Friday, October 25, 2013

Eternal Life ...

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 25 [30] Year C

A long time ago, my mother and father bought a very nice and new Yamaha piano.  My dad played the piano and my mum played the mandolin and they did enjoy making music together.  But they always said that the piano was John’s piano – meaning that when they were dead and gone it was to be my inheritance.

Meantime, I had an old piano.  It was over 100 years old and it was rather tinny.  A piano mechanic could probably do $1,000 or more worth of work to get it up to scratch but it would still be a bit tinny.  But I held onto it in the sure knowledge that one day I would be able to replace it.

Well, that day came a couple of years ago when my Dad died, and now that lovely Yamaha piano is in pride of place in my lounge room – but I had to wait for my dad to die in order to get my inheritance.


Our Gospel reading today draws our attention to the idea of Eternal Life as an inheritance – and I want to explore this with you today; and I want to begin with a question (this one is a rhetorical question) – in what way is Eternal Life an inheritance?

It seems to me that there are both implicit and explicit texts in the Bible that give us the idea that this Eternal Life that we so often talk about is something we “inherit” when WE die – when we “go to heaven.”  This is a very common idea, and most of us don’t question it as an idea.  If we obey the law in the here and now (until we die) and if we are good to other people (until we die) then we will “enter into our reward in Heaven” and this is our inheritance – Eternal Life.

What strikes me as a little bit strange about this very common idea that we and generations of Christians have felt was completely proper is that in the proper ordering of things, an inheritance is something I should be able to enjoy during my lifetime.  Someone else – not me – has to die in order for me to obtain this inheritance.

Now that might seem a novel idea, but it is not really too far from the Gospel as we know it, for it seems to me that we can confidently say that because of the death – and resurrection – of Jesus, all who have been admitted as children of God, all who are followers of the Way he has shown us, all who have called on him as Lord, are able to enter into their inheritance in the here and now.

Eternal Life is not some “pie in the sky bye and bye when you die.”

Eternal Life is a way of living right here and now.

The next question then is “What does this Eternal Life of the here and now look like?”

There are probably many things I could say, but let’s just glean a few ideas from the Bible Readings that were set for us today.

1.         Eternal Life is a Way of Looking at the  World
One of the things that strikes me from the passage from Joel is the number of ways he is encouraging us to see the goodness of God in the world around them – the provision of rains and productive seasons in particular.

The Psalmist picks up some of this idea as well – not an uncommon theme in the Psalms.  There seems to be no end to the evidence of God’s goodness in the world around us.  The beauty of the landscape.  The wonder of amazing creatures.  All these are there to be seen by all – and those of us who have inherited this Eternal Life should have eyes that see all these wonders of God around us.

2.         Eternal Life is a Life Empowered by the  Holy Spirit

The prophet Joel points us to this – words we invariably read on the day of Pentecost.  “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”

We who live in Christ, do so in the empowering of the Holy Spirit – which is both wonderful and a mystery.

There is a wonderful on-line news agency called The Huffington Post and I saw a story there this week that illustrates how this Eternal Life, empowered by the Spirit, works.

A lady was in a supermarket had her wallet pinched.  Something led her to believe she knew who had done it, and as she thought about challenging him about it a flash of inspiration came into her mind.  "As I saw him, a scripture came to me from Luke, which basically says 'If someone should take your cloak, you should give them your shirt as well,''

The passage inspired her next actions, as she approached the man and calmly said, "I think you have something of mine. I'm gonna give you a choice. You can either give me my wallet and I'll forgive you right now, and I'll even take you to the front and pay for your groceries, or I will call the police.”

He gave her back her wallet, and began crying.  He said he was so embarrassed, but she simply said, I have done a lot of stupid things that made me embarrassed.  She took him to the front of the store and paid for his shopping.  She rarely had cash in her wallet but his total came to $27.50 and she had just $28 cash on her – which affirmed in her mind that she had been prompted by God to act in this truly Gospel way.  That is what Eternal life is like.

3.         Eternal Life is Live in Intimate Relationship with God

The Psalm we read begins with some wonderful ideas about living closely to God.  It begins praising God, then speaks of coming close to God to confess our failings, and then about dwelling in the courts of God.

Then we have that lovely periscope that opens our Gospel selection today of Jesus blessing the children and saying: “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will never enter it.”

This reference to children is most often understood as having a completely trusting relationship with God and I am sure this is a fundamental part of what Eternal Life is all about.

4.         Eternal Life is a Life Devoted to Service

Finally, it seems clear to me that when Jesus ever talks about Eternal Life not far from that place is some discussion of being committed to the service of others.  In this passage in Luke Jesus makes no bones about the need for the rich man to use his resources for the welfare of others, and it is this that becomes a sticking point for him.

