Readings:
Genesis 50: 15-21, Romans 14:1- 4, 7 – 12, Matthew 18: 21-22
Friday, 15 September 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 17 September, 2017 Pentecost 15
We pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable to you O God, our rock and our sustainer. Amen.
In our very short excerpt from
the Gospel reading today we have the beginning of another Peter/Jesus
moment. Peter speaks - thinking he is on
the right track – and so he is because he recognises that we need to be much
more generous in how many times we forgive someone who slights us. But Jesus urges him to a greater
understanding and responds with the parable of the unforgiving servant – the
one where a slave comes before his king with an enormous debt –one that he
could not hope to pay off in his lifetime and against all expectation and after
some pleading his debt is forgiven.
Completely, utterly. And then
this forgiven soul, this person saved from being sold to pay debts, goes from
his salvation to deny the same to one who is in debt to him. He has his small time debtor thrown into
prison, with no hint of mercy or understanding.
And Jesus suggests to Peter and
to us, that as God forgives us completely and time and time again so too we
should forgive and show mercy rather than judge – judgment, in the end belongs
to God and God’s alone.
There is sweeping extravagance in
this statement that doesn’t necessarily sit well with us. Much of that has to do with our understanding
of forgiveness, mistakenly feeling that to forgive is to condone or to forget or
invite ongoing mistreatment. That is a
whole big discussion all by itself but today I would like to us to think about
how our sense of who we are as beloved children of God impacts how we do
relationship and therefore what we choose to take umbrage at in the first
place. I’m going to suggest that it is
much easier to feel slighted by others than try to understand where they are
coming from. That we seem to have a culture
of seeing different perspectives as a personal affront rather than a way of growing
and learning.
How can we instead create a way
of living that invites truth telling without adversity- which in turn requires less
in the way of forgiveness because we don’t feel wounded? Now there is a big challenge.
Each of the readings from the
lectionary today speak into this understanding of forgiveness in a different
way. Joseph, the young man betrayed by his
brothers, sold off into slavery chooses, when his moment of potential
retribution arrives, to say that there is no need for his pound of flesh, that
although his brothers intended harm, he saw what happened as God’s plan for a
greater good. Now I am pretty sure that
would not have been his thinking as he was bundled off into slavery but over
time and in prayer he recognised that his forgiveness was a given well before his
brothers asked for it. He had worked out
that it served no purpose, especially God’s, to exercise judgement on those who
had harmed him and so he welcomed them with a truly open heart and
welcome. I wonder if the brothers learned
from this in their interactions with others, unlike the servant in the parable.
Then from Romans we have Paul
talking into a volatile situation – where a rather ‘self righteous’ group are saying
that there is but one way to know God and it happens to be their way. They
judge as wrong those who think differently and with that judgement comes a
sense of superiority that then justifies them despising those with different
views or approaches.
And Paul asks: who are we to put
down those who God welcomes? ‘Those who
eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass
judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.’[1]
We stand or fall before God, not
each other. I’m not sure that this is
completely understood in the church’s often very judgmental, exclusive approach
to faith. Encouraging the people of God to follow the way of Jesus is just that
– encouraging, discerning, listening, praying so that together we allow the
Spirit to guide us in truth and love. The
way is not the noisiest pushing others off the path that they and not God have
designed and operate the toll gate for!
There was a really good
illustration of this in an online reading this week. It was a blog re the election – the writer
didn’t see how anyone who called themselves a Christian could possibly vote for
Labour because they supported same sex marriage, abortion etc etc (ignoring the
fact that the MPs had conscience votes by the way) – oh and the leader used the
word comrade so she was a commie. Then
the replies came back – how could you not when National had done nothing about
social justice, environment. Into this
maelstrom of oneupmanship came a voice of perspective – Malcolm Gordon – his words
to the writer of the blog are to us all: A
more useful approach might be to ask your Christian friends that might be
voting Labour to help you see how their faith is leading them to do so. It might garner more interesting responses with
starting with increduility!”
It is not for us to judge the way
in which others approach God or where they are at in their journey but rather
to be in community with each other where respectfully hearing their story is as
important as telling ours. And when we
want to challenge an approach not reacting in this adversarial way where words
are spoken that need forgiveness but instead being good listeners as well as .
Instead there are other ways and
a couple of conversations of this past week have got me thinking about this.
One is the way in which
discussion and debate happens in the context of the marae – where the intent
always is that each speaks their truth and that truth is respected if not
agreed with. In other words you don’t point
score by dissing the other but by stating your position clearly and
truthfully. We could learn a lot from
that form of sharing. I have listened to Rev Wayne Te Kaawa, ex moderator of Te
Aka Puaho, the Maori Synod a couple of time speak into a wrong with integrity
and respectfulness – to state the truth without insult, to challenge in a way
that does not invite retaliation, to influence from his faith understanding
without stepping on another’s.
The other is a research study
that I have been involved in on Women in Ministry. While there are a number of issues that arise
from the respondents, one of the clearest is that the style of right and wrong,
adversarial debate in our church meetings is an unhelpful and sometimes unsafe
environment to speak into. When we have
majority voting that elates one side and sends the other into despair we are
not being the church of Jesus Christ – we are being people who judge other
people and seek to sort them out. That is
for God to do not us!
