Author: admin

“Chillaxing in the Word of God”

1st Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10

“Chillaxing in the Word of God”

Several years ago and working in a business where every second seemed to be a knife edge moment with every one running around as though if we didn’t meet that deadline, the deadline after the one before and the one before the one to come after, then the walls would fall down.

It was often a “pressure cooker” environment and a volatile work place that would see good friends end in harsh verbal combat, see strong men and women broken and in tears in full public view and trusted work colleagues knifing each other in the blame game and/or for  promotional gain.

It was not an enjoyable way to spend eight to twelve or more hours a day and the only thing I enjoyed about it was standing shoulder to shoulder with my team of thirty amongst the sea of 2,000 in that building.

One Monday morning, my trusted colleague and good friend Kevin after telling me that a forty year old man from his team had died suddenly from a heart attack while at the pub went on to say, “at least he died doing something he liked and not in this place” and then finished with “life is serious, but nothings this serious”.

His point was well made and like in that building when taking a step back and viewing from afar we often see that life is serious, but nothing as serious as what we make it to be.

His words have always stuck with me until Wednesday this week when looking through my office window and seeing a young boy walking to school on his own looking lonely, dejected and nervous, in even a sinner like me I felt a desire to run to him with the only real comfort that can be offered in an uncomfortable world and that is the hope in Jesus Christ. I didn’t run to him, I didn’t have enough courage, but I prayed for him-because that’s all I had.

And again amid a heavy heart, I had that overwhelming sense that if a person like me can feel even a little compassion, what must be the endless compassion of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, and the workings of the Holy towards that boy, towards atheists, boat people, criminals, the beggars on the street, the power driven CEO, the corrupt politician, the mother, the husband, their children, and to me, and to you.

A heavy heart that brought clear the seriousness of their and our eternal lives and of the seriousness of their pain felt and their hope needed, and a heavy heart, that brought meaning to the words of John 9, verse 4; That “we must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.”

Words of urgency and of truth born of our Lord and Saviour in His quest that they that know him not and have their eyes opened to the blessed hope that is he.

Yet words of them, that for myself saw me convicted in my inability, powerlessness and failure towards God and His people.

In the reading from 1St Peter and in much of scripture we are told clearly that just as Christ suffered, so too are those that follow Him not immune to suffering and just as Jesus, our sinless Saviour, faced unjust suffering and death, so may we be called to take up our cross to follow Him.

We all here have crosses to bear born of hurt, of innocence lost from our and others sin and of that daily fight within us against what we do that we wish we not. They are heavy crosses that we bear as best we can. But none so heavy that comes from knowing the underserved grace of Christ for ourselves while seeing the hurt and suffering and the aimless and unfulfilled quest for hope of those that know Him not, and the unjudging words of Heath Ledgers friend after hearing of his death from a drug overdose come to mind when he remarked “that this world was too much for Heath to live in while carrying a soul tortured from seeing the hurt and suffering of others.

Walt Whitman, a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War and poet wrote this:

“I sit and look out.

I sit and look out upon the sorrow of the world, and upon all oppression and shame,

I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,

I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt and desperate,

I see the wife misused by her husband; I see the treacherous seducer of young women,

I mark the rankling’s of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to be hid, I see theses sights on the earth,

I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny. I see martyrs and prisoners,

I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be killed to preserve the lives of the rest,

I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor and upon slaves, and the like;

All these-all the meanness and agony without end I sitting look out upon,

See, hear, and am silent.”

There’s a saying that bad things happen when good people do nothing and as Christians we may feel that the lost feel no hope when we in hope remain still.

John 9, verse 4; “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.”

A piece of scripture known well by evangelist Billy Graham who most certainly did not remain still. A tireless worker of the Lord given the ability to travel the globe standing before thousands pronouncing the Word of God, a man consulted by Presidents of America and the rich and the powerful. Yet a man that wrote this of himself:

“I will hear him call my name not because I have preached for more than seventy years. Not because I have done anything good…The Lord Jesus has heard my confession of sin, my acknowledgement of need, and he reached down and saved me. He purchased my soul with his blood….I know he is coming back soon. This is my hope. And yours.”

“Carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.” Like Billy Graham I am certain there are people here or reading this that will do great things for the Lord.

Great things like you did yesterday in your work place or walking down the street. How you fixed someone’s car so that they could continue to work and feed their family. The smile you gave to the intimidating stranger or the prayers you made for the person that passed you by that you had not the courage to talk to.

There’s a time to live and a time to die. A time to work and a time to play. Calm times and chaotic times. Yet whether we be of modern speak and in chillax ,or of times past and just telling it how it is and chilling and relaxing,  Jesus Christ walks with us with the promise that He will give us the strength to bear the crosses we bear in following Him.

Shakespeare said “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” and interestingly as I went to get a coffee a moment ago  I heard a song that I thought started with the words “My life is useless”, but on replay the musician actually started with “My life is brilliant” followed with “My love is pure. (And on the subway) I saw an angel of that I’m sure. So to can be the confusing in our own abilities or short comings because just like people might like the width of the tyres on my wanting to be restored 1999 MR2, yet not so much the extra width of the owner, so too do we sometimes have to “fly blind” and just have wing it as we are.

Jesus said that “the sheep hear his voice; he calls them out, and when he has brought them out, he goes ahead and the sheep follow.”

Jesus is real and so are you, and as He is in you as you are, so too can you be Him to others as they are, that as we have heard His voice, so may they.

Catholic Priest Henri Nouwen wrote: “I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.”

Christ made Himself vulnerable that we hear His voice of truth and having been redeemed and called, our lives are to be redemptive: that all the sheep may be turned toward the shepherd and Guardian of their souls: that all the world, through us may hear his voice, see His great love, and be found in Him.

So too let us be vulnerable in the truth that we have nothing if not in Christ, and that we be of flesh and blood, of ability and inability, and capable of both strength and weakness here His Words from 2nd Corinthians 12:9, that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”,

In His grace we walk this earth where we are and as we are and need not despair of our failures, but revel in the truth that not we, but He, beats our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.

Our sin and His goodness and our Christian lives don’t adhere to a work/life balance format. They are all mixed together and we need only carry the tools in the vessel that He has provided.

You are that vessel and as you carry His forgiveness, Hope and Salvation with you, so too He will carry people before you, that in you as you are, they may see Him in them as they are-and know His  peace. Amen.

