Becoming Clean

Mark 5:21-43

As a child I used to accompany my father on his daily rounds on the farm. One of he tasks I remember was poisoning rabbits and foxes using 1080 and strychnine. We would lay baits and mix the ingredients without the use of protective clothing, not even gloves. When it came to lunchtime, a splash of water on the hands and a wipe on the back of the jeans was all we did before we gobble down our sandwiches.

 

No-one died. At least not my dad, my brother or myself. The pigs, foxes and rabbits did not fare so well.

 

Our modern world is very different. Cleanliness has indeed become to mean something akin to godliness, or at least scientifically defined human-li-ness.  Washing hands, disinfecting every available surface, avoiding contact with anything that may contain the faintest layer of germs is of paramount importance. So much so that we are almost too clean.

 

Our desire to be clean has given rise to resistant strains of bacteria and bugs that fail to respond to accepted methods of treatment. Hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities are battling what are called superbugs. People go into what are expected to be clean environments and finding themselves the victims of bugs and germs causing great pain and discomfort.

 

In a world attuned to change and adaptation, the created world always finds a way around the intervention of man. Edward Teller has written an excellent book called, “Why Things Bite Back – New Technology and the Revenge Effect” dealing with the questions such as  ‘Why after all the advances made in medicines are there deadlier diseases around than ever?; Why do new roads lead to bigger traffic jams?; Why does every major technological advance lead to paradoxical, unforeseen and unintended consequences? He cites studies showing that with every great advance there is a corresponding revenge effect: pest-control which spreads pests, exercise which diminishes fitness, cleanliness protocols which spread germs.

 

Interestingly, for the Christian church, it’s efforts in education, for example, has improved the education levels across society, producing well educated people with astute critical thinking capacities who have ‘abandoned’ the church. The result of helping people to think for themselves has been that they have, and in doing so have found alternative world views to that which we have, in the past, offered them.  

 

In the natural world, what we experience is the contamination of the clean by the unclean, the good by the bad, the healthy by the unhealthy.  That was the reason for the cleanliness laws in the synagogue cult. In the Old Testament “clean” and “unclean” refer to whatever makes a person, animal, or object acceptable or unacceptable to God. For example, a person became unclean by eating certain foods, touching certain objects, and having certain kinds of diseases or bodily discharges.

 

These laws, when strictly applied, ensure that some people were periodically unacceptable to God (women for example) and others were permanently unclean because of their occupation (shepherds for example) or because of illnesses (such as lepers). Others who touched them or a dead person were also deemed to be unclean.

Joe Sprinkle notes that “The rationale for these laws is never clearly spelled out, but several explanations probably have some validity, including hygiene, the need to dissociate oneself from disgusting or pagan things, various other ethical lessons, the association of Yahweh with life and wholeness rather than death or disorder, the separation of worship from expressions of sexuality, and the need for Israel to be separated from the Gentiles.”

Being unclean refers to the relationship between people or things and God. In some ways it may be like someone telling another, "Don't touch me!" There is something about the relationship that is estranged. Unclean things and people were estranged from God and each other. They weren't supposed to touch each other.

In some ways their view of unclean things is like our saying, "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch." Contact with one of these unclean things made you an unclean person. There is some truth to this. If you hang around someone with a contagious disease, you are likely to end up with the same sickness. If you hang around with the wrong group of people, their bad influence may "spoil" you. There are some good reasons to stay away from certain people and things.[3]

In Mark 5 Jesus touches the unclean. In the passage read to day Jesus touches two such people. John Petty notes that "Mark does not explicitly mention violations of the "purity code," but there are two of them in this reading. First, the woman with the haemorrhage touched Jesus, rending him unclean. Second, Jesus touched the dead young woman, which also would have rendered him unclean."

 

An interesting thing happens, Jesus is not contaminated by their uncleanliness. In fact, he takes that on and replaces it with cleanliness, the cleanliness of being in relationship with God. Jesus infers by his comments not to tell anyone, that the miracle is the restoration of their place in God’s economy, something that had only been lost by implication of the law, not by truth of God’s creative compassion.

