What is important? version 2

What is important?

In the church:  Some would say keeping the rolls up to date, some would say converting people. I think there are lots of things that are important in the church.

Last Saturday, I attended a course on SMAT, which stands for Sexual Misconduct Awareness Training. This is considered so important by the Uniting Church, that we spent a number of days on this, and the code of ethics, while we were at college, and we are expected to complete a one day refresher at least each three years. This is not only for Ministers, but also lay people in leadership positions.

SMAT covers what the church considers to be sexual misconduct, and also the process that happens when a complaint is made. Some in the group last weekend were asking: how many people in congregations know about the regulations or the process. Basically, if you have a complaint against a Minister or Lay Leader, speak to Grant, the Presbytery Minister. 

What is important?

On Thursday and Friday I was at a Leadership Intensive. This was the third of four, two day sessions, with lots of reading in between. One thing we discussed this week was what spiritual practices help to keep us motivated, what sustains us. I leant a new word: Ubuntu – I am because we are. This is an African word, and many African languages have a word with a similar meaning.  We only know ourselves; we only exist, in relationships with other people. While this word, and the philosophy behind it, sounds foreign to our western ears, I hope that it resonates with our Christian hearts. Christianity is a religion where relationships are important, relationship with God, God’s creation and with each other.

What is important?

Stones and jar story

What is important?

In your life, in the way you use your time, in the way you spend your money, in the people you value.

What is important?

I have heard of people with small children leaving video or letters for their children to be given to them at particular stages of their lives. Do you know anyone who in preparing to die left a message for a child, or a loved one?

If you had the opportunity to leave a message for your family, friends, and congregation; what would you say? If you knew you would probably die tomorrow, what would you want to record?

The passage from John’s gospel we heard this morning is part of a long section, in which Jesus teaches and prays for the disciples before his arrest. This passage comes after the washing of the disciples’ feet. Looking at this farewell discourse, we see Jesus reminding the disciples of a number of important things.

Jesus is speaking with the disciples, not a crowd, not the religious or political elite, but the disciples who had been with him, travelling together, hearing him teach, watching him heal and touch, hearing him chastise some and offering healing to all. The people Jesus is speaking to were the disciples. He has just washed their feet, and is talking about his impending death, which the disciples find baffling.

What do we hear in this section of the farewell discourse recorded in John?

A colleague wrote this ‘modern’ paraphrase of the passage:

John 14:1-14 - kzj version (with apologies to actual scholars)

"Chill.... calm down. Trust God. Trust me. The Eternal Kingdom is HUGE! There's no rush - plenty of room. I'm heading up there in order to assure you will come too. And I'll make sure you can join me. You know where, right?"

Thomas said, "Uh... no! How are we supposed to know that?"

Jesus said, "I'm it. I've got this. You know me, right? So you're in. Your guesses as to who I am are true."

Philip said, "Whatever... prove it. I want to see God."

Jesus responded, "Philip, you know me. You've seen what I've done, you've heard what I've said - you want to see God? You're looking at Him! You want proof? Think about the things you've seen me do. And if you trust me you will do them too - actually you'll do even more because I. am. outta here!"

"Trust me. I've got this. I'm here for you."

http://kathrynzj.blogspot.com/

Have faith; there is a space for you. By the time John was writing this, the Christians were a minority, and were being expelled from the synagogue. They were no longer able to make the necessary sacrifices; they no longer could carry out some of the required Jewish practices.

Here, Jesus is telling the disciples there is space for them in God’s house.  These words of Jesus are words of reassurance to a group of bewildered disciples, and to a small community of Christians in the first century: Words about the presence of Jesus, a God with room for all, and Jesus who is the way.

When they heard these words of Jesus, the disciples were confused; the early church was comforted, what about us? In this passage we are reminded of the constant care and presence of God. We are told that there is room for us, room for everyone in God’s heart. We are told that Jesus will show us the way.

While this passage, or the first part of it, is sometimes read at funerals, the places that are prepared for us are not only about after we die. There is a place for us with God now.

And when we live in union with God, when we open our lives up to God’s presence, when we are sure of our place in God’s kingdom and God’s heart, we live lives that change the world.

What is important?

what is important?

I have been at training courses for 3 out of the past 8 days. Last Saturday, was SMAT, which stands for Sexual Misconduct Awareness Training. This is considered so important by the Uniting Church, that we spent a number of days on this, and the code of ethics, while we were at college, and we are expected to complete a one day refresher at least each three years. This is not only for Ministers, but also lay people in leadership positions.

