Do not let you hearts be troubled

John 14:1-14

The disciples were still in the upper room.  Jesus had washed their feet.  They had shared a meal.  Judas had gone out to betray Jesus.  And Jesus had just told Peter that Peter was going to deny him.  The room was filled with apprehension, unease, distress!  It is a liminal space, a space in which life seems to be on a knife’s edge. Things were out of control as the disciples leaned in and listened to Jesus.  It is into this moment of uncertainty and fear that Jesus speaks.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

Facing his own demise.  Aware of the disciple’s confusion, their fear and the impending desertion Jesus offers to them hope.  Jesus always offers to them and to us hope.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

In the face of uncertainty, confusion, doubt and fear: “Believe in God, believe also in me.”

I must admit that when I went away to the Centering Prayer retreat last year I was confronted by the tumultuous nature of my life, its business, and the concerns I was carrying.  It was there in the silence, not seeking to control God, but emptying myself before God that I was reminded deeply and truly that seeking God’s presence and way in my life needed to be rekindled. 

As I prayed at the retreat a strong sense of the words pf Psalm 121 came to me:

I lift up my eyes to the mountain from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I have shared this story with you a number of times since because of its importance not only to me but to each one of you.  As many of you are aware this retreat set me on a personal journey to refocus my own spiritual development and to invite others to share that with me in the Sunday evening prayer group.

To believe in God and believe in Jesus has me letting go.  Letting go a sense that I can control things.  Letting go of things that are not mine to worry about.  Letting go some of the responsibilities I carry.  I have had a great sense of peace and direction developing in my journey and no doubt this all fed into my decision to accept my new role as a Chaplain.

I realise though that my decision has for some of the congregation taken you back to the upper room with the disciples encountering some unexpected emotions uncertainty, confusion, doubt and fear.  What happens next for St Lucia?  What happen next for me?  We are in that liminal space as a congregation; a space of change and uncertainty.

But when you think about it so much of our lives is lived in this way personally, day by day, and as communities.  The community of this congregation, the community of Brisbane, the community of Australia and the broader community of humanity.

Week by week as we come here, we come as people who live in liminal spaces, with all of the thoughts and emotions that brings I would echo Jesus words to you: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

Believing in God and in Jesus means turning to God as a community.  It means devoting our gaze and attention to Jesus who helps us to know what to believe. 

Jesus, who, as he reassures the disciples declares those famous words: “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

He does not tell the disciples that they have to do anything apart from trust in this - it is Jesus himself who is the way, the truth and the life.  It is Jesus who faces the rejection of the cross, who also rises from the grave and lives to pray for us forever.  It is Jesus in his earthly fleshly body, as the eternal Word made flesh, who bridges our journey from the liminal space of uncertainty and fear into the hope of God.

I was reminded of this good news this week as I participated in the space for grace conversation run by the National Assembly of the Uniting Church.  In that space we were invited to share with around 30 other people our deeply personal life stories and in the process to come to know one another.

As an outcomes focussed person this process of listening and sharing was not that easy for me.  I like to know at the end of our time we have something to show for it.  But in this time I was reminded that surrendering control to deepen relationships with the people with whom I gathered was just as important.  Or to return to the notion of devoting myself to God in prayer I was given the opportunity to devote myself to listen for God’s presence in the lives of others.

The conversation was grounded in four principles: openness, responsibility, awareness and confidentiality.  The confidentiality means I cannot share the stories but I can share a glimpse of the experience. 

After 2 days the insight I felt that I was given, or maybe reminded of, was that in our lives lived in liminal spaces in which all of us miss the mark and others around us do too.  To be a bit more specific about this I mean we all sin.  In the sense that in the Greek the word sin has its origin in the word ἁμαρτία (hamartia).  It connotes the notion of an archer missing the target.

Although we may seek to live a good life, a life of discipleship, a life responding to God the reality is that we miss the mark, we err.  When we listen to each other’s life stories we discover that this truth that all of his miss the mark and fall short of the glory of God and this has consequence for us and for those whom we travel with in community.  Sometimes we realise that we have missed the mark and sometimes it takes another person to reveal this to us.

I am also reminded of this truth on days like today which is mother’s day.  My mum was not perfect and I was not the perfect son.  Each of us missed the mark in our relationship.  I am thankful that we were able to work through this and to continue to love one another.  Not all mothers and children are able to achieve this so mothers days comes with a mix of emotions for a range of reasons.

All of us miss the mark, all of us err.  But as the saying goes, "to err is human but to forgive is divine."

Just as we all miss the mark, ἁμαρτία (hamartia), so too the promise of Jesus to his disciples is that thought we miss the mark God remains alongside us.  God shows mercy and grace.  God forgives.  There is the opportunity for many of us to encounter and experience this divine grace in our daily journey of faith.  In the midst of the liminal spaces of life when we are missing the mark, or we are filled with fear and uncertainty, we are reminded that Jesus is the way the truth and the life for us.  We hear the comfort of the words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”.  Peace breaks into our existence and the coming kingdom of God comes close to us.

All of us, personally and communally, are people who miss the mark.  All of us, personally and communally, are therefore people to whom Jesus words of grace apply.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God believe also in me.

As we sit on the precipice of change I am reminded that most of us have been here before.  As we enter liminal spaces in life, spaces of uncertainty, and even fear I am constantly reminded that in my own life I miss the mark, but I am also constantly reminded that despite this Jesus is the way the truth and the life and it is he who guides us home.

As you consider this moment in your own existence, personally and as a community, hear the good news and be strong in faith for on the night those disciples gathered full of fear and apprehension Jesus words came to them as good news of hope for them and for all people:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

We all thirst

A sermon on Isaiah 55:1 

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”

Everyone who thirsts, everyone thirsts, we all thirst.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to chat with a friend who is due to have a baby in around 3 month.  She thirsts.  She thirsts for change in the world because she fears for her child’s future.  She thirsts especially for action on climate change because she believes it is the biggest challenge her children will face.