So today we have not so much
addressed the issue of how to forgive and what forgiveness is but rather the
way in which we use it as a weapon and a tool of judgement.
As the beloved people of God how
can we better understand that it is not just us who are welcomed (whoever ‘us’
might be) but all who turn to God. When
will we realise that it benefits no-one and certainly not God’s purpose in
Jesus Christ for us as Christians to either create situations that require forgiveness
or to withhold the power of forgiveness when we have been forgiven for all that
we get wrong. Are we unforgiving
servants like the parable or does the power of God’s love transform us beyond
ourselves into God’s purpose for the world – showing a new way to live together
in love and respect and mercy, to forgive those who sin against us as God
forgives us and to treat all whom we meet as God’s beloved children. Amen.
So be it.
Margaret Garland
Monday, 11 September 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 10 September, 2017
Readings: Proverbs 8: 22-31 Revelation 22: 1-5
We pray:
May you speak into
our hearts and minds today O God, guiding us in your way and encouraging us and
strengthening us for the journey in Jesus name.
Amen.
Our readings for
today are, we could say, the bookmarks between which we exist – the beginning
of time when the expectations for a world deeply cared for by humankind
were strong , and the final chapter where the revelation of the end time when
Christ comes again is imagined. Both are
places of great exuberance and beauty, of peace and reconciliation, of surplus
and healing. And if we want to imagine
what that might look like today hear these words by Rob Ferguson from a ‘A
Springtime Carol’ that picture a world where that same creation has the
freedom to be full of all it could be.
Look around you, see the bursting, life is breaking
out, the earth is full.
Yellow, purple, green refreshing, snow is melting fast
upon the hills.
Hear the river waters chuckling, [the] blossoms
blowing, [the] flowers glowing, [the] mountains shine!
Look around you, see the bursting, life is breaking
out with love divine!
It is a powerful
picture – creation at its most productive, beauty surrounding us, at one with
nature and with God. And that sense of
love just bursting out, unable to be contained is so compelling.
It is the same
sense of awesomeness when we hear the words of Sophia, Wisdom from the Proverbs
reading – rejoicing in God’s inhabited world and delighting in the human
race. Sea, sky, land and all that
inhabits it is blessed by God.
I feel fortunate
indeed to live in a land that enables me to imagine the possibility of that –
to have an upbringing that includes communing with nature in that life defining
way – to have children that understand it too – one of them wrote a poem about
being down at a place we call ‘The Heads’ at the outflow of the Owaka River
which I have in from of me in my office – it grounds me.
Celtic Christian
spirituality understands that deep connection with the land – that we are
intricately bound and earthed in the seasons and the dirt and the water that
sustains us and that we are responsible for nurturing and caring for
creation. In Maori spirituality too is a
deep understanding of being anchored in the land – it is who we have been, who
we are and who we will walk into the future with.
And as Christians
we are asked to have that same connection with God’s creation: we are asked to
do more than simply experiencing this amazing world, we are asked to care for
it, nurture it and sustain it for those who are yet to come.
Yet we are pretty
much doing the exact opposite – our planet is in pain, even in this slice of
what was/is considered a veritable paradise.
Our rivers, our land, our skies, our flora and fauna, the ocean that
surrounds us all full of chemicals and plastics and poisons that are killing
it.
The world has
fallen prey to a ‘don’t care’ attitude from the vast majority of our
people. Humankind no longer delight in
this world but treat it as ours to exploit, trash, use in whatever way we
desire. When money is valued over
environment, convenience over sustainability, the now over the longterm then
the earth and all that is in it suffers.
Why is our
Christian voice not shouting into this disaster?
Hear these words
from Shirley Murray:
Where are the voices for the earth?
Where are the eyes to see her pain, wasted by our consuming path,
weeping the tears of poisoned rain?
Sacred the soil that hugs the seed, sacred the silent fall of snow,
sacred the world that God decreed [of] water and sun and river flow.
Where shall we run who break this code, where shall tomorrow’s children
be, left with the ruined gifts of God, death for the creatures, land and sea?
We are the voices for the earth, we who will care enough to cry,
cherish her beauty, clear her breath, live that our planet may not die.[1]
This is a lament
for our world; do we hear it? You know
if you read the book of Lamentations from the Hebrew Scriptures, as some of us
have just done, you have this overwhelming sense of despair – of the people of
God realising that they have got things so wrong that is appears there might be
no way out this time. Is that where we
are at today?
And even if we are
not, if we still allow hope for better care of our earth, some don’t seem to
grasp the urgency of it. Our governments
don’t – our retailers don’t, our consumers don’t, we don’t. And in fact within the church some of us
don’t actually see care for the environment as part of our Christian
purpose. Pope Francis has something to
say to that:
"It must be said
that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and
pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others
are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become
inconsistent. So what they all need is an “ecological conversion”, whereby the
effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their
relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors
of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a
secondary aspect of our Christian experience."[2]
Wise
words, challenging words that give us no wriggle room at all.
Where
is the hope for saving of our world? We
are it – as Christians we walk alongside and sometimes in front of all those
others who care deeply and passionately for this earth and its
inhabitants. It is essential that we
recognise our close relationship with the land, with God’s creating
presence here on this planet and beyond
- and that it has been given into our care, our responsibility until the end
time.
