Trinity Sunday

June 3, 2023

Trinity – 2023
Matthew 28:16-20
Marian Free

In the name of God, creative, generative force, loving, sacrificial being, empowering and energising breath. Amen.

A little while I saw a meme that featured Jesus and the disciples. The first frame, pictured Jesus preparing the disciples for his ascension. Jesus was saying: “Don’t make this too complicated”. In the next frame, after Jesus has ascended the disciples see a group of people coming over the hill. “Oh no”, they say, “here come the theologians!” The creator of the cartoon was implying that theologians complicate simple tenets of faith by analysing and explaining them.

It is easy to imagine that we would be better off without those academics who make meaning out of scriptures, who turn apparently simple texts into complex ideas. The fact is, that without theologians, we would be confronted with a multitude of conflicting ideas and no arbitrators to determine which interpretation was more accurate or more reflective of the teaching of Jesus and its reception by the first believers.

The early church provides two cases in point – the Incarnation and the Trinity – both of which proved controversial in the first few centuries. In the gospels, Jesus is depicted as both human and divine, but there is no detailed argument as to how this works in practice. The most direct claims are those of Jesus in John’s gospel in which Jesus consistently claims that he and the Father are one. In the Synoptics, there are no direct claims that Jesus and the Father are one (Mt. 11:27 being an exception), but in those gospels Jesus shown to have power over demons, over the natural elements and over life itself – powers previously associated only with God. It seems obvious that the gospel writers took for granted. that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, but they provide no explicit statement to this effect, and give no explanation as to how such a thing could be. It was left to the early church to determine what this meant and how it could be explained. The result was a number of theories about the nature of Jesus and fierce arguments between various bishops and theologians.

Similarly with the Trinity. God as Creator/or Father, Son/Christ/Lord and Spirit is referred to unselfconsciously throughout Paul’s letters and to some extent in the Gospels, but nowhere is there any explanation as to how God can be both three AND one. There is no biblical description of the way in which the three persons of God relate to each other. A Trinitarian God was such a departure from the strict monotheism of Judaism, that there was no language to accommodate a new way of thinking about this same God. The first believers took for granted that God was in some way three persons in one God, but they did not have the appropriate language to defend that belief. It was left to later scholars to find language that honoured the equal value of each member of the Trinity and to describe the relationship between the three – language that often takes away from the relaxed way in which the early community accepted and related to a Trinitarian God.

Interestingly, though the Pauline letters use the language of God, Lord, Christ, and Spirit interchangeably, and though Paul coined prayer: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, the Trinitarian formula with which we are most familiar “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” occurs only in Matthew’s gospel. This is in no small part because the gospels were trying to tell the story of Jesus and to record his teaching – rather than to make meaning. of his life, death, and resurrection.

That said, the conclusion to Matthew’s gospel tells us two things – one, that by the 80s, Trinitarian language was being used as a matter of course and two, that the language of Trinity was an essential component of the baptismal liturgy. In other words, at least by the time Matthew was written, the idea of a three-fold God had solidified into a formula – a formula that was accepted even by this most Jewish of the gospel writers. At the same time this formula was used (without explanation) as an essential part of the liturgy that welcomed new believers into the community.

It seems that the early church did not have to reflect on the nature of the Trinity or on the relationship between the members of the Trinity. Early believers appear to have taken three-fold nature of God for granted – without seeing any contradiction between that belief and their existing belief that God was one.

Perhaps the best attempt to make sense of a three-fold God is the Athanasian Creed, which can be found in the back of your Prayer Book, and which used to be said on Trinity Sunday. “So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another; But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must think thus of the Trinity. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.)

The Trinitary is first and foremost relational and communal. The persons of the Trinity are non-competitive, inclusive. No one person of the Trinity has priority and no one person of the Trinity is dispensable, but all work together in unity.

The God whom we are called to worship in not a lonely, isolated, all-powerful despot, but a loving community whose roles are both distinct and indistinguishable. The God whom we worship is not a distant and indifferent power but a fellowship that is so concerned with our well-being that God’s very self shared our humanity becoming one of us and one with us. The God whom we worship is not static and unchanging, but dynamic and innovative, dancing through time and space – before time and beyond time.

The God whom we worship invites us into the dance, into communion with Godself and promises to be with us always, to the end of the age.

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Breath or fire it is one Spirit

June 3, 2023

Pentecost – 2023
John 20:19-23
Marian Free

In the name of God who comes to us are we are and reveals Godself as we require. Amen.

If, when you heard this morning’s gospel, you had a sense of déjà vu, you would not have been mistaken. The gospel for the second Sunday of Easter was John 20:19-31 and today we have heard again the first five verses. It seems unnecessary to have the same reading twice in two months, but for the purpose of the lectionary writers, there are at least two different messages in this part of John’s gospel. The first is that of Jesus’ resurrection appearance and, in particular, the absence of Thomas on that occasion. Today, on Pentecost Sunday, our focus is on the gospel account of Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit on to his disciples.

Every Sunday we have four readings, one of which is always a gospel reading. It is only in John’s gospel that we have an account of the giving of Holy Spirit, so each year, no matter what readings make up our Easter fare, we include a reading from John on the day of Pentecost.

