Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Acts 3: 12-19

Peter’s sermon to this impromptu audience begins by identifying the God he refers to as the Jewish God and this God has glorified Jesus.  William Barclay says the early preachers never regarded themselves as sources of power but only challenges of power and this he says is the key to the Christian life. ‘Not I but Christ in me’.

Peter goes on to offer mercy and warning. Those who crucified Jesus did so out of ignorance, but that ignorance is no longer possible because of the resurrection, therefore there are no excuses for rejecting Jesus.  Barclay notes the text blames the Jews for the crucifixion and this blame has played a significant part in some appalling acts of anti-Semitism over the last two thousand years.  We need to recognise that, under Roman rule, Jesus was legally executed, and that execution critiques all empires and all power systems.  The resurrection calls us to live differently, and we are all vulnerable to being sucked into systems that deliver us comfort while disempowering others.

Luke 24: 36b-48.

The details here are similar to last week’s account from John and it is slightly odd that, as Christ arrives in the midst of a discussion about the resurrection, the disciples are said to be terrified and thought they had seen a Ghost.  But Luke is using this story to point out that whatever the experience of meeting the risen Christ is it is not about being frightened by a ghost.  Jesus’ identity is verified by the marks of the crucifixion and his reality by the eating of the fish.  Both these verifications were also used in John’s Gospel which would indicate that both writers had access to similar sources, or equally possible John had access to the synoptic gospels, but his more Gnostic or spiritual agenda makes this less apparent when compared with Mark, Matthew and Luke.

Sermon

I recently watched the documentary ‘Escaping Utopia’ and the comment that really shocked me was the young mother, who was obviously miserable, living in squalor in India.  When her sister challenged her she agreed her life was miserable but added, ‘The Lord will return soon, there is so much bad in the world, he must come soon.’

I reflected sadly on all those who, like her, have endured exploitation for thousands of years on the promise that God will build a new world for the righteous.

In fact, one of the mistakes the disciples made was their expectation of a superhero messiah.  Today’s readings are about their realisation of what Jesus’ mission was really about.  The startling realisation that they are the resurrection.

The gospel writers are also encouraging us to realise that is also true for us. As Christ lived in them so Christ lives in us and in the power of Christ we are called to transform our world.

The greenies are right, there is no planet B. As followers of Jesus, we are called to build a new heaven and a new earth.  Christ is risen in us!

The post Easter gospel readings have rightly been about the first disciples meeting the Risen Christ.  The question for us in those readings is ‘how do we meet the Risen Christ’.  We also should note what the readings tell us the Risen Christ is not.

Luke is very helpful because he gives us a selection of possibilities and to truly appreciate that we must look at the textural context of today’s reading.

Jesus appears in today’s reading to all the disciples together when Peter has returned after a meeting with the Risen Christ at the empty tomb.  The couple who met Christ on the Emmaus Road have also returned and related their experiences.

This episode is opposite to the Emmaus Road encounter where the couple recognise Christ in sharing a meal after he had opened the scripture to them on the journey.  In this episode the disciples verify Christ’s identity and then he opens the scripture to them and eats with them.

So perhaps Luke is stressing that there are different ways of meeting Christ.

But the point of the Risen Christ eating a piece of fish it that the disciples are not meeting with a ghost.  So why are they frightened?

Perhaps they are frightened because of the realisation that Christ is risen in them.  They are the ones who have to build the new heaven and the new earth.  It’s a scary prospect and church history testifies that plenty of people suffered a similar fate to Jesus for standing for what is right.

The gospel writers are very clear what the resurrection is not.  Even if the challenge of the resurrection may be frightening the resurrection is not a ghost or an hallucination.  From Luke’s account the Risen Christ can be met at the empty tomb, on a journey or more particularly when we break bread with a stranger.  The Risen Christ can also be met as people gather to talk about their religious experiences.  Meeting together and sharing food together is about meeting with the Christ in each of us.

Most importantly those meetings with Christ the readings describe, involve sharing the scripture together and seeing Christ in the context of the Hebrew Scripture or Old Testament.

Some people dismiss the Old Testament, but the Gospels only make sense in the context of what has gone before.  This is apparent in the Acts reading where Peter first defines the God he is referring to from the scripture of his religious tradition before introducing Jesus. Continue reading Sunday 14th April →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Isaiah 25: 6-9

This passage is part of what is referred to as ‘the Isaiah Apocalypse because the verses are seen as resembling the apocalyptic works from about the third century BCE onwards.

The passage we read contains the remarkable statement that God will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces.  Maurice Andrew suggests it is likely that the reference is not to life after death.  Instead he writes that the writer has constructed a poetic picture of the total transformation of the human condition.^[1]

Mark 16: 1-8

Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza says that Mark’s naming of Peter, Andrew, James and John at the beginning of the Gospel and naming four women at the foot of the cross at the conclusion of Jesus’ mission indicates that the disciples included both men and women.  Schüssler Fiorenza names the four women as Mary of Magdala, Mary the daughter or wife of James the younger, the mother of Joses, and Salome.

To get four women she has placed a comma in a different place to the NRSV but the original Greek text would not have had the punctuation so this is just as valid an interpretation as other translators. .^[2]

Sermon

The resurrection is not just an historical event that happened long ago, the resurrection is ongoing, and we are the resurrection in our world.

In 1971 Hodder and Stoughton published a book by Lloyd Geering called Resurrection-A Symbol of Hope.  Sir Lloyd had already caused division in the PCANZ before that.  In 1967 he was charged with “doctrinal error” and “disturbing the peace and unity of the (Presbyterian) church”.  The charge was dismissed and I doubt that any of those who brought the charge were knighted for services to Religious Education or live to be 106.

More to the point Resurrection-A Symbol of Hope pretty much sums up what Easter morning means for us.  Indeed, it is what the resurrection means for all Christians past present and future.

In our reading from Mark’s Gospel the heavenly messenger tells the women at the empty tomb that Jesus is not there, he has been raised.  Then he gives them a mission:

‘But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him just as he told you.’ (Mark 16:7)

We can’t make a pilgrimage to Christ’s tomb because he is not there.  There are plenty of tombs of great figures in the past that are major tourist attractions but not the tomb of Jesus.

The Risen Christ is going on ahead of us and has gone on ahead of us for more than two thousand years. Furthermore, the women were instructed to tell the disciples that the Risen Christ will meet them in Galilee. That was their home town and Christ meets us in our home, the place where we live, earn our living, raise our families and so on.  As Bill Wallace wrote ‘Christ is risen in our lives’.

The Risen Christ is a symbol of hope, and we are all called to follow that Christ and be that Christ in our world.

Maurice Andrew suggests the writer of our reading from Isaiah has constructed a poetic picture of the total transformation of the human condition.

That makes the passage an ideal reading for Easter Sunday because that is the message of the resurrection. It was the call from the empty tomb to the disciples who disserted Jesus after he was arrested. Continue reading Sunday 31st March →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Snakes and Darkness to the Light of Christ

Numbers 21: 4-9

This reading opens with a typical whinging in the wilderness prevalent in the Exodus saga and moves into a strange story that, Maurice Andrew says is not to be taken literally but, seeks to explain that the bronze serpent, which was to be found in the temple, was not a forbidden graven image.

The complaints arise in our reading because the Edomites refused to allow passage through their land so a detour had to be made.^[1]

The significance for us is the allusion to it in John’s Gospel where the image of the snake on the pole is substituted by the crucified Jesus.

Hear what the spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

John 3:14-21

This reading is part of the theological discourse given to Nicodemus which starts at the beginning of chapter 3 with Nicodemus coming in the night to Jesus.

From the opening of this sermon on, salvation by baptism, Jesus uses crucifixion as a saving symbol.  Just as the serpent, a symbol of evil from Genesis, becomes a symbol that heals those afflicted by snake bites so the symbol of evil in a cruel and tortuous death, becomes a symbol that gives life and, lifting up to die on the cross, becomes lifting up to resurrection.

In Numbers, God passes judgement on the people but in this passage the judgement is self-judgement in accepting the transforming light or ignoring it.

Bill Loader writes:

This sets the scene for 3:14-15 which belong closely with what precedes. The Son of Man must be ‘lifted up’. Like the ascent in 3:13 this refers to the event which begins at Jesus’ death. ‘Lifted up’ is wonderfully ambiguous. He will be lifted up on a cross. He will also be lifted up/exalted to God’s presence. John plays on the double meaning in typical fashion.  Here he uses what may have already been a traditional association between Jesus’ death and the snakes in the wilderness. A Crucified Jesus is like the bronze snake which Moses fashioned and put on a pole.

John is tending away from a picture of God who wants to punish people forever towards a picture of God who wants life for people.  Whatever our own solution to the issues of inclusion and exclusion, John’s Gospel asks us to recognise, that to reject the love, light and truth we see in Jesus, is to choose death.^[2]

Sermon

As a boy I used to listen to a radio programme called ‘My Word.’   You will not be surprised to learn that I liked it because of the way it manipulated words in a way that was funny.  In the introduction the listener was told that it was a programme about words by people whose business was words.

John the Gospel writer was obviously in the word business.  He manipulated words extracting meaning from them in the way he twisted and arranged them.  Many of the writers of what we call the Old Testament played the same games and if we could read ancient Hebrew, we would find that they used puns as well as allusion and quotations from older texts.

This twisting and turning of words and meaning is very apparent in today’s Gospel reading that contains layer upon layer of meaning as John passes on to us the passion he has for following Jesus, and his enthusiasm for encouraging others to also follow Jesus.

