What kind of God? The parable of the Talents.

by Peter Lockhart

I recently read Robert Banks handy little book “And Man created God”. A book that addresses issues concerning the rise of atheism, whilst at the same time challenging the notion that we as human being have a constant predilection to make God into who we want God to be.

I wonder whether this is because we find it so difficult to cope with the God Jesus introduces us to.

This morning the gospel reading from the lectionary comes to us from Matthew 25:14-30 and I have not read it quite deliberately because it is almost too well known to us. But in synopsis here it is:

Jesus tells a story of an absentee landlord who gives money to three of his servants to look after. Two of the servants increase the master’s wealth and so are rewarded whilst the third buries the money, keeping it hidden and safe until his master returns. The two who have increased the wealth are rewarded whilst the third is admonished and thrown out of the community.

Now there are a variety of understandings floating around about what this parable means.

The first focuses on the notion that the money actually represents gifts or skills that we have and that the purpose of our lives is to use them to achieve greater and better things. It is an appealing and comfortable reading of the story for many people but one which I would want to question. It runs the danger of leading us into a prosperity theology in which our wealth is understood as a reward for our faithfulness. It could also imply a negation of unconditional grace in favour of an understanding of having to be good enough for God.

A second interpretation of the story is to understand that the money is our relationship with God or our faith; so that we increase the gift of faith we have been given. I think many people are comfortable and happy with this reading of the story as well because it puts us in the driver seat, and we like to be control. But once again I would want to challenge it as it too can lead us towards an understanding of our relationship with God as being reliant on what we do.

To return to my point about Robert Banks book it is more than likely that most of us will opt for what makes us comfortable in our interpretation of the scriptures and therefore our understanding of our relationship with God.

This brings me to a third understanding of the story. It is an understanding which is built on the placement of the story in Matthew’s gospel and the context in which it was written. The story is placed in a series about the coming of the Son of Man and unlike the parable of the ten bridesmaids does not begin with the words “the kingdom of heaven will be like this”. This may indicate that the parable of the talents is not a vision of the coming kingdom, but rather a critique of a current reality.

The best way to demonstrate this understanding is to retell the parable.

Scene 1 – The Absentee Landlord

Once upon a time there was a wealthy man, not just an ordinarily wealthy man; this man was Bill Gates wealthy, Donald Trump wealthy, Rupert Murdoch wealthy. This man had so much money you may as well try and count the stars as count his wealth, but like all billionaire’s this rich man wanted more.

Scene 2 – Meet the slaves

This wealthy man had a group of lackeys, well slaves really, and decided to give them some money so he could have some more for himself. One of the lackeys he gave $30 million, another lackey he gave $15 million and to a third he gave $3 million. If you have ever watched the Apprentice with Donald Trump you get the idea. Then the wealthy man went away.

The first lackey being quite entrepreneurial used the money to trade goods buying them and then selling them on for a higher price. Doing this he managed to exploit the $30 million and turn it into $60 million. In the same way the second lackey doubled his $15 million making it $30 million.

But the third lackey struggled with what was going on. Having been brought up prudently he followed the custom of the people around him and sought to protect the money which he had been given. He buried it in the ground to keep it safe, to keep it hidden.

Scene 3 – The Return of the Wealthy Man

On the return of the wealthy man the first two lackeys fronted up with the extra money they had gained for the wealthy man. Just in case he had needed any extra cash, now he was really loaded and he appreciated the skill of these two go getters. He told them how great they were and that he would give them even more money so that they could make even more money for him. Then he told them how lucky they were and that they could share in his happiness now that he was even wealthier.

But the third lackey came to the wealthy man still bearing the meagre $3 million he had started with. This third lackey exposed the wealthy man saying, ‘Your reputation is well known, you make others work for you and reap the rewards of their labours. I fear you so I kept safe what is yours but I did not try to increase its worth for your benefit.’

Scene 4 – The rich man does his block!

Now, the wealthy man was furious! How dare this lackey not make more money for him! He really did his block! He blew a piston! He even said it would have been OK if the lackey had gone to a bank and engaged in usury, which is a sin. If he had done this at least he could have got some else to make more money for the rich man.

Having had his little rant he then chucked the lackey out to live in poverty on the street. The wealthy man cut him off from his community and world because he hadn’t made money for an already incredibly wealthy man.

Of course these are not the words of the scriptures I have embellished them a fact for which I do not apologise on this occasion. This reading of the parable is far more uncomfortable for us and no doubt to those listening to Jesus.

Read this way Jesus parable is a critique of the systems of this world, a critique of those who benefit of the labour of others. It is a critique of people like King Herod's son Archalaus who had traveled to Rome to have his authority confirmed by the Emperor and had his opponents killed on his return..

