Peace: not as the world gives.

A sermon on John 14:23-29

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”

These words of Jesus that we've heard today take place in the context of the Last Supper. He is preparing his disciples for what is to come next - his betrayal, his arrest, his death and resurrection. In the process of doing so he teaches them about the mystery of hope beyond death and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it is for this reason that in the Uniting in Worship liturgy book there is a suggestion of selected verses from John 14 as suitable for funerals.

As we dive a little deeper into the way that the passage might be interpreting our lives this morning, I want to delve into 3 topics related to the notion of the peace that Jesus leaves with us.

• First, the relationship between peace and our mortality.

• Second, the idea of being at peace within ourselves.

• And third, the importance of contemplating world peace.

I would suggest to you that the most selected passage that I have been asked to use at funerals is John 14 selected verses.

The selected verses begin with Jesus’ saying to the disciples that in his Father's house there are many rooms and that he is going to go and prepare a place for them. Later, we find the phrase that I've highlighted this morning, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Whilst the origin of the phrase “rest in peace” remains hidden, it seems more than likely that the imagery of this passage may have informed that saying.

The veil between life and death remains opaque. We cannot see what lies beyond the grave but within this passage there is hope at what lies for us beyond this life is peace. For any of us who have experienced the grief of the loss of someone that we love this may be our hope. 

However, the idea that we might have peace in the face of our mortality is much more complicated. It brings to mind Dylan Thomas’s poem, ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’. The poem invites us to rage against death and the dying of the light. Moreover, for those of us who go on there is often anything but a sense of peace. 

During the week, I was reading the ‘Red Hand Files’ written by the Australian musician Nick Cave. He responds to letters written to him by his fans. A man wrote this question:

"Three and a half years ago I lost my wife and I was left to take care of my (then 2 year old) daughter. She’s a happy little girl but I know she’s happiest when her father is happy. I’ve been finding it hard to find happiness. It’s not my loss – I made peace with that a while back. I just haven’t found my life again."

For those of you who know Nick Cave’s story you will be aware that he has lost two of his own children. Within his response Cave notes how loss has changed his life and he writes:

“Grief is beyond our control; it is omnipotent and invincible and we are miniscule in its presence and when it comes for us, all we can do is to kneel before it, heads bowed and await its passing.” 

I can’t but help think of Jesus ay Lazarus tomb when Jesus wept. Cave goes on to offer these somewhat hopeful words.

“We are alone but we are also connected in a personhood of suffering. We have reached out to each other, with nothing to offer, but an acceptance of our mutual despair.”

This sense of not being alone amid our grief and despair stood out to me as I contemplated the notion that in Jesus God connects with our personhood and with our suffering as he experiences death. And, more than that, within the passage Jesus promises “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

These words serve as a paradox and mystery to the opening words of John 14 when Jesus says he will go ahead to prepare a room in his Father's house. Through the power of the Holy Spirit described in the passage it appears that the home of God, the Father’s house, is within us. In the moments that we feel as if we have been abandoned by God, we can remember that God in Jesus has felt the same as us on the cross. And, that in life and in death God makes God’s home within us.

This is the mystery of grace: “I do not give to you as the world gives.”

Maybe the peace that we receive in such moments surpasses all our understanding for we do not fully comprehend it of even feel it but can only seek after it with our broken hearts.

This brings me to share with you about having peace within ourselves. There is an often-quoted passage which has its origins in Leviticus 19:18. "Love your neighbour as yourself." This is a fine teaching, but I can't help but wonder what happens when we don't love ourselves. And possibly more problematic than that, is the words that we read today “Those who love me will keep my word”. But what happens when we struggle to love God with all our heart and mind and soul? Surely such doubts about our love of God and neighbour are a source of disquiet and bring anything but peace.

Reading the scriptures more broadly can help us on this point. In a sermon that I shared with the congregation a few weeks ago I explored the complex relationship between Jesus and Peter and the limitations that appeared to be present in Peter's capacity to love Jesus. In his final interaction with Jesus, Peter is not to be express unconditional love for Jesus. Peter can only express love within the limitations of his own existence. 

The words of 1 John 4 serve as an invitation for us to remember that “We love because he first loved us.” Added to Peter’s interaction we love from the paucity of our capacity to do so. We do not love God to earn God’s love or to be accepted by God but because God is love and in him, we live and move and have our being. In this we too can become love. The good news for each and every person is that starting point for our lives is that we are already loved and we can love God and each other.