The interesting thing about the use of a snake as a symbol in today’s readings is that it is an image that twists and turns through scripture in a very snake like way.

Beginning in Genesis it is the serpent that tempts humanity away from the limitations God imposes.  The snake therefore becomes the symbol of the evil side of humanity that turns away from God.

Therefore, it is logical that image is picked up in our Numbers reading where snakes are the punishment for complaining about the freedom God has given the people.

Complaining about freedom’, or as I like to call it, ‘whinging in the wilderness’ is a constant theme that runs through the Exodus saga and highlights the reality that to be truly free means to live off the resources of the journey.

We have recently remembered the devastating damage Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted on the North Island bring floods and loss of life to Auckland and isolating parts of the East Coast around Gisborne.

As the stories of those isolated communities emerged, we not only learned of acts of heroism but also people who did what they could with what they had.  People who had bulldozers and people who had inflatable boats who cleared paths and recued people off roofs.  Surf lifesavers that took their IRBs up rivers instead of out to sea.  People who accepted the journey and made the most of what they had.

But complaining about adversity and inconvenience is also alive and well in Aotearoa.  We recently lived through the first and most deadly wave of a pandemic.  Our death rate was lower than most nations in the world.  But just like Moses’ people folk had to divert their journey to avoid conflict.  There was a cost to avoiding a potentially deadly pandemic.  Closed boarders enforced quarantine, and compulsory vaccination for those employed caring for people interfered with a lot of peoples’ individual journeys and personal beliefs.  So, they not only complained bitterly but made up alternative facts.

Recently real estate agent Janet Dickson has taken legal action against her Continue reading Sunday 10th March →

Rev Barbara Peddie

Pattern for living

A sermon on Exodus 20: 1-17 and John 2: 13-22. Lent 3B 2024

In these days of rising costs, ever-increasing lists of repairs left undone, resident Covid, and ever-louder voices of protesters, it takes an effort of will to move into the place of expectation that Lent brings to us. Just now, it’s definitely not easy to believe that God is about to do a new thing.

Well, it certainly wasn’t easy for the exodus Israelites in the desert, and it’s even harder today for the Palestinians in the wreckage and bloodshed of Gaza and the Ukrainians constantly listening for the next explosions. In these times, just as much as in the time of Moses there’s constant challenge and uncertainty and worry and fear about what tomorrow might bring. So maybe today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures comes at a very appropriate time for us. Although, for the Israelites in the desert, when God did do a new thing and gifted them with Torah – the Law – it’s possible they felt like it was like being kicked when they were down. Who wants rules and regulations when survival is top of the priority list? Who wants more challenges in a way forward? As far as the Israelites were concerned, all they wanted was to stop wandering and settle down in a good place!

The appearance of the Decalogue in the midst of the readings for Lent comes as a surprise. We’ve heard it all before. For my generation, the Ten Commandments were given a fair hammering. Moreover, the Sunday School stuff was probably overlaid with a heap of non-biblical imagery that can be very hard to shake off. Altogether, it’s hard to think of those 10 commandments, or laws, or ‘words’ as a gift of God to God’s people. But they were and they are. Walter Bruggemann writes, they’re a ‘proclamation in God’s own mouth of who God is and how God shall be “practised” by this community of liberated slaves.’ It’s about the ‘how’ of living in covenant with the faithful God of Abraham, – and Jesus. And God’s faithfulness is not a response to the people’s obedience. Fortunately! Continue reading Sunday 3rd March →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Transfiguration

Readings

2 Kings 2:1-12

Today’s reading is about Elisha succeeding Elijah and we should note that Elijah has to cross over the Jordan to fulfil his destiny then, in the passage immediately following today’s reading, Elisha crosses back to fulfil that promised ministry.

Moses led the people across the Red Sea to leave Egypt and Joshua leads them across the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.

As we listen to the crossing of the Jordan bringing new promise in today’s reading remember that earlier this year we looked at John the Baptizer appearing as the new Elijah by the banks of the Jordan.  We also read that in baptism Jesus comes up out of the Jordan and instead of the waters parting the heavens parted, a truly new beginning.

Andrew notes that all biblical religion depends on succession and that understanding not only helps us cope with our world but helps us understand the message the Gospel writers bring us as they explain Jesus as a continuation of their religious tradition.

Mark 9:2-9

Context is always important because so much of the gospel writer’s message is delivered in the way the story is assembled.

Chapter 8 begins with a great crowd following Jesus to the point where, if they went back to their homes for food, they would collapse on the way.

We learned in our first reading that new beginnings have got something to do with crossing water and dividing things.  However, with Moses as the model we also know that when people of God take people away from home on the way to something new they are expected to feed them.  Jesus does that by feeding four thousand. (Mark 8:9)

Then the Pharisees come and ask for a sign and the disciples worry about not having bread and we are left with the impression that neither the Pharisees nor the disciples can see what is happening.  Jesus then heals a blind man who sees very well.

That brings us to the turning point of the Gospel at the return from Caesarea Philippi where Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah but does not understand about Jesus’ death.

In today’s reading a representative group of disciples are taken to a secluded place and have a spiritual experience of Jesus’ identity.

Sermon

Through their understanding of their religious tradition and scripture Peter, James and John had formed a reasoned understanding of who Jesus was.  That framed the spiritual experience described in our reading and was the structure Mark used to describe it.

So are our spiritual experiences also constructed in our minds by our religious tradition and scripture, and if so can they still guide us to our best possible future.

Maurice Andrew writes that ‘All biblical religion depends on succession.  What comes feeds on the past, and what is past leads to what comes’[1]  A very wise comment from a very astute biblical scholar but it goes further than simply acknowledging biblical structure.  Innovation in the human society also feeds on the past.  Practices and understandings from the past help to build new knowledge, structures, organisations and ways of living in the future.  The rapid development of the covid vaccine was based on years of vaccination science and practise.

The Bible is built on a structure that recognises that experience and spiritual insight from the past informs the future.  The reason why Christians put so much emphasis on reading the Bible is this reality that spiritual insight from the past will not only inform our lives now but guide us to the future.

The Bible is a collection of books, that’s why it is called the Bible. It is not a book of rules called Spiritual Direction for Dummies.

The Bible has a collection of rules but also, history and stories.  All of which are assembled in a pattern of succession where the past informs the future and episodes in one time are reflected in earlier times.

Therefore, the Bible reflects real life and offers us both a foundation and a framework to build our own religious response to our world.

Our gospel reading is built on a previous episode and the imagery in the vision described reflects past scripture and religious tradition.

Jesus and the disciples took time out in the gentile resort of Caesarea Philippi.  That was not Jewish territory, but it was a place of considerable ancient religious significance.  Building on the past is an interfaith experience.

On the way back from Caesarea Philippi Jesus instigates a discussion about his identity.  Where does he fit in their religious tradition and perhaps other religious traditions?

Mark’s Gospel gives us two prompts from Jesus.  Who do people say he is, and who do the disciples say he is?  After going through a number of significant figures from their religious and cultural tradition Peter finally proclaims Jesus as the Messiah.

That was a reasoned conclusion based on the religious tradition of the past. It was also a conclusion derived from the difficulties people experienced in the disciples’ time.

Through reasoning they were led to believe that God would send new leadership in the future.  God would send a messiah.  The disciples concluded Jesus’ actions and teaching came so close to what tradition said about a messiah that he must be the expected messiah. Continue reading Sunday 11th February →

Rev Barbara Peddie

God’s work – and ours

Epiphany 5B and Waitangi

This was one of the times when I was tempted to move away from the set lectionary readings – although as it happens there was a choice for this Sunday. There’s a separate set for Epiphany 5 and Waitangi Day and this is the closest Sunday to Waitangi Day. But, in the end I opted for the readings for Epiphany 5. But, let’s face it, they’re a challenge!

In these days, where the news is full of death and disaster, both in the wider world where there is war and misery and desperation in far too many countries, and in our own land where the new year has begun with fire and storm, far too many deaths on the roads and in the water, and violence in the streets, it’s hard to take real comfort from Isaiah’s hymn to the everlasting Lord who “gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless”, or from the Psalmist who sings of the Lord who “heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.” Tell that to the people of Gaza and Ukraine and wait for their reaction!

And the reading from Mark has its own challenges. Jesus’ healing stories are hard for us. We know both too much about illnesses and not enough. We know that fevers are often caused by infections, and we know how to deal with them. We know that some mental illnesses are genetic in origin, and some are caused by chemical imbalances, and there are ways of treating them. But we also know that some diseases are unexplained and uncontrollable. And we know that wellness means more than physical wellbeing. There is a spiritual dimension to health, and there is a ministry of healing.

I’m not saying that God doesn’t heal. There are times when the veil between us and God – between what we see as reality, and what we feel as something other, or sacred, or numinous – whatever we call it – is thin. I think there are people with a healing ministry – who can make themselves channels for God to act as God chooses to act. I don’t, however, have much time for people who claim that power for themselves. And there’s more than one sort of healing ministry. We have people walking among us with gifts of reconciliation, or of mending the earth, or of recognising and calling out gifts in others. They’re all healers too. Continue reading Sunday 4th February →

Rev Stephanie Wells

Theme ” The Light Shines”

Epiphany 4

TEXTS:          Deuteronomy 18: 15-20,                    Mark 1: 21-28

Our news is often full of the cry that the young have no respect for authority. The strange thing is that we have heard this comment every generation as the young rebel against the rules and expectations of their elders.

