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

Resurrection: end or beginning

This morning we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. After the journey through Lent, the Palm Sunday parade, the betrayal of Thursday evening, the brutality of Friday, the confusion and grief of Saturday, finally it is Sunday, finally we celebrate.

But what is it we are celebrating.  In many ways it is the culmination, the fulfilment, the climax of the story. We made it to Sunday. We made it to the day of Resurrection, the end of the story. And we can think of this as the end of the story, Jesus is killed, buried, and defeated death, he is no longer dead.   That could be the end of the story, and I am guessing that for many people that is the end of the story. Jesus was born, lived, did great things, killed, buried, rose. The end.

Is resurrection the end of the story?

To me it isn’t the end; and not because there are more pages in the Bible after this account. While in some ways the resurrection is the climax of the story, it isn’t the end of the story, not if we live as resurrection people.

Resurrection is the beginning of a story, the story of new life, of Jesus being present with people in a totally different way. The pre-crucifixion Jesus could only be in one place at a time, just like all humans. The post-resurrection Jesus is present everywhere, at all times. Resurrection is the end of one story, and the beginning of another. Resurrection is the crossover point, where two stories meet; the story of Jesus in Israel, travelling with the disciples, and the story of Jesus with all of us.

Some people struggle to believe in resurrection at all. How is this possible, do I really expect sane, intelligent people to believe that Jesus is no longer dead, that somehow, something happened, something impossible, something unnatural. Modern people can’t be expected to believe in such events. We all know that when you are dead, you are dead, and you stay that way.

I would like you to think for a moment, why you believe in resurrection, or if you believe in resurrection. I know this is probably a dangerous question for a minister to ask, but why do you believe in the resurrection; maybe because it is in the Bible, for some people that will be the reason.  But for others that isn’t enough to satisfy their intellectual and spiritual curiosity. Why believe in resurrection, for me, because resurrection means that we can still experience Jesus. Jesus is not just a historical figure I have read about and heard about. Jesus is a real part of my life, and that means he isn’t dead. So while I can’t explain how it happened, I don’t have any difficulty believing it happened.

What does all this mean, or is it just word games.

Resurrection is Good News; it is Good news that in a world where death and despair seem to hold sway, that Jesus, condemned and executed, is freed, liberated, by the love of God.

Resurrection is Good News; because God’s love is greater than anything else, greater than evil, greater then betrayal, greater than violence. We need not conform to the messages of status and wealth. We don’t have to justify our existence or prove ourselves. God loves us.

Resurrection is good news; we no longer need to live with fear and insecurity.  

Why do so many of us, even in church, live with insecurity and fear? Maybe living as people of resurrection seems too hard, too amazing, that we can’t get the idea straight in our heads. If we lived as the people God claims us to be, if we lived as the Body of Christ, I wonder what that would look like in our daily lives.

I have a coffee cup here, it says on it: Life is a mystery to be lived not a problem to be solved. And I think that could be said about our relationship with God: resurrection, grace, mercy, all are part of the mystery of faith, and we live within that mystery, rather than trying to explain it in rational, scientific or historical terms.

The evidence for resurrection is all around us, and within us. We are the evidence for resurrection, our transformed lives, the Holy Spirit bringing us new life; we are the evidence for the reality of resurrection.

This Easter I encourage you to think about your experience of resurrection, the ways in which Jesus has and is transforming your life.

Are you open to God’s transforming grace in your life? Are you living in as the transformed people of God?

Hosanna

Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

We say this when we celebrate communion together, and here it is today in the Bible reading.

Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem, at the beginning of Passover week. Passover celebrated the escape of the Hebrews from Egypt. Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples on the Thursday evening, and we will hear that part of the story later in the week.

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem as many other people of Jewish faith were also arriving in town. There were sacrifices to make at the Temple and preparations to make for the Passover meal. Also arriving in Jerusalem would have been extra Roman soldiers to make sure things stayed peaceful, with Pilate leading the procession.