Luke’s dramatic account of the coming of the Holy Spirit is recorded in Acts, not in the gospel. In his account, the one with which we are most familiar, the Holy Spirit appears with a rushing wind and tongues of fire. Because this event occurred on the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrate today) It is easy to think that the Holy Spirit can only be known or experienced in a powerful and emotionally charged way. It is also tempting to believe, because of the sudden and dramatic appearance of the Spirit that, prior to that Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not exist .

This is simply not true. The Holy Spirit has played a role from the beginning of time and is evident before Pentecost in all the gospel accounts. To give just a few examples: Matthew tells us that Mary was with child through the Holy Spirit. In a quote from the Old Testament Mark informs us that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit. According to Luke an angel informed Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit and Mary is promised that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit. Luke also tells us that when Elizabeth greeted Mary that she was filled with the Holy Spirit, that Zechariah too was filled with the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon.

As might be expected the place of the Spirit is different in John’s gospel. According to this author, Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot co-exist with his disciples. In his farewell speech, Jesus assures the disciples that they will not be left alone and that he will send them the Holy Spirit – Advocate, Comforter and Teacher. Then, when he appears to them on the day of resurrection Jesus breathes on the disciples and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit” – a more intimate and less melodramatic, event than that described by Luke in Acts.

Of course, the Gospels and Acts were written a substantial time after the actual events and the accounts are no doubt coloured by the experiences of the believers in the decades after the first Pentecost. That said, it is quite clear that the Holy Spirit was a significant and dynamic presence in the early church as recorded in the letters of Paul. In Romans Paul assures believers that: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (5:5)” and 1 Corinthians describes our bodies as “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (6:19). In Paul’s communities the Spirit empowered believers to lead, to teach, to prophecy (as well as to speak in tongues and work miracles, 1 Cor 12) and it is to Paul that we owe the insight that the fruits of the Spirit – those characteristics which will be evidence of the presence of the Spirit within us – are“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23).

These varied reports of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the first believers are not intended to confuse or tease us. The different accounts serve an important purpose for those of us who live centuries later. They reveal that there was not one way to receive, to know or to experience the Holy Spirit. Some believers felt a quiet assurance of the Holy Spirit in their lives and others encountered the Spirit through an ecstatic and life-altering event. Some were moved to speak in tongues, some empowered to work miracles, some to share the gospel and some to lead their communities and many no doubt continued to live their lives – lives now enriched and emboldened by the Holy Spirit.

The differing accounts and the differing experiences of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament free us from the misconception that there is only one way to know and only one way to experience the Holy Spirit. We do not (as some people insist) have to speak in tongues to demonstrate the presence of the Spirit within us. If we do not have the power to heal or prophesy, we do not need to feel less than adequate. The Spirit might unsettle us in wind and fire, or gently uphold us as a breath of air. The Spirit might draw from us gifts that we could not have imagined or build on strengths that we already knew that we had. Our experiences of the Holy Spirit will be at least as diverse as those recorded in the New Testament because it is not a matter of one-size-fits-all, but more a matter of God giving to each as each has need, or God empowering us to fulfill the role that God has in mind for us.

You might have had your own ecstatic Pentecost experience, or you might have known the gentle presence of the resurrected Jesus. It does not matter how you know or experience the Spirit, only that you know the Spirit and that you trust the Spirit to empower you and to lead you in the paths that God has established for you.

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For whom and for what do you pray? Jesus prays for the disciples

June 3, 2023

Easter 7 – 2023
John 17:1-11 (12-end)
Marian Free

In the name of God, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver. Amen.

When someone learns that they have a life-threatening disease, not only do they have to come to terms with what it means for themselves, but very often they have the agonizing task of preparing their family, their friends, and even their business partners for life without them. I witnessed something of this when I was in my teens. The father of a friend of mine was diagnosed with leukemia. There were few treatment options at that time, and it was clear he was going to die. Knowing that, this man – we’ll call him Paul – did what he could to prepare his family. He insisted that his wife study law so that she could support the family, and he made a video for each of his children to be played when they turned 21. His advice was good. His wife excelled at law, and the children grew up confident in their father’s love.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to know that one was dying and to know that there was so much more left to do, people who relied on your support, or children who would be left without a parent. It must at least initially, make the knowledge of pending death so much harder to bear.

Jesus had always known that he was to die and, as the time grew closer, he knew only too well that the disciples (his children) were far from ready to continue without him. So, on this his final night, Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for his departure. Their response was anything but reassuring. They responded with bemusement and misunderstanding – “you won’t wash my feet”, “we don’t know where you are going” and so on. Jesus was only too aware that he did not have enough time to ensure that they were ready for him to go. You can almost hear his anguish: “I still have many things to say to you” (16:12).

Still Jesus tries. His farewell speech (which takes up 5 chapters of the gospel) is an attempt to form the disciples into a community and to model what leadership would look like in that community. (It is worth reading John 13-17 in one sitting.) Among other things, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment (love one another) and assures them that not only will they not be left alone, but that he will send the Holy Spirit who will teach them all that he does not have time to teach them. More than that, he himself and God (the whole Trinity) will live in them. And even as Jesus warns them that the world will be hostile to them, he promises that their joy will be complete.