‘Authority’ is a word that carries a lot of baggage. At this time of year we think of the authority teachers need in the classroom to make sure pupils actually get to learn. Teachers hope they won’t get students with authority issues – the ones that challenge their authority every moment. In turn pupils hope that they won’t get a teacher this year with authority issues either; the ones that are bossy and mean, and even worse the ones that have no control and let the classroom become a war zone where no one learns anything and each day is a case of the survival of the fittest.

We hear of parents too who have authority issues with their children; either being too soft or too tough on them. The government and its various agencies have also been worried about how parents exercise authority over their children. Unfortunately, according to many media reports, parents are either too harsh and should have their children taken off them or are accused of not taking enough responsibility for their child’s action and are told to be tougher. With all these conflicting ideas on authority it’s a wonder more parents don’t simply give up.

In the church we also get conflicting suggestions on this thing called authority. So much so I wonder whether some of us haven’t given up too. We are called to respect the authority of scripture. Which is something most people shouldn’t have too much problem about – right? Wrong! Because everyone who calls on the authority of the bible seems to have a different idea on what this means.

Some believe they can find a bible verse that supports everything they believe; (please note the order I said that). Some believe God dictated every word, in the language of the King James version, and this means other versions are evil. Some believe that every word has a divine meaning, or a cosmic meaning, or a hidden meaning based on a special code, usually their own. Bible passages have been used to justify wars, slavery, greed, all kinds of things we might regard as evil. Is it any wonder then that some people, even Christians, have become a little cynical about the claim of scriptural authority. Continue reading Sunday 28th January →

Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Voices in the Night and Encouragement

1 Samuel 3:1-10

Samuel you may remember was dedicated to God by his mother and given into the care of Eli the priest so he could be brought up to serve God.  In 1 Samuel 2:12 we are told:

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for Yahweh or for the duties of the priests to the people.

So in a time of hereditary leadership, we have a constitutional crisis looming with the dedicated successors to Eli demonstrating that they are clearly unsuitable. It is a time when people were not particularly in touch with God.  But today’s reading tells us how that is about to change and how that change comes from an unexpected direction.

John 1: 43-51

Mark, Matthew and Luke describe Jesus’ baptism. But John’s Gospel does not have a baptism scene as such.  Instead, John the Baptist describes what happened when he baptised Jesus.  In so doing he recommends Jesus as the one to follow on from his ministry to two of his own followers and they go to visit Jesus.  One of them, Andrew, then goes and brings his brother Simon to Jesus whom Jesus then names Peter, or Cephas in Latin which in Greek is Petros.  John wrote in Greek so there is a pun as Petros is confused with Petra the Greek word for ‘rock’.  That becomes relevant later as Jesus affirms Peter’s rock like dependability and authority.

The key issue here is that John the Baptist, who has had a vision of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at baptism, recommends Jesus to others who then pass on that recommendation.  Listen for that as.

SERMON

Sometime, in the not-too-distant past, a young dyslexic man is called back to work an extra shift because the person rostered on was sick.  His father had told him that if you are working for someone you should always treat their business as your own.  So, in spite of a promised diner date with the love of his life he went back to work.

What his boss hadn’t told him was that there would be a film crew in the restaurant making a documentary about restaurants.  That didn’t bother him because he worked in the kitchen.  He just worked away with his usual skill and control of multiple orders, as he usually did.  However, the film crew were fascinated by the way focused on his tasks, his manual dexterity, his cheery countenance and his ability to keep so many tasks going at the same time.  As a result, he featured extensively in the filming and when the producer saw the film crew’s results, the young man’s phone began to ring.

This year with the publication of his latest book, Five Ingredients Mediterranean that now not so young man became the author of the most non-fiction books in the United Kingdom.  He has also just had a series on our television called ‘Jamie’s Christmas Shortcuts.

He is of course Jamie Oliver MBE. And after I reheard him relate that story on a recent Graham Norton programme it mixed with my recent reading of Samuel’s night voices, and I woke with the thought:

‘How many times does a serendipitist moment change people’s lives.’  Was, being in the right place at the right time what Samuel’s night voices was all about?

Are we all called to be awake to those unexpected events that can change the direction of our lives? Should we always be ready to sing, even in the middle of the day. ‘Here I am, Lord, Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night’. Continue reading Sunday 14th January →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Isaiah 40:1-11

The voice that cries out in verse 3 is one from the heavenly council of divine beings mentioned in chapter 6.  Maurice Andrew says it is not a prophetic voice of someone in the wilderness that leads to the Christian application in introducing John the Baptist as ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’.  The wilderness is an allusion to Exodus and, in this case, is the way back from exile in Babylon.  The valleys being lifted up etc are lyrical metaphors for the way home from exile being made easy. ^[1]

Like all the prophetic writing this passage is about events at the time of writing but, just as Isaiah makes allusion to the Exodus wilderness, the gospel writers make allusion to the voice crying in the wilderness and, even though they read new meaning into it, that process is part of the genre of Hebrew sacred writing.

Mark 1: 1-8

Now we truly go to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel and our Advent preparation for the birth of Jesus in a sort of a walking backwards to Christmas.  In spite of what Maurice Andrew might think, the gospel writer is sure that John the Baptiser is ‘the one crying in the wilderness’ from our Isaiah passage and that is an important feature in his explanation of Jesus’ divine credentials.

Part of the traditional expectation of a messiah was the understanding that Elijah would return to earth to announce the arrival of the messiah.  Verse 6 describes John as clothed in a camel hair coat with a leather belt around his waist which is an allusion to the description of Elijah in the first chapter of 2 Kings (2 Kings 1:8) It is also worth noting that John the Baptist appears in Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (Ant.18:5:2) where his baptising activities are mentioned along with his popularity and his execution by Herod.^[2]  This reference gives an historical affirmation for John outside the gospels.

Sermon

Jeff Bell’s cartoon in The Press on 28^th of November the cartoonist quoted Napoleon Bonaparte saying, ‘If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing’.[3]

Regardless of who the cartoonist was lampooning, this was an interesting quotation at a time when Reading Cinemas were screening the film Napoleon here in Christchurch.  So, I turned to Mr Google to see if I could find a context for when Napoleon said that. After all, with my limited knowledge of European history I would not count Mr Bonaparte as totally successful.  Names like Trafalgar and Waterloo come to mind.

Sadly, although my brief search confirmed the quote as Napoleon’s, it did not give any context.  But one website also included a quote from someone most people would admire.  Apparently, Albert Einstein said:

‘Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value’.

That is indeed a statement in the world of humanities and theology to match E=mc² in the world of physics, the universe and everything.

I can think of a recent president of the United States who could well agree with Napoleon’s statement.  However, the recent death of Rosalynn Carter reminded me of the many pictures I have seen of her and her aging husband Jimmy Carter, in their post Whitehouse years, building houses for Habitat for Humanity.  Regardless of what President Carter achieved, or failed to achieve, as one of the most powerful men in the world, both him and Rosalynn were people who strived to live lives of value rather than what the world might see as a success.

Certainly the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize is a substantial measure of success but, putting on a builder’s bib and creating homes for the less fortunate is both of value and to some extent a voice crying in the wilderness.

In a world focused on economic growth those, who speak out for marginalised, are easily regarded as voices crying in the wilderness.

Those scholars who have commented on today’s readings have pointed out the allusion to the exodus saga in our Isaiah passage.  There is also a reference to the Isaiah passage in framing the story of John the Baptist.  Mark adds further allusion that describes John as an Elijah figure. Elijah would certainly fit the contemporary understanding of someone crying in the wilderness.  People who express an idea or opinion that is not popular like spending their retirement building homes for the homeless.

Greta Thunberg was certainly a voce crying in the wilderness and the future of the planet would appear to depend on more and more voices joining her.

But wilderness voices can and do bring change.  On the 1^st of December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and by that action she became a voice crying in the wilderness.

After her death in 2005, the Rev. Jesse. Jackson wrote: ‘With quiet courage and non-negotiable dignity, Rosa Parks was an activist and a freedom fighter who transformed a nation and confirmed a notion that ordinary people can have an extraordinary effect on the world’. [4] Continue reading Sunday 10th December →

The dead city. Matthew 23. Proper 26A 2023

Rev Barbara Peddie

Sometimes there are readings set down in the Lectionary that I can’t easily find my way into. It happens most often with Matthew, and it happens to me particularly in the readings we get in these last months of the Church’s year. There are the parables where so many are left out – where is the Jesus who said: “All are welcome”. All! As we will say in a few minutes – all are welcome to the table.

So, I came to this Sunday wondering where I would go. I almost took the easy option of celebrating our saints. After all, we’re only 4 days out from that festival. And I have slipped some of them into the order of service anyway, because, after all, that’s the whole point of the saints of the church. They’re always with us, whether or not we recognise them. But at the same time, we’re living in a time where there’s war and disaster all round us. Today is the anniversary of Parihaka – a black day in the story of Aotearoa New Zealand. On November 11 this country sets apart remembers the dead from all the wars that have affected us. Our city has a Ukrainian community that is living through daily tragedies affecting the families here. All round the country people are protesting the war in Gaza. And at the same time, our young people are distraught about the disasters brought about by climate change. I very nearly decided that today we would have a Peace Sunday service. Except that prayers for peace must be part of our daily faith journey.

