisal."

In the same way he sees the handing over of the cloak as well as the coat not as super generous giving but rather in the context of a poor man being taken to court over his debt and, knowing he couldn’t beat the system that went right to the door of Roman exploitation of the Jews, telling him to walk out of there naked, effectively letting them know what the debtor thinks of their justice and hoping that it would lead to some serious rethinking.  For me this is a bit more of a stretch but interesting none the less.

The extra mile, similarly, came from the ruling that the Roman soldier, while able to impress into service any person on the street (remember Simon of Cyrene) could only be made to, for instance, carry their packs for a mile.  The extra mile returns the initiative to the oppressed, shakes the foundations of what is expected – is revolutionary and unsettling.  Imagine the soldier trying to figure out how to respond, how to get his pack back even.

So far from these words of Jesus offering only violence or submission, they are, according to Wink, in fact a social earthquake which, if taken up, would change the face of the world.  Now that sounds more like the teachings of Jesus!

It doesn’t mean that there won’t be unhappy consequences to those who dare to challenge accepted injustices but it does give a new meaning to being like Christ in our living. 

So, if we accept this approach of ridicule and non-violent resistance to injustice and oppression is what Jesus is asking of us, how might this interpretation of the Gospel message look for us today?

For a start the purpose is not to oppress or put down the other – always when we walk the path of Jesus the purpose is to bring understanding and transformation not just to the downtrodden but also to the oppressors, that there might be reconciliation and a new way of living for all.

This is a timely message for us as we seem to be seeing an increasing degree of overt government sanctioned injustice and inequality for the vulnerable in our world.  And I think that we are seeing some very Jesus like responses by people who do not choose engage in the bullying tactics but stand strong by peaceful and sometimes burlesque methods. One hopes there is a desire to reconcile as well.

Jesus looks for neither violence or helpless passivity: What are some of the ways we, in our daily life, can turn the other cheek in this Jesus like way – we hear stories of people gathering, peacefully but very intentionally against violence – like the events in Egypt where  Christians surrounded and protected their Muslim brothers and sisters at worship and Muslim men did the same to as Christians worshipped.

Jesus tells us to challenge oppressive systems: Where have we given the cloak away as well as the coat to make a stand for justice? What about those people who plan to swamp any proposed Muslim register in the states with their names to show the ludicrousness of such an unjust move.

Jesus encourages us to behave in unexpected ways: When have we walked the extra mile in order to challenge the status quo and possibly befuddled the system?  When people turn up with unconditional gifts to the prisoners where the prevailing attitude works on punishment by deprivation – that might be one.

Jesus word for us today is as true as it was then.  For he goes on to say that we are to live in love in everything we do – and this includes our enemies, those who cause us grief, not just because it is the ‘right’ thing to do but because by doing so we are taking action, shaking the foundations of all that is wrong and unjust.  We are standing up to those who would harm us using the most unexpected weapon of love. 

Living in the love of God, we become free in the Spirit to find imaginative and radically new way to challenge all that is evil.  Walking in the Third Way of Jesus we can only be amazed at the places it takes us and the hearts it transforms.  Thanks be to God.

Margaret Garland

---

[1] http://cpt.org/files/BN%20-%20Jesus'%20Third%20Way.pdf

[2] Rom. 12:17; 1 Thes. 5:15; 1 Pet. 3:9

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 12 February 2017 Epiphany 6

Readings:  1 Corinthians 3:1-9,  Matthew 5:21-37

We pray:  Open us, guide us, teach us we pray O God that we may hear your truth and live in loving relationship with you and each other.  In Jesus name.  Amen

One Minister said to a group gathered to discuss the gospel for the coming Sunday: ‘What do you do when you are seem to be at odds with what Jesus has said – when you think it’s not the whole story, not compatible with your experience and understanding?’ What if the holes appear larger than the help?  It was today’s passage they had in front of them. 

I want to begin with a self-observation – how much harder it was for me to compile this sermon compared to the flowing narrative of last Sunday.  And that is probably because last week was a story, this a list of do’s and do not’s.  Both necessary in our lives and our faith but the difference for me is that stories transcend context, live longer, invite us in in a more seamless way.  The parables seem more timeless than the teachings of law.  The Gospel word for today is, at first glance, of the time.  Only men need to be warned about committing adultery – for they have the power to hurt and abuse the vulnerable.  There will be exceptions but as a rule…..

The teachings on divorce too are removed from our today experience, our world view but again we are looking at protection of the vulnerable of the time, how it is that the relatively powerful are to behave in relationship with those who they can easily hurt.  Interesting about the oaths – it is not linked to any particularly historical context and so we can more immediately link to the teaching today:  that those who embody the kingdom of God will speak truthfully, no underlining, oath taking required. Let your word be simply yes or no.  (I wonder what Jesus would make of the concept of ‘alternative facts’ as introduced to our language this last month).  

So we can ask, who are the vulnerable of today – how do we harm and abuse within family relationships, what are the rules today for protecting the innocent, taking care of the helpless, bringing justice to the down trodden.  We might talk of the focus on sexuality when instead it needs to be on faithfulness and covenant.  We might highlight bullying, emotional, physical, verbal within relationships or the exploitation of children, whether slave labour or children at the mercy of exploitative parents.

