Why Church?

Luke 23:13-35

 

Why church? Why go to church? Why are you here this morning and every other morning? What gets you out of bed and instead of having a lazy breakfast, a potter in the garden or a trip to the footy, why do you come to church?

 

What is it about this place that is important to you?  Some of you have been coming here to this particular church for several decades, most of you have been going to church since you were a small child, why? What is it about church that matters?

 

We live in a world where truth is questioned, metanarratives like the Christian faith story are not trusted or believed; instead it seems to be a mechanical world in which only scientific or productive narratives hold sway. Every action, thought or idea must have a practical and financial outcome. We are looking for product, return on investment and ownership. We need progress; the key indicator for a successful society is one that is growing by an agreeable percentage point each year. Our businesses must be more successful and earn more, we must produce at the cheapest level possible and sell at the highest level possible. We ignore local communities and exploit foreign workforces to do so. Local, small and connected to a narrative that gives life to community simply has no place in the modern economic kingdoms of large corporations and the governments they control.

 

Even the church, the institutional church, is on about growth, numbers, systems, programs, key performance indicators and outcomes. No longer are we allowed the time to simply cogitate on life and bring forth wisdom to feed and nurture our local communities.

 

The success of indigenous communities over the ages, where ever they have been found, has been their connection to place, people and time. They know the place they live in deeply, they understand their interdependence upon each other and they also know that the greatest asset they have is time. 50,000 years is what it took for indigenous communities to learn to live in harmony with place and people. It has taken the mechanistic world a little over 200 years to have a serious impact upon it.

 

Why church? Why the seemingly use-less-ness of church? Why is it important? And why should it have our full attention and support?

 

On the road to Emmaus two men are deeply engrossed in the politics of the day. They were personally involved in this story and it has apparently collapsed without producing the outcome they sought – revolution and a new world. They are despondent and closed in on themselves, having lost the narrative giving meaning to their existence. They are joined by another whom they hardly acknowledge, just as we would as we bump into people on the train, the tram on in the corridors of Chadstone shopping centre – aware that they are there but not taking notice of particulars.

 

Their eyes are closed. Their concern for their own worries prevent them from seeing who is right their in front of them. It is so easy to walk around with eyes closed. Even when we come to church, we can come with eyes closed. We bring with us all the concerns of our daily grind and go through the motions. We are comforted by the presence of familiar faces, familiar music and the familiar liturgy, but are our eyes open? Do we see who is standing next to us and who we owe our very existence to? Do we understand that this not about our concerns and our issues, but about the amazing hesed – unfailing companionship and compassion – of the Christ and that we owe everything to the Godhead who keeps and empowers us – even in the midst of our ordinary lives?

 

In this story, Jesus becomes the interpreter of the political events, of the events of society and explains what has been playing out in the world around them. And their eyes are still closed. Knowledge and information do not open closed eyes. Recent scientific evidence suggests that people are so impacted by preconceived ideas and prejudices that facts do not change their minds. Here is a case in point. Despite hearing everything about what had happened from the one who was there in a way no one else could, their eyes remain closed.

 

This is often the case for us, we are so committed to our opinions on, our knowledge about God and faith,  and our expectations about life and church that we fail to see what is happening and what is needed; we fail to see why we actually come to church. These men almost get this.  They are moved, challenged, enlightened by what Jesus says, but their eyes remain closed. The intellectual and evidential truth of Jesus’ words fail to move them out of their own self-interest – out of their concern for themselves.

 

Jesus stays with them for dinner and something happens, we are not sure exactly what it is but in the breaking of the bread a light goes on in the head and their eyes are open. In this moment of deep personal encounter with the symbolism of faith they see, as for the very first time, who is at the centre of their lives. Not just their faith but their lives. 

Here is a deep recognition of the centrality of the Christ to our identity, existence and being. Their world is refocussed and instead of going on with their ordinary lives centred solely on themselves, they return to Jerusalem, driven by the realisation that their life is no longer their own. 

Even though their hearts burned with in them on the road, nothing changed for them. We can be made warm and fuzzy by our attendance at church without being revolutionised by the Christ. It is the deep sacramental realisation that there is no thing else but the church and that our lives are to be completely oriented toward the church, the body of Christ, and its advancement counter-culturally into the world.

