Incarnation

This reading from the beginning of John’s gospel, reads like a lovely piece of poetry. But, like much of John’s Gospel, it can be a little difficult to understand.

John doesn’t start with a birth story like Matthew and Luke,

John begins with the same phrase that begins Genesis, “In the beginning”.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth; John tells us that the Word of God was present in the act of creation.

In the Old Testament, the Word of God signified God in action. [i]

This Word of God, that spoke creation into being, has now come in human form. The technical word is the Incarnation – God coming to share this human life.

Play: The Incarnation Cloth for the Cradle p 86ff [about 700 words]

God trying to communicate with us, talking to us, cajoling and encouraging us, and finally becoming human just like us.

God could have demanded we be obedient, but that isn’t love;
God could have forced his way into our lives, but that isn’t grace;
God could have left us in our despair, but that isn’t compassion.

A friend sent me this story a few years ago: 

There was a man named Henry who was a pastor in charge of a home for disturbed children.

It was Christmas Eve, and preparations were being made for the carols by candlelight service. Everyone was ready to go, but at the last minute a young boy called Tommy crawled under his bed and refused to come out. The staff couldn’t get him to come out. They begged, they pleaded, they threatened - but Tommy refused to budge from under his bed. So the staff sent for Pastor Henry. Henry stood beside the bed and talked to him. He talked about the brightly lit tree, the presents beneath it and all the fun games they would play- but no answer.

Time was slipping by and Henry was getting concerned about being late for the service that he himself was conducting, but he put his own needs aside and got down on his knees and lifted the bedspread and looked straight into Tommy's two enormous blue eyes. He could have pulled him out easily - and it was tempting, but it was not pulling that Tommy needed, it was trust; so Henry launched into the menu for Christmas Eve dinner that was soon to be served, and he told of a special present just waiting with Tommy's name on it. But it was no use, there was just silence from Tommy. No indication that Tommy heard or cared at all about Christmas.

Henry was beginning to feel a bit foolish. After all he was a Pastor – a man of authority and this was an undignified position to be in, especially with his staff watching. Nevertheless he got down even lower, flat on the floor and wriggled in under the bed along side Tommy, and he talked for quite a long time. Eventually, after talking of decorations in the church, the candles, the carols the kids were going to sing, and finally running out of things to say he simply waited. He just lay, in silence, under the bed beside Tommy letting him know he wasn’t alone.

After a while the small child's hand slipped into his, and Henry said, "You know Tommy, its a tight fit under this bed. How about you and me go out where we can stand up straight."

God waits with us, for as long as we need,
so we can slip our hand into God’s hand.

God still comes into our lives today,
finding us wherever we are,
even if it is hiding under the bed.
God seeks us out,
wants us to be able to stand up straight and
be the people God knows us to be. 
Even when that means waiting with us,
lying beside us in silence in the dark,
waiting for us to trust God enough
to move our hand into God’s.

  

This morning we share again around the table,
sharing bread and juice,
remembering the life of Jesus,
acknowledging the death on the cross,

celebrating resurrection and the new relationship with Christ that is offered to each one of us.

Where, is God waiting for you to trust, to put your hand into God’s hand, and to stand with God?

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[i] Gordon Dicker, Faith with Understanding, p 118

So this is Christmas

The song that is in my head the past week or so is:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun[i]

I look back over the past year and wonder if anything has changed. There are still people in the world who live in fear, who live amongst war and violence. There are still people in our community who struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Next weekend we will celebrate New Year’s Eve, and maybe make some resolutions. If you are anything like me, they don’t last long.

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

Fear, that is something we know about. Fear is easy. We fear change, we fear strangers. Each time an angel appears they say: Don't be afraid! Yet, fear is one of the easiest responses for us.

The song goes on to mention that it is Christmas for old and young, rich and poor, weak and strong, black and white.

I wonder what Christmas is like for those who rely on Mary Mac’s or the Salvos for Christmas.
I wonder what Christmas is like for people seeking asylum.
I wonder what Christmas is like in Aleppo, and Palestine.