Moreover, it could be read as a critique of the behaviour entrepreneurs in our age and their desire for increased wealth and prosperity, often reliant on the work of others on their behalf. It reverses the prosperity theology that has often been associated with this passage and rings more truthfully of Jesus words to the rich young ruler “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Added to all of this the following passage in Matthew with the words, when translated directly from the Greek, ‘But when the Son of Man comes’. This suggests to me that what has just been told is in some sense the opposite of what Jesus envisages when the Son of Man comes.

In this passage Jesus declares, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

These are the ones, the ones cast out by the Pharisees and the Archalaus's of this world that God has an express concern for. It is a concern expressed in Jesus own willingness not only to be associated with them in his life but ultimately to be cast out with them – to hang on a cross, a place understood by the Jews to be place for those cursed by God and humanity.

It is in this act that God identifies not with our ability to turn $30 million into $60 million but with us as people who have been cast out, who are broken people, even lost people who are in need of mercy and help.

As people who hear and understand this message of grace I believe our place is not to be using our so called talents for our own gain, so that we might be given more and share in a wealthy master’s reward. No! Our place is to identify with those outcasts who Jesus identified with; our place is to challenge the systems of this world which enable a few to grow wealthy off the labour of others; our place is to welcome in to the presence of Jesus and his coming reign those who feel ostracised, abused and desolate in this world in which we live.

To return to where I began, Robert Banks caution is to weigh carefully upon our decisions about who God is. Jesus representation of God to us is one which upends the comfortable and domesticated images of God and plants new seeds of faith and understanding.

The question I am left with after reading this parable, and I will leave with you, is do we believe in a God who rewards those who already have much? Or a God who rewards those who seek personal gain through using others to advance his cause? Do we in a God who judges us on what we do and castes us aside if we don’t measure up?

Or do we believe in a God who asks serious questions of systems and institutions and individuals who exploit others for personal gain? Do we believe in a God who identifies with the outcastes of this world and shares in their lot? Do we believe in a God who seeks a way of revelation through which we meet God in serving those who suffer in the world? In other words do we believe in a God of unconditional grace and unending love?

Amen.

The Words of my Mouth

Peter Lockhart

The final words of Psalm 19, if nothing else, should cause us to fall into silence more often than we do. How does one speak in a way acceptable to God?

For about 5 years I have regularly used the words of the Psalm as the opening prayer for my sermon.

A plea to God that the words I say, the words I have crafted, the word I have considered and prayed over may be acceptable to the One who made me.

Yet despite praying these words each week I usually describe my preaching, a little cheekily, as a different heresy each week.

The words of my sermons are limited by my human frailty yet become unlimited in possibilities because of what the Holy Spirit can and might do as I seek to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

Whilst this is the way I use the words of this Psalm most often these words are not simply meant to be applied to a sermon delivered by a minister. These words are a plea to God that in all our speaking we might find ourselves using words and language acceptable to God.

Imagine for a moment that during the times of anger or frustration before blurting out those grating and hurtful words you asked yourself, ‘are these words I am about to say acceptable to God?’

Imagine for a moment that during those times filled with pride in a personal achievement before shouting out and boasting of your success you asked yourself, ‘are these words I am about to say acceptable to God?’

Imagine for a moment that during those times of darkness and depression before moaning about life or degrading yourself you asked yourself, ‘are these words I am about to say acceptable to God?’

Words – spoken quietly or loudly.

Words – full of colour, rich with meaning.

Words – trite or serious.

Words – building up.

And words which destroy.

Words are such powerful things.

Of course the reality is that the words which we speak day by day moment by moment are most likely to be not acceptable to God.

Whether the words are spoken in ignorance or the words are spoken wilfully it is not hard for us to know so many of them, in fact probably most of them, do not give honour to the one who gave us our voices.

So where is our hope?

Paul in writing to the Philippians reminds them of the relationship between the law and faith

“If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.”

What is being suggested here by Paul is that even if we were able to form each word and thought perfectly these would be meaningless in terms of our relationship with God because of Jesus Christ.

Yes, Jesus who walked among us and gave voice to God’s own thoughts in human words.

Jesus: who in his life, death and resurrection made us right with God!

Jesus: who promised the sending of God’s Holy Spirit, to make us one with God and each other.
Whilst our words may not be acceptable to God Jesus words were. To quote Peter in John 6, in the midst of our imperfect and incoherent babblings, we go to Jesus because he has “the words of eternal life.”

It is in listening to Jesus that we can listen to one whose words are acceptable to God and we can learn how to speak again. To borrow a phrase from Stanley Hauerwas we can learn to speak Christian: to speak of the good news knowing that whilst the words we might say will be inadequate expressions of God’s grace to trust that the Spirit will help us in our weakness as we both articulate and listen to the words of hope.

We trust that the Spirit will transform our fumbling attempts to speak Christians and to proclaim God’s love for us in Jesus day by day into a meaningful and purposeful witness. We pray that through the Spirit our words will transform others and so become acceptable to God.

To learn to speak Christian takes time and energy, the same time and energy we would put in to learning another language and another culture.