The Romans maintained peace and order with lots of soldiers. There was no room for dissidents. The Jewish elite collaborated with the Romans, in an effort to keep the Romans from interfering with the Jewish religious traditions. While there were always soldiers based in Jerusalem, at Passover the population increased greatly, and so did the number of soldiers.

Into this atmosphere came the wandering teacher Jesus, on the back of a lowly donkey – no way for a king to travel. And we see a pattern we have seen before, people are curious about Jesus, they have heard about his teaching, his challenge to the Pharisees and Sadducees, news of the raising of Lazarus would have spread, and this man can heal and remove demons. Now they call out Hosanna, Hosanna, a phrase which means save us. They are looking for someone to save them from the Roman occupiers.

A clash of power, a clash of authority, Jesus on a donkey with crowds waving branching calling for salvation, and Pilate with the Roman soldiers reminding people they are under occupation.

This is often as far as we go in the Palm Sunday reading, but I wanted to look at the next thing Matthew records for us. Matthew follows the entry into Jerusalem with the incident of Jesus cleaning the Temple of stallholders. John includes this story much earlier in Jesus’ ministry, but Matthew has it here in Passover week. 

When people came to worship in the Temple, they would need local coins for offering, and livestock to offer as sacrifices. The money changers were like money changers today, they change your overseas money for local currency.  Because Israel was under Roman occupation, many people would only have Roman coins, to make an offering in the Temple required Jewish coins, so people were forced to deal with money changers. If people travelled any distance to the Temple, it was not possible to bring their own doves with them to sacrifice. The religious rulers had the people in a difficult place. People wanted to worship, and the religious and Temple leaders did not make this easy. So Jesus goes in to clean out the Temple, not to destroy the Temple, or to tell people not to worship, but to remove some of the obstacles to worship.

All along Jesus was trying to reform Judaism from within, to encourage people to worship God with their lives, to live out the compassion of God.

On Palm Sunday with the procession, Jesus was making a political statement about civil authority; then in the Temple he is making a political statement about religious authority.

Matthew then gives 5 chapters of teaching from Jesus, followed by Jesus reminding his disciples he is about to be killed, and the religious leaders plotting to be rid of the troublesome Jesus. Note Jesus links his death with Passover, and the religious leaders want to avoid Passover, they don’t want a fuss.

Then we hear of Jesus eating with Simon, a former leper, the implication being he was healed by Jesus. During the meal, a woman pours perfume over Jesus’ head.  This causes a stir, with the disciples complaining about the expense, not just Judas, the disciples. Jesus sees something different in her actions; she is readying him for burial. Jesus has told the disciples a number of times of his impending death, and yet they don’t get it, this woman, somehow knows to anoint him. Typically kings were anointed on their heads as part of coronations. Here she proclaims him king, and readies his body for death.

The response to the birth of Jesus was greeted by celebration, singing, searching, killing, and exile. During his ministry, the reactions to Jesus were mixed. Jesus was greeted enthusiastically in some places, but we remember today, he was a threat to those who held power, both civil power and religious power. The people who were in control, made life difficult for ordinary people; which meant anyone who wasn’t part of the elite, the establishment.

We can read these passages from Matthew and see ourselves as part of the cheering crowd, recognising who Jesus is; we can see ourselves amongst those who Jesus was defending in getting rid of the money changers and stall holders; we can see ourselves as the woman with the perfume.

But I wonder:

In what ways do we collaborate with the Government and civil authorities in keeping people in poverty, downtrodden and oppressed?

In what ways do we, as a church, make rules that keep people out?  That tells people that access to God is limited?  That shows people that they aren’t good enough?

In what ways do we treat religion as a means to an end; a way of keeping things the way we like them.

In what ways do we put down other people’s worship of God?

Palm Sunday is about a clash of kingdoms, the kingdom of God, peace, reconciliation, justice and liberation; and a kingdom based on maintaining order, keeping people downtrodden, defending the powerful, and destroying anyone who gets in your way.