We all thirst.

Last Sunday a young international student was found unconscious near the pool at Southbank.  He died a few days later.  On Wednesday his parents arrived.  One can only think that they thirst.  The thirst to see their son.  They thirst for meaning and understanding of what happened.  They thirst for healing of their broken hearts.

We all thirst.

Over the past week I have met dozens of students starting University for the first time.  They thirst. They thirst for knowledge, they thirst for friendship, they thirst for the opportunity show that they are adults, filled with life they thirst!

We all thirst.

During the week the Church Council met.  We thirst.  We thirst for God’s renewal of this congregation.  We thirst for God’s comfort for those among us who are facing death.  We thirst for new opportunities for the students who come here year by year.  We thirst for the energy and capacity to lead the congregation into a new future filled with God’s love and generosity.

We all thirst.

Take a moment thinking about the things for which you thirst.  Maybe it is a sign of God’s presence in your life.  Maybe it is for more time to do the things you want to do.  Maybe it is for comfort and peace as you face difficult health issues.  Maybe it is something for someone you love: your children, your spouse, your parents.

We all thirst.

Now turn and consider each other look at the people gathered here this day.  Do you know what they thirst for?  Have you asked?  Have you shared their journey?  As God’s people we are called to be here for each other. To uphold one another on a this journey through what at times seems such a  dry land.

We all thirst.

And now see, see with me and look at a man hanging discarded on a cross.  He is God’s son, he walked the earth, the dusty roads of Galilee and he shared the good news of God.  He healed people, he forgave them, the taught people of God’s presence and love! He opened the doors of hope for a relationship with God for all people.  But he was betrayed and left to die at the hands of the government of his time – the Roman Empire.  And the words that trickle from his dry lips “I thirst”.

Our God thirsts with us.

Jesus cries out.  “I thirst” and he is mocked and he is offered sour wine on a sponge but God, God hears, God hears Jesus cries as he descends into death and lies in the cold grave for three days.

But Isaiah’s prophesy is sure and true:

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;

listen, so that you may live.

Jesus is raised from the tomb.  The rich feast of God is coming.  A feast not of human hands but a feast of God’s love in which we are all satisfied.  This is our hope, our hope in an eternal feast of God’s love – celebrating as we enjoy:

a feast of rich foods,

a feast of well-aged wines,

of rich food filled with marrow,

of well-strained wines strained clear.

A feast for all nations.

This is our hope. This why we come.  This is why we share this journey.  We are not perfect and holy people.  We are a people who thirst.  And we are people who have heard that Jesus thirsts with us and that he has been raised form among the dead. 

We come to listen.  We come really listen.  We come to seek the Lord whilst he is near and in coming we become witnesses to each other of God’s love and generosity.

The temptation for us is satisfy the deep thirsts of our life at the well of consumption – where the 

buying a selling of goods has been sanctified and our happiness is equated to what we own and what we have.  But in the words of the great Mick Jagger “I can’t get no satisfaction.”  We can’t get no satisfaction but filling our lives with more and more things, cramming more and more into our time, to fill our empty lives.

The invitation is to come and to listen for God, to encounter God, to share God with one another and with anyone else that we encounter in our daily life, or who walks through the doors of this place. 

God has opened the doors wide, all arewelcome.

We may find that we continue to thirst.  We may feel that God is not alongside us.  We might bear little or no fruit.  But take heart for God’s message is that in Christ he has come not to tear down but to open up the possibilities and to be patient with us. 

The parable of the fig tree reminds us that God’s desire is not to cut down but to bring what need the manure of life itself, the food, the water that we need to sustain us and to make sense of who we are and where we are going.  Our place is not to judge God or one another but to nurture one another and to be patient as God tends the garden of our lives and the lives of others.  The fruit will come.

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”

Everyone who thirsts. Everyone thirsts. We all thirst.

Hear the good news, the one who thirsted has been raised from the dead.  All our thirsts can be satisfied and we can drink deeply from the well of living water – eternal life.

Psalm 63:2-15

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips

The Light Shines in the Darkness

“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

The story of Christmas is the story of God coming among us and affirming the life of the world – the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

It is very easy to lose sight of this positive message from this ancient story – this message of hope: God cares about what God has made!

So often I believe the Christian story has been dominated by a more negative narrative.  Looking back through 2000 years of Christian history and theology we find tales of judgement, of who is going to the good place and who is going to the others place, of who is in and who is out, and we find stories of moralism and exclusion.  The good news is only good for some.

I believe that this negative narrative can so easily shape our whole world view, our approach to life and our proclamation.  So often we use the negative narratives that surround us to feed the negative narrative of the church as if by this people will turn to God.    

I confess there have been many times that I have bought into this kind of negativity. I wonder whether the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s famous book “The Population Bomb” which coincided with the year of my birth in 1968 has contributed to my willingness to listen to the so-called prophets of doom.  Or maybe it was assassination of Martin Luther king Junior or the Vietnam War and the shadow of the Cold War.  This was the world that I was born in to.

But since then the prophets of doom have been so many especially in relationship to the issues of climate and over-consumption and finite resources.

For me John Carroll’s book “Humanism: The Wreck of Western Culture” as well as Clive Hamilton’s book “Requiem for a Species” were certainly formational.  These books fed the concerns that I have for the way that we are conducting ourselves as a human species.  Since reading them other books like “Climate Code Red” and Paul Gilding’s “The Great Disruption” have also feed these negative narrative.

Now, let me be clear I do not doubt the seriousness with which these authors raise concerns for us.  As human beings living on this fragile planet we are very much in a precarious situation – the future feels uncertain and I do not put much faith in human beings.

The fears and concerns that I have, and no doubt that many of you share, are fed by the constant news cycle which likes to sensationalise and play on our fears.  Anyone who reads or watch the news whether it is online or in more traditional formats will be aware of the weight that the news corporations place on our shoulders continuously.

