Sermon Kilsyth Church, Scotland 2 October 2016

Readings: 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Psalm 137:1-6

Prayer:  Gracious God, we have gathered as your people to praise, to pray, to hear your word for us and to go from here renewed in your grace and mercy, that we might be the people of Christ s you call us to be.  May we open our ears to hear your word for each of us today and may our hearts be moved to renewed discipleship in Jesus name.  Amen

Psalm 137, a cry from a people in exile.  ‘How could we sing  the Lord’s song in a foreign land.’ 

My study leave from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand is to explore the place of music in our worship, to find the ways in which our singing and playing helps us to know God more deeply, to hear the stories of when music has opened the door to experiences of God and when it has not.  This is a topic with very few boundaries and infinite possibilities, and I am still not sure what the end result will be.   I have questions on the language we use in music, the way it connects with the liturgy, how to keep it fresh and yet honouring where we come from, and how it expresses our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. There was one thing though that I was particularly interested in before we set out – and that was the singing of the Psalms - and I have learned much about the love that especially the people of Scotland have for them. 

So far in our travels Mike and I have worshipped at Manchester Cathedral, St Columba Episcopalian church and St Giles in Edinburgh, Church of Scotland in Braemar and Crathie and at the Free Church in Lewis – at Back (where the Gaelic Psalm singing moved me to tears) – and now here.  It has been a journey that we have loved, missing our home but being welcomed as part of Christ’s body, his church in all these different places.  

Perhaps if I could talk a little bit about where we come from, and the journey of faith that the early  Scottish settlers took as they sailed from here to distant shores, then look at the ways in which hymn writing and singing has evolved in NZ and then share some thoughts of how music contributes to worship and to our faith journeys.

The cries of lament from the Hebrew people exiled to Babylon would, I am sure, resonated with the people of Scotland of the mid 19C – herded off their livings with often the only choice being to set sail or starve – how would they have felt I wonder?  Bitter, angry at God even?  Would they have found that being removed from the context of their faith shook their very foundations and left them bewildered like the people of Judah.  Did they forget God, not remember whose they were?  I don’t think so.  I think they would have used the words of this psalm to remind themselves of God with them wherever they were.  As Paul says to Timothy, as a gospel people they knew that there would be suffering and trial, uncertainties and challenges but that the power of God would hold them to purpose and that sound teaching would hold in the faith and love that is Jesus Christ.  So they took their bibles, sang their psalms, praised their God even if it was in a paddock or a sod hut far from all they knew.  Last year we were 150 years since the first sermon was preached in NZ – on the beach to the tangata whenua, the Maori people of Aotearoa – and it was at Christmas.  We have a hymn, a carol, written of it: Not on a snowy night by star or candle light, .....But on a summer day within a quiet bay, the local people heard the great and glorious word. (Willow Mackay – Te Harinui)

It was different in this new land – and it challenged our ancestors I am sure.  They had to find some new ways to sing the Lord’s song that not only was relevant for them but would also relate to a people who had never heard of Jesus before and had their own culture and spiritual understandings.  Some of those early Christian settlers found ways to share their faith with grace and understanding and grow in their relationship with God and each other – others would have struggled to maintain their traditions without the rhythm of life they had left behind.  Others would have been too inflexible, refusing to listen and learn and adapt to this very different land.  Some of that inflexibility remains still.   But generally, over time, there was a realisation that to worship God in a strange land was not just possible but brought new joys and understandings of God’s word.

The music they brought with them was a large part of this sense of continuity – praising God with psalms and hymns.  Remembering where they had come from but remembering also to be apostles and teachers and prophets in a new land.  When we were in Back, I spoke with the Minister,  Calum McLeod, and we talked about the threads that join us even now as a Christian people around the world, not just of faith, but of the way we engage musically as we praise our God, different though our ways might be. 

And in fact it has, in NZ, taken us a long time to find that expression of our way as we have grappled with some of the different contexts in which we worship and sing.  But local hymns have been emerging over the last 60-70 years that reflect our NZ story.  Today, here in Kilsyth, is harvest thanksgiving – in autumn, a time of settling and preparing for winter – for us in NZ we have this around April (our autumn)– and this means around Easter of course.  Easter falls for us not at the time of new birth, of spring, but in the season of thankfulness for what we have had and preparation for a time of reflection and quiet, of winter, before the hope of new birth.  So we have to think about how we preach and sing our Easter when our origins have traditionally placed it seasonally at a time of regeneration.  And so this hymn from Shirley Murray – one of our prolific NZ hymn writers:

When evenings shorten and grow cool, as grapes turn purple on the vine, as golden grain is safely stored, we see again our Easter sign

As rowans fade along the hill, and bush birds come to us for food, in rain, or mist or bitter chill we meet again our Easter God.