What follows is really a reflection on how easy it is for followers of Jesus to let the many things of their lives get in the way of truly following him.  And truly following Jesus means to be devoted to helping others.

The Letter to Timothy echoes similar sentiments – that in all the many and various projects embarked upon in God’s name and for the service of others he would always know and could count on the provision of God to deliver him.  This is something of what Eternal Life is like.

And it is a life that we can all enter into in the here and now – the Inheritance has already been given to us.  Probate has been declared.  The challenge for us is to live every day in the light  and power of that inheritance.

Let us pray.

Our dear and loving God, you have blessed us in so many ways, and yet time and again we feel embarrassed by our failure to grasp this Eternal Life you offer us every day.

May your Spirit so dwell in us that we are truly able to enter into this life in you like little children and show those around us that Eternal Life is for the here and now.


Amen

How then shall we pray?

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 24 [29] Year C

It seems to me that we have always had a pretty high view of prayer – in the life of the church in general and in the life of the individual follower of the Way of Jesus.

It also seems to me that while the Bible says a lot about prayer, reassuring us often of God’s desire that we have what we pray for, in the practice of prayer may people seem left disappointed.  I know that we often use platitudes to ease our disappointment – but people still feel let down.

For example, very early on in my first ministry placement I heard a story about a wonderful member of the church who had been a medical doctor, a surgeon specialising in a particular form of brain tumours.  At some hideously young age – perhaps his early 40s – he was diagnosed as having one of the tumours he was such a specialist about.

The people in my church said they prayed fervently, perhaps annoyingly like the widow in the Gospel story, and all to no avail because this wonderful young man, who may have saved many lives, died despite their most fervent prayers. 

From that time on, these people really struggled when someone got ill and they were asked to pray.  They have adopted the worldview expressed by Nick Cave – whose sister went to that church interestingly enough – “I don’t believe in an Interventionist God.”

When I hear people talking about “prayer warriors” I think they are referring to people who spend lots of time in intercessory prayer – they might not but that is what I think.  Maybe that is because I confess that I struggle a lot with intercessory prayer – I have no problem praising and acknowledging the wonder of God in the world and in my life; nor do I have any problem with commending individuals and even nations into God’s loving care; but asking God to heal someone in particular, or to provide funds that seem necessary for some project or another, or to help the starving in Africa, or for a parking space when I need one – such prayers seem to be entering into the realm of God’s unfathomable grace.

So, let me do something a bit unusual, and ask you what you think prayer is about.  If you are brave enough to speak up, please speak loudly for me – sometimes in a setting like this my hearing aids let me down and I have to ask people to say it again.

Let me rephrase the question – how do people pray?  This means in your experience and perhaps what you know of other people and prayer.

I’ve a little list of my own here – let’s see how many we get between us.
Intercession
Praise & Adoration
Meditation – Silence
Meditation – Mantra – Maranatha/Jesus Prayer
Singing – Psalms & TaizĂ© chants
Reading written prayers/devotions
Lectio Divina
The Examen
Journalling
Walking – Labyrinth
Being in Nature
When Creating – art, crafts, writing
Praying with Icons
Praying alone and Praying together
Written Offices of Common Prayer

There are probably even more ways than I have listed and we have discovered together.  The thing that holds all these things together in the category of prayer is that they are about a sort of inner dialogue – between us and God.

Now that is the bit that interests me when I talk about prayer – prayer, however we do it, is essentially about expressing, cultivating, nurturing our life in God – because this is where we encounter God most vividly.  And this is the fundamental task of our discipleship.

I have to say that it has really only been in recent years, as I have had my understanding of prayer broadened to embrace all these things, that I feel like my prayer life actually means anything – because, as I said before, I didn’t cotton on to intercessory prayer very well.

It therefore seems to me, at this stage in my work with you, that the readings we have had today, raising as they do the issue of prayer, are very timely for us.  As we embark on a journey into the somewhat unknown, as we enter into a period of discernment of the mind of God for our community, sharpening up on our prayer life can only be commended – highly commended.

I want to encourage you to have a little bit of a spiritual audit – privately – and give some thought to the question “What would be a good and relatively easy thing for me to do just now to add a little zest to my prayer life?”

Hold that thought for a moment …

The next question to consider is “What might help you stick at it, to gradually add this to your life with God as a place for growth and renewal?”

