"God"

Romans 8:26-39, John 10:11-18

Not so long ago I was speaking with a young person who grew up in the church but no longer attended. I asked whether they still believed in God. They answered, “I think I believe that there is more out there than we can explain, but I don’t think I believe in the kind of God that you believe in.” I replied, “I don’t think I believe in the kind of God you think I believe in.”

We make many assumptions about who God is and what kind of God we will believe in, or refuse to believe in.

Yet each of us, in our own way, suffers from the problem depicted in this cartoon by David Heyward.

The words we use to describe and speak about God are our theology. Each person who seeks to define God is doing theology. Yet all of us are tempted to limit God’s existence to our finite understanding. Our concepts of God are far too small.

The influential theologian Augustine Bishop of Hippo in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, taught.

We are speaking of God. Is it any wonder if you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God you comprehend. Let it be a pious confession of ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To attain some slight knowledge of God is a great blessing; to comprehend him, however, is totally impossible. [1. Augustine, Lectures on the Gospel of John, as quoted in Reformed Dogmatics, vol 2, 48] https://aaronarmstrong.co/knowledge-great-blessing/

One thing I have come to understand in my journey of faith is that any experience of God is not God; it is my experience of God. I can only describe that experience within the limits of my human reason, vocabulary, thoughts, and feelings. My description of my experience of God cannot domesticate the divine.

In the Jewish tradition, and in the writings of the Torah and the books we call the Old Testament, God remained other and mysterious. This was emphasised by the fact that the people did not speak God’s name. When God appeared in the text, it was represented by the four Hebrew letters known as the tetragrammaton.

When the religious leaders saw these letters, they simply said the word ‘Lord’. These letters were poorly translated as the word Jehovah and then more recently as the word Yahweh. Neither really fits the original intention which was to suggest the mystery that lay behind and beyond these symbols. As an aside the tetragrammaton is a play on the Hebrew phrase, “I am who I am”.

When we are confronted by the mystery of the origin of all things, our temptation is to simplify God into something that reflects who we are. We make God in our image. However, God is utterly other and mysterious.  this mystery because God became human.

God is both utterly transcendent and completely immanent.

In his book exploring the concept of “God”, the philosopher and theologian, David Bentley Hart reminds us of Augustine’s teaching that “God is not only superior summo meo – beyond my utmost heights – but also interior intimo meo – more inward to me than my inmost depths.” (P.10)

We are going to explore these two aspects of who God is as beyond and within us after we sing the old hymn Immortal, invisible, God only wise.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise

When we begin to contemplate the mystery and otherness of God, I am often reminded of something that the 16^th century reformer, Ulrich Zwingli said, in his Commentary on True and False Religion. "Of ourselves, we know no more of God than a beetle knows of man".

Yet even this statement is inadequate as an expression of the gap between the divine, uncreated mystery that is God and our existence as created, finite beings.

There is a well-known mystical writing from the 14^th century called The Cloud of Unknowing which helps us consider the problem that we face. Written as a guide from a teacher to a student the teacher expresses the problem like this.

By your eyes you can know only what has size and shape—what is large or small, round or square, near or far, light or dark, coloured or shaded. By your ears you perceive only sound. By your nose, only scent. By your tongue, only taste—sweet or bitter, sour or fresh, pleasing or foul. By your sense of touch, only heat or cold, hardness or softness, roughness or smoothness. But neither God nor any spiritual reality possesses any of these qualities.

As such we might say that God does not exist in the way that anything else exists. God has no form, no matter, no time, requires no space in which to exist. God is no thing that we can describe. God is nothing.

Possibly, the most that we can say about the nature of God’s existence is what the author of 1 John postulated “God is love” (4:16).

Love here is not merely an amorphous emotion or an abstract idea; love is what God does. God creates and sustains all things, and God’s love is made manifest in the Word that becomes flesh. In Jesus, the God who is totally other enters time, space, and matter as a person.

This is the paradox of mystery of the divine that the philosopher David Betley Hart describe when he says,

“To speak of “God” properly, then…. is to speak of the one infinite source of all that is: eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, uncreated, uncaused, perfectly transcendent of all things and for that very reason immanent to all things.” P30 God Bentley Hart God.

Through Christ and in the Holy Spirt the unknowable God seeks to be known to us and is, as the saying goes, closer to us than breathing because as Paul puts it, "In him we live and move and have our being". (Acts 17:28)

Then let us sing of God’s love coming to us in such a personal way as we sing The Great Love of God.

The Great love of God

The incarnation emphasises how close God wishes to be to creation, because through the eternal Word becoming flesh God shares in what it means to physically exist. When Paul reflects on God’s love and closeness to people in and through Jesus, in his letter to the Christians in Rome, he asserts, as we heard today:

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The intimacy of God’s relationship with people and with the whole creation is reflected in the intimacy expressed between Jesus and the one whom he names as Father and in the invitation for we as people to come to God through Jesus as his followers.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father.”

The intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and God, expressed in the language of fatherhood, should not lead us into a single conceptualisation of God as male or as Father. Yes, the language is important because Jesus used it, but we should not reduce God to a bearded old man in the sky. Jesus’ language is a metaphor that emphasizes intimacy and sits alongside a vast range of other images and ideas that express who God is.

The literary theorist and philosopher Paul Ricoeur asserts that the Bible is polyphonic in the naming of God. That means the Bible presents many ways of describing God. The Uniting Church theologian Sally Douglas, in her book Rewilding Prayer, which we have in the library, outlines some of the myriad metaphors for God that are used.

For example, God is a rock (Ps 18:2) and the Most High (Ps 56:2); God is a bird (Ps 57:1); God is a refuge and stronghold (Ps 144:2); God is a mother who holds us on her lap (Ps 131:1–2). She also emphasizes that the biblical warrant “for using male and female language for God is clear. So too is the invitation to utilize non-gendered imagery for the Divine”. It was this range of imagery that inspired the book, What is God Like? that I read at the beginning of the service.

A few weeks ago, at the open evening, I answered a question that I have been asked numerous times, “Do you think that God is non-binary?” The answer that I gave I think reflects how I think about God’s immanence or closeness to us as well as God’s transcendence.

My answer is that non-binary is a term drawn from human understandings of gender. Like all gendered language, it seems illogical to apply it directly to God. For the God who is beyond time, space, and matter, gender is an irrelevant category. However, because we use many words and images to help us come closer to God, including gendered language that describes God as both male and female, I think that if imagining God as non-binary helps a person come closer to God, then I would consider that O.K.

The immanence and closeness of the God, who is love, transcend all our human differences. God is close to us no matter if we are 8 months old or 88 years of age, whatever our economic or social status, regardless of our gender or sexuality, whether we are healthy or confronting a terminal illness, wherever we come from and whatever our ethnicity. Christ is all and Christ is in all and the Holy Spirit lives within us and intercedes for us. This is love.

The gift of connection with this God, who is totally other, is a glimpse into eternity. The good news we share is that we can encounter and experience God, and through that encounter we are transformed and can come to live on earth as it is in heaven because we find ourselves in God’s company.

Making sense of strange words

Based on Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus is often recognised as being a teacher. The Jewish word that would be used to describe him as a teacher is rabbi. In this congregation we talk about being lifelong disciples of Jesus. The word disciples pretty much mean a follower or a student. So, in the scene we have just heard read Jesus is teaching his students. 

I find it is fascinating that after Jesus shares a set of strange sayings which are all similies about this thing that he calls “The kingdom of heaven” he turns to his followers and asks, “Have you understood all this?”

What is even more surprising, and more than a little puzzling, is that they answered, “Yes.” “Yes?” 

I mean seriously do we really think they understood what Jesus was going on about with mustards seeds, yeast, treasure in fields, pearls, and a catch of good and bad fish. Let alone saying that these things described something he called the kingdom of heaven.

For those who don’t know in a former time I was a teacher and there was more than one occasion when I asked a class “Have you understood all this?” Students would all nod vigorously to see yes. But then we I went to speak to individual students it was clear that most of them did not understand at all.

Let’s think about what Jesus was saying. I mean when you think of the word “heaven” I wonder what comes into your mind. Isn’t heaven up there? Somewhere other than where we are? Bunch of angels sitting on clouds?

But Jesus seems to also be implying that this kingdom of heaven has something to do with this life as much as what happens after this life.

I think it is helpful to recall that there is a bit of a mystery and something different to the everyday of our experiences in life when it comes to thinking about Jesus’ teaching. The kingdom that Jesus is describing is not a place but is more about the discovery of our relationship with God and how we can live a good life in this world.

The strangeness of Jesus’ teaching prompts us to see our lives in the world a bit differently and to live as part of this strange thing that he calls the kingdom of heaven. Now because we might have predetermined ideas about some of the words of this phrase I think it cna be helpful to use the original Greek phrase which is βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (pronounced vah-see-LEE-ah tone oo-rah-NOHN). 

If Jesus is referring to how we live in the world as part of this strange idea of βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν then I wonder if Jesus little examples and stories are more about getting us to ask ourselves some questions about the signs of the kingdom already prsent aithin us and around us. 

Let's connect some of the similies to some questions that might help us search for signs of the βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

The mustard seed and the tree.

Who is some that you look at and see their how life has become a shelter and shade for other people? Who is it that build people up and helps them? 

The yeast and the bread.

What actions do you experience day by day which act like yeast and help you to flourish in life?

The treasure in the field.

What are the joys in your life that you are willing to make sacrifices for?

The pearl of great price. 

What pearls of wisdom have you heard today that might be of value in your life?

And finally, the good and the bad fish.

(As a side note it would have been easier to leave this saying out because it appears to talk about a strange notion of God rejecting some people at the end of our lives. For some people being a follower of Jesus can be oversimplified to ideas about heaven and hell. But this strange saying sits in tension with other parts of the Bible which speak about God’s unconditional mercy, love and grace. Reducing ideas about the βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν to something that happens after we die seems to miss the point of a lot of Jesus teaching. So, I wonder whether what this saying might raise for us is this question.)