And, in the end, just because it’s important that we keep the candles burning every day, not just on the occasional Sunday, I went back to our reading from Matthew. But first, I went a little further afield. Who was Matthew writing to? What sort of community were they? They probably lived in Antioch, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire. The sociologist Robert Stark tells us that any accurate picture of Antioch in New Testament times “must depict a city filled with misery, danger, despair, fear and hatred; a city where the average family lived a squalid life in filthy and cramped quarters, where at least half the children died at birth or during infancy, and where most children who lived lost at least one parent”. Stark goes on to say that the city was filled “with hatred and fear rooted in intense ethnic antagonisms and exacerbated by a constant stream of strangers.” Antioch lacked stable networks, and was repeatedly smashed by disastrous catastrophes, which meant a “resident could expect to be homeless from time to time, providing he or she was among the survivors”.

I can think of more than one city in our time which would fit this description. Continue reading Sunday 3rd December →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

This passage moves to the end of the story of Joshua and in particular his second farewell speech.  Joshua gathers all the people together and challenges them to choose their God—Yahweh or the other gods they have worshiped in the past.  The people choose Yahweh and Joshua reminds them of the implications of that choice, it is a choice of total commitment without any extra gods for good measure or even extra gods to keep up past family or tribal traditions.

Historian Judith Binney writes

In the nineteenth century, faced with loss of land and an inexplicably high mortality among their people, many Maori leaders had turned to the story of the Israelites, desolate, and lost in their land.  The essence of their identification with them was the pain they shared: ‘O God. If our hearts arise from the land in which we now dwell as slaves…Do not cause us to be wholly destroyed’.^[1]

Maurice Andrew suggests that if Israel could face a challenge for the future through earlier times, it may be possible for New Zealanders to do the same by looking back.^[2]

Matthew 25: 1-13

Warren Carter writes that this parable contains allegory that ‘variously scares and bullies the disciples into obedience, persuades them to live for this desired future, or provides models of faithfulness which they imitate so as to participate in God’s future.^[3]

Robert Funk sees the message hammered home unsubtly, like a commercial—there are no surprises, the wise who take extra oil are rewarded and the foolish are punished and we know that will happen right from the start.^[4]

Robert Capon takes a different tack and analyses the parable from a contemporary perspective commenting on this and the following parables, under the heading ‘the talents’ and ‘the great judgement’.

He says ‘they base the judgement solely on faith or unfaith in the mystery of the age-long presence in absence—the abiding parousia, or second coming.’^[5]. Of the parable of the bridesmaids, he says ‘But the point of the story—the point that ultimately makes wisdom of the apparent folly—is that, in this world, something always does go wrong.^[6],  It is a parable of the world where the unexpected does happen, the bridegroom comes late.

This is the Gospel of Christ.

Sermon

The Gospels continually stand, as Joshua stood, and asks us if we will choose the gods of our world or the God we image in Christ.

Of course, Joshua didn’t know about Jesus.  He was comparing Yahweh, who brought them out of slavery, with the idols worshiped by various peoples they had interacted with on their wilderness journey.  It might well be reassuring to have a crafted image for people to centre their identity on.  But if they choose to base their community ethos on the creative force that led them from slavery to the point of nationhood then they had better behave accordingly.

The Gospels tell us the same story. But in imaging the creative force in the Risen Christ of the Gospels we have our behaviour mapped out for us in the deeds, saying and parables of Jesus.

In his book Honest to God John A. T. Robinson , notes ‘In the pagan world it was–and still is–a matter in the main of metal images’,

That is what Joshua is talking about.  Robinson goes on to say, ‘For us it is a question much more of mental images—as one after another serves its purpose and has to go.[7]

Robinson was explaining how the mental image of God changes as society and knowledge changes.  But there is also a warning in that statement that he may or may not have meant.  After all Honest to God was published in 1949, when I was about to start my introduction to Christian Education at an Anglican primary school, and I didn’t buy a copy and read it till I left high school.

By that time many other scholars had written about Robinson and the theological stream I fitted into was looking for even more controversial scholars.

What I have read into Robinson’s wise statement is that, without an image of the divine in the Gospel image of the risen Christ, we very easily start to imagine some very unhelpful mental images.  We certainly don’t need to be weighed down by metal images when social media can disperse misinformation and conspiracy at the speed of light. Continue reading Sunday 12th November →

Rev Barbara Peddie

The dead city. Matthew 23. Proper 26A 2023

Sometimes there are readings set down in the Lectionary that I can’t easily find my way into. It happens most often with Matthew, and it happens to me particularly in the readings we get in these last months of the Church’s year. There are the parables where so many are left out – where is the Jesus who said: “All are welcome”. All! As we will say in a few minutes – all are welcome to the table.

So, I came to this Sunday wondering where I would go. I almost took the easy option of celebrating our saints. After all, we’re only 4 days out from that festival. And I have slipped some of them into the order of service anyway, because, after all, that’s the whole point of the saints of the church. They’re always with us, whether or not we recognise them. But at the same time, we’re living in a time where there’s war and disaster all round us. Today is the anniversary of Parihaka – a black day in the story of Aotearoa New Zealand. On November 11 this country sets apart remembers the dead from all the wars that have affected us. Our city has a Ukrainian community that is living through daily tragedies affecting the families here. All round the country people are protesting the war in Gaza. And at the same time, our young people are distraught about the disasters brought about by climate change. I very nearly decided that today we would have a Peace Sunday service. Except that prayers for peace must be part of our daily faith journey.

And, in the end, just because it’s important that we keep the candles burning every day, not just on the occasional Sunday, I went back to our reading from Matthew. But first, I went a little further afield. Who was Matthew writing to? What sort of community were they? They probably lived in Antioch, the third-largest city of the Roman Empire. The sociologist Robert Stark tells us that any accurate picture of Antioch in New Testament times “must depict a city filled with misery, danger, despair, fear and hatred; a city where the average family lived a squalid life in filthy and cramped quarters, where at least half the children died at birth or during infancy, and where most children who lived lost at least one parent”. Stark goes on to say that the city was filled “with hatred and fear rooted in intense ethnic antagonisms and exacerbated by a constant stream of strangers.” Antioch lacked stable networks, and was repeatedly smashed by disastrous catastrophes, which meant a “resident could expect to be homeless from time to time, providing he or she was among the survivors”.

I can think of more than one city in our time which would fit this description. Continue reading Sunday 5th November →

Rev Don Reekie

New Age
New Challenges

Ad Lib:
The chapter of Matthew that we focus on today begins with Jesus and
his disciples in Jerusalem – the previous chapter has the driving money
changers from the Court of the Gentiles where the Other people could
pray. The neighbours given a place then treated as though they don’t
matter. But Jesus is furious. But this chapter 22 of parables and
discernments opens with a story of a wedding feast that is cruel. It
paints God as wrathful. The king sends troops to kill those who failed to
attend the feast. I am glad I can pick and choose a little. Well long ago
in Theological College I recall the writer of the book of Matthew writing
a hundred years later and aimed to bring in the Israelites and accepting
their concepts of purity and wrath. Anyway there are other texts more
helpful.
[As I am conscious of the All Black’s in Paris. I have just returned from
holiday in Niue. One Sunday in July 1969 I led worship in the village of
Avatele and every parishioner worshipping had and active – thus sized –
radio in their pocket ear piece in place. Through out the service the
landing module sent a clear beep to reassure the people at Cape
Canaveral.]
Probably the next 27 years will have the greatest change in a quarter
of century that has the earth has seen in human’s history.
Possibly half the worlds population displaced and seeking new land or
new lands with borders being defended against refugees as never
before. The ice caps gone or diminished. Animals, fish and birds
shifting from traditional homes to find new sources of support and feed
in unfamiliar places. AI being experimented with and attempts to control
it on the edge of human ingenuity. New government choices needed to
meet new employment factors and to end differentials of wealth and
poverty.
Tendencies of protectionism, with pressures for Trump and Putin and
Fascist leader, governments protecting borders and national privileges
rather than taking masses of refugees.
As work changes old measures of settling disputes will need to change
and working week shortened productivity improved. Continue reading Sunday 29th October →

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings

Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Writing of today’s reading Maurice Andrew notes that contemporary New Zealanders still see the Decalogue as manageable and concise without apprehending the intricate creative framework that surrounds the law’. His most telling comment about contemporary Kiwis suggests people who keep saying, ‘I was poor, but I did this all by myself, and you can too’ are not liberated.  Even as atheists they are worshiping other gods because they are ignoring the real basis of all life in the world. ^[1]

That statement recognises our interconnectedness through creation.  We are a communal species and that is recognised in a statement by the father of the man who, from time to time, has been the richest man in the world.

Bill Gates Senior maintains ‘Society has an enormous claim upon the fortunes of the wealthy.  This is grounded not only in most religious traditions, but also in an honest accounting of society’s substantial investment in creating the fertile ground for wealth-creation’. ^[2]

Matthew 21:33-46

This second parable in chapter 21 repeats the condemnation of the religious elite that was evident in the previous vineyard parable.

This parable suggests that if those who are ‘the proper religious authority’ do not fulfil God’s call others will be called to the tasks God wishes to accomplish in that time and place.

According to Carter the first century setting of this parable announces judgement on the unfaithful leaders and interprets the defeat of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 C.E. as punishment of them.  The vineyard, Israel, is not destroyed but is given new tenants to care for it.

Francis Wright Beare suggests a different perspective by seeing the parable as Matthew records it looking back on the death of Jesus and understanding the parable in terms of the early church and its continuing conflict with Judaism.

The parable also reflects Matthew’s sub-theme of Jesus as a new Moses forming a new people of God.