Some people find that having a safe place among friends to talk about these things really helps.  I would be happy spending time with such a group or groups for a few weeks facilitating this discussion so that we can give our prayer life a spiritual “vitamin boost” so to speak.  Now is the time – and I want to encourage you all to consider what would be the best help for you; and if you need to do that in the context of others, in a group, in community, I am willing to facilitate that.

I am also willing to facilitate an exploration of some of these other ways of praying that might be unfamiliar to you – forms of prayer that have nurtured the spiritual life of millions of saints before us.

Let us pray.

Loving God, you are the truth far beyond all knowledge, the word excelling all human ideas and wisdom, the joy higher than all delight and happiness, the glory brighter than the light of a billion stars. Yet you are nearer to us than our thoughts, and dearer than our deepest love. We trust you, we worship you and we adore you! In wonder and love we lift up our hearts in praise to you.  Amen. 

Setting Out to Who Knows Where

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 23 [28] Year C

Last Sunday some relatives came to visit after church and they told us they were going on a trip to Israel – leaving about now.

They had a lot of fun telling us the places they were going to.  One of them had looked up lots of the places in the Internet – so they he would be aware of what to expect.

The Travel Agent organising the tour had convened several social gatherings of the group who were all from Perth, giving them all a chance to meet each other before they embark on their great adventure.  In fact the Travel Agent and his wife were so impressed by the group that they have decided to become part of the tour group.

This morning I feel a little like that Travel Agent.

Here I am at the start of a journey for us all.  We spent a few weeks back getting to know each other and now we are ready to go.  But unlike the Travel Agent taking my relatives to Israel, I can’t tell you what the destination will be.  We might have a bit of an idea where we would like to end up, but there are so many variables that no-one can be sure at all about when we will arrive and what we will look like if and when we arrive.

I have been doing a bit of reading lately about the significance of journeys in the story of God’s people – of course Abraham set out for an unknown destination in response to the call of God, and I am sure you are aware of other journeys.  What has struck me most as I have read along – the book is called the “Faith of Leap”; a nice little twist on our usual turn of phrase, a Leap of Faith – is the value of courage for all who set out on a journey with the Faith of Leap.

I wonder how you all have been feeling since Rob first announced he was leaving, and then left, and then we started this period of interim, and the Bishop came and perhaps told a few home truths about the precarious situation the parish was in. 

That is something we will spend some time talking about over the next few weeks as we consider how we will approach our unexpected and perhaps new future.

There are two thoughts from the non-Gospel readings I would like to just draw our attention to today.


The reading we had from Jeremiah is about probably the worst moment in Israel’s history – their country had been defeated in battle and the victors, wanting to further humiliate them by removing them from HOME and from their GOD took them into EXILE in Babylon.  I don’t know whether you realise what this would have meant to them.

In those days, the general world view about gods was that each country had its own God and that their God looked after them in their own country – so Molek was the God of the Ammonites, and the Ashera and Baals were the Gods, male and female, of the Canaanites; and YHWH was the God of the Israelites.

It was almost standard operating procedure after a war for the winner to take the vanquished back to their own country – not just because they might have needed slaves or the like, but because so long as they were left in their own country they could maybe get their god to do something.

So being taking into exile was the bleakest thing that could ever happen – away from family, away from homeland and away from God.  No wonder the Israelites said “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

Given all of this, I wonder how the people would have felt when Jeremiah said these words to them.  Let me remind you:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

I have a feeling that these words might not have been welcome in some quarters.  I am sure they would just have wanted to be back home – and this sounded like a complete capitulation.

But this least expected answer is what God said was part of the plan, the program for them as the People of God, and as people say these days they just had to get with the program.

Being a local suburban parish church in Australia in the 21st Century is a very tricky thing and I think that most of us have a kind of template in our head of what it looks like when things are good, and what it looks like when they are not.

In just my short association with you I have already got the sense that many of you think things should be different – more people, more secure financially, people enthusiastic about their faith, and so on – and we find ourselves now in a place where we will have time to consider these things and wonder and pray about what God wants for our future – what his program is for us.

As we embark on this journey, of course we will carry those templates around in our minds, while we are trying to plan our future, but I think the words of Jeremiah are a salutary reminder to us all to be ready to hear a plan that is completely at odds with what we would expect – if that is what God wants.

Secondly, you might have noticed the little graphic I used alongside the Timothy reading today with the words “Dying to Live”.  This is one of those fundamental gospel statements.  In fact without this there is no Gospel – but it can be really scary and in the right circumstances we will do everything we can think of to avoid it.  We can really only find life if we are prepared to give it up.

When Jesus says “I am the Way” this is what he means – the Way of death and resurrection – and we are all called into that same way if we really want to find life.  The way of finding that “abundant” life that Jesus talks about is through the death of ourselves – through putting aside the things we think life is about and discovering that God has a program that is far more exciting.

