Coracle Front Page
Year C - the year of Luke (2004)
Advent to Trinity (2003-2004)
Pentecost 3 to Christ the King
21 November 2004 Children’s Sunday—Christ the
King
Celebrating Children!
“Children are the church of tomorrow.” Nonsense! They are as much a part
of our church as adults.
As a child I was told to be quiet in church. The service was the old
“1662” and the words, poetic as they were, didn’t make sense to me. At
some point in the service I was herded out to Sunday School. That’s how
things were in those days.
Times have changed. Now we have cross-generational worship—something for
everyone, everyone included.
We are working hard to include children, who are part of the church of
today. But it is difficult, it disrupts the ordered service we were used
to, it adds noise and movement and unpredictability. Why bother with
children in church?
To answer this, we need to get back to basics. Why does the church
exist—to bring the Good News to the world. Why do we worship—to connect
with God the source of life, and be renewed for our mission.
Surveys reveal that the vast majority of Christians come to faith in
childhood. It is the age when we are most open to God in our lives. The
best time to reveal the Good News to people is when they are young, and
that is when we should be most active in telling them the Good News.
But this is not all one way. Children help us grow spiritually. Generally
a child’s experience of God is not hindered by fears, greed, prejudices,
self-consciousness, and other grown-up barriers. A child’s spirituality is
aware of the here and now. It is filled with awe and wonder. It delights
and despairs in every day events. We can learn from a child’s openness to
the realm of the Spirit. They can help us connect with God.
That is why we bother with children in church.
Trevor Burt
14 November 2004 24th Sunday after Pentecost
Christ will come again—watch out!
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
This ancient “mystery of faith” called the memorial acclamation is sung as
part of our thanksgiving prayer. It reminds us that the Christ event was
not something restricted to 20 centuries ago, but has a life that pulses
through space and time. But what kind of “coming” will it be?
Our Gospel reading draws together some powerful and terrifying ideas from
the OT prophets. “The Day of the Lord” is a day of judgment, destruction
and purging, a day when God ‘visits’ his people, punishing the wicked,
delivering the faithful, and establishing his rule.
The cosmic destruction, which includes Jerusalem, will be greater than the
flood, according to Zephaniah. The punishment will come in the form of a
military defeat (Amos) or natural disaster (Joel). The judgment is of
idolatry, pride, arrogance, lack of social justice, and brutality.
In the NT the “Day of the Lord” is identified with the second coming of
Christ. It will be preceded by a time of persecution.
The time, place and way of Christ’s coming is unknown, but signs will
precede the Day.
Some take these signs as literal, Christ’s coming as physical, and even
predict the day of Christ’s coming. Some of these signs are clearly
nonsensical given our present day knowledge of the cosmos. However, the
prophetic plea remains: turn your lives around and do away with wrong. The
means of destruction may be different, but the signs of the times are that
we have great capacity for brutality and self-destruction.
Trevor Burt
7 November 2004 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
God of the living
One of the great dangers in our descriptions of God is to think of God
only in human terms. We can end up creating God in our own image.
The image of God as Trinity is a good example—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
These are human descriptions. But God is not confined to human likeness.
The Sadducees fell into the trap of thinking of heaven in material terms.
If people are married on earth, then they must be married in heaven. But
heaven is not confined to earthly likeness.
They were creating heaven in our earthly image.
Jesus gives us a profound insight into the nature of God and heaven. The
resurrection is not an extension of our earthly life. It is a whole new
way of being.
Jesus indicates that as children of the resurrection we are also children
of God. If we are children of God, then we share the characteristics of
God. A key characteristic of God is life—God is the source of life and
“God of the living.”
The idea of the Communion of Saints is that death is no longer a barrier
between the living and the dead, for to God “all are alive.”
In baptism we are adopted as children of God and become sharers in the
resurrection. This is the great joy of being a Christian—we share more
fully in the life of God, not just in the future, important as that is,
but also in the present, now.
So let us live as children of God, as people who experience in our very
being new life in God, a life not constricted by human and earthly
limitations, but full and free and fruitful.