The Judaism of the time is therefore being rejected and Matthew’s community are the new tenants of the vineyard.

Sermon

Tom Scot talks of meeting his Irish Whakapapa in chapter 2 of his autobiography Drawn Out and includes a cartoon of an Irish pub.  In amongst the diverse and unconnected speech balloons there is someone on the edge of the picture telling Scott:

‘The swines came loot’n and burn’n our crops and cottages.  I’d like to tear their black hearts out of their chests with my bare hands!’  Scott replies with suitable shock ‘My God-when did that happen?  To which the man with his pint of Guinness replies ‘O about 400 years ago!’[3]

That is an example of the sort of tribal law that occurs in many societies, from primitive humanity whose details are lost in the mists of time to criminal gangs disputing territory and the right to distribute mind altering drugs.

Altercations break out for one reason or another. Trespass on hunting ground or a raid by a tribe to compensate for the failure of their own crops.  As Tom Scott’s cartoon illustrates memory of lives lost in such skirmishes are remembered from generation to generation until an opportunity to redress the balance presents itself.  Often the subsequent revengeful rampage oversteps the mark and, grudges and the quest for revenge, is carried to the next generation.

So as wilderness wanderers draw near to becoming a people, we have a story about their adoption of a set of rules that seeks to codify acceptable behaver and avoid intergenerational vendettas.

Most significant about this story is the insistence that, in suitable smoke and lightening, God gave the rules to Moses.  These are not rules written out by a sage meditating in a mountain, a wise king with the wisdom of a Solomon or even a duly constituted parliament.  These are statements brought to the notice of humanity by a being that is greater and more loving than humanity and are held as sacred and beyond human amendment. Continue reading Sunday 8th October →

Rev Barbara Peddie

Justice for all

Festival of Francis of Assisi. 2023

It took me a while to decide where to go with this service. Officially, the Season of Creation has finished – although I suspect it’s a season we should be observing throughout the year, especially in these times of dramatic climate changes. Also, officially this is the Sunday when the Catholic Churches celebrate St Francis’ Sunday, with the Blessing of the Animals (I wonder what’s happening over the road?) – but of course, we’re all Protestants here! This year, the Catholic celebration also specifically focuses on justice, and I thought well, in this, our season of elections, we should all be focusing on justice; justice for all and that includes the animals and the environment. I don’t notice many of the election contestants really taking that seriously, but this is no excuse for us.

And so I chose the reading from Micah.

We might also remember that right back in the beginnings of Israel’s journey as a people of the living Creator, one of the Ten Commandments focused on the well-being of all in the community.

On Friday I was rostered on as a ‘welcomer’ at the Living Wage Forum which took place at Aldersgate. It was, for someone who isn’t an official member of the Living Wage association, an inspiring event – but also worrying. Aldersgate was online with forums in Auckland and Wellington, with Wellington the main host. When there was a rollcall of who was at the venues, I was startled at the variety of organisations that are passionate about a fair chance for all to live well and safely. The faith groups were well-represented, as they should be, if they take seriously what they have bound themselves to do. The teachers, the cleaners, the nurses, the doctors, the port workers, the rail workers, the hospitality workers, the organisations that work with refugees and migrant workers, the renters ……..(I lost count). But not the developers, not the farmers, not the landowners. And although all the major political parties were specifically invited to send representatives, only the Greens, Labour and NZ First showed up and were prepared to face the issue.

The Living Wage. It should be a no-brainer. If you work a 40-hour week, whatever the work is, that should mean you have enough to house, feed and clothe yourself – and your family. Some of the speakers who used their three minutes to describe the outcomes of being on the living wage made this quite clear. For one instance, the allowance that schools have to cover all their maintenance work does not factor in the living wage for all employees. Some schools have individually decided to do this and we heard from one Auckland Secondary School that does. All those cleaners and caretakers and secretaries work very hard indeed. I wonder how many of us have ever taken just a moment of time to think about the school cleaners? As the young lady who spoke about that pointed out, it’s not a soft job. She advises her new team members to use nose pegs when they clean the boys’ toilets! And then there was the Tongan minister who pointed out that yes, his people are built for hard work – but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fairly paid for what they do.

Altogether, it was a lively Forum. But very thought-provoking. And it brings me right back to the call for justice that sounds through all the church’s teaching. In the voices of the prophets and in the life and work of Jesus. Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your Lord. Simple. No need to work through all the other commands. Just get on with it, and all will be well with the world.

Except that it isn’t and it never has been. Even although most if not all of the world’s religions have much the same instruction in their books. Christianity, Judaism and Islam most certainly do. I can’t speak for the eastern faiths because I don’t know enough about them, but even with those there are expectations about care for people and the environment and, in the case of the Jain people, for every living thing. But humanity has a fatal tendency to decide that the rules for living only apply to ‘my’ special group. And the next step is then, when my group has it right, it’s OK to disregard all the others, or, to take it to extremes, to dispose of all the others. In our own lifetimes, we’ve seen it over and over again. Jews don’t count – they’re not the true people – it’s OK to get rid of them. For Jews, substitute indigenous people, other castes, other colours, other ways of dressing…. And so on, ad infinitum. We Christians even do it in our churches. Our ordination is the only correct one. Our way of doing communion is the only right way. Our baptism is the only authentic one.

If we go back to the fundamental understanding of our faith: that God, the Creator, whatever name we use, loves God’s creation, then we are saying God loves all of creation. If we are born into the Christian tradition, and faithfully follow the way of Jesus, then we have no excuses to turn our backs on any of our neighbours. We can be honest with them about where our beliefs differ from theirs but honest evaluation of other religious beliefs should not shape our commitment to living our faith.

Let’s go back to the prophet Micah for a moment. Micah lived around seven hundred years before Christ, among a people surrounded by hundreds of gods and goddesses that belonged to their neighbours. As we do. His people knew all about pluralism. Sometimes they destroyed their neighbours, and sometimes they bought just a few of their idols, just to feel a little safer. Like an insurance policy perhaps. Nevertheless there was something of a religious revival happening in Israel at the time. (It happens here sometimes.) The Temple was crowded, and giving was over budget. That rarely happens here! And when it does happen, there’s no indication that the money goes where the needs are.

Micah wasn’t happy about the vibes. Israel had become arrogant and uncaring. And so he created an image of God taking Israel to court. God calls the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth – the whole landscape – as witnesses for the prosecution. And when I think about that, I can imagine what witnesses for the prosecution God would call from our landscape, never mind the witnesses from among the people. The court would be crowded.

The people of Israel missed the point. Seven hundred years later they missed the point all over again and drove Jesus out when he reminded them what living in God’s kingdom meant. They thought all you had to do was to trot along to the temple or the synagogue once and week and follow the principle aim of religion (or rather, of life) which they had decided was to have more – and more – and more. Grow the GDP. Get more of everything. More roads, more power, more tourists bringing in more money. More development everywhere. Never mind what happens later down the track. That will be their problem to work out. Does that sound familiar? After all, more is what we want now.

But what does God want – now? What God has always wanted. God wants justice. God wants us to be a voice for oppressed people, unprotected people, lonely people, poor people, disabled people, young people, old people, minorities and migrants. God wants every person to be treated as God’s own child. And God wants the birds and the animals and the oceans and the lands to be treated as God’s own creation.

God wants us to love kindness. The Hebrew word hesed used in the text means, literally, God’s loving-kindness. God loves us and we are to respond by loving others.

And God wants us to be humble, not arrogant. All that we have is an undeserved gift from God. Use it; listen for the voice of God wherever and whenever we are; learn how others on the road make sense of their lives.

We are learning – slowly – that all of creation is part of one unified web of life. I carry in my mind the image of a hydrogen atom, split in half and thrown into the cosmos but still the two parts of the atom are connected and if ever they came together again they would merge into one. Knowing that connection as we now do, the practice of justice and love needs to embrace both human and non-human life. In the words of Carol Dempsey, “The humble walk with God is a walk of holy reverence and awe across the planet, with people being attuned to, and learning from, the divine Spirit that pulsates at the heart of all.” Amen.

Rev Hugh Perry

The Readings

Exodus 16: 2-15

Maurice Andrew says ‘that creation does not liberate oppressed people but liberated people must be able to live from creation’ ^[1]  That was very much the reality of the early migrants to this country, both Polynesian and European.  The early hunter gardener Polynesian migrants would have needed to develop new skills for new species and environment and many of the plants they brought wouldn’t grow in the more temperate climate.

Early European migrants came with farm animals and exotic plants from a similar climate and there were established communities of hunter gardeners to trade with.  But the land they came to was covered in forest, so they still had to forage for much of their food until their form of agriculture became established.

In any migration both big and small there is bound to be a time when the past is viewed with envy and the decision to move is seen as the greatest disaster ever made.  Faced with challenge people prefer slavery to freedom because slavery also has security and freedom is always freedom into an unknown wilderness.

Matthew 20: 1-16

Hiring day labourers was a normal occurrence in Jesus’ time although usually carried out by the manager rather than the householder.  Those offering themselves for hire would likely have been people uprooted from peasant farms by wealthy landlords foreclosing on debt or forced from their farms because they could not support their household.  During harvest and planting work at minimal wages on a daily basis was readily available but in-between times it was not.