We might want to ask why our words of faith have come to embrace sexism, racism, ageism and all the other isms of the world.  When truth has become conditional and occasional and often quite selfish?

These are the questions and directions that Jesus might have put in the scripture if it was today – how is it that we are to encourage safe and compassionate relationships, protect the vulnerable, live in God’s way and truth today.

And then we come to the words of verses 21-26 - on how we are to come to the table.  We hear that we cannot bring our gifts to the table until we have reconciled with those who have something against us. It seems at first glance directly contradictory to the understanding that we come to the table to find forgiveness and reconciliation, from where we go out to do the same. Cart before the horse, we would say today. I mean it would be amazing if we could each gather round the table pure of heart and certain of goodness.  But to keep us away until we are would make for empty communion tables for sure.

Bishop John Robinson defined the practice of Holy Communion as ‘making holy that which is common’.  In other words we offer God the totality of our lives, darkness and light, and in return we are offered the presence of the living Christ, who works in and through us to make reconciliation possible.

But when we begin to concentrate on the fact that anger has the capacity to close all other communication channels, to tie our soul in knots, we begin to realise the need to put it aside as we approach the table.  For how can we hear the message of forgiveness and reconciliation if we are paralysed by anger for it destroys our relationship with God, let alone each other. 

So we find our way through these directions for living, understanding why they are there and realising that the question they were the answer for are still there for us today – maybe in a slightly different shape, but still as meaningful as kingdom actions.

On reflection, I think one of the stumbling blocks that I have wherever we have solid interpretation of the living out of the faith within the biblical canon is the knowledge that some take them as read, encase them in concrete for all time.  They choose or forget to ask the question of why they were needed and what that means for us, that ongoing (remember reformed and reforming) discernment of the purpose of God made known in Jesus for the people of God. 

They too can use them to ensure their own supremacy or agenda - politics in the world today would suggest that – or to exclude people from full participation as God’s people.  Just imagine if women had been fully partners in the church throughout time and the impact that would have had on the western world. 

And it is this manipulation we bring to God’s purpose that we have to be very aware of. The Psalmist talks about it – how learning to walk the path of right living with God is something we will need to work at and learn and grow in else we will go astray.  The metaphor of the school with willing pupils is a helpful one I believe.  Always we are questioning and learning.

In the Epistle reading too we see the trap that the Corinthians had fallen into – of thinking that various leaders had the superior wisdom and were therefore the true path to God.  Paul doesn’t say that they should reject all human teaching and interpretation of how we live in the way of Jesus but he does say that they need to forever be discerning God in those teachings, to be hearing what the Spirit of God is saying into each and every situation, to be continuously growing in our questioning and believing and living in faith.  And how do we know the Spirit is in this – to put it rather crudely ‘if Jesus was present, as Jesus is, then what would he embrace and what would he tell us to turn aside from.’ It is a question I constantly ask as I try to navigate the interpretations of faith that seem to have lost the ‘Jesus’ factor and sit rigidly in human certainty.

How is that we are to keep the teachings of Jesus forever fresh and meaningful for us today?

We remember that we do not know it all, there is never a time when we can simply abide by the rules but we are to be continually discussing, learning, growing from each other, with those who know much and those who would say they know nothing but in fact have a profound faith.

Look around – think of the people here who have been teachers for you, those whose journey with God had impacted on your journey, whose faithfulness gives you hope and whose gifts have been, and will be, light and salt for you.

The learning and growing never stops – the questions are always there, the understanding as to how we are to live as the people of God is found in community interpreting scripture in the power of the Spirit, and it is for each of us  to be alert to the truth that is Jesus Christ in this world today.

 

To finish some words of Michael Hudson on our journey with God:

The grace of God is like a road that draws the heart from its first home – We long to go, but we hate to leave, and the Spirit calls, “Come follow me.”

The voice of God is like the wind, it comes and goes and comes again – We read the signs in the bending trees, and the Sprit calls, “Come follow me.”

The love of God is like a stream; it fills and feeds our deepest dreams – It finds a thirst and leaves a spring, and the Spirit calls, “Come follow me.”

The peace of God is like a friend who sees us through the journey’s end – The road is long and the talk is sweet and the Spirit calls, “Come follow me.”

Margaret Garland

Reflection from Cafe Church Sunday 5 February 2017 at Opoho Church

Bible Readings  

First Reading Isaiah 58: 6-12 various NRSV

Introduction:  The earlier verses of this chapter from Isaiah have God encouraging Isaiah to, in no uncertain terms, get their house in order.  God recognises their efforts to be humble, worshipful, seekers of truth, but also sees just how that evolves – into selfishness, quarrelling, oppression of the vulnerable and therefore, to God, they are rebellious hypocrites.  Then Isaiah paints a picture of what true relationship with God will mean in their, and our lives. Here is what God asks of us:

 

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly;
….If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 

          Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church

People: Thanks be to God

Gospel Reading  Matthew 5: 13-16  The Voice translation

¹³ You, beloved, are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes bland and loses its saltiness, can anything make it salty again? No. It is useless. It is tossed out, thrown away, or trampled.

