who do we see

Reading through the passages this week I wondered how do we see people.  I know I sometimes hear people talking about the deaf man, or the paraplegic, or the diabetic or the asthmatic. It seems at times we are known by one element of our life. It may not be health related, it may be single parent, or refugee, or plumber, or parent.

If you were describing me to a friend, I can guess you would mention I am female, a minister, what next, I wonder?  Probably not my singing ability.

In the Old testament reading we are told that God does not look on the outside as people do, but on the heart. When we look at the person sitting near us this morning, what do you see…

What are their eyes like? Small, large, round, almond ????

Hair colour?

Clothing style?

Maybe a smile?

Now what do you see of the person, not their outward appearance, but what do you know and value about that person.

……….

I wish I had a mirror to give each of you at the moment, because I want us to do a similar exercise.

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see…

Eye colour?

Hair colour?

Clothing style?

What do you like best about your appearance?

Do you have a smile for yourself?

Now what do you see, not your outward appearance, but what do you know and value about that person in the mirror?

[1 minute]

…

I know these are hard questions, but they are valuable questions.

My guess is many of you are uncomfortable thinking about what you value about yourself. Many of us grew up in a time when we were not encouraged to value ourselves.

As we move toward Easter, we are reminded of how much God thinks we are worth.

David was the youngest son, he was out minding the sheep. When Samuel asked Jesse to get all his sons, David wasn’t called in from the fields, not until none of the others was chosen. No-one was expecting David to be the chosen one, but God chose David.  God saw something in David that other people, even his family, had not recognised.

How do you think God sees you? what does God value about you? it maybe something no one else sees in you.

[1 minute]

…

I know another really hard question. For too long the church has been a place where people are told they are sinners, bad, incomplete, not good enough. Yes, we are all sinners, but that isn’t a label God pins in us to shame us.  

The people travelling with Jesus asked who sinned, the man born blind or his parents.  Here sin is a badge of shame.

Recently I read that we feel guilt when we perceive that we have done something wrong, and we feel shame when we feel we, in our being, is wrong or not good enough.

Well, the gospel tells us that we are made in the image of God, that we are loved, valued and precious to God and that we need not be ashamed of who we are.  I have met too many people who live with shame because of illness or some aspect of their life, often something in their past or their families past.  

We need to cut ourselves some slack. As I said earlier we aren’t perfect, none of us is perfect, but then God does not expect us to be perfect. The call, the challenge of the gospel is to love, to love as God loves us, to live in the way Jesus did – standing with the outcast, eating with the alienated, healing, liberating, knowing who we are in relationship with God.

To love other people, we need to know love, love of God, love of neighbour and, yes, love of self. We cannot value another person, if we don’t value our own life, our own personhood.

The neighbours of the man born blind weren’t sure if it was him after Jesus gave him sight. The focus had been on his blindness, without the blindness they didn’t recognise him as the same person.

How do we see people?

Or maybe that should be do we see, really see, people?

 [silence]

 As we sing our next hymn[1],  I want you to think about how you see yourself, as well as how you see other people.

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[1] “Lord let me see, see more and more”  by Ross Langmead

What’s in a name?

 

My name is Patricia, because my grandmother wanted to call my mother Patricia, but my grandfather was worried it would be shortened to Pat, and people would think she was a boy, so I ended up with the name. Some families have names that are passed down through the generations.

In the local Engadine Pictorial, there is a series on how streets in the area got the name they have.

In exodus we hear that Moses called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord.

Even today places get named after events, such as Bicentennial Park.

I wonder what we would name this area, if it didn’t already have a name?

What would we name this church, we are Engadine Uniting Church, but if we wanted to give it a different name, what would that be?

Comfortable? Hope? Blessing? Apathy?

This past week has been designated by the Uniting Church as a week of prayer and fasting in solidarity with our indigenous brothers and sisters who are part of the Uniting Church. It is called Destiny together – a name which speaks of our interconnectedness. There was a gathering in Canberra with people from all over Australia, but only about 300 people in all. Maybe that is good for a Tuesday?

Tuesday evening there was a prayer meeting here and Wednesday evening at Carlton Ramsgate Church. Last night a celebration was planned at Sylvania. In the midst of the storm last night I was rung from Sylvania asking where people were – no one had come from around the Presbytery. Aboriginal people had come to tell stories and share music, and no one turned up.