Escaping from the shadows

Acts 2: 36-47, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35

“Escaping from the shadows”

 
In our reading this morning from the book of Acts our reading climaxes with (and) “So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Today we celebrate with Heath and his family and friends his baptism and like for those 3,000, today Heath receives the words from the book of Romans for himself: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism in to death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Newness of life in salvation and heavenly life eternal, and newness of life in this world.

Knowing’s it Heath Birthday today and pondering of what a great gift to receive on his birthday I continued to read the continuation of the turn of events for those 3,000.

Verse 43 onwards: “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

“Selling possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to others and spending our days going from house to house and eating together.” I’m not sure Heath, never mind Laurie and Sharna saw that one coming.

That picture of those early Christians and their sense of community is marvellous if not humbling. Thing is that if I tried to imitate those 3,000 people back then, I think I might be getting a visit from one of my superiors seeing if I needed a change of scenery or some time off because really, it is a very impractical thing to do.

Still it is important we remember those early days in the Church like it is important to remember our birthdays and anniversaries. To have those days were we look back at ourselves in baby photos and see that innocence and untarnished naiveté, or look at our wedding pictures and remember the joy of the day. Snapshots of history of a by-gone time to remind us who we are and where we are from. Moments and memories to reflect on to bring joy to our hearts. Yet moments that as we look in the mirror can convict as we wonder just what happened to that innocence and wonder of life to that person in the photo, who now seems like a stranger.

In the movie “The legend of Bagger Vance” Actor Matt Damon plays the character of Junuh, who as a teenager was a golfing prodigy. But after his World War I tour of duty, returns to his home town psychologically marred and broken and lives as a recluse with the only moments that can quell the sounds of warfare within him being when at a gambling table and through the bottom of a glass.

Ironically there is a charity golf tournament coming up in his home town involving golfing legends of the time, and that the town needs a local to participate they track down Junuh  and after the arrival of the strange yet wise golfing mentor Bagger Vance, the character played by Will Smith who later we find out is an angel, Junuh eventually gives into their requests.

Throughout the movie while Junuh is seeking to find purpose and some sense in his life, he is fearful of just what they might be. To cut a long story short he is going very well in the tournament until on the second to last hole where he slices his tee shot deep in the woods. As he enters the dark forest to find his ball, panic overtakes him and the steam from the ground triggers memories of smoking battlefields, his hands tremble and he resigns to depart and seek solitude again in his self-medicating ways.

As he turns to leave, his golfing mentor Bagger Vance tells Junuh that the problem is not with his golfing grip, but with the grip the past holds on him and that “Their aint a soul on this entire earth who aint got a burden to carry he can’t understand. You aint alone in that. But you’ve been carrying this one long enough. It’s time to lay it down.”

Junuh replies, I know, but I can’t.

To which Bagger answers “Yes you can, you’re not alone. I’m right here with you. I’ve been with you all along. Now play the game. Your game. The only one you were meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. Now is the time”

A movie about a mythical game in the past. Our past and our experiences are real and can have enormous impact on where we are at now. Ending up with earthly success or hiding in the shadows through the bottom of a glass can be determined from very finite times and situations. Ironically, neither are guaranteed to give more or less happiness than the other should we be carrying a burden that we can’t understand or shake.

Sometimes knowing that our past has a hold on us we yearn for and know that it’s time to lay it down, and for just a moment we see a glimpse of light, only to realise in the next moment that the shadows still beckon and though we know there is a better way, we know the way that has been our “safe harbour” so far, and there we return. .

Jesus Christ gave His life to bring us forgiveness and eternal life because we could not bring it for ourselves.

Likewise, in this life when we cannot escape the shadows, He asks that we “Come to Him, all you who are weary and burdened, and He will give us rest.” (Matt. 11.28).

Though often we see Him not, Jesus walks with us and though He sees our stumbles mistakes and errors of our ways, he doesn’t walk with us to judge, but to guide and to offer us His peace as we travel our short journey on this earth. Our journey in which from beginning to end, from cradle to hearse there are so many variables that we can be left wondering where we are in scheme of things. The what if’s of life? The what ifs, that lead to the why’s and sooner or later, fear of what lies ahead-even if that be only the fear of the unknown felt on our last day.

 

Our God, God the Father of Jesus Christ is not a God of fear, but a God of love. His love so great that He gave us His Son Jesus Christ, who in turn gave His life that anyone who believes that He is the messiah, the Saviour sent to the world and that in trust in Him and in Him alone their sins are forgiven, they like Christ are given the promise that they too will be raised in the second life to reside forever with those who have gone before and who will go after in that same belief. That is the summary of Christian faith. No actually that’s the entirety of Christian faith.

 

A simple truth. Yet a truth so simple and unworldly that it is an easy target for the powers of darkness to attack and place before us the logical thoughts of our need to work our way to heaven, or alternatively tell us the truth of our sins to lead us to doubt that we could be saved. It’s a good trick because ultimately one part of it is true. We are sinners and if we look into the inner core of our soul where we hide the things we choose not to remember or at least would rather not, we see that yes, we have fallen short many, many times over our journey. But like our God, God the Father is not a God of fear, but of love, so is our Saviour Jesus Christ and in His love that we need not live our lives wondering and in despair of where we stand in regards to our heavenly status He gave us the gift of Baptism. The gift of baptism that closes the door on the wolf at the door as he tries to upset with human logic the sure truth of forgiveness and salvation in trust, and in faith in Christ alone.

 

Our Lord and Saviour walked this earth and knows the difficulties we face and the doubts that come to us and so He gave us Baptism. The gift of Baptism He will give today to this young boy so that should he doubt his goodness or his place before God, that he not listen to those human thoughts from inside, but listen to His Words from outside. His Words, His promise, that if you are baptised and believe that I am your Saviour-then nothing in all creation can ever break or take away from you your gift of eternal life.

 

Baptism is a gift of the sureness of what awaits, and a gift that allows us to live in the here and now and though in our lives we will still share happiness with sadness and comfort with hardship, we never need share the doubt of ourselves with the surety that He walks with us, guiding us and upholding us in love, and nor need we should we share the inner doubts of our worthiness with our salvation, for our salvation is from the worthiness and surety of our Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ.  Amen.