To learn the language of prayer as we read the Psalms. To discover how to tell stories as we read the parables. To discipline ourselves to prayer and meditation aware that before a word is formed on our lips God knows it.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians Paul compares himself to an athlete pursuing a goal – the prize being the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ.

When I think of the finely tuned machines of modern day athletes with their training programs and rigorous discipline, with their vitamin supplements and diet regimes I think we begin to get a picture that what Paul was talking about was throwing ourselves head long into learning the way of grace.

Disciplining ourselves to prayer and worship, committing ourselves to reading the scriptures and serving others, not to earn our salvation but to pursue with thanksgiving in our hearts the one who has saved us and maybe as we do these things to learn to speak Christian, just as Paul did, who said:

“I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”

Let us meditate on what God is saying to us on this day. Amen.

The Chore of Church

Readings Ex 12:1-14, Ps 149, Rom 13:8-14, Mt 18:15-20

There is a Simpson’s which begins with the family going to church. When they arrive home, as soon as the front door opened, Homer, (the dad), and the two older children, Lisa and Bart, raced inside stripping their clothes off as they went.

The mother, Marge, reacted saying, “Hey, calm down. You're wrinkling your church clothes.”

To which Homer responded, “Who cares? This is the best part of the week.”

Lisa added, “It's the longest possible time before more church!”

Marge replied, “Church shouldn't be a chore; it should help you in your daily life.”

To which Homer declared, “It should but it doesn't.”

This little interaction raises for you and I the question of what we are doing here in church and what our attitude about being here actually is.

I would want to suggest that the final interaction about whether or not church helps us in our daily life is a pretty common question concerning church for many people. It is kind of the ‘what’s in it for me” question.

Now I would not want to suggest that we don’t get anything out of church and in fact it is my hope and prayer that you don’t walk out the door after Sunday saying to yourself, “thank goodness that’s over, now I can get back to the real world.” But I would want to say that if the primary question we are asking is “what’s in it for me” then we have either lost sight of the object of our worship or have never really realised what the object is.

Our gathering together doesn’t primarily revolve around getting something more out of God but is a response to God’s goodness and grace in Jesus Christ. To shift the focus to what we are getting out of it is to shift the focus away from worshipping and giving thanks to God and onto ourselves. In other words like Marge and Homer indicate many of us want Church to help us in our daily lives or at least think that’s what it should be about.

Now I would emphasise that it can help us in our daily lives, but this help arises not out of treating Church like a self help group but through our encounters with the living Lord.

Of course the problem for the Simpson’s, particularly Homer, and Bart and Lisa, and for us is how to make sense of the Christian story and even more so how to make sense of what we have been given as the primary text to guide our faith – the Bible.

For example, today’s Psalm, 149, is not exactly that well balanced. In fact one commentator suggests that Psalm 149 is somewhat schizophrenic. It begins with these wonderful images of praising God, praising God with the tambourine and lyre and with dancing but then it moves into the somewhat bizarre imagery, “Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands.”

Did you catch that? Two-edged swords in their hands! The explicit overtones of violence and judgement and vengeance are disturbing to say the least. How do we reconcile our visions of a God of love with this kind of imagery?

This confusion in trying to make sense of our faith is further exacerbated when we consider our reading from Exodus this morning in which God establishes the festival of the Passover. Now it is not the festival itself that is troubling to us but the events that surround it. What does the Passover remember?

It remembers that God spared the Israelites from the infanticide God commits on the Egyptians. God kills the first born child of every house and the first born among all the animals of the Egyptians. God, the God of love to whom you and I ascribe our belief, kills the first born children and animals of an entire nation so that there was “a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.”

Is it any wonder that Homer struggles to make sense of the archaic and confusing stories found in the Bible? Is it any wonder that we are often left asking how do we understand this God? And moreover how do we understand this Bible through which we have been given to know God?

How do we deal with the Bible when it speaks in the language of violence and bloodshed? I want to suggest to you this morning that there are a number of ways.

The first is to read the Bible as literally and historically true seeing God’s hand acting in all situations and even as condoning violence. Thinking about more recent history next Sunday we will commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11. This week our own high court is handing down its verdict on refugees. This is a stark reminder of the poverty and oppression from which many people in this world flee as refugees, whilst others endure drought and political atrocities.

Some Christians interpret these events as acts of God and in the case of September 11 have lead people like Franklin Graham, son of Billy, to describe Islam as "an evil and wicked religion." The Biblical history of violence and judgement for many opens the door to such violence and judgement, and so some interpret the war in Iraq as a Holy War.

This becomes more disturbing when we hear that tragedies like the drought in Africa or Hurricane Irene are God punishing people. The problem is that the Biblical precedent for such acts of God has already been set. The Passover was the last in a line of plagues and afflictions God had sent to torment Pharaoh and the Egyptians – locusts, hail and lightning, frogs, water to blood and so on.

Now that is one approach to the Bible, to see it as literally true and to see it condoning, justifying or explaining the violence and destruction that can occur in our world and in our own lives.

