Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 19 June Pentecost 5

Reading:  Luke 8:26-39

Let us pray:  May we hear your word for us today O God and may we respond in generous faith to all you require of us in Jesus name.  Amen.

Jesus asked the man: ‘What is your name?’  He replied: ‘Legion’ meaning many were influencing his life, or in other translations ‘Mob’ giving some indication of the sense of helplessness over the rampaging horde.

‘I no longer know who I am’ is his silent cry – the cacophony of voices in my head means I can no longer hear myself.  My name has been taken over by the multitude, the mob.

A man in deep distress, out of control, violent, driven and yet directionless, naked, chained, pleading for his life back before Jesus.  It is an evocative passage we have heard read from Scripture today, and with some quite troublesome detail in it. 

As is often the case with bible readings, it is very easy to get bogged down in detail such as debating what is meant by demons and do they exist today, or why the pigs – not very thoughtful for the owners and to allow oneself to be persuaded by demons – what was happening there?  But I don’t think that would be particularly helpful – so I am going to leave that for you to ponder in your own time if you are interested and rather pursue the question I began with:  What is your name?  Jesus asking us ‘what is your name?’ 

It seems particularly appropriate to ask this question on a day in which we have received James into the body of the Church, because in the act of baptism we are shaping the name of who James is to be.  And we are encouraging him to hear particular voices – that of Jesus Christ, that of loving family, that of his church family.  That man in chains, naked, demented: his voices were altogether different tearing him apart, driving him to acts of violence and, as said in the Message translation of this passage, ‘screaming and bellowing before Jesus ‘What business do you have messing with me?’[1]  Filled with hate, yet somewhere inside knowing enough of himself to get his out of control body into the path of Jesus.  To bring himself to Jesus attention.  Now that is something to ponder is it not?  That the meeting was instigated by the man rather than the demons – because the recognition of the danger and power of Jesus was immediately obvious to the mob voices within but maybe somewhere in there was a small voice of remembrance of self that insisted on the encounter.

I cannot help but think of the young man whose act of unbelievable horror and violence has led to such pain and devastation in Orlando.  I cannot help but recognise him as someone who had his own demons driving him to do things and wonder if he too had a small voice inside that just wasn’t able to speak into the rage and hatred that consumed him to the point of absolute inhumanity.

When the demons had gone from the man, people came and saw his sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.  Or as the Message puts it: wearing decent clothes and making sense’.  And the people’s response?  It is interesting again to compare translations: NRSV says ‘And they were afraid.’  Eugene Peterson puts it this way: ‘It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious.’

What difference if the perpetrators of hate filled violence had been instead ‘in their right mind’?  What would be in this world if the voice of God, not twisted extremism had been the voice that guided their lives?

And so the question can be legitimately asked of all of us.  What is your name? Is it ‘Mob’ or ‘Legion’ or is it ‘Christian’? 

It’s a challenging question for sure. For several reasons.

How do we define mob today?  Sure we know it as extremism but is it also consumerism, prejudice, apathy and all those other things that keep us separated from God, that give power to other voices to take us over?

We asked just this question at the first Wednesday Worship but coming from a different angle?  What is it that shows we are Christian?  Are there certain behaviours we would expect to see in those who profess to follow Jesus and does it compromise our integrity as Christians if we don’t.  And particularly with reference to Romans 12, we explored how we show our belief of God with us to the world. In the end it is whose we be that shows the world who we are. The voice of God within enables us to be the loving of God without.

And the ‘what is your name?’ question becomes especially challenging if we believe that the legion of voices that destroy and devastate can be expelled by Christ.  That means that we must hold out hope that there may be a spark of connection with God for the gravest of criminals, for the vilest of deeds – and that is a huge ask for some of us. It means that we cannot indulge in huge sweeping statements of derision or judgement because we do not know God’s capacity to cleanse and heal.  It means that we must leave judgement to God for we do not know. 

It is challenging to for us to remain within the community in which we might have been found wanting – to stand up to the doubters and the finger pointers and whispered ‘isn’t that the one who…..’  and it is a challenge to the community to not be the doubters and the finger pointers and the whisperers when someone is struggling to know their name in the midst of compelling legions of noise.

It means we must recognise the cacophony of voices in our own lives and know when they are of Christ and when they are other.  That perhaps is the most difficult for most of us because those voices can be very subtle, persuasive, compelling.  Just a little tweak here and there – a small withholding of generosity or compassion, an occasional foray into prejudice or blanket judgement, an acceptance of unjust practice or unfair policy because in the end it doesn’t really affect us, here, today.

And probably the final challenge (although there are plenty more I am sure) is the way in which, knowing our name is ‘Christ follower’, life becomes incredibly disruptive and often uncomfortable for us.   When we accept recognition of the healing and saving grace of God in our lives our human instincts sometimes drive us in different directions where alternate voices are always hovering, happy to leap in at the slightest chance.  And not listening to those voices will bring us in conflict with a world does listen very closely to them sometimes.  I loved the blessing that Joy Cowley gives:  ‘May the peace of Christ profoundly disturb us all’.