But as I said, very often we will do everything in our power to avoid doing this – it is real scary.

These are the two important things for us to remember as we begin together.  I will not be the fount of all wisdom, who has all the answers.  Like the travel agent in my story to begin with, I will just be a fellow traveller with you – and I don’t know what the destination is.  That will be something for us all to work out together over the weeks and months ahead of us.  Sometimes I might be like a coach encouraging you to do a scary thing, other times I will be like your mother feeding you with some warm nourishing food after a hard day’s work, and other times I might be like Jeremiah, telling you something you didn’t expect. 

This is the work that lies ahead of us.  I am up for the challenge.  I hope you are.

Let us pray.

Holy Friend, please release in us that spirit of adventure that your people have always needed as they followed in the way of your bidding. 

Help us to grow in our love and devotion to you so that as we seek out what your program is for us we will have the confidence to step out and follow.

Release the real joy of Christ in us, that with adoring gratitude we may link our small spirits with your majestic Spirit, and find that inflow of health which rejuvenates our whole being.

In Jesus we pray.  Amen. 

Unlikely Disciples

The Gospel story we have today in a sense marks a nice end-point for my time with you here are at Hamersley.

We have been considering events right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and I can’t help think that Luke tells us these stories in this sequence to help us get some idea of the things he thinks is important about following the Way of Jesus.

Last week we had a story about a most unlikely disciple – the Samaritan – and this week we have an even more extraordinary story of another most unlikely disciple – Mary.

A very long time ago when I preached about this I was accused by one person of being a heretic, so I hope I don’t offend any of your sensibilities or sensitivities today, and perhaps the intervening years have given me some capacity to speak a little more wisely about the issues raised by the story.

So let’s begin with the story!


Mary & Martha were both destined to be significant among the women who surrounded and followed Jesus, but they lived together in a home in a village – a certain village – that Jesus visited.  There is no mention here of a brother – Lazarus features in two stories that include Mary & Martha in John’s Gospel.

From the various stories we have with both Mary and Martha in them, it seems clear that Martha is the older, and so would be ‘in charge’ of the household.  Mary as the younger clearly has a subservient role.

Many preachers have tried to characterise Martha as one kind of person and Mary as another – and sometimes they tend to be unkind to Martha in particular.

I want to avoid this.

I think Martha is simply doing what she has to do as the hostess, but I feel too far away from the social customs of the day to fully understand the significance of Martha’s question to Jesus asking that he make Mary do some of the work.

I also feel that it is too easy for us to insert our modern ideas into the meaning of Jesus reply for us to fully understand it without being what I think is often too harsh on Martha.

Two things are significant.

Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, and when Martha seeks to have her removed from that place to undertake domestic duties, Jesus affirms her in that place by saying it will not be taken away from her.

What is significant about this?

While I might not understand all the social conventions of Jesus day, I am able to understand that there is something very significant about the words in the story that say “Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.” 

These words describe exactly what a disciple would do – St Paul says he “sat at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3) and therefore was one of his disciples.  Luke knows this and so when he tells us this he is quite unambiguously saying that Mary was a disciple.

But what does a disciple do?

Last week’s story and this week’s story sit together for a very important reason for Luke.  For him “hearing and doing the word” is the ultimate, the most important thing.  Someone once observed that this is the decisive activity when building on a solid foundation, in maturing as a grain in good soil, in being a member of Jesus’ family and in being truly blessed – hearing and doing.

Mary, in listening to Jesus’ word, has at least begun where faithfulness begins – and it is because of this that she is commended by Jesus.

In this she is numbered among Jesus’ disciples – and as we found last week – a very unlikely disciple, because I know enough about social customs to be sure that it was very unusual for a woman to do this, let alone be allowed to do it.

In 1983, Barbra Streisand made a movie called “Yentl” in which she was a young girl who wanted to learn about the faith so much that she cross-dressed as a boy so she could go to school – and she got away with it for a long while.  But when she was found out it was a huge scandal and was very shameful.

So, just as we had an unlikely disciple in a Samaritan in the story that immediately precedes this, here we have an unlikely disciple in Mary.

But there is something else about these two – and it is something this differentiates them.

Let’s go back to the answer the smart lawyer gave to Jesus’ question that was an answer to his first question – “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The Lawyer brought together to powerful statements that Jesus ultimately said were a fulfilment of all the law:  “You shall love the Lord your God … and love your neighbour as yourself.”

These are like two sides of a coin.

And the two stories that follow immediately are also like two sides of a coin.