As trees grow bare, we see the trace of life’s new buds along the bough. We do not need to wait for Spring; Our Easter Lord is with us now.

So let the Southern Church rejoice! As colour flames from hill and plain we come with confidence to meet the Christ who died – yet lives again!  Words Shirley Smith Tune Gonfalon Royal

Then Christmas – the ‘depth of winter’ Victorian Christmas cards and hymns and carols just didn’t seem appropriate as our only music – we still sing them but also we sing also hymns that reflect our reality, this also from Shirley Murray:  Carol our Christmas, an upside down Christmas; snow is not falling and leaves are not bare......  Sing of the gold and the green and the sparkle, water and river and lure of the beach.  Sing in the happiness of open spaces, sing a nativity summer can reach!

And then there is finding words that have meaning for us as New Zealanders.  Writing hymns that express our understanding of God, that help us to sing joyfully to the Lord in a meaningful way.  Here are the words of a another hymn where kauri is a tall strong ancient tree, aroha is love and mana is the worth that we hold others in.      Where mountains rise to open skies, your name, O God, is echoed far, from island beach to kauri’s reach, in water’s light, in lake and star.    Your people’s heart, your people’s part be in our caring for this land, for faith to flower, for aroha to let each other’s mana stand.

Now some emerging thoughts on the part that music plays in our worship and our faith.  In NZ in the Presbyterian churches we have a variety of styles of music and sad to say singing (or even reading) psalms would be occasional at best.  We have choirs of differing kinds, we have music groups that lead with drums and guitars singing contemporary chorus music, we have strong congregational singing from various hymnarys, we have dance particularly from our Pacific Island churches,  and we have Taize and Iona music too.  All sorts.  We have problems with some folk not understanding the difference between performance and praise, (a worry of the Gaelic Psalm singers as their music becomes increasingly ‘popular’ in the secular world); we have differing opinions over which tune or verses or words are to be used.  We sing hymns where the theology is either outdated or quite flakey, we think that if only we can get the words right and a punchy tune then we will fill the church with young folk and it is always a balancing act with our combination of old and new. 

Yet, it is in the lifting of our voices in worship to God that all of these things seem to disappear – or fade at least – how many of you would have stories to tell of times when the music has just simply become the presence of God?  The times when we have allowed the praise and the joy and yes the lament to come from our hearts in our singing as we remember that we are never alone, that God is always with us, as we turn to face a new struggle and hold fast to Christ’s teaching to get us through,  as we know that we can and must sing the Lord’s song in our new lands what ever they might look like.  For you, for us, for Christians throughout the world and in all contexts let us continue to praise God with song and tune with all our hearts, for this is the good treasure with which we have been entrusted and that we carry with us wherever we go.

And to our God be all glory praise and honour – now and forever more.  Amen.

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 21 August 2016 Pentecost 14

Readings: Isaiah 58:9b-14, Luke 13:10-17

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 have a phrase in our language – we talk about conversations or encounters where whatever is said just ‘passes us by’’ – conversational ships in the night – where we both think we are talking about the same thing but actually are on completely different subjects, at cross purposes.  The people that Isaiah are talking to are somewhat like that in their relationship with God.  If we look at the verses preceding the Old Testament reading we heard today, we find a genuinely bewildered people –‘why O God will you not draw near us when we do everything you ask of us?’ and a frustrated God – ‘you say you do this but in fact……’

The dialogue goes something like this:

God:  day after day they seek me as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.

People:  Why do we fast but you do not see? Why humble ourselves but you do not notice?

God: look, for a start, you serve your own interests on fast day – you quarrel and fight, this will not make your voice heard on high, why don’t you get it?  This is not what I ask of you…this is what you are to do if I am to hear you – stop pointing the finger, doing evil, trampling on the Sabbath, pursuing your own interests.

The people are genuinely bewildered at this charge of hypocrisy.  They do not see what they are doing wrong.

From the Hebrew scriptures, we learn that there are two type of emphasis on how it is that God’s people are to approach the Sabbath, the day of the sacred when all eyes are turned to God.  From Genesis and Exodus[1] we have the ordinance to bless and consecrate the Sabbath as a day of rest – the Lord rests from the work of creation therefore we too are to rest –refraining from working so we can contemplate and reflect and praise God. 