There is a garden

Acts 2:14a:22-32, 1 Peter 1:39, John 20:19-31

“There is a garden”

“Gallipoli has become a symbol of Australia’s national identity, achievement and existence,” according to Australian War Memorial principal historian Dr Peter Stanley.
He goes on to say “”In the event, the landing was a military disaster – it failed to meet its objectives. But merely hanging on in the face of determined Turkish attacks was triumph enough. Charles Bean, the Australian official correspondent, declared that with the landing on Gallipoli a sense of Australian nationhood was born. The idea took root.
Bean’s The Anzac Book defined what came to be called the Anzac legend. It encompassed bravery, ingenuity, endurance and the comradeship that Australians call mateship.
The Anzac legend has become elastic enough to span very different emotions. Fervent nationalists can exult; pilgrims can mourn. All can ponder what made that group of Australians able to endure one of the greatest tests their nation has ever faced.”
At the Anzac march on Friday, a speaker from the air force described Gallipoli for our country as a “Baptism of fire” and that though the fight was lost; it shaped and gave Australians an identity. Interestingly when writing this message my (15 year old.) son entered my office and read what I had before me on the P.C., which was only the whole nine first words I’ve already written, being “Gallipoli has become a symbol of Australia’s national identity”
and without discussion left the room singing in his finest ABBA voice one of their songs lyrics “Waterloo, sometimes I feel like I win when I lose.”
Gallipoli, a countries baptism of fire and that though the battle was lost at the time, has become a foundation that sporting teams and others called to our forces since have drawn on, and a presentation of our culture of “she’ll be right, mateship at any cost and the front bar wisdom of seeing what’s real and important from what’s not.
Our culture is not something that can be bought or sold-the freshness and fair go attitude of our country is a birthright born through those sent to a penal colony from the other side of the world, those who chose by free will to immigrate here, settlers in a harsh land of droughts and floods and those called back to the other side of the world to ensure our freedom remains.
It is not something we become, but somehow just are and something that we should hold dear to our hearts and inner being like Simon Peter writes and urges to his audience of converted listeners that now in faith, to not only remain steadfast in that faith,  but to increase through all kinds of suffering and good works.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
“Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Life can be a baptism of fire, but baptised into Christ, though darkness may surround, we live in the sure hope of what awaits us and these lyrics penned and sang by Archie Roach and given to me by a friend brought the light of Christ amongst the darkness:
“When all the trees have gone, and all the rivers dry. Don’t despair when all the flowers have died. For I have heard that there’s a garden somewhere. When you hear the children cry, when you see them die and a mother can’t sing a lullaby. (Yet) I can still smell the blessed warm spring rain.
When everything is gone, and you’ve lost all hope and you have come to the end of your rope, well I believe that the flowers will bloom again. We are young, we are old (and what we have) can’t be bought or sold. And we are paying for our crimes, but every day in every way, we get better all the time.”
Using Aussie vernacular, an Australian soldier once said to me that “when the bullets start firing and you’re stuck in a trench, you’re not thinking of mother England, you’re fighting for the bloke next to you on your left, and the bloke next to you on the right”.
The author of the book of Acts Luke gives us that same awareness telling us “I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
” At the close of the Anzac day services three words are always said. Lest We Forget – three words renown across most countries to show our remembrance of those who have fought, and those who have died fighting for freedom.
Anzac day is a day of recognition, those three words Lest We Forget speak what this day is truly meant to symbolize, and that is that we will never forget our history.
Let us never forget our inheritance that we have been brought through Jesus Christ. Our inheritance bought at the cost of His life and though now we still live live temporary lives enduring many things. We do so knowing that in the battles, be we on our knees in fear or standing firm in faith, that He is on our left and our right travelling with us and carrying us in need that as He has gone before us and now sits at the right hand of God, for as He had paid for our crimes, so too will He take us home that we too will stand before Him with those who have gone before us: in a place where the flowers have bloomed again, all the rivers flow and again a mother can be heard singing a lullaby and see that in every way and on everyday that we will be with Him, as He is for us today. Amen.

Easter Urgency

Text: John 20:1-9

We have, unwittingly, set a tempo with our current Easter celebrations that is quite contrary to the nature of the event.  We have the longest of long weekends…  A break…  People go away…  Switch off…  Shift our focus from the everyday and escape into wall-to-wall footy, or family get-togethers, or a lounge-chair, chocolates and a book…

Our weekend, even if it is ‘busy’, usually lacks the sense of urgency that drives the story in the Gospels: secret plotting, finding the right moment to make the capture, money taken and then almost immediately returned, the repeated plea to “keep watch!”, a rushed trial full of movement between three courts a hastily considered trade-off for another criminal, and even a hurried crucifixion constrained by the Passover regulations and timetables, a nearby tomb procured quickly, and incomplete burial rites. It is an urgent business and no less urgent on the Sunday morning, as today’s Gospel makes clear.

At the first light, they run!  The waiting during the Sabbath and the darkness has been an agitated waiting. They are not resting.  They are disturbed.  They are uncertain.  They are distressed.  They have been dragged—urgently—through the trauma of the previous days and they are unsettled about the “what next?”.  And…as you will know from hearing the Easter story over the years…when they are confronted by the fact and by the message—“He is risen!”—they do not calm down, or become less agitated.  The urgency continues.

The implications of Jesus’ resurrection necessitate urgency. This was not the first miracle.  This was not even the first healing in which someone who had died was made alive again. But this was an event in which the worst of human injustice, oppression, hatred, and cruelty had been offered by religious and secular authorities alike, as a public statement, as an assertion of power and authority.  And over and against this powerful, public statement Jesus had said, “Father, your will be done”; “Father, forgive them”; “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”.  And the one who openly identified with the weak, the ill, the poor, the displaced, the outcast, the hated, the oppressed, the suffering, and the dying—the powerless—the one who openly identified himself with those who suffered the worst of sin and evil in the world—the one who didn’t assert power and authority, but offered himself over to the will of the Creator. And to that, God answered with the resurrection. And to that answer, they ran…with urgency. To that answer.  To that declaration.  To that new creation.

Likewise the urgency this Easter brings us to urgency. What are we going to do tomorrow?  How are we going to live tomorrow?  We, who have followed the one who serves, who keeps forgiving, who releases from guilt for sins past and into new opportunity, who is generous in time and spirit and gives all he has to those in need, who distinguishes not on the basis of ‘who belongs?’ or ‘who deserves?’ but on the basis of ‘to whom can I show love?’ & ‘to whom can I be neighbour?’—we who have learned the day to day reality of grace from God walking with us…how are we going to live tomorrow?  As they ran to the tomb they wondered!  Is it over?  Is it gone?  Or is he alive, like he said?  Is he still loving, and giving, and forgiving?  How are we going to live this next day?  This is the immediacy and the urgency of Easter!

