A Lectionary Resource for 11 July 2004 –15 August 2004
These preaching ideas or sermon starters are based on the 2003/2004 Revised Common Lectionary which is being used in many churches in Australia and New Zealand.
This set of notes is the 6th in a series being written again this year by a variety of writers who will cover the full year. Writers of considerable experience and variety have agreed to write notes including: the Revs Brian Williscroft, David Grant, Lawrie Hampton. .Margaret Martin, Neil Churcher, Philippa Horrex, Shirley Fregusson, and Bob Eyles.
This Kit has been written by the Very Rev. Neil Churcher of Dunedin
Pentecost 11
11 July 2004
Amos 7:7-17; Ps. 82; Col 1:1-14: Lk. 10:25-37
There are two risks involved in talking about the Christian faith. One is that you make it sound too easy and the other is that you make it sound too hard.
If you make it sound too easy, you run the risk of people being disappointed when it doesn´t work easily for them; and if you make it sound too hard you run the risk of people not even trying. A somewhere-in-the-middle position isn´t any good either.
Nor does it do much good to lay down absolute principles that people are expected to follow, because the way people put those principles into practice is going to vary from one person to the next.
Part of the difficulty is to deal with the present. It's not enough to notice what God has done in the past; and it´s not enough to speculate about what God will do in the future, though both of those things may have some importance. What is essential for us as Christians is to notice what God is doing among us now.
This, I think, is something of the dilemma we face when we set out sermonically with these passages.
Amos 7:7-17
Has Amos given up all hope that people will realise the serious nature of their sin? It seems so. Unlike his response to previous visions, Amos here makes no plea for God to spare the people. He seems to understand that God´s judgment must surely come.
What are his complaints? The people have chosen to go their own way. They have turned worship into a meaningless exercise. They have replaced compassion with cruelty and greed in their dealings with one another. The powerful ones are especially condemned. God´s plumb line shows how crooked and out of kilter life, especially the life of the people of God, has become.
So God´s judgment must come. But how? Not by God laying about him/her with a scourge, heavenly or otherwise, but by the inevitable result that must happen when a people lives selfish, unloving, lives that hold no compassion, no justice and no faithfulness to a loving God. Historically the result has always been that the society crumbles and dies.
Interestingly, when the authorities hear Amos´ preaching, they tell him to get out of the city. After all, they say, "this is the king´s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom". But Amos cannot listen to them and keep the plumb line in view. In V.17 his response is clear and definite.
By what standards are we living in Aotearoa New Zealand? Where would the plumb line fall?
Psalm 82
"Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute,
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
See Amos above, and read on!
Interestingly, "The Message" version of this psalm talks about "judges" rather than ?gods". I like it. It feels as though those who have the power to set things on a course, (not necessarily legal judges), are the ones who should be brought to trial.
Injustice violates the very nature of divinity. God intends that everyone should have access to the resources that make life possible and satisfying. Injustice destroys all that.
Who are the "other gods" today, the judges? I wonder who it is, and what life choices have been made, that make it important for us to have food banks?
Col. 1:1-14
See the prayer: vv 9-14
Luke 10:25-37
How many times have you tried to preach this parable, and how much did you feel you actually got there last time, and what new place to start have you discovered?
The lawyer is testing Jesus, so when the tables are turned and he is faced with a simple "Then do that", he looks for a loophole, a definition. What he gets is a story about a man who was despised, quite outside the pale, who is held to be more of a neighbour than those normally respected people. Note that it´s the word "neighbour" that is used. "Good" doesn´t appear in the story. The story destroys any parochial understanding of God.
If you were to transfer Amos´ vision of the plumb line to the characters in, and associated with, this story, where would it fall? Take care when you decide about the priest and the levite who were responding to what they had been taught was God´s will for them. Their religion depended on it.
So, how do you love God "with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence"? (The Message).
God,
let us come into your presence
owning who we are
knowing that we could be more
than we have discovered so far
and trusting that,
because you will love us
with all your passion and compassion
we will live on in the beauty and intelligence
of your forgiven ones.
For the love of Jesus. Amen.
