Remembering who we are

Mark 8:27-38

 What do people say about me?

Who do you say that I am?

When I was finishing at Theological College, I started having conversations with congregations looking for a Minister. First conversation with a congregation, and we all say a little about who we are, then I was asked who is Jesus Christ to you?

My first thought was Wow! Things got really serious really fast.

I started saying something about Jesus being God incarnate, come to live the human experience. I stopped to think and breath, and they said, that’s fine and went on to the next question. Remember for the past 3 years everything I had written was at east 1,000 words, and my largest essay was 12,000 words.  Turned out they didn’t want a theological essay but wanted to know that I thought Jesus and God had something to do with each other.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

Peter responds to Jesus’ question by saying “You are the Messiah!”

And when Jesus starts talking about crucifixion and suffering and rejection, Peter goes No Way!

Peter knew how the story was supposed to end. The Messiah would come and take control back for the people of Israel, not be arrested and killed.

“This was not the Messiah they were picturing. During this time when Hebrews, and other nations were under the heel of an oppressive empire they pictured a heroic Messiah, a conquering Messiah, a militaristic Messiah, no doubt armed to the teeth weaponized and ready to fight and show the might of the nation.
Instead, they get Jesus, humble, tradesman, child of nowhere special.
Instead they get Jesus who continues to balk at the tradition, and questions authority, but does not quite call for an out and out rebellion.
Instead they get Jesus, who fully admits that he is going to suffer, Jesus who says that the first will come last, Jesus who has come to serve, Jesus, the kind of Messiah that no one pictured.”[1]

Do we come with a picture of Jesus that does not allow for suffering, rejection, and crucifixion. Do we think the suffering does not matter because of the resurrection?

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples not only will he be crucified, but each of them will have to bear the burden of being a disciple.

I wonder what it means today to take up your cross and follow Jesus. I have had people tell me it is living with pain or grief or a whole range of things that come our way as people. Carrying our cross is much more than living with limitations of being human.

I think of people who live differently because of their faith. People who live out loving their neighbour as they love themselves. People who follow the call of Jesus to love those who hate you. People who stand and speak out against oppression, when they are not the ones being oppressed. People who move to where they are most needed, even if it means working in isolated or disadvantaged communities.

Something I saw this week:

“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.” [2]

Carrying our cross is living as followers of Jesus, loving, forgiving, gracious and hopeful.

That is not always easy. As we look at continuing restrictions, it can be easy to focus on what we cannot do. We cannot have dinner with friends, we cannot gather in person to worship, we cannot travel for holidays, we cannot hug our grandchildren. There are lots of things we cannot do.

We can be people of hope and love.

Here is part of an article by our Moderator, Rev Simon Hansford^[3]:

“In the face of this turbulence [COVID, Afghanistan and other world events], it is easy to forget who we are. Our response is that we become self-absorbed, worrying solely about our health, our safety, and that of our immediate family.

An essential part of our discipleship is remembering. On each occasion when we celebrate the bread and wine of the eucharist, we are commanded, remember me. The central act of our shared life calls us to remember the crucified and risen Christ. 

Remembering calls us back to ourselves, to who we are called, by Christ, to be. The awe-inspiring news that we are crafted in the image of God; the reminder that at our best, at our most average and at our worst, we are still loved by God. The astonishing promise that God’s mercy and hope address each frailty and failure, and articulate each time we bless others in our turn.

This is why community is so valuable. On the occasions when it is difficult to recall our hope, our faith, there are others who break the bread and share it with us, inviting us to rediscover our value and our call. We are re-membered, regathered by the community as we tell the stories of how Christ has acted, and is acting now.

We have congregations across the Synod who are helping people in their communities to discover hope in Christ, or to remember it. People are being offered food parcels, or phone calls, hampers are being carried to isolated communities and congregations are partnering with vaccination hubs to support everyone who calls through.

Our Ministers are being vaccinated to encourage our church community and posting it on social media – #loveneighbour – and our parish missions across the Synod are engaging in vaccination and meals and community support for isolated people of all ages.

Our university chaplains are providing pastoral support to overseas students, offering financial support to many in need. I am pleased that the Moderator’s Fund is being used in several places in our Synod, in a disaster where there are no fires, floods or drought, but plenty of people struggling.