This message of acceptance is so important against the backdrop of a culture that sees people struggling to find their meaning and place in the world. We search for identity in the things that we do and the way that we express ourselves – we look to earn our validity. I wonder whether the pressure to define our own existence through our achievements and our identity contributes to the massive challenges that we are having with mental health issues. In Australia one on five people are experiencing mental Health Issues. How do we find a sense of peace when we seek it from trying to define ourselves and earn our place in the world.

God’s starting point with us is different. It is grace, it is love and it is forgiveness. At Synod one of the Bible studies explore Isaiah 42 which reminds us of God’s promise: “I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Is 44:22) Paul later wrote in Romans “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.” Grace precedes repentance. We turn to God to discover we are already loved and forgiven. Andrew Peterson captures the encouragement to look beyond our self-doubt to God’s love in the song, “Be kind to yourself”.

The third issue that I wanted to explore with you is the answer from the beauty pageant contestant when they are asked what they most want. The stereotyped answer given is “World peace.” As shallow as this sometimes sounds our personal sense of peace and wellbeing should be balanced with a concern for what is happening in the world and in the lives of other people.

Over the years many people have said to me that they do not watch the news because they want to avoid the bad news. And I realise that there are times that we cannot carry the weight of the world on our shoulders because of what is going on in their own lives. However, Jesus is the eternal Word of God and as Paul describes in Colossians the cosmic Christ. Our personal sense of peace and wellbeing should not come in isolation or abstraction from what is occurring in the world. Tomas Halik reminds us that “the manifestation of true faith, according to the prophets, is to ‘take in the orphan and stand up for the widow.’ 

Faith in God releases us from the need to find ourselves and justify our own existence and live loving others. As people who love God, we might well ask ourselves, ‘What does love look like as we contemplate what is unfolding in Palestine or in Ukraine? What does love look like when we consider nations who are beset by poverty? What does love look like as we watch the flood unfolding in NSW? What does love look like for the creation which is crying out? Last week Michelle raised issues about domestic violence in our culture?

The words of Jeremiah confront us

For from the least to the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,

saying, “Peace, peace,”

when there is no peace. (Jerimiah 6:13-14)

How do we reconcile Jeremiah’s words with Jesus’ teaching, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” How do we live the peace which has been given to us as a gift? How do we experience and be part of God’s peacemaking in the world? For, as Jesus taught, blessed are the peacemakers.

Maybe the best that we can do is from our fallibility and limitations join in prayer of St Francis Lord, make me an instrument of your peace and be open to the God whose presence and peace is already within us.

As always, I invite a moment of silence to reflect on the one thing which has stood out for you. I encourage you to take on board the notion that I is personal not private and this worthy of sharing with others. I also encourage you to consider that if someone shares with you, they are being vulnerable so listen with openness and grace. Listen conscious of Jesus injunction, ‘Do not judge.’  After a few moments of silence, I invite you to recite the words of the Pray of St Francis with me.

Prayer of St Francis 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy; O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Hearing the Shepherd's Voice

John 10:22-30

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

The image of sheep hearing a shepherd’s voice doesn't make much sense to us living in modern 21st century Australia. However, this imagery was made much more tangible to me by a member of a previous congregation, Burt. He served in World War 2.

But was stationed in Egypt and was sitting by an Oasis. As he sat there, he observed shepherds bringing their flocks in for water. Burt had come from the country so as he watched the shepherds, he was a little bit perplexed by what he saw. As the sheep came into the oasis, they all mingled together. What Bert then saw gave him a new insight into this biblical passage. As each of the shepherds began to leave, they would call out, each in a distinctive way. As they called out the sheep that belonged to that shepherd came out and followed the shepherd.

It was this story that gave new meaning to this imagery for Bert and then by association to me. ‘My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.’

 As I contemplated this phrase during the week ‘my sheep hear my voice’ I was led to wondering about the idea of whether we continue to listen for the shepherd's voice in our own midst and why we might even think we should do this. Why would we want to listen for Jesus’ voice?

The answer to this could be the whole sermon but I'm going to restrict it to a short answer as to why we would want to listen to Jesus’ voice. And, to do this I'm going to give two quick references from the Bible reading.