 

They get up immediately, abandon whatever their plans were and go back to Jerusalem and take up the mission of the church. There is no hesitation, no second guessing, no concern for their needs or desires; they return empty handed but open eyed into the church.

 

Why church?

 

·      Because there is no other response to the love of God and the indwelling presence of the Christ;

• Because there is no other response to the faithfulness of God to us;
• Because there is no other response to the beauty and mystery of creation;
• Because there is nothing more important than the maintenance and advancement of Christ’s body in the community in which we live.

 Why church?

• This is why we give of ourselves sacrificially in service and financial support. 
• This is why we give to the church before we give to ourselves.
• This is why we give up our comfortable beds to be here, because there is no other choice for us.

Why church? 

Because all the other experiences in the world do not open our eyes to the truth about the Christ we encounter like the moment we meet Jesus in the Church, his mystical body alive in the world. 

An Ordinary Life

Matthew 4:12-23

 

Do you remember singing the Sunday school song “I will make you fishers of men if you follow me”? Anyone prepared to sing a verse? No?  That’s ok. Has anyone really thought about the song and its relationship to the passage it refers to?

 

Today’s gospel verse takes us into a key moment in the life of Jesus and those who first served with him. Jesus has relocated his life to Capernaum. We are not sure when he went there, just that it was after John the Baptist was arrested. We do not know how long he had been there, just that he had been there long enough to make a home there.

 

Understanding this is not an impulse action on the top of the baptism, the period in the desert or John’s arrest putting this story into the realm of an ordinary every day activity is valuable. He simply didn’t turn the page of his “This Is Your Life’ script and read, “John’s arrested, go to Capernaum and recruit some disciples.” It happened in the midst of an ordinary life in a small village of around 1000 people on 25 acres. It happened to people known to each other, recognised as part of the ongoing life of a small fishing village.

 

It happened as Jesus did what seems to have been a regular activity for him – “As he walked by the Sea of Galilee”. It seems walking by the Sea of Galilee was not an unusual activity for Jesus. It probably was something he did as a daily routine, whether for exercise, as a spiritual practice or just to get some quiet while he took in the scenery and the people he lived amongst. It does appear he was fully present to the natural and human environment, observing people and nature to inform his practice, memory and understanding of others and people.

 

It is not hard to imagine Peter and Andrew were known to him or he had, at least, made a careful study of these two men as they went about their fishing business. In a village of 1000, there would have been few strangers and as he made his home there we can assume they visited the same space for prayer and teaching, passed each other in the centre of town and had mutual friends.

 

It seems that their contact had been sufficient for mutual respect and positive relationships. The encounter on the side of the lake is not one of negotiation or a dialogue in which one had to put their case to the other nor was it unexpected and therefore an instantaneous response. It was a simple ask receiving an eager yes. One can’t help thinking this conversation had a backstory and the invite was not unexpected. And neither was the response. Jesus, Peter and Andrews’ reputation and knowledge of each other ensured both the ask and the answer were positive.

 

Jesus gives the invitation to people who were going about their life. None of the four disciples in this story sought Jesus out or asked to go with him. They did not approach Jesus openly or seek to be his disciples. He broke into their ordinary lives and they responded. While they did not seek the call they responded based on their relationship with Jesus forged in the everyday life of the village.

There is an insight here for us. We can be so keen to have a spiritual experience, to experience a mystical event or to be a spiritual person that we miss the value of simply getting on with life open to the possibility of encountering God. God breaks into our lives when we are deemed ready, and not before. God comes to us and opens up our lives when we are working quietly on being human, ignoring our pretensions and ambitions to be something else. God sets us for his work when we are already fully occupied with being present as ourselves with others. It is the faithfulness to our humanity God enhances through an encounter with Jesus.

 

It is interesting only two of the four who are called are actually identified as ones who will be made fishers of people. Andrew and Peter, not James and John, receive that call. It is not a universal call for all. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” is personal and directed, it is contextual and prophetic, and it is their call and their call only.

 

We can so often appropriate for ourselves the lives of others and forget the truth that their life is their life and our life is our life and that is the way it is. We look at others success, others wealth, others experiences and become jealous, desiring to share in a life like theirs. For Peter and Andrew they receive a specific call and promise and would be held accountable for that throughout their lives. It was specific to them. It is not for James and John, and it is not necessarily for us.

