“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!

“WHOSE SPIRIT?”

            

Pentecost is coming up again so it’s time to rummage around for our red stuff to strut on the day so we can celebrate the coming of the Spirit giving birth to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We recall Jesus breaking the news to his first disciples that he will be leaving them forever but in his place will come the Spirit to be their constant companion.

This is not something to be “spooked” about despite its earlier translation as the “Holy Ghost” bringing up all those ghost stories we may have enjoyed telling one another as children. When you look at it, it has been quite common, then and now, to talk about “spirit”, particularly the spirit of some one close to us accompanying us in our memory long after they have gone.

Since last Pentecost we have farewelled several friends close to us. They no longer fill those familiar places. We have attended their funeral services and see their images now reduced to a picture on the front cover of the order of service celebrating their life. We know we shall never see them again but from time to time we experience something of their spirit welling up in our memories urging us to emulate a sample of their qualities as part of us. This is what Jesus meant when he said the spirit would take his place.

We need this spirit more now than ever before. We have cause for concern about the growing meanness we find in the world around us. Along with extreme weathers around the globe we find extreme attitudes and behaviour reflected in politics and religion, stifling moderate voices. Our last federal election saw the dreadful spectacle of the contenders for government vying for the mantle of meanness towards desperate asylum seekers. TV programs now cruelly mock other cultures within our midst.

Is this the sort of spirit we want nurtured in the society of the future? Surely, we yearn for a better way. Out of those whom we have farewelled recently the spirit of one stays with us. When we said goodbye to David Ellis we lost a friend who was without words. We lost a friend who could scarcely move his afflicted body yet we know the influence he had among us will stay among us. Through him, we have become more open and inclusive. We experienced his love when that was as much as he could give. We have become enriched because of him.

David could look us in the eye and engage us despite a world now hurrying by with individuals isolated with head down each immersed in an electronic security blanket, communicating not with eye contact but with thumbs on keys oblivious to surroundings even at the risk of their own safety.

Federal Budgets widen the all too wide gaps between people, forgetting the way that Jesus took healing others giving them the hand-up they needed to resume life. Despite the unfairness of his limitations and his total dependence upon the good will of others, David in his powerlessness bridged many gaps around him and helped make us the people we were called to be.

David’s spirit, I pray, will stay long with us. It will remind us of the purpose of the Spirit that Jesus left behind to present to us both with words and without words what this aching world is meant to become despite all the forces arraigned unfairly against us.

Let Jesus breathe on us again this Pentecost so that his spirit, reminded by the saints who have left us, becomes our spirit living and working for redemption around us.

“WHO KILLED JESUS?”

I enjoy a good “Whodunnit” where I try to get into the mind of the detective working from whatever clues are available to see if I can spot the killer before the others do. Not all cases are closed and that is the challenge. Are we sure, for instance, that we know who killed Jesus?

Bringing suspects before the courts hasn’t been fruitful. The common response, even in the ICAC, is an almost automatic loss of memory with the words tumbling out, “I cannot recall.” Fortunately, in this case, we have at least four reliable witnesses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who have faithfully recorded irrefutable evidence that the murder took place.

The soldiers who hammered those spikes into healing hands claim they were only acting under the Governor’s orders. This Governor has been exposed in our traditional creeds when Jesus was described as having “suffered under Pontius Pilate”. Pilate pleads that the baying crowd would have had him reported to Rome so he acted “under duress”. The people point their fingers at Caiaphas and the other religious leaders – “They made us do it.” Caiaphas is on record for excusing himself with those unforgettable words, “It is expedient that one man should die for the people”.

Fingers, disclaiming responsibility, are pointing everywhere. Lawyers thrive today because taking responsibility for what goes wrong is simply “not done”. Victims cruelly suffer and suffer even more when no one can be held accountable. Obeyed most scrupulously is the Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not be found out”.

Likewise, the killing of Jesus is commemorated as something inexplicable that happened so long ago but we are rightly disturbed when we sense ourselves more involved than we intended to be. Somehow, all these people there at the time remind us too much of what we tend to say and do. Consequences happen and we find that we “have done those things we ought not to have done and left undone those things we ought to have done”.

Looking around at the wrongs that are happening around us and the good that is left undone, we can only look within to find that we have fallen short in rectifying the situation. Lent up to Good Friday reminds us only too well that suspicion for the killing of Jesus does not simply rest on those there at the time, but that we are implicated as complicit after the event. Human behaviour, then and now, have continued to contribute to the steps that led Jesus to the loneliest of hills outside Jerusalem’s wall.

Yes, in this climactic twist, this “Whodunnit” has nailed the killers – you, me, and the whole damned world. The one to be killed, Jesus, looks at us all knowingly, and still goes on his tragic way. His murder becomes his self-sacrifice because he knows.

Easter occurs for us so that we have that new opportunity to live as if Jesus has come back to us again to put behind us that behaviour which craves victims for our ego, and to live that life, expressed in Jesus, that God wants for his created world.