“HELP REBUILD LIVES THIS CHRISTMAS”

Some years ago I rescued a little broken wooden Nativity Scene which I now bring out each year at the beginning of Advent. The scene reminds me, as St Francis of Assisi originally intended, that hidden within the commercial loudness, the frantic busy-ness, and all that other stress, the focus is on the glow of new human life gurgling from a manger.

My little Nativity Scene is made of wood to remind me this is what the cross was made of. It remains broken because this reminds me of the broken-ness of humanity then and now and of the body of Jesus broken for us. I keep this little scene particularly as I believe the noise of this season is deliberately encouraged for humanity to forget the baby first placed in a wooden manger who grew up to be placed on a wooden cross.

On top of my little broken wooden Nativity Scene is a slightly wobbly wooden angel announcing “good news of great joy for all the people”. This good news is mostly muted these days drowned out by the noise of greed and violence. The worst thing about this is that there are many who long for some good news. All is not lost, because we who have heard, and keep on hearing the good news for ourselves, can channel all this to them.

The theme for this year’s Christmas Bowl Appeal is the call for us to “help rebuild lives this Christmas”. Highlighted are people within three countries by now known to us. They look to people like us for some good news, some light within their darkness.

First is Sri Lanka. Contrary to media perception, not that many Sri Lankans have tried to come by boat to Australia. For a complete generation, they fled their country in conflict across to India. Now 100,000 are still there stuck mainly in refugee camps without the resources to make it home again and with very limited resources just to survive. They need good news.

Second is Sudan. Conflict there lasted even longer. In the western province of Darfur, 2,000,000 people have been internally displaced. That would be equivalent to about half of Sydney having to find shelter away from home. Finding clean water to drink or even to wash in is a daily challenge. We feel put out when the plumber turns off our water for half a day. How would we cope if the entire City of Ryde was deprived of all water for an indefinite period? Just providing hand washing facilities for a school in Sudan would be good news.

Third is Iraq. News about this country is now off our front pages after war and civil conflict, but there it is still not safe. So far, there is no enforceable international law that demands that participants in war immediately remove their landmines and other unexploded devices from the scene. Just imagine children coming across them at play or on their way to school. Resources are required to bring good news to them of how best to stay safe in their own homeland.

Help rebuild lives this Christmas and may peace remain with you.

“PEACE IN THE MARKETPLACE”

     The Social Justice theme set by the National Council of Churches in Australia for 2012 is about Peace in the Marketplace so all may live in dignity. The booklet can be downloaded at www.ncca.org.au. The subject matter of economics, the marketplace, and the level playing field is a big ask so I shall leave it for you to read it at your leisure and talk it over.

     Meanwhile, I’ll try to potter on in my own words and reminisce about my grandfather who was the hardware merchant in the country district centred round a small country town in which I was the third generation to grow up. I remember Grandpa explaining to us why he persisted in supporting all the other businesses in town whether one was considered better than another in their field.

     It kept the trade in the town, he said, and maintained the families. It was my first understanding how small business operated within the town economics. It was what I would call today “symbiotic economics”. It describes a marketplace which survives by mutual support. It was the nearest in my experience to what everyone calls the level playing field. Everyone benefits.

     You may well mutter about my living like a dinosaur in some mythical golden age. The rich and the poor and those in between were kept within nodding distance and help was given on the side. What is happening today? What we see is “parasitic economics” where the objective is to make more money by milking the vulnerable. Have you been like me trying to interpret all that shrinking small print on those “very important” letters and even on the side of some food packages?

     We think we have had some education to cope around some of these things, so what about those who just don’t have those capabilities to avoid being taken in and to lose what they cannot afford to lose?

     Yes, we know all the right words about social justice but what is to be done that can be done? Yes, I know I seem to belong to the Order of St Jude that patron saint of lost and hopeless causes – although there have been some small victories along the way. It’s time to drag down from the shelf that black leather-bound book with the gold lettering on the cover and follow that ancient question of “What would Jesus do?”

     John Chapter 10 describes Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Yes, we know all about those sheep and the sheepfold with all those lovely pastoral sermons. This is a lot stronger than that and it is far from romantic. The job of a good shepherd is to protect the sheep from the predators. This is why Jesus describes himself in v7 as “The Door”. He is not changing tack here. What he is saying that it is his job as a good shepherd to keep himself between the sheep and the predators by lying down overnight in the doorway. To get to his sheep those predators have to get past him over his dead body first.

     Later in the same gospel, Jesus tells his surprised disciples in 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. Gulp! How are we going to apply this to our parasitic economy? We’re not good at abolishing evil (unless you’ve had more success at this than I have). That’s not our job. Our job is to flush what is evil out into the light where it can be exposed for what it is. This is described in John 3:19-20. We are called to be whistleblowers, those people who, like Jesus, put themselves between the predators and the vulnerable.

     Jesus has brought peace, hope and dignity to many lives by the way he put himself between them and the greedy parasites of this world. Because we have been strengthened by him, others can continue that same redeeming experience when we do the same.

Chris Ridings

who on 15th October this year 

remembers the 45th anniversary of ordination

 in Wesley Church, Perth 1967.