We may not physically kill people, but how often have we killed the spirit of another, how often do we buy goods made in sweatshops, how often do we vote for a Government that will make our life easier, rather than looking after all people in the community.

Today we shout out:

Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

As we move through holy week and Easter, does our living mirror the life of Jesus, defending the weak against the powerful, giving everything we have for the kingdom of God, or do we try not to stand out too much, not to be too obvious in our worship, living by the rules of the world.

Jesus challenged the religious and political rulers of the day. Whose authority do we live by?

Time for reflection

who sinned?

Who sinned? I sometimes wonder how much things have really changed in the past 2000 years:  The finger pointing, the wanting to put other people down, so we feel better about ourselves. People who are poor, or homeless or unemployed must be responsible for the situation they are in.

There are lots of questions in this reading, but there are ways of asking questions, and I wonder if the disciples, or the Pharisees, really wanted an answer to the questions they posed.

Asking if someone who is born blind, or who is disabled, or homeless, or unemployed, did something to deserve their lot in life, implies that those of us with a roof over our heads, food in the cupboard, an income and eyes that work, at least some of the time, are blessed for being good!

Just by asking the question, we already have an answer in mind, and we have already judged that person.

Who sinned?

The tricky part of this reading for many people is where John reports Jesus saying that the man was born blind so that God’s power could be seen – this is unlike any other statement we have from Jesus in the gospels. God’s power and mercy are shown in the healing, but I doubt this man was born blind for that reason.

Whether the historical Jesus would have seen the needy as opportunities for promotion is doubtful. We don’t need to be able to explain poverty, illness, unemployment and disability in terms of God’s benefit.

Some background -

John’s gospel was written down about 100 years after the death of Jesus, the people who followed Jesus thought of themselves as Jews, still attended their local synagogue when possible, and were having difficulties with the religious leaders. Jews, who made statements of Belief in Jesus, and their close associates, were excluded from the synagogue, and that meant being an outsider in your own community. This gospel was written to this group of Christians, early followers who were being expelled from the synagogue. For them, this story would have been an affirmation to keep being faithful to Jesus, even if it meant they were unable to worship in the synagogue, and people in the community looked at them strangely.

Also in John’s gospel, seeing Jesus, is believing in Jesus, there is always the connection between seeing and believing. It is only when we see Jesus for who he is, that we can truly believe.

Back to the story; Who sinned?

This happened on the Sabbath, so by making mud and placing it on the man’s eyes, and healing him, Jesus broke the religious rules of the day. To the Pharisees, Jesus was a sinner. Not only did Jesus break the rules by working on the Sabbath, he also touched a person who is likely to have been ritually unclean, thus making himself unclean. When you think about it, in making mud and putting it on the man’s eyes meant he actually was dirty.

Who sinned?

After the man is healed, the Pharisees and neighbours are not sure of his identity –how often do we only identify someone by a particular characteristic, such as an illness or disability; the man on the corner, the old lady with the walking stick, the boy in a wheelchair.

Who sinned?

The response to the healing elicits not praise, not celebrations, but questions about the validity and the possibility of such a thing happening. The man has been healed, he has been blind since birth, and the religious people are arguing about the nature of sin, the neighbours can’t identify this person and his parents are too scared of the religious officials to get involved.

Who sinned?

When we read passages like this one today, it is easy to think of ourselves as the man born blind, but today I want us to think about the ways in which we are like the other characters in the story.

We will start with the disciples, they are travelling with Jesus, but still so conditioned by their culture that they ask, what to them is an obvious question, who sinned?  The culture we live in can determine how we look at people, how we respond to people, and which people we exclude. This still happens in the church today.

Then there are the neighbours of the man, people who have only seen him as the blind beggar, they may have even given him money or food, but they have never taken any notice of who he is, as a person.

His parents were scared of the religious authorities, they knew that if they said anything that suggested Jesus is from God, then they were at risk of expulsion, and that would lead to being shunned by people in the community. Are there times when it is easier to not mention Jesus or God?