Imagine
this: springs abounding with clean
water, mountains piercing an unpolluted sky, earth and fields and soil without
rubbish and chemicals and with time to rest, seas without plastic - once again
safe for the creatures of the ocean, sustainable farming and ecologically
responsible urbanites, landfills running out of business and air that is sweet. This our prayer, and God grant that what we
pray for we would work to bring about.
Amen.
Margaret
Garland
Saturday, 2 September 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 3 September, 2017 Pentecost 13
Readings: Romans
12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28
We pray: Holy God, God among us,
give us ears to hear and hearts to understand that which you gift to us today
from scripture. May we know your will
for us and walk in your way we pray.
Amen
At the close of the first Harry Potter book, headmaster Albus
Dumbledore awards the winning house points not to the heroes who battled dark
forces, but to a loyal friend who tried to prevent them seeking danger. Dumbledore recognised that the courage it
takes to stand up to one’s friends can be greater than the courage needed to
stand up to one’s enemies. Here today we
have a courageous Peter, just a few days ago named the rock on which the church
would be founded, stepping in and confronting Jesus about his pessimistic view
of his ministry to come, his obvious wrong direction, telling him that he would
do everything he needed to do to protect Jesus from this litany of suffering
about to befall him. ‘Not if I have
anything to do with it’, he proclaims loudly and proudly.
Unlike Neville of Potter fame, poor Peter didn’t get rewarded – quite
the contrary - his confidence, his grasping of the mantle of leadership shot
down in front of everyone: ‘Get thee
behind me Satan! The most scorching
rebuke of the entire Gospel tells Peter that he has got it seriously wrong!
The rock becomes the stumbling block - the church makes its first false
steps.
What we have here are two different narratives for the way
forward. Peter’s way is one of keeping
Jesus apart from that which will cause him pain and anguish, keeping him safe
so he can do his work. He is arguing
that they can’t let Jesus go through the tears and sweat, the blood and muck of
humanity because after all he is God and he needs to be kept apart from that gungy
reality, kept pure shall we say.
Jesus’ way is one of diving right in, immersing himself in the
suffering of the world – that is his work.
That is why he came, to be visible in a world that is a mess, a world
that desperately needs the hope of his walking alongside them and knowing
firsthand the reality of its pain.
And we can’t help but ask if that same divide of narrative is still
alive and well in our church today.
Do people prefer to keep the church safe and slightly detached rather
than ‘endure in love the mess of the
visible church’[1]
It happens. Developing this
theme a little more we can see times and approaches in our history, and now,
where this desire to keep God’s church pure and unsullied often seems to be a driving
force of our faith –following Peter’s narrative in other words.
For instance would it be possible that in Catholicism the elevation of
Mary, the mother of God to being immaculately conceived is an example of not
allowing anything touching God to be seen ordinary, human?
Is it true that for some, the doctrines expounded by both Luther and
Calvin have in some way been seen as descending straight from heaven, in their
own way immaculately conceived: a way of keeping us safe within their
understandings.
Is there a sense where the elevation of the immaculate church of the
elect has triumphed over the need to be involved in the mess of the visible
church in the world? Some would think
so.
And then we can come a little bit closer to current times - there is
the Biblicism of fundamentalism, seen in America for sure but also throughout
the world and here, where select and particular interpretation of scripture has
allowed the keeping out of the marginalised, the different, the messy. You may have heard of the Nashville Statement
that has come out of the States recently.
The Statement, says Brian McLaren who was responding to the document, encourages
a way of reading the Bible,[2]
‘to justify slavery, anti-Semitism, the suppression of women, the rejection of
good science and the slaughter of native peoples.’ It appears to be creating a pure and pristine
‘us’ unsullied by sexual weirdos and people with different coloured skins and deviant
views – pushing the ‘dirty other’ to the margins. McLaren however says the release of this
Nashville Statement is actually a good thing – for it makes explicit what has for
a long time been practiced but not said, and clearly shows which churches are
not safe nor accepting. It also
encourages, in its extremism, those churches that are engaged in living the
Jesus narrative to clearly state their case and open their doors even wider, to
be the visible face of the Christ who engaged with the edges of society rather
than a sealing himself off in citadel on a hill.
A quote from Jin S. Kim: Our
concern is not first and foremost the purity of the church or the rightness of
our doctrine but our willingness to follow Jesus into the world and onto the
cross.[3]
So Peter was rightly rebuked, his narrative had to be rethought and he
had to endure the ignominy of getting it badly wrong – ‘Get behind me Satan’
was required! But interestingly, if we
dig a bit deeper here, the verb that is used for ‘get behind me’ is the same
verb used elsewhere for ‘follow’! So, we
ask, as well as a rebuke is this also a call to Peter to follow the path of
Jesus and to leave his own worldly narrative behind?