¹⁴ And you, beloved, are the light of the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Similarly it would be silly to light a lamp and then hide it under a bowl. When someone lights a lamp, she puts it on a table or a desk or a chair, and the light illumines the entire house. ¹⁶ You are like that illuminating light. Let your light shine everywhere you go, that you may illumine creation, so men and women everywhere may see your good actions and may turn and praise your Father in heaven because of it.

Reader: This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ

People:  Praise to Christ the Word

The Listeners – adapted from an idea by Tom Gordon 'The Blessed' in Welcoming each wonder p.65

When Joyce Campbell walked to the lectern to read the Gospel lesson for that Sunday, her heart wasn’t in it.  It had been a busy week, and she hadn’t had her normal time to read it over and practice the difficult words if there were any – and she did want to do it well.  She was pleased to see there were no curly ones, in fact it was quite a familiar. 

But all the same she wasn’t sitting easy with it – she knew how important it was and felt she wasn’t up to scratch.

But anyway, here goes: ……Hear now the Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 5 beginning at verse 13: she began:

 ‘You are the salt of the earth;

That was all Jeannie sitting over in the corner heard.  All she saw was her Dad – the one who had guided her through so many difficult times, who was always there for her especially when her world turned upside down – as it frequently did.  But the times she loved best was sitting down chewing the fat – talking about stuff, big stuff, little stuff, and the way his faith added a certain flavour to how he saw the world.  Salt of the earth – yup that was him. She was surprised when it was time for the hymn.

but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

And that was where Joyce lost the Minister.  Well not so much lost as paused.  That conversation with Sam a couple of days ago – it was like he had completely given up, that he had no taste left for life let alone for his faith.  You couldn’t help but wonder if you could have done better, found a way through, lit the spark again – but hang on – you keep on doing this – God is in this, in Sam, holding, loving, patient, waiting…..  if the salt has lost its taste – I don’t think it’s lost in Sam ….why is everyone looking at me? Reading finished? Hymn to be announced? Ok…

 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 

That was Steve’s trigger.  He was part of the visioning group for the church – where to go, who to be, how to express our faith, to be missional, everyone had different words and ideas and they spent hours on the vision statement – it was all a jumble, a mess.  But those words – you are the light of the world, (what was that hymn) – I am the light of the world, you people come and follow me…..That’s it, simple, straightforward, to be the light of Christ in the world…..mm

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

Young Grace was getting a hard time at school – it wasn’t easy when people teased you about going to church, when they made fun of what they thought it was all about.  And you didn’t always have the words – and truth be told you were quite glad about that because silence and walking away was easier. But there was something that wouldn’t let her do that all the time – that kept her trying to reach out, to say what and why her faith was so important to her.  Yes that bit about not putting it under a bushel (whatever that was) – that helped, gave her courage! She would keep trying.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Jason almost made it through the reading – he really did.  But his mind wasn’t on the hymn that came next – he was too busy following a thought that came to him out of the blue – Why are we so good at saying we are no good at things.  Joan is just brilliant at encouraging and listening – but doesn’t feel she is good enough to pastoral carer,  Peter next to me – he can navigate the bible better than anyone I know – but won’t speak up in study groups in case he says the wrong thing – and actually the Rev has been at me to take a turn at doing the readings – maybe I should say I’ll give it a go – even though I’ll never be as good as Joyce…

And here ends the Gospel lesson says Joyce.  And when she walked back to her seat that Sunday, she knew her heart hadn’t been in it.  But then she wasn’t to know about the hearts of Jeannie and Steve and Jason and Grace – and the Minister too for that matter, was she?

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 22 January 2017 Epiphany 3

Readings: Isaiah 9:1-4, Matthew 4:12-23

Let us pray:  God of all time and all peoples, be with your people here today as we ponder the words of scripture.  Help us to have open hearts and minds to your word for us and to offer ourselves to your vision and your purpose, in the name of Jesus.  Amen

This is the time in the church year between Christmas and Lent we know as the season of Epiphany – but it can also be called ‘ordinary time’, the same terminology as can be used for the period that stretches from Pentecost to Advent- ‘ordinary time’ – the part of the church year when we are neither aiming at or celebrating Christmas or Easter, when we are not concentrating explicitly on the birth, death or resurrection of Jesus.  And in the end around 33 or 34 weeks of our 52 week church year can be called ‘ordinary time.’ If you can imagine the year as a pie chart with the liturgical colours put in, this time would be a small wedge of green – a small wedge about 2 o’clock (apologies to the digital among us) - and then there would be almost half of the circle on the opposite side – say 6-12 also green – it really is the dominant colour of our time as a church year.  Much of it, in this hemisphere, is winter time – can we say this year all of it!