Here, in Luke’s understanding of Jesus’ teaching about the Way, we are told about both contemplation and action – listening and doing.  The two belong together.

The parable of the Good Samaritan highlights the importance of doing – of active service.  He is held up to us a model of loving one’s neighbour.

Then comes Mary, who is distinguished not for her action, but for her attentive listening to the word of Jesus.  Her place alongside the Samaritan affirms that discipleship has to do not only with loving our neighbour, but also with loving God; not only with active service but also with a silent and patient waiting upon Jesus.

So the Samaritan and Mary belong together – they are different and they are the same; they tell us about being disciples, and they show us how unlikely they were to be disciples.

Okay!   So What!!!!

This is always the hardest part of a sermon.

What does it mean for you and me?

The very least I can say is that we are being called to keep both these things in mind as we try to work out our salvation – ensuring we are spending time listening to God as well as getting involved in caring for our neighbours.

The rest I think involves you listening to any little thing that may have come alive for you in the things I have said today.

Such promptings are the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is not for me to know what that is for you – but you must pay attention to it – if you are to truly follow Jesus.

Let us pray.

Loving God, our dearest friend.  In Jesus you have shown us how intimate you want to be with us as well as how you want us to live in serving one another, in loving our neighbours.

Give to us both the grace and the courage to live for you every day and in every place, and may all we meet know that the Kingdom of God has been near them.

In Jesus we pray.  Amen. 

The Good Samaritan - an Oxymoron?

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 10 [15] Year C

Today’s Gospel reading – Luke 10: 25-37- is the most famous story Jesus told: the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Why even the term “Good Samaritan” has entered into general language sometimes without people knowing the story behind it.

A senior minister friend in Victoria has a collection of sermons about Jesus’ parables: and from 60 books on his shelves he has concluded that preachers could find about 20 to 30 themes in this story.

Our story begins with an expert in religious (’canon’) law asking: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Just in that one question he suggests that there could be the first four sermon themes –
·        ‘What is the good life?’
·        ‘Do we have to wait until after death to experience this quality of life?’
·        ‘Is it about what I do, or is it a gift?’
·        ‘Or has it got something to do with “choosing your parents – or mentors – well” (and the religion they handed on to you)?’

Anyway, this religious lawyer had just one opportunity to ask this layman, Jesus the carpenter, a question.

~~ Why not spend a moment talking to the person near you and tell each other what you’d ask Jesus if he walked into this church right now?

(Let’s all hear a few).

Someone once asked a rabbi ‘Why do you Jews always answer questions with another question? The rabbi’s response was: ‘Why not?’ – which is an interesting observation and if you look at many of the interactions Jesus has with people you might easily get the idea that he was a rather good Jewish rabbi, so in this story answers the lawyer’s question with another question, well two questions, actually.

Jesus’ questions are: ‘What is written in your law? How do you read it?’

The lawyer said:

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind: and your neighbour as yourself’

This was a combination of two texts – Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. If he’d added another clause from a bit further on in Leviticus 19:33-34 he could also have said: ‘And our neighbour includes aliens’, even refugees and asylum-seekers.

But the crunch comes right here: how to define ‘neighbour’? Perhaps this lawyer had heard Jesus say: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5:43-48): pretty radical, back there-and-then – and everywhere/with anyone.

Jews in Jesus’ day were divided over ‘Who is the neighbour we’re supposed to love?’ The strictest of them – the Pharisees – said ‘My neighbour is only someone who agrees with how I interpret the law’ (= ‘the Bible’: these people are still with us.  Strict Jews believed Gentiles – all non-Jews – were created by God to be ‘fuel for the fires of hell’.

Jesus answers this question with his famous story.

A man (presumably a Jew) walks from Jerusalem to Jericho. This road descends over 25 kilometres from 700 metres above to 400 metres below sea-level: Jericho is still supposed to be the lowest point on the earth’s surface.  The winding, steep road was sometimes referred to as ‘The Red and Bloody Way’: bandits lived in desert-caves near it and robbed people stupid enough to walk that road alone.

So this poor man got severely beaten up, and lay bruised and bloody on the side of the road.

Along came a priest: their job was to offer sacrifices and preserve the traditions of Israel. Then a Levite came – who was something like a modern-day cathedral chorister.

They both had a look at the body, and walked on.  As I have suggested to you in recent sermons if a person touched a dead body they would be ritually unclean and therefore unable to fulfil their religious obligations.  Someone jokingly suggested that this priest was a religious bureaucrat – who was most concerned about mucking up the Temple rosters! And that the Levite was on his way to deliver a lecture on brotherly love, and was running late! 

