tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47279661680237606832024-03-19T05:44:13.624+00:00Something to stand onReflections and musings that sometimes find their way into sermonsliz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-80902991784024908962023-11-28T10:07:00.001+00:002023-11-28T10:07:42.900+00:00Christ the King<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBA_lIuyXr8AXrkRolyls_WQYXRTix_iVdFbqqwtjTas-_mecvcXeZEh6RyuQ4xg-Yq_EYtpROgogH5uVYU1uQw5SRnlUxOsSQMN59rqVzNZ7a84NICOGZMeWroEx02WaZALwm33m_JF8UbeW9EXasXuTt8tk5OWOyi-tXwHJo9-aSziQGrZVj3HXHvM1D/s4032/IMG_5018.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBA_lIuyXr8AXrkRolyls_WQYXRTix_iVdFbqqwtjTas-_mecvcXeZEh6RyuQ4xg-Yq_EYtpROgogH5uVYU1uQw5SRnlUxOsSQMN59rqVzNZ7a84NICOGZMeWroEx02WaZALwm33m_JF8UbeW9EXasXuTt8tk5OWOyi-tXwHJo9-aSziQGrZVj3HXHvM1D/s320/IMG_5018.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;">Matthew 25:31-46</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So - the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our last Sunday, for the time being, in Matthew’s gospel. And what a gospel it is!</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t know about you but I’ve really enjoyed our forays in Matthew’s gospel this year.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps it’s something about being in a new place with a new community of people - Or perhaps it’s been our further exploration of the Sunday gospel passages after our Thursday Eucharist, but I’ve seen Matthew’s gospel in a new light.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I think I understand less of it now than I ever did.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And that’s a good thing!</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I remember when, week after week, we were reading the parables Jesus told, Coming to the realisation that, contrary to all the many attempts to explain and to simplify - understanding the kingdom of God is not easy. However neatly packaged we’d like the gospel to be, however much we’d like instructions on how to follow Christ, that’s not what we get.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And today’s gospel is no different.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We may think it is.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It might seem straightforward.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s about caring for others.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">About sharing what we have - with the least of these.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s about ensuring that we will be counted among the sheep rather than the goats.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But is it?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why should this passage be straightforward when none of the others are?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This passage takes us right back to Jesus’ answer to the religious authorities who asked him: Which is the greatest commandment?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And Jesus said: Love the lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. And love your neighbour as yourself. And we realised that, though that sounds really straightforward - it’s the hardest thing to do.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Following Christ means that we will be prepared to go where he is, to love as he loves, to serve as he serves.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We celebrate the reign of Christ today and acknowledge that Christ’s reign was one of service.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As you know next Sunday sees the beginning of Advent.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And I wonder whether, this year, we can look on Advent, not so much as simply the lead up to Christmas - but the opportunity to put into action all that we have learned about the kingdom of God as we have journeyed with Matthew’s gospel this past year.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To recognise that choosing to follow Christ is not about guaranteeing our future at the end of time - but about making a difference now.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What has been clear in all of Matthew’s teaching is the importance of celebrating God’s kingdom here and now.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gods kingdom is here - we are called to make it visible - what might that look like in the brokenness of our world today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the face of all that de-humanises.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the face of all that divides.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the face of poverty and cost of living crisis.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When creation groans under the weight of exploitation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How might we make God visible?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From those who have much, much is expected.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We know that the resources of the earth are abundant. Our call is to find ways to share that abundance.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We know that there are ways to resolve conflict that don’t involve violence.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our call is to model ways of living peaceably on earth and to keep on praying for peace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our call is to serve one another - in doing all that we can, in seeing the abundant resources around us and within us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In looking into the eyes of another human being, whoever they be - and seeing there, God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The feast we observe today - Christ the King - was instituted by Pope Pius XI - to offer a model of faith that was counter cultural at the time.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a world emerging from a world war, where nationalism and violence were seen as the answer, Pope Pius wanted to remind the church that there was another way - the way of Christ.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Don’t we need that same reminder today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A reminder that there is an alternative.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That things can be different.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That we can live in love, promoting peace and justice- that we can honour and respect and nurture this planet on which we live.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sharing what we have, serving one another.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Seeing Jesus in places we’d rather not be and knowing that is precisely where we’re called.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A few years ago, we lived in a manse right next to the church.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we often had folk come to the door looking for help.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We always had something we could share.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not cash.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But food or vouchers.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or even just a cuppa at the kitchen table.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One evening, just as I was about to go out to a presbytery meeting, a woman came to the door wanting to talk and looking for something to eat.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I had a report to present at the meeting, so I didn’t want to be late.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I made her a sandwich and told her, if she wanted to talk, to come back another time.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All through the meeting, I couldn’t get her out of my head.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we argued over the minutiae of the church, my heart was telling me, that I had missed an opportunity to be Christ to another.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we could spend countless hours pontificating how we should organise church - as we did at that meeting and many others like it - and, in the end, not make the least difference to those we are called to serve.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This Christ the King Sunday, and as we journey through Advent, may we resolve not to miss the opportunities that are all around us - to serve and be served.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To find ways of living in peace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To share the resources of the earth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To take our faith in the Christ who serves - into the community beyond the church, to make the kingdom of God a reality now - by loving God and loving others.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p><div><br /></div>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-78055014091626492902022-09-11T13:58:00.002+01:002022-09-11T13:58:28.477+01:00Being obnoxious<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtSFf6GldviedEF4Z4VGOJyOP_WvrijCOG2xvIKFAd3N8CWVm8-zH3vhfIwDyUvrDE078BEIKqDUW6aDi1OPhUtTqw5LdT47H5ubmtN93wEDDCExm-3T6OFFFMU470WWnvkb0cwZcrTVswJlaxLkF3mBpfGmgZpDcqHI_lYLl5egbJTewKqWtd24Y5bA/s2048/92DDDC7F-F061-48EA-804E-076A094EE0DE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtSFf6GldviedEF4Z4VGOJyOP_WvrijCOG2xvIKFAd3N8CWVm8-zH3vhfIwDyUvrDE078BEIKqDUW6aDi1OPhUtTqw5LdT47H5ubmtN93wEDDCExm-3T6OFFFMU470WWnvkb0cwZcrTVswJlaxLkF3mBpfGmgZpDcqHI_lYLl5egbJTewKqWtd24Y5bA/s320/92DDDC7F-F061-48EA-804E-076A094EE0DE.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;">Luke 15:1-10</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;">Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;">So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;">“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, Amen.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19.5px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As you know it always vital to consider the context of any gospel passage we read - to look at what has gone before, to look at its setting, to step back and get a bigger picture.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, in todays, possibly familiar passage, considering the context makes all the difference.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At the beginning of this passage we are told that Jesus is surrounded by two sets of people - tax collectors and sinners on the one hand and scribes and Pharisees on the other.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The scribes and Pharisees are grumbling about him hanging our with the tax collectors and sinners.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, he tells them a story.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, as is his wont, Jesus places them in that story.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He says to the scribes and the Pharisees - which of you…</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one, would not leave the 99 to go and find it?</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The question - or the challenge Jesus is making seems to be making is - would you go and seek the lost?</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Would you leave the comfort you know to show concern for those outside of your circle?</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I suppose that’s the way I’ve always understood that parable - perhaps you have too. A call to us as spiritual leaders to go and find those who’ve lost their way.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But in todays world - and the gospel always has a word to speak into our current climate, in todays world, I wonder if the challenge is not something else.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In todays world of social isolation, of religious and political difference, of economic uncertainty and fear of those who are different from us. In this world, perhaps the parable, speaks to us as the 99.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The 99 who have stayed together, remained within our comfort zones, stuck with what we know, hung out with those who are like us, even done good and charitable things.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps it speaks to us as the 99 whose actions have nonetheless proved exclusive.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The 99 who have made it plain that we’re fine as we are - and don’t need to worry, that we have resources and enough to share.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That if folk want to join in, fair enough, but on our terms.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps we’re the 99 who wait quietly, huddled together for safety and security.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are weary.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And that’s perfectly understandable.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Together we’ve endured global trauma and upheaval - that shows no signs of abating anytime soon.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And in our own political climate, there appears to be little good news - quite the opposite.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No wonder we’re weary.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No wonder we want to rest with those we know.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We do what we can with the resources we have.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We go through the motions.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What is missing is JOY.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The two stories Jesus tells - of the lost sheep and the lost coin - they both end <span style="font-family: Arial-BoldMT; font-weight: bold;">Rejoice with me </span>.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They both end with communal rejoicing.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lord knows, there has been precious little of that around, for sure.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the immediate future is not looking too hopeful either.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So what would connecting with that joy look like, for us and for those we serve today?</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I believe it looks a lot like love.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like love and grace.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shining the light of love and grace in a world that is overwhelmed by darkness.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yesterday, I spent the morning on Girvan Beach, making some beach art intended to raise awareness of suicide.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Commemorating the 753 deaths by suicide that have affected Scottish families and communities in the last year.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the afternoon, I was working with a team who run a soup bus in Ayr.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And one of the things I asked them to do, was write affirmations for one another.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To write down the things they saw in their colleagues that made a difference to the lives of others.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are surrounded by those who feel hopeless.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By those who never hear words of affirmation.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is joy in heaven over one person who rediscovers the light of love and grace.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is joy in heaven over one person who discovers that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And I want to add - that there is joy in heaven over one of the 99 who recognises and has the courage to say that our institutions do not care for the most vulnerable in our communities. Not even close.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is joy in heaven over one of the 99 who will say charity is not the answer.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Food banks and warm banks should not be part of the fabric of our society, should not be celebrated, however well intentioned, as something we can provide.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our importance is not in normalising what is gross injustice but in being as obnoxious as the prophets, Jesus included, were.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Calling out what divides and excludes and widens the gap between rich and poor, the in and the out.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is rejoicing in heaven when the 99 find a way to stand in the gap, making a bridge that links communities in opposing injustice until all know themselves as sheep of God’s own searching and lambs of Gods own finding.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the midst of grief and despair today, God invites us - Rejoice with me.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s recover the joy in our faith by reclaiming our activism as prophets of God, calling out the injustice in our world, not just seeking the lost but recognising how we have to change to live as Gods people today in the kingdom that has room for all.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In that place, God invites us: Rejoice with me.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p><div><br /></div>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-39230021748476258942022-07-16T08:36:00.000+01:002022-07-16T08:36:11.244+01:00Both/And - Martha and Mary<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgn4Xfaz8PdZjnWGJ1wsrk0ARhg4GdN3YagAJUJ4UO8seYyO2SBP9ut2Ai-lWMYhtl4IZcxAT6BoI0NaA0rYRFnFho61EYIMAUBzcN_8u-ahLt2eI8bOATsWZNmq69c4JK1Bsi6WTTHxQMgKuU-SlWsBcgkVK_eEOCz4KRwGVavbvb5TcZFJUZPTwVA/s2048/839EC6C8-4F79-4E04-BA39-74164B86B5C3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgn4Xfaz8PdZjnWGJ1wsrk0ARhg4GdN3YagAJUJ4UO8seYyO2SBP9ut2Ai-lWMYhtl4IZcxAT6BoI0NaA0rYRFnFho61EYIMAUBzcN_8u-ahLt2eI8bOATsWZNmq69c4JK1Bsi6WTTHxQMgKuU-SlWsBcgkVK_eEOCz4KRwGVavbvb5TcZFJUZPTwVA/s320/839EC6C8-4F79-4E04-BA39-74164B86B5C3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 14px;">From the book: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stories-Well-Recovering-Her-Story/dp/B09SPC6CG9/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=49b5069c-b586-428a-832d-bd9f20ccf70e">Stories of the Well: Recovering Her Story</a> (Liz Crumlish 2022)</span><p></p><p><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Luke 10:38-42</i></b></p><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Jesus Visits Martha and Mary</i></b><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”</i></b><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><br /></i></b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"></span><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Which is the better part?</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>For years interpretation has sought </i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>to divide Martha and Mary</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>determining that only one of them</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>can be commended by our Lord</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>that only one way</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>is important in the kingdom.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Yet truth be told</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>we know all too well</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>that we need those who welcome others</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>doing all the things necessary</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>to provide hospitality</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>as well as those </i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>who will take time to listen,</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>affording intimacy.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>And in both women</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>we see the norms of the day</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>confounded yet again</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>turned on their head</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>by women refusing to conform.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Martha, welcoming Jesus boldly</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>as a head of a household might.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>And Mary, sitting at the Rabbi’s feet</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>as a disciple might.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Both, in their own way </i><i>contributing </i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>to the table fellowship they shared.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>And, we can imagine Jesus</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>taking the fruits of Martha’s labour:</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>bread still warm from the oven</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>its aroma filling the room</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>and sweet, heady wine,</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>kept for just such an occasion</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>and, wrapped in the adoring gaze of Mary,</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>transforming those gifts</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>in the knowledge</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>that the portent of death</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>was not missed in this home</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>For here were </i><i>two women</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>who simply got it</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>and, together, made room for the One</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>in whom everything made sense</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Two women who demonstrated that love</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>does not consist in either/or</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>but in both/and.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>Martha and Mary</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>who recognised</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><i>that the kingdom was near.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">(Liz Crumlish 2022)</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-51074444414591815652022-06-12T15:28:00.000+01:002022-06-12T15:28:16.687+01:00We are all born naked<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3IpZpjB8tbfSH9_1yBheGscFzAVgBA98mKSeRQxG65Wopu8gVVtqQK4jCN5wRAwvviKnhQqsncTm9JpEcLcZCHHMNPQXKhFf-YzjNzSSZ6zWiL24bpENAeTA83ihECh0zrEi7HIyXvxN1jYdMljZFXMfS-K2F_x9JYtjPbWY29bs24tqg9OMWo60kA/s667/889CEBCF-2D28-499E-9B48-3DD0F506C1DB.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="667" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3IpZpjB8tbfSH9_1yBheGscFzAVgBA98mKSeRQxG65Wopu8gVVtqQK4jCN5wRAwvviKnhQqsncTm9JpEcLcZCHHMNPQXKhFf-YzjNzSSZ6zWiL24bpENAeTA83ihECh0zrEi7HIyXvxN1jYdMljZFXMfS-K2F_x9JYtjPbWY29bs24tqg9OMWo60kA/s320/889CEBCF-2D28-499E-9B48-3DD0F506C1DB.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;">John 16:12-15</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Some of you may have noticed by now, that I prefer to use Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer when I invoke the Trinity rather than Father, Son and Holy Spirit.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There’s something about naming God who is each and all of these things for us - Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All of these things gathered up together, each indistinguishable from the other, but, together signalling all that we might need or desire. God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trinity Sunday is one of those days that provokes fierce debate on social media about how many heresies will be preached as preachers of all hues try to explain the Trinity.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hopefully, I’m not going to get into that today - though who knows?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This week, I want to share something I heard recently on Ru Paul’s Drag Race - “ we are all born naked - all the rest is drag.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Although I’ve heard that a few times - Ru Paul’s Drag Race is my go-to for some light relief - that phrase hit me between the eyes this week as I’ve been focusing on how we might celebrate the Trinity.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Because one of the things I am drawn to again and again, is the messiness of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God, who from the dawn of creation refused to go for either or, refused to conform to the binaries in which we often try to confine things - instead, creating a spectrum, a rainbow, if you will, of multiple possibilities.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In creation, light doesn’t suddenly become dark, there is a whole spectrum in between.