This is not an approach to which I subscribe.

The other end of the spectrum is to do what I wanted to do with the Psalm which was to take out my scissors and cut out the bits that disturb me. In doing this people pick and choose which bits of the Bible they will listen to and which they won’t.

Of course if I cut out all of the bits of the Bible that confused or challenged me I would probably end up with just a few pages left over. Sometimes we do this subtly by treating these kinds of stories as children’s stories or myths, so that we teach them in Sunday School but rarely preach on them or deal with them as adults.

The problem with this is that we are inventing our own religion and not taking seriously the Bible as the book in which we hear God speaking to us. And, as much as I would like to do this myself sometimes, I do not think that this is a valid way of dealing with the bits that make us feel uncomfortable. We are either part of this religion or we are not.

Another approach is to take the text seriously but to read it through the lens of the wider whole and the story of God’s grace in salvation history, especially the cross. If we understand that the wider theme of the Bible is that God is a faithful God who brings salvation and mercy because God loves then this shapes our reading of any text. It means that the overriding truth is the kind of truth that Paul encouraged the Romans to consider. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”

This means we are still left with stories that can be uncomfortable but if we apply these themes they can begin to bring greater meaning to the text and sense for our lives.

For example, in terms of the Passover story we remember the history that precedes God’s act of infanticide. God had chosen Abraham and Jacob and Joseph and his brothers and been faithful to them but the Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites. In fact they had been slaves for nearly 400 years when Moses turned up. You might also stop to remember the much romanticised story about Moses birth and his mum chucking him in a basket in the Nile River. Why? Because at that time Pharaoh had been killing off all the male children of the Israelites because they were becoming too numerous!

I am not trying to justify God’s actions, nor do I find all this violence a savoury topic, but it begins to build a bigger picture – God was saving the Israelite people from oppression and hardship. So the Passover celebrates the salvation and liberation which comes from God.

Whilst there is much that could be said about the Passover and what we might learn from it I will restrict myself to a two brief points.

First, the Passover is celebrated by families, not simply in the Temple, but by family groups. It is good for us to be reminded that our faith is something to be lived at home with our families.

Second, that in re-enacting the events families are reminded not only of their past but that God continues to liberate and save people.

In other words the Passover looks back to the historical events it remembers as well forwards to new acts of liberation and salvation being done by God. The Eucharist, or communion, encourages us to do the same to remember God’s salvation in Christ and look forward to the consummation of that salvation.

So in looking at the wider theme of salvation and liberation and grace we can begin to build a picture of God which is more positive and in tune with the notion of unconditional love expressed by Paul.

The same is true of the Matthew reading in which Jesus outlines a way of conflict management for communities of faith. Once again I could build an entire sermon around this but will simply point out a couple of things.

Jesus’ will is for communities to live in love with one another and to seek reconciliation when conflict arises. The process begins with going to the person who has caused you the problems. Reading between the lines this says, don’t gossip! If you have an issue with someone speak to them, not behind their back. If this doesn’t work get a couple of other people to help you try to sort it out. If this doesn’t work bring it before the whole community.

Now in all my experience of being a Christian and of being a minister I have rarely seen this kind of thing in action in a church group, or any kind of community for that matter. We don’t like airing the dirty laundry for others to see. I think we have a greater tendency to keep things to ourselves or maybe to speak behind a person’s back than approach them in a pastorally sensitive way to resolve the issue. But we should remember that the goal in these processes is reconciliation and rebuilding of relationships so that we might live our lives more fully. But what happens when reconciliation doesn’t work.

Jesus says treat those who won’t be reconciled like a tax collector or gentile. This, however, does not mean what we might think it means. What does Jesus do with tax collectors and gentiles? He finds room for them! He accepts them and he forgives them!

In Matthew 21, Jesus said to the chief priests, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you.”

To treat people as tax collectors and Gentiles is not to exclude but is to forgive and even to share at the same table with them as Jesus is often seen to do. The prevailing message is one of love and grace – owe no one anything, except to love one another, for this is how God has loved us – without conditions!

Maybe as we grow to understand this we will grow into a faith like the German Pastor Martin Niemoeller who said after living through Hitler’s reign, "It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not even the enemy of His enemies."

To conclude I wish to return to the Simpson’s. The image prior to the Simpson’s arriving home from Church was Reverend Lovejoy preaching whilst the congregation dozed. Paul encourages us, “you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.”

Are you dozing? Is church more of social club than a spiritual encounter? Hear again Paul’s encouragement to be awake to the good news of God’s grace, to be awake to God’s ongoing work of love and mercy in our midst.

The alternative is to be self-centred, thinking that who we are and what we have is somehow due to our own efforts or because we simply deserve it. In which case we might pray, like Bart Simpson, “Dear Lord, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.”

Take a moment to consider God’s word to you this day.

Giving it all away.

How completely and utterly must Paul have loved his kindred?