 

Now this may sound counter to what we have been taught yet it is important. We are all tasked with being open to the breaking in of God as we journey to wholeness, we are not all tasked to fish for people. Interestingly this is the only positive use of this idea in the Old and New Testaments. Elsewhere it refers to capturing others who oppose you or are your enemies.

 

This returns us to a consistent thought throughout humanity’s engagement with God: our relationship with God is not static but ever evolving and renewing just as Gods relationship with all creation is ever evolving and ever new. In this way it is mystical or based on a real experience of the Christ both specific (it is our experience personally) and universal (it is the experience of and for all people).

 

Jesus’ call to Peter and Andrew differs in specifics but remains in its essence same as that of Jesus’ call to James and John and to us: to follow the way into wholeness and justice for the whole world. The specifics are relevant to the individuals involved and will go on to structure and influence the direction ones life takes.

 

We are not all called to be fishers of people, and if we are, not in the same way as others. We live out our life in this world according to the circumstances, opportunities and understanding specifically ours. Jesus calls us to follow his way: life giving, life affirming and life releasing all the way to the cross in willing self-sacrifice.

 

Jesus call to these four men affirms the material world and our experience of it. A man on his daily walk offers an invitation to men going about their daily business in a small insignificant village where they shared community life and had made their home. This affirmation of the created world by one incarnate and ordinary should give us pause to contemplate the incredible nature and potentiality of our engagement with the everyday.

 

It is pregnant, full of life and hope. Let us be open to the voices we hear and respond to the call to be alive with wholeness and love in the midst of each noisy moment.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Christified

John 1:29-42

^29”The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

 

*******************

Have you ever had the experience when something you have said comes back to you completely misunderstood and is interpreted, so impossibly disconnected from its original context and intention, it seems it took place in a completely different universe? The tragedy is such an event can ultimately come to define you, what you believe and how you live, taking on a life of its own.

 

Working in a school, I saw many bad decisions made by young people fittingly described as permanently defining moments if they were allowed to take on such an aura. Peer pressure, the need to belong, the first burst of passion or an encounter with alcohol or drugs suddenly took on a life of its own, becoming permanently attached to the young person involved. Yet life moves, times change and people mature, becoming somebody completely different to the one you remember. They are no longer the same or living in the same context or environment. Their world has changed and so have they. They have out grown the experience once synonymous with them and find new ways to be defined and understood.

 

Merton suggests the only person who is inconsistent is the one who is always the same, who remains connected to ideas, thoughts, philosophies and practices which worked once upon a time and have now taken on the rigour of known truth never to be challenged or changed.

 

David Bohm, the physicist and philosopher, speaks of creativity as being the passion to find the new in the experiences of life and to exalt those above the known and the accepted. He and others affirm this as the practice of all creatives - artists, musicians, mystics, scientists and theologians.

 

For theologians and mystics - you and I – we risk becoming solidified believers. Maybe a better term is petrified believers. We remain connected to a way of seeing our faith and our Christ, locking us in the past, not allowing us to expand with the evolving universe. Running the risk of being at odds with orthodox understanding of our faith, I would suggest we need to let go of images which worked when they were written and begin to explore new ideas appropriate to our 21^st century understanding of the universe and the laws of creation as seen in the urge for wholeness and creation.

 

John and the other New Testament writers were writing in a very different world to the one we live in. The understanding of the universe as a static creation in which the earth was the centre of all that existed, where God was above the sky in a place called heaven and our existence on this planet was temporary and transitory until we made the transfer to heaven or hell. Such a world view no longer exists or can be supported and neither does a world in which the understanding of the need of a sacrificial lamb dying a violent death so we can live free of sin can be.

 

John, the Jewish mystic, uses an image from the Old Testament, a ritual of symbolically addressing and confronting ones’ alienation from God and of making amends for simply being an ordinary human being. It was a ritualistic act all participated in and allowed reconciliation between God and the community. It was not a personal act but one done in and on behalf of the community. If we read "‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” literally, it seems to infer that God sent Jesus for just one purpose; to die to become the basis for substitutionary atonement or the idea Jesus was sent to die to set us personally free from sin.