In the short space between dinner and his arrest, Jesus has tried to prepare the disciples in every possible way for life without him, but still, it is clear that he is anxious about leaving them. The disciples seem to be so confused. They are so vulnerable, so exposed – if the authorities are going to kill Jesus, there is no guarantee that they will not come for the disciples as well. In response, Jesus does the only thing he can do – he prays. He pours out his soul to God, sharing with God his anxiety for his disciples and pleading with God that God will do what he can no longer do – bind the disciples in love and protect them from a hostile world .

This prayer is very different from the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane – recorded by the other Gospel writers. In the Synoptics, Jesus moves away from the disciples to pray alone, to wrestle with God and to ask that the cup be taken from him. The disciples fall asleep and so are not privy to Jesus’ anguish or to his words. In John’s account, Jesus prays not for himself, but for the disciples. He doesn’t question his fate but asks only that God will do what God has promised to do – glorify him. According to John, Jesus doesn’t take himself apart to pray – the disciples (and by extension) ourselves – both see and hear Jesus’ outpouring of prayer. They, and we, are witnesses to this most intimate moment between Jesus and his Father. We see Jesus at what is perhaps his most vulnerable. He might be ready to face the cross alone, but abandoning his disciples is another thing altogether.

Unfortunately, our lectionary reading only gives us the beginning of his prayer, but the prayer – which continues to the end of the chapter – should be read in one piece. It is the most selfless, most all-embracing, and most forward-looking prayer. He prays not for himself only that his death will lead to his glorification (which is the purpose for which he was sent, and which will lead to the glorification of the Father). He prays primarily for his disciples and more than that he prays for all who will come to faith through them. In other words, he prays for his children, his children’s children and for every generation yet to come. Jesus’ prayer is an outpouring of concern for the world – that it might know God, and knowing God, might be united in love.

We who are witnesses to this prayer have been shown not only Jesus’ fears, but indirectly we have been shown how to pray. We are to pray that God’s presence might be known through all the world, and we are to pour out our hearts in anguish over the state of the world – hoping against hope that the world will be united in love, yearning for a time when there will be an end to the war in Ukraine (and all other wars and conflicts that tear lives apart), pleading that the vulnerable might be protected, the hungry fed, the oppressed liberated, and all the children have a place to sleep. With Jesus, we through prayer, fulfill the command to love – metaphorically laying down our lives for others, putting aside (at least for a time) our self-interest and our fears, thinking only of the needs of others and trusting God to do what needs to be done.

For whom do you pray and what do you most desire?

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God’s home in us – John 14:15-21

May 13, 2023

Easter 6 – 2023
John 14:15-21
Marian Free

In the name of God who has made God’s home with us. Amen.

Our neighbour, Norma was a thoughtful, generous person. Whenever she came to visit, she would bring something. I remember that my mother used to feel awkward about this because the usual response would be to give something in return. In normal circumstances, one would simply take a cake or flowers or chocolate when next visiting Norma. The problem was that my mother instinctively knew that such a gesture would cause embarrassment. Norma gave because she wanted to give. Our job was to be gracious in our acceptance of that gift – even if our automatic response was to give something back.

Receiving unexpected or undeserved gifts can make us feel uncomfortable or obligated because we live in a that operates on an economy of exchange. If you have something that I would like then, in order to get it, I must give something in return. If you would like to receive respect, you must behave in such a way as to earn that respect. If we want to advance in our careers, we have to ensure that we gain the necessary qualifications, get the requisite experience and so on. In other words, in this life, we learn that nothing is free.

An economy of exchange encourages us to place value on things, on people and on relationships; to determine the worth of a person or an object. It creates a dualistic outlook in which people and things are divided into good and bad, worthy, and unworthy, people who can benefit us and people who cannot. Not only that, it creates an atmosphere in which we tend to strive for approval, for success and for financial gain. An economy of exchange leads to a culture of competition. We determine our own value by measuring ourselves against others. It ill-equips us for living in the kingdom of God.

When we live in a competitive, dualistic world, our tendency is to internalize the values that we see in the world. As a consequence we live with a divided self. In other words, we separate ourselves into good or bad, loveable or unlovable, holy or profane with all the negative consequences that that entails. A divided self is always aware of its shortcomings and it always comparing itself with, measuring itself against others in order to feel better about itself. A person who doesn’t accept themselves as a whole, complete, loveable person never feels truly worthy, is always striving to be what they are not, and always striving to please an apparently unsatisfied God.

There are so many difficulties with this. A dualist worldview reveals a belief that God’s love must be earned, a conviction that God’s creation (ourselves) is unpleasing to God and that is that there are parts of ourselves/others/this world that do not belong to God or are not part of God’s creative plan. Worse, this attitude leads us to search scripture to find a measuring stick, a way to judge ourselves and others. The creation story exposes this approach as flawed and invalid. It is we who measure ourselves – not God. To give just two examples: according to the first chapter of Genesis, God created everything and saw that it was good and if that were not enough, the Incarnation is proof positive that God rather than reject our humanity (which is good) God fully embraces it for Godself. In becoming human, God became part of God’s creation and in so doing, God revealed that God affirms creation in its entirety.

Last week, I quoted Meister Eckhart: “God asks only that you get out of God’s way and let God be God in you.” This week I am reminded of a statement by a Japanese scholar whose name is sadly lost to me, she wrote: “I found God in myself and loved her fiercely.”