The Pharisees, the people who were experts in the law, stayed in their heads, they couldn’t see what was happening, because they were so busy looking for an explanation, any explanation other than that Jesus healed the man born blind, because then they would have to acknowledge who he is, and that doesn’t fit their world view. How often do we stay with what we know, rather than embracing a new touch from God?

Another thing with this passage is that even though we think about it in terms of the man gaining his sight, he first heard Jesus, then smelt the mud and then felt his touch. Jesus comes to us in all our senses, hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell.

And when we meet Jesus, when we allow him to touch us, we are transformed people. This isn’t easy today, any more than it was 2000 years ago. The people in the community John was writing to knew that this was a dangerous and risky thing to do. Jesus comes to us, gets dirty in healing us, welcomes us, and transforms us. At the end of this passage, the man born blind was in a very different place to where he started, not only can he see physically, but he sees Jesus for who he is. The other people are still in the same place, asking the wrong questions, judging, blaming, scared and not seeing. In what ways are we transformed by seeing, hearing, believing in Jesus? Are we more in tune with our society, counting who is in and who is out, seeing people as objects of pity or problems of their own making; or are we transformed to be open to seeing people as God sees them, people of dignity, worth, offering God’s love and mercy to those rejected by others.

Last week we heard about the woman at the well, this week’s story is another where there is an encounter between Jesus and a person who was considered an outsider, and in both stories Jesus sees the person as an individual of worth, a child of God, beloved and known.

We too are loved by God, known, offered healing, wholeness and forgiveness. As we journey toward Easter, and the sacrifice of Good Friday, may we reflect on how loved we are. And may we reflect on the ways in which Jesus comes to us in our humanity, connecting with us by sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. As we come for communion shortly, we acknowledge Jesus reaching out to us; may we be transformed by our encounter with Jesus,  encouraged and empowered to reach out to others.

Barriers to Compassion

Gospel John 4: 3 - 30

This passage from John’s gospel is one of my favourite Bible stories. The woman is an outsider, - as a woman, a Samaritan, and someone who has had  rough time in life. Last week we heard of Nicodemus coming to Jesus, Nicodemus, male, Jewish, religious elite - he had it all, he still had trouble getting his head around what Jesus was saying to him. He went to Jesus at night, hiding under the cover of darkness.

This week we hear of the woman, who is ‘other’ in so many ways. She doesn’t come to meet Jesus, they both happen to be at the well at the same time, noon. Hot, dry and thirsty.

Some background: Samaritans traced their lineage back to ancient Israel, BUT, they had intermarried with the Assyrians when under occupation in 580’s BCE. They were therefore considered unclean by the Jews, and their land was polluted or defiled, because they were.

And in the time of Jesus, women needed to be in the protection of a man: father, husband , brother, or some other male relative. A woman was of similar status to a slave. 

This woman, we aren’t told her name, is often portrayed as being immoral, a loose woman, but there is nothing in the reading to suggest that. Jesus doesn’t call her to repentance, he doesn’t mention her living situation as a sin.  As a woman, if your husband died, divorced you, or abandoned you, the outcome was that you needed the security of a household headed by a male, otherwise begging and prostitution were the only ways you could survive. 

Think back, it is not that long ago that women were unable to get a home loan without their husband’s approval; and think back to Henry the Eight, a wife was only as good as the male heirs she produced.

So it is quite feasible that this woman had a sad history, rather than an immoral history.

…..

Back to the encounter between Jesus and the woman. Jesus had stopped to rest at the well, while his disciples went to town to get food. The woman came to get water, it is an unusual time of day, but with a long sad history, maybe she isn’t welcome with the other women, maybe she is thought of as bad luck, or maybe she ran out of water, and just needed to get some more.

Jesus breaks the cultural and religious codes by asking her for a drink – a Jew would not speak to a Samaritan, especially not to ask for help; a man and woman who were not related should not speak to each other. Here Jesus is asking her for a drink, and he doesn’t have anything to drink from – this is wrong on so many levels. But it is Jesus who is breaking the rules, not the woman.