I wonder what this says about our commitment to justice for indigenous people?

 

Moses could have named the area after anything, water, drought, rock, thirst, but he named it after the quarrelling people. We also have situations named after events we wish we could wipe out of our communal memories. Events like dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the name of the city is now synonymous with that event in history.

There is the stolen generation, which refers to a group of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders people removed from their families and communities because of government policies. We can try and rationalise why this happened, and how some of the people involved had the best of intentions; but by naming it as the stolen generation, we acknowledge the pain and hurt that occurred as a result.

 

Here is a creative version of the woman at the well.

http://vimeo.com/22823852

 

this woman, whose name is not recorded, is known by innuendo and gossip. She is isolated by fear and pain, it is too hard to be around people who look at her sideways and make comments under their breath.

I wonder how many of us here this morning are imprisoned by the pain of hurtful words and behaviours; of being told continually that we are stupid or dumb or clumsy – what does that do to a child, and the adult they become?

As we hear more about the Royal Commission into child abuse within institutions, we hear about the impact on people’s lives, not for a short period of time, but their whole life.

What pain do we carry that imprisons us, that haunts our lives?

I wonder what pain we have caused with our words and actions? Individually and communally? Who do we brush aside, treat as unimportant?

Which groups in our community are neglected, put down, treated with suspicion?

How do we name the people who attempt to get to Australia looking for a place of safety?

How do we name people who live with mental illness?

How do we name …..

 

I remember growing up we were taught:

sticks and stones may break my bones,

but names will never hurt me;

 

but we know differently now,

we know that names can hurt, wound, kill.

We know now about bullying, both in person and using social media; we know about abuse, neglect and violence that occurs within families and communities and churches.

We know that life isn’t always easy or fair.

How do we name injustice, poverty, domestic violence, child abuse.

And how do we name these issues in ways that offers inclusion, rather than  exclusion and isolation.

How do we name injustice and bring hope

How do we name, and help others to name the pain that imprisons them, and in the process offer liberation.

 

We cannot do these things on our won, but in recognising the presence of Jesus, by drinking deeply from the well of grace ourselves, we are able to be a healing presence, and people who show others the way to life giving water.

 

What do you need to rename?

Hymn/song : TiS 692 sometimes a healing word

which tune do we move to?

Did your Mum say you had to be home 10pm?

Is it really wrong to go over the speed limit?
I know it says no littering, but it is just an apple core.
"Did God say, you would die  …?"

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is out in the wilderness, and he is tested.   This passage is read at times as showing the importance of knowing some verses of scripture to keep temptation at bay, but notice the first 2 tests are also quotes of scripture.

Temptation doesn’t come with flashing lights saying danger, beware, turn back. Temptation comes disguised as opportunity, as realism.

Look at the temptations of Jesus –

• turn stones into bread,  go on, you’re hungry, why not?
• test God, go on, you are God’s son, surely God will protect you?
• you want to rule the world, I can help you with that, just worship me, and I will sort it all out for you…

a sermon I heard years ago, was about how we are tempted in areas of our strength. Me running a marathon, that is not a temptation, that is an impossibility. Me saying I will cook dinner for all of you tomorrow is a temptation, it is possible I could pull it off – but why would I? to show how clever I am? To show what a good cook I am?

These passages both ask – who or what do we listen to? 

Do we listen to the voice of grace and forgiveness in our lives?

Or do we listen to the voice of shame and guilt?

One of the questions I am frequently asked is: will God forgive me?

 The messages we get in our life are so often messages of failure, guilt and unworthiness, that we doubt that God will treat us any differently. Even though we hear the gospel each week, sometimes it seems it does not reside within us. What are the messages that you listen to, what messages do you allow to shape your life?, what are the words that stick!

 A quote I have put on my wall:

“It is the God we know, not the God we know about, that is ultimately of the most importance”

 The God I know, the God who I have felt in my life when I have been open to listening; the God I see in the gospel narratives about Jesus; the God I hear in the words of the prophets – this God speaks a message of good news. A message that reminds me of who I am – a loved child of God.

The challenge with being a loved child of God is that so many of the game rules for living are different.  No longer do we need to prove ourselves worthwhile, lovable, good looking or clever; no longer do we need to defend ourselves against insults; no longer do we need to show off our house or family or car.