This morning’s gospel speaks powerfully to the presence of God (Father, Son, and Spirit) within each one of us. “The Spirit of truth abides in you.” “We (Jesus and the Father) will come to you and make our home with you.” God’s presence within us should be assurance enough that we are worthy. God’s presence in us makes a nonsense of a divided self. God is either at home in all of us, or God is not in us at all.

What is more, we don’t have to behave in a particular way or think certain things before God makes God’s home in us. God’s presence in us relies solely on love – our love for God. We don’t have to to be better, be more spiritual, do more good works before God (Father, Son and Spirit) make their home in us. Jesus does not say: not “keep my commandments and I will come and live with you but: “if you love me you will keep my word.” Love comes first. Love always comes first. Keeping the commandments is a consequence of love (not a precondition for love), a consequence of God’s having first made a home with us.

If God has made a home with us, who are we to think that we are not worthy? In the end, our relationship with ourselves and others directly impinges on our relationship with God. If we reject those parts of ourselves that we do not like, if we split ourselves in two – the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ what does that say about our understanding of God’s presence in us?

Immediately prior to this week’s gospel, Jesus has reassured the disciples that they do not need to worry about the way, because he is: “the way, the truth and the life.” Now he expands on that. Not only is he the way, but having made his home in us, he can direct us in the way.

All we need to do is search deep within ourselves to find the God within, and having found God to trust God and, trusting God, allow God to lead us flawed and imperfect though we may be.

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Getting out of God’s way – John 14:6

May 6, 2023

Easter 5 – 2023
John 14:1-14
Marian Free

In the name of God who is as close as breath and yet always just beyond our reach. Amen.

I often say that Jesus did us a great disservice by not writing down his teachings or his philosophy of religion. Jesus left it open for his followers to develop their own theology and, in the case of the gospel writers, to draw up their own individual version of events. It is possible that Christianity would be more united had Jesus been more definitive or produced something in writing . There would be less confusion as to what he said and did and no need for the early church to make sense of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because Jesus would have spelled out the meaning of everything before he died. In other words, to avoid confusion, misunderstanding and division, Jesus could have made it clear that he was promoting a new religion. He could have produced a fully formed theology of the Christian faith, written a creed and provided outlines of liturgical and ecclesiastical practice so that no one need be in any doubt as to what the church should believe and what it should do.

Having said that, I suspect that Jesus’ creation of uncertainty was actually a deliberate attempt to free humanity from a need to lock God (and faith) into a rigid set of principles and behaviours. Jesus does not set anything in stone, because Jesus wants us to rely less on ourselves and more on God; to grasp that our salvation is dependent not on anything that we can do, but on what God in Jesus has done for us; and to understand that God cannot be bought, bargained with or reduced to human categories.

He wants those who follow him to avoid the trap that the Pharisees seem to have fallen into – the trap of desiring certainty, of believing that they know and understand God, and of thinking that they can stay on the right side of God if only they follow this rule or another. Jesus hopes that those who come after him will follow his example of openness to God and his willingness to trust God blindly rather than to think that we can bind God to our will.

I find the Jesus of John’s gospel is perhaps the most frustrating, obscure, and contradictory. To give just one example, in verse 13:33 Jesus says: “Where I am going, you cannot come”, then only 8 verses later he says: “You know the way to the place where I am going” and “where I am you may be also” (14:4, 3). Both cannot be true, so we are forced to live with the tension of not knowing for sure.

Jesus seems to be deliberately keeping his disciples (and therefore us) deliberately on edge, ensuring that we don’t try to lock God into one way of being or another. He knows our desire for security, but he want us to understand that our relationship with God is less a matter of holding on, but rather a matter of letting go, less a matter of living within rigid and narrow guidelines and more a matter of grasping the expansiveness and openness of God.

As Meister Eckart says: “God asks only that you get out of God’s way and let God be God in you.” God is already there, in the depths of our being. That should be the only certainty, the only security that we need. Our task, over our lifetimes, is not to seek assurance but to accept that we already have it; not to seek God in words and deeds, but to discover that God is already present in our lives and to know that we can abandon ourselves to God’s presence. The task of spirituality is not to pray more, read more, do more, just the opposite, it is to let go, to trust, and to follow Jesus to the cross so that all that is false and illusory in our lives can be stripped away and we are left with only what is pure and true – the Spirit within.

Letting go, is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive which is why we resist it and why Jesus insists on it and why Jesus models it in his own life.

So, by a roundabout route, we come at last to today’s gospel, the beginning of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples. The scene takes place after Jesus’ final dinner with his friends. The disciples are confused and afraid. Their world has been turned upside down. If they had thought that things would remain the same, they were sadly mistaken. In just a short period of time, Jesus has broken social convention and washed their feet. He has revealed that he is about to be handed over by one of his own, and Judas has gone out into the night to do who knows what. If that were not enough to unsettle and confuse his friends, Jesus has told them that he is going away and that where is he going they cannot come.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” It is clear that Jesus knows that his disciples need some reassurance, but it is also obvious that Jesus is not going to accede to their need for direction by providing them with a guidebook or roadmap. As close as Jesus will get to giving them directions is to say: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” “I am the way, the truth and the life”, tells us nothing about what to do, what to believe and how to behave.

We will only find the way if we allow ourselves to be led by Jesus (not by our conceptions of Jesus). We will only know the truth if we let go of all those things we hold to be true and seek only God and God’s truth. We will only truly know life if we allow ourselves to abandon this life and to accept the life that Jesus offers.