When Jesus offers life giving water, her first thought is physical, concrete, no more carrying large pots of water. But she stays in the conversation.

Jesus speaks to this woman, knows who she is, asks her for help, and she believes. When she says “I see you are a prophet”, that is a statement of belief. She sees that Jesus is a prophet, because he has seen her, as a person, as someone with dignity, she has worth and value, and she is not used to being treated that way. Jesus has seen her, and she has recognised something special in him.

Then, again, against all the rules, Jesus and the woman have a dialogue about faith and worship. It was considered foolish to waste your time trying to teach a woman, or even having a discussion with a woman.

So astonished was the woman, that she ran back to the city, leaving her water jar behind, and told everyone; now that means the men who were discussing politics and religion in the town square.

….

Jesus speaks to us with compassion, understanding and the offer of living water, water gushing from inside us like a spring – an image of abundance and constancy.

But from speaking with people I know some of us don’t feel like there is a never ending, abundant, continuous source of living water within us, there are certainly days when I don’t.

What stops us from accepting the offer of life-giving water? The woman could have insisted that it was inappropriate to speak with a Jew, or a male, and especially a Jewish male, and never found out what Jesus had to offer her. She could have stuck to the idea that water came from the well and was carried in jars. She could have not continued the conversation, and never come to the realisation that the man she is speaking to is a prophet from God.

How often does our social conditioning, our aversion to people different to us, our unwillingness to share our resources, our attempts to be self-dependent, our  reluctance to discuss questions of faith, prevent us from being open to new experiences, to new learning, to new opportunities and to relationship with God.

This is a story for anyone who has ever been put down, because of their age, their gender, their educational level, their job or lack thereof, their choices in life; this is a story for those with few options. This is a story for people who are marginalised, for those who carry shame. This is a story for those who don’t even know they are searching for something better, because life is about putting one foot in front of the other, of doing whatever is necessary to survive. This is a story about compassion, about hope, about that which binds all people, the need for water, the need for life, the need for identity.

This woman not only receives life giving water, compassion and the answer to the hottest issue of her day - where to worship - she also has a new found sense of herself. 

This is a story of the transforming power of compassion and love. While we all need that transformation in our lives, we can also be agents of healing and hope by offering that compassion and love to those who need is most. Because when we have that life giving water, we, like the woman, will want to tell others; it will show in our lives.

What prevents you from receiving the compassion and love that Jesus offers you? What prevents you from showing that compassion and love to others?

* some ideas from UCC SAMUEL  and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lose/misogyny-moralism-and-the_b_836753.html

Knowledge and Faith

Knowledge is power! The more a person knows about a tropic, the more they are seen as an expert, the more people will look to them for advice, and the more importantly they are treated. Such is our modern world.

Knowledge is power in another way as well. The more someone  knows about you as an individual, the more you rely on them not to make fun of you, or use the information against you.

Knowledge was power in Jesus’ time as well. Nicodemus was a religious expert, he knew the Scriptures and would have been held in high esteem because of this. Knowledge was also power, in a society where honour and shame  are paramount, being seen to do the right thing was often more important than what you did or why you did it.

Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night, because he doesn't want to be seen talking to Jesus. If his religious colleagues found out he would have some serious questions to answer.

Nicodemus doesn't initially ask Jesus anything, but tells Jesus what he knows about him: that he is a teacher, and that he must be sent by God because of the things he has been doing. Even though Nicodemus recognises that Jesus is someone special, he still goes in  with his current mindset of knowledge and what he knows about Jesus.

For many of us knowledge is not only power but also security, it gives us a sense of control in our lives, and control over the world around us. Doubt, mystery and questions signify weakness, weakness in ourselves that we don't want to acknowledge. And weakness in ourselves we don’t want others to know about.

When we look at what has been happening in our world this year: floods, bushfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones and civil disobedience.