And we have this bit of green (ordinary time) now – isolated, stranded from the other, on both sides, by the Christmas and Easter purple and white.  What might we read from that?  Well that there is a sense that we are being reminded in these weeks that we also need to be grounded in the ordinary, that the ‘high celebrations’ are not by themselves enough to sustain us in the hard work of following Jesus in our daily, often very ordinary, lives. 

This viewpoint is encouraged when we look at the focus of the Gospel readings over this time – from the Sermon on the Mount:  where Jesus teaches us the very basics of what it means to be a Christ follower – practical foundation stuff for us to follow everyday. 

Jesus is preparing us for understanding in a new way the meaning of the incarnation:  the intricate relationship of God and Jesus, human and divine, into which we are invited.  This ordinary time is our time to know God through the man Jesus, or as Dominican theologian, Herbert McCabe says:  “We do not simply examine Jesus historically to see what he was like; we listen to him, he established communication and friendship with us, and it is in this rapport with Jesus that we explore a different dimension of his existence…. It is in the contact with the person who is Jesus, in this personal communication between who he is and who we are, that his divinity is revealed in his humanity.”

And so Jesus begins: to proclaim, to teach, to heal and to disrupt.  And what is it that he says to the fishermen Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, to us today: ‘Follow me!

Follow me not in the hype of Christmas, not in the pain and passion of Easter but follow me today, just follow. 

The question then for today? How are we to walk in the light of Christ in the midst of the everyday, of the ordinary.

Maybe the first thing to say is that no day, walking with Jesus, is boringly ordinary.  Every day brings blessings, insights, acts of love and challenges.  Every day through prayer and stillness and the beauty that surrounds us we encounter God and know anew the power of love to heal and to minister.  So no never just ordinary – I may have shared this with you before but I realised after my dad died that the best way I could describe him was as an extraordinary ordinary man – no big spectacular epiphanies or moments of great celebration but it was in his everyday constancy of living well and faithfully that I found this sense of greatness, of inspiration that encouraged and grew me. 

I think too of the people that came here on Friday and spent a good part of the day preparing placards for the march championing women on Saturday morning – a small voice against the powerful roar of a political bully but believing in the ability of that voice to speak out.

I heard some beautiful words this week, from someone asked for their sense of purpose to their call: they said that it was about ‘converting Christians to the wonder of their own faith, the bigness of what faith can be.’

I think that this was where Isaiah was at – in the midst of the turmoil of the time oppression, exploitation of the poor, the rule of fear) in the midst of that, he held out and on to the vision of a world at peace, the wonder of a world where God was made known through the day to day actions and ways of living of the ordinary people.  The ‘bigness’ of faith will overcome the pain of the world.   The light of Christ will shine in the darkest corners and make a difference. 

Perhaps one of the foundation concepts that helps us here is best told by a story, and I am sure many of you will have heard this in some form or other: An American minister remembers his childhood and the fact that the family was never allowed to have the television on during dinner – except that is on Sunday when there was this show ‘Wild Kingdom’ that explored the wonders of nature.  His father said that every episode reminded him of the wonders of God’s creativity and imagination in the natural world (I’ll come back to those words later).  But there was one particular episode showing the elephant seals of Argentina – and a mum and her newly born seal pup.  Mum took off to feed and ended up coming back to a different beach.  The young boy that was watching didn’t see how they could find one another, ever, but the mother called and searched and listened until she was reunited with her pup – and the host of the programme told of how, at birth, the sound and scent of the mother are imprinted in the pup’s memory and the sound and the scent of the put are imprinted on the mother’s memory.  The boy’s father kind of nailed it when he said: ‘You know, that’s how it is with God, we are imprinted with a memory of God and God, even before we are born, is imprinted with a memory of us –we will always find each other.

That realisation that there is a presence in our lives that refuses to let go, is always filling our lives with longing and hope is a corner stone of our faith. 

So too is the understanding that the light of Christ permeates all places, all dark corners and brings peace and vision where our own is struggling. That by living in the teachings of Jesus we are spreading that light in our everyday living – generosity, compassion, justice while going about our ordinary lives. 

So too is the knowledge that we are a people of repentance – aware of our failures, able to bring them before God, able to try again, always seeking to be more like Jesus for it is there we are coming close the fulfilling of love, God’s purpose for the world, Isaiah’s ‘great light’ that would bring joy to the nations and freedom from their oppressors.

Therefore, the scripture passage from Matthew today of the invitation to follow, does, I believe, require of us a wholehearted response.  It is an invitation to a new way of living not just at the high festivals but this week, all those green weeks of the year, and we are asked to have not just the faith, the capacity to see beyond things as they are but also the imagination and work towards things as they might be. To hold to the vision of the good news within our relatively ordinary lives and to live it out with energy and enthusiasm because we truly believe that it will make a difference. 

We might not understand just what that light might look like always, we just know that it is needed and we are the vessel.  We will not always have the imagination to see just where our path might take us but we trust in the vision of God.  We might find it hard to lift our sights to the good and the peaceful and the just when we are surrounded by oppression, political lunacy and greedy systems but do it anyway – for there we will encounter the kingdom of God, again and again and again. 

The call to follow Jesus invites us to be the light that no darkness can ever put out.  Amen. So be it.