What are the things that you see in the world and in your life that you long would be cast off like bad fish?

The good news of Jesus is more than his strange ways of describing how we should live as part of the βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν but involves the outlandish idea that Jesus is also God and in him we see the fullness of God’s love. And this love is shared with us and is within each person. 

When Jesus asks, “Have you understood all this?” I’d like to be honest and say “not really”, “not at all”, or “maybe a bit” (especially when it comes ot a vision of the end times which seems to conrtradict the idea of uncodnitional love). But the mystery of not fully understanding leaves me curious and questioning. It leaves me feeling compelled to continue to follow Jesus and find out more.

Everyone is invited to be part of the βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν and everyone is welcome to participate in sharing in its growth, joy, flourishing and value. You do not have to know and understand everything but simply remain curious and ready to explore more of God’s love. How are you seeing signs of the βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν in your life and how might you give thanks to God for these times.

Intimately known and loved

 Based on Psalm 139

When we listen to the words of the Bible, we listen for what God might be saying to us and we reflect on the words together. Bible passages can generate a range of responses within us. In a Psalm like this one some of us may hear these words and feel comfort, wonder, and gratitude. Others may feel exposed, uncertain, or even uncomfortable. That is O.K. The Psalms give us room to bring our whole selves before God including our joy, our questions, our doubts, and our hopes.

Whenever I hear the words of this Psalm, I am constantly drawn to one phrase. I have something in my suitcase which captures that for me.

(Take out knitting needles and wool. Helen to come and sit and knit.)

The phrase that stands out for me is, “For you created my inmost being.You knit me together in my mother's womb.”

There are an intimacy and sentimentality in this phrase that runs through the whole Psalm. For me it creates an interesting image of God and recalls memories of my own mother who loved knitting. Although, the word knit in the Psalm doesn'y mean knitting in this sense the way we coudl interpret the phrase creates an intersting image of God.

I wonder when someone uses the word God what you might picture. For me one image that comes to mind is of a woman knitting. Just as I can see my mother knitting, I see God sitting like a woman knitting us together.

This imagery is accompanied by the idea that God knows us so closely and watches over us like a caring mother would.

The idea that God watches us so closely might feel a little bit uncomfortable for some people, but I have a sense of deep reassurance and care that God would hem us in with love.

“You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.”

The good news is that God’s intimate knowledge of us and desire for us is that we might live a rich and abundant life. Whilst this may not always be our experience of life we can hold on to the words of Psalms like this one when we are going through a rough patch and maybe even in those times we will know and feel God’s love hemming us in and holding us up.

The Sower

A sermon based on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Today I want to begin with a poem simply entitled The Sower.

“The Sower”

Seeds thrown wide

faith, hope and love

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown recklessly

justice, mercy, peace

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown liberally

joy, beauty, kindness

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown lavishly

courage, knowledge, piety

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown gracefully

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown generously

wisdom, understanding, counsel

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown prolifically

serving, teaching, encouragement

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown abundantly

serving, giving, hope

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown creatively

Goodness and life in all its fullness

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown graciously

Creator, Word, Spirit of life

For God is love.

Amen.

I am not sure about you, but I think that the parable of the sower is one of the better-known stories in the scriptures. Yet I also suspect it is one of the most misunderstood passages, because we focus on the soil rather than on the sower and the seeds.

When Jesus explains the parable, he names it as the parable of the sower. He does describe what happens to the seeds flung so recklessly into the field, but even by ancient agricultural standards, the sower’s approach would have sounded very strange.

In sermons I have heard on this passage, the focus has often been on whether I can or cannot change the kind of soil I am. In these readings, the seed is often associated with salvation (whatever that might mean) and the interpretation turns to the human response rather than on the generosity of the sower.

If the soil cannot change itself, then the Calvinist understanding of predestination comes into play: everything is God’s choice alone, even what kind of soil you are. On the other hand, if the soil can change itself, then surely, we are hearing about free will and prevenient grace, and about the human choice to respond.

But when we teach the parable this way, we drag our attention away from the sower and the seeds and onto ourselves. We miss the lavish and gracious way God sows love into the world with reckless abandon.

God sows Jesus into the creation. God sows the Spirit into our lives.

God sows love. And God’s love is sown liberally, everywhere, without concern for where it lands or how it is received. Your presence here this morning suggests that this love has been sown into your life. As a lifelong disciple of Christ, you are bearing fruit because you have been awakened to the good news that the kingdom of God has come close.

One of our congregation values is discernment: taking note of where we see, feel, hear, and enact God’s love in our own lives. As I read the poem, I wonder which of the words resonated with you most strongly. I wonder which of the words inspired you to live more closely with God. I wonder which of the words echoes how you seek to live in the world. These are the seeds that have taken root in you.

