“A SEA OF REEDS”

            S E R M O N CNR1073                              

Pentecost 14a (24)           North Ryde Community Church 14 Sep 2014, 9.30am

Exd 14:19-31; 15:1b-20f; Matt 18: 21-35; Rom 14:1-12

1          A MESSAGE FROM SANTORINI (Exd 14:19-31)

            1.1       Mt Thera blows its top

Around 1540BC was not a very good time

and should you visit the Greek island of Santorini you would see why.

Back in those ancient times there was a certain Mt Thera

and it was a volcano, a very active volcano.

Around 1540BC following earthquakes in the region Mt Thera blew its top.

Certain records describe from miles away

a tall pillar of cloud surging high into the sky during the day

turning into a pillar of fire by night.

Huge waves formed a tsunami which crashed

into what was left of the ancient Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete.

It surged further southward into the Nile delta in Egypt.

1.2       Pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Exd 13:21-22)

Why have I told you this ancient story

and how do we know this great event was recorded?

Did we not read in Sunday School in those days before LiftOff

that certain groups of former slaves were leaving Egypt

under their leader Moses,

and how they were guided in Exd 13:21-22 by

“a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night …

a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night … and did not depart from before the people.”?

They were not to know the origins of this pillar as we can now know

but to the children of Israel this was their deliverance out of slavery in Egypt.

1.3       The Tsunami

They were not to know how after such a volcanic event

the waters were sucked in before flooding back with a vengeance.

It just so happened these children of Israel were trying to get across

the “Yam Suph” or the “Sea of Reeds” within the Nile delta,

mistakenly confused with the Red Sea.

Just in time, the waters that blocked their path retreated as if sucked out,

as indeed it was.

The children of Israel saw this opportunity and made it across the other side

before the waters came surging back to catch the pursuing Pharaoh’s army and drown them.

1.4       The miraculous deliverance

We who know about tsunamis, at least since 2004, know how it happened while back then no one then could possibly have known

how this miraculous deliverance happened.

It matters not because for the children of Israel

it still was a miraculous deliverance that changed forever their future

as a people in the hands of God.

And that is the point of this Exodus story.

Deliverance from certain disaster focuses the mind

on what really matters in life.

2          THE PARABLE OF THE MEAN SERVANT (Matt 18:21-35)

2.1       The thousand dollar debt (Mt 18:24)

Which is why our Gospel reading draws our attention

as to how Jesus in his coming to deliver us from the disaster of ourselves focuses our attention on our future directions.

This parable on forgiveness is a case in point.

Here we have a ruler out to collect his debts

from those to whom he had lent money.

There were no banks then.

Kings owned the wealth so their subjects had to borrow from them

to get their start in business.

Servant No 1 owed in our currency about $1000 and wasn’t doing very well so the king was about to foreclose

and to have him and his family sold into slavery to pay his debt.

2.2       An unexpected forgiveness (Mt 18:27)

Servant No 1 was not happy about this arrangement.

After much pleading and grovelling and bargaining,

he was forgiven his $1000 debt altogether,

which was actually more than he’d expected.

O for a kind bank manager like this, or at this time of the year, the ATO.

2.3       The two dollar debt (Mt 18:28)

Servant No 1 emerged into the sunlight breathing again.

He suddenly spotted Servant No 2.

He grabbed the poor unsuspecting fellow by the throat

(we were going to re-enact this parable except for our safety regulations).

Servant No 1 loudly demanded Servant No 2 pay Servant No 1

the $2 he owed him.

The spluttering Servant No 2 didn’t have any money on him at the time,

so Servant No 1 led him firmly by the ear and had him locked up in prison

for depriving Servant No 1 of his $2.

As was once put Servant No 1 was mean enough to take the holes out of a harness strap.

2.4       The small debt part of the bigger debt (Mt 18:31-35)

This did not go down well with the neighbours, nor with the king.

“OK”, he said, “all bets are off”.

Servant No1 had it coming to him because that’s how he treated Servant No 2 for the mere 0.2% of the amount owing.

For those of you who have been secretly calculating

these financial transactions on your electronic security blankets,

you will have picked up that not only was the 2^nd debt 0.2% of the 1^st debt,

it was also part of the 1^st debt that would have been owed back to the king

in the 1^st place.

So, the money Servant No 2 owed Servant No 1 wasn’t Servant No 1’s money in the 1^st place.

3          A NEW OUTLOOK (Rom 14:1-12)

3.1       Christ the Lord of Living and Dead (Rom 14:9)

Which is what Paul was explaining to the Romans in his epistle to them.

Just as the children of Israel under Moses were miraculously delivered

from disaster to face their future under an unexpected freedom,

so we have been miraculously delivered from ourselves through Jesus Christ.

