Influencers for Jesus

Acts 17:22-31

At the beginning of the service, I highlighted how different the culture was 2,000 years ago compared with today. I also reflected on the idea of the 200-year present in which each one of us finds ourselves. The life I am living today is, in many ways, unrecognisable from when my parents were born—let alone my grandparents.

The world around us is constantly changing, and we should not be naive about the fact that the church is constantly changing too. As people who profess to be growing as lifelong disciples of Christ, each one of us is challenged to think about how we ground ourselves in something as constant as God's love whilst we live through these changes.

Once we ground ourselves in the constancy of the story of God we are called to share that story. Early in the service I mentioned the idea of being influencers for Jesus, or maybe influencers of God. I think this is a way of thinking in contemporary terms to witness to the story of Jesus or share our faith.

When we look at stories that come to us from the early church, we see people doing precisely the same thing. Last week we read from Acts chapter 2, and I reminded us about the miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Peter's preaching in response to the miracle led people to be baptised, and it changed everything about their lives. There were social, economic, political, and religious implications in the transformation that was taking place.

Fifteen chapters later we find Paul speaking in Athens. Rather than describing a particular experience or appearance of God, Paul is engaging in philosophical, theological, and spiritual conversation. In this sense, I see him using reason and reasoned argument to invite people to come to know the God he has encountered in Jesus.

It is helpful to give a little bit of context for what has occurred earlier in chapter 17. Paul had been to Thessalonica, where he had shared the news of Jesus with the Jewish community there. The response of this group of people had not been good. Paul then moved on to a different city, Beroea. Again, he was speaking to Jewish people who already had a relationship with God, and, in this case, they respond much more positively to Paul’s message.

It is only then that Paul moves to Athens and into a very different environment. It is noted that Paul reacts against the many idols, temples, and statues in the city, and he heads to the marketplace, called the agora, to engage in conversations with people about Jesus. It is in the marketplace that he debates with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and presents to them his understanding of Jesus.

It is at this point that some of the Greek people who were engaging with Paul decide to take him to the Areopagus (which means Mars Hill), because they are so interested in his ideas. The Areopagus was a seat of power within Athens, with the capacity to determine whether what Paul was speaking about was an approved teaching about the divine.

Whilst I don't think that Paul consciously thought about what I'm about to share, I believe there are several steps in Paul's engagement that might be helpful for us to consider as people who are called to witness to our faith and share it with others. There are five movements that I am going to refer to.

1. Discerning God’s presence.

2. Being innovative in engaging others
3.  Learning about the culture
4.  Sharing the good news, and
5.  Inviting others to belong.

The first thing that Paul does when he encounters the people at the Areopagus is affirm their spirituality and point towards an altar with the inscription, ‘to an unknown god’. This means that Paul was discerning where God might already be at work among the people. Paul is not negative about their spirituality but affirms it and points to it as one of their strengths. He also audaciously makes the claim that the God he knows in Jesus Christ is already at work among them; evidence for this is given in relation to the altar he has named. 

As people of faith one of the challenges for us if we have grown up in the church culture and always been part of the church is that there are significant limitations on our ability to discern God's presence in the culture around us. In fact, often we have a view of the culture as being a place in which God is absent rather than present.

So, on our journey to becoming people who are better at talking about our faith, being open to the idea that God may already be at work in surprising situations—and being able to name that to others—is an important first step.

The second thing that is important about what Paul was doing is that he was prepared to be innovative about where he went and who he spoke with. Paul went into the agora, into the marketplace, to have conversations about his faith. By being open about his faith, and offering reasoned arguments about what he believed, Paul was able to open the door into other councils in which he could talk about Jesus.

For us, this phone is a symbol of the marketplace of our era. Social media, websites, blogs, and vlogs are places where ideas are exchanged. Of course, we know that much of the debate is shallow, lacks nuance, and presents the world as dichotomies or simple binaries. Nevertheless, it is a place where we can share God's love and acceptance of people and look for ways to name how we see God at work—even when people do not appear to have a Christian faith.

One of the hurdles that all of us probably need to get over is that, for far too long, we have treated our faith as a private matter. Whilst faith is personal to each one of us, personal does not mean private. The idea that we're not supposed to speak about our spirituality or religion is something being imposed on people of faith by a culture that wishes to reject God, spirituality and religion generally. One consequence of this is that we need to grow in maturity and understanding, and in our capacity to engage intelligently and sensibly with others in a reasoned way as we speak about who Jesus is for us.

This brings me to the third aspect of what Paul does. In his opening argument with the people in the Areopagus, Paul has already presented a connection between the God he knows and the unknown god. As he continues to speak, Paul quotes from two Greek poems.

He uses the phrase, “in him we live and move and have our being”. This phrase is more than likely borrowed from the sixth-century poet-philosopher Epimenides. Epimenides was likely referring to Zeus when he said this. Despite the origin of this phrase, it is a phrase that many Christians relate strongly to because we understand our lives are hidden in Christ. And, that Christ’s life is hidden in ours through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The second phrase that Paul uses is: “For we are indeed his offspring.” This comes from the poem Phaenomena by Aratus, written around the third century BCE. I want to share the preceding lines of this poem so that you can see what Paul is doing here more closely.

Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.

For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.

Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity.

Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.

For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).

In this instance, again, Paul is making a correlation between a god from another religion and the God that he knows in and through Jesus Christ. Paul was a Jewish teacher and lawyer by background and would have understood very clearly the ideas contained within the Ten Commandments about there being only one God. Despite this, Paul makes the claim that the God he knows is the same God that the Greeks have encountered as Zeus. This is innovative and radical thinking as Paul engages with sharing his faith in a different cultural context.

It is at this point that Paul names that the way they have understood God is missing something. This is where Paul begins to witness to Jesus. It is missing the person of Jesus Christ. The good news of Jesus that he is God who walks among us. He has lived and died and risen and ascended. This news transforms our reality.

Later, when Paul goes to Corinth, he makes the comment that when he came there, he knew Christ, and Christ alone. I suspect it is his confidence in knowing Christ and knowing that, in God, Christ was reconciling all things to himself that allows him to leverage the possibility that God is at work in the world in ways that people may not be aware of. His job is to bring the centrality of Christ into these situations where people are spiritual and devout but have not yet come to the fullness of faith in Christ.

This leads me to the last aspect of what Paul does: he invites people to come to know Christ, and into a greater sense of belonging to God in creation.

As an apostle, Paul was seeking to influence others so that they came to know that they belong to Christ. To return to what I said at the beginning. Each one of us, as a lifelong disciple of Christ, has a role to also become an influencer in the name of Christ. The move from being a follower to a sharer of the gospel is the move from being a disciple to an apostle. The word apostle means one who is sent.

Each week, you who are living in the 200-year now of your existence can be an influencer for Jesus everywhere you go. At the end of the service each week, I stand here and invite you to stand with me as I say a commissioning and a blessing. The commissioning part of what I say is to send you out into the world to live a life of faith, sharing that with others and bearing Christ’s light in the world. A colleague and friend of mine once said in a sermon: at the end of the service, we are not sent home; we are sent out. We are sent out to live as Christ’s witnesses in the world—to be Christ’s influencers.

To recap the process: as lifelong followers of Christ, we can seek to discern where God is already at work in the world around us. We can look for opportunities and innovative ways to engage the people we encounter in conversations of faith. We can lean into the culture, which reflects the context of people's lives, as a touchstone they might connect with as we talk about our faith. We can speak about the centrality of Jesus at the heart of our faith, and the way we know God. And we can invite people to a deeper sense of belonging in the world and in community as they begin to follow Christ as well.

It is important for us to think about our role as people who witness to our faith and as influencers for Christ as we enter the next month or so as a church community. We are going to be intentional in our engagement with the community. Through the “Stories that Shape Us” series we have an author event and a book and plant sale. There will be Reading the Bible in the 21^st Century seminars, and “Play Church”. We will also be starting a Book Club and relaunching out congregation Library. These weeks should provide many opportunities to engage innovatively in listening to the stories that shape the lives of other people and give to us the chance to share why the story of Jesus matters to us. This is our marketplace, our agora.

The Creation Groans!

 Genesis 1:26-28 & Romans 8:19-23

Wednesday this week was World Earth Day. Today we are reflecting as a congregation on the groaning of creation. In Paul’s letter to the Romans there is a clear connection made between the state of the creation and the anticipated renewal of all things in and through Jesus Christ.

The environmental issues of our day are complex. They are different to Paul’s time. But, from the beginning of the scriptures, God gave human beings a special role in the care of the creation. And, Jesus is recognised as the first born of the new creation. So, the rising of Jesus on Easter Day is not simply about human beings but the renewal of all things.

 These ideas challenge the individualistic approach that we have developed in our relationship with God. In ancient times the story of the prophets, from within Israel, and people like Ruth and Job, who were not Israelites, declared difficult truths. They called whole people of God back to God’s purposes again, and again, and again.

 There is hope for us inasmuch as despite the disconnection that people have with God, the book of Lamentations reminds us, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The daily need for God’s constant mercies and steadfast love is understood by most of us. We generally do admit that none of us is perfect. But we also participate in networks of sinfulness that cause harm to others and the creation without even thinking about it.

If we ask ourselves, ‘How is that whole dominion thing working out?’ The answer is not so good.

Earlier in Paul’s letter, in Chapter 3, Paul challenges the people in Rome to wake up from sleep. This morning I am going to share a reflection about us waking up to the responsibility that we have, to live caring for the creation. This reflection contains a litany of information. I have provided links and details for you of the many references I will include. 

As I share this message we will all be challenged by the prophetic voices from our faith and culture and the call to respond to God’s vision of the renewal of all things.

The clock alarm rings “wake up” it screams.

