From the Minister 2022
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A Christmas Message From the Minister
Do you recall the story of the rescue of a young kangaroo from an invisible old well?
Does the story have any message for us?
It seems that the well may have been there many decades, rendered invisible by vegetation growing over it. A man searching for a spot with a reliable phone signal, heard the sounds and struggles of the roo and rescuers were brought in. With the help of a ladder a rescuer went down into the dirty, smelly, dark well to pick up the roo, rescuing it from decaying bodies and bones from previous victims and bringing it to the surface where it was washed and warmed and fed and had life restored.
Can we see the well as a symbol of our world and society?
We have lived in the world of 2022 which can be characterised by the impact of climate change, a pandemic, war in Ukraine, floods and fires, grinding poverty, starvation….
It is hard to get ourselves out of this abysmal ‘well’. We are much like the joey who through no fault of its own found itself unable to get out of the ‘mess’ it was in?
What led to the rescue? The introduction of what was a radical, new, extraordinary event.
A rescuer came down from above. A rescuer who in his own way showed the joey the way out. A rescuer who entered the grot at the foot of the well and set foot among the fragments of the forebears of our roo and who exuded trust, offering a way out to the light. A rescuer who said that it was obvious that the roo wanted to get out and that led to it trusting the one who came.
Christmas is about welcoming our rescuer from beyond, a rescuer who came from above and set foot in the messiness of the world, a rescuer who went about bringing light where there was only darkness.
Christmas, a time for us to enjoy the light that has come to us, and think about our role in reflecting the light of Christ into our world.
Nola and I wish you a rich and blessed Christmas and we send you our good wishes for 2023.
Do you recall the story of the rescue of a young kangaroo from an invisible old well?
Does the story have any message for us?
It seems that the well may have been there many decades, rendered invisible by vegetation growing over it. A man searching for a spot with a reliable phone signal, heard the sounds and struggles of the roo and rescuers were brought in. With the help of a ladder a rescuer went down into the dirty, smelly, dark well to pick up the roo, rescuing it from decaying bodies and bones from previous victims and bringing it to the surface where it was washed and warmed and fed and had life restored.
Can we see the well as a symbol of our world and society?
We have lived in the world of 2022 which can be characterised by the impact of climate change, a pandemic, war in Ukraine, floods and fires, grinding poverty, starvation….
It is hard to get ourselves out of this abysmal ‘well’. We are much like the joey who through no fault of its own found itself unable to get out of the ‘mess’ it was in?
What led to the rescue? The introduction of what was a radical, new, extraordinary event.
A rescuer came down from above. A rescuer who in his own way showed the joey the way out. A rescuer who entered the grot at the foot of the well and set foot among the fragments of the forebears of our roo and who exuded trust, offering a way out to the light. A rescuer who said that it was obvious that the roo wanted to get out and that led to it trusting the one who came.
Christmas is about welcoming our rescuer from beyond, a rescuer who came from above and set foot in the messiness of the world, a rescuer who went about bringing light where there was only darkness.
Christmas, a time for us to enjoy the light that has come to us, and think about our role in reflecting the light of Christ into our world.
Nola and I wish you a rich and blessed Christmas and we send you our good wishes for 2023.
From the Minister (December 15)
The ABC TV program entitled ‘Pilgrimage: the road to the Scottish Isles’ follows a group of seven celebrities of differing faiths and beliefs who set out in search of St Columba, an Irish monk born 1,500 years ago.(ABCTV channel 22 final episode next Sunday)
Following 1600km of ancient paths and heritage walking trails were interior designer Laurence Lewellyn-Bowen, a non-conforming pagan; England cricketing legend, Monty Panesar, a Sikh; actor Louisa Clein, who is Jewish; TV personality Nick Hewer, an agnostic; social media influencer Scarlett Moffatt, a Christian; comedian, Shazia Mirza, a Muslim; and Paralympian, Will Bayley, a lapsed Christian. Together they lived as modern-day pilgrims, following the route of Columba from Ireland across to Iona in Scotland.
On Sunday we were shown the group in a remote cottage where Louisa prepared a
traditional Jewish meal. ‘I break a bit of the loaf for you, for you, for you….’ and one of the men spoke about what a significant experience it had been.
I imagine that most of us have known someone who ‘walked the Camino’ across the north of Spain, and have heard about the community experienced in doing that.
We don’t do much walking together! And we don’t unroll our sleeping bags on a cold concrete floor, so we aren’t aware who snores loudest! But we have our own ways of building our community. Thank you to those who share their birthday so we can celebrate! Thank you too to those who bring celebratory food! Our newsletter is a tool we can all use.
The editor is always looking for items, photos, snippets to share with the rest of us.
The editor is always looking for items, photos, snippets to share with the rest of us.
That duplication was deliberate!
As I write this I am thinking about Joseph and Mary. Their journey of perhaps 170 km took anything from four to seven days according to one reference. And Mary travelled on the back of a donkey! And Joseph walked! I wonder if they gave any thought to what accommodation awaited them? Some women of our outback have a long journey to give birth to their baby in what we might call a safe environment. Then I think of the stories told in the Frontier Services magazine.
We do have a lot to be thankful for – the birth of Christ, modern roads, modern medical facilities and our mothers.
Bob
From the Minister (December 8)
This Sunday (December 11) we are fulfilling the expressed desire that from time to time we should have input on a significant issue. It has been decided that we should initially tackle ‘homelessness’ and we are fortunate to be able to welcome Bobby Mearns founder and leader of Fishers of Men, a charity located in Logan.
The aim of having input on a ‘significant issue’ is that it may prompt us in terms of a response. Is there support that we are capable of providing and sustaining? Is this issue more important to us than other issues?
In order to give Bobby a good hearing and to allow time for us to ask questions, our worship will be shortened. I urge that we all give the issue some thought and come prepared to gain all we can from Bobby.
Sunday week December 18 is another special day.
Our worship will be a Carol service where we will be telling the Christmas story by readings from the Bible and singing plenty of traditional carols MCC (who worship at Merthyr at 6pm on Sundays) have their Christmas event that evening. We are all invited. It is a great night of entertainment. Preparations for this in the courtyard will mean that our Christmas afternoon tea will need to be in the Hall. We are relying on everyone to provide Christmas fare for our afternoon tea!
Sunday December 25 – Christmas Day we will worship with MRUC at 9.30.
Bob
The ABC TV program entitled ‘Pilgrimage: the road to the Scottish Isles’ follows a group of seven celebrities of differing faiths and beliefs who set out in search of St Columba, an Irish monk born 1,500 years ago.(ABCTV channel 22 final episode next Sunday)
Following 1600km of ancient paths and heritage walking trails were interior designer Laurence Lewellyn-Bowen, a non-conforming pagan; England cricketing legend, Monty Panesar, a Sikh; actor Louisa Clein, who is Jewish; TV personality Nick Hewer, an agnostic; social media influencer Scarlett Moffatt, a Christian; comedian, Shazia Mirza, a Muslim; and Paralympian, Will Bayley, a lapsed Christian. Together they lived as modern-day pilgrims, following the route of Columba from Ireland across to Iona in Scotland.
On Sunday we were shown the group in a remote cottage where Louisa prepared a
traditional Jewish meal. ‘I break a bit of the loaf for you, for you, for you….’ and one of the men spoke about what a significant experience it had been.
I imagine that most of us have known someone who ‘walked the Camino’ across the north of Spain, and have heard about the community experienced in doing that.
We don’t do much walking together! And we don’t unroll our sleeping bags on a cold concrete floor, so we aren’t aware who snores loudest! But we have our own ways of building our community. Thank you to those who share their birthday so we can celebrate! Thank you too to those who bring celebratory food! Our newsletter is a tool we can all use.
The editor is always looking for items, photos, snippets to share with the rest of us.
The editor is always looking for items, photos, snippets to share with the rest of us.
That duplication was deliberate!
As I write this I am thinking about Joseph and Mary. Their journey of perhaps 170 km took anything from four to seven days according to one reference. And Mary travelled on the back of a donkey! And Joseph walked! I wonder if they gave any thought to what accommodation awaited them? Some women of our outback have a long journey to give birth to their baby in what we might call a safe environment. Then I think of the stories told in the Frontier Services magazine.
We do have a lot to be thankful for – the birth of Christ, modern roads, modern medical facilities and our mothers.
Bob
From the Minister (December 8)
This Sunday (December 11) we are fulfilling the expressed desire that from time to time we should have input on a significant issue. It has been decided that we should initially tackle ‘homelessness’ and we are fortunate to be able to welcome Bobby Mearns founder and leader of Fishers of Men, a charity located in Logan.
The aim of having input on a ‘significant issue’ is that it may prompt us in terms of a response. Is there support that we are capable of providing and sustaining? Is this issue more important to us than other issues?
In order to give Bobby a good hearing and to allow time for us to ask questions, our worship will be shortened. I urge that we all give the issue some thought and come prepared to gain all we can from Bobby.
Sunday week December 18 is another special day.
Our worship will be a Carol service where we will be telling the Christmas story by readings from the Bible and singing plenty of traditional carols MCC (who worship at Merthyr at 6pm on Sundays) have their Christmas event that evening. We are all invited. It is a great night of entertainment. Preparations for this in the courtyard will mean that our Christmas afternoon tea will need to be in the Hall. We are relying on everyone to provide Christmas fare for our afternoon tea!
Sunday December 25 – Christmas Day we will worship with MRUC at 9.30.
Bob
From the Minister (December 1)
John for today
John the Baptist – what a character! And he attracted crowds to the wilderness of Judea. ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ was his message to his gathered listeners. John was preparing the way for Jesus’ entrance into public ministry. ‘You must change your hearts, for God’s kingdom has arrived.’
This means that we must tear down those obstructions that stand between us and our God. Such things as deceit, hypocrisy, pride, self-sufficiency and the inordinate affection for the things of this world
They must be stripped from us just as plague infested garments are – because they come between us and the Christ of Christmas, between us and Christmas joy.
But John did not stop there. He continued ‘bear fruit that befits repentance, go and do something to show that your hearts are really changed.’ That part is the part that we often lose, that we often ignore. John said it and Jesus reiterated it, that the tree, or the life, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Jesus invites all to ‘come’ to him; May we hear and obey the command to ‘go’ with him – into all the world especially the dark places, channelling his life and power into the hearts and lives of those who are hungry and oppressed.
May your Christmas be rich and fulfilling and your discipleship strengthened.
Bob
John for today
John the Baptist – what a character! And he attracted crowds to the wilderness of Judea. ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ was his message to his gathered listeners. John was preparing the way for Jesus’ entrance into public ministry. ‘You must change your hearts, for God’s kingdom has arrived.’
This means that we must tear down those obstructions that stand between us and our God. Such things as deceit, hypocrisy, pride, self-sufficiency and the inordinate affection for the things of this world
They must be stripped from us just as plague infested garments are – because they come between us and the Christ of Christmas, between us and Christmas joy.
But John did not stop there. He continued ‘bear fruit that befits repentance, go and do something to show that your hearts are really changed.’ That part is the part that we often lose, that we often ignore. John said it and Jesus reiterated it, that the tree, or the life, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Jesus invites all to ‘come’ to him; May we hear and obey the command to ‘go’ with him – into all the world especially the dark places, channelling his life and power into the hearts and lives of those who are hungry and oppressed.
May your Christmas be rich and fulfilling and your discipleship strengthened.
Bob
From the Minister (November 24)
Today is the first Sunday in Advent.
It marks the beginning of a new church year! Happy New Year to all Pilgrims. We tend to feel small and powerless in the face of calamity. Sometimes words meant to lift us feel empty, or like a taunt. Advent is a time where we are invited to slow down and reflect, to watch and wait, to learn and listen. I wonder then, what hope can you find around you? I recall a story from Easter this year. In a bombed-out shell of a church, Ukrainian Orthodox priests who remained in the warzone at great risk offered words of hope that Christ is risen. For grieving civilians and beaten-up soldiers alike, hope was found amongst the ashes as bread and wine were blessed, broken and shared among them. In the Ukraine as bread is broken amongst the rubble, hope springs forth. As we do likewise in our own gatherings of faith, hope springs forth. Can you see light breaking in in these places?
Rev. Arnie Wierenga, Presbytery of Gippsland
Today is the first Sunday in Advent.
It marks the beginning of a new church year! Happy New Year to all Pilgrims. We tend to feel small and powerless in the face of calamity. Sometimes words meant to lift us feel empty, or like a taunt. Advent is a time where we are invited to slow down and reflect, to watch and wait, to learn and listen. I wonder then, what hope can you find around you? I recall a story from Easter this year. In a bombed-out shell of a church, Ukrainian Orthodox priests who remained in the warzone at great risk offered words of hope that Christ is risen. For grieving civilians and beaten-up soldiers alike, hope was found amongst the ashes as bread and wine were blessed, broken and shared among them. In the Ukraine as bread is broken amongst the rubble, hope springs forth. As we do likewise in our own gatherings of faith, hope springs forth. Can you see light breaking in in these places?
Rev. Arnie Wierenga, Presbytery of Gippsland
From the Minister (November 17)
Reign of Christ Sunday (Christ the King Sunday)
In 1925, as the world was being gripped by nationalist, secularist, anti-Semitic, authoritarian, fascist dictators, Pope Pius XI instituted Christ the King Sunday to refocus us on why we are here – to be icons of God’s love in this world. Originally set as the last Sunday of October, Pope Paul VI moved it to the last Sunday before Advent and called it, The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
THE LEAST OF THESE
Imagine a sermon that begins Blessed are you poor. Blessed are those of you who are hungry. Blessed are those of you who are unemployed. Blessed are those going through marital separation. Blessed are those who are terminally ill.
The congregation does a double take. What is this? In the kingdom of the world, if you are unemployed, people treat you as if you have some sort of social disease. In the world’s kingdom, terminally ill people become an embarrassment to our health care system, people to be put away, out of sight. How can they be blessed?
The preacher responds, ‘I’m sorry. I should have been more clear. I am not talking about the way of the world’s kingdom. I am talking about God’s kingdom’.
‘In God’s kingdom, the poor are royalty, the sick are blessed. I was trying to get you to see something other than that to which you have become accustomed’.
…We can only act within a world we can see. Vision is the prerequisite for ethics.
Stanley Hauerwas and William H Willimon in Resident Aliens quoted in ‘Imaging the World’ Vol 3.
I read materials from many countries and as I do this I make all sorts of interesting discoveries about the world wide church. For example, the Church of Scotland observes the week commencing Nov 20 as ‘Prisoners week’ and offers some prayers for their congregations.
God of justice,
we pray for all those involved in our justice system –
for the police,
for those in the courts who decide the punishment,
for all prison staff who care for those sent to prison,
for the press who report on cases
and for the attitude of the public towards some of the most vulnerable in
our society. Help us all to see things through Your eyes
ministering each day to bring Your kingdom here on earth.