So, showing infinite compassion whilst abhorring the violence of extremism is something we would all struggle with.  But what we can avoid is responding with hatred, sweeping judgement, uninformed prejudice – giving space within us for the voice of fear to take over.  

Being the people of Jesus and showing this in our words and actions is not always easy.  But what we can reject is thinking that we don’t need to try, that someone else will do it better or we might be taken into uncomfortable places.

Figuring out if the voices within that control our living are of God or otherwise calls for both vigilance and the renewing of our baptismal promise every day.  But what we don’t do is think that we can do it on without regular prayer and worship and community, God with us.  It was the belief of the day of Jesus that evil spirits cannot survive in water – so they struggle to survive in a life lived immersed in the love of God.

And for this we give thanks to God.  Amen.

Margaret Garland

---

[1] Luke 8:35-36 The Message (MSG)

Sermon Sunday 12 June 2016 Pentecost 4 Quarterly Communion

Readings: 1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21   Luke 7: 36 -39, 44-48

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.

The story of Ahab and Jezebel has all the elements of a good thriller of today, does it not?  Enviously seeking what another has, a few words dropped here and there to destroy reputation, the prize within their grasp till the deceit comes back to bite them – hard – in the person of Elijah.

Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom of ancient Israel, and according to the authors of the time, ‘did more evil in the sight of the Lord than all who had gone before him’ – and they were not angels by any means.

But this act of ‘I want, I want, whatever it takes’, was just plain nasty and underhand from a petulant spoilt child: and its not the first or the last time that we hear of the corrosive nature of greed (remember the tale of king Midas?)   That story led to disaster and so did this one.  Ahab and his dynasty are destroyed.

In fact few indeed of the kings of either Judah or Israel in this troubled time walk a path of kingship that was pleasing in God’s sight.   And in response, we see the emergence of the prophets as the voice of conscience for the ill deeds of the powerful – often at real risk to their own safety as Elijah finds out.  All those early laws so carefully developed in Leviticus especially about looking after the poor and reconciliation of those treated unjustly seem to have pretty much gone by the board, particularly for those in power.  Yet God’s focus on the care of all the people means that leaders who live out of injustice and exploitation will be doomed and Elijah is the voice of God reminding Ahab of this.

We see this same compassion and mercy in the work and words of Jesus as he seeks to remind the people of a God who loves and cares for all creation, a God who refuses to let hatred and duplicity and injustice triumph.  Jesus, in sharing his perspective on the visit of the woman with the alabaster jar, reminds us of the unique relationship we have with God that continues to be misinterpreted and mislaid. 

Let us look at the story from the viewpoint of Simon for a moment.  A Pharisee, Simon has invited Jesus to his table but we can see it is a guarded invitation rather than a fulsome one.  He is cautious, not wanting to overdo the welcome and so his hospitality does not include water for cleansing, nor a kiss of welcome, nor oil for anointing.  All of these things are provided by the woman whom Simon immediately labels as a sinner and is therefore not welcome, even slightly.  His rationale: a righteous God cannot endure sinners and therefore to be right with God he needs, as a member of the elect and strict follower of the law, to avoid all contact with those he considers might taint him in any way.  And so by encouraging contact with this woman Jesus has failed to see her for what she is, a sinner, and therefore can no longer be regarded as a genuine prophet – by Simon’s standards.  He was right to be cautious, the host reflects. You will see immediately the irony of his stance in comparison with the way Jesus goes out of his way to embrace Simon’s unwanted visitor: “her sins which were many have been forgiven… she has shown great love“

The relationship of the people of God with their God has become skewed in the person and attitudes of Simon.

Jesus comes back to Simon on his approach and challenges his assumptions as only Jesus can do. 

And there are several threads to that challenge.

First of all Simon has dismissed Jesus as prophet – Jesus demonstrates that not only is he beloved of God but that he is the one they are waiting for – he shares Yaweh’s authority to forgive sins, to heal and restore and reconcile.  ‘Your sins are forgiven’.  He comes from the Father, is in right relationship with God, and is redefining the law of the Lord in line with the love of Lord.

Then he redefines divine righteousness as the generous mercy of God rather than the separateness of pious living: and that the woman was more in the way of being right with God than Simon was.  Her generosity of regret and graciousness shows up not only Simon’s withheld hospitality and lack of compassion but also his blindness to his own need for mercy and forgiveness.

And the third thread: Jesus highlights the importance of the connection between grace and gratitude in our salvation rather than Simon’s understanding that by following the code of purity he will be right with God.  It’s all about relationship – ongoing and connected relationship which means God’s love and forgiveness is constantly flowing through our broken lives making us whole.  Our capacity for love and gratitude is relationally connected to our ability to receive divine love and grace and forgiveness.  And this is something the unnamed women totally gets and Simon just doesn’t.