18 July 2004
Amos 8:1-12. Ps. 52 Col 1:15-28 Lk. 10:38-42
In Mark Link’s book “Breakaway” there’s a story about a monk who had prayed all his life for a vision from God. After he’d almost given up hope it came. The monk’s heart soared with peace and joy. Suddenly, the monastery bell rang to say that it was time to feed the poor at the monastery gate. It was the old monk’s turn to share with them whatever food was on hand that day. He was torn between his vision and his earthly occupation; but before the bell had stopped ringing in his ears he’d made his decision. He left the vision to feed the poor. Nearly an hour later he came back to his room. As he opened the door he fell to his knees. There in the room was the same vision. As he bowed his head the vision spoke: “Had you not gone, I would not have stayed.”
Amos 8:1-12
A companion piece with last week’s vision; but this time there is a message of unrelieved judgment.
“God opened my eyes and I saw him at work: there was a basket of autumn fruit in the street, ready for the autumn festival at the end of the year. ‘What are you looking at, Amos?’ he asked me. ‘A basket of autumn fruit,’ I said.
‘It’s autumn for the North, too,’ he said ‘Autumn — and the end. I cannot go on overlooking things!
Temple songs will turn to temple laments --
wars and many deaths
streets choked with dead soldiers
and silence!”
(Winding Quest - Alan T. Dale)
And the reason? Immoral activity, even in the form of a business enterprise, brings its own consequence: noting other than alienation from God, the most dreadful judgment of all.
I am writing these notes in Budget week. I wonder what response a careful look at this year’s budget would draw from the likes of Amos? Or this week’s congregation.
Psalm 52
Who on earth is “Mighty One/you hero/Big Man”? Commentators suggest that the title of the psalm which says it was from a time when Doeg told Saul where to find David should be taken “illustratively rather than historically”. James L. Mays suggests that “the portrait is that of a person who turns human capacities and possession into the basis of his existence.” It seems that, whoever he was, the big shot is one who works out of self-rule — pleases himself. In the context of the psalm, gender probably isn’t in question, but it may well be today. The self-rulers are those who threaten people who seek a life-style of justice and compassion. See Amos and Jesus. We can live for ourselves or we can live for God. We can be people who are pulled up by their roots, or people who are like olive trees “growing green in God’s house.” (The Message)
Col 1:15-28
A hymn of exalted language. I wonder if it went to a tune like Laudate Dominum, or even Tantum Ergo Sacramentum. Commentators use words like “exalted and cosmic language”. So it is and so it ought to be. “He is supreme in the beginning and supreme in the end”.
Interestingly, from one who has been criticised at times for editing the language, usually to tidy up the gender, this hymn has also been edited. There are at least two additions: “the church” in v.18 and “through the blood of his cross” in v. 20. Both have the effect of linking the Christ to his and our earthly existence. Peterson has a marvelous understanding of what that means for us. “You yourselves are a case study of what he does” The rest of that section is worth a read.
Luke 10:38-42
I find this a difficult story. Certainly, it’s too easy to come to an obvious conclusion and say that it’s better to be like Mary than like Martha. I think that’s rubbish, and I don’t think it’s what Jesus was on about. And I also think that those romantic pictures which show a beautiful Mary kneeling directly in front of Jesus with him smiling down at her as he speaks only to her, are even more rubbishy. Mary was probably at the back of the room somewhere, where women of her time would have been, listening at a distance as Jesus spoke to whoever else was with him in Martha’s house.
It’s a story about Martha. Talking with Muriel about this story, she said “It’s what a lot of church people are on about.” Like “why don’t more people come and help us!” “What we need are more young people.” “Why don’t more women join the APW?” “If only more people would be prepared to come to working bees.........”
But there’s a balance that people like Martha (and me) need to discover. It’s the balance between doing and listening; between praying and helping. It’s about knowing when to say “no” because so-called ‘good deeds’ are getting in the way of contemplation. Read the story at the beginning of these notes again.
God,
you are always ready to listen to us
as we come seeking you.
Teach us the wisdom of taking time
to listen
so that we may find energy
to work for justice and compassion.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
O Christ, the Master Carpenter
Who, at the last, through wood and nails,
purchased our whole salvation,
wield well your tools
in the workshop of your world
so that we,
who come rough-hewn to your bench,
may here be fashioned
to a truer beauty of your hand.