 

James R. Edwards (The Gospel According to Mark) writes about these three: "All three characters in Mark 5 transfer their uncleanness to Jesus, and to each Jesus bestows the cleansing wholeness of God. Mark 5 might be called the 'St. Jude chapter' (the saint of hopeless causes), for the Gerasene demoniac, the menstruating woman, and Jairus each find hope in Jesus when all human hopes are exhausted." (p. 161)

 

Jesus mixes everything up. Jesus doesn't become unclean by contact with the unclean people. They don't bring him down to their level. Jesus' holiness transforms their uncleanness. Jesus acts in a way which puts the world at rights. He is prophetic. His words and actions speaks into the world a message of inclusion and power which overcomes the hardwired view of the world - unclean triumphs of the clean.

What an amazing insight! What must that have looked like for those watching! How very different it is from our natural perception and from our treatment of those who are different to us due to age, gender, health, ability, ethnicity and station in life.  Who do we accept and why do not accept them? Is there still in our thinking a sense of the clean and unclean, of the acceptable and the unacceptable, of the normal and the abnormal?

Do we look at people with suspicion, somehow certain that to engage with them may mean that we will become contaminated by whatever separates us, whatever that maybe? Or have we found through our relationship with God through Christ the enlightened freedom of cleanliness allowing us to engage with others in ways that help them to accept that freedom for themselves?

Thomas Merton writes, “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy (in light of Mark, whether or not they are unclean). That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbours worthy.” Jesus exemplifies this unconditional compassion is an environment focussed on religious and societal laws of exclusion, equal to the Nope, Nope, Nope of Tony Abbott, IS or the American gun lobby.

If we are one with God through our relationship with Jesus, then there is no room in our thinking for such a stand against anyone who wishes to enter this place, to share our precinct, to be a part of our community on the basis that they are not worthy or they are unclean. That is not for us to say. We are but to love them as we are asked to do.

 

In the aftermath of the Charleston shooting, we have been witnesses to this kind of love in action. The victims of the shooting welcomed the young man into their circle. He was affected by their love despite carrying out the crime. The relatives of the victims and their fellow church members have expressed forgiveness to him and returned to open the doors and worship.

 

They have remained uncontaminated by his actions and offered him a way back. That is love, that is the love we have seen in Jesus and that is the love were are required to live in our own lives, the love of taking into ourselves the brokenness of others in such a way that we make it possible for them to reconnect with the kingdom of God. Amen.

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Sea Fever

Sea Fever

(John Masefield)

(Mark 4:35-41)

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

 

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

John Masefield went to sea on tall ships at the age of 15. He fell in love with the sea and reflects in this poem on his experiences and longing to return. Yet he concludes his poem with the desire to complete his journey and when it is over to enjoy the afterlife.

Masefield’s poem likens life to a sea journey, a wild journey that is untameable by ordinary means. He seeks the wind and the spray in his face, both dangerous and life-giving. He knows life will not be an easy journey, but completed in the company of others it is more than bearable.

Mark takes us on a similar journey in today’s Gospel. Jesus goes down to the sea in a boat, a small fishing vessel with minimum sail, an experienced crew and a small following flotilla. They venture out into the deep and open themselves up to the wildness of the sea, the most unpredictable and treacherous of the natural elements.

Sea is used throughout the Bible to signify fear and mystery. It is approached with fear and trembling by most books in the Bible.

Right at the beginning of the Book of Genesis we read: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” The sea and God are connected. It is primal, there at the beginning. It’s primitive and untamed nature invokes fear, not only in sailors but in the psyche of

the human being.

In the book of Daniel we read: “I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, ³and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.”

Psalm 107 gives a similar story as Masefield: “³Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.”

Then we have Paul being thrown overboard by his shipmates because they thought he was responsible for the storm threatening their lives.

Jesus goes to sleep on the cushion at the rear of the boat. Right near where the rudder was and where one would normally find the skipper of the boat. From there you chart the course, monitor the wind and manage the sails and the boats’ safety.

This is also where the water would pool. It is normally the lowest point of the boat and any water that came on board would run and pool at the feet of those sitting here. If the boat was filling with water, so were your shoes.