Trevor Burt
31 October 2004 All Saints
Animals, spirituality and our future
Animal imagery can express the deepest and most elusive elements in human
spirituality. Animal characters in books such as The Wind in the Willows,
The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Lord of the Rings connect with our striving
for spiritual truths and experiences. Jonathan Livingston Seagull soars to
the heights. Snoopy explores deeper truths of the human spirit. Kermit the
Frog embraces an enriched way of relating.
What animal best describes you? A quiet mouse observing but not seen, a
seagull flocking with the crowd, a lizard basking in the sun.
More importantly, what animal would you like to be, how is God reshaping
you? From a mouse to a lion, caterpillar to a free-flowing butterfly, a
timid sparrow to a soaring eagle.
What animal best describes the saints in our community of St Columba’s? An
energetic gaggle of geese, a buzzing hive of productive bees, a resting
pride of lions.
What animal could we become? How is God transforming us? Let me suggest
three:
- A chameleon—wanting to connect with and blend in with the community,
but has nothing different to offer.
- A wild goose—Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit, an untrainable,
unpredictable, free-reigning, hooting bird, but perhaps a bit scary.
- A rabbit—soft and gentle, reproductive, easy to keep, but vulnerable
to disease and easily trapped.
As we look to our Christ-transformed future, the animal we were no longer
fits well in the environment we find ourselves. The forest has become a
field, and we need to become an animal that flourishes in this new world.
Trevor Burt
24 October 2004 21st Sunday after Pentecost
Austcare Refugee Week, UN Day & Disarmament Week
Discipleship and the Kingdom of God
What does it mean to be a disciple and enter the kingdom of God? I suspect
that the disciples themselves had problems in discerning this, for in our
gospel story today, they prevented people from bringing their babies to
Jesus. Jesus rebukes the disciples for this action, ending with: “Whoever
does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
When we read these words it is possible that we may think that Jesus
requires us to be like a little child: pure & innocent, accepting &
trusting, and wholly open to God. It certainly sounds good from a 21st
century Western perspective.
However, in the ancient world children were not prized for their
attributes of innocence, rather, they were only valued for what future
income they would generate; in other words, children had no intrinsic
value in the present. Instead babies/children were the most vulnerable &
helpless ones of society.
It may help us to understand that Jesus’ ending sentence could be
translated as: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as one
receives a little child will never enter it.” Jesus redefines what it
means to ‘receive a little child’: to accept valueless children on par
with adults who held a higher status, such as the rich man. Thus Jesus
presents a topsy-turvy kingdom not based upon traditional values, but
rather on the way in which we embrace those in society who are
marginalized and considered valueless.
Babies are the personification of ultimate helplessness, and as disciples
of Christ, we are called to reach out to all the marginalized of our
society, not just to give them something, but to, primarily, embrace them
as ourselves. It is only then that we truly enter the kingdom of God.
Tony Kemp
17 October 2004 20th Sunday after Pentecost
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
Persist in prayer for our new future
Jesus told them a parable to pray always and not to lose heart.. Those who
attended church last Sunday may have been disappointed at the numbers
attending. Church attendances are continuing to fall in our church and in
most Anglican Churches. It is very easy to lose heart in such
circumstances.
Yet we are surrounded by refreshing signs of hope. We have a constant
stream of baptisms and weddings. We live in a sea of young families. There
are pools of people out there thirsty for meaning and belonging and
fellowship.
The Imagine St Columba enquiry stimulated a great deal of energy and
interest. Our six Action Groups emerged from the process and have set
about their work of renewal. We have a gifted group of parishioners upon
which to build a new future for our church.
This gives us great heart.
To this end I am calling together the leaders of the Action Groups to help
form a Steering Group. Our task will be to listen to the Holy Spirit and
take direction for the future.
The Companions in Christ courses have helped many of us to pray more
effectively, by learning new ways to pray, and learning how better to hear
the voice of God speaking in our hearts.
Now we need to pray collectively and persistently for the future of our
church. If an unjust judge will respond to the persistence of a needy
woman, how much more will our loving God respond to our persistent prayer.
I invite you pray persistently for clarity in God’s direction in the
future of our church.