And it is this last thread that I would like to consider a little more deeply.  Rachel Remen in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom begins one of her stories with the words “Wholeness lies beyond perfection.”  Simon wanted to be prefect, the woman found out how to be whole!  Rachel talks about her childhood and a father whose response to a 98% pass in an exam was ‘So what happened to the other 2%? Perfection she say is a major goal of people today and she calls herself a recovering perfectionist.  She goes on to say that perfectionist find it difficult to tell the difference between love and approval.  So much so that we now have to invent a new phrase for love which is ‘unconditional love’ but actually, isn’t any kind of conditional love not love but just approval, to be withdrawn at any time. 

Wholeness is something quite different – recognising that with all your flaws and mistakes and lack of perfection you are deeply and completely loved.  In God, we are made whole.

The woman who invaded the private space, who was despised by the host as an untouchable, who knew her own brokenness was the one who was made whole.

And I think we need to think about this quite deeply ourselves.  Perfect for God (doing it our way) or whole in God (love and forgiveness and grace in relationship with God).  Which way is it to be as we gather around the table today – do we come convinced of our piety or do we come sure of God’s abiding love for us, whoever and whatever we might be, in all our brokenness and in our very humanity ?  Amen

Margaret Garland

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 29 May 2016 Pentecost 2

Readings:  Galations 1: 1-12,  Luke 7: 1-10

Let us pray.  May your word encourage, challenge and assure us today O God we pray – in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Albert Einstein once said: ‘no problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it.’

In an online paper, Father Richard Rohr explores the way in which he believes a transformed soul is a necessary precursor to being the people of God in action. He suggests that without the complete change of perspective that knowing Jesus brings to our very hearts, any work we do to further the kingdom in this world will be flawed and will be likely to compound the problem because we will be working with the same rational, same wisdom, ours, that caused the problem in the first place. Hence his quoting of Einstein. 

I tend to think of the centurion of today’s Gospel reading in this way – as someone who is convicted in the heart of the transforming power of Jesus and it shows in his engagement with the community in which he lives. 

He would have been one of the unbaptised believers that we were talking about last week – in his case an uncircumcised one, one who believed in the teachings of this man Jesus but because of his context (Gentile, Roman) reluctant to abandon his ethnic group to the extent of circumcision.  Yet Jesus saw him as more faithful, more committed to the way than many of those who were ostensibly part of the community of faith.

For the soldier gets the love and compassion that is at the heart of the law.  He gets that it is all about looking out for each other in community.  He gets that this man Jesus is a transforming presence in his life and that he cannot but help but be the good neighbour, the generous host, the kind and welcoming and tolerant member of the community. 

And it is intriguing too that, at least in this version of the story, the soldier never actually gets to be in the presence of Jesus.  Matthew has the centurion approach Jesus directly but Luke keeps him away and through this absence is wanting to let us know a few things here.  One is that the authority of Jesus is such that his word is enough and there is no need for physical contact to ensure healing – there is a sense that the physical encounters that Jesus has in most of the other biblical stories of healing are to meet the needs of a people who need to see to believe – the centurion needs only to ask. 

And secondly he asks through the community – of which he is not - obviously at least - a part.  He trusts the community and they do not let him down.  They trust him and convey his depth of faith to Jesus in no uncertain terms.

And then Luke portrays faith as situated within a community of hospitality in which God and others are embraced.  There is that direct link again that Rohr was talking about of the need for the transformation of the heart to effectively live out the Gospel message.  And when this happens it creates a community not just of faith but also of trust and of great things happening.

Too often I suspect we don’t quite yield the control of how it is that we are to engage with community to God, and in fact have our own plan established before we take time to be still and listen to God’s voice in our hearts.  We need to allow that the love that we encounter when we sit quiet before God permeates every decision and vision that we have as the people of God.  Discerning the guidance of the Spirit in our relationship with the community and each other must come before actions for then the power to change the world will belong to God, not to us.  To misquote Einstein: We cause the problems, let the transforming presence of God in us be the solution.

For the issues that confront us are huge.  I am not going to try to list these but rather share this particular story.  The plight of our world was brought home to me in a different way when I was looking at a couple of headlines on Stuff online – what it is that makes the news.  Amongst all the Bachelor stories and the private traumas of the stars (yes you can see that I have high regard for the website) it seemed incredibly telling to me that acts of kindness are making the front page – are they that unusual?  There was the one of a woman helping a diabetic mum with a young child who was weaving across the road and everyone thought was drunk (familiar story here?)– it has had 500,000 hits.  And there was an article about a person who (and these were the words used) had become addicted to random acts of kindness – like it was a new game.  How sad that kindness is news!  Have we lost our way completely?

The Christian community is of this world– we cannot be separate and silent nor can we be judgemental, prejudiced or take the moral high ground. We can only be who we are called to be – the community of God active in this world.  So, we ask, do we have a voice that can speak out of an absolute heart conviction of the love of God within us and, through Jesus Christ and, in the power of the Spirit, take that transforming love into the community and the world in a way that will make a difference.       

Well maybe if we take the wisdom of the reading today with us into a time of contemplation we might discern ways in which we are already a voice of love in the world and other ways in which we can perhaps further explore living out God’s plan for the healing of the world. 