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we look out at the loch here, land merges into sea that merges into the horizon - with no firm lines where one ends and the other begins.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t believe God subscribes much to the either/or, or the in/out that we humans are so fond of.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God smudges the lines that we so carefully draw - again and again, sweeping all of creation up into love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“We are all born naked - all the rest is drag”. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As creations of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, God has already decreed us beloved.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God delights in us, however we choose to display or to mask our identities.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God delights in all the diversity and colour that we add to the palette of creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And God delights when we colour outside of the lines that some use to try and restrict or confine the wonderful spectrum of Creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No wonder Jesus said <span style="font-weight: bold;">“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Making sense of the machinations of God - who, among other things, is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer is beyond our binary logic.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so, rather than try and explain the mystery of the Trinity today, I want to invite you to allow yourself to be caught up in it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be caught up in the swirl of God’s love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Love that does not exclude.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Love that is not withheld from any because of who or what they are, or of how they self identify.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Love that encompasses the whole spectrum of life.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Love that is God’s invitation to you and to me to know ourselves perfectly created whoever we are, however we identify.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perfectly created to be Co-creators with God, contributing to the messy and wonderful canvas that God continues to paint, everyday revealing new ways of understanding the depths and the mysteries of love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Every day helping us come closer to knowing that WE are God’s delight.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we find our identity in the love of God and knowing that God loves and accepts us, may we love and accept others.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the name of that messy technicolour God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen </p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-21371907066823456352022-04-03T15:56:00.002+01:002022-04-03T15:56:16.032+01:00Don’t look away<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_eKwNswI2mbg1Lvi8dvOWhLoUFvni_J-ARvtvm6BNw6doiE3R0lpmHbNN4ZsGBOaJSUDS_aAEQhntnI0A3s2FdkUQR5Qw56zLIFHhLPnfQjINaUZCJLa4--TlMC79GjRcI6p1q6c-5oveeqT4L9G44d7axlEtT67qRjPi8KFDdN--JLK-oAZZ96D4g/s4032/CED88703-0B71-4AFB-9D9F-78D0A5308BFB.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_eKwNswI2mbg1Lvi8dvOWhLoUFvni_J-ARvtvm6BNw6doiE3R0lpmHbNN4ZsGBOaJSUDS_aAEQhntnI0A3s2FdkUQR5Qw56zLIFHhLPnfQjINaUZCJLa4--TlMC79GjRcI6p1q6c-5oveeqT4L9G44d7axlEtT67qRjPi8KFDdN--JLK-oAZZ96D4g/s320/CED88703-0B71-4AFB-9D9F-78D0A5308BFB.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;">John 12:1-8</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mary Anoints Jesus</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is a story that is recounted in all four gospels.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And I’ve always been annoyed that, in every version, the men in the story, steal the show.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It becomes all about them - rather than about the beautiful gift that a woman gave.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In John’s gospel, we see them suggesting how the cost of this gift might have been better employed in the service of the poor.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And in the other gospels, the men around Jesus question how Jesus can calmly accept the unconventional hospitality this woman shows instead of censuring her.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It becomes about the men - rather than about a woman who spontaneously offered radical love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we consider when this encounter happens in Jesus’s timeline:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It happens in a real threshold moment.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A turning point for Jesus.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just at the time when his ministry is about to change direction.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The authorities - civil and religious were already looking for a way to shut him down.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And then he raises Lazarus from the dead.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now there is no way he’ll be allowed to continue his disruptive influence.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This anointing happens in that liminal space.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When he’s about the leave the shores of lake Galilee to head to Jerusalem.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where the cross awaits.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s why we read it today, this 5th Sunday in Lent.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Passion Sunday.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The tide is turning for Jesus.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those who want him gone are closing in.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And he knows it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He’s been telling his friends, warning them.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But most of them want to bury their heads in the sand, stick their fingers in their ears and pretend that it’s business as usual.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mary of Bethany has listened.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She’s picked up on all the cues.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She knows that the gift of life for Lazarus, her brother, is the final nail for Jesus.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She knows - this man, whom she loves - his days are numbered.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So she does the most radical thing she can imagine.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She breaks open her expensive ointment and anoints her beloved.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It must have been excruciating and beautiful to watch.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And THAT’S why the men in the room have to divert attention.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They couldn’t bear to watch this overtly public display of affection.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And they they couldn’t square up to the truth that was staring them in the face.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They wanted to believe that life was always going to be one big beach party with Jesus.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Instead of a one way ticket to death on a cross - for him.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mary’s radical act confronts these men with something they’d rather avoid, so they look away and make it about something entirely different.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Prophets always make us uncomfortable.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And when we find our discomfort growing, we might ask ourselves why?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What is being stirred up in us?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, more importantly, how are we being nudged into action?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For <span style="font-weight: bold;">our</span> call is to be prophets today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To respond to the injustice we witness.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To call attention to what really matters in our world - and to keep on recalling others.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not to be distracted, but to keep on working for justice and protesting against all that gets in the way.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No matter how uncomfortable it makes those around us feel.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called, with Mary of Bethany to indulge in spontaneous acts of radical love and hospitality, to be extravagant in whatever way we can to address and confront injustice in all the places we inhabit as prophets today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we do all that we are called to with the love, the singularity, the purpose and the conviction of Mary of Bethany.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One radical act of love at a time.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">It’s not about the poor</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">It’s not about the dinner guests </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">It’s not about the keeper of the purse</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">It’s about a woman’s extravagant gift</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">The costly ointment</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">The fragrance</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">The unadulterated love exposed for all to see</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">And the discomfort of </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">witnessing such beauty and truth </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">becomes too much to bear</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">And so the focus is diverted</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">from a woman’s gift</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">to the men’s distraction techniques</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">lest we, too, should be moved</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">to such radical acts of love</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">that are searing to witness</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">causing those not comfortable in their own skin</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">to look away</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">to find distraction</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">in things that, in this moment,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">do not matter.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Our discomfort might be transformed</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">by looking deeply</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">at the longings</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">and the fears</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">the envy</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">and the loss</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">that are stirred up in us</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">who bear witness</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">to a pure</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">and spontaneous love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Until we too</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">counter injustice in the world</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">with acts of radical love.</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-89514828807098608252022-03-27T08:55:00.001+01:002022-03-27T08:55:33.934+01:00Still a long way off<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsc1PlaQMxuhDE0otIXUFVa9KqkmneeVbT5ZPQ1TW5FirsAqbzOleWeJ_tEhalsc3QtrftgjyCEn0nyv2KZr4TkVbugus7wvgL_RUb8bglT5AvI_-zAj3fkKegxjf4fOeoMUxLL0PF_wq426Ah6oSEtB_QI1ex02jDro_7EkZVhJQuPPzaGbyZvZjNkQ/s2048/1822D4E3-745D-4945-A02C-DCBBF450DBF1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsc1PlaQMxuhDE0otIXUFVa9KqkmneeVbT5ZPQ1TW5FirsAqbzOleWeJ_tEhalsc3QtrftgjyCEn0nyv2KZr4TkVbugus7wvgL_RUb8bglT5AvI_-zAj3fkKegxjf4fOeoMUxLL0PF_wq426Ah6oSEtB_QI1ex02jDro_7EkZVhJQuPPzaGbyZvZjNkQ/s320/1822D4E3-745D-4945-A02C-DCBBF450DBF1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Luke 15:1-3; 11-32<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">So he told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The story of the Prodigal Son is one of those multi-layered stories of Jesus - that every time we read it, we might see something different in it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We hear lots about the younger son, living it up, falling on hard times and coming to his senses.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve always wondered about whether the younger son really changed - or whether he simply came to know where he was well off.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we hear much about the father, rushing to welcome him home.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those words, “while he was still a long way off” are some of my favourite words in scripture.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of our post communion prayers used to use those words: While we were still a long way off, you came to meet us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For a long time I’ve had much sympathy for the elder brother who felt left out of the party.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wonder if he ever joined in?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or whether he carried on doing all the things he had done - with added resentment.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wonder if the elder brother ever woke up to the knowledge of all that was his for the taking- “ all that is mine is yours”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And of course, the woman of the house, if there was one, doesn’t get a mention.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How will this parable speak afresh to us today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will we recognise where we are well off and return - changed or not?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will we see afresh the abundant gifts of God that have always surrounded us?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And will we share out of that abundance rather than scarcity?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will we know our God as the prodigal one - who is extravagant with love and with grace?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will we know today that we are enough?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That we can make a difference?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today, as we read this parable, at the mid point of Lent, I’m drawn back to Ash Wednesday, recalling that as we gathered to remember that we are dust, Russia invaded Ukraine.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we had an all too tangible reminder that we are dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Almost 4 weeks on, lives are still being lost, cities are being destroyed and we’re seeing the best and the worst of human behaviour.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The courage and compassion of those who rush to help.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the seeming inhumanity of those in power who rush to put obstacles in the way of those fleeing for their lives - especially here in the UK.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While an evil regime continues to wreak carnage.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We’re at the mid point in Lent.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We need Easter and we need it to come quickly.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We need resurrection - the reminder that death does not have the last word, that love will triumph over evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the meantime…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we not stand by as evil gathers forces and takes up arms.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we recognise the abundance that surrounds us - the amazing love and grace of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we be filled not with resentment but with hope as we continue to serve God - to spread the love and grace of God wherever we are, knowing their overwhelming power to conquer evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we be generous with the gifts that God has given, doing all that we can to bring peace into a world at war.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the name of Christ, Prince of Peace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-84630656932858068192022-03-06T15:13:00.003+00:002022-03-06T15:13:50.268+00:00Beautiful dust<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXqqp_i7kkBa7hS4s3NOUu8bz_WybE7SMB6s5VGAczrdWNd8-CYgpGYJYIUSmb_qQ_C6Y4iVvAcgF3Kphk9jJBbpQnsOhhlSnnkmpF0RK3zEY7LnXXt8hU3ImYJIofCWAUkDpWIw35o2Y1noaphHsjO5VyUa3a9PpK9amisuffsqBTGaRTBMpXjs7fMw=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXqqp_i7kkBa7hS4s3NOUu8bz_WybE7SMB6s5VGAczrdWNd8-CYgpGYJYIUSmb_qQ_C6Y4iVvAcgF3Kphk9jJBbpQnsOhhlSnnkmpF0RK3zEY7LnXXt8hU3ImYJIofCWAUkDpWIw35o2Y1noaphHsjO5VyUa3a9PpK9amisuffsqBTGaRTBMpXjs7fMw=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 4:1-13</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’ ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus answered him, “It is written,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">‘Worship the Lord your God,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and serve only him.’ ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">for it is written,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">‘He will command his angels concerning you,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to protect you,’</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">‘On their hands they will bear you up,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span face="HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer, Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before we consider today’s gospel, I want to pause for a moment with Ash Wednesday, our entry into Lent.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to pause to consider the words spoken as ash is placed on our foreheads:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Remember that you are dust - and to dust you shall return.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is my hope that remembering that we are dust also takes us to remembering what God did - and does - with dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God created humans out of dust - and invited us to be involved in the stewardship of all creation to work alongside God in caring for the earth and all its creatures.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Remember that you are dust.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God created stars and galaxies out of dust and invited us to take our place in that vast universe.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Remember that you are dust - and to dust you shall return.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And I want to add - and remember the amazing things that God can do with dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jan Richardson puts it like this:</p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">All those days</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">you felt like dust,</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">like dirt,</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">as if all you had to do</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">was turn your face</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">toward the wind</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">and be scattered</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">to the four corners</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">or swept away</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">by the smallest breath</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">as insubstantial—</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">did you not know</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">what the Holy One</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">can do with dust?</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">….</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">So let us be marked</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">not for sorrow.</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And let us be marked</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">not for shame.</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Let us be marked</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">not for false humility</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">or for thinking</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">we are less</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">than we are</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">but for claiming</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">what God can do</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">within the dust,</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">within the dirt,</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">within the stuff</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">of which the world</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">is made</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">and the stars that blaze</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">in our bones</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">and the galaxies that spiral</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">inside the smudge</span></p>