Trevor Burt
10 October 2004 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Faith that can move mountains
The account of the healing of the ten lepers is a lovely story An account
of how ten leprous people, rejected by society, are healed and restored to
society by Jesus. How we are reminded to be grateful to God. Or is it such
a lovely story? We don’t have to delve very deeply to see how subversive
it was. Subversive enough to get Jesus killed! Sometime we miss just how
challenging the Gospel can be.
Jesus the subversive, mixes with ostracised people—lepers. Who are the
lepers in our community? What would happen if we mixed with them?
Jesus the subversive heals a Samaritan man—a foreigner. Who are the
foreigners in our community? What would happen if we helped them?
Jesus the subversive is worshipped—like a king. How do we place Jesus in
our lives? What would happen if we worshipped him with our whole being?
Jesus healed 10, but nine of them did not make the connection between
healing and faith, missing the greatest moment in their lives. Are we
missing the greatest moment in our lives? What would happen if we had our
eyes of faith opened?
Jesus challenges us to be like him—to mix with outcasts; to help
foreigners; to worship Jesus with our whole lives. The other nine, Jews
presumably, were faithful followers of the law, but failed to take the
step of faith beyond what they knew, to recognise God at work among them,
to turn their lives around and follow Jesus in all he did and said. Does
this subversive story call us to become like Jesus and act out our faith
with works of mercy?
Trevor Burt
3 October 2004 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Faith that can move mountains
Are you an Einstein? A Picasso perhaps. Maybe an Elvis or Mandela,
Thatcher or Rollings. How many Einsteins or Rollings are out there who
never reached their potential? I believe that most of us live well below
our potential.
Could it be that the achievers did so not so much because they were great
people, but because chance and opportunity went their way? I wonder if all
people need to fulfil their potential is a timely word of encouragement or
a vision of what could be.
So what is it that helped Jesus reach his potential? What helped Paul
become a great missionary and teacher? What helped Peter become so brave
and forthright?
I wonder whether it was not so much because they had great faith, but
because they had faith in a great God? Jesus suggests that we need only
mustard-sized faith to uproot huge trees. Faith is that powerful, because
God is that powerful. We can achieve so much more with faith in a great
God.
It seems to me that the key to a fuller spiritual life is not so much a
great faith, but a deeper connection with God. When we know more about
God, we seek God more earnestly. When we learn how to tune into God’s
presence, we hear God more clearly. When we hear clearly, we respond
courageously.
Ordinary people become great people when they step out with courage. Faith
helps us to be courageous.
It is no surprise, then, that many of the great figures in history were
religious people, ordinary people who developed a deeper connection with
God. Ordinary people like you and me can move mountains when powered by
faith in God revealed in Christ. So, with faith, what can you do and
become?
Trevor Burt
26 September 2004 17th Sunday after Pentecost
We are all missionaries
St Columba’s has a history of being a mission-minded church. I am told
that for many years our church was a training ground for not only clergy
but for laity who moved from here to establish new Anglican churches in
the burgeoning metropolis of Perth. We are currently helping three people
train for ministry.
Parishioners have gone from here to overseas mission activity, so Jessica
Evan’s recent trip to Vanuatu follows an honourable procession of people
committed to overseas mission.
We recently raised $1000 to send a young Samburu boy to High School in
Kenya, and this, too, is not without significant precedent. St Columba’s
people have been very generous.
Just last week we sent a big bundle of baby slings to Ghana, lovingly made
by some of St Columba’s women. This is not the first time such an labour
of love has been made.
All this signals our compassion and commitment to use our resources—time,
wealth and talents—to make this a better world, spreading Good News. So we
rejoice and give thanks to God.
We have shown an ability to respond to mission need—training, sending,
supporting. And now there is a new mission need emerging. It is outside
our doors. Our mission field is where we live and work and play. It is all
those thousands of young families out there who have not heard the Good
News, who want support and “religion” for their growing infants.
We have a need for young families. They have a need for community and
support. We have the resources - people, experience and property. How can
we make the connection? By doing what we have always done—train, send and
support. Only this time we all have a missionary role to play. We are the
ones sent—into our own community.