What does the presence of God’s love look like, feel like, and sound like in your life? What does it mean to you that the kingdom of heaven has come close?

And, maybe more importantly, what yield has it borne?

This is a vital aspect of the parable for us to reflect on that is often overlooked. The implication of the parable appears to be a blossoming forth of life that produces fruit for others. The gifts that we receive and that grows in us bears fruit not simply for our own wellbeing and flourishing but for the common good, for others.

The imagery of bearing fruit recalls Psalm 1,

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers, but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, they meditate day and night.

 

They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

Prospering in life though is not about personal wealth and happiness it means living for others just as the prophet Micah declares,

God has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

The scattered seeds have landed in our lives, and our roots have gone deep. The kingdom has come close, we share in God’s love, and we follow as lifelong disciples.

Yet in sowing Jesus into the world, God invites us to participate more deeply and to become sowers of seeds as well. Jesus parting words  to his disciples in Matthew emphasise this.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

God sows the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can sow the seeds of the coming kingdom into the lives of others. And we learn from the master sower to understand that the sowing of love lands with mixed responses.  Some will land on the path, some on rocky ground, some among the thorns, but some will land in good soil and it too will bear much fruit.

Our task is to join in the sowing of the seeds and celebrate the fruitful harvest that comes from the love sown into our lives. Here is a vision for the world and a vision for life that we lean into. Next week’s open day provides each one of us with an opportunity to sow seeds into the lives of others as we invite them to share in the joy of knowing and following Jesus.

As we take a moment to reflect on what God might be saying to you today, I will read again the poem The Sower. What resonates? What sounds like good news? What seeds will you sow this week?

The Sower

Seeds thrown wide

faith, hope and love

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown recklessly

justice, mercy, peace

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown liberally

joy, beauty, kindness

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown lavishly

courage, knowledge, piety

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown gracefully

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown generously

wisdom, understanding, counsel

and the greatest of these is love

 

Seeds thrown prolifically

serving, teaching, encouragement

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown abundantly

serving, giving, hope

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown creatively

Goodness and life in all its fullness

and the greatest of these is love

Seeds thrown graciously

Creator, Word, Spirit of life

For God is love.

Amen

The Sacrifice of Isaac: Who can believe in such a God as this?

Genesis 12:1-14

Let me begin with a question for you all. You do not need to put your hand up but just think about how you would answer the question.

“As a lifelong follower of Christ do you think that you have biblical values?”

It would be my suspicion that most of you would say, “Yes, I do”. And if I asked then how do you view the scriptures you may even quote a Bible verse at me, 2 Timothy 3:16.

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) NRSV

Or maybe you like the NIV translation.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) NIV

But here is the problem if you answer affirmative to those questions without any qualification you are possibly affirming ideas that you would find unconscionable.

There are stories within the scriptures like the one that we read today that present an image of a God who plays with human lives in horrifying, distasteful, and even abusive. What do we do with these hard bits of scripture and the apparent vacillations of a God who appears to be capricious. For when we look closely, we find that there are inconsistencies with the decisions made by God in this story and the scriptures are contradictory.

The story of the Binding of Isaac, as it is traditionally known, read in our modern context should cause any sane person to recoil in horror and asl themselves, “Should I, can I, love such a God as this?” There is no escaping the trauma that was caused for the child Isaac who is the innocent party in this story. It is nothing less than child abuse and we need to name it as such.

Stories like this one which are upheld as a sign of Abraham’s faithfulness can cause people to simply say, “I cannot believe in such a God like this”. Or “I cannot take the Bible seriously”. And there is part of me that would say to them I understand, that is a fair call. 

In his book on biblical values the Biblical scholar John J. Collins indicates that when think about biblical values they “must be sifted and evaluated” and they must be measured against the command to love your neighbour.

Recalling Robin Whittaker’s view that we should “take the Bible seriously not literally” I want to suggest that there are lessons that we might glean from this horrific story without leaving such a distaste in our mouth about a God who may have asked a man to commit infanticide.

In coming across this piece of scripture, we may be left asking can I really trust a God such as this. And, is this piece of scripture actually God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness?

In his reflections on his passage the Lutheran Scholar, Terence Fretheim, presents a nuanced understanding of this episode and suggests that what God is doing is testing whether Abraham will not kill Isaac?

Fretheim’s view is one that I have a lot of time for. Elsewhere in the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch God’s command is to prohibit the sacrifice of children. This is found in Leviticus 20:18 and Deuteronomy 18:10. These decrees feel consistent with what we find in the Commandments that are handed down to Moses which include thou shalt not murder found in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17.

Furthermore, the context of Isaac being the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham to be the father of many nations also sits in stark contrast and contradiction to what God asked of Abraham in this story.

This seems consistent with Fretheim’s interpretation that what God is doing is testing whether Abraham will not kill Isaac.

Having said that and acknowledged the instruction that God gives elsewhere not to sacrifice children there is evidence within the Old Testament that at least three of the Israelite Kings practised child sacrifice. I am grateful to John Squires for his work on this passage. He notes that Molech, Ahaz and Mannesah all appear to have engaged with the of sacrificed children.