On Thursday of last week I attended a seminar at Holy Cross in Mosgiel
– where the subject was ‘The Spirituality of James K Baxter’ – a man who
totally chose to walk away from the world’s narrative and enter that of
Jesus. And it was a fascinating journey
into a complex and driven man who has contributed to our life in New Zealand in
many ways but most especially in his exploration of indigenous spirituality in
this country. He saw Maori society as
aligning much more naturally with the path of Jesus, particularly in the care
of and engagement with the marginalised, prisoners, homeless, addicts, the
broken and the bottom of heap as he saw them and as he himself had experienced
both in the fallout from his family’s pacificism and his own alchoholism. He talked about the five stones that David
used to take down Goliath (a metaphor for today’s evil and corrupt ways of living
– a anecdote from a person there who was a young nun at the time in the convent
by Jerusalem – Baxter said she worshipped the wrong trinity – in her case
school certificate, the dollar note and respectability – don’t mince words Hemi);
these stones that were fundamental to living in the Christian path of communion
with God, stones that he found easily as values within Maori Society.
They were:
Arohanui – the love of many – communion of all no matter who.
Manuhiritanga – hospitality – the welcome of friend and stranger
and outcast, each of whom always brought a gift for you if you were open to
receiving.
Korero – speaking truth without fear.
All are to be heard and no-one told that they had lesser voice than
another.
Matewa – night life of the soul – the place of darkness, of void, unsafe but
the place you most truly meet God.
Mahi – work by the members of the community on behalf of the
community. Not about employment but
sourced in your love for the community
Baxter talked about the surprising voice from the margins, the truth
found in the broken and despised, the need for community for all.
His God was a welcoming, muck and all God who found worth in all people
and especially in the broken. He would
have had some things to say (and did) about churches and people of faith who
tried to keep detached from the reality of life all around them.
Baxter, for all his human frailties and failings and arrogances,
definitely chose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus – to be the indiscriminate
love of Jesus in this unquiet world wherever it takes us. He chose the narrative of Jesus.
When we gather at the table, when we leave here today, as we sing our
final hymn ‘will you come and follow me…’ can we remember that the mark of one
who follows the way of Jesus is to live in the world that took Jesus to the
cross, into all the messiness and pain which are our lives, so that we might
know the power of love and truth and service in all of our community. Amen
Margaret Garland
Saturday, 26 August 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 27 August, 2017 Pentecost 11
Readings: Romans 12:1-8 Matthew 16: 13-20
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.
In this past week,
not for the first time, I have been contemplating the nature of community. Aware as we are of the many different
personalities and backgrounds and experiences of those we end up in community
with, it begs the question of how we manage to maintain a togetherness that
gets us through the ups and downs of close relationship. And the truth is that sometimes we don’t and it
doesn’t.
Sometimes the hurt
is too much, the lack of attention too consistent, the division too high a wall
to climb to the top of when you might not find anyone else there. Other times the priorities you have change or,
as we say, life moves on.
Communities that
jell usually have a strong under pinning ethos – like the co-housing
development in High Street focussing on sustainability and communal space – or
an over-riding commonality of purpose like supporting the community you live in
to support you. It takes effort and
enthusiasm and communication and even then it doesn’t take much to fracture the
relationship, at least for some.
Good community
allows for diversity but encourages common ground. Community has to work hard to ensure no-one
is intentionally ostracised and individuals have to work hard to grow and sustain
community despite the odd hiccup. And to be effective community we need to help
each other - generous at sharing our gifts but also at receiving the help of
others, something we are not always good at.
Allow me a moment
of nostalgia here: I was reminded of how a good rural community works the other
day when I watched a video of cattle droving down in the Catlins – doesn’t happen
so much these days of course – but there was a farmer and a neighbouring
farmer, their horses and dogs moving cattle from Tahakopa down to Tautuku –
helping each other, cars stopped and patient, cattle off the road on the beach
where they could, greetings exchanged as they passed by……
In the readings
for today we explore both what it means to be a strong community of faith and
what the foundation of that community is.
In the letter to
the Romans Paul is exhorting the Christian community to live out their faith in
a way that reflects their baptism, their commitment to the way of Jesus and to
recognise that holy living is in itself an act of worship to God.
And the way he
drives this home is by using the analogy of the body – made up of many parts,
each of which needs the other to be effective.
Smell, touch, hearing, seeing, tasting, engine rooms and things they
make work!
And why is he
needing to paint this picture for them – because he is warning them against
becoming too haughty, too proud, thinking themselves better than others. For that only tears the community apart and rips
up its foundations. The rock on which
the church is built becomes, as the hymn so wonderfully puts it, sinking sand.
It’s not the only
thing, of course, that shakes our foundations but it is symptomatic of the dangers
that Paul was aware people needed to be alert for in the new born church inRome. Good community works when we remember why we
are community. And for us it is because
of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of the living God. He is the rock and it is his purpose that
holds us close and demands a way of living that is not easily of this world.
As we have been
going through the books of the bible, at this stage the Hebrew Scriptures, on
Thursday nights there is one absolute that keep leaping out of the pages and
that is what God continuously/repeatedly asks of us: to act justly, to care for
the widows and orphans, the weak and the vulnerable, and to live in the way of
love and reconciliation and mercy. And time and time again the people of Israel
turned their backs on caring for the community to which they belonged, the
community that God had entrusted to them, and instead looked to their own
desires and sense of importance and power. It was this waywardness that God was
constantly hauling them back from, redeeming them from the exile, the
wilderness of self importance and self absorption.