 

If we consider ourselves Trinitarian, this idea raises a number of questions in terms of the relationships within that iconic symbol of unity and diversity. If we consider God as pro-life and essentially committed to the ongoing creation of the universe, does it not seem a rather brutal approach to take to deal with a relationship issue? Is there not something amiss if the only reason we celebrate the incarnation as understood in Jesus is that Jesus is our get out of jail card and we never have to face the music for our own falling short of the mark because of the violent death God prepared for him?  Or is there something else at work here in John’s comment and in the thinking of John the gospel writer?

 

If we take the hymn to Christ at the beginning of his Gospel seriously then there is surely something else alluded to here. Jesus is present at the beginning of all things and is the empowering present in the ongoing journey of creation as seen in the evolutionary process. Jesus is the ultimate in created consciousness and therefore the ultimate image of the creator. The incarnation is testament to the relationship God has with creation in that he becomes fully participant in the process to wholeness.

 

As one commentator suggests: The Jewish disciples of Jesus understood the identification of Jesus, the symbolic Yom Kippur sacrifice, as a symbol of the human yearning to be at one with God. It was their way of saying that the death of Jesus was not a tragedy, but was a free and complete act of human self-giving. In offering his life without the need to protect, defend or preserve his selfhood, they were saying that in the death of Jesus they had caught a glimpse of who and what God is. They had experienced in Jesus life fully lived, loving extravagantly, as having given them the courage to be fully themselves, fully human.

The death of Jesus was therefore originally interpreted as an act of ultimate self-giving that greatly enhanced life.

A God of sacrificial atonement seems out of sync with 21^st century cosmology and scientific knowledge. Now it is appropriate to  understand the death of Jesus as the fulfilment of an individuals commitment to the process of evolution – one dies so another or a species may flourish and become something completely knew. Jesus embodies the creative intent toward an ever burgeoning, ever blossoming world – he lives the ultimate example of created consciousness so that others may do likewise through love in action – the Spirit. The Spirit is released to empower you and I through a mystical experience of Christ for ourselves.

 

As Jesus grows and becomes the Christ, leaving behind his ego self and his personal individual identity, it is so we may experience the possibility of doing the same. He is the Lamb of God in the sense he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of becoming. He deals with sin, the dislocation from oneness via the ego self, in that anyone who has a real experience of the Christ will become Christified and do likewise.

 

And perhaps here is the reason we wish only to see Jesus as the means to our personal redemption. To accept the task to become Christified – like Christ – will entail us moving away from our personal egos and taking the journey to complete kenosis or self emptying as Christ did, so others and humanity may evolve into Christ.

 

It is a costly act. It will cost materially, physically, psychological, emotionally and spiritually. You will see things differently and from a new place and find yourself marginalised and locked out of normal society. You will not be accepted now, nor will your words and actions be seen to be appropriate. They may, as they did for Jesus, be deemed so after the tragedy and they may then empower others to do the same.

 

The challenge for the church, you and I, is to leave behind a set of symbols appropriate for another age and begin to search for the Lamb of God in a strangely different world than the one John was writing in, and the one in which much of the definitive theology was done in, such as the middle ages. We now understand the world differently on a day-to-day basis and must risk disconnecting our theology from a world view that is no more, rediscovering the Lamb of God in an expanding universe. To not do so, spells the end for faith. 

Sam Macharia

Folks
As you are aware, this last week of school has been a difficult one. The loss of Sam Macharia is a blow to all and has been keenly felt by the school community.

Each one of us who knew Sam will find ourselves struggling with the reality of his loss in our own way, but being a part of the school community will remind us that we are not doing so alone. This week has demonstrated the depth and strength of the Lindisfarne communitry and shown just how we rally to support each other.

Over the next few days it is important to be aware of how our young people are feeling and to be sensitive to their response to the news about Sam. Be open and honest about your feelings and take the opportunitry to speak to them, mindful to allow them time and space to do so when they wish to.

I have been encouraged by how they have dealt with the news, finding ways to express their grief, support one another and the family and to be involved in the process at every stage. Our children have not been afraid to express their emotions and that is a good thing. As we trust them to continue to do so they will grow through this tragic time, becoming stronger and more resilient people in doing so.

On another note, there will be a Christmas service in the chapel on Christmas eve @ 6.30pm. All are welcome and this would also be a positive experience for the school community to gather together and share in worship and prayer. Hope to see you all there.