 Being a disciple, being part of the body of Christ, is living to a different tune.  The tune we sing - the tune that our life moves to -  is one of service, mercy, forgiveness,  a tune of grace and love. No longer does our life move to the tune of greed, guilt or glamour.

 We choose which tune is the melody of our life.  It can be hard when we moving to a different tune to those around us.

Each day we are being challenged to leave behind the identity that God gives each one of us, and take on the identity of pride, guilt and failure.

Jesus chooses to live into his identity, he chooses not to play the game of self-fulfilment and short cuts to world power. Jesus chooses to march to God’s beat, to the kingdoms tune.

Which identity do we live into, which tune does our life move to?

T-fig mountain

A mountain top experience.

 Mountains figure in both of today’s readings. Moses goes up a mountain, Jesus takes the 3 disciples up a  mountain.

There are other stories in the Bible that include mountains – Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel [1 Kings 18:13]; Elijah and the still small voice ; Jesus and the woman at the well discuss which mountain to worship God on; the sermon on the mount that we have been reading the past few weeks; and many more. Mountains mean something important is happening.

We still talk about a mountain top experience, meaning something wonderful or amazing has happened; something life changing; something remarkable and out of the ordinary.

That the transfiguration happened on a mountain is not surprising.

The lectionary has this reading here, on the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. So we hear this after the sermon on the mount and before the temptations in the wilderness. But in Matthew this scene is much later in the story.

There have been healings and feeding the multitude, Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, then Jesus foretells his death and resurrection, then ‘ six days later, …’; after coming down from the mountain, the next thing we hear about is another healing  and Jesus again tells the disciples he will be put to death and rise 3 days later. Only a few chapters over and we have the entry into Jerusalem that we call palm Sunday.

This is a thick, rich, dense reading. There is a lot in here we could explore.  So a few points to ponder:

·    What happened in the 6 days before this event? Are the 6 days symbolically related to the 6 days of creation? Does it relate to the 6 days Moses waited for Gods instruction?

·    Moses is then on the mountain for 40 days and nights – where else do we hear that number? 40 years in the wilderness after the exodus, and Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness before the temptations.  I doubt that calendars were that common :  40 refers to a long time.

·    Jesus took 3 disciples – I wonder how he chose which ones to take. Often we think they were the cream of the crop, but maybe they were the ones who needed to experience this to better know who Jesus was.

·    Jesus took 3 disciples, so on the mountain top there are 3 disciples and Moses, Elijah and Jesus – another 3.

·    The voice from the cloud said: “this is my son, my beloved; with whom I am well pleased” ; where have we heard this before? Baptism of Jesus by John [Matthew 3: 17]

·    The disciples were overcome with fear after the voice – not seeing Moses and Elijah, but after the voice – and Jesus touches them and told them not to be afraid. 

o  When we are full of fear,  are we aware of God’s presence with us? do we trust God is present even when we can’t feel that presence?

o  The importance of the power of touch – comforting another

For many people this is a Jesus they can relate to, a Jesus whose face shines, whose clothes are dazzling white. Jesus in his glory. Yet most of the time Jesus did not have dazzling clothes or a shining face; most of what we hear of Jesus is about travelling with disciples, healing people, including outcasts, teaching, feeding people. The other image people have of Jesus is on the cross, or resurrected. Each of these aspects of the life of Jesus add something to our understanding of Jesus.

Like our own mountain top experiences, we don’t live there, they are fleeting; and we need to get on with the everyday tasks of living.  Jesus tells the disciples both here and after the resurrection, to get on with living.

This morning we will share in the bread and juice during communion; a time where we become aware of the glory of Jesus, but also the life and death and resurrection of Jesus; a life full of love and grace; a life that healed and nurtured, comforted and challenged.  In communion, we too are aware of the touch of Jesus in our lives.

“This is where Jesus meets us--touches us--calms our fears--strengthens us--and takes us off the mountain back to the world with all its messes and problems to be signs of hope.” [i]

Which image of Jesus do we hold onto, the dazzling bright Jesus in all his glory?

Or the Jesus who changes lives – healing, feeding and loving?

What is the image of Jesus that people see in your life?

 

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[i] Working preacher podcast, comment by John Anderson.