Therefore, life was unpredictable and marked by unemployment, malnutrition, starvation, disease, minimal wages, removal from households, and begging.  Their situation was more precarious than slaves since an employer had no long-term investment in them.^[2]

Sermon

The Israelites would have known how to deal with the quails just has early settlers, both Polynesian and European, world have quickly adapted to killing and eating the birds of Aotearoa.  However, the reading tells us they were a bit cautious about the white flakes that arrived with the morning mist.  ‘When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was’. (Exodus 16:15)

Of course, they did not have Terry Pratchett’s advice that ‘All Fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.[3]‘.  But the Exodus Saga is set far enough forward in human history for most communities to be aware of the need for caution when eating fungi.

Moses gave them the OK to eat it ‘It is the bread that Yahweh has given you to eat’. (Exidus 16:15)

But how did he know?  We might surmise that, because he had been raised with the Egyptian aristocracy or because of his time as a wandering shepherd, he had a wider experience of exotic foods or wilderness foraging than slaves on a limited diet.

However rather than speculating on any hidden reality in the story we should accept the learning in Moses statement that everything we eat, with or without GST, is a gift from God.  Not everything magically comes from multi-national supermarket chains.  Food has a life before shelves and packaging  but not everyone knows that!

When we first planted the community garden at St Albans one of the local people helping did not know that potatoes planted in the ground would grow.  But the classic story from the garden was about a boy who was given some potatoes from the garden to take home.  Next time he appeared he was asked if he enjoyed eating them, but he said his mother threw them out because they had dirt on them.

It is good to be cautious about things that are new and different, but both these readings highlight the fact that the common human response is not to accept new learning.  People find it easier to complain than learn.

So much so that I can’t resist labelling this series of Exodus readings, where the people complain to Moses, ‘The whingeing in the Wilderness.’

People whinge about all sorts of things and when we turn to our gospel reading we find that people are complaining in Jesus’ parable as well.

Nevertheless, like all of Jesus’ parables, today’s reading is not about continual dissatisfaction but about the kingdom of God.  It is not about whinging, or industrial relations or even refusing to vote because the government did nothing for them.  Like all Jesus parables the story has extra layers to it.

Many organisations have a defined process to obtain full membership.  When I joined Scouts at the age of eleven, I had to pass my tenderfoot badge before I was allowed to wear a scout uniform. Continue reading Sunday 24th September →

Theme: Peacemaking and Renewal

Rev Hugh Perry

Readings:

Exodus 12: 1-14

Maurice Andrew notes that this part of the narrative is in the form of regulations for performing the rite of Passover  ^[1]

The Passover probably had its origin in seasonal migration with stock in search of grazing and the lamb was killed about the time of the spring equinox, as a means of warding off evil forces when shepherds and flocks set off on potentially dangerous journeys.^[2]

Andrew further notes that an unleavened bread ritual marked the beginning of the barley harvest signifying everything beginning new and responding to God’s new gifts.  The firstlings offering of the first fruit acknowledged that everything belonged to God and everything is part of creation.  He quotes the Maori practice of returning the first fish caught as an offering to Tangaroa the god of the sea as a similar practice for a similar reason.

Matthew 18: 15-20

Carter notes that conflict is inevitable among humans and especially among a hard-pressed, minority and marginalised communities which Matthew’s community was.  Therefore, it is logical that Matthew would offer a formula for conflict resolution.

Matthew’s formula recognises conflict and offence but seeks to restore the offender to reconciled relationship within the community. ^[3]

Matthew’s code fits well in the Jesus’ tradition of peace through reconciliation and, like so much of Jesus’ teaching, stands in sharp opposition to the shame honour codes that operate in many communities and lead to intergenerational vendettas.   Bill Loader suggests that at an international level the most obvious application is: negotiate and don’t immediately rush to sabre rattling.

Much more can be achieved through negotiation than is usually assumed and this passage affords an opportunity to throw some gospel perspectives on the meaning of love and compassion in the handling of conflict in personal relations because each of us has a story to tell.  We all share expertise in failure and success in whatever area we live and work.^[4]

Sermon

Spring is a time of renewal and new beginnings but there is much about our world that is still cold and frightening.

Spring storms in our part of the world and autumn floods and wildfires in the northern hemisphere appear to be influenced by climate change and global warming.  Effects to mitigate climate change seem to be inhibited by human greed.

In the midst of unnoticed wars that rage continually Russia has invaded Ukraine and western powers are self- righteously supplying weapons.  Those same governments are frantic to stem the flow of refugees and boatloads of people are drowning in the Mediterranean and the English Channel.

Meanwhile we are in the midst of an election campaign.  We are encouraged to believe that our children are not being properly educated, crime is at an all-time high, and inflation and the cost of living will have dire consequences.

However, on the day that the first daffodil burst into bloom on our front lawn The Press carried an opinion peace under the headline ‘Only a better life back home can stop the boats.[5]’

The article suggested that Western Democracies would be better to spend money on humanitarian aid for people in war torn, struggling and bankrupt economies than expensive and dehumanising refugee camps and detention centres.  People make wilderness journeys to flee from slavery and war to earn money to send home.  Like the people in our Exodus reading forty years in the wilderness is worthwhile if it gives a better life for their children’s future.

Perhaps our children might have a better chance in the future if they left their cell phones at home and spent an hour each day on reading, writing and arithmetic.  But, at my first primary school cell phones didn’t exist and we got the strap if we got our spelling wrong.  I got so frightened I still can’t spell and the teachers that told me I would be a failure frightened me from enrolling in university until I was in my early fifties. Continue reading Sunday 10th September →

Who are you?

Pentecost 14A 2023

Today’s reading from the Hebrew scripture can only be described as enigmatic. I’m sure that Moses himself would have been comfortable with that description of a very strange confrontation coming out of nowhere.

Moses was a working man – and an immigrant – with a comfortable and ordered way of life. After he ran away from Egypt, he’d found himself a new life. Wife, kids, and work in the family business – his father-in-law’s business. He had married into his new career. Egypt with its disturbing memories had probably slipped into the back of his mind. In the life of a shepherd, one day would be much the same as any other. Like all other nomadic herdsmen then and now, Moses would mark the passage of time by subtle observation and calculation. Each day, each season measured out each day, until death or disaster intervened. And so Moses’ life had ticked on for thirteen years.

We don’t know much about his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, but the writers of the Book of Exodus treated his memory with respect. Rather surprising respect, given the usual attitude towards pagan priests in the Hebrew scriptures. For that matter, we don’t know how much Moses knew or remembered about his Hebrew ancestors or their religion. After all, he’d been brought up in the royal household of Egypt and may never have walked among the houses where the Hebrews lived.  In his new life as Jethro’s son-in-law, he may have given an occasional passing thought to the God of his own ancestors while he watched over the animals in his care, but he would have had the gods of Egypt in his mind as well. He could easily have ignored the burning bush. Just another bit of brushwood that had succumbed to the desert heat. But something nudged him into stopping and really looking. As the text puts it -; “he turned aside”. And for once – for a few seconds – he was in a space where God could break through into his consciousness, and set him on a whole new journey.

But, at the beginning, the confrontation was decidedly unsettling. Moses hid his face – like a child who thinks ‘if I hide myself, you can’t see me’. God then launched into a very grandiose account of Godself  and the extravagant project to overcome the greatest nation in that region. No surprise that Moses wasn’t convinced either that it was possible or that he should allow himself to take part. And so we come to that very testing question that Moses threw at the voice. Who are you? We’ve been trying to answer that question ever since.

In that short reading from Jonathan Kirsh that I shared with you, the suggestion was that in the ancient Hebrew world there was a tradition that the name was known by the elders and passed on to succeeding generations. If you knew the name it would prove you were indeed an emissary of God. But is that really what’s at stake here? What’s at stake for us, here and now? Does it matter so much what words we use to address the Creator, or is it more about coming to an understanding of what each of us is called to be and do in our lives. Continue reading Sunday 3rd September →

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 →

                                                                 Blessed

Prayer of Illumination

Me inoi tatou, Let us pray;

Eternal God,

in the reading of the Scripture, let your Word be heard;

in the meditations of our hearts, may your Word be known;

and in the faithfulness of our lives, may your Word be shown.

Amine/Amen

 Introduction to the Bible Reading 1

The lectionary readings continue the story of Jacob, who has already extorted his twin brother Esau’s birthright for a bowl of soup or stew. The story devolves from there. With his mother Rebekah’s help (remember, Rebekah favoured Jacob while Isaac favoured Esau), Jacob next intentionally deceives his father to receive the blessing Isaac intended for his elder son, Esau. As a result, Esau plans to kill his brother.

And Jacob? Jacob has fled for his life. His scheming to obtain birthright and blessing has left him homeless and on the run. But the irony is, the destination of his flight was Haran – the place where his grandparents Abraham and Sarah first demonstrated their trust in God by setting out on their promise-driven journey. For Jacob, it is as if he, too, needs to go back to the beginning – and learn what it means not to scheme but to trust.

Listen now to the story of Jacob as it is woven into the words of Psalm 139 and its acknowledgment of living in the mystery of God’s presence.

Bible Reading 1 Genesis 28:10-19 and Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

(divide congregation in half)

A: Genesis 28:10–11 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

 B: Psalm 139:1–4

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.

 A: Genesis 28:12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

 B: Psalm 139:5

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

 A: Genesis 28:13–14 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

B: Psalm 139:6

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

 A: Genesis 28:15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

 B: Psalm 139:7–12

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

 A: Genesis 28:16–17 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

 B: Psalm 139:23–24

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

 ALL: Genesis 28:18–19 EARLY THE NEXT MORNING JACOB TOOK THE STONE HE HAD PLACED UNDER HIS HEAD AND SET IT UP AS A PILLAR AND POURED OIL ON TOP OF IT. HE CALLED THAT PLACE BETHEL.