It’s what we do for
each, how we act as community that stands witness for God’s love in our lives,
the transforming power of Christ as our guide and light. Not that we come to church or put Christian
or Presbyterian in our census forms but how we live our lives as the community
of faith. We all have responsibility for
caring for the body, for helping each other out, for caring for the needy
(which includes each of us by the way), for the law of God is written on our
hearts and we can do no other.
Remember those
wonderful words, also from Jeremiah: “But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law
within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. …[1] We can do no other.
We here in this
community of faith, we need each other, we support each other, we miss each
other when we are separated, we have our ups and downs but as long as the
foundation on which we are built remains Jesus, Son of the Living God then we
keep strong to our purpose as community – and that foundation is: to love God,
to walk in the way of Jesus, to care for each other, to speak up for the
downtrodden and shelter the homeless, to make Jesus Christ known in our living. Our understanding of what it means to be
Christian has to be constantly discerned so that we are not distracted by those
things that draw us away from worshipping God in our living as well as our
words.
I think we have
some big conversations coming up as a church and as this community. And I think we here will participate well in
those conversations because we do have a strong community.
As the public
perception of church is leaning more and more to total rejection, as the world
sees Christianity being used to promote bigotry and hatred and violence, we
need to be outspoken in our tolerance and love and reconciliation. We can no longer keep silent hoping it will
go away or afraid of showing that there is a different way.
As traditional
church as we know it – parish, full time minister, a building for Sunday
mornings, an ‘open the doors and they flow in’ mentality – is squashed between
mega churches and strapped funding, we are challenged to think about how today
we best function as the body of Christ – do the clothes need changing?
What of the
community of Christ in this place – what happens when we are faced with making decisions
on our future – building, ministry, mission.
Will we have the courage to be bold and outward facing as God’s
community of faith putting our focus and our resources into being the gloriously
creative and trasnforming body of Jesus, working together with all our skills
and perspectives, vulnerabilities and strengths to make Jesus Christ
known. And the answer is: Amen
Margaret Garland
Friday, 18 August 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 20 August Pentecost 11
Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8, Matthew 15: 10-28
Let us pray: Holy God, expansive challenging Creator, who
knows us better that we know ourselves, open the word to us today so that our hearts
are touched, our minds deeply engaged, our spirit full to overflowing. In Jesus name. Amen.
What a rich gospel
reading today. Jesus and the Canaanite
woman. Jesus getting real with the authorities – again! Earthy crude language
of bodily functions and sewers and crumbs for the Canaanite dogs.
Jesus standoffish interaction
with the desperate woman is divisive from the get go: people interpret it as
either being a remarkably ‘bad side of the bed’ day for Jesus or an exquisite
grabbing of a teaching opportunity for tradition bound disciples. Oh and then there is the woman herself, loud,
thick skinned, bolshie (she is fighting for her daughter here), an outcast, an
other! It could be called a story of
faith winning over bad manners.
But then there are
the verses before this story – they were
an optional extra in the lectionary for today - where Jesus clashes with the authorities again
– this time about the things that defile. And they may be helpful in providing some context
to the problematic encounter of Jesus and the disciples with the woman of Tyre
and Sidon.
In these earlier
verses Jesus is responding to the criticism from the Pharisees and Scribes that
that his people do not wash their hands before a meal thereby breaking the
commandments of God. Jesus is suggesting
that it is much more important for them to be concerned about what comes out of
the mouth rather than the cleanliness of what goes in. And it is all offered in really quite basic
language – what you eat does its business in the body and ends up in the
sewer. He talks of the blind leading the
blind into the deepest pit, and suggests that this fixation with rules rather
than relationship with God is the cause of the blindness. He points out to his disciples, who again
need some unpacking of the parable, that what comes out of the mouth is much
more destructive to God than not washing your hands. For, he says, what you say
comes from the heart and if the heart is judgmental, unforgiving, unloving then
your words will be so too. But if your
heart is full of mercy and generous compassion, then you are following the way
of God made known in Jesus.
And this one of
the central themes that the gospel of Matthew pursues: that Jesus desires mercy
not sacrifice. And he is arguing with
the Pharisees and the scribes over just this.
They believe that by putting all their energy into living by the
traditions they are fulfilling the commandments of God and Jesus comes along
and suggests otherwise: that the ritual washing of the hands is of no matter when
their mercy barometer is not even registering.
Where, he asks are their roots in God, their understanding of the heart
of God for justice and compassion and mercy.
The Canaanite
woman, surprisingly, seems to understand this better than the chosen people of
Israel. She sees that love and mercy
crosses boundaries and is found in the wayward and the unexpected, not in the
rules which, if she followed them, would prevent her from even speaking with
Jesus. And the disciples, even after having
the parable explained by Jesus, are still behaving ritually/traditionally
rather than from the heart. Send her
away! Stop her shouting at us!
And that is when
we see Jesus taking on the behaviour that he has just denounced by arguing that
this desperate woman is outside of his brief. I don’t believe that he has
suddenly seen the wisdom of the exclusiveness of Israel, but rather that he is showing
the disciples and us the consequences of the two approaches. Sticking with the rules of no engagement
means walking away whereas responding to the cries for mercy is the path of
faith. Jesus enacts the parable he has
just argued.