 It is 1967 the Vietnam War continues as protests opposing the war grow. The Summer of Love and the hippie movement is in full swing. There is a fundamental question about whether there is there a better way to live. There is a six-day war in the Middle East. Meanwhile in Australian are voting to approve changes to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census.

In March, in the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Lynne White Jnr publishes an article called The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis Whyte tells us that “in its Western form Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen.” P 1205 The notion of dominance in Genesis is cited as part of the problem and Whyte says, “we shall continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.” P.1207

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 1977. Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are released. A memo is sent to Jimmy Carter, the American President, from his Chief Science Advisor, Frank Press. It speaks about something that is not a new issue but an important one. The issue is the amount of CO2 (Carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere. In 1977, Frank Press postulates:

“The urgency of the problem derives from our inability to shift rapidly to non-fossil fuel sources once the climatic effects become evident not long after the year 2000; the situation could grow out of control before alternate energy sources and other remedial actions become effective.”

Meanwhile in Australia the Uniting Church in Australia launches with a Statement to the Nation in which we declare, “We are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth's resources for their use and enjoyment.”

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

I can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 1992 and there is hope in the world. Apartheid is ending in South Africa. A few years earlier in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, whilst in 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. The political philosopher Francis Fukuyama writes his seminal work The End of History and the Last Man. It claims, “the endpoint of mankind's (sic) ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."^[1]

In Brazil, The UN Conference on Environment and Development meets. It approves the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It opens with the words “Acknowledging that change in the Earth’s climate and its adverse effects are a common concern of humankind.” In the same year the environmentalists Peter Knutsdom and David Suzuki publish their book Wisdom of the Elders seeking to draw on ancient cultures for a different understanding of our relationship with the creation.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 1997 and scientists have been able to clone Dolly the Sheep, Hong Kong is ceded to the Chinese government, and Princess Diana dies in a tragic accident. Captain Charles Moore discovers the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is a massive,1.6-million-square-kilometer convergence zone of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean, located between California and Hawaii. 

In December the UN Convention on Climate Change is operationalised in the Kyoto Protocol. It commits industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gases emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is the year 2000. The Y2K crisis was averted or was never really a problem. Australia has not signed up to the Kyoto protocols. Syndey Hosts the Olympics and the GST is introduced in Australia.

Meanwhile the atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen and his colleague and biologist Eugene F. Stoermer, publish a two-page article in the Global Change Newsletter. The title of the article is “The Anthropocene”. Crutzen and Stoermer argue that we are no longer living in the geological era called the Holocene but are in an era in which humanity is shaping the geological future of the planet, the Anthropocene.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 2007 and despite the Howard’s government’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Agreement the Queensland Government published Climate Smart 2005. In 2005 it declared, “The available scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that climate change is happening and is a serious global threat that demands an urgent response. The possible impacts are significant for Queensland’s environment, economy and communities.” Maybe they had read Tim Flannery’s book The Weather Makers published in the same year.

 

In 2006 the former US Vice President Al Gore releases his movie An Inconvenient Truth. In Australia, The Uniting Church releases a statement entitled Forthe Sake of the Planet. It declares, “The Uniting Church’s commitment to the environment arises out of the Christian belief that God, as the Creator of the universe, calls us into a special relationship with the creation – a relationship of mutuality and interdependence which seeks the reconciliation of all creation with God.”

During his 2007 campaign to become Prime Minister Kevin Rudd famously makes this statement. That “Climate Change ... “is the one of the greatest scientific, economic, and moral challenges of our time.

And it is scientists who have been the town criers of the modern age - warning us, for decades, of the impending danger of global warming.”

Rudd becomes our Prime Minister and commissions the economist Ross Garnaut to prepare his Report. It comes out the following year and accurately predicts the devasting fires of 2019 and 2020. In January of 2020, The Australian Academy of Science issue a statement confirming that the devastating fires were a result of climate change.

In 2008, the same year that the Garnaut report was released the Wivenhoe Dam levels bottomed out at 15% after sustained drought.

Across the other side of the world the Polish-British philosopher Zygmunt Bauman asked in the title of his book Does Ethics have a Chance in a World of Consumers?

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 2013 and the warning signs continue to grow and the prophecies and predictions abound. A visiting minister from the church in Kiribati asks of the Moreton Rivers Presbytery whether we think Australia will accept the entire population of Kiribati when it becomes uninhabitable due to the sea level rises. We don’t know built we do know Australia has had strong border policies.

The Australian ethicist Clive Hamiton had published his book Requiem for a Species in 2010. Hamilton laments the failure of humanity to respond to the climate crisis. Another Australian Clive, Clive Ayers, a retired Uniting Church Minister is in the middle of his PhD, which will be published a book called Earth, Faith, and Mission in 2013. He argues caring for the earth is not an optional extra but is fundamental to Christian mission.

Meanwhile for those who are watching closely the first daily record is logged with a reading of over 400 parts per million of Co2 in the atmosphere. It occurs on May 9^th 2013 in Hawaii on Mauna Loa.   