Trevor Burt
19 September 2004 16th Sunday after Pentecost
It is in giving that we receive
We are now in the second week of our Stewardship campaign. We consider
afresh our commitment to giving for the next 7 months.
We do well to look back over the last year. How has God blessed you? How
have you grown materially and spiritually?
There has been phenomenal growth in house values these last few years. As
many Australians own houses, this places us amongst the wealthiest people
in the world, at more than $200,000 per person.
Our Gospel today reveals how we go to such lengths to gain worldly wealth.
If only we put the same level of effort into spiritual growth. I know I am
far shrewder with my property than I am with my spiritual wealth. I don’t
allow property to remain idle long, but my gifts and opportunities for
ministry often go unattended.
Yet material and spiritual wealth are connected. It seems that when I
focus my material wealth for selfish use, my spiritual life dries up. When
I use my wealth for the benefit of others, I feel more fulfilled and alive
as a person and more connected to God, the source of live and wealth.
A friend at school used to be very generous. He would buy me a cream bun
every now and then, and oh how I loved cream buns. He was a great guy,
gentle, caring, considerate. I thought he must have been very wealthy to
be so free with his cash. That is until I visited his home one day. I
discovered he lived in poverty. He only had one shirt to wear to school,
which he washed every day. The wealth was in his heart, not his wallet.
I remember thinking, I want to be like him, with the same generosity of
heart, a Christ-like heart.
Trevor Burt
12 September 2004 15th Sunday after Pentecost
God searches for the lost
A lecturer put a situation to his students: If you were walking along and
saw a child you knew who was in a life-threatening situation, would you
help if that help posed no risk to you? The unanimous answer was “Yes, of
course”.
If you didn’t know who that child was, would you still help? Yes, of
course. It wouldn’t matter if you knew the child or not.
If that child needed $10 to get them through their situation, would you
give it? Yes, they again answered. $10 is nothing compared to a life
saved.
If that child came from far away, would you still help? Yes was the
answer, it wouldn’t matter where they came from. But now they answered
with a little hesitation for the line of questioning was starting to feel
uncomfortable.
If that child lived far away and $10 could mean the difference between
life and death, would you give the $10? Now there was a different
response. Instead of a confident yes, the students responded with a series
of conditions—if they could be sure the money got to where it was supposed
to go; if they could be sure the money was well spent; provided it didn’t
go to “undesirables”.
Yet in this richest of chapters in Luke’s Gospel the parables of the lost
sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, all point to the profound truth
that there is joy in heaven, not at the destruction of the lost one, but
on it being found or saved.
How is it then that we are so miserly with our time, talents and treasure
when the smallest amount can make an enormous difference as far as other
people’s lives is concerned?
If God so lovingly searches for us, then should we not also search for the
lost and give them life?
Trevor Burt
5 September 2004 14th Sunday after Pentecost
National Child Protection Week
God reworks us to bring peace
This is a big week. I’m not thinking of football finals or
weddings or garage sales or fashion parades or barbecues. It is a big week
on the national and international scene. National Child Protection Day
begins today. Tuesday is White Balloon Day when we remember children who
are sexually abused. Wednesday we celebrate the birth of Mary, the mother
of our Lord. Friday is International Peace Day. Saturday we remember the
loss of lives through the New York aircraft hijackings. The same day we
celebrate Australian Anglican saint Mother Esther who founded the
Community of the Holy Name in Melbourne. A mixed week of celebration and
sorrow, healing and horror, lost life and new life.
What are we to make of it all, this week of inhumanity and hope.
God did not promise freedom from suffering. God did promise grace to
endure and transform suffering.
The parable of the potter gives us encouragement. The vessel was spoiled
in the potters hands, but the potter reworks the clay into another vessel.
This gives us hope. God shapes and equips us to rework the world in which
we live, to reshape the bad into something good. And God moulds and
empowers us to heal and make whole, to restore what has been lost and
spoiled. God works in us and through us, as seems good to him. We are both
the potter and the clay. We are both the shaper and one shaped, the one
who receives grace and is the agent of grace.
September 12 we have a chance to be both transformed and transformer at
the Gathering for Peace.