For I believe that the transformed community of Christ will be something like this.

Where we all take time to contemplate the presence of God in our lives, with ears to hear and peace to draw God’s love deep into who we are.

Where we have trust in God, in each other and in the community we are part of. 

Where we are generous – not just in material giving but also in forgiveness, tolerance, patience, hospitality and respect.

This is who we are and who we are to become.

I would invite you to come forward after a time of reflection and light a candle for the acts of kindness you are already addicted to (nothing random about them), and the trust that there will be more asked of us – in Jesus name.

Margaret Garland

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 22 May, 2016. Trinity Sunday

Readings:  Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31,  John 16:12-15

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.

When the Spirit of truth comes, that Spirit will guide you in all the truth……

It is only in John’s gospel that we hear this title used: Spirit of truth.  It is a differing perspective perhaps, one that adds another dimension to our understanding of the Spirit, and one we don’t always use when describing the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church. 

And it does need to be said that John’s understanding of truth is not as fact, dogma, rules but instead as revealed and declared in Jesus, the Christ –that the Spirit comes to guide the community of faith in the truth that is the life and teaching of Jesus continuously working in the world.

In the reading from Proverbs we meet Sophia, Wisdom, calling from the market places and the crossroads – places where truth (wisdom) is both found and revealed.

Wisdom cries out to all – pleading for her voice to be heard and offering her impressive credentials for speaking the truth of God into all the world and in the most public of places.  True she has competition, folly’s voice is strong too, but Wisdom is belting out her message, God’s message of encompassing love creatively and audaciously. 

Listening to the role of Wisdom in the beginning, in creation, you might well imagine her as God’s architect, active in all the inhabited world, the delight of God and in turn delighting in the all human race.  John Calvin paints a picture of the work of God in creation with these words from the Institutes:

“Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of God’s glory.  You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness.”[1]

Yet the God revealed in the market place and through nature can only be fully understood in the light of Jesus and therefore through later scripture.

So back to the Gospel reading on this Trinity Sunday.  John is not so concerned about defining the inter-relationships of the three in one God (he left that for theologians to battle with for 2000 years)– rather he is focussed how the triune God relates to the reconciling of the world to God.  And in this passage we are looking particularly at the role of the Holy Spirit in the continuing instruction of the way of living in the truth of Jesus.  In a sense the things that Jesus has held back on, that he couldn’t say, were not because he felt they were too much but rather because they would only be revealed in context of resurrection and through the Spirit of truth.

The journey of revelation continues to this day.  The truth of Jesus Christ is a living and creative happening in the world and, I have to say, not the captive of the institution that we know as the church.  Where we (the church) have decided that we already have all the truth, where the voice of dogma is louder than the voice of the Spirit, I would suggest we have well and truly lost our way.

We must expect God to be present outside the confines of church, we must expect to encounter wisdom outside of Sunday service, we must accept that God is at work in the world outside of our influence.  With vigour, with the passion and daring of Sophia, the Spirit of truth is at work in the world.

This Gospel text is encourages us into an openness to fresh encounters with the revelations of Jesus, engaging anew with the Spirit of truth and courageous enough to be the

raucous truth tellers that are needed in the world today. 

Jesus Christ – the way and the truth and the life as guided by the Spirit – our story to tell, our truth to share.  I wonder what this means for us.

I personally have a real problem with the idea of getting out into the market place and haranguing the crowds with what they need to do to be saved.  Not particularly effective at the best of times and  certainly not where the words are not surrounded by acts of living out the truth of Jesus.

Equally though I have a real problem with us expecting the world to come to us, the Christian Church, as the source of all truth.  We are not, God is!  We are continuing to be guided throughout time in the truth of Jesus Christ made known in the Spirit – how dare we assume that we have it sussed, signed off for all time.  We are part of the reformed and reforming church, forever discerning the truth of God in our lives – we need to be careful what we claim are the facts of truth and who has exclusive use of God.

Is it possible that in some way we have become entangled in religion, its familiar rites and passages, and lost our searching faith, our understanding of the truth that is Jesus Christ. There is a quote from the book Churchless Christianity that might speak to some of us:  “Come out of those jungles of religion.  If you once enter there, you can no more find the way.  Look for Christ, who by-passed the jungles, who pointed out the direction, who over-ruled the ceremonials, and who showed us how to live always for others.”[2]

One of the best ways for me to keep a handle on how it is that I as a Christian am asked  to live in the truth of Jesus, to be aware of where the jungle of religion is compromising that, is always to imagine my feet in his, my response as his, my choices as he would choose, my prejudices and biases and apathy to be swept aside by his care for all in the world.

So imagine if Jesus was born and lived not into the first century but the 21^st century. 

Would Jesus be delighted with the religious establishment in any sense of the word?  Probably not.

Would Jesus choose to exclude certain groups of people because the community in its wisdom decided they did not conform – never, his arms would be open and his table a place of welcome

Would Jesus stay in a safe place and prefer not to engage with the different.  Heck no!