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.

Paul’s people were the Israelites and in these words we hear his heart felt cry that they too would know Jesus Christ as he does.

I want this morning to explore with you the depth of faith from which this cry is uttered and to do so I will begin by describing a little bit about Paul and his faith as well as when the letter was written and to whom he was writing.

Having gained a bit of an understanding of the context of the letter I want to dig deeper into the expression and witness of Paul’s understanding of faith in these words.

And lastly, to seek to listen for what God might be saying to us today in our hearing of this story.

So, first to a little bit of history!

Paul was originally known as Saul, a Jewish scholar and scribe by background. Prior to his conversion he had been involved with the persecution of the first disciples of Jesus within the Jewish community.

In the books of Acts he is implicated in the stoning of Stephen and we are told that from that point on, Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

Saul’s conversion, including his name change to Paul, occurs when the risen Jesus miraculously appeared before him on his journey to Damascus.

After his conversion Paul embarked on numerous missionary journeys through the Roman Empire. The majority of the letters of the New Testament are attribute to him as communiqués sent to those communities of believers that he had established.

Paul clearly understood himself as a missionary, to bring the good of news to those outside the Jewish community as well as those within.

There had been an issue in the early years after Jesus death as to which Jesus message was for: was it simply the Jewish people or the gentiles as well.

The answer that came through was the Jesus message was to be shared with all peoples. It is clear in the book of Acts and within Paul’s letters themselves that whilst some of the Jews converted and the Jewish communities were often the starting point for sharing the message many gentiles joined the faith.

This was no less the case in Rome and there had been some tension within the Jewish community over the issue. Remember Paul’s own background persecuting the first followers of Jesus.

It is commonly accepted that the account of the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in the year 49 by the Emperor Claudius, by the Roman historian Suetonius, is an indicator of this tension.

It is argued that the Jews were expelled because of the emerging Christian movement causing friction within the Jewish community.

The letter that Paul wrote to the Romans is normally dated around 6-8 years after these events and it appears that whilst there were clearly Jews within the community the community also had a large number of gentiles.

This little peek into the history of the situation should help you to understand the position that Paul found himself in. He was a Jewish Christian spreading the good news of Jesus among gentiles and seeing his own people not responding to the proclamation that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

This leads into my second point: to pick up on Paul’s words and what they say about his faith.

Paul’s faith was rooted in a specific and personal revelation of Jesus Christ that changed his heart from being prepared to hold the coats whilst Stephen was stoned into sharing that very same message which Stephen held on to.

It is difficult for us to understand the shift in Paul’s life in this matter: suffice it to say that it was huge.

It was a complete turn around in his life, his view of God, his behaviour.

The message of Jesus and his understanding of God’s love for him were all consuming. Simply reading his letter to the Romans to this point should open our eyes to this.

Paul understood himself as specially chosen and sent messenger of God’s grace – he was an ambassador for Jesus Christ.

Jesus, whom Paul understood, to have given himself, for the sake of the world to make the world righteous in God’s eyes.

There can be little doubt that Paul had personal sense of his salvation in Christ yet such was his faith that he was prepared to give his own relationship with God in Christ away so that others might believe.

For me this is an expression of what is at the heart of the Christian faith, a willingness to give everything for the sake of the other.

Paul so longed that his Jewish kindred would come to understand and know Christ as he did that he was willing to give up all that had gained in Christ for this to occur.

To jump to another of Paul’s letters for a moment this example of faith in Paul’s letter reflects the very action of God sending Jesus into the world.

In Philippians we read:

"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Just as God gave Christ into the world so too Paul was prepared to give himself and his new life in Christ for the sake of the Jewish people to know Christ.

To me this is the ultimate expression and understanding of the Christian faith it is not about what I get out of it for myself but what is done that others might enter into the peace of God established in Christ.

This brings me to invite you to reflect on your own faith in Jesus Christ. We tend to be self-centred consumers in all of thinking, including in our thinking about faith. The primary question is what is in it for me?

But is that what being a Christian is all about?

Is being a Christian about getting to go to heaven or getting to avoid hell? Which are two different things, one motivated by reward the other by fear.

Is being a Christian about getting blessings from God day by day?

Paul’s example seems to suggest otherwise. Following Jesus means being willing to give up everything for the sake of others so that they too may know the immensity of God’s love and grace. Even to the point of giving up that very relationship so that others might believe.

Here is a commitment to follow Christ who gives up all for our sake that should cause us to take pause and contemplate. How deep is our faith? How well do we understand that grace given to us so freely? How much are we prepared to give so that others might know God’s love in Jesus Christ?

Paul’s message of grace is the message of the Jesus who looked upon the crowd and had compassion. It is the message of God’s abundant generosity that feeds the crowd and has left over’s. It is the message of God’s love drawing us back into the meaning and purpose of our existence.

So as we give thanks and break bread today let us be drenched in that hope and celebrate God’s generosity in the giving of ourselves for others.