SMAT covers what the church considers to be sexual misconduct, and also the process that happens when a complaint is made. Some in the group last weekend were asking: how many people in congregations know about the regulations or the process. Basically, if you have a complaint against a Minister or Lay Leader, speak to Grant, the Presbytery Minister. 

Then on Thursday and Friday I was at a Leadership Intensive. This was the third of four, two day sessions, with lots of reading in between. One thing we discussed this week was what spiritual practices help to keep us motivated, what sustains us. I leant a new word: Ubuntu – I am because we are. This is an African word, and many African languages have a word with a similar meaning.  We only know ourselves; we only exist, in relationships with other people. While this word, and the philosophy behind it, sounds foreign to our western ears, I hope that it resonates with our Christian hearts. Christianity is a religion where relationships are important, relationship with God, God’s creation and with each other.

The passage from John’s gospel we heard this morning is part of a long section, in which Jesus teaches and prays for the disciples before his arrest. This passage comes after the washing of the disciples’ feet. Looking at this farewell discourse, we see Jesus reminding the disciples of a number of important things.

I have heard of people with small children leaving video or letters for their children to be given to them at particular stages of their lives. Do you know anyone who in preparing to die left a message for a child, or a loved one?

If you had the opportunity to leave a message for your family, friends, and congregation; what would you say? If you knew you would probably die tomorrow, what would you want to record? In the time Jesus was speaking, a person’s last words were considered to be very important.

In this section Jesus is speaking with the disciples, not a crowd, not the religious or political elite, but the disciples who had been with him, travelling together, hearing him teach, watching him heal and touch, hearing him chastise some and offering healing to all. The people Jesus is speaking to were the disciples. He has just washed their feet, and is talking about his impending death, which the disciples find baffling.

What do we hear in this section of the farewell discourse recorded in John?  Have faith; there is a space for you. By the time John was writing this, the Christians were a minority, and were being expelled from the synagogue. They were no longer able to make the necessary sacrifices; they no longer could carry out some of the required Jewish practices.

Here, Jesus is telling the disciples there is space for them in God’s house, there is room for this minority group, expelled and reviled by the Jewish leaders.  These words of Jesus are words of reassurance to a group of bewildered disciples, and to a small community of Christians in the first century: Words about the presence of Jesus, a God with room for all, and Jesus who is the way.

Jesus being the way, the truth, the life, may not have been understood the way it is often interpreted in modern times. Biblical Scholars don’t all agree in this. Some hold that this means that Jesus is the one and only way to God. Others argue that this is not how it would have been interpreted by the early Christians. They would have heard this in a Jewish context, a context they no longer fitted into. They needed a way to God that did not include the Jewish religion or practice.

There is reassurance of God’s care and protection. Looking at Philip’s question of Jesus: "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied”, and the reply: "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  ……  ” I wondered how do we know God? On Friday I was in the city, near Town Hall, and we had the task of going for a walk and finding signs of God, and God’s activity in the City. Where do you see signs of God in your day? In what ways do you sense the presence of God in your life?

When they heard these words of Jesus, the disciples were confused; the early church was comforted, what about us? In this passage we are reminded of the constant care and presence of God. We are told that there is room for us, room for everyone in God’s heart. We are told that Jesus will show us the way.

An observation on the presence of God: One comment I read this week noted that God is always present. We may not recognise that presence, we may wish God would take a holiday sometime, but God is always present with us, and there is always a place for us with God.

While this passage, or the first part of it, is sometimes read at funerals, the places that are prepared for us are not only about after we die. There is a place for us with God now.

And when we live in union with God, when we open our lives up to God’s presence, when we are sure of our place in God’s kingdom and God’s heart, we live lives that change the world.

Shepherd Sunday

For many people the psalm we read together this morning is a special psalm, a favourite, and one that brings comfort. We often read the psalm and the passage from John about the Shepherd as if sheep was singular. As if these passages are directed toward us as individuals. You don’t have a Shepherd for one animal. In John’s gospel, the Greek word for sheep is plural.

This week I have been thinking about the ways in which the media reports news. The Budget was in the news a lot this week. In the TV shows I saw about the Budget, and my watching was not extensive, the question was always, how will this budget affect you? Did it give you what you were hoping for?  Since when did everything revolve around us as individuals, rather than people who are part of a community, part of a nation? Other items that have been on my mind are NAPLAN tests and refugees.

Part of the budget discussion has revolved around the cut off for families with over $150,000 per annum income. Some people have suggested that having this income level does not make them well off financially, others have disputed this.