In Your name we pray, Amen
Bob
Reign of Christ Sunday (Christ the King Sunday)
In 1925, as the world was being gripped by nationalist, secularist, anti-Semitic, authoritarian, fascist dictators, Pope Pius XI instituted Christ the King Sunday to refocus us on why we are here – to be icons of God’s love in this world. Originally set as the last Sunday of October, Pope Paul VI moved it to the last Sunday before Advent and called it, The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
THE LEAST OF THESE
Imagine a sermon that begins Blessed are you poor. Blessed are those of you who are hungry. Blessed are those of you who are unemployed. Blessed are those going through marital separation. Blessed are those who are terminally ill.
The congregation does a double take. What is this? In the kingdom of the world, if you are unemployed, people treat you as if you have some sort of social disease. In the world’s kingdom, terminally ill people become an embarrassment to our health care system, people to be put away, out of sight. How can they be blessed?
The preacher responds, ‘I’m sorry. I should have been more clear. I am not talking about the way of the world’s kingdom. I am talking about God’s kingdom’.
‘In God’s kingdom, the poor are royalty, the sick are blessed. I was trying to get you to see something other than that to which you have become accustomed’.
…We can only act within a world we can see. Vision is the prerequisite for ethics.
Stanley Hauerwas and William H Willimon in Resident Aliens quoted in ‘Imaging the World’ Vol 3.
I read materials from many countries and as I do this I make all sorts of interesting discoveries about the world wide church. For example, the Church of Scotland observes the week commencing Nov 20 as ‘Prisoners week’ and offers some prayers for their congregations.
God of justice,
we pray for all those involved in our justice system –
for the police,
for those in the courts who decide the punishment,
for all prison staff who care for those sent to prison,
for the press who report on cases
and for the attitude of the public towards some of the most vulnerable in
our society. Help us all to see things through Your eyes
ministering each day to bring Your kingdom here on earth.
In Your name we pray, Amen
Bob
From the Minister (November 10)
Observing Remembrance Day
Prayers for you to use on Friday 11th
A Prayer for People of Courage
We offer you, O God, our prayers for those who seek justice and resist evil,
for those who need your presence and strength to stand firm;
for those who oppose the use of violence in any form in faithful response to the Prince of Peace,
for those who are prepared to be firm to protect those in danger, and
for those who walk with others who need strength.
We pray for your protection for a people invaded by the machinery of war,
for those who flee to safety with the most vulnerable, leaving behind husbands and wives, daughters and sons who choose to defend their country and their homes, and
for those who do not let their desire for peace hinder the requirements of justice, and
those who do not let their zeal for justice override the call for peace.
A Prayer for Our Enemies
O God of every human being, forgive us when we identify others too easily as enemies.
Teach us to seek the good of all, and not only our own.
When they are acting unjustly or causing harm, help us to constrain them without hatred or evil thoughts, but to seek their good even as we resist the damage that may be caused.
We pray that those to whom we are opposed may be turned from enemy to friend. May we always remember your willingness to forgive, and to bless, and to call the most unlikely of saints.
A prayer for peace
So spread abroad your Spirit, that all people and nations may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Bob
A Prayer for People of Courage
We offer you, O God, our prayers for those who seek justice and resist evil,
for those who need your presence and strength to stand firm;
for those who oppose the use of violence in any form in faithful response to the Prince of Peace,
for those who are prepared to be firm to protect those in danger, and
for those who walk with others who need strength.
We pray for your protection for a people invaded by the machinery of war,
for those who flee to safety with the most vulnerable, leaving behind husbands and wives, daughters and sons who choose to defend their country and their homes, and
for those who do not let their desire for peace hinder the requirements of justice, and
those who do not let their zeal for justice override the call for peace.
A Prayer for Our Enemies
O God of every human being, forgive us when we identify others too easily as enemies.
Teach us to seek the good of all, and not only our own.
When they are acting unjustly or causing harm, help us to constrain them without hatred or evil thoughts, but to seek their good even as we resist the damage that may be caused.
We pray that those to whom we are opposed may be turned from enemy to friend. May we always remember your willingness to forgive, and to bless, and to call the most unlikely of saints.
A prayer for peace
So spread abroad your Spirit, that all people and nations may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Bob
From the Minister (November 4)
What is Halloween?
Mike Poteet, a Presbyterian Minister writing in Ministry Matters admits that he was a third-grade devil!
The Halloween when I was nine years old, I went trick-or-treating as the devil. I had no satanic interest; I simply thought it would be fun to wander around wearing inflatable horns on my head and brandishing a plastic pitchfork.
But I remember how some friends reacted. ‘Aren’t you a Christian?’ ‘Isn’t your dad a minister?’ I realised then that not everyone agrees about how or even whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. This is a question that has interested many, especially as the holiday’s popularity has increased exponentially.
Halloween as we know it emerged from several sources, and its name has a Christian etymology. In Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey explains that the early church ran out of days on which to commemorate its martyrs and saints. To solve this ‘crisis,’ one date became ‘a kind of omnibus occasion’ commemorating them all. Believers in different places kept this festival on various dates until, in 837, Pope Gregory IV fixed November 1 as All Saints’ Day. In medieval England, it was called Alholowmesse, ‘All Hallows’ Mass’. The night before was ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, ultimately shortened by the 18th century to ‘Halloween’.
Halloween has almost completely displaced the traditional St Martin’s Day in central Europe. This day, observed on November 10th and 11th, traditionally commemorates the 4th century Christian missionary Martin von Tours, as well as the Reformer Martin Luther. On this day, children would go from house to house with lanterns, singing Christian songs. They were given sweets and fruit.
Despite its name, modern Halloween has no real connection to Christianity. In fact, it holds no single, definitive meaning. Halloween, like beauty, is largely in the eye of the beholder. ‘If it is a fixture in our annual calendar,’ writes historian Nicholas Rogers, ‘it is also a holiday that has been reinvented many times and is changing still: That is part of the secret of its resilience and vibrancy.’
One aspect of Halloween that’s never changed is its preoccupation with mortality. As Halloween historian David Skal writes, ‘The grand marshal of the Halloween parade is, and always has been, Death.’
In Latin America, especially in Mexico, the holiday most like Halloween is Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which is frequently celebrated over several days. It faces death even more frankly. Helen Tafoya-Barraza, a clinical counsellor, writes on her website that Día de los Muertos teaches people, especially children, not to be afraid of death but ‘to enjoy and appreciate every moment’. She says the Day of the Dead is ‘a true celebration of life’.
Halloween’s depictions of death and evil— vampires, witches, ghosts, even devils – might serve as indirect reminders that while ‘the cosmic powers of this present darkness’ (Ephesians 6:12, NRSV) are real and we all will one day return to dust (Genesis 3:19), we have nothing to fear from sin, evil or death because God, in raising Jesus Christ from the grave, has triumphed over them all?
Bob
What is Halloween?
Mike Poteet, a Presbyterian Minister writing in Ministry Matters admits that he was a third-grade devil!
The Halloween when I was nine years old, I went trick-or-treating as the devil. I had no satanic interest; I simply thought it would be fun to wander around wearing inflatable horns on my head and brandishing a plastic pitchfork.
But I remember how some friends reacted. ‘Aren’t you a Christian?’ ‘Isn’t your dad a minister?’ I realised then that not everyone agrees about how or even whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. This is a question that has interested many, especially as the holiday’s popularity has increased exponentially.
Halloween as we know it emerged from several sources, and its name has a Christian etymology. In Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey explains that the early church ran out of days on which to commemorate its martyrs and saints. To solve this ‘crisis,’ one date became ‘a kind of omnibus occasion’ commemorating them all. Believers in different places kept this festival on various dates until, in 837, Pope Gregory IV fixed November 1 as All Saints’ Day. In medieval England, it was called Alholowmesse, ‘All Hallows’ Mass’. The night before was ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, ultimately shortened by the 18th century to ‘Halloween’.
Halloween has almost completely displaced the traditional St Martin’s Day in central Europe. This day, observed on November 10th and 11th, traditionally commemorates the 4th century Christian missionary Martin von Tours, as well as the Reformer Martin Luther. On this day, children would go from house to house with lanterns, singing Christian songs. They were given sweets and fruit.
Despite its name, modern Halloween has no real connection to Christianity. In fact, it holds no single, definitive meaning. Halloween, like beauty, is largely in the eye of the beholder. ‘If it is a fixture in our annual calendar,’ writes historian Nicholas Rogers, ‘it is also a holiday that has been reinvented many times and is changing still: That is part of the secret of its resilience and vibrancy.’
One aspect of Halloween that’s never changed is its preoccupation with mortality. As Halloween historian David Skal writes, ‘The grand marshal of the Halloween parade is, and always has been, Death.’
In Latin America, especially in Mexico, the holiday most like Halloween is Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which is frequently celebrated over several days. It faces death even more frankly. Helen Tafoya-Barraza, a clinical counsellor, writes on her website that Día de los Muertos teaches people, especially children, not to be afraid of death but ‘to enjoy and appreciate every moment’. She says the Day of the Dead is ‘a true celebration of life’.
Halloween’s depictions of death and evil— vampires, witches, ghosts, even devils – might serve as indirect reminders that while ‘the cosmic powers of this present darkness’ (Ephesians 6:12, NRSV) are real and we all will one day return to dust (Genesis 3:19), we have nothing to fear from sin, evil or death because God, in raising Jesus Christ from the grave, has triumphed over them all?
Bob
From the Minister (October 27)
A reflection on the psalm for this coming Sunday
Psalm 119: 137-144
You always do the right thing, LORD, and your judgments are spot on.
You have set out your instructions for us, marking the way of honesty and integrity.
When I see opponents ignoring your teachings, I get so angry I could explode.
Your promises have tested true over and over and I will cherish your every word as I serve you.
I might be a nothing, a no one, but I know how to stick to your ways.
Your commitment to what’s right never ends and your law is the essence of truth.
Tough times have come to torment me, but your teachings still put a smile on my face.
Your directions are the ultimate in justice; they show me the way to fullness of life.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Bob
A reflection on the psalm for this coming Sunday
Psalm 119: 137-144
You always do the right thing, LORD, and your judgments are spot on.
You have set out your instructions for us, marking the way of honesty and integrity.
When I see opponents ignoring your teachings, I get so angry I could explode.
Your promises have tested true over and over and I will cherish your every word as I serve you.
I might be a nothing, a no one, but I know how to stick to your ways.
Your commitment to what’s right never ends and your law is the essence of truth.
Tough times have come to torment me, but your teachings still put a smile on my face.
Your directions are the ultimate in justice; they show me the way to fullness of life.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Bob
From the Minister (October 20)
Some snippets to ponder:
We do not get to choose the time in which we live, but we do get to choose how we live in our time. One of the hallmarks of the first disciples who followed Jesus Christ was that they trusted in the power of the resurrection. The experience of this changed them. Their whole life was a spiritual life. Evangelism, the ability to talk to others about Jesus, was not a program or spiritual gift. It was what you did because Jesus had changed your life and you knew he could change others’ lives as well. Think of the growing strength of the church in places in Africa where Christians are distinct because they are in the religious minority. Being distinct is the opportunity before us. Resurrection follows death. For The Church to find new life, some things must come to an end: As we stride into our third year may you be blessed and be a blessing to those around you.
Bob
Some snippets to ponder:
We do not get to choose the time in which we live, but we do get to choose how we live in our time. One of the hallmarks of the first disciples who followed Jesus Christ was that they trusted in the power of the resurrection. The experience of this changed them. Their whole life was a spiritual life. Evangelism, the ability to talk to others about Jesus, was not a program or spiritual gift. It was what you did because Jesus had changed your life and you knew he could change others’ lives as well. Think of the growing strength of the church in places in Africa where Christians are distinct because they are in the religious minority. Being distinct is the opportunity before us. Resurrection follows death. For The Church to find new life, some things must come to an end: As we stride into our third year may you be blessed and be a blessing to those around you.
Bob
From the Minister (October 13)
Theological Reflections on the Role of Music in Worship
(Sorry it’s so long but in this week when we are thinking about our music and our organ—I thought some people would be interested—and I couldn’t find bits to leave out! Bob)
Adapted from a paper prepared by the Commission on Worship, Reformed Church in America
Music and song continue to play a vital role in the life of God’s people today. Contemporary culture and modern technology bring new possibilities and new challenges to the music ministry of the church. People’s lives are surrounded by music—television and radio, the background music of video games, the muzak of shopping malls, CDs, and synthesizers. Yet much of the time music functions as ‘background’ rather than as an opportunity for serious listening, much less participation. Outside the church there are few occasions or opportunities in our culture for people to sing together. Much of the popular music (including popular Christian music) composed today is for performance rather than for participation. The people of God sing; what they sing and how they sing are important issues.
1. Music is a gift of God and part of the created order.
From its inception, when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy (Job 38:7), to its consummation, when every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them will sing to the Lamb on the throne (Rev. 5:13), creation is musical.
All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.
2. Of all the musical instruments that may be employed in the praise of God, the human voice has priority. Other instruments are to be used primarily in the service of the singing of God’s people.
Reformed theologian Karl Barth points out that singing is not an option for the people of God; it is one of the essential ministries of the church:
The Christian church sings. It is not a choral society. Its singing is not a concert. But from inner, material necessity it sings. Singing is the highest form of human expression…What we can and must say quite confidently is that the church which does not sing is not the church...The praise of God which finds its concrete culmination in the singing of the community is one of the indispensable forms of the ministry of the church.
3. Singing is a ministry that belongs to all the people of God.
The congregation is always the primary choir. The role of professional or volunteer choirs and musicians is to aid the whole people of God in their worship.
While anthems or vocal and instrumental solos may be offered, they do not have to be. Congregational singing, however, is essential. It is possible to be actively engaged in worship and in prayer while listening to an anthem or solo, but a diet of worship which does not regularly include ample opportunity for all the members of the congregation to join in song will be impoverished worship, and the life of the church and the faith of its people will suffer.
4. Of all the art forms that may be employed in worship, singing is especially corporate.
Indeed, it is the art form most suited to expressing the church’s unity in the body of Christ. Different voices, different instruments, different parts are blended to offer a single, living, and unified work of beauty. John Calvin recognised the power of congregational singing and unison prayer in helping the church express and experience the unity of the body of Christ. he noted that the chief use of the tongue is in public prayers, which are offered in the assembly of the believers, by which it comes about that with one common voice, and as it were, with the same mouth, we all glorify God together, worshiping him with one spirit and the same faith. (Institutes of the Christian Religion).
5. The church's ministry of song is for the glory of God.
The principal direction of congregational singing is to the Lord (Ps. 96:1). Music is made first of all to the Lord and only secondarily to each other. Music should communicate and express a sense of awe and wonder in the presence of God; it should lead our thoughts toward God rather than toward ourselves. Music is always the servant of the Word. Calvin cautioned that we should be very careful that our ears be not more attentive to the melody than our minds to the spiritual meaning of the words…such songs as have been composed only for the sweetness and delight of the ear are unbecoming to the majesty of the church and cannot but displease God in the highest degree.
6. The church's ministry of song is for the edification of God's people.
Through congregational singing Christian faith is not only expressed; to a very real degree it is formed. Since people tend to remember the theology they sing more than the theology that is preached, a congregation’s repertoire of hymnody is often of critical importance in shaping the faith of its people.
Here again, it is the meaning of the text that is of primary importance. It is through the sense of the words that God’s people learn of the nature and character of God and of the Christian life. Noting that if one prays in a tongue, the ‘spirit prays’, but the ‘mind is unfruitful’, the Apostle Paul vows, I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. (1 Cor. 14:14-15, RSV).