Anyway what Jesus said next took everyone’s breath away: a despised Samaritan was ‘moved with pity’ (a strong word in Greek – his compassionate feelings came from deep within him), bandaged the poor man’s wounds, soothed his injuries with oil and wine, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, cared for him over night rather than just dumping him there, ensured ongoing care by paying the inn-keeper to look after him – and offered to pay more later if needed…

And of course, Jesus followed up his story with a question.  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

To which the man could only reply “The one who had compassion on hum.”

So what’s the main point in this story about life, about good religion? 

Simply: Debating the meaning of words – like ‘neighbour’ – can be an evil distraction. 

The point is not about defining who fits into the concentric circles of ‘who’s in my group, and who’s on the edge, and who’s definitely outside it.’

The point is: if you really love God and others, you need to be a neighbour to whoever needs your help, your healing touch, your listening ear, your empathy, your encouragement, whatever.

Samaritans were despised because they were mixed-race, half-castes,  and they responded – as people from all despised groups do – in one of three ways.  
·        Some – a minority – got angry, and became ‘terrorists’.
·        Some lived with despair and depression and – the majority – with a deep inferiority complex.
·        A few became – like Nelson Mandela in our day – magnanimous towards those meting out condemnation/ injustice.

Or even became compassionate and helpful, like this Good Samaritan.

Let us pray:
God of love, the word and way of your true Son has revealed all that is required of us, and supplied all that is deficient in us.  Trusting in his saving grace, and relying on the guidance of your Holy Spirit, may we love our neighbours wherever we encounter suffering and neglect. For the healing of humanity and the glory of your name.  Through Christ Jesus our Redeemer.

Amen!

Sent Out

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 9 [14] Year C

At first glance this looks like a great story for me to address with you today, but the closer I looked the more I felt that there were a few really tricky bits – how would I deal with these?  

So I thought I might begin by thinking about  how we tell stories.

In our culture, and in the time of Jesus, too, when you are telling a story and you want it to sound even better, you exaggerate some of the story to make it more exciting, or make it sound more important and so on.  It doesn't change the meaning of the story – it just makes it much better to tell and to listen to.

In English we call this HYPERBOLE.  It is a way of exaggerating something to make it more obvious.  And the important thing we have to remember with this is that because it is so exaggerated we have to be a bit careful how we deal with the detail.

I think that in this story we have today Luke and maybe even Jesus is using this little technique as a way of making us sit up and take notice of what he is saying.

There is a Job Ahead of Us
The first part of the story is fairly straight forward.  Jesus is saying to his followers there’s a pretty big job ahead of us and it won’t be easy.  Not everyone will receive us positively.

The ‘harvest’ is a metaphor.
The ‘lambs among wolves’ is a metaphor.
The ‘purse, the bag, the sandals’ are metaphors.

They tell us there is work to do, it will be scary but we must trust God.

This leads into a discussion about the obligations of hospitality which maybe our Nubian friends understand much better than we westerners.

When you come to someone’s house the first and most important thing you must do is to offer your peace to all who live there – I think you will find that the Nubans will have a little ritual for this where they say Salem! As they cross the door lintel.

Jesus says that we will know if they receive our Peace or not.

If they do receive you, just enjoy what they have to offer.  Stay in that house.

This is a really important thing and much later on in the history of the church, when there were monasteries all around the place, pilgrims would trade on the hospitality of the monks but keep moving around till they found a good place.

The thing that surprises me every time I read this story is the very simple task they are given to do:

Cure the sick,
and say to them
‘the Kingdom of God has come near you’!

He didn’t say ‘make all these people repent – turning back to God’.

He didn’t say ‘get all those people back into synagogue.’

He said ‘look after their needs, and tell them God was here.’

Now Jesus has some very wise words for his followers about what to do when people reject them.

Refusing to accept their obligation of hospitality is what most people now consider was the great SIN of SODOM – and Jesus reminds his followers of this by telling them that those who refuse them will get it in the neck in the end and it will be far worse than what the residents of Sodom will get.

But for now, what he says they should do is simply move right along (shaking the dust off their feet, as he says) but not before saying to the people the same thing they were to say to those who accepted the – ‘the Kingdom of God has come near you!’

There was a time in my life when I learned that this was much the best thing to do, rather than argue with people.  No one wins when you argue.  People just get more deeply entrenched.  Someone else can come after me and get through to those people.

Rejoice in your Salvation, not in signs and wonders.
The second part of the story has some of that exaggeration in it, too.

Jesus’ followers came back with some amazing stories.  When they did what they were told and started curing the sick, it was, for them, ‘as if the demons that had caused the sicknesses had completely submitted to us,’ they said.