"Keeping One's Head"

S E R M O N CNR1064

PENTECOST 7b (15) Crows Nest, 15 July 2012, 10am

2 Sam 6:1-5, 9-10; Ps 24; Mk 6:14-29; Eph 1:3-14

1 DANCING AND SUDDEN DEATH

1.1 Returning to Crows Nest 

It’s been 31 years since I last stood in this part of Crows Nest Church 

with its long memories of my in-laws 

who were part of this people of faith for at least three generations.

This was also the first Uniting Church place of worship I attended in NSW 

and it was on my honeymoon some years before that.

1.2 Dying and Dancing before the Ark (2 Sam 6:1-5,12b-19)

I was looking through the lectionary passages.

I read through the OT passage only to find 

the story of some faithful subject of King David being struck dead 

for touching the Ark, held to be a sacred object, so I shall be very careful.

Even though it also tells the story of King David dancing before the Ark, 

I decided to leave this passage alone.

Besides, I was raised a Methodist with two left feet, 

and my knees are starting to object to too much strenuous activity.

1.3 Losing one’s head over women (Mk 6:22-25)

Surely, the Gospel reading has something different.

It has.

This time it is a young princess who is dancing before Herod very much before mature audiences only.

This time the sudden death comes after the dancing.

It is John the Baptist, and it has been told to me 

that he is the patron saint of all those men 

who have lost their head over a woman.

2 THE EXECUTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Mk 6:14-29)

2.1 Murder most foul

Yes, it is indeed “murder most foul”, 

those words first uttered by the ghost of Hamlet’s father.

Even as a boy, then looking for the boyish bits in the Bible stories, 

I thought it so grossly unfair that an honest prophet, 

albeit not always tactful, 

should be executed for telling someone, 

despite their being royalty, a few home truths.

2.2 Victims of self-justified murders

From this gruesome story one cannot escape the feeling 

that such self-justified murders have not only gone on in history 

but they still do so right now.

Many of us have been horrified at a woman being lynched in Afghanistan 

this past week, not just for adultery, but because she was a woman.

It may have reminded us of that passage in John chapter 8 

where Jesus was brought a woman “taken in adultery” ready for lynching.

He wrote something in the sand which I have suggested were the words, “Where’s the bloke?”

We can become so selective in our indignation 

and use our outrage as an excuse for violence.

There are countless stories of victims of others, who use any excuse, 

or even none, to commit murder. 

This is not necessarily a good topic for morning tea afterwards, 

but as we watch the nightly news, this must surely come to mind. 

2.3 Kangaroo Court to come

Even though this particular Gospel passage has Jesus only in the background not in this actual narrative, unique in Mark’s Gospel, 

one cannot escape the foreboding atmosphere 

that Jesus himself will meet a similar unfair fate.

The kangaroo court is still to come.

Out of determined spite, without logical reasoning, the writing is on the wall, written in by those who want their way at others’ cost.

3 GOOD NEWS FROM EPHESIANS (Eph 1:3-14)

3.1 Guiding us where to go from here

Which is just as well the Epistle for the day comes with good news 

out of all this ominous foreshadowing.

Many of our Epistle readings are good at taking the narratives 

we find in the Old Testament and Gospel readings 

and guide us where to go from there.

I’m sure this congregation is finding its way 

after the closure of a previous ministry as to where to go next.

3.2 Chosen for integrity (Eph 1:4)

This particular passage from Ephesians was one I remember reading 

on the first Sunday of our new millennium.

Despite its long sentences, 

the original passage in Greek said to be one long continuous sentence, 

too much for translation into English, this is where we start again.

This same Jesus, unjustly tried, unjustly convicted, and unjustly crucified 

before the most notorious kangaroo court in history, 

is the same one of whom it is now written, 

“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, 

that we should live with integrity before him” (v4)

Jesus’ sacrifice for us has opened the door for hope.

Despite the continual uncertainties we face, either together or alone, 

this is something we hang on to and climb up from there.

3.3 Purpose for unity (Eph 1:9f)

We read in another long sentence that, 

“he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ 

as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, 

things in heaven and things on earth.” (vv9f)

Here we are still given purpose whatever has been happening about us 

to still steadfastly go on into an unknown future 

knowing that God’s ultimate plan is to unite everything together.

Yes, these long sentences are catching, but even when we reflect upon the physical fact that we are stardust before we began and after we finish, we remain part of God’s purpose to bring it all together.

So, we are not wandering around lost in space where no one can hear us scream, but we remain part of the biggest project of all time, that of God bringing all his creation into unity.

We need never forget that.

3.4 The home truths of good news (Eph 1:13-14)

Life keeps evolving around us and before our eyes.

Even this congregation is different since the last time I preached here 

a whole generation ago when Doug Cole demitted the charge.

This whole passage describes how, as the people called by Jesus Christ, 

we keep having the home truths of good news, 

with the faithful companionship of his Spirit within us and among us (v13).

Our future relationship is guaranteed with him (v14). 

That should see us over the hurdles yet to come 

within a world which we cannot similarly guarantee to be just.

Unlike John the Baptist, let’s never lose our heads but face the challenging future with the hope that Jesus Christ has passed on to us.

AMEN

Time Poor?