Through congregational song God’s people learn their language about God; God’s people learn how to speak with God. Songs of worship shape faith. It is, therefore, very important that a congregation have a rich ‘vocabulary of praise’.
Simple, repetitive music such as praise choruses and Taize chants are very appropriate in worship and can be very effective in moving individuals to prayer and to praise. But it is also important for the congregation to know some of the great hymns of faith in order to have a sense that the Christian faith is both relevant and enduring, and to be enriched by the faith of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’. Hymns, both ancient and modern, which stretch minds, increase vocabulary, rehearse the biblical story, and teach of the nature and the mighty acts of God are essential for the congregation’s growth in faith.
7. The emotional power of music, rightly employed, is a vital and moving aid to worship.
Music is capable of evoking powerful emotions. Hearts are stirred and feet set tapping by a rousing Sousa march, while another melody may move people to tears. Calvin recognised the emotional power of music and for that reason included the singing (rather than the saying) of Psalms in the church in Geneva.
It is also important that the emotional power of music in worship be evocative rather than manipulative, honest rather than manufactured, and that the congregation’s singing allow for the full range of emotions in worship.
Bob
Theological Reflections on the Role of Music in Worship
(Sorry it’s so long but in this week when we are thinking about our music and our organ—I thought some people would be interested—and I couldn’t find bits to leave out! Bob)
Adapted from a paper prepared by the Commission on Worship, Reformed Church in America
Music and song continue to play a vital role in the life of God’s people today. Contemporary culture and modern technology bring new possibilities and new challenges to the music ministry of the church. People’s lives are surrounded by music—television and radio, the background music of video games, the muzak of shopping malls, CDs, and synthesizers. Yet much of the time music functions as ‘background’ rather than as an opportunity for serious listening, much less participation. Outside the church there are few occasions or opportunities in our culture for people to sing together. Much of the popular music (including popular Christian music) composed today is for performance rather than for participation. The people of God sing; what they sing and how they sing are important issues.
1. Music is a gift of God and part of the created order.
From its inception, when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy (Job 38:7), to its consummation, when every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them will sing to the Lamb on the throne (Rev. 5:13), creation is musical.
All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.
2. Of all the musical instruments that may be employed in the praise of God, the human voice has priority. Other instruments are to be used primarily in the service of the singing of God’s people.
Reformed theologian Karl Barth points out that singing is not an option for the people of God; it is one of the essential ministries of the church:
The Christian church sings. It is not a choral society. Its singing is not a concert. But from inner, material necessity it sings. Singing is the highest form of human expression…What we can and must say quite confidently is that the church which does not sing is not the church...The praise of God which finds its concrete culmination in the singing of the community is one of the indispensable forms of the ministry of the church.
3. Singing is a ministry that belongs to all the people of God.
The congregation is always the primary choir. The role of professional or volunteer choirs and musicians is to aid the whole people of God in their worship.
While anthems or vocal and instrumental solos may be offered, they do not have to be. Congregational singing, however, is essential. It is possible to be actively engaged in worship and in prayer while listening to an anthem or solo, but a diet of worship which does not regularly include ample opportunity for all the members of the congregation to join in song will be impoverished worship, and the life of the church and the faith of its people will suffer.
4. Of all the art forms that may be employed in worship, singing is especially corporate.
Indeed, it is the art form most suited to expressing the church’s unity in the body of Christ. Different voices, different instruments, different parts are blended to offer a single, living, and unified work of beauty. John Calvin recognised the power of congregational singing and unison prayer in helping the church express and experience the unity of the body of Christ. he noted that the chief use of the tongue is in public prayers, which are offered in the assembly of the believers, by which it comes about that with one common voice, and as it were, with the same mouth, we all glorify God together, worshiping him with one spirit and the same faith. (Institutes of the Christian Religion).
5. The church's ministry of song is for the glory of God.
The principal direction of congregational singing is to the Lord (Ps. 96:1). Music is made first of all to the Lord and only secondarily to each other. Music should communicate and express a sense of awe and wonder in the presence of God; it should lead our thoughts toward God rather than toward ourselves. Music is always the servant of the Word. Calvin cautioned that we should be very careful that our ears be not more attentive to the melody than our minds to the spiritual meaning of the words…such songs as have been composed only for the sweetness and delight of the ear are unbecoming to the majesty of the church and cannot but displease God in the highest degree.
6. The church's ministry of song is for the edification of God's people.
Through congregational singing Christian faith is not only expressed; to a very real degree it is formed. Since people tend to remember the theology they sing more than the theology that is preached, a congregation’s repertoire of hymnody is often of critical importance in shaping the faith of its people.
Here again, it is the meaning of the text that is of primary importance. It is through the sense of the words that God’s people learn of the nature and character of God and of the Christian life. Noting that if one prays in a tongue, the ‘spirit prays’, but the ‘mind is unfruitful’, the Apostle Paul vows, I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. (1 Cor. 14:14-15, RSV).
Through congregational song God’s people learn their language about God; God’s people learn how to speak with God. Songs of worship shape faith. It is, therefore, very important that a congregation have a rich ‘vocabulary of praise’.
Simple, repetitive music such as praise choruses and Taize chants are very appropriate in worship and can be very effective in moving individuals to prayer and to praise. But it is also important for the congregation to know some of the great hymns of faith in order to have a sense that the Christian faith is both relevant and enduring, and to be enriched by the faith of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’. Hymns, both ancient and modern, which stretch minds, increase vocabulary, rehearse the biblical story, and teach of the nature and the mighty acts of God are essential for the congregation’s growth in faith.
7. The emotional power of music, rightly employed, is a vital and moving aid to worship.
Music is capable of evoking powerful emotions. Hearts are stirred and feet set tapping by a rousing Sousa march, while another melody may move people to tears. Calvin recognised the emotional power of music and for that reason included the singing (rather than the saying) of Psalms in the church in Geneva.
It is also important that the emotional power of music in worship be evocative rather than manipulative, honest rather than manufactured, and that the congregation’s singing allow for the full range of emotions in worship.
Bob
From the Minister (October 6)
Last Sunday I mentioned the Greek word for stumbling skandalon. It hung around my brain for several days until we remembered! We visited Lubeck in northern Germany some years ago and were told about the small square brass plaques that were set into the footpaths. They were memorials in memory of Jews for whom that dwelling was the last freely chosen home.
Known as Stolpersteine, or stumbling stones, there are now more than 70,000 such memorial blocks laid in more than 1,200 cities and towns across Europe and Russia. Each commemorates a victim outside their last-known freely chosen residence.
While there are memorials commemorating numbers of victims, the Stolpersteine focus on individual tragedies. The inscription on each stone begins ‘Here lived’, followed by the victim’s name, date of birth, and fate: internment, suicide, exile or, in the vast majority of cases, deportation and murder. Because they are set into the footpath, to read the stone, you must bow before the victim.
Together, the Stolpersteine now constitute the largest decentralised monument in the world. The idea was first conceived by artist German Gunter Demnig in 1992 as part of an initiative commemorating victims of the Holocaust. He installed the first Berlin Stolperstein four years later.
He has now laid over 70,000 stones, personally overseeing the wording and installation of each one. The task keeps him on the road for 300 days a year.
Today, the Stolpersteine exist in 20 languages and 24 countries. In 2017, the Pestalozzi school in Buenos Aires became the first site outside Europe to host one, honouring hundreds of German Jewish children who found refuge there in exile.
Unlike some other memorials that focus on specific persecuted groups, the Stolpersteine honour all victims of the Nazi regime, including Jewish, Sinti, Roma, disabled, dissident, and Afro-German and ‘asocial’ citizens. The 70,000th Stolperstein was laid for Willy Zimmerer, a German man with learning disabilities murdered at Hadamar psychiatric hospital outside Frankfurt.
“A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten,” he often says, citing the Talmud.
Our context of course is the words of Jesus in Luke 17:1 and 2 in particular to avoid causing a ‘little one’ to stumble.
Bob
Last Sunday I mentioned the Greek word for stumbling skandalon. It hung around my brain for several days until we remembered! We visited Lubeck in northern Germany some years ago and were told about the small square brass plaques that were set into the footpaths. They were memorials in memory of Jews for whom that dwelling was the last freely chosen home.
Known as Stolpersteine, or stumbling stones, there are now more than 70,000 such memorial blocks laid in more than 1,200 cities and towns across Europe and Russia. Each commemorates a victim outside their last-known freely chosen residence.
While there are memorials commemorating numbers of victims, the Stolpersteine focus on individual tragedies. The inscription on each stone begins ‘Here lived’, followed by the victim’s name, date of birth, and fate: internment, suicide, exile or, in the vast majority of cases, deportation and murder. Because they are set into the footpath, to read the stone, you must bow before the victim.
Together, the Stolpersteine now constitute the largest decentralised monument in the world. The idea was first conceived by artist German Gunter Demnig in 1992 as part of an initiative commemorating victims of the Holocaust. He installed the first Berlin Stolperstein four years later.
He has now laid over 70,000 stones, personally overseeing the wording and installation of each one. The task keeps him on the road for 300 days a year.
Today, the Stolpersteine exist in 20 languages and 24 countries. In 2017, the Pestalozzi school in Buenos Aires became the first site outside Europe to host one, honouring hundreds of German Jewish children who found refuge there in exile.
Unlike some other memorials that focus on specific persecuted groups, the Stolpersteine honour all victims of the Nazi regime, including Jewish, Sinti, Roma, disabled, dissident, and Afro-German and ‘asocial’ citizens. The 70,000th Stolperstein was laid for Willy Zimmerer, a German man with learning disabilities murdered at Hadamar psychiatric hospital outside Frankfurt.
“A person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten,” he often says, citing the Talmud.
Our context of course is the words of Jesus in Luke 17:1 and 2 in particular to avoid causing a ‘little one’ to stumble.
Bob
From the Minister (September 29)
World Wide Web
I wonder what we associate with the name of this marvel of our time!
I confess that the image that comes to the front of my brain is that of a spider’s web.
A spider links together all the available twigs, leaves and branches to form a safe and secure spot from which it can gather nourishment. It is an amazing construction! From the small body emerges miles of silken thread hopefully so fine that passing prey are not able to see it. It is indeed a sticky amazing structure…and it communicates between its creator and arriving visitors.
Let’s now turn to the website. Just as we might look at a spider and hardly believe the web, so too thinking about the world wide web is beyond our tiny brains…the thought of this invisible thing with the potential to link together every human being on the planet is just as hard to get our minds around.
Humans are created for, amongst other things, communicating with each other. In our lifetimes that communication has been limited to- and by pigeons, letters carried by assorted means, telephones which slowly became world-wide, but now the world is linked at the press of a key. We are one keystroke apart from everyone!
Working from home? Your supervisor may well ‘supervise’ by checking that you are making enough keystrokes! How does our use of the internet rate when our Supervisor ‘supervises’ us?
God’s vision oversees all, cares for all.
Bob
World Wide Web
I wonder what we associate with the name of this marvel of our time!
I confess that the image that comes to the front of my brain is that of a spider’s web.
A spider links together all the available twigs, leaves and branches to form a safe and secure spot from which it can gather nourishment. It is an amazing construction! From the small body emerges miles of silken thread hopefully so fine that passing prey are not able to see it. It is indeed a sticky amazing structure…and it communicates between its creator and arriving visitors.
Let’s now turn to the website. Just as we might look at a spider and hardly believe the web, so too thinking about the world wide web is beyond our tiny brains…the thought of this invisible thing with the potential to link together every human being on the planet is just as hard to get our minds around.
Humans are created for, amongst other things, communicating with each other. In our lifetimes that communication has been limited to- and by pigeons, letters carried by assorted means, telephones which slowly became world-wide, but now the world is linked at the press of a key. We are one keystroke apart from everyone!
Working from home? Your supervisor may well ‘supervise’ by checking that you are making enough keystrokes! How does our use of the internet rate when our Supervisor ‘supervises’ us?
God’s vision oversees all, cares for all.
Bob
From the Minister (September 22)
Next Sunday, October 2, is World Communion Sunday.
In preparation, you are invited to pray for a country which is not your own. It may be in the news or may be one that you have visited or may be part of your ethnic heritage or may be one with a cuisine you find delicious or a writer or artist who inspires you. There is no right or wrong choice.
Read an online article on this country – its history, its products, its religious heritage, the challenges it faces right now, certainly including how it stands in this pandemic. [The FBI site is very detailed and informative]
Learn a word in one of its languages – maybe peace or gratitude or blessing. Google translate is a helpful resource and includes an audio pronunciation feature.
You might even find a recipe to make sometime this week.
Bob
Next Sunday, October 2, is World Communion Sunday.
In preparation, you are invited to pray for a country which is not your own. It may be in the news or may be one that you have visited or may be part of your ethnic heritage or may be one with a cuisine you find delicious or a writer or artist who inspires you. There is no right or wrong choice.
Read an online article on this country – its history, its products, its religious heritage, the challenges it faces right now, certainly including how it stands in this pandemic. [The FBI site is very detailed and informative]
Learn a word in one of its languages – maybe peace or gratitude or blessing. Google translate is a helpful resource and includes an audio pronunciation feature.
You might even find a recipe to make sometime this week.
Bob
From the Minister (September 15)
This coming Sunday marks the anniversary of the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961 in Zambia. He is probably best known as the second Secretary-General of the UN, a post he was elected to in 1953. On 31 March 1953, the Security Council voted to recommend Hammarskjöld to the General Assembly, with an abstention from Nationalist China. Shortly after midnight on 1 April 1953, Hammarskjöld was awakened by a telephone call from a journalist with the news, to which he replied: ‘This April Fool’s Day joke is in extremely bad taste: It’s nonsense!’
Immediately following the assumption of the Secretariat, Hammarskjöld, from Sweden, attempted to establish a good rapport with his staff. He made a point of visiting every UN department to shake hands with as many workers as possible, eating in the cafeteria as often as possible, and relinquishing the Secretary-General's private lift for general use. He spearheaded the building of a meditation room at the UN headquarters, where people can withdraw into themselves in silence, regardless of their faith, creed, or religion.
Hammarskjöld's only book, Markings was published in 1963. A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends the month before his death in 1961. This diary was found in his New York house, after his death. Markings was described by the late theologian Henry P. Van Dusen as the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peace and order.
Hammarskjöld wrote, for example:
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it – according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed – according to the measure of his purity of heart.
From generations of soldiers and government officials on my father’s side I inherited a belief that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your country – or humanity.
This service required a sacrifice of all personal interests, but likewise the courage to stand up unflinchingly for your convictions. From scholars and clergymen on my mother’s side, I inherited a belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men (sic) were equals as children of God, and
should be met and treated by us as our masters in God.
From Markings
Give me a pure heart that I may see Thee.
A humble heart that I may hear Thee,
A heart of love that I may serve Thee,
A heart of faith that I may abide in Thee.
The Uniting Church Calendar invites us to remember Dag Hammarskjöld on the anniversary of his death, September 18.