Jesus, as if to gather together the weight of everything they had done together, uses this great metaphor – ‘I saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.’  It was a way of saying to them that they had all done a wonderful job – they had achieved a mighty thing.

He then reinforces this sense of their power to overcome the evil in their world with metaphors of two great symbols of evil – snakes and scorpions. 

Jesus is not saying literally that we can step on snakes and survive their bite, of kick a scorpion and survive its sting.   But he is saying that when we take up this work he is calling us to do, we will feel like we could do that!

But what about You and Me?

In considering what this could all mean for you and me today, I need to say something about all those disciples who were sent out at the beginning of the story.  There were 70 of them, or maybe 72, depending on which old piece of papyrus you are looking at.

You could say there are so many because Jesus has many more followers than just the Apostles, but most of us know that NUMBERS are very important in Hebrew stories.

So, it seems that the number 70 could be an echo of the 70 Elders of Israel, but it is more likely that Luke or Jesus wants us to be thinking of all the nations in the world – because in those days they thought there were just 70 or 72 countries. 

Since we have the privilege of knowing the end of the story we can also think about the fact that in not too long a time Jesus will be sending them out to “Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.”

So, in this story we have Jesus’ followers being sent to all the countries in the world – the four corners of the world, as we might say – with a very simple instruction:

·         Accept what hospitality is offered you.
·         Look out for the needs of people.
·         Tell them that the Kingdom of God has come near them.

The thing that I love about this is that I don’t have to be ordained to do this – nor do you.  In fact this is the “ministry” you were called into on your baptism and confirmation.

And when you take up this job in this simple way, you will probably be amazed at how much you are able to help people to change their lives.

But Jesus has some good advice for us:
“Don’t go around looking for the power to do signs and wonders.  Just be thankful that your names are written down in heaven.”

I feel sad when I see some Christian people clamouring after the signs and wonders, and even worse clamouring for the ability to do them themselves.  Somehow, this story says, they have missed the point.

Our surest happiness will not be in how effective our work for Christ seems to be, but in our own unearned (and un-earnable) status as children of God.

Let us pray:
Divine Friend, your ever-living Son has given us free passage into a new life, where tears are turned to joy, and emptiness becomes an overflowing cup. Let no fear dismay us and no sin betray us.

Align us with your own Spirit, that the bedevilment of the world may shrink away before our love for you and our fellow human beings. Through the grace of Christ Jesus our Saviour.


Amen!

Would be Followers

Sundays after Pentecost, Proper 8 [13] Year C

Sometimes I am intrigued by the way in which we know that Jesus’ public ministry lasted 3 years.  In Luke 3:23 we read that he was about 30 years old when he began his ministry.  The calculations of the year in which he died are in inexact science, but most agree on a period of about three years – and now it is what most of us accept.

The reason I raise this is that in all of the Gospels you get no sense of the passage of time.  No reference to seasons, no repeated references to the same festival that would give a clear sense of a year passing and so on. 

But here at the end of the ninth chapter, just six chapters after the beginning of his public ministry, Luke gets right down to the focus of his Gospel.

“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go towards Jerusalem.”

Our reading today marks a change in the narrative.  There is a change in tempo as well as a change in direction. 

Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem in a very single-minded way and he now seems to be in a bit of a hurry – no time for niceties. 

Some of you may remember the Jesus Video that Campus Crusades for Christ put out years ago.  In it they tried to keep the script as close as possible to Luke’s Gospel as they could and I certainly got the impression from that as a viewer of the single-mindedness of Jesus once he had set his face towards Jerusalem.

WHAT HAPPENS?

I think this sets the scene for us to begin to understand what Jesus says and does – things that might otherwise be quite outrageous – even offensive.

So, first of all we have this very brief vignette of the Samaritan Village – people who weren’t ready to accept him.  Jesus’ disciples were a bit indignant on behalf of Jesus and they encouraged him to behave a bit like Elijah by calling down fire from heaven to consume them.

I wonder if the original readers were really surprised by Jesus’ response here – where he simply told them off and then left.  There wasn’t even a hint of a “Woe” or a curse.

With the benefit we have of 2000 years of thinking about Jesus, and our awareness of John’s Gospel in which he has Jesus talking about JUDGEMENT in terms of it being something that is in a sense self-evident and self-inflicted – we could say Jesus was simply leaving them to the consequences of their choice.  But I don’t think this is what Luke has in mind.

We could suggest that Jesus understood the nature of God’s grace in such a way, as we read so eloquently in much of Paul’s work, that he could leave them for now knowing that the story was not yet over and they might change their mind later.