Remembering, under the urging of the Holy Spirit is about our decision, about our faithful following of Christ. In seasons like this one, the Spirit reminds us of the One who has died and been raised, which is the reason we serve – and proclaim – in the world around us.

We are in this challenging time, this pandemic, with the living God. We will serve, and proclaim, offer forgiveness and mercy, and live out justice. We will remember the one who calls us, who is always faithful.”

Who do say Jesus is?

How do you live that out?

 

---

[1] Katy Stenta on https://revgalblogpals.org/2021/09/06/rcl-get-it-together/

[2] Brené Brown, in Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

[3] For the full article https://talbragar.net/2021/09/03/worth-remembering/

Stories to Tell

 

Stories to Tell

 

This Bible passage refers to events on the same day the women found the empty tomb.

Two people walking down the road, talking about what had happened.

I wonder what it was like.

Being with Jesus

Seeing the crucifixion

The empty tomb

The wondering

What happened to the body

What now???

 

….

 

I love stories, well I love good stories, stories can be a powerful way of helping us to see truth and beauty, love and grace.

 

Something about stories I should mention; just because they are called stories doesn’t mean they are made up.  Also, because we see and experience life differently, our stories will be different; that is OK, each of us will bring something different to the conversation.

 

We are people of story. while the Bible has lots of stories, there is also an overarching story.  There are stories that tell us of something of God's interaction with the world, and how people have interpreted the world around them. There are stories from prehistory of creation and ark; there are stories of war, famine, exile, return; there are poems, speeches, letters, and a travelogue or two. 

 

There is also an overarching story, a story of a God who is involved with all of creation, a God who loves so much, that God will become human to show us how much we are loved.

 

Through this story, we are connected to people through many generations and around the world, people who have heard and told and retold and lived these stories. Stories transcend time and space, yet we read them in our particular time and place.

 

We each have a story, stories that tell about our birth, our family, our culture, our faith. This congregation also has its own story, probably more than one story; stories that tell of how this congregation came into being, of how different people have joined this congregation; of how and why people have left this congregation; of the various ministries of the congregation, past and present.

 

Part of what we do each time we gather together as a community of faith, when we come together to worship, and in other ways, part of what we do is to remember who we are in God's eyes. We again hear the stories of our faith, the stories written in the Bible, and also stories of our life together, stories of how God is still speaking to people today, of how God is still interacting in our lives today.

 

In the Easter address by the Moderator, Simon talks of the gospel story that helps us make sense of the world, of pain, and brokenness, and suffering and struggle, and joy and hope.

 

Around Anzac Day we hear stories, stories of mateship, and of the ones who did not come home; we hear of heroes, human and animal. We are now starting to hear the stories of those who return so damaged by war, by what they experienced, that they retreat to alcohol or drugs or die by suicide.  

 

In the video from Uniting World, we see how the gospel is life giving.

 

The stories I see in the media about Africa, Asia and the Pacific are not usually the inspiring stories we will see and hear this week as part of Seven Days of Solidarity.

 

It is the same locally, we hear of bad teenagers, but not those who study hard, work hard and are a delight to be around.

We hear of people born overseas, or with darker skin, who get into trouble with the Police, but we do not hear of the stories of all the people who look different to us, who work and love their family and pay their bills and are kind to their neighbours and patrol our beaches.

Because good news isn’t newsworthy.

 

We live in a society where people are labelled as “them”, as other, because of skin colour or ethnic background or the part of town people live or work in.

 

The stories we tell are powerful.

The stories we tell can wound or heal,
tear down or build up.

The stories we tell can harm or help,
inspire or lead to further despair.

What stories do we tell?
In our words and actions.

 

One thing I appreciate about the stories of Jesus is the way he weaves Scripture and life together. As Jesus walked with, and then ate with, the two travellers he spoke of Scripture and how it connected with what had happened. He connected their life at the time with Scripture in a way that helped them understand what was going on.

 

Can you see where the God story connects with your story?

Can you help someone else see where God has been active in their life?

To help someone see how the Gospel helps make sense of their life, of their struggle, their pain, their confusion.

 

We are people of the story,

the best story ever told,

a story of presence in the most difficult of circumstances

a story of life,

a story of hope,

a story of grace,

a story of peace offered,

sins forgiven,

life renewed.

 

We are people of story

The Bible includes stories of floods and droughts and wars and families and brothers that deceive and sisters swapped during a marriage ceremony and food shared.