Mark suggests Jesus, by his position on the boat, was in charge, and  the crew complains he is asleep at the wheel! Asleep his feet were out of the water, next to him on the cushion. To them he appeared to be totally neglecting his responsibilities, asleep at the wheel and out of harms way.

There are consequences for skippers and their passengers when they are asleep at the wheel. The skipper of the Costa Concordia has been charged with neglect of duty for allowing his ship to run aground and causing the loss of 32 lives. The most famous of all was the wreck of the Titanic.

Mark uses this fear of the sea and it’s inherent fury to demonstrate the divinity of Jesus, that not only did he have the power to heal and cast out demons, but he had the authority to calm the wildest and most unpredictable of the elements. His authoritative teaching was matched by his ability to manage the created world. Miracles may or may not be factual events and I question whether it matters if they are. They are parabolic stories with meaning for those with insight.

When woken Jesus deals with the problem. Taking control, he shows that he is in charge and can deal with the terrifying. ‘Peace, be still” is a Biblical call for faith and centred-ness, or as we might say, mindfulness. As the Egyptians closed in on the Israelites at the edge of the Red Sea, God reminds them that “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”(Exodus 14:14)

Is the ‘peace be still’ aimed at the sea or at them? Is the fact he is awake and present to them sufficient for them to change from fear to a sense all will be well? Is Jesus suggesting fear, doubt, worry comes from within, not from without?  The storm is not the problem. It is what we make of the storm that is.

As he swings back into the role of the skipper, the man in charge, all becomes manageable.  Did the storm immediately stop? Perhaps not. Perhaps what happened was that they now had a leader, someone they knew who was capable of leading them through what had seemed to be the end for them.

‘Peace’, be calm, let go of fear, look rationally and logically at this situation. Did you really think you were going to die? Where was your faith in yourselves and the experience you have had of God’s involvement in your lives? Why did you abandon what you and your people have experienced time after time?

‘Be still’, stop, slow down, take a good long deep breath and put your self back in control. It is no accident that one of the things we do to calm people down is to help them get control of their breath. Jesus say be still, all will be well. You are with me and with my Father and we have given you plenty of examples of our power and compassion and we will remain present.

Jesus shows his power and authority to the disciples and the flotilla of little boats and asks that we too ‘Be still’ and trust when the greatest of ill winds unsettle and threaten to sink our little boat. William Loader reminds us: "(We) know what it is like to be buffeted. (We) know what it is like to have no control. (We) know situations where only the divine can intervene."

The church in the 21^st century seems to be in die straits. Reputation is under threat; numbers are dropping at a remarkable rate so much so that the churches in England is predicted to be empty by 2050, or there abouts; the challenge to the traditional view of marriage and sexuality; and more. As we look about us here we see the challenges we have to face and could be overcome by anxiety about our existence and our relevance.

The storm is calmed and now the hard work begins for those with him, the hard work of practicing the presence and power of Christ in the ordinary events of everyday. Who is at the wheel of our boat, and if it is God, how reliable is God?

We know from experience God is not asleep. This is God’s church and God will steer it through the storms we appear to be facing. We are not alone. Like the Israelites at the Red Sea and the disciples in the little boat we are to be still, take a deep breath and look around and see the possibilities of the Spirit.

Brian Stoffregen writes: "While we may pray that Jesus would work miracles in our lives and in our world and in our neighbourhoods; the miracles that come probably won't let us off the hook from doing some of the hard work required to do what Jesus has called us to do."

Are we ready to be still and work hard to bring in the kingdom of God? AMEN

A Conflict of Perspectives - Mark 3

 

Mark 3:20-35

 

 

Growing up I was surrounded by comic books. The superheroes of Marvell and DC comics invited me into a world of intrigue, battling the evil forces and finding incredible ways to ensure that the right would win. Back then I failed to understand the underlying message about what the right was and where it came from.

 

It was essentially white, western and empire. Life, truth and heroes were white, male, western and predominantly physical. There was little room for women in these stories!  People of other nationalities and race, were the baddies or, at best, companions of the good guys.

 

The comic book genre tells stories quickly, without extraneous detail and stays true to the agenda of the writer. There is little chance of the message being lost on the reader who is scanning the fast-paced frames of dialogue and action.