Do you understand?

“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

We live in an era where the number of voices that want to claim authority of our lives is as staggering as the media through which they use to speak to us.

Voices heard and seen

Broadcasting on Radio & Television
Blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting
Podcasting
Paperbacks, hardbacks, newspapers, Magazines
eBooks, eZines, chat groups
and the list goes on

To locate and listen to Jesus voices in this cacophony can be a difficult task and one that takes commitment and discernment.

Whose voices shall we listen to as Christians? The vitriolic atheists, the passive progressive, the fervent fundamentalist, the mediating moderate, the sceptic, the scientist?

The diversity and complexity that surrounds us can be daunting and confusing and we can be left pining for a simple faith, a faith built on an encounter with God that we have had in our own lives.

Yet naivety in our approach to faith and reading of scriptures or listening to the voices around us can lead us on pathways away from the God that we have encountered in the coming of Jesus into our lives.

Yes experiences of faith are moments of revelation given to us by God and they are given that we might know and therefore seek the kingdom of heaven.

Now what this kingdom of heaven actually is may seem a little obscure as Jesus speaks in parables – mustard seeds, yeast, fields, pearls and nets.

Yet at the end of listening to Jesus telling these stories the disciples collectively respond to Jesus question “Have you understood all of this?” with a resounding “Yes”.

I have to say given the following stories of Jesus and the disciples and their behaviour in Matthew’s gospel I am not entirely convinced that the disciples “Yes” is as convincing as it sounds.

Jesus goes on from the disciples’ response to get them to consider their roles as scribes.

Now a scribe was a leader and teacher within the Jewish community. In the book of Sirach, which is one of the apocryphal writings, not found in the protestant Bible, a scribe is described in this way, “He memorizes the sayings of famous men and is a skilled interpreter of parables. He studies the hidden meaning of proverbs and is able to discuss the obscure points of parables.”

The memorizing and understanding of scribes involved an engagement with history, with what had gone before and how things had been explained.

Jesus as a teacher and in acting as a scribe himself points that a scribe of the kingdom of heaven “like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

So this takes me back to where I started about how we might discern amidst the complexity of voices around us whose voice to listen to.

Ultimately, I believe that the voice we are to listen to is Jesus voice, but which voice of Jesus and how do we listen to it and who is this Jesus anyway.

For me listening to Jesus voice involves a life or prayer and reading the scriptures but also a commitment to listening to those scholars who are able to clearly and rationally articulate what was new about Jesus and how it related to the old. It is also about listening to scholars new and old.

In the Uniting Church in Australia, The Basis of Union points us to scholarly interpreters in every age yet also grounds these scholars in a particular tradition. A tradition of understanding elucidated at the time of the reformation and preserved in the creeds of the ancient church.

What was new about Jesus is found in the tradition which has been handed on to us – the understanding that Jesus was unique in his relationship with God and was God. This unique revelation of God found in the person and work of Jesus, often referred to as the incarnation, is the point in history in and through which reconciles humanity and all things to himself.

The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church in Australia which describes the essence of the Christian faith captures these thoughts about Jesus when it quotes scripture and says, In Jesus Christ "God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV). In love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world's sin.”

So the kingdom of heaven is fundamentally about the reconciling work of God that occurs in and through Jesus. He is the mustard seed from which the tree of our faith grows, he is yeast that makes the dough of our lives rise, he is treasure in the field and the pearl to be sought for when we encounter Jesus we encounter the kingdom of heaven.

One of the issues the church and each us face in this complex and diverse world in which we live is whether we believe this message of hope and good news and how we respond to it.

As I personally sift through the options that are being touted I continually return to those scholars of excellence who are able to read the tradition in which we stand, that is to say the old, taking into account contemporary scholarship, that is to say the new.

For me these are the scribes of the kingdom of heaven of our day and whilst I believe none see entirely clearly they offer a witness to Jesus Christ as the one in and through whom we are reconciled with God.

The Basis of Union whilst a product of the mid to late 20th century I believe continues to express for us a way in which to understand and respond to the good news of Jesus Christ as the church.

This is what it says about who we are together as the church:

The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church's call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ's death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come. On the way Christ feeds the Church with Word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the Spirit in order that it may not lose the way.

If you and I are seeking the kingdom of heaven and so seeking Jesus and are living as the church then the question for all of us is are we being a fellowship of reconciliation and are we using our gifts for the building up of the whole – is Christ bearing witness through us.

This is not just about what we do for ourselves as a community but how we too live as yeast and seed in the world around us because Christ is witnessing through us, through our very lives.

Jesus finished his parables by asking the disciples “Do you understand all this?” Maybe they did, maybe the problem was not their understanding but their commitment to what it meant for them in how they were to live.

Maybe this is an issue for us as well.

Yet maybe there is in the confusing generation in which we live an issue of understanding, an issue of accepting and following and believing.