<p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">we bear.</span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>You can find the full text <a href="https://paintedprayerbook.com/2013/02/08/ash-wednesday-blessing-the-dust/">here</a></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here, this first Sunday of Lent, let us <span style="font-style: italic;">Remember that we are dust - and to dust we shall return</span>.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Remembering the hope and trust that God has in us - and for us- may help to give us a different lens through which to look at our world today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A lens that sees power and beauty and strength to be harnessed out of the dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so as we hear today’s gospel, of Jesus in the wilderness, being tempted by the devil, we bear witness to Jesus harnessing the power of dust to vanquish evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus refuses to turn stones into bread to satisfy his own hunger, knowing that the bread God provides is the bread of life.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He refuses to assume power by bowing down to evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And he refuses to put God to the test by misusing the power that he knows he has.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus withstands the temptations that the devil put in his way - and our gospel ends with these words: <span style="font-weight: bold;">When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Evil<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>does not give up.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We know that only too well.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we, created out of dust, are entrusted to vanquish evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To see evil in all its subtle and blatant forms and to harness the power of dust by standing always against evil wherever and however it is encountered.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To seek truth that informs our prayers and our actions.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To refuse to be seduced by media coverage that paints a whole nation as evil but to see the shades of a people whose choices are limited.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This Lent, may we take on rather than give up.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Take on discerning truth so that our prayers and actions are informed by love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Take on the power and the beauty and the strength that are in the dust by which we are created.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we take on harnessing the power of dust to stand against evil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we take on looking for beauty, even and especially in the rubble of war.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we take on strength that enables us to hope that we are enough and that God does miraculous things with dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are created out of dust breathed into with love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And love is stronger than war and stronger than death.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And remember the amazing things that God can do with dust.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May it be so. Amen</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-52425505663467121852022-01-29T17:35:00.001+00:002022-01-29T17:35:23.804+00:00Cutting through the noise<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZLagMpmwCfJAUFOuzfwaHyCDrL769dxfMApwCHSq1bKQoTlxcwKCjSfGOx0IpTBBn6BUuR6cvcRX5R2JyIOAMwlA-F0ekm-2gpVF0bvMKaPcWaW37-arTJFEv2v_yzsKDW5asXO7ZGZyEbf9SbcdeGNoCh6Yk4-vBV6tl_Kmx2apWKCOF9SWIT2eRQw=s1600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZLagMpmwCfJAUFOuzfwaHyCDrL769dxfMApwCHSq1bKQoTlxcwKCjSfGOx0IpTBBn6BUuR6cvcRX5R2JyIOAMwlA-F0ekm-2gpVF0bvMKaPcWaW37-arTJFEv2v_yzsKDW5asXO7ZGZyEbf9SbcdeGNoCh6Yk4-vBV6tl_Kmx2apWKCOF9SWIT2eRQw=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 4:21-30</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the name of the creator, the redeemer and the sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This week I’ve been particularly drawn to the last sentence in our gospel: </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How that has resonated with me this week - and perhaps you too - <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How often have you wanted to just keep walking - through the crowd and the noise, through the debates and the discussion, through the anxiety and the confusion, through the posturing and the pontificating? <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a week when we’ve heard more crazy about our government and the institutions that underpin the fabric of our society.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a week when more migrants have taken to little boats in dangerous waters.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a week when it seems world leaders have learned nothing about war.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a week when we’ve remembered the Holocaust, pledging never again, yet knowing that hate crimes are on the rise - and seeing our culture edging closer and closer to the kind of indifference and weariness that allows such intolerance to arise in our midst, I want to retreat</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to retreat, not to escape the noise and confusion but to get my head straight.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to retreat, not to ignore all that is going on but to take it all in.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to retreat, not to shirk what God is asking of me - but to discern it anew.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want to retreat, not to conserve my energy but to gather my courage to jump back in.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t believe Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way to escape what they might do to him.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I believe he kept on walking because he had work to do:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In presenting his manifesto, that came from God…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In recognising that the Spirit of God was on him, that he was appointed to bring good news for the poor, release for the captive, sight for the blind - the whole kit and caboodle…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In recognising that and in seeing how his own kith and kin reacted, Jesus needed to take time to reset, to get his head straight, to gather his courage, so that he could get back to it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Get back to confounding years of tradition.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Get back to questioning years of entitlement.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Get back to demonstrating the costly nature of living out God’s radical message of love and inclusion.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus’ call wasn’t simply to shore up the religious institutions of his day.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or to be silent about the latest political pronouncements that condemned many to harsh lives of poverty and injustice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">His call was to question those in authority - in church and in state - and to model a new way - a way that transcends all our notions of right and wrong, that oversteps every line we could possibly imagine.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our communities are full of tired and restless people right now.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Surviving 2 years of a global pandemic has opened our eyes to possibility - to the good that communities can do and be when they work together.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And it has opened our eyes to the appalling lack of leadership or compassion or moral compass that exists elsewhere.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We, as Christ’s body can no longer be silently compliant in the many injustices of the world.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s not enough to slip back into our familiar routines and practices.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we are assaulted by a cacophony of noise in the world, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">as we witness anger and protest and discontent in our communities, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">our call is to recalibrate what God demands of us today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To walk on through the noise of the crowds, the haters and the doubters, and to find newness of purpose in the one who called us before we were born.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we read in Jeremiah:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and before you were born I consecrated you;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">I appointed you a prophet to the nations…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to pluck up and to pull down,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to destroy and to overthrow,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to build and to plant.” </span>(Jeremiah 1:5,10)</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do not underestimate the power of taking time out to recalibrate</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do not underestimate the difference you can make</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do not underestimate the power of love that <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.</span>(1Corinthians 13)</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the love of God</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-11271169474139363562022-01-23T09:08:00.000+00:002022-01-23T09:08:06.623+00:00Being the change<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcYSRIccKEylM1y-MnAq077WctiPZbJg6ku35d0uNBFYaAPVQApT9O-G528sJ0C0lH8i4OLj6j8D-aUfYUtsOzN59pkhkhUhNVOdV2aXnlM3BQ40dKe1JLsmiuknjr8MeI9x_BnH7bQC7lsL_j2r_ioGFRBNPVqV5uRnUoGfN8OiUfo7qX8aefaEj0BQ=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcYSRIccKEylM1y-MnAq077WctiPZbJg6ku35d0uNBFYaAPVQApT9O-G528sJ0C0lH8i4OLj6j8D-aUfYUtsOzN59pkhkhUhNVOdV2aXnlM3BQ40dKe1JLsmiuknjr8MeI9x_BnH7bQC7lsL_j2r_ioGFRBNPVqV5uRnUoGfN8OiUfo7qX8aefaEj0BQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 4:14-21</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">because he has anointed me</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to bring good news to the poor.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and recovery of sight to the blind,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to let the oppressed go free,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What would it take, today, to say: <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What would it take to be able, having read from the scroll (or the gospel book today) to place it back where it lives during the week - and to set about fulfilling scripture?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How might <span style="font-weight: bold;">we</span> hear the good news for the poor?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How might <span style="font-weight: bold;">our</span> eyes be opened?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How might we be set free for things that hold us back.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How might we rise up from things that keep us down?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We might want to argue that what Jesus was asserting was that he was the fulfilment of Scripture - that what those in the synagogue were witnessing was the one on whom the Spirit of God rests.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, of course it was. But what about now.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How is that Scripture going to be fulfilled today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Good news for the poor</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Release for the captives</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sight for the blind</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Freedom for the oppressed.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How will we hear that scripture setting <span style="font-weight: bold;">us</span> free today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And how will <span style="font-weight: bold;">we</span> fulfil that scripture for others? </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does it look like today, to bring good news to the poor?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does good news even look like in our communities today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does good news look like when you are constantly worried about where your next meal will come from?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or whether you can afford to turn the heating on?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does good news look like when you are worried about inflation - particularly when you’re not even that sure what inflation is - but you do know that, even though you’re working two jobs you can’t afford your weekly grocery bills and, if you’re lucky enough to be just about managing, there’s absolutely no cushion for any surprises, any unforeseen expenses.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does good news look like to the many in this community who are living hand to mouth, not because they’ve been careless - and who are we to judge - but because constant and relentless austerity measures hit hardest those who are just about managing.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What does good news look like to those who are just getting on their feet, or to those who are barely keeping their heads above water, for whom there is no safety net.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And what about release for the captives.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those trapped in isolation, or addiction, or fear, those stuck in food or fuel poverty, those struggling with mental health issues - how will they find release?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And how will the blind be enabled to see - both the beauty and pain, the good will and the sickness that affects our community?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How will <span style="font-weight: bold;">our</span> eyes be opened to all our blind spots - the things we overlook or fail to see?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How can we proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That is some calling to fulfil.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are confronted today with that same stark reality with which Jesus presented those who heard him read scripture in the synagogue.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Promises are empty - until they are fulfilled.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s no good knowing scripture by heart if we don’t live into it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Believing in the promises for ourselves - and for the communities in which we live and work.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Promises that remain empty words unless we are prepared to be the means of seeing Scripture fulfilled.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We know that’s a huge task - much bigger than us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So - how can we avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task before us?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How can we avoid being disabled by its enormity?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What if we took seriously the notion of God’s spirit resting on us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What if we took seriously that Gods spirit enables us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Enables us to be good news,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Enables us to see beyond our blindness.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Enables us to throw off the chains that keep us bound to our smallness and our lack of vision.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Enables us to break free from the limiting stories that we’ve heard so often that we believe them - stories of not <span style="font-weight: bold;">having</span> enough, of not <span style="font-weight: bold;">being</span> enough.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God spirit rests on us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who are we to limit the Spirit of God?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What if, in the power of that spirit, we asked God to reveal one thing - <span style="font-weight: bold;">one thing</span> that we can do , one thing that we might be - that will enable us to live into our calling as God’s people today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A people called and equipped to fulfil scripture.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t know what the one thing might be for you.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What I do know is that if we all find that one thing, then together, Scripture will be fulfilled.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In this place.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s hear today’s gospel again - read this time from The message version - just to give us another take on it:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 4:16-21</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">God's Spirit is on me;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">recovery of sight to the blind,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">To set the burdened and battered free,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">to announce, "This is God's year to act!"</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May it be so that this prophecy came true today, in this place - and in all the days to come as we seek out that one thing that we can do as we live into being the body of Christ in this place.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Being good news for the poor</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Release for captives</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sight for the blind</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And freedom for the oppressed.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Being the fulfilment of Scripture in this community today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thanks be to God.</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-29422335614289953762021-12-19T15:19:00.003+00:002021-12-19T15:19:33.027+00:00Sacred pause<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ1UjSF6as1ZB5vI99jFrzguT1BHDHjfYktRpBKEknlbQeP6C0JtNTijym4jQwnyvr0hoxCb75KmbyrCkmZh_K1FDOdjtCcrb1loYgdglZV0zE4xq8VMz9FEQQXGWBXY6cCse6weoUJ_1ETcG1ksuihQphnho1QpsAjm9oqCWrbdl5iLUF80Mt7YO25Q=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ1UjSF6as1ZB5vI99jFrzguT1BHDHjfYktRpBKEknlbQeP6C0JtNTijym4jQwnyvr0hoxCb75KmbyrCkmZh_K1FDOdjtCcrb1loYgdglZV0zE4xq8VMz9FEQQXGWBXY6cCse6weoUJ_1ETcG1ksuihQphnho1QpsAjm9oqCWrbdl5iLUF80Mt7YO25Q=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 1:39-45</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mary Visits Elizabeth</span><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What a lovely moment in our journey through advent</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Two women sharing a pause.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The very young Mary, seeking out her elder relative Elizabeth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sharing the joy and anxiety of motherhood.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Two women, unexpectedly pregnant - Mary, because she was not yet married - and Elizabeth, because she thought she was beyond the age of bearing a child</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Two women, pregnant with potential, sharing a moment, each recognising in the other the blessing of God</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Knowing that they carried within them the world’s salvation, promised forever, knowing that they had a role in the fulfilment of that promise.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Two women, taking a moment to pause at the wonder of it all.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So let us pause for a moment.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s pause.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To breathe in grace…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And breathe out fear…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Breathing in grace…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And breathing out fear…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If we learn anything from Mary and Elizabeth, it is that their joy in the Lord was embodied.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It wasn’t just in their head.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or even just in their heart.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Their whole body cried out in joy.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit just as she was filled with the child in her womb - and she cried out:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mary’s song, that we read as our canticle this morning- is just as Spirit filled, just as full of passion- The Magnificat - a song of utter faith and trust in God to fulfil God’s promise - </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">He has shown strength with his arm;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and lifted up the lowly;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">he has filled the hungry with good things,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and sent the rich away empty.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Embodied faith.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Embodied grace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Something that plays out in our everyday lives.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we were reminded us last week - when crowds went out to hear John the Baptist in the wilderness, he didn’t ask them to stay there with him - he urged them to go back and live out faith where they were - by sharing what they had - if you have two coats, give one away, share your food, don’t cheat others…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The faith we profess has to be visible in our lives, has to be embodied, not just held in our minds or our hearts - but lived out.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mary and Elizabeth embodied their complete trust in God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As their sons grew, they would experience great sorrow, witness things that no mother should ever have to witness for their children, the kinds of things that countless mothers still endure today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yet each of them, knowing that sorrow awaited, rejoiced in the moment of being chosen by God to bear the herald of God and the Son of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are told that Mary stayed with Elizabeth about 3 months.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And I can’t help wondering if that was the most peaceful time that both Mary and Elizabeth knew.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Because once their sons arrived, the world was changed forever.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps they knew that they had to make the most of the time before.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The time when they still had the power to protect and nurture their sons.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A blessed time for two women to care for one another, to rejoice, to soothe and comfort and to share strength with one another for the journey ahead.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And it seems like this might be a good time for us, in our race through Advent, to take some sacred pause.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To marvel at God’s blessing and God’s care for each of us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To feel, not just in our hearts and minds, but with our whole being, the love and care of God for us - the grace that is ours, freely, extravagantly given in love by a God who chooses us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s a good time to take a sacred pause and to notice - How are we embodying that grace?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where do we feel it in our bodies?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where does it ooze out into our everyday lives?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s take a sacred pause.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let us pause, from our preparations, from our anxiety, from our wondering what government announcements await us tomorrow.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s pause.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To breathe in grace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And breathe out fear.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Breathing in grace.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And breathing out fear.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we pause here, with Elizabeth and Mary, may we gather strength, from one another and from God, to face whatever is next this Advent, knowing that the grace of God accompanies us as we go from here, filling us and equipping us for abundant life.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To the glory of God</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-71924028449696549922021-12-05T09:26:00.000+00:002021-12-05T09:26:00.655+00:00Finding our wilderness <p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFCQA1umDDiFPaU4TWfTJWX9ORpMtAjRRaCYb6XpetEcfod3dkC3OeiDKGkqA6hEvbdX-0Rf0G45OFSrAym4FMF03BoiUFOoh0f6Gc0Qdq18dFF_qLEkFE85VhvzZUg0XZL89NUzZTatSOwwmH9_cwG0s5HgHNV3oZ7SqgiUG1kNvH8o_1D6WcIAI_UQ=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFCQA1umDDiFPaU4TWfTJWX9ORpMtAjRRaCYb6XpetEcfod3dkC3OeiDKGkqA6hEvbdX-0Rf0G45OFSrAym4FMF03BoiUFOoh0f6Gc0Qdq18dFF_qLEkFE85VhvzZUg0XZL89NUzZTatSOwwmH9_cwG0s5HgHNV3oZ7SqgiUG1kNvH8o_1D6WcIAI_UQ=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br />Luke 3:1-6<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">‘Prepare the way of the Lord,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">make his paths straight.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Every valley shall be filled,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and every mountain and hill shall be made low,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and the crooked shall be made straight,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and the rough ways made smooth;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius…Pontius Pilate was governor…Herod and Philip and Lysanias were rulers of the regions. Annas and Caiaphas were high priests…and John was in the wilderness - perhaps as far removed from all this power as it was possible to be.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">John the Baptist was born into a priestly line - his future was pretty much mapped out - to serve in the temple.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Instead, he chose to follow God’s call to be a prophet.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Giving up the luxury and status that he might have known, John followed a much rockier, uncomfortable path as a prophet.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so, miles from all the power and posturing, John was in the wilderness preaching repentance.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, by all accounts, people flocked to hear him and to be baptised by him.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People, longing for something different, went to hear John in the wilderness - at the edge, far from all the political turmoil and oppression.