Change starts from within

This was written for the Fellowship Day Service 2016 of the Australian Church Women inc.

Year theme: Women empowering change

Service theme: Change starts from within

Readings: Luke 8:43-58 John 4:4-28

Sermon

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this worship service. Here is a short story.

Mary Marty retells a parable from the EYE OF THE NEEDLE newsletter:

 “A holy man was engaged in his morning meditation under a tree whose roots stretched out over the riverbank. During his meditation he noticed that the river was rising, and a scorpion caught in the roots was about to drown. He crawled out on the roots and reached down to free the scorpion, but every time he did so, the scorpion struck back at him.

“An observer came along and said to the holy man, ‘don’t you know that’s a scorpion, and it’s in the nature of a scorpion to want to sting?’

“To which the holy man replied, ‘that may well be, but it is my nature to save, and must I change my nature because the scorpion does not change its nature?”

Joseph B. Modica from https://bible.org/illustration/scorpion

I wonder is our identity grounded in the love of God, the life of Christ and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit; or is our identity driven by ego, the media and the mood of the people around us.

We live in a time of fear. We hear about bombings, shootings, violence and war. And the instinctive reaction for many people is fear. Fear of those who are different or have a different opinion. Fear of those with a different ethnic or religious background.

It is easy for us to get caught up the fear and anxiety of the community around us.

It is easy for us to live in fear, to be enslaved by fear. The more we watch the news, the more we listen to popular commentators, the more we hear about fear:

Fear of young people
Fear of Muslims
Fear of people with lots of money
Fear of poor people
Fear of what will happen if this or that political party gets elected.

It seems that keeping people in a state of fear helps politicians and companies – when we fear a possible terrorist attack, we don’t ask about the erosion of civil liberties.

When we fear a takeover by foreign companies we don’t look at the behaviour of local companies.

Fear is easy.

We can’t wave a magic wand and rid the world of abuse and oppression and violence.

The way to change the world is to change within.

A woman came to the well, in the middle of the day and an encounter that changed her life.

A woman stretched out her hand and touched the cloak of an itinerant teacher.

In a culture where a woman and an unrelated man would not talk without other people being present

In a culture where purity and holiness were important

In a culture so different to ours, but then sometimes I wonder if under the surface it has changed much at all.

We heard these two accounts of women meeting Jesus. In each case the woman is unnamed.

In both the woman is seen and heard and known, in a way that is life giving.

We too get to meet with Jesus, the one who knows us, loves us, forgives us, gifts us, and sends us out to be light and hope in a troubled world.

In the midst of a world that seems intent on seeing how much hate and anger and violence and fear can be generated, we follow the One who lived the way of peace and grace and forgiveness.

When we come into relationship with God through Jesus, we become new people. It isn’t always easy to accept this new life, to accept the transformation offered to us. Sometimes we resist the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Sometimes it all seems too hard.

The world is changing all the time and there are many forces that impact on the world.

How do we change the world?
It isn’t like changing our clothes.

When I look at what is happening in the world, I wonder what can I change. I can’t stop the violence in Africa or the Middle East or the USA.

I can’t even change this country, or this community.

But, I can allow myself to be changed,
I can accept the transformation Christ brings to my life.
I can live out the call to live with grace and hope.

And in being changed, in living life transformed by Christ, the community will be changed by the light and hope and grace that will radiate from our lives.

Jesus met these two women, and their lives were changed. We don’t hear what happened to them. But we do know that the woman at the well went and told people about Jesus. Her encounter with Jesus led to her telling others, and then they heard and saw Jesus for themselves.  

The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years touched the hem of his cloak, then she is called out and unable to hide in the crowd. Everyone hears about the change in her life.  

Are the lives of people around us changed because of the way we really see them, of the way we allow the love of God in Jesus to flow through our lives to those we meet?

When we are changed by our relationship with God in Christ Jesus, we are called to respond to fear, not with anger or hate or even fear; we are called to respond to fear with love.

In Romans 8, Paul wrote, we are not given a spirit of slavery and fear, rather “God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.” [Romans 8 the Message]

God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.

The Spirit of God, flowing through us; sometimes in a surprising rush, and sometimes like a gentle breeze; confirms who we really are – children of God.
Each one amazing and unique.
Each one with something special and individual to bring to the community of faith and all of God’s wonderful creation.

We are transformed from fear to joy and confidence, to be who we are – children of God.

Let us pray:

God, who loved us into being;

Christ, who transforms our living;

Holy Spirit who breathes new life into us;

Forgive us;

Heal us;

Transform us;

May we be the people you dream us to be

May we be confident in our identity as your beloved children

set free from all that binds us

offered grace and mercy beyond measure

treasured and loved

Transforming Trinity, transform our lives.

In Jesus name we pray

Amen.