What is a Saint?

Pentecost 20, Year A, 2011
All Saints’ & All Souls’

Text: Daniel 7: 1-3, 15-18; Ephesians 1: 11-23; Luke 6: 20-31.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
Loving God, by your example you surround us by a great cloud of witnesses. May we, encouraged by their example serve you through our lives. Amen.
___________________________
What is a saint? The Church has not always been particularly clever over the centuries at choosing saints. For example, the great clean-out that the Roman Catholic Church undertook a few years ago revealed that some saints, including favourites like St. George, had probably never actually existed.

And some real ones reveal a spirituality that can lack balance. Rose of Lima, for example was the first South American saint. She was born in 1586 in Peru, and from childhood practiced the severest of austerities. A vow of virginity and her strictness of life meant she was persecuted by friends and family, and suffered from a severe sense of desolation. She died at the age of 30 and was make a saint 50 years latter.

If I had been Rose’s parish Priest, I think I would have been happier to have seen her out playing net ball and going to the movies with the gang than that sort of unworldly and painful spirituality.

In an important sense, as St. Paul teaches, we are all saints, we have all been made hold, sanctified, by God, because God blesses and saves all those who turn to him or her. But there is another way we can understand saintliness: the saint is the one who lives as God would want us all to live.

Our best guide as to how to do that are a few pages in the New Testament, pages 880 to 883 of the Bibles in your pews: the Sermon on the Mount. It is in these three chapters, beginning with the Beatitudes that we have just heard, that Jesus tells us all we need to know about being a saint.

It is in the Sermon on the Mount that we are told to turn the other cheek if we are struck; to love our enemies; to give alms quietly and privately, without public show. It is in these pages that Jesus tells us that it is not enough to refrain from actual adultery; if we even think about it we are half way there. We are told that we cannot serve both God and money at the same time, that we are not to judge others if we wish not to be judged ourselves, and we are to do unto others as we would have them do to us.

But the Sermon on the Mount is not only about how to treat each other. It’s also about God. In those four short pages Jesus also gives us the Lord’s Prayer, and tells us that there is no need to worry about tomorrow – for if God looks after the sparrows, how much more will he look after us. He also tells us that if we have a need, then we are to ask God. If we, as human parents, give to our children when they ask, then surely how much more will God give to God’s children when they ask.

It is not surprising that these three chapters are the best known passages in the Bible; because in them we have the very heart of Jesus’ teaching.

In these four pages we discover how different Jesus was from the ordinary world: of everyone for him / herself, of power politics, of rule by the almighty dollar, of level playing fields; of worldly common sense. Jesus taught that there were two fundamental principles to follow to lead a saintly life:

First we are to trust and obey God absolutely, above all other loyalties. God is certainly to be put before anything like possessions: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… but store up for yourselves treasures in heave… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

But God is even to be put ahead of one’s family. “Who are my mother and brothers?” Jesus asks. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3; 35

The other principle that Jesus taught as necessary for a saintly life was, of course, that we must stop putting our own concerns first, as most of us do most of the time, and instead be foolishly loving in the way we treat others.

Imagine arriving at the Pearly Gates, and, blow me down, who should be standing there but Jesus himself. You pass the time of day pleasantly enough with him for a while, if one can pass the time of day when one is in eternity. Then Jesus, never being one to beat about the bush, pulls out his clip board and says: “Right, let’s check you out on the saintliness scale and see if you pass.”

You feel quietly confident, and say: “Oh, I did all right. I was reasonably generous – gave 5% of my income to Church and charity. I never cheated anyone or did anyone any harm. If someone asked for help, I was quite helpful and gave what I could afford at the time. And I gave a fair share of my time to working bees on a Saturday.”

To your dismay, Jesus frowns and put some heavy crosses on the paper on his clip board. “What’s this “reasonably generous, “quite helpful, and “fair share”? When I said “turn the other cheek”, I wasn’t asking you to be reasonable. When I said go the second mile, I wasn’t asking you to be quite helpful. When I told you to love your enemies, I wasn’t asking you to be fair.

“No,” he goes on, warming to his subject, and you get the feeling that he’s been through this once or twice before. “No, who cares about reasonable, quite and fair? I don’t. God doesn’t. “We’re up to here with sensible people doing safe, sensible things. We want loving people, who do silly things – people who give away what they can’t afford to give away, people who spend time with lonely people when they haven’t got the time to do it. People who put energy into good causes after they have run out of energy, people who care about others as much as… as… well, as much as God cares about you.”

With sinking heart, you turn around and start walking away.

“Oi!” Jesus says, “where do you think you’re going?”

“Downstairs. I obviously don’t pass the test for up here.”
Jesus looks upwards in exasperation. “Strike me dead,” he says. “What are you talking about?”

“Well,” you say, “on every count I fail. You don’t want me up here. I didn’t live up to what you wanted me to, so I guess you don’t want me around.”

“Can’t you see, you numb skull,” he says, “that that’s the very point I’m making. We don’t work like that up here. God has got this thing about being foolishly loving, and we’ve spent the last couple of thousand years trying to get that lot on earth to get on the same wavelength.

“Look”, he goes on, speaking slowly, “love is about accepting people whoever they are, however smelly, shifty or shirty, and bringing the best out of them. Love is not about saying: Go to hell, and come back when you’re easy to love. If God worked like that, he and I would be ratting around in here like Darby and Joan in a castle. Don’t the Churches do any teaching these days?”

“Hurry up and come inside before you catch a cold standing in that draught.”

Amen.

Total Control

Pentecost 15, Year A, 2011, Patronal Festival

Text: Isaiah 26: 1-4; Colossians 1: 9-14; John 12: 20-26.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
Loving God, you have called us to drink of your cup and undergo your baptism. May we lose our lives for your sake. Amen.
__________________________
Believe it or not but this is the first time that I have actually preached on our Patronal Festival in the eight years that I have been here. We have generally always had the Melanesian Students leading this service and have always had visiting preachers.

I have to admit that handing over control of services as a Priest can sometimes be a harrowing experience – especially when you’re a perfectionist and something goes wrong and it’s totally out of your control.

What about you, do you like being in control?

When I was at University I had to study an experiment which has always stuck in my mind, even all these years latter, because of it’s meanness, and because I can’t stand unnecessary cruelty to animals.