Would Jesus muck in with the homeless and the destitute, Heck yes.

Would Jesus be protestant (reformed of course) or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox?  Would he even be a member of the church? Or would he allow that faith and truth was to be found where people gathered to worship and learn to live in the way of Jesus?

Would Jesus sit in on the interfaith group, seeking truth together – I believe he did in his day and would do so today.

Would Jesus understand that diversity was delightful and be horrified at our desire for conforming to sameness? Yes and yes.

Would Jesus act as if there was nothing new to know – or would he be on a journey like us, excited about what might be around the corner?  Absolutely

Would Jesus be interacting with all the people he met never mind their failings? Yes, yes, yes.

Would Jesus be the raucous voice in the market place, seeking not to win souls for the church but to do what ever it takes to bring people into God’s love and justice, wisdom and truth – for all who would have ears to hear?  Yes indeed.

When the Spirit of truth comes, that Spirit will guide you in all the truth – the truth that is Jesus the Christ. 

I invite you, in a time of reflection, to consider how the truth of Jesus challenges and assures you in your journey of faith.

Amen.

Margaret Garland

---

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia:Westminster Press, 1960)

[2] Citation: Kaj Baago, ed., The Movement Around Subba Rao (Madras: CLS, 1968) cited in Herbert E. Hoefer, Churchless Christiantiy,  Madras, 1991, p.161

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 15 May 2016 Pentecost Sunday

Text Reading:  Acts 2.1-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable unto you O Lord the source of our strength and our redeemer. Amen

In this remarkable passage we read about the great day of Pentecost. Before this event the disciples’ hope was shattered and broken; they were disappointed at the turn of events by Jesus’ crucifixion. In vain had they tried to comfort themselves and it is as if all meaning had ceased. Three days later we are told of the magnificent event that so changed their lives from tears to laughter, their sadness to joy, their darkness to light. One event so transformed their lives they had no choice but to tell others about it, so that others’ lives can also be transformed by the same truth that so profoundly changed theirs.

A promise was made to them that Jesus will send them another comforter; that they should wait till the Holy Spirit should come. Jesus identified Comforter with himself, as He was with his disciples and walked with them, in the same manner another Comforter, Friend, companion walking along side of them/us, would be with them even to the end of the age. This is the hope they were waiting for as the day of Pentecost arrived. In patient trust they had to wait and accept His words that that would happen.

Pentecost was the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks. It is the Jewish harvest feast following Passover. In the Hebrew economy two big rain seasons referred to as the early rain and the latter rain. The early rain was for the sprouting of the seeds and they were left to grow through winter. The later rain was where ears of grain would plumb during spring and harvested.

The outpouring of the Spirit can be compared to the rain. As I understand it, Jesus began His ministry in the fall and for 3½ years he was sprouting the seeds of the gospel during the “former rain.” Furthermore He was teaching His disciples after His resurrection for another 40 days and before He ascended He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit to come. The Comforter will come to give them power. It is very interesting to note as well that Jesus fasted for 40 days before his ministry where he didn’t teach and eat and after He resurrected He did eat and teach also for 40 days. Acts 1:3

The situation of the disciples is very interesting, they just replaced Judas. They were in the upper room for 10 days, 120 people all gather, men and women, Jews and proselytes; meaning converts to Judaism. They didn’t know what to expect. Lev 23:15-16 we read the Jews had to count 7 Sabbaths after Passover which equals 49 days and the day after would be another Sabbath equalling 50 days. That is our word for Pentecost. Pentecost was celebrating the harvest 50 days after Passover. Jesus’ crucufixtion coincided with the Jewish Passover. Christ was the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

God was going to give the church at this time its very own harvest because Jesus spread the seed earlier during His ministry i.e. early rain. The important point is that they couldn’t do the work of God without the power of God. They had to pray and wait – it is through the Holy Spirit that we experience Christs’ indwelling. They needed the Comforter. God the Son had to go, so that God the Spirit could come. What is the reason for that? It was to bring witness to others about this extraordinary event. The outpouring of the Spirit was to prepare the ‘crop’ before He came.

God wanted to take a piece of Jesus’ spirit and put it on His people. In some sense we all need it friends. It is a personal walk with Christ. How was this possible? Acts 1:14 tells us they were united with one accord, they were putting aside their differences to focus on the word that they heard and to work out what had happened in their immediate experience. Acts 2:1 tells us that they were in one place, they came together. They were gathering to study about what they received.

God wanted them to be one. In John 17:12-24 we read: “o that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. "I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one .” ISV

The same way that God the Father, the Son and the Spirit are one. God wants in a sense us to be one – not only with Him, but with others as well. You know friends, they only way we can be one is what we need is special glue. God’s special glue of love is what holds us and binds us together.  What is interesting is that they heard a sound of wind from heaven and it filled them with the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t one person’s feeling; it was something outside of them that rested on them. Acts speak of the divided tongues appearing as fire with them; it was the very presence of God in their midst.