 

Mark is the comic book style writer of the Gospel writers. John spells out the detail of his Gospel, referencing the Jewish mystics and developing a thesis of who Jesus is and how we encounter him. Matthew and Luke have particular audiences and needs to address. Matthew deals with why the ‘church’ slowly moved away from the synagogue, having lost the battle for the Jewish religious mind.

 

Mark focuses on telling us who Jesus is and what his relationship is with the Divine, why he fits the bill as the Messiah, God’s Anointed.  He links together specially selected stories or pericopes to make his biography of Jesus plain and understandable. His pen pictures are bare of detail. He adds little other than what is necessary. He writes in bullet points more suited for a TED talk or a short presentation, not in academic prose.

 

Todays story fits at the end of a section we could entitle -  “A Conflict of Perspective”. In this section Jesus runs into conflict with the scribes and religious leaders over his healing of the sick, casting out of demons, and food and Sabbath ethics. His views and practice places him at odds with tradition with a power and authority hitherto not seen. He is the Messiah because he is so different, authoritative and free to be human, he could not be anyone else.

 

Mark’s thesis is either not obvious or so obvious it has to be refuted because the implications mean dismantling long held traditions, ideas and ways of practicing faith. It will dismantle the economy and political power revolving around the synagogue cult and leave them marooned, without the solid tradition they relied upon. Protecting what they already have they pronounce Jesus is of the devil, “he has an unclean spirit.” Jesus punches holes in that argument with logic their rational minds cannot defend against. “If I am of the devil how come I am casting out fellow demons? That doesn’t make sense.” And it doesn’t and they know it.

 

To try and prove their point they involve Jesus’ family, who I am sure, were confused and concerned for their son and brother. The crowds, the unending workload, the incessant interruptions and the obvious antagonistic authorities were enough to make them concerned. They came to take him away and give him some space but became involved in the rhetoric of the deniers.

 

Jesus responds with another pronouncement sure to set him apart as a rabble-rouser and troublemaker. He steps all over the traditional family ethic extending family to include all who lives and does as he does. It is no longer about family, tribes and a special people. All who take up his call for freedom, love and life are included in the kingdom of God.

 

Today we are faced with an avalanche of conflict challenging tradition and ideology. Climate change, same sex relationship recognition, refugees and boat people, child abuse, reconciliation and recognition of first peoples in the constitution, aged care and more. The need to address these is being espoused by voices and people who we would not necessarily include as speaking on behalf of God. Yet the Spirit of God is at work, using those who are willing to continue Jesus’ mission of freedom, love and life.

 

The recognition of love and fidelity instead of the restrictions presently placed on untraditional relationships is one example of the Spirit at work. Recently  read of a same-sex couple who were father and son but are now husband and husband. Sounds odd, but to get recognition for their multi-decade relationship in terms of estate planning one had to adopt the other as the state didn’t recognise same sex couples. Now it’s possible. So it should be.

 

In the last week or so we had the controversy caused by former Australian of the Year Adam Goodes’ war dance celebration after scoring a goal. It was deemed too confronting and challenging to both the footy fans present and to our nation. At the same time aboriginal communities are being closed down and peoples income quarantined with little protest. The Guardian newspaper reports on 3 remote communities in WA which are close together and only the 2 aboriginal communities are being considered to be closed down[1]. On Q&A one participant said the treatment of indigenous people is no different to the teasing someone with red hair gets! Really?

 

I have a question. Why are we so ready to accept same-sex marriages, and we are unable to embrace cultures different to us in faith and skin colour? Is it because same-sex marriage is an affluent, predominately white question in sync with our consumer culture of entitlement? Wednesday’s Age has an article that suggests legalization of same sex marriage is worth $1.2billion stimulus to the economy. Should that be a consideration?

 

Now, before people throw things at me, I support the move for recognition and equality, and it must occur sooner than later. But it must be driven by our desire for mission of freedom, love and life. In other words to overturn injustice not, for example, for economic benefits.

There are other issues to deal with, issues we have denied and ignored, such as indigenous reconciliation and recognition in this country for over 200 years; the treatment of refugees; the treatment of the elderly; and the abandonment of the victims of child abuse.