In faith, we can only let go– not hold on, only empty ourselves – not try to fill ourselves, only get out of God’s way and let God be God in us.

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Whose voice? – The Good Shepherd

April 29, 2023

Easter 4 – 2023
John 10:1-10
Marian Free

In the name of God in whom there is no deceit. Amen.

The internet is wonderful in that it gives us immediate access to all kinds of information and connects us with the world at the same time it has made us particularly vulnerable. Even the smartest among us can fall victim to a scam. Internet searches mean that our interests and shopping habits can be detected and preyed upon, and – at least it seems to me – there are ways for someone to discover if we have recently made an insurance claim, a mortgage application or if we have recently had a communication with a child that mentions money and to exploit these situations for their own advantage. During the last fortnight news channels have informed us that scammers are able to make a reasonable approximation of someone’s voice based on a relatively short recording of same.

It would be reassuring if we could be certain that it was only in the secular world that there were people who wanted to take advantage of us, but sadly, there are also charlatans who use religion to coerce the susceptible (and the idealists) into handing over control over their possessions, their relationships and even their daily lives. The documentary Gloriavale, details how one man (Neville Cooper or ‘Hopeful Christian”) convinced people to join his utopian, egalitarian Christian community. Over time, members of the community ceded more and more control to Hopeful, to the point that he dominated every aspect of their existence. Sadly, there are endless examples of charismatic leaders who have convinced their followers that they are messengers of God – often with catastrophic consequences. Jamestown, the Waco Branch Davidians and most recently the starvation cult of Kenya are just a few of the cults that come to mind. People seeking certainty are offered a clear definitive way to achieve salvation are drawn in by the confidence and assurance of the leader and, if and when, they begin to suspect something is wrong, they are so caught up in the propaganda that they are fearful that leaving will cost them their immortal soul – a price that only the brave are prepared to risk.

Religious cults are often exploitative, coercive, and constrictive and their leaders are frequently self-seeking, power-hungry and arrogant people who maintain control over their followers by stripping them of their self-confidence, their financial independence, and their sense of personal worth.

Whether in the secular or religious sphere, scammers and imposters seduce the willing with promises of love, riches, status, well-being or heavenly reward. For those truly. seeking the truth, it is sometimes difficult to determine the difference between the genuine and the false.

Discerning truth from lie, shepherd from thief is a theme that runs through John 9 and continues in John 10. In the gospel it is Jesus’ identity that is in question – is he an imposter or is he a truly sent by God? When Jesus heals the man born blind, the Pharisees (who are locked into their own idea of God) are determined to label Jesus as an interloper, a deceiver, a sinner, whereas the man born blind is willing to see Jesus for who he is – the Son of Man. In response to the Pharisee’s scepticism and their determination to destroy him, Jesus begins a long discourse on the sheepfold and the shepherd. It is a complex argument, and the imagery alternates between gate and shepherd, but at the heart of the argument is the distinction between shepherd and thief, between the one whose voice is genuine and those whose voices are filled with deceit.

In modern terms, the “thieves” (whom we are to assume are the scribes and the Pharisees) are those who try to lead the people of Israel astray, to lure them into danger with false promises and who use their knowledge of the people and the language of their faith to entice and then to control them. Jesus claims that he, not they, is the good shepherd. It is not his goal to coerce; “to steal and kill and destroy”. He has come: “that they might have life and have it abundantly”. Jesus does not demand obedience to outdated religious laws or observance of empty rituals. He is not seeking to control or to dominate, instead he will “lay down my life for my sheep.”

In life as in faith we will hear conflicting voices telling us that if only we do one thing or the other our happiness will be complete, our future will be assured, our salvation will be certain. If we are in any doubt as to whether the voice is of God or not we can be guided by this principle. A voice that is bullying, disrespectful, coercive, and self-seeking, that preaches a message that is alarming or worse, soul destroying, then we are safe to assume that that voice is malevolent and does not have our best interests at heart. On the other hand, a
voice that is humble, encouraging, liberating, and self-sacrificial and has at its heart a message that is uplifting and life-giving then we can be sure that the voice is holy and seeks our well-being above life itself.

The thieves and robbers (Pharisees and scribes) seek to control and coerce. The Good Shepherd (Jesus) seeks to empower and liberate.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it in abundance – nothing less will do.

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Christianity that is bland and unchallenging – a sermon for St George

April 21, 2023

Easter 3 – 2023
(Celebrating St George at Maleny)
Matthew 28:8-15a
Marian Free

In the name of God, Earthmaker, Painbearer, Lifegiver.

How often have you been threatened with death as a consequence of your believing in the risen Christ? In nearly seventy years of life and 27 years in the ordained ministry, I have only been threatened once. It was 1998, Martin Bryant had recently massacred 35 people and injured 18 others. Our then Archbishop, had asked all Parishes to encourage their parishioners to sign a petition calling for gun reform. On the appropriate Sunday, I duly made the announcement – naively thinking that my fellow Christians would have no objections to such a petition. That afternoon, I received a most abusive phone call from a Parishioner who threatened to shoot me if I ever stepped inside his fence. The event left me startled but, so long as I kept my distance, I was not in danger.

