What makes Christmas?

Just as we surround Christmas with tinsel and trees, lights and presents, food and friends, Christmas for many of us also means thoughts of people who aren’t here this year, people overseas, travelling, and those who have died. Our minds can be filled with gift ideas, financial worries, mortgage payments, have we enough food, what about the relatives we don’t get on with, and have we remembered a gift for everyone, OH and will they like it?!

Christmas can be very stressful. In all our hard work of trying to make Christmas special, and Christmas is a special time, we sometimes get overwhelmed by the things that surround Christmas, just as the manger did here a minute ago.

Think back to the first Christmas, Jesus wasn’t born in a palace, or a hospital with the latest facilities; he wasn’t born into a wealthy or well connected family, OK he was in the line of David, but so were lots of people.

Jesus was born to teenage girl, not yet married, Jesus was born in amongst the animals in the only shelter they could find; as an infant, his family left Israel for Egypt so their child would not be killed.

This story of Christmas is amazing, and it doesn’t rely on the biggest turkey, a new hand stamped Christmas cloth, special clothes, or festive decorations. This story, is about God loving us so much, that God decided to come and live in all our human frailty. This story is about one sent into the world in peace who was condemned to death. This story is about a light sent to shine in the darkness, which the world snuffed out. This story is about God's never-ending, self-giving mercy which was rejected and condemned.

We can try and follow the advice on Better Homes and Gardens, and spend ages preparing special decorations and food; we can follow the advice of fashion columnists and decorate ourselves with special clothes and new make-up. We can find out the latest trends in gift giving. But will any of this make Christmas more special?

Christmas is special, that is why we make an effort to buy gifts and to share time with friends. These things don’t make Christmas special, we do them because Christmas is already special.

Christmas is special because God chose, and chooses, to be part of the life of ordinary people in amongst the ordinary stuff of life: birth and death, homelessness, hunger, feasting, working, part of family, all the ordinary stuff of life.

God still wants to come into our lives, into the messiness, the chaos that is life. And when God come into our lives, maybe we will stop striving for perfection, and accept that God loves us as we are, that God wants to have a relationship with us, that God came in Jesus – to save his people, and Immanuel – God with us.

Christmas is special, In Jesus we see how much  we are loved  by God.

I hope you have time today, time during this Christmas season to rest in the knowledge that God loves you and became human for you. Now that is something worth celebrating.

a kingdom with compassion

Here we have another part of the image of the coming Kingdom from Isaiah. We have already heard about the coming kingdom, a kingdom of peace and justice, a kingdom where all of creation is living in harmony together; and today we hear that this kingdom will come in the form of a child, born of a young woman. This passage from Isaiah begins with Ahaz refusing to ask for a sign from God. Ahaz was King, and God had requested that Ahaz ask for a sign, but he refused, saying he will not put the Lord to the test. In some ways this sounds admirable, there are plenty of places where we are told not to put God to the test. I wonder why Ahaz refused to ask for a sign?

Maybe to ask for a sign would be to acknowledge God is the King of all creation, that even as King, Ahaz was answerable to someone.

And then we hear the word of the Lord through Isaiah, a young woman that will bear a son, even if Ahaz is not willing to request a sign, God will provide a sign. That sign is Immanuel, the very presence of God come to share our human experience. “A helpless bundle of flesh that represents the steadfastness of the infinite God. A promise that seems at once inconsequential and overwhelming “[1].

A young woman will bear a son, and he will be named Immanuel. And this is what happens, when we come to the story in Matthew’s Gospel.

The gospel of Matthew is concerned to show that Jesus is indeed a Jew, that Jesus was not trying to start a new religion but was teaching and living according to Jewish law. The gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy, a listing of ancestors mainly male but a few female, a variety of people in a particular pattern and order. This genealogy is not complete, if you follow through the Old Testament there are some variations. The point of the genealogy in Matthew’s gospel is not to be a detailed and exact list of the ancestors of Jesus, but to show that he was born in the line of David, to show the extent and depth of his Jewishness, a child of Abraham and a child of David. To be Jewish one needed to have a Jewish mother, but the family lineage was still in the father's line. Jesus was Jewish through both his mother Mary, and through Joseph. It is through Joseph’s family line that Jesus is in the royal line of David.