 

A few years ago I stood next to a young aboriginal boy in a Brisbane police station accused of a crime he did not commit. A couple of years earlier he was found filling up a tub with bleach and sitting in it. He no longer wanted to be black; he wanted to be like everyone else, white. At the same time, in Mt Isa, aboriginal young people were committing suicide by simply tying something around their necks to a fence and sitting down, waiting to die.

 

Our society’s response to quarantine income, take children from their families at a greater rate than ever[1], incarcerate Aboriginals at 11 times that of non-indigenous people[2] and close down remote communities, suggests colour and race still hinders the mission of Jesus for freedom, love and life in this country.

 

Thomas Merton suggests the way of Christ (nonviolent action which took him to the Cross) ‘is the most exacting of all forms of struggle,….because it excludes mere transient self-interest from it’s considerations….the one who practices (the way of Christ – nonviolent action) must commit themselves not to the defense of his/her own interest or even those of a particular group: he/she must commit themselves to the defence of objective truth and right and above all, of humanity’[3]

 

Mark’s comic ends this episode with Jesus widening the net on inclusion with - “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Are we, and is our church, local and universal, listening to the movement of the Spirit and responding in such a way that we can claim to be walking in the way of Christ? Or do we still have some work to do?

 

John Dear, in his excellent book ‘Thomas Merton, Peacemaker’ suggests our work should look like this:

 

Shout very loud about God’s will, God’s truth, God’s justice. State facts quietly and tell the truth quietly and patiently. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t get too frustrated. …. Lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart. Give an example of sanity, independence, integrity, good sense, as well as Christian love and wisdom.

 

Amen

 

 

 

[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-26/stolen-generation-with-aboriginal-children-in-care-nt/5478898 

[2] Between 2003 and 2013, the Aboriginal rate of incarceration has soared 11 times faster than the non-Aboriginal rate. Prison rates for Aboriginal women have increased by a third between 2002 and 2007, and the number of Aboriginal men by one-fifth [4], while police custodial rates remain as high as before.

Source: http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/law/royal-commission-into-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody#ixzz3brcHudUy

[3] Thomas Merton, Blessed are the meek’

 

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[1] http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/11/of-three-remote-communities-here-why-are-only-the-two-aboriginal-ones-under-threat

Unity in Being, Diversity in Doing

John 3:1-17/ Romans 8:12-17

Today is indeed Trinity Sunday for us here at St Oswald’s. This Sunday we explore the liturgical festival of the trinity while reflecting on the task of reconciliation, still a work under construction for our country, and finally, we are thinking about our parish stewardship responsibilities. How do these come together or are they in fact three very different ideas we actually need more time to investigate? Are they an improbable puzzle not unlike the one Nicodemus was faced with when he came to Jesus under the cover of the darkness? I suspect so.

 

You see Nicodemus nearly got the profound insight Jesus had to offer yet he was unable to leave his rational mind out of the conversation. His rational mind, schooled in the ‘theological’ superstructure of the synagogue found no place for the mystical experience Jesus was introducing him to. Being born again, being born of the spirit and not of the flesh, the coming and goings from heaven to earth and back again, simply over-rode the rational understanding Nicodemus was equipped with. And he went away, still in the dark.

 

In Romans 8 Paul speaks eloquently about the Godhead, interspersing the three personalities without actually trying to explain how it actually goes together. In this passage he speaks of God as father, of Christ in relationship to both God and us, and the Spirit as the enlivening source of relationship which ties it all together. Yet Paul does not explain the Trinity -- how God is three-in-one and one-in-three -- and no systematic explanation is to be found in the other biblical writers, either.

 

Perhaps it can be understood as ‘unity in being, diversity in way of being’. The oneness is the Who and the diversity is the role or the what. Rublev’s famous icon shows the three personalities together at a table, in hospitable fellowship with one another surrounded by the symbols which identify, all are together but noticeably separate in their body language; a turning out here, a looking a way there and the use of space to signify that separation.