Those same followers of Jesus would, in the coming days and years, focus their Easter urgency into proclaiming a message of “hope”.The New Testament term “hope” has a very definite meaning:  We know that God, in Christ, has forgiven us, and given to us eternal life. This is made certain in the resurrection of Jesus—his life for us. There are no ‘ifs’ or ‘maybes’. This is certain. Hope is the certainty of the fulfilment of God’s promises. Easter is the Christian foundation for hope. Easter is the moment in which the Christian says  “I know that my Redeemer lives”— and because he lives, I have life, his life, my life, all bundled into the one. I am God’s new creation.  Hope is the certainty that looks forward in life because God has demonstrated his absolute power and authority and victory over sin and death.

Maybe Easter should be our ‘moveable feast’. Easter should be the Christian celebration we have the day our family welcomes a new baby—a day filled with a sense of urgency over the fact of this new life, this new life created by God. Easter should be celebrated on the day a new marriage begins.  Or the day we begin a new job, or a new course of study. Easter should be our celebration at the moment we buy a new home, or build one for someone else! Easter is the celebration that marks our living in the presence of the God who has declared absolute grace, declared eternal love, declared that he is with us and for us in every circumstance and every stage of life—one with us from birth through all the realities of living, through death and the grave. And we, like Mary and Peter and John—we can declare “Christ is risen!” with the joy of recognising that our neighbours, like us, have lives to live—and they can live them in the knowledge of God’s loving presence, today! Urgency comes about at the point of intersection between a question or uncertainty, and an answer.

In our world, in our society, and in our very local communities and families (and selves!) there is often much agitation and anxiety: Can we save the world from ecological disaster?  Can we save the world from economic disaster? Can we survive on-going hostility and war? Can we survive on-going injustice? Can we survive our own individual weaknesses and the hurt they cause? Can we live past the next generation? Or even the next day?

Today God proclaims again, and reminds us again, that he has heard our prayers, our cries, our dying breath, and has made his statement: I am the resurrection and the life. Believe and me, live, trust, hope, be certain that I am for you.  And trusting in me you will always live. Urgency comes at the point of intersection between a question and an answer.  And we are surrounded by a world still with only questions. You know the love of God and the life of God for the world. So celebrate and live in it, continually daily reminding yourself of it, and pray that those still asking questions, they too will find the answer – that is Christ. Amen.

A lasting Gift

Baptism message

Up until last Tuesday my darling wife Cathy was in South Australia visiting family, and while she was away, I decided to re-arrange our lounge room. Sounds easy. Problem was that I had so much stuff to re-locate it became quite a job. Stuff that some might call junk, but stuff that I collect that I find different and interesting. Currently that stuff is still placed in no order what so ever over the garage floor, study floor, study shelves and study desk.

Funnily enough one off those things lying by my desk was this chocolate given to me by a friend of a friend who was a member of the an elite club. Remembering that at the time (some seven years ago) that he said believe me, you won’t not only ever get one of these again and it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever see one again. Surely this must be the Grange Hermitage of chocolates.

So last week sitting at my computer, for some reason I thought-let’s check out this club. I didn’t get very far as on Wikipedia, basically the only information available was that “The Club is an exclusive gentlemen’s club. So I looked on their own web site sight and in the “Facts and questions” page I noticed that:

Q. 16. Is there a Dress Code?
Yes

Gentlemen: Jacket and tie in all public areas
Visiting Ladies: Equivalent standard
Casual dress is permissible on the First Floor Balcony at breakfast and when entering or exiting the Club

Q. 17. Are there restrictions for ladies?
Yes, Members and Male Guests only in the:

Main Dining Room before 5.30 pm
Large Smoking Room weekdays 10.00 am – 4.00 pm
Small Smoking Room Friday 10.00 am – 4.00 pm

Interesting enough on their web page there is no details of how to become a member-

so I assume that’s it’s an if you have to ask, you most surely are not up to standard required type of situation.

I collect things and some of you might remember that several years ago Vegemite look to change its name to isnack2.0. I assume they were trying to get in on the I-phone, I-pad train, and so why not i-snack 2.0. It lasted on the shelves for only a few days after the vegemite eaters of Australia revolted and demanded it rebrand it’s rebranding. As I said I collect things and after hitting most supermarkets in the Adelaide CBD area I am now the proud owner of 23 of these isnack 2.0’s and as I see the best before date is 2010, 1st of April, maybe more me the fool.

I phones, I pads, Isnack 2.0 or ever the ever allusive I’m a member an elite club. The problem when it’s all, I, I, I or me, me, me, like an ageing boxer, it’s only a matter of time before a bigger I comes along and I love the story of Kerry Packer who when playing at a table in Las Vegas and noticing  a very confident and loud person loving the attention he was getting, turned to him and said “my why are you such a popular and powerful person”, and after the person replied “because I’m worth one hundred million dollars”, Kerry simply drew a coin from his pocket and after having put down the challenge that “I’ll toss you for it-double or nothing”, a rather quieter person departed sheepishly from his company.

Living in the land of I can be fun, tantalising and enjoyable. But only for a time because either a new or stronger version will replace it, or the reality of the “I can’t take it with me” strikes as we realise that the roof racks on a hearse are not for luggage. In our short time on this earth, from beginning to end, from cradle to hearse there are so many variables that we can be left wondering where we are in scheme of things. The what if’s of life? The what ifs, that lead to the why’s and sooner or later, fear of what lies ahead-even if that be only the fear of the unknown felt on our last day.

Our God, God the Father of Jesus Christ is not a God of fear, but a God of love. His love so great that He gave us His Son Jesus Christ, who in turn gave His life that anyone who believes that He is the messiah, the Saviour sent to the world and that in trust in Him and in Him alone their sins are forgiven, they like Christ are given the promise that they too will be raised in the second life to reside forever with those who have gone before and who will go after in that same belief. That is the summary of Christian faith. No actually that’s the entirety of Christian faith.