From Deuteronomy[2] we hear that we are to observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God

This complementary understanding, set in the light of deliverance from Egypt, commands the people to observe the day and keep it holy – in other words undertake a holy work

Relinquishing work for self and active holiness for God.

Keeping the Sabbath holy did not mean only resting but also doing the work of the kingdom – active holy practice on the Sabbath.

And that practice was around justice and service and caring for each other – doing the Lord’s work.  Through Isaiah, God told the people that by not living in active holiness, their worship and rituals were worse than nothing.  God and the people were talking past each other, neither in the same conversation.

In our Gospel reading the Pharisees too had bound up the Sabbath with rules for refraining from work and had lost sight of the Deuteronomy teaching – that of holy practice.

Hypocrisy was rife, rules were rigid, consequences were immediate.  How, Jesus asks them somewhat angrily, does your unwillingness to condone the healing of one of God’s chosen on the Sabbath fit with your remembrance and honouring of the liberation of God’s people from Egypt, of your understanding of active holiness?  Not at all.  More than that, you have made even these days of rest a place of bondage, where people’s wholeness and strength is constrained, diminished by your finicky rules, your lack of flexibility and compassion

Yet again the conversation that the people are having with God, where they think they have got it right, is missing the mark completely. 

Jesus here is pointing out their hypocrisy.  He is upset that they do not see suffering that this woman is under and are willing to place rules of rest above the need for healing and restoration.  This is not living in a meaningful and engaging relationship with God – this is witness gone wrong, he says.  And they themselves are living in bondage to the rules, unable to see that they have lost sight of a meaningful dynamic living out of God’s love.

How many of you have read C.S. Lewis’s book The Great Divorce?[3]  I have – a long time ago.  In it a busload of people leave hell on a holiday to heaven. One of them, in her earthly life, was a washerwoman in Golder’s Green, wringing her livelihood from the soil of the clothing of those who hire her for a pittance.  In her life in the kingdom of God, she is herself clothed in a white gown and a tiara, with ladies holding her train and laughing in the bright sheen of God’s new day.  Most of the people who board the bus for their holiday in heaven, away from hell, instead of staying, choose to return to the lower world.  Bent on going back to hell, the return trip is difficult, because the journey requires them to find what is a very small crack in the expansive green pastures of the kingdom, and to travel back in a shrinking coach that crushes passengers into insufferably cramped quarters until they themselves grow small enough to have wide spaces between them.  The washerwoman, the crippled woman in Luke, however, chooses to stay on holiday, in the kingdom.

It is a sobering premise.  The smallness of self containment, blindness against the expansive freedom that is wholeness and healing in God. 

There are two parts to the Gospel story – the healing of the woman, a healing that leads immediately into praise and witness and the smallness and rigidity of the rule keepers, unable to see their own hypocrisy and their need for living in a vibrant full relationship with God.

And it seems that the question to us is equally pointed.  Do we live in well meaning but unfaithful hypocrisy, turning people away, comfort our priority, immersed in our ownness, overwhelmed by our business and captured by our regulations?

Or are we aware of our need to be on the same page as Jesus, to have our conversations with God focussed on that which brings the kingdom to pass, that which allows us to witness to the love of God in active holiness as well as Sabbath rest?

What might this look like? 

Well when we listen for and hear the voice of God, a voice strong enough to tell us when we are getting it wrong, as we inevitably do, we are constantly assessing our witness against the teachings of Jesus, not so much slipping into that place of hypocrisy, where our living does not reflect the teaching we purport to follow.

We are better able to see how to live into and beyond our limits.   To neither attempt to do that which is not asked of us nor to be held back from that which God asks us to be in faith.

We are open to and aware of the many rhythms of community and conversation, moving always to the drums of justice and compassion, service and holy action in our obedience to the love of God.

We welcome nurturing and prodding rather than contentment and smallness.  We find our gifts and abilities and be encouraged to live them to the full in Jesus name, knowing when it is time for sacred rest and sacred activity.

We place substance above form, compassion above unfeeling rules, people above empty ritual and God above all.

And when we do this – allowing our conversations, our relationships with God and each other to connect and flourish in the one understanding of obedient love, that is where we would be with the crowd, rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing in the world and our lives.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Margaret Garland

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[1] Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20: 8-11

[2] Deuteronomy 5: 12-15

[3] C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Macmillan, 1946

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 7 August 2016 Pentecost 12

Readings:  Isaiah 1:1,10-20,  Luke 12: 32-40

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.