Introduction to Bible Reading 2

Today’s reading from the book of Matthew has one of Jesus’ many parables. This one, that tells of the wheat and weeds, provides a vision of the world now and the one to come.

As you listen ponder these questions – What does it mean for the world to have both wheat and weeds in it? How do we feel if we  hear it as wheat and weeds dwelling within each one of us?

 Bible Reading 2 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (rostered reader – any version)

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

³⁶ Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷ He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Sermon “Blessed”

Blessed. (Or ‘bless-ed” as I often find myself saying from years of hearing the King James version.) To be blessed is seen as such a good thing, a thing to aspire to, and yet do we really understand it?

In the book of Job, he is called blessed by God. But is only when he starts loses things that we discover why he is considered blessed. He was blessed with many crops and fields, animals and slaves, houses and land. Therefore, he is no longer blessed when he loses them. When his children die, he is told they were a blessing that he no longer has. And when he loses his health and is reduced to sitting in the dirt scraping his sores in agony he is told to curse God and die.

Job is one of the oldest biblical writings and shows us how little human nature has changed. So many people, even Christians, believe that they are blessed by God when we have material wealth, or health or many children or are seen as successful and famous. Conversely, if we do not have these things we feel cursed, or at least not blessed. Continue reading Sunday 23rd July →

Readings

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Abraham didn’t want Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman so he sent his servant back to where he had come from to find a wife for Isaac.

The servant did that and met Rebekah at the well, who was the daughter of Abraham’s brother, and he tells her of his mission and she goes back to her mother and her brothers.  Her brother Laban comes and meets Abraham’s brother and we pick up the story as the negotiations begin.

Chapter 24 is the longest of the stories in this part of the Bible and different because, instead of acting directly, or through angels, God is seen acting though everyday events.^[1]

Susan Niditch notes that in this story ‘women are valuable commodities as precious as the water with which they are associated, but commodities nevertheless’^[2]

Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

The children in the market place might represent a court setting at the centre of a city or town just as a market is the centre or children playing make-believe courts.

We are reminded that the courts condemn John and Jesus but they marginalise themselves by excluding themselves from God’s purpose.^[3]

God’s purpose is hidden from the traditional leadership but revealed to the small band of ordinary people who are Jesus’ disciples.

Sermon

Our Gospel reading begins by Jesus comparing his generation with children playing in the marketplace and complaining that other children won’t play with them.

We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:17)

When I was a kid we never had a section less than half an acre and other kids were allowed to come and play.  Raewyn and I never had a section quite that big but we continued the ‘everyone welcome’ rule and were quite surprised that one of the neighbours was not allowed to play with friends at his place because it spoiled the lawn.

We did however observe a frustration we remembered from our own childhood.  To play in harmony children have to reach a consensus on what they choose to play.  They might not call to each other as highlighted in the gospel reading.  ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:17)

But the words ‘I don’t like this game so I’m going to take my ball and go home’ frustrated my childhood as well as the group my kids grew up with.  My grandson plays computer games with a kid in Australia which just frustrates his father and step mum who are both outdoor adventure junkies.

However, the main point of this small passage is that Jesus is using the squabbles that erupt in children’s games as a metaphor for the way he saw the society that they lived in.  Verse 16 begins ‘But to what will I compare this generation?’ (Matthew 11:16a) In other words, what is the way this community functions like?

Jesus then expounds on his children’s games metaphor by expressing his frustration about the contrasting reception people had given to both John the Baptist and himself. Continue reading Sunday 9th July →

There’s no pleasing everyone! Proper 9A 20230

There are some people you just can’t please! They’re never satisfied. I’m sure you’ve heard that – many times. I’ve said it myself, but the unspoken bit is always “ I’m not one of those people.” The saying reflects a very common human trait– and one that we seem to be able to see more easily in others than in ourselves. We often make judgements about other people who grumble about what we see as perfectly acceptable. We’re also inclined to think that our opinions about what makes a good environment to live in are reasonable – everyone should be able to see that! And when someone bursts onto our horizon making off the wall statements or suggestions about how we could do, or be, better, our hackles go up.

Take our city of Christchurch. I’m sure we’re not unique in having a thousand different opinions about every project that impacts on the public. In my lifetime we’ve had protracted arguments about roads encroaching on Hagley Park; about where the art gallery should go, and then about what its design should be, about what shape the museum windows should have; about whether you should fish off Brighton pier. Post- earthquake phase we had views about the future shape of the city (and the schools) –we were all sure that ours were the right ones. Even though we know, underneath, that we weren’t thinking about the public good, not really – we expressed our own preferences! I, for instance, think the covered stadium is a total waste of money – but then I haven’t watched a rugby match since I was in the Fourth Form. And I’m really perfectly well aware that my desire to hear orchestra concerts in a truly adequate venue is a minority view!

Our rather odd gospel text picks up some aspects of this quirk of human nature – this desire for something other than what we have, that isn’t necessarily what someone else – some person of status – proposes. Theoretically, Israel desired to be in communication with God through the prophets. Theoretically, Israel desired to hear that the Messiah was about to come. Times were hard. A foreign power had oversight of the land – and a stranglehold on its economy, and the ruler favoured by the Romans was hardly satisfactory. Israel mourned lost greatness- although whether in fact there had ever been a golden age is a moot question. And yet – when John came proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, the people turned away. John was too harsh and too judgmental. Nobody likes being harangued. Nobody likes being called ‘a brood of vipers’ – that’s hardly the way to win hearts. Moreover John didn’t even seem to be talking about good times. He wasn’t going to sing and dance and have fun. Also, he wasn’t respectable! He was interesting, maybe. OK as an afternoon’s entertainment down by the Jordan, but that man wasn’t really ‘one of us’. No need, then to take him seriously.

And then, along came Jesus. He welcomed people. He was gentle with them – mostly. He was ready to sing and dance. He was happy to join in celebrations, like wedding parties – why, he’ even been known to provide the wine! He liked good company, especially at the meal table. He had friends. But then, what about those friends and followers? They weren’t very impressive, some of them –not even respectable. What about those dinners when everyone was welcome on equal terms. Who would want to sit down with some of those people? Inclusiveness is an interesting idea, but let’s not take it too much to heart. We have standards to maintain after all. Continue reading Sunday 2nd July →

Introduction
Whenever we come to the Bible, we will be interpreters. And all those before
us were interpreters also. We try to discern what the message is. We have to
understand the situation and the context we have to determine what is the
message particularly for us – in this time of ours.
Genesis 21 is set in several chapters that tell of Abraham, Sarah Hagar and
the both of two sons. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are in the
previous chapters. These series of events give little guidance to our dealing
with homosexuality today or gender preferences in loving relationships.
At that time as recorded in these chapters women and girls were accorded
no protection or value in the exchanges of everyday life. Abraham at one
point pretends Sarah is his sister to give her to be the wife of a powerful and
threatening chief. Lot has strangers turning up and hosts them as custom
dictated – but his neighbours hating strangers and aliens want to do harm
and rape them The same behaviour we witness in the course of wars today.
Boys were not protected and commonly used for sex by the powerful. The
prohibitions that appear in Leviticus seem to be a protection of the the boys
– ‘tamariki’. We have seen this week in New Zealand that 2 staff in ‘Oranga
Tamariki’ have abused their role with children. We need to be protective of
the young.
The verses we read are focused on the slave girl of Sarah. She had given her
slave to be a second wife to Abraham in order to bear him a son. When she
has a son herself she wants no competition and sends Hagar and her son
away. One will be the father of Arabs the other the father of the nation of
Israel. Both are blessed.
In the mess of life what is the
essential message. I think it is that
in those early times the major
concern was dealing with Holiness
that they felt awe at. The challenge
was to find a way of living that
matched their apprehension of
Holiness in their world.
The psalm has a sense of holiness
somehow touching our lives with
beneficence and compassion and
in response an awareness of God’s
magnificence which is wondrous.
In Matthew, the Jewish traditionalist with a care for the Jews who had
followed Jesus into a new way for their people, we find awareness of
needing to choose and the divisions even in families that choice of the Jesus
way will mean. Holiness has stringent expectations.
Then in Roman’s Paul put it dramatically with all the power and awe ablaze.
They are surrounded with danger because they have chosen this way. Paul
says we who choose to follow Jesus have
died and will rise again with him.
Reflection on Holiness, Awe, Wonder and
The Way
Holiness evokes awe and
wonder. I think that as a
baby we gaze out in awe.
When confronted by
mountains, oceans or a
single rose, begonia or
frangipani we have our
breath taken away and we
are filled with wonder.
Living in a world of nature
– travelling as nomad through deserts finding water and
pasture the people of the genesis time are close to the earth.
The earth demands awe, respect and the sense of the holy. The other, the
intensely powerful and awful. What is this power how do we negotiate our
relationship with this presence.
Even our name for this – what ever it is – we must make un-pronounceable.
We dare not pretend to be able to define it or name it. We dare not say it. The
four letters placed together cant be spoken together. If we try we have a
guttural sounding Y Ah W Eh “Yahweh” in the translation we Europeans boldly
write “Jehovah” – without regard for Jewish sensitivities and awe.
These nomadic families were as close to the natural world as the nomadic
small nation groups wandering their familiar routes across Australia for
60,000 years. Continue reading Sunday 25th June →

Sermon

Bible Readings

Genesis 18:1-15

The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day, he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground, he said, “Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you. Let me bring some water for you to wash your feet; you can rest here beneath this tree, I will also bring a bit of food; it will give you strength to continue your journey. You have honoured me by coming to my home, so let me serve you.”