Stories of plagues and illness
stories of healing

stories of real people living real lives

imperfect people, just like us.

The Bible is a full of stories, very human stories, stories of people interactions with God, and God’s interaction with people.

 

We have a story worth telling

a story of peace and hope and joy and love and grace

we have a story to tell,

a story about a God who creates and recreates

a story of a God who was born and lived and healed and taught and forgave

a story of a God who dwells within us, who sanctifies and inspires.

 

What story do you tell, with your words and tour actions.

 

Resurrection: Belief or Follow?

 Luke 24:1-12

Some things to note in Luke’s account of the Sunday morning.

The women go at first light, really early, maybe even pre-dawn.

They were following the customs of caring for the body.

The tomb was empty, then two men in dazzling clothes – reminiscent of the people in dazzling clothes at Transfiguration [maybe] – appear.

 

The women tell the men.

The men think the women are talking nonsense.

Peter goes and checks it out and doesn’t know what to make of it.  

 

Some ancient texts do not have the verse where Peter goes and looks in the tomb, the story ends with the women not being believed.

Now that would make for an interesting ending.

The women came and told the disciples the tomb was empty, they didn’t believe the women.

End of story.  

 

And the biggie - Jesus does not appear!

That’s right, in Luke’s Sunday morning account, we have women and spices and an empty tomb and men in white dazzling clothes, but no Jesus.

 …..

 We sit here this morning celebrating resurrection, yet on the Sunday morning of that first Easter, there was mystery and possibility.

The ones dressed in dazzling clothes spoke of what Jesus had said before his death, and the women remembered.

There is a slow realisation of what is happening.

 I wonder if it is like a seed being planted, most of what it needs to grow into a plant is within it. during the time a seed germinates it looks like nothing is happening, but much is happening under the soil. When we are faced with major changes to our thinking, we too need time to see how this new experience fits into our world.

[I will have seeds for people as they leave]

 A major change in our world view takes time, not a click of our fingers. All the clues Jesus had given in his life did not make sense to the disciples, or the others who followed Jesus. Now, following from the words of the ones dressed in white, they begin to sift through their memories.

 The women showed courage to go to the tomb on Sunday morning. Jesus was executed because he upset the religious leaders, what would they do with women tending to his body? But the women go, as dictated by tradition, the body needed to be prepared properly for burial, and this would be done, even though he had already been placed in the tomb.

 Notice no-one says I told you so, no-one says we knew this would happen, no-one shouts Hallelujah. No-one was expecting this to happen, even though Jesus had told them about it beforehand.

 The men in dazzling white ask: Why are you looking in the place of the dead for someone who is alive?

I imagine the women thinking: But he was dead, we saw his body taken form the cross and paced in the tomb, and dead people stay dead, well expect for Lazarus, but that was a miracle, and ….

I understand why the women scratched their heads; I understand why the eleven thought they were talking nonsense; the idea of someone rising from death, even Jesus, takes a while to get your head around.

 I sometimes wonder if the gospels and in particular the story of resurrection is so amazing that we don’t think too much about it, because if we did it would create too many questions for us.

 Each of the Gospel writers includes different accounts of Jesus appearing after the resurrection, including:

• ·       Jesus appearing behind locked doors, so maybe a ghost
• ·       but then Jesus eats in other stories, so not a ghost;
• ·       in some of the resurrection appearances people recognise him instantly,
• ·       and in others they do not recognise him.

 

It seems so easy to say the words I believe in the resurrection. But can you explain that to someone who has not experienced Jesus?

 Yet I know that the resurrection is real, not because I can explain it, not because I understand it, but because of the new life I have been offered.

 I believe because of my experience, because of times when the presence of God is all that kept me breathing; because of times when I have been aware of something happening in my life, of a warmth, a glow, a voice. I don’t understand any of these things, but they happened to me, and still do; and the Christian gospel is what makes sense of those experiences for me.

 The Gospel isn’t just about God and me, sure there is the personal relationship that we have through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; but there is more to it than that.

 Believing is one thing, but the call of Jesus is not to believe, but to follow. Not just about what is in our head, or even our heart, but our hands, our voice, our life.

Will we listen to the voices of women speaking about violence and harassment without discounting their experience because it is not our experience.

Will we listen to experience of people addicted to drugs without condemning them to prison.

Will we listen to the voices of our indigenous brothers and sisters without discounting their experience because it is not our experience.

The Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT is encouraging people to sign a petition based on a decision of the Synod meeting in 2019, in support of the Statement from the Heart and the establishment of a Makarrata (Truth Telling) Commission.  If you would like to more know, talk to me, and I can provide you with further information, or look at our Facebook page.

Once the gospel is about more than me and Jesus and heaven;
once we read the gospel as a manifesto to change the world,
to rid the world of terror and violence and oppression and poverty;
the gospel becomes more uncomfortable.

 Because if I am honest, the transformation Jesus is asking us to work towards, a kingdom of peace and justice, is at odds with my lifestyle. The transformation Jesus is asking me to work towards, the transformation not only of my heart and my life, but the transformation of the community and nation, is about more than me.

 It asks for my voice, just like the women used their voices, even when not believed.

It asks me to add my voice to the voices of the Pacific Islanders being disposessed because of climate change, even if it means limiting my petrol and energy usage.

Resurrection tells me that

•  the impossible is possible;
• ·       that renewal is possible;
• ·       that we already have what we need for the next step in our journey,
  when we look deep within ourselves

 

Resurrection, new life, a new Kingdom is about

• ·       justice that transforms not retribution
• ·       peace that is abundant life not stifling
• ·       hope based on trust, not wishful thinking.

 

Resurrection can be life changing, will we let it be transforming?

Will we work for the coming of a new kingdom?

Are you open to new possibilities? 

speaking up or staying quiet

Luke 19:28-48

Palm Sunday,

no palms

no Hosannas

a triumphant entry, without triumph

 

for 10 chapters now, Jesus has been heading toward Jerusalem.

the tension has been growing,

there are those who want to be rid of him,

not necessarily because they disagree with him,

but because he makes it hard for everyone.

He draws attention to the way the world works,

and if he draws too much attention from Rome,

the crackdown would be swift and deadly.

 

Here, one week before the Passover festival

as people are arriving from all over the country to celebrate

to celebrate the freedom from oppression

and the liberation from slavery

when the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites

when the first-born sons of Egypt were killed

Jesus comes riding into town.

 

He is also here for the Passover festival

but he knows the odds are against him
the religious leaders will find a way to silence him.

 

But first, they tell Jesus to silence the crowd.

Silence the crowd who are praising God and shouting:

 

“Blessed is the king who comes
    in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven
    and glory to God.”

 

How dare they call anyone else king

these are dangerous words

taken as a sign of political revolt

rather than a truth that has always existed.

 

Silence these people

they are stirring up trouble

and making life unsafe.

And Jesus reply

If they do not praise God, the stones will.

 

The stones will praise God

and the trees

and birds

and streams and …. all of creation

will praise and speak and announce

 

“Blessed is the king who comes
    in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven
    and glory to God.”

 

And I wonder when do we speak up?

Praising God

Blessing another

Speaking against

         Poverty

         Oppression

Racism

Sexism

And violence and discrimination

And damaging the earth and hurting each other.

 

When do we get angry and overturn the tables in the Temple

Or challenge the gatekeepers

The ones who turn another away, not for safety

But out of fear

or panic

or for a quiet life

or speak against the systems of oppression.

It is  easier and safer and more comfortable

to say nothing

to offer our prayers

to let someone else speak

but softly, because

too much noise and who knows what will happen.

what will need to change

what we will need to give up or take up

and our lives be as familiar.

 

The temptation, the desire,

is for order

for normal

for quiet and calm

even if we know it is not God’s dream for us pr the world or creation.

 

It is easier to keep silent

to let the world be the way it is then stand and speak

or to listen to the stories

of abuse

of war

of violence

of despair

of broken dreams

and broken lives.

 

The temptation,

the desire for peace is for calm and quiet and order,

not the peace of God that is justice and wholeness and recognising our interdependence and interconnection not only with other people but all of creation, past present and future. [i]

 

Jesus rode into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover

reading the signs of the times

knowing this will likely be his last Passover

still, he did not silence the crowd

he did not play safe

or stay quiet

he overturned the tables of the temple traders

he taught in the temple each day

knowing soon, but not knowing when

the inevitable would happen.

 

Has anything changed?

We praise God

do we live in the mess and danger of discipleship

do we live into God’s dream?

---

[i] 1See Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter From Birmingham City Jail.”

https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/palm-sunday/commentary-on-luke-1929-44