And then I read the gospel, a gospel that ends with the wonderful promise of abundant life. Is this what abundant life looks like? Worrying about whether your income level makes you an upper income or middle income family and how much help the government, which means the rest of the community, should be giving you? Is this what abundant life looks like? Children sitting standardised tests so that school performance can be compared. Is this what abundant life looks like? John tells us that Jesus came to bring life, and bring it abundantly; the Greek word is excessive! Jesus came to bring life, abundantly, extravagantly, excessive life.

What might this abundant, excessive life look like? It is from and through Jesus, now that might sound obvious, but we need to remember that life, freedom, is a gift of Jesus. The image of the Shepherd we have in both John’s gospel and the psalm is one of being present with us. Jesus leads the sheep out of the sheep fold, not in, but out. Jesus doesn’t gather the sheep behind a barrier to keep them safe; he leads them out, into..?

John writes of the thief, the one who comes to destroy, who doesn’t come in via the gate. It reminds me of the things in our lives that are life denying rather than life giving.

A few weeks ago we heard of the disciples being in a locked room when Jesus appeared to them. They were frightened.  What are the things that keep us huddled together? Are we frightened? Threatened? Or are we in such a comfortable place that it is easier to stay put.

Jesus came to bring abundant life, to us, to people! And Jesus calls people out of the pen, the sheep fold. And he doesn’t just lead them out, he is ejecting them, casting them out; that is what the Greek says.

So we have this Shepherd, who goes into the sheep yard, calls the sheep and tells them to leave the place they are in. I wonder what place you are in now that Jesus is calling you to leave; I wonder what place we, that is this congregation, is in now, that Jesus is calling us to leave. 

The psalm tells us what kind of Shepherd the Lord is:

One that is real, earthy, with dirt under his fingernails, who never gives up on the sheep, is always present, feeding, guiding, making sure the essentials for life: food, water and safety from predators: are available for the sheep. The Shepherd, well one who was interested in the sheep, would make sure there was nothing poisonous or dangerous in the field the sheep were about to feed in, the shepherd would check out the path ahead of the sheep, to make sure it was safe and stable for them, and a shepherd needed to look out for anything that might like to make a meal of one the sheep. The image of shepherd is one who is always present, with us at all times, and doesn’t leave us when things get tough.

We have a choice, we can follow the shepherd’s voice, we can follow a false shepherd, or we can go our own way. When I see the news about NAPLAN tests and hear about the anxiety of some children, I wonder how that relates to abundant life, when I hear and read about the budget, and people’s expectations, I wonder which shepherd we are listening to. How do we hear the Shepherd’s voice in a world that has so many competing voices?

Most people who have been in the church for many years will be comfortable with the image of the Lord as Shepherd, and of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Shepherd language is used in both the Old and New Testaments.

Often this means an image of God looking after us. Today I want us to put on different glasses.  Both the psalm and gospel reading remind us of the presence of God with us, they also tell of a people being called out, of people in dangerous places, of people who feast with enemies. God doesn’t take away the danger, the enemy, or the thief. We get to make a choice; we can stay close to the Shepherd, accepting the guidance, listening carefully, following obediently; or we can listen to other voices, go our own way. But remember, the way of abundant life is the way of Jesus.

How might we, as a congregation listen for the voice of Jesus?

What might abundant life look like for us as a community of faith?

Jesus journeys with us

[ a shorter sermon this week due to a Baptism, and Eucharist]

In this season after Easter we hear of some of the resurrection appearances of Jesus: Last week we heard that Jesus appeared to 10 of the disciples in a locked room, blessing them with peace. Then Jesus appeared to the 10 and Thomas – and Jesus had holes in his body, that proved he was the one who had been crucified.

Pain often leads to holes in our lives, and many of us have holes where we have experienced pain. This piece of timber is full of holes; I doubt the person who I got it off would have picked it up if it was solid. Its beauty and individuality is because of the holes, and like us the holes make it fragile. Jesus understands what it is like to suffer pain, and to be disfigured as a result of pain.

In the reading we heard this morning; we meet two people on the road; confused, bewildered, trying to make sense of what has occurred.  As they were discussing what had happened, another person joined them on the road. It was, and is, safer to travel with others than to travel alone.

The stranger asks them what they are talking about. Surely this person has heard! So they told what they knew, and the stranger reminded them of what the prophets had said about the Messiah.

Still the two travellers did not understand.