Mercy is the
cornerstone! Without it all the rule following in the world will not suffice in
God’s eyes.
Rules in
themselves do not engage our heart for God.
We see that being played out in the world’s stages every day, don’t
we? Distorted readings of what a faith
is about: white supremacists in the States quoting God as their rationale,
arrogant politicians encouraging violence and every ism there is as God’s will,
religious terrorists claiming the right of holy war over the weak, the innocent,
the different. All of them quoting
convenient rules from sacred scripture, none of them walking in the light of
God. The blind leading the blind to the
bottom of the pit. Suddenly there is an
immediacy to those words, isn’t there?
Where the rules
and traditions have no heart they take us to dark places. This will not be the first time you have
heard me say this – and certainly not the last.
And it is not just
the obviously evil places of killing and abusing and hatred – but also to
places of apathy and lethargy and pessimism, of resting in the traditions and
the rules because they have become our God.
Where have we paid
more attention to washing hands than cleansing hearts? When have we claimed religious tradition as
an excuse to act far from the heart of Christ?
Ø When we refuse to allow that the church is
way more than a building. Too often we
define ourselves by the four walls and a roof where we meet on a Sunday – both to
the exclusion of the rest of the week and to forgetting that it is the people,
the people, the people who are the body of Christ.
Ø When we decide our way is the only way –
all others are wrong. Too often I meet people who will not accept you as a
Christian if you don’t agree with their understanding of faith. Energy is poured into correct doctrine rather
than mercy, sacrificing all to prove that you are right!
Ø When we fail to recognise and take down the
fences we put up that exclude and intimidate. Language, culture, gender,
generational, social, economic, fixed ideas, rules of who is in and who is out.
Ø When we find it easier to judge than to
engage. Generalisations and judgements of situations and people that we have
not taken the time to listen to, because it might change how we think or might
be uncomfortable. Judgement that allows us to exclude because to engage would
ask something of us.
Ø Where have we paid more attention to
washing hands than cleansing hearts? When
have we claimed religious tradition as an excuse to act far from the heart of
Christ? Something to consider as we go into this week and our world outside our
church walls.
Who is the Caananite
woman in our lives that we are trying to send away? And where are the times when we are needing
to be that woman, persisting in faith in the face of obdurate traditions and
rules seeking mercy. In the end ‘purity
and faithfulness are shown ultimately by how we the church speaks and lives out
the radical hospitality and love of Christ ‘ wherever it is needed.
I want to conclude
today with a psalm that I wrote recently which I have titled ‘On being Presbyterian’
which might add to the thoughts expressed today.
On being Presbyterian #1
Holy God,
Steadfast Lover, Nonstop Creator, Son full of Grace, Spirit Friend
I love that we
explore who you are with our own words and pictures– not using the same words
from a prayer book each Sunday
Creating,
Imagining, Loving, Forgiving, Transforming, Reforming God
I love that you
are an ‘ing’ God, active in our world and us forever. You explode out of the cages of those who try
to keep you static in the past
Challenging,
Radical, Subversive God
I love that you
come at us as the cutting edge of love –shame that we hide in the bluntness of
institutionalism
God of Expansive
and Intimate Relationship
I love that you
know me, that we chat and figure things out together yet you seek loving
relationship with the whole world and throughout time. Wow! Why do we think you belong to just us?
God who, in Jesus,
sought out the different and the despairing, the diverse and the ‘disgusting’
I love that you
welcome all with no entry criteria but love.
Yet in your name many are excluded.
How dare we?
God Revealed in
Scripture and in life
I love that we are
encouraged to know you in study, sharing, questioning, discerning. Hard work sometimes but always a rich harvest
Holy Love. Invasive Presence. Determined Spirit. Praise be to the God who loves us.
Margaret Garland
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 6 August 2017 Pentecost 8
Readings:
Isaiah 55: 1-5 Matthew 14:
13-21
We pray: Abundant
God, open our ears to hear all that you would have us hear, our hearts to be
touched by all you would have us care for, our minds to be convinced of all
that you teach us, that we might be the best we can for you and in you. In Jesus name. Amen.
‘Where is the
bread?’ the great crowd murmured. It is
a question we have to address today with the same hunger for the answer.
We have heard the
story from the Gospel of Matthew of the miracle of the loaves and fishes – of
the plenty being discovered out of the meagre.
It’s an important narrative to the early church – the only miracle
story, in fact, included in all four gospels. It’s a straight forward telling –
no sermon nor allegory – just action needed to meet the hunger of the
crowd. And for a crowd that was not
looked for, that invaded Jesus alone time as he came to terms with the news of
his cousin John’s beheading. I remember as a child at Sunday School hearing
about the loaves and fishes and being fascinated about how it actually happened
– but trusting that it did. Today I am a
lot more interested in where the bread is for today?
A story of feeding
from today – a minister recounted the day that they prepared for communion –
there were regularly around 30 – 35 so they had the quantity down to a fine
art. And then, just after the service
had started, outside the church a bus pulled up – and in trooped a further 50
people. What to do – the elder whispered
to the minister ‘should I go and get some more’ and the minister said – ‘no it
will be fine, there will be enough’. And
there was – later it was discovered that everyone, without prompting broke each
piece of bread into half so there was plenty for everyone.