Trevor Burt
29 August 2004 13th Sunday after Pentecost
Refugee and Migrant Sunday
Finding peace through compassion
Peace is a constant theme in our lives. In ancient Greek thought peace
meant primarily the absence of war, and that continues to the main use of
the word today. But in Hebrew thought, peace was more to do with
relationships—how people get along with each other. It was not until
Christian times that peace came to mean the broader idea of spiritual and
physical wholeness.
It is this more individual meaning of the word peace that is beginning to
dominate modern thought. People seek inner peace through meditation and
de-stress classes. A whole industry survives on dealing with people’s
stress, and many wayward sects have capitalised on people’s search for
inner peace.
What is being left behind is the social aspect of peace. Political peace,
the absence of war, is connected to personal peace; peace in the community
is connected to spiritual peace.
John F Kennedy grasped this idea when he said: It takes two to make peace.
Peace between warring nations begins in the heart. And peace in the heart
has as its foundation love for neighbour.
So long as we treat other people inhumanely, there can never be peace.
While we lack compassion for certain groups of people in our community,
our society cannot live in peace.
So the writer to the Hebrews says: “Let mutual love continue. Do not
neglect to show hospitality to strangers…”
Christian love expresses itself through sympathy, compassion and respect.
We find it hard to love, for our prejudices and cultural shaping distort
our thinking. Yet God’s command to love our neighbour is central to all
peace—social, personal and spiritual. It begins with us.
Trevor Burt
22 August 2004 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Vocation, Vocation, Vocation
Like a lot of famous sayings, the often cited ‘Gold, Gold, Gold’ is
actually a misquotation. The original ‘Gold! Gold to Australia! Gold!’
came from ABC commentator Norman May, poolside at the Moscow Olympics in
1980.
But forceful sayings seem to go in threes – perhaps because once is not
enough, and twice sounds too much like self doubt.
And sometimes it takes a bit of repetition before people understand what’s
being said.
Through the years of the Old Testament, people frequently expressed doubts
about their sense of calling. Sometimes this happened through naivety:
think, for example, of Sarah, future mother of Isaac, who laughs when told
she will have a son; or of Samuel, who thinks it’s the old man Eli calling
him when in fact it is the LORD.
Jeremiah, whose call is the subject of today’s Old testament reading, is
typical of many who say they aren’t up to the job. Yet God insists, and a
rich tradition of prophecy is the result.
The great feats we see day by day at the Olympics, or on the football
field, are not achieved without some agonising moments of self-doubt – and
of course, some painful defeats – but the sense that we must strive to be
our best seems deeply ingrained.
So when a child comes for baptism, we can all reflect on what calls us,
and whether or not we respond.
And as in the old real estate adage, we can draw comfort from the fact
that it’s not necessarily the strength or beauty of what we do that
matters, but the grounds on which it is based.
David Cusworth
15 August 2004 Mary, Mother of our Lord
Mary and the feminine side of God
There is a sizeable body of Christina writing concern the
birth, life and death of Mary. As with all great figures in history,
stories of their feats tend to loom larger with the telling over time.
Cultic devotion to Mary the mother of our Lord can be observed in
Christian piety from the 2nd Century. Perhaps inspired by Greek goddess
cults, there may be seeds of this thought embedded in the Gospels—the
angelic message to Mary, the Virgin birth and her role as intercessor.
Early writings gave fanciful accounts of the conception and the death of
Mary. These stories no doubt inspired an enthusiastic and growing cultic
movement. It was not until 1854 that the Immaculate Conception of Mary was
proclaimed as a dogma, and in 1950 the bodily Assumption of Mary into
Heaven was proclaimed.
While the legends of Mary's miraculous powers and wondrous acts that
flourished in the 15th Century can be doubted, not so easy to dismiss are
the appearances of Mary. The apparitions are consistent in that the poor,
young and humble tend to experience them, and the messages are about
repentance, turning away from violence and materialism, and turning to
prayer.