It can be difficult to know what to do in the circumstances, we seek to know and understand so many things so that we feel in control. Even if we know how earthquakes happen, we can’t stop them from happening. Knowledge gives the illusion of control, but we are never completely in control.

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night and told Jesus what he knew about him. Jesus then proceeds to talk to Nicodemus about things he just doesn't understand, so much of life is mystery, so much of life is questions and doubts and fear and not knowing. That doesn't mean we shouldn't ask questions and we shouldn't try and learn, but it does mean that at times things happen that we just don't understand.

After Nicodemus tells Jesus that he must be a teacher from God because of the signs that he was doing Jesus answers him by saying :I tell you no one could see the kingdom of God without being born from above. The Greek phrase can be translated as being born again or born from above. Nicodemus chooses the wrong option. He sees only what is in front of him. While he can recognise that Jesus is a teacher and that he must come from God because of the signs and miracles Jesus has been doing, Nicodemus doesn't think any further than what he already knows. Jesus goes on and tries to talk to him about spiritual things, but Nicodemus is focused on the physical.

When we see people as purely physical beings we treat them as half people, we ignore the other side of our own life and the life of people around us.

The way the phrase born-again is used by some Christians, it suggests that we are the ones who are in control. That we choose to be born. If we read this chapter of John's gospel we read of God and the one who is in control. The well-known verse, of John 3:16 talks of God's love, of God's desire to save not to condemn. This is not to say that we should not respond to God with our whole lives, but we need to remember that it is a response and God is the main actor in this story and in the story of our lives.

Going back to the situation in Japan at the moment, and the other natural disasters that have occurred this year, each time someone for a group have tried to make sense of the situation in terms of God's judgment.

The same happened with hurricane Katrina, the bushfires in Victoria a couple of years ago, as well as floods and cyclones and earthquakes this year. These have all been explained in terms of God’s judgement, against homosexuality, abortion, egocentricity. One group is currently suggesting that the earthquake in Japan is God’s way of allowing Christian groups to move forward with evangelisation.

We know how floods happen, it's got to do with lots of rain and not enough space for the water to run away; we know cyclones are a weather phenomenon that occurs from time to time; we know of earthquakes happen when tectonic plates move and shove against each other; trying to explain why God let these things happen to some people and not to others is futile, and I would say irresponsible hurtful and an Godlike. But some people need the certainty of an explanation, when there is no explanation, and God becomes judge and executioner.

There are things in life that we have no control over, and at times all we can do is ask questions, knowing that there may not be an answer. That doesn't make the questions any less important but when we stake our faith and our life on having an answer to every question, we lose out. Faith is not about knowledge, faith is living in the mystery, faith is trusting in God when we don't know what's happening as well as when we feel like we are in some kind of control. Faith is Abram and Sarah walking away from the only place they knew.

Lament is one way that the people of Israel handled the questions for which there were no answers. We are shortly going to sing a song that is a lament, that expresses some of the unease, some of the questioning, some of the unknown.

As people of faith, we ask questions, we wrestle with doubt, but we know there are not always answers, or answers that make sense to us. As people of faith, part of the freedom that we have been given in Christ Jesus is not having to know everything, because we trust that God's love is stronger than anything else, and that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.

Just be!

Some people when they go on holidays or to something special like a wedding or a party, spend all their time taking photos, so that they can remember what happened. I am sure most of us know people who are so intent on getting souvenirs and taking photos, that they don't actually participate and experience what is going on around them. There are times when you really need to just be present.

In the chapter before the one we heard this morning from Matthew, Peter has declared that Jesus is Lord, and Jesus tells his disciples that he will die and that if they want to be his disciples they have to be prepared to leave everything and follow him. Then we get to this reading about the three disciples and Jesus going up to the top of the mountain, and something amazing happens.