I want to begin with a story from Mitch Albom, in his book ‘Have a Little Faith[1]’ where he meets with a Rabbi who has asked him to do his eulogy when he dies –this is a quote from one of Rabbi Albert Lewis’ sermon

“A man seeks employment on a farm.  He hands his letter of recommendation to his new employer.  It reads simply, ‘He sleeps in a storm.’

The owner is desperate for help, so he hires the man.  Several weeks pass, and suddenly, in the middle of the night, a powerful storm rips through the valley.

Awakened by the swirling rain and howling wind, the owner leaps out of bed.  He calls for his new hired hand, but the man is sleeping soundly.

So he dashes off to the barn.  He sees, to his amazement, that the animals are secure with plenty of feed.

He runs out to the field.  He sees the bales of wheat have been bound and are wrapped in tarpaulins.

He races to the silo.  The doors are latched, and the grain is dry.

And then he understands.  ‘He sleeps in a storm’.

My friends, says the Rabbi, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business.  Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight.  We will never wallow in the agony of ‘I could have, I should have…’

We can sleep in a storm.

And when it is time our goodbyes will be complete.”

What is it that God requires of us in our living? How are we to be ready for the unexpected coming?

These are the questions for continually asking if we are genuine about following the way of Jesus.  These were questions that formed part of the Parish Council retreat last Saturday as we explored our life in this church and this community.  Our readiness as the people of God!

Being prepared.  Watchful waiting – just what does this mean for us?

First of all, in the reading, Jesus assures us of the presence of God in our lives and the world.  The kingdom of God is no future possibility – is now and it is certain.  It is the promise that allows us to live life on the edge – to take risks and to be bold in our living.  It is also the promise that holds us when things go wrong and where we can’t see round the looming corner. God is our treasure, our very heart and in God we trust.

Then Jesus encourages us to be ready and dressed for action for we do not know the when or the where of the coming of the one who is the master? But not the master in the sense they know it – but the one who come and turns lives upside down, who serves them and blesses them. 

It would be simplistic to think that we are capable of 24/7 vigilance, looking always to what is to come and not be involved and engaged in what is.  We would wear ourselves out, sleepless, always on the alert for the door.  Doing nothing so that we can always be ready to do something.  That doesn’t feel right either.  People can get fixated about the coming of the kingdom – Jesus preaches that it is already here and we are to be involved.  And he gives heaps of teachings about how that is to look throughout the Gospels – all to show us how to be rich towards God - now.

Being dressed and ready for action is, for me, about being alert to the presence of God in every single thing that we do and be, part of our dna as Christians.  The whole of life is an abundant gift from a generous God – and our then giving that gift to others is to be done with generous abandon and in trust.

So talking about success and 24/7 fixation and failure as sleeping on the job I don’t find particularly helpful here.  Rather we can examine the ways in which we can be alert to the voice of God, the teachings of Jesus, the guidance of the Spirit in our lives so that we see things we might not have seen before, heard things differently, been equipped for the unexpected, or as David Schlafer said ‘position ourselves to be surprised.’

And what is it that equips us to be alert in this way?

First of all – worship – not just as a set of rituals that need doing each week, as the text from Isaiah describes, but as an awed and candid engagement with God that is life-giving, community transforming and world altering.  Reminding ourselves of the promise of God, of the power of the love to transform us and the world, of the need to engage and praise and be delighted at God’s abundant generosity.  Do we allow worship to speak into our alertness and readiness for whatever might come our way?

Then there is the community that we are part of – a community to rest in, one that restores and builds up and encourage and cares?  Learning that sense of belonging, of welcome in all our diversity and difference is one of the most powerful foundations from which we can venture forth into the unknown and deal with the unexpected.  Sharing our concerns, knowing that even in our distress we are loved is incredibly precious and empowering.  And it is in this community that we can then tackle when we are in sleep mode or doing things that are abhorrent to God – as did Isaiah - when we are getting it wrong, we are to argue it out, discern what is good and what is evil and walk that path.

And we are to actively and creatively grow in faith and understanding – our personal journeys, the disciplines of prayer and engagement with scripture and the doing of God’s work.  For it is there that we so often meet the Christ, in the silence and listening of prayer, in studying the words and acts of Jesus, in the reflections of those who have gifts of interpretation and creative understanding, and finally in the moments of absolute gifting that is being the work of God in the world.  