It is difficult in our time and place to imagine the Christian faith being so intimidating that the ruling powers would want to destroy it or to persecute, imprison or kill believers, or that our neighbours would shun and harass us. For the most part, Christianity in Australia has been so benign and inoffensive that at least in the last decades few people seem to take much notice of what we do or think. There is little, if anything, to distinguish us from any other member of society. By and large we blend in. Only occasionally do we collectively challenge government policy and even then, I am not sure that anyone thinks we are relevant enough or powerful enough to be a danger to authorities.

As long ago as the fourth century, Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and the church became so entwined with the government and the surrounding culture, that it has been difficult to draw a clear boundary between societal values and Christian values ever since. To be fair, in the intervening centuries the church has had a significant impact in areas related to social justice – the building of hospitals, the abolition of slavery, the improvement of conditions in prisons and universal franchise (at least for non-indigenous women). In this nation, the support of the churches played an important role in ensuring the passage of the 1967 referendum. While some of these actions caused antagonism and disquiet, few unsettled the government or society sufficiently that supporters of these causes were thrown in jail let alone executed.

The situation was very different in the first three centuries of the common era. Then, as often as not, Christians were considered a threat to the well-being and the status quo of the societies in which they found themselves. This should not surprise us. Before there was a church, there was Jesus – a person who presented such a challenge to the political and religious leaders of his day that he was put to death; a person whose influence, and teaching were so radical and unsettling that he had to be silenced; a person who was considered such a risk to the stability of the state, that even his death did not ensure that the establishment felt secure. That is why the authorities posted a guard at Jesus’ tomb and why, when the tomb was found empty, the priests and elders paid the guards to lie.

For the first three hundred years after Jesus’ death, those who believed in Jesus had an uneasy relationship with the communities in which they found themselves. In the worst-case scenarios, they experienced persecution, but by and large this took the form of local, sporadic harassment and exclusion from the social life of the community. State sanctioned persecution occurred briefly under Decian and Valerian, but it was the Emperor Diocletian who was responsible for the most sustained and bloodiest persecution (nine years from 303-312). It was his goal to return Rome to the golden age – a time before novel religions, specifically Christianity, had begun to emerge. Diocletian surrounded himself with opponents of Christianity, tried to purge the army of Christians, rescinded the legal rights of Christians, and tried to force believers to adopt local religious practices.

It was in this environment that George lived. As is the case of many saints, we know little about George and what we do know is shrouded in myth. One tradition has that he was born in the late third century Turkey to a noble Christian family, another that he was born in Greece and moved to Palestine when his father died. We know he did become a soldier and officer in the Roman army. However, when Diocletian demanded that he renounce his Christian faith (along all other members of the army), George refused and, as a consequence, was tortured and decapitated.

Veneration of George was well established by the fifth century, but he really came to prominence during the crusades at which time he became a model of chivalry. In 1350 King Edward III made him the patron saint of England in . According to Ian Mortimer: “St. George stands for the courage to face adversity in order to defend the innocent. The triumph of good over evil, through courage. …The king who adopted him might be almost forgotten today, but for centuries Saint George represented the idea of courageous leadership and, with it, the unifying popular will to be governed well and protected .”

It was not long after Diocletian that Constantine, anxious to unite the Empire under one banner, made Christianity the official faith of the Empire. Since that time, church and state, church and society have become so intertwined, that sometimes it is difficult to draw a clear boundary between culture and faith or to determine which influences which. There have since then been times when the church has been at the forefront of social change, but at least as often, proponents of the faith have been just happy to support the status quo as to challenge it.

Jesus was feared because he sided with and therefore empowered the marginalised and dispossessed, thus threatening the existing power structures. Christians like George were persecuted and killed, because they stood apart from the structures of power that held up the Empire and threatened to undo them.

Those of us who claim to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and who claim George as one of our own, should perhaps ask ourselves why it is that we are not held in awe, why we don’t challenge and unsettle the establishment and why our lives are so bland that we are not in danger of losing them.

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Blessed are those who believe without seeing??

April 15, 2023

Easter 2 – 2023
John 20: 19-31
Marian Free

In the name of God who reveals Godself to us in many and various ways. Amen.

In the seventies and eighties, a popular saying among Christian educators was: “God has no grandchildren.” By that, it was meant that every generation had to come to know Jesus for themselves, that faith had to be owned by someone and not imposed on them. This seems to have been a key element of the Billy Graham and other evangelistic crusades, which always concluded with a challenge to those present to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. Faith that was learned was seen as no substitute for a personal commitment to Jesus.

Billy Graham, and others like him, engaged in emotive and sometimes guilt inducing tirades in order to expose what to them was a superficial experience or expression of faith. As a result, many people did come to a genuine and lasting belief in Jesus. Others, who were simply caught up in the emotional hype fell away if they were not given support and encouragement or if they had no foundation on which to build. In the more conservative Anglican church of my youth, well-meaning adults in the congregations tried to convince us of the validity of the Christian faith, by telling us about the miracles that had occurred in their own lives as a result of faith. (Miracles were no substitute for relationship.)

There are of course, many, many ways that churches (and cults) endeavour to share what they believe and to convince outsiders to believe and to remain committed. In some instances, the threat of punishment or hell is used as a means of making drawing people in and keeping them there. Another method is to create sense of belonging to attract the lost and lonely. Belonging is seductive and the threat of exclusion ensures that those who have joined choose to stay.