The negative narratives sell and the temptation as a Christians is simply to say, "See we do need God" as if somehow we are above or beyond all these problems – but we in church are as complicit with the problems of the world as the next person and this is ironic since we are supposed to have a story which is meant to be good news.  Good news which we celebrate on Christmas Day.

Jesus' birth is God’s commitment to what God has made – life.  This is good news “the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

On this Christmas day it would be easy for me to be sentimental and say to you we just need to love each other more, or to say that the negative narrative of God's wrath and judgement will be countered by your personal salvation but I believe God’s vision is far bigger than the salvation of individuals and God's very nature is love.

God’s desire is for the life of the world.  The closing chapter of the scriptures provide us not the vision of a destroyed creation but of a new heaven and earth – a coming kingdom dominated by God’s peace

One of my good friends and mentors was the Catholic Bishop Michael Putney who always used to speak of looking for times in which “peace breaks out” to look for the signs of God at work renewing and recreating the world.

To put it another way he was encouraging me not to listen to the negative narrative, which is a particular predilection for Protestants, but to listen for the positive presence of the Prince of Peace, Jesus: who was born in Bethlehem and who has walked and who now walks among us.

As I contemplated this notion of the positive presence of Jesus with us I was reminded of the research of the Swedish Doctor Hans Rosling shared on the TED website. In a talk from a few years ago Rosling points out that less people are being killed by natural disasters and fewer people are living below the poverty line.  A report put out this year by the World Bank tracking development goals recently confirmed again that fewer people on the planet live below the poverty line.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  People are getting access to greater wealth and I believe that this will lead to better lives.  John 10:10 says that Jesus came that we might have life and life abundantly.

Alongside this good news I came across a statistical research video produced by Neil Halloran which looks at the number of deaths caused by wars and conflicts from World War 2 until today.  World War Two stands out as a travesty in human history but what was really interesting is how since World War 2 that overall we are killing each other less as a species.

In 1989 John Lewis Gaddes coined the phrase the Long Peace to reflect the changes that have taken place in significant world conflict since the 1950s.  Whilst through this period and into our present time there have been continued conflicts statistically the number of people killed in these conflicts has reduced dramatically.

Don’t get me wrong, anytime Cain raises his hand against Abel, when we kill each other in war or in times of peace it is a travesty.  But the good news is that we are getting better as a race.  This is not to diminish the serious situation that has been unfolding in Syria and Iraq but overall we are doing better and we should hear this as good news

“What has come into being in him was life!” Life is a precious gift and we need to continue to learn to value the lives of others more deeply for it is in others we meet Christ presence with us.

And finally, the recent Paris Climate Agreement has given us some hope in the area of the warming of the planet. The will and the commitment to meeting this challenge for all humanity is changing.

God’s desire for us is life and the promise of God is that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

The positive presence of the Word of God becoming flesh does not mean that everything is going smoothly.  The scriptures tells us that he came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him.  God’s presence alongside us does create conflict within us and confronts us with the problems of our own lives and of the community of humanity in which we live.

Sentimentalising Christmas does not take the Word becoming flesh seriously, neither does focussing on a negative narrative proclaim the hope of Christmas.  On this day we remember that God’s desire for us and the whole creation is life and life in all its fullness and on this day I would encourage to seek out the signs of this promise - to see where peace is breaking out as Michael would have said!

This is indeed the good news: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

It is my hope and prayer for you this Christmas that you will encounter in your own life the positive presence and power of the Prince of Peace, the Word of God made flesh.  And, that this encounter will help you to live in with hope.

(Photo: Courtesy of Rod Shea Instagram)

Hope in things not seen.

Reflections on Romans 8, Isaiah 6 & John 3

Hope.

As you read that word ‘hope’ what image builds in your mind?

Say it out loud.

As you hear that word ‘hope’ what feelings well up inside you?

Just sit for a moment with that word ‘hope’: see and feel what it means for you.

Paul wrote to the people in Rome and he reassured them of their faith in the midst of their ambiguous experience of life.  Some had doubts, some experienced persecution, some disagreed about God and their faith, some just worried about how to get by every day, and some worried about their families and their futures.  In this they were not that much different to us.

Paul wanted them to have hope and through the inclusion of his letter to the Romans in the Scriptures we might also then say God wants us to have hope.

Paul wrote:

For in hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what is seen?

But if we hope for what we do not see,

We wait for it with patience.

Earlier in the service I challenged us all about how we perceive and understand the world.  

Do we see the glory of God in all things? Do we know and experience the fullness of God’s presence in our lives?  Can we see the promised salvation for which we long?

What is our perception of the world? Is it filled with hope?

Paul later wrote to the Corinthians that none of us see clearly: we all see God as through a dark glass or as in a dim mirror.

We do not fully comprehend or experience what God offers but we hope for it.

This is what faith is all about.  The realisation of the distance between life as we experience it and the life God longs for us – in Jesus language it was the coming kingdom.

Yet this coming kingdom of God has not arrived in all its fullness and as people of faith we should hold closely to this truth.

At the beginning of Paul’s letter he reminded the Romans that all people were sinners, all fall short of the glory of God. Like Isaiah and his vision any who come into God’s presence realise this.

None of us have a perfect faith.

None of us has a perfect understanding of life and of God.

None of us respond to the needs of each other perfectly.

None of us loves God or others as we should.

But the good news is that although we do not see or experience it in all its fullness God’s will for us is not judgement but new life. 

This is hope: hope not seen.

The story of Isaiah’s vision and the burning coal which represents his release from the power of sin pre-empts the fullness of what God’s intention for the creation and for each one of us is.  In John’s gospel we read “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

This is hope: hope not seen.

We long for the salvation of the world

We long for a perfect faith.

We long for a perfect understanding of life and of God.

We long for people to respond to each other’s needs perfectly.

We long for a time when all people would love God and others as we should.

In other words:

We long for the peace of God

We long for the coming kingdom

This is hope: hope not seen.