So as we gather around the table today, sharing the bread and wine as one people, may we trust in God’s promise of the riches of the kingdom and may we draw Christ deeply into our hearts so that in our going from here we might be equipped and alert for travelling in the way of Jesus, whatever comes our way.  Amen

Margaret Garland

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[1] ‘Have a Little Faith: a True Story’ by Mitch Albom. Hatchett Books, 2009

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 17th July Pentecost 9 and Prayers of Intercession

Readings: Psalm 52, Luke 10:38-42

Let us pray:  Holy God, may your word for us be truly heard and may we hear challenge, new beginnings and assurance of your love and grace.  In Jesus name Amen.

Are we a listening people?

At a meeting last week we were asked to carry out this exercise – get into pairs and one of you speak for seven minutes (some of us have less trouble with that than others) and the other was to listen – not to respond in any way, no nodding, no encouraging smile, no facial response and certainly no verbal interruptions.  It was a challenge and virtually impossible to not respond even in the most positive way.  But the point was to get us to think about listening well so that we may hear God’s voice both in our hearts and in the encounters with those around us.

In the words of Tom Gordon:[1]

To listen and not to speak.

To hear, and not to interrupt.

To pay attention, and need to respond.

To take note, and not write anything down.

To concentrate, and not miss what is important.

To be silent, and not cut a story short.

To accept, and not try to clarify.

To wait, and not be tired of waiting.

To be still, and not expect anything else to matter.

O God, how hard it is,

And yet, how important……

How important indeed – the silence that is needed for the words to have meaning and the meaning to enter our heart. 

In the Gospel story today Jesus said: ‘Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

This story of the two sisters is, we could say, about the different approaches to how we honour God and serve Jesus best. For this was the dilemma at the heart of the tale of Mary and Martha and it will, I expect, speak to us in different ways.  There will be those who completely get where Martha is coming from, frustrated at all the work still to do, wanting to sit down and listen but wanting to be the best of hosts.  And how it rankles when someone else doesn’t have the same priorities, leaves the dishes on the bench for later and chooses to be part of the company instead.  Out comes the words, somewhat pointed, sharp, a wee bit whiney.  “Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work – tell her to come and help!’

For Martha was the host, the doer, the person of action – a very important role and not taken lightly in those times: there was a hankering to be still and listen but not until the work was done.

And then there was Mary – according to Martha the taker, the selfish one – Mary was a listener, a student, one who saw the importance of hearing the teachings of Jesus and was willing to forgo what was expected of her – because she had decided where she needed to be – and it wasn’t helping her sister. That will be just so right for some of us, the ones who don’t want to get waylaid by the metaphorical housekeeping when there is something so much better to do.

For Mary has chosen the better part says Jesus.  Important though the doing is, we all need to take time to be the Mary of the story, putting the teachings of Jesus before the carrying out of the tasks that honour him; knowing why it is that we do and for what purpose has the edge on the doing.

You see I think that David was on to this – that he knew that it was only by anchoring himself in God, listening to the voice of God, being guided by God in his life choices that he would avoid the self serving piety and deceitful living of Doeg. We know David didn’t get it right all the time but he had some kind of moral compass (unlike Doeg) – whom he freely acknowledged was God.  He likens that sense of being able to anchor in God as being like an olive tree - not easily displaced when we are rooted in God, with God’s light nourishing us and God’s water sustaining us.  David safely puts his trust in God, turns his ear to God and so can walk in God’s way.

Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her. 

Let us dig down a bit deeper into this.

First of all let us not forget Martha. Jesus was not responding with his comments to the busy Martha but rather to the worried and distracted Martha. He speaks as to a dear friend (Martha, Martha) who is fussing over bits that don’t need worrying about and missing out on something important. Jesus did not say that this stopping and listening was all that we should do – but rather that this is essential to our doing.  And for sure there would have been other times when Mary’s lack of action would have been inappropriate and criticism of her sitting around justified, and Martha would have been the lynch pin and seen as such.  It is safe to say that there will forever be a struggle between word and deed, the speaker and the doer, the contemplative and the activist for that is the nature of who we are as human beings.   The important thing is that we need to be alert to the situation that we are in and respond accordingly, and to never assume either posture to the point of preoccupation or ideology.  Activism without contemplation ends in aimless doing and sometimes dangerous conclusions.  Thought alone, however, can also be dangerous – for where we theologically debate and discuss and study without life experience and the learning that comes from serving, then we are equally able to delude ourselves as to the purpose of God for us.

In fact this Gospel reading is about knowing when we need to be Martha and when Mary.  Discerning when we are being too much of one and not enough of the other.  But remembering that we first need to listen before we do.