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That made me think about us today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the midst of political sleaze, where global pandemic rules apply to some and not others, and where access to vaccination depends on where in the world you live… where those already struggling are plunged further into deprivation… In the midst of all this - where is our wilderness?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where is that place to which we can retreat- and hear something different?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where can we be engaged in a new way of being- that’s not about power or posturing?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where is that place that we can own our vulnerability and confront our fear and find ourselves met? Perhaps even changed?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Wilderness places hold out the promise of transformation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we stop running.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And stop trying to talk or think our way out of our current predicament.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we simply take a moment to acknowledge how hard things are.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How weary we are.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How worried we are.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not because we don’t have hope. We do.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But that doesn’t mean we don’t still worry.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That doesn’t mean we don’t feel weary.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Almost two years of a life we would never have imagined takes it’s toll.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The wilderness, wherever that may be for you, that place of pause, is not an escape.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But it is an opportunity to sit with our vulnerability.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To acknowledge loss and longings.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To confront our fears.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, in our wilderness, to be met by God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be met by God, who doesn’t condemn us for our weariness or our fear…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be met by God, who does not dismiss our longings…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be met by God, who does not even comfort us, telling us everything will be alright…</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be met by God, who sits with us in all the darkness, a constant companion.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To be met by God until we are ready to listen again to words of hope - like the words in today’s gospel - <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">all flesh shall see the salvation of God </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That is the promise- that things will be turned on their head - the mighty shall be brought low, the humble will be lifted up - that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And in the meantime?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the meantime, God comes to us in all our wilderness places.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God enters our lives here and now, simply to be with us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yet into our despair God pours hope</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Into our sorrow, God pours joy.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Into our darkness, God pours light.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our wilderness is transformed by good news.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Good news that is for all the world.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so, however long it takes, however long we need God simply to sit with us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the end, like John, we are called to Prepare the way of the Lord.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called to sit with others - for as long as it takes.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, when the time is right - to be light in the darkness, to be joy in sorrow, to be hope in fear and to be the good news that our world needs today more than ever.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Prepare the way of the Lord until all the world sees the salvation of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we all become more familiar with the wilderness places this Advent.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the glory of God.</p>
<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">Amen</span> </p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-35263219425152732262021-11-21T08:34:00.000+00:002021-11-21T08:34:26.881+00:00Called to disappoint<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmdfsHXPrHvLsxMi3HP2dM36KhrUcwQge0cpatIi10yfIcieEq2Skb07yqJ37B449GrD3QUMlaxDyKC8Eml3VddXAEsGzxj_s0Zal95TgXLlnOAfeh8DKDsgxqpMnV1jvDRt7g_GbsYYCv/s2048/DB019C3D-F35C-4CE4-99FF-F08A5B90C622.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmdfsHXPrHvLsxMi3HP2dM36KhrUcwQge0cpatIi10yfIcieEq2Skb07yqJ37B449GrD3QUMlaxDyKC8Eml3VddXAEsGzxj_s0Zal95TgXLlnOAfeh8DKDsgxqpMnV1jvDRt7g_GbsYYCv/s320/DB019C3D-F35C-4CE4-99FF-F08A5B90C622.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br />John 18:33-37<p></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew , am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Are you the king of the Jews?</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s a human trait to want to label things, to pin them down.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Being able to name and thus identify something gives many people security.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That’s why Jesus was so annoying.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He refused to be labelled, refused to conform.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just when folk around him thought they had him sussed - calling him rabbi, teacher, healer, king… Jesus would confound them and do something unconventional, something that meant he could no longer be typified, no longer fit into the boxes that folk constructed for him.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the authorities around him, church and state, were so riled by their inability to work him out, to define him and control him, that they resorted to violence.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, lest we think the insecurity of religious authorities that Jesus encountered was simply of his time, let me share with you just a snippet of when I’ve bumped up against that same sort of frustration when I’ve confounded folk because I didn’t follow convention or conform the their stereotypes.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">30 years ago, when my call to ordained ministry was being assessed, the panel of 10 men and 1 woman wanted to know: Do you have a desire to preach.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In my tradition at the time, preaching was deemed to be a big part of vocational identity.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But it wasn’t mine.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Somehow, I circumnavigated that stumbling block and went on to training.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After University, however, came the next stumbling block - I didn’t feel called to serve in parish ministry - which was the expected and, I would say, the only acceptable route for a new ordinand to take.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I felt called to serve in Hospital Chaplaincy.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of my colleagues asked at that point - Do you want to be a minister or not?</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was very aware of their frustration - but I couldn’t simply comply when God was calling me to another form of ministry.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Eventually I did embrace parish ministry - that brought me to Ayr. But, 30 years after my first experience of ‘not fitting in’ I confounded colleagues again when I took up a National post working on renewal in the church.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again, there was murmuring and shaking of heads.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, sadly, what I learned, or what I had confirmed, is that when folk don’t conform or can’t be labelled or can’t be put in a box, they are seen as a threat!</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I think I’ve spent most of my ministry disappointing folk.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s not a comfortable place to be.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But I believe it is the ministry to which God calls us.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A ministry of disappointing folk.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A ministry of refusing to conform</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Refusing to be labelled.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Refusing to be pinned down.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not because we are fickle.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But because we are committed to the unconventional ministry of love and of service.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called, when folk expect to be met with judgement, to offer love.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called, when folk expect rejection, to offer acceptance.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called when folk expect certainty, to offer possibility.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And we are called, when folk expect censure, to offer service.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Following in the way of Christ the king</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who humbled himself</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who emptied himself</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who became poor</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus, labelled king of the Jews said<span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">: For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For what are we born?</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To what are we called?</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let me suggest that we are called to disappoint.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called to confound expectations.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called to follow the way of a servant king</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are called to climb out of the boxes that folk construct for us, to discard the labels that folk pin on us - and to love and to love and to love some more.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the Name of Christ the king.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p><p></p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-5147452606417106822021-10-31T08:47:00.001+00:002021-10-31T08:47:17.291+00:00Come Out!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23wgFXuyft6qj_OWzpBg1dk5LEhowfHeaT1z3rsY0LCbEEpsYx8MWtoQbOZII6sdjmkqiirKdZoSAwmvStLGHN8Vah0ydzE87SlF1pG9e36pcyAewtqpchjEapSeaDK8sfWMhSTOEwghB/s2048/0DB75C14-BE19-4084-8D5E-6A1FF33F828F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23wgFXuyft6qj_OWzpBg1dk5LEhowfHeaT1z3rsY0LCbEEpsYx8MWtoQbOZII6sdjmkqiirKdZoSAwmvStLGHN8Vah0ydzE87SlF1pG9e36pcyAewtqpchjEapSeaDK8sfWMhSTOEwghB/s320/0DB75C14-BE19-4084-8D5E-6A1FF33F828F.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">John 11:32-44</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus began to weep. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That short verse, from our gospel today is oft quoted.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s quoted as the shortest verse in the bible.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s quoted as proof of Jesus humanity - that he was so moved by the death of his friend.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, as I spent time with this gospel this week, I wondered.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Was Jesus weeping because his friend had died?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or was he weeping because the people around him, even those closest to him, still didn’t get what he was about, still didn’t get his teaching, still didn’t understand who he was?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the gospel of John, the crowds who follow Jesus are always looking for a sign.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They show up to see what miracle he is going to perform next - always looking for just one more sign. Some do come to believe but others always need just one more sign.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus often confronts the crowds who followed him about their need to keep on witnessing the miraculous.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, as Jesus confronts the crowd again, around the tomb of Lazarus, I couldn’t help wondering if his tears were tears of frustration.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do you still not get it?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus, it seems, faces resistance at every turn.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even as he asks for the stone to be moved from the tomb, Martha confronts him with complaints about the smell of death. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And Jesus says to her:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You can almost hear the frustration in his voice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the prayer that he prays - it’s the kind of prayer that, when we are teaching folk to lead prayer, we encourage them to avoid - the kind of prayer that tells God the things that God already knows:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is like Jesus having a wee aside with the Father, - Do you see what I have to put up with- help me out here - I know you always hear me - but I need this crowd to know that too.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And then Jesus gets on with the task before him.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gathered with the crowd around the stinking tomb, Jesus calls to Lazarus: </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Lazarus, come out!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the crowd finally have the miracle they seek - the dead brought to life.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lazarus comes out of the tomb.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, there’s one more detail in the story that I think is significant.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lazarus emerges from the tomb at Jesus’ command - but there’s one more step to his healing.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lazarus emerges with his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth - and Jesus calls on his community to complete the work of healing:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lazarus’ healing was not complete until he had been released from his bindings by his community.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The events in this gospel narrative prove to be a turning point for Jesus - after he raises Lazarus form the dead, the authorities, who are already uncomfortable with the following he has and with the teaching he shares, decide that they really have to put a stop to him - and they up their efforts to find a way to silence him.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we celebrate All Saints, on the eve of a major Climate Conference, I wonder if today’s gospel speaks even more potently to us in this age.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wonder if the sense of urgency and the sense of a changing tide are more relevant than ever to us today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Is Jesus still weeping at our inability to get the message - at our inability to act with love and compassion for all our neighbours and for all of creation?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Is Jesus still calling to us - Come out - come out of your tombs of inertia, of avoidance, of denial.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Come out of the tombs you hide in, embrace life and make a difference.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And is Jesus calling on us to act together in community to unbind - to free ourselves from all that holds us back from making a difference.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we gather around this altar today, at Jesus invitation, surrounded by all the saints, the living - each one of you - and the dead, all crowding around the Lords table, feasting together at Christ’s supper, may we know the risen Christ calling to us to Come out of our tombs, to be freed from all that holds us back and to take up the urgency of the gospel - to set Gods people free to love and serve one another and the creation God has given into our care.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Saints of today:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we not cause Jesus to weep at our lack of understanding of the love and grace of God</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we be willing to come out of the tombs that we’ve become comfortable in</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And may we together find the freedom it will take, freedom from many things we hold dearly to address the challenges facing creation, not least climate change, so that we can serve God and each other better.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the name of all that is Holy</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-45589725323305084892021-10-17T08:42:00.000+01:002021-10-31T14:04:26.507+00:00Finding the questions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9jMp19-94qGEfzNr25TooxmcLvViOfr1H7NRXxMfW1DiMcUJ4VRgU74mXfZxMtmq37bs-uAarKEBLtnrztfIifqpdc_fg8L0zJTO9J8iV4-IuOmExNq1JUdCOja3dB60yQ2cCBUF_zcKZ/s2048/E3E04F84-5464-4D42-B9DF-89084AC267B5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9jMp19-94qGEfzNr25TooxmcLvViOfr1H7NRXxMfW1DiMcUJ4VRgU74mXfZxMtmq37bs-uAarKEBLtnrztfIifqpdc_fg8L0zJTO9J8iV4-IuOmExNq1JUdCOja3dB60yQ2cCBUF_zcKZ/s320/E3E04F84-5464-4D42-B9DF-89084AC267B5.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mark 10:35-45</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognise as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer, Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One of the things I loved most about the work I’ve been doing the last few years was bringing colleagues together - to get to know one another, to build relationship.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was as we worked and prayed and played together, as we shared our struggles and vulnerabilities and as we discerned together, who God was calling us to be, in all our different contexts, that we were able to show up, not as competitors in ministry but as colleagues, beloved of God, all about the work of God’s mission.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve read a lot of articles recently that remind us that, in this season, of trying to figure out who God calls us to be, it’s not the answers that are important - it’s asking the right questions.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And making friends along the way.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All these years on from James and John asking “Who is the greatest”, we’re still asking the wrong questions.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trying to pin God down.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trying to formulate rules.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trying to find the least that we can do to be called Christian.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trying to side with power.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God calls us back time and again to remind us - it’s not about doing the right things - it’s not about choosing the right side - it’s about relationships.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Always has been</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Always will be.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From the creation of the world, God created us to be in relationship.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With the earth and with one another.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus came to earth to be in relationship with us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, if we seek to follow that relational God, we, too, must be relational.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Simple.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And excruciatingly difficult.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s not “how close to God can we be?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s how close to our neighbour - especially those who are not like us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t know about you, but I grew up being told that the most important thing was to get ourselves right with God - and sure we want to be close to God - but that’s a relationship that is played out in how we treat others - in how we serve one another.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those who want to be great, must first serve.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Once again, in our gospel this week, Mark’s portrayal of the disciples’ ineptness mirrors ours.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we are faced with chaos, we resort to trying to find a semblance of order.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus has been consistently teaching his disciples about his suffering and death.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That must have been hard to hear.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, as a counter to that, James and John seek reassurance that there are some things that will remain as they should be, that they will be rewarded for sticking with Jesus, that all they know of the life to come will be as it should - with them taking up their rightful place with Jesus in glory.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And Jesus reminds them that none of the usual worldly measures of greatness have any status in the kingdom of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">But it is not so among you; whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In many of our congregations and gatherings today, we’re hoping against hope that the world will revert to something more recognisable. That the chaos of the last few months will settle down and that we will be able to carry on as normal. We are like the disciples trying to at least pin one thing down when all is topsy turvy.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus word for us today, like his word for James and John is not what we want to hear.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is more trouble ahead.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is no way back to things “as they should be”.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s not the wrong answers - it’s the wrong questions.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Instead of looking for what we might know, what we might recognise, our calling is to work with what we have.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To see all around us opportunities to serve.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To serve and be served by those whose who are struggling to make ends meet.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To serve and be served by those whose mental health is deteriorating.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To serve and be served by those who are isolated or frightened.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We have much to give.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We also have much to learn from those we seek to serve.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We have all been weathering a storm whose effects continue to manifest themselves.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We cannot go back to what we thought was solid ground - it never was anyway.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, like James and John, we don’t really have much idea yet what being church today looks like mid trauma with all the signs of more disruption to come.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But we are being given an opportunity to discover who God calls us to be as we try to rebuild.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Servants, who build relationships, creating community by serving one another.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May our relationship with God play out in our relationship with others and with Creation - in love and service.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the glory of the Creator.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-5128874254016799422021-10-09T18:48:00.000+01:002021-10-09T18:48:06.529+01:00One more thing<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEGmSVZZt3ZNwNAMGoFxTRGdqauyWyrR_vg09vokhSFtRadcJFoAiAuWD0o1V0yWM093EF8TWVtnGq53vvM4AzNsg4DASIsH5pD-IYRyhykGgCWmmhcNmSHwZbPAgjBTuCHnFfO7EsIFA/s2048/0972F38F-D378-47BD-BF8E-A6C26849EACC.