In Romans Paul wrote “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord”

For it is in Jesus our hope is found, it is in Jesus that the past, present and future collide and are made new.  It is he who lived and died and was raised again that transforms and remakes us.

This is such a difficult thing for us who live in this world of enlightened understanding to accept.  We are people who like to think that we are in control, that we know where we are headed and that we can make our destiny.

Yet just as Jesus challenged the lawyer Nicodemus so long ago so Jesus words hurtle through time and space and confront us.

The only way to glimpse God’s kingdom is to be born from above.  It is God alone who shows us what is in store for the creation and for each one of us.  It is God alone who remakes our lives.  It is God alone who came and lived and walked among us as Jesus, who died and yes who rose again, that saves you and I.

Christians, as people of faith tie themselves to hope that they, and that we, believe in but cannot see.   Jesus presence in world means salvation – God saves what God has made.

It is through the Holy Spirit, which works where it will, that we can be drawn into this hope as we receive the gift of faith.

Hope in what we do not see but can only glimpse as God reveals it to us: the kingdom is coming!

We live in a world beset by problems.  We are accustomed to hiding our problems and trials from each other.  We deceive and delude ourselves and each other with the idea that we are in control. Our perception is skewed.

Yet we hope in things not seen.

God made us, God loves us and God is saving us.

Close your eyes, take a moment, dwell on the hope that we have as Christians – a hope in things not seen.

What does this mean for you?

Advent 1 Hope

“And what I say I say to you all – stay awake!”

I want to invite you to take moment and think about the issues confronting us at the moment. 

As a congregation we are very small. We may be growing slowly but it takes so much energy.

On a personal level I know that for many of you have health issues which are of serious concern. For some of you your future in terms of where you are living is also playing on your mind.  all of us have our personal struggles and issues.

As a society Australia has become increasingly disinterested in the church and as we have found our selves on the sideline of the community we have become more insular.

I believe that we are facing far more serious global issues than ever before.  The issues of global warming and economic meltdown are raising question as to our way of life. Is this all indicating that the way we live now in the West may not be sustainable?

The confrontation between the West and other ideologies and religions has contributed to global instability.  The Middle East is in a state of terror.

To put it mildly you could say we are in a bit of a pickle.

It is exactly this kind of tumultuous environment that Jesus declares his hope to his disciples as he approached his death.

The words at the beginning of Mark 13 envisage a time when the temple will be destroyed and Jesus followers will be persecuted.  In these words Jesus indicates what lies ahead for the early Christians.  In the year 64 Nero began his persecution of the Christians in Rome – when Christians were subjected to horrors unimaginable.  In 70 A.D. the Temple was destroyed. 

Jesus words were words that described almost an end of the world for the Jews and early Christians.  But Jesus also spoke hope into this setting – the promise of the coming of the Son of Man, the promise that in the fullness of his return new life and hope would spring forth.

This said Jesus was what we are to do: we stay awake and watch with hope!

But staying awake and being hopeful is not that easy – some of you find it difficult not to doze in my sermons – but in this you can find yourself in the good company of the disciples.

In Mark 14, the following chapter, the scene shifts half way through the chapter to the garden of Gethsemane where we know the disciples kept falling asleep, even though they had been asked to stay awake with Jesus.

At the height of Jesus agonising over his impending death, when he needed a friend, his friends were found wanting.  When going gets tough the tough fell asleep!

In the midst of the demons of our time, the problems facing the world and the church, are we not like the disciples who found themselves alongside Jesus dozing off.

It is hard to stay awake if you think about it.

Have we been sung to sleep by the lullaby of the comfortable culture which surrounds us?  We live in safe homes, eat our nice meals, and access our almost free health care system.  We have good friendships, people to look after us, TV to entertain us.

Or maybe… have we become dazed by the bright flashing lights of the frenetic society around us?  Are we rushing around being busy because if we are not busy people might think worse of us?  So busy that we are all but asleep on our feet!

Do we think that we are stuck in bad dream waiting to wake up?

Jesus challenges us “And what I say I say to you all – stay awake!”

What are we staying awake for?  To see the signs of Jesus presence, to see the signs of Jesus coming!  Like a new leaf on the fig tree hope springs forth.  Little by little signs of new are growth stirring – the coming of Jesus.  Peace breaks out as the kingdom breaks in and Jesus reign is established.

As we struggle in this Gethsemane time, half way between sleep and wakefulness, like the disciples we can find our trust and hope in Jesus promise: whatever the outcome of our drowsy estate Jesus will come to make all things new!

So in this, our waiting is no passive thing, it is not a nothing time.  Our waiting takes place context in the rhythm of the pattern of our worship, of our lives lived with God and with each other.  Whatever confronts our God is with us; Jesus has come, is here and is coming!

As we begin our Advent journey as a congregation we face uncertain times and difficult choices what is God asking of us now.  How will we be God’s people awake and attuned to Jesus presence in the world around us?

I want to invite you to take a moment and think of the challenges that we face, what do you perceive God is calling us to do now. 

What hopes do you have for Jesus presence with us as a congregation and how will that shape who we are and what we do in the year to come?

On a dusty hill in Caesarea Philippi.

Peter Lockhart

A sermon based on Matthew 16:13-20

See for a moment a group of dusty travellers on a Middle Eastern road, dressed in robes and sandals, wearing turbans on their heads to protect them from the sun and wind, they are trudging into the ancient region of Caesarea Philippi.

These are a group of men filled with hope.  They have seen miracles and heard teaching that has change their worlds.  They are simple men, ordinary people, fishermen, tax collectors and sinners who have captured a vision that maybe; just maybe, God’s intention is love and not judgement, healing and not retribution, forgiveness and not punishment.

Their leader has crossed boundaries of race and class and gender and caste.  He has even healed those whom he had called dogs. 

This ragtag group ascend a hill and come to a point that can see clearly for miles around: to the north and the south and the east and the west.