Our Bible reading tonight started with ‘At that time’. At that time the Emperor called a census. At that time the people of Israel were under foreign occupation, the Romans ruled over the people of the middle east. Society was divided by income and status.

Into this less than perfect setting a child was born.

In some ways the world has changed a lot since that first Christmas morning – we now have electricity
and transport that gets us places faster than a donkey or on foot. We can send letters and emails, and get almost instant responses.

But in other ways, life hasn’t changed much.
We still live in fear, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of the unknown and the new.
We are still living with divisions, based on wealth and power, status, culture and faith.
and we still need to know that we are precious and that we are loved.

At that time, God came into our life and our world in a new way
Jesus was born a baby, to show us love
Jesus was born in a manger to show all creation mattered
Jesus was born that we might live to the full, being ourselves without shame.

At this time, God comes into our life and world
to show love
to be light and hope
to bring peace.

A Christmas wish:

This Christmas
I wish for you
light
to crumple up the darkness

This Christmas
I wish for you
love
to pull us closer to one another

This Christmas
I wish for you
peace
the same the angels sang

This Christmas
I wish for you
starlight
to follow on your way home

This Christmas
I wish for you
promise
to keep hope alive for you

This Christmas
I wish for you
God
newly born and in the flesh

This Christmas
I wish for you
Jesus Christ
born this night
light of the world

~ written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on Listening to the Stones.http://newkilpatrickblog.typepad.com/nk-blogging/mucky-paws/

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[i] http://www.metrolyrics.com/so-this-is-christmas-lyrics-john-lennon.html

Love Conquers All

The School motto at my high school was “Labor omnia vincit”; work conquers all.  The birth of Jesus shows that Love conquers all.

Matthew’s gospel starts with the genealogy, the long list of unusual sounding names, mainly men, but a few women are mentioned. The men are a mixed bag, the women are all ‘outsiders’ in some way. While the genealogy shows that Jesus, through Joseph, is a descendent of David; it also shows gentiles and sinners are part of the family history of Jesus.

Before we get too far I want to tell you a little about the marriage customs of the day. While many versions of the Bible have that Mary and Joseph were engaged, this was more serious than engagement is in our culture. Being ‘engaged’ was the legal or contractual part of the marriage process. Then there was a wedding which was celebrating and feasting when the bride and groom started living together. [i]

When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, they were legally married, but not yet living together. I wonder how Joseph really felt. Matthew doesn’t give a lot away in this reading. The words of the Angel are the only ones recorded by Matthew.   You will remember from our Quiz [ii] earlier that the angel appearing to Mary, and the journey to Bethlehem are in Luke’s gospel, but not in Matthew’s gospel.

In Matthew, any words from Mary and Joseph are not recorded. My hunch is that Joseph would have been angry, upset, humiliated ….

What is a good man to do?

There were rules for situations like this.

“If a man is caught in town having sex with an engaged woman who isn’t screaming for help, they both must be put to death. The man is guilty of having sex with a married woman. And the woman is guilty because she didn’t call for help, …” Deuteronomy 22:23-24 CEV

Joseph decides not to make a fuss and ask for her stoning, he will call off the marriage quietly.  

And just like his Old Testament namesake, Joseph has a dream, a dream that changes history. A dream that showed a different way.

Joseph and the Angle skit [Candles and Conifers, pp 208-10]

Mary has the baby, Joseph accepts that Jesus will be raised as his son, and all ends happily ever after. Well not quite. But when Mary was in a very vulnerable situation; pregnant with a child who is not her husband’s, she could easily have been stoned, or isolated or abandoned.  Joseph responds to the angel’s message, and names the boy Jesus.

A few other comments about this passage:

The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with Emmanuel, God is with us. We hear it in the story of the birth of Jesus, and then in the final verses of the gospel.   Matthew 28: 18-20 CEV

“Jesus came to them and said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.”