Margaret Garland

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 1 January 2017

Readings: Isaiah 63:7-9,  Matthew 2:13-23

We pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock and our sustainer. Amen

We were watching the Vicar of Dibley the other night and it struck me that the strange combinations of Letitia Cropley’s cooking (bread and butter pudding surprise –snails, parsnip brownies  ) were a suitable metaphor for the incongruity of the readings we are asked to unpack today.  For they are an unpalatable mix.   The gracious deeds of the Lord, bringing steadfast love and salvation to the world preached so eloquently by Isaiah alongside the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem.  And it’s just been a few days since the joy and exultation – couldn’t we be brought back to reality just a little bit more gently, we ask. 

But no.  Much as we talk about putting Christ back into Christmas we are here today putting Herod back into Christmas too.  It is a purely awful story of obscene power, fear in one who has the capacity to command death, and we need to hear it for it was not only the reality of those days but also of today.  Children as soldiers, as slaves, as prostitutes, children starving, randomly killed and intentionally abused.  These acts of outrage are our world too.

Maybe this reading is the counter to the increasingly sanitized story of the birth of Jesus – cute shepherds and rich wise sages and a baby who is perfect to a couple who have been immortalised.  Liz Gibson says that the Christmas story is fantastic but it’s not fantasy.  But we turn it into fantasy if we make it all cosy and nice and avoid that nasty bits.  Imagine the reality, the gigantic leap of faith needed to believe this could be, the pain and anxiety of childbirth, the doubts about what actually happened here and what was to come, the awful journey and no place to stay – there would have been some grumpy moments at best and some downright terrifying stuff underlying the Christmas story as we know it.  I don’t know why we do that – try to submerge the unpalatable and raise up the sweet and lovely when life is actually not like that at all.  Life does actually stink at times and for many – all of the time.  It’s a fact.

Back to that day of unmitigated terror in Bethlehem. What might have been the words of a mother, the Rachels of the time, to Mary and Joseph if she had met them on the street after this act of horror do you think?  Ian Fraser suggests this:

Your child’s coming was my child’s going, Mary.

Your child’s living was my child’s dying.

Your child’s saving was mine’s destroying, Mary.  If Jesus saves, what means these graves?

Where was the mercy of God in this moment?  The steadfast love and promised salvation!  And we know the answer even if it is somewhat counter intuitive – God is right there in the midst as God is always in the place of hurting and pain and loss!’  For we are reminded time and time again, are we not, that the good news of Christ is with us in the midst of the light and of the darkness. 

We need to be reminded too that our God is not a God who is detached from our reality, not one who impartially observes from afar or instigates all that is wrong in the world.  We do well all by ourselves with the instigating of evil deeds and God, in Christ, became flesh into that very darkness so that we might have light in the midst of the dark.  The Isaiah reading is a classic reminder of this – the part we heard today was upbeat, praising and glorifying God but there is the danger when we pluck out a part of the bible and stand it alone – as Barbara Brown Taylor says, this passage has been airlifted out of a chapter thick with divine wrath and human despair.  In the context this is a people praising God not when all is well but when life is turbulent and sometimes downright awful.

And that teaches us something.  Life is not at its best when it is detached from the reality of life, when we live out our Christian faith in isolation from the realities going on around us.  Bad stuff does not mean that God has left us or we have done something wrong.  Putting a bubble round our lives – with all our energy going into keeping safe and secure – is not what it means to be Christian.  We actually have no excuse for thinking that way:  To be led by the spirit of a loving God means that when we see fear and pain and need around us, we head toward it and enter into it freely, risking ourselves to bring hope and healing into the world.

That’s the job description. Look it up.

Mary and Joseph, far from having to cope just with a new baby and a relatively short trip home, had to flee – become refugees in the far land of Egypt.  Mary and Joseph would have known of the slaughter and had to live with the reality that the birth of their baby had led to an act of terror.

But here is the thing – God was with them through it all, was with the suffering parents and community of Bethlehem, is with those who suffer now.  The world doesn’t get better, the horror just gets more sophisticated and sometimes it doesn’t!  We live in uncertain times now, we fear what is happening in the world, we wonder if we can survive this, we might wonder where God is?  And we might struggle with the fact that Jesus was under God’s protection and the babies of Bethlehem were not.  I find it difficult and always have to worship a God who is exclusive to some ignoring others and disagree with a commentary that suggested if we are faithful and trusting God will keep us safe from the perils of the world. That is not the God I know – rather, and especially today it is the God who comes to us in the darkest times and gives us hope, holds a light for us when all others have gone out, who loves us so much that in Christ, all the pain and suffering of the world was born on the shoulders of a baby that we might have light in the darkness.  This is the God that

I worship and adore.  God with the people of Bethlehem in their nightmare, God in the giving of a son come to save and to heal through the cross, God with the refugee and the broken.  So, in this new year, as we look toward what is to come, as we grapple with the realities of life, all that is good and all that is not, I leave you with this blessing for journeying from Iona (Linda Wright A Blessing as you journey into the New Year from 'Hay and Stardust' Wild Goose Publications)

May your eyes be opened to the wonder of the daily miracles around you and your sense of mystery be deepened.