The question also naturally arises didn’t Jesus breath on them the Holy Spirit earlier? Yes! The problem was that their faith had died; the church in a sense had to experience its own resurrection. Sometimes the Spirit comes like a fire, sometimes like wind. We read that tongues of Fire rested on all the individuals present.

You see friends we cannot do the work of God without the presence of God. During those ten days they had to learn to rely on God and depend on Him. In that silence their faith was formed and moulded. They were made ready to accept the next part of what God wanted them to do. Life can throw us many curves and the disciples had to learn this the hard way too but trusting and walking with the Lord they realized that life is to be lived in dependence on God. Resting on their own, authority, their own words, their own efforts, their own strength they would not be able to do what God had wanted them to do. They had to learn to trust God in meekness and lean on God.

God picked the best timing on this Jewish holiday. Going to Jerusalem was one of the most amazing pilgrimages that a Jew could make, at least once in their life. As we read in Acts 2:9-10, there were Jews from all over the Roman world speaking many different languages gathering here at Jerusalem. God was bringing people to this one place where He was about to perform a work. Peter stood up and raised His voice. Pentecost set the stage for Peter’s sermon, a sermon unlike anything they ever heard. The Jews came in pilgrimage and for years they were expecting the Messiah to come.  These were not any Jews; they were devout Jews from all corners of the Roman world. They had come for the Messiah.

Peter says in Acts 2:22 “You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know: Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” KJV

Friends can you imagine these words on those first hearers? These words knocked them off their feet, it knocked them of their pedestal with a cricket bat. It shook them to the very core. The Messiah they had come for and awaited was crucified a few weeks ago. People’s hearts were being changed, they were convicted; they were invited to make a decision. God was bringing them in so that He could send them out.

Notice that also this is the reason for the outpouring of the Spirit and I do think this trip a lot of people up. Notice in verse 4 we read “they began to speak in other languages” and in verse 5 it says “each one was hearing the them (the disciples) in their own language”. Notice it doesn’t say they heard babbling. They heard the wonders of the gospel story in their own language. Pentecost opened the door for the gospel to spread, each person heard from the same mouth in their own native language Peters’ words. This is the true miracle of Pentecost and I believe they were speaking in known foreign languages that they didn’t know before. There were others that mocked, these people were most likely leaders or part of the crowd at Jesus’ crucifixion, that now mocked when they heard different languages being uttered by the apostles mouths, it sounded like gibberish to them. (they were late to the party.) The miracle of Pentecost was that God wanted to carry the gospel message of the good news of Jesus crucifixtion and resurrection to the whole world. (God wants us to go higher in love)

You know friends God can do amazing this in our lives if we allow Him to. Pentecost was the invitation to harvest. God invites all of us to make a decision to follow Him, wherever it leads. The Jews went back home, to their communities all over the world to bring that unique story to all their relatives and families. In Acts 2:21 we read: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” KJV As they tried in those early moments to understand the message of Jesus little did they know that God was preparing their hearts in order to receive Him and go on this epic mission.

How are we preparing our hearts to receive God? No matter our station in life, our rank, age or ability we are all called to respond to Gods loving grace. This is not something we can keep to ourselves, others may mock but we are called to do it, to bear it and carry the torch forward. One last thing: The feast of First Fruits was part of the Feast of Weeks. The ancient Jews had to bring the best of their produce as an offering to the Lord. You know friends the disciples and the Jews and all the hearers present there at Jerusalem were the first fruits in many ways, they were the part of the magnificent growth that resounded through the centuries until today.

This is the story that so transformed them, it is their story, their conviction, their confession and it is ours. Where do you stand friends? Let us go forward in the knowledge, love, peace and power that God freely grants those through the Holy Spirit who ask Him and believe on His name to equip us for His good work. Amen. 

P.T. Jacobs

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 8 May 2016 Ascension Sunday

Readings:  Acts 1:1-11,  John 17:20-26

We pray: Gracious God, we pray for a discerning heart and an enquiring mind as we hear your word for us today.  May all that we bring and all that we hear be gathered into your purpose for us.  In Jesus name. Amen.

Here, in this church today, we are surrounded by the imagination of others, and we thank God for the skill in bringing that into a medium where we can share in their imagining.  As always this art exhibition is an inspiring part of our rhythm of being church.  It also reminds me of something we did in our church in Amberley – a kids dream really – let alone the fun it was for the adults of which I was one.  We have a building – new actually – for the youth and children – and we had this group called Kid’s Club which was ecumenical – and we took a whole wall and said – lets create the stories of the bible on this wall.  So through paint and various other techniques we let our imaginations go for it.  If I remember rightly we had an Elvis hanging out with Jonah and sparkles on the dove and a myriad of creatures in the sea.  So much fun.  We talked about and never did get to the idea of painting the ceiling with the imaginations of heaven.  But I know that the first things that the children said they would do was their pets that had died – with them alive and jumping around and having a great time.