I wonder how do you feel about God being with you always?
God isn’t always easy to be around.
Sometimes the words of God are not what we want to hear. Sometimes the words of God are challenging.
Sometimes the words of God are just plain hard.[iii]

“God with us” is God’s very own sermon. God tells the truth about God’s self -- I am here -- as an expression of love and relationship. How that truth gets heard might change depending on where we are, but its truth never changes because of who God is. ^[iv]

God tells the truth about God’s self -- I am here -- as an expression of love and relationship.

Here we are week four of Advent, the day we think about Love.

During Advent we look forward to the coming of Jesus, preparing to celebrate his birthday. But Advent is more than that, we also look to the time when the kingdom will come in completeness, and we think about how we can be part of that kingdom coming into being. Where can we work with God, where are we guided by the Holy Spirit to be active with God in bringing about a new kingdom. A kingdom based on hope, peace, joy and love.

Yet this Advent I am also aware of that these words seem empty to many. Sometimes life seem to go from bad to worse. Some people are grieving, some are ill and in pain, some are lonely. Looking at the world this week, there has been a lot of coverage of the war in Syria, and particularly the on-off ceasefire in Aleppo. How is God’s love and presence visible in a place like that?

There are many complex issues in our lives and the world. It can be easy to jump to simplistic answers, but the conflict in many parts of the world are more complicated than our simple answers.  

Are we willing to take a risk and follow the guidance of the Spirit, even when that is different to what we have always done?

Maybe, just like for Joseph, there is a solution we haven’t thought of.

“Joseph's faithful response to the angel seems like quite a leap-- instead of trusting the righteousness of faithful tradition as they knew it then, he trusts a brand new, out-of-the blue word from God.” [v]

Maybe Love will conquer all,
when we live as Advent people,
waiting and working with God for the coming kingdom,
where war, misery and hunger are a distant memory
and hope, peace, joy and love overflow.  

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[i] David Lose, Working Preacher December 17, 2013

[ii] Thoughtful Christian, Accounts of Jesus’ Birth

[iii] Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher Sunday, December 11, 2016

[iv] Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher Sunday, December 11, 2016

[v] Charlotte Wilson, RevGalBolgPals facebook

What Are We Looking For?

John is in prison and wondering if Jesus is the One, the Messiah, the one who will turn things around, the one who will usher in the kingdom of God.

We met John the Baptist last week. The locust-eating, camel-hair wearing, man out in the wilderness; baptising people in the Jordan River; preaching hell-fire and brimstone.

And now?
Now he is in prison.

John told people to prepare the way for the one who is coming,
   he thought it was Jesus, but…
   He was expecting more fire and brimstone.
   He was expecting to hear reports of riots and rebellion.
   He was expecting a revolution overthrowing the Roman occupiers.[i]

John is sitting in prison, wondering …
   Did I get it wrong?
   Maybe Jesus was not the one?
   Maybe my whole life has been a mistake…?

I suspect many of you know the feeling. We start a new venture with enthusiasm, then are setbacks, and we wonder,
   what on earth was I thinking;
   how did I get talked into this;
   how do I get out of the mess?

While John is in prison wondering if he got it all wrong, he sends some of his followers to ask Jesus: Are you the One?

Are you the One we have been waiting for, or do we wait for another?

Jesus tells the disciples of John to look around, lives are being transformed.
“John doubted because he expected uproar and instead Jesus brought embrace.”[ii]

Jesus tells them to tell John, lives are being transformed.

Over 2000 years later, it can be easy to join with John in wondering if Jesus is the one ushering the Kingdom of God. Has anything changed. There is still oppression, slavery, idolatry, illness, exploitation, poverty and violence.[iii]

Where is the kingdom of peace?
where is the kingdom where all of creation lives in harmony?
where is this amazing place we keep reading about in Isaiah, no more tears, no more hunger, no more worries?

Matthew writes that
     The blind are now able to see,
     and the lame can walk.
     People with leprosy are being healed,
     and the deaf can hear.
     The dead are raised to life,
     and the poor are hearing the good news.”

Because of Jesus, lives were being transformed.