The experiment consisted of two sets of monkeys being placed on electric chairs. Both sets were given random mild electric shocks. The difference between the two groups was that one had the power to partly control the shocks. If they learnt a complex routine of pushing buttons, they could reduce the number of shocks. However, the pattern of button pressing was too complicated to completely master, so that, no matter how hard they tried, they could never completely prevent the shocks.

The other group however, had no control at all over the number of shocks they received. They had a button to press, but it made no difference.

The monkeys who could sweat and struggle to have partial control over their world tended to develop ulcers and other signs of stress at a great rate, whereas the monkeys who got lots more unpleasant shocks, but had no control at all, showed no signs of ulcers, no signs of stress.

The moral of the story: For a comfortable life, if you are going to be in control of anything make sure you are in total control!

We can see the similar raising of the stress levels in M.Ps as they begin to debate and face again the possibility of a change from the lower level of control with M.M.P back to the more powerful control system of first past the post with the up coming election and referendum on this matter. Not that I’m suggesting that politicians are monkeys even though they sometimes behave like them.

All of which suggests that God probably suffers from chronic ulceration of the stomach lining, because that is the way God works – having ultimate responsibility, but not having control of the situation from day to day.

Not only has God handed over control to others, but, in our case, has handed most control over to a bunch of squabbling incompetents.

And Jesus was equally foolish. For three years he taught his world-changing message, and at the end, instead of writing a divine constitution, publishing a spiritual “Mein Kampf” and setting up an international university to train his disciples, with himself as the controlling head of a powerful world wide corporation; instead he let himself be killed in a most untimely manner, leaving it up to a rag tag bag of peasants and other illiterates, who thought he was a great personality but who hadn’t even grasped the fundamentals of what he was on about.

And these were the people that Jesus relied on to carry out his work, which was God’s work. No proper quality control. Like Father, like Son.

It’s uncomfortable, it may cause ulcers, or even worse; but it is the only Christian way. In every aspect of our lives, our power as Christians comes from giving away power and control. The Cross taught us this so clearly, that we took this potent symbol of power through – the – giving – away – of power as our very symbol.

If God has taught us the need to hand over control to others, even to apparently inadequate others, then we need to heed that lesson.

Today we celebrate the Martyr’s of Melanesia to whom our church is dedicated. Both the original Martyr’s of the nineteenth century being, John Coleridge Patterson and his companion Martyrs’ and the more recent seven Martyrs of the Melanesian Brotherhood who are featured on the front page of this week’s newsletter in an icon dedicated to them. All of these men were people who went to seek peace knowing full well the dangers to their lives. Through their faith in God they were prepared to hand over control of their lives to others, even inadequate others.

So who is a Martyr? To me a martyr is someone who has been able to relinquish their ego to the extent that their true self, the part of us that is Spirit and God like, shines through. That person, walking in the steps of Christ and therefore in truth, has come to the realization that even death is an illusion and is ultimately not to be feared. That is not to say, of course, that they don’t experience physical pain and fear on their journey to martyrdom. And I’m sure that Jesus experienced these same human emotions as he journeyed to the Cross. In a very real way a Martyr challenges our views of our physical existence and calls us to see beyond this world of fear to a world of hope, love and eternity.

We may not be called to give up our lives physically like a Martyr, but like Martyrs each of us is call to relinquish our egos, live in God’s Spirit, and walk in the steps of Christ.

So what are the things in your own life that you need to relinquish, what are the things that you need to cast off to find your true self? The part of you that is God centered and eternal.

And on this our Patronal Festival as we remember the Martyrs that we honor as a congregation what are the things we need to relinquish to reveal to our wider community the love of God more fully in our lives, so that God’s love might be more fully known? Amen.

Reconciliation

Pentecost 12, Year A, 2011

Text: Ezekiel 33; 7-11; Romans 13: 8-14; Matthew 18: 15-20.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
Reconciling God, may we who confess your faith prove it in our lives together, with abundant joy, outrageous hope and dependence on nothing but your word alone, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
___________________________
Has listening to today’s Gospel passage confronted you about an issue you have with someone in the church, and how you should handle it?

I have to admit that I found there was a certain irony in our Diocesan Synod falling on the same week as this Sunday’s Gospel reading. I can’t say that my experience of Synods, or Episcopal Elections for that matter, have always been the greatest examples of a loving Church in action!

One of my greatest disappointment since becoming a Priest, as a young man in my twenties, has been my witness of the politics within the church and to find that the church in its treatment of individuals is often no better than the rest of society.

Living together as a Christian community is not always easy. Some of us know that first hand within our own congregation. We are human after all, and while we may have God as our guide and source of never-ending love, for Whom nothing is impossible, we forget and fail and fall out our love with God and each other.

Our Gospel lesson today is all about how to deal with the fact that we fail. What should we do, what would Christ have us do, when someone in our community sins? When someone does something harmful to themselves, or to another person, or puts distance between themselves and God, or between themselves and the community, or even between themselves and us specifically?

Well, the first step Jesus says is to go to them face to face. “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” We need to be careful here because this is not about us pointing out another person’s sin for the sake of point out sin. It’s not about making us feel better or proving a point. In other words, it not about our own ego’s. It is about regaining a relationship with another person. It’s about oneness and love.

If the person you have gone to accepts what you have to say, says Jesus, that’s great. But if they don’t he says step two is to take other people along the next time you go to see the person, and if that doesn’t work step three is to go back again! In other words Jesus is saying we have to do everything in our power to get back into right relationship with our brother or sister.

If the person doesn’t listen over and over again, then we are not to pretend that nothing has happened. We are to notice and lament the fact that our brother or sister is missing from our table, from our faith community. There is a distance between us and we should admit it, rather than pretend not to notice or let the situation fester in our midst like an unattended wound.

I don’t know about you but I find this a very hard teaching of Jesus. Often we prefer a love that is out of focus and fuzzy to the sort of holy love that Jesus is talking about here which involves risk, the action of confrontation and communication. Let’s face it to confront and communicate with someone in love is sometimes a scary thing!