I wish you all a holy and safe Christmas and look forward to seeing you all soon.
Father Glenn

A Welcoming Table

(1 Timothy 1:12-17 - Luke 15:1-10)
Jesus critics commented: ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them”. A criticism that is indeed the highest compliment. Jesus offers hospitality to all, not just those who are deemed respectable by dint of following a set of rules. Jesus does not welcome sinners to be perverse and difficult but because they are the ones who recognise his grace for what it is – unconditional hospitality. Hospitality without limits. No in crowd, no outsiders – no dividing the world into those who are favoured and those who are not.

It is a subtle way of saying to his critics, you are welcome too. A tough call for all who think that they are special, perfect, without need for God’s love and mercy. Those who have material wealth, great talent, who see themselves as being perfect in morals and values are also welcome for those perceptions confirm that they too are sinners.

John Coutis who was born without legs comments that: ‘All people have a disability, it’s just that you can see mine.” He goes on to remind us that our greatest disability is how we think about ourselves, it gets in the way of us fulfilling our potential, or in this case, of accepting the hospitality Jesus offers us.

Jesus holds out his hands, not for our formal handshake but for an embrace. For many of us the intimacy of an embrace is too much and we stand off and extend our hand in a way that says I recognise you but am not quite ready to share my personal space with you. Jesus does more than that. He offers the all-embracing welcome into his life. He touches others even when it makes him ritually unclean.

Gaye tells the story of going to visit a shut-in lady who was almost blind in Glebe in Sydney back when Glebe wasn’t a yuppie suburb. The lady makes a cup of tea and puts out the best china. She pours the tea into the cups, which because of her disability were not very clean. As the tea rose, so did the dust and dirt, right to the top of the cup. What was she to do? Drink the tea despite what it contained or hurt the feelings of this lady who was so excited to have a visitor. Gaye drank the tea.

Hospitality always moves swiftly to sharing the table together, regardless of who is present or what the meal may be like. Jesus makes no exceptions and sits down to eat in the holy ordinariness of the everyday. His table is spread for all and he shares in the table others spread for him.

When we were in Glebe as trainee Salvation Army officers we used to share a meal with the congregation after the Sunday service. This was an odd collection of homeless, mentally ill and poor people. They were responsible for preparing the meal which usually consisted of corn beef, potatoes and cabbage. One day as they were straining the cabbage it fell onto the less than hygienically clean floor. They quickly scooped it up, put in the dish and put it on the table. Some of the trainees complained to the training officer who simply said, “Eat.” We did but not necessarily with gusto. We cannot put limits on who we share our table with. Jesus didn’t and doesn’t.

Paul in his letter to Timothy says, ‘The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost.” Jesus is gracious because he is grace itself. He sees us and all he created as innocent and pure, as worthy of his presence, and he worthy of ours. We may feel we have a long way to go, but for Jesus we are already there.

Pau says that the grace he received was so that Jesus might show utmost patience with him as he remade into the example he was to be to others. Paul echoes’ a thought we shared at morning prayer this week, that each of us lives in this grace because we are not yet finished – God is creating us at this very movement. Chris suggested we wear T shirts with the slogan ‘Be patient with me – I am still under construction”!

I like the Idea that we are people on the move but always a people of the table, the two are unmistakeably linked. It is at table with each other and with the Triune God that we find the grace to become individually and as a community.

It has been suggested that for the Jewish people that the Sabbath meal is defines their faith. One Rabbi suggested that the Sabbath meal is their faith, they are a Sabbath people.

In the same way, as we move toward sharing the Eucharist, are we people of the table. Here we remember the welcome Christ gave us through the cross the ultimate example of hospitality. As we share the body and blood of Christ we are reminded of Christ’s embrace and challenged to show welcome and hospitality to the created world in all its forms.

Come, let’s eat.

St Judes Randwick

Jude 1-3, 17-25 – Sunday 25th October 2009 St Jude’s Randwick – Gods Space

Today is our patronal festival – St Jude’s Day. Actually St Jude’s day is the 28th but I’m sure he isn’t quibbling abut us being a couple of days early, after many years of being the ‘Forgotten Saint’, I am sure he is just happy to be remembered.

It must have been a difficult time for Jude Thaddeus, what with having the same name as Judas Iscariot and all. People got confused about whether he was the same person or not so didn‘t venerate him for many centuries. It was only if you were really desperate did you actually pray in his name. It was like; when all else fails go to St Jude. He was the Saint of last resort – the last chance saint.