In Exodus 22 and Exodus 34 God demands animal sacrifices and the giving of the firstborn sons. It is unclear if this included sacrifices but as John J Collins says “God is the giver of life. One way of acknowledging this was to return the firstborn, and the first fruits, to God.”[1]

So, which is it? Are biblical values pointing at sacrificing children or not sacrificing them? Is God in favour or not? The Bible is not a simple consistent book that has a consistent story to tell us but raises for us difficult questions about the history of the people of God and their interpretation of what they believed God wanted them to do. 

To return to the conundrum of Abraham and his son Isaac one of the many troubling parts of this story is the blind faith with which Abraham acts. Abraham is understood to be the father of faith for the Jewish religion, the Christian religion and the Islamic religion. This story is upheld by all as a story of Abraham’s faithfulness, but I believe we should be questioning the blind faithfulness that is exhibited in this story.

Abraham appears to be willing to go through with God's command without question. And at least at two points in the narrative God appears to affirm Abraham’s willingness to do so. It could be argued that when Isaac asked the question “where is the lamb?” Abraham’s response that God will provide, alongside his indication to his servants that the two of them will return, do indicate that Abraham is trusting that God is going to allow this sacrifice to occur. Yet it appears that the faithfulness that is exhibited is precisely that Abaraham is prepared to go through with it.

Ultimately, the injunction that he is not to lay a hand on the boy, when the Angel speaks. However, the trauma inherent in this scene and this story do not sound like good news to me nor present a God who is easy to identify with and follow.

One of the things that Fretheim says about the story and the unquestioning obedience of Abraham is that it is inconsistent with Abraham’s previous willingness to question God. Just a few chapters earlier in the story God declares that he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham's response is to plead for these cities. In contrast to his innocent son. In the book of Ezekiel, we are taught that these cities were destroyed because “she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.” (Exodus 16:49) As an aside, even the notion that God has destroyed these cities can cause us to question whether God is a God of love.

The point is that Abraham questions God. Fretheim suggests that having already heard this story we as listeners should be willing to question what is happening in this story and question God's motives just as Abraham had done in the previous story. We should be asking the question can such a God be trusted?

As a follower of Jesus Christ, who is God's love Incarnate, this passage should draw us into critical reflection on our own blind faith and willingness to simply follow what we think might be God's command in the Bible. This is an uncomfortable teaching for many of us, but it is a Biblical teaching.

In digging into what lesson might come from this story, on the website my Jewish learning, James Goodman says, “I learned this story was God's way of proclaiming his opposition to human sacrifice”. This insight about the story is echoed by the ethicist and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. This learning is often presented as an alternative to the child sacrifice by many ancient cultures. It is a distinguishing feature of Judaism that they do not sacrifice children. However, even ironically, as already noted in other passages God does command the sacrifice of children.

The possible learnings that we might glean from this passage are accompanied by what many of us will find an even more uncomfortable lesson. Again, it is Terrence Fretheim who provides this insight. It is God who is learning something in this story. It is God who is placing Godself in a position of vulnerability. As Abraham continues to follow through on the potential horrific act God's response is to say, “now I know”.

These words suggest that prior to this point in the story God did not know what would occur that God did not understand how things would play out. This suggests that God is not omnipotent (all knowing) and that God is changeable but also more importantly that human beings have the freedom to act of their own accord. Abraham can make his own decisions, and the word of God can be resisted.

Further that in the context of this story once God has said something it doesn't mean it has become law for God and that can change God's mind. God commands a human sacrifice and then says do not do this. If God had known how things were going to work out in the way this story is told, then the story has no meaning apart from the psychological damage on Abraham and Isaac. But if God is the one putting the covenant at risk because God does not know what will occur then despite its atrocious plot the meaning of the story changes.

There is a mystery in this story that invites a questioning of what it means to listen to God, to question God, to trust God, and to expect that God may not know the outcome of all things.

We did not continue to read the interaction between Abraham and God after this section of the story. But in the following verses God says to Abraham “by your offspring shall all the nations gain blessing”. I think it is important to return to this message that pops up repeatedly through both the Old and the New Testament. God's desire is for the good for all peoples. This is continually evident. This may be the kernel of truth for us to grasp onto as we continue to grapple with this difficult story; the nations of the earth will gain God’s blessing.

Before I leave the story of Abraham and Isaac, I want to pay tribute to Elizabeth Raine who parallels this story with a story found in the book of Judges, chapter 11, verses 29-40. It is a story in which one of the Israelite commanders called Jephthah makes a rash promise to God. After being granted victory in battle he says on his return home whoever comes out of the doors of his home he will sacrifice.

On returning home Jephthah’s daughter walks out of the doors of the house joyously to greet her father's return and he is heartbroken for he is made this promise. On explaining what is going to occur and the promise he has made is Jephthah’s daughter encourages her father to continue with the sacrifice. There is no intervention by God, there is no ram in any bush, and after two months of preparing for the event, his daughter is put to death.