Interesting how we imagine the concept of heaven, what pictures it encourages in our minds.  In the days of the biblical writers heaven was a product of their world view – somewhere up there because earth was the centre of the known universe and all things rotated around it.  So it was conceivable that there was a place above, a fixed spatial location, where God resided.   Today our understanding of the where we sit within the greater whole of the galaxy makes that rather problematic and we have trouble with the concept of the risen Christ being beamed up as they say to some suspended castle above the clouds.  And so some simply avoid this part of the story of Jesus – finding it easier to skip over, denying its relevance to the Gospel story. 

Yet the ascension is absolutely relevant to our understanding of God and the relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and with us.  We mustn’t let the problematic imagery prevent us from exploring what is actually a critical moment of our faith.

So, the ascension is the ending of a forty day period of wonder that begins with the resurrection appearance of Jesus.  They are intimately linked, resurrection and ascension, bookends around a period in which the risen Christ was encountered by his followers in a variety of ways – ways that in fact blew out of the water all that they had believed possible, that sowed the ground for Pentecost, for the coming of the spirit.

Ways that expanded their hopes and vision, that enabled them to live in the power of the spirit through all the trials to come, that formed community and indeed the church. 

The distance bridged in this moment of ascension is not to be measured in the number of miles from earth to heaven but in the overwhelming experience of the depth, breadth, height and length of the love of the triune God who will not leave us alone, ever.  Jesus who was sent to us from the heart of God as active love, returns to the heart of God, and the active love of God for the world continues in the coming of the Holy Spirit who will work to transform creation until all things are gathered up, reconciled as one. 

Ascension speaks of a spectacular promise of enduring relationship, the three-in-one God who is also and always with us.

The story of resurrection and ascension speaks then of a wonder that will resonate through the church, one that will strengthen and encourage the faithful throughout time.  And when we look at the Gospel reading for today we realise that Jesus recognised and anticipated the importance of the moment of ascension for the church that was yet to come.   

He saw that the wonder of this moment of unification of the son with the father was pivotal to those who are still to come – Jesus prayer in John’s Gospel for future believers firmly connects the reconciliation of Creator and Son with the ongoing story of the church – from those first disciples who were there through those tumultuous times to us here in Opoho in the 21^st century. 

And so there is the sense that we are part of a faith where God continues be present in the world through the Spirit, where Christ lived and died for us, (not just those who were there at a moment in time), and where the work of the church and the faithfulness of its people is sourced always in the unity that is God Father Son and Spirit, always with us.    

It’s a thread of reconciling love that stretches throughout the church, past, present and future.

Jesus is keen that the wonder of the moment, the certainty of whatever experience was had by those early disciples, be there for us too.  Jesus wants us all to somehow share in that understanding of reconciliation and God always with us – more than just in our heads or our theology or our doctrine – but in our hearts.

There is a poem by Tom Gordon[1] I would like to share:

Remember me, when by your side I stood

in silent presence, there to wait for you.

Remember me, just as you said you would

and in the presence I’ll be there with you.

Remember me, when by your side I walked

on steady journeys, there to go with you.

Remember me, recalling how we talked

and on each journey I’ll be there with you.

Remember me, when you would take my hand

in tender sharing, to be joined with you.

Remember me, reliving what we planned

and in the sharing I’ll be there with you.

Remember me, when time is hard to fill,

in lonely waiting, no one there with you.

Remember me, when bonds continue still.

In constant loving I’ll be there with you,

Remember me, when I’m beyond your sight,

in blinded seeing, never there for you.

Remember me, and see with inner eye.

Invisible no longer, I’ll be there with you.

Remember me, when you search the skies

in constant wonder. Am I gone from you?

Remember me in all your tears and sighs,

and hear my promise – I’m still one with you.

I want to finish as we began with imagery and imagination – How do we as the poet said, search the skies in constant wonder, how do we remind ourselves of the forty days that blew our minds, how do we recover a sense of the overwhelming love of God made one with us through Christ and in the presence of the Spirit and go out in hope and vision of a reconciling love for all?  I don’t know about you but for me – I might just need to go and lie on some grass somewhere and check out those clouds – and remember that the story of the ascension was for me too.  Amen

Margaret Garland

---

[1] Remember by Tom Gordon from A Blessing to Follow Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2009 p.151

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 1 May, 2016 Easter 6 and Holy Communion

Readings: Psalm 67, Acts 16:9-15, John 14:23-29

We pray:  As we hear your word opened to us O God, may we all find nurture, challenge and assurance that we might better be the generous gifting of love to a world that is hurting and in pain.  May we respond in faith we pray. Amen

During the night Paul had a vision…..to go to Macedonia

Earlier in Acts - Peter had a vision……to go and preach the word among the gentiles

Peter had no intention of sharing the word of God with the uncircumcised but his vision said otherwise.

Paul had no intention of going to Philippi – he was staying in Asia but his vision sent him into Europe.

Visions were not unusual in the days of the early church – visions were the work of the Spirit speaking into the lives and choices of the disciples.