In his letter St Jude implores Christians to hang on in the face of apostasy, heretical teachings and immoral practices. While he had wanted to write about salvation, he in fact was forced, by the prevailing attitude of some believers, to write about the breakdown of belief as he saw it and its impact on believers. It was desperate times. If Christians were to maintain their faith they were going to face great opposition. It was desperate times and often looked like a lost cause. Hence St Jude being called the ‘Saint of Lost or Hopeless Causes.”

Hopeless causes, hopeless cases. How easy it is to use the label hopeless, perhaps for your self, for some situation in your life; perhaps about someone else, perhaps about some situation. What does it feel like to feel hopeless, to be perceived as hopeless, to live in that dark space of recognition where you are only seen for not being seen and forgotten?

In the late 1920’s St Jude was seen as the Saint of choice for second-generation immigrant women in America. They had come to the land of opportunity with their parents, received an education and looked out on what appeared as an endless feast of opportunities. Yet they were caught between the possibilities education and economic freedom had brought them and the strict cultural and patriarchal traditions of their aging immigrant parents. Many were trapped in the space-in-between, just like many women of that era here in Australia were. St Jude, via a shrine to him in Chicago, allowed them to come together through letter writing and newsletters to share their sense of hopelessness and to help redefine their future. The saint of lost causes was their gathering point as they sought to create a better future for women.

While hopelessness is not a description of something but a space or a place in which we live and have our being, so is hope. Either one can become the space which contains us, while at the very same time, we contain it within us. It is what it signifies.

In a sense it says something about this church of St Jude here in Randwick Sydney. This church began its worship only 60 short years after the first free settlers came to our shores. Australia was a hostile environment populated by people with great courage and hope but also with, a similar level of trepidation. Building a church, any church would have been daunting but to build this church with its symbolic and metaphorical implications could have been deemed a hopeless cause, yet one full of hope.

Over the last few weeks, as I have contemplated my time here at St Jude’s, I have spent time sitting outside and inside the church building, walking the grounds, wandering the graveyard. In doing so I have thought a lot about the importance of space and place in medieval spirituality, the actual birth place of this building and its design.

19th century Victorian Gothic church architecture had its roots in, and mimicked, medieval church design, particularly that of the 13th century onwards.
Instead of the previous dark and dim churches, we begin to see churches rising high above the ground incorporating great space and inviting light in through spacious windows, often full of stain glass which provided a kaleidoscope of colours across the floors and walls of the building. It seemed to defy the experience of events such as the Black Plague and a desire to fill the space between hell and heaven, which was, in medieval cosmology, the space between what was beneath and what was above, with light and hope.

The medieval church building signified the transcendent presence of a God who contained the world and, at the same time, the church contained or confined that very same God within its walls. The building towered across the skyline speaking of the nature and presence of God in its boldness, its strength and its audacity. It was visible and heard. Bells spoke out of the presence of God amongst them and there was no doubt where he was. He was in the Church.

Across the road from here is boxing gym to which I go 2 or 3 times a week. Inside people punch and kick bags, sometimes they punch and kick each other. The lady who is one of the owners tho, can’t wait for Tuesday nights. Why? Because amongst the mayhem of her gym she listens to the bells being played here, at St Jude’s. It signifies for her the presence of God in Randwick and reminds her of who she is and who he is.

Within the walls of that medieval church you could encounter the transcendent God for he was immanent, present therein. The space inside formed by the high roofs, exposed beams and the progression of west to east spoke of the space that was the cosmos outside, a space which could overwhelm you with its sheer dimensions and mystery. Within the walls of the Church the design spoke of that same distance and closeness of God, that he is both contained by and contains us. That space became the place and the place, the space in which God dwelt.

It seems to me that as I have met in worship here, watched people who have lived in the shade of this church come after many years of absence for a funeral or a baptism, who have walked across the precinct or through the graveyard, that St Jude’s is God’s habitation in Randwick.

I regularly watch a middle aged couple push the lady’s elderly mother past this church, sometimes, if the church is open, they come in; other times they just sit outside as she looks at the church or touches the sandstone walls. For her this is a place of healing and hope, a place where God says I will be with you always and she takes that feeling with her as she faces another week relying on the care of others.