This story is not
about explaining the miracle away but rather suggesting that when we are all
aware of those who might go hungry, we look to our surplus, which we invariably
have, and share. We still will have enough
and others will do too.
For it is a sad
thing that this world has enough food to feed the hungry, this country has
enough money for basic health care, this community of Dunedin has enough nounce
to live sustainably. So why don’t we? Maybe we can find some answers, some hope in
this reading for today.
Those three today
issues that bolted out of my mouth just then– the hungry of the world, the
health services of this country and the sustainability of our earth are just a
few examples among many that plague our world today and highlight the paucity
of our generosity as economic and national powers, as community, and often as
individuals. In other words reflecting
the disciples initial viewpoint that people find their own way rather than, as
Jesus would have us do, explore the abundant possibilities of the loaves and
fishes being shared.
I will be nailing
some of my political colours to the mast no doubt – but actually I prefer to
call them my Christian colours!
The distribution
of food to the world’s starving is complex and many layered. It involves politics, environmental
catastrophes, racism, war, rotting piles of surplus and amazing acts of
generosity and commitment from agencies and individuals. It is about our attitude to food – waste,
care of purchase, sustainability, packaging, content. It is about the attitude of those who have
bread noticing that there is a need surrounding them and they respond by
sharing. Afifi a couple of weeks ago giving away her unsold market food, giving
to the food bank with generosity and commitment, popping the spare carrots from
your garden into the neighbour, helping with the redistribution of food within
the city. We can do much locally. But we also need to voice loudly our concern
that the predominant factor guiding the distribution (or not) of food to the
world’s starving seems to be economic and political and often racially based
rather than compassionate, loving and caring for all of humanity. And so we pray for and work towards all
people of the world knowing the sufficiency of Christ through our caring for
each other and the sharing of our bread.
The health
services of our country are a big issue at the moment – actually they have been
for some time. We can almost pinpoint
the moment when in New Zealand we went from finding money to meet the need of
basic health care to making health care fit the size of the financial pot
allocated. 1980’s – am I right? There have been two notable interviews in the
past few days to illustrate the way in which money again is the defining factor
rather than care for a basic standard of care for all. One was the interview of John Campbell with
Minister of Health, Jonathan Coleman on Dunedin DHB. The Minister said that the Commissioner had
worked to half the deficit in two years, – not in any way, when asked, at the cost of patient
care. Quoting Coleman – “without that
clear picture of financial stability, we cannot improve patient care.” Again a complex issue I know and many
opinions but doesn’t it seem that money is in charge here rather than humanity
and at the cost of people’s lives.
The other
discussion was between an American Senator and a Canadian medical doctor who,
in attempting to describe the diminishing access to health care of those who
couldn’t afford private health insurance, likened it to her access to the
Senate – over half an hour waiting to go through security whilst there was a
second entry point with no line up whatsoever.
The doctor said: Sometimes it’s
not actually about the amount of resources you have but about how you organise
people, that when you address wait times it should be for everyone, not just
people who can afford to pay.’ I don’t
know how it works here but I would have to guess that there would be times when
those with health insurance would have a disproportionate access to basic
health services at the cost of those without?
You can tell me later if I am wrong.
And so we pray for
and work towards all people being equally valued not just in our health system
but in every thing that is core to human dignity and care.
And the third on
my list – caring for the world, living sustainably, even if we think just in
this city. What loaves and fishes are we
able to bring out of our baskets to contribute to the hunger of the world for
sustainable living? What could we do
better, where could we speak into situations to improve awareness, practice
environmentally friendly actions? What
decisions do we make, even the littlest ones, that add to the burden of this
world’s choking demise rather than lifting it.
This community of faith is very aware – but there is always more we can
do ourselves and by speaking into situations.
And so we pray for
and work towards creating a world that is cherished and nurtured for our
children’s children and beyond.
Where is the
bread? the great crowd murmured.
The answer is
surprising – or is it? “We the church
give them bread, bread for the soul, bread for the stomach, bread for sharing –
just as we are fed, so too we feed others.
Just as we know the bread that sustains and the labour that satisfies
and the love that delights, so too we share that generously and with faith into
a world that is desperately hungry.
As we gather
around the table today, remembering Jesus, the living bread broken for the love
of the world, Jesus the living wine poured out for the love of the world may we
be disciples with eyes open to the possibilities of sharing what we have in the
name of Jesus. For miracles can and do
happen when we follow in his way. Amen.
Margaret Garland
Saturday, 29 July 2017
Sermon Opoho Church Sunday 30 July 2017 Pentecost 8
Readings: Responsive Psalm 128, Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
A friend shared a
childhood memory of Sunday School – of all those questions you were asked by
the teacher and not being very sure of what the right answer was. Was it
a trick question, or testing your bible knowledge or how you should
behave. But the children over time realised
something – if they answered Jesus for every question they would almost always
gain a look of approval or at least of ‘you’re on the right track here’.