Another thought here. We are to listen so that we not just comprehend the teachings of Jesus and live them out but also so that we can find the words to communicate God’s word to others – how sad that we have come to think that only those with ‘qualifications’ should interpret and share the word.  How sad that we think that theology is something written in books and debated at the highest academic level.  Certainly it is that, but is also you and me continually sitting at the feet of Jesus seeking to know his way.

Here is a thought too.  Does Jesus remind us of the meaning of the word hospitality in this passage?   That we can sometimes as a church get distracted by the many projects and programmes and activities that we feel are needed and forget to recognise that the source of all hospitality is Jesus and that deeds without the word are meaningless.  Whereas if we stop to listen to the words of Jesus, the promptings of the Spirit then those deed will flow out of a conviction and a hope rather than a timetable.

I also wonder how much the cultural expectation of the role of the women of the time informs this story.  Not only was Mary disrupting Martha’s expectations, there would have been some raised eyebrows that a woman would choose to a) avoid her role and b) sit down with the men.  There is a sense in which Mary was doing her bit for the right of women to be part of the listening and learning and discerning.  So you go Mary!  Right behind you there.

And finally, back to what we were talking about at the beginning: it is not just about engaging in conversation with God and each other as we seek to know Jesus Christ – it is about listening to what is being said.  And that takes some trust and some effort on our part. It is easy just to let the words flow over us as a well known and beloved scripture, it is also easy to get overwhelmed with words, to find it easy to distrust the use of words, but if we are able to listen closely, with discernment, we will hear what is actually being said sometimes despite the words.

So let us make sure that we stop and listen to God, let us hear the teachings of Jesus, and wait on the guidance of the Spirit in a ways that allows us to be the best, most deeply rooted, well nourished and fruitful olive trees in all the world here in Opoho  Amen.

Margaret Garland

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession 17 July 2016

Let us Pray

We thank you Lord for plenty and sometimes even luxury

We thank you Lord for warmth and shelter and home

We thank you Lord for health and wellbeing

We thank you Lord for happiness, for joy, for content

We thank you Lord for security, for courage, and for belonging

We thank you Lord for freedom and a place in our community

We are blessed to be here, in this time, in this place, among these people

We pray for men, women and children who are hungry and poor

We pray for people who are cold and exposed

We pray for those who are sick, exhausted, mentally ill, disabled

We pray for men, women and children who are sad, depressed, or grieving

We pray for those who are at a loss, afraid, or anchorless

We pray for people who are imprisoned, alone, hopeless

With our prayers, we place them in the palm of your hand

It is time to stop telling hungry people that they should work harder, instead let us bake bread

It is time to stop telling cold people to find somewhere else, instead let us knit blankets

It is time to stop telling sick people to get better, instead let us bring medicine

It is time to stop telling sad people to cheer up, instead let us sing to them

It is time to stop telling scared people to be brave, instead let us wrap our arms around them

It is time to stop telling captive people to have hope, instead let us release them

We have been granted so much, Lord, let us stop judging and start giving of your plenty, in sympathetic generosity and knowing in our hearts that all people are your people

And we sing…The Lord’s Prayer

Abby Smith

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[1] Tom Gordon.  A Blessing to Follow Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2009

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 10 July 2016 Pentecost 8

Readings:  Amos 7:7-15,   Luke 10:25-37

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

Sitting at my desk Friday afternoon, getting on a bit of a roll with Amos and Samaritans, procrastinating a bit as is my want by flicking across into Stuff – and then I read about the shooting of 11 people at a protest rally in Dallas – four/five dead.  Those shot were police who were presumably keeping an eye on a protest ‘black lives matter’ rally about the shooting of innocent black people by police.  Words fail.  Hatred rules. Lives ripped apart.  What is going on?

Those of us reading through the books of the bible have struggled with the violence and hatred of the time but we have to honestly ask if our time is any different from that say of two and a half thousand years ago.

Then as now there is mindless violence.

Then as now there is retribution.

Then as now there is the slaughtering of the innocents.

Now and then there is greed and a protection of self whatever it takes.

Or, here is a thought:

Now and then that is all that seems to make the headlines.

And that got me thinking.  Then and now the world, life is not all about horrible stuff, there are stories of hope and kindness and compassion.  In first and second Kings there are stories of peace and gentleness and justice – it’s just that they are few and far between, rarely reported.  Today there are remarkable and everyday stories of neighbourliness and compassion and forgiveness.  They just don’t seem to make the headlines.

