THEME: ACT

Meditation

Ponder this quote from Rosa Parks –

“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.”

Sara Jewell has written this about Justice (I invite you to sue the pauses to ponder what God is saying);

We normally think of justice as

“punishment for the wrongdoer” –

underlined with plenty of righteousness and judgement and holier-than-them.

But let’s consider justice in the context of our faith.

Justice is a way of “being right in the world” –

this doesn’t mean “I’m right and you’re wrong” but rather,

to be in right relationship.

It means to live – to act and think and speak – in the way God wants us to live…

Shalom is all the blessings of peace, harmony, wholeness, prosperity, well-being, and tranquility.

Can I get an amen for shalom?

Justice is defined as “fair treatment” and that’s the foundation of “right relationship”:

peace, harmony, wholeness, prosperity, well-being, and tranquility –

for everyone…

As a young Jewish boy, this is what Jesus learned at synagogue. He would have known all about shalom.

Long before he started his ministry as an adult,

he was listening and learning about justice from the prophets.

And from the “Song of Hannah,” from 1 Samuel 2, which doesn’t use the word “justice” in it, but does include verses like these: “The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil … [The Lord] raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes …” (4–5, 8a, NRSV).

Sound familiar?

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones but has lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52–53, NRSV).

That’s a verse from another song, Mary’s “Magnificat,” recorded in the gospel of Luke.

We usually hear it on the first Sunday of Advent.

So shalom – justice and fair treatment –

is the early influence of Jesus –

it’s what he heard throughout his childhood and his studies at the temple.

Shalom is the reason he grew up to believe he had to try to free Israel,

and the people of God,

from the oppression and occupation of the Romans.

To bring about peace, harmony, wholeness, prosperity, well-being, and tranquility

through the new way he envisioned.

Peace through love, not violence –

through arms that reach out to help, not arms that kill.

What an example he sets for the 21st century,

when it seems we are held captive

by the same kind of empire,

one that is just as oppressive, violent, and greedy,

just as hierarchical, patriarchal, and racist,

just as deeply rooted and resistant to change.

We tend to focus on how Jesus’ ministry ends:

with his trial and death –

after all, his crucifixion and resurrection are two of the pillars of our Christian faith –

but we can’t underestimate the load-bearing beam that is his ministry,

especially when it comes to justice.

The gospel of Luke also gives us the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when he stands up in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and unrolls a scroll to quote the prophet Isaiah: “…because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18, NRSV).

Holy Hannah!

This moment is Jesus clearly stating the work he has come to do.

The work of justice.

Bringing good news to the poor.

Releasing those who are captive.

Giving sight to those who cannot see.

Freeing the oppressed.

The work of justice.

For everyone.

(From “J is for Justice” in Alphabet of Faith by Sara Jewell. Copyright © 2021 Sara Jewell, Wood Lake Publishing Inc. Used by permission by ‘Seasons of the Spirit’, Mediacom)

BUT what actions can we actually do in the face of so much injustice?

Rev Stephanie Wells

Stories That Shape Us

The lectionary has us following the journey of Moses and his people from a place of exile to home. The solution to exile is to return home. Life in exile is difficult, and today for many refugees in our midst returning home is impossible, so it is necessary for them to find a new home.

When the Persians conquered Babylon they allowed the captive Israelites to return home. The Moses story demonstrates that returning home is not without its challenges.

Marcus Borg in his book ” Meeting Jesus again for the First Time” Identifies three macro stories in the Old Testament, two of them grounded in the history of ancient Israel.

The first macro story is the journey of the tribes of Israel under the leadership of Abraham travelling to their promised land. This remembered story is a story of slaves  escaping bondage. For Abraham and his people it was a journey of some 40 years to the promised land. Abraham cemented in his people the understanding of one true God at a time when many gods were worshipped. Abraham was obedient to the voice he heard– ” Leave your country, your people, and your fathers household, and go to the land I will show you.’ ‘.

Like all religious journeys God travelled alongside Abraham and his people, the Spirit was with them. through many trials and tribulations until they reached the promised place. It is a story of escape from bondage to freedom, a journey and a destination, the leaving behind one life for another. This is the primal narrative of the Jewish people forever remembered at the annual festival of the passover .

The second biblical narrative is that of Moses leading his people from an oppressive slave existence back to their home, the once promised land .They experienced God in their midst aiding and assisting them.

“God gives power to the faint,

And strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will be faint and be weary,

The young will fall exhausted,

But those who wait on Yahweh

Shall renew their strength,

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.”

It is on this journey that Moses received the 10 commandments.

.

Think in our time, of Nelson Mandela who with much generous graciousness returned home forgiving those who had incarcerated him, or Bishop Tutu who through Truth and Reconciliation gatherings tirelessly worked to encourage the resolution of conflict and hatred.