With so many prophetic voices calling out attention to the plight of the planet it is little wonder we feel tired.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 2015. Pope Francis writes his encyclical Laudito Si’ which means “Praise be to you”. The Pope wrote “In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.”

He goes to say, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will … This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22).”

Pope Francis is right the creation groans. The Paris Climate Agreement is signed, and more commitments are made to respond to the crisis.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

It is 2026. Earth Day has just passed us by and world overshoot Day looms on July 24^th. World Overshoot Day is the day we will have used the worlds resources allocated for this year. After July 24^th we will be borrowing from future years. Australia passed our overshoot Day on March 16. There is war in the Middle East, in Sudan and in Ukraine.

In the last IPCC report we were told that the earth is already 1.1 degrees above the 1850-1900 levels whilst CO2 levels now sit daily over 400 parts per million. I’m no scientist but they say when we hit 450 parts per million things will get much worse.

Our hope is that Jesus is renewing all things.

We can only pray that God’s mercies are new every morning.

The alarm clock rings “wake up” it screams.

We are not alone in this world. Jesus has risen. He is with us, the firstborn of the new creation.

The Australia Christian songwriter Geoff Bullock reminds us that we are not alone.

“We do not worship Jesus as a historical figure who inspires us to live better lives. Jesus is eternally alive. He is not remembered for Who He was, He is recognised for who he is … Jesus is more present with me, within me, and me within Him than the disciples ever encountered.”

As people of faith seeking to be lifelong followers of Christ we find our belonging in this world alongside all other creatures. We acknowledge that we are the first born of a new creation. A new creation that we are to continue to care for as we lean into our hope in God’s love.

For as Ashtyn Adams remind us. “Hope is a freedom from crippling fear, from the lie that nothing can be done; it will be the God-given tool to liberate us from the paralysis the climate crisis can often make us feel. Hope, in its truest form, unveils the problem and lets us confront it with confidence. It is always first engaged in a sort of radical naming and truth telling of the way things are, but does not leave us there to be swallowed by it.”

Let us take hope in these words. Let uss remember.
 

Jesus is renewing all things.

God’s mercies are new every morning.

 

 

Easter Day: Foolishness and Hope

Matthew 28:1-10

There is an old tradition that comes to us from medieval times captured by a little
object in my bag. 

This hat acknowledges a tradition in which the Fool, sometimes called a Jester or a Wit, often had freedom to speak truth to power. It captures the foolishness of the Christian message of hope in the face of a troubled world.

In Christianity there is a tradition of people who are recognized as holy fools. These people were considered bizarre and strange, obscene even in their witness, as they sought to follow Jesus. Today it would seem foolish to speak hope in the face of such hopelessness in the world.

When the women went to anoint Jesus’s body the word of both the angels and of Jesus to these terrified and confused women may have been as perplexing to them. 

“Do not be afraid”.

Do not be afraid in a world ruled by Romans.

Do not be afraid when they had the power to put anyone to death.

Do not be afraid in the face of earthquakes and miracles.

The women would have gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus body. They would have been overcome by despair and grief and hopelessness.

Do not be afraid. These were words of reassurance meant to give hope in the face of all that life can throw at us. They seem like foolishness.

I wonder what it is that causes you to be here this morning.

What hope you are looking for? As a congregtaion we have a vision of coming to worship with a sense of joy and expectation.

And what hopelessness are you feeling about life in the world today?

There is war in the Middle East and in Ukraine.

Lives are being lost.

The precious finite resources of our planet

Are being consumed by those

Who lust for and compete for power.

 

Oil prices are being driven up.

The economic balance of every nation

Seems to be on a precipice.

We are in a cost of living crisis.

House are unaffordable and in short supply.

 

The climate is changing.

Weather events are becoming more severe.

The oceans are rising.

People are being displaced.

 

Ecosystems are being destroyed. 

Species are dying out.

The oceans are polluted.

Clean water is scarcer than we may think.

And food security is a major issue.

 

Misogyny is on the rise.

Domestic violence lurks in the shadows.

Racism and xenophobia is one of our most pressing issues.

 

Generative AI is rapidly changing the world.

We no longer can be sure of what is true.

Our biases are being fed and amplified.

AI is draining our resources.

And the future of employment is insecure.

 

It is not surprising that young people fear for their future.

Nothing has meaning, nothing matters.

Nihilism is rife.

In the face of this doom and gloom comes the Easter message. 

Do not be afraid? He is not here, he has risen.

How can we make sense of hope this Easter?

How can we even speak of hope with so many problems in the world?

The open mouth of the tomb might as much resemble a cry of horror as much as it shouts with joy at the risen Lord.

Having faith in God and this story may sound foolish when even the gospels cannot agree upon how the events unfolded that morning.

So as foolish as it might sound, I want you to hear these words spoken for you, “Do not be afraid?” And I want to explore ways in which we might develop a deeper sense of hopefulness.

Let us dig into this idea of hope. Krista Tippet in her OnBeing Podcast series on hope says, “The word “hope” is a little bit ruined from overuse and from flimsy, superficial use.”