In the last words of the reading, Jesus declared, “The Father and I are one.” This claim of Jesus has echoes of the beginning of the gospel of John, in which the author makes the claim that Jesus was present at the time of creation. If Jesus is, as John claims, one with the creator of all things when we listen for Jesus, we are listening for the voice of the one who is the origin and destination of all things. Listening for Jesus’ voice we are listening to the one who created the pastures of this universe and this world in which we live.

We are listening to Jesus’ voice because it is a voice that gives to us hope in a world where there is so much suffering and pain and death. He says of his sheep, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”

The promise of eternal life is a complex concept. Just last week a member of the congregation asked me what I thought internal life was. I am not going to dedicate this whole sermon to answering that question, but I'll make just a few comments. Why do we listen to Jesus’ voice? Because in his voice we hear teachings about what it means to live as the people of God, on earth as it is in heaven, as people of the reign of God, or the Kingdom of God encountering God's love now with the hope that the one who exists outside of time gives to us a future beyond time ourselves.

Why do we listen for Jesus’ voice? Because he gives to us hope in things not seen. This brings me back to the suitcase and the question how we go about listening for Jesus’ voice?

I have three items in my suitcase which represent 3 approaches to us thinking about how we listen for Jesus’ voice.

The first is a photo of my mother, the second is a Bible, and the third is a pile of orange and blue cards. These three objects represent how the shepherd may speak to us through personal relationships, through the lens of scripture and tradition, and within the context of the community of faith.

I decided to include a photo of my mother because I have a conviction that for many of us, we hear the shepherd's voice through other significant people in our lives. I'm not sure I would specifically say that I heard Jesus speaking through my mother but her example of faith I think contributes to who I am today.

There may be some among you on this Mother's Day who might reflect on teachings of your own mother around faith and spirituality and conclude maybe Jesus was speaking to you through her. However, as I've already indicated earlier in the service not everyone has had a great relationship with their mother.

Nevertheless, it is often through a personal interaction that many of us discover that Jesus is speaking to us. If not your mother, may be your father, or maybe it was a brother or sister or a friend, maybe it was a Sunday school teacher, I use group leader, or even a minister! Maybe it was someone who's not even a Christian. Jesus’ voice can come to us through anybody. This is a very personal thing, but I would encourage you not to think of it as a private thing.

Let me expand a little on what I mean that these experiences are personal but not private. The way that we discover whether it may be Jesus’ voice saying something to us is by engaging in conversations with those who have a depth of understanding of their own faith. We move our personal experiences of hearing Jesus’ voice into conversations with others so that we might grow. As your minister I maintain a relationship with a spiritual director with whom I have such conversations. As you reflect on how you think Jesus may be speaking to you personally my question for you would be who you are testing that idea with. Who is your spiritual director?

Our culture tends to tell us that matters of spirituality and faith should be kept to ourselves – to be kept private. However, discerning what Jesus is saying to us is a communal activity, but it means taking a step of vulnerability to share our personal stories.

This brings me to speak about the place of the scriptures in the process of working out what Jesus is saying. As people of the Uniting Church, we have a heritage in a tradition that teaches us that revelation comes to us through the Bible. At the time of the Reformation, around 500 years ago, the reformers sought to ground the authority of their teaching in the biblical witness. They used the phrase sola scriptura or be scripture alone.

Part of the reason for the appeal to the Bible was a rejection of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. However, we should not be naive the reformers had specific ways in which they were interpreting the text of the Bible. The Bible is a complex series of books that presents us with challenges when we seek to read it. In her book Even the Devil Quotes Scripture Robyn J. Whitaker reminds us, “Being able to quote the Bible does not guarantee that one has heard its message or attempts to live out its overarching ethic.” p.12

Whitaker Encourages us to “take the Bible seriously, not literally.” P.11 Taking the Bible seriously means recognising that when any of us come to reading the scriptures we are engaging in interpretation that is based upon the influences that have acted on our lives. Being conscious of the bias that we bring is important and she like other theologians and biblical scholars would encourage us to use the key lens through which we interpret the scripture to be love. In the lasty chapter of her book she says, “If our interpretation does not lead to love, we have, frankly, missed the point.” P.179

Again, whilst we can read the Bible for ourselves on a personal level as a church we are encouraged to read and interpret the Scripture together. In the Basis of Union of the Uniting Church it says:

“The Word of God [Jesus] on whom salvation depends is to be heard and known from Scripture appropriated in the worshipping and witnessing life of the Church. The Uniting Church lays upon her members the serious duty of reading the Scriptures and commits its ministers to preach from these.” (Paragraph 5, Basis of Union)

This brings me to the third item from the suitcase. During the week we saw how the cardinals of the Catholic Church demonstrate their process of discernment through a series of votes. White smoke indicated that they had selected Cardinal Robert Prevost. He has taken the name Pope Leo XIV. For the Uniting Church we use the blue and orange cards to demonstrate our discernment. We use a process of consensus when we are seeking to make decisions together. In congregation meetings, at Presbytery meetings, at the Synod meeting which begins this week, and in the National Assembly we use these blue and orange cards to indicate what we believe God is leading us towards.

Many people mistakenly believe that the Uniting Church is some form of representative democracy. However, when I go to Presbytery, Synod or Assembly or when I meet as a member of the church council my task is not to represent the interests of my congregation all my personal biases but to ask myself how I am hearing in Jesus the Good Shepherd speak to me in this issue. When I hold up a blue card in a meeting, I am indicating that I am not discerning and thinking that I can hear Jesus leading us in this direction. When I hold up an orange card, I am saying that I feel warm to this idea and that maybe Jesus is speaking to me in an affirmative way around this issue.

In seeking to make decisions as a church our primary approach should be one of prayer and deep listening. In our discernment we pray that we are making decisions together you and I are being asked to think about how we have heard the shepherd's voice. Of course, there are times that we disagree, and this is difficult for us be cause for those who agree or disagree both believe they're being led by the Holy Spirit. As fallible human beings we do the best that we can do as we honour the voices around us and as we listened to one another in the hope and prayer that we've heard Jesus speaking to us. When we seek to listen for Jesus’ voice collectively, we bring to bear all our personal experiences of faith, alongside our understanding and interpretation of scripture, help us in our deliberations.

Why? Because we believe that the God who is beyond us and beyond the creation and who is the origin. and the destination of all things cares about us and came to be with us in Jesus.

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

What an astounding idea! That Jesus might speak to us but as you have heard me say before, in the act of preaching my task is to faithfully unpack in the best way I can the ideas that have come to me during the week. Your task is to listen for what Jesus Christ might be saying to you as his sheep. The Basis of Union it reminds us “Christ who is present when he is preached among people is the Word of the God who acquits the guilty, who gives life to the dead and who brings into being what otherwise could not exist.” (Paragraph 4)

At the end of each sermon, I invite you to think about what is the one thing that you believe Jesus might be speaking to you today. It may have been something that I said, or it might be an image or an idea that has come into your head as you have been listening. It could have been a feeling or a fleeting thought. In any of these moments the Holy Spirit may have been articulating Jesus’ voice to you.

My encouragement is, as it has been throughout this sermon, that you see this revelation of the one thing as a personal but not private matter. In other words, that you take the opportunity to have a conversation with someone else about that one thing and in doing so to explore what it means for your life that God has brought this idea or this one thing into your mind and into your heart. So as always, I'm now going to leave a moment silence an ask that question what is the one thing that God is saying to you today? And encourage you to think about who you might share that one thing with.

The cloaks that didn't make the road

This Palm Sunday I revisited in a fresh way an old theme. Whilst many greeted Jesus coming into Jerusalem there were many who did not or could not. Which leads to asking the question did Jesus enter Jerusalem for them as well? Whilst I refreshed the message here is one with a similar theme from a few years ago. A different heresy: The cloaks that didn't make the road.

God is no-thing?

Induction of HA to Hospital Chaplaincy

Isaiah 43:1-3a, 16-21

“I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?”

So writes the prophet Isaiah over two and a half thousand years ago.  How do we understand his prophetic words on this day?

It would be the easy option for me this morning to sentimentalise the words of the prophet Isaiah into this moment in HA’s life.

“God is about to do a new thing in HA’s life.”

“God is about to do a new thing in St Andrews.”

“God is about to do a new thing in UnitingCare.”

Such sentimentalising of the reading would feel nice and recognise a simple truth that is occurring – HA is about to start work in a new placement. I think that the poem that HA has chosen for us to listen to as part of this liturgy taps into the human everyday fear and excitement of starting something new. But such a focus would reflect the domestication of the scriptures to the individualism of our era and pull our human activity to the centre of the sermon rather than who God is and what God has done.   