A simple truth. Yet a truth so simple and unworldly that it is an easy target for the powers of darkness to attack and place before us the logical thoughts of our need to work our way to heaven, or alternatively tell us the truth of our sins to lead us to doubt that we could be saved. It’s a good trick because ultimately there’s some truth to it. We are sinners and if we look into the inner core of our soul where we hide the things we choose not to remember or at least would rather not, we see that yes, in our land of I,I,I we have fallen short many, many times over our journey. But like our God, God the Father is not a God of fear, but of love, so is our Saviour Jesus Christ and in His love that we need not live our lives wondering and in despair of where we stand in regards to our heavenly status He gave us the gift of Baptism. The gift of baptism that closes the door on the wolf at the door as he tries to upset with human logic the sure truth of forgiveness and salvation in trust, and in faith in Christ alone.

Our Lord and Saviour walked this earth and knows the difficulties we face and the doubts that come to us and so He gave us Baptism. The gift of Baptism He will give today to this young girl so that should she doubt her goodness or her place before God, that she not listen to those human thoughts from inside, but listen to His Words from outside. His Words, His promise, that if you are baptised and believe that I am your Saviour-then nothing in all creation can ever break or take away from you your gift of eternal life.

Baptism is a gift of the sureness of what awaits, and a gift that allows us to live in the  here and now and though in our lives we will still share happiness with sadness and comfort with hardship, we never need share the doubt of ourselves with the surety of the love and salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Broken but mended

           Good Friday

 

                

 

It seems that every time we hear or listen to the news that a tragedy has occurred. Tragedies that will affect family members and communities for years and maybe even for the rest of their lives. Terrible times and hurts that can never be downplayed because for those involved and close to them something is lost and things may never be the same again.

Yet the greatest tragedy of all happened in the Garden of Eden. The third chapter of Genesis records how the close connection between God and the people is broken. They had been as close as any wonderful family could ever be. But then they became divided as only the closest flesh and blood families can become separated. The brokenness continued from years to hundreds of years to thousands of years.

To understand the depth and seriousness of what happened with the tree in the Garden of Eden, we need to look at Jesus on the cross. There is God, on his tree, his cross suffering and dying and taking the punishment for the broken relationship. He is taking the blame for people’s sin. On the cross Jesus calls out the opening words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” A cry of people down through the ages who have felt the suffering that people go through because of their broken connection with God.

Now Jesus closes the gap. Only God can bridge the gap that separates people from him. Jesus reaches out with his arms stretched out to all the people who are on the other side. This includes people who want nothing to do with God. It includes people who are as broken as the thief on the cross next to him. It includes you and me, and even our enemies.

When we look at Jesus on the cross we begin to grasp the depth of sin. Our guilt becomes clearer to us. Sin is destructive and sin separates and as we look at Jesus on the cross, we begin to see how deep and costly is the love of God for people. The depth of God’s love reaches out to enfold his enemies. The love of God goes deeper than our sin. It reaches out wide enough to include all people on this earth. The love of God overwhelms the thief on the cross next to Jesus, and it reaches as far as you and me.

The love of God is healing love. It connects us up with God again like a new family in a relationship and that it is a one-sided relationship in that we are still weak and God the strength, that does not threaten to again fracture the relationship, but rather strengthen and maintain it as it was meant to be in the first place. In total trust and reliance on our Lord we are given a new beginning as the Holy Spirit reaches out to us in the Scriptures to strengthen us. The Spirit that brings Jesus to us in Baptism, and again and again in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus: the one who died on the cross in our place.

At school, like they do now we might have collected swap cards, maybe of sporting heroes, or music idols. We traded our cards looking for the best ones and the one’s we didn’t have. On the cross Jesus swaps places with us. He sees us as the best card, the card He doesn’t have and so traded everything He had for us so that he could call us his own. He traded himself.

Today is called Good Friday because we can focus on Jesus on the cross, and know that he is there for each one of us. We know that, no matter what comes, we are loved with a love that is deeper and stronger than any of our enemies. The love of God reaches down deeper than death. It reaches out to rescue us from the worst evil powers that might attack us. It reaches deeper than any sin that has been a part of our lives.

God doesn’t say to us, “If you show a bit of good heart to me for a change, I will make it up with you.” He doesn’t even say, “If you’ve got some good intentions about spiritual things I’ll accept you back again.”

No. He reconnects us to himself even when we humans are killing his son. In Romans 5, verse 10, the Spirit of God assures us, “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.” God accepts you and me despite the mess we might have made with our lives. God does not accept you and me because we have lived a respectable life, but only because of Jesus.

The good news on Good Friday runs against the grain of our human nature so much that we need to hear the news again and again. The Christian faith is not about looking inside ourselves all the time. Saving faith is to look at God’s love. A healthy faith focuses on what Jesus does for us, especially on the cross.

Jesus our Saviour who saved us as described in this poem:

Through His sorrows, we discover the depth of Jesus’ meekness and surrender to His Father’s will. This surrender is revealed in what He did not do…

He didn’t defend Himself;
He didn’t revile others when He was reviled;
He didn’t turn away from those who beat Him;
He didn’t slander others when He was falsely accused;
He didn’t hide His face from those who spat upon Him;
He didn’t come down from the cross when He was mocked, and ridiculed.
Meekness is not weakness. He who is Almighty could have called an army of angels to rescue Him from His sorrows, but instead, He chose to go to the cross and freely gave His life so you could find your life in Him.

The author of that poem is unknown but the subject matter most definitely not as we see Jesus with untold power at His fingertips refuse any inclination or temptation to do so, so that rather than His power be used to save himself, He directs it all to save us.

His saving power given to and for us that we hear these words in Romans 8:38, see our God’s love, see our Saviour on the cross and know most assuredly them to be true for each of us:

“And I am convinced that nothing can separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We were tired, but He was tried

Matthew 26:36-46

 

“We were tired, but He was Tried”

 

The reading for today’s meditation is written in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26, starting at verse 36.

 

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray”.

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them,

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will”.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

“Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?”

He asked Peter.

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak”.

He went away for a second time and prayed,

“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done”.

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them,

Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer”.

While the disciples slept, Jesus fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will”. Jesus, shown at the transfiguration to be the divine Son of God, is shown here in his humanity battling with the enormity of what has been placed before him.  This is not Jesus involved in some theological window dressing, this is real and harrowing.

The Gospel of Luke highlights the situation even more where he tells us, “Jesus being in anguish prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”.

Sweating blood, modern medicine tells us this is a symptom that can result from when a person is under intolerable stress. The suffering of Jesus here in the garden is intimately related to Calvary. Gethsemane is to Calvary what anticipation is to fulfillment, and Jesus in his humanity, in prayer asks his Father “if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”.