May I suggest, for each of us, that St Jude’s is the place that gathers God and we his people, bringing us into alignment and awareness of each other, and is the place where each holds the other in their soul.

We may look around from where we stand and wish many more of those who live in the vicinity were worshipping with us each day, yet there is a sense that they do. St Jude’s is the signifier of God, the representational space for those who walk past or live near, and in that sense becomes the place of faith for them. It is not just a heritage building or precinct or graveyard; it is not just a traditional worship space or liturgical practice, it’s not just an Anglican church; it is much more than that.

It is the presence of God within our lives, all our lives, even when those lives may seem hopeless or outside our walls. May it always be so and in the words of St Jude himself:

24Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Community turns 146

This last Sunday we celebrated the dedication of St Jude's some 146 years. In so doing we celebrated not the building but the community which has worshiped, served and supported one another over that time.

St Jude's has always been committed to community and to being open and welcoming to all. And it shows in the ministries operating within the church and the variety of people who attend. Often people ask why I am at St Jude's. My answer is simple, 'it's a good place to be, there is no rush to get anywhere in terms of numbers, achievements or activities'. Yet the numbers are stable, each day great things are achieved within the ministries of the church and the variety and number of activities and their attendances blossom.

To be is the hardest thing to do for it asks us to trust our experience, our knowledge of who we are and of what we have to offer. Avoiding the mad scramble to be relevant is vital for the faith of any community. The Christian church, from its inception has been, on the whole irrelevant. It's message of unconditional love, doing unto others, putting others before self and loving your enemies ,of which the life and death of Jesus is the radical summation, is still irrelevant.

Yet it is what is most attractive in the church as Christ body here on earth. It is still what brings and keeps people, not the latest music, the newest gimmicks or the best marketing campaigns. It is still the irrelevancy of its reason for being - love - which attracts people to it.

St Jude's is a community which maintains that truth. To quote Thomas Merton on community – “… we should not be too anxious about “getting anywhere” with community, except that community itself should “be” and celebrate itself in love.” (Thomas Merton - A Life In Letters 55)

Leadership is for Everyone

Over the last couple of weeks the media focus on certain high profile sportsmen and their behaviour may have proved Groucho Marx right when he said,  ‘Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men -- the other 999 follow women’.  The truth in his humour may give us pause to think about how we treat others, for our treatment of others defines whether we are in fact leaders or followers, whether we make a difference, whether we are the difference we want to make, or whether we cause collateral damage because we choose the wrong leaders.  If, as sociologists say, each of us influence somewhere around 10,000 people over our lives then the choice between leadership and tagging along for the ride becomes one we need to give serious thought to.

In today’s reading from Acts (Acts 1:15-17,21-26) we have an example of leadership being exercised right at the beginning of the Christian community.  It is only a few short weeks since Jesus was crucified and left the disciples and his followers alone.  Judas, one of the twelve chosen to represent the twelve tribes of Israel has committed suicide and something needs to be done to put the order in balance.  He needed to be replaced to maintain the groups integrity.

Up steps Peter, Peter, considering his impetuous displays and his failure in the heat of the cold Good Friday morning seems the most unlikely to be the one anyone would follow.  But leadership is not a right but a gift and they all knew that it was Peter whom Jesus had gifted with the role of leadership. 

They had all heard Jesus in conversation with Peter and knew what his role would be.  They accepted it, although as time went on that didn’t mean Peter the leader wasn’t challenged by others including Paul about some of his management decisions.  Leadership is about taking people with you to places they perhaps would not have gone, management is the skill to support that journey.  Peter had the first because of his charisma and passion and because he was gifted the leadership by Jesus. The other he should have left to those with the gift.

Peter was surprising as a leader, showing attributes that on a first read of his character appeared not to be there.  As a fisherman he would have no doubt run a tight ship aware that if it’s not done right we don’t eat.  In that scenario he was the boss, the one making the decisions.  But here, at the very beginning of the Christian church Peter exhibits the benefit of at least three years in the best leadership school available, the presence of Jesus.

And here we see one of the key truths about leadership and that is people only learn what you have taught them in your absence – in your absence people learn, remember, act on what they learnt while you were with them.  While Jesus was there he was the leader and Peter and the others weren’t aware of what they had learnt because they had no need to practice it. 