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyEGmSVZZt3ZNwNAMGoFxTRGdqauyWyrR_vg09vokhSFtRadcJFoAiAuWD0o1V0yWM093EF8TWVtnGq53vvM4AzNsg4DASIsH5pD-IYRyhykGgCWmmhcNmSHwZbPAgjBTuCHnFfO7EsIFA/s320/0972F38F-D378-47BD-BF8E-A6C26849EACC.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mark 10:17-31</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Rich Man</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ ” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">As he was setting out on a journey…</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is constantly on the move… journeying from one place to the next.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ultimately it is one journey - the journey to the cross.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But all along the way, his journey is interrupted by encounters with women, with children, with the poor, the hungry, with the sick, with the perplexed and disillusioned.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus ministry happens in the in between places and in the interruptions, with those who stop him in his tracks, asking questions, looking for food or healing or comfort or teaching - or all of these at once.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, in every encounter, people are changed.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Some are fed, some are healed, some are lifted up, some are angered and some are confused.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus doesn’t simply give folk what they ask for.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">His isn’t a transactional economy.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">His encounters are relational.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He meets people along the way, sees them, knows them and minsters to them or receives from them, enjoying hospitality where he finds it.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And models, for us, a way of being in our world today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A way of seeing those around us, of seeing the interruptions in our daily lives as moments of encounter in which God is revealed - in unlikely places and in unlikely people.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In all those in between spaces - where God is.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m a fan of in between spaces.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is something freeing and creative about them.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wonder if it has something to do with not having to be “sorted” in those spaces because we’re still on the way, neither here nor there, but somewhere in between. In a space where there is still potential to be realised, discoveries to be explored.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We, as individuals and, together, as church, are living in an in between space.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Working out who we are called to be in a world learning to live with pandemic.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Working out what we have learned and are still learning.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Working out who God calls us to be for this season.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In many ways that’s nothing new.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As Christ’s body, we are constantly tasked with questioning what God requires of us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wonder, though, as we begin to emerge tentatively from a season of curtailment, whether the question is more - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Who</span> is God calling us to be?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we lay aside our traditions and our rituals and the things we have always done, who is God calling us to be - individually and together.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the last few years, that’s been my calling - to ask folk in churches the length and breadth of Scotland - who are we being called to be today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The man in our gospel who ran up to Jesus, knelt at his feet and asked: What must I do to inherit eternal life, sounds like he was on a similar journey.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A journey of discernment.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trying to work out who God was calling him to be.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And his response, when Jesus laid out the one thing he might do, mirrors the response of many churches wrestling with that question today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There’s real disappointment that our traditions aren’t enough.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That our rituals won’t do.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That our history, be it long or short won’t buy us the free pass we seek today.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The one thing that God requires of us today is to set down the weight we carry, the things that hold us back and root us in the past, to join in the new thing that God does in every age and every time, for all people.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God calls us to be more relational in our encounters with the communities we are called to serve.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God frees us to be more prepared to be guests rather than hosts, partnering with those who are already making a difference, wherever they come from.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today in a world scarred by the trauma of pandemic</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a country beginning to experience the reality of Brexit</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a community blighted by poverty - fuel poverty, food poverty, economic poverty</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who is God calling is to be?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And what is it we must lay down to take up that call?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we wrestle with that question, let’s remember that Jesus looks at us and loves us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As he did with the man in our gospel story.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Jesus looks at us and loves us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, if we are willing, Jesus journeys with us as we discern who we are called to be - for this season.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On a journey that neither ignores or scorns the past but, in the light of all that we have learned, sees every interruption as an encounter with Christ to whom we are invited to respond with love.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">May we discover who God call us to be today in the light and love of Christ.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p><div><br /></div>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-52782269839279208142021-10-02T19:40:00.001+01:002021-10-02T19:47:26.813+01:00Speaking into being<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqg3jDxicPwiEfyKG3s0aEW5i1XYXfF-Pr3SsEN5wuyJCgHP3MiJYvtSRoTFSoRmK6VLhfkCpDn0CW49k8_G8yFGU4IEK4OH3WUx3UzR-ldtAXf_TIdtgl0xfKPNVKcJfzSILmzDZw4Z96/s2048/17BBC51F-0AAA-4F08-B13B-21D0A5C97718.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqg3jDxicPwiEfyKG3s0aEW5i1XYXfF-Pr3SsEN5wuyJCgHP3MiJYvtSRoTFSoRmK6VLhfkCpDn0CW49k8_G8yFGU4IEK4OH3WUx3UzR-ldtAXf_TIdtgl0xfKPNVKcJfzSILmzDZw4Z96/s320/17BBC51F-0AAA-4F08-B13B-21D0A5C97718.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mark 10:13-16</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Blesses Little Children</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Over the last few weeks, I’ve really been enjoying the liturgy we’ve been using for the season of Creation. Whilst it’s still very recognisable as the liturgy we use week in week out as we celebrate the Eucharist, there are enough little changes to make us stop and think about our role as “priests of creation” as the liturgy puts it. Enough to stop us in our tracks and make us think more about this great responsibility that God has entrusted to us.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">This might sound strange to those of you who are steeped in the Episcopal Church - but it was the Liturgy that first attracted me. I loved that week in, week out, there is the opportunity to proclaim our faith in words that would become familiar but no less powerful. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">I love that the Liturgy is not something passive - but is spoken into life by all the people gathered., along with that great cloud of witnesses who also gather round the altar.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We sing the Gloria.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We say the creed.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We respond to the great prayer of thanksgiving.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">It seems to me that participating in the Liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church is consenting to bringing body, mind and soul to the experience of worship.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">I once described it, in a discernment interview, as the difference between playing violin and playing cello.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Both take commitment and practice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">But there’s just something about the cello that demands more - involving the whole body rather than just a part.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">What has this got to do with our gospel - or indeed with Harvest that we celebrate today?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Well - I think it’s that same commitment that is being asked of us as we consider creation and harvest and our stewardship of the earth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We are being invited into an ever deepening relationship with Creation and with the God of Creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We are being invited to commit body, mind and soul to serving God and to caring for creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">For our sake AND for the sake of our children and all the generations that will come after.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Every day, we are learning more, not just of how we have exploited earth’s resources - but of how we can begin to make a difference</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Maya Angelou once said - “When we know better, we can do better.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We know so much more today than ever before about how we can sustain and how we destroy creation. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">God reveals how we can work in partnership in caring for creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We know better.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We can do better.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">And so as we look around the sanctuary today, at the beauty and the bounty, as we thank God for the harvest, we are being invited to do more.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We are being invited to step up our commitment to sustain the earth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">By the choices we make every day.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">By our commitment to live sustainable lives.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">And by our commitment to be generous in our sharing with others.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">That sharing extends to giving AND receiving.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">To listening and learning from others, from those living on the edge, those for whom £20 less in Universal Credit really does make a difference to whether they eat or stay warm this winter. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">To listening and learning from our children about how to get along and how to make a difference by the way we live.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">To listening and learning from those considered weak or foolish in the world who have much to teach us about how we might live today - simply and generously.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">In the gospel, Jesus reminds us that the kingdom belongs to those who are like children.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Those who are willing to keep on listening, to keep on learning, to keep on sharing, to keep on hoping for better things - believing that we can change the world, that we can bring peace, that we can heal nations.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">So today, as we thank God for the harvest, as we join in our Eucharistic Liturgy, as we say these words:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Creator of all things visible and invisible, source of life and immortality,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">whom the heavens praise, the sun and moon and all the stars, the earth, </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">the sea and all that is in them, in every place and at all times.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">By your holy Word you brought order out of chaos. you divided light from darkness,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">created the heavens and established the earth;</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">you divided the sea from the dry land,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">and caused all life to come into being.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">When you had made the plants and the animals,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">you formed humanity in your own image,</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;">and entrusted us with the priesthood of your creation.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">As we say these words together, let’s listen afresh to the liturgy we share - let’s commit ourselves to speaking that hope into being - to living out the hope of change and commitment - to being the change that we want to see as priests of creation, for the sake of the world and for the glory of the Creator.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Amen.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px; text-align: left;"><br /></p></div><br /><p></p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-28954994281484353362021-09-05T08:44:00.000+01:002021-09-05T08:44:01.744+01:00Taking a stand - for creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifveaZgKKt9yemBMOMHMY7t85OkOVnFTCxUQkhiq9k30q9AoJlsn8HdSM7FZhjG5hDDileWXrITLczPbWxwH46iHBkI1MtLDhPwCWYiVaC4NUxjnKh_D8r36pWUTL74pkE65hWoaQ8xB1r/s2048/91D0D7D2-AF57-44A5-B51A-E2B0E4659B7B.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifveaZgKKt9yemBMOMHMY7t85OkOVnFTCxUQkhiq9k30q9AoJlsn8HdSM7FZhjG5hDDileWXrITLczPbWxwH46iHBkI1MtLDhPwCWYiVaC4NUxjnKh_D8r36pWUTL74pkE65hWoaQ8xB1r/s320/91D0D7D2-AF57-44A5-B51A-E2B0E4659B7B.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mark 7:24-37</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.4px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Cures a Deaf Man</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I felt a bit torn this morning.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The gospel we’ve just read is one of my favourites.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(You’ll have gathered I have lots of favourite gospel passages)</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I love this bolshy Syrophoenician woman who argues with Jesus.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A woman who doesn’t, as would have been expected, just slink quietly away when dismissed by a Jewish rabbi but who comes back at him, giving as good as she gets, demolishing Jesus’ totally expected responses. Countering his traditional argument.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I think you know me well enough by now to know that that kind of bolshiness appeals to me.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And, of course I’d want to dwell on how it was a woman who forced Jesus to expand his horizons, to embrace the inclusiveness and infinite nature of the unconditional love of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was a woman who, by standing her ground, challenged the limiting expectations of the prevalent culture and opened up new possibilities and new ways of imagining and encountering God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, today, we are also entering the Creation season in our church calendar.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A season to focus on our relationship with all that God created and our place in caring for all of creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And it’s important to honour that too.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, I was torn.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Syrophoenician woman or Creation?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Until it dawned on me that the Syrophoenician woman fits perfectly into Creation season.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That snapshot of someone stepping up to make a difference.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Someone who says what they see.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Someone who is not intimidated by authority.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Someone who speaks truth to power.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That’s exactly the kind of action that we need to change attitudes today, the kind of alternative thinking that challenges how we live and what we might do to honour the whole of creation as God has entrusted us to do.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And make no mistake - God trusts us with the work of God’s hands - even now, even though we’ve shown time and again how to get it so wrong.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even though history has shown that we have, constantly, played out our misunderstanding of God’s gift of creation - by seeing creation as something we might dominate and exploit rather than something we might carefully nurture and work alongside.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Still, God trusts us to turn things around, to get it right, to work in harmony with God the Creator.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And to do that, we need more bolshy women - and folk of all genders and none - to challenge the traditional nonsense that is trotted out by those who don’t want to change their life styles.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Challenging those who have a vested interest in things staying as they are.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those who profit through injustice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those who get rich by exploiting the Earth’s resources.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those whose wealth depends on maintaining the status quo.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> If we are to challenge the effects of climate change, if we are to look out for the environment and work with the Creator in attending wisely to all that has been entrusted to our care, we need to listen to the unlikely voices - the voices of children, the voices of bolshy woman and men, the voices of people of all ages who inspire others and effect change by their relentless persistence and their refusal to be silenced or fobbed off with token gestures.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We need to listen to those unlikely voices - and we need to be those voices, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Syrophoenician woman was passionate about seeing healing for her sick child, she refused to settle for a standard response.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s that kind of passion that is called forth from us.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s no coincidence that the other story in the gospel passage today was about a speech impaired deaf man having his ears opened and his tongue released.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we look around at all the signs in our world.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Signs of lives blighted and limited.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oppressive governments crushing people because of race or class or gender.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People being silenced.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those in power tone deaf to the voices calling out for change.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we witness the ravages of climate change.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Countries destroyed by natural disaster and by the cost of war - of human engineered conflict.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our eyes and our ears have been opened.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And our voices and our hands must be released to act justly now - to speak up and to act up to change direction, to challenge leadership, to be passionate about finding a way to make a difference.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For the sake of all creation.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even when it looks like a course has been set.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even when it seems as though we have no power or agency.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">God invites us, encourages us, implores us to challenge power, to keep the faith and to be the difference that the world needs - for us and for our children.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s take inspiration today from those two stories of healing in the gospel - a woman who fought for the healing of her daughter and a man who was enabled to hear and to speak.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And let’s get bolshy about the things that matter, the things that we want to see changed today - for the sake of the healing of creation and for the love of God.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amen.</p></div><p></p>liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-50425011210117341832020-03-14T20:00:00.001+00:002020-03-14T20:00:34.460+00:00Encounter at the well<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6QeWzPvHxxPNB5FwA5u6NO_C9XdzZ_R95URA6tSLd-qEYVorr74VCyVXDVNst9IvcKFGunmu5z5ocjmMGIJICy3mbxHgOtHsZJZFb0dhu0QjY6aCZyY2CEqlVglNgJhxMRUCmDQzcaGl/s1600/383277A4-4B2B-47AC-BBA9-903652A09C91.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6QeWzPvHxxPNB5FwA5u6NO_C9XdzZ_R95URA6tSLd-qEYVorr74VCyVXDVNst9IvcKFGunmu5z5ocjmMGIJICy3mbxHgOtHsZJZFb0dhu0QjY6aCZyY2CEqlVglNgJhxMRUCmDQzcaGl/s320/383277A4-4B2B-47AC-BBA9-903652A09C91.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">John 4:1-15</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptising more disciples than John” —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptised— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labor.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">This has long been one of my favourite bible passages.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of meeting</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of recognition</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of listening</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And of knowing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of enquiry and of challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of desire and of change.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A story of equipping and of enabling.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus, weary from his journey, sits by a well in the hot midday sun while his disciples go off to find food.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">He wouldn’t expect to be disturbed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">For who, in their right mind would visit the well when the sun is hottest?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The early mornings are the time for that.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The early mornings, when the women would gather, exchange news and greetings while they took their turn at the well, filling their jars, before wending their way back to their villages.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Anyone drawing water at this time of day was probably avoiding something, or avoiding people.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So, when a woman comes along, no wonder Jesus’ interest was piqued.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We already know that her being a Samaritan wouldn’t have put Jesus off speaking to her.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus was never one to stick with conventions.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">But he would have been curious about her being at the well in the middle of the day.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And so he confronted her by asking for a drink.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I love that the woman was not intimidated by a rabbi speaking to her - surprised, yes, but not silenced as might have been expected.