As I thought about this I was reminded of the difference between SMART Goals and BHAGs. SMART goals are specific measurable achievable realistic & timely whilst BHAGs are Big Hairy Audacious Goals. I think an Easter hope is more like a BHAG.

When Paul speaks about hope I think he  Paul spoke about.

For in hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what is seen?

But if we hope for what we do not see,

We wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24)

This is a big hope not a domesticated hope. And waiting with patience in hope should not be thought of as a passive thing. I think it can involve what Christa Tippet calls developing a muscular hope. A hope that looks into the face of everything happening in our lives and in our world and continues to find hope. Hope in the possibility that there is something more, that we can hope in things unseen.

When the angels said to the women “Do not be afraid” the women were invited to begin a journey of learning to hope again. There was a gap between their expectation of finding Jesus body and what they encountered. Learning hope means being open to the unexpected possibilities of the miraculous. Learning to hope means listening deeply, reflecting and sharing with one another. It is about developing hope is a discipline of both the heart and mind which perseveres through the suffering, building character, and developing hope.

When Jesus appears to the women they discern his presence. Discerning hope is found in people who seek to seek to find God’s presence and peace in the world. One of my mentors Archbishop Michael Putney used to speak about when peace breaks out. Ross Gay, the poet, encourages people to look for delight in the world. Emily Dickinson is quoted as saying that “hope inspires the good to reveal itself”. As people of faith looking for the moments where we see peace break out, or we discern that there are things to delight in, helps us to strengthen our hope muscle and see the good in the world. Seeing the world with the eyes of our heart and so see signs that the kingdom of heaven has come close.

It is somewhat surprising, innovating even, that in all the gospels it was women who were the first witnesses of the resurrection. This was a daring choice that gave women a central place in the Christian story from the beginning. Sadly, something that has not always been apparent in the church. Seeing things from a different perspective is built into the Christian story. Innovating hope is about using our prophetic imagination refusing to accept the world as it is and instead seeing it as God intended it to be.

The theologian Tom Wright reflects on Christian hope in this way. He says,  “To hope for a better future in this world - for the poor, the sick, the lonely and depressed, for the slaves, the refugees, the hungry and homeless, for the abused, the paranoid, the downtrodden and despairing, and, in fact, for the whole wide, wonderful, and wounder world - is not something else, something extra, something tacked on to the gospel as an afterthought … It is central, essential, vital, and life-giving part of it.” (Surprised by Hope by Tom Wright)

Imagining a better world does not mean turning away from the predicament of this world. Hope is also about serving. The women turned their lamenting into loving action as an act of courageous hope. As we look at the suffering in the world we are called to have a courageous hope, to choose bravely, to roll our sleeves up and to engage in goodness and kindness which makes the world a better place. The prophet Isaiah called the people to "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." (Isaiah 1:17) Hope is about actively becoming light to the world.

This brings me to the last of the reflections on building our hope muscle. The women are told to go and share their news with the disciples. They were sent back into the community of belonging. To be involved in a community of belonging hope means risking the intimacy of relationships with others who are not like us.  In a world that is crying out in hope for a sense of community and belonging the church continues to exist as a place of belonging, even in brokenness, for churches are far from perfect places. We are drawn together into one body through baptism and as we share bread and wine.

Growing as lifelong disciples of Christ means growing in our hope even though we may feel as if it is still Friday afternoon or Holy Saturday. Here these words of hope. Do not be afraid. He is not here. He has risen. Take a few moments to think about how you can develop a muscular hope based in Jesus’s resurrection to find hope in things unseen amid the troubles within your life and in the world.

• Learning hope means being open to unexpected miracles.
• Discerning hope is about finding God’s presence and peace through others.
• Innovating hope involves using our creativity and imagination.
• Turning lamenting into loving action shows courageous hope
• A community of belonging hope requires taking risks in relationships with people who are different from us.

International Women's Day: He Sits by a Well

Reading John 4:5-42

Today is International Women’s Day and it is serendipitous that today was a day that Cynthia offered to assist lead worship. It is also serendipitous that today we have the story of the meeting of Jesus with a Samaritan woman at the well. Today is also a day that I chose to connect with the concept of our congregation value of innovating. I hope and pray that some of the things that we have included today in the service and sermon might be taking us all to new insights.

I also want to express my deep gratitude that I am part of a Church movement that has recognised the role of women in ordained ministry. I was blessed to be ordained alongside a woman and good friend Rev Dr Wendi Sergeant, over 27 years ago.

The theme of International Women’s Day is “Give to Gain” and is accompanied by the Give to Gain pose. You will notice the contrast in this pose with what I see as a symbol of praying with closed and clasped hands. The Give to gain pose has cupped hands out front, in this we universally we signify the act of giving and receiving. Throughout history, the open palm has been associated with truth, honesty, and openness.

It is my practice to pray at the beginning of preaching. Today I want to invite you to strike this Give to Gain pose as we pray for the ability to discern what God might be saying to us today.