Bob
This coming Sunday marks the anniversary of the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961 in Zambia. He is probably best known as the second Secretary-General of the UN, a post he was elected to in 1953. On 31 March 1953, the Security Council voted to recommend Hammarskjöld to the General Assembly, with an abstention from Nationalist China. Shortly after midnight on 1 April 1953, Hammarskjöld was awakened by a telephone call from a journalist with the news, to which he replied: ‘This April Fool’s Day joke is in extremely bad taste: It’s nonsense!’
Immediately following the assumption of the Secretariat, Hammarskjöld, from Sweden, attempted to establish a good rapport with his staff. He made a point of visiting every UN department to shake hands with as many workers as possible, eating in the cafeteria as often as possible, and relinquishing the Secretary-General's private lift for general use. He spearheaded the building of a meditation room at the UN headquarters, where people can withdraw into themselves in silence, regardless of their faith, creed, or religion.
Hammarskjöld's only book, Markings was published in 1963. A collection of his diary reflections, the book starts in 1925, when he was 20 years old, and ends the month before his death in 1961. This diary was found in his New York house, after his death. Markings was described by the late theologian Henry P. Van Dusen as the noblest self-disclosure of spiritual struggle and triumph, perhaps the greatest testament of personal faith written ... in the heat of professional life and amidst the most exacting responsibilities for world peace and order.
Hammarskjöld wrote, for example:
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours. He who wills adventure will experience it – according to the measure of his courage. He who wills sacrifice will be sacrificed – according to the measure of his purity of heart.
From generations of soldiers and government officials on my father’s side I inherited a belief that no life was more satisfactory than one of selfless service to your country – or humanity.
This service required a sacrifice of all personal interests, but likewise the courage to stand up unflinchingly for your convictions. From scholars and clergymen on my mother’s side, I inherited a belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men (sic) were equals as children of God, and
should be met and treated by us as our masters in God.
From Markings
Give me a pure heart that I may see Thee.
A humble heart that I may hear Thee,
A heart of love that I may serve Thee,
A heart of faith that I may abide in Thee.
The Uniting Church Calendar invites us to remember Dag Hammarskjöld on the anniversary of his death, September 18.
Bob
From the Minister (September 9)
Looking at the words of Jesus in a different way, is a challenge but provides us with more insights. We need to put our minds into a different gear as we read his parables,
So, instead of thinking about the one lost sheep – how is it? Lonely? Is it safe? Can we also think of the rest of the flock. Can we imagine Baa Baa looking round for her good friend Woolly? Missing the friendly bleat?
Or from the perspective of the owner, what about my wool yield? There should be almost a bale full – and it would be full if…
The shepherd, whose job is to look after all of us and keep us safe is off looking for the lost one, leaving us on our own. We are all so vulnerable! If a wolf came in and took my lamb it is possible that I would be angry with Baa Baa for getting lost and taking our protecting shepherd away from his duties.
Then the coin that is lost…it has lost value being by itself…but so have the rest of the coins because that which together they could have achieved is now not possible.
Jesus’ stories about a sheep, a coin, a son, the labourer in the vineyard, the sower, the builder, are all stories about community - maybe only a tiny group, but equally sometimes larger. And the bones of the story lie not only with what could be called the central character but also with the family, with the other members of the group.
Discipleship is about community; caring for each member is to care for us all as a whole. Our prayers of intercession; our prayers for others – other countries, other churches, other people – are important expressions of our community.
Bob
Looking at the words of Jesus in a different way, is a challenge but provides us with more insights. We need to put our minds into a different gear as we read his parables,
So, instead of thinking about the one lost sheep – how is it? Lonely? Is it safe? Can we also think of the rest of the flock. Can we imagine Baa Baa looking round for her good friend Woolly? Missing the friendly bleat?
Or from the perspective of the owner, what about my wool yield? There should be almost a bale full – and it would be full if…
The shepherd, whose job is to look after all of us and keep us safe is off looking for the lost one, leaving us on our own. We are all so vulnerable! If a wolf came in and took my lamb it is possible that I would be angry with Baa Baa for getting lost and taking our protecting shepherd away from his duties.
Then the coin that is lost…it has lost value being by itself…but so have the rest of the coins because that which together they could have achieved is now not possible.
Jesus’ stories about a sheep, a coin, a son, the labourer in the vineyard, the sower, the builder, are all stories about community - maybe only a tiny group, but equally sometimes larger. And the bones of the story lie not only with what could be called the central character but also with the family, with the other members of the group.
Discipleship is about community; caring for each member is to care for us all as a whole. Our prayers of intercession; our prayers for others – other countries, other churches, other people – are important expressions of our community.
Bob
From the Minister (September 1)
Across the world there are churches that recognise the month of September as the ‘Season of Creation’.
For instance the church of Scotland’s weekly worship resources begin –
In this Season of Creation, our resources have been produced by EcoCongregation Scotland. We are called to be more open than ever to the creative leading of the Spirit in building our spiritual resilience as people of hope beyond hope, in which the hugely ambitious project of Net Zero is a response of faith, offered in dependence on grace.
Writing in With Love to the World, Rev Dr Paul Chalson minister of Canberra City UC who has a doctorate in ecotheology says of Psalm 104 –
It is impossible to read this extract without thinking of the devastating floods that recently ravaged NSW and SE Qld. Boundaries were passed and earth was covered. The psalm affirms God’s relationship with creation and the balance and order at the heart of creation. By contrast the chaos of nature has easily burst our boundaries and brought devastation, loss and hardship.
He goes on ‘the task of living in respectful care of our planet and to seek healing and peace with creation and living sustainably and gently are practical activities shared in by many people. For followers of Jesus they are also activities of Christian discipleship undertaken in the power and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. We must rediscover the sense of intimate relationship and understanding that the psalm acclaims, that we might cherish our planet and live at peace with all its creatures.’
Now read and enjoy the poetry of this beautiful (but very long) psalm.
Here are verses 5 to 13.
Psalm 104:5-13
5 You have set the earth firmly on its foundations, and it will never be moved.
6 You placed the ocean over it like a robe, and the water covered the mountains.
7 When you rebuked the waters, they fled; they rushed away when they heard your shout of command.
8 They flowed over the mountains and into the valleys, to the place you had made for them.
9 You set a boundary they can never pass, to keep them from covering the earth again.
10 You make springs flow in the valleys, and rivers run between the hills.
11 They provide water for the wild animals; there the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 In the trees near by, the birds make their nests and sing.
13 From the sky you send rain on the hills, and the earth is filled with your blessings.
How does the emphasis on God’s natural world as described in the psalm impact your thinking and your living?
God’s blessing be with you as you strive!
Bob
Across the world there are churches that recognise the month of September as the ‘Season of Creation’.
For instance the church of Scotland’s weekly worship resources begin –
In this Season of Creation, our resources have been produced by EcoCongregation Scotland. We are called to be more open than ever to the creative leading of the Spirit in building our spiritual resilience as people of hope beyond hope, in which the hugely ambitious project of Net Zero is a response of faith, offered in dependence on grace.
Writing in With Love to the World, Rev Dr Paul Chalson minister of Canberra City UC who has a doctorate in ecotheology says of Psalm 104 –
It is impossible to read this extract without thinking of the devastating floods that recently ravaged NSW and SE Qld. Boundaries were passed and earth was covered. The psalm affirms God’s relationship with creation and the balance and order at the heart of creation. By contrast the chaos of nature has easily burst our boundaries and brought devastation, loss and hardship.
He goes on ‘the task of living in respectful care of our planet and to seek healing and peace with creation and living sustainably and gently are practical activities shared in by many people. For followers of Jesus they are also activities of Christian discipleship undertaken in the power and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. We must rediscover the sense of intimate relationship and understanding that the psalm acclaims, that we might cherish our planet and live at peace with all its creatures.’
Now read and enjoy the poetry of this beautiful (but very long) psalm.
Here are verses 5 to 13.
Psalm 104:5-13
5 You have set the earth firmly on its foundations, and it will never be moved.
6 You placed the ocean over it like a robe, and the water covered the mountains.
7 When you rebuked the waters, they fled; they rushed away when they heard your shout of command.
8 They flowed over the mountains and into the valleys, to the place you had made for them.
9 You set a boundary they can never pass, to keep them from covering the earth again.
10 You make springs flow in the valleys, and rivers run between the hills.
11 They provide water for the wild animals; there the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 In the trees near by, the birds make their nests and sing.
13 From the sky you send rain on the hills, and the earth is filled with your blessings.
How does the emphasis on God’s natural world as described in the psalm impact your thinking and your living?
God’s blessing be with you as you strive!
Bob
From the Minister (August 25)
I wonder if there are there are others of you that feel the way I do. What am I thinking of?
Well let me start with Ukraine – Daily over the last six months we have seen the result of President Putin’s ‘military exercises’ there. We have seen the destruction of residential housing and beautiful public buildings and the anguish of Ukraine citizens.
I find myself wanting to launch rockets at the Kremlin.
In recent days there have been incidents of domestic violence where in one case the four children escaped from the house and hid behind bushes in the backyard while seeking help from neighbours.
I find myself wanting to bring the stocks back, or public flogging.
In these and other situations I discover to my dismay that what I want to do is in fact exactly what I am railing against – what I want to do is in fact to become as violent as the actions I am responding to!
Do you share my experience? Are you as horrified at what the miscreant has done to you – or at what you have allowed the miscreant to do to you?
In Romans 7 there is a verse that speaks of this problem ‘If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it’.
How do we respond to this situation that attempts to warp our being and our values?
I suggest that first we recognise what is happening to us.
Perhaps a conversation with God goes well at this point.
Breathing in fresh air allows our body to breathe out that which is used. In the same way, allow the Spirit of God to fill us with its positive energy.
The negatives will be deprived of their power and the positives can get to work remaking us and our thoughts.
May the power of God’s Spirit continue to work daily within your being.
Bob
I wonder if there are there are others of you that feel the way I do. What am I thinking of?
Well let me start with Ukraine – Daily over the last six months we have seen the result of President Putin’s ‘military exercises’ there. We have seen the destruction of residential housing and beautiful public buildings and the anguish of Ukraine citizens.
I find myself wanting to launch rockets at the Kremlin.
In recent days there have been incidents of domestic violence where in one case the four children escaped from the house and hid behind bushes in the backyard while seeking help from neighbours.
I find myself wanting to bring the stocks back, or public flogging.
In these and other situations I discover to my dismay that what I want to do is in fact exactly what I am railing against – what I want to do is in fact to become as violent as the actions I am responding to!
Do you share my experience? Are you as horrified at what the miscreant has done to you – or at what you have allowed the miscreant to do to you?
In Romans 7 there is a verse that speaks of this problem ‘If I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it’.
How do we respond to this situation that attempts to warp our being and our values?
I suggest that first we recognise what is happening to us.
Perhaps a conversation with God goes well at this point.
Breathing in fresh air allows our body to breathe out that which is used. In the same way, allow the Spirit of God to fill us with its positive energy.
The negatives will be deprived of their power and the positives can get to work remaking us and our thoughts.
May the power of God’s Spirit continue to work daily within your being.
Bob
From the Minister (August 18)
Some thoughts prompted by two of this week’s readings – The first reading is Jeremiah 1:4–10. The challenges of climate change are so overwhelming that we might want to declare with Jeremiah, “But I’m only one person!” God doesn’t let Jeremiah off because he is young, and we don’t get let off because we feel we can’t make a difference!
I guess that most of us have at some time felt inadequate to meet a challenge we knew we couldn’t avoid. How and where did you find the strength needed for that challenge?
This week’s Psalm [71:1-6] picks up the themes in Jeremiah – and includes the image of God as midwife, which we rarely hear; more often it's God as a gardener, for example. This is very intimate and helpful image which shows a lot of care. The imagery in verse 3-4 can feel very ‘in or out' and asks us whether we tend to place ourselves on the outside because of the place we are in, or the way we feel about ourselves? The imagery of God leaning in to listen to people presents a familiar, caring God. It continues from Jeremiah and reinforces the intimate, conversational aspect of our relationship with God. It also shows that we are recognised – who we are, our beauty, distinctiveness, etc., which may have been overlooked/written off when we were young. Again, this refers back to Jeremiah – God saw him as an individual, and recognised who he was, even if Jeremiah himself hadn't.
Further on in the passage, verses 16-18: "I come and proclaim your righteous acts, Lord, …. To the next generation … Declare your mighty acts to all who are to come" show it's a journey through life, so we can't switch off – we should still be witnessing, regardless of our age and stage of life.
And that connects with us as Pilgrim People, always on the move. May God’s blessing be with you as you journey.
Bob
Some thoughts prompted by two of this week’s readings – The first reading is Jeremiah 1:4–10. The challenges of climate change are so overwhelming that we might want to declare with Jeremiah, “But I’m only one person!” God doesn’t let Jeremiah off because he is young, and we don’t get let off because we feel we can’t make a difference!
I guess that most of us have at some time felt inadequate to meet a challenge we knew we couldn’t avoid. How and where did you find the strength needed for that challenge?
This week’s Psalm [71:1-6] picks up the themes in Jeremiah – and includes the image of God as midwife, which we rarely hear; more often it's God as a gardener, for example. This is very intimate and helpful image which shows a lot of care. The imagery in verse 3-4 can feel very ‘in or out' and asks us whether we tend to place ourselves on the outside because of the place we are in, or the way we feel about ourselves? The imagery of God leaning in to listen to people presents a familiar, caring God. It continues from Jeremiah and reinforces the intimate, conversational aspect of our relationship with God. It also shows that we are recognised – who we are, our beauty, distinctiveness, etc., which may have been overlooked/written off when we were young. Again, this refers back to Jeremiah – God saw him as an individual, and recognised who he was, even if Jeremiah himself hadn't.
Further on in the passage, verses 16-18: "I come and proclaim your righteous acts, Lord, …. To the next generation … Declare your mighty acts to all who are to come" show it's a journey through life, so we can't switch off – we should still be witnessing, regardless of our age and stage of life.
And that connects with us as Pilgrim People, always on the move. May God’s blessing be with you as you journey.
Bob
From the Minister (August 11)
This description of the Church is from a resource prepared for the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August to 8 September, with the theme Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.
Historically, the Reformed church was the church of refugees or the Church of the Wandering People of God. Jesus was also a wandering preacher, travelling in particular places which people consider margins of the society.
Christ was actually always at the margin, ‘the end of the world,’ where the oppressed, victimised, discriminated, and powerless are placed and abandoned, and Christ was inviting the church to come to find him.
The idea ‘Christ at the margin’ radically challenges our conception of the church. Christ is out there at the margin with people whom we have been excluding from the church.
Christ is calling us to come to the margin to restore God’s justice and work toward reconciliation. We Christians confess this Christ is our Lord. Our identity and practices are rooted in this confession. Therefore, Christ is the test of everything that claims itself to be Christian.
We understand this call to the churches includes
1. To be committed to transformative justice in every sense.
2. To be rooted in God’s love that is mediated to us in and through Christ.
3. To be and become Christ’s beloved community manifesting the gifts of reconciliation and unity which are obligations of God’s love.
4. To become a Gospel event through its witness to Christ who resides in the margins.
5. To be there where it belongs--
dangerously with broken people and groaning creation, suffering the brutality of the authoritarian regimes and their funding corporations.