Today, visions are contained in one pithy (or not) sentence and supported by twenty pages of strategic directions and expected outcomes.

Vision, dream, the working of the Spirit – whatever words we put around this, in the bible we hear of many experiences of God working in people’s lives and often sending them in directions they had no intention of going. How many said, like Peter, ‘I don’t totally get why this is happening but who am I to hinder God?’

For Paul the vision was of a man of Macedonia asking him to come to them, to help them – quite the opposite direction to their carefully thought out route through Asia Minor – but God had spoken, convinced them to go.

And in consequence they were doing just what the Psalmist had envisaged – that God’s way may be known upon the earth, among all nations – all at the bidding of a vision, the Spirit, in their lives.

And when they get there things don’t quite go according to the usual plan –wait for the Sabbath to discover who the devout Jews are so that Paul can approach with some hope of ears to hear.  Perhaps searching for the synagogue, they come upon a group of women in a place of prayer – and they stop, sit down and talk.  Not necessarily what one would have expected from Paul  – I would venture to suggest that would not have been his preferred option, that he would not have comfortably sat down with a bunch of women to talk and that it would have taken some prodding to do so.  And so Paul meets Lydia.

And the Spirit is working strongly in Lydia – talk about an open heart and a decisive response to the word.  Her first response was baptism, there and then, and her second response was offering, with some insistence, hospitality.  And from this woman come much of the passion and drive for the church in Philippi.

Quite some character our Lydia. How come?  Ronald Cole-Turner puts it this way:

Lydia is decisive because she is discerning, she is discerning because God has opened her heart to a new level of perception, she has this new level of perception because she comes to worship, she comes to worship because she is hungering for something more in life than her financial success, she is hungering for something more because that restless Spirit has stirred up a holy longing in her soul. Every step of the way the Spirit prompts and calls and blesses her.[1]

Lydia and Paul and Peter, among so many others in scripture, are the testimony to Jesus words in the Gospel - where he says to his disciples that neither he nor his Father will leave the disciples alone, that they are sending another to teach and remind – the guidance of the Spirit is present in their lives. 

And she along with the Peters and Pauls are also testimonies to that fact that the living God has made a home within each of them, a place of peace that encourages bold action, far reaching visions, decisive response.  Why?  Coming back to the Psalmist, surely so that they may take the word to all the nations and all people will be glad and sing for joy. 

Now that describes the church today doesn’t it?

On Wednesday night a few of us at Study Group began to engage with the Green Paper that the Moderator has recently distributed to the church.  And there was some fairly brutal analysis of what is preventing us being the church of the psalmist, of what hamstrings us changing direction in response to the urging of God like the early church, where the God making a home within us is scrabbling to be heard above the clamour of other voices.

Just some of the thoughts from that night.

We are really good at propositions – suggesting ways in which we can plan or organise or offer opinions on how to be the people of God – surely the starting place is our experience of God, where we know the presence of God dwelling in us.  But we kind of like to be in control – it takes some courage to relinquish that and to respond to the nudgings of the spirit in our lives.

Our institutionalism – more than an administrative bureaucracy but the sense of signing up of the individual to a done and dusted lifetime membership, the settling into the rules because they have been there for time immemorial, the valuing of personal salvation over the diversity of the community and all the moral judgements that go with that, the looking inwards because you are in …. the list goes on.

That being a Christian is a natural part of our lives – it’s a 24/7 indwelling of the spirit that impacts everything we do in every nook and cranny of our lives.  We talked of the experience within other cultures where the God part of us was neither muted nor a very large hammer – simply who we were.  As easily as we would talk weather and family and work, so we would talk God.  We have, in NZ anyway, become an inarticulate people of God: either personally or publically our voice is tentative, piecemeal, apologetic, uncertain or judgemental.  One comment made is that we are much better at arguing people out of the kingdom of God than in.

That we need to find the courage and the vision to live a model of Christianity that works for us in our culture and in our time.  For instance we do not necessarily connect with the concept of being washed in the blood of the lamb – or if we do there is every chance it enables us to keep the truth of it at a historical distance and thus keep control.  For the reality is we are no longer a people deeply connected with animal sacrifice, our experience is not particularly rural any more – so how do we say and show the deep and powerful truth of these words in a way that conveys the deep and abiding love of God that will give all to bring us to new life in Jesus – how do we say that in a way that will not only connect but transform. 

The early church was an explosion of God’s love into the community and the world – can it be so for us?

Of course it can – and is.   There are places in this  community, in this world where the love of God is a light to the nation, not without risk and certainly not without mistakes but with God indwelling and speaking clearly into the visions we see and the dreams we dream.   

You see, I think the Lydias and the Peters and Pauls, human and fallible as they were, knew in their hearts the absolute peace of Christ – and that peace is nothing less than the presence of God within, a presence that not only transforms us but the community and nations in which we live.  

As we gather round the table today – may we know that peace and experience the presence of the Christ who said that he would never leave us.  And may we go from here may that presence be with us in all that we do and are.  Amen.

Margaret Garland

---

[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, p.478