Raine questions whether this is because women were of less value than of a treasured son, like Isaac. As much as we should be horrified at the story of the binding of Isaac this other story and how it unfolds way and the religious violence that is condoned rather than condemned is difficult for us.

Collins in his book suggest that we must have criteria for the values that we draw from the scriptures. The values that we might have and the good that we might seek as Christians are shaped by the God that we encounter in Jesus Christ. If there is anything that I would draw from the story of Abraham and Isaac into Jesus story it is the capacity for human freedom.

I would argue that in Jesus the man from Nazareth there is the freedom of choice that a human can make to follow a particular pathway or not. If Jesus was not susceptible to saying no to what was occurring in and through him then what Jesus does is devalued and devoid of meaning. It becomes all a sham. But if Jesus has genuine freedom of choice, then God takes a real risk in becoming human.

As followers of Jesus, we should be attentive to how Jesus himself debates with the rabbis and the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus critiques the words of the scriptures and the way they were being interpreted.

If we are being blind in our faithfulness as followers of Jesus then we're not probably following Jesus and his example. When we look at passages as difficult as the one that we have today then we should not simply be dismissing them but looking deeply into them and trying to make sense of how we might explain them.

It might seem strange to have chosen to preach this sermon as we prepare for our Community Open Day. But when people come face to face with a story like this there needs to be some explanation as to why it sits within the corpus of our scriptures. And each of us needs to be able to explain what the Bible means to us without unintentionally opening the door to all kinds of evil.

In my view, the key to unlocking any of the Biblical stories is to go back to Jesus’ command to love God and love one another and to listen for what is written in the book of 1 John “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God”.

If you are asked do you abide by Biblical Values the answer you might give could be “which ones?” And if you are asked your view of the Bible maybe acknowledge that it can be a difficult book, but you still seek to listen for its wisdom.

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[1] Collins, John. What Are Biblical Values? (p. 45). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Called and Sent: Preparing for an Open Day

Romans 5:1-8, Matthew 9:35-10:8

Jesus said to his disciples,

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

At harvest time in the ancient world, everyone got involved. Everyone mucked in. That image says something important about who we are as a congregation and how we share in the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. This is something we do together! It is certainly not something that I can do alone!

Our congregation’s vision is Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ. Let’s say those words together out loud: Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ.

This is who we say that we are. But this vision raises some questions.

Why would anyone want to be a lifelong disciple of Christ?

Why do you follow Jesus?

What is the good news of Jesus Christ for you?

And why would anyone want to belong to the church?

These questions matter, because if we understand and can articulate our personal experience of the good news then we will have a reason why we might want to invite others to join us and for them grow lifelong as disciples of Christ.

Remember, though that one of the chief lessons from the last four weeks and The Stories that Shape Us was that each of us has a personal and unique experience of God’s love and faithfulness. Each of us will answer these questions differently. Our diverse experiences of God are a gift. We each carry our own story of God’s grace.

This morning, I want to pause and invite you to reflect on these questions. 

What is the good news of Jesus Christ for you?

What is so valuable about your experience of God that you keep coming, keep worshipping, and keep seeking to grow in faith as a disciple?

If we are Growing Lifelong Disciples of Christ, we should be able to explain to each other and those in the community why this is important for us. This is about learning to go out into the harvest and share the good news of the coming kingdom just as the disciples did: both in words and loving actions.

Let me model something of what I think. Personally, one of the things that I would point to when I share why I follow Christ and seek to continue to grow is found in the reading that we heard from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul says, “while we still were sinners Christ died for us”. And “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. Before we had done anything to earn it, God loved us. It is that love that renews us, draws into communion with God and each other, and sends us into the world to share that unconditional love with others. I find this message so compelling and hopeful for the world that I want to try to be part of it. What is it that you find compelling about your faith?

Thinking again, about Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims the good news of the kingdom. He cures every disease and sickness, and then he sends his disciples to heal, restore, and announce that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Following Jesus has always had practical, real-world implications. Yes, faith may give us hope in what comes after this life, but Jesus’ mission began by helping people in their earthly existence.

We should also remember that when Jesus sent the twelve, he sent ordinary people. Among their number were fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, a carpenter, and others whose everyday lives were interrupted by his call. They were not perfect, polished, or powerful. They were people learning to trust Jesus, and through them God’s mission moved into the world.

William Loader in his commentary on Matthew reminds us that our context is different from Jesus’ context, but the mission remains: to proclaim hope, to share good news with the poor, and to help restore people to right relationship with God, with themselves, and with one another.  

The harvest is plentiful; the labourers are few. We are those labourers who share in the task of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom in this context. In The Gap and the surrounding suburbs in 2026.

Last week I announced that we are going to have a Congregation Community Open Day on Sunday July 19^th. The Strategic Plan of our congregation has many elements that can be drawn directly from this idea of the sending out of the disciples.