Both the Gospel and the Epistle bring to our attention

that because we have this new lease of life through Jesus Christ

then our outlook changes.

3.2       God tears up the debt

We cease to measure the list of wrongs done to us by others

because we have experienced God, through Jesus Christ,

tearing up the list of wrongs we have done in our time.

God could well run an eternal ICAC and Royal Commission forever

over the wrongs human beings have done and keep on doing to one another.

God, instead through Jesus Christ,

as Paul has reminded the Romans and others,

has torn up this unsurmountable debt.

Because we have this new freedom, we are freed to have a fresh outlook, imitating the outlook God has expressed to us through Jesus Christ.

This remains his message to us and, through our outlook,

our message to the world

so the world may come through its own Sea of Reeds and live in hope.

“OUR BIRTHRIGHT”

                                                           S E R M O N CNR1072                                           

Pentecost 3a (15) Mosman 13 Jly 2014, 9.30am

Gen 25:19-34; Ps 119:105-112; Mat 13:1-9, 18-23; Rom 8:1-11

1          TELL ME A STORY

1.1       Australian Dreaming

Tell me a story!

How often as children did we sit at some one’s knee and beg for a story?

We remember bedtime stories, funny stories, sad stories, scary stories, mystery stories and stories we didn’t understand at the time

but we still remembered them.

We didn’t take to abstract lectures but we do remember the stories.

The “Australian Dreaming” stories of the 1^st peoples of this land were like that.

Many of them spoke of animals and birds

who behaved in either good or bad ways.

Whenever one saw that creature,

what that creature had said or done came back into mind,

and one became the wiser for it.

1.2       The Sower and the Seed (Matt 13:1-9, 18-23)

Now many of you remember Jesus’ Parable of the Sower better than I do.

It was often the first parable told to us.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, it becomes the first parable Jesus told.

In Matthew, Jesus tells the vivid story of the sower

to explain to his 1^st disciples how he is now going to speak to the people.

It is a heartening parable

because when we are trying to get an important message across

and keep hitting brick walls, it is easy to feel dispirited.

The disciples felt that no one appeared to be listening

to what Jesus had to say.

In this story, we see the sower scattering the seed

in an apparent random way, a bit like letterboxing today.

What’s the use, we complain?

We see seeds consumed by opportunistic birds,

seeds that can’t take root on the hard ground,

seeds choked by competing weeds,

but there are some seeds who do escape the birds, do take root,

and do survive the weeds, and they flourish.

The toast we ate for breakfast this morning

comes from bread made by seeds that survived.

Oh yes, the parable is meant to say that although so many will not listen,

there will be the faithful few that take the words of Jesus in,

live by them, and inspire others, even others yet to come.

2          ESAU AND JACOB (Gen 25:19-34)

2.1       Two kings, one throne

The story of the twins Esau and Jacob is one such story.

We are familiar with the 1stborn inheriting the privileges and responsibilities.

Generally the 1stborn is fitted out for the job expecting to take on the mantle.

Occasionally, this doesn’t happen so Plan B comes into operation.

Many here would remember the Abdication Crisis of 1936

when K Edward VIII announced that he could not carry out his regal duties, “without the support of the woman I love”,

leaving his nervous younger brother with a stammering problem

to become K George VI.

As it turned out with the looming WW2, George became a far better king.

2.2       Shallow extrovert v reflective introvert

The story of Esau and Jacob reflects a similar dilemma.

Again, we have a shallow extrovert followed by a reflective introvert.

The older Esau was an active outdoor youth, earning his father’s favour

because he was always bringing home good meat from hunting.

The younger Jacob preferred the quietness of the tent.

Had they been able to read at the time,

he would be one of those always with his head in a book.

Even so, Jacob was calculating always with his mind on the future

compared with the more spontaneous Esau who could only think short-term.

Rebekah could appreciate Jacob’s worth and that planning ahead

would be a more productive exercise than ad hoc leadership

so in a later chapter we will find how she encouraged him

to secure Isaac’s blessing.

2.3       What are we doing with our birthright?

We have grown up with this story.

It now makes us think of our birthright.

What are the privileges and responsibilities we have inherited,

and what use are we making of them?

It is no secret that many of us are uncomfortable, to say the least,

that our leaders in our country are not thinking compassionately

with the spirit we have inherited.

The good news of the Kingdom of God often seems to us to be far away.

Asylum seekers are treated as disposable trash

to be swept offshore under some one else’s carpet,

fossil fuels are polluting our environment

when natural energies can be made available,

services for the disadvantaged, including the 1^st people of our land,

are continually cut back to their further disadvantage

while the rich are encouraged to grow richer at everyone else’s expense.

Are we frittering away our birthright for instant gratification

rather than plan for the future of the generations

who look to us for responsible leadership?