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Indeed it seems like quite a brave conversation to me.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When Jesus asks her for a drink, she challenges him - “Where’s your bucket?”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">That, to me, sounds like a feisty woman.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A woman saying : You may be a Rabbi. You may be a Jew. But you still need a bucket to draw water!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">This is a courageous woman.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus met her courage head on and invited her to a whole new depth of encounter.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">An encounter that only a woman with the kind of courage she possessed would be able to enter into.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus engages her in a conversation that went far beyond the words being spoken - a conversation that resulted in transformation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It is not Jesus the Rabbi who puts her gas at a peep.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It is the man who offers her the water of life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">That is what draws her in.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In Jesus’ offer, somehow she recognises something that goes way beyond their physical exchange, something that’s much more than banter between foreigners.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Instinctively this woman knows that the offer Jesus makes is deep and wide, far reaching enough to change her life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And so, going way beyond her feistiness, she responds:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Somehow Jesus has turned her feistiness into faith, her courageous conversation into committed conviction.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">A conviction so great that she rushes off to tell her neighbours.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And what an evangelist she turned out to be.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At her word, her neighbours wanted to see for themselves this man who offered the water of life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And when they did, they too were convicted, not just because of what she’d told them but because they too encountered Jesus, the source of life giving water.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus brought transformation by engaging with the woman.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And the woman brought transformation by sharing her gift with her neighbours.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">That’s the kind of encounter that Jesus invites us into today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Encounter that transforms not just our lives but the lives of our community.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus meets us here.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus sees us,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus knows us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And Jesus offers us life giving water that transforms lives.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So what in this story is speaking to your heart today?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">As you come to this well, where people gather, what is it that you need, what is your longing?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Have you come to seek solitude?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, is your desire to be free from the crowds, from the anxiety, from the relentless onslaught of news?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, do you seek, just for a time, some peace, some rest from the madness of daily life?</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Have you come to be challenged?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, on the edge of the town, do you seek wisdom for your daily living?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Do you want to be encouraged to wrestle with God’s word and to work out how you live into God’s love in your everyday?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, do you seek, to sit here awhile and revel in familiar texts that underpin your life and work out what, in those texts spell transformation for you?</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Have you come to draw deeply from the rich resources available here?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, with its unplumbed depths, do you want to dredge up the sustenance that will allow you and your loved ones to journey on through all the joys and difficulties that you share?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Have you come to this well, in the midday sun, to be known?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Is this the place where you can be yourself?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, are you able to lay down your display of strength, to lay aside the masks that get you through each day?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, are you able to simply be you, knowing that you are seen and loved as you are?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Have you come to this well to be changed?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, do you hear God’s word prompting you to live differently, to love differently, to be different, in response to all that you hear?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">At this well, do you experience the will to change?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus invites each of us here, at this well, into an encounter with one who has the water of life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those of us who are feisty.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those of us who are weary.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those of us who are hopeful.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those of us who are fearful.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus invites us to drink of the water of life and, in our drinking, be transformed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">What might all this mean today as we seek to live not by fear but by love, not in isolation but in community?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">How are we, who gather at this well being called to transform the lives of our community with life giving water?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">As we do all that we can, in this time of uncertainty, to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and well, may we model love for our neighbours, whoever they are.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">May we model what it is to be in community, looking out for one another, sharing what we have, transforming life by acts of kindness. Always.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Knowing that Jesus transforms us to transform others.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">May we who gather at this well take that life giving water into our neighbourhood and see transformation that is the gift of God for all.</span></div>
<br />liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-71630076664383163882020-01-26T00:04:00.000+00:002020-01-26T00:04:35.432+00:00Call to repentance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Matthew 4:12-23</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">the people who sat in darkness</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">have seen a great light,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">light has dawned.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Calls the First Disciples</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Ministers to Crowds of People</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-style: italic;">In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">If only the gospel was relevant for today’s world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">If only it had something to say about the poor, the disadvantaged, about creation, or about the political climate we find ourselves in - something we might connect with today?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">In our gospel reading today, Jesus’ cousin John has just been arrested - John was critical of the ruler of the day, Herod, critical of his economic policies that oppressed those at the bottom of the heap. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Herod’s oppression of the poor had led to the most vulnerable having nowhere to turn to, no safety net for survival. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Those who were widowed or orphaned, ill or unable to work were dying in appalling conditions. John had spoken out against Herod’s regime. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">He was also critical of Herod’s personal life, so Herod took him out of the picture, silencing him by putting him in prison.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When Jesus heard this, he probably knew that it was only a mater of time before John would be killed, such is often the fate of those who speak out against oppression, injustice and the misuse of power.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus withdrew to Galilee. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It wasn’t a quiet withdrawal but an urgent one - he needed to get out of the way for a while or he too was in danger of being arrested. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And, while that was a constant threat for much of Jesus ministry, it wasn’t yet time for him to be silenced by the authorities.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">So Jesus withdrew - fled might be a more accurate description. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">He fled the way his family had been forced to flee with him as a baby when another Herod came looking for him.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">But Jesus flight to Galilee after John’s imprisonment was also a flight into the heart of resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus may have taken himself physically out of the way but he knew that really there was nowhere to hide. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And he knew that, in John’s imprisonment, the baton was well and truly passed to him.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Announcing the kingdom was now the mission of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The kingdom that John and now Jesus announced was in stark contrast to the kingdom in which folk lived. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">John and Jesus both proclaimed Repent! For the kingdom is near.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Both Jesus and John were making it clear that the Kingdom of heaven would only be realised when people worked to make it happen, when people changed their ways and invested in transformation. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It wasn’t enough to complain about their living conditions, they had to begin to do something to change things for the better.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Repent, For the kingdom of heaven has come near.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">That’s why, with John out of the picture, Jesus immediately began to call the disciples.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The authorities probably considered that, by using force, by imprisoning John, others would be deterred from going against them.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">However then, as in every age, when governments crack down, there are always folk, thankfully, who will step up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Folk who believe that things can be better and who work to make that happen.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And so, as Jesus walked by the shores of lake Galilee, he saw ordinary fishermen who were ready to take a stand against all that was wrong in their world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And they saw, in Jesus, someone who would lead them in their fight back.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">When Jesus called them those fishermen immediately left their nets and followed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And Jesus mission was truly underway.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">From that time on, Jesus, as we read: went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus and the disciples he called really did work towards making the kingdom of heaven a reality.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">If only we could identify with that today...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Truth be told, even the wee snapshot we have in the gospel today is much too uncomfortably close to the socio economic and political climate in which we live.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We see daily those who have fallen through the cracks in our so-called civilised society, those who have no safety net, those who have been sanctioned by the benefits system, those forced to live on the streets, those driven to despair with nowhere to turn.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We see it in our own town and community.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And we see it across the world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We see folk fleeing oppressive regimes today, forced to take incredible risks simply to survive.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We see persecution and imprisonment of those who dare to speak out against governments that perpetrate injustice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And we also see others prepared to take their place.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">We see folk no longer willing to stay quiet but to gather in protest, to speak, to march, to work to make a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">What about us?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Are we agitated enough to Repent?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Are we stirred up enough to want to change?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Will we care enough to respond to Jesus call: Follow me?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Will we hear and proclaim the message: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Do we believe that we can work towards the kind of justice that God wants for all God’s children in this nation and across the world?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">If only the gospel was relevant for our world today, if only there was something to connect with.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Jesus said: Follow me.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Amen.</span></div>
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<br />liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-7860756855183326682019-12-28T23:36:00.000+00:002019-12-28T23:36:12.927+00:00Accomplices<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
Accomplices</h3>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Matthew 2:13-23</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Escape to Egypt</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Massacre of the Infants</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“A voice was heard in Ramah,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">wailing and loud lamentation,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Rachel weeping for her children;</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Return from Egypt</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our gospel today makes for some very dark reading. A reading that, often, I’ll avoid at this time of year. This is Christmas. And, in the midst of the Christmas season, who wants to hear about or reflect on The Massacre of the Innocents? Wouldn’t we all much rather have a nice carol sing and reflect on some of the cheerier Christmas gospels?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, to be honest, as a parish minister, for years, by the time this Sunday came around, after all the extra Christmas services, I was too exhausted to do justice to such a text, so I simply avoided it and kept the focus on stars and wise ‘men’, and anything else that avoided the brutality and the darkness that is also inherent in the Christmas season - whether we choose to overlook it or not.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This year, it rings too close to home to ignore.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, because it echoes so closely much of what is going on in our contemporary world, there has also been a lot of splitting hairs over this text recently, with people arguing over whether the Holy Family were refugees as they fled Egypt or whether the massacre of the innocents really did happen.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The refugee status question arises as people argue over whether Mary and Joseph could be considered Refugees when, actually, their heritage was in Bethlehem, that’s why they travelled - and the occupying Roman forces kept open borders allowing folk to move from one territory to another.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Both situations which apparently would disqualify them from refugee status,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">However, a young couple with a new baby who were too frightened to go home?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Surely they are Refugees by any reckoning.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the doubts raised over the reality of the massacre arises because it was not historically recorded although the decree itself is recorded. But, today we know only too well how news of genocide, infanticide and all manner of atrocities can be suppressed - or, shockingly, not even considered news worthy in the midst of so much other chaos and carnage.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, even if he didn’t follow through, Herod’s threat would be enough to strike terror into all those in his jurisdiction. The Holy Family’s fear was all too real.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And they were forced to flee and wait it out until it was deemed safe to return.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Reliant on the kindness of strangers.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Keeping a low profile.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A predicament that mirrors all too well the darkness in which people are forced to live today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Being moved from pillar to post.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Relying on others for everything.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Constantly living in fear.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It was to a world just like today’s world that God chose to be born in love.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the pace of the last week in church where we move from singing about angels and shepherds and peace and joy to the devastating slaughter and fear of today’s gospel speaks of the unpredictability of that cruel regime into which Christ was born.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The story moves quickly from the joyful scenes around the manger to the terrified cries of mothers mourning their children.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">No wonder we’d rather linger with the baby in the manger.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But it’s precisely because God sent love into the world, that we cannot stay by the manger.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That love has been entrusted to us to spread throughout the world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our world is full of leaders who will do everything they can to hang on to power.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We see it day in day out, both here and abroad - leaders prepared to cheat, to lie, to ridicule others - all so that they can remain in power.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Leaders prepared to reward the rich who will further their cause while keeping the poor so impoverished that they have nothing left to fight with.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Leaders who will, without a second thought, quash any who threaten their power.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We see those who flee their homes, not because they want to but because their lives are in danger - we see those people ignored, threatened and treated appallingly. Many don’t survive the journeys they are forced to undertake and those who do are treated cruelly wherever they try to settle.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Still today, children are being killed by the decrees of those in authority.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The church is called to be counter cultural in all of this.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Called to resist the notion that there is a scarcity of resources to sustain one another.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Called to resist the fear that, by sharing, we will lose out.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Called to resist governments and oppressive regimes wherever they exert unjust power.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Called to ensure that love, love that takes risks, love that is messy, love that is hard, is born wherever we serve.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Love was born to break through the harshness of our world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And we are called to keep on breaking through, to make a difference for every child of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A reflection:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">We think of the Angels singing:"Peace on earth"</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">We imagine the shepherds hurrying to Bethlehem</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">We romanticise the notion of the stable </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">complete with a little donkey</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and other assorted animals keeping the baby warm.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">In our mind's eye is a blissful mother</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and a bursting with pride father.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">We conveniently overlook the fear</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and the poverty</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">the political unrest</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">the brutality of occupying forces</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and the desperation of folk in that time.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">And we try to do the same today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">To make Christmas idyllic</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">a time of indulgence and goodwill.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">A season to deny reality -</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">be it the harsh reality of today</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">or of that first Christmas world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">And even when we are confronted daily</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">by inescapable inhumanity:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">The murder of children</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">The abuse of power </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">The sleaze of politics</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">The race to consume</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">Still we hope and pray for a different world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">But the Advent of hope, love, peace and joy</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">of which we speak and sing and for which we pray</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">demands that we get real</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">that we open our eyes</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">that we are affected</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and that we move to change a world</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">where weapons are more valued than health care</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and where oil revenue is so tightly held</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">that none can be spared to provide clean water for all.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">Where food mountains and arms dumps grow</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">while people starve and are moved from their lands.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">Those who sought the child's life</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">are still to the fore</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">and we have become accomplices.