     I hope you have the time to read this. Almost everyone claims to be “time poor” these days. I have known the feeling at times when I’m done before the day is done before the work is done. 

     Being “time poor” has become worse in the 21st century with the proliferation of electronic devises that claim our attention 24/7. It is easy to become so attached to these sociological soldering irons, now permanently in our faces. Pedestrians and motorists have come to grief because they have been too pre-occupied with them that they lose focus on how they are travelling.

     Because of these handy implements each meant to save time, we have become busier than ever to the extent that roses have gone un-smelt, music un-heard, views un-watched, and human beings un-eyeballed.

     When the BBC interviewer David Frost was asked what it was like to have become one of the first broadcasters to have become a millionaire, he wistfully observed that he still only had 24 hours in the day. It’s the same with us, no matter what labour-saving gadgets we possess (or vice versa). The sun still rises and sets around the same time it always has. The clock at Greenwich Observatory occasionally adjusts the time by a second but by the time we’ve heard about it, we’ve wasted all that advantage.

     All this brings back to mind the story of Martha and Mary of Bethany, told in Luke 10:38-42, of the time Jesus was invited into their house. Many hackles have been raised in defence of Martha who was left to do all the work while Mary sat dreamily at Jesus’ feet, taking in what he was saying. Overworked wives and mothers, particularly have come to Martha’s defence when husbands have been watching football on TV and teenage children have their heads buried in computer games.

     Jesus shrewdly pointed out, though, that the problem was not that Martha was busy but she was busy being busy. She was not about to sit down with Jesus and Mary any time soon, no matter what had been accomplished. Martha would have seen herself as “time poor”. The more that was done the more was seen to be needed to be done. In Jesus’ words, Martha was anxious and distressed to the end of her tether. Mary was the one who was at peace.

     When you look at it, how can one be “time poor” when each of us, like David Frost, has no more or less time than anyone else? In our overly materialist world, it is so easy not only to become greedy when we keep wanting things but also to be “time-greedy” when we want more time than the 24 hours allotted to us.

     When he came to Bethany, Jesus wanted some one to talk to rather than the silver service. Luke has included this story in his Gospel because listening to Jesus becomes what is most important. What would Jesus say when we tell him we are “time-poor”?

KEEPING ONE'S HEAD

Sermon CNR 1064  Mk 6:14-29

1 DANCING AND SUDDEN DEATH
1.1 Returning to Crows Nest 
It’s been 31 years since I last stood in this part of Crows Nest Church
with its long memories of my in-laws
who were part of this people of faith for at least three generations.

This was also the first Uniting Church place of worship I attended in NSW
and it was on my honeymoon some years before that.

1.2 Dying and Dancing before the Ark (2 Sam 6:1-5,12b-19)
I was looking through the lectionary passages.
I read through the OT passage only to find
the story of some faithful subject of King David being struck dead
for touching the Ark, held to be a sacred object, so I shall be very careful.

Even though it also tells the story of King David dancing before the Ark,
I decided to leave this passage alone.

Besides, I was raised a Methodist with two left feet,
and my knees are starting to object to too much strenuous activity.

1.3 Losing one’s head over women (Mk 6:22-25)
Surely, the Gospel reading has something different.
It has.

This time it is a young princess who is dancing before Herod very much before mature audiences only.

This time the sudden death comes after the dancing.

It is John the Baptist, and it has been told to me
that he is the patron saint of all those men
who have lost their head over a woman.

2 THE EXECUTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Mk 6:14-29)
2.1 Murder most foul
Yes, it is indeed “murder most foul”,
those words first uttered by the ghost of Hamlet’s father.

Even as a boy, then looking for the boyish bits in the Bible stories,
I thought it so grossly unfair that an honest prophet,
albeit not always tactful,
should be executed for telling someone,
despite their being royalty, a few home truths.

2.2 Victims of self-justified murders
From this gruesome story one cannot escape the feeling
that such self-justified murders have not only gone on in history
but they still do so right now.

Many of us have been horrified at a woman being lynched in Afghanistan
this past week, not just for adultery, but because she was a woman.

It may have reminded us of that passage in John chapter 8
where Jesus was brought a woman “taken in adultery” ready for lynching.

He wrote something in the sand which I have suggested were the words, “Where’s the bloke?”

We can become so selective in our indignation
and use our outrage as an excuse for violence.

There are countless stories of victims of others, who use any excuse,
or even none, to commit murder.

This is not necessarily a good topic for morning tea afterwards,
but as we watch the nightly news, this must surely come to mind.

2.3 Kangaroo Court to come
Even though this particular Gospel passage has Jesus only in the background not in this actual narrative, unique in Mark’s Gospel,
one cannot escape the foreboding atmosphere
that Jesus himself will meet a similar unfair fate.

The kangaroo court is still to come.
Out of determined spite, without logical reasoning, the writing is on the wall, written in by those who want their way at others’ cost.

3 GOOD NEWS FROM EPHESIANS (Eph 1:3-14)
3.1 Guiding us where to go from here
Which is just as well the Epistle for the day comes with good news
out of all this ominous foreshadowing.

Many of our Epistle readings are good at taking the narratives
we find in the Old Testament and Gospel readings
and guide us where to go from there.