Such sentimentalising also helps us to step around the complexity of the context of Isaiah’s prophecy as we think about his broader message. Whilst the words we read from the prophet today have an uptick of hopefulness they are set against a much bigger picture. The ancient geopolitical implications of the prophet’s words have an undertone of violence and war between Israel and its neighbours, particularly the Babylonian Empire. The vision of God’s involvement in setting aside patches of land for chosen people are still being played out in our contemporary world. Not simply for Israel but for those who see such visions might justify the concept of a Christian nation. Stepping into this complex space feels inappropriate for today’s sermon but needs to be acknowledged.

As Christians hearing this text I wonder if it might be helpful to dwell on the following phrase a bit more deeply:

Do not remember the former things

or consider the things of old.

 It seems ironic to say do not remember the former things when we are seeking wisdom from something from ‘of old’. It is an ancient text. Still, the promise of God doing a new thing, and perceiving what that might be, challenges us to read the vision of Isaiah with fresh eyes. As Christians we are invited to wonder what is the new thing that God is doing.

As I contemplated this question, I began to wonder how God even perceives doing something new. In his book The Afternoon of Christianity Tomáš Halík reminds us of this confronting insight from the mystical traditions into the mystery of God. God is nothing. Let me say that a little differently.

God is no-thing. In other words, the concept of substance or matter is irrelevant to God’s existence. God is utterly transcendent and beyond our human comprehension.

To push this mystery a little further of God is no-thing then we should also then contemplate the possibility that God is also no-where. Prior to the creation, if prior is even a relevant category, there was nothing and nowhere and maybe even more baffling is the idea God is no-when. The physicist who later became a theologian Victor Pannenberg explores in depth the complex relationship of linear historical time with the eternity of God.

So how do we make any sense of God who is no-thing, no-where, and no-when doing something new within created reality. How can there be new or old if space and time are irrelevant.

At the beginning of John’s gospel, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being … and the Word became flesh.”

In Christ, God who is a mystery utterly beyond us and transcendent, becomes entirely immanent. In Jesus we discover this utterly perplexing and amazing revelation:

God is some-thing (or some-one). God is some-where. And God is some-when.

Pannenberg wrote, “Only in the history of Jesus of Nazareth did the eschatological future, and with it the eternity of God, really enter the historical present.”[1] This event of God doing something new within the creation has an effect that ripples back and forth through time and space and touches the whole cosmos. As Paul later wrote to the Corinthians, “In Christ God was reconciling the whole world to himself.” (2 Cor 5:19)

The incarnation has cosmic implications as the transcendence of God intersect with created reality and invites all things to find their home with God as God finds a home with us. The breaking down of the barrier between the creator and the creation is symbolised as Jesus dies. Mark tells us that “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom,” (Mark 15:38)

This tearing of the temple curtain as a sign of God’s presence in the world is made clearer as the resurrected Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples and later, on the day of Pentecost. The particularity of the incarnation as the meeting place between the divine and human finds its universal expression through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit God is in everything. God is everywhere. And God is everywhen.

Paul theologises Jesus’ presence in the world when he writes to the people at Ephesus. “God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)

In the book of Lamentations we hear those well-worn words, “God’s mercies … are new every morning.” God who relates to us from beyond time now comes to us within time, in all things and in all people. Each and every moment a moment in which the eternal life of God the resurrection hope is present. This is the good news which we carry and offer to others, and which takes me back to where I started.

“I am about to do a new thing.

Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?”

The new thing that God is doing is being in the world and in our lives through the eternal Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Pastoral Crae takes on fresh meaning for us when we embrace this truth. In pastoral care our sentimentalising and our practical responses to people’s pain and suffering is done in the context of knowing that God is already there. We are there to point beyond ourselves and whatever is occurring to this presence of God which is the hope by which we live.

There is an image from the Easter stories which I think might be a helpful story as we contemplate our place in all of this. Maybe the best that we can say as people who seek to do pastoral care is that we wait alongside those who are suffering, sick, or sorrowing outside an empty tomb. We stand with them longing to hear Jesus’ reassuring voice speak our name just as he spoke Mary’s. For it is in this moment of hearing his voice that we truly know that we are not alone. We know that God is with us. Sometimes it is through our voice as carers that God’s presence becomes known. And sometimes it is through the voice of those we care from that we come to know God’s presence as we hear our name spoken.