“Belief” that is based on fear is not faith. It is certainly not a faith that is grounded in the knowledge of and relationship with the living Christ. But how does one come to know the risen Jesus? How, more than 2,000 years since the first Easter and in a world that is vastly different, can we share our conviction that Jesus is alive?

The early church had an advantage that we do not. Many of those who believed had seen the risen Jesus for themselves. Their conviction that Jesus was alive and the enthusiasm and life that was generated by that experience was like a magnet, drawing others into the orbit of their belief and enabling them to experience the risen Lord for themselves. Unlike us, the first disciples had the advantage that they could build on a common belief in the Hebrew scriptures and the promises and expectations contained within. Even so, their conviction that Jesus was raised was so compelling that they drew into the emerging faith those who not only did not know the earthly Jesus, but also those with no background in the Jewish faith.

Today’s gospel is often used to suggest that those who believe in Jesus without knowing or seeing him for themselves are more blessed than those first-generation believers who had the advantage of seeing the risen Jesus. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (20:29). These words have the weight of judgement or compulsion behind them and seem designed to encourage arrogance on the one hand and insecurity on the other. They do not sound like the words of Jesus. My suspicion is that these words belong to the generation of the gospel writers – a third generation church which was facing the same situation that we face – sharing the faith with those who have not and cannot meet the resurrected Jesus.

The words attributed to Jesus here are at odds with the rest of the account of Jesus’ appearance, which has at its heart knowing, seeing and experiencing for oneself that Jesus is alive. Until verse 29, there is no suggestion that the disciples need to have faith in the abstract idea of Jesus’ resurrection. As the gospels tell the story, it was only as Jesus’ followers came to see Jesus for themselves that they were convinced that he was alive. On the morning of that first day of the week, Mary Magdalene encountered and spoke with the risen Jesus. It was only later, when Jesus appeared among the disciples and showed them his wounds that they too rejoiced in their risen Lord. Finally, Jesus, instead of demanding that Thomas believe without seeing, appeared especially for him.

A personal encounter with the risen Lord convinced the disciples that he was alive, and being convinced that he was alive, they shared their conviction with any who would listen, drawing them into an experience of the risen Christ.

Centuries later people are still coming to faith through an encounter with the risen Lord because the resurrection is not a past event but a living reality. If Jesus has risen, then Jesus is alive, and if Jesus is alive, then it is possible for every succeeding generation to meet the risen Lord for themselves.

How we encounter the risen Lord differs from person to person. It may be the result of a dramatic encounter, or it may be the gradual realisation that one has absorbed and accepted for oneself the faith learnt as a child. It may take the form of a quiet assurance that Jesus is present in one’s life, or it may be an intellectual assent to the Gospels. Today’s gospel does not lay down a hard and fast rule, but allows that some will need to see, and that others will believe without seeing.

The first disciples could not help but share their experience. Successive generations have become more and more cautious. But others will only know what we know if we can share our passion or if we live in such a way that those around us can see that our lives are enriched and enlivened by our relationship with the risen Christ – by (among other things) our enthusiasm for life, our desire to make the world a better place, our steadfastness and calm in times of grief and trauma and our quiet presence.

How did you come to know the risen Christ? How does your life reveal that Christ is risen?

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The resurrection – an event without witnesses

April 8, 2023

Easter Day – 2023
Matthew 28:1-8
Marian Free

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the final scene of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, a translucent figure (Jesus) rises from the slab in the tomb and walks out of view. It is a somewhat anti-climatic end to a movie that had been dominated by violence and drama. But how else I wonder, could Gibson have portrayed the resurrection? Unlike the empty tomb, which by all accounts was witnessed by a number of disciples, there were no witnesses to the resurrection. Indeed, on close inspection, the gospel accounts are tantalisingly unhelpful when it comes to details about the actual resurrection. No matter which gospel we read, the story is the same – by the time the women had reached the tomb, Jesus had already risen from the dead and left the (still sealed) tomb, unnoticed by anyone.

If Gibson’s depiction of the resurrection is a little disappointing, so too are the gospel accounts, which are very short on drama and which in fact, do not even mention the actual resurrection. More astounding, according to the gospels, Jesus did not hang around to see if anyone would come. In the briefest account of events, that of Mark, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary find to their surprise that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb (answering their question as to who would move it). A young man seated in the tomb tells them that Jesus has been raised and shows them where he had been lying. Jesus himself does not appear. According to Luke, the women came to the tomb only to find it open, and the body gone. Angels tell the women that Jesus is risen, but Jesus himself does not appear to anyone at all until later in the day. In John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away. She runs to report to the others that Jesus body has been moved. Later, after Peter and John have confirmed that the tomb is empty, Jesus appears to Mary.

Of all the accounts, that of Matthew is the most dramatic. When the two Marys arrive at the tomb an earthquake signals the appearance of an angel who moves the stone to reveal an empty tomb. As in Mark, the angel informs the women Jesus has already risen and shows them where Jesus had lain. Jesus, who is not at the tomb, meets the women as they make their way to report to the disciples that Jesus has risen. The disciples themselves will not see Jesus until they make their way from Jerusalem back to Galilee. Even then, Jesus will not hang around, but having given his disciples their final instructions, he will ascend into heaven.