What can they see and what do they know of the lands they survey?  Imagine for a moment looking through their eyes: looking with eyes that can see beyond the horizons of space and time - look with them.

They look south and they see the Holy City Jerusalem an occupied territory overrun by Romans and a place of constant dispute and warfare.  They see Jews and Muslims and Christians fighting over a land which each claims as Holy in an exclusive and combative way.  They hear in the distance the sounds of rockets fired by Hamas and missiles raining down from the Israeli army.  How can a land of such bloodshed by a Holy place?  Is that what God desires from any religion?

They look to the west through Lebanon and across the Mediterranean Sea and they feel the presence of the centre of the empire looming large: Rome!  The Empire is reaching its tentacles into all the parts of the world that they know.  Since then, it has been an example for kings and empire builders through the ages, an example that conquering others is the way to establish peace – the pax Romana: an idea grounded in conquering and spilled blood.

Turning to the north they see through Turkey, the great seat of the Ottoman Empire and trading centre.  It was the home of the Orthodox Patriarchs, a reminder of the conglomerate that is the church.  And, looking further, beyond the black sea there is Ukraine another disputed territory of our time.  The world continues to lament the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane filled with a cargo of innocent lives.  Meanwhile, the combatant’s fire relentlessly hoping that their next bullet will make their lives better but the same question must be asked again and again, “Does another shot fired in anger ever make the world a better place?”

And now they turn to the east looking across the deserts and plains.  The see into Syria and witness a flood of refugees coming from a worn torn country as a country collapses into ruin.  Camps filled with the flotsam and jetsam of humanity desperately cling to their lives after their country descend into chaos. And, beyond Syria, there is Iraq where ISIS and ISIL now revert to the most barbarous behaviours to justify their religious claims for autonomy and privilege. Will the conflict ever end?

If these dusty tired men of ancient times could see all of history unfolding, all around the world would they be as deeply disheartened and disillusioned with humanity as I am.  Yet I remember that in the moment in which they lived they experienced life as a conquered and subjugated people – the cruelty of Rome was the peace they knew. 

Why hope?  Why go on?  In an enemy territory confronted by the complexity of politics and religion and power they stand on this hill and their master turns to them and asks:

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Who do you say that I am?”

One of them, a leader for the others, dares to answer with words which echo through the ages:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

This man Jesus, a Jew by birth, claimed by Christians as God’s Son, honoured by Muslims as a prophet, recognised by historians as a man of great compassion and teaching makes this exclusive claim. A claim which rather than meant to divide was meant to open out the reality that the sectarianism and violence of our world and our decisions and our mistakes as human beings are not the end in sight for God.

The story goes on that instead of responding to violence with violence this ‘Son of God’, this ‘Messiah’, submits himself to death, even death on across, and he promises that when he is raised up all will be raised up with him.

It is these words which I have little doubt that inspired Paul to later write it was God’s will “through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

The hope for these tired men standing in this dusty hell of humanity, staring out into the tragedy of human history, is that the One whom they are standing with is going make everything different; that in him God will reconcile the world with its Creator and we as human beings will learn to love one another.  We hope in things we cannot see and that even those who walked on the road with him could not see, but let us continue to hope and to expose ourselves to God's love which conquers hate and refuse to respond to violence with more violence.

Jesus: the Canaanite Woman.

So, this Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and she has this daughter who is demon possessed.

And she cries out for mercy, she cries in hope.  She cries almost hysterically, on behalf of her daughter, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David.”

The agony of her cry expresses the depth of her concern for her own flesh and blood.

Now, for many of us listening to the story nearly 2000 years on the idea of being demon possessed is obscure and maybe even nonsensical.

What was the child’s problem?  Some may in fact speculate along the lines of a spiritual warfare, literally a demon, others might consider that she had a mental illness or other intellectual or physical impairment.  In the end it is hard for us to say, but I do not think any would question that the child was in a desperate state.

Her mother’s plea though seems to fall on deaf ears and I think somewhat surprisingly for us Jesus answer is silence.

Even worse the disciple’s answer is to ask Jesus to send her away, they want to exclude her and banish her problems from their presence.

Nonetheless, this would have been quite a reasonable response for Jesus to make, to understand why means understanding who the Canaanites were.

There is a story in Genesis found just after Noah has saved his family and the animals on the ark.  Noah gets drunk and shames himself by collapsing naked in his tent.  His son Ham comes across his dad prostrate on the floor of his tent. 

Rather than simply covering him up Ham ducks outside and informs his two brothers about his Father’s state.  They enter the tent and without looking at Noah’s nakedness cover him up.

Now it is a bit of an obscure story but it is important for this encounter.  Because what Noah does in response to hearing how Ham had dealt with his nakedness is to curse Ham’s son Canaan.

Canaan was to be the lowest of slaves and the history of the Old Testament bears this curse out.  The Canaanites were scorned by the Israelites.

This is why when Jesus answers the disciples request his words seem harsh and uncompromising.  He addresses the disciples saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But the woman humbles herself throwing herself on her knees before him she begs and Jesus responds once again in words which would not be surprising for any Jewish reader of the story.

“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  Jesus calls the Canaanite woman a dog.

By abasing herself even further the woman owns the slur of being called a lowly dog and asks for the scraps from the table.

And here is the amazing part of the story Jesus changes his mind and acknowledging her faith and her persistence declares that the daughter has been healed.

It is an amazing story of God’s grace and for Matthew it was a pointed story.

Matthew wrote his gospel around 50 years after Jesus had died and ascended into heaven.  By this time in the history of early Christianity a clear split was emerging between the followers of Jesus and the temple authorities.

Some Jews had become followers of Jesus but many had not, where the Christian community was really beginning grow was in converts outside the Jewish people.

In this there appears to be at least some level of agenda going on in Matthew’s writing.  He is demonstrating how in Jesus God had begun reaching out to people outside the inner circle of the chosen people.  In fact Jesus was reaching across the boundaries into people whom had traditionally been understood as cursed.