Another idea that is woven through the gospel of Matthew is how to live according to the law, and be righteous in the sight of God. This conflict appears here in chapter 1. Joseph is getting ready to marry Mary, and she is found to be with child. The law says that he can publicly break the engagement, because what she has done is illegal, and immoral, the punishment could be banishment or stoning to death. Joseph does not want to embarrass Mary, but is also concerned that she is carrying a child which is not his. So Joseph decides to break off the engagement privately. Then we have the dream in which an angel tells him to marry Mary, the implication being that he will raise this child as his own.

A couple of things to take note of, in this passage we hear today, the only person who speaks is the angel. We don't hear from Mary or from Joseph. In this passage God is very much the one in control, the central character. Another thing to note is that all this takes place in amongst ordinary everyday events, in fact God in speaking to Joseph through the angel, only asks him to do what he was planning to do all along, and that is to marry his fiancé Mary.

In last week's gospel reading we heard how Mary said yes to the angel, yes she would be part of God's plan. This morning we don't hear Joseph saying yes, but we see it in his actions. Throughout the gospels we don't hear much about Joseph, but here in Matthew, Joseph is obedient to God in marrying Mary, going to Egypt, and then returning to Nazareth. What little we see of Joseph shows a man who trusts God implicitly, who puts his life, and the life of his family, securely in the hands of God. We get a picture of a man who is thoroughly Jewish, who knows the law and follows the law, but is not legalistic. Some today might call him spiritual rather than religious. While holding the tenets of the Jewish faith, he showed compassion and solidarity with Mary, he obeyed God's direction to him, and is known as righteous.

Where does this leave us two thousand years later?

As we have been thinking about the coming kingdom, and our part in that, we have pondered how we might be people of peace in our part of the world; people of hope; people who live in a kingdom that is yet to be fully revealed. Today the picture of the new kingdom that comes to me is one of love and compassion, one of solidarity with the vulnerable and the weak. Joseph did not do what he could do under the law, which was to send Mary away. He did what was compassionate and righteous. He didn't go looking for someone that needed care, he cared for the person who was there close to him. He showed love, love that was costly.

I wonder who are the people in our lives who God calls us to stand with. Who are the people in our lives that God asks us to care for. Who are we called to show compassion to, who are we called to stand in solidarity with, who do we know who is vulnerable and at risk.

It can be easy to feel like the problems of the world are too big for us, we can feel like we have no say about violence in the Middle East, about homelessness, about child abuse or elder abuse, pollution and climate change.

But this morning I would invite you to think more locally, to be midwives of the new kingdom in our lives. As Christ comes to birth in our lives once again this Christmas, as we recognise the peace and Justice of God’s kingdom within us and in our midst, we can live as people of the new kingdom. We can live kingdom values of peace, we can live kingdom values of righteousness, compassion, and solidarity for the vulnerable.  

What is God bring to birth in you and through you?

---

[1] An Imprudent Hope  by Julie Polter  Sojourners

When God Asks the Impossible

Nothing is impossible with God, I hear that phrase from time to time, and nothing is impossible, but note here, that it is God who is initiating the impossible situation. Mary did not pray to be especially chosen, she was not waiting for the angel to appear to her, in fact she was perplexed, and the angel responded with the words we hear from other angels, ‘ do not be afraid..’  .

Mary, a young woman, likely in her mid-teens, engaged to Joseph, an older male, as was traditional. As she goes about her daily life, an angel appears, and tells her she will bear a son, in the line of David, and he will be great. Those of you with daughters, if they came home with that story as 16 year olds, what might you have said.  Next week we will read a section of Matthew and think about how Joseph responded to the news.

Today we hear of Mary's response to this situation.  In Luke we read of Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is also expecting a child.  We read the story of Elizabeth’s pregnancy two weeks ago when Zechariah was in the temple praying and an angel appeared and told him that his wife would bear a son.  This week we hear of Mary's pregnancy and how she goes to visit Elizabeth; these two women one pregnant in her old age, one pregnant in her youth, spend time together, three months in fact, time in which to absorb the amazing news they have been given. 