And I had to ask the question if we, as a society, have a propensity to wallow in the horror stories and respond as I did with a complete loss of perspective and a sense of a black hole that the world has gone down. 

Do we allow our headlines to feed our fears and does the new global communication world we live in encourage our despair. 

Blogger Jeremy Spain thinks so - in a piece titled ‘A small God in a big world’[1] he reminds us that Jesus came not as a headline act but as a baby, that the deluge of what is wrong with the world doesn’t give us much space to contemplate what is right: he says

 “Imagine how different the world must have been even 100 years ago. Imagine how much bigger and more mysterious the world must have been without Google Maps and Google Earth, without Buzzfeeds that reduce our ever-shrinking ordinary world to a series of tragic headlines and newsfeeds that reduce our ever-expanding social world to a series of one-way conversations 140 characters-deep and 10,000 friends-wide. Imagine what it must have felt like to not feel like you are at the center of every event and every relationship on earth. Imagine a world with board games and the great big woods outback. Imagine what it would feel like to be as small as a human being…..

 You’d almost think the highest point of our nation’s freedom, that of its speech, is now being used to paralyze us. It’s like the headlines that feed us the bad news of the world have left us no room to speak about anything else, anything less important than politics or less complicated than the economy or less alarming than proofs of the immanent threat of radical Islam. How inconsiderate it would be to speak needlessly about the daylilies beginning to bloom outside with all that other stuff happening outside…”

He restates the answer to the question: 

Q: “When did we see you hungry and feed you and thirsty and give you drink?”

A: “When you didn’t see me on a screen and when you gave me more than your opinions.”

Let’s think about the good Samaritan story –  even without the advantage of the world wide web, the bad press for the Samaritans had done its business – they were despised foreigners, with a faith that had developed differently and were not to be trusted let alone associated with.  Samaritan was the shock word that Jesus used to tell this story of what it means to be a neighbour – even the lawyer wasn’t quite able to say Samaritan when asked to identify the neighbour – he skirted the issue by saying ‘the one who showed him mercy’.  Nowadays some could equally say insert the word Muslim or Asian or Sikh – and what has the western Christian world overtly despised for two thousand years - Jews.  Different, despised, responsible for all that is wrong with our world……..easy to demonize.

But actually, says Jesus – we can’t do that.  For kindness shows us who acts as a neighbour, not culture nor faith nor nationality – but kindness and compassion.

And our kindness is personal, relational, small in the scheme of things and unlikely to make the headlines.

It can come from the most unlikely of people, be shared into the scariest of places and it is not to be refused because we think someone unworthy or ‘different’.

So let’s not be undone by the violence and hatred and inhumanity that we can drown in in the world today.  Let us instead practice what it is that we are made to be – the loving people of God walking in the way of Jesus.  ‘Let us live in a world close enough to touch, low enough to look in the eye’; says Jeremy Spain. He reminds us that God speaks in a still small voice, not with a foghorn, and a still small voice require physical nearness to be heard. 

We can lose ourselves in caring for the things we can do nothing about and not see the neighbour over the fence who is in need.

We can despair at making a difference to a world that seems to be imploding and forget the teaching of Jesus that from a small seed of love expressed, amazing things can happen.  Each little act of compassion has the capacity to turn the world on its head.  Believe it!

So instead of being overwhelmed by the state of the world, let us focus on being who Jesus tells us to be - a good neighbour, getting to know those around us, offering and receiving a helping hand and building relationships with all manner of people, even those, especially those whom society would have us cross the road away from  – for it is there that we will find God at work in our world.

We finish with words from Brian Wren

We are your people, Spirit of grace,

you dare to make us to all our neighbours,

Christ’s living voice, hands and face.

Spirit, unite us, make us, by grace,

willing and ready, Christ’s living body,

loving the whole human race.

Margaret Garland

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[1] https://jeremyspainhour.com/2016/06/29/small-god-in-a-big-world/

Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 3 July 2016 Pentecost 7 Holy Communion

Reading:  Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Let us pray: Abundant God, you whose love for the world is beyond our ken yet given into our hands, open our hearts and minds to your word for us today and everyday, guiding us in your way and strengthening us for the journey. Amen.

Reading.[1]

Jesus said: The primary gift you will take when I send you  out is that of God’s peace.  You are to offer this peace to all whom you meet – and if it is rejected you are to leave it at the door.