Let us pray

Loving God we come into your presence prayerfully giving our attention to your voice and receiving wisdom that leads to transformation. We come with a commitment to be seeking truth, honesty, and openness about who you are and who we are called to be. In Christ we pray. Amen.

In the spirit of gaining from the voice of women I want to begin by referencing the speech by the President of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar made at the United Nations on the 23^rd of September 2025. In the opening of her speech Musar points to the hopefulness following the end of World War 2 in 1945. The hope that a new era of peace and cooperation would emerge “embodied by the creation of the United Nations.” There was a parallel movement during the same era that established the World Council of Churches as well.

In 2025 her assessment was that the vision of peace, security and co-operation “has not materialised. In fact, the situation has worsened.” She outlines issues within the security council, the lagging of the sustainable development goals, issues around the seeming irrelevance of international laws, a retreat from both the convention on genocide and the commitment countries had made to address climate change. In her speech she asks, “how are we to explain these trends … to our children?”

I wonder what the President of Slovenia might say about the events of the last week. We lament and mourn that yet another round of human conflict and war is underway and lives are being lost.

Her speech is a compelling call to action. It also contains a direct challenge to us about empowering women and girls. She says, “True equity requires systemic change, and so women’s empowerment must remain at the heart of our global agenda. International organisations must weave a gender perspective into every strand of policymaking. And that should be a result of effective participation of women and girls themselves.”

This speech by Nataša Pirc Musar may seem a distant thing from a dusty well in Samaria over 2000 years ago but as people of faith the question which always lies before us is how the stories of the scriptures transcend the moment of their telling and coincide with our reality. Let me say that again, “as people of faith the question which always lies before us is how the stories of the scriptures transcend the moment of their telling and coincide with our reality”.

Let me share a vision of the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. It is written in the form of a poem and was inspired by the commentary on this passage written by another woman, Reverend Professor Dorothy Lee.

He sits by a well
By Peter Lockhart

In the heat of the day
He sits
By a well
He thirsts
We all thirst
Maslow understood
Water is life and
Without water
There is
No life

A woman arrives
And he steps
And steps again
And steps once more
And steps yet again
Crossing boundaries
Of culture
Of race
Of religion
Of gender, and
He says,

“Give me a drink”

He proclaims
“I thirst”
His humanity
His mortality laid bare
“I thirst”
Words that echo
In our minds
Of another day
Of nails and hard wood
And sour wine
On a sponge
“I thirst”

 
He is truly one of us
One of all of us
He is human

Yet …

He is more
Word made flesh
Living Water
 

And she
She is
She is all of us
 

We do not know
If he was
Able to
Slake his thirst
But there is
Reciprocity
In the request
An offering made
From a
Human to
The divine, and
 

An offer made
From the divine
To the human
Living water
Her soul
Our souls,
Longing, longing
For God
As a deer
Longs for

The flowing stream
Of being known
Of being accepted
Of being understood
Of being acknowledged
Of belonging

 

Living water
Poured out
Into the dry lands
Of her existence
For he knew the
Trials and tribulations
That may have led to
Five husbands
And yet another man
But with
No judgement
Just invitation
To worship
In Spirit
And in Truth?

The Truth
Who is he
Who comes
As the Way
And the Life
To meet us
To meet us
In our needs
With living water

 
As water flows
From beside a well
In Samaria, and from
A wound in his side
We find hope
For this is
Living water
In which
We are known
You and I
And you  
And you
And you and I
 
This is Spirit
And this Truth
 
In the heat of the day
He sits
By a well
And says  
“All are welcome”
All are welcome
To sit with him here
Who is both human
And yet …
Fully divine
As he steps
And steps again
And steps once more
And steps yet again
To welcome us
Into his life
 
(Pause)

 As we sit with the words of this poem about Jesus and the woman, I was led to sharing another poem with you. It is a poem called “Breathe” by Becky Hemsley. When I first read it, I was reminded of an often quoted section of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” I have asked Vicki to read the poem. And as you listen I wonder if the woman in this poem is having a divine experience of acceptance similar to the one of the woman by the well.

 

Breathe

By Becky Hemsley

she sat at the back
and they said she was shy
she led from the front
and they hated her pride
 
they asked her advice
and then questioned her guidance
they branded her loud
then were shocked by her silence
 
when she shared no ambition
they said it was sad
so she told them her dreams
and they said she was mad
 
they told her they'd listen
then covered their ears
and gave her a hug
whilst they laughed at her fears
 
and she listened to all of it
thinking she should
be the girl they told her to be
best as she could
 
but one day she asked
what was best for herself
instead of trying
to please everyone else
 
so she walked to the forest
and stood with the trees
she heard the wind whisper
and dance with the leaves
 
and she spoke to the willow
the elm and the pine
and she told them what
she'd been told time after time
 
she told them she never
felt nearly enough
she was either too little
or far, far too much
 
too loud or too quiet
too fierce or too weak
too wise or too foolish
too bold or too meek
 
then she found a small clearing
surrounded by firs
and she stopped and she heard
what the trees said to her
 
and she sat there for hours
not wanting to leave
for the forest said nothing...
it just let her breathe 

Talking to the Wild: The bedtime stories we never knew we needed.