John Wesley realised this risk when he preached on today’s text during a time when some members of his parish were going behind each others backs gossiping and complaining about one another, and him! He said this of the first step of going privately to speak directly to someone, to confront them about their behaviour: “Do not avoid it so as to ‘shun the Cross’”.

Shunning the cross is how hard it might feel to speak directly to someone you might have an issue with rather than taking one of the easier and more usual ways of dealing with conflict. I’m sure we are all familiar with those ways. Like pretending it didn’t happen and just trying to let it go, meanwhile, being awkward around the person. Or, giving a person the cold shoulder treatment. Not saying anything to the person and crossing the street to avoid having to meet them. Or, perhaps taking ‘revenge.’ Never talking about what really happened, but making sure everyone knows somehow that person X is not to be trusted. Not talking directly with the person, but letting your hurt and anger seep into everything you do and say, poisoning the air around you, and putting more and more distance between you and the person who did you wrong.

Distance. That’s the key word here, isn’t it? Community is about togetherness, realising that we are all connected. Heaven is about oneness. Hell is about distance. In his book The Great Divorce, C.S Lewis imagines Hell as a gray and vast city. The strange thing about this city is that its inhabitancies only live on its outer edges. In the middle of the city there are rows of empty houses because the people who once lived in them quarrelled among themselves so much that they moved and then fought with their new neighbours and moved again until there was no place left to go except the outer edges. Everyone in Hell chooses distance instead of confrontation and positive communication as the solution to wrongs done against one another.

But what if a person refuses to acknowledge their sin and change their ways. What if after trying to communicate with them positively their continued presence is harmful? Well, says Jesus, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” They should be recognised as someone who is not willing to be in oneness, says Jesus. But here is the twist. Straight after this Jesus says “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind of earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The same words that Jesus said to Peter when he made his confession of faith back in chapter sixteen. Jesus is addressing our function here as the church and as individuals which is to be an instrument of forgiveness. Gentiles and tax collectors were the very people Jesus made a special focus of his ministry. He reached out to them with the message that they could turn away from sin, they could come home. Indeed, Jesus was known as a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus’ very ministry showed us that God accepts people unconditionally. People who are always telling us what’s wrong with us don’t help us much as they paralyze us with shame and guilt. People on the other hand who accept us help us to feel good about ourselves, to relax, to find our way. Accepting another person however doesn’t mean we can never share constructive suggestions. But like everything else, our behaviour is not so much the issue as the energy that it carries. If I’m criticising someone in order to change them, that’s my ego talking. If I’ve prayed and asked God to heal me of my judgement, however, and then I’m still led to communicate something, the style of my sharing will be one of love instead of fear. It won’t carry the energy of attack, but rather support. Behavioural change is not enough. Covering an attack with sugary icing, with a sweet tone of voice or therapeutic jargon is not helpful. When we speak from the ego, we call up the ego in others. When we speak from the Holy Spirit, we call up that same love within them. A person who is in error calls for teaching not attack. So when we do speak, the key to confrontation and communication is not what we say, but rather the attitude that lies behind what we say. Amen.

Rocky 5 Billion

Pentecost 10, Year A, 2011

Text: Isaiah 51: 1-6; Romans 12: 1-8; Matthew 16: 13-20.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
Living God, help us as the Church to unlock our doors with the keys that you give us, so that others may be welcomed in. Amen.
___________________________
Today’s Gospel passage is among the most studied and debated in the New Testament. Historically, of course this passage has been central to issues surrounding authority in the church, especially the authority of the episcopacy of the Bishop of Rome, or the Pope. However, I think this is a misunderstanding of what this passage is actually truly about and I want to suggest today that it is in fact suggesting something much deeper.

Our Gospel passage begins with Jesus and the disciples reaching Caesarea Philippi where he asks his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”, which is followed by quite a debate among the disciples as to the ‘Son of Man’s’ identity. I don’t want to get into discussing the meaning of the term ‘Son of Man,’ suffice to say that this was an apocryphal figure who Jesus seemed to identify himself with.

Turning the attention to himself Jesus then asks them “But who do you say that I am?” Perhaps there is a bit of a clue here as to what Jesus is trying to suggest in asking the question about the ‘Son of Man’ first, and then in the words ‘I am’, which are words used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures to refer to God. In other words maybe Jesus is suggesting here ‘I am God’.

It’s important to realise that Caesarea Philippi was in the far north western part of the Holy Land. This was an area in which Jews mixed with Gentiles and where Roman rule was immediate and not exercised through local Herodian kings. And so when Peter says to Jesus ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ in response to Jesus’ question, Peter’s statement could in fact be interpreted in a very revolutionary way and could be interpreted not only as a challenge to the religious establishment but also the power of Ceasar himself.

Of course it is impossible to separate the scripture from its historical context and Peter may well have understood this implication in what he was saying, but I don’t think Peter’s prime motivation in making this statement was political – but was rather spiritual. And this is acknowledged in Jesus answer when he says “Blessed are you, Simon son of Johan! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Jesus is saying that Peter has finally got it. Peter finally understands his true identity. Of course this does not mean that Peter totally understood Jesus’ identity and all it’s implication for his own life, as we are to later witness in his denial of Jesus before his crucifixion, but Peter has at least got started!

Peter becomes the very first person to make the great Christian Confession of faith. He names Jesus as the Messiah, the hope of Israel, the Son of the God who created heaven and earth. Prior to Peter the Gospels say that only the demons knew who Jesus was. Now Jesus is beginning to be known by people as well – something new is happing, something new is being built.

In response to Peter’s confession Jesus gives him a new name – ‘Peter’. And this truly is a new name. There is absolutely no record of anyone using ‘Peter’ or ‘Petros’ in Greek meaning rock, or ‘Cephas’ the same word in Aramaic, as a proper name before this event. And so in spite of moves to the contrary, Peter really was ‘Rocky 1’!

In the Hebrew mind a name was a summary of the existence of the thing named. To change a person’s name, like God changing Abram’s name to Abraham or Jacob’s name to Israel, was to alter fundamentally that person’s identity, relationships and mission. It still works that way today. To confess Jesus as the Christ is to be changed, it is to be given, by him a new name, a new identity and mission. At our Baptism our new identity is recognised in the giving of our first name, which is why our first name is also called our ‘Christian name’.