During advent we've also been reading some passages from the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah is one of the old Testament prophets, and he was speaking to people in exile. He had been speaking to them about the coming destruction, the coming invasion in response to their disregard of God and God's ways; the passages that we've heard the last two weeks and this week are passages of hope, passages about the future, a future that sounds impossible.  A future where deserts will bloom,  a future where the blind will see,  the lame will run,   the voiceless will sing.  A future where the weak are strengthened,  the feeble made firm,  the fearful become strong.  A future where God will save them.

This image of Isaiah is a joyous one,  of hope for a future, a future that does not yet exist.  In the same way that we have heard the past few weeks about a new kingdom where peace reigns between all of creation, where that which is life-giving dominates, a kingdom of peace and joy.  And it still sounds like the impossible dream. 

And here in the Luke reading we have another impossible situation. but I doubt that Mary ever dreamt that this situation would happen to her. And yet Mary finds herself being addressed by an Angel, and while visiting her cousin Elizabeth she sings this amazing song of praise. But it is not only a song of joy, it is a song of prophecy and a song of revolution. This song that we sing as a song of praise speaks about the way the world will be turned upside down by the child that she is carrying. She sings in praise of God, she acknowledges that God is doing great things in her life.

And then as happens in the prophets at times, she sings of the kingdom that is not yet here, but sings about it as if it has already happened. She sings of how God has brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly, scattered the proud, filled the hungry, and come to the aid of God’s people as promised to Abraham.

There are a few things in this story of Mary that stand out for me. The first one as I said earlier is that God addresses her and asks her to do the seemingly impossible; God is not responding to her request. The other thing is that she put herself in a very difficult situation by saying yes. By saying yes, Mary is opening herself up for ridicule, a broken engagement and stoning. Yet we read in verse 38 : Mary says here I am the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.’  This young woman, put herself in danger to fulfil God's request of her. What seemed impossible, she was prepared to say yes to.

In my reading this week I came across a number of references that spoke of times when Mary’s song has been banned. It had been banned because it was considered politically subversive, dangerous to the political elite. This song reminded people that even the lowliest are part of God's creation and part of God’s working in the world. This song by a young unmarried pregnant girl, about as lowly as you can get in that society, this song that tells of God working in the world to raise the lowly, to bring down the mighty, was considered so radical that people were not allowed to sing it for fear it would encourage them and strengthen them to rebel against dictatorial governments.

To us that may seem incredible, but for Herod, and people like him today, control is all-important. And words like this of Isaiah and like Mary’s song give hope to broken people, to people oppressed by hunger, poverty and exploitation. The words of Isaiah and the song of Mary tell of God acting in the world, of a God concerned about the world, a God who is acting to bring a new world into being. Mary song of praise was banned, not because God was praised, but because it spoke of God acting and encouraging people to act to bring about a new kingdom, a kingdom of justice and righteousness.

This third Sunday in advent, the week we mark with the pink candle for joy, we remember again that we are in a time of waiting. And for many of us this is a busy time, a time of shopping and cleaning, of catching up with friends, a time of parties and carolling and travel, a busy tiring time for many.

And we also wait for the fulfilment of the kingdom that is yet to come. A kingdom that is present in the heart of God, a kingdom that Isaiah gives us fleeting glimpsed of, a kingdom we hear in Mary’s song, a kingdom we saw in the life of Jesus. We wait for a time when we can run and dance, when our hands are strong and capable, a time when we can sing, a time when we can hear, a time when we no longer fear, a time when our hunger and thirst is quenched.

There are so many things in our lives which is seen to control and define us. Our family situation, our income, our health. There are so many things in our lives that are life denying, things that prevent us from dancing and singing. Sometimes the images that we have of the new kingdom seem impossible. When we live with pain, anxiety, weak knees, limited eyesight. When life is like a desert and we wait for the rain and the flowers to come, it can all seem impossible.

Nothing is impossible with God, nothing that God asks of us is impossible for us. This story of a young woman in a difficult, dangerous, situation reminds us that even when God asks us to do something that seems impossible for us, that it is possible for us to say yes.