Bob
This description of the Church is from a resource prepared for the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August to 8 September, with the theme Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.
Historically, the Reformed church was the church of refugees or the Church of the Wandering People of God. Jesus was also a wandering preacher, travelling in particular places which people consider margins of the society.
Christ was actually always at the margin, ‘the end of the world,’ where the oppressed, victimised, discriminated, and powerless are placed and abandoned, and Christ was inviting the church to come to find him.
The idea ‘Christ at the margin’ radically challenges our conception of the church. Christ is out there at the margin with people whom we have been excluding from the church.
Christ is calling us to come to the margin to restore God’s justice and work toward reconciliation. We Christians confess this Christ is our Lord. Our identity and practices are rooted in this confession. Therefore, Christ is the test of everything that claims itself to be Christian.
We understand this call to the churches includes
1. To be committed to transformative justice in every sense.
2. To be rooted in God’s love that is mediated to us in and through Christ.
3. To be and become Christ’s beloved community manifesting the gifts of reconciliation and unity which are obligations of God’s love.
4. To become a Gospel event through its witness to Christ who resides in the margins.
5. To be there where it belongs--
dangerously with broken people and groaning creation, suffering the brutality of the authoritarian regimes and their funding corporations.
Bob
From the Minister (August 4)
Jesus concluded last Sunday’s gospel reading with an exhortation to be “rich toward God.”
It’s a beautiful and inspiring phrase, but what does it mean?
What does a heart (and a lifestyle, and a home, and a bank account) “rich toward God” look like?
Maybe it means guarding against greed instead of obsessing over fairness.
Maybe it means holding our mortality closer than we want to.
Maybe it means asking hard questions about what makes us feel secure or insecure.
Maybe it means acknowledging that even our hard-earned, well-earned, self-earned wealth comes from God and belongs to God.
Maybe it means prioritising human interconnectedness over personal gain or asset management.
Maybe it means dialoguing with God more ardently than we monologue with ourselves.
Maybe it means holding human wisdom lightly, knowing that God’s wisdom will almost always render our own foolish.
Do any of these offer a doorway to you? To your living this week?
Looking ahead to next Sunday when there is a passage from Isaiah 1, I sense a strong suggestion that God wants us to work at strengthening our life that lies ‘behind’ our worship.
Bob
Jesus concluded last Sunday’s gospel reading with an exhortation to be “rich toward God.”
It’s a beautiful and inspiring phrase, but what does it mean?
What does a heart (and a lifestyle, and a home, and a bank account) “rich toward God” look like?
Maybe it means guarding against greed instead of obsessing over fairness.
Maybe it means holding our mortality closer than we want to.
Maybe it means asking hard questions about what makes us feel secure or insecure.
Maybe it means acknowledging that even our hard-earned, well-earned, self-earned wealth comes from God and belongs to God.
Maybe it means prioritising human interconnectedness over personal gain or asset management.
Maybe it means dialoguing with God more ardently than we monologue with ourselves.
Maybe it means holding human wisdom lightly, knowing that God’s wisdom will almost always render our own foolish.
Do any of these offer a doorway to you? To your living this week?
Looking ahead to next Sunday when there is a passage from Isaiah 1, I sense a strong suggestion that God wants us to work at strengthening our life that lies ‘behind’ our worship.
Bob
From the Minister (July 28)
Life involves us in continually making choices. From first thing in the morning and all through the day our lives can be likened to a major railway shunting yard or perhaps the multiple roundabouts on the outskirts of Swindon. One choice after another. Often they are made without conscious thought or awareness that we are making a choice.
How do we make choices? Built in to us is a set of values that has developed and continues to develop throughout our lives. If we were to analyse a significant choice of the last week and consider how we arrived at that conclusion we would be able to find what for us is the origin – parents, teacher, close friend, spouse, church.
It is not many weeks since we heard the list of fruits of the Spirit – nourishment for our always developing set of values!
The theme of this week’s readings is not hard to discern – all of the readings contrast a life of dependence on wealth with the life of dependence on God.
Paul in Colossians and Jesus as recorded by Luke both warn against greed and speak about the danger of making wealth our goal and our security. In Hosea and in Psalm 107, God’s salvation and care are promised, even when God’s people have needed to be disciplined and corrected.
When it comes to making our way in the world, the quest for money too easily becomes an end in itself, and will ultimately lead us into destruction, and to bringing suffering on ourselves and others. However, when life is found in our relationship with God, and in basing our lives on the values of God’s reign, we bring life and joy to ourselves and others, and our lives have eternal value.
Ultimately, we all need to choose the priorities by which we will live.
Bob
Life involves us in continually making choices. From first thing in the morning and all through the day our lives can be likened to a major railway shunting yard or perhaps the multiple roundabouts on the outskirts of Swindon. One choice after another. Often they are made without conscious thought or awareness that we are making a choice.
How do we make choices? Built in to us is a set of values that has developed and continues to develop throughout our lives. If we were to analyse a significant choice of the last week and consider how we arrived at that conclusion we would be able to find what for us is the origin – parents, teacher, close friend, spouse, church.
It is not many weeks since we heard the list of fruits of the Spirit – nourishment for our always developing set of values!
The theme of this week’s readings is not hard to discern – all of the readings contrast a life of dependence on wealth with the life of dependence on God.
Paul in Colossians and Jesus as recorded by Luke both warn against greed and speak about the danger of making wealth our goal and our security. In Hosea and in Psalm 107, God’s salvation and care are promised, even when God’s people have needed to be disciplined and corrected.
When it comes to making our way in the world, the quest for money too easily becomes an end in itself, and will ultimately lead us into destruction, and to bringing suffering on ourselves and others. However, when life is found in our relationship with God, and in basing our lives on the values of God’s reign, we bring life and joy to ourselves and others, and our lives have eternal value.
Ultimately, we all need to choose the priorities by which we will live.
Bob
From the Minister (July 20)
Snippets from my reading this week:
The life of those who believe in Jesus ought to arouse curiosity among those who do not believe.
We should always try to live in a way that surprises if we want to be heard and noticed.
We should out-serve, out-party, out-love, out-give, out-live, and out-everything everyone else. We should live our lives in such a way that those observing us want to say ‘I’ll have what they are having.’
The role of art and of living an artful life is significant in a world in search of meaning and beauty.
If there is someone at church who is new and you know them, please introduce them to Bob so that he can welcome them and introduce them to the congregation. (And be sure he writes it down!)
Bob
Snippets from my reading this week:
The life of those who believe in Jesus ought to arouse curiosity among those who do not believe.
We should always try to live in a way that surprises if we want to be heard and noticed.
We should out-serve, out-party, out-love, out-give, out-live, and out-everything everyone else. We should live our lives in such a way that those observing us want to say ‘I’ll have what they are having.’
The role of art and of living an artful life is significant in a world in search of meaning and beauty.
If there is someone at church who is new and you know them, please introduce them to Bob so that he can welcome them and introduce them to the congregation. (And be sure he writes it down!)
Bob
From the Minister (July 14)
Luke 10:38-42
In our reading from Luke we are not given Martha’s response to Jesus. It would not really make much sense, though, to infer that she suddenly dropped all of her work at that moment and sat alongside her sister. After all, there were still mouths to feed, still places to be set at the table. There still are all of these things to be done, and there always will be, and thanks be to God for the grace we are each given to do the necessary, unglamorous work that sustains us. It is holy work, done upon the holy ground that is, in fact, everywhere, once we remember to look for it.
So no, you are not a Martha. You are not a Mary. All of us are both of them, and neither, for love requires us sometimes to strive and other times to be still.
* * * * * * *
Remember, congregations are not called to be successful, but to be faithful.
The measure of a church is not its size, or its splendour, but its faith.
Bob
Luke 10:38-42
In our reading from Luke we are not given Martha’s response to Jesus. It would not really make much sense, though, to infer that she suddenly dropped all of her work at that moment and sat alongside her sister. After all, there were still mouths to feed, still places to be set at the table. There still are all of these things to be done, and there always will be, and thanks be to God for the grace we are each given to do the necessary, unglamorous work that sustains us. It is holy work, done upon the holy ground that is, in fact, everywhere, once we remember to look for it.
So no, you are not a Martha. You are not a Mary. All of us are both of them, and neither, for love requires us sometimes to strive and other times to be still.
* * * * * * *
Remember, congregations are not called to be successful, but to be faithful.
The measure of a church is not its size, or its splendour, but its faith.
Bob
From the Minister (July 7)
There is a story about Poland's famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignacy Paderewski. A mother, wanting to encourage her young son in the piano, took him to a Paderewski performance. They found their seats near the front and admired the imposing Steinway waiting onstage. As the mother got to talking with a friend, the boy wandered off. At eight o'clock the lights dimmed, the spotlight came on, and the audience looked up to see the little boy perched on the bench, plunking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Gasping, the mother got up to get her son. But the master had already walked onstage and went quickly to the piano. "Don't quit. Keep playing," he said leaning over the boy. With his left hand Paderewski began filling in the bass part. Then he reached around the other side with his right, to add the top part, encircling the child. Together the young child and the old master held the audience enthralled. God surrounds and whispers to us, over and over, "Don't quit. Keep playing," as the Spirit gives its increase and majestic beauty to our humble beginnings.
Bob
There is a story about Poland's famous concert pianist and prime minister, Ignacy Paderewski. A mother, wanting to encourage her young son in the piano, took him to a Paderewski performance. They found their seats near the front and admired the imposing Steinway waiting onstage. As the mother got to talking with a friend, the boy wandered off. At eight o'clock the lights dimmed, the spotlight came on, and the audience looked up to see the little boy perched on the bench, plunking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Gasping, the mother got up to get her son. But the master had already walked onstage and went quickly to the piano. "Don't quit. Keep playing," he said leaning over the boy. With his left hand Paderewski began filling in the bass part. Then he reached around the other side with his right, to add the top part, encircling the child. Together the young child and the old master held the audience enthralled. God surrounds and whispers to us, over and over, "Don't quit. Keep playing," as the Spirit gives its increase and majestic beauty to our humble beginnings.
Bob
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From the Minister (June 30)
The Gospel for this Sunday is Luke 10:1-20
This Sunday’s gospel reading begins ‘now after this, the Lord also appointed seventy others’ presumably in addition to the twelve. Some of our Bibles read seventy and others read seventy-two, usually with a note saying that other ancient authorities differ.
We cannot determine with certainty which is correct. The number almost certainly refers back to Genesis 10, where we find a list of Gentile nations descended from Noah. In the Hebrew Bible, seventy nations are listed, while in the Greek Septuagint the number is seventy-two. So Jesus’ appointment of the seventy (or seventy-two) provides one evangelist for each nation, and corresponds to the seventy elders selected from the twelve tribes and Eldad and Medad [see Numbers 11: 24-30).
Some suggest that this points to outreach to Gentiles, which will be important in Luke’s sequel, the Acts of the Apostles—even though, for the moment, Jesus sends the seventy only to Jews or Samaritans.
Whether the number is seventy or seventy-two matters little, however, because the meaning is the same for either number. In the call to the twelve (9:3) they are told to carry no staff, bread, bag or money whereas the seventy are told no purse, bag or sandals. (10:4). Another uncertainty for us but not such as to render the meaning unclear.
* * * * * * *
Sometimes as we reflect on our life as Pilgrim People we think that we are small and perhaps insignificant. Tish Warren has some words for us to which we could add the fact that the key people in our Old Testament story (2 Kings 5:1-14) are two un-named women – Naaman’s wife and her Israelite servant girl. Jesus’ ministry is the ultimate example of embracing smallness and particularity. “The glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small company, the very few, the one man, the one woman, the one child are of infinite worth to God,” wrote former archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. “Our Lord devoted himself to a small country, to small things and to individual men and women, often giving hours of time to the very few or to the one man or woman.”
He continued: “Our Lord gives many hours to one woman of Samaria, one Nicodemus, one Martha, one Mary, one Lazarus, one Simon Peter, for the infinite worth of the one is the key to the Christian understanding of the many.”
Tish Harrison Warren in Christianity Today July-Aug 22
The Gospel for this Sunday is Luke 10:1-20
This Sunday’s gospel reading begins ‘now after this, the Lord also appointed seventy others’ presumably in addition to the twelve. Some of our Bibles read seventy and others read seventy-two, usually with a note saying that other ancient authorities differ.
We cannot determine with certainty which is correct. The number almost certainly refers back to Genesis 10, where we find a list of Gentile nations descended from Noah. In the Hebrew Bible, seventy nations are listed, while in the Greek Septuagint the number is seventy-two. So Jesus’ appointment of the seventy (or seventy-two) provides one evangelist for each nation, and corresponds to the seventy elders selected from the twelve tribes and Eldad and Medad [see Numbers 11: 24-30).
Some suggest that this points to outreach to Gentiles, which will be important in Luke’s sequel, the Acts of the Apostles—even though, for the moment, Jesus sends the seventy only to Jews or Samaritans.
Whether the number is seventy or seventy-two matters little, however, because the meaning is the same for either number. In the call to the twelve (9:3) they are told to carry no staff, bread, bag or money whereas the seventy are told no purse, bag or sandals. (10:4). Another uncertainty for us but not such as to render the meaning unclear.
* * * * * * *
Sometimes as we reflect on our life as Pilgrim People we think that we are small and perhaps insignificant. Tish Warren has some words for us to which we could add the fact that the key people in our Old Testament story (2 Kings 5:1-14) are two un-named women – Naaman’s wife and her Israelite servant girl. Jesus’ ministry is the ultimate example of embracing smallness and particularity. “The glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small company, the very few, the one man, the one woman, the one child are of infinite worth to God,” wrote former archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. “Our Lord devoted himself to a small country, to small things and to individual men and women, often giving hours of time to the very few or to the one man or woman.”
He continued: “Our Lord gives many hours to one woman of Samaria, one Nicodemus, one Martha, one Mary, one Lazarus, one Simon Peter, for the infinite worth of the one is the key to the Christian understanding of the many.”
Tish Harrison Warren in Christianity Today July-Aug 22
From the Minister (June 23)
The gospel for next Sunday begins a new section in Luke’s gospel – ‘Journey to Jerusalem’, which has two major themes:
1. the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders, and
2. the need for Jesus to prepare his disciples for his death.
Luke reminds his readers on five occasions that ‘his face was set toward Jerusalem. Luke has a similar ‘journey’ theme in the Acts of the Apostles his second book with Paul saying ‘I must also see Rome’.
James and John asked if they should call for the death of the unwelcoming Samaritans, a suggestion which attracted a rebuke from Jesus – had they forgotten the instruction he gave to love their enemies and not to judge?
In verses 57-62 of chapter 9, Jesus offers no easy discipleship. Those who follow him must not give anything – even good things – priority over Jesus.
Verse 62 about using a horse drawn plough reminds me that it is exacting work, as it involves controlling both the plough and the horse - how well I remember the seeming impossibility of doing this while under the eye of a lecturer at Gatton College. Failure to watch a fixed point directly ahead causes the furrow to similarly wander.
God blesses reluctant discipleship, which is Good News, because it means that God does not grade us with an indelible “F” when we sin or protest or offer excuses. Every failure is an invitation to repentance and blessing.