Why is this important to us?  Simply inasmuch as it reminds us of God’s concern for we who are not of Jewish heritage and for those of us within the church who might want to behave as if God’s love has any exclusivity about it.

But what happens when we push our understanding deeper in this story and begin to unpack some of the symbolism of what is going in the characters in the story.

Obviously in the story Jesus is clearly understood as unique in his authority over the situation that is occurring, the demon possession.  God has authority over all things under heaven and earth.

But what if we see the woman in the story symbolically?  What if she actually represents Jesus presence in the world?

Jesus comes into the world pleading on the world’s behalf for the healing of the world and its people?  He reaches out and lifts people from the predicaments that have interrupted their existence: teaching, healing, casting out demons, bringing hope.

Like the woman Jesus intercedes for we who are demon possessed.

Now I use that phrase quite liberally, not literally.  For if demon possession is about those things which rob us of our humanity and of our lives then we as people experience that.  We are like the daughter and we need help.

I think about the week that has passed and I have engaged in personal stories of pain and illness and immersed in global situations that are staggering. 

What drives people to the brink of violence and inhumanity?  How do we come to a situation that in a world where there is so much violence unfolding in the Middle East - Iraq and Syria and Gaza?  

At what point did we as people who understand and have a heritage of being dispossessed and being strangers in a strange land come to treat other refugees with such inhumanity?  How do we deal with situations of personal pain and illness and conflict in our lives?

The cursed woman is Jesus who begs for mercy and for healing for us.

The healing of the girl is utter grace.  She does nothing to deserve it.  She does nothing to earn it.  It is not her faith.  It is not her belief.  The woman pleads and God acts and she is healed.  This is the deepest expression of our Christian hope.  That God will help us.  This may seem confusing at times when we cry out to God for healing for ourselves or for others and the answer appears to be silence.

Yet is not Jesus also in the child? Jesus who shares our human existence and suffers the depravation of dignity and darkness of Calvary – dying alongside us, as one us: the one curse and hanging on a cross.  The worst that can happen to any of us, the demon of death, God in Jesus experiences! 

And, here is the good news –our hope, healing occurs.  Resurrection! Life beyond death! Hope beyond the realms of our thinking and possibilities.  The demon of death is defeated.  The demons we may experience in life and in the spectre of death are not the final word of our existence – the resurrection of Jesus is!

This is the message of grace that we as the church celebrate and we are drawn into living again as God’s people, no longer cursed by demons we are drawn like the disciples into following Jesus and as his followers we participate in his mission and his ministry as a celebration of that self giving love for us.

We become the woman with Jesus, we cry out for others who are experiences demons in their lives.  We cry for justice, for peace, for healing.  It is a fundamental aspect of our gathering together in worship to do this.  We intercede for those who long for healing and hope – we pray against the hopeless and helplessness we feel and we like the woman persist for the sake of the daughters and our sons of all peoples.

But here too we are reminded of the Spirit poured out on the disciples long ago and on us now that empowers us not simply to be recipients of that unconditional grace and healing but bearers of it in the world.  Here we are reminded that we have within our grasped the means by which we can change the lives of others. 

To use our wealth generously in helping others, to reach out to the suffer ones, to give of our time, to live sustainable.  To witness in word and action that the grace we have found is available for all others and even when we are suffering and afflicted by the demons that beset us in our lives to hold on to the resurrection hope – that death is not the final word.

The good news is that Jesus reaches out and heals a girl, a girl who had not done anything in and of herself to pursue that healing.  She receives the gift of a new chance and new life and is restored to her mother and her community.

This is our story, it is my story and it is your story, that Jesus has reached into our lives which just such a grace.  So receive this good news and live it so that others might rejoice and share in the hope we have.

Jesus holds back the 'deep'.

The reading from Matthew 14 which tells the story of Jesus walking across the water is more than an assertion about Jesus capacity to do miracles but is one which symbolises God's commitment to care for the very fabric of the creation.

It would be easy, looking at the reading at face value, to get caught up in thinking that the story revolves simply around Jesus doing something pretty fantastic, which he does.  Jesus walks across the water and calms the storm.  But as with most of the things that are recorded in the Bible Matthew is not simply telling us about Jesus aquatic acrobatic abilities, he his trying to tell us much more and it is those things that I want to concentrate on today.

First off, I want us to think about the images of the sea and the storm.  The sea, which we might think of as the waters or the deep have strong connotations in the Bible.  If you were to think of the sea as ‘the deep’ it might bring to mind images of looking into dark and stormy waters.  What lies below is unknown, threatening, and maybe even a little chaotic.  This is the sea which Jesus is walking on the deep threatening waters that lie below.

Turning our thoughts to the very first story in the Bible, in Genesis, we hear that in the beginning when God created the earth God drew back the waters from the waters.  This is highly symbolic language.  The waters represent the nothingness of uncreation.  The waters also represent the chaos which threatens to break through into the order of God’s creation.  The story tells us how God made a space between the waters above and the waters below and that it was in this space, the ‘in between space’, that God makes all things.

So, in the Old Testament we are given an image of God drawing back the waters and holding back these waters, the waters above and the waters below, which threaten to undo the creation.  The Bible goes on to remind us of the destructive powers of these waters in the great flood of Noah, the waters wipe the slate clean so things can start again.

Now in Jesus walking on the waters, over the deep, Jesus demonstrates his power over this forces which threaten life and creation itself.  The disciples in the boat are exposed to this threat but Jesus is on top of it and Jesus words “It is I” echo words spoken by God long before “I am who I am”.  Jesus lordship over the creation and over that which threatens to undo life is affirmed.

To skip ahead to the calming of the storm, the imagery of the storm is connected with the same threat.  The storm is the waters above breaking into creation: threatening life and limb, threatening to unmake what God has made.  Jesus calming of the storm once again is an affirmation of Jesus power, God’s power, holding back the threat to creation and upholding the existence of all things. 