Marian devotion has for centuries filled a need to affirm a female,
specifically maternal, figure in Christian spirituality. The Reformation
rejected Marian devotion, and now the modern church lacks a way to assert
the feminine side of God- an attribute most obviously lacking in the
Trinitarian description of God, which one writer described as “two blokes
and a bird”. Perhaps there is room for a more significant place for Mary
in the worship life of the Church.
Trevor Burt
8 August 2004 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
International Prisoners Justice Sunday
"The Faith" leading to faithfulness
Do you have faith? Your answer depends what you think faith is.
If we look to Hebrews 11.1 for a definition of faith we may get confused,
for this passage speaks more about the attitude of the believer that a
definitive description of faith.
So what is faith? There are four aspects:
1. “The faith” describes the core beliefs that are given witness in the
Bible and are expressed in our creeds, church teachings and worship. This
is the aspect of faith that involves the mind and includes questioning and
doubting. Each Sunday when we recite the Creed we hear “this is our faith,
the faith of the Church”. We have faith that Jesus brings life, for
example.
2. “Faith in” - this is a response to the teachings, and is marked by
trust. I believe that Jesus brings new life (part of the Faith of the
Church) and therefore I have faith (trust) in him to bring new life to me
and other people.
3. Faith expressed in action. Personal faith has a visible aspect that is
seen in the activities, words and relationships of the believer. This is
partly a head response and partly a heart response. We know what we ought
to do and say, but may have to press ourselves into the Christian way of
being.
4. Faithful life. A person who continues steadfastly in faith increasingly
displays a character moulded into the likeness of Jesus. Believing in the
core beliefs of the Christian faith, having trust in God as revealed in
Jesus, and acting lovingly according to that belief and trust, leads to a
faithful and fruitful life. Faithfulness is evidenced by the fruit of the
Spirit.
From “the Faith” to faithfulness—this is the journey of Christian living.
Trevor Burt
1 August 2004 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Information and Transformation
I have a friend who loves going to Christian conferences and
attending bible studies. She has a great thirst for knowledge and reads
books and passes them on to others.
I also notice that nothing much changes in her life. She was baptised,
confirmed and receives communion regularly, but she doesn’t seem to get
involved in too much else in church life.
I wonder about that. There seems to be something missing. It seems like
she spends a great deal of time and energy gathering information, but it
doesn’t seem to lead anywhere.
As I read Colossians I can’t help but feel the power of the transformation
that has happened in Paul’s life and the centrality of Jesus in that
change.
New life in Christ is not only about knowing new things, but also about
being transformed into a new person—a life overflowing with compassion for
others, an irresistible urge to tell others the hope that is found in God,
an overwhelming desire to bring wholeness and unity in people’s lives.
The rich fool had an enormous wealth, but didn’t do anything with it. He
just stored it up. What for! What a waste! Similarly, there’s no point
have a heap of information stored up in our brains if it is not put to
good use.
The prophet Hosea reprimanded Israel for falling away from its calling to
love God. The people of Israel got lured away by the temptations of other
nations. Haven’t we done the same? Haven’t we lost sight of new life in
Christ and been distracted by the trials and temptations around us that
seem to demand our time and effort.
Perhaps it is time for us to be vulnerable to God in Christ and allow
ourselves to be transformed by his love.
Trevor Burt
18 July 2004 Seventh Day of Pentecost
The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ
Colossians 1:15-20, which forms part of today's reading, is one of my
favourite parts of Scripture. Paul's portrayal of the 'risen and ascended'
Christ, who is Lord in creation and redemption, exhilarates me. This is a
Christ who is both supreme and sufficient to achieve God's plans and
purposes - the goal of creation, redemption and history. He deserves our
worship and the commitment of our lives to him.
Colossae was only a small village so the congregation there was probably
also small. Yet to this apparently insignificant church writes the great
apostle, Paul, telling of his joy at their response of faith when they
heard the gospel, and saying that this same gospel is at work, bearing
fruit, throughout the rest of the world too.
God is still at work today, using this very same gospel message to
announce reconciliation with this alienated and fallen world, through the
cross of Christ. I hope that this portrayal of the supremacy and
sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ in Colossians gives you confidence in
the same gospel, so that you persevere in the apostolic faith, holding
firm to the hope proclaimed and playing a part in its proclamation to
those who are still to hear the good news.