Jesus’ is faced with more than physical pain. Jesus the sinless one, who abhors sin, is faced with taking our sin on himself and to suffer the wrath of His Father. And asks his Father, is there another way. Nowhere else in the scriptures do we hear Jesus utter a prayer in anyway comparable to this. Yet, in the face of this, Jesus voluntary abides by the Fathers Will. “Not as I will, but as you will”.

In Gethsemane and Calvary, if taken as a crucially linked event, we can see the history of the world reaching its highest moment, the cultimation of the ages and the apex of the destiny of the world. The greatest thing ever done or could be done. That God would give himself, his Son as a sacrifice to reconcile the world to himself. Yet the disciples slept.

Peter, James and John, the inner core, who saw the Glory of Jesus on the mountain at the transfiguration, and Peter who had said “even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you”. Are asked by Jesus, stay awake and pray. Yet they sleep. Jesus, faced with what was to come prays to his Father. “Not mine, but Your will be done”, and receives strength. Strength gained from prayer   in knowing that it is His Fathers Will. But Peter, who desired to serve Jesus until even death, could not overcome his humanity to even stay awake and pray.

It is a stark picture. The Jews are seething for Jesus’ blood, the Romans are unconcerned, and even the people of God are sleeping. Our lord cuts a lonely figure as single handedly; He gives himself to The Father’s Will in this great transaction of redemption. Amos 8:11 tells us “The days are coming, declared the sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine through the land, not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Words of the Lord”. Like Peter slept, we too sleep and become complacent as our society teases and seduces us with its attractions, its offers of money, possessions and fame. Things that threaten with us the spiritual famine that Amos described. We come complacent before Christ,          and like Peter, we do not have the power in ourselves to follow our Lord.

2, 000 years ago, while those in the world went about their normal business, Jesus came to them to bring salvation. At the cultimation of Jesus’ prayers in the garden, he finds Peter still sleeping, yet reaches in and brings him out of his complacency, and takes him with him saying “Rise, let us go”. In our complacency Jesus comes to us. In our shortfalls, weaknesses and sin, he comes to us. The Gospel story we have heard it not just about Jesus, Peter            and the world all those years ago. It’s also about us now. As Jesus reaches into us, to give himself.

Like Peter came to know himself in the garden and, and later before the cross, before Christ we too see ourselves as we are. We may have the best intentions, Yet, while “The spirit is willing, the body is weak”. And like Peter, we fall short. In this season of lent we see and reflect on our failures before God, but louder we hear the Good news:

While you slept:

I have come to you,

Your sin, your guilt and your punishment I have taken on myself.

We here from St. John “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”

We hear from St. Paul “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” And we hear it from Jesus himself “Take heart…your sins are forgiven”. God has dealt with our sin, so that in Christ he can deal mercifully with us.

Let that good news beat upon our hearts and mind’s, because it wakes us up. It moves us to pray for now we can with confidence draw near the throne of grace. The Gospel wakes us up to confession, to repentance and to be daily in His Word and prayer, and to say with the psalmist: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’”. Amen.

Can’t see the wood for the trees

Sermon John 11:1-45

 

In the Gospel we see Jesus in a way that covers all bases. Jesus against the advice of his disciples has his eyes toward Jerusalem, and walks to the cross in the Will of his Father. We see his compassion and love, his humanness in going to Lazarus and weeping with those mourning. We see his wisdom; the miracle he would perform, the last miracle of his public ministry in raising Lazarus would Glorify God and bring many who witnessed it, to faith.

But the high point in the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah. Here, before his own resurrection we can clearly see Jesus as the Messiah as he raises a body that is already decomposing-the Messiah who brings life-to Lazarus that day, and life eternal to those who witnessed it. Just as he has brought us life eternal in his own death and resurrection.
That’s the big picture, we can see that and we know that in faith. We can see it clearly, and even though in the human mind, without faith it seems foolishness but we do not doubt it, and nor should we because it’s the truth. We know that one day; we will pass from earth to heaven, because Jesus has told us this. It’s an unshakable truth-to be given forgiveness, to have faith that when the saints go marching in, that we will be in that number is nothing short of a miracle.

Eternal life, we can see it, feel it. It is clearly evident and we know Jesus won’t let us down. Yet on our way there, sometimes it can get hard to see the trees from the forest. We can still see that picture, that miracle in the distance, but in the here and now, the events our daily lives sometimes blur our vision. Not of our last day, but of what’s going on now. The day to day picture, the daily miracles, the beauty of life, the love of God sometimes can become a bit hazy, or at the very least-take a bit for granted.
Coming from a financially humble background, when I was young I used to think how blessed some of my friends were. Although they were in the workforce and undertaking occupations like me they were from wealthy families who owned businesses. I used to think, how freeing that would be that they could do their job with that safety net that if things turned out badly they could just return to the family business. But I came to see, I was actually free myself-I didn’t have that financial safety net, but having come to faith, knowing the big picture-eternal life, it brought freedom here on earth. With that truth of the future, in the light of Christ daily struggles look different.
Like Martha knew and gave testimony to at the death of Lazarus, we can say of ourselves “I know that we will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”. As Christians we know this to be true and rejoice in it and give thanks to the Lord. We hear the Words of God from 1st Thessalonians “Rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances.” The thought of being re-united with those that have gone before, talking with and worshiping Jesus: Yes, at the thought, how could we not rejoice?

Yet there was a time when I considered those Words and thought that if you are rejoicing and giving thanks amid suffering and hurt, well then you can’t be suffering and hurting enough. A friend of mine once urged to me to go see a movie, he didn’t tell me anything about it-just its title. So I went along to see it. I got there a little late and missed the opening credits, but I could still work out what was going on. So I was watching this movie, and the longer it went the worse it seemed to get-but I persevered, and at the end I thought what was my friend thinking, that was garbage. Anyway, when I walked out I saw that the movie he had recommended to me had actually been showing on the screen in the next room. I had walked into the wrong movie.

Sometimes our lives can seem like that-where we start to wonder what is actually going on, where the script of our lives is different to how we imagined it. Where the “rejoicing always” doesn’t seem to fit the situation, Until we take a step back,   and sometimes the ability to take that step back can only come with the healing of time. Now I can look back at those times when I found it hard to rejoice and give thanks, and it’s like reflecting on a Wilbur Smith novel where this lead to this and eventually you see how things have fallen into place. And it can be funny how things can turn out.