Part of our name, part of our identity that we receive from God is the same as Peter’s. He is Rocky 1, the first rock of the edifice of God’s building the Church, that’s Church with a capital ‘C’ by the way, and we are in effect the movie sequels. Have you ever thought of yourself as a movie sequel before? You are Rocky 5 billion, or whatever. The same director, same plot, just a larger cast. Through us and by us, Christ continues to build God’s church. Though us Christ continues to be present to the world.

Jesus then says something very interesting to Peter ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

This famous verse has been used in many ways. It is a pity that all too often it has served as a “proof text” by the church, with a small ‘c’, to justify exactly the sort of power Jesus opposed. The power Jesus claims and gives to his followers, the true Church, has nothing to do with force, coercion, dominance, or “control,” which are the attributes the church with a small ‘c’ have lorded over society for so long.

Rather Jesus is addressing our very function here as his Church. To be keys of forgiveness to the world. Remember Jesus was teaching within a political context and there were those who would have liked him to lead a political uprising against the Roman authorities, and who thought he was going to do just that. Jesus here is saying, however, that freedom is not found in doing things in an earthly way but rather in a heavenly way through forgiveness. And it is for this reason that he then sternly orders the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah. He doesn’t want Peter’s recognition of him as the Messiah, and his mission or love and forgiveness to be confused with the political context in which he finds himself at that point in time. That’s is not what he is on about.

So as individual and corporate members of the church, as many parts of one body, while our gifts may be different, as recognised in our Romans reading, our function is the same. We are each individually, and as a corporate body, called to see forgiveness as our function and it is only then that the world will be brought out of darkness into the light. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world and it’s through your forgiveness that you will find God. Therefore, it is through your forgiveness that your salvation lies.

Stop and think for a moment about what you need to forgive in your life. Illusions about yourself and the world are one. That is why all forgiveness is a gift to yourself. Every time we attack someone else or ourselves we call upon our own weakness, while each time we forgive we call upon the strength of Christ. Only forgiveness removes our sense of weakness, fear, guilt and pain. Only forgiveness can bring us to the place that God wants us to be. Jesus has given us the keys of the kingdom as descendents of Peter. It is up to us to unlock the forgiveness within ourselves and help the world proclaim of Jesus “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Amen.

“It is I, Have No Fear”

Peace Sunday, Pentecost 8, Year A, 2011

Text: 1 Kings 19: 9-18; Romans 10: 5-15; Matthew 14: 22-33

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
God of peace, in the midst of the pain of this world and the church, help us to step out and walk in faith with You. Amen.
____________________________
It’s important to realise that just prior to our Gospel lesson for today Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist is murdered by Herod, an immoral and weak king and his family. Both John and Jesus had started their brief ministries together as courageous prophets, proclaiming God’s justices, calling people to repentance and inviting them to find their way to God. After hearing the terrible news brought to him by John’s disciples, Jesus withdraws to be alone, to grieve and to pray only to be confronted by a large crowd in the story of the ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’ which proceeds today’s passage. After feeding them Jesus once again attempts to have some time alone, and so we come to today’s Gospel where Jesus literally forces the disciples get into a boat and to go on ahead to the other side of the Sea of Galilee before he dismisses the crowds and goes off to spend some quality time by himself on a mountain in prayer.

I’m sure through our human empathy we can begin to imagine what Jesus might have felt after the death of John, but, as I said last week when it comes to fear, we have to do a rethink. We are confronted here by the one who always greeted his friends with the words, “Do not be afraid.” We can recognise in Jesus emotions what we, ourselves, have experienced; but fear is not one of them. What is very evident in Jesus after the death of John is Jesus’ sense of urgency – the realisation that the end will come very soon, that when he sets his face towards Jerusalem he sets his face towards his own death.

While Jesus is praying the disciples are sailing to the other side of The Sea of Galilee heading for the “other side,” which our text doesn’t point out until later means “enemy territory – the land of unclean gentiles,” or non Jews. As morning dawns the disciples are against the wind and are battered by the waves. It’s important to note that there is no indication at all from Matthew that they are afraid about being on the boat. Many of them were fishermen after all. They had however shown a lot of fear within themselves in the story of the ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’, just prior to getting onto the boat. Being disciples of Jesus they were now scared for their own lives after what had happened to John, and mixed in with that when confronted by the needs of a large crowd they did not now how to react. They felt under attack from all direction and as a result felt very fearful. No doubt they still felt this way as they sailed on ‘to the other side’, a place of uncertaincy and fear.

For reasons not explained Jesus seemingly comes out of nowhere – “walking towards them on the Sea.” It’s only when they see Jesus walking on the water that we are told they become terrified. Not that they actually recognise him – thinking that he was a ghost!

The disciples are now truly terrified. The same word in Greek is used to express Herod’s fear at getting the news from the magi about the child to be born king; the same fear that rendered Zechariah mute when an angel of God appeared to him in the Temple; and the same fear the disciples experienced in the upper room after Jesus is crucified when they though he was once again a ghost.

So it was not the storm that tested the disciples, but rather the presence of Jesus in the storm. And it was not simply Jesus’ presence, but what he had to say that would truly test them “Take heart; do not be afraid; it is I”. Words that take us back to the burning bush, the “I am who I am” statements throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and the “I am” statement of Jesus in John’s Gospel. In other words “I am God”. Jesus’ unrecognised presence on the sea was a threat to the disciples, but the real test where these words “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Can they trust what he says? Can they trust in God? Can we?

Isn’t it true in our own lives that when we are confronted by God in the storms of our own lives it is often God we are more fearful of than the storm itself. What do I mean by that? I mean we really don’t believe that only God’s plan for our salvation will work. Our ego’s plan for salvation centres around holding on to our fears, onto our grievances. Our egos tell us that if only someone else spoke or acted differently or if some external circumstance or event were changed we would be saved. Maybe you can think of an example in your own life at the moment. Each grievance we hold onto is a declaration and an assertion that says, ‘If this were different, I would be saved.” The change of mind necessary for salvation then is demanded of everyone and everything expect ourselves.

It’s Peter who steps forward and bravely answers Jesus. Interestingly Peter prefers to take of the role of being the tester rather than the tested. His words echo the words of Satan testing Jesus in the wilderness, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water!”… “If you are the Son of God….”