Ben van der Klip
25 July 2004 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - St James
Cheap grace—the ruin of many
I don’t know whether it is my family background or a trait of our culture,
but I chase specials, I’m a sucker for the cheap prices that come with
sales, I look for the lest expensive way.
Some may describe that as good stewardship—good use of limited resources.
It is good only if I get value for money. I can buy cheap but low quality
things, which soon break down, and I end up spending more to buy again.
The theologian Bonhoeffer speaks about cheap grace. God promises us good
things, and grace is a free gift from God. Free, but not cheap. We see in
Jesus’ life that this Christian life can indeed be costly.
“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance, baptism without
church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without
personal confession…, grace without discipleship, grace without the cross,
grace without Jesus Christ….” says Bonhoeffer.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift
that must be asked for, the door at which we must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. Cheap
grace has been the ruin of many a Christian, he says. This is because we
can be passive Christians, receiving and rarely giving, learning but
growing little, avoiding the suffering that comes with a full Christina
life.
We naturally seed grace where it is found at its cheapest. The challenge
is to embrace costly grace, for it is this form of grace that transforms
lives.
Trevor Burt
11 July 2004 Sixth Day of Pentecost
Who is my neighbour?
The question seems simple enough, and it would be wonderful to think that
the lawyer of Luke 10.25-37 wanted to know the answer so that he could
rush out and find his neighbour in order to do some great deed of service.
Yet it appears that this question was not asked as an opportunity to reach
out to others, but rather it was an attempt to do the bare minimum that
the Law required.; it was exclusive, designed to rule many people out of
the definition of “neighbour.”
In answer to the lawyer, Jesus told the story of The Good Samaritan. In
this narrative, no doubt familiar to us all, both the High Priest and the
Levite are neighbours of this hurt individual—they are connected to him by
ancestry, religious beliefs, and community—yet they both pass the wounded
man by. It is only the Samaritan, one who is outside of the man’s
“neighbourhood” who chooses to stop and help, at great cost to himself.
Often our society today links neighbourhood to one’s community links,
instead of our relational connections. Thus it is easy for the government
to justify turning away refugees at gun-point, and just as easy for us to
turn away from the TV when pictures of starving children appear.
However, the definition of neighbour is not one who is connected by
beliefs, customs, or blood, but one who is connected relationally. Indeed,
God’s intention for us is seen in the Christ who died for all, thus God
calls us to be a neighbour to all.
The question for us is not Who is my neighbour?, but Who is not my
neighbour? for we are called to be a neighbour to all peoples. But if we
are not a neighbour to some, then we are not a neighbour of Christ.
Tony Kemp
4 July 2004 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Day of Prayer for Peace
Putting ourselves in God’s way
There is a lovely phrase used in the Companions in Christ course: “putting
ourselves in the way of God”.
For a long time I thought that being a Christian meant behaving correctly.
So I did my best to be good. It was a great burden because there was
always something I did wrong, or failed to do.
Some years later I had a wonderful experience of the Holy Spirit. It
helped to make God real for me, and God felt close. It helped me
understand better what “Spiritual” meant. It filled me with a great
passion and enthusiasm for things of God and the Church. And, perhaps
significantly at that time, it filled me with a great joy that has lasted
the decades that followed.
That experience was such a transforming thing in my life. I moved away
from thinking about God to experiencing God.
Like many people who have had a similar experience, I yearned for more of
that joyous experience of God. But after a while I found I needed more
than those simple experiences.
And that is where the phrase above comes in. These last few weeks I have
been opening myself to God again. Like the prodigal son, I have placed
myself back under the influence of the father. Like the seventy sent out,
I have had my experiences of the power of God, but now it is time to go
deeper than these experiences.
Each day now I have been awakened to a new spiritual insight. Reading and
reflecting and writing. A simple pattern with profound results. By putting
myself in the way of God, I have found God speaking to me with a clarity
that has eluded me for many years. What a wonderful God we have.
Trevor Burt
27 June 2004 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Vocations Day
Angels and Terminators
A colleague at work was feeling spiritual and so put out a display of
angels and fairies at her workstation. People sniggered a bit, but did
nothing to deter her.