That reading you just heard was a paraphrase of our Gospel reading by Adrian Taylor in ‘Luke Illustrated Gospel Project’.   And some of the wording offers real insight into the way in which we are to equip and carry ourselves as God’s people going out into what Luke considered a dangerous world – a concept we would no less appreciate today. 

Taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the world, to preach the gospel – that word evangelise that we need to recover as ours, not just belonging to a certain type of church – sharing the good news of the Gospel is to be done with confidence, compassion, humility and above all in the peace of God.

For added clarity, let me add what it is not.  It is not to be done by haranguing and fear mongering, nor by glossy pamphlets on the street corner nor by arrogance nor adversarial debate.  I have to say I have heard and seen some incredibly bullying and dangerous evangelizing practices which are not only ineffective but downright unsafe.  Being a bearer of the good news of Christ is about living and talking of and acting out the love of Jesus Christ in our everyday lives,  for, make no mistake, evangelising we are called to do – uncomfortable as it might seem for some of us.

In a parish review document that we are to respond to about our relationship with community and those outside the church, this was defined, with every good intention might I say, by the following measures:

·         Our members know that evangelism is high priority and own it.

·         Many are able to share the gospel in a concise way and talk about their experiences with Jesus.

·         We organize regular events to share the message of the gospel and members invite friends.

·         We are pleased with the number of new believers we baptize each year.

Philip and I have struggled to find words to respond to this – and certainly to give ourselves marks out of 10 as requested – there was something wrong – more than just finding it weird to give ourselves a pass mark, more than a language of explicit directive.  And then it dawned on me as I read this passage from Luke exactly why I have had a problem - because it makes God way too small. 

If we are to take these as our measure of making Jesus Christ known in the world then we are limiting God to a very particular approach of sharing the good news of the Gospel – it involves verbal literacy, is ‘I’ focused, event orientated, and has a particular measure of success – baptism.

And I don’t think that this is the fullness of the experience of the 70 or, as we read it nowadays, of all humanity as we seek to share the grace and love of God.  Not at all.

Where is the listening?  Where is the vulnerable space?  Where is the thought that we don’t have all the answers?  Where is the understanding that God works through us and without us?  Where is the sense of God within that lights up our lives 24/7 and in everything we do and say?  Where is the psalmist and the poet and the storyteller and the contemplative and the journeying?

So yes we will share our thoughts with the wider church on how we at Opoho are doing as an outward looking faith community but I think our language will be a bit different. And I hope that it will be based on the directions of Jesus in all their breadth and depth and simplicity.

You see Jesus didn’t have the benefit of our creeds and doctrines and well developed theologies but he knew well the fears and the challenges that this commissioning would evoke.  So he equipped his people in the best way he could.

First of all he told them to go out.  Not to sit and wait for people to drift in and see what was going on.  Not to leave it to others, not to spend time in the planning and not to carry a big load of stuff just in case - go trusting in God to provide.

Then he told them to prepare the way for his coming – not to have it all sorted and signed up but to be the carrier of the seed that Jesus would nourish and bring to fruition.  We do not do this alone and we do not have all the answers. 

And he told them to go in peace – a peace which is guaranteed to bring them into conflict with the powers that be but nonetheless to walk only in peace.  And when rejected, not to have a shouting match or to threaten or to cajole, but simply to leave that knowledge of the peace of God hovering around the entrance to their lives and their homes.

He told them the need was urgent – both in time and in necessity.  The labourers are few and the need for the peace of Christ is huge.  The harvest is plentiful is a slightly awkward metaphor these days – perhaps if we understand it as coming to full maturity in God rather than being selected and removed from the field.

He told them to spend time building relationship, sharing stories, listening and conversing with those who welcomed them in.  No quick tick in the box and on to the next one but determined fellowship and community.

He also told them to expect no reward except the presence of God with them and to refrain from any judgement – whether welcomed or not.  Well – that is a timely reminder for Christians today. 

And finally he offers hope where hard heartedness rules: “there is one singular unrivalled matter we will leave with you: God’s kingdom with ever-growing borders is rising like the sun against the shadows.  Look!  You will not see it hiding in the shadows.”  The light triumphs over the darkness and the light is Jesus Christ.

As we gather as company around the table today, sharing the cup and eating from the same loaf of bread remember this is a sacred place where all are welcome within the peace of God and in the name of Jesus. Amen

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[1] The Sending and the Welcome by Adrian Taylor from ‘Luke Illustrated Gospel Project: a conversation with Luke in Aotearoa’ edited by Malcolm Gordon.  Dunedin: KCML, 2015

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

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