 As we continue to discern what God might be saying to us today let us stay seated to sing the old song “I heard the voice of Jesus say”.

Song I heard the voice of Jesus say

The interaction between Jesus and the woman is interrupted. The interlopers are the disciples returning with food. Food and water, essential for human life, form the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Jesus is the bread of life as much as he is living water.

The disciples’ return signals the woman should go, and she returns to the village to share about her encounter with Jesus, the living water. It is the unspoken words of the disciples that are telling in this moment.

They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you speaking with her?”

To help us glimpse into the psyche of the disciples I have written a reflection which might have been a part of the longer internal discourse of one of the disciples. Imagine in your minds eye one of the disciples as he approaches Jesus speaking with the woman and hear his internal dialogue.

The disciple

By Peter Lockhart

Oh no, he's at it again.

Why are you speaking with her? What is it that you want? You are going to get us all in trouble. Oh, my goodness she is a Samaritan as well.

A Samaritan as well. at a well. It is just inviting more trouble. You will make us all unclean, gathering up all these outcasts that you do.

We should not be seen with her, let alone be seen talking to her. Why are you speaking with her? What business of yours is it to engage with her? We left you alone for just a little while. Couldn’t you just keep to yourself.

We should have made you stay with us. Kept you out of trouble. Kept us out of trouble. Kept you to ourselves. Don't the traditions and the rules apply to us all.

One of these days you're going to get me killed. One of these days you're going to get yourself killed.

We are following you. I want to trust you. I want to believe in you. You are our teacher, our Rabbi, but you are ours alone and we are yours.

Why are you speaking with her? What is it that you want? You are going to get us all in trouble.

Oh, thank goodness … she is leaving.

(pause)

Within the response of the disciple, we see the rigidity of the religious thinker. A thinker who says who is in and who is out at who fails to see the common humanity that we all share in. We all thirst. We all need water for life, and we need living water to really live.

Here beside this well, essential questions of our existence are being explored and reverberate through time and space to help us make connection with God and with the meaning of our lives and with the words of the Slovenia President

In the words of Nataša Pirc Musar we hear a plea for peace and cooperation which requires a deeper recognition of our common humanity. We all thirst for life. But for shared life in the world, we all need to be able step across the boundaries and barriers of race, and religion, and culture, and gender to share this beautiful world in which we live.

When Jesus asks the woman at the well for water he is being a subversive. He understands that “True equity requires systemic change” and change involves the bravery to break down the barriers. He lives this. He embodies it. He is redesigning relationships and asserting the universality of God’s love. A loving God not bound by gender or any other category or box that we might want to put people in.

Share with me this pose again. Give to gain. How has God been seeking truth, and honesty, and openness in you as you have listened? How has the innovative and creative God been at work in you as you have listened?  What have you been discerning and learning today?

After a few moments of silence, I have asked Julie to read the opening of Rahcel Mann’s book which invites us to think of God differently as we continue to break down barriers and create a space for welcome and inclusion.

Reflection on God 
by Rachel Mann

God dances with us.
They leap and twirl and spin.
They hold our hands gently
as they follow our first tentative steps,
then grip our waist firmly
as they lead us
in a daring twist and bend.
God, you see,
is neither leader nor follower,
but both leader and follower,
neither male nor female,
but both male and female.
God is gender-full and gender-less –
an ambiguous flesh-less being
who leaps into fleshy delight
to join in our dance.
God is under our skin,
in our skin,
gently breathing on our skin.
Our God cannot be separated from us
or contained within us
even as we feel God's embrace,
we cannot define or confine them.
God will not be caged.
Amen

(Transformations: Grounding Theology is trans and non-binary lives)

Belonging

Matthew 4:1-11

Message Part 1: Belonging in the world affirmed in God’s Love

There are three parts to this message. Within some of the older liturgies of the church we are the phrase in him, with him, and through him or variations of these three ideas. The three segments of the sermon are:

1. Belonging in him
2. Belonging with him
3. Belonging through him 

So let us begin with the idea of belonging in him.

Each one of us seeks a sense of belonging in the world. This yearning for belonging and finding our place is expressed throughout our lives. But just as Jesus encountered his temptation the word “if” plagues us. If I was a better person. If only people accepted me as I am. If only I had done more with my life. 

In our internal dialogue the word “if” can lead us to doubt our place of belonging in the world, to doubt the identity that we have forged from childhood, through our teenage years and into adulthood. In this way, at the heart of the story of the temptation of Jesus is a question of belonging and identity in the world.

The story of Jesus resisting turning the stones to bread and focusing on what God is saying offers us hope when we combine Jesus’s resistance with God’s mercy that Paul wrote about. He says that “one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all” and “so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”.

