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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.