We ask it for your name’s sake.
(The Wee Worship Book)
25 July 2004
Hosea 1:2-10; Ps 85; Col 2:6-15, (16-19); Lk 11:1-13
At a very difficult and painful time in my life, Michael Jackson Campbell came to visit. He was a good friend and a wise man and so was able to address my situation honestly and without platitudes. As he was going he said: “Always remember, God is good, God is love and God is faithful.” I have never forgotten.
Hosea 1:2-10
There are a number of quite complex textual questions here — and no room here to address them adequately. There is a very helpful discussion of them in “The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand” by Maurice Andrew pp 539-41
Maybe the parable is that Hosea’s action was more corrupt in that he took Gomer as a prostitute without marrying her. So God’s relationship with Israel has been corrupted almost beyond recognition. The children born to them are, therefore, “God sows”, “Not Fitted”, and “Not My People”.
Nevertheless, the passage is about sin, judgment and redemption. There is a sense of “And yet..........yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are my people”, it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And see next week!
Psalm 85
When things are bad, or even just dubious, and you can’t seem to get into contact with God, it’s important to remember those peak times when you could. The times when you were clearly in touch are the times that hold us. They may not be many, but they are there. The psalm is “perpetually appropriate for the people of God”. Our own shortsightedness, as well as the difficulties of living faithfully in a world pervaded by the results of faithlessness, mean that it will always be necessary for us, like Israel, to pray “Restore us again”. At least every Sunday as the people of God meet together! Loren Mead uses an illustration of the people of God meeting for worship on Sunday, moving out into the world from Monday to Saturday experiencing all the drama of “everyday life” and being stained by it, so needing to gather again within sound of the gospel of Jesus. The focus of the psalm is clearly on God, on steadfast love and faithfulness. God will set things right.
Col 2:6-15 (16-19)
The first verse sets the scene. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” (NRSV). “You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught.” (The Message) This is no static understanding. It isn’t an argument you have to accept or refute. Instead it is a relationship God has instituted through Jesus. It is a question of entering into the fullness of that relationship and not allowing anyone to pull you aside from it by “big words and intellectual double talk.” I like the way Peterson concludes this reading.
“So then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourself be bullied by it? ‘Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this! Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.”
How do you apply this? One thing that has come to notice recently is that, while people in congregations, Presbyteries, and (dare I say it) in Assembly — while individuals people are great, faithful, open and ready to engage, corporately, especially when they’re divided into ‘parties’, they become difficult, querulous and stubborn. I think it’s because recognised leaders make statements or stands, speaking in a deep enough voice, and others are not willing to challenge them. What think you?
Luke 11:1-13
Of all the gospel writers, Luke has the most extensive accent on prayer which puts people in touch with the incredible generosity of God. So, to his question, the lawyer gets first a model prayer and then a story.
“Prayer is the means of establishing agreement between God’s will and (our) desires: and it may well be that the best way of educating our desires is to express them to God in prayer. It may be that it is only by telling God frankly what we want that we can learn what we truly need.” (The Sayings of Jesus. T.W.Manson)
Is it ‘persistence’ or ‘shamelessness’? The word means both. There is no hint in the story that the man pounded on his neighbour’s door until he gave in. Perhaps the neighbour finally responded because he didn’t want to be shamed by a refusal which went against the absolute requirement of his time.
In case you haven’t a copy of Manson’s marvelous book, first published in 1937(!), here is how he ends his discussion of this parable”
“The conclusion is not explicitly drawn; but it is sufficiently obvious. If a human friend, who is a prey to moods and tempers, can be persuaded even against his inclination to get up and oblige you, how much more will God your Father and your perfect friend be ready to supply all your needs. The disciple who has this confidence will be able to open his heart freely before God. He will also be able to accept whatever God sends him. He will know how to say, ’I have learned in whatsoever state I am , therein to be content. I know how to be abased and how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want. I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.’”
So, “Ask and it will be given you...search...knock...Would any of you who are parents give your child a weta when asked for a fish?” (NZ Prayer Book)
Prayer
God
when we tread a path to your door
we find it open and welcoming.
When we make requests of you,
even the most difficult,
selfish or presumptuous,
you give according to your grace and goodness.