The story of Jesus walking on the water conveys much more potent messages than Jesus can do a cool miracle.  There are message about Jesus identity as divine, there are messages about how God holds back the deep and the waters to sustain creation and all life. 

Yet whilst this power of God to uphold the creation is present the disciples are still cowering in the boat.   The combination of sea and storm could be their undoing.  Buying in to the imagery of the story, as Matthew tells it, the predicament of the disciples is a parable which speaks to all of us in the midst of life.

The deep, the waters, the storm are around us and even within us.  The waters represent all of those things which confront us with our mortality and threaten our undoing.  What is the deep for you and for I?

Maybe it is terrorism and the uncertainty that people feel in our modern world for their safety.  Maybe it is the pain of broken relationships, a rift between husband and wife that has become irreconcilable, or between parent and child who have become estranged.  Maybe it is the disease within us, slowly unmaking our bodies, destroying our health, our minds, slowing us down.  Maybe it is the despair and hopelessness that so many people feel.  Maybe it is the despair we feel when we see images of war and violence on our screens and in the news.  The deep, the waters, the storm, threaten our existence and like the disciples we might find ourselves hunkering down in the bottom of the boat.

Yet the promise of the good news is that all is not lost, for see coming across the waves and through the storm comes Jesus to bring hope.  Here is another significant image of the story; that it is Jesus who comes to those in despair at the time of their greatest need.  When hope seems to be running out the door and fear and trembling are all that is left Jesus comes with those words, “Take heart it is I do not be afraid.” “Do not be afraid.”

Jesus words are words of healing and of hope for those of us who find ourselves threatened by the stormy seas of life.  In the boat the disciple Peter wants confirmation of Jesus identity and sets out to test his faith.  Jesus’ beckons Peter out on to the waters and we see that Peter at first focussed on Jesus is able to walk on the waters towards Jesus.  But then seeing the threat around him begins to sink, he loses focus, and as Jesus indicates his faithlessness betrays him.  But even in this moment of failure Peter is able to look and cry out “Lord save me” and Jesus immediately reached out his hand and catches him.

There is an immediacy in Jesus response to Peter’s need that gives us hope and here we might catch the overtones of what Paul wrote to the Romans, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

This is a promise of healing and hope to us all. It is a promise that is born out in Matthew’s retelling of the story when we move from Jesus disembarking from the boat and people flocking to him to be healed.  Reaching out and simply touching the hem of his garment brings healing to people’s lives.  When the Lord comes near lives are changed.

Now the mystery of life and of faith tells us that there are times when we like Peter reach out and are healed, but we also know that we all die, that in our crying to Jesus “save me” we still experience the depths of pain that life can bring.  But as we also know the Scriptures reassures us that death is not the final word; that the deep and the waters, will not overcome.  Jesus in his death gives himself over to the waters and the deep; he surrenders to the death which is the very antithesis of God and life.  Our greatest hope is found in knowing that Jesus rises from the grave and defeats death to walk over the waters once again.

On this day remember the promises of God to sustain life and not let the creation be destroyed.  Remember that those who call upon the Lord will be saved.  Remember that Jesus brings healing and hope to peoples lives now.  Remember that Jesus has travelled the paths of the dead to return again as our hope and our salvation.  The deep of uncreation has been defeated: life goes on!

Caring in the face of tragedy.

Matthew 14:13-21

I wonder when it is that you feel you need some time alone. 

What is it that means that you feel that you need to take some time out? 

Often I feel like this when I am encountering difficulties; I have been overloaded with responsibilities; work is a bit too much; or maybe I have heard bad news. 

Maybe, you are the same. Maybe there are times that life all seems a bit much and you need some space.  You just want to stop!

The story from Matthew’s gospel begins with the words, “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”

Of course we know that despite his efforts to go off and be alone a crowd turns up and Jesus responds to their needs: they need healing and they need hope.

But if you are like me you might be stuck back at the beginning of the reading.

What had Jesus heard?  Why did he withdraw? Why did Jesus need some time alone?

What Jesus had heard was that his cousin John had been beheaded by Herod.  The story is depraved.  It was Herod’s birthday party and he already had John in a cell somewhere.  In the midst of the party his niece danced before the assembled group and so impressed was his uncle that he promised to give the girl anything she wanted.

Prompted by Herodias, her mother, the girl asks for John’s head on a platter.

The bloodied birthday feast of Herod is the news Jesus has received – his cousin the victim of politics and passion.

What was Jesus seeking in the solace: maybe, to mourn and to cry for his cousin who had baptised him? To despair at the barbarity of the act? To seek meaning and maybe resolve and strength for his own purpose as he continued his ministry?  Maybe simply to try to make sense of what had happened? To reconnect with God, to pray?

I have little doubt that Jesus withdrew for many if not all of these reasons.

Just as we seek to withdraw from the bad news that comes to haunt us in our lives in this world:

It could be personal news:

The news of the terminal illness of a family member.

The news of the death of a friend.  We had a funeral this week in the church where hundreds gathered to mourn.

News of abuse, loss, loneliness, and the long litany of heartache that can overwhelm us.

It could be national or international news:

News of children held in detention.

News of children being killed in the Gaza strip.

News from Syria and other places around the world where violence has become integral to the way of life. The news of Christians being persecuted and even crucified by ISIS in Iraq.

beset

Maybe it is personal news and maybe it is the big issues, whatever it is these things can weigh heavily on hearts and our souls.  Take a moment to think about the week that has passed on the moments of worry and heartbreak that you have felt. (silence)

But as we know Jesus does not get the space to reflect, his withdrawal to be alone ends up with thousands coming after him.  People, who like him in his moment of sadness and like you and I, are seeking help – they need healing and hope, they need teaching and understanding.

He sees their need, he has compassion and he feeds them through his healing and his words.  Despite his own breaking heart Jesus, God with us, goes on reaching out to others because the world goes on: life continues!