Because through the power of the Holy Spirit our lives are joined to Jesus life it is in him that we resist that temptation and it is in him that our belonging and place in the world are affirmed. This is means as good news “for all” people.

When we receive this message of the good news of the affirmation of our identity and our belonging in the world as we share in Jesus’s life this message should open us up to this truth for other people.

Sadly, rather than do this often we as people seek to define our belonging by excluding us.

Baptism is a sign of our belonging to God and to each other. In baptism we remember that we are drawn into Christ’s life, in him and with him and through him we belong.

Paul knew this, Paul was convinced of this, as he wrote to the Christians in Corinth. Before we move to part 2 of the sermon we are going to sing about the idea that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. I will sing it through and then I invite you to sing it with me.

• When you reflect on your own life, what “if” statements tend to shape your sense of belonging or identity?
• In what ways have you experienced God’s affirmation of your place in the world?
• How does the idea that your belonging is “in him” (in Christ) change the way you see yourself and others?
• How might you open yourself to the truth that others are also affirmed in their belonging through Christ?

Message Part 2: Belonging Through Testing and Retreat

In the first part of the sermon, we reflect on our belonging in him in part two we are thinking our belonging with him.

In the story of the temptation Jesus is driven out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Last week I was speaking about thin spaces, places that we feel closer to God or sense God’s presence.

We did not have an Ash Wednesday service but for those who did participate they would have heard these words “from dust we come and to dust we return”. Lent invites us to go into the place of temptation with Jesus. It is a place not that we put God to the test, but we reflect on our place with God.

In the desert places in the thin space of our existence, we contemplate our shared mortality, God’s grace and our lives hidden in Christ’s life. We contemplate the gift of belonging that we have received and that we share with others.

Sometimes personal spiritual disciplines are portrayed negatively. Spiritual naval gazing. But there is validity in the solitary moments of faith which lead us deeper into the truth of our lives in Christ and with him. It is here that we discover our belonging in the world is not just about us as individuals but is about the way in which Christ is in all and has redeemed all.

These times of confrontation should not lead us into ourselves but lead us to a deeper recognition of the idea that we share our mortality with all other people. We are all flawed, we all have good within us, and we are all loved and drawn into Christ’s life. As we spend time with him in the desert we lean into our trust of God’s love and our unity with other people.

• Can you recall a “desert” or “thin space” experience in your life where you felt closer to God or wrestled with your sense of belonging?
• How do times of solitude or spiritual discipline help you discover your place “with him”?
• In what ways does recognizing your shared mortality with others deepen your compassion or sense of unity?
• How might you lean into God’s love and unity with others during times of personal testing?

Message Part 3: Belonging as a Communal Discovery

At the beginning of the service, we did an Acknowledgement of Country explaining that for people of First Nations heritage this was an important act in helping us as a nation move towards reconciliation and greater sense of shared belonging.

In this message I have then presented the idea because all our lives our in him in Christ, every person is given the gift of belonging in the world. Every person is in the image of God, in him and with him we experience the trials and testings of life on our journey to discover our sense of belonging.

In this section I want us to explore what it means to find our belonging through him. This belonging is in part discovered in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The challenge that is given to us is to work as people to make space for each other and affirm the belonging that every person has in this world.

As I said before humans like to create boundaries between communities. We like to say who is in and who is it. There is a delicate and at time difficult balance in seeking to make communities that have what I would say are porous walls.

In our call to worship, we affirmed the idea that people could belong regardless of things like culture, age, gender, wealth, and ethnicity. Saying this and living it are two different things. It is true to say that in organising our life together as a community we always create boundaries whether intentionally or unintentionally.

For example, as I reflect on our nation for those of us not of First Nations heritage the furthest that we would go back is 8 or 9 generations. In looking at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the data tells us that nearly 1 in 3 Australian citizens were born overseas. We are diverse nation we are people from a great variety of backgrounds and as an aging population we rely on immigration for both skilled and unskilled workers.

It is interesting that Jesus’s last temptation involves the devil offering Jesus’s power over the nations, giving him authority. Jesus’s response is to move away from placing himself at the centre of power and authority and focussing on God, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

In the first week of the “For the Life of the World” study the group was challenged with the notion that whilst we are in the world we are not of the world. We live in exile whilst at the same time belonging in the world because we belong to God. The study suggested to us, “Our salvation is a call to live as exiles as we bless the world.”

We belong in him, with him, and through him and we meet him in every other person that we encounter.

As I conclude it is helpful to recall what Jesus says in Matthew 25:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

We belong in him, with him, and through him and so do all other people who live on the earth. This has implications for how we seek to accept welcome and include others into our church community, into our nation, and into the community of humanity to which we all belong.

• What boundaries (visible or invisible) exist in your community, and how might you help make them more “porous”?
• How does the idea that “we belong in him, with him, and through him” challenge or inspire your interactions with others?
• In what ways can you affirm the belonging of those who are different from you—culturally, socially, or otherwise?
• How does Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 25 shape your understanding of serving and welcoming others as an expression of belonging?