I’m sure this congregation is finding its way
after the closure of a previous ministry as to where to go next.

3.2 Chosen for integrity (Eph 1:4)
This particular passage from Ephesians was one I remember reading
on the first Sunday of our new millennium.

Despite its long sentences,
the original passage in Greek said to be one long continuous sentence,
too much for translation into English, this is where we start again.

This same Jesus, unjustly tried, unjustly convicted, and unjustly crucified
before the most notorious kangaroo court in history,
is the same one of whom it is now written,
“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should live with integrity before him” (v4)

Jesus’ sacrifice for us has opened the door for hope.
Despite the continual uncertainties we face, either together or alone,
this is something we hang on to and climb up from there.

3.3 Purpose for unity (Eph 1:9f)
We read in another long sentence that,
“he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.” (vv9f)

Here we are still given purpose whatever has been happening about us
to still steadfastly go on into an unknown future
knowing that God’s ultimate plan is to unite everything together.

Yes, these long sentences are catching, but even when we reflect upon the physical fact that we are stardust before we began and after we finish, we remain part of God’s purpose to bring it all together.

So, we are not wandering around lost in space where no one can hear us scream, but we remain part of the biggest project of all time, that of God bringing all his creation into unity.

We need never forget that.

3.4 The home truths of good news (Eph 1:13-14)
Life keeps evolving around us and before our eyes.

Even this congregation is different since the last time I preached here
a whole generation ago when Doug Cole demitted the charge.

This whole passage describes how, as the people called by Jesus Christ,
we keep having the home truths of good news,
with the faithful companionship of his Spirit within us and among us (v13).

Our future relationship is guaranteed with him (v14).
That should see us over the hurdles yet to come
within a world which we cannot similarly guarantee to be just.

Unlike John the Baptist, let’s never lose our heads but face the challenging future with the hope that Jesus Christ has passed on to us.

Energy of the Spirit

Surprising as it may seem when I was young I used to stumble over long abstract words. It is difficult to work the word “antidisestablishmentarianism” into everyday conversation. I also find that long abstract words can mean different things to different people. That’s why misunderstandings arise in conversations.

Fortunately for us, the medieval English Franciscan, William of Ockham, pleaded for the “KISS” principle – “Keep It Simple, Stupid” – slashing his razor through complicated hypotheses.

By the time you read this, we will have moved into the season of Pentecost which includes celebration of the Trinity. I was about to quote what our Lectionary says about it but have found the words complicated. Sigh!

I even have problems with the word “Spirituality” – again, that is a long word that can mean different things to different people. Remember the Beatles abandoning their suits and hairstyles of the 1960s for exotic dress seeking out new gurus to find themselves. They called this “Spirituality”.

Thankfully, this word wasn’t around my scene when I was young. The word that did influence me was “spirit”, mentioned frequently, I found, in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Jesus spoke about “spirit” throughout John’s Gospel, for instance. His conversation with the woman of Samaria centres around God being “a spirit”, not some one confined to a mere place.

When Jesus later spoke to his disciples about leaving them, he reassured them (and us too along the way) that while he would be physically away from them, he would always be with them (and with us) in spirit. Jesus’ use of the word “spirit” is what has stayed with me over the years.

Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Spirit. Not that God has ever been absent in spirit, but that with Jesus absent in the flesh, we still depend upon that assurance that God is within us and among us in spirit. I still imagine God hovering over us in spirit just as he was in the dawn of creation before we were even stardust. Even when we feel very alone we are never really alone.

I once had some doubts about the relevance of the Trinity. Was this too complicated? Funny, it took a little reflecting upon high school general science to reinforce this. Science was supposed to sabotage faith not underline it.  However, a simple sentence was at the heart of science – “Matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed”. How would this help?

In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God became “matter” for us. John’s Gospel describes this as “the Word made flesh”. In my young days, the word was “incarnation” or as Charles Wesley put it “incomprehensibly made man”. God became matter.

The Gospels describe the traumatic tragedy of the Word made flesh destroyed on Good Friday. John’s Gospel particularly describes Jesus reassuring his disciples that he (matter) would go away but return to them in spirit (energy).

We learned in science that matter can become energy. We learn from our New Testament that God became matter for us and resumed becoming energy for us when this matter was taken away.

Excuse my bias, but I prefer the word “energy” as explaining “spirit” more than “spirituality”. In this season of Pentecost, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (including us) celebrates and enacts the energy that God gives us from the energy that God is.

Live out the energy of the spirit!

"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?"

S E R M O N CNR1063

EASTER 2b Mosman Uniting Church, 15 Apr 2012, 9.30am

Ps 133; Jn 20:19-31; Ac 4:32-35; 1Jn 1:1 – 2:2.

John 20:19-31

1 WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

1.1 When the bottom falls out

“What do we do now?”

It’s what we say when we’ve unloaded the groceries from the car

only to have the bottom of the bag give way

so that the milk and eggs and God knows what

have splattered over our feet and all over the ground.

It’s what we say when the bottom has fallen out of our lives.

We stand glued to the spot bewildered and confused and blurt out,

“What do we do now?”