Forgive what is twisted or dangerous in us
when we make our requests and demands.
Restore us with the surprise
of your willingness.
Teach us to offer ourselves in return
to those who make requests of us. Amen.
1 August 2004
Hosea 11:1-11; Ps. 107:1-9,43; Col 3:1-11; Lk. 12:13-21
Retired ministers don’t get to Baptise many children so when it happens it’s very special. My last Baptism was a Samoan child, Salani. Now that she is toddling around, I can pick her up and ask, “Give me a hug, Salani.” She looks me straight in the eye and then, very gently, places her cheek against mine. It is the most intimate gesture and I am touched.
Hosea 11:1-11
A change of heart moves me,
tenderness kindles within me.
I am not going to let loose my fury,
I shall not turn and destroy Ephraim,
for I am God, not a mortal;
I am the Holy One in your midst.
I shall not come with threats. (Revised English Version)
This passage shows a remarkable turn in emphasis. Here God describes the relationship with Israel in the first person, an especially close relationship from God’s side. It is one that goes back to the Exodus.
Israel here is no longer a faithless wife but a rebellious son. What is being described is the opposite of what could be expected. Here is great intimacy and tenderness, a totally different picture from that of an avenging God.
Are verses 10 and 11 always read? “When Yahweh roars like a lion, it is not in anger but as the clearest summons to the people. The people do react, but they do so in response to God; they now come trembling from all directions. The passage ends with God and people reciprocally in their proper places. People seeing God as holy means that they recognise a way totally different from theirs, but which can give them their own legitimate way. In Aotearoa New Zealand it is not unusual for its various peoples to acknowledge the different ways of others, but, when they do, they find they are much clearer about their own way.” (The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand. Maurice Andrew)
Psalm 107:1-9,43
A psalm of thanksgiving over the hesed of Yahweh. There is no other word for it. It is a song about God’s steadfast love — an appropriate companion piece for Hosea 11. The language may apply to many experiences of alienation — lostness, hunger, thirst, weariness. “In contrast with our culture Ps. 107 teaches us that there is finally no such thing as self-sufficiency. Human life depends on God; and the good news is, God can be depended on.” (J. Clinton McCann.)
Col. 3:1-11
Why is it that people outside the church see its teaching as dour, restrictive and inappropriate for our times? Why are Christians so often depicted as people with long faces? Why is it that, in conversations about attracting people to Church, the comment is often made, “Oh but I couldn’t invite anyone into what we have here”, meaning that it is boring and dull? I wonder if it is because we find it so! Maybe we need to hear a call to change (repent), move in a new direction. Perhaps we should look up and out more instead of looking down and around ourselves. It could be that we would see a new landscape.
The reading from Colosians today offers another perspective. Here everyone is defined by Christ. Here Christianity is resurrection in the here-and-now. There is no word about suffering now for the sake of bliss later. The call is to put away distorted attitudes and actions. Sure, specific things are mentioned and maybe we should take careful notice of them. But I think we should include despondency where the church is shrinking, and the failure to challenge the common attitude of so many by illustrating in our living how much confidence we have in God who is good and love and faithful.
Luke 12:13-21
I wonder what the greedy farmer would have done in today’s booming property market. I bet he wouldn’t have sat back and taken his ease. He’d have been out and about buying up “investment properties”. Our culture puts a high premium on expansion and growth. I’ve often wondered what would happen if we concentrated more on people’s welfare first, and the economy second. I have been moved and challenged over the years by the writings of Jane Kelsey and Susan St. John who seem to me to place a Godly emphasis on economic and social matters.
This parable raises another question for me: “Why do we have so much bother talking about money in Church, and why are so many people upset by it?”
“The Gospel texts are not immediately addressed to the broader culture, to provide an economic system that is peculiarly Christian. They are in fact addressed to the disciples and would-be disciples, who have little or no leverage to change economic patterns but who want to live faithfully to their calling as believers. Jesus’ words make sense only in the circle of faith where the intrusion of God into the lives of people (as with the rich man in the parable) is taken seriously.” (Charles B. Cousar)
Like many parables, no answers are offered here. There is only a simple “So it is......” As a good story should, the fortunes and misfortunes of this farmer will stick in our minds and offer us a way of living and of reacting to the way others would have us live.