Bob
The gospel for next Sunday begins a new section in Luke’s gospel – ‘Journey to Jerusalem’, which has two major themes:
1. the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders, and
2. the need for Jesus to prepare his disciples for his death.
Luke reminds his readers on five occasions that ‘his face was set toward Jerusalem. Luke has a similar ‘journey’ theme in the Acts of the Apostles his second book with Paul saying ‘I must also see Rome’.
James and John asked if they should call for the death of the unwelcoming Samaritans, a suggestion which attracted a rebuke from Jesus – had they forgotten the instruction he gave to love their enemies and not to judge?
In verses 57-62 of chapter 9, Jesus offers no easy discipleship. Those who follow him must not give anything – even good things – priority over Jesus.
Verse 62 about using a horse drawn plough reminds me that it is exacting work, as it involves controlling both the plough and the horse - how well I remember the seeming impossibility of doing this while under the eye of a lecturer at Gatton College. Failure to watch a fixed point directly ahead causes the furrow to similarly wander.
God blesses reluctant discipleship, which is Good News, because it means that God does not grade us with an indelible “F” when we sin or protest or offer excuses. Every failure is an invitation to repentance and blessing.
Bob
From the Minister (June 16)
The Gospel reading for the coming Sunday is Luke 8:26-39. This incident is recorded also by Matthew [8:29-9:1] and Mark [5:1-20]. In chapter 8 Luke presents it as the second of four miracles that demonstrate Jesus’ authority and represent the four types of miracles that he performs.
Nature miracle – Calming of the storm (Luke 8:22-25)
Exorcism – Gerasene Demoniac (Luke 8:26-39)
Resuscitation – Healing of Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:40-42, 49-56)
Healing – Healing of the woman with a haemorrhage (Luke 8:42b-48)
Jesus grants the request of the demons to take up residence in the pigs which promptly rush to their destruction.
We may tend to be troubled by the economic disaster that the death of the pigs represents for their owners and/or the fate of the animals themselves. The Gospel writers, however, cared little about such issues. For them, the overwhelming concern in this story was that of Jesus’ victory over evil forces.
Like the demoniac, the people of Gerasene are comfortable with demons that they have learned to accommodate. Yes, the man was crazy, but he lived out of sight among the tombs. Now that he is “clothed and in his right mind”, they will have to find room for him in the village. Will his family welcome him home? Has his wife remarried? Have his children made peace with his absence? How will he make a living? Will he become dangerous again? Will one of their daughters fall in love with him?
Jesus solved one problem but created the potential for a thousand new ones! The Gerasenes could have chosen to celebrate God’s power in their midst but chose instead to cater to their fears.
Good news!
Merthyr Road Uniting has been without a church council and without the office bearers that we would expect a congregation to have. Now they are on the way to becoming a ‘regular congregation’. Last Sunday they held a congregational meeting and elected a Council. Appointing a chairperson and a secretary are on the agenda for their first meeting. I have expressed our congratulations and good wishes to the congregation and the church council.
It has been a long time since Murray left during which time the presbytery has functioned as the council making all the financial decision. It is good to see them now returning to operating under their church council. Please remember them in your prayers.
Bob
The Gospel reading for the coming Sunday is Luke 8:26-39. This incident is recorded also by Matthew [8:29-9:1] and Mark [5:1-20]. In chapter 8 Luke presents it as the second of four miracles that demonstrate Jesus’ authority and represent the four types of miracles that he performs.
Nature miracle – Calming of the storm (Luke 8:22-25)
Exorcism – Gerasene Demoniac (Luke 8:26-39)
Resuscitation – Healing of Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:40-42, 49-56)
Healing – Healing of the woman with a haemorrhage (Luke 8:42b-48)
Jesus grants the request of the demons to take up residence in the pigs which promptly rush to their destruction.
We may tend to be troubled by the economic disaster that the death of the pigs represents for their owners and/or the fate of the animals themselves. The Gospel writers, however, cared little about such issues. For them, the overwhelming concern in this story was that of Jesus’ victory over evil forces.
Like the demoniac, the people of Gerasene are comfortable with demons that they have learned to accommodate. Yes, the man was crazy, but he lived out of sight among the tombs. Now that he is “clothed and in his right mind”, they will have to find room for him in the village. Will his family welcome him home? Has his wife remarried? Have his children made peace with his absence? How will he make a living? Will he become dangerous again? Will one of their daughters fall in love with him?
Jesus solved one problem but created the potential for a thousand new ones! The Gerasenes could have chosen to celebrate God’s power in their midst but chose instead to cater to their fears.
Good news!
Merthyr Road Uniting has been without a church council and without the office bearers that we would expect a congregation to have. Now they are on the way to becoming a ‘regular congregation’. Last Sunday they held a congregational meeting and elected a Council. Appointing a chairperson and a secretary are on the agenda for their first meeting. I have expressed our congratulations and good wishes to the congregation and the church council.
It has been a long time since Murray left during which time the presbytery has functioned as the council making all the financial decision. It is good to see them now returning to operating under their church council. Please remember them in your prayers.
Bob
From the Minister (June 9)
The biblical scholar, Dr. Wil Gafney has noted that she does not believe in the Trinity because the concept is too limiting. It’s not that she disputes the communal nature of God or the many ways that God shows up.
For Gafney, three is not enough and she shares why in a sermon she preached on a Trinity Sunday:
The church has largely settled on one way of naming God to our great poverty. The blessed, holy Trinity is one way and only one way of naming the God of many names, the God of Isaiah, the God of Jesus and our God.
It is not the only way and it is not my way. If you know me you are not surprised by that. I once famously – or perhaps infamously – responded to a question during a job interview about the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible by saying I didn’t believe the Trinity. God is beyond numbering and naming.
The scriptures use many more than three names or images to describe God and do not limit us to any. And the scriptures do not mention the Trinity at all. Three names make a nice poetic flourish. But God is not bound or limited by our limitations. God is One, and Two – Incarnate and Incorporeal, and Three and Seven (the “seven spirits of God” in Rev 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) and God is Many and Ineffable.
The biblical scholar, Dr. Wil Gafney has noted that she does not believe in the Trinity because the concept is too limiting. It’s not that she disputes the communal nature of God or the many ways that God shows up.
For Gafney, three is not enough and she shares why in a sermon she preached on a Trinity Sunday:
The church has largely settled on one way of naming God to our great poverty. The blessed, holy Trinity is one way and only one way of naming the God of many names, the God of Isaiah, the God of Jesus and our God.
It is not the only way and it is not my way. If you know me you are not surprised by that. I once famously – or perhaps infamously – responded to a question during a job interview about the Trinity in the Hebrew Bible by saying I didn’t believe the Trinity. God is beyond numbering and naming.
The scriptures use many more than three names or images to describe God and do not limit us to any. And the scriptures do not mention the Trinity at all. Three names make a nice poetic flourish. But God is not bound or limited by our limitations. God is One, and Two – Incarnate and Incorporeal, and Three and Seven (the “seven spirits of God” in Rev 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) and God is Many and Ineffable.
From the Minister (June 2)
Pentecost, also called Whitsunday [especially in England] is a major festival in the church commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and other disciples . It is celebrated on the Sunday that is the 50th day of Easter and marks the beginning of the church’s mission to the world.
The Jewish feast of Pentecost [Shavout] was primarily a thanksgiving for the firstfruits of the wheat harvest but later it was associated with a remembrance of the Law given to Moses on Mt Sinai.
When was the festival first celebrated? It was mentioned in a work from the eastern church in the 2nd century. In the 3rd century it was mentioned by the theologian Origen and by Tertullian.
Pentecost Spirit brings spontaneous unity. God loves all of us. Categories do not apply – age, gender, health, culture, country, rank, work, wealth, denomination, et al.
The commandment ‘Love your neighbour’ means just that. God’s Spirit breathes through all of us with a love that connects us beyond earthly understanding, opening us to see, to listen and to understand our neighbours. God’s radical love and grace change not only what we do and how we do it but why we do it. Importantly, it refocuses us from ‘the world’ to God’s realm.
We are called to be in unity as a diverse family, share the past’s dreams, and celebrate visions with hope and delight. Healthy, loving relationships grow between us, with wobbly moments and Pentecost times. Our Christian denominations reflect our different expressions and the richness of the body of Christ. Our prejudice, judgements, and quarrels do not. Are we there yet?
* * * * * * *
O Lord, you who are the True King, have mercy, we pray,
on the people who suffer the ravages of war this day.
Silence the warmongers, scatter the bloodthirsty,
shatter the weapons of war, and take pity on the vulnerable,
so that true peace and justice might be restored.
We pray this in the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Pentecost, also called Whitsunday [especially in England] is a major festival in the church commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and other disciples . It is celebrated on the Sunday that is the 50th day of Easter and marks the beginning of the church’s mission to the world.
The Jewish feast of Pentecost [Shavout] was primarily a thanksgiving for the firstfruits of the wheat harvest but later it was associated with a remembrance of the Law given to Moses on Mt Sinai.
When was the festival first celebrated? It was mentioned in a work from the eastern church in the 2nd century. In the 3rd century it was mentioned by the theologian Origen and by Tertullian.
Pentecost Spirit brings spontaneous unity. God loves all of us. Categories do not apply – age, gender, health, culture, country, rank, work, wealth, denomination, et al.
The commandment ‘Love your neighbour’ means just that. God’s Spirit breathes through all of us with a love that connects us beyond earthly understanding, opening us to see, to listen and to understand our neighbours. God’s radical love and grace change not only what we do and how we do it but why we do it. Importantly, it refocuses us from ‘the world’ to God’s realm.
We are called to be in unity as a diverse family, share the past’s dreams, and celebrate visions with hope and delight. Healthy, loving relationships grow between us, with wobbly moments and Pentecost times. Our Christian denominations reflect our different expressions and the richness of the body of Christ. Our prejudice, judgements, and quarrels do not. Are we there yet?
* * * * * * *
O Lord, you who are the True King, have mercy, we pray,
on the people who suffer the ravages of war this day.
Silence the warmongers, scatter the bloodthirsty,
shatter the weapons of war, and take pity on the vulnerable,
so that true peace and justice might be restored.
We pray this in the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen.
From the Minister (May 26)
John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for Believers Everywhere
“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one— I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these people know that you sent me. I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”
Jesus’ deepest longing in this significant prayer is ‘that all may be one’. It is not a call to sameness, collective thought, or dominance of one denomination. Jesus’ prayer is to the very heart of unity and connection. Everyone and everything belong. When we open ourselves to God’s love, it is deeply embedded in us, strongly connecting us, and entwined in our whole being and living.
Jesus revealed the way of living that draws us closer to God in our loving, being, thinking and doing, and so, we grow to love our neighbours. The Christian life is both individual and communal. We alone glimpse Christ. Together, as the whole body of Christ, we gain a richer insight and greater learning, and we grow through the breadth of gifts we each bring. As we draw closer to God, we draw closer to each other. Our spiritual ecumenism enriches ourselves and the whole people of God. Who are we to hinder Jesus’ love and prayer?
John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for Believers Everywhere
“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one— I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these people know that you sent me. I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”
Jesus’ deepest longing in this significant prayer is ‘that all may be one’. It is not a call to sameness, collective thought, or dominance of one denomination. Jesus’ prayer is to the very heart of unity and connection. Everyone and everything belong. When we open ourselves to God’s love, it is deeply embedded in us, strongly connecting us, and entwined in our whole being and living.
Jesus revealed the way of living that draws us closer to God in our loving, being, thinking and doing, and so, we grow to love our neighbours. The Christian life is both individual and communal. We alone glimpse Christ. Together, as the whole body of Christ, we gain a richer insight and greater learning, and we grow through the breadth of gifts we each bring. As we draw closer to God, we draw closer to each other. Our spiritual ecumenism enriches ourselves and the whole people of God. Who are we to hinder Jesus’ love and prayer?
From the Minister (May 19)
Rebekah Simon Peter when writing about empowering congregations says :
Jesus counsels us through the Golden Rule to treat others in the way we ourselves would like to be treated.
The Platinum Rule builds on the Golden Rule and takes it one step further. The Platinum Rule suggests that we honour the dignity of those who are different, sometimes very different, from us, by treating them the way they want to be treated.
For instance, my friend Cherisa wants to be referred to as Black, while David prefers the term African American. Nyx prefers the personal pronoun “they” instead of “he” or “she.” While adapting to others’ preferences is not always comfortable, especially if you don’t understand why the changes are necessary, drawing closer to differences works better than retreating.
How do you keep all this straight? When in doubt, ask! Applying the Platinum Rule requires getting to know people in your community, asking questions, and finding out how they want to be treated.
The Platinum Rule not only applies to those with different beliefs, backgrounds or lifestyles than us, it applies to people whose personalities differ as well. Instead of rolling your eyes at the person who analyses every risk, or insists on making friends with every stranger, or takes command to get things moving, or refuses to take the next step until every person has been heard—let go of judgment. Instead, honour their behaviour as an expression of their unique humanity.
Practising the Platinum Rule isn’t always easy. It requires a hidden superpower: the ability to be a non-anxious presence. Everyone feels anxiety to some degree about certain things. But noticing your own tendency to be anxious helps you not project that on other people. This superpower is exceedingly useful for disciples and apostles of Jesus, people who care about Jesus’ dream: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
* * * * * * *
“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather He will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?” — Mother Teresa
Rebekah Simon Peter when writing about empowering congregations says :
Jesus counsels us through the Golden Rule to treat others in the way we ourselves would like to be treated.
The Platinum Rule builds on the Golden Rule and takes it one step further. The Platinum Rule suggests that we honour the dignity of those who are different, sometimes very different, from us, by treating them the way they want to be treated.
For instance, my friend Cherisa wants to be referred to as Black, while David prefers the term African American. Nyx prefers the personal pronoun “they” instead of “he” or “she.” While adapting to others’ preferences is not always comfortable, especially if you don’t understand why the changes are necessary, drawing closer to differences works better than retreating.
How do you keep all this straight? When in doubt, ask! Applying the Platinum Rule requires getting to know people in your community, asking questions, and finding out how they want to be treated.
The Platinum Rule not only applies to those with different beliefs, backgrounds or lifestyles than us, it applies to people whose personalities differ as well. Instead of rolling your eyes at the person who analyses every risk, or insists on making friends with every stranger, or takes command to get things moving, or refuses to take the next step until every person has been heard—let go of judgment. Instead, honour their behaviour as an expression of their unique humanity.
Practising the Platinum Rule isn’t always easy. It requires a hidden superpower: the ability to be a non-anxious presence. Everyone feels anxiety to some degree about certain things. But noticing your own tendency to be anxious helps you not project that on other people. This superpower is exceedingly useful for disciples and apostles of Jesus, people who care about Jesus’ dream: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
* * * * * * *
“I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather He will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?” — Mother Teresa
From the Minister (May 12)
In the movie Forgiving Dr Mengele, Eva Kor describes how she and her twin sister Miriam spent ten months in Auschwitz, where they were subjected to Mengele's horrific experiments. She returned to Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps in 1995.