Emmaus was significant in Jewish history; Maccabeus had led a rebel army, which won a battle against the gentiles at Emmaus. The expectation was that the Messiah would come and free the people. Israel was under Roman occupation; to them the Messiah freeing Israel was about overthrowing the Romans. Jesus did not do that, so many of his followers were wondering if he really was the Messiah. Jesus suffered and died, his kingdom is not one of violence, but one of peace and suffering love. By looking toward Emmaus, the two disciples are looking for a Messiah that will violently and militarily overthrow the Roman occupiers. This was not the way of Jesus. If we profess to follow him, peace, not violence, is the way we live.

So we have two followers of Jesus, walking, talking, confused; and a third person comes and joins them as they walk together. The two have said what had happened in Jerusalem, the death of Jesus, and the maybe resurrection – though it just doesn’t make sense.

The stranger reminds them of the prophets, and they still don’t understand.

The stranger taught them – beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about Jesus in all the scriptures. This is what we do in the communion liturgy – we remember the actions of God in history, of God in Jesus, of the spirit with us in the bread and juice.

Still the two did not understand. It wasn’t when Jesus quoted the scriptures, or when he explained the scriptures, but when he broke bread that they recognised that their travelling companion was Jesus.

We could talk about the importance of hospitality, of talking about our faith, of encouraging one another, but I would like us to think about God being present with us. 

Sometimes it seems that Christians only talk about God when things are going well, or even if they aren’t going well, there is a gloss of “it’s God’s will”, as if that somehow makes it all OK.

The reading we heard last week, and the one this week, both see disciples and followers of Jesus confused and bewildered, grieving, and wondering what to do next. It is into this place of despair that Jesus came and walked beside the two. They did not recognize Jesus until after they had journeyed together, after they had spoken together. It was in sitting at the table eating a meal that they recognized who their travelling companion was. And then he was gone.

This is a journey we are invited to join; a journey of sharing faith, sharing doubts, concerns, questions, a journey of community, a journey of shared hospitality; a journey of transformation. We are invited to join this journey, a journey where Jesus travels with us, opening eyes and hearts to resurrection living.

This morning we have baptised William and shortly we will share in communion. In Baptism we are included, in communion we are fed, in being a community of faith, we do as these two, then three, on the road did. They talked about faith, not only what they are sure about, but the things they struggle to understand.  As William grows up, talk about your faith, and encourage him to ask questions. Children and I suspect adults, learn by doing as well as talking and listening. Have good faith practices, bedtime stories, prayer times as a family, meeting with other Christians in worship, sharing in the sacraments, these are all things that help us to grow in faith.

And be open to those times when you are acutely aware of Jesus coming alongside and walking with you. 

We come to our time of reflection; some people have asked if I can give you a question to think about – when have you been aware of Jesus travelling with you, walking with you?

Litany for Mother’s Day

 This was written a few years ago now, the language could be  a bit tighter and more consistent.

We remember Sarai who was taunted by others in the household because of her inability to have children.

All-encompassing God we pray for those who feel excluded when we emphasis one kind of family as normal.

We remember Esther, who was adopted and raised by her cousin.

God who embraces us all, we pray for those who cannot be raised by their parents, for a short time or permanently.

We remember Jochebed, the mother of Moses, who placed him into a raft on the river.

Saving God, we pray for parents who struggle to raise their children in oppressive circumstances.

We remember Hannah, who loved her child so much she handed him over to another to raise.

Loving God, we pray for parents who have placed their child in another family.

We remember Naomi, who grieved the death of her sons.

God, who grieves with us, we pray for parents who mourn the death of a child.

We remember Ruth, who gave up her family to be family to another.

Inclusive God, we pray for those who choose to be family to those isolated by culture or language or distance.

We remember Elizabeth, who had a child in old age and we remember Mary, who had a child as a teenager.

Ageless God, we pray that as a community we accept people of varying life stages and responsibilities and relationships.

We remember Rachel, crying for her children

God of justice and hope, we pray for those whose children are killed, and look to a time when children can live safely in their communities.

We remember Lois and Eunice, who taught Timothy faith by example.

Faithful God we pray for those who teach us faith by their lives, may we remember that we also teach about you in the way we live.

We remember other people, not named in the Scriptures, like the mother of the prodigal son.

Companion God, we pray for those who wait for a phone call or a visit,

cut off from family and friends by distance and disagreement.

Nurturing God, we give thanks for those

who enrich our lives by their presence

who teach us about your abundant love

who encourage us to journey in faith.

(c) Rev Patty Lawrence