Well, almost.
On her days off another person, somewhat younger and more larrikin in
temper, had to use the same workstation.
His collection of Terminator dolls and similar high-tech warrior effigies
soon stood over the angels and fairies, and the sniggers rose to a
belly-laugh.
Until, of course, the other person returned, and reclaimed the space.
Angels and fairies 1: Terminators 0.
This week’s Gospel is a bit like that. The disciples want to call down
fire on a Samaritan village that won’t receive Jesus, but Jesus rebukes
them.
The disciples have a good Old Testament authority on their side: the
prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven several times.
But Jesus tells them they are called to another way; they are to go out
like lambs among wolves, with nowhere to hide, nowhere to lay their head.
The disciples are referred to as messengers, or angels – the original
Greek word means both – just as Elijah is referred to as a messenger.
And as the parable of the workstation shows, messengers are an extension
of the personalities of the people who sent them.
Ancient Israel related to the Lord as an avenging, tribal God, and people
expected a Terminator to come at the end of time to purify the world by
fire.
But Jesus reveals God’s true nature, sending his message through ordinary
people who care for the world and the people in it, who by their nature
call others to be and do their best.
David Cusworth
20 June 2004 Third Sunday after Pentecost
UN World Refugee Day
Casting out the demons
We live in a culture of blame. Who is responsible? Who should get
punished? Who is the “fall guy”?
For instance, we have seen a vigorous media focus on the Iraq prisoner
abuses: who knew, who didn’t know, who should have known, who should have
taken action. In the process we have been looking for someone to blame,
someone to punish. One of the consequences of this frenzy is something
called “demonisation”. We make someone out to be bad, even evil, in order
to justify an outrageous punishment.
Archbishop Ian George was demonised because of his failure to care for
victims of abuse and prevent further abuse. And he was punished by being
pressed to resign.
In Old Testament times demons were gods or small deities, were neither
good nor bad but were under God’s guidance. By New Testament times demons
had taken on a moral quality—that of being evil and hostile to God and
humanity. Angels became the goodies. Now anything “bad” could be blamed on
demons, who rightly deserve the worst punishment.
We fall into the trap of looking for people to blame when things go wrong,
we demonise them, then justly punish them. What is overlooked is that
individuals need a whole lot of support and cooperation to do their
“evil”. The Iraqi prisoner abuse happened in an environment of prejudice
and perceived immunity, with the support of both military and politician.
Abuse in the Church happened in a culture of protection of the institution
and clerical leaders.
But Jesus challenges us to a very different way—not one of blame,
demonisation and punishment, but of righteous living and forgiveness.
Trevor Burt
13 June 2004 St Columba's Day
We are all missionaries
Who wants to be a missionary? I don’t see too many hands in the air in
positive response! If we follow the pattern in Luke 10 it looks like a
difficult sort of thing: carry no possessions with you, wear the same
clothes, eat what is given to you, stay where you are welcome. And the
task, simple: heal the sick, tell people the Kingdom of God is near.
Sounds like a specialist job. But is it? In the USA every member of the
Episcopal Church (equivalent to the Anglican Church) is a member of a
missionary society. When you join the church, you become a missionary.
When we think of a missionary we tend to think of great people like St
Columba, who put his life on the line, took great risks, was passionate
about his faith, and achieved great things.
To be a missionary is simple: all that is required is to proclaim Jesus in
word and deed. It doesn’t mean doing extraordinary feats or being a
dynamic preacher. It means doing ordinary, everyday things. It means
making sacrifices of time and talent (take no purse or bag), using the
gifts you already have, and doing what you already do—caring for the needy
(healing the sick) and telling about your experiences of God’s love and
presence (proclaiming the Kingdom of God).
Basically, that is what St Columba did—care for the needy and tell others
about God’s love. The difference is that he did that by floating overseas
to a new country and facing the risks and challenges of a new land.
We don’t have to go overseas to be a missionary. The mission field is
where we live and work and play. So we all can be and should be
missionaries, for Jesus’ sake.
Trevor Burt