1.2 Hopes nailed

It’s what the first disciples, our spiritual forebears, said

when they huddled together on the evening of the first day of the week.

On that dreadful Friday we now call Good,

the bottom had fallen out of their lives with their leader, their Messiah,

being put to a cruel death.

Nailed with him were all their dreams and all their hopes.

The bottom had fallen out of even their self-respect.

They’d all turned their backs on him, one way or another,

when he most needed their support.

They were not happy campers inside.

“What do we do now?”

1.3 And then Jesus came (v19)

Furthermore, the body of Jesus had gone missing,

but Mary Magdalene had seen him risen.

They had met to try to make head or tail out of these strange events.

“What do we do now?”

It was then that Jesus appeared with the greeting, “Shalom!”.

John’s Gospel makes it sound as if he had never gone away in the first place.

2 JESUS APPEARS

2.1 Beginning again where he left off (Jn 20:19)

Jesus appears to begin again where they had left off.

Among his last words before he’d left them were

“Peace I leave with you.” (Jn 14:27)

His first words on his return were “Peace be with you!” (v19)

He had previously told them,

“I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (Jn 14:18-20)

This is a good time for each of us

to revisit that section from John’s Gospel chapters 13 to 17

in the light of this delightful reunion that John has pictured for us.

It will make sense in what now happens.

2.2 Jesus risen within the first disciples (Jn 20:21-22)

John has Jesus return not for the fun of it but for a specific purpose.

Jesus repeats his greeting and adds,

“As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” (v21)

Immediately, he breathes on them and says,

“Receive the Holy Spirit” (v22)

Jesus has his first disciples begin where he left off.

The church is born with the spirit of Jesus Christ risen among them

and now not so much with them as before but now within them forever.

3 THE PATRON SAINT OF SCEPTICS

3.1 Thomas pipes up again (Jn 20:24-25)

John’s Gospel now brings Thomas back into play.

Thomas had already featured in John’s version

when he had claimed in ch 11 that he would go with Jesus to Bethany

and die with him there.

He had also faced Jesus with the assertion in ch 14

that he did not know the way.

I was born on St Thomas’ Feast Day,

so I think I am getting more like him as I grow older.

I’ve heard a lot of words in my 72 years

and not all of them have turned into action.

I like to see things happen not just talked about.

3.2 Those who have not seen

Most of you know this story about Thomas like the back of your hand

longer than I have.

Suffice to say that the punch line is John’s words for Jesus,

“Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe?” (v29)

The crunch for us is that these words are not just written for Thomas.

3.3 Believing through their word

John’s Gospel is written for the many people

who didn’t get the chance to see Jesus in the flesh

let alone risen with his marks in the hands, feet, and side.

Remember the great prayer Jesus uttered in ch 17?

“I do not pray for these only,

but also for those who believe in me through their word,

that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you,

that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:20-21)

When this gospel was written, nearly all these first disciples

in that room were already dead well before their time.

John is writing to people who have had no opportunity to meet anyone

with this first experience.

3.4 Standing in the long queue of time

That’s why the Gospels are so appealing

because we ourselves are standing in the long queue of time.

The breath of the risen Christ transferring his spirit

has been passed on from that room to others,

and from those others down the generations,

right down to us where we sit right now.

Consider the risen Jesus Christ appearing amongst us now,

coming to us with the words,

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

What do we do now?

AMEN

“DEATH AND RESURRECTION EVENTS”

Easter is a time when we commemorate death and resurrection. The second part of this we like but going through the first is the challenge. Reflecting on our lives, we recall death and resurrection events.

I’ve been attached to various churches during my journey and they have undergone such events. I started Sunday School at Rose Park Methodist Sunday School, SA in 1944. Last time I heard it was a combined Uniting Church-Churches of Christ congregation. I returned to Eudunda where the Methodist Church (built in 1888) was my spiritual HQ. Recently, I heard the building was past safe use so the Uniting congregation now meets in the local Health Centre.

My next church was the big old Wallaroo Methodist Church from 1951-1952. After church union, the buildings of the old churches fell into disuse but somehow somewhere a Uniting congregation still meets, I believe. My middle high school years were spent at Tusmore Methodist Church. After I left, a new building was constructed but recently a number of Uniting congregations have formed a more central congregation.

To cut a long story short, I was confirmed in 1958 in the Bagot Road Methodist Church in Subiaco, WA. Several churches in the area combined years later, and a few years ago a Coffee Shop venture replaced the buildings. My first appointment in 1961 was Midland Junction Methodist Church with Greenmount further up the hill. The Midland venue in time became a car park for Woolworths while the wooden Greenmount building was eventually transported and the surviving congregations now meet together in the newer suburb of Swan View.

My first post-training place was Mullewa now an outstation of Geraldton, as is probably Mingenew whose brick fence outside the bee-infested wooden building was stronger than the building. Brookton/Beverley doesn’t have its own minister now. Regional resource ministry is alive and well in rural WA. My Gosnells congregation (1978-1982) later moved to the former Salvation Army property.

I re-visited Dubbo in February where I was one of 2 & 3/7 ministers from 1987-1989 working out of 3 buildings. Now it is down to one building with a regional minister working out of Wellington. There you are, death and resurrection of congregations within three States during my lifetime… and it is still going on as we travel on new and risky paths.