But Jesus simply tells him to “Come”. Peter has no choice. He jumps out of the boat in faith and walks towards Jesus. Peter does quite well making is way over the waves until he “notices” the wind, and fright takes over, he loses his focus and he begins to sink. “Save me” he calls to Jesus, who immediately takes him by the hand.

God’s plan for our salvation works simply because, by following God’s direction, you seek for salvation where it is. But if you are to succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only. Otherwise, your purpose is divided and you will attempt to follow two plans for salvation that are diametrically opposed in all ways. The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of failure and despair. Like Peter if we focus on the wrong thing we sink in fear.

As I said last week, fear is always generated from a sense of attack. Think of something you are fearful of in your own life at the moment. What’s causing that sense of fear? Maybe you have a grievance against somebody. Whatever it is I guarantee it is caused by a sense of attack. Fear always produces guilt, guilt that we place upon other people because of the situation that we believe they have put us in. Or we turn fear in on ourselves and feel guilty because of the situation we have put ourselves in and are fearful of the consequences. Either way we always feel guilt within ourselves. The only way we can overcome attack and fear is to forgive the guilt we put on others and the guilt that we put on ourselves. Something which of course is more easily said than done. And as I said last week it is easier to understand the idea of forgiving our neighbour than it is to forgive ourselves. Forgiveness of ourselves is something we often don’t want to face up to.

When we trust Jesus words, “Take heart, do not be afraid, it is I,” when we jump out of our boats, his outstretched hands are there to save us if we begin to sink. Our baptism and the gifts of faith that it signifies does not by any means guarantee a lifetime of smooth sailing ahead. The Sea of Galilee, still is subject to storms today. And like Peter, and the other disciples, we still find ourselves afraid and terrified and calling out to God. But only Christ overcomes our dread and terror of what the waters deep beneath – and within us – may contain. Once again Jesus shows us that the only way to overcome our own fears and pain is to surrender. To hand things over to God in faith. “Take heart”, he says to us again, “It is I; have no fear.” It is only when we truly hear this that the wind will cease and we will be able to proclaim “Truly you are the Son of God”. Amen.

Going Home

Easter 5, Year A, 2011

Text: Acts 7: 55-60; 1 Peter 2: 2-10; John 14: 1-14.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
God of inclusiveness, when we want to remain in the confines of our comfortable understanding, open us to the wideness of your mercy and the depth of your grace. Amen.
__________________________
What is home for you? When you think of home what do you think of? Perhaps you think of a particular building. Perhaps you think of home as being a shelter, a place of refuge. Perhaps you think of a home as being more a place where families share their hopes and hurts and joys and sorrows in life. Perhaps you think of the Church as a home.

Some say home is where the heart is. Others say home is where you hang your hat, and others that home is a place, where - when you have to go there, they have to take you in! Somehow home has a special place in the human heart. It seems as though we are all longing for a place to call home.

In our gospel reading today, we hear words that speak directly to the longing of the human heart for a home. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

Today’s Gospel reading comes from a section of John’s gospel that is often referred to as Jesus’ “Farewell Address” in which Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time when he will no longer be with them in the flesh. And so Jesus assures them that even though their relationship is changing, it is not ending. Even through he will no longer be with them in the flesh, they will remain connected. He is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house, where they will remain with him forever.

Putting this passage in a wider historical context don’t forget that the entire New Testament was written from a post-resurrection perspective. The Gospel of John was written during the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian, near the end of the first century when the persecution of Christians had become vicious and was being encouraged throughout the Roman Empire. So for Christians at the turn of the first century this passage was a reminder that they were not abandoned, that they were not alone, that they didn’t need to be troubled, and that the God of Jesus the Christ is like the Jesus the disciples had known and loved and that this Jesus of history is the Christ of God and all eternity. It was a message that they were safe in their faith.

But is passage also held a deeper spiritual truth for those early Christians as it holds for us today and for eternity. Jesus assures the disciples that they know the way to the place where he is going. Thomas however turns around and says to him “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus answers, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me…”

So what does this rather exclusive statement mean?

In much of the rest of our Gospel passage Jesus claims Oneness with God. “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him”, he says to Thomas. And to Philip he says, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…”

Jesus was a human being just like you and me. He lived the full life of a human being sharing all of our joys and sorrows. Our early Christian Creeds state that he was ‘fully human’. That much we can sort of understand. The difference between Jesus and you and me is that Jesus realised complete identification with God or complete Oneness with God, and it is for this reason that he has the right to be called the Christ. Something that is a little more difficult to understand - especially if you believe in the illusion of separation rather than the truth of Oneness, which most people do.

Oneness is the knowledge that there is in fact no separation, no difference between anything, between you and me, between us and creation and indeed between creation and God. All is one in the love of God.

Some theologians have called Jesus statement that he is the Way and the Truth and the Life the ‘scandal of Christian particularity’, the notion that this statement is somehow offensive in that it sounds so exclusive and unfair. And indeed many Christians feel uncomfortable with this claim of Jesus. However, by making this statement Jesus is not saying that truth can’t be found elsewhere, or that others also can’t point to truth, after all aspects of all of our lives point to truth, and God’s helpers are given many forms. Jesus is saying, however, that all truth and knowledge must be measured by Oneness and not separation and therefore against the same oneness and love he has with God, which is true knowledge. It is for this reason that Jesus can claim that he is the Way and the Truth and the Life, and that no one can come to God except through him. After all truth is truth, and there can only be one truth by its very definition. By following truth we enter into the same truth and love that Jesus shared with God.

The truth of Oneness was seen in the very life of Jesus. Jesus saw the face of God in all of his brothers and sisters and remembered God. He saw the false illusions of this life for what they are without accepting that they are true. In a way Jesus is a map back to God. He leads us back to God because he saw the road before him, and he followed it. He made a clear distinction, which is still obscure to you and me, between the false and the true, and he offers us a final demonstration that it is impossible to kill God’s Son; and that nor can life in any way be changed by sin and evil, malice, fear or even death. And he also shows us that there is in fact no need for help to enter Heaven for we have never left!

Jesus shows us that our true home, ultimately, is not a place, but a relationship, a relationship in the very heart of God. The dwelling places in the Fathers house turn out not to be spaces - but you and me. Amen.