Yet the good news is that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ and the kingdom of heaven like the mustard seed or yeast will grow and you and I who encounter it will seek it for in seeking it we will live as witnesses to kingdom of heaven which has come near.

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!"

The diversity of the fish in our oceans is as astounding as the diversity of humanity. It is truly wondrous to go to an aquarium and sit and watch the multitude of vibrant colours and shapes and sizes of the fish as the glide by the glass.

Of course what might not be immediately apparent to the undiscerning eye is that some of the fish are poisonous, even deadly for human beings.


Jesus once told a parable describing the kingdom of heaven as being like a fisherman who cast a net into the sea and pulled up a variety of fish. With his expert eye the fisherman was able to sort the good catch from the rubbish fish that had to be cast aside.

It is a parable of a promised future in which only the good things of this creation will find a future, those things and people whom God chooses.


Could it be that Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven like this because as the catch it is beyond us to satisfactorily work out who is in the basket and who, if any, are left to rot?


If this is the case then maybe we, who will be God’s catch, rather than worry about including or excluding others, should simply swim the oceans of life midst the colourful diversity of humanity.


And as we do so, to do so thankful for the life that we have and grateful that we do not have to be the ones to makes such momentous decisions as who is on and who is out.

(Photo from Creative Commons)

Casting off the smelly fish

Is there any good news in the idea that God is going to get rid of the bad fish?

Christians are often judged for being judgmental.

Is there any wonder that this is the case given passages like the Parable of the Net (Matt 13:47-51) which appears to indicate an end time when God will cast off those smelly fish that really only deserve dumping.

I suspect that Christian or not most people do recognize that there is a problem of evil in the world. This evil can be found within the whole spectrum of people: those of great faith right through to those of none.

For this reason the idea that the evil in this world might be cast aside at some point by God should carry some weight for most.

I suspect the problem for Christianity is when some Christians begin to take the place of the one who casts the net in the story. That is to say, they see themselves in the place of God and so assume the ability to work out which of the fish we are sharing the sea with the fisherman is going to discard.

Is it possible that when Jesus told this parable not only was he putting a hope before us, a time when the evil will be dealt with, but also reminding us that it is not our business to make decisions of how that catch should be sorted?

Peter Lockhart

And God said

Peter Lockhart  Genesis 1

Whenever any of us are confronted by an issue or a question about our lives we are influenced in our decisions making and our direction by the voices around us. There are many voices around us, friends and family, people on the radio and TV, blogs and websites, and books that we read. And there are the voices within us: the voice of our own memories and our conscience. 

One of the voices that we have an option to seek to listen to is the voice of God as it comes to us through the scriptures but it is not an easy voice to hear or understand. This morning we heard read the story of creation from the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible. This story is a somewhat controversial story for many reasons and has become a stumbling for many in their willingness to accept and listen to the voice of God as it speaks to us through the scriptures. 

This morning I want to just pick up one phrase from the story to begin to explore the difficulties of reading the Bible. In Genesis 1 we read, “And God said.” These may seem fairly innocuous words but they are repeated 10 times in the chapter. Whoever wrote this story wanted us to know that God was speaking because he kept making the point, “And God said.” 

Now for the moment I am not overly concerned with what God said simply the claim that God spoke at the moment of creation. I remember years ago being troubled by this whole story of creation and the notion that the story is supposed to convey what God said at the moment of creation. In terms of logic and reasonable thinking this claim borders on the nonsensical. 

 It’s a bit like that question “if a tree falls in the forest does anyone hear it” “If God spoke at the dawning of creation does anyone hear it” 

Of course I can romanticise the answer and suggest something along the lines that the echoes of God’s voice continue to resound in every moment of our existence and the wonder of creation. But this kind of romanticising of the voice of God does not deal with the claim that is being made by the storyteller, to know exactly what God says. 

 Based in the knowledge that there was no one there to hear what God said and neither can we present any scientific or historical proof of God’s words it would be easy to dismiss the voice of the scriptures as being important in shaping my life because the claims are not scientifically or historically true. But, and this is a vital but, I don’t believe that the point of the story is to claim that this actually what happened but rather to say something about the nature of God and what the creation is in relationship to God. 

So the truth of the story lays not in some historical claim but in the truth the reveal about God. Each phrase, each word, recorded by the author carries weight as it unfolds before us who God is and what God is like and through the discovery of the meaning of the words so we may even hear God’s voice speaking to us. 

If we approach the scripture in this way the question might then be not whether it is historically true but what does it tell us about God that God speaks? “And God said.” Here are just a few quick observations. 

 First off, in affirming that God speaks the scriptures tell us that God chooses to communicate with humanity in a way in which human beings can relate to and understand. Moreover, it would seem to me that there is no logical necessity for God to speak, so in God speaking God make this choice for relationship: a choice to love what God is making. 

Second, that when God speaks there is authority and power in his words. Without going too much into the content of God’s words what occurs in the story is that when God speaks there is a consistency between what God says and what occurs. “Let there be light”, and there was light! 