Test Cricketers have remarked, that at the height of his powers that when Shane Warne released the cricket ball, it would spin so furiously that they could hear it zinging past them. When Shane was asked of his freakish ability he remarked that he believed it was due to an accident he had as a child were he broke his hand, and having not gone to the doctor-the bone’s set incorrectly, that later seemed to give him an un natural ability to spin the ball. But our lives are not a game of cricket or from a fictional book or movie script with only our fleeting emotional attachment. Our lives are real as are the things that come our way. Things that come our way, where like Martha and Mary we too say “Lord, if only you were here”. My dear Christian friend who lost his teenage son to illness would go out into the paddock,Look to the heavens and shout “Why Lord, why my boy? I cannot imagine the pain of my friend-I could not even try.

We could look piously at people in these situations and say “Trust in the Lord”, or give some, “get some faith type of comment like Job’s mates gave him, until it’s us. Until our moment brings us to our knees-where the hurt is so absorbing we cannot rejoice. And only ask why? But far from being a faith issue, that question is a faith statement. Just like Marta and Mary saying to Jesus “If only you were here” is a statement of faith, in my friend asking “why”, he is saying “I know you have the power to do anything”-It’s a statement of faith, but a statement of faith while suffering what this world has to offer.

Lazarus, my friend’s son and in our own hurts. God did not send down the grim reaper upon these people to prove a point. Just as natural disasters are not God getting a little payback. Death was not brought into the world by God. Sin brought it into the world. God does not bring the death he brings the life. Even when Adam and Eve fell to sin, God responded by clothing them. Jesus met those mourning at the death of Lazarus to only be greeted with essentially “why weren’t you here” But he doesn’t lecture them, he weeps with them. Just as Jesus wept for those who persecuted him. On his way to the cross Jesus came to a man who had died a sinner. Lazarus, a good man but a sinner, and Jesus came to him and raised him up. And in this, the Gospel tells us many came to believe.

When Jesus hangs on a cross dying, a black cloud lay over a hill in Jerusalem, but above it shone the love of God. An innocent man’s death, that many more may come to believe. Like Lazarus will be raised on the last day, so too will we. Like Lazarus died in sin and was raised in Christ, so too are we. Daily we sin, daily we doubt and daily we follow our own way and not that of the Lord. Yet in our failure to walk with Christ, he walks with us.

He does not meet us in scorn, but meets us in love, and reveals himself to us. At the fall in the Garden, God clothed two sinners for their protection and warmth on their earthly journey. On the cross, God gave sinners his Son, gave us His son for our protection and warmth on our earthly journey, and clothed us with the righteousness of His Son for salvation.

Like Paul, who described himself as the chief of sinners we too can say “For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me. Then he revealed his Son to me, and now I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself for me”.  Daily Jesus meets us, washes us clean with his blood, and daily we die too our sins-to be restored us and strengthened in Christ.  To be given life and we rejoice and give thanks and go forward, knowing Christ is with us-come what may.Amen

Where is the Light?

1 Samuel 16: 1-13, Ephesians 5: 8-14, John 9: 1-41

The closing words from today’s readings from Ephesians and Psalm 23 “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” and “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”

Christ has told us that “He came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind”

A four year old boy was woken in the night and told to run through the paddocks to the neighbour’s house four kilometres away and he can always remember leaving, but never arriving. That night a little light inside of him went out and though time passes, he still runs through those paddocks, leaving but never arriving and wonders of that goodness and mercy that was meant to follow him all the days of his life.

A mother hears the news that her son was found in a dead end road where the only sound was the birds chirping and the echo of a rifle bullet and that morning a little light inside of her was lost.

We stand by the bedside as our loved ones suffer in silence and a little light goes out. We see the atrocities of this world, the wars, the hunger and the injustice. We see the homeless, the abused and a body lying on a park bench next to an empty bottle and that light inside of us flickers perilously as we wonder of where their goodness and mercy was to be found.

And then one of those running from but never arriving stumbles towards those in the house of God only to meet with ridicule, judgement and accusation and to find that for them, there is no light to be found.

During the height of Communism’s campaign against religion in Russia, Easter sunrise services of the church were replaced with Sunrise Communist Rallies, which all people of a community were requested to attend. At one such meeting, as the rally was drawing to a close, a Communist leader asked the crowd of 10,000 if there was anything else anybody wanted to say. Nobody moved during a long silence. But then a teenage boy came forward to speak at the microphone. The leader warned the boy, “You must only tell the truth (meaning the communist truth-the theme of the rally). If you don’t, you will be shot on the spot.” As the boy stood on the podium he was flanked by soldiers, some with rifles pointed at his head. After a moment of silence he stood tall, and taking a deep breath shouted loud and clear, “Christ is risen.” Exploding rifles shattered the silence of the early morning and as the boy collapsed the crowd responded with 10,000 voices, “Christ is risen indeed”.

In tragedy, injustice and judgement from self and others a little light inside of us goes out as we wonder of that goodness and mercy that was to follow us all the days of our life, until we close our eyes.

That boy still running through the paddocks closes his eyes and sees the Lord Jesus by his side that night, and by his side now saying you don’t have to run any longer.

A mother closes her eyes and does not hear the echo of a gunshot at the end of a lonely dead end road, but the joyous sound of peace as another has been brought through the great tribulation and taken home.

We close our eyes and see that standing by the bedside of our loved ones suffering in silence is our Lord and Saviour still holding their hand tight as he has always done.

We see those that can run from no longer and have given up on arriving as they make their home on a lonely park bench with only an empty bottle as a friend until we close our eyes and see a man with the scars of nails on his wrists not pass by them in judgment of the wounds they carry, but take those wounds on himself as though they can run from, nor too any longer, that goodness and mercy that has been with them through the eye of the storm does not pass by, but reaches down and carries them with Him.

And as we open our eyes and see one of those running from but never arriving stumble towards the church, we see not a person in need of ridicule, judgement and accusation. But see a person born in the image of God and as they draw closer and the lines of their skin from their journey become clearer, our eyes are opened and we see that they are we, and like a boy confessing the truth as the gun shots rang out, we see that goodness and mercy has been with us all the days of our lives that as we fall we hear not 10,000 people, but an endless army of angels in joyous in song that another shall forever dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

While we ran in the night through the paddocks and though we could only remember leaving, and never arriving, our Lord has shown Himself to us that we who were blind now see Christ shining in the darkness that as He lead us on our journey home, He leads us before those that who are still running in the night and driving towards that lonely dead dirt end road see next to them a man carrying His own scars of this world look toward them with knowing eyes not of judgement, but with eyes of love and hear Him say, that it is too you for whom I have come. Amen.