Spiritual Blindness

Lent 4, Year A, 2011
Refreshment Sunday, Harvest Thanksgiving, Mothering Sunday

Text: 1 Samuel 16: 1-13; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9: 1-12, 35-41.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
God of all creation, heal our blindness that we may see our world and others in new ways. Amen.
____________________
When I was a child there was a man named Bill who lived across the street from us. As children my bothers and sisters loved playing hid and seek with Bill at his house. The interesting thing about Bill was that he was blind. He always found us because he new the layout of his house intimately. However, I have to admit he wasn’t very good with mirrors, because he didn’t realise we could see him in them! Bill was also a very kind man, and as I grew older I realised Bill saw with his blindness what most of us never see. He saw with his ears and his gut, and his heart. Sometimes ‘blind’ is not really blind and ‘seeing’ is not really sight.

Today’s Gospel reading begins with Jesus correcting his disciples when they suggest that the blind man is born this way because of his or his parent sin. Jesus then tells them that he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.

I remember being at dinner party one night and being totally shocked when I heard a couple suggest that a person they knew must have done something really wrong to get cancer, attributing the cancer to a build up of bad karma in the person’s life. These people had very new age ideas. I couldn’t believe that people could actually think like this! Perhaps you’ve heard people suggest this about someone you know suffering from an ailment.

I personally think it’s helpful to make a distinction been the words ‘illness’ and ‘sickness’.

Illness is something a person is born with through no fault of their own. There body has simply been made with a chink in their DNA missing or chemically incorrect, resulting in a physical or mental problem, which can be realised at birth or sometimes later on in their life. Some forms of cancer can be like this. They can be realised at birth or they can be realised latter on in life when something triggers them. The person personally can’t do anything about it, and God has created them that way out of love. Nothing God creates is deficient or wrong. So that person is in fact complete physically in the eyes of God. It is only their own or others illusions about how the physical world is meant to be, and the incorrect belief in the physical world itself, that suggested that the person is not complete. God can use that person to reveal God’s works just like any other person or aspect of creation, as Jesus suggests to the disciples.

Sickness on the other hand is something that we make ourselves and can be realised physically or mentally. For example we all know that extreme worry can lead to anything from skin irritations to back problems to depression and even stomach ulcers and cancers. However, these same problems can also be illnesses that we are born with. So the important thing in considering the issues surrounding illness and sickness and healing is not to judge any situation because we may not know the real cause of a person’s problems.

All of us are blind in one way or another. Some of us have blindness of the body: like a crippling disease or cancer or loss of sight. And this can be caused as I’ve suggested through illness or sickness. The majority of us however are spiritually blind, which is true sickness. Spiritual blindness can lead to us not being able to love another person beyond a superficial level or not even being able to love ourselves. It can lead us to being rooted in addictions to material things like possessions or work to cover up the empty hole in our lives. Or it can lead to a total sense of darkness in our lives born out of a sense of anxiety about the past and fear about the future.

Maybe you’re living with a blindness in your life right now.

It’s a hard concept to get you mind around, but it’s interesting that everything we see physically is actually in the past. It has already happened. It takes a moment for light to travel so that we can see anything at all. In truth we never actually perceive anything physically as it is right now, this instant. So in one sense we are totally by ourselves in the physical ‘now’. The past has already happened and the future is yet to be, and we sit in the middle.

When we suffer from sickness we see the past as real and we project fears into the future based on our past beliefs, and it is out of these fears we make separation between ourselves and others and God. If we believe that the physical world holds answers to our happiness and if we believe that we are separate to God we are gravely mistaken, and our beliefs will only lead us to death. Nothing is what we think it is in our physical world and it is only when we open ourselves to these spiritual truths that we will find freedom.

Jesus says to the man who he had given sight “I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” God’s judgement is not like human judgement. God’s judgement involves only love and truth and the removal of that which is not true. God’s truth enables those who do not see to see spiritual truth and those who see spiritual truth to become blind to the ways of the world.

It is not the physical healing of the blind man in our Gospel story that is important, although this may be important in pointing out who Jesus is, but his spiritual healing which saved him and led him to worship Jesus.

We have a choice. We can either be open to healing like the man who Jesus gave site and come to worship Jesus or be like the Pharisees who rejected and to who Jesus said “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

What’s your spiritual blindness? Amen.

Tempted?

Lent 1, Year A, 2011

Text: Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
God of integrity, you drive us into the desert to search out your truth. Give us clarity to know what is right, courage to reject what we know is not, and help to abandon the false innocence of failing to choose at all. Amen.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬___________________________
Temptations are something that we experience constantly in our lives on a day by day basis. Some of course are small and if we get caught up in these we sometimes justify them shrugging them off with little thought. We think we might just park in the restricted space because there aren’t any other parks around and what I’m going to do will only take a few moments, and I’m sure a disabled person won’t come along during that time. Other temptations however are large and if we open ourselves to these sorts of temptations they can lead us into the very darkest places of denial within. Perhaps you have experienced or are experiencing something like that in your own life. I don’t know if any of you have been following the story about the celebratory Charlie Sheen recently or saw the interview with him on 20/20 this week. I caught a few moments of that interview after the Lenten Study on Thursday night, while I was actually writing this sermon. I don’t want to put a judgement value on his beliefs because those are his personal ideas. I actually found myself agreeing with many things he said, however, I couldn’t help but think how some of the temptations of addiction that he has opened himself to, like drugs for example, has lead to many aspects of his life spiralling out of control. In many ways I think that interview was inappropriate to have on TV because Charlie Sheen is clearly a very sick man with serious addictions.

The thing that all temptations have in common, be they small or large, is that they are all illusions, and all illusions have no substance to them.

Imagine for a moment that you are in an empty room and that in the middle of that room is hanging a light bulb off a cord which is filling the room with light. I want you do imagine for a moment that that light is the presence and love of God and that it’s all around you filling every corner of the room. Now take a piece of paper and hold it up to the light. Behind that piece of paper forms a shadow. When people are involved in evil, which is the result of following through with a temptation, they are in a sense behind that piece of paper, that obstacle or temptation. They can’t see that the rest of the room is full of light. All they can see is the shadow that they are trapped within. Take away the piece of paper, the obstacle or temptation, and they see that what they have been involved in was only an illusion. It has no substance or truth about it.