The Impossible Kingdom

Last week and this week we have amazing images from the Book of Isaiah. The people of Jerusalem, including Isaiah, knew the Assyrians were about to take control of the country, they knew that the City was about to be destroyed. And much of the Book of Isaiah is about the coming destruction. Yet, every so often amongst the despair, Isaiah includes a promise from God about the future, a hopeful, peaceful future. Last week we heard about a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of hope; a place where bombs are turned into ploughs, and there is no war. This week we hear of the coming kingdom where the calf and the lion, the leopard and the kid, the wolf and the lamb, live together in peace and harmony. 

This kingdom is one where aggression, power and greed do not rule. This is a kingdom where the vulnerable are not oppressed, where the small do not fear, where the weak are not overpowered.

Sounds like a dream, as last week’s Isaiah passage. A dream, especially when you have Assyria breathing down your neck.

A kingdom where the strong do not devour the weak; a kingdom where the rich do not enslave the poor, and everyone can live.

Does this sound like the world we live in?

We have lived with fear, anxiety, violence and greed for so long they seem normal. It can be difficult to imagine an idyllic world as Isaiah describes.  We have lived so long in abnormal, harmful, life denying ways, that we no longer recognise them as abnormal. The abnormal has become normal for us. As it has been for  many years.  We become so accustomed to people who are rich have all they want, while people who are poor make do with dirty water and lack of medical treatment and educational opportunities. Even in Australia, the amount of money you have makes a difference to the available choices in health, education, living and working conditions.

And Jesus came into a similar scene of inequality, where status was based on gender, age, and family background. He didn’t say, women are equal with men, but he included women in his friends and allowed them to minister to him. Jesus didn’t say children are important, he put his arms around them and reminded people that you need to be child like [note not childish!] to be in the kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t say gentiles are of equal value with Jews, but he healed both Jews and gentiles. Jesus broke lots of barriers, eating with sinners, tax collectors, being touched by those who were ritually unclean, telling the disciples not to respond to violence with violence in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus didn’t kill anyone, didn’t strike anyone down with lightning. Jesus did not take on the Roman army or the religious and political leaders in any kind of takeover.  Jesus did not impose his way of living on others; what he did was to show how to live in God’s kingdom here and now. Jesus showed that the Kingdom may seem like an impossible dream, but it is possible to live in peace, harmony, bringing life and health, healing and hope, peace and joy to a broken world, we see that in the life and death of Jesus.

Should he have been more careful? Would it have been better to come with fire and an army than the towel and the basin, better than the bread and the cup? With his life and death, Jesus gave us a window on the peaceable kingdom. For a while it seemed like the forces of evil, of domination and death, had won. Jesus was dead. They had not figured on a life stronger than death.

We live in a broken world. We are broken people in a broken world. It is a struggle to live peace and hope and justice in a  world that values greed, in a world that decides who wins by the amount of money or the size of the army. It is a struggle.

I came across a poem this week about being in church:

Why are we here?

We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world.
We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”.
We are not here to “recharge our batteries”.

Why are we here?

We are here because the world is not right,
because we are not right,
and because we are angry about injustice,
sad about suffering,
and ashamed of ourselves.

Why are we here?

We are here because God so loves the world
that he is making it right,
turning it into a new creation;
and because God so loves us
that he is making us right.
turning us into a new people,
making us like Jesus:
faithful, truthful, peaceful, hopeful.

We are here because God, in his grace, has called us here.*

John the Baptist came teaching, preaching and baptising. John called people to prepare, to repent, to bear fruit worthy of repentance. And John it clear that he was preparing the way for another, a greater person than he was, one who brings the Holy Spirit and also brings judgement.

We wait , still, for the coming kingdom, for the kingdom Isaiah wrote about, the kingdom that Jesus lived, we wait.

 We wait for God's reign and God's ways to be normal. we wait for peace, community, compassion to be normal. we wait for an end to greed and fear and oppression.   As Jesus lived and travelled he didn't take on armies of Rome, he didn't try and overthrow the Jewish authorities or the political authorities, what Jesus did was to heal the sick, to bind up the broken hearted, to open the eyes of the blind, he fed the hungry, he included the outcast, and these are the things that will bring to fruition the vision of Isaiah. when these things become normal, when being compassionate and generous are normal then oppression and fear will end and we too can live in God’s shalom.