A noble man

“A noble man”

 

John 4:5-42

One morning in 1888, a man baptized and confirmed in a Lutheran church named Alfred Nobel picked up a French newspaper and was shocked to see his own obituary. A news reporter had made a mistake. Actually Nobel’s brother had died, but the reporter got it wrong and did the story about Alfred. But in the story Alfred Nobel saw himself for the first time as the world saw him, “the dynamite king.”

Alfred had made a fortune manufacturing explosives. He was described as a rich industrialist, but there was no mention of his real passion for a peaceful world. From that day and unbeknown to his family, friends or colleagues until after his death, Alfred Nobel began to make arrangements for the purpose of his huge estate and began to arrange for the Nobel peace prize to be given each year to one who had contributed much to the cause of world peace.

A great story of how God can transform the works of this Christian from something that could fuel warfare to something that can fuel world peace.

The legendary American country and western singer Hank Williams in 1953 died from heart failure aggravated by alcohol and drug abuse at the age of 29. A man with “tortured soul”, but a man who from the pain and though it didn’t subside wrote these words:

“I wandered so aimless a life filled with sin
I wouldn’t let my dear saviour in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord I saw the light.

I saw the light I saw the light
No more darkness no more night
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord I saw the light.”

A great story of how God can bring his saving peace into and amongst even the most self-destructive of hearts and two great examples how unlike the other false God’s of history that demand their followers change their ways that they be entitled to go up, our God, God the Father that came down to us to meets as we are. God the Father that gave our world his Son Jesus the Christ to not create or strengthen the barriers between the unworthy and his kingdom, but to smash them apart that we see the truth as recorded in today’s Gospel because in Jesus talking to the Samaritan women he is shattering many cultural, religious and social barriers, as no self-respecting Jew would dare start a conversation with a Samaritan, never mind a female one at that.

Those two criteria alone would place her at the bottom of the heap, spiritually unclean and not to be associated with. But Jesus in interacting with this woman is not so much purposely breaking the protocols of the day to prove a point to her or the disciples; Jesus talks to the Samaritan women simply because she was there and he doesn’t act in an assumed role in order to accomplish an evangelistic goal. The reason Jesus acts how he does is because that’s simply who he is, and he doesn’t meet her in judgment or as a second rate citizen,

but meets her as a child of God that needs to be re-united to the Father. However it is not all one way traffic in Jesus just meeting the judgments of others against her as she shows some bias herself in the tone of her reply to Jesus request for a drink.

There is a cynical note of “what you a Jew, the Jews who consider us dirt, but now that you need us, we’re okay then. Jesus ignores her comment; he wants to win her not the argument. He does not ridicule, accuse or judge her, but meets her where she is at and gently and patiently leads her on a faith journey, where he causes her to take a second look at herself, at her prejudice’, her assumptions and her sins in order to reveal himself-and his life giving water. Yet recognizing and confessing Jesus as the Saviour, as great as that is, still is not the ultimate end toward which Jesus is calling her.

Throughout the Gospel Jesus repeatedly says that his mission is to accomplish the will of the Father. He has come to point people to God, to bring them to God. Perhaps the most significant part of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan women is the move from their discussion about the spiritual water that Jesus himself is, to their discussion about true worship.

The move in this direction is not coincidental, because the worship of God in spirit and in truth is at the heart of Christian theology. While we know from the Gospel, that over the next two days, many other Samaritans come to confess Jesus as the Saviour. To become saints in Christ, and though they still are sinners, they are forgiven sinners.

This Gospel story ends and we don’t hear of these people again, but it would be foolishness to assume that having been saved in Christ, that everything was perfect for the rest of their lives, or that they were in no need of any further spiritual strength or growth. That would not have happened for them and it doesn’t happen for us.

Like the Samaritan women-Christ’s meets us where we are at and has a conversation with us, exposes us: our prejudice, our assumptions and our sins-so that he can reveal himself.

Like to the Samaritan women, the change in us comes about because of Jesus revealing himself to us, not because of something we do, or something we want to believe.

The change comes not from us, but from Jesus. We are not saved because Jesus reveals our sin, but because he reveals himself to us, so he can bring us forgiveness and salvation, and bring us to faith, and keep us in faith.

Jesus is not a party to the much quoted Australian tall poppy system-of building them up, then bringing them down as we can handle that by ourselves and though we continually fall short, Jesus continually comes to us where we are at, and just where that place is, where we are at spiritually can change as we travel our earthly journey.

It’s like putting our finger in a stream, stresses-heartache, joys; struggles are all around us, are part of us-and move us in different directions. It’s not one size fits all. Just like our gifts can be unique, so to can be our shortfalls and shortcomings, and in them Jesus adjusts to us and comes again and again to us where we are at, comes to us in our sin, and comes to us in our needs.

The only constant is the cause and the cure, Sin and Christ. Sinners in ourselves, yet saints in Christ. That’s our deal, and because that is our deal-we are continually pulled between the two, and this side of heaven-that grating between the two in our lives will continue and that is why we are here today brought together in the Truth of Christ, to praise and worship our Lord, and to be in His presence

To hear the Word of God and have faith in his promises that no matter how we see ourselves, or how we feel, God covers us with His grace. God the father who today in worship meets us where we are at, in joy or in sorrow? Spiritually high or low, and says to us

come and receive my gifts and be strengthened.

We see the baptismal font and are reminded of the promise. That in faith we are given eternal life. That in faith we accept Holy Communion as the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and are strengthened in body and soul to life eternal.

That in we repentance and belief we are forgiven. That through no skill of our own, or our efforts, or good works or even our love to God, the work has been done for us in Christ that God does not see each of us as we see each other, but sees us glowing in the righteousness of His Son.

That’s the Grace the Lord brought to a Samaritan sinner, and that’s the Grace the Lord has brought to you who know the truth, that in Christ, and in Christ alone that no matter where you came from, today you are saved and no matter where you go, be it as an Alfred Nobel, a Hank Williams or a Samaritan women, He will go with you and lead you home. Amen