Even the personification of evil as the temper or the devil or satan, or whatever you want to call it, is an illusion. The very nature of who God is doesn’t allow for the creation of evil because God is truth and truth doesn’t allow for the existence of evil within it. God doesn’t allow any corner of the room full of light to be in darkness! The devil in our Gospel story today is as much an illusion as the temptations that are put before Jesus.

While I realise that people sometimes have personal experiences of the personification of evil in their own lives, and that those experiences are very real to them, ultimately those experiences are still illusions. All evil has to be an illusion by its very nature.

The danger of the personification of evil, ‘the devil made me do it’ type scenario, is that we can blame something outside of ourselves and not take personal responsibility for something we are in fact responsible for, which is exactly what illusions want us to do.

It’s interesting that this passage about the temptation of Jesus comes just after Jesus’ baptism and just before he begins his public ministry. The scripture seems to suggest that Jesus had to come to grips with his baptism and confront its deeper meaning before he could face the next part of his journey into ministry.

It’s also interesting that in our passage Jesus is lead into the wildness to be temped by the devil by none other than God’s Spirit. Shock, horror, God wanted Jesus to confront evil. God wanted Jesus to confront his fears and find Truth. As human beings we all at one time or another have wilderness experiences in our lives where we question and for a time can feel lost. They are experiences that can lead us into the darkest of places. Many people are lost in these experiences for years, some even for a lifetime. However, if we allow ourselves like Jesus to be lead into these experiences by God’s Spirit, and allow ourselves to cast off the illusions that these experiences open ourselves to we will find Truth, and this is what this passage is telling us.

Jesus is confronted with three temptations in our Gospel story which deal with the deep truths of who we are as human beings.

The first temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion of turning stones into bread. In other words the illusion of the body or the physical world. Many people are tempted into believing that the physical is all that there is. They believe that they are merely bodies, and because they see themselves as being merely bodies they see themselves as separate to God, creation and other people around them. The result of this separation is that they live lives trapped in fear. Jesus says however, “One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. In other words the physical is not all that there is. It is the word of God that is behind everything physical that gives it meaning and life.

The second temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion that we can put God to the test. In other words the illusion that our own egos are greater than God. With the belief in separation comes the belief that it is ‘me’ that is the most important thing, and that out of fear I must protect myself against the world, and even against God. After the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple he tells him to jump, telling him to put God to the test, Jesus says however, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus is telling us it is not us who has things in control, but God. If we believe we can manipulate things we are sadly mistaken.

The third temptation that Jesus is confronted with is the illusion of power. In other words the illusion that we are special. With the illusions of the physical and the ego comes the illusion that we can dominate and find fulfilment within this. Power is of course a substitute for love. We need to hold on to power when we feel we or life is out of control. Jesus says in response to this, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” It is only in God that you will find fulfilment Jesus is telling us.

Like Jesus it is only when we truly face ourselves and come to grips with the illusions that are in our lives that we can be truly free. And it is only in those things in which we are free that we can fulfil our baptism and bring life to others as we minister to them. It is only Truth that brings life.

So what are the temptations that are facing you at the moment in your own life? What illusions are you holding onto that are keeping you from seeing the truth? As you journey this Lent are you prepared to be lead by God’s Spirit in confronting those things, or are you going to continue to wander aimlessly in the wilderness? Amen.

Ninth Sunday after Epiphany

Please note that I am not publishing a sermon this week as another Priest in our parish is preaching.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Epiphany 8, Year C, 2011

Text: Isaiah 49: 8-1a; Psalm 131; 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5; Matthew 6: 24-34.

Let us bow our heads in prayer –
Loving God, sometimes life makes us feel powerless. Speak softly your words of grace to us until we believe that we are beloved and do not worry. Amen.
___________________________
I wonder what I would think about this gospel reading, telling us not to worry about what you will eat or drink or wear, if I was a person sitting in a congregation in Christchurch this morning. And I wonder what I would make of it if I was one of the 800,000 refugees in one of the many refugee camps that were set up in Haiti after the earthquake that struck there a year or so ago.

It is one thing to read this gospel to a group of people who have jobs, places to live, and cars and completely another to read it to people who are caught up in a devastating event. What does it mean ‘don’t worry’ if you facing the loss of a loved one, your home or don’t have the necessities of life?

I don’t think Jesus here is saying that the basic necessities of human life don’t matter, and nor is he saying that these necessities will magically appear if we believe in God correctly, otherwise his encouragement not to worry would simply be cruel, and this is not the compassionate Jesus we meet elsewhere in the Gospels or know of in our hearts.

This passage is part of Jesus’ teachings in his Sermon on the Mount. His audience were ordinary people who had been crushed by their oppressive Roman conquerors. They had much to be worried about, just like the people in Christchurch or Haiti or the millions of people across the Middle East and Africa who have been uprising against oppressive regimes in recent months. So on one level Jesus’ hearers no doubt would have heard him say ‘Don’t worry, trust, God has things in control.’ But as in his other teaching as part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is also calling his hearers to deeper spiritual truths, even within their hardship. He’s calling them to look at the bigger picture for their lives, and is challenging them to look at what is real and to seek after truth.

The universal truth is that ‘Truth is Truth’. There can be, and is, only one truth. People can have different perceptions to each other and some of these perceptions may point towards the truth, but perceptions can be wrong, and they are not ultimately the truth because a perception comes with a level of doubt. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus says. In other words, truth doesn’t come with a choice, truth is truth. You can not seek after what is real within illusions or perceptions about life that are false.

So, is what you are seeking in life real and is it the truth? Or are you covering up your own fears about who you are and where you are going in life with illusions you make up about yourself and your life situation?

Are you worried about tomorrow? Whether your hair is going grey or if you’re grey already if it’s thinning a bit on top? Are you worried about what you wear, or whether you have Weetbix or Cocopops for breakfast, or if you’re the wrong shape, or about your job or your home or your future?

Jesus says not to worry about tomorrow, “… for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” That doesn’t sound particularly encouraging when you first hear it !) but …..