To me this is the beginning of the miracle.  That Jesus, God with us, transcends his own breaking heart to help and hold others in his love. What come next with the bread and fish may seem a wonderful sign of his power to do miracles but it his heart of love at the outset that stands out.

For me this is the good news that whilst God might look upon the terror and tragedies of our lives and feel such loss within himself he continues to reach out as life goes on for everyone else in the midst of their trials and tribulations.

In the miracle of the feeding the disciples offer bread and fish but I wonder whether it is the small offerings that we give that can be transformed into moments of beautiful hope, a glimpse of grace, of God’s kingdom comes near:

When a meal is cooked for a grieving family.

When a coffin is painted by grandchildren and family members to find hope in the moment of goodbyes.

When a smile is given, or time generously spent.

When simple asking someone the question, ‘Are you OK?’

When some Iraqi Muslims identify as Christians and so share in protest against their persecution.

When there is cease fire in the Gaza strip so the dead can be buried and aid brought to those who suffer.

When Christians gather to pray for asylum seeker children and protest against their incarceration.

When people step aside and worship God and are transformed to live renewed again by their faith in the days ahead.

Like the small offerings of bread and fish these offerings are signs of God’s love in the face of the news gone bad and God takes this offering and turns so many into signs of the love of God in our midst.

Jesus continues to have compassion, God does not stop caring for us even though his very heart breaks at the news he receives.  And more, God provides abundantly in the face of the terror. 

As we find ourselves in moments of struggle and despair let us find hope in remembering Jesus willingness to reach out despite the depths of his own pain and like the disciples may we too help offer what little we have to the work he is doing: bread and fish, hope and love.

Loved deeply.

By Peter Lockhart based on Psalm 139

I want you invite you to think for a moment about the people that you know. 

Who do you think knows you the best of all?                                

It may be your best friend.  It may be a sister or brother.   

Maybe it’s your spouse.  Or maybe it’s one of your parents.

Think about that person for a moment.

How long have they known you?

What secrets do you share with them?

What secrets do you keep from them?

How will do you think they really know you?

Do they know everything?

I know when I think about the most intimate relationships that I have there are still things that the other person does not know about me.  Things that they do not see about, feelings I have that I do not share.  Thoughts that I keep to myself. The same is true for all of us.  No one knows us or anyone else perfectly.

Yet, these intimate friendships are so important to us because we feel that when others know us, and more importantly love us, it affirms our very existence.

In Psalm 139 we hear a strange and mysterious message that God knows us in a way that no other person does or can.  We hear that God is acquainted with all of our ways, God sees through the barriers we construct and the personas with put on.

God knows us.  And it is an incredibly intimate knowledge.

The word in Hebrew for know that is used here is the same word that is used in Genesis 4 when we read that Adam knew Eve and conceived and bore a son.

God knows you and I intimately, personally, lovingly and in being known by God in this way there is a wonderful affirmation for each one of us that we matter in our life and that we matter in our existence.

For many people this notion that God knows us so thoroughly can be more than a little confronting, for we know ourselves and the darkness we hide from others, and the dark thoughts that beset our minds. 

Yet, the promise of the Psalm is that “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” 

God sees beyond the darkness that we might perceive within ourselves and others, and in God’s knowing of us in this intensely intimate and personal way God continues to love us.

Despite this intensity of the intimacy describe in the words of the Psalmist there is a paradox, an irony even, and this Psalmist knows this too well:

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is so high that I cannot attain it.

The experience of the intensity of God’s knowing of us is beyond the Psalmist, so high he cannot attain it.  To return to the story that we heard from Genesis at the beginning of the service, this conundrum is express in Jacob’s words:

You were in this place, but I never knew.

I sometimes wonder whether it is our inability to connect with this God who knows us so well that is the cause of so much pain and anguish in the world.  Feeling disconnected from the intimacy of God’s embrace we become anxious about our own identity and anxious about the world and the people around us.

In this state of feeling anonymous our anxiety causes us to turn away from God and so also each other.

The message of Jesus presence in the world comes to us as God’s way of reaffirming us and confirms the fact God knows us so well.  Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus God goes beyond the darkness we experience and perpetuate and draws into the intimacy of God’s own life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In his letter to the Romans Paul meditates on this reality reminding the early Christians, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

Of course like the Psalmist there is a grounded realism in Paul’s meditation as he too declares:

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what is seen?

But if we hope for what we do not see,

we wait for it with patience.

As Christian people we hope for what we do not see: the perfection not simply of our personal relationship with God in which we discover and experience the full weight of God’s love, but that very same renewal for all things and all people.

In this matter we need to be reminded that our relationship with God is intensely personal but it is not private.  The intimacy God has with each of us God desires and has with all people and all things.

So it is that Paul describes the creation groaning in longing for the fulfilment of God’s loving promises and we too groan as we wait: our hearts break as we wait.

Our hearts break as we hear of children killed in the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Our hearts break as we see the images of the airplane wreckage in the Ukraine.

Our hearts break as we read about the millions of Syrian refugees.

Our hearts break as we wonder about asylum seekers and their children in limbo on the high seas.

Our hearts break as we hear of the breakdown of relationships and the terrible blight of family violence in our Australian culture.

And our hearts break as we hear bad news again and again and again and we groan with longing for the promises of God to be fulfilled.

It is more than a little difficult to be patient in the face of such disasters.  The Psalms are always gritty and honest and in Psalm 139 we hear the Psalmist cry out in frustration:

O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me

It can be more than a little difficult to be a people of hope and love, yet this is what we are called to be.  We are reminded week by week in this place the intensely personal and intimate way God knows us and loves all things.  It is in these reminders that we can long to be transformed into people who do not want to respond to violence with violence but with love.

The reality though is this: we hope in what we cannot see, and even in what we do not fully experience for ourselves: that God knows us, that loves us so deeply, that in Christ God has renewed all things and that through the Spirit we have been drawn into God’s life together.

Know and believe this good news: you are known intimately and you are loved deeply.  Amen.