Our strategic plan names clearly that growing faith, growing worship, growing our congregation, and growing leadership are important. It also says that every member is encouraged to contribute to the life and growth of the church through serving and giving. This Community Open Day belongs to all of us.

This is not simply an event to organise. It is a small, practical step in the vision of our strategic plan to offer intentional invitations for people to begin or renew their faith journey, to discover worship, community, belonging, and service, and to see what God is doing among us and in their lives as well.

What can we do as the Community Open Day approaches? I want to suggest four simple actions: pray, reflect, invite, and serve.

First, pray. Pray for the Open Day, for our congregation, for the people who already gather here, and for those who may be looking for hope, community, or a place to belong. We know that loneliness and disconnection are big problems in our contemporary world. So, pray for the ones who the Bible story described as lost sheep. Pray with openness and be discerning las you listen for what might God be stirring in you.

Second, reflect. Think about how you would can speak about the good news of Jesus Christ in your own life. If someone asked why faith matters to you, what would you say? You do not need a perfect answer. You simply need an authentic one. Today I have asked you to reflect o this as part of the sermon so maybe this gives you an opportunity to practice with one another ways you can talk about your faith.

Third, invite. People are more likely to come when they receive a personal invitation from someone they know. This week, consider who you could invite. It might be just one person: a family member, a neighbour, a friend, or someone connected with one of our community groups. When you invite them you might say, “I’d love you to come with me. I’ll be there, and you can sit with me.”

Fourth, serve. Many groups and ministries are part of the life of this congregation, and the Open Day is a chance to help people see who we are and what we do. If you have an idea, an offer of help, or a way to make the day welcoming, please come forward. We cannot do everything, and this does not need to be bigger than Ben-Hur, but we can each take a small faithful step.

This week I suggest that you might think about doing two actions. First, we can all take the first simple step, which is to pray for the Community Open Day. And second, if you feel led to serve, contact me to join the group that is already involved. Next week, we will have invitations for you to be able to take and share with others.

I want us to pause in a reflective and prayerful moment and invite the Holy Spirit to implant a vision of how the day might look. Close your eyes. Imagine for a moment that every person here today brought just one other person, maybe a stranger, maybe a friend. Imagine double the number of people in the room. What would it look like? What would it sound like? What would it feel like? Capture this vision of the Holy Spirit and pray that God might be at work in what we are doing.

This idea of having a Community Open Day is something new. It involves taking a risk. Taking the risk of being involved may seem daunting but we should always remember that the church did not begin in strength, but in a locked room. A group of disciples who were afraid and uncertain because their teacher had been put to death. Yet, the risen Jesus came among them, God’s Spirit renewed them and God sent them into the world to proclaim the good news.

We are part of the heritage of a long, long story. You and I have received the good news passed down through 2000 years of history. For many of you this place here at The Gap has been your primary place of worship. So, we give thanks for the people who have worshipped, served, built, rebuilt, extended, taught, prayed, led, and loved in this place for generations. Their faithfulness and yours has brought us to this moment. For others of us our pilgrimage of faith may have included many places but wherever we have been God has been with us. In each of those place people of faith and helped us grow and formed us in our relationship with Jesus.

Pause and reflect about a person who has been an inspirational part of your faith story.

We have four more Sundays to be in this liminal space as we pray, reflect, invite, and serve this vision together in preparation for our first Open Day. Then we can celebrate what God has already done here: the people who have served before us, the gifts already among us, the life of this congregation, and those who may yet join us.

As a congregation we stand in a new season. We are seeking the renewal of life and faith that can come from God alone. The future may not look like the past, and that can be unsettling. The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church reminds us that we are a pilgrim people, always on the way towards God’s promised future. We are not asked to control that future. We are invited to wait on God, listen for the Spirit, and respond faithfully.

The harvest is plentiful. The labourers may feel few. But we are not alone. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and Christ sends ordinary people like us to share that love in practical and hopeful ways. As we prepare for the Community Open Day, may we pray with faith, reflect honestly, invite bravely, serve generously, and celebrate joyfully. And may others discover among us a community where the kingdom of heaven has come near.

I invite you now to take a few moments in silence: to reflect on the good news of Jesus Christ in your own life, and to consider how God may be calling you to pray, invite, serve, or celebrate as part of our Open Day. After a few moments I will lead us in a prayer written by Jono Ingram and found in one of the new books for our library, Edge Walkers.

A Prayer for Walking the Edge (Edge Walkers)

Jono Ingram

 

God of the wild places,

of narrow paths, rocky ridges,

and deep forest valleys –

 

here I am

standing on top of a mountain looking out,

no longer in the centre fenced in by certainty,

but balanced on the edge,

where faith feels thin.

 

Standing on the margins of belief and belonging,

I discover that you are already here

not calling me back to safety,

but beckoning me forward,

an invitation to traverse with you further along the spur

 

teach me, O Creator, to listen

To the ground beneath my feet,

to the rhythm of breath and heartbeat,

to your quiet voice

that does not shout directions

but invites attention.

 

Shape me into one who trusts the edge itself

not because it is safe,

but because you meet me here.