The truth is, there is only the ‘now’. The past has gone and the future actually hasn’t happened yet, and yet we all lament the past or worry about the future to some extent. Some people even take this to the degree that they see themselves as victims of life.

Jesus says however that if we “… strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be given to you as well.” In other words if we seek after and are truly present to God, if we choose truth in our lives, we will find meaning and peace. We won’t be worried about the past or the future; we will be at peace with God and life right now, in the ‘now’.

A lot of people say to me how busy they are and how they don’t have any time even to reflect spiritually in their lives. One of the consequences of our modern life is busyness. However, we are all busy, and being present to God, or spirituality in our lives, is not a part time job! It isn’t part of what we do but should be part of everything we do.

Being present to God involves letting go of our constant preoccupations, immersing ourselves in the here and now, and giving ourselves wholeheartedly to whatever is at hand. It’s about becoming more aware, alert, awake to the fullness of the immediate moment, engaging with God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.

As I said last week, God isn’t interested in what we do, but we can find God and ourselves spiritually in the relationships we encounter in our daily lives, moment by moment. And it is through these relationships that God has places all around us that we are healed and in turn move into a deeper relationship with God.

Of course such wholeheartedness requires patience, time and discipline, a word that doesn’t sit comfortably with many of us.

If you’re finding it hard to be present to God in your life at the moment can I suggest the following exercise, and I challenge you to do it over the next week. Simply set some time aside, perhaps five minutes, to do nothing. Just sit down somewhere and say “I’m seated; I’m doing nothing and I’m not going to do anything for the next five minutes.” Having declared your intention for this little space of time, decide firmly that nothing will distract you during these five minutes. If you find your mind wandering into the past or future, bring yourself back to the here and how with the thought, ‘I’m here in the presence of God, in my own presence and in the presence of all that is around me, just still and moving nowhere. God help me surrender, show me the truth’. Doing a simple meditation like this regularly builds up the capacity to live more deeply in the present within our daily lives.

To end my sermon today I thought we might actually try this exercise out simply for one minute. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but if you could just be patient with those of us who are. So let’s declare together that we are not going to do anything for the next minute, and if you find your mind wandering remember to say ‘I’m here in the presence of God, in my own presence and in the presence of all that is around me, just still and moving nowhere. God help me surrender, show me the truth.’ ………….. Amen.

Be Perfect

Epiphany 7, Year A, 2011

Text: Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48.

Let us bow our heads in prayer -
Loving God, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing. Pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love. Amen.
__________________________
For me the key to this passage is really right at the very end where Jesus says ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ Here Jesus is really calling us into right relationship with God, with others around us and with ourselves, and he’s summing up what he means in the rest of the passage and the proceeding passages that we have been hearing over the past few weeks in chapter five - as part of his Sermon on the Mount.

The purpose of our whole existence here as human beings is to be in relationship with God. That’s why we were created. Ultimately there can be no other purpose to our lives. When everything from this world has passed away only our relationship with God will remain.

Many of us who are open to this truth recognize this deep down within us and we too want a relationship with God. That’s why we are here today. We hear God’s call and feel God’s love for us, surrounding us.

Whilst we want this relationship often we can only see ourselves as islands, isolated by our egos and our own sense of specialness. We see ourselves as separate to God and to those around us, and because of that we fear God, we fear life, we fear those around us and we fear even ourselves. And the scary thing is that we fear so deeply we may not even recognize this within ourselves.

And it’s this fear that blocks us from understanding what life is really about. We trick ourselves into believing that the purpose of life is to gain for ‘me’. To gain that big house, that nice car, that world trip, that promotion.

It actually really doesn’t matter what we do in life. What is important is how we respond to the relationships we encounter in our daily lives, moment by moment. And it’s through these relationships that God has placed all around us that we are healed and in turn move into a deeper relationship with God.

A lot of people have talked to me recently about the lack of meaning in their jobs, maybe this has in part has be brought on by the stresses of the recent economic downturn. They say to me that I’m lucky as a Priest because of what I do. It’s true, I am lucky, and I do find a lot of meaning in what I do. But that meaning is found not in what I do but in the relationships within it.

Many people judge others by what they do for a job, and a lot of people define themselves by what they do for a job. But in the purpose of God and in the big picture of life, death and the universe there is no difference between the Prime Minister and a Rubbish Man. God sees no difference what so ever between them. It is not what we each do in life that is important but how we respond to the relationships we encounter in our daily lives. It’s only here that we will each fulfill God’s purpose for themselves and find true meaning in our lives.

Over the years I’ve taken a lot of funerals and found that the ones that have left a lasting impression on me have not been the ones that have focused on what the person did, but rather emphasized what the person was like. Where the children stand up and say what a great Dad or Mum they had. Funerals that emphasise only what a person did can be very sad as they often show that the person never truly lived.

Ultimately of course the issues and problems we face in our relationships are not so much about other people but about us. (I can feel some of you squirm as I say that).

This was brought home to me during the week, you might be surprised to learn, when I was sitting at the traffic lights. Lately I’ve been using my driving experiences as a form of meditation. I can thoroughly recommend it as it totally changes the way you drive.

Anyway, as part of my meditation I was reflecting that being in your car is a bit like being in your own little bubble in life. You’re travelling with others around you in the same direction. But then someone suddenly cuts in front of you, or speeds up on the inside lane at the light to get in front of you (which is one of my own personal pet hates), or smokes you out with their exhaust fumes, or speeds up in the passing lane when your wanting to pass. How do you feel? Do you suddenly think that the person is personally doing this to annoy you? Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Most of the time of course you have no idea. But mostly I think not. We can feel enraged by other peoples driving and in some situations we can even let our egos get the better of us. But when you are confronted by such a situation on the road is what you’re feeling about the other driver or about you?

In our Gospel Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He also tells us not to resist an evildoer giving a number of examples ‘…if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.’

So how do we overcome these situations? We surrender. This does not mean that we are supposed to be doormats for the sake of our faith. Jesus is not recommending that our calling card be ‘mistreat me’. This would be contrary to what Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospels where he calls us to love ourselves. If we can not love ourselves how can we love another person? Jesus calls us to see the truth about our relationships with others, God and ultimately ourselves. He’s calling us to look at the bigger picture for the purpose of our lives. Amen.