* http://virtualmethodist.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-to-worship.html adapted slightly

Hope

First reading – Isaiah 2: 1-5

Gospel - Luke 1: 5-25

Monologue  Elizabeth – [from candles and conifers p 204-5] 

Proclamation of the Word

In Advent we talk about Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Today I want us to look at the images we have of Hope in today’s readings. This may not have been the first word you thought of, but to me these are hopeful passages.

This first 39 chapters of Isaiah are predominately about divine judgement. Jerusalem was the site of the temple, and therefore an important religious centre. But Jerusalem was also the political capital, the seat of the throne of the house of David. This first part of Isaiah, is about God’s judgement on the people of Israel, about how the land will be desolate, 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 these passages of hope, promises of God, hope for a future.

A future that will be different to there daily experience.

Imagine if the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, were told that their future would be one without war – how easy would it be to believe that some time in the future, fear and violence would not be part of daily life?

Many people have attempted to update these verses for Isaiah, especially the section about they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. This was an agricultural society, so if you can turn your fighting implements into farming tools, life is about life, not fear and death.

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;

- a song by Willie Dixon, talks of the money spent on war could be used to feed and house and educate people.

- how would you phrase this for your life?

A hope for peace, living in peace. For us war and violence may seem a long way away, but try getting into an airport and you have to go through security procedures because the world is not at peace.

The hopeful image from Isaiah seems like a dream, but sometimes dreams come true.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had given up dreaming about a child. Zechariah was a priest, that means he took his turn serving in the temple.  One day an angel appeared, and the angel said: do not be afraid. Your prayers have been answered and your wife will bear a son.  That sounds nearly as far fetched as Isaiah’s peaceful future.

The son of Zechariah and Elizabeth will grow to be great in the sight of God. God works through Elizabeth and Zechariah, not just for them, but for Israel and for God’s purposes.

This story from Luke isn’t about hope fulfilled, Zechariah and Elizabeth had given up hope long ago.

These two passages are about God’s future, a future so far removed from our experience of life it is hard to even imagine.

What kind of kingdom can we imagine, one of accusation, blame, shame; one of consumption and corruption; one of pride and humiliation; power; deception; oppression? These are the kind of kingdoms we live with, kingdoms that are not in line with God’s kingdom, kingdom’s that make God’s kingdom of hope, peace, justice, righteousness sound like a pipe dream.

BUT, there is one whose birth we celebrate in a month, one whose life showed  a different way, one whose death revealed love, one whose resurrection holds our resurrection. We prepare for Jesus to come as a baby, but also as the prince of peace, the ruler of a new kingdom.  

What is our part in all this – are we waiting, praying, ready to respond when God sends and angel? Are we turning swords into ploughshares, or the other way around?

Isaiah says: God will show us the way he works, so that we can live the way we’re made. Come, people of God, let's live in the light of God.

* modern phrasing form Laughing Bird, Bruce Prewer and The Message

Peace and Division

The people of Jerusalem had been in exile, when they returned to the devastated city, they set about cleaning up the rubble, and rebuilding. Imagine what is must have been like, you have seen images of war from the middle east, eastern Europe a few years ago, Vietnam. We have seen devastation by earthquakes and cyclones, so imagining a ruined city is not all the difficult. But imagine this is your city, your street, your place of worship that has been destroyed. After years in exile you are excited about returning home, but what is it you return to?  

What do you build first?

The Temple. It isn’t as grand as Solomon’s Temple, and the rebuilding of other buildings is slow. Life is hard, food is not plentiful, the vegetable gardens were destroyed in the war, the vines, the fruit trees are gone. Life is hard.

Will things ever be the same?

Then Isaiah, the prophet, the man who speaks God’s word, says

God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, the past will not be remembered, there will be rejoicing instead of distress; every person will live a long and full life; people will eat from the trees they plant; people will live in the houses they build; death and devastation will not be part of this new creation. The new creation, the new thing God is creating will be so harmonious that the lamb and the wolf will lay down together, and neither will be in danger.