1 Here we bring, small or great, gifts to offer on this plate what we’ve earned, what we own tithe or token, bread or stone.
2. Food and drink, things obsess, drug us to false happiness, what we keep, what we give tells the truth of how we live.
Jesus said: “Have a care - your hearts will always be where your riches are, where your riches are.”
3. Moth and rust breed decay thieves break in and steal away love and trust need no hoard, richest treasure can’t be stored.
4. Wild flowers grow, birds find seed, God attends to each one’s need as we share, all can live, as we love, we learn to give.
Shirley Murray “Alleluia Aotearoa 62.
8 August 2004
Is 1:1,10-20; Ps 50:1-8,22-23; Heb 11:1-11; Lk.12:32-40
Maurice Andrew, in a reflection on the popular view of the prophets quotes Jack Lewis: “A group of Auckland University students gave a weekly lunch to reading aloud together selected books of the Prophets. They had looked at commentaries beforehand and then kept them at home. Apart from a five minute introduction from the reader of the day there was no discussion. Numbers grew.” He also gives the example of J.K. Archer, a Baptist minister and also mayor of Christchurch and president of the Labour Party, who was described as resembling “in almost every way the O.T. prophets from whom he derived much of his inspiration and phraseology”, who said, for example, in 1918:”We must take the machinery of government out of the hands of the robbers.....We must organise society on the basis of mutual aid instead of mutual plunder. We must replace competition by cooperation.”
Isaiah 1:1,10-20
How do we view the prophets, especially as we listen to vv 10-16? Is ‘prophet of doom’ adequate or even fair? Or can we see the prophets as holding out salvation possibilities? Sure, they shouted. When you haven’t got auditoriums and power point, you have to shout. You have to be heard in the street as well as in the palaces.
Isaiah of Jerusalem was on about worship practices that ignored practical implications. Some have suggested that he went so far as to recommend abolishing worship if it consisted of doing ‘correct’ things and leaving it there. And true enough, using worship as an end in itself can be a way of trying to manipulate God. “I’ve said the right prayers, I’ve sacrificed as lavishly as I’m supposed to, now it’s up to you God. Do your bit!” Sometimes, even, correct worship can become an impediment to a Godly life of justice and compassion.
But see v.17. Isaiah makes a plea to let God be the focus and the presence in worship so that love and compassion and justice can be held out. Forgiveness realised in the most exceptional way.
Psalm 50:1-8,22-23
This is more of a sermon than the usual song or poem. But fancy missing out on those three marvelous verses — 10-12
This is God speaking, shouting to the people, challenging the people to decide. “Why should I want your blue-ribbon bull or more and more goats from your herds?” The conclusion comes in v.23 “Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.” See above.
Hebrews 11:1-11.
We are used to this marvelous eulogy on faithfulness. But hang on a minutes, didn’t Sarah laugh? Didn’t Abraham stand toe to toe with God on more than one occasion, and didn’t he blot his copybook as well? Maybe herein is faith; not perfectionism but a life that works through many issues, making mistakes, doubting, hesitating, but holding on, even by the skin of the proverbial teeth.
There’s a interesting textual question in v.1. NRSV offers “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” The suggestion is that this misses the point and isn’t a good translation of hypostasis and elegchos. REV offers “Faith gives substance to our hopes and convinces us of realities we do not see.” What the verse seems to mean is the highly provocative claim that faith itself moves towards a kind of life that defies demonstration or description, but only becomes “knowable” as it is lived.
Luke 12:32-40
More about possessions! The stress seems to be towards striving for life in God rather than even the most basic necessities of life. Then, almost strangely, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the kingdom — but not as reward. It’s a matter of whose rule is to prevail in the world. That is what makes a difference in the way we regard possessions. It’s not about storing up treasures for ourselves, but discovering ‘treasures’ that don’t diminish.
So giving to the poor and needy is a part of being a God-person; and it’s part of being prepared and ready.
What do you make of the master’s delight upon his return when he finds people waiting and ready, a delight so great that he changes places with them? I was reminded of Louis Evely’s comment on Peter’s reaction to Jesus washing his feet. “...if you refuse the idol-shattering shock of seeing your God at your feet, your God getting your meals for you, serving you at table, washing up for you — if you haven’t accepted that, suffered that, if you haven’t died to your ideas, your prejudices, your etiquette, your tastes, you will never rise again to my people.” (Our Prayer)
Prayer
Grandfather.
look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
only the human family
has strayed away from the sacred way.