 

They are united in their divine being, but very diverse in their roles and their actions. Although all maybe present at the one time, they are busy about different things, tasks and operations. The creation, salvation and imbuing of the world are done together but separately. A wonderful image of this unity and diversity is found in the description of the baptism of Jesus in Mark 1:9-11:

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

 

An interesting observation to make about Rublev’s icon is that there is no competition for space or for recognition amongst those he depicts. In fact the generosity of the Trinity is such that it always leaves room for more. If you look closely at the icon, space is made at the front of the table for another, or others. It has been suggested that we are being made room for, invited into that intimate relationship, not as observers, spectators or as lesser beings. but as co-equals.

 

Jesus says that God so loved the world that he sent the second person of the trinity so that he could save it from itself, from it’s ego violence and gratification. We are saved to share in eternal life which is a now and future realm, to be experienced in relationship with the three personalities active in the divine.

 

Paul says ‘you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.’ We have been adopted into that intimate relationship which is unity of being but diversity and how, the way, of being.

 

In the last few days we have witnessed the recognition of gay marriage in Ireland, an almost unthinkable outcome if the referendum had occurred a decade ago. What is primarily a Catholic country has embraced change and the church faces some interesting time redefining it’s place in what was essentially it’s country. It is a challenge for the  Church of Ireland which, within a day or so, had produced a press release saying that there would be no marriages for same sex couples carried out by it’s clergy as they are still reviewing their position through Synod. Yet over the road in Scotland, the Church of Scotland has voted to accept gay clergy in same sex civil partnerships, although note civil not church sanctioned marriage. The world is a rapidly changing place, full of diversity and, seemingly, collapsing unity. 

 

On this Trinity Sunday we are also asked to think about reconciliation between the first occupiers of this country and those of us who came later. Reconciliation as a task has had a rocky road and, I would suggest, has almost stalled. Governments, institutions and landowners have been hesitant to take the steps to apologize and set about a clear path of repentance for invasions, massacres, land grabs, stolen children, child abuse, and more. We remain silent about the 140-year civil war which took place in this country, only coming to an end, possibly, in 1928. We do not recognise the casualties of that war, on both sides, and fail to accept that the injustices committed then set the groundwork for the injustices which continue, such as the closing down of remote communities today.

 

The table of hospitality we sit around is similar but different to that of Rublev’s icon. Yes there is a space at the table but those who are different are not free to join those who maintain the social geography of our country. Not only have we not given free access to the first people, we continue to prevent those seeking a new start in life access either, even when we know the alternative option is likely death, we continue to say ‘Nope, Nope, Nope.’

 

The way forward will be chaotic and marred by many sidesteps and back-downs but we are being challenged to engage with the diversity of being from the point of view of what holds us together at the core. The trinity speaks of unity in relationship, of being essentially connected at the centre of our being although we are acting out our being, our lives, in very different and diverse ways.

 

We have a choice, to hold onto what divides us, to our diversity, not as something to be celebrated but something to be destroyed, or at best, ignored. To harken back to a day when we did not have to deal with these things because we agreed not to recognise them will consign us the way of the dodo. We no longer have that option.

 

Or we can choose to find ways to engage, dialogue and discover our place, with others, at the table of fellowship alongside the three distinct personalities of the Trinity. It asks of us deep self-reflection on why we believe as we do, why we find it difficult to even dialogue on these things, let alone find a place of unity, and why we are uncomfortable about difference and diversity?

 

On this thanksgiving or stewardship Sunday we are also being asked what can we do, what can we give, to expand God’s presence in this community? What do we bring with us and make available to this parish under God to engage, dialogue and discover ours and others place at the table with the Trinity? In the 80 or so years since St Oswald’s was founded, the world has changed in remarkable ways and this church has always been willing to engage, belong, support, guide, represent and feed this community. Why? Because there have been people willing to sit at the table with the Divine and co-create a representational Holy presence here.

 

Nicodemus was asked what did he bring and what could he give? He found that he could not give up his rational and conditioned mind. He could not step out of the darkness of difference into the glory of diversity. He was unable to remain engaged in dialogue and fellowship long enough for the truth to appear. He was lost in the darkness.

 

As we close let us reflect on the wisdom of Paul who writes:

 

^“22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Amen