Or we could say that Jesus would soon be telling us that Jesus would be sending his disciples out, first to Judea, then Samaria and then to the ends of the earth as we will read in Acts 1:8, written of course by Luke. 

This I think is more likely and so we see the disciples urged to move on, to not be distracted, because they would be able to come back to this place, with power, and a real story to tell – which might just lead to a different response.

The rest happens “as they were going along” and it is fantastic to watch this in the Jesus Video  -they have really captured the sense of this as a very active thing.  And there are three stories – each with somewhat unexpected responses from Jesus.

1.      “I will follow you wherever you go!”

Someone just comes up to Jesus and enthusiastically pledges loyalty to Jesus No matter what. 

How would you expect Jesus to respond?

I would expect him to welcome new recruits, but what does he say? (and these are my words)  “Hold on buddy!  Are you sure you know what you are committing yourself to?  Foxes might have holes to sleep in and birds have their nests, but I have nowhere to call my own.”

This is the reference point for the little picture, bottom right, by Stanley Spencer, of Jesus and the foxes.  You can actually see this in the WA Art Gallery at the moment – we own it.

In other words he could be saying: “Before you gush into protestations of loyalty to me, consider the consequences. On my path, there is no security, no comfort, no pretty ending to the story.”

2.      “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

The next person is picked out of the crowd by Jesus who asks (or should that be commands?) him to “follow me!”

Maybe this person picked up the cue from Jesus’ earlier encounter and thought, “Before I follow him, I need to bury my dad.”

And in response to this, Jesus says: “Let the dead bury the dead.  Instead get out there and proclaim the good news.”

I have read and heard various suggestions of what this is all about.  Bruce Prewer, a Uniting Church Minister, has the following comments which I think are worth thinking about:

The Bible has a radical way of speaking of death. Death is not merely the absence of life.  Death is an active, invading power.  It is inextricably bound up with the evil forces of darkness.

Death contaminates and ruins all life.  No human being can escape its hungry power.  Death infests all our human knowledge, all our social structures and institutions.  It gets its infected claws into our politics, philosophies, creeds, education and religious organisations.  Nothing escapes death; everything is in danger of its corruption.

Therefore if we put our faith in such things, we are doomed.  If we put our trust in political parties, democracy, a church denomination, Rotary, Lions, economic theories, social reform programmes, even our family, then we are trusting something that is already invaded by death.  None of these things can last; they cannot transcend death.  Trust them and we will be buried with them.

Only God is unaffected by death.  God’s kingdom, that new world about which Jesus spoke in parables, that is where the only death-proofed life is found.  Trust God and live.  What is more, anything we do out of love for God shall never be lost.

So, while Jesus’ words may have been almost insulting he was saying that we need to keep our eyes on the things that give us life.


3.      “I will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to my family.”

Now the next guy fell into the same trap.  He was weighing up the consequences and seemed to be saying   “Yeh, yeh,yeh!! But just wait a minute while I tell my folks what I am doing.”

Again, Jesus remonstrates with him with the lovely little saying that has been taken up into general parlance when we want to encourage someone not to look back – just go for it!  “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back (presumably to see if they have dug a straight row) is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

My goodness.  That is a hard saying.


So what can these three little scenarios tell us in the here and now? 

I think the message is pretty simple and it begins with “God must come first.”  This means that not even the most sacred obligations as understood by our culture or religion can be allowed to wedge themselves between a Christian and their Lord.  Everything else is subject to the power of death. Choose life. Choose real life.

Let me finish with a story that was told by Bruce Prewer:  A career woman, while negotiating a terminal disease with all of her robust Christian faith, had much time for reflection. 

Once when I was with her, she remarked sadly on the priorities of her family of origin.  Her family still lived on a farm close to a large country town.

They were power figures in their local church. However, their sacred priorities as she had assessed them were: 

1. Family.     
2. The local sport teams.    
3. Church.

With utmost kindness, they wanted her to go home and be nursed by them until she died. 
Although she loved them, she would not spend her last weeks in that environment where, as she saw it, God came third.  They were offended and angry.  But she was at peace with herself and her God in a Christian hospice.

I think she was saying: “Let the dead bury their dead.  Even in my dying, I must continue to proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Let us pray:
Most loving God, we who are drawn together by the Gospel that is open-armed pray that we may withstand any pressures that might push us apart and away from you and the life you offer.

Encourage us, especially when we are feeling edgy, to trust you more than our fears, and love each person more than we love our own opinions.

Stabilise us in the truth of saving grace, and help us to express a similar grace in all our dealings.

Through Christ Jesus our Master.  Amen!