We know that we are the ones
who are divided,
and we are the ones
who must come back together
to walk the sacred way.
Grandfather, sacred one,
teach us love, compassion, and honour
that we may heal the earth
and heal each other.
(From the Objibway nation of Canada)
15 August 2004
Is. 5:1-7; Ps 80:1-2,8-19; Heb 11:29-12:2; Lk12:49-56
In my first parish of Te Kuiti there was a woman who had a devastating chest complaint which, over the six years I was there, steadily worsened. When it was time for me to leave I went to the hospital to say goodbye. She was lying prone, unable to lift her head. We spoke of the difficult years of her illness and I tried to say how sorry I was that it was so difficult for her. She said: “It is difficult, and I don’t know why I have to suffer so much; but now I see only puzzling reflections in a mirror; but one day I shall see face to face. It’s all right. Goodbye.”
Isaiah 5:1-7
This is one of the most skillful poems in the Old Testament. It begins as a love song — to my beloved. What is expected after such loving and such careful attention to growth is a crop of edible grapes. But it yields stinkers — literally the stink of rotten fruit. Later the same term is used of rotting fish. Ugh!
The inescapable conclusion is put to the watchers — Israel — there is no more to be done. The mood of the owner is of puzzled painfulness. Why did all the care yield such stinkers? All protection is to go! Briars and thorns will come. It is clear that God is bringing judgment to the nation.
Note that the voice in v.7 is different from that in vv3-4 or in vv5-6. Is the final voice that of the prophet himself? Yet the mood is still more of sorrow than of anger.
The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is Israel,
Judah the plant he cherished.
He looked for justice but found bloodshed,
for righteousness but heard cries of distress. (REV)
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19
The judgment on the vineyard pronounced in Isaiah’s poem has happened. All the patient nurture that makes for growth and fruitfulness has been given, but why, then, have the walls been broken down so that all who pass by can pluck its fruit? There is no answer. So the plea is for God to repent. The only human response to that hope is to stand nearby ready to move into the loving embrace of God..
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Is the theme ‘endurance”? It seems to me that the point of the race is not to be first. To “win”: may mean to go the distance, wherever that may lead. It is also a journey in company, not only of those who also endure, but of those who have endured.
That is especially true of a sharing in the journey of Jesus. His journey took him through many aspects of a familiar journey for us. It covers family, friends, the kind of company we choose, the standards we adopt, the difficulties and antagonisms we encounter. And finally? For Jesus it was “It is finished!” What will it be for you and me?
O Lord, support us all the days of this life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then, in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last: through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Luke 12:49-56
“Ouch!” And “Oh Dear!” Whoever thought of this as the primary reading for the day. Shouldn’t we just stick with the triumph of Hebrews 12:1-2? Surely Jesus is the home-maker not the home-breaker!
Obviously, Jesus is addressing a time of crisis. When is there not a time of crisis? He is demanding a change of life-style to deal with it and not finding much evidence, at least among those who should be aware.
What is the fire Jesus wishes to kindle? What is the baptism that causes such anxiety? Wherever he goes, and whatever he says, Jesus provokes opposition and division. Why?
Remember Simeon in the Temple, cradling the infant Jesus and saying “This child is destined to be a sign that will be rejected...”
The crisis continues. Remember stories about the marches against Springbok tours where family members came face to face on opposing sides. Recall the recent hikoi on the foreshore and seabed issue where Church and government came face to face in opposition.
It seems there can be no peace without conflict, no salvation without rejection.
And people used to reading the times fail to see the actual crisis.
See Colin Gibson’s hymn “Is there no other way?” Alleluia Aotearoa 73
Prayer
Lord,
help us to see in the groaning of creation
not death throes but birth pangs;
help us to see in suffering a promise for the future,
because it is a cry against the inhumanity of the present.
Help us to glimpse in protest the dawn of justice,
in the Cross the pathway to resurrection,
and in suffering the seeds of joy.
- Rubern Alves, Brazil.