God didn’t send an army of angels, or a giant meteor to wipe out the earth. God came as a baby, born to a peasant girl.

God comes to us in unexpected ways.
Maybe that is part of the problem.
We need ears to hear and eyes to see

John expected the coming of the kingdom of God to be accompanied by revolution and warfare.
But the transformation in people’s lives wasn’t from violence,
the transformation in people’s lives was from acceptance and grace and forgiveness.

We live in the time between the ushering in of the Kingdom of God and its coming in fullness.

If we believe that Jesus is the One who is ushering in the kingdom of God. If Jesus is the One who “is coming to bring healing, peace, justice and hope”, then as disciples we work with God to bring healing, peace, justice and hope to our communities and the world.[iv]

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10^th December 1948. December 10^th is now International Human Rights Day. This year the theme is “Stand up for someone's rights today!”[v]

As a Christian, I believe that all people are created in the image of God; all people, not just white, middle class, religious people. One of our tasks as disciples of Jesus is to work towards the coming of the kingdom of peace and justice.

That can be challenging work, because now, just as in the time when Jesus was born,
   there are some people who crave power
   there are some people who are greedy
   there are people who are itching for a fight.

What can we do to be part of the movement toward peace and justice? One thing I did yesterday was to participate in Write for Rights, a group of thirty people were at Woy Woy library writing letters to various leaders asking for people to be treated fairly.

People like Máxima Acuña and her family, who are peasants. They have suffered violent attacks and harassment in an attempt to drive them out of their land by mining giants.

People like Eren Kesken in Turkey, who has been before the courts more than 100 times because of her outspoken stand on the plight of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. In 1995, she spent six months in jail simply for using the word “Kurdistan” in an article.[vi]

Sometimes, like John we can wonder if it is all worth it, will anything ever change. But if we believe that Jesus is the one, then the church carries on the mantle of being conduits of love and grace.  Our role isn’t to condemn - remember it was the religious people that Jesus condemned, not those that would be labelled sinners or undesirables. Our role is to love.

John wanted to know if Jesus was the one, and Jesus told his disciples to report back to John that lives were being transformed. Jesus was the one, but his way of transformation through love was not what John was expecting.

In what ways are we seeing lives transformed in the activities of this congregation? Do we expect to see lives being transformed?
Have we been waiting so long that we have given up hope of lives and the world being transformed?

As we approach Christmas, the time of celebration of the coming of Jesus, not into a palace, or wealth, or safety; but as a baby born to villagers in a rural area under Roman occupation;  what are we expecting?

A good meal?
Christmas specials on the television?

Then a day off to recover?

If we believe Jesus is the one, that Jesus is God’s love in human form, what are we expecting to change?

Are we open to God transforming our own lives as well as the lives of those around us?

What can we do to be part of the movement toward peace and justice, in the world and in the local community?

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[i] David Lose In the Meantime

[ii] Simon Hansford https://talbragar.net/2016/12/08/not-quite-what-we-imagine/

[iii] Ron Allen Working Preacher

[iv] David Lose In the Meantime

[v] http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/

[vi] https://www.amnesty.org.au/campaigns/write-for-rights/

Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.

This is the first time we hear from John, and he says to the crowd:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

That is our message for today:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

Advent is making room for God. Each year we are challenged to make more room for God in our lives. That means something has to give.

In the pre-Christmas rush of parties and shopping and cooking and cleaning, we hear from John:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

There are 168 hours in a week, and we could look at what happens in each hour, and how you can squeeze more ‘God hours’ into the week. But that isn’t the point. That isn’t what John is preaching, and it isn’t what Advent is about.

While repentance includes feeling sorry for one’s personal sins, it is much more than that.  

To repent is to recognise the ways in which our life is out-of-step with God’s dream for the world, and to turn towards God and the attitudes and actions of the kingdom of heaven.