3          PRIVILEGE AND RESPONSIBILITY.

3.1       Changing toward integrity and compassion

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans reassures us this morning

that we belong not to the flesh but the spirit

because the life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ

has made, and keeps making, all the difference to our lives.

This is our birthright – our great privilege and yes, also our responsibility.

Like Jacob and K George VI, we need to keep positioning ourselves

so that we are fitted to make changes towards integrity and compassion

within us and around us as far as we can.

3.2       Persevere!

Yes, we can become dispirited when our efforts are undermined,

or fall on stony ground or choked by competing weeds.

But, the story Jesus first told about the sower and his seed

keeps reassuring us that despite all that, something good will come of it, perhaps in the lives of those who are looking to us for responsible leadership.

We can testify that the spirit of Jesus shown to us

and embedded within and among us

can and will be caught if we persevere enough through the life changes

that inevitably come to us.

We have been given our birthright.

Let’s use it!

“LIGHT ON AUSTRALIA DAY”

            S E R M O N CNR1071                               3pp

Epiphany 3a       Mosman 26 Jan 2014, 9.30am

Isaiah 9:1-4; Ps 27:1,4-9; Matt 4:12-23; 1 Cor 1:10-18

Matt 4:16f

1          THE GLARE OF DARKNESS

1.1       Extreme weather

The summer sun has been beating down upon us.

Even with its glaring brightness

there is that sense of darkness upon the face of God’s earth.

The ferocity of bushfires here and in California,

cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, and storms,

both natural and man-made disasters bring 21^st darkness for many.

Climate change, or rather climate extremism, has come upon us.

Human involvement has been denied

mainly, I suspect, to escape responsibility for what we do or not do.

Extremes of weather intensify extremes of behaviour expressed socially, politically and religiously.

1.2       Walking and sitting in darkness (Isa 9:2; Matt 4:16)

Before we can appreciate the light

we have to recognise our walking in darkness.

Isaiah writes in 9:2 of people “walking in darkness”.

By the time we come to Matthew 4:16,

they are described as “people who sat in darkness”

Have we arrived at that state where instead of groping through the gloom

we now sit in a form of collective depression

believing that nothing can be done?

2          REPENT!

2.1       The Kingdom of God is at hand (Matt 4:17)

Whether the people walk or sit in darkness they have seen a great light.

The Gospel reminds us again today, as if we need reminding,

that the light coming upon us in this season of Epiphany is Jesus.

John the Baptist has been arrested by Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee,

and Jesus has deliberately moved from Nazareth to Capernaum

further into this territory.

Again he continues the message begun by JB.

“Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mt 4:17)

2.2       Not for turning?

“Repent” is a dirty word in our 21^st century.

Nobody really likes it.

It really means stop what you are doing because you are going the wrong way and turn about and go a different way.

It has been easy for us to feel irritated when we are driving and our navigator tells us we are heading in the wrong direction.

It means a change in thinking, in feeling, and in doing.

Many admired Margaret Thatcher when she described herself

as “This lady’s not for turning.”

Towards the end she was removed from high office by her colleagues because of her rigidity.

The Iron Lady finished by losing her mind.

3          THE CHURCH COMMUNITY (1 Cor 1:10-18)

3.1       Repenting from exclusivity

Paul effectively calls the church in Corinth to repent.

They had to turn about and change their behaviour towards one another.

The Corinthian church community was less than a decade old

but already it had formed into exclusive groups, based on different cultures and loyalties.

Even today churches all around the world

are known more by exclusive differences rather than by co-operating.

3.2       The light of the world (Matt 5:14)

While Jesus has come to be the light for us

in our present 21^st century darkness,

in our turning around towards him as the light,

we are called ourselves to be that light

as Matthew’s gospel reminds us later in chapter 5:14

 “You are the light of the world.”

4          TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

4.1       Climate extremism

This means that in turning around ourselves,

we are called to be part of the world’s present need to turn around.

We, as the world, have to take responsibility for the climate extremism

coming upon us all over the world.

Human greed is bringing this world undone.

We have altered the world’s climate for the sake of making more money.

4.2       Deliverance with attitude change

I cannot say in all honesty whether we are or are not too late for this world

to be delivered from climate extremism.

Already, movements across the world call for simplistic

and sometimes violent answers to what faces us.

We know from experience that this does not work.

Jesus promises deliverance wherever there is a change of attitude,

and attitude today has been the problem.

4.3       Being just a small candle

We have heard how Jesus calls his disciples to share his risky road with him and to deliver his same message.

We have to face the fact that Jesus knew that,

like the prophets, he would not be heard,

and it is no shame on us that we experience that same rejection.

Nevertheless, the light of Jesus can stay with us

even if we be just a small candle lighting up the darkness

and showing how to turn around.

This is our message for Australia Day 2014.

Let us be the light of Jesus coming into the world.