Now I could say more on this but I wanted to make a fundamental point here about how we read the Bible and whether or not the voice of God is worth listening to in the course of our existence. 

If we try to ask is the Bible “true” in a logical or forensic scientific sense then we come into having problems in the first few verses but if we listen for the theological truth of the scriptures what we encounter is that the God we believe in speaks and God speaks because of God’s choice to love and God speaks with authority. This is good news for all of us and the whole creation.

The Message of John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1-12

John the Baptist sought to expose the truth about the unfaithfulness of the Israelites and to challenge the status quo of power and authority.

John preached repentance and baptised those who were willing to confess their sin. When the Pharisees and Scribes appeared he called them names. He reviled them. He pulled no punches.

This wild man from the desert places with his camel hair clothing and unruly behaviour preached repentance and so declared that people were sinners who needed to turn back to God.

In this John becomes the midwife for the coming of Jesus. He is leading the ante-natal class as he prepares the people of God for the incarnation of God.

John’s message was that God’s people and even more so their leaders had strayed from God’s ways.

John’s message sits as uncomfortably now as it did back then. We live in a theological and spiritually stunted age which shies away from naming sin.

Yet naming sin, even in our lives, is not very difficult. It is easy for me to point the finger at us all in crass sentimentalism and consumerism through this Christmas period. I read this week this statement on Byron Smith’s blog:

Today is the first day of the liturgical new year. At this time of year, Christians await the coming of the Messiah; pagans go shopping. Christians yearn for a new world; pagans max out the credit card. Christians fast and pray; pagans hurry around in fear of missing a bargain or not having the right present for everyone.

Peace on earth: it's a promise based on the coming of the King; it's an experience tasted by those who wait for his advent.

I reflected on the behaviour of many people in the Kairos congregations, amongst my friends and even in my own family and decided that many of us look more like pagans than Christians.

But we are told not to speak of sin and of people as sinners because it is too negative, too demoralising. Don’t be negative, this is the season for joy, but my question is does everyone get a share in this consumerist joy?

We celebrate the ascension of humanity and our command of all things. Our scientific know how has made us arrogant. Those who speak of sin are seen as too conservative or old fashion – trying to give people a guilt complex and destroy their self esteem.

Yet the experience of many in this age which has been liberated from the talk of sin is not joyfully abundant life but anxiety and depression. The weight of the world is upon us for we are meant to be perfect. We use words like progress and growth to describe our journey as a human race to indicate we are getting better as people, but problems still plague us.

John’s message that we are a sinful people holds as true now as it did for the Jews so long ago.

This is difficult news to hear but it also explains a heck of a lot. Even when we seek to do good, often our actions can have unseen consequences which break down and destroy rather than build up.

The proclamation of the failure of Israel to be faithful to God’s promises and God’s faithfulness is to become the message on which the good news of the incarnation is to be built.

John is preparing the way for Jesus who comes to create the reconciliation needed between God and all people and ultimately the whole creation within his life, in his very flesh.

John’s call to repentance sets the context. As people who seek to turn to God, even those who repented and were baptised, we still need God’s help, God’s intervention in our predicament.

We cannot climb the ladder of holiness up to God, yet the good news is that in God’s grace God chooses to come and walk among us in Jesus and to heal our disease.

This may seem a negative view of humanity but God spins this negativity into a message of hope. Hope that our relationships can be reconciled, hope that we are loved in spite of our failures, hope that beyond our personal experiences of life and death God is and God loves and God redeems.

This is the good news that John prepares the way for. It is the good news that we prepare our hearts for as we approach the celebration of Jesus birth. It is the good news that we proclaim in a world that is so often blind to sin and its consequences.

Social Isolation

by Peter Lockhart

I grew up in country towns where you walked down the street and for the most part got a nod and smile from people as you walked past. People you knew stopped to chat. Even driving on the roads people gave an acknowledgement lifting a hand or even simply a few fingers from the wheel as they drove past. Even if you didn't know people there was a basic acknowledgement of our shared existence.

Living in Brisbane I marvel at the notion that we are socially isolated beings in the city. Walking through a shopping centre which has 100s even 1000s of people you can feel totally alone. No one looks you in the eye and if you try to acknowledge another passing consumer more often than not their eyes dart away to some point of oblivion off in the distance. Even interactions with people on the check out in some stores is being taken away from us in the ever greater quest for expedience.

Yet God made us for community and relationships. God invites us to get to know the stranger and to help each other be all that we can be. God sends us out to share good news with others, but if we are not allowed to communicate apart from via electronic means like facebook how do we really grow in a relationship well enough to say what difference Jesus has made to my life.

As I look at my own interactions I wonder how well I am doing. How well are you doing? Do you know your neighbours names? Do you talk to strangers you see regularly and build a relationship? Or do you live in relationship ghettos which keep the curtains firmly closed and the security code on the door? What is an appropriate Christian response to this manufactured social isolation?