Only three disciples went up the mountain with Jesus. Matthew tells us that Moses and Elijah who there with Jesus.  Moses was a great leader, it was Moses who led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and out of slavery. In the same way that Moses freed the people from slavery, so Jesus saves us from slavery of sin and guilt and shame. Elijah is one of the major prophets of the old testament and it is recorded that he was carried off to heaven in a chariot. Moses and Elijah, two of the great characters of the Old testament, are here seen talking with Jesus. There is lots of symbolism we could go into, but that can wait for another time.

I wonder what it's like for us when we experience something that leaves us speechless and not knowing what to do, what to say, how to describe what we've experienced or what we've seen?

And I wonder what it's like for those of us who haven't had those experiences?

I wonder what it was like for the disciples who were left at the bottom of the mountain?

I wonder what it was like for the three who were on the mountain,, seeing Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus, being told to listen to Jesus and then being told to keep quiet.?

There is a time to plan and think about where we go on holidays. But there are also times when we need to just be, to stop and breathe and taking the wonder of a sunset, the magnificence of a waterfall, the hug of a child. In the same way there is a time for planning and thinking and understanding and working through our faith, and there are times for us to think about our faith, there are times to count the cost of following Jesus, there are times to think about what that means and who Jesus is for us, but when we are here as we take the bread and the juice this morning is a time to be open to God a time to be present in the moment to what is happening.

A story [from 'It was on fire when I lay down on it' by Robert Fulghum, p 27ff]:

when Molly started school she helped pack the morning lunches for herself, her brothers and her father. Each bag got a share of sandwiches, fruit, milk money and sometimes a note or treat. One morning Molly gave her father two lunch bags to take to work. He asked Molly what the extra bag was? She said the other one is something else. Her father asked what was in it? Molly said: it's just some stuff, take it with you. And off it went to work he went. At midday the father quickly ate his lunch then tore open the other bag and shook out the contents: to hair ribbons, three small stones, a plastic dinosaur, the stump of the pencil, a tiny seashell, two animal crackers, one marble, a used lipstick, a small doll, two chocolate kisses and 13 pennies.

The father smiled and thought how charming, then getting ready a busy afternoon, he swept the desk clean, into the wastepaper basket, lunch scraps, Molly's bag and all. There wasn't anything in there he needed.

That evening Molly asked here father: where's my bag? Her father asked : what bag? She said: the one I gave you morning. Her father said he'd left it at the office, why? Molly said : I forgot to put this note in it, anyway I want it back those are my things in there, the things I really like, I thought you might like to play with them, but I want them back. You didn’t lose the bag, did you daddy?

OH!!!

Her father said: no, I just forgot to bring it bring it home. Molly hugged her father. Then he looked at the note: I love you daddy. OH!!!

 He rushed back to the office, picked up the wastepaper bin and pour the contents on his desk before the cleaner came. The next day he bought the back home. He asked Molly to tell him what was special about those things.

Sometimes we have missed the affection we were being given, like, “standing knee deep in the river and dying of thirst”.

Sometimes we think we don't need what we are being given, and sometimes all we can think to do is build a monument or take a photo.

Baptism reminds all of us that we are loved.

Baptism reminds all of us that we are part of the people of God.

Baptism reminds us that Jesus lived and died and rose, and in baptism we get to be part of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

There are times in life when we need to be present, we need to let the love of God, and the love of those around us, to wash over and through us. There are times when we need to just be. As we share in communion shortly, we rehear the story of God's interaction with people throughout history, we rehear the story of the night when Jesus was betrayed and how he died for us. There is more to this ritual than just rehearing the story. In being part, in participating, we become part of the story. We can see it as something that we don't need, just a little bit of bread and a mouthful of juice. Or it can be a time when we allow God to be part of us, it can be a time to be, and see what happens.

Some people will have been on the mountain top and experienced God in really powerful and amazing ways, but whether we have been to the mountaintop or not we have all experienced the love of God. God loves each one of us and is offering each one of us life and nurture, is offering each one of us love, forgiveness, grace; is offering each one of us hope and peace.

Experiencing God is life changing, transforming.

we take some time to think about the ways God has and is transforming our lives.