On that occasion, Kor did the unthinkable: she read aloud her "official declaration of amnesty" to Mengele and the Nazis. To be liberated from the Nazis was not enough, she said. She needed to be released from the pain of the past. To extend forgiveness without any prerequisites required of the perpetrators was an "act of self-healing." Some Jews were outraged that she dared to do this. But for Kor it was "the feeling of complete freedom from pain" though the act of “forgiving your worst enemy”
We learn
to trust by being trusted
to tolerate by being tolerated
to be faithful by the fidelity of others
to be moderate by the moderation of others
to forgive by being forgiven
to accept by being accepted
to love by being loved
In the movie Forgiving Dr Mengele, Eva Kor describes how she and her twin sister Miriam spent ten months in Auschwitz, where they were subjected to Mengele's horrific experiments. She returned to Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps in 1995.
On that occasion, Kor did the unthinkable: she read aloud her "official declaration of amnesty" to Mengele and the Nazis. To be liberated from the Nazis was not enough, she said. She needed to be released from the pain of the past. To extend forgiveness without any prerequisites required of the perpetrators was an "act of self-healing." Some Jews were outraged that she dared to do this. But for Kor it was "the feeling of complete freedom from pain" though the act of “forgiving your worst enemy”
We learn
to trust by being trusted
to tolerate by being tolerated
to be faithful by the fidelity of others
to be moderate by the moderation of others
to forgive by being forgiven
to accept by being accepted
to love by being loved
From the Minister (May 5)
Last Sunday we were greeted at Merthyr Road by Phil using a gurney to clean the concrete – why? In preparation for the election. The Merthyr Road property will be a polling place.
Ahead of the 2022 Federal Election, the Uniting Church Assembly has released an election resource which expresses our hope for Australia to become a nation where all people and the whole creation can flourish. Drawing on the UCA document, Our Vision for a Just Australia, the election resource identifies seven critical issues that Australians should address urgently to build a more just, compassionate and inclusive nation.
1. A First People’s heart
2. Renewal of the whole of creation—climate change
3. A welcoming, compassionate and diverse nation—Refugees and asylum seekers
4. An economy for life—economic participation for all
5. An inclusive and equal society
6. Flourishing communities—regional, remote and urban
7. Contributing to a just and peaceful world
Last Sunday we were greeted at Merthyr Road by Phil using a gurney to clean the concrete – why? In preparation for the election. The Merthyr Road property will be a polling place.
Ahead of the 2022 Federal Election, the Uniting Church Assembly has released an election resource which expresses our hope for Australia to become a nation where all people and the whole creation can flourish. Drawing on the UCA document, Our Vision for a Just Australia, the election resource identifies seven critical issues that Australians should address urgently to build a more just, compassionate and inclusive nation.
1. A First People’s heart
2. Renewal of the whole of creation—climate change
3. A welcoming, compassionate and diverse nation—Refugees and asylum seekers
4. An economy for life—economic participation for all
5. An inclusive and equal society
6. Flourishing communities—regional, remote and urban
7. Contributing to a just and peaceful world
April
From the Minister (April 27)
Last week when we joined the disciples their grief was raw, their uncertainty strong, and Jesus’ unexpected presence combined joy and doubt.
These human characteristics exemplify our faith journey.
John 20:31 captures this continuing faith renewal, ‘so that you may come to believe’, to understand more deeply, to experience an awakening again.
· God’s Spirit sits lightly in this anxious space.
· Jesus stands among us, greets us with peace, and sends us out as we follow his way.
· The Spirit Advocate fills us, centres us with a mindfulness of eternal God’s love, wisdom, and kindness. Be open and receive.
This week we meet Jesus by the sea. By the very act of feeding and tending to the disciples by the sea, Jesus was exemplifying his call to Peter – feed and tend God’s people, teach and minister, serve and love your neighbour.
To follow our Christian calling is to serve in the way of Jesus. God calls us, individually and as a community, to bring God’s love to a wounded world. It is not always easy and sometimes seems foolhardy.
Peter felt fear when Jesus was arrested.
Ananias felt fear and uncertainty when called to pray with Saul.
The whole body of Christ expresses the beauty of all God’s people, each serving in ways beyond what one person can offer alone. Whether we hear our calling clearly or take some time in hearing it (as did Saul), God calls us to serve. As we share our calling and gifts with love and care, we all learn more about God’s Creation and creatures
Words for Worship – Mediacom
Let us be the Church, by covenanting to love one another as Christ has first loved us. And then, let us be the Church in the world, loving and serving our neighbour in such a way that the world’s political institutions might come to us and say, “Hey, teach us how to be more like you, more like this Christ you follow.”
Michael Fitzpatrick
Last week when we joined the disciples their grief was raw, their uncertainty strong, and Jesus’ unexpected presence combined joy and doubt.
These human characteristics exemplify our faith journey.
John 20:31 captures this continuing faith renewal, ‘so that you may come to believe’, to understand more deeply, to experience an awakening again.
· God’s Spirit sits lightly in this anxious space.
· Jesus stands among us, greets us with peace, and sends us out as we follow his way.
· The Spirit Advocate fills us, centres us with a mindfulness of eternal God’s love, wisdom, and kindness. Be open and receive.
This week we meet Jesus by the sea. By the very act of feeding and tending to the disciples by the sea, Jesus was exemplifying his call to Peter – feed and tend God’s people, teach and minister, serve and love your neighbour.
To follow our Christian calling is to serve in the way of Jesus. God calls us, individually and as a community, to bring God’s love to a wounded world. It is not always easy and sometimes seems foolhardy.
Peter felt fear when Jesus was arrested.
Ananias felt fear and uncertainty when called to pray with Saul.
The whole body of Christ expresses the beauty of all God’s people, each serving in ways beyond what one person can offer alone. Whether we hear our calling clearly or take some time in hearing it (as did Saul), God calls us to serve. As we share our calling and gifts with love and care, we all learn more about God’s Creation and creatures
Words for Worship – Mediacom
Let us be the Church, by covenanting to love one another as Christ has first loved us. And then, let us be the Church in the world, loving and serving our neighbour in such a way that the world’s political institutions might come to us and say, “Hey, teach us how to be more like you, more like this Christ you follow.”
Michael Fitzpatrick
From the Minister (April 21)
Easter Sunday is over – that was last Sunday! Wrong, Easter Sunday is only the beginning! It marks the start of the ‘Season of Easter’ a period of fifty days extending to Pentecost and described by many as a season of feasting. After all Easter is the high point of the Church Year. So it makes sense that we would party for so long!
But why fifty days? It’s actually quite simple. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth before he ascended, and then there were ten more days after that before the Day of Pentecost.
Luke writes in Acts chapter 1 that Jesus “presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
In chapter two, we find the followers of Jesus gathered for the Day of Pentecost, which actually means “fifty.” It happened during the Hebrew feast of Shavuot, which is why the followers of Jesus were gathering. The Hebrew festival was originally a harvest first fruits celebration, and later it had evolved into a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
So the Great Fifty Days are a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and all that means to us, leading to the launching of the Christian Church and its mission on Pentecost.
The seasonal colour is white and the Old testament reading is replaced with one from Acts recounting the story of the growth of the early church, leading up to the Day of Pentecost story in Acts 2.
The gospel readings during the Sundays of Easter explore the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, and also the promise of a future resurrection. We go back to a closed room in which Jesus suddenly appears…but Thomas isn’t there. He doubts. Jesus later appears to him. Then we have breakfast with Jesus and Peter. Peter had denied Jesus three times and, after the Resurrection, had returned to fishing. Jesus restores him and gives him a mission: “Feed my Sheep” and “Follow me.” (He also prophecies that Peter will be arrested and martyred. Tough breakfast conversation.)
We revisit Jesus’ teaching on himself and his mission as well. He is preparing his disciples, and us, to take the power of his Resurrection to the world. So, Happy Easter to you all! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
Bob
Easter Sunday is over – that was last Sunday! Wrong, Easter Sunday is only the beginning! It marks the start of the ‘Season of Easter’ a period of fifty days extending to Pentecost and described by many as a season of feasting. After all Easter is the high point of the Church Year. So it makes sense that we would party for so long!
But why fifty days? It’s actually quite simple. After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days on earth before he ascended, and then there were ten more days after that before the Day of Pentecost.
Luke writes in Acts chapter 1 that Jesus “presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
In chapter two, we find the followers of Jesus gathered for the Day of Pentecost, which actually means “fifty.” It happened during the Hebrew feast of Shavuot, which is why the followers of Jesus were gathering. The Hebrew festival was originally a harvest first fruits celebration, and later it had evolved into a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
So the Great Fifty Days are a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ and all that means to us, leading to the launching of the Christian Church and its mission on Pentecost.
The seasonal colour is white and the Old testament reading is replaced with one from Acts recounting the story of the growth of the early church, leading up to the Day of Pentecost story in Acts 2.
The gospel readings during the Sundays of Easter explore the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, and also the promise of a future resurrection. We go back to a closed room in which Jesus suddenly appears…but Thomas isn’t there. He doubts. Jesus later appears to him. Then we have breakfast with Jesus and Peter. Peter had denied Jesus three times and, after the Resurrection, had returned to fishing. Jesus restores him and gives him a mission: “Feed my Sheep” and “Follow me.” (He also prophecies that Peter will be arrested and martyred. Tough breakfast conversation.)
We revisit Jesus’ teaching on himself and his mission as well. He is preparing his disciples, and us, to take the power of his Resurrection to the world. So, Happy Easter to you all! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
Bob
From the Minister (April 14)
In the 1930s, a young German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was preparing pastors for ministry. They trained while sharing life together, and in the process, he showed them how social structures affect the life of the church. For example, a charismatic figure might stir people to action, but misuse of that attractiveness can destroy healthy communal life.
Bonhoeffer emphasised that little was more deadly to a community of faith than a romanticised view of life together. Unrealistic ideas easily disconnect us from our actual communities. “Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial,” Bonhoeffer observes in Life Together.
Bonhoeffer rejected the temptation we often experience: imagining we alone are responsible for creating, growing, and keeping the church. The kingdom of God is a gift. The church, a gathering of God’s people who worship King Jesus, is God’s gift that we participate in, and not a movement we could start or sustain by our own powers...God gathers us with all of our differences, united only by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, into the fellowship of the Spirit and the Father’s love. God calls, cares for, and sustains his people.
April 9, 1945: The Gestapo hangs German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, after discovering his involvement in a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer's last recorded words were, "This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.".
From the Minister (April 7)
“Christians celebrate Palm Sunday year after year.
Don’t we believe that something monumental happened when the King of Kings eschewed the warhorse to ride a peace donkey?
Don’t we at least believe Jesus offers us an alternative to all those dudes with their horses, tanks and ICBMs? We must believe it!
The Palm Sunday shout is HOSANNA! It means “save now.”
In a world married to war, now more than ever, we need to acclaim Christ as King and shout hosanna. But our hosanna must not be a plea for Jesus to join our side, bless our troops, and help us win our war—it must be a plea to save us from our addiction to war.”
Brian Zahnd (Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri.)
* * * * * * *
The close circle of disciples drew together, grieving as they made sense of what had happened. The wider circle of women who had followed Jesus remained present as Joseph of Arimathea placed Jesus’ wrapped body in the tomb, prepared spices and perfumes to respectfully tend his body, as they would a beloved brother, and observed the Sabbath before making their way back to the tomb. In their grief, they acted with grace. Significantly, they ‘and the other women with them’ understood and remembered Jesus’ words.
The apostles, the long-time followers, not only disbelieved them, but they also ‘thought that it was nonsense’ or ‘an idle tale’.
So often, what is familiar blinds our inner sight, inhibiting our response.
God is ever present, revealing new beginnings and truth through the eyes or vivid conversations of new witnesses and unexpected ‘angels’. Do we, too, dismiss it as ‘nonsense’ as long-term believers? To whom does God refer to ‘tell all these things’? Who is sharing the Good News? Easter is a time to revive our faith, find grace and listen to new voices who ‘tell all these things’ in unexpected ways.
from Words for Worship, Mediacom
In the 1930s, a young German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was preparing pastors for ministry. They trained while sharing life together, and in the process, he showed them how social structures affect the life of the church. For example, a charismatic figure might stir people to action, but misuse of that attractiveness can destroy healthy communal life.
Bonhoeffer emphasised that little was more deadly to a community of faith than a romanticised view of life together. Unrealistic ideas easily disconnect us from our actual communities. “Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial,” Bonhoeffer observes in Life Together.
Bonhoeffer rejected the temptation we often experience: imagining we alone are responsible for creating, growing, and keeping the church. The kingdom of God is a gift. The church, a gathering of God’s people who worship King Jesus, is God’s gift that we participate in, and not a movement we could start or sustain by our own powers...God gathers us with all of our differences, united only by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, into the fellowship of the Spirit and the Father’s love. God calls, cares for, and sustains his people.
April 9, 1945: The Gestapo hangs German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, after discovering his involvement in a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer's last recorded words were, "This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.".
From the Minister (April 7)
“Christians celebrate Palm Sunday year after year.
Don’t we believe that something monumental happened when the King of Kings eschewed the warhorse to ride a peace donkey?
Don’t we at least believe Jesus offers us an alternative to all those dudes with their horses, tanks and ICBMs? We must believe it!
The Palm Sunday shout is HOSANNA! It means “save now.”
In a world married to war, now more than ever, we need to acclaim Christ as King and shout hosanna. But our hosanna must not be a plea for Jesus to join our side, bless our troops, and help us win our war—it must be a plea to save us from our addiction to war.”
Brian Zahnd (Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri.)
* * * * * * *
The close circle of disciples drew together, grieving as they made sense of what had happened. The wider circle of women who had followed Jesus remained present as Joseph of Arimathea placed Jesus’ wrapped body in the tomb, prepared spices and perfumes to respectfully tend his body, as they would a beloved brother, and observed the Sabbath before making their way back to the tomb. In their grief, they acted with grace. Significantly, they ‘and the other women with them’ understood and remembered Jesus’ words.
The apostles, the long-time followers, not only disbelieved them, but they also ‘thought that it was nonsense’ or ‘an idle tale’.
So often, what is familiar blinds our inner sight, inhibiting our response.
God is ever present, revealing new beginnings and truth through the eyes or vivid conversations of new witnesses and unexpected ‘angels’. Do we, too, dismiss it as ‘nonsense’ as long-term believers? To whom does God refer to ‘tell all these things’? Who is sharing the Good News? Easter is a time to revive our faith, find grace and listen to new voices who ‘tell all these things’ in unexpected ways.
from Words for Worship, Mediacom
March
From the Minister (March 31)
In the Isaiah passage for this Sunday [43:16-21] we read ‘Remember not the former days, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing.’
During the week I had occasion to look at some of our ‘founding documents’ and in particular our commitment to ‘not looking back’. At the time, it was appropriate and I recall singing the song from ‘Salad Days’ - We said we wouldn’t look back. I think that we have managed that pretty well! Nothing is to be gained by dwelling on negative events of pain or discomfort from the past except to seek to avoid repeating them.
Our Isaiah reading however stresses another aspect – God is doing a new thing. The prophet was singing a song of hope and comfort to his people out of his glimpse of God’s plan for the future – something that would surpass or overcome the joys or the tragedies of the past. How good are we at readily identifying the ‘new things’ that God is doing?