The religious journey beckons us into the presence of the divine. We can lose our way, We can become overcome by tragedy or discord. A sacred journey enables us to find our way home back, healed, empowered and back to the familiar; home.

Key Biblical figures, such as Abraham, and Moses who led epic journeys, are venerated in Christian Jewish and Islamic faiths. The New Testament is the sacred text for Christians of many hues, Catholics, Episcipalians, Greek Orthodox ,Coptic ,Protestants,. Evangelicals, and more. Sacred texts they have in common but so often little effective interfaith gatherings or inter denominational interaction occurs as they walk their particular faith journey’s.

What is the truth, what is the right way? Continue reading Sunday 20th August →

Christ’s Presence in Storms of Chaos

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 

We now move to the next generation and begin the Joseph story.  We need to remember that Jacob had been renamed Israel at the wrestling incident because both names are used in this reading that begins in the household enterprise of ‘Jacob and Sons.’^[1]

The family dysfunction that is being passed on from generation to generation now takes a deadly turn with the suggestion to kill Joseph.  This is mediated by one of the brothers and when the chance to profit by Joseph’s demise presents itself his life is saved by selling him into slavery.  Of interest is that it is the descendants of the other branch of Abraham’s family, the Ishmaelites, that save Joseph and save the divine promise.    Maurice Andrew notes that the promise is put in danger by family conflict but Joseph has the ability to channel the conflict into survival for them all because he understands God acting through the events.^[2]

Matthew 14:22-33

At this point the gospel has moved from teaching through parables to the feeding episode. To get there the disciples cross over the lake and in today’s episode they cross back.  These crossing episodes are a feature of Mark and Matthew’s Gospels where one section is joined to another by a crossing episode.

Jesus is shown to have control of the sea and the storm which is a divine creative action.  In Canaanite mythology God creates the world by pushing back the waters of chaos and there are hints of this in the Genesis creation accounts as well as in Proverbs.

We should also remember that God saved the people by pushing back the waters of the sea when they were escaping from Egypt, a new creation of a new people, and this chapter of Matthew contained the wilderness feeding so Matthew is continuing the new people of God through a new Moses theme.

Warren Carter points out that there is an instruction here to rely on Jesus in tough times and the rough sea symbolises the power of evil and chaos that rebel against God. ^[3]  This is an episode in which Jesus does God acts in front of the disciples and they affirm his divinity.

Sermon

I am an only child, so I did not experience sibling rivalry.  However, although our two boys get on well together their journey to adulthood had its sibling rivalries.

One of the incidents I still remember is a time when they and the neighbour’s children built a fort between the garage and the fence.  I heard my eldest declare that they would need some rules for their fort.  To which the younger responded ‘Yea and the first rule is don’t think your smart.’

Certainly, we get the impression that Joseph thought he was smart.  However, he was the youngest of the family and learned the hard lesson that he didn’t walk on water.

Sent out to find his brothers he was separated from parental protection and his brothers took action to rid themselves of his taunting presence.

Initially the brothers had murderous intent. But, although neoliberalism hadn’t been invented, they finally adopted a strategy of asset sales.  So, Joseph was traded to wandering Ishmaelite traders.  Continue reading Sunday 13th August →

A dream of peace.

Peace Sunday

Dr Barbara A Peddie.

Today is Peace Sunday. And as this year has ground on, with one disaster following another, the notion of peace seems more and more like an impossible dream. Outside our islands there is war and destruction in many countries. Here in Aotearoa the violence between groups of people who think differently, never mind what the issue is,  seems to be growing more and more dangerous. What good can we do, sitting here on a Sunday morning, and asking God for peace?

Of course, we turn our attention, and our hopes and dreams, to what’s happening in the world around us every Sunday. It’s our duty – our calling – to turn our thoughts to the world around us and pray for the good of all creation. It just seems, on a day like today, that whatever we do hasn’t had much of an impact – if any. Maybe we should stick to the lectionary and forget about this special Sunday?

Peace in our world is a very rare gift. Of course, some governments say: ‘we will have peace’ without putting anything in place to achieve it. And what they are really saying is, our nation will go about its daily life in safety, never mind what’s happening out there. What they don’t acknowledge is that unilateral peace comes at a high price.  Consider the reaction to terrorist outrages. Governments say: ‘We will root out terrorism.’ They don’t usually add: – ‘and we won’t necessarily be too dainty in the methods we use for doing so’, but in practice, that’s what often happens. As a result, a climate of fear builds up, and fear breeds violence, and violence breeds revenge – and so the cycles of war continue.

‘For heaven’s sake, let’s have peace at any price!’ How often have you heard that phrase or something very much like it? And how often do you stop and think about what it really means? How high a price are we prepared to pay? And for whose sake? Usually, if we’re honest, for our own sake. Most of us, given a choice, would avoid conflict if we possibly could. There are a few rare people whose outlook on life is such that they choose to sail into an argument with all banners flying – but they’re a minority. Continue reading Sunday 6th August →