“To repent is turn away from the values and practices of the old age (e.g., idolatry, violence, injustice, exploitation, slavery, and scarcity) and to turn towards the values and practices of the Realm of God.” ^[i]

“Repentance, …, is realizing that God is pointing you one way, that you’ve been traveling another way, and changing course.” [ii]

“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

John offers a choice, turn our lives around, return to God, live with peace and justice and hope and love; or risk the consequences.  We are being invited to co-operate with God; to move into a ‘new’ normal.

For too many people the current normal is one of hunger, fear, isolation and despair.

Friday was the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. In Australia, we might think slavery is only an issue for third world countries; but even in Australia there are cases of people being held as slaves. Often it is new immigrants who are being held as slaves. One example is from 2013, when 3 people were arrested for human trafficking. The people from Australia visited the Philippines and encouraged boxers to come and make their fortune in Australia. When they arrived, their passports were taken from them, they lived in a corrugated iron garage, trained and cleaned houses. They were not allowed to contact anyone. On the rare occasions they won a fight in the boxing ring, most of their winnings was taken from them. [iii]

One way we in Australia benefit from slavery and slave like conditions is in some of the clothes we wear and some of the food we eat.  

What might the kingdom of God look like to people caught in slavery?

In the reading from Isaiah last week we heard of the coming time when weapons of war and violence would be turned into farming implements. This morning we hear another of the promise passages from Isaiah. We hear of a time when predator and prey will be safe in each other’s presence.

“The Isaiah readings have been about the coming kingdom of God. God’s dream about a different world where there is no predator or prey, no fear or hatred. It’s not a goal to be achieved, but a dream by which to set a course.”[iv]

Leopards will lie down with young goats,
and wolves will rest with lambs.
Calves and lions will eat together
and be cared for by little children.
Cows and bears will share the same pasture;
their young will rest side by side.
Lions and oxen will both eat straw. [Isaiah 11 CEV]

Over the years I wondered how predator and prey could safely be together, but then the last line is a hint. Lions and oxen will both eat straw.

The predator, the one with power and strength, will give up their ways. The lamb will be safe with the wolf, not because the lamb is suddenly armour plated, but because the wolf will no longer eat meat.

When we discuss issues like transport, immigration, health, refugees, wages, taxation, and interest rates, I rarely hear anyone speaking about what it means for the poorest in the community. the comments I hear are about what it means to me.  

What would it mean if we gave up our power so that someone else could live without fear?

Repentance is recognising where we are out of step with God.

It isn’t about how many chapters of the Bible we read each week, or how many hours we pray or how many church meetings we go to.

Repentance is recognising where we are out of step with God, and making a change in our lives.

A short exercise:

Take a moment to daydream what God’s vision is for you.
That is, what do you think God wants you to be and to do?

Now, choose one area in your life you would like to change direction, for example:

Is there an unhealthy relationship you want to repair or address? Can you imagine using your time differently and toward better ends?
Is there a practice or habit you might take up that would produce more abundant life for yourself or for those around you?

Final question: Can you identify one community issue and begin praying for it daily, open to how God might direct your time and actions to contributing to change? [v]

Advent is making room for God in our lives. Sometimes it seems that being asked to slow down, to reflect, to take time for God means missing out on Christmas. I know what it is like, if I don’t send cards, and buy presents and bake shortbread .. and .. and … then Christmas won’t be Christmas.

The whole point of Christmas is that God came to be present with us, in the everyday and the extraordinary.  God does not sit up in heaven checking up on us, throwing down thunderbolts or smiling a rainbow for us.

The God we know in Jesus comes down out of heaven to take on our lot and our life and give us hope by being with us and for us, inviting more abundant life and helping us to see in the face of our neighbour not a competitor for scarce resources, but a brother or sister in Christ. If Advent is a time to slow down, it’s so that we can have more authentic life, not less Christmas.[vi]

“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

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[i] Working Preacher 20161204, Ron Allen

[ii] In the Meantime, David Lose

[iii] http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3801616.htm

[iv] In the Meantime, David Lose

[v] In the Meantime, David Lose

[vi] In the Meantime, David Lose

Be Ready for Hope

“Always be ready! You don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”

The whole problem with this is that we don’t know when it will be, so how can we be ready? 