HA. May the mystery of the transcendent and immanent God found in Jesus be with you in your personal pastoral encounters as you share in the hope of a God’s whose love knows no bounds and touches all things.

Amen

---

[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, 604; cf. Theology of God’s Kingdom, 133.

Reconciling the whole world to himself!

 “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ.”

Paul’s claim that the reconciling work of God occurs in and through the whole life of Jesus Christ is astounding. His claim takes us beyond the cross and into the mystery of the incarnation. It centres our faith squarely in the person of Jesus and pushes us beyond our contemporary individualism.

For we who belong to the Uniting Church in Australia the significance of this passage from Paul is heightened. In the Basis of Union, which was the founding document that brought the three churches together, there is only one direct Biblical quote. It is from this passage by Paul and is in the third paragraph of the Basis which bears the title ‘Built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ’. It begins with these words:

Paragraph 3 Built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ

The Uniting Church acknowledges that the faith and unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church are built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ. The Church preaches Christ the risen crucified One and confesses him as Lord to the glory of God the Father. In Jesus Christ "God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:18 NRSV). In love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world's sin. (Basis of Union)

In his commentary on the Basis J. Davis McCaughey, who was one of the chief architects of the document, explained that this Paragraph was the most fundamental Paragraph in the whole Basis. 

In the opinion of the framers of the Basis this is the heart of the Christian faith: that in Jesus Christ "God was reconciling the world to himself". There is a universalism to God’s work in Christ. Furthermore, the line following the quote echoes this universality as it connects to John 3:16 and John 1:29, “In love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world's sin.”

This wide-sweeping claim of God’s gracious action reconciling the world to himself challenges any form of exclusivist or exclusionary behaviour by Christians. God's reconciling work is for the whole cosmos from the big bang to whatever ending there might be for the universe. This claim invites us to share in witnessing to this reconciling work of God as good news.

McCaughey in his commentary goes on to say this. We are simply people who name and articulate what God has already done for the whole world in Jesus Christ. 

This kind of universal view of God’s work in Christ is not simply the province of the Uniting Church. The Orthodox theologian Kharalambos Anstall reminds us of this in his reflections about the concept of atonement. 

He says: “Despite the presence of ethnic, creedal and "colour" variances that may often give rise to widely diversified cultural expressions, Holy Scripture informs us that all of humanity is created uniquely in the likeness and image of God, whose universal love knows no discrimination.” (Stricken by God?: Nonviolent Identification and the Victory of Christ Kindle Locations 6104-6106. Kindle Edition)

This week we invited the S. family to choose a song for worship today and explain its meaning for them. Mum chose ‘Come as you are’ and in doing so unknowingly chose a song intimately tied to the theme of this sermon. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. If we mean the words that we sing ‘come as you are’ then we are offering a universal invitation for all people to come into this place as already accepted and loved by God. This song reflects how God’s reconciliation of the world might be played out in our midst. As Paul puts it “we regard no one from a human point of view” but through the eyes of God’s reconciling and unconditional love.

This means that when a person walks into this congregation or someone you know understands that you are a person of the Christian faith you automatically become an ambassador for Christ. What you say and what you do represents to that person who Jesus Christ is. It is little wonder that Paul goes on to say to the people in Corinth “since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” However, the reality is that we are flawed and fallible humans and we struggle in our role as ambassadors.

As I contemplated this difficult role that we play representing Christ I was drawn back to the artwork on the cover of John Carroll’s book Humanism: The Wreck of Western Culture. The artwork often goes by the title ‘The Ambassadors’ and was painted in 1533 by Hans Holbein. The reason I was drawn back to this image is that depicts these two scholarly men at the height of their intellect but when we look closely beset by issues. The painting is laden with meaning. 

Between the two men the shelves contain items of science and culture representing the heavenly sphere and the earthly realm. According to experts the latest scientific instruments are set incorrectly, the mathematics text is open on a page about division, the lute string is broken and there is a Lutheran hymn book. The distorted image that floats between them is a human skull painted in a style that means you must stand at the correct angle to see it clearly. Finally, hidden in the top left corner partially hidden by the curtain is a crucifix.