In the name of Christ

Amen.

Disciples: Shaped by Jesus Story

Genesis 12:1-3, Matt 9:9-13, 18-26

Throughout our series, The Stories That Shape Us, we’ve reflected on my story, your story, and God’s story. Today listening to the stories of the Scriptures we continue to discern how those stories intersect with our stories.

The Gospel reading included the story of the calling of Matthew, a tax collector.
Tax collectors, like Matthew, would have been collecting taxes on behalf of the Roman Empire and so were not viewed in a positive light by the community around them.

So, we have this person who would have been possibly excluded, and kept on the margins of society, who is then invited into inner circle of Jesus’ followers. Matthew, a counter of money, who was possibly thought of as not being worthy of being counted himself, is now counted in. With all these things about counting, I was reminded a story about someone else who could count, and I’m going to read that story. It’s called Counting on Frank.

You might be wondering why I’ve read this story. How does Counting on Frank relate to Matthew, or to the Scriptures at all? As a congregation, we value discernment: prayerfully seeking God’s will and purpose in our lives. Part of that is learning to recognise God’s presence not only in Scripture, but also in the stories around us, even in a children’s story like Counting on Frank.

Here are a couple of things about this story that might be spiritual lessons for us. The first is fairly obvious: Frank has a particular ability to understand numbers in a way that most people don’t. This is a reminder that people have different capacities for different things. For Frank it’s maths, but it could be language, music, sport, cooking, or just about anything else. For some reason, these abilities become part of who we are, part of our human make-up.

As Christians, we often speak of those abilities as gifts. Frank’s gift happens to be with numbers, but the deeper lesson is that God gives each of us gifts of different kinds. They may come through the way our minds are formed, through the work of the Holy Spirit, or through the shaping influence of our environment. However they come to us, these skills and abilities can be received with gratitude and recognised as gifts from God.

Another lesson in Counting on Frank is how gifts are recognised and used. It’s not enough to say someone is gifted; we are also called to help those gifts flourish. As Frank’s father says, “If you’ve got a brain, then use it.” The lesson is twofold: to use the gifts we have been given, and to affirm and celebrate the gifts of others.

These lessons from Counting on Frank take us back to Matthew, who is counted in by Jesus’ choosing of him. Further, the idea of being chosen links to the Old Testament reading, where God promises Abram that he will become a great nation, that greatness was not for the sake of domination. Scripture goes on to say, “all families of the earth shall be blessed.” If Israel, or the Church, is to be great, then its greatness is measured by whether others are blessed through it. That remains a challenging idea in the news we see hear about out contemporary world.

The promise that all families of the earth shall be blessed is echoed by Jesus’ behaviour in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus sits with tax collectors and sinners. He includes those that others would exclude. He does not diminish or cast people aside; he welcomes those at the edge of community and restores them to belonging.

We also see Jesus’ concern for people’s healing and flourishing. In the stories of the bleeding woman and the little girl restored to life, Jesus shows that salvation is about the whole person. His concern is not only for what comes after this life, but also for healing and well-being here and now. That, too, shapes how we are called to live.

In the story of Jesus’ life there are those who are critical of Jesus’ ministry. They focus on the importance of ritual purity and of sacrifice. For Jesus though, the processes of the rituals of the synagogue and religion need to be understood in context. Jesus’ view is that compassion, mercy, healing, love, and inclusion are primary, not secondary to these rituals. Thus, the rituals should give rise to such values.

This morning, we’re going to participate in a ritual - sharing in communion. This ritual is meant to help us think about and live out our faith and our values, but it also does more than that.

In communion we begin with the story Jesus gave us at the Last Supper. As the liturgy unfolds, we remember God’s acts in history and join our voices with the worship of heaven.

We say these words from the book of Isaiah.

“Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.”

We join words that are sung by the heavenly host before God’s throne in Isaiah’s vision and are drawn into sharing thin that worship. We also join with all other people who share in the Lord’s Supper.

Then we say this:

“Blessed is [he] or the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.”

These words from Psalm 118 were sung as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple. They were shouted on Palm Sunday as Jesus entered Jerusalem, and for the Church they announce Christ’s presence coming among us in bread and wine.

We will pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon us and the bread and wine, trusting that God is present in the bread and wine. Our tradition often speaks of these elements as symbols, yet in communion they become, in a mysterious way, means by which Christ is truly present to us. At this table we open ourselves to the Spirit of God moving among us. We believe that communion transforms us because Christ meets us here.

At this table we are drawn more deeply into the story of Jesus—his life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and shaped to follow his way of love, mercy, and compassion. This bread and wine, sometimes called the medicine of immortality, strengthen us to love God and neighbour, including the outcast, the sinner, and those in need of healing and hope. As we live this way, the Church becomes a sign and foretaste of God’s coming kingdom, where all the families of the earth are blessed. Everyone counts.

This is the great story that we are part of and that we seek to live out as we continue Growing as Lifelong Disciples of Christ. Amen.