Most of us have come to North Ryde Community Church from previous places to pool our experiences and resources, remembering the death and resurrection events that have led us to this present moment. We follow Jesus who had the death and resurrection experience to outdo us all.

None of us know what the future will hold for us, individually or as a congregation, although as a congregation we are better placed than so many we know of. Years ago, I met a visitor who came from Salonika in Greece, formerly Thessalonica of New Testament fame. As I suspected he belonged to a church named St Paul’s (why should we not be surprised), probably one of the longest serving churches in existence.

We cannot strive to repeat that kind of history. Our churches are more mobile than we know. Faith has come to us from many lands through centuries of death and resurrection. First has come the death of Jesus and his resurrection through his first disciples who became the Body of the Risen Christ. These disciples died but the Spirit of Christ within and among them has been continuously resurrected throughout each generation from then to now, and hopefully continues to those coming after us.

The sun sets and it is night but it always rises again to begin a new morn.

"Follow the Money"

One of the predictables I’ve found in life is that everything costs. What one gives with one hand has to be taken from somewhere else with the other. I suppose this is why every government falls in time when the costs come home.

“Follow the money”, they say. The reason is that some many problems are not resolved is that more money is made out of the problem itself than from the solution. To solve a problem means that it will cost some one else.

During 2012 we read the Gospel according to Mark. In Chapter 5:1-19 we read the story of the deranged man called “Legion” living it rough in the tombs on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. He answered to this name because of his multiple personalities and that no one could do anything with him. Jesus healed Legion and the locals approached to find their monster now “clothed and in his right mind”(v15).

However, everything costs, and this healing did not come free. From my reading of the story, also repeated later in Matthew 8:28-34 and Luke 8:26-39, it would appear to me that at the point of his deliverance, a loud yell from Legion disturbed a large herd of about 2000 head of swine collectively belonging to the town. They panicked and stampeded headlong down a steep bank into the Sea of Galilee. The town lost its meat supply in one fell swoop.

Legion was grateful to Jesus but not so the townspeople who saw this stranger calming their monster at the expense of their livelihood and all but ran him out of town. Solving one problem creates another. The reality of vested interests keeps intruding.

There are two similar stories in the Acts of the Apostles. Chapter 16:16-24 finds Paul and Silas accosted by a disturbed slave girl in Philippi making buckets of money for her owners by soothsaying. Paul confronted the girl restoring her to normal. Doubtless, like Legion before her, she was greatly relieved, to say the least, but what about the owners whose profitable “freak show” was now over. They had these two strangers worked over and locked up in prison. Such gratitude! Everything costs.

The other story is set in Ephesus later in chapter 19:23-41. Paul’s preaching that God is not “made by hands” (v26) upset the silversmiths who did very well out of making little but expensive statuettes of their goddess Diana of the Ephesians. They took to the streets and dragged several of Paul’s colleagues into the local theatre. Oh dear, those vested interests again propping up the problem and scared of solutions.

These three stories do not visit our Lectionary very often but they were part of the narratives I heard and read during my boisterous Sunday School days when such “action” stories stuck in our minds forever. They may be ancient stories two thousand years old, but one cannot but notice the same human nature cropping up whenever there is good to be done.

Pokie reform is now on the agenda to protect family savings needlessly going down the tube. To restore people to a healthy way of life will eat into profits somewhere. If one takes seriously the opposition to this reform then the whole economy depends upon believing in one’s unalienable right to milk the vulnerable.

This and other issues bring to mind that the Kingdom of God that Jesus announces right through the Book of Mark and other books is continually frustrated by the fear it may truncate one’s income however large it may be.

If it has not already dawned upon us now, we can begin to see that when it comes to cost in introducing the Kingdom of God, there was an ultimate cost much greater than that borne by those adversely affected by these three stories.

After the season of Epiphany when we enter Lent and follow Jesus’ fateful path towards Jerusalem we will again realise who really picked up the bill.

"The Left Hand of God"

S E R M O N CNR1062

EPIPHANY 2b North Ryde Community Church, 15 Jan 2012, 9.30am

1 Sam 3:1-10 (11-20); Ps 139:1-6,13-18; Jn 1:43-51; 1 Cor 6:12-20

“THE LEFT HAND OF GOD”

1 Samuel 3:1b

1 THE BOY SAMUEL

1.1 Woken up in the night

One thing I can be sure of here and that is none of us enjoy

being woken up in the middle of the night.

It was bad enough when my children used to wake up

with the early morning light

and my son used to come into our bedroom

and start bouncing up and down on our bed.

He was our bouncing baby boy but we weren’t appreciating this

when dawn was still tentatively breaking.

Mind you, he grew out of this bad habit with the onset of teenage

where it required all but a front-end loader

to remove him from his bed in the mornings.

1.2 Eli not too thrilled

I can’t imagine Eli was too thrilled with the young enthusiastic Samuel

running in to report for duty in the middle of the night.

I can imagine Eli was even less thrilled

when he wheedled out of young Samuel what God had told him.

Mind you, the story is more straightforward than it first looks.