A beautiful image of the kingdom of God, the kingdom that God is creating. A word of hope for people who are struggling.

I often think of Jesus as the fulfilment of that vision of a new creation, a kingdom of justice and peace and harmony.

Yet when we read the Gospel passage, there is a temple destroyed, wars, earthquakes, famines, and plagues. People being persecuted for being followers of Jesus, people being betrayed by family and friends, people being killed for being associated with Jesus. this hardly sounds like a kingdom of peace and justice and harmony.

What can we make of the story of hope from Isaiah and the story of division in the gospel. Both are real in our lives. The passage from the prophet Isaiah reminds us that that the kingdom God is creating is a kingdom of peace and justice, and we are called to be part of God’s activity in creating a new kingdom. We are indeed people of hope.

But, not everyone shares this vision, because a kingdom of peace and justice doesn’t sit with values of pride, individualism, wealth for its own sake. In a kingdom of peace and justice there is no room for wars, no space for overcharging, for treating people badly, for putting profit before people. So there will be division, and persecution. The persecution isn’t just because we say we believe, it is when we live out God’s kingdom values. When we live out justice, that is threatening to some people; when we live as God’s people, when we stand with those who have little, when we speak on behalf of refugees, people with mental illness, the elderly, the young, when we speak on behalf of those without power, then we will be chastised.

A quote : When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. Dom Helda Camara

The man who spoke those words was a Bishop in South America, he spoke out for the poor, and in 1970 the military leaders banned him from speaking in public for 13 years, during that time even his name was not allowed to be published.

The Kingdom of peace and justice does not sit comfortably in our modern society. It didn’t fit too well in Jesus’ day either. He was killed by those in power, both religious and civil power.

And after Jesus died, some thirty years later, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.  Did it make any difference to God? If we didn’t have this building to worship in, would we still be people who meet together to worship, people who acknowledge God’s reality in our lives, people who are intent on living in God’s grace and God’s power? God doesn’t live in the building, God lives in our lives. God isn’t building a kingdom in the sense of fences and barricades and knights and castles. The Kingdom God is building, is being built in our lives.

And we are called to live out God’s kingdom where we are. To be agents of change, to live as God’s people, living in peace and justice, living in harmony with all creation. In our actions, our working, our speaking. Sometimes that means we will be unpopular. When the Uniting Church started up the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross, there was vocal opposition from within the Uniting Church, from some other churches, and from many in the community. But the people who were given the task of getting it up and running, persevered. Many lives have been saved, and many people have been referred to drug rehabilitation facilities. At other times the Church has been at the forefront of community change, such as the abolition of slavery. In the US today there are Christians hiding illegal immigrants, not to break the law, but to show the unfairness of the law.

Sometimes we can speak about our faith, but we need to always live our faith.

And as Luke records Jesus speaking in the passage we heard today, this will lead to persecution. And persecution allows us to testify about God. This is seen as a positive. Persecution is an opportunity to testify about God. I had not thought of persecution as an opportunity. But looking at anti-slavery campaigns, the networks that hide illegal immigrants, the people who proposed the Medically Supervised injecting Centre – they all had the opportunity to speak up for those without access to the media, and they had the opportunity to speak of God’s creation of all people, of how we are all made in God’s image; that we are all broken people, that we all need compassion and grace, and we all need to show compassion to others.

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace and justice, a kingdom where we know our brokenness, where respect is offered to all people, where God’s love is the standard we live. We work with God in the coming kingdom. A kingdom of peace and justice. We live the kingdom; we take risks; we offer hope; we trust in God.

The kingdom of God is near.

Lament and Faith

This week, 2 shoter reflection, starting wiht PSalm 137 then a brief relfection on Lament

The people of Israel were in exile. Their stories of God all revolved around the promised land, and now, defeated and in a foreign place, they struggled. Parts  of this psalm are quite shocking, but one thing about the psalms is their realism. The psalms are prayers from deep within the heart, written to express the things we struggle to name. I think most people have felt lonely, lost, confused, angry, devastated. Have you ever felt like you could not sing? Here the people  of Israel mourned their loss; the sense of alienation and the longing for the familiar. This is a psalm of Lament. At times I have heard people say, that you can’t scream at God, you can’t be angry with God. We can, and at times we should be.