May you be aware of the light that shines in the darkness, and that the darkness can never be put out.

May you be blessed with companions on the journey, friends who will listen to you and encourage you with their presence.

May you learn to live with what is unsolved in your heart, daring to face the questions and holding them until, one day, they find their answers.

May you find the still quiet place in side yourself where you can know and experience the peace that passes understanding.

May love flow in you and through you to those who need your care.

May you continue to dream dreams and to reach out into the future with a deeper understanding of God’s ways for you.  Amen

Margaret Garland

Affirmation of Faith we stand and say together:

We believe in God, creator of the world and of all people;

and in Jesus Christ incarnate among us, who died and rose again;

and in the Holy Spirit, present with us to guide, strengthen, and comfort.

We rejoice in every sign of God’s kingdom:

in the upholding of human dignity and community;

in every expression of love, justice and reconciliation;

in each act of self-giving on behalf of others;

in the abundance of God’s gifts entrusted to us that all may have enough;

in all responsible use of the earth’s resources.

We commit ourselves individually and as a community

to the way of Christ;

to take up the cross;

to seek abundant life for all humanity;

to struggle for peace with justice and freedom;

to risk ourselves in faith, hope and love, praying that God’s kingdom may come.

(World Methodist Council, Nairobi, Kenya, 1986)

Sermon Opoho Church, Sunday 4 December 2016 Advent 2 Holy Communion

Readings:  Romans 15:4-7, 13,   Matthew 3:1-12

Let us pray:  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our sustainer.  Amen.

‘May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.’[1]

We place a great emphasis here at Opoho on welcome don’t we?  We try (and mostly succeed) in being a church that loves welcoming people, that nurtures and engages and lives in relative harmony as the people of God. There are moment when it is not so good, when personalities clash, where unintentional hurt is given and where the welcome is not all it could be.  I hope I am good at welcoming and connecting but I am painfully aware that distraction is my second name and I miss people because my brain is engaged elsewhere.  It is easy to feel ignored when the person you are talking to only gives part of their attention to you.  In fact, I remember a conversation up in the Hurunui some years ago when I was talking to a teacher at a school and was getting highly miffed at his seeming lack of attention to what I was saying until I realised he was hearing me and answering me perfectly – he just happened to be someone who had the ability to carry on conversations in his head and with someone else at the same time. Found out later he was an ex Master Mind by the way.

But welcome and harmony within the family of God is so much more than different personality types trying to get along and a sense of guilt at a failure to engage properly with each other.  So much more.

To help us dig deeper let us look at the words of verse 7 from Romans.

Where the NRSV uses the words ‘Welcome one another, just as Christ welcomes you’, the JB Phillips translation uses the words ‘Open your hearts to one another’ King James ‘receive one another’ and the NIV ‘accept one another, just as Christ accepted you.’  All of these are facets of the same gem – a gem that recognises our deep need to belong, to be accepted as who we are, to be loved and valued.

Jesuit theologian Peter van Breemen develops this theology of God’s radical love in our lives, saying that while every human being wants to be loved, there is a deeper need and that is to be accepted in this love for who you are, no matter what you have done or achieved or failed at.  I hope that every person here has a sense of that love, from God, and/or family, church community, friends.    I hope we all know the acceptance that is being loved unconditionally for who we are at some time in our lives.   

For, as Christians, this love is freely offered to us, is in fact right in front of us; that place of deeply fulfilled welcome by one who knows us intimately and loves us as we are, whose hand has our name written on it. 

This question does need asking though, for sometimes we forget or compromise.

Do we wholeheartedly accept that we are loved by God as we are?  Or do we still feel that we have to do something, be someone to have that deep sense of home, of welcome, of being received unconditionally? 

This is, I would suggest, absolutely core to whether we in turn can find a way to welcome others without judgement, with loving hearts and in hope.  Unless we experience the power of complete acceptance in our lives, we would find it very hard to offer it.

As I said before, welcome is more that courtesy and good welcome practice – it is that deeply sustaining understanding that we are held in love no matter what that allows us, in turn, to offer that same sanctuary of welcome to others, no matter their suitability or sustainability or mistakes.

That is the heart of our gathering around the table – the place where all are welcome as we are.  Not, as I once thought, only when I have my life in perfect order and am worthy but when we are just us with all our joys and brokenness, our hopes and fears, a motley crew of travellers on Christ’s way sharing the meal around the table.

It would be nice to stop there, yes?  We are loved and cherished by God. We are welcomed at the table, one body with Christ. 

But John whom we call the Baptist won’t let us do that.  John, in his baptising down by the river, is looking to our response to the grace of God, and when he welcomes people to repentance, he is pleading with them to realign their lives with God, letting them know that the one who is to come is the one who will lead us to God.