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are called to be accomplices today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Accomplices, not of those who hold on to and abuse power.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But accomplices of God who breaks into our world with love.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">May it be so.</span></div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-44782528033323369452019-11-23T18:30:00.000+00:002019-11-23T18:30:26.911+00:00Showing up<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12.7px;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 23:33-43</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">On this last Sunday of the Liturgical year, just before we head on into Advent, we consider Jesus as king, or the Reign of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Before we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we consider his death.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And so our gospel reading this morning is part of the crucifixion story.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, perhaps, in this small part of the story that we read this morning, we get a snapshot of the kind of king Jesus was, and a glimpse into the Christ who reigns today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, by considering his death, we might be better prepared to welcome his birth.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As Luke tells it, Jesus is led out to the site of the crucifixion and crucified with two other criminals.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Such execution was not done quietly or privately but in company, in full view of others, with as much shame and scandal, as much public outrage and mockery as could be mustered or incited.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, in Luke’s retelling of the crucifixion, who are the key characters?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Who are our eyes drawn to - and why?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Perhaps the first characters we’re drawn to are the two criminals suffering a similar fate on either side of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of them, we’re told mocks Jesus: Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That seems, to me, like a reasonable request.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">By all accounts, Jesus, even as he was paraded through the streets on the way to the place of execution is recognised as the one on whom revolutionaries and activists had pinned their hopes. He was recognised as innocent of crime - except perhaps the most dangerous sort of crime - noising up those in authority, questioning the place and the status of those who lorded it over others.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, even at the point of execution Jesus is recognised by the criminals on either side as a notorious agitator, one who was even thought to be the Messiah - that longed for figure who would rescue people from the throes of oppression.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, it seems reasonable to me that one of the criminals should ask him - or taunt him - Save yourself and us! </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">If ever there was a moment to show your super power, this was it!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In contrast, the other criminal apparently treats Jesus with more respect. We’re told he rebukes his companion who is giving Jesus a hard time, he cites Jesus innocence as the reason they should be more respectful, and then he asks Jesus to remember him: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, the astonishing thing is that Jesus assures him that that very day they will meet again in paradise.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So, in Luke’s account of the crucifixion, our eye is drawn to two criminals, facing the same fate, responding to death and to the person of Jesus so differently.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We might also be drawn to the leaders- and the soldiers who carried out the leaders orders.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Mocking Jesus, taunting him with the titles “King of the Jews”, “Messiah”, asking why he can’t save himself, offering him sour wine, dividing up his clothes.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">These folk were part of the oppressive regime that simply trampled others underfoot and, literally, go away with murder.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">People so used to riding roughshod over everyone, that it ceased to horrify them.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Soldiers and leaders who took their cues from those above them and played their part in a system rotten at its core.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A system that oppressed the poor and paved the way for the rich to get richer.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Sound familiar?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So there were the criminals either side of Jesus, there were the leaders and soldiers who made life miserable for any and all who got in their way.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And there was the crowd: </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica-BoldOblique'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">And the people stood by, watching.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There are always the bystanders.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">However many of these bystanders were not passive onlookers.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In this crowd, were those who, time after time, had been forced to watch countless acts of violence, been forced to look on as, time after time, justice was denied.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In this crowd, were many who bore witness to pain and cruelty.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There were mourners, there was family, there were Jewish officials, there were faithful women and men who showed up to witness yet another senseless act of death.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The faithful, who, it seems, could do little to change the course of events but who refused to turn away, refused to give in. The faithful who were committed to bear witness, committed to showing up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And sometimes that is all we can do.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the face of injustice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the face of evil.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">When the mob rules and we cannot change the outcome.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Still we are called to show up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And know that our showing up makes a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It would be so easy today to resign ourselves to the suffering we see throughout the world, to the poverty, the homelessness, the violence we witness here on our own doorsteps. It would be easy to look away. To console ourselves with the promises of God that the Kingdom of God will be different. To lull ourselves into believing that better times are coming. And, in the meantime, we can wait it out.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God calls us to be better than that, to be more than that.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God’s call to us is to keep on showing up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because God’s kingdom is here.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Now.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And when we show up with all that we have alongside God, we bear witness, we hold out a light in the darkness, we hold out hope in the present and we make all the difference by simply showing up. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our God reigns - not in some future, longed for paradise - but here and now. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And Christ the king calls us, the people of God today, to faithfulness, to showing up, to bearing witness and to living out God’s kingdom now.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As we approach Advent. As we prepare to welcome again, God born among us, let’s keep on showing up - for the glory of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Amen.</span></div>
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liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-78724694893807385102019-11-16T21:06:00.000+00:002019-11-16T21:09:38.179+00:00Apocalypse now!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 21:5-19</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Destruction of the Temple Foretold</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Signs and Persecutions</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Don't you just love this season of the year - I call it silly season.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The rest of the world, it seems, is gearing up for Christmas - and has been since Halloween - and the church is gearing up for Advent.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The rest of the world, in the unlikely event that it’s even considering sacred texts, is focusing on the Nativity.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the church?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Is focusing on... the Apocalypse.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Are we so out of step with our culture - the culture that God calls us to engage with good news?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And do we really need to read ancient apocalyptic texts today?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Isn’t there enough of the apocalypse happening in our world?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Aren’t there enough terrible things happening?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Isn’t there enough doom and gloom and scare mongering all around?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Do we need to indulge in it in the church too?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I happen to think that we do.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And here’s why:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">When Jesus started spouting apocalyptic narrative and metaphor, he was appealing to those on the margins.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">He wasn’t indulging those who were comfortable.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">He wasn’t kow towing to those whose fortunes depended on the current structures remaining in place.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">When Jesus got heavy, apocalyptic heavy, he was preaching a message of hope for the poor and the marginalised.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">When Jesus got weird and started noising up the status quo, he was speaking words of security for the displaced and the dispossessed.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because disruption of the empire could only be good news for those on the periphery.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The notion that all that kept the downtrodden in their place was about to be shaken up, literally toppled - was good news for the oppressed.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So even though, throughout Luke’s gospel, we tend to find Jesus being positive about the temple:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s the place where Simeon and Anna wait to greet the new Messiah</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s the place where Jesus gets lost on a family outing</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s the place where Jesus sets out his manifesto - Good news for the poor and the like</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It’s the place that Jesus goes to lengths to protect as a place of prayer, driving out money changers and all that jazz.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Even though this has been a place Jesus has hung out in, observing and being seen, his prophesying its downfall would be music to the ears of those considered the dregs of society, those who longed for change, those who yearned for justice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The destruction of the temple is, for them, a symbol of the possibility of revolution.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And that makes it entirely appropriate that these are the texts we turn to at this time of year - indeed at any time when we want to affirm that God’s kingdom is here and that we have a part to play in changing our world, in overthrowing injustice, in demolishing the status quo.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">For those at the bottom of the heap, these are not words of the end times.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But words of hope in the present.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">These are not words that invite us to indulge in escapism and imagine the new world to come that is out of this world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Not words that invite us to dream of a blessed future.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">These are words that speak of hope.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Hope now.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The hope that God’s kingdom, a kingdom of peace and freedom, a kingdom of justice and love will prevail in our world - not in some ethereal future, but here and now.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Apocalypse now would mean that those disenfranchised by Brexit would find a place to call home.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Apocalypse now would mean that those who are homeless would find shelter and those who are hungry would have enough to eat without being forced to rely on food banks.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Apocalypse now would mean that those who flee their homes because of violence and war would find a welcome and a refuge.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">These words do not belong to the future.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">They belong to now.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are called to realise the kingdom of God among us.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Make up your minds, Jesus said. I will give you wisdom...</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our call is not to sit back and let governments sort out crises.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our call is not to pin our hopes on an election or a referendum or a slowing down of climate change, however important those may be.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our call is to live into and invite others into God’s kingdom of peace and justice, of equity and love - NOW.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our call is to love as those who hope - not just for the future, but for now.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And that, right there, is counter cultural today.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Maintaining hope, not just for the future but for NOW.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Seeing beyond the appalling state of the world - globally and locally and knowing that it can be different.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, out of our knowing, making a difference.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">By showing up.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">By speaking up.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">By stepping up.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To serve God’s kingdom - that’s already among us.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What we do here week by week is counter cultural today.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And so is the kingdom of God.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So,let’s keep on being out of step.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Let’s take heed of Jesus’ apocalyptic words, words that are music to the ears of all who suffer, words of hope, not fear.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Hope will not be extinguished.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Love will not be defeated.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God’s kingdom is here.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">May God give us hope and help us to live in love - not as those who despair today but as those who live and work alongside God in building God’s kingdom.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Apocalypse now.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Amen.</span></div>
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<br />liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-31893640540292096992019-09-22T22:01:00.000+01:002019-09-25T20:16:16.043+01:00Creative in Crisis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggs8I8lVD0C-gnRIyC5XO_vdREqR4my24iQScJ4GIy9OTy_rwILFfnQnoErrLjaQd7IA8so3QzxbpsV-M2odI2IsX81olrd_x2guqndvNGGbYqH92u6dqIXDwJZBboSGqWXvTLEPi2Na_b/s1600/9FACF226-49EA-4BA8-8FF3-8763124A39DF.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggs8I8lVD0C-gnRIyC5XO_vdREqR4my24iQScJ4GIy9OTy_rwILFfnQnoErrLjaQd7IA8so3QzxbpsV-M2odI2IsX81olrd_x2guqndvNGGbYqH92u6dqIXDwJZBboSGqWXvTLEPi2Na_b/s320/9FACF226-49EA-4BA8-8FF3-8763124A39DF.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 16:1-13</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustaining Spirit. Amen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helveticaneue-bolditalic"; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One of the frustrating things about written communication is that it’s often hard to grasp the tenor of a letter or an email or a text - even when we employ devices like emojis to give some kind of clue about whether we’re being humorous or sarcastic or deadly serious.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Anyone scrolling through my texts or Facebook or twitter conversations might form a very different opinion of me to the judgement they’d make from a face to face meeting - Maybe!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There are lots of passages in the gospels, especially those so-called red-letter passages, that are full of Jesus’ words, that I’d have loved to be able to see Jesus face as he spoke.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I want to see that tilt of his head, the glint in his eye or the tongue in his cheek.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus was a wind up merchant.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">He saw right through the piety and the practices of those around him - and he called them out on it constantly and, while, when Jesus wanted to, he cut to the chase, and took no prisoners, there were other times when, it seems, he enjoyed letting folk sift through his words, work things out, times when he allowed his message to sink in, bit by bit - because there was a lot - then and now, for folk to take in.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">With this parable today, we are invited, not to gloss over it because it seems difficult, but to engage with it and discover how it might speak into our lives and into the life of the world we inhabit.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Never, in any of Jesus’ parables, are we allowed to be bystanders.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are always implicated.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So what are we to do with today’s gospel?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How might we allow it to speak into our lives here as we celebrate the signs of harvest all around us?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Well, in the absence of those facial expressions or body language or even emojis, one of the things we have to rely on is the context of Jesus’ words as the gospel writers located them.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Todays gospel is placed between the parable of the prodigal Son and the parable of the Rich man and the poor man, Lazarus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Two parables either side of today’s about gifts that have been squandered, about opportunities that have been missed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And in the parable we read today, about the dishonest manager, we’re told that the charges brought against the manager were also charges of squandering - he was accused of squandering the rich man’s property.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But it’s not just property that has been squandered - relationships have been squandered too.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Relationships have been squandered in all three of these parables, - the prodigal son wrote off his family, the manager exploited those he did business with and the rich man barely noticed the poor man at his gate.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Relationships are really important to Luke as he frames his gospel.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Throughout Luke’s gospel, there’s an emphasis on relationship, particularly Jesus’ relationships with those he encountered.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">At every turn, Luke portrays Jesus as hanging out with those who were considered to be at the bottom of the heap, those deemed by others, beyond the pale.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus was the talk of the steamie - or the synagogue - because of the company he kept.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The Pharisees in particular didn’t like the company Jesus kept and constantly criticised him for it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And Luke, through his emphasis on relationships, gives us a glimpse into the social divisions of the day.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There’s also a whole economic divide highlighted by Luke in the parables he chooses to share.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">He shares stories of folk in positions of relative prosperity and status having to rely on those much further down the food chain to bale them out in their hour of need.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we find the guy beaten up on the road to Jericho desperate for help, any help, just grateful for anyone who won’t pass him by - even a Samaritan.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In the story of the prodigal Son, we find the son wishing that he could be as well off as the hired hands back at home, the ones he’d taken for granted all his life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the prodigal’s elder brother finds that he can’t join the party until he makes friends with the prodigal.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In today’s parable, the manager who lorded it over others, in his time of crisis, sees those others as his way out of a life of penury.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Maybe, just maybe, that’s why he is commended.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because when the chips are down, when we’re backed into a corner, we are forced to get creative.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This man, in his hour of need, displays the same kind of desperation as the woman who had haemorrhaged for 12 years and worked up the courage to touch Jesus cloak. He found the same kind of courage that Jacob found when he stayed up all night to wrestle with God, in order to extract God’s blessing.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Desperate times call for desperate measures!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Today’s gospel shines a light on socio-economic, on political and on ethnic divisions that surrounded Jesus with Jesus in the midst of all that focusing on relationship, modelling for us a way of being in relationship with one another that is compassionate, that is restorative and that invites creativity.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Here, surprise, surprise, we have a gospel that speaks right into our world today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This is a gospel that invites us to approach the celebration of Harvest with compassion, with an eye to what is restorative and that invokes our creativity as we relate to all around us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This is a parable in which we are implicated as we wrestle with all of our socio-economic, our political and our ethnic divisions.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So let’s, just for a moment, consider 3 of those divisions with which we wrestle today - let’s talk about Brexit, let’s talk about austerity measures and let’s talk about climate change.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Wherever you stand on the question of Brexit, we cannot deny that, in the name of Brexit, many have grasped an excuse to exclude and discriminate against others.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the categories of those whom we consider “other” continues to grow, fuelled by the lies told and perpetrated in Brexit debates.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Whatever your political persuasion, no party seems able to address or redress years of austerity measures.