When life doesn’t make sense, when violence cripples our cities, when children grow up in poverty, when people die in floods, when people are left homeless by earthquakes, when cyclones and tsunamis, bushfires and droughts bring despair and pain – we can avoid the news, we can pretend this is the way the world should be, and get on with our own lives.

Or we can be aware, we can hurt with those who are hurting and weep those who weep, and raise our fist to heaven, asking Why God!, when will your reign of peace and justice come? Why do you let this happen!

Maybe if we were angrier with God, if we told God through our tears and anger and pain, maybe we would stop looking for revenge, and trust God to bring about peace and justice.

Shortly we bring a prayer of lament.  Take some time to think about the areas of your life where there is despair or alienation, anger or pain.

silence

followed by a Prayer of Lament

Part 2 on Timothy and Luke

The disciples asked for more faith.

The disciples request shows they misunderstood the nature of faith, they think of an amount of faith. They show that they fear that they will not have enough, that faith is a scarce and limited commodity.

The disciples asked for more faith, and Jesus tells some stories.

The first is the story of the seeds of the mustard weed, a weed that was difficult to eradicate. Mustard weed grew wild and was the scourge of farmers in Palestine.  Birds would eat the seeds and distribute them, and even if you pulled up the mustard weed, the birds would drop more.  It was persistent, irritating, and fast-spreading. It would be there whether you liked it or not.

Jesus is telling the disciples, and us, that this is the kind of faith we need. This isn’t about amount of faith, but faith that is small enough to be carried everywhere, faith that is contagious and takes root into any space it can find.

If you have any faith, even as tiny as a mustard weed seed, you can do amazing things. It isn’t about how much, but having any faith at all. Any amount of faith in God is enough. Faith in God, faith that God is God, that God is able to act in the world. If we believe in God even just a little bit, it is enough.

Faith is about what we do, rather than how much we have. Jesus changes the discussion from how much faith, to what faith can do, and what we do with the faith we have.

The second story Jesus tells is of a servant come in from working on the farm, and it is dinner time. The servant will cook dinner and clean up, before they get to eat a meal themselves. This isn’t about how to treat people in  a HR sense, but about how we expect to be treated. We are servants of God, why expect a reward for doing what God asks and requires of us?

Just as the master does not reward the slave for doing his job, so we should not expect  a reward, a gold medal, for doing our job as Christians. We don’t get a bonus for being the people God calls us to be. Our reward is serving God.

Looking at the second letter to Timothy, a few things stand out for me. This was likely written in the early part of the second century, that means we are looking at second and third generation Christians. The church is struggling, many thought that Jesus would have returned quickly, but this had not happened, and now how to hold fast to what is true, how to not be discouraged when living in a hostile environment.

The author of this letter is writing to encourage Timothy, but not in a sweet or soft way. The encouragement is to stand firm, to maintain correct teaching. The letter starts by telling Timothy how much he respects Timothy, calls him beloved, and how grateful to God he is for Timothy. How Timothy comes from a family tradition of faith, handed down from Grandmother to mother to Timothy.

Then the strong part, rekindle the faith that is in you, stand firm in the faith, trust in the Holy Spirit, guard the treasure God has given you. Sounds to me like the encouragement you give someone going through a difficult time. When you or someone you know is struggling, how do you offer encouragement?

Faith is a heart thing, it is trust and acting in obedience to God. It is honest sadness, tenacious remembering, performance of duty, a holy calling, and holding fast to sound teaching. Living in faith requires everything of us. Being grounded in awareness of the holiness and sovereignty of God; reflecting the grace of God in all our living; knowing our purpose is in serving God.

We are equipped with the promise that our faith will be sufficient, and the assurance that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

The second letter of Timothy is one of encouraging Timothy to live the faith. We have another letter, a letter from God in the from of Jesus. What is this letter from God saying to you?