Now, now was different.  They were alone, fearful of both the present and the future, unsure of how the authorities and the synagogue was going to deal with them and needing to act decisively and quickly to regain control of those who were looking at them for direction and hope. Walter Lippman puts it this way:

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.

This is a lesson society needs to revisit in terms of leading children into adulthood.  Parents are pivotal leaders whose presence teaches their children how to be in the world. The modeling of right thinking and subsequently right behaviour is more powerful than any education program, which can be instituted by any government, educational system or body.

You may have seen the story about the boy in an American college school who was refused his graduation certificate because he went to another schools formal where dancing would occur.  Apparently some years earlier, I presume on enrolment at this college, he signed a contract which explicitly banned such activity.  Now in the last year of school he wanted to go and have fun with a girl at a dance.  The school outlined the implications, but he went and then he and his family complained.  While the rule may have been verging on the ridiculous is not the issue.  He had made a commitment which he followed while it suited him.  When it didn’t he complained.  My concern was the response of the parents – they failed to lead.  Why didn’t they remind the young man that a commitment is just that and until that commitment no longer applies i.e. when he leaves school, then he needs to be a man of his word and abide by what he agreed to.  They didn’t and he will be the loser because of it.

One of the best ads on tv makes this point in terms of alcohol and binge drinking. It’s the one where subsequent generations of men at a barbecue ask the pre-teen son to get another beer from the fridge.  The boy becomes the man and perpetuates the problem.  As parents and community leaders our behaviour is our leadership – we aren’t meant to be perfect, for like Peter we stuff up but we, like him, need to keep stepping up aware of our failures but remaining always the leader.

Peter and the ten disciples stand up and speak, not as those taking leadership but as ones seeking leadership.  Note that the issue at hand, the replacement of Judas, is discussed in and by the community. US Senator and one time Presidential aspirant, ELIZABETH DOLE, comments that

What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it. (oh if only!!!!)

 

That is just what Peter does – he draws around him the community and lays out the problem.  He does not impose a solution but seeks direction.  Modern day leaders always seem more intent on imposing decisions or consulting only to justify their decisions as the appropriate one.

Leadership is not imposing, it is seeking direction by the community you represent.

It was discussed and two nominees agreed upon.  We are not privy to how that occurred but I am sure it was full and frank and had its political overtones, but no-one was imposed, and to ensure that was the case they made the decision by a lottery, drawing of the name out of the hat, by lot.  This practice was an accepted method for accepting God’s will.  Note, I said accepting, not choosing God’s will.

Today Christians spend much time discerning God’s will, and often it is an individual decision much like that of the politicians decision making process, if it suits me then it must be God’s will, if it suits me it must be good for the country.  This ploy of attaching God’s will, the will of the creator, sustainer and redeemer of the world with our personal need to be fulfilled and valued is at the very least misdirected and at the worst simply wrong.  Hebraic theology, as found throughout the Psalms has little to say about personal wellbeing for its sake alone, it is only ever achieved through complete and unflinching faith in God, particularly when God seems to be absent, silent and simply not available as in times of national danger, sickness, injustice, poverty and the normal travails of life and often over a very long period of one’s life.  Jesus never deviated from this and we find him on the cross, quoting Psalm 22 but still remaining faithful when his personal wellbeing was being ravaged by injustice.

70 times in the Old and New Testaments casting lots is referred to, albeit this is the last time it is mentioned in the New Testament, but the practice did not necessarily cease.  It was used because there could be no manipulation by the people involved, it was deemed that God, who is sovereign overall watches over and supervises the process so that whatever the outcome is it is his outcome, there can be no dissatisfaction because there was no-one–else involved but God himself.

And there was no grumbling recorded at the outcome.  Peter had demonstrated leadership well learnt and well implemented, he had accepted the role Jesus had groomed him for and remembered much more than he thought he had learnt.  The community also stepped up and participated in discerning God’s will and Matthais became a member of the leadership group. But he already was – leadership isn’t individual, it is communal – the community leads and endorses those who lead and he was apart of that community.  The danger in our age is that we do in fact get the leaders, and the society we deserve, because we fail to see and fulfill our leadership role.

Peter and that first Christian community reminds us that if we want a different world we must lead in the one we see around us today. As Gandhi said, ‘Be (or lead) the change you want see in the world’. It is up to you.