Young Samuel had adopted by his mother Hannah to be brought up by Eli, the priest-in-charge at the Temple of Shiloh,

and to serve the Lord God in gratitude for his miracle birth.

1.3 Little Pitchers have big ears

Eli would have been his teacher and mentor,

as I imagine all priests were in those days,

and as Eli grew older Samuel would have been running all sorts of errands around the place.

But as the adults in my young life used to say among themselves

when I was hanging around while they were talking,

“Little pitchers have big ears.”

And they would invariably change the subject.

Doubtless, Samuel heard a lot more what was going on

than he was supposed to

and what old Eli’s two worthless sons, Hophni and Phinehas,

who were now responsible for the day to day running of the Temple at Shiloh, were getting up to.

1.4 What you see is what you get

I’ll let you read about it for yourselves in the previous chapter,

but young Samuel would have been awake to the fact that things were wrong as we were when we heard the words at the beginning of the chapter,

“And the word of the Lord was rare in those days;

there was no frequent vision.”

What young Samuel had to tell old Eli much along the lines

that his sons were as crooked as a dog’s hind leg

and that they couldn’t even lie straight in bed.

Eli was the first to realise that in the midst of all this dark corruption

Samuel was a ray of light.

He was honest, without guile,

as Nathanael is later described in our Gospel reading – WYSIWYG.

This integrity would be the hope of Israel for years to come.

2 THE KING-MAKER

2.1 Samuel chooses Saul

It’s tempting to run through the story of Samuel in detail

like my Sunday School teacher used to, Sunday by Sunday,

but I’ll let you read it for yourselves, suffice to say,

that after listening to much haggling Samuel was later entrusted

to choose a king for Israel.

He found his man, Saul the Benjamite,

who was head and shoulders above the crowd.

He hadn’t intended to apply for the job - kings never do.

All he was focussed on was looking for his father’s lost donkeys.

2.2 Samuel chooses David

However, physique wasn’t enough, and eventually Samuel sacked him

but that’s another story.

Samuel found a different replacement,

a young shepherd lad who played music and was handy with a slingshot.

You may have heard of him.

His name was David, born in Bethlehem.

3 THE LISTENING SAMUEL

3.1 Was Samuel really special?

Samuel had received a very important call from God in the middle of the night.

It was very timely as we gather from those words,

“And the word of the Lord was rare in those days;

there was no frequent vision.”

I was brought up to believe that Samuel was special

and that he was singled out for his call.

I checked my lexicon to see what his name really means

to give me some clue

and it seems to mean “the left hand of God”.

From this I understand that the priests were normally seen

as the right hand of God

but if the right hand won’t do the job then the left hand would have to do.

3.2 Not everybody is listening

I am more inclined now to believe that God calls everybody.

It’s just that not everybody is listening.

While Eli was priest of the Temple of Shiloh,

only a small boy was paying attention,

so the call meant for the adults came through.

There was no ICAC in those days,

so when people had complained to Eli about his corrupt sons,

he would just sigh and say, “But they’re still my boys.”

3.3 The middle of integrity

With corruption around him, Samuel had integrity.

Those who have done maths will know

that the word for a whole number is “integer”,

so integrity means wholeness the equivalent of our old word “holiness”.

Contained in the word “integrity” is the word “grit”.

As Samuel learned, if we want to see integrity around us,

it will not happen unless we are ourselves prepared to put in some of the grit.

4 WITHOUT GUILE

4.1 Nathanael (Jn 1:26)

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus has started work and is calling people to come and share the road with him.

One of them is Nathanael who is mainly famous for sitting under fig-trees

and grumbling, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:26)

He’s another WYSIWYG person like Samuel,

neither of them good at playing poker, or doing other things on the sly,

a man without guile.

What you see is what you get.

Jesus needs people like that, people with integrity

who are prepared to put a bit of grit into a world

where self-interest runs rampant as usual.

4.2 Switch on the antennae

Again, God calls everyone but not everyone listens.

2012 is the year where we are called to switch on our antennae

so the signal can come through.

There are many stories of calls coming through right through our Scriptures and through our experiences or the experiences of others,

stories of lives and careers changing because of a divine nudge

whether it’s noticed or not.

As disciples of Jesus,

we are subject to these calls even out of our comfort zone.

We all have our stories of challenging journeys.

Perhaps some of these journeys are still to come.

In God’s world let’s put the grit back to get integrity.

AMEN

The Drowner

S E R M O N CNR1061

BAPTISM OF JESUS b North Ryde Community Church 8 Jan 2012, 9.30am

Gen 1:1-5; Ps 29; Mk 1:4-11; Ac 19:1-11

(Amended readings: Gen 1:1-13; Mk 1:1-11)

1 THE WILD MAN IN THE JORDAN

1.1 Locusts and wild honey

All the Christmas decorations are put away for another year.

The cards are collected and read once more.

Funny, there weren’t any with John the Baptist on them.

Mark’s Gospel was the first written nearly a generation before the others

and in this Gospel we hear nothing about

angels, shepherds, wise men, stars or mangers.

The first person on the scene is this wild looking hairy man

with his peculiar diet of locusts and wild honey, and possibly bad breath,

not some one you’d ever find on your Christmas cards.