How many news items have we read or heard in the last week or two which have been about human generosity and courage, about the work of God in the hearts of his people? The pathway on from the floods continues to tell of how help and kindness have flooded the suburbs; at the same time homes in the countries to the west of Ukraine have been opened to the tsunami of refugees; and as I write, volunteers are searching for little Shayla in Tasmania.
I look at our community and how a disparate group has been bonded with the glue of God. Clearly the solidity, the strength, the unity of Pilgrim People has spoken to the Presbytery as they approved our new status as a Faith Community. A new thing that God has done!
But, what new thing is God at work doing now? As we interact with each other and with others beyond our community are we looking for the work of God? How will Pilgrim People move on from here? We value who and what we are and do, but we can’t sit on our hands or twiddle our thumbs! What are we being called by God to do to widen our outreach, to enrich our community?
I know you will ponder those questions!
God’s blessing be with you.
Bob
From the Minister (March 24)
‘There was a man who had two sons’, so begins one of the most renowned of Jesus’ parables.
The older is serious about his birth obligations, he takes his place alongside his father, settles down at home and picks up his responsibilities on the farm. The younger son is an adventurer, a rule breaker who pushes life’s edges, looks to frontiers, to what might be on offer in another place, in another life.
We can frame this story in the terms of which son makes the right or wrong choices. Perhaps both sons make good decisions, and both make bad ones. In our world we need all kinds of people – those who push for the new and those who care for what they have, and we ourselves need to be adaptable people making different choices at different times according to what we are confronted with.
What we hope for is that when we make mistakes and bad choices, as we all will, we are met by the Father who is full of compassion, that the short version of this parable is that there was a man who had two sons - and he loved them both, full-stop.
from Words for Worship - Mediacom
From the Minister (March 13)
Prayer point …
Please pray for congregations and ministers where the relationship between them has become difficult.
I want to write to you though my thoughts are as jumbled as the furniture in a flood ravaged house!
Covid has affected us all even if we were not infected…rules that changed so rapidly, rules that kept us apart from others for weeks and months, distancing and isolation…It seems that our life can now return to pre-covid ways! So let’s stand and sing from next week! Make a joyful noise un-muffled by mask-wearing.
Arranging for and planning worship at this important season of the year has been made more challenging when we have only just started to meet face-to-face. We thank Adele for the instrumentalists she has gathered under her wings (shades of the gospel next Sunday!) and for arranging rehearsals for the Pilgrim Singers. Elsewhere you will find service arrangements for Good Friday and Easter Day.
Merthyr Road people are still waiting for their new future. The weather has kept some key folk away from their services. They are working towards the stage where they can elect a new church council and ‘take back’ the functioning of the congregation from Presbytery.
Ukraine is on all our minds. The news is not at all good. To balance that is the request from the Chief Rabbi addressed to church leaders to read Psalm 31, and the YouTube of Ukranian Christians reading it where they are..in shelters, in basements..
Our weather – our hearts ache at the damage we have seen to the lives of so many including some Pilgrims – Fred and Mona, Neil and Jenny, Ann, and as I write a message appeared ‘I don’t know how my son will get home from school, so many roads are closed!’
Crafting worship to take account of so much……maybe there is something in Quaker worship which is conducted in silence, allowing our prayers to be comprehensive!
We have a wonderful sense of community and while we did cause anxiety for Phil last Sunday by our not leaving on time, it is that sense of community which carries us. We know that we are with faith-filled friends who share concerns with us!
Beneath the Fig Tree a daily Lenten space:
For each day of Lent, we will offer a bible reading and a comment or question for you to sit with. You could create a space that you go to each day at a particular time, light a candle, journal the images and thoughts that come to you, listen to music, or simply sit in silence. The prayer words might remain with you for the day and open you to the needs of others and the yearnings within.
Ash Wednesday - March 2nd, begins our Lenten journey for 2022. Traditionally Palm Crosses from last year are burnt and the ashes placed in the shape of a cross on the forehead.
Read: Psalm 51:1-17
What does it mean for you when the psalmist asks for a clean heart and a new and right spirit? Prayer words: heart / spirit
Thursday March 3rd
Read: Luke 4: 1
From an experience of spiritual fullness, Jesus is led into wilderness. How do you imagine spiritual fullness? Have you experienced wilderness?
Prayer words: fullness / wilderness
Friday March 4th
Read: Romans 10:8b
The word of faith is very near to you. In fact, it resides on your lips and dwells in your heart. When you listen, what does this word say to you and to others? How is it expressed through your lips from your heart?
Prayer words: near / within
Saturday March 5th
Read Psalm 91: 1 & 2
How might God be a shelter and fortress? What does it mean for you to trust God?
Prayer words: shelter / abide
Presbytery of Gippsland
Bob
In the Isaiah passage for this Sunday [43:16-21] we read ‘Remember not the former days, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing.’
During the week I had occasion to look at some of our ‘founding documents’ and in particular our commitment to ‘not looking back’. At the time, it was appropriate and I recall singing the song from ‘Salad Days’ - We said we wouldn’t look back. I think that we have managed that pretty well! Nothing is to be gained by dwelling on negative events of pain or discomfort from the past except to seek to avoid repeating them.
Our Isaiah reading however stresses another aspect – God is doing a new thing. The prophet was singing a song of hope and comfort to his people out of his glimpse of God’s plan for the future – something that would surpass or overcome the joys or the tragedies of the past. How good are we at readily identifying the ‘new things’ that God is doing?
How many news items have we read or heard in the last week or two which have been about human generosity and courage, about the work of God in the hearts of his people? The pathway on from the floods continues to tell of how help and kindness have flooded the suburbs; at the same time homes in the countries to the west of Ukraine have been opened to the tsunami of refugees; and as I write, volunteers are searching for little Shayla in Tasmania.
I look at our community and how a disparate group has been bonded with the glue of God. Clearly the solidity, the strength, the unity of Pilgrim People has spoken to the Presbytery as they approved our new status as a Faith Community. A new thing that God has done!
But, what new thing is God at work doing now? As we interact with each other and with others beyond our community are we looking for the work of God? How will Pilgrim People move on from here? We value who and what we are and do, but we can’t sit on our hands or twiddle our thumbs! What are we being called by God to do to widen our outreach, to enrich our community?
I know you will ponder those questions!
God’s blessing be with you.
Bob
From the Minister (March 24)
‘There was a man who had two sons’, so begins one of the most renowned of Jesus’ parables.
The older is serious about his birth obligations, he takes his place alongside his father, settles down at home and picks up his responsibilities on the farm. The younger son is an adventurer, a rule breaker who pushes life’s edges, looks to frontiers, to what might be on offer in another place, in another life.
We can frame this story in the terms of which son makes the right or wrong choices. Perhaps both sons make good decisions, and both make bad ones. In our world we need all kinds of people – those who push for the new and those who care for what they have, and we ourselves need to be adaptable people making different choices at different times according to what we are confronted with.
What we hope for is that when we make mistakes and bad choices, as we all will, we are met by the Father who is full of compassion, that the short version of this parable is that there was a man who had two sons - and he loved them both, full-stop.
from Words for Worship - Mediacom
From the Minister (March 13)
Prayer point …
Please pray for congregations and ministers where the relationship between them has become difficult.
I want to write to you though my thoughts are as jumbled as the furniture in a flood ravaged house!
Covid has affected us all even if we were not infected…rules that changed so rapidly, rules that kept us apart from others for weeks and months, distancing and isolation…It seems that our life can now return to pre-covid ways! So let’s stand and sing from next week! Make a joyful noise un-muffled by mask-wearing.
Arranging for and planning worship at this important season of the year has been made more challenging when we have only just started to meet face-to-face. We thank Adele for the instrumentalists she has gathered under her wings (shades of the gospel next Sunday!) and for arranging rehearsals for the Pilgrim Singers. Elsewhere you will find service arrangements for Good Friday and Easter Day.
Merthyr Road people are still waiting for their new future. The weather has kept some key folk away from their services. They are working towards the stage where they can elect a new church council and ‘take back’ the functioning of the congregation from Presbytery.
Ukraine is on all our minds. The news is not at all good. To balance that is the request from the Chief Rabbi addressed to church leaders to read Psalm 31, and the YouTube of Ukranian Christians reading it where they are..in shelters, in basements..
Our weather – our hearts ache at the damage we have seen to the lives of so many including some Pilgrims – Fred and Mona, Neil and Jenny, Ann, and as I write a message appeared ‘I don’t know how my son will get home from school, so many roads are closed!’
Crafting worship to take account of so much……maybe there is something in Quaker worship which is conducted in silence, allowing our prayers to be comprehensive!
We have a wonderful sense of community and while we did cause anxiety for Phil last Sunday by our not leaving on time, it is that sense of community which carries us. We know that we are with faith-filled friends who share concerns with us!
Beneath the Fig Tree a daily Lenten space:
For each day of Lent, we will offer a bible reading and a comment or question for you to sit with. You could create a space that you go to each day at a particular time, light a candle, journal the images and thoughts that come to you, listen to music, or simply sit in silence. The prayer words might remain with you for the day and open you to the needs of others and the yearnings within.
Ash Wednesday - March 2nd, begins our Lenten journey for 2022. Traditionally Palm Crosses from last year are burnt and the ashes placed in the shape of a cross on the forehead.
Read: Psalm 51:1-17
What does it mean for you when the psalmist asks for a clean heart and a new and right spirit? Prayer words: heart / spirit
Thursday March 3rd
Read: Luke 4: 1
From an experience of spiritual fullness, Jesus is led into wilderness. How do you imagine spiritual fullness? Have you experienced wilderness?
Prayer words: fullness / wilderness
Friday March 4th
Read: Romans 10:8b
The word of faith is very near to you. In fact, it resides on your lips and dwells in your heart. When you listen, what does this word say to you and to others? How is it expressed through your lips from your heart?
Prayer words: near / within
Saturday March 5th
Read Psalm 91: 1 & 2
How might God be a shelter and fortress? What does it mean for you to trust God?
Prayer words: shelter / abide
Presbytery of Gippsland
Bob
February
From the Minister (February 24)
Next Wednesday March 2 is Ash Wednesday.
What Is "Transfiguration Sunday?"
Transfiguration Sunday is the Sunday before Lent. In the biblical context, the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) narrate the Transfiguration as a bridge between Jesus’ public ministry and his passion. From the time of the Transfiguration, Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem and the cross.
Its position in the Christian year, coming before the start of Lent and the journey to the Cross, is because Transfiguration offers encouragement before a time of rigour. Peter, John and James were given a vision of Christ in glory, the risen and ascended Lord, as they struggled to come to terms with what Jesus had said about the trouble and suffering that lay ahead.
Traditionally Lent encouraged observers to give up and make sacrifices, to tighten their belts and deny themselves excess, to better understand the way of the cross, the suffering of Jesus and the world. On Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) or Pancake Day people said good-bye to meat (carne vale). The last of the rich foods was eaten before the fasting began with the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
‘Shrove' refers to making confession and Lent is associated with a time of review and reflection. Lent offers the opportunity to embrace change, to re-examine priorities and to remember the needs of our neighbour. By making lifestyle changes each of us may make the world a better place for others.
Transfiguration Sunday not only makes us more aware of the needs of our neighbours but gives to us, as to Peter, John and James, a vision of Christ in Glory, for our encouragement and hope day by day.
From the Minister (February, 16)
Some special days such as children’s birthdays seem to take a very long time to arrive!!
At last, February 20, National Church Life Survey Sunday has arrived and this Sunday afternoon we will join many thousands in over 20 denominations across Australia in contributing to the most comprehensive view of church life in the world. It is a chance to review our church’s qualities as we look to the future.
Many of us will remember completing the survey before – in fact the survey has been conducted on six previous occasions over 30 years. I wonder how our responses this year would compare with those of last time!
If you are not able to attend worship on Sunday you can still join in online –
Go to attendersurvey.ncls.org.au and enter our NCLS Church Code UA310030 Complete the survey and click ‘Finish’.
Our service on Sunday will be a little shorter so we can complete the survey and have time to catch up with each other – it has been a long time since we were able to share afternoon tea. I will return our completed surveys to the NCLS office in Sydney on Monday. After the processing we will receive resources including our Profile of results.
The interest on the part of Synod is shown by the fact that Synod is ‘footing the bill’ for our participation, so our responses are part of what the synod will hear as it plans for the years ahead.
It is timely for us, as when Presbytery meets on March 1, it will be considering our request to be recognised as a Faith Community of the Uniting Church, and this Sunday our committee will update us on our progress to become an incorporated body – both of these moves relate to our future. Bob
Next Wednesday March 2 is Ash Wednesday.
What Is "Transfiguration Sunday?"
Transfiguration Sunday is the Sunday before Lent. In the biblical context, the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) narrate the Transfiguration as a bridge between Jesus’ public ministry and his passion. From the time of the Transfiguration, Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem and the cross.
Its position in the Christian year, coming before the start of Lent and the journey to the Cross, is because Transfiguration offers encouragement before a time of rigour. Peter, John and James were given a vision of Christ in glory, the risen and ascended Lord, as they struggled to come to terms with what Jesus had said about the trouble and suffering that lay ahead.
Traditionally Lent encouraged observers to give up and make sacrifices, to tighten their belts and deny themselves excess, to better understand the way of the cross, the suffering of Jesus and the world. On Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) or Pancake Day people said good-bye to meat (carne vale). The last of the rich foods was eaten before the fasting began with the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
‘Shrove' refers to making confession and Lent is associated with a time of review and reflection. Lent offers the opportunity to embrace change, to re-examine priorities and to remember the needs of our neighbour. By making lifestyle changes each of us may make the world a better place for others.
Transfiguration Sunday not only makes us more aware of the needs of our neighbours but gives to us, as to Peter, John and James, a vision of Christ in Glory, for our encouragement and hope day by day.
From the Minister (February, 16)
Some special days such as children’s birthdays seem to take a very long time to arrive!!
At last, February 20, National Church Life Survey Sunday has arrived and this Sunday afternoon we will join many thousands in over 20 denominations across Australia in contributing to the most comprehensive view of church life in the world. It is a chance to review our church’s qualities as we look to the future.
Many of us will remember completing the survey before – in fact the survey has been conducted on six previous occasions over 30 years. I wonder how our responses this year would compare with those of last time!
If you are not able to attend worship on Sunday you can still join in online –
Go to attendersurvey.ncls.org.au and enter our NCLS Church Code UA310030 Complete the survey and click ‘Finish’.
Our service on Sunday will be a little shorter so we can complete the survey and have time to catch up with each other – it has been a long time since we were able to share afternoon tea. I will return our completed surveys to the NCLS office in Sydney on Monday. After the processing we will receive resources including our Profile of results.
The interest on the part of Synod is shown by the fact that Synod is ‘footing the bill’ for our participation, so our responses are part of what the synod will hear as it plans for the years ahead.
It is timely for us, as when Presbytery meets on March 1, it will be considering our request to be recognised as a Faith Community of the Uniting Church, and this Sunday our committee will update us on our progress to become an incorporated body – both of these moves relate to our future. Bob
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