There is a great deal of speculation about the meaning that Holbein was trying to convey in this painting. But, for us today, it serves as a simple reminder that having glimpsed Jesus in our own lives whilst we might try to do our best to be ambassadors, but our task is fraught with difficulties. Nonetheless as followers of Christ we try and consider what it means to be ambassadors of God’s reconciling work in Christ. I want to share a few glimpses of the work of reconciliation that we are called to.

In Australia the word reconciliation is laden with political meaning related to our relationship with First Nations people. In 2024 the National Assembly recognised the 30th anniversary of the Covenant with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Congress. Rev Mark Kickett, a Noongar man, and the National Chair of the UAICC, reminds us that 

"The Covenant helps to express the relationship we have as one church. (It) expresses a determination and a desire for the people of God, both black and white, and everyone else that comes in thereafter, to be committed to one journey and it's a journey of justice, and a journey of oneness, with a common goal." 

As a congregation we are invited to be ambassadors of the reconciling work of God in Christ as we seek deeper reconciliation with First People.

Working in an all-girls school for the last seven years I have become much more acutely aware of the ongoing issues around discrimination and the treatment of women. This afternoon a vigil will be held for a local woman who was murdered last week in our own area. She was killed by her son. Our culture continues to grapple with violence against women, as well as the fair treatment of women and people of different genders generally. As people of faith our reconciling work involves us in this struggle. In 2018 the National Assembly of the Uniting Church out a Statement on Domestic and Family Violence. The Statement reminded us that 

“Every person is of infinite worth and entitled to live with dignity and each person's life and humanity needs to be protected or the human community and its reflection of God are diminished.” It goes on to recognise that “Some violent men who are members and adherents of Christian churches have used phrases in the Bible to reinforce their power in intimate relationships.” This second part is difficult for us to grapple with but also vital for us to deal with.

As a congregation we are invited to be ambassadors of the reconciling work of God in Christ as we seek to name issues of discrimination and violence against women in our society. 

The issue of how we include people of different genders and sexuality has been a pivotal point of discussion for the Uniting Church. Again, at last year’s Assembly, the Assembly resolved to

“invite congregations and councils of the Church to welcome and honour transgender, gender diverse, and intersex people, and the gifts and skills they bring to all aspects of the Church’s life, including worship, leadership, and social justice advocacy.” 

At the Assembly I spoke in favour of this motion. In every congregation that I have worked in there have been members of the congregation, or members of the congregation with family members, who would identify their gender or sexuality in different ways. At the school I worked with students who were trans, and I had a member of my Chapel team who was transitioning to being a male in an all girls school. 

As a congregation we are invited to be ambassadors of the reconciling work of God in Christ as we seek to include and welcome people of diverse backgrounds of gender and sexuality. 

In our personal relationships and approaches as a congregation we always have our own work to do in reconciliation. I recall my father telling a story of two sisters in one congregation who had a disagreement in their teens. One sat at the front of the church, and one sat the back. The barely spoke to one another. They were in their 70s. As individuals in our relationships, we can hold grudges for not just months, but years and even decades.  In every congregation and community in which I have ministered I have heard about divisions and disagreements on a range of issues. The work of personal reconciliation is hard work. At Moreton Bay College they had adopted an approach to Pastoral Care and discipline called Restorative Practice. 

Restorative Practice in schools is based in the principles of Restorative Justice which in its contemporary form largely grew out of the Mennonite community in the 1970s. It is ironic that when I searched for churches of any denomination in Brisbane who were using restorative practice, I could not find any. Church communities often leave conflicts unresolved and speak of forgiving one another but often the hurt and harm is not dealt with. 

As a congregation we are invited to be ambassadors of the reconciling work of God in Christ as we seek ways to resolve our own conflicts in healthy and gracious ways.

We are ambassadors for Christ. 

We are ambassadors of the good news that God was reconciling the world to himself. 

The formation of the Uniting Church was an act reconciliation. This reconciling action also involved repentance. The three churches who came into union recognized their unfaithfulness and that the fragmentation of the church into denominations was a sign of unfaithfulness. We are meant to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. As the church we are meant to be witnesses to what God has already done for the whole creation.

“In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ.”

Take a moment to contemplate these questions. 

Who is God calling you to be reconciled with? 

How are you being an ambassador of the idea that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.”