It may surprise some of you to know that I was a Girl Guide, and the motto is ‘Be Prepared’.   Going out for a walk would mean a backpack, water, food, phone money, first aid kit etc. you can imagine the amount of stuff that was packed for a camping trip.

Somehow, I don’t think Matthew was meaning ‘be prepared’ by carrying a compass, Swiss army knife, matches, map, ……

What might it mean, in the gospel sense, to Be Prepared?

The disciples were waiting for the return of Jesus. They had expected that he would have returned by the time Matthew was writing this gospel, thought to be just after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD/CE. The disciples were wondering if Jesus would ever return.

“Always be ready! You don’t know when the Son of Man will come.”

During Advent we think about the coming of Jesus for the first time, as a baby many centuries ago, and also the time when the Jesus will return, when the kingdom of God will be completed.

When I was a young adult, there was lots of talk about the second coming of Jesus. I don’t know if that is a young adult thing, or something that was common in the late seventies and early eighties.

For a while I kept hoping the second coming would arrive before my next assignment was due or the next exam. J

We live in what has been called ‘the in-between time’. Jesus was another step in the coming of the kingdom of God. But we aren’t yet living in the fullness of the kingdom of God. The images of Old Testament prophets of the lion laying down with the lamb, of peace and health and wholeness for all people and the whole creation, are not yet reality.

We live in this in-between time, we live in the tension of knowing Jesus, but looking to a future where we more fully experience him.

We live in the tension of seeing glimpses of the kingdom of God, and the yearning for the kingdom to be fully experienced.

We live in the tension of being faithful, forgiven people and being aware of our own shortcomings and limitations.

I have a story for you:  it reminded me of the people of Israel, they needed constant reminders of what God had done in their lives, of how to live, of judgment, and images of hope in the form of the kingdom of God.

STORY : The Duck and the Darkling by Glenda Millard

This week we think about hope.

The Isaiah reading is dripping with Hope.

I wonder if we would hear this passage differently if we were living in a  war zone, or unable to feed our children.

This first 39 chapters of Isaiah are predominately about divine judgement; how the land will be desolate and the people in exile. Yet interspersed, there are some passages of hope. Jerusalem was the site of many battles, and was overrun by other nations. The Israelites saw this as punishment from God. The five verses we heard today are one of the passages of hope, promises of God, hope for a future.

A future that will be different to their current experience.

It can be easy to think that things will always be the way they are now, or that evil and violence and greed will become more powerful. That society will become meaner and more fractured.  But here in these wonderful verses from Isaiah, we have a picture of a future that is different, a future where we will no longer needs the means of war.

This was an agricultural society, so if you can turn your fighting implements into farming tools, life becomes about food and drink, not fear and death.

Many people have attempted to update these verses from Isaiah,

They will pound their swords
and their spears
    into rakes and shovels;

Some modern phrasing: 

 -They will turn weapons into welcome signs
........and bombs into tools and toys.
 - They'll turn their swords into shovels,
       their spears into hoes.
 - They shall turn their bombers into flying doctors,
        and their warships into food freighters;

As I was thinking about these passages I thought of the great speech by Martin Luther King Junior. [some excerpts] http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.”

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!”

“This is our hope, ..”

“With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Advent is a time of waiting, not a time of idle waiting, but waiting with a purpose, with hope.

During advent we look for signs of hope in our midst. Where do you see signs of hope?

There are plenty of areas of concern, plenty of opportunities for despair:

• Climate change
• Political corruption
• Treatment of people with mental illness
• Terrorism
• Pollution
• Unemployment

Friday was White Ribbon Day, a national day for the prevention of violence against women. This year, White Ribbon Australia is asking men to stand up, speak out and act for the women in their lives, as violence against women is a man’s issue too.

One in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse perpetrated by someone known to them, and on average, one woman is killed every week in Australia as a result of domestic violence. https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/2016/11/17/white-ribbon-day-2016/

We look for signs of hope, and we are also bearers of hope.