Back in my Sunday School days, our class turned up their noses with disgust and we asked our teacher why anyone in their right mind

would eat locusts and wild honey.

One smart girl piped up that the honey was used

to stop his lunch from flying away.

Somehow we find Christmas pudding a lot tastier.

1.2 John and the Jewish Spring

Who was this peculiar man who is the first person to appear in a Gospel

and what is he doing here?

From Luke we read that he is the son of a priest so he grew up

with the routines and rituals of what priests do

with the expectation that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

But you know what children are like.

They have minds of their own, particularly when life around them changes.

Young John grew up conscious of the way these Roman governors

and soldiers ran things around the place

and they weren’t always polite about it.

There were always uprisings looking for a Jewish Spring, so to speak,

where the Jews could overthrow these bossy Romans.

Young John could see this wasn’t working

and that some day it would take the promised Messiah, the anointed one,

to pull this off with his baptism of fire.

1.3 Prepare the Way of the Lord

John had read from the Prophets of his Hebrew Scriptures,

particularly the scrolls of Isaiah and Malachi,

that a prophet would come forward to herald the Messiah’s coming.

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” (Mk 1:3)

John turned his back upon the formal religion of the day

because everyone was just going through the motions

and nothing was changing.

So, he put on the same garb as Elijah the prophet from centuries before,

went bush and lived off the land like he did, except for the extra protein.

Like Elijah’s successor, Elisha, he focussed on the river Jordan

and the place where cleansing by washing could take place,

just like Elisha recommended for Namaan the Syrian general

who was a leper.

It was this cleansing by washing

for which we have come to know this wild man called John the Baptist.

2 THE GREAT WATERS

2.1 Ritual Washings

The priests would conduct ritual washings in the Temple

before sacrifices could be offered.

Centuries later, Catholics would imitate the process

with Confession before taking Communion.

But nothing was changing and the purpose for these ritual washings

were forgotten as soon as one’s skin was dry.

John would ensure his cleansing by washing

would be something those undergoing it, and undergoing was the word,

would never forget.

2.2 Waters under the firmament (Gen 1:7)

You may have worked out by now that the Jewish people of the day

were not enthused about water in large quantities.

You would have noticed that in the 1st Creation story read today,

there were waters left under the firmament (Gen 1:7).

These were the days when the earth was believed to be flat,

sorry to disillusion anybody, and these waters were kept underneath

lest they emerge to drown you.

2.3 The Many Waters

In Psalm 29, the Psalm of Seven Thunders,

the voice of the Lord God is upon the waters, many waters,

as the only power above them (Ps 29:3).

I think you get the picture.

Water in large quantities is just too awesome for comfort.

Just in case you wish to check this out for yourselves at home

when you are bored with TV,

add to your readings the stories of the Great Flood.

Read about the crossing of the Reed Sea

where Moses and the children of Israel look back

to see even Pharaoh’s mighty, terrible army

overwhelmed by this enormous torrent of water surging through them

sweeping them mercilessly away into oblivion forever.

There’s the story of Jonah tossed out of a boat during a raging storm,

not to mention Gospel accounts of the frightened disciples of Jesus

cowering in a boat on the Sea of Galilee

begging their Master to do something.

Even when you come to the end of the Book of Revelation

where a new heaven and a new earth is described

with the old heaven and the old earth passing away,

there is no more sea (Rev 21:1).

I think there are people in Queensland and in Japan who would understand.

2.4 Life after Drowning

So, with this in mind, what does John go and do?

First, and this appears in Matthew and Luke’s later accounts,

he sears the ears of the people with visions of a baptism of fire

unless they first undergo his baptism by water.

No ritual washing here.

With his none too tender hands pressed upon their heads,

John plunges them downward into the murky waters of the Jordan

so that they experience these waters under the firmament.

The Greek word, “baptizo”, means to plunge, even to drown.

The people have to experience what it is like to be about to die

before they can live again.

Today we would call this shock therapy.

Maginnis Magee would be staying in his log.

3 I WILL BAPTISE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

3.1 Mark’s Emphases

In Mark’s Gospel, the punch line from John the Baptist are his words,

“I have baptised you with water

but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mk 1:8)

Mark’s Gospel is definite about this.

John’s Gospel relates later that,

true, although Jesus underwent the baptism of John,

he never himself baptised with water, and,

true, he did breathe upon his disciples with the words,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

3.2 No shock therapy

There have been many disputes about water baptism throughout the history of the church and there are various positions of conscience.

There are a number of solid emphases Mark gives to baptism

and of some I have spoken here before,

but at this time, I am moved to focus here upon

the different ways from John the Baptist

Jesus used to herald the Kingdom of God.

There is no shock therapy from Jesus except for himself

when he later underwent the baptism of fire John was talking about

that we call the cross.

Ah yes, Maginnis Magee, there is pain in baptism but it’s not yours.

3.3 Live in the baptism of spirit

The baptism of spirit means that through Jesus Christ

God binds us together in him

so that we may live the life

that saves the world from imploding the way it continues to do.

It is this baptism of spirit that can hold off the baptism of fire.

So let us live in the baptism of spirit forever.