John challenges those who have based their wholeness with God on a singular moment of welcome (the promise to Abraham) and then deviated from the path of righteousness.  Not enough he says.  To bear fruit worthy of God, to walk in the way truth and justice and love you have to be in living relationship with God, so that you come to the river, eagerly laying down those things that separate you from God, seeking a new beginning. And that takes courage, for we need to accept the complete and intimate presence of God’s self in us, just as we are, without being able to tidy the house first so to speak – God knows us in all our moments, good and bad, cringe-worthy and best behaviour.  That is faith, that is love, that is acceptance that we are the beloved of God no matter what.      

And Paul, in his letter to the Romans, expands on this.  When we have accepted not just in our mind but in our heart of the complete stickability of God in our lives, it’s like we can find the courage to offer that same place of acceptance to each other, to the sometimes grumpy and the often distracted and different personality and one who has hurt you and the stranger who might hurt you. 

Dare I define harmony not as the lack of discord but as living in the common purpose and presence of God fresh every morning? 

Dare we understand welcome as lowering the barriers so all might come in, just as we are, striving to be better but knowing we are still completely loved when we are not?   

Dare we believe that, in Jesus, we are all accepted, no matter who we are and how many times we have to come to the river to begin again?

And from that place of belonging can we all pray for each other and the stranger ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’[2]

Thanks be to God. Amen

Margaret Garland

---

[1] Romans 15:5-6 NRSV

[2] Romans 15:13

Sermon and Prayers Opoho Church Sunday 13 November, 2016 Pentecost 25

Readings:  Isaiah 65: 17-25,  Luke 21:5-19

Let us pray:  Holy God, in the midst of all that surrounds us, pierce our hearts and minds with your purpose that we might live in your way and trust in your promise to us.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

It is so good to be back – we have missed you all so much but equally have had an exciting and fascinating time away.  And while we have been away we have had a salutary reminder of the complexities of global living – something we can be a little detached from here in this island nation – as we moved among the fallout of the Brexit decision in Britain and Ireland. New things are happening in our world and they make us nervous.

For many people around the world the reality of God’s world is just so far from the vision of the new heavens and new earth that Isaiah speaks of.  Peace, justice, loving relationship – sometimes it seems there is not a lot of it to go around. The promise of what will be seems incredibly distant from the here and now.  And this is reflected in our two readings today of vision and reality – with Luke warning of turmoil to come and Isaiah talking of how it will be on God’s holy mountain where peace and contentment are the everyday.  In fact the story from the Hebrew Scriptures could have been written for today.  It involves a people who called themselves God’s chosen ones that have moved away so far from all that is fair and caring and just – it’s a hard time for them, for sure, lives are difficult, there is a huge resentment of other nations, division within and a cynicism that demands attention be on their needs.  They have lost their way. 

What does Isaiah say to them?  He paints a picture of paradise – a time where the most counter-intuitive relationships will exist: wolf and lamb, lion and ox, where no-one labours in vain and each is housed and fed, where weeping is no more and no child is born for calamity.  It would, I suspect, have seemed quite foolish and idealistic for a people determined to sort things themselves?

Conversely the reading from Luke is a text full of bad news, full of reasons for us to feel timid and helpless and hopeless as the world around us totters on the brink of anarchy and all we know is threatened.  Luke scares us, let’s face it.  It’s frightening stuff and the sheer immensity of what can go wrong threatens to overwhelm.  But Jesus has words of hope in the midst of the turmoil – he tells us to stand strong, that this is an opportunity to testify and we don’t have to rely on our own strengths for God is with us!

Funny how chosen bible readings speak into the events of our week and the fears of our hearts isn’t it.

Many of us are still reeling from this week’s political theatre; one that will have serious impact on the world stage let alone for many people within America.  We have heard throughout the Presidential campaign a rhetoric that leaves our hearts severely bruised and our minds reeling from the hypocrisy and the hatred and the lack of compassion.  While we can object to policies from all sides that are unjust, I don’t think we have ever heard such blatant sexism, racism, economic and environmental blindness as has been present these few months and is now in control.  If you read the papers, check the opinion pieces, there is a real fear out there of new and unthinkable global order.     

So, how do we respond?  We could join the protestors railing over what was in the end a democratic choice, or say it’s not our problem (and welcome a wave of new immigrants here) or sink into despair or hold our breaths and hope against hope that nothing goes wrong. But then again many of us never thought that Donald Trump would be elected in a million years so I don’t think that last one is the path to follow.

I could not begin to offer a balanced assessment of what has gone on – goodness knows there are enough ‘experts’ out there doing this already.  But there are some flags that pop up as we explore our readings for today.  Putting aside the sheer arrogance of those who add God to their election strategy, the things to think about are why has this happened and how do we respond as Christians into this turmoil.

Why – my simplistic answer is because the people are unhappy, like the people of Isaiah’s time.  The signs have been there for a long time as the political ineptitude and arrogance of those in power has left the people on the ground feeling powerless, adrift, not listened to.  And so, in fear, they turn to anyone who promises they can make it better.  Rabbi Sacks calls it the birth of a new politics of anger that can only be nullified if we create a new politics of hope – putting aside the divisive, disempowering, elitist and self serving mantra of the past decades and finding ways to strengthen families and communities, build a culture of collective responsibility and insist on the economics of the common good.