They replied, “Thank you; we accept.”

Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick, take a sack of your best flour, and bake some bread.” Then he ran to the herd and picked out a calf that was tender and fat, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to get it ready. He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.

Then they asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?”

“She is there in the tent.” he answered.

One of them said, “Nine months from now I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening. Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”

Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she said.

“Yes you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”

Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 (paraphrase)

I love you, God, because you listen to my prayers every single time I call out to you.

What can I ever offer you for all you have done for me? I know: I’ll bring an offering of wine to thank you for saving me. I’ll bring it into the assembly of the people, so everyone can see that I appreciate what you have done.

How painful it must be for you, God, when one of your people dies.

But you have saved me from death. I will serve you just as my mother served you. I will give you my sacrifice of thanksgiving and offer you my prayers and praise. In front of all the people, in the midst of the Jerusalem temple, I will give you all I have promised, for you have been so good to me.

With all my being, I offer you my praise!

Romans 5:1-8

(divide congregation into four groups)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

All: And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that –

Group One: Suffering produces endurance.

Group Two: Endurance produces character.

Group Three: Character produces hope.

Group Four: Hope does not disappoint us.

All: because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But God’s great love is demonstrated in this:

All: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 9:35-10:10

Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness. As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were without a shepherd. So he said to his disciples, “The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest.”

Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles; first Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Patriot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

These twelve men were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions; “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. Instead, you are to go to those lost sheep, the people of Israel. Go and preach, ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; do not carry a beggar’s bag for the journey or a spare shirt or shoes or a walking stick. Workers should be given what they need.

Sermon ‘Compassion’

The Mathew reading tells us – “Jesus went around visiting all the towns and villages. He taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness. As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were without a shepherd.”

The phrase “his heart was filled with pity (or compassion) for them” can also be translated from the Greek as “his guts were twisted in pain by his compassion for them.” While a bit rougher than the first I like thus version as it saves us from some of the baggage the word ‘pity’ holds and emphasises how deeply moved Jesus was by the plight of the people around him.

And notice two things; Jesus is concerned not just about people believing his good news but in their physical and mental well-being. And secondly he immediately does something about it. After commenting that there are few workers for the harvest he doesn’t despair and say it’s all too hard. He looks at what he has and organises the twelve men he has to add to what he is doing.

In the Genesis reading which we only referred to today, we also meet a compassionate God. In this story we hear about Sarah’s infertility. She believes it is now impossible for her to have children, as both she and Abraham are just too old. But God has different ideas. And he promises a child, in fact a son, something that would wipe away all the years of shame at not producing an heir for Abraham. Finally. And Sarah laughs in disbelief.

And here we have the worm in the apple, especially on this day that has been designated Disability Sunday. Why does a compassionate God not cure every disease and sickness? Why does he let bad things happen to good people, or even just okay people, or to totally innocent children? Why?

Honestly I’m not sure if there is a simple answer. But what I do know is that often disability is not the problem, it is the way we use labels to categorise people. And that is ridiculous when you think about it because all of us are disabled in some way. Because really ‘disabled’ means ‘not able to do (something)’. And that is true for all of us. I am unable to sail an America’s Cup boat. I am unable to understand, build and launch a rocket. I am unable to keep most plants alive. I suspect you too may be able to come up with a list too. And yet the fact that I am unable to do lots of things results in me being rarely called ‘disabled’.

No, we tend to keep that label for the disabilities that are easy to see. And yet even then we are selective. I obviously wear glasses. Without them I am unable to see this sermon, your faces and probably how to get out of the building. Without my glasses I would be in truth be disabled, unable to cope in this modern world.

And that is often the criteria. You have a disability if you don’t fit in, if you face barriers when you try to live your life. Now when you use that as your disability criteria; that there are barriers to living life as you wish it – all of us are disabled. Some are unable to do what they want to do because of the colour of their skin. Some face barriers because of their gender. Some are unable to be who they could be because their brain does not work like other people’s and they are labelled strange or difficult or mad. Still others have physical characteristics that don’t fit the ‘norm’ (whatever that is) and so they struggle to go places or to do what is expected. And the list goes on. Continue reading Sunday 18th June – Disability Sun Compassion →

Readings

Genesis 12: 1-9

Writing of this passage Maurice Andrew reminds us of Colin Gibson’s hymn in which Gibson uses the image of the God of Abraham sending us on our way and ‘has called forth a response from many New Zealanders for whom ‘the road runs out.’

We can see plausibility in this saga as we reflect on our own migratory history of island hopping or migration across the globe.

We are told that God told Abram to leave Haran and, if we relate that to our own experience, the fact that migration was divinely inspired is often a hindsight revelation rather than a certainty when the decision is being made.

Furthermore, the journeys we make are often short trips strung together over a lifetime, like my grandfather who said he went to Canada because he was sick of washing his stepmother’s dishes.  If he knew he would end up in Auckland, he might have persevered with the dishes.

Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26

Matthew the tax collector did not work for our IRD and the tax he collected was a toll on transported goods.  He would have contracted to collect a certain amount with any surplus belonging to him.

That system encouraged greed and exploited poor peasants and other producers, like fishermen, who transported goods to urban markets.  Such taxes served the empire’s ruling elite and secured the infrastructure in conquered areas to consolidate and extend Rome’s power.

To not collect tax was to undermine the empire’s way of life and control.  Therefore, the story of Matthew offers the suggestion that even despised tax collectors, can walk away from the oppressive imperial system to find God’s saving presence in Jesus and an empire that is life giving and merciful.[1]

More excluded people are repatriated in the next section we read where Matthew has condensed Mark’s sandwich of the healing of two women.

Sermon

Both our readings are about journeys, one across ancient lands to become a people of God and the other is part of the metaphorical Gospel journey towards becoming a new people of God.

Our Genesis reading is the beginning of the Abraham Saga that moves into the Exodus Saga which is all part of the Hebrew Journey to becoming the People of God.

The journey was started by Abram’s father in the previous chapter where it says that Abram had set out with his father and the rest of family from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan but had stopped at Haran. (Genesis 11:31-32).

These stories are narrowly focussed on the Abraham’s family but like all our own journeys they happen within the ongoing journey of humanity spreading throughout the globe as layer upon layer of peoples and culture evolve into the people of our world.  The inclusive challenge the Gospels present is to accept that all those people are potentially the whole people of God.

The Bible doesn’t tell us why Abram and his father left Ur of the Chaldeans or why after settling in Haran with his father Abram decided to continue the journey.

Likewise, my family know that the Perrys came to New Zealand from Plymouth to New Plymouth on the ‘Amelia Thompson’ because they thought they could smelt the Taranaki iron sands.  But we can only guess what motivated them to leave a smelting business in England and risk Split Enz’ ‘six months in a leaky boat.’ Continue reading Sunday 11th June – Our Journeys are also Faith Journeys →

Today is Trinity Sunday. We’ve just emerged from Pentecost- that hugely significant, challenging, and exciting celebration. We’re just getting our heads round the metaphor of the Spirit coming in fire and wind, and opening us to the experience of God in Christ present with us, and now we’re asked to take on board the whole Trinitarian package. It’s no wonder, that in many churches this is the Sunday when the regular preacher finds a substitute to deal with Trinity!

One of the biggest difficulties we have when we’re faced with mysteries beyond our experience, is to find words to describe them to ourselves. I think I’ve told you this story before but it’s worth repeating it. It’s a true story of a group of five-year-olds from Wainoni School who were taken to the beach. They had never been to the beach – it’s only 1km away from where they lived, but their families had nothing extra to cover the cost of picnics at the beach! They had no word for sand. They had never seen it, or experienced the feeling of it – they had no words. It’s hardly surprising that we struggle to find words to describe the mysteries of our faith. Even when we experience them, they’re so big that the words we use never seem satisfactory – there’s always something more.

After all, it took the early church centuries to hammer out a concept of Three-in-One, and One-in-Three that was helpful to them in building their faith. And the formula the Church came up with after 300 years worked for their time and knowledge, but, in the end, it wasn’t a glue strong enough to hold the Church together! The early Christians were passionate about their theology. There were riots in the streets over different interpretations about the nature of God. The arguments spilled out into the markets and the barbers’ shops, and ordinary people came to blows in the streets over the different formulae proposed. Our ancestors really cared about the doctrines of their faith. Continue reading Sunday 4th June, Trinity Sunday – Dangerous Images →

Teaching ‘Ascension’

You’ve just heard about an event the modern church seems to ignore – the Ascension. Perhaps that’s why I bring it up every year because I think it is important.

And yet the events described actually seem quite low key. Jesus spends time teaching the disciples, explaining what has happened and preparing them for the future and then he leaves. You have to sympathise with the early Christians because this was a period when they are overwhelmed with unexplainable happenings. The ascension was just one more to add to jaw-dropping moments like the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And yet despite having to do some major re-shuffling of previously-held beliefs, by the next week when Pentecost happens Peter is able to explain these events in a few sentences. He says; “This Jesus, God raised up.  And every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received.”

There, right from the beginning was one of the basic understandings of the Ascension – Jesus went up to heaven to sit on the throne at the right hand of God. In other words, Jesus took the most honoured place in the court after God. Continue reading Sunday 21st May Eastertide/Ascension →