Just as the Peterboy found hope in Grandpapa’s stories, and looked for ways to brighten his grandfather’s eyes.

We too can look for signs of hope.

We too can bring hope.

There are two campaigns being run by the social justice group of the Synod at present:

·    Affordable housing campaign and

·    Give Hope campaign for people seeking asylum

          https://uniting.org/social-justice/causes-and-campaigns

Where do you see signs of hope?

Where do you bring hope? 

This morning in baptising E, we acknowledged that she is a precious child of God, known and loved by God. Each time we baptise I am also reminded that God also loves me, and I hope each of you are reminded that you are also loved, that you are also precious to God.  All people are loved by God, warts and all.

This passage from the letter of John, not only tells us that we love because God first loved us, but that we are to love one another and that whoever loves God must also love others, because if we don’t love others, we can’t love God.

Compare this to the behaviour of the leaders in the reading from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah spoke the word of God to the people of Judah. He spoke God’s words of judgement, and God’s words of hope. The section we heard this morning records the judgement of the bad shepherds.

Kings in that part of the world were often called shepherds, they were to care for the people as a shepherd cared for his sheep. But these were not good shepherds, they did not care for the people, they did not keep the people safe.

God saw that the people were lost, they were being taken to Babylon by force, the leaders were not taking notice of God.

About 300 years before Jeremiah, the people of God did not have kings, and they asked the prophet Samuel for a king. God told Samuel to warn the people what life would be like with a king:

If you have a king, this is how he will treat you.
He will force your sons to join his army.
Your daughters will be forced to make perfume or do his cooking.

The king will take your best fields and your slaves and your donkeys
He will also take a tenth of your grain and grapes
and a tenth of your sheep and goats.

 … and you will finally cry out for the Lord to save you from the king you wanted. But the Lord won’t answer your prayers.

And the people said: “We want to be like other nations. We want a king to rule us and lead us in battle.”[i]

Thinking about these two passages this morning, I thought about the different kinds of leaders we have in the world and in our lives.

There are leaders who care for people and leaders who care only for themselves

There are leaders who unite and leaders who divide

There are leaders who take for themselves and leaders who share resources.

Today is the last Sunday in the church year, Christ the King Sunday. Next Sunday we begin Advent, 4 weeks of preparing for the birth of Jesus.

Christ the King Sunday celebrates the all-embracing authority of Christ as King and Lord of all things. It is a relatively new celebration in the life of the church, first being celebrated in 1925. [ii]

Proclaiming Christ as King means that nothing else and no one else can claim our ultimate loyalty and devotion. ^[iii]  

Remember the picture book, Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare discussing how much they love each other. [iv]

Do you think God loves you to the river, or the moon?

Remember the words I spoke to E just before the water was poured on her head?

E,
for you Jesus Christ has come,
has lived, has suffered;
for you he endured the agony of Gethsemane
and the darkness of Calvary;
for you he uttered the cry, ‘It is accomplished!’
For you he triumphed over death;
for you he prays at God’s right hand;
for you,
even before you were born.
In baptism, the word of the apostle is confirmed:
‘We love, because God first loved us’

We love because God first loved us. and God showed that love in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus, the one who is named King today,
not a King who enjoys displaying his power,
but a king of love,
of compassion,
of generosity.

A good Shepherd,
one who keeps the flock together,
who protects,
who nurtures
who forgives.

God is love,
and those who live in love
live in union with God
and God lives in union with them.
There is no fear in love;
perfect love drives out all fear.

We love because God first loved us.
The command that Christ has given us is this:
whoever loves God must love others also.

I wonder what the love of God looks like in your life?

Who or what do you fear?

How do you love others as God loves you?

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[i] 1 Samuel 8

[ii] http://www.churchyear.net/ctksunday.html

[iii] Monica https://revgalblogpals.org/2016/11/15/revised-common-lectionary-who-reigns-edition/#comments

[iv] Guess How Much I love You by Sam McBratney

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