The trouble is of course so many of the people who embraced these false promises, even the promise maker, call themselves Christian, yet the way of Christ is not the path they choose to take.  The cost of their policies to the vulnerable, the future of the planet, the alienating of all who are different are so far from the vision of the Holy Mountain that we are left speechless.  For how can we any of us claim a relationship with Jesus Christ when we refuse to save refugees, or deny hope to immigrants, or refuse justice to the oppressed, or not have faith in those different from us, or deny love to our neighbours, strangers or even our enemies.  Self-preservation over self-sacrifice – not Christ’s way!  But hang on here – is not that same attitude rife here too – and not just in politics but in our everyday as well.  As America and Europe struggles with its reality, we too have to look at ourselves and recognise that the same disempowerment and divide exists here  and that we cannot sit back without responsibility – for it is through us that change must happen.

Jesus warns us that hard times will be.  He cautions us against following false prophets. He reassures us that we are loved and cared for and that we will continue to stand and be heard.  Not in our own strength or in the strength of others but in the power of the Word of God living in our lives.  We are the word, unshaken, continuing…..

We are to testify to the truth and to live in the patterns of mercy that Christ has laid out for us.

For we are able to give one drink of cold water at a time, we are able to bring comfort to the poor and the wretched, one act of mercy or change at a time. One book given, one friendship claimed, one covenant of love, one can of beans, one moment of commendation, one moment in which another person is humanized rather than objectified, one challenge to the set order that maintains injustice, one declaration of evil that is hiding in plain sight, one declaration that every person is a child of God, these are the patterns of mercy that are God’s grace that will transform the world.

So maybe it is time to reclaim the absurdity of self-sacrificial love – to be absurdly gracious, hospitable, kind, patient, self controlled and giving.  But more than that, recognise that this sits in the ‘hard basket’ of living.  That humbly serving others, defending the powerless, fighting for the oppressed and radically loving the world around you isn’t for the faint of heart and rarely results in comfort and security – which may explain why so many turn to the false Gods of this world.

I have run out of words – let us hear from someone else - we remain seated as we sing the words of hope for us and for the world from Ruth Duck……

Hymn

Healing river of the Spirit, bathe the wounds that living brings.

Plunge our pain, our sin, our sadness deep beneath your sacred springs.

Weary from the restless searching that has lured us from your side,

we discover in your presence peace the world cannot provide.

Wellspring of the healing Spirit, stream that flows to bring release,

as we gain our selves, our senses, may our lives reflect your peace.

Grateful for the flood that heals us, may your Church live out your grace.

As we meet both friend and stranger, may we see our Saviour’s face.

Living stream that heals the nations, make us channels of your power.

All the world is torn by conflict; wars are raging at this hour.

Saving Spirit, move among us; guide our winding human course,

till we find our way together, flowing homeward to our Source.

Words Ruth C Duck, Tune Joel CH4 Alt Tune Nettleton

 Margaret Garland

Prayer of Intercession - Abby Smith

Sometimes, Lord, things don’t go the way we want them to.  Maybe something we really wanted doesn’t arrive.  Maybe something we really dreaded actually happens.  Sometimes it rains on our game, or someone else gets the prize, or we’re sick at exactly the wrong time.  The world is always reminding us – it is not ours to command.

If we can manage to look up – to forget our fears, our disappointments, our sadness, our losses – then we can see exactly who this world belongs to.

Lord, we can see you in the huge gorgeous globes of rhododendron flowers, exploding in the garden, if we just look.  We can hear you in the glad voice of a friend unexpectedly encountered, if we will listen.  We can taste and smell your bounty in the wine and the bread, and in the pesto on pasta, and in the roasted nuts, and in the ice cream cone, and in the thousands of tastes and smells.  We can touch you in the warmth of wool, the softness of silk, the coolness of cotton, the comfort of a hot bath.  All around us the senses -- that you gave us -- allow us to experience the world that proclaims it is your kingdom.

Your kingdom, not ours.  Your will, not ours.  Your world, not ours.

If we can manage to look up, then we see you.  And we turn to you with gratitude and with thanks.

Our stay in the world is short, and not always sweet.  We remember today people we know, and those we don’t know, who are sick and battling on for another day, or who have lost loved ones, or who are dying themselves.  We think of people we know, and those we don’t know, who are going without – who don’t have clean water, or adequate food, or proper shelter, or any security.  We think of people we know, and those we don’t know, who are scared and uncertain and insecure and unwelcome.  We think of people we know, and those we don’t know, who are suffering in any way. 

We pause now, and because it is your world and not ours, we place them into your care, into your hands, into your endless love.

(pause)

Your kingdom, not ours.  Your will, not ours.  Your world, not ours.

If we can manage to look up, then we see what you want from us, and what this, your world really needs.  Truth, kindness, humility, justice, generosity, dedication, compassion, openness of spirit, faith, and love.  We pray that we will be what you need us to be, here in your world, your will, your kingdom.

We pray and sing together the Lord's prayer