All we know for certain then is that sometime between the crucifixion and the morning after the Sabbath, Jesus rose from the dead and had left the tomb – leaving the stone in place. In other words, the most extraordinary claim of our faith – resurrection of Jesus – took place without fanfare and without an audience. We don’t know what happened or how it happened. We only know that Jesus’ disciples know that he has risen because he appeared to them – after he had first appeared to the women.

Gibson’s understated depiction of the resurrection is true to the gospel accounts of the event. The resurrection was not, as we might have expected it to be, an earth shattering, ground-breaking event – just the opposite. It occurred quietly and unobtrusively and without a single witness.

What a waste of an opportunity! Imagine the capital that could have been made by a very public, explosive event! Imagine If Jesus had chosen to stay in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was, after all, still filled with the pilgrims that had swelled its population for the Passover. What better place to announce Jesus’ victory over death, his triumph over his enemies? What better occasion to prove his detractors wrong? Why would he not use this opportunity to proclaim that he is indeed the Christ – the one sent by God? Why make the journey to the relative obscurity of Galilee and why, when there, does he only reveal himself to his disciples?

Why indeed? Because this is the whole point of the gospel. As we should know by now, Jesus was not an attention getter. In fact, the story of Jesus’ ministry ends as it began, with Jesus’ absolute refusal to be tempted to behave in any way that would attract acclaim, power, or glory. As with the earthly Jesus, so with the risen Jesus. He does not want to attract followers who are only interested in the hype – the miracles and the extra-ordinary. The risen Jesus, as was the earthly Jesus, is looking for followers who are there for the long haul, who will stick by him through thick and thin – followers who will take up their cross and follow him, followers who will not fall by the wayside when the going gets tough, followers who understand that faith is about relationship with Jesus and with the one true God, not about a life that is shielded from struggle and suffering.

We forget this at our peril.

Faith is not a series of dramatic, life-changing events, but a relationship based on the quiet assurance that Christ is alive and is as present to us as he was to his disciples. This is the message that we have to share – not that an all-powerful God will miraculously free us from all minor irritations and all serious inconveniences, but that God, in the risen Jesus is a constant presence with us – a source of peace, hope and strength. A God who may not prevent our suffering but will come alongside us in our distress. A God who does not seek power, and glory for their own sake, but who was prepared to abandon heaven, to show us how much we are loved.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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A Good Friday

April 6, 2023

Good Friday – 2023
John 18:1-19:42
Marian Free

In the name of God, who shares our joys and triumphs, our sorrows and defeats. Amen.

Several decades ago, in a Bloor Street United Church in Toronto, Canada, a sculpture of a woman arms outstretched as if crucified, was hung below the cross in the chapel.  (Almuth Lutkenhaus’s sculpture Crucified Woman.) 

https://maryloudriedger2.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/crucified-woman-photo-by-ivana-dizdar.png
On seeing it, a woman who had experienced sexual abuse as a child wrote the following poem.

This poem, by an anonymous author, was included in a magazine published in conjunction with the Ecumenical Decade 1988-1998, Churches in Solidarity with women: Prayers and Poems, Songs and Stories.

Women in a Changing World, January 1988, no 25, a publication of the World Council of Churches, 150, route de Ferney, 1211 Geneva 20/Switzerland.)

By his wounds you are healed
1 Peter 2:24

O God,
through the image of a woman
crucified on the cross
I understand at last.

For over half my life
I have been ashamed
of the scars I bear.
These scars tell an ugly story,
a common story,
about a girl who is the victim
when a man acts out his fantasies.

In the warmth, peace and sunlight of your presence
I was able to uncurl the tightly clenched fists.
For the first time
I felt your suffering presence with me
in that event.
I have known you as a vulnerable baby,
as a brother, and as a father.
Now I know you as a woman.
You were there with me.
as the violated girl
caught in hopeless suffering.

The chains of shame and fear
no longer bind my heart and body.
A slow fire of compassion and forgiveness
is kindled.
My tears fall now for man as well as woman.

You, God,
can make our violated bodies
vessels of love and comfort
to such a desperate man.
I am honoured to carry this womanly power
within my body and soul.

You were not ashamed of your wounds.
You showed them to Thomas
as marks of your ordeal and death.
I will no longer hide these wounds of mine.
I will bear them gracefully,
They tell a resurrection story.

In the body of a crucified woman, this woman saw the story of her own suffering. She understood in that moment that she was not alone, that God in Jesus had suffered and was suffering with her. So powerful was her experience that, in a verse that I was tempted to omit, she even gives value to that suffering.

On the cross, Jesus showed once for all that the God in whom we believe does not stand aloof, remote, and indifferent to our suffering, but is intimately connected to and directly engaged with all humanity. God in Jesus endured betrayal, abandonment, and denial; he experienced a sham trial, humiliation, brutality and finally the cruellest of deaths.

On the cross, Jesus demonstrated that God stands in solidarity with all who have been violated, abused, and oppressed, with all who have been tortured, falsely accused, and wrongly executed, with all who have been colonised, neglected, overlooked, and abandoned. In the crucified Christ, all who suffer trauma, indignity, or humiliation, see someone who identifies with and shares their pain.

Only a God who fully identifies with our sufferings, can reassure us that God knows what we are going through. Only a God who suffers as we suffer can help us to endure (and even overcome) our own suffering. Only a God who fully enters the human condition can reassure us that God truly knows what it is to be human.

God does know – and that is what makes this Friday “Good”.

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