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the gap between rich and poor becomes an ever widening chasm.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Every weekend, we see our town and city centres filled with activists , protesting government policies and calling for justice for the citizens of the world, for those not yet born and for the earth itself. For the truth is that we’re not simply dealing with the economies of today, but with the deficits of the future, the things that, by the way we live and the choices we make, we are denying those who follow us into the future.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So what can we do?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We who claim to live by a different rhythm, we who are influenced by a totally different set of economics, the economy of the Kingdom of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How can we follow Jesus modelling relationships that are compassionate, that are restorative and that are creative?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As we celebrate Harvest today, we’re encouraged to confront those economies in which we operate and to assess the relationships we value.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’re encouraged to question the ethics of of where our food comes from and how it reaches our tables.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’re encouraged to consider the conditions of those who labour.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’re encouraged to call out sharp practice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’re encouraged to wake up to crisis today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because it is by waking up to crisis, like the dishonest manager, that we will find creative ways not to save the church, not even to save ourselves, but to listen and learn from those outside our normal circles, </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">to listen and learn from those outside of our religious circles, </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">to listen and learn from those outside of our social circles, </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">to listen and learn from those we consider poor, </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">to listen and learn from those we consider other, </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">to listen and learn how we might survive the crises that assail us- and not just survive but flourish, making it possible for all of creation to know and to share in the abundance that God promises and longs for us to know.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Waking up to crisis involves us re-evaluating our relationships.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Creativity for us might come through listening to a 16 year old Swedish schoolgirl who invites us to wake up to the crisis of climate change.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Transformation might come from hanging out at the food bank, listening to the stories of those whose benefits have been sanctioned with no safety net.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Restoration might come from recognising that the economy of the Kingdom of God is so far removed from the economy in which the world operates.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Relationships matter much more than prosperity.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And everyone counts.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Instead of scarcity, there is abundance in God’s kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">An abundance that transforms.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are not bystanders.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus parable implicates us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But the good news is that still God invites us to be co-creators.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Still, God invites us to bring about transformation in our neighbourhood and in our world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Still God invites us to be involved in the restoration of individuals and of communities, locally and globally.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Beginning first by listening to others, recognising how much we have to learn and receive from others, not just what we are able to give.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, so, in this place, as we celebrate Harvest, as we take stock of the abundance and the ravages of the earth all around us, God invites us to be imaginative and creative in our relationships, with God, with one another and with the earth.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are invited, with the God of the harvest, to wake up to the crises all around and to be courageously creative in seeking and in implementing how we might be shrewd managers of all of God’s gifts today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">For the glory of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Amen </span></div>
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liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-55509609817925491742019-08-11T09:31:00.000+01:002019-08-11T09:31:26.636+01:00Follow your treasure!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIpl4teesdwsUu-Ta0olMa_nEfgcC7_ifwn7-Mq_jl2vRPKZGOKZwkfekYKgayFx6HwlSViQJY4_cimtB6nO5U8xDWuddwSXqaNbM06AptAsAmxUTZEPE2x0Ag2KWcQuEWUOm9uw1Ms88/s1600/408C2A19-E214-4CBF-86A0-A442670C6B22.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIpl4teesdwsUu-Ta0olMa_nEfgcC7_ifwn7-Mq_jl2vRPKZGOKZwkfekYKgayFx6HwlSViQJY4_cimtB6nO5U8xDWuddwSXqaNbM06AptAsAmxUTZEPE2x0Ag2KWcQuEWUOm9uw1Ms88/s320/408C2A19-E214-4CBF-86A0-A442670C6B22.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Hebrews 11:1-3; 8-16</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 12:32-40</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In one of the schools I used to visit as school chaplain, there was a poster on the Head Teacher’s door that asked: “What have you done today to make you feel proud?”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What have you done today to make you feel proud?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That came back to me this week as I read these texts - particularly the Hebrews passage, where we find these words:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God....</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I wonder if that accolade - </span><span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">God is not ashamed to be called their God</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">, would be attributed to us today?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">God is not ashamed to be called their God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In a similar vein to the question What have you done today to make you feel proud, we might ask:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What have we done today that would make God unashamed to be called our God?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">That accolade is one not lightly given in the history of the people of God, a history liberally peppered with so much oppression and injustice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Yet, of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob, people of faith, who followed where God called, God was not ashamed to be called their God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Unless we’ve been living in a hole in the ground, we all know too well, that, everyday, God weeps at the way we treat one another and at the way we are so careless with creation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And at how often, we do such things in the name of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God’s challenge to us today, people of faith, people who live in hope, people who are convicted by God’s will, God’s challenge to us is to set out, with God, to make a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To leave what we know.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To stop being resigned to all that brings despair.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">To step out and step up and make a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God is calling us as he called Abraham and Sarah and Jacob and Isaac, God is calling us to leave what we know, to embrace the faith we profess and, by that faith, to follow God to the places we are called today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Each of us here is uniquely called and gifted by God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Each of us has a task to perform that no one else can do.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And, as we are called, those words from today’s gospel, go with us:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Do not be afraid... </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> Words God speaks again and again throughout history as words of calling:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Do not be afraid.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Why shouldn’t we be afraid? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because God gives us the kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Along with God’s call, and along with God’s gifting, we are presented with God’s kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Let’s think for a moment to whom Jesus addressed these words, words that inform and convict us today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There was the crowd around him, who eagerly soaked up all the words that this teacher shared as he toured the region. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">There were his disciples, whom he was preparing to take on God’s mission.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And there were also the scribes and the Pharisees whom Jesus had consistently criticised for putting such heavy burdens on the folk by their teaching, heavy burdens that they didn’t lift a finger to ease. Telling folk all that they must do and not helping them in any way to see how that might be accomplished.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The crowd, the disciples, the Scribes and Pharisees.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">All hearing this teaching that Jesus shared.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And the huge difference in Jesus teaching, from other teachers of the day was that Jesus teaching also provided the means by which the calling he set before us can be lived out.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus presented the teaching and the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Christ presents us with all we need to live into our calling today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Just as surely as Abraham was presented with all he needed to perform the task God set him, so we are presented with all we need to respond to God’s call today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The question is - if God has already given us the kingdom, if the kingdom is here now - and not something that is to come - a long way in the future - why aren’t we seeing more kingdom signs in our world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Why aren’t we seeing justice done, loved lived out?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’d suggest that it’s because we don’t really believe that we can experience the kingdom of God today.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’ve convinced ourselves that the kingdom of God is something for the future, something we can only experience in the future when God deigns to make all right with the world.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In spite of Jesus teaching, in spite of those words in our gospel: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We don’t believe it is something we can really know today. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We still think of God’s kingdom as a future event, unattainable in our time.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And yet Jesus constantly asserted that the kingdom is near.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We simply don’t believe it.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because believing in the kingdom would demand too much of us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Believing that we can be part of justice, that we can live in love means we would have to drastically change our way of life.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">More than counting our blessings, we’d have to view our blessings as gifts for others - we’d have to see ourselves as blessed to be a blessing, view God’s gifts not as rewards for our faithfulness but as the means by which we see God’s kingdom today, when we share those gifts with others.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Even as believers, we often find ourselves asking: Why, God is there so much suffering in the world?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And God weeps.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because we already have all that is required to ensure that no one goes hungry, that no one lacks clean water. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We already have all that is needed for all to find shelter, for all to be clothed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God has given and continues to give us the kingdom so that we can live in peace, sharing with all.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But we have made of that gift a pipe dream for the future... something we pray for.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And God tires of our prayers that are unaccompanied by action.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And let’s hear again those other words of Jesus contained in the text, words that are often misappropriated:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How often we interpret that as - Follow you heart, and the rest will fall into place.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And that’s not the message Jesus shares.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus exhorts us to give our treasures - and then we will be invested in what we give away.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Giving away what we have, sharing the gifts we have been given, results in us being invested in seeing that those gifts are put to good use, that they bear fruit.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Do you see how that’s different to us “following our heart?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The task and the outcome is quite different when we follow Jesus teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Of course it is our hope that we will find our passion by following our treasure - but we have to do it that way around - using the gifts we have been given, squandering those gifts, if you like, for God, so that we can find the passion that will follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Today we might ask - how are we going to begin to be the answer to the prayers we make in all sincerity and hopefulness?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How can we use our gifts in the service of God, finding passion through our giving?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And -</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How can we live in God’s kingdom NOW so that God is unashamed to be called our God?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The unique call of God to each of us today is every bit as challenging as it was to Abraham and Sarah - to leave what we know, what has become comfortable and to step out in faith knowing that the promises of God and the kingdom, present now, are enough. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And that the gifts we have been given are enough. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Enough to sustain and enough to make a difference if we have the faith. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Because </span><span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">May we know God’s grace accompanying us today as we follow God’s call, as we step out and step up in faith.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">May we share our gifts, discover our passion and know that, with God, we are enough.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">God’s kingdom is here.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">For the glory of God</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Amen </span></div>
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liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727966168023760683.post-19253698679017955282019-06-23T21:02:00.001+01:002019-06-23T21:02:19.840+01:00What is your name?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivheRz66Vaslwl1X-A6Jj6_PQlJBy-mMHh8iinfGN5vxu5fNcBwrx2CItW62GgV19wONmpaTCH5gX5AjPcfQ35xG507hBpIB3QybnLowvrwJapYQxCiZhCzg2FfFvweGYIUXZamCMAx3D8/s1600/4538AF4E-B79E-4698-A3BD-BF2CA8078192.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivheRz66Vaslwl1X-A6Jj6_PQlJBy-mMHh8iinfGN5vxu5fNcBwrx2CItW62GgV19wONmpaTCH5gX5AjPcfQ35xG507hBpIB3QybnLowvrwJapYQxCiZhCzg2FfFvweGYIUXZamCMAx3D8/s320/4538AF4E-B79E-4698-A3BD-BF2CA8078192.jpeg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Luke 8:26-39</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This is one of those stories that I’ve often wished hadn’t made it into the canon.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But I also love a challenge, particularly in preaching.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And as I’ve dwelt in this passage this week, I’ve been drawn to several things:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">First of all the context in which this story is told:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In Luke’s gospel, this story follows on from Luke’s telling of Jesus calming the storm.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Luke’s way of establishing that Jesus has power over the elements.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">From there, the gospel quickly moves on to portraying Jesus as a healer, a healer who, in this story, has authority over demons and then, the ability to heal the haemorrhaging woman and a 12 year old girl.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So - the context is of Luke drawing to our attention the power and authority of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Then, I’m drawn to a man living amongst the tombs.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Cast out of community, banished to a place where he could do less harm because people feared him and his illness.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I’m drawn to a herd of swine, taking on the man’s afflictions and being destroyed - and, as a result of that, a community’s livelihood being lost.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And I’m drawn to the emotion that this story attributes to the bystanders - that of Fear.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The many onlookers , those who were there at the time and those who later came to see, were so afraid of what they were seeing that they asked Jesus to leave them.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As demonstrated in this text, fear is such a powerfully restricting force in our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Fear shuts us down.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">It crushes our imagination of what might be.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And even when the reason for fear is removed, as it was in this story, often our memory keeps us captive...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How do we see Jesus attempting to counter that fear?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">He remains in their midst for a while, with the once tormented, now calmed man at his feet.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But sadly the onlookers couldn’t access the calm for themselves , they chose to hold onto their fear.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We’re hardly any different.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">In all the things that we fear today, for ourselves, for our loved ones, for our country, for our world,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus comes and sits among us helping us imagine a new way of being.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus is Lord over all that imprisons us and holds us back, but, for many, finding freedom, in the end, can be just too scary... as the saying goes- it’s better the devil you know, isn’t it?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We fear the unknown too much to imagine the future with Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And we send him away...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So there’s much to be drawn to in this text today..</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But let’s pause at verse 30, where we read:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jesus then asked him - what is your name?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What kind of question is that - everyone, for miles around, knew of this man, the man possessed of many demons - they bound him and cast him out for his own and others safety. They called him Legion.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">But Jesus asks him his name.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">What is your name?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How would we answer that today?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-BoldItalic'; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">What</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"> is the name we call ourselves?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What is the name we’ve taken on?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Is it a name, like Legion, a name that others have given us.?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So many of us have been given names that have stuck through the years.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The one who can’t sing...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The one who’s a bit slow...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The one who always acts the clown...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The one who will never amount to much...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The one who will always disappoint ...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The loner...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">The socially awkward...</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What is the name we’ve taken on?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">And by what name would we like to be known?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I think that when Jesus asked the man his name, he was giving him the opportunity to choose the name he would like to be known by, a name that did not reduce him to his illness or to who others judged him to be, but a name that he might embrace and live into instead.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">A few years ago we had two African deacons working in the Presbytery I’m part of.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">One was called Fabulous, the other was called Precious.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Just imagine living into those names... Fabulous and Precious.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What is the name you would like to be known by?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">How might we, with God, imagine and live into that?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Author, Marianne Williamson, in a book called Return to Love, wrote these words:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others<br />
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What, today, will bring us freedom from all the things that keep us imprisoned.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What will allow us to throw off the shackles of all the unhelpful and unhealthy identities we have assumed?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What will make us shine?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">At the end of our story, Jesus sent the newly clothed man back to witness to his community.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We and our communities need more than ever today to experience the freedom that Jesus brings.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Jesus sends us to be witnesses.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Our playing small, our huddling together, our fear of the task before us serves no one.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">We are born to sparkle - to manifest the glory of God that is within us.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">So Go - you are brilliant, you are gorgeous, you are fabulous, you are talented children of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Go - witness with sparkle where your everyday takes you, for you are beloved of God.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Amen.</span></div>
liz crumlishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17261486774607168533noreply@blogger.com0