Do you remember
that service here some time ago when Graeme was talking to the children and
asking them what heaven was like and I think it was Sophia immediately said
‘heaven!’ and Graeme’s response was – well there goes the children’s talk done
and dusted.
The kingdom of
heaven is like: Jesus!
Sermon done and
dusted! No more need be said.
Or does there?
These parables
continue the teachings by Jesus about the world to come and our place in it as
Christ followers. And they encourage us to look beyond our limited vision to
see the immensity of God’s hope for the world.
In the first two, that of the mustard seed and the yeast, Jesus tells us
that the difference between our living out the teachings of Jesus in our
everyday life, in all its ordinariness and sometimes ugliness, and this
extravagant image of a world made right with God is this spectacular growth
explosion that love creates, that God speaks into. And, amazing things can happen from the most
unlikely sources. Because, at the time,
the yeast and the mustard seed were seen as unpleasant things, associated with
death and scraggly choking weeds.
With the next two
kingdom parables, Jesus is talking of the value of the Gospel being such that
people will give up all they have to possess it. At the same time, to us there is a hint of
subterfuge and happenstance with the treasure and the pearl and we can struggle
to relate to the imagery.
And then we happily
read that the kingdom of God is like a full net of fish – abundance and
sustenance – only to falter on the words that follow – some of the fish will
turn out to be bad.
We do realise that
the symbols used in Jesus’ parable were specifically tied to that time and have
a different application to our world now.
The mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure in the field, the pearl, the
fishing by hand with a net will all have their equivalents in our world
today. Trees that are considered to be
weeds - maybe in Dunedin instead of the mustard, the sycamore? So here are the questions – we will take some
time to think about each one and if you come up with a suggestion by all means
share it with us.
What produces
today the abundance of the mustard seed but is commonly seen as something to be
rooted out?
What is like
leaven, disdained as corrupt, but actually an agent of God’s transforming
power?
Like the person
ploughing the field or the merchant searching for the pearl, what would we give
up everything to possess?
For us what might
we want to say the kingdom of heaven is?
We should look at
the other words used here too – kingdom and heaven.
Heaven – what does
that mean for us today? Not, I suspect,
I hope, a little realm in the sky where we will all hopefully end our days in
peace. I remember our asking the children in Amberley to paint or decorate the
ceiling of our Sunday School room with what they thought heaven would look
like. Not that we ever got that far with
it but there were dogs and toys and probably no parents….as you can imagine.
Nor is heaven a
hope for the future with no meaning for us in the present. A futuristic reward, a rest, having survived
the ravages of this world. I am pretty
sure Jesus is not going down that track either.
In our secular culture
it commonly means something that is perfect – often of the moment. Oh, pure heaven – as we sip that first cup of
tea or coffee in the morning.
Here is a thought:
heaven is where justice and shalom and compassion exist, where the Jesus way is
followed and love is extravagantly increased.
Then there is kingdom
– fantasy stories have kingdoms these days but not much else. Simon introduced me to an alternative word
that I have been considering a lot and I like it – commonwealth. Just thing about it – common wealth. A place
for the common good. For the people, of the people.
And it is a word
that helps us think about what it is that Jesus is telling us here – not about
a distant hope but a reality that is here and now. How we strive for this …fantastic place of
living where there is justice and peace and compassion – where the Jesus, who is
the answer to the question, is living fully and completely in everyone we meet.
And we immediately
strike a brick wall. Not possible, human
nature is too strong, we can’t make even a dent in the horror of this
world.
And this parable,
these words and teachings of Jesus is telling us, actually yes we can. That in faith we should be prepared to be
amazed at what can grow and provide sanctuary, sustenance, treasure beyond
belief. He is telling us that the
ordinary and indeed often slightly dodgy, occasionally smelly things of this
world can, with faith and the grace of God, be beautiful and impactful for the
kingdom.
But we still drag
our feet, uncertain, unsure of our role in this, finding excuses for keeping
heaven that safe distant future/place in the sky.
One of the
ordinary things we believe really isn’t enough is our faith – not confident,
not enough, not effective.
No excuses: listen
to this poem from Tom Gordon[1]:
It’s so small, this faith of mine,
too frail, too basic to be called a ‘faith’;
too unformed, too inadequate to make a difference;
but here it is; it’s all I have – even though it still
looks so small, this faith of mine.
It’s so small, this commitment of mine,
too gentle, too diffident to have the name of
‘commitment’;
too uncertain, too incomplete to make a difference;
but here it is; it’s all I have – even if it sounds so
small, this commitment of mine.
It’s so small, this passion of mine,
too weak, too tentative to have the label ‘passion’;
too unglamorous; too unsure to make a difference;
but here it is; it’s all I have – even if it feels so small, this passion of
mine.
Ok, but doesn’t the mustard seed grow into a fruitful
bush?
And your tiny faith…..
And can’t the smallest shoot develop into a blossoming
shrub?
And your smallness of commitment….?
And can’t the tiny bud burst into a glorious bloom?
And your little passion….?
So bring your little faith and see it bear fruit;
bring your little commitment and see it blossom;
bring your little passion and see it bloom.
Remember the mustard seed?
Even such smallness has potential.
The kingdom of